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

Clichéd rom-com You, Me & Tuscany can't get by on Italian charm alone

Photo by Giulia Parmigiani/Universal Pictures

Halle Bailey and Regé-Jean Page in You, Me & Tuscany.

The romantic comedy has become an endangered species in movie theaters, as most of those that are released these days go to streamers like Netflix. While there have been a few recent successful rom-coms in theaters, they are few and far between. All of which is to say that a movie like the new You, Me & Tuscany faces an uphill battle before it’s even released.

Halle Bailey (The Little Mermaid) stars as Anna, a former culinary school student who’s struggling in the wake of her mother's death. When she has a chance meeting with an Italian man named Matteo (Lorenzo de Moor) in New York, her dream of going to the Italian region of Tuscany is reignited. Using her last $500 and a plane ticket her mom bought her, she makes her way to Italy looking for an adventure.

With nowhere to stay and knowing Matteo’s villa is unoccupied, she finds a key and makes herself at home. When she finds an engagement ring soon before she’s discovered by Matteo’s family, she decides to pretend to be his fiancée. The more time she spends with them, the bigger the lie becomes, especially when she starts falling for Matteo’s adopted brother, Michael (Regé-Jean Page).

Directed by Kat Coiro and written by husband-and-wife team Ryan and Kristin Engle, the film at times feels like it’s not even trying to be good. While the set-up of the premise is okay, the story quickly turns into an eye-rolling mess when Anna shows up in Italy. Not one bit of the character’s story is believable, and even though Michael catches her in an early lie, every member of the family accepts her at face value despite the abundant red flags.

Of course, many rom-coms are not based in reality, and the filmmakers lean into the genre’s tropes, almost as if they were saying, “We know this makes no sense - just roll with it!” Surprisingly, the gambit works for the most part, as the odd pairing of an American woman, an English-Italian man, and his fully Italian family is enjoyable despite the many groan-worthy moments they produce. The sweet way in which the family brings in a woman still going through grief almost balances out the shoddy way in which the story is told.

Naturally, there are precisely zero surprises about where the plot is heading, as Anna and Michael grow closer despite knowing they should resist the other. Strangely, though, the filmmakers don’t go all-in on the budding relationship, choosing to slow-roll things save for one notable sexy scene in a vineyard. Coiro and the Engles play up the family aspect as much as the romance aspect, and that choice allows the film to survive for longer than it should have.

Bailey, a singer-turned-actor, has not yet found her stride on the acting side of things. Her line deliveries are often stilted and her timing is off in key moments. This doesn’t help her chemistry with older Page, who seems to be getting by on vibes and looks alone. The most enjoyable actors in the film are all Italian, including Marco Calvani, Isabella Ferrari, and Paolo Sassanelli.

There are glimpses of a fully successful film in You, Me & Tuscany, enough to keep it watchable for its entire 104-minute running time. But then they have the Italian grandmother say a gobsmacking line like “If you wanna tap-a that ass, you should tap-a that ass,” and you remember exactly what type of film you’re watching.

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You, Me & Tuscany opens in theaters on April 10.

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