Category Archives: houston

Warmth in Houston

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Menil EyeAfter a pre-season tailgate (JohnMarsha, Mary O, TG, and me) at the Texans/Bears (the rain reduced the heat) game Saturday night, then a late-night post-game card playing session, TG and I had brunch with Ericka and new beau.

It was 102°, the hottest it’s been in 4 years. We went to the Menil after eating, and noticed that 90+% of the patrons were wearing flip-flops or sandals. You have to vent that heat!

Magrite, Picaso, Warhol, Egyptian reliefs, much more and air conditioning. The light was good on Sunday, too. It didn’t feel too bad outside, actually. Just hot.

2007 Houston Press Music Awards Showcase

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If you’re a fan at all of live music, this is the weekend you have to go out. . . on Sunday!

The Houston Press Music Awards Showcase is the best bang-for-your-buck on music anywhere in Texas! I’ve been to many a SXSW, this year it cost me $130. I’ve avoided many an ACL Fest – they’re overcrowded and underserved. Houston Press Music Award 2007 alien mascotAt $10 (2 for $15 if you buy early), the HPMAS is a 6-hour, 13-venue juggernaut. It provides a great cross section of the huge variety of music that can be found week-in week-out in this city, but here you don’t have to go looking for it. If you miss this one, you lose all authority to whine about Austin getting good music festivals come Labor Day.

Here’s a map I made – couldn’t find one on the Press’ site.

A quick reading of the one paragraph descriptions of bands should help you on your way. Or, you can hit your old favorites. I guarantee that at least one act/venue won’t be what you want, so be ready to exit and hit the second one on your list. Or know where all the venues are and go to the next closest one. See a random band. You might just like it.

The Houston Press has once again shown an inability to grasp that the grid is the ideal layout for a festival lineup. I sent them a nasty email last year. I guess they sent that to the bucket.

Oh, and if this alien mascot is on the t-shirt for this year, I’m gonna hafta get one.

From their site: “Band names, venues & times subject to change”. Be warned, the bands’ names are subject to change!

Sax Houston

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I was talking to one of my sister’s friends.  She commented that she’d just returned from Austin and there were lots of street performers, and lamented the lack of them in Houston.  I was puzzled.  I’ve noticed lots of buskers (of varying quality) throughout the downtown area, and a few in the medical district along the rail line.

So, today I stumbled across a discussion around these photos on flickr.  All of Houston sax players on the streets.

Houston Sax Player 1Houston Sax Player 2

Houston Sax Player 3

Map Schmap?

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All of my Flickr photos are marked with a creative commons license. It’s an attribution, non-commercial, no derivatives license, which I would suspect is a fairly common one. This doesn’t prevent allowing other uses, of course.

So, recently I got a random email from Schmap.com. What dot who? They would like to use my photo for their guides and just wanted to make sure it was okay. Of course they didn’t say, “we’re a commercial site, and we want commercial permission from you”, they just said “we’re a free site, and here’s the link to our agreement”, please click yes.

I finally decided to go ahead with it and see what becomes of it. Seems right now they have a pathetic guide to houston and need all the help they can get. They also have a downloadable, Windows-only, Mac-RSN guide but what good is that to me?

Hopefully they improve their guide to Houston. Or, more likely, they’ll crash and burn.

Yellow Magic Orchestra does the Tighten Up

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Yellow Magic Orchestra Techno BibleI’m flipping the channels waiting for my left overs to rewarm in the microwave oven, and I hit the Turner Broadcasting Station. There’s a Japanese band performing the Tighten Up, Archie Bell’s #1 hit from the Summer of 1968. Yellow Magic Orchestra. A song I’ve seen Archie sing at the Continental Club.

As they zoom out I realize they’re performing it on The Best of Soul Train, making it all the more surreal. Seems the band and the song have been around forever, are considered one of the top 100 Japanese bands ever and likened to Kraftwerk.

I kinda want this album or some other one with one of their many versions on it, but it would probably cost a lot or be hard to find.