where to celebrate pride

Where to celebrate Pride Month in Houston: Party loud n' proud with bar bashes, pride rides, takeovers, and more

Pride Houston Presents The Official Houston LGBT Pride Celebration

Celebrate Pride all month long.

Photo by My Gay Houston

Houston has always been a bastion of pride, and this month, venues around the city are waving their flags in unity and celebration. A local hot spot pays tribute to a legendary institution, while some local gay institutions party all month long.

Also look for food and drink specials, cultural celebrations, pride rides, and more. Here are your best bets for loud and proud parties this Pride month.

Tuesday, June 6

Trash Panda Drinking Club will pay homage to three iconic gay bars throughout the month of June, starting with New York's legendary Stonewall Inn for one night only. Chef Adriana Maldonado will curate a special, New York-themed menu featuring chopped cheese, New York-style pizza by the slice, and more, starting at 7 pm. Look for appearances by Stonewall bartenders Mel Albaladejo and Mike Salanari, DJ Chauncey D, and an appearance by Ms. Stonewall 2023. The parties continue on June 13 with an homage to New York's Cubbyhole, and on June 24 with a revival of the much missed La Strada brunch.

Thursday, June 8

Pride Chorus Houston will return to the Moody Center for the Arts for an a cappella performance of uplifting pop favorites. DJ Krazzy Kris will get the party started. 5 pm.

Friday, June 9

Hamburger Mary’s will have a Pride Month celebration/fundraiser, which will include a costume contest and door prizes. It’s free and open to healthcare professionals. 6 pm.

Saturday, June 10

Snooze will host “Yappy Pride,” a fur-filled day of fun, love, and support for the LGBTQ+ community and their furry companions. There will be a prize wheel and merch for sale. 10 am.

Sunday, June 11

Congregation Beth Yeshurun will host a Pride Playdate, complete with a bubble truck and a splash pad. You can also enjoy rainbow snacks and will have lots of time to play. 10 am.

Unbound Production will present the Drag Queen Reverse Brunch Show. This knock-your-socks-off show is the perfect mix of classy entertainment and raunchy comedy. 1 pm.

Thursday, June 16

Therapy Lounge will have a Pride celebration with live poetry, R&B music, and a drag show. There will also be food, hookah, drinks, vendors, and you can BYOB. 8:30 pm.

Saturday, June 17

Chapman & Kirby will have a Pride Month Queen Brunch. Enjoy a delicious buffet while being entertained by some of the most talented drag performers in the city. Noon.

Houston Eagle will host Houston’s Annual Pride Ride. There will be vendors, a drag show and raffles, followed by a bike ride through the old Pride Parade route through Montrose. Noon.

BUDDY’S will have its 6th annual Pride Bar Crawl, with stops at Kiki, Pop Soap, and other spots. A portion of the proceeds will be donated to local Pride organizations and The Trevor Project. 4 pm.

The Montrose Center will celebrate Pride Month (and its 45th anniversary) with the Community Pride Celebration. There will be live entertainment, special surprises, and more. 4 pm.

Thursday, June 22

Numbers Nightclub will welcome many drag performers for its Space City Pride 2023 party. Marcia Marcia Marcia, Salina EsTitties, Jasmine Kennedie, Landon Cider, and Jax will be in attendance. 8 pm.

Ripcord will have a four-day, Unapologetic Pride Party, where people can celebrate and still remain aware of current events affecting the LGBTQ+ community. There will be a full lineup of acts, along with vendors, kink demos, and speakers. 9 pm.

Saturday, June 24

The Pride Run, the inclusive, synchronized 5k/10k walk and run, will go down in downtown Houston. It’s dedicated to bringing people together to have fun, be active, and support the LGBTQ+ community. 7 am.

The 45th Annual Official Houston Pride Celebration, featuring the Houston Pride Parade, will take place in downtown Houston on Smith and Milam. It’s free and everyone can register. 7 pm.

Houston Pride Parade festivals

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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