weekend event planner

Here are the top 14 things to do in Houston this weekend

The ICE at Discovery Green ice skating downtown

Chill out with Discovery Green's ICE skating party.

Photo by Katya Horner

Yes, it's getting chilly. You may be tempted to not leave your house anytime soon. But, dangit, there is a lot of cool stuff happening this weekend — many of them require that you being outside. So, don your cool outwear (love those North Face puffers), sip something warm, and enjoy this weekend's offerings.

Thursday, November 15

Beaujolais Nouveau Tiki Luau 2018
You know, it's about time we had a luau going around here, and Camerata at Paulie's will have one for the traditional French holiday known as Beaujolais Nouveau Day. It'll be the spot's second annual, Tiki-themed luau, celebrating the end of harvest with freshly-fermented wine made from Gamay, a red grape grown prodigiously in Beaujolais, the southernmost part of Burgundy. So, put on a Hawaiian shirt and go get blitzed over there. 4 pm-2 am.

ArCH Film Festival: Aquarius and Unknown New York: The City That Women Built
The ArCH Film Festival is wrapping up on Friday. But on this evening, do yourself a kindness and check out Aquarius, a 2016 movie starring that timeless, Brazilian sexpot Sonia Braga. She's a still-feisty, still-stunning sixty-something lady who refuses to sell her apartment to a construction company out to tear the building down. This movie will be paired with the 2018 documentary short Unknown New York: The City That Women Built. 6:45 pm.

The Catastrophic Theatre presents First Suburb
The Catastrophic Theatre presents the world premiere of First Suburb, a play by Catastrophic favorite Chana Porter (Leap and the Net Will Appear). In this play, five preteens teeter on the brink of adolescence when a shocking and violent act interrupts their world of personal struggles and triumphs. A preview will be on this evening, but the premiere will happen the following Friday. 7:30 pm (8 pm Friday and Saturday; 2:30 pm Sunday)

Friday, November 16

Theta Charity Antiques Show
The 66th annual Theta Charity Antiques Show is happening this weekend. The three-day event will feature talks and book signings from renowned (and freakishly attractive) designers and artists Ashley Woodson Bailey, James Farmer, Miles Redd, Suzanne Kasler and Carolyne Roehm. Visitors can peruse a variety of fine art, furniture and decor presented by nearly 70 new and returning designers. 10 am (noon Sunday).

Frostival
Discovery Green will be kicking off the winter season in grand style with Frostival, a fun-filled evening of winter-themed activities. This night marks the opening of The ICE, the largest, outdoor ice-skating surface in the Southwest, and GUST: Celebrating a Decade of Discovery, an interactive art installation by Mexico City-based studio Cocolab that consists of nearly 2,000 custom-made pinwheels. 3:30 pm.

Midtown Mistletoe Market
Midtown Houston will transform its newest green space at Midtown Park to welcome locals who want to get a head start on their holiday shopping. At this two-day event, attendees can look forward to an exciting mix of fine arts, handmade crafts, epicurean foods, and entertainment for all ages — all while exploring the sights and sounds located throughout the park’s amenities. 5-10 pm (9 am-7pm Saturday).

Marc Newsome: I (Heart) 3rd Ward
Marc Newsome has made a nice living for himself showing his love and appreciation for Houston's Third Ward, selling T-shirts, buttons, and other pro-Third Ward merchandise. Starting this weekend, he'll launch an exhibition of photos, videos, and soundscapes highlighting the relevancy of this historical, African-American neighborhood. Or, as its referred to, "a longtime epicenter of Black American life, culture, commerce and existence." 6 pm.

Winter Holiday Art Market
Fresh Arts will host its 13th annual (and final) Winter Holiday Art Market (WHAM) this weekend. There are plenty of reasons to check out this last blowout: buy exclusive, one-of-kind, handmade crafts, support the local arts economy, protect the environment with eco-friendly art, home goods and apparel. But if there's one, essential reason, it's the Ugly Sweater Party that'll be popping off this evening. 6-10 pm (11am-8pm Saturday; 11 am-4 pm Sunday).

2018 Houston Greek Film Festival
We have another region-specific film festival happening around these parts. We've had Italian, Polish, even Pacific Islander film festivals this year. Now, get ready for the first annual Houston Greek Film Festival. Five features and seven shorts will play during the inaugural, three-day festival, which showcases new films from Greek filmmakers, producers and actors from Greece and the diaspora. 7 pm (noon Saturday; 12:30 pm Sunday).

Saturday, November 17

Zine Fest Houston 2018
It's time once again for the annual, all-ages festival dedicated to promoting zines (self-published magazines), mini-comics, and other forms of small press, alternative and underground DIY media and art. This is the sole event in Houston that specifically provides a platform for emerging and established, regional, and national zine makers in the DIY community to exchange new work and create meaningful relationships that lead to productive collaboration. Noon-6 pm.

Artists for Artists Group Show
Artists for Artists is a nonprofit organization devoted to helping out artists in need, especially when medical bills start piling up and they don't have the means to pay them off. As part of this year's ArtCrawl Houston day, they will have a one-night-only group show, featuring work from some of the city's most collected artists. A portion of the proceeds from all works sold will go towards Emergency Recovery Grants designed to assist artists and their emergencies. 6:30-9:30 pm.

Legends of Soul
Who loves R & B music from the '80s? Come on, we gotta have some readers who used to listen to the Snowman spin tunes on Majic 102 back in the day. If you were a faithful listener of soul in the Reagan era, that decade's best performers will be coming down for a literal, jam-packed concert. We got Maze featuring Frankie Beverly, The Whispers, Freddie Jackson, and former Shalamar frontman Howard Hewett. 7:30 pm.

Sunday, November 18

The Gr8 Taco Challenge III
These days, it seems we're always mentioning an event that has tacos. And 8th Wonder Brewery will be coming with the goods this weekend with its Gr8 Taco Challenge III. At this event, many of Houston's favorite restaurants and bars will be battling it out for taco supremacy. Your ticket will get you a taco from each competitor, along with three beer tokens, Michelada bar, and limited edition glassware. Noon.

Thai-Style Thanksgiving Brunch
In Richmond, new Thai pop-up restaurant Street to Kitchen will be hosting a Thai-style thanksgiving brunch at Loam Agronomics Farm. Dedicated to bringing authentic Thai food to Houston using local ingredients, chef Benchawan Jabthong Painter will work closely with local farm partners and sommeliers to provide the freshest, most exquisitely Thai-accented food adventures possible. 1 pm-3 pm.

event-planner

super duper

Quirky Houston DJ drops genre-blending mix CD inspired by video games

Photo by Dustee Torres

DJ Squincy Jones

If you’re the type of person who has dubstep, Southern hip-hop, and Koji Kondo’s iconic “Ground Theme” from Super Mario Bros. in your streaming-music library, then Squincy Jones has created the perfect playlist for you..

Photo by Dustee Torres

DJ Squincy Jones

Super Nintendub is the name of the mix where the Houston-born-and-bred DJ mashes up all those aforementioned music genres. A capella bars from Houston heavyweights (Megan Thee Stallion, Paul Wall) and other Dirty South MCs (Three 6 Mafia, 8Ball & MJG) gets laid over grooves from underground dubstep artists (Numa Crew, Blay Vision, Hamdi). But we also get music from various Nintendo (Castlevania III, Ninja Gaiden) and Super Nintendo (Super Mario World, Final Fantasy VI) games. Jones also throws in audio samples from commercials and gaming-heavy movies like WarGames, The Wizard, and the Adam Sandler-produced Grandma’s Boy.

Needless to say, Jones has always been a gamer. He’s had his run of game systems: NES, SNES, Sega Genesis, even the old-school Atari 2600. He recalls his days blowing the dust out of such cartridges as Contra, Double Dragon, and Duck Hunt. In the past, Jones has released a series of mashup mixes – titled Blend Pack – with cover art that resembles/salutes classic video games.

“I'm a huge fan of all the eight-bit and 16-bit stuff,” says Jones (government name: Shane Rector), 41. “I play a lot of the new games, or I have played a lot of the new games, but not as much anymore. You know, being a parent and having a full-time job – you don't really have time for video games anymore.”

Super Nintendub is a sequel to Nintendub, a dubstep mix he played during a party way back in 2008. “I added some a capellas, [like] a Bun B a capella,” he recalls. “I had some other Dirty South tunes from the time. I layered them because they're at the same tempo as dubstep. Another friend that does music gave me a folder of Nintendo songs. So, I just randomly layered it on top and kinda slowed down the Nintendo music, and it sounded cool as hell to me.”

The mix picked up fans overseas when he dropped it online. “I've always wanted to make a follow-up to it because I got so much good feedback,” he remembers. “People from all over were writing about it."

Jones decided to release Super on compact disc, sold in rectangular keep cases – packaging that’s very familiar to gamers – with double-sided artwork also by Jones. (A digital link is available upon request to those who buy the CD.) While the limited-edition disc is available for purchase on Jones’s Bandcamp page, the CD mix shouldn’t be confused with the Super mix that’s currently playing on the page.

“I wanted to have them in the mix as well,” he says. “But I'm not entirely, you know, confident with my production skills. So, I just kinda had it on the side to go along with the release of this mix.”

Since releasing Super in September, Jones says he’s gotten good feedback from those who’ve bought a copy. “Because it looks like a video game,” he says, “a lot of people are like, ‘Oh, cool! Is it an actual game or an actual DVD or whatnot?’ But it's always hit or miss because some people are like, ‘Oh, man, I don't have a CD player’ or "Wow, you actually printed a CD,’ because everything's, you know, digital.”

He’s looking into playing a big-screen version of Super, where videos of the rap songs are spliced in with video-game footage and other retro clips, somewhere around here. “I was thinking like either a movie theater or somebody mentioned Aurora Picture Show, or maybe Wonky Power, to do like a viewing or showing or whatever – kind of have a party for it.”

Even though Jones enjoys merging gaming and music – his dual obsessions – he still prefers to be known as more than a video-game DJ. A veteran of the Houston DJ scene for a quarter of a century, he continues to do gigs like his upcoming monthly residency at Eight Row Flint.

“I do open-format DJing,” he says. “I've done raves and dubstep parties. I've played on the radio. I've played at Mid Main, where it’s a mainstream crowd. In this day and age, everybody has their branding or whatnot. I just love video games, so I just kind of take that as my branding, I guess.”

music