weekend event planner

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

Millions of Lego bricks make for cuddly animals at Bricklive Houston: Animal Paradise.

Photo courtesy of Brick Live Group Limited

This weekend, baseball fans will be rallying around the Houston Astros as the team looks to close out the series against the Boston Red Sox either Friday or Saturday.

But before and after the games, plenty of happenings are vying for your attention. Look for a limited-edition bourbon party, a night at the symphony, a bike trip around Galveston Bay, cuddly animals made of Lego bricks, or a celebration of chocolate — perfect for Sunday Funday.

Here are your best bests for the weekend.

Thursday, October 21

Bayou & Bottle Bourbon Release Party
This exclusive event will debut Bayou & Bottle’s four-and-a-half-year-old single barrel, picked in partnership with Garrison Brothers master distiller Donnis Todd and Four Seasons Hotel Houston team Tom Segesta (general manager) and Michael Rodriguez (director of food and beverage). This limited, single-barrel release yielded a total of 48 bottles, so bourbon lovers beware. If you would like to taste this creation, this is the only place it will be featured this year. 5 pm.

Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Houston presents 33rd Annual Great Futures Dinner
The Great Futures Dinner is the premier annual fundraiser of Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Houston. Included in the festive evening will be the silent and live auctions, the Big Board, pre-event cocktails, a seated dinner and entertainment provided by BGCGH Youth. All proceeds benefit programs of Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Houston to ensure that all Club members are on track for success and great futures. 5:30 pm.

Sicardi | Ayers | Bacino presents Liz Cohen: "The Poet" opening reception
Sicardi | Ayers | Bacino presents the gallery's first solo exhibition for contemporary artist Liz Cohen. Cohen's constructivist installation Him features photographs, collages, weavings, and masks that grew out of the collaborative research project and 12-hour improvisational performative environment produced by the artist in collaboration with her friend Eric Crosley, a poet who began a failed gender reassignment surgery 20 years ago, which "explores the constantly shifting definitions of 'self' of both artist (Cohen) and subject (Crosley)." On display through Saturday, December 18. 6 pm.

Friday, October 22

Bricklive Houston: Animal Paradise
Bricklive Houston: Animal Paradise is Houston's first and only animal safari paradise that will feature animals made out of more than a million bricks. As guests explore the imaginary plains, they'll see an array of life-size, brick-built animals, including breeds of alligators, dolphins, elephants, pandas, giraffes, rhinos, lions, tigers, bears, and more. Through Friday, December 31. 11 am.

Alley Theatre presents 72 Miles to Go…
The play follows one family over a decade as they come of age, fall in love, fight in wars, and fight for each other, against the backdrop of deportation, DACA, and changing immigration laws. The gripping family drama by Hilary Bettis returns to the Alley following development in the 2019 Alley All New Festival and its world premiere Off-Broadway at Roundabout Theatre Company. Through Sunday, November 14. 8 pm (2 and 8 pm Saturday; 2:30 and 7:30 pm Sunday).

Houston Symphony presents Mendelssohn’s Scottish Symphony
Houston Symphony presents Mendelssohn’s Scottish Symphony, where audiences will be transported to a world of ancient ruins and windswept Highland beauty, inspired by the composer’s trip to the British Isles. Acclaimed British conductor Jane Glover leads these performances, which also feature music of Ethel Smyth, and Prokofiev’s effervescent Symphony No. 1. Plus, principal bassoon Rian Craypo shines in Variations on an Arietta by Pergolesi. The Saturday performance will be available to livestream. 8 pm (2:30 pm Sunday).

Saturday, October 23

Galveston Bay Foundation presents Bike Around the Bay
Galveston Bay Foundation, a non-profit conservation organization that works to preserve and enhance Galveston Bay as a healthy and productive place for generations to come, will highlight the natural beauty of Galveston Bay during this fully supported, two-day, 175-mile ride. This unique cycling event takes riders in a complete loop around the largest and most productive estuary in Texas. A one-day, 97-mile option is also available. 9 am.

Daughters of the British Empire presents 47th Annual British Bazaar
Over at Arabia Shrine Center Ballroom, this British Bazaar celebrates all things British. Local Anglophiles will enjoy performances from the Houston Highlanders Pipe Band, traditional British food, a pub lunch and afternoon tea service, along with several British-themed vendors. There will also be a raffle featuring 75 door prizes. 10 am.

Levy Park presents the Prelude Concert Series
Families with young children are invited to sing and dance as Levy Park presents this concert series, sponsored by Primrose School at Greenway Plaza and Primrose School of Upper Kirby. For 45 minutes, babies, toddlers, preschoolers and their grown-ups can join in live music classes with a curriculum aimed at nurturing creativity, self-expression and the development of children through a variety of musical styles. 4:30 pm.

Sunday, October 24

The Women’s Fund for Health Education and Resiliency presents 11th Annual Rockin’ Resiliency Luncheon
The Women’s Fund for Health Education and Resiliency, along with Luncheon co-chairs Lara Bell and Aliza Dutt, and honorary chair Edna Meyer-Nelson, will present the 11th Annual Rockin’ Resiliency Luncheon. The afternoon will feature Olympic medalist and world champion boxer Marlen Esparza as the keynote speaker, a silent auction, a baubles and bubbles champagne raffle, and more. 11:30 am.

Emery Entertainment presents An Evening with C.S. Lewis & J.R.R. Tolkien
An Evening with C.S. Lewis & J.R.R. Tolkien is a play set in Oxford’s Eagle & Child pub. Aging and legendary authors Tolkien and his great friend Lewis meet for what turns out to be the very last time. They were lions of 20th century British fantasy, giants of a literary genre that reached millions of readers, young and old alike, with mystifying adventures to entertain and deep truths to move people’s hearts. 2 pm.

Cosmic Creature Events presents Melt My Heart: A Celebration of Chocolate
Melt My Heart will feature a special selection of chocolates all made by Cosmic Creature Events, one of Houston’s very own bean-to-bar chocolate makers. A ticket will include a chocolate merch bag, two signature chocolate bars, a sample pack of chocolate tea (five-count package), stickers, BOGO coupon, and access to the chocolate fountain buffet. 3 pm.

event-planner

Movie Review

New Apple TV+ movie Blitz brings WWII London to life

Photo courtesy of Apple TV+

Elliott Heffernan and Saoirse Ronan in Blitz.

The horrors of World War II are 80-plus years in the past, yet they remain a fascination for many filmmakers. The latest film to tackle the era, Blitz, is centered around the German Blitzkrieg air raids on London in September 1940, but uses a more personal story to illustrate its impact.

Rita (Saoirse Ronan) lives with her 9-year-old son George (Elliott Heffernan) and her father Gerald (Paul Weller) in the lower class neighborhood of Stepney, but no one in the city is immune from the bombs being dropped by the Germans. The government has opened up some of the Underground (aka subway) tunnels for residents to use as bomb shelters, but the haphazard nature of their availability leads Rita to send George to safety in the countryside to protect him.

George, who is biracial, experiences racist abuse on the train, and instead of remaining with the other children to their destination, he jumps off and tries to make his way back to London. Meanwhile, Rita is doing her best to keep her mind off of George’s absence, working at a munition factory and volunteering at a bomb shelter, not knowing that George has put himself back in danger.

Written and directed by Steve McQueen, the film should be one that elicits emotions relatively easily, with ordinary people dealing with the effects of war and a mother separated from her only child. And while all the elements are present, there’s that certain something missing that leaves the story somewhat uninvolving. McQueen makes you want to see George make it back safely and for Rita to be reunited with him, but there is a degree of sentimentality that’s missing from the film as a whole.

Instead of going down that road, McQueen puts a big focus on the racism and bigotry experienced by various people in the film. Flashbacks give a sense of what George and his dad, Marcus (CJ Beckford), went through prior to the war, and Ife (Benjamin Clementine), a warden who tries to help George find his way home, encounters it multiple times while just doing his duty. While McQueen’s point that people of color still had to endure acts of hatred in a time when people should have been coming together, his methods of showing it are often heavy-handed.

Still, the film is well-made and remains visually engaging throughout. The combination of practical sets and CGI put the viewer right in the middle of the bombed-out London, and there are few missteps with how the city is presented. And even though the main mother-son story is only lightly effective, the trials and tribulations that each go through individually are interesting and occasionally suspenseful.

Ronan is a fantastic actor who might get nominated for an Oscar yet again for her other recent film, The Outrun, but this role pales in comparison. Whether it’s because the 30-year-old is a bit young to be fully believable in a mother role or because of the storytelling missteps, she’s merely good instead of great here. Heffernan does a solid job in his film debut, reacting ably to McQueen putting him through his paces.

Blitz joins the seemingly never-ending well of stories from World War II, and while it doesn’t succeed as mightily as other notable war films, it never becomes anything less than watchable. The family story at its center could have been more heartfelt, but McQueen is still a great filmmaker with a flair for visual composition.

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Blitz is now streaming on Apple TV+.

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