::Houston Institute for Culture presents Sustainable Living Films Screening: Houston Institute for Culture presents two films on sustainable living, Saturday, April 21. The first, The Power of Community – How Cuba Survived Peak Oil, is a success story on a national scale. Cuba lost more than half its oil imports when the Soviet Union collapsed in 1990. Filmmakers Faith Morgan and Pat Murphy documented the changes that enabled the Cuban people to survive, including the......

Our first iMix of the year (yes, we know we missed last month, we were suffering a hangover after New Years) is a nice blend of now and then. We start off with Noah Lennox, also known as Panda Bear, with his 12 1/2 minute epic "Bros," which comes from Pitchfork's 2007 Album of the Year Person Pitch. Other recent releases include singer/songwriters Nicole Atkins, Josh Ritter, and Brett Dennen, along with one of Rolling......

::Rice University Scientia Lecture: "Aspects of Memory":: If you are anything like us, the extent of your long term memory is directly dependent on well vs. premium liquor from yesterday's happy hour. Hell, we are still trying to remember where we parked our car this morning so that we can go to lunch. Rice University Scientia, an Institute for the History of Science and Culture, presents the colloquium "Aspects of Memory" by guest lecturer Rachelle......

Perspectives 159: Superconscious, Automatisms Now December 14, 2007 – March 9, 2008 Opening reception December 13, 2007, 6:30-9:00 p.m. Sigh. This is Houston's last hurrah with Senior CAMH Curator Paola Morsiani, and we are sad. Having been with the CAMH for over eight years, Morsiani is heading north to become Curator of Contemporary Art at the Cleveland Museum of Art, an internationally renowned encyclopedic museum in the midst of a $258 million renovation and expansion.......

Filled up on turkey and dressing? Here's some event stuffing fer youse. add event to your Google Calendar view all events on the Houstonist Google Calendar [26 MONDAY]Double Feature: Monday Movies at MFA and Domy BooksMemories of Irving Berlin (last Monday)Bayou City Concert Musicals | doors at 7pm, ensemble Theatre ($20) [27 TUESDAY]Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison: book signing and discussion | 3pm, Barnes & Noble Town & Country (free)Rice Humanities Lecture: An Ordinary, Everyday......

Spent all your cash on girlie drinks and shattered dreams again this weekend, didn't you? No worries - Thriftster gives you the lowdown on cheap stuff to do until Paycheck Friday. Monday: If you're still in the Halloween mood, after all that blood red jell-o shot slurping and blacklight body paint application, hit the Lawndale Center's (4912 Main St.) retablo exhibit. Doors close at 5pm, which gives you plenty of time to nosh on some......

Ok, so it’s been like eight years since American Pie came out. Can you believe it? We know, we’re so old. It was a totally different decade then. A forgotten, distant time in our culture. An innocent age when we’d not yet seen Tara Reid’s, well, pretty much everything. A time when most of us had never heard the term MILF. A time when Eugene Levy had not yet sold his once funny soul to......

Look, we're gonna make this one real easy for you. No thinking involved. Music. Art. Community. And a scientist who raps about space travel to a power point presentation. See? Simple. Houston, Our Ears Depend on You, this Saturday at Diverseworks, materializes Rice Radio's KTRU's presentation of Ashmathitic Kitty's 4th Unusual Animals party. Huh? See, we told you we were gonna make it simple. Just trust us. Or, just keep reading. DiverseWorks is excited to......

The party is at Rudyard’s tomorrow – you know - THE party. The Black Math Experiment’s CD Release Party for “All You Need is Blood”, at which a couple of other bands will be performing. La Sed will bring some progressive rock courtesy of Puerto Rico and Mk Ultra adds politically-minded psychedelic punk to the mix (political as in the song writing may focus on fighting military culture and the 9/11 conspiracy). This should be......

Native Houstonian Sam Jones IV may not have a traditional route as to how he got his start in art, but it's definitely a unique story. The mixed media artist sat down and talked with us about his experiences growing up in Houston, and how living in the South has impacted his artistic career. You have a pretty "uniquely-Houston" story as to how you got your start in your art education. Most people don't......

Into art? How about dance? You like music? Theater? Have a thing for opera? Or maybe you just (pretend to) like “culture” in general to seem smart and hip and urban? Want to impress a date while not knowing a damn thing about the previously mentioned subjects? Boy, does Houstonist have a shindig for you. Tonight brings us Culture Collision II, hosted by a fleet of Museum and Theatre District young professionals' groups, including the......

For the past decade, the Dave Matthews Band summer concerts have become a tradition. Dave and his band come to The Woodlands tonight, with Texas country singer/songwriter Robert Earl Keen opening (sounds like a strange opening act for the band to pick, but with Keen’s move to a more eclectic sound lately, we guess it’s not really that strange). Earlier this month, Dave Matthews released this solo single and video “Eh Hee” (exclusively available......

We hope you are keeping the Spacetaker Optiks Gala on your radar, cuz it's been on ours for quite awhile. Bleep.....bleep...bleep..bleep, bleep, bleep. Yep, it's coming up. September 29th. Do you have your tix yet? Spacetaker September Artist Saloon This month Buffalo Bayou Art Park & Spacetaker, in conjunction with Winter Street Studios, present Sasha Dela, Jonathan Durham, and Dominic Walsh of the Dominic Walsh Dance Theater for the September edition of The Artist Saloon.......

Good morning, Houston. How many of you knew what Monday was? Anyone? Anyone? That's right: It was the 220th anniversary of the signing of the United States Constitution. To mark the anniversary, the nation had a little holiday, Constitution Day — but how many people actually knew about it? Not many, apparently: Though federal law says students at public high schools should be taught about Constitution Day, a recent survey of students found that......

Back in February of this year, Houstonist attended a screening of the 1983 ground-breaking documentary Style Wars, as part of the MFA's "Movies Houstonians Love" series. The film, presented by one half of UGK,Bun B, was screened to a sold out crowd of Houstonians, and was followed by more than an hour's worth of conversation surrounding Houston's underground music and art culture, that was co-led by Style Wars star and DJ legend, Kay Slay.......

Good morning, Houston. Looks like we'll have a tougher time cracking out those fake Benjamins next year: The $100 bill will soon be getting a high-tech makeover to thwart counterfeiters. The key feature: 650,000 tiny lenses embedded in each bill, which will magnify the printing so that the portrait of Benjamin Franklin appears to move up and down or side to side, depending on which way you move the bill. "It makes for a......

"Creative Crowdsourcing Through Mobile Technolgy" We couldn't have said it better ourselves, and you'll have to see this to believe the awesomeness of it. This has been on our radar for quite some time and we are so excited it's finally here. The Houston Center for Photography and Aurora Picture Show band together this summer to present the 3rd annual summer SPIN Party and Exhibition Txt Me L8r on August 24 from 8-11pm. On July......

Need to know just a little bit about something? Ask a dilettante. The Chinese obviously hate us: First, they tried to poison our dogs, then our teeth, and now they're after our kids. Does this mean we should be keeping a closer eye on Yao Ming? Or ChineseElvis? --Red Ballsworth, Houston Now that Yao Ming has entered wedded bliss, I don't think he has the time to plot our downfall. Plus, he's been living in......

Callaloo, among the top literary magazines in the country, is sending four writers (all faculty from Callaloo's Creative Writing Workshops) to read in Houston for one night only. Terrance Hayes, Mat Johnson, Tayari Jones, and Tracy K. Smith will give a public reading Thursday, August 16 at 6:00 p.m. at the Ensemble Theatre, located at 3535 Main Street. These four writers have won more than a dozen national awards and fellowships; they are at......

Vinyl Ranch @ Leon's Lounge Sure, living in Texas you'd think that we'd get enough of the cowboy culture, but sometimes it seems we are trying so hard to smash that stereotype, we aren't embracing what we love about our drawls and spit cups. We're all about a party where we can "take a ride on Trigger the Wonder Horse" and "take a whack at the last call pinata" (wait, that's not the bartender?). Especially......

In the span of four short years Houston will have quadrupled the number of all-sports radio stations gracing its airwaves. Come August 20, KILE 1560 AM will be renamed KGOW after local businessman and owner David Gow when it signs on with a sports and entertainment talk format. Branded as "The Game," KGOW will enter a saturated market that includes KILT (610 AM), KBME (790 AM), and ESPN Radio affiliate KFNC (97.5 FM) The new......

No, it's not a new adult film premiering at Aurora, its White Linen Night in the Heights, and it's back for it's 2nd coming. "Small town cool, in the center of the big city." This Saturday, Heights residents, and curious visitors from all across the city, descend upon one of Houston's fastest-growing art scenes for a celebration of culture and community. The annual event, now in its second year, focuses on art, galleries, retail, outdoor......

Mixed Media Series at MFA It's baaaaaack! Yep, for the last few months every time an email from the MFA popped up in our inbox we hoped and prayed it was an annoucement of a new Mixed Media series. This week we were rewarded! Whoo-hoo! [The Deets] Find where art and music intersect on select Saturday nights at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. DJs spin and bands play against an arresting backdrop of......

MFA Special Screening [Film + Lecture] Last week, we told you all about the amazing Asian Art collection that is currently being showcased all over the city in various museums, the largest at the Museum of Fine Arts. In conjunction with the MFA's RED HOT — Asian Art Today from the Chaney Family Collection they will screen a.k.a. Nikki S. Lee and prsent a conversation with the Filmmaker, tonight in Brown Auditorium. Korean photographer Nikki......

Beginning tomorrow, the ladies of the Houston Roller Derby will be busy, busy!!! Now, to keep the action moving, these ladies practice quite often (we think it's like three or four times per week, we are not certain - don't quote us on that!), but, they are gearing up to give Houston some love! Beginning tomorrow at 8:30 in the a.m. the ladies will be accepting donations/non-perishables at the Kroger at Buffalo Speedway and Westpark......

If you haven't been to one of the Houston Filmakers Organization's First Monday Mixers, we would suggest popping your cork tonight, in honor of filmmaker-turned-winery-owner Francis Ford Coppola. This Monday, the HFO will be exploring one of the greatest living directors in the making of his most daring project. Find out why Francis Ford Coppola was the ORIGINAL GUERRILLA FILMMAKER! The fine people from the STUDIO MOVIE GRILL will be on hand with a special......

What with Paris Hilton's release earlier this week and the upcoming celebration of American Independence (sorry, Londonist!), we've been thinking a lot about freedom. Freedom to vote, freedom to choose, and most importantly, freedom to blog. Here are a few things we're happy we've been free to blog about this week. Being the nation's capital, DCist felt especially proud to let freedom ring this week by exposing the really important issues, like how sad they......

You might not have heard of Olivewood Cemetery, a black graveyard founded in the 1870s on land where freed slaves were once buried. Olivewood is still with us today, at 1300 Court St. (behind the Grocers Supply warehouse at Studemont and Hicks), but it's largely overgrown and forgotten — though it won't be for long if two groups vying to become its caretaker have their way. The question now, though, is which group will win......

Google recently announced two exciting new features. One is street view, a new feature of Google Maps, which allows you to see street-side views of locations in many major cities. Right now, the feature is available only in San Francisco, New York, Las Vegas, Miami, and Denver, and there are plenty of interesting things to be seen, aside from the feature being helpful if you're traveling to a new location. Google has also started incorporating......

This week, we told you all about the upcoming opening of the much talked about Hotel ZaZa in the Museum District. Seems like the new hotel is on everyone's radar. Including New York Magazine. This week, the popular entertainment and culture magazine's website (www.nymag.com) featured Houston as their Weekend Escape Destination, describing a stay at the "highly theatrical" Hotel ZaZa as a way to earn some street cred in the Bayou City. The article......