weekend event planner

Here are the top 9 things to do in Houston this weekend

Explore the scenic Water Works this weekend.

Photo by Slyworks Photogrpahy

It’s Father’s Day weekend, which means folks will try to have a decent weekend with the old man that won’t descend into arguing or passive-aggressive judgment. Along with the bevy of events happening on Sunday, you could take pops to a chocolate and whiskey tasting over at Cacao and Cardamom on Thursday night, or you and you pappy could snap selfies with all the hot rods that’ll be on display at the Children’s Museum on Saturday morning. Here’s our roundup of this week’s offerings.

Thursday, June 14

John Doe brings the punk to Discovery Green
For this week’s University of Houston-Downtown-hosted Thursday Night Concert, the headliner will be punk legend John Doe. As the bassist/frontman for influential cowpunk band X, the Illinois-born Doe was one of the snarling icons of the West Coast punk scene in the late '70s and early '80s. (Doe has also shared his experiences about that scene in the 2016 book Under the Big Black Sun: A Personal History of L.A. Punk, which he co-wrote.) But he also has built a nice career as a solo, Americana-rock artist. Opening up for the show will be local soft rockers Vodi. It starts at 7 pm.

Tia Chuck: A Portrait of Chuck Ramirez screens at Aurora Picture Show
In 2010, San Antonio artist Chuck Ramirez passed away in a bike-riding accident at the age of 48. An artist and graphic designer, Ramirez was known around town as an experimental, avant-garde figure, doing such out-there projects as making “portraits” of purses and taking photos of unclaimed airport luggage. Filmmakers Angela and Mark Walley have made a feature-length doc on Ramirez’s life and art, titled Tia Chuck: A Portrait of Chuck Ramirez, which will screen at the Aurora Picture Show as part of CAMH’s “Right Here, Right Now: San Antonio’s exhibit. It starts at 7:30 pm.

Friday, June 15

2001: A Space Odyssey gets a stellar 70mm treatment
After all these years, 2001: A Space Odyssey still boggles the mind. Not only because it’s a confounding, damn-near-psychedelic trip into outer space, but also it asks that universal question: how did this get made? What made MGM decide to give visionary director Stanley Kubrick free rein in adapting Arthur C. Clarke’s novel, eventually coming up with this visually stunning yet eternally baffling classic? Anyway, it's now being re-released in theaters, shown on a 70mm print approved by director Christopher Nolan. The first showing is at 11:40 am.

Magician Ben Jackson dazzles at La Colombe d’Or Hotel
With such credits as performing alongside David Copperfield on NBC’s Today show and serving as the hands for Joseph Gordon-Levitt in Sin City: A Dame to Kill For, magician and native Houstonian Ben Jackson has achieved a steady living as a professional magic man. On a regular basis, he makes sure his skills are always on-point with “Magic, Music & Mayhem.” For the past two and a half years, Jackson has put on this one-man show, where he wows audiences with his sleight-of-hand and mind tricks — and dude also plays the piano! It starts at 7 and 9 pm (Friday and Saturday).

Saturday, June 16

Explore the Water Works at Buffalo Bayou
Sometimes, don’t you wanna be like Jill Scott and just take a long walk somewhere? Luckily, the Water Works at Buffalo Bayou Park has a free walking tour for those who like to stretch their legs and get their stroll on. This is actually an ecology walking tour, shining a light on the landscape and ecology of 19th-century Texas, as well as the importance of prairies in rebuilding this dwindling but still beautiful ecosystem. So, lace up those New Balances and take in all the scenery this tour has to offer. It starts at 10:30 am.

Chadwick & Spector turn bodies into art at G-Spot Gallery
Chadwick Gray and Laura Spector — aka local collaborative artists Chadwick & Spector — have found a unique way to revitalize art that’s been lost, hidden or destroyed: Spector just paints those pieces on her ex-husband Gray and takes a photo of it. Actually, Gray is just one of many models Spector has painted on for their latest exhibit, Museum Anatomy – The German Works. For this one, the pair goes back to WWII, where missing artwork was notoriously stolen by Nazis. This will be on display at the G-Spot Gallery this weekend and next weekend. It starts at noon (Saturday and Sunday).

Steal a peek of David Sedaris at Brazos Bookstore
So, you were all psyched to see David Sedaris. You brought his new book Calypso — in fact, you have all his books. You even have the books his sister, comedienne and craft-making author Amy Sedaris, has written. But, unfortunately, his Brazos appearance is already sold out. Thankfully, Brazos saw this coming and has created a solution for those left out — they’ll have overflow space set up in the parking lot, complete with speakers so people can hear Sedaris. And those outside can still get their copies signed by Sedaris when the presentation and Q&A is done. It starts at 7 pm.

Sunday, June 17

Houston Summer Boat Show floats your boat
Thanks to an improving local economy and the replacement of watercraft damaged or destroyed during Hurricane Harvey, it's been a good year for boat sales. This is according to the folks at the Houston Summer Boat Show, which closes up shop on Sunday. Since it began on Wednesday, this event has brought in folks with their usual, popular traditions, like demonstrations at the Bass Tub, a 4,000-gallon, 18-wheeler-sized fish tank filled with live bass, or Fish-O-Rama, where children can catch a rainbow trout. But it's always the boats that continue to be the luxurious draws. So, if you want to get a glimpse at some fine, ocean-going vessels and maybe see about taking a selfie on one of these joints, it starts at 11 am.

“Disco in the Daylight” celebrates Pride Month
We are in the middle of Pride Month, a time where events and parades are thrown all over the country to celebrate the LGBTQIA community. One Pride-related event that’ll be happening this weekend is “Disco in the Daylight,” an indoor/outdoor pop-up party that’ll have vendors, live music, complimentary refreshments (read: booze), and tacos! And donations from sales will go to the Montrose Center, an organization that does great work for Houston’s LGBTQIA population. So, even if you’re not a part of that population, this event sounds off the hook. It starts at 1 pm.

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Movie Review

Star TV producer James L. Brooks stumbles with meandering movie Ella McCay

Photo courtesy of 20th Century Studios

Emma Mackey in Ella McCay.

The impact that writer/director/producer James L. Brooks has made on Hollywood cannot be understated. The 85-year-old created The Mary Tyler Moore Show, personally won three Oscars for Terms of Endearment, and was one of the driving forces behind The Simpsons, among many other credits. Now, 15 years after his last movie, he’s back in the directing chair with Ella McCay.

The similarly-named Emma Mackey plays Ella, a 34-year-old lieutenant governor of an unnamed state in 2008 who’s on the verge of becoming governor when Governor Bill (Albert Brooks) gets picked to be a member of the president’s Cabinet. What should be a happy time is sullied by her needy husband, Ryan (Jack Lowden), her agoraphobic brother, Casey (Spike Fearn), and her perpetually-cheating father, Eddie (Woody Harrelson).

Despite the trio of men competing to bring her down, Ella remains an unapologetic optimist, an attitude bolstered by her aunt Helen (Jamie Lee Curtis), her assistant Estelle (Julie Kavner), and her police escort, Trooper Nash (Kumail Nanjiani). The film follows her over a few days as she navigates the perils of governing, the distractions her family brings, and the expectations being thrust upon her by many different people.

Brooks, who wrote and directed the film, is all over the place with his storytelling. What at first seems to be a straightforward story about Ella and her various issues soon starts meandering into areas that, while related to Ella, don’t make the film better. Prime among them are her brother and father, who are given a relatively small amount of screentime in comparison to the importance they have in her life. This is compounded by a confounding subplot in which Casey tries to win back his girlfriend, Susan (Ayo Edebiri).

Then there’s the whole political side of the story, which never finds its focus and is stuck in the past. Though it’s never stated explicitly, Ella and Governor Bill appear to be Democrats, especially given a signature program Ella pushes to help mothers in need. But if Brooks was trying to provide an antidote to the current real world politics, he doesn’t succeed, as Ella’s full goals are never clear. He also inexplicably shows her boring her fellow lawmakers to tears, a strange trait to give the person for whom the audience is supposed to be rooting.

What saves the movie from being an all-out train wreck is the performances of Mackey and Curtis. Mackey, best known for the Netflix show Sex Education, has an assured confidence to her that keeps the character interesting and likable even when the story goes downhill. Curtis, who has tended to go over-the-top with her roles in recent years, tones it down, offering a warm place of comfort for Ella to turn to when she needs it. The two complement each other very well and are the best parts of the movie by far.

Brooks puts much more effort into his female actors, including Kavner, who, even though she serves as an unnecessary narrator, gets most of the best laugh lines in the film. Harrelson is capable of playing a great cad, but his character here isn’t fleshed out enough. Fearn is super annoying in his role, and Lowden isn’t much better, although that could be mostly due to what his character is called to do. Were it not for the always-great Brooks and Nanjiani, the movie might be devoid of good male performances.

Brooks has made many great TV shows and movies in his 60+ year career, but Ella McCay is a far cry from his best. The only positive that comes out of it is the boosting of Mackey, who proves herself capable of not only leading a film, but also elevating one that would otherwise be a slog to get through.

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Ella McCay opens in theaters on December 12.

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