"You're suspended!" isn't a phrase that members of CoRE Suspension would find too punishing. They like being suspended, hanging in the air by pieces of metal inserted into their skin. If you're squeamish, we'd suggest skipping CoRE's show today at Numbers. The group will be performing what CoRE musical director Spike the Percussionist calls an "interpretive circus." He continues: "The strongman will be lifting his weights via suspension by being pierced. Trapeze artists will be one with the trapeze itself." There will also be a "pincushion man." Spike has put together the accompanying music, which will combine traditional circus tunes with original compositions written just for the show. Doors open at 9 p.m. 300 Westheimer. For information, call 713-526-6551 or visit www.numbersnightclub.com. $8.
Friday, September 5
Gone is the time when families gathered around the dinner table to break bread
and discuss their days together. Folks are just too damn busy. San Antonio artist
Rolando Briseño reflects on the lapsed tradition in Tablescapes.
The work features a table setting that reminds viewers of an intimate, conversational
meal -- except for the distracting cell phones and remote controls that move
across place mats. The piece is part of the new exhibition at Lawndale Art Center,
"Layered Evidence," which opens today. Also on view are Tonya Gregg's
Elusive Quest of Freedom, a look at Black Bike Week in Atlantic Beach,
South Carolina, and Greg Rubio's Thirteen Movements, a book of drawings
in which each page represents a movement of a symphony. Opening: 6:30 p.m. to
8:30 p.m. today. Gallery hours: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Mondays through Fridays, and
noon to 5 p.m. Saturdays. 4912 Main Street. For information, call 713-528-5858
or visit www.lawndaleartcenter.org.
Free.
Saturday, September 6
Be prepared to bow low: The kings of Austin alternative country are making a
good-will visit to Houston. Since the Gourds' inception in 1994, the
band has garnered fans across America and Europe and heaps of critical acclaim.
In 1999 the group was named Best Live Act by the Austin-American Statesman.
At today's performance at the Continental Club, the Gourds will be playing songs
from their new album, Cow, Fish, Fowl or Pig. And if fans are sweet to
them, they just might play their twangy version of Snoop Dogg's "Gin and Juice"
-- always a crowd-pleaser. The Weary Boys open at 10 p.m.; the Gourds play at
11:30 p.m. 3700 Main Street. For information, call 713-529-9899 or visit www.continentalclub.com/houston.
$10.
Sunday, September 7
The human fascination with snakes is a mystery; it's also often short-lived,
despite the fact that the cold-blooded, phallic creatures can live for quite
some time. So think long and hard before making a purchase at today's Texas
Herpetological Society Expo. No venomous snakes will be available; this
is to protect the lives of the complete idiots who would buy them. But you will
find captive-bred king snakes, milk snakes, boas, corn snakes, rat snakes, pythons,
bearded dragons, chameleons, geckos, tortoises, turtles, iguanas and tegu lizards.
In conjunction with the expo, the weekend also brings the International Herpetological
Symposium. Several interesting talks are planned, among them, "Why Snakes Are
Resistant to Their Own Venom" and "The Sexual Adventures of the Tropical Treefrogs
of the Genus Smilisca." If only we could all be getting off up in the trees.
Expo: 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. today ($2 to $5). Symposium: 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Thursday,
September 4, through Saturday, September 6 ($165). Crowne Plaza Resort Hotel,
12801 Northwest Freeway. For information, call 281-367-4963 or visit www.eths.org.
Monday, September 8
How can an artist tell when he's arrived? After being included in a show at
the Whitney? After being featured in a PBS series about modern art? Trenton
Doyle Hancock of Paris, Texas, has both credentials under his belt, and
he's not even 30. His surreal, personal paintings depict recurring characters
that he's been exploring since elementary school. The former Glassell School
of Art Core artist will appear on Art: 21 - Art in the Twenty-First Century
at 8 p.m. on Wednesday, September 10. But the Glassell School is so proud of
Hancock's success that it will host an advance screening of the show today at
10 a.m. and 5:30 p.m. 5101 Montrose Boulevard. For information, call 713-639-7500.
Free.
Tuesday, September 9
Remember hand-drawn animation? It's not completely dead. Don Hertzfeldt (Billy's
Balloon, Rejected) and Mike Judge (Beavis and Butt-head, King
of the Hill) have teamed up to bring us The Animated Show,
a collection of comic animated shorts. Among them are a tribute to Ward Kimball,
a Disney animator from the old days, and Rejected, Hertzfeldt's Oscar-nominated
short featuring a group of puffy characters (most of the time he draws stick
figures). Both Hertzfeldt and Judge hope The Animated Show earns hand-drawn
animation some much-deserved respect; their goal is to screen it in as many
states as possible. The movie opens at the Alamo Drafthouse on Friday, September
5. Hertzfeldt and Judge will be in attendance at screenings on Wednesday and
Thursday, September 17 and 18. West Oaks Mall, Westheimer at State Highway 6.
For information, call 281-556-0204 or visit www.drafthouse.com.
$7.
Wednesday, September 10
Drawing usually produces visual art, but in the case of Christine Olejniczak
and Electric Dirt, it produces music. Olejniczak herself produced and built
instruments that create the rhythmic drawing sounds, which fall somewhere in
between tribal drumming and electronic trance music. Joining Olejniczak and
Electric Dirt at a performance today at St. Pete's Dancing Marlin are Alex Garza
and members of Big Green Machine, who recently put out the album and accompanying
video Duet for Pen and Pencil. They'll play live music to accompany the
35-minute video. 7:15 p.m. and 8:45 p.m. 300 Main Street. For reservations,
call 713-227-1511.
