::Lucy VIP Party:: If you haven't made it over to the Museum of Natural Science to see Lucy, the oldest hominid ever discovered, tonight's an excellent time to go. The museum is hosting a VIP party from 6-9PM which will be all about Lucy and other good things from Ethiopia, such as traditional coffee ceremonies, honey wine, music, native food, and of course, the lovely lady herself. Curator Dirk Van Tuerenhout will be there......

::Lucy Lecture at HMNS:: Tonight is your chance to catch the discoverer (how weird does that sound?) of the infamous, Lucy, now on display at the Houston Museum of Natural Science. Special Lecture: Lucy's Legacy The Houston Museum of Natural Science Distinguished Lecture Series presents Lucy's Legacy, presented by Donald Johanson, paleoanthropologist and discoverer of Lucy. Lucy continues to be a diadem in the crown of hominid fossils and serves as an important touchstone......

Get your Halloween partay kicked of a little early tonight at the Houston Museum of Natural Science at "Spirits & Skeletons", the spooky special edition of the Mixers series. See and get yourself seen tonight, beginning at 8:00 p.m. where the night kicks off with Danse Orientale Belly Dancers, questions answered by Fatima and her band of merry Psychics (Miss Cleo? Nah, she's busy with her hotline - Fatima has it all going on, anyway......

HMNA presents a Special Lecture: Excavations at Aksum Tonight, the Houston Museum of Natural Science Distinguished Lecture Series presents Excavations at Aksum, Insights to the Early Christian Kingdom in Ethiopia, presented by Kathryn Bard, Ph.D., Boston University, and Rodolfo Fattovich, Ph.D., University of Naples. One of the oldest African kingdoms, Aksum arose in a high altitude region of Northern Ethiopia in the 4th century BC. This was a literate state that left writing in Greek,......

Lucy, the hottest old lady in the whole entire world, is getting written up everywhere: Forbes, Time, The Washington Post and of course The Chron. The 3.2 million year old hominid from Ethiopia is about to go on display at the Houston Museum of Natural Science on Friday with much fanfare and attention. The fossil is so very old and rare that paleoanthropologists are concerned about the damage that international travel, display and a potential......

Triple Threat Edition So we couldn't decide on one event for tonight, so we're giving you three. We are so damn generous some times. Besides, this week has been so long we figured you needed an extra long Friday to make up for it. Well, of course there's the Txt Me L8r SPIN Party at HCP that we'll all be at. Two of your favorite Houstonist contributors (wait, you have favorites, right?) will be participating......

Today’s Photo of the Day comes from flickr user and Houstonist photo contributor Jeff Balke. What a wonderful silhouetted shot of a child playing against the projection of butterflies outside the Cockrell Butterfly Center at the Houston Museum of Natural Science. If you have a passion for Houston and photography, consider joining over 345 of Houston's best photographers in the Houstonist Flickr Photo Group. If Houstonist uses your photo for Photo Of The Day,......

Behind the Scenes Tour at HMNS If the only thing dinosaur bones make you think of is Ross & Rachel's first, um, romp, then maybe you (like us) should look into one of the Museum of Natural Science's Behind the Scenes Tour. Tonight at 6pm, HMNS presents Behind the Scenes Tours: Hall of Paleontology Tour the Hall of Paleontology with David Schwimmer Temple, associate curator of paleontology. Learn the facts and fictions of the ancient......

Last week, Houstonist misinformed you - heck we downright led you astray! Mixers, Elixirs & IMAX runs through August 24th (DOH). Tonights festivities kick off at SMT "Standard Mixer Time" or 6:00 p.m. and Klockwork - formerly of the Gallant Knight will be performing. So, you can go get your IMAX, drink, groove and snack on tonight. Tickets are $13 for members and $15 for non-members and includes a cash bar and IMAX ticket. I.Q.......

Love butterflies? Houstonist does too!!! (and frogs!) Saturday is all about the butterfly as the Cockrell Butterfly Center holds a butterfly adoption from 9:00 a.m. until 4:00 p.m.. For the low, low price of $15/per person (which includes admission to the Butterfly Center) participants have the opportunity to release a butterfly into the Center. Every butterfly parent receives a certificate of adoption, a gift and a mention online! As if that weren't enough, there's more!!......

Out of the Ashes: Recovering the Only Library of the Classical World A Lecture Presented by Roger Macfarlane, Ph.D., Brigham Young University Visit the Museum of Natural Science tonight @ 6:30 p.m. as they welcome Roger Macfarlane, Ph.D. from Brigham Young University to lecture on the surviving library of Pompeii. When the eruption of Mount Vesuvius buried the cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum in 79 A.D., it not only froze an ancient civilization, it also......

HMNS Hosts Mixers & Elixirs Can't decide whether to see a movie, get a drink, go to the musuem, or see some live music tonight? Why decide? Do it all the the Museum of Natural Science's Summer Series "Mixers & Elixirs." Each Friday night during the summer, the museum hosts a gang of party goers in a true social science experiment. Mixers & Elixirs features cocktails, dancing under the dinosaurs, an IMAX movie each hour,......

Good morning, Houston. We don't mind telling you that we really have no love for cockroaches, but we do have a little bit more appreciation for the little critters after reading the Chronicle's interview with the Houston Museum of Natural Science's curator of entomology, Nancy Greig. "They're neat," Greig said. "Only 12 out of 4,000 are pests." Ah, well, good. But why are those 12 always in our apartment? >> Perry: We need more......

Here's your rain plan -ist List, should such a situation be necessary. You know there's a great time - a great outdoor experience, that is - to be had this eve at Miller. Just read today's -ist List for details. But, should it rain, let's still have fun by mixing and elixing somewhere. We know! Head out to the glorious Museum of Natural Science's hip new Friday(s) event: Mixers, Elixirs and Imax. Alright, so the......

We're not ashamed to admit it: We love the little train that goes around Hermann Park. The tiny cars, the meandering route, the tunnel, the bridge — all of it, we suppose, reminds us of our childhoods, when it didn't really matter that we were riding a train that just went in a big circle. So we're interested to see how a proposal to overhaul the train works out: Will it preserve what we love......

Let the good times roll! Tomorrow, from 11:00 a.m. until 3:00 p.m. as the Museum of Natural Science premieres "Hurricane on the Bayou". Food will be available for purchase from Good Ole Boys Cajun Food Catering. Plus, you can shake your groove thing to the tunes of Willie T and the Zydeco Posse, and Chubby Carrier and the Bayou Swamp Band - who are featured in the IMAX film. Radio station 104 KRBE will be......

Good morning, Houston. 'Stros win! 'Stros win! Whooooooo! Ahem. Yes, well, as you probably know by now, the Astros beat the Cincinnati Reds 10-2 last night to end their 10-game losing streak. The game marked the highest run total for the 'Stros in three weeks, and the team's 16 hits matched their season high — not bad. "It was a fun night for everybody," Woody Williams told the AP. "I know it's one win,......

Treasure Island Preview Party One of Houstonist's favorite holidays, "National Talk Like a Pirate Day", may still be three months away, but tonight we are happy to at least be able to dress like one without getting funny looks. Well, no more than usual. Join the Houston Museum of Natural Science, the Alley Theatre, and the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston tonight for a special pre-show party (with purchase of a $30 discounted ticket) for......

If you're looking for an event that is just dripping with cuteness, here you go. On Thursday, May 31, Buffalo Bayou ArtPark hosts an opening reception for sculptor David Chien's new exhibit titled, Superheroes Alter Egos. According to the Buffalo Bayou ArtPark press release, the concept behind this exhibit is to put superheroes into everyday situations. The exhibit features three large scale temporary sculptures depicting superheroes doing ordinary activities, like walking the dog. Chien is......

Houstonist has seen them: crawling around the bathroom, flitting through doors, hovering in the kitchen. And Houstonist has felt them: at dusk, after a rain, or mysteriously, in the middle of the afternoon. The bugs have returned in force, and we recommend you do something about them. Educate: The Texas Bug Book: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly is a top-notch tome, with up-close pictures and information on life cycles, habitats, economic importance,......

Good morning, Houston. Have a roach problem? How about turning it into a windfall? The Houston Museum of Natural Science is offering 25 cents per roach for the first 1,000 live, healthy American cockroaches people bring in. No kidding: a whole quarter for trapping and transporting a roach! The roaches will be used for a museum display on insect sanitary engineers — seems the critters, which are often associated with filth, are actually known......

Good morning, Houston. So here's something cool to look forward to for the next two years: In mid-2009, 20 of the famed terra cotta warriors of Xi'an will be on display at the Houston Museum of Natural Science. The exhibition will run from May 18 to Sept. 25; until then, you can visit the local knockoff, which is quite impressive in its own right. >> Early voting begins today: Harris County voters will be......

A Roman Feast: Menu of Menus Extravaganza + Imperial Rome Exhibit Feast your sights and tastes on an evening of grandeur when the Houston Press and Houston Museum of Natural Science host the 5th annual Menu of Menus Extravaganza. Delve into the aromas of cuisine sampling from over 40 Houston-area restaurants, as well as wine, vodka, beer-tasting, and live entertainment. When in need of a gastronomical break, wander into an extensive collection of over......

Andy Warhol: Three Houston Women Exhibit | March 16-July 8, 2007 Menil Collection | 1515 Sul Ross Houston, TX 77006 Wednesday-Sunday | 11am-7pm Cost | FREE Beginning in the late 1960s, Andy Warhol (1928–1987) produced serial silkscreen portraits of three of Houston’s leading arts figures: Jermayne MacAgy, Dominique de Menil (pictured), and Caroline Wiess Law. These portraits will be united for the first time in a special exhibition, “Andy Warhol: Three Houston Women.” Walk......

Spend the Night on Blue Bayou Join the Buffalo Bayou Partnership tonight as they kick-off a year long series of stargazing, boat rides, storytelling and more along the Sabine-to-Bagby Promenade. The newest addition (and possibly our favorite) to the Buffalo Bayou hike and bike and trails, gives Houstonians multiple access points to bayou canoeing. The awarding-winning, and might we add, spectacular-looking, unique blue lighting creates a much needed outdoor friendly environment for nearby downtown,......

In honor of the opening of the Imperial Rome exhibit on Friday, here's one of our favorite Rome-themed jokes: Cicero was at a party talking to some insufferable braggart who was going on about how if he were a general, he'd be Alexander, and if he were a philosopher, he'd be Aristotle, and so on. Snitty Cicero replied, "And if you were a sewer, you'd be the Cloaca Maxima." Ba-da-dum. If you got that joke,......

The Houston Museum of Natural Science couldn't have timed the opening of Frogs! A Chorus of Colors any better. With all the rain we've seen this week, it's almost as if Houston's frog population is coming to out lend support. The exhibit includes over 200 live frogs (because dead frogs would just be, uh, wrong) from all over the world. Learn about these amphibians and their unique ecosystems, and how these ecosystems are threatened with......

The StoryCorps MobileBooth has been conspicuously parked outside of the Houston Museum of Natural Science for a few days now, giving you plenty of time to come up with a few good interview questions for your grandfather (or whomever), before they head out on February 3rd. StoryCorps is a project sponsored by National Public Radio, among other organizations, that has set out to document the everyday history of everyday Americans. The program airs on NPR's......

The Houston Museum of Natural Science recently purchased an old prison building in Sugar Land and plans to convert it into a satellite museum, including space for classrooms and interactive science exhibits. Sugar Land kids, cross your fingers for a place where you'll be able to report the weather with Neil Frank and another overpriced McDonald's. According to a HMNS representative, the museum will serve as a complement to the George Observatory, which is located......

So you still haven't checked out A Night at the Museum...at the museum? Only 3 weeks left to see it on the big, uh BIG, screen. In the ultimate case of art imitating life, the Houston Museum of Natural Science brings A Night At The Museum to the Wortham IMAX Theater. Finally, a chance to see Ben Stiller's head true size. Adapted for the screen by Ben Garant and Thomas Lennon (of MTV's The State......