weekend event planner

Here are the top 12 things to do in Houston this weekend

Fur babies can receive a blessing this weekend.

Photo courtesy of Bellaire United Methodist Church

Nearly the entire city will be (rightfully) watching your Houston Astros take on the Boston Red Sox this weekend. But another sporting event is popping off downtown, too.

The Houston Rockets Fan Fest goes down this Saturday starting at 10 am. Expect music, an open practice to see the team, games, Bun B’s Trill Burgers, Trae Tha Truth’s Ice Cream shop, Rockets legend appearances, and more. Get more details here.

As for the rest of this weekend, a second — and what's billed as the original — Immersive Van Gogh experience is making a splash in Houston. Jump on tickets quickly; they'll go fast. Meanwhile, your furry friends can receive a blessing, and later, you can head downtown for a massive block party.

Enjoy the cooler temps; here are your best bets for the weekend.

Thursday, October 14

Young Audiences Of Houston presents The Essence of Mexico
Mixteco Ballet Folklórico presents dances from the Northern state of Nuevo Leon, which were first brought to Mexico from European countries such as Germany, Austria, Poland, and Czechoslovakia. In the state of Veracruz, the “Zapateados,” or footwork, are very intricate and reminiscent of the Flamenco dances from Spain. The group’s final numbers are from the state of Jalisco, where the Mariachi music is believed to have originated. 11 am.

Immersive Van Gogh Houston
Presented by Lighthouse Immersive and Impact Museums, this digital art experience invites audiences to enter the works of van Gogh, evoking his highly emotional and chaotic inner consciousness through art, light, music, movement, and imagination. The exhibition merges state-of-the-art technology, theatrical storytelling, and world-class animation, transporting guests inside the artist's most famous paintings. The art experience has over 500,000 cubic feet of projections that bring each of Van Gogh’s brushstrokes to life. On display through Sunday, November 28. 2 pm.

The Broach Foundation for Brain Cancer Research presents Stand Up for Brain Cancer Gala
The Broach Foundation for Brain Cancer Research presents their Stand Up for Brain Cancer Gala, featuring Mike Birbiglia. Birbiglia is an award-winning comedian, storyteller, director, and actor. His most recent shows, The New One, Thank God for Jokes, and My Girlfriend’s Boyfriend are streaming on Netflix, and he's currently the host of the podcast Mike Birbiglia's Working It Out. He has written two bestselling books, Sleepwalk With Me as well as The New One. Additionally, Birbiglia is a filmmaker who wrote, directed, and starred in the films Sleepwalk With Me, which won an audience award at Sundance and Don’t Think Twice. 6 pm.

Friday, October 15

The Houston Seminar presents Under the Radar: Tracing Houston’s Music History - The Texas Jazz Archive
The “Big Wide Open Texas Sound” of Houston jazz was spearheaded by Arnett Cobb (1918–1989), the legendary Wild Man of the Tenor Sax. Cobb’s daughter Lizette Cobb and Abra Schnur, processing archivist of the Texas Jazz Archive from 2017 to 2019, will give an insider’s tour of materials from 22 Houston jazz musicians. Guests will get to listen to recordings of the “Texas Tenor Sound” shaped by Arnett Cobb and his contemporaries and discover how these Houston talents would go on to play on the world stage with jazz legends such as Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald, and Dizzy Gillespie. 10 am.

DiverseWorks presents Candice D'Meza: WAIL
This community grief ritual performance film was conceived and organized by Candice D’Meza, to honor the 95 individuals whose unmarked remains were unearthed in 2018 and who labored and died on a state-sanctioned convict leasing camp between 1897-1912 in Sugar Land, Texas. An online panel discussion titled Unshackling History: Convict Leasing Camps in Sugar Land, TX will happen on Thursday, October 21. 6:30 pm

14 Pews presents Karen Dalton: In My Own Time
Texas-born folk singer Karen Dalton, who came up in the downtown New York scene of the 1960s but blazed a trail all her own with her unique take on folk and the blues, was one of the most famously reclusive musicians of the 20th century. With beautiful fingerpicked guitar and her lovely off-kilter voice reminiscent of Billie Holiday, Dalton captivated audiences with her live performances and two albums for Capitol Records, It’s So Hard to Tell Who’s Going to Love You Best (1969) and In My Own Time (1971), before disappearing to a remote Colorado cabin and swearing off a life as a professional musician. Idolized by Bob Dylan and Nick Cave, Karen discarded the traditional trappings of success and led an unconventional life until her early death. 7 pm.

Saturday, October 16

Bellaire United Methodist Church presents Blessing of the Animals
Bellaire United Methodist Church (BUMC) is set to host its tenth annual event this weekend. This event is free, family-friendly, open to the public, and will be lots of fun. People from all walks of life are invited to bring their pets and have them blessed by the church's pastors. All pets should be friendly and either on a leash (dogs), in protective carriers (cats), cages (birds, small mammals), fish bowls, or terrariums (amphibians, reptiles). 1 pm.

“Enchanted: Visual Histories of the Central Andes” Menil Collection Community Day
The Menil Collection will have an upcoming Community Day and collaboration with Axelrad this weekend. The Menil’s programs will include dance performances, talks on the exhibition Enchanted: Visual Histories of the Central Andes, and live music. Axelrad’s event following will include music from El Dusty and Mexican Blackbird. Tacorlando will be on site to provide snacks, and a special cocktail will be available at the bar to mark the occasion. 3 pm.

A Night at Market Square
This annual block party showcases Downtown’s Historic District, this year with a Tex-Orleans block party theme. The band Quaker City Night Hawks will headline the evening, with an opening set from one of Houston’s premiere funk bands, Bayou City Funk. In addition to enjoying live music and performances, explore the neighborhood's eclectic bars and restaurants where you’ll find food and beverage specials, giveaways and other pop-up fun. 6 pm.

Sunday, October 17

Museum of Fine Arts, Houston presents "Georgia O’Keeffe, Photographer"
Georgia O’Keeffe forged a career as one of the most significant artists of the 20th century. This is the first exhibition devoted to O’Keeffe’s work as a photographer. Nearly 100 photographs from a newly examined archive reveal the American icon’s Modernist approach to the medium. Complementing the photographs are paintings and drawings to represent the full scope of her career. On display through Monday, January 17. 12:30 pm.

Holocaust Museum Houston presents "Withstand" Closing Event: Community Altar Blessing and Artist Talk
Holocaust Museum Houston will host this special closing event,featuring artist Theresa Escobedo and MECA curator Luis Gavito. Escobedo will share her artistic process and the various elements of the altar that preserve the memory of loved ones passed. Gavito will highlight the history and traditions of Dia De Los Muertos, followed by a blessing of the altar. Face masks are required for all guests ages two and up. 5:30 pm.

Kinetic Ensemble presents Sound and Color: The World of Miro
Joined by percussionist Brady Spitz, Kinetic will premiere South African composer Peter Klatzow's The World of Miró, for marimba and string quartet. This program centers on the exploratory and radical artistic movements brewing in Paris around the turn of the century and their ripples through time and space. The World of Miró creates sonic tapestries that pair with Catalan artist Joan Miró’s fresh and geometric paintings. 6 pm.

event-planner

Movie Review

Meta-comedy remake Anaconda coils itself into an unfunny mess

Photo by Matt Grace

Jack Black and Paul Rudd in Anaconda.

In Hollywood’s never-ending quest to take advantage of existing intellectual property, seemingly no older movie is off limits, even if the original was not well-regarded. That’s certainly the case with 1997’s Anaconda, which is best known for being a lesser entry on the filmography of Ice Cube and Jennifer Lopez, as well as some horrendous accent work by Jon Voight.

The idea behind the new meta-sequel Anaconda is arguably a good one. Four friends — Doug (Jack Black), Griff (Paul Rudd), Claire (Thandiwe Newton), and Kenny (Steve Zahn) — who made homemade movies when they were teenagers decide to remake Anaconda on a shoestring budget. Egged on by Griff, an actor who can’t catch a break, the four of them pull together enough money to fly down to Brazil, hire a boat, and film a script written by Doug.

Naturally, almost nothing goes as planned in the Amazon, including losing their trained snake and running headlong into a criminal enterprise. Soon enough, everything else takes second place to the presence of a giant anaconda that is stalking them and anyone else who crosses its path.

Written and directed by Tom Gormican, with help from co-writer Kevin Etten, the film is designed to be an outrageous comedy peppered with laugh-out-loud moments that cover up the fact that there’s really no story. That would be all well and good … if anything the film had to offer was truly funny. Only a few scenes elicit any honest laughter, and so instead the audience is fed half-baked jokes, a story with no focus, and actors who ham it up to get any kind of reaction.

The biggest problem is that the meta-ness of the film goes too far. None of the core four characters possess any interesting traits, and their blandness is transferred over to the actors playing them. And so even as they face some harrowing situations or ones that could be funny, it’s difficult to care about anything they do since the filmmakers never make the basic effort of making the audience care about them.

It’s weird to say in a movie called Anaconda, but it becomes much too focused on the snake in the second half of the film. If the goal is to be a straight-up comedy, then everything up to and including the snake attacks should be serving that objective. But most of the time the attacks are either random or moments when the characters are already scared, and so any humor that could be mined all but disappears.

Black and Rudd are comedy all-stars who can typically be counted on to elevate even subpar material. That’s not the case here, as each only scores on a few occasions, with Black’s physicality being the funniest thing in the movie. Newton is not a good fit with this type of movie, and she isn’t done any favors by some seriously bad wigs. Zahn used to be the go-to guy for funny sidekicks, but he brings little to the table in this role.

Any attempt at rebooting/remaking an old piece of IP should make a concerted effort to differentiate itself from the original, and in that way, the new Anaconda succeeds. Unfortunately, that’s its only success, as the filmmakers can never find the right balance to turn it into the bawdy comedy they seemed to want.

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Anaconda is now playing in theaters.

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