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    weekend event planner

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

    Craig Lindsey
    Nov 10, 2022 | 6:00 am
    tokyo night festival

    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.

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    Movie Review

    Fun visuals can't save The Magic Faraway Tree's meager plot

    Alex Bentley
    Aug 24, 2026 | 10:30 am
    Andrew Garfield, Delilah Bennett-Cardy, Claire Foy, Phoenix Laroche, and Billie Gadson in The Magic Faraway Tree
    Photo courtesy of Vertical Entertainment
    Andrew Garfield, Delilah Bennett-Cardy, Claire Foy, Phoenix Laroche, and Billie Gadson in The Magic Faraway Tree.

    With kids and families always on the hunt for entertainment, it’s typically a safe bet for a movie studio to offer up something new, even if it is a film based on an old property. The Magic Faraway Tree, based on a series of books that started in the 1930s, is a very old property, one that its filmmakers have tried to liven up with a few stars, a lot of whimsy, and a boatload of CGI.

    The Thompson family, led by stay-at-home dad Tim (Andrew Garfield) and breadwinner mom Polly (Claire Foy), are forced to move to a rundown country home when Polly gets laid off. The kids — Joe (Phoenix Laroche), Fran (Billie Gadson), and Beth (Delilah Bennett-Cardy) — are used to the perks of city life like wifi and electricity, and each of them rebels in their own way to their new lot in life.

    Fran, enticed by a fairy named Silky (Nicola Coughlan), is the first to venture out of the house, making her way to a magic tree that transports her to a world full of strange characters like Moonface (Nonso Anozie), Saucepan Man (Dustin Demri-Burns), Dame Washalot (Jessica Gunning), and more. Her adventures there not only broaden the world she thought she knew, but may be the key to helping her ailing family.

    Directed by Ben Gregor and written by Simon Farnaby (Paddington 2, Wonka), the film is a pleasant enough lark, but it fails to fully capture the imagination. The five-member family has a lot going on, from an initially-mute Fran to a domestic situation that raises more questions than it answers. The film tries to incorporate an anti-technology message through Tim’s hatred of a smart refrigerator (voiced by Judi Dench!) and the kids' addictions to devices, but it’s quickly shed in favor of other options.

    Once Fran makes it to the Magic Faraway Tree, there’s a nice shift in the storytelling, but it’s unclear what the ultimate goal is. It’s a good idea to have Fran, the youngest of the children, convince her older, more cynical siblings about the virtues of the magic world, but the conflict in the real world doesn’t seem to rise to the level needed for the escape the tree provides.

    There also seems to be a missing link in the storytelling for viewers to understand the importance of the fantastical characters. The visuals of seeing Moonface and his crescent moon-shaped hair, a man with a suit full of banging pots, and more are fun for a while, but not enough to carry the whole film. A last-minute revelation feels like it was something that should have been disclosed much earlier to help strengthen the emotions of the story.

    A two-time Oscar nominee, Garfield is making his first foray into family movies (if you don’t count playing Spider-Man), and while he does a good job, he doesn’t make the best fit for the semi-goofy role. The same goes for the Emmy-winning Foy, who isn’t given much of anything to do. The movie puts the story on the shoulders of the three child actors, and while each of them acquit themselves well, none of them are so outstanding as to be noteworthy.

    With nearly 90-year-old source material, The Magic Faraway Tree needed to be something truly special to stand out in the 21st century movie world. Unfortunately, it features a mostly forgettable story that features some fun visuals, a couple of cute kids, and not much else.

    ---

    The Magic Faraway Tree is now playing in theaters.

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