weekend event planner

Here are the top 8 things to do in Houston this weekend

Enjoy the view and a final summer weekend happy hour at The Grove's upstairs patio.

Photo by © Debora Smail

Film fans can look for several throwback movies popping up in multiplexes this Labor Day weekend. At Edwards Marq*E and Edwards Greenway Grand Palace, three of Quentin Tarantino's most iconic works — Pulp Fiction and Kill Bill Vols. 1 & 2 — will be screening in the RPX auditorium from Friday through Wednesday.

And between Friday and Thursday, AMC theaters will be celebrating the 20th anniversary of The Matrix by showing it in their Dolby Cinemas, complete with state-of-the-art Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos audio.

Of course, there's plenty more happening this Labor Day weekend.

Thursday, August 29

Cultural Taste of Houston at Lynn Eusan Park
The University of Houston Council for Cultural Activities's Cultural Taste of Houston provides students, staff, faculty, and visitors the opportunity to experience the richness of flavors and sounds from the city of Houston. Attendees will be able to enjoy a variety of food from Houston's best restaurants for only $1 per sample and also get a free shirt. You will also get pop-up shirts and live performances. 11 am to 3 pm.

Garrison Brothers Pairing Dinner at Doris Metropolitan
Enjoy a sumptuous dinner while learning about the wide, wild world of bourbon. Doris Metropolitan will host a special pairing dinner where Garrison Brothers Distillery will be passing out samples of fine bourbon whiskey. Founder Dan Garrison will share the story of how Garrison Brothers became the first legal bourbon distillery outside of Kentucky. And if you're not feeling the whiskey, there will also be Texas wine on deck. 6:30 pm.

Friday, August 30

BrewMasters Craft Beer Festival at Galveston Island Convention Center
Now in its tenth year, the BrewMasters Craft Beer Festival is an immersive, multi-day event where craft beer fans flock to Galveston Island in the pursuit of hoppiness and a craft beer experience unlike any other. With hundreds of craft beers, rare “Taste it First” selections, beer education seminars, and a Brew-B-Que to boot, the three-day event offers endless opportunities to meet and learn from the men and women behind the craft. 7 pm (2 pm Saturday; 11:30 am Sunday).

Mo Amer at Improv Houston
Comedian Mo Amer may be of Palestinian descent, but he's a Houston boy through and through. His family fled Kuwait during the Gulf War and settled in H-Town, where he attended Piney Point Elementary. These days, he's been killing it on the stand-up scene. He dropped his first Netflix special The Vagabond last year, and he's also a co-star on Ramy Youssef's acclaimed Hulu show Ramy. Welcome Amer home by checking out his three-night stint at the Improv. 7:30 pm and 9:45 pm (7 pm and 9:30 pm Saturday; 7:30 pm Sunday).

Saturday, August 31

Free Chicken Sandwiches at Killen's Burgers
Chances are you're kinda over this whole chicken-sandwich war between Popeyes and Chick-Fil-A. (We at CultureMap recently had a taste test — and they were both ... a'ight.) If you're tired of waiting in line at a Popeyes, only to have them say they're all out when you get to the counter, Killen's Burgers in Pearland will be offering a free chicken sandwich — regular or Nashville hot — with purchase to the first 1,000 customers. It's one per customer, and you must be there to get it. 11 am.

Tree House Happy Hour at Discovery Green
When we first saw Discovery Green will be holding a "Tree House Happy Hour" at the Grove, our first thought was, "When did Discovery Green get a treehouse — and is it like the treehouse from that Ludacris video?" It turns out it'll be the final, summer happy-hour event at its upstairs, second-floor patio, which is usually reserved for private events. The Grove invites the downtown crowd and anyone checking out a certain boy-band concert this weekend to swing by beforehand and enjoy the view. 4-7 pm.

Sunday, September 1

Poison Girl Quinceañera Party
Montrose watering hole Poison Girl will be celebrating 15 years of business this weekend. So, how have they decided to celebrate it? Why, they're gonna have a quinceañera, of course. We don't know if this means women will be decked out in ornate dresses and beating on a piñata at some point, but there will be mariachis, an employee talent show, drink specials, and performances from such artists as Ruiners, Young Mammals, Platinum Trophy, Bodyfat, and Laser Kittenz. 3 pm.

Biz Markie at Alley Kat Bar & Lounge
Keep it real: Back in middle school, you couldn't stop singing "Just a Friend," the hilariously tone-deaf, she-done-'em-wrong rap classic from the one-and-only Biz Markie, huh? Well, for those who long for those good ol' days when hip-hop was simple and you could understand what the hell rappers were talking about, the Clown Prince of Hip Hop will be the headlining performer at a day party Midtown hangout Alley Kat Bar & Lounge will be throwing this weekend. 4-10 pm.

event-planner

welcome home, wes

Wes Anderson's Houston homecoming supports historic theater restoration

A fancy, eccentric-looking crowd showed up for the Wes Anderson Homecoming Soirée, held on Friday, July 17, at the Hobby Center for the Performing Arts’s Zilkha Hall.

Fans of the Houston-born, Oscar-winning auteur paid hundreds of dollars to attend this benefit event. Guys dressed up like characters from The Royal Tenenbaums. Others wore red skull caps and low-top Adidas, like the characters from The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou. Some people working the event even wore “Lobby Boy” hats, looking like the bellboy character from The Grand Budapest Hotel.

The people gathered for two reasons: 1) to get a chance to see Anderson in person; and 2) to raise money to renovate and restore the Garden Oaks Theater, a project spearheaded by local nonprofit Arthouse Houston. Top-tier “Founders Experience” ticketholders got a chance to meet Anderson onstage for pics. The St. John's School alum also received a proclamation from Mayor John Whitmire declaring it “Wes Anderson Day.”

After that, he and actor/fellow SJS alum Michael Maggart (who has appeared in several Anderson films) held a half-hour discussion where they reminisced about making Rushmore here in Houston, Anderson’s days working at the Bookstop on W. Alabama (now a Trader Joe’s), and how he and frequent collaborator Owen Wilson used to sneak into the River Oaks Theatre. (It involved pretending to lose a pair of glasses.)

Of course, the conversation shifted to Anderson coming back home to support the Garden Oaks project. “I always say you can't build an old building,” Anderson said. “First of all, I mean, a beautiful old place has history, and has people's experiences tied into it, and it has stories involved in it. And I think an old cinema — these things are kind of endangered all over the world, and it's not just an architectural thing. It's not even just a community thing. It's a sort of delivery system for something that’s, to me, deeply important to our country.

“It’s one thing we can access these things on all these devices,” he continued. “It's a different thing when you go to a place that's designed to help you share the experience of a movie together. It's such a powerful art form. And, anyway, for me, it's worth making a bit of an effort to try to save a place like the Garden Oaks.”

After the convo, he introduced the quintet of films he curated for the event. (Unfortunately the DCP file for his 2007 short Hotel Chevalier had some technical difficulties and was cut short.) “We wanted to do a screening here, and I don't have a new movie to show,” he said. “I don't have something hot off the presses. So, I thought I'd put together a little something that just was different from what anybody else will see. So it's a sort of mixture… This is just for Texas, this little collection.”

He eventually left the stage, leaving Arthouse Houston co-founder/director Maureen McNamara and Houston Public Media host Ernie Manouse to auction off perks & gifts and encourage the audience in helping revive another legendary, local movie palace. Among other items, attendees bid for treasures such as a special John Waters backstage VIP experience at his upcoming Christmas Show, dinner with John Cameron Mitchell, and a rare set of photo portraits of a young Anderson and friends, circa Bottle Rocket. Others paid $5,000 for select seats in the future theater and $5,000 to restore one foot of the venue's neon sign.

Photo by Alan Nguyen

Mayor John Whitmire declared Friday as Wes Anderson day in the director's honor.

So far, the effort has raised approximately $1.3 million of the $4 million required to begin the renovation project. The organization needs to raise $4 million by July 30 for the project to move forward. Those interested in securing naming rights will find more information here.

“River Oaks has 245 seats,” McNamara informed the crowd. “The Garden has over 700, and that is a place that we don't have in Houston. We have a need for that, for premieres, for performances in your life, for music, for a dynamic learning & exhibition space… So, we're building new on the shoulders of our history. I hope you guys will join us, and we need people to join us in a big way today.”

wes anderson garden oaks rushmore houston fundraisers