Because August 32 doesn't exist

More than 20 celebrations for unofficial Houston holiday 713 Day

July 13 isn’t officially a holiday in Houston, but lots of people treat it like one. After all, 713 is Houston’s oldest area code, which means the number will always be part of the city’s identity.

Also, we can’t celebrate anything on February 81 or August 32, because they don’t exist.

As has become a tradition, organizations and businesses all over the city are planning special events for Saturday. We’ve rounded up all the best food pop-ups, car shows, markets, concerts, and more.

Go out and enjoy. After this week, we could all use some fun.

Community Celebrations

Children’s Museum Houston invites you to chill out on 713 Day with frosty melodies, cool sculptures and breathtaking science. Also, dance and sing-along with your favorite Frozen-inspired characters and friends in a wonderful show of music. 9 am.

Over at 8th Wonder Brewery enjoy live music from Donny Houston, Matt Mejia, and Shame On Me, a vendor market curated by Good Market HTX, outdoor activities, cannabis beverages, beer, and more. It’s free and open to the public. Noon.

Fonde Community Center and the Houston Rockets are teaming up for a 713 Day of Basketball. There will be a youth basketball clinic, a dunk contest, a dance fitness class, and appearances by Trae tha Truth, Cynthia Cooper, Sheryl Swoopes and others. 10 am.

Harrisburg Art Museum will be the place for Houston Culture Fest’s 713 Day Fest. There will be a live performance from Lil O, a puff and paint sesh, live graffiti art, a slab meet/contest, and a bunch of vendors. 5 pm.

Market Square Park will have a special edition of the We Heart HOU Music Series. The event will feature more than 20 local vendors and live performances by Aire Fresco and EZ Band. 5:30 pm.

Starseed Hostel will have a 713 Day Fest, hosted by Off Record Media and Coexistence Collective. Slum City Art Department, Goosechase, The Chevy Bois, Junkyard Cat, and The Kiddos are scheduled to perform. 5 pm.

Restaurants & Bars

Cadillac Bar will keep things figuratively and literally flowing throughout the day. They will have an extended, all-day happy hour, hitting you with cervezas, margaritas and over 70 tequilas. 11 am.

Cafe Leonelli invites fellow Houstonians to celebrate their city with its festive 713 Day cocktail, the Comet Crush. Priced at $7.13, the Comet Crush is the perfect tribute to Houston’s unofficial holiday. 5-9 pm.

Craft Pita is bringing back their “Only in H-Town” summer cookout event to showcase the combination of cultures and flavors one can only experience in Houston. Created in collaboration with guest chef Gabe Medina (formerly of Click Virtual Food Hall), the menu will celebrate Lebanese, Filipino, Palestinian, and Peruvian cultures. 11 am.

Over at Diversion Cocktails, Space City area-residents are invited to sip on a $18 Candy Paint cocktail with rum, candy syrup, citrus, soda and cinnamon. It’s a drink for the senses and a must-try. Reservations are strongly encouraged through Tock. 5 pm.

If you’re near either the downtown or Galleria Grotto restaurant, you can stop in and get their famous peach bellini for $7.13. (Call the Galveston location and see if they’ll also have this.) 11:30 am (noon Galleria).

FAO HTX will get its party on with a 713 Day bash. There will be door prizes, a Houston-inspired scavenger hunt, Houston trivia, photo opps and $7.13 H-Town margaritas. The Do713 crew will also host a countdown, a celebratory toast and confetti cannon blasts at 7:13 p.m. RSVP here. 6 pm.

J-Bar-M Barbecue will host Cadillacs and Coffee, a free-to-attend car show featuring unique stock and modified classic Cadillacs. Barbecue connoisseurs can enjoy J-Bar-M’s “El-Dog Sando” with a side of french fries for $20. 1 pm.

King Ranch Texas Kitchen will have an all-day, extended happy hour, with speciality cocktails for $7.13. You can get such delicious drinks as the spiked cucumber fresco, the Texas peach tea and the grilled pineapple margarita. 11 am.

Marmo will have $7.13 spritzes, which will be available all day long. Indulge in a classic aperol spritz or a mesmerizing purple spritz made with Empress gin for a festive and refreshing treat. 11 am.

Pizaro’s Pizza is offering a deal for customers who show their H-Town pride. Customers sporting a Houston-themed outfit or shirt on July 13 are invited to purchase an 8-inch personal margherita pizza for $7.13. 11 am.

Nashville hot chicken restaurant Red Chickz is giving diners a free chicken sandwich with the purchase of any combo.

Tacodeli will be offering $5 margaritas and $2.13 beers to mark the occasion. Combine the specials for a total of $7.13 to show some Houston pride. Specials will be available at both the Washington Avenue and Post Oak Plaza locations. 8 am.

The Tipsy Sloth will celebrate its grand opening with a 713 Day Market. DJ Areal and Whitney Screwston will provide the grooves, while Baked Potato Mannn will serve up the food. There will also be an H-Town cocktail menu. 7:13 pm.

Treebeards in Bunker Hill will be celebrating 713 Day with $7.13 summer cocktails all day. Cocktails include the watermelon spritz, the grapefruit chilton and the Greta Garbo (we’re assuming that one is best consumed alone). 11 am.

WILD Concepts invites Houstonians to salute the city’s oldest area code with both of its locations in Montrose and The Heights. They’re offering $7.13 specials all-day on their popular cocktails Swangin’ and Bangin’ and Still Sippin’. 8 am (10 am Montrose).

Over in Spring Branch, Wild Oats is serving $1.50 oysters (half dozen minimum), $4 guacamole, $7.13 queso, $7.13 margaritas, and $3 select beers.

holidays festivals 713 day

Movie Review

Avatar: Fire and Ash returns to Pandora with big action and bold visuals

Photo courtesy of 20th Century Studios

Oona Chaplin in Avatar: Fire and Ash.

For a series whose first two films made over $5 billion combined worldwide, Avatar has a curious lack of widespread cultural impact. The films seem to exist in a sort of vacuum, popping up for their run in theaters and then almost as quickly disappearing from the larger movie landscape. The third of five planned movies, Avatar: Fire and Ash, is finally being released three years after its predecessor, Avatar: The Way of Water.

The new film finds the main duo, human-turned-Na’vi Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) and his native Na’vi wife, Neytiri (Zoë Saldaña), still living with the water-loving Metkayina clan led by Ronal (Kate Winslet) and Tonowari (Cliff Curtis). While Jake and Neytiri still play a big part, the focus shifts significantly to their two surviving children, Lo’ak (Britain Dalton) and Tuk (Trinity Jo-Li Bliss), as well as two they’ve essentially adopted, Kiri (Sigourney Weaver) and Spider (Jack Champion).

Miles Quaritch (Stephen Lang), who lives on in a fabricated Na’vi body, is still looking for revenge on Jake, and he finds help in the form of the Mangkwan Clan (aka the Ash People), led by Varang (Oona Chaplin). Quaritch’s access to human weapons and the Mangkwan’s desire for more power on the moon known as Pandora make them a nice match, and they team up to try to dominate the other tribes.

Aside from the story, the main point of making the films for writer/director James Cameron is showing off his considerable technical filmmaking prowess, and that is on full display right from the start. The characters zoom around both the air and sea on various creatures with which they’ve bonded, providing Cameron and his team with plenty of opportunities to put the audience right there with them. Cameron’s preferred viewing method of 3D makes the experience even more immersive, even if the high frame rate he uses makes some scenes look too realistic for their own good.

The story, as it has been in the first two films, is a mixed bag. Cameron and co-writers Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver start off well, having Jake, Neytiri, and their kids continue mourning the death of Neteyam (Jamie Flatters) in the previous film. The struggle for power provides an interesting setup, but Cameron and his team seem to drag out the conflict for much too long. This is the longest Avatar film yet, and you really start to feel it in the back half as the filmmakers add on a bunch of unnecessary elements.

Worse than the elongated story, though, is the hackneyed dialogue that Cameron, Jaffa, and Silver have come up with. Almost every main character is forced to spout lines that diminish the importance of the events around them. The writers seemingly couldn’t resist trying to throw in jokes despite them clashing with the tone of the scenes in which they’re said. Combined with the somewhat goofy nature of the Na’vi themselves (not to mention talking whales), the eye-rolling words detract from any excitement or emotion the story builds up.

A pre-movie behind-the-scenes short film shows how the actors act out every scene in performance capture suits, lending an authenticity to their performances. Still, some performers are better than others, with Saldaña, Worthington, and Lang standing out. It’s more than a little weird having Weaver play a 14-year-old girl, but it works relatively well. Those who actually get to show their real faces are collectively fine, but none of them elevate the film overall.

There are undoubtedly some Avatar superfans for which Fire and Ash will move the larger story forward in significant ways. For anyone else, though, the film is a demonstration of both the good and bad sides of Cameron. As he’s proven for 40 years, his visuals are (almost) beyond reproach, but the lack of a story that sticks with you long after you’ve left the theater keeps the film from being truly memorable.

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Avatar: Fire and Ash opens in theaters on December 19.

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