weekend event planner

Here are the top 11 things to do in Houston this weekend

The Art Car Parade and all its festivities get rolling this weekend.

Photo by Morris Malakoff

Artsy-auto-loving Houstonians are prepping for the 31st Annual Houston Art Car Parade Weekend, where, from Thursday through Sunday, the streets of H-Town will be flooded with outrageous, occasionally goofy-looking vehicles. There will be the pre-parade, car convoy known as the Main Street Drag on Thursday morning, followed by the Legendary Art Car Ball on Friday night. The official parade rolls along Allen Parkway and into downtown Houston on Saturday morning. Aside from the automotive madness, Houston has plenty to offer this weekend.

Thursday, April 12

Dumpstaphunk brings the funk
It’s time to get funky with the bi-weekly, “Party on the Plaza” free concert series. The latest headlining band is New Orleans band Dumpstaphunk, a band which includes Ivan Neville and his cousin Ian on guitar — men who are, of course, relatives of the legendary Neville Brothers. (Aaron is Ivan’s dad.) Along with the free show, there will be food, craft-beer specials, games, and other outdoor fun. But, most importantly, this will be an opportunity for Houstonians to convene in one place – and get their funk on. The show starts at 6:45 pm.

Japan Festival launches with free outdoor concert
Now in its 25th year, Japan Festival Houston is all about celebrating Japan and its rich, cultural glory with traditional and contemporary, musical performance, dance, martial arts, Japanese cuisine, and other artful stuff. This year, the fest will kick off with a live performance by world-renowned, Japanese drumming troupe Aska-Gumi. Then, on Saturday and Sunday, the festival will be in full swing over at Hermann Park’s Jones Reflection Pool, complete with Japanese music, dance, and food. The show starts at 8 pm.

Dig into some fun and twisted Dark Matter
Don Nigro is an Ohio playwright who has written more than 400 plays and lists Shakespeare, Beckett, the King James Bible, and the Marx Brothers as some of his many influences. So, it probably won’t come as a surprise to learn that his work can get pretty twisted sometimes. This weekend, Mildred’s Umbrella Theater Company at Spring Street Studios will do a collection of his dark, quirky pieces, titled Dark Matter. It’s actually a selection of ten short plays from Nigro’s 2000 compilation Tales from the Red Rose Inn and Other Plays. The show starts at 8 pm. Thursday through Saturday.

Friday, April 13

Outdoor jams at Historic Market Square Park
If you can't get enough outdoor, live music, check out the bi-monthly, concert series called the Backyard Jams Concert Series, and smacking it in the middle of Historic Market Square Park. For its inaugural show, the District snapped up indie-pop songstress Dollie Barnes and indie-rock band Vodi to perform. Blankets, lawn chairs and picnics are welcome, while food, beer, and wine will be available for purchase at Niko Niko’s. The show starts at 7 pm.

Get jazzy with the Brad Mehldau Trio
For the first time ever, jazz pianist Brad Mehldau will be coming to Houston. Mehldau and the rest of his Brad Mehldau Trio — Larry Grenadier on bass and Jeff Ballard on drums — has found a perfect place to make their H-Town debut: University of Houston’s Cullen Performance Hall, as part of Da Camera’s 2017-18 jazz series. You gotta give it up to the jazz and chamber music-loving folk at Da Camera for managing to get Mehldau on one of our stages. The show starts at 8 pm.

Saturday, April 14

TAO: Drum Heart brings the thunder to Jones Hall
The Society of the Performing Arts (SPA) presents an evening of drumming from internationally acclaimed percussion artists DRUM TAO. Titled TAO: Drum Heart, this show will feature highly physical, large-scale drumming with costumes, choreography, and visuals. But, mostly, this will be a chance for TAO to wow Houston audiences with their thoroughly modern take on Japanese drumming. Expect these guys to come with the thunder. The show starts at 7:30 pm.

Ron White gets silly at Smart Financial Centre
Be honest: back when Ron White used to tour with Jeff Foxworthy, Larry the Cable Guy, and Bill Engvall as part of the Blue Collar Comedy Tour, weren’t you ever like, “What is this dude doing with these yokels?” Apart from the Texas accent, he doesn’t play up the whole stereotypically redneck aesthetic his former tourmates still traffic in. White has always been more of curmudgeonly, silver-haired storyteller, hitting the stage with a cigar, a bottle of Scotch ready to pour, and regaling folk with some grown-man anecdotes. BTW, they also call him “Tater Salad.” The show starts at 8 pm.

Sunday, April 15

Discovery Green turns 10
For a decade now, Discovery Green has been the downtown location that keeps on giving. Virtually every week there is something fun happening at that 12-acre park. This weekend, Discovery Green will throw itself a birthday celebration. All throughout the day, there will be performances from such artists as Ballet Folklorico, Cirque la Vie, and Los Texmaniacs. There will also be interactive inflatable games, kayaking demonstrations, garden tours, goat yoga, hula hooping – man, it’s gonna be crazy down there. The celebration starts at noon.

Meat up at the 6th annual Houston Barbecue Festival
Let’s be honest with ourselves here: we all love barbecue. Whether it’s chicken, ribs, a big slab of brisket — if it’s on the grill and slathered in sauce, we’re gonna eat it. There will be a whole lot of grilling going on at this year’s Houston Barbecue Festival, now in its sixth year. Four of the state’s top ten barbecue spots will be in attendance, including Houston’s own Tejas Chocolate & Barbecue and CorkScrew BBQ, along with a large assortment of local barbecue places. The festival starts at 1 pm.

Celebrate 20 years at Paulie's Restaurant
For two decades now, Paulie’s Restaurant — and its adjoining wine bar, Camerata at Paulie’s — has been a sweet spot in the Montrose area for authentic Italian cuisine. To celebrate its 20th anniversary this year, the eatery will have an epic bash, complete with food trucks, music from local turntable star DJ Sun, and drink specials over at Camerata. But Paulie’s has also dropped a commemorative cookbook, titled Paulie's: Classic Italian Cooking in the Heart of Houston's Montrose District, which you can buy at the party. The bash starts at 4 pm.

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Movie Review

Daniel Craig shines in Queer, an unapologetic tale of love and loss

Photo courtesy of A24

Drew Starkey and Daniel Craig in Queer.

As recently as the late 2010s, if a movie was made about an LGBTQ+ character, it was more than likely about their coming out experience. Romance, if it existed, was typically chaste, and actual sex was almost completely out of the question. Things have changed dramatically in the 2020s, to the point that a major movie star has no issue starring in a film called Queer.

Based on the 1985 novella by William S. Burroughs, the film features William Lee (Daniel Craig), whom everyone calls just Lee, a writer living in 1950s-era Mexico City who spends most of his time haunting local bars with friends like fellow writer Joe Guidry (Jason Schwartzman) and hitting on younger men. His early interactions in the film seem to indicate that Lee has a bad reputation within the local gay community, as multiple people avoid him or give him odd looks.

Lee senses an opportunity when he encounters a newcomer, Eugene Allerton (Drew Starkey). Despite some awkward interactions, the two of them start spending time together, although Lee has much more invested in the relationship than Eugene does. Their hit-and-miss bond continues until Lee, who’s starting to get into drugs in addition to the booze, convinces Eugene to accompany him on a trip to South America.

Directed by Luca Guadagnino and written by Justin Kuritzkes (making their second straight film together after Challengers), early on the film seems to be mostly about the divide between an older person who’s grown comfortable in his ways and a younger person who’s living a relatively carefree life. The introduction of drugs into the plot changes things, though, with Lee searching out more ways to open his eyes to what the world has to offer.

Guadagnino and his team use some interesting visual storytelling techniques to introduce ideas that may not be present in the actual script. The most successful, demonstrated in multiple scenes, is the superimposition of movements by Lee over what’s actually taking place in the scene. The subtle overlay gives the audience insight into Lee’s true feelings, showing what he can’t or won’t say out loud.

Music also plays a big part in how the plot is perceived, with the use of anachronistic songs from Nirvana and Prince serving to heighten certain moments. The score by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross is not as in-your-face as the one they did for Challengers, but it complements the film well, especially when the plot starts to get trippy in its final half hour.

Craig, who appears sweaty and disheveled for much of the film, is about as far from the suaveness of James Bond as you can get in this role. He takes multiple risks with his performance and almost all of them pay off. Starkey’s character is subdued by comparison, but still comes off well. Schwartzman and Lesley Manville are given showy roles, with both using altered appearances that make them nearly unrecognizable to deliver memorable performances.

Queer is not as accessible as Challengers was storytelling-wise, but the fact that it tells a story about gay men living their lives as they see fit with no interference or questions shows how far the film world has come in a short period of time. It also continues Guadagnino’s streak of making audacious films in a way that few other filmmakers are willing or able to approach.

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Queer is now playing in theaters.

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