weekend event planner

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

Shop for last-minute, vintage gifts at Winter Flea by Night.

Photo by Morris Malakoff, The CKP Group

The holidays are here. And if you need a break from wrapping presents and picking up relatives, these events will help you kick back and recharge your yuletide battery.

Thursday, December 20

Pop-Up Fundraiser at The Marquis II
West University will be getting some pop-up love from The Original Ninfa's on Navigation and Antone's Famous Po' Boys. The restaurants will be hosting a fundraiser, to be held at longtime West U bar The Marquis II. This neighborhood spot closed last week after more than 30 years in business at its current location, citing financial difficulties caused by ongoing street construction, only to be purchased by general manager Al Jara and reopened two days later. All proceeds will go to the bar. 6-9 pm.

Screw Cancer Charity Concert
Another benefit will be going down over at Satellite Bar, a charity concert bluntly called Screw Cancer. This show will feature live performances from LYTA, Atwood, MIEARS, Alii Michele, and Indigo Young. Proceeds and donations will go towards helping the Acevedo Family and their matriarch, Ilayahu, with her fight with stage 4 endometrial endometrioid adenocarcinoma, which is a severe type of stomach and ovarian cancer. 7-11 pm.

Friday, December 21

Hale County This Morning, This Evening at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston
In a year that has had many fascinating documentary films, a favorite of ours that definitely deserves more attention will be playing this weekend at the MFAH, as part of its Filming America series. It's basically 76 minutes of filmmaker/photographer RaMell Ross capturing every nook and cranny of Hale County, Alaska, taking the mundane, small-town minutiae of the area’s predominantly black residents and transforming it into arresting visual poetry. We can't recommend it enough. 7 pm.

Rob Baird at The Heights Theater
Described on his press page as "a gambler of wit," Austin-based artist Rob Baird will be in town — opening up for Jack Ingram — to promote his latest album After All, which comes out next month. Recorded to tape in East Nashville, All is a concept album that has been called "a love child of Austin songwriting meeting Nashville collaboration." Rolling Stone has already called his new single "Burning Blue" "heavy new folk-rock" — so dude must be doing something right. 8 pm.

Saturday, December 22

Winter Flea by Night and Skate with Santa at Discovery Green
It's gonna be two scoops of ice, cold fun over at Discovery Green this weekend. First off, we got Winter Flea By Night, the Green Mountain Energy-presented flea market, coming back to the grounds. You can hunt for vintage, handmade, recycled, repurposed and renewed goods, plus enjoy live music and food trucks. Before that, you can get in some skating time — and say what's up to Ol' St. Nick — over at the Skate with Santa event at The ICE outdoor skating rink. 5 pm.

Goodnight Charlie's Honky Tonk Anniversary Party
Goodnight Charlie's is celebrating its one year of business the only way it knows how, with a free, day-long, honky-tonk anniversary party. There will be an anniversary cocktail menu and a roasted pig, which will be used for $1 roast pig and tromp tacos. Of course, there will also be live music from Eric Woodring, William & the Texas Starlight, Garrett T. Capps, Mayeux and Broussard, and Folk Family Revival. 1 pm-1 am.

Sunday, December 23

Festivus at Holler Brewing Co.
Any Seinfeld fans in the house? If you are one, you must know how important the nonexistent holiday known as Festivus is around the (very loud) Constanza household. It's also important over at Holler Brewing Co., since the beer spot will be having its third-annual Festivus celebration. The Festivus pole will be there for people to take photos with, along with the Airing of Grievances and Feats of Strength. More importantly, Festivus MiracAle and spiced Belgian Tripel Festivus MiracAle will be on tap. 3-7 pm.

Need a Break from Your In-Laws Happy Hour
Looking for a respite from the relatives and in-laws this holiday season? Local record rustler DJ Abrahan is here to give you some soothing sounds. He'll be spinning at Little Dipper Bar's recurring All-Vinyl Happy Hour, doing three hours of dark wave, new wave, dance and '80s club classics and basically taking you back to your high school years. As for booze, they'll have $2 Lone Star Beer and $2.50 you-call-it well drinks. 3-6 pm.

event-planner

Movie Review

Cookie Queens goes behind the scenes of Girl Scout Cookie season

Photo courtesy of Roadside Attractions

Girl Scouts in Cookie Queens.

Few people are strong enough to resist the lure of Girl Scout cookie season every year, with the cookies’ limited availability and unique flavors a strong incentive to indulge. But only the girls and their families who have sold the cookies know the joys and stresses of trying to get people to buy them, a process that is detailed in the new documentary, Cookie Queens.

The film by documentarian Alysa Nahmias uses the stories of four different girls to represent the nationwide ritual for the Girl Scouts. They include 12-year-old Olive in Charlotte, North Carolina, a longtime top seller; 8-year-old Shannon Elizabeth in El Paso, Texas, who wants to earn the reward of going to camp; 5-year-old Ara in San Diego, California, whose goal is modest compared to most other girls; and 9-year-old Nikki in Chino, California, who has to compete with her older sisters in the cookie-selling bonanza.

The girls represent a cross-section of both ages and backgrounds, with some girls coming from wealthy families and some girls dealing with more limited means. And how much money your family has makes a big difference, as not only does someone richer have more freedom with their time and supplies, but all scouts are required to reimburse the organization for every box they take in, regardless of whether they’re able to sell it or not.

That caveat makes the journeys of the four featured girls feel wildly different. It’s clear from the start that Olive and Nikki’s families don’t give a second thought to the personal economics of selling cookies, with each girl taking in thousands of boxes at the beginning of the six-week selling season. With both Olive and Nikki rightfully confident that they’ll have no problem offloading their supply, their stories turn to how selling is personally affecting them, with each trying to reconcile the fun of doing it with the pressure they feel from their family members.

Shannon Elizabeth’s story is more harrowing, as her parents feel a strong desire to help her accomplish her lofty goal, but worry that the cost might literally be too high for the family as a whole. More than once, the parents are shown fretting that they won’t have the money to pay back what they owe should they fall significantly short in their sales. Their selling approach, which includes walking through an empty swap meet and standing outside a chain restaurant at night, only adds to their stress.

The most fun story to watch is that of Ara, whose innocence is matched by her confidence. Her parents teach her how much money they’ll owe with her small goal of 55 boxes, but right away she takes on more responsibility than expected. She’s shown making sales pitches and tallying the total number of boxes she’s sold with little-to-no help from either her mom or dad. With her high voice, glasses, and a monitor on her arm to manage her diabetes, she becomes the cute and sympathetic part of the film.

There are times that the film starts to feel more than a little manipulative, however. While many of the moments documented come off as organic, some of them seem like Nahmias is actively guiding the participants in order to get a better story. This is especially evident with Shannon Elizabeth and her family, whose early struggles turn into a miraculous feel-good story by the end, a turnaround that seems implausible at best. Everything with them might have been aboveboard, but Nahmias and her team edit the family’s journey in a way that pushes a bit too hard for emotion.

Cookie Queens, which was produced by a company owned by Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, helps to give insight into the business of selling Girl Scout cookies for those who’ve only been on the purchasing end of the transaction. The dedication of each girl toward selling their allotted supply proves fun and interesting, even if the filmmaker tries to gild the lily on occasion.

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Cookie Queens is now playing in theaters,

movies girl scout cookie film