weekend event planner

Here are the top 13 things to do in Houston this weekend

TKTK Tokyo Night Festival

Photo courtesy of Tokyo Night Festival

For Houston Astros fans, this weekend offers a chance to get up close and personal with three star players, and also with the World Series trophy at a popular golf tournament.

Meanwhile, a beloved shopping event returns for the holidays, we salute our veterans with a parade, an art and music fest celebrates unity, and the Galleria gets lit with an annual tree ceremony.

Fans of Japan can celebrate the nation that dominates pop culture at a two-day festival featuring music, food, cars, anime, and even sumo wrestling. And the biggest traveling inflatable attraction in the world brings more bounce for the ounce to town.

Enjoy; here are your best bets for the weekend.

Thursday, November 10

Astros Golf Foundation presents 2022 Cadence Park Houston Open

The Astros Golf Foundation is set to host this four-day golf extravaganza at Memorial Park Golf Course. To go along with the world-class golf play, there are also a lot of exciting giveaways and events off the course for fans to enjoy. This is also the first chance for fans to see and take a photo with the Astros 2022 World Series trophy. Popular Texas country musician Pat Green will do a performance at the Memorial Park Driving Range, immediately following the final putt on Sunday. 7 am.

Houston Ballet presents Nutcracker Market

With its signature, ruby-red carpet and larger-than-life towering Nutcrackers setting the scene, the Houston Ballet’s 42nd anniversary Nutcracker Market returns this weekend. This four-day event will host more than 270 merchants from across the country, including more than 50 new merchants, showcasing a curated collection of unique holiday items, gourmet food, apparel, jewelry, accessories, home décor, gifts, toys and more. Come celebrate as one of Houston’s favorite traditions transforms NRG Center into a shopper’s paradise. 10 am.

Bacardi Rum Room at Wooster's Garden Houston

Following a hiatus due to the ongoing pandemic, Bacardi is excited to bring back its popular Rum Room series for a new multi-city tour, which kicked off in NYC last week and will make a stop this weekend in H-Town, highlighting the brand’s premium rum portfolio and staple Bacardi Reserva Ocho. Designed to introduce and educate consumers about the versatility of rum, Rum Room is curated by the Bacardi Rum Society, an exclusive group of celebrity rum enthusiasts and ambassadors and previously attended by brand fans including Jhene Aiko, Karrueche Tran, Omari Hardwick and more. 7 pm.

Friday, November 11

Houston Salutes American Heroes Veterans Day Celebration

Mayor Sylvester Turner invites Houstonians to attend the annual Veterans Day ceremony and parade. This celebration will feature a 21-gun salute, a moment of silence in honor of the signing of the WWI Armistice, and a keynote address by Colonel David J. Lewis, U.S. Air Force veteran. Local veteran organizations, ROTC and Junior ROTCs, bands and supporters will march in the parade to show respect and honor our veterans. This parade is open to the public, and all are welcomed along the parade route. 10 am.

Tokyo Night Festival

Tokyo Night Festival originally started as an idea to bring all the chefs who have been inspired from Japan to create their version of Japanese street food. Now in its second year, the two-day festival will support Japanese communities to represent Japanese food and culture. With over 30 food vendors and 180 total vendors, the goal of the festival is to bring a piece of Japan to Houston. The fest has teamed up with Japanese-owned and operated organizations to help represent and bring the Japanese community together in Houston. 3 pm.

Houston Symphony presents Holst’s The Planets

Fasten your seatbelts and blast off to the stars when acclaimed conductor Gemma New leads Holst’s sonic, celestial showpiece, which vividly portrays each planet’s astrological persona, from menacing Mars to jolly Jupiter and beyond. Young cello star Camille Thomas is conquering the world stage, and Elgar’s poignant Cello Concerto is the perfect showcase for her talents. The concert will also feature Alissa Firsova’s poetic reflection on love, Bride of the Wind. 8 pm (2:30 pm Sunday).

Ninja Sex Party: Up Close and Personal

Ninja Sex Party, consisting of Danny Sexbang (Dan Avidan, vocals) and Ninja Brian (Brian Wecht, keyboards), is one of the most popular comedy bands of all time. After three years not touring for some reason, Ninja Sex Party is back with an all-acoustic show. With the help of the Super Guitar Bros and producer Jim Roach, Danny and Brian are doing their first-ever live acoustic tour, featuring your favorite NSP songs plus some amazing (yet somehow totally believable) new surprises. 8 pm.

Saturday, November 12

The Big Bounce America

Featuring the world’s largest bounce house, The Big Bounce America tour (open on weekends this month) is the largest touring inflatable event in the entire world. The world’s largest bounce house, the featured attraction on the tour, is the planet’s preeminent bounce castle. It includes a basketball court, giant slide, and a massive ball pit. At the center of the fun is a world-class DJ playing a carefully selected soundtrack with nightclub quality sound and lights. Additionally, guests will be able to enjoy airSPACE, a 25-foot-tall space-themed spectacle with a five-person slide and a 50-foot-wide play space for younger bouncers. 9 am.

Community Artists' Collective presents FestEve!35

The Community Artists’ Collective will celebrate its 35th anniversary of serving the arts and cultural community. The evening, which begins with a VIP reception, will feature works of art, performing artists, a silent and a live auction, a dinner and refreshments. Guests will be treated to entertainment during the evening, capturing the spirit of traditional to contemporary genres of the cultural community, including Houston’s poet laureate Outspoken Bean, the Carver High School stilt walkers, solo instrumentalists and vocalists, dance troupes and jazz bands. 6 pm.

The Galleria presents 33rd Annual Ice Spectacular and Tree Lighting

The Galleria is kicking off the holiday season with the 33rd Annual Ice Spectacular, including an ice skating show, musical performances, and the lighting of the center’s 55-foot tree. Leah Marlene, a songwriter, artist and producer with a deeply rooted desire to create art unlike anything you have heard before, will be performing. Beginning at noon, there will be family and children’s activities including face painting, balloon art and a coloring station, as well as live, holiday, musical performances throughout the center. 6 pm.

Sunday, November 13

Fall Fresh Plant Party & Farmers Market at The Plant Project Houston

The Fall Fresh Plant Party & Farmers Market, now in its second year, is a free, family-friendly event to bring the community together and celebrate everything fall with market-inspired local businesses and artisans, fresh, organic products from produce to teas and breads, to wellness, beauty and hand-crafted gifts, along with plants, a fall-inspired succulent bar, pumpkin painting for kids, farm-to-table complimentary cocktails with Traveling Spirit Bar, a fall floral bar by Bree Blooms, beats by DJ Good Fat and so much more. 11 am.

The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston presents "Alberto Giacometti: Toward the Ultimate Figure" opening day

This touring exhibition presents an ensemble of 60 masterpieces highlighting Alberto Giacometti’s major achievements of the postwar years (1945-66), exploring the artist’s creative process and how he came to produce his iconic figures. Giacometti (1901-1966) reasserted the validity of the figure and figural representation at a time when abstract art had grown dominant in the international art world. It unfolds in 12 thematic sections that illuminate Giacometti’s focus on the human form and the development of his signature style. Through Sunday, February 12, 2023. 12:30 pm.

The Bryan Museum Member's Opening Reception

I Am Texas is now the largest book published in the world, earning it a spot in the Guinness Book of World Records. Standing more than 7-feet tall, spanning 11-feet wide when open, and weighing almost 500 pounds, Bryan Museum members and RSVP guests are invited to view the book at its first stop on a statewide tour that will take it to the Alamo and other locations. The museum will also celebrate the opening of the exhibitions: Working Hands: The Photography of Rick Williams and Revealing Character: The Tintypes of Robb Kendrick. 2 pm.

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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