Sunday
January 16
Barbecue Cookoff Scarf down a variety of rich red sauces on actual beef products -- cookoff goods go to the general public for a nominal donation. Proceeds go to a Houston Livestock Show & Rodeo Scholarship fund for Cy-Fair students. This fifth annual Cy-Fair Go-Texas Subcommittee's Houston Metro Go-Texas HLSR Chili, Beans & Barbecue Cookoff sounds like a big to-do, but it ain't nothin' more than a couple hundred cooks and tens of thousands of eaters getting together for good food, great entertainment and some horseshoes. Winners here will go on to the world championship cookoff at the Dome. Conveniences include ATM machines, stroller and wheelchair rentals and paved parking ($2 per car). Cookoff, Traders Village, 7979 Eldridge Road, 481-9226. (E.S.)
TestosterTones The local T-Tones, led by guitarist Tim Harris, aren't exactly famous for their grueling schedule of live shows, so it's not terribly likely that you've had an easy chance to catch them in a club yet. It's slightly more likely that you've listened to their recently released Speak! tape, a testimony to the T-Tones' slash-and-burn brand of improvisational jazz that positions them as Houston's best fusion experiment. Harris's guitar, teamed with Warren Sneed's sax, David Foster's bass and Todd Harrington's drums, makes a sound that knocks the stuffing out of the dinner-party jazz you've been hearing most places around town, and it's much more closely associated with the Thursday night Necessary Tension jams at Rudz -- in attitude, if not musical style -- than with any sounds wafting off the patio at Butera's. The T-Tones belong in a dive, not a supper club, and the Satellite is the closest thing to a dive you've had a chance to see them in lately. 7 p.m. Fabulous Satellite Lounge, 3616 Washington, 869-2665. $5. (B.T.)
Austin Songwriters on the Road That'd be David Halley, Jo Carol Pierce, Michael Fracasso and Jimmy LaFave. This package show rolled through Houston some months ago and knocked a Mucky Duck full house on its collective butt before heading up the East Coast, where it received raves in all the right print media. LaFave seems to have stepped out ahead of the pack -- the sharp-eared folks at Rounder records picked up his Austin Skyline album for national distribution -- but there's not a dud in the bunch. LaFave's all-over-the-map roots-rock rasp, Fracasso's Austin folk, Halley's transplanted NYC sensibilities and Pierce's den-mother magnetism (and picture-perfect songs) make for one hell of a sometimes rocking, sometimes swinging fireside chat. If you missed it last time, well, who says lightning don't strike twice? 9 p.m. McGonigel's Mucky Duck, 2425 Norfolk, 528-5999. $8. (B.T.)
Monday
January 17
OASIS Registration Older Adult Service and Information System begins its fifth year of service with registration for winter/spring classes. OASIS classes are taught all over town and offer instruction in just about anything "mature adults" might want to know. (Except, possibly, how to keep Dear Abby from using the term "oldsters" for senior citizens.) You got "Home Repair Made Easy: You Can Do It," taught at the Sharpstown Home Depot; "Line Dancing" (an OASIS outreach program); and "Cooking Secrets of a Chemical Engineer," taught by Bob Pennington, chef, engineer and OASIS member. Bob says, "In the last 14 years I have cooked over 30,000 chocolate-chip cookies. This doesn't make me a great cook, but I have made every mistake you can make when making chocolate-chip cookies, thus know the mistake-proof way to make them." OASIS also offers writing classes, storytelling sessions and special out-of-town trips, and organizes group trips to the opera and ballet. Plan the next few months of your golden years now. Pre-registration required for all classes and outings; all fees must be paid at time of registration. (Fees range from under $10 to almost $200.) OASIS, lower level Foley's downtown, 1110 Main, 651-6601. (E.S.)
Tuesday
January 18
Hidden Hawaii Armchair travel realistic to the point of causing actual vertigo -- that's how good it gets with IMAX. Hidden Hawaii, which premiered last week at the Wortham IMAX Theater, shows a side of the islands Elvis never saw. The Pisces V, a seven-foot submersible, photographed the view 4,000 feet beneath the surface of the ocean. IMAX cameras also take you right to the edge of two live volcanoes, Kilauea and Mauna Loa, so you can see molten lava flowing from the world's largest active volcano. The 34-minute film plays at 10 a.m., noon, 2 p.m., 4 p.m., 6 p.m. & 8 p.m. Telephone sales by credit card only. Wortham IMAX Theater, Houston Museum of Natural Science, One Hermann Circle Drive, 639-4600. $5; $3.50 seniors & under 12; $3 members. (E.S.)
