Calendar of Events

Sunday, August 01

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  Museum of Fine Arts, Houston: Pre-release Screening: Mao's Last Dancer

  Brown Auditorium - Museum of Fine Arts, Houston

  In 1981, former Houston Ballet principal dancer Li Cunxin (pronounced Lee Shwin Sing) caused an international incident in Houston when he suddenly and unexpectedly defected from China on the eve of his return to the communist country. For a grueling 21 hours, Li was detained at the Chinese consulate in Montrose while Houston immigration lawyer Charles Foster scrambled to negotiate the dancer's... More >>

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  Bowling For Soup, The Dollyrots, Holy Moly

  Warehouse Live

  In between recording their newest as-yet-untitled album, Denton pop-punkers Bowling For Soup escape the studio for few headlining dates. Come hear what the band is working tonight, and also stick around for their older hits like "Girl All the Bad Guys Want" and "Punk Rock 101." More >>

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  Gypsy

  Galveston's Strand Theater

  Everything's coming up roses at the Island ETC theater company. The group's production of the Broadway musical Gypsy launches its new season and features some of the most famous songs ever performed on the Great White Way. There's "Let Me Entertain You," "Together Wherever We Go" and, of course, "Everything's Coming Up Roses." The show is based on the lives of burlesque queen Gypsy Rose Lee... More >>

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  Houston Restaurant Week

  Open Location

  Used to fighting your hunger by eating? During Houston Restaurant Week, you can fight other people's hunger, too. At more than 100 restaurants in and around the city, diners can get high-end cuisine at decidedly low-end costs. A typical dinner at Mark's (seared Hudson foie gras, fire-roasted breast of Muscovy with duck confit), for example, can easily set you back $80, but during Restaurant... More >>

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  "Barbara Jones: Her Life in Paint"

  Art Car Museum

  "Barbara Jones: Her Life in Paint" reveals one of Houston’s hardest-working, yet rarely showcased, painters. "[In] her 25-year-or-so career she only had one solo show," says curator Jim Hatchett. Jones, who died from cancer in 2009, was a part of the illustrious group of artists out of the University of Houston's Lawndale Annex who created Houston's Art Car Parade. But despite membership... More >>

• More Sunday Events >>

Monday, August 02

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  Piranha

  Domy Books

  John Sayles, one of the most respected living filmmakers, started his career writing schlock for "King of the B-Movies" Roger Corman. Sayles's first screenplay, Piranha, helped fund his first feature, Return of the Secaucus 7, which was eventually entered into the National Film Registry at the Library of Congress. Meant as a parody of Jaws, Sayles's comedy-horror film, about mutant killer fish... More >>

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  S.C. Gwynne

  Brazos Bookstore

  There might be only one man in history responsible for hundreds of American deaths who later went on to socialize with an American president. Most likely, that man was Quanah Parker, the Comanche warrior at the heart of S.C. Gwynne's history Empire of the Summer Moon: Quanah Parker and the Rise and Fall of the Comanches, the Most Powerful Indian Tribe in American History. In the book, Gwynne... More >>

• More Monday Events >>

Tuesday, August 03

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  New Politics, Funeral Party

  Warehouse Live

  Straight outta famously rocking Whittier, California scream these four, sometimes five cheeky lads who, hanging out in a park late one night, formed a band that would tell a different story about what was really going on in their hardcore- and metalheads-clogged 'hood. Playing on borrowed equipment at East L.A. backyard parties and warehouses, Funeral Party worked up an almost frighteningly... More >>

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  "Long Way She Wave" Exhibit

  Art League Houston

  In the last few years, legendary Japanese printmaker Katsushika Hokusai has joined Salvador Dalí and M.C. Escher on the list of artists whose work is most likely to adorn college dorm rooms. His highly energized prints of rampant waves have that kind of instant coolness. Houston artist Marco Villegas pays tribute to Hokusai with “Long Way She Wave,” his series of... More >>

• More Tuesday Events >>

Wednesday, August 04

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  The Transco Empire, Guerilla Foco Clan, Max Alan

  Walter's on Washington

  Guerilla Foco Clan may come across as two Asher Roths who want to be considered Eminems, but they’re deeper than that, really. It may take a minute to get past the surface of what seems like sans-substance rap, but these Houstonians are actually bringing a voice and sound to an untapped market audience – rebellious white youth who, put simply, just want to party and have a good time.... More >>

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  Ridley Pearson: In Harm's Way

  Murder by the Book

  Murder By the Book is celebrating Ridley Pearson's new book In Harm's Way, which comes out August 2, with a much-anticipated reading by the popular author. The book takes readers on an adventure with Idaho lawman Walt Fleming, who teams up with another character familiar from Pearson's fiction, Lou Boldt. Together they search for the killer of Caroline Vetta, a woman who liked to date... More >>

• More Wednesday Events >>

Thursday, August 05

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  Aerosmith, Sammy Hagar & The Wabos

  Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion

  This year marks Aerosmith’s 40th anniversary, and here comes the annual summer tour – this time ahead of what we hear could be the recording of a new album. The Boston boys haven’t released any new material since 2001’s non-starter Just Push Play, whose poppy melodies and radio-friendly singles made previous album Nine Lives sound like Led Zeppelin IV by comparison. On this... More >>

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  "Michael Miller: Today I Am Thankful for All I Have"

  Moody Gallery

  Mixed-media artist Michael Miller will install more than 50 works in Moody Gallery, incorporating the entire space from wall to wall and ceiling to floor. The exhibition, "Michael Miller: Today I Am Thankful for All I Have," is, according to press notes, "a commentary on our consumer- and media-driven society." The works are constructed from paper, fabric and acrylic and include text as well... More >>

• More Thursday Events >>

Friday, August 06

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  Vallejo, Yokomono

  Dan Electro's Guitar Bar

  YokoMono should be sitting pretty at the top of David Byrne’s world music label, Luaka Bop, because its infectious blend of Latin rhythms and myriad rock forms would fit perfectly on Byrne’s eclectic roster. The post-Chango Jackson brainchild of Moises Alanis, YokoMono deftly weaves sultry rhythms into squalls of psychedelic feedback, locks the funk grooves of all-star bassist Rozz... More >>

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  Winter Wallace, Robert Ellis, Finnegan

  Gallery M2

  In Winter Wallace’s new Holiday, Sara Van Buskirk’s The Place Where You Are has some stiff competition for 2010’s best local female singer-songwriter LP. Each of Holiday’s seven tracks, recorded at SugarHill Studios, is built with such intricacy and clarity it’s hard not to press repeat just to take the journey again. Songs like family snapshot “Marionette”... More >>

• More Friday Events >>

Saturday, August 07

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  "Houston International Jazz Festival" With Rachelle Ferrell, Hiroshima, Texas Brass Band & Kyle Turner

  Discovery Green Conservancy

  Music fans might not think of Houston as a jazz town - local monsters like Woody Witt, Denis Dotson and others notwithstanding - but every August all that changes at the Houston International Jazz Festival. This year’s weekend-long celebration kicks off Friday with a preview by Theresa Grayson at Red Cat Jazz Café (make reservations at www.redcatjazzcafe.com) before the music moves... More >>

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  Ray Price

  Dosey Doe Coffee Company

  Ray Price is so old our mother and father used to slide the coffee table to the side of the living room so they could dance to his classic “Night Life” when it took the country-music world by storm in 1963. By then, he was already a 15-year veteran of the Nashville scene. Elected to the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1996, Price actually lived with Hank Williams Sr. for a brief period... More >>

• More Saturday Events >>