:: 30TH ANNIVERSARY SUSAN SMITH BLACKBURN PRIZE DRAMATIC READING :: The Susan Smith Blackburn Prize honoring women playwrights from around the world, has decided to celebrate its thirtieth anniversary by hosting a reading and the awards in Houston. Five short works by local women playwrights (a talented bunch) will be presented as dramatic readings by Houston’s acting community (another talented bunch) at the Alley Theatre’s Neuhaus Stage this Sunday, March 9th at 3:00PM. Excerpts......

:: Exiles in Paris Concert by Da Camera :: At the turn of the twentieth century, musicians, choreographers, writers and painters from all over the world converged in Paris and began sharing their work and ideas with each other with the goal of revolutionizing their artistic disciplines. (We at Houstonist are expecting the same thing to happen here at any moment.) Da Camera made a series of two concerts highlights the work of these......

::World Affairs Council of Houston Presents:: The Putin Generation: How Russian Youth See Their World Ok, maybe you are not as fascinated with Russia as we are. Much so, to the point that a Tori Amos song spiraled us into a year long quest for researching the Romanovs and the mysterious rumors of Anastasia sightings worldwide. Ok, so maybe you're not the super Russia fan we are, but you gotta like Vodka, right? Right? Tonight's......

This looks to be the last big release week of the year, and 2007 is going out with a bang. We'll see you in '08! The Cool is Lupe Fiasco's follow-up album to last year's fantastic Food and Liquor. The record is filled with clever and forward-thinking tracks like “Dumb it Down” that manage succeed on both an underground and commercial level, and features noteworthy contributions from Snoop Dogg, UNKLE, newcomer Matthew Santos, and Food......

Since our first cool blast of December has rolled into town, we're even getting into the over-commercialized holiday mode. So, we thought we would share with you some of our favorite Christmas and holiday songs, both past and present, with you. Throw out the $5.99 CD compilation you bought at Wal-Mart -- this is all you need. The standards (Nat King Cole, Bing Crosby, Elvis) and more modern-day standards (John Lennon) are here. The 80's......

There comes a time in everyone's life when only a shot will get the job done. Pigged out on Italian food? A shot of grappa will burn on the way down, but it's a digestivo that will help settle down your chicken picatta. Called off your wedding? 17 shots of tequila will make the that pain go away and may net you a Latino name. Worry about the hangover in the morning. Houstonist thought it......

We promise that we're not Ethan Hawke groupies here at Houstonist. But don't blame you for thinking that given last week's Flick and this one. Hawke, Texan via Austin, hits the screen in a new film, The Hottest State, and a cult classic, Gattaca. He wrote the book; now Hawke is behind the camera to direct the film. Despite what you may be thinking, State deals with a young couple's romantic issues and not the......

With unseasonable weather descending upon much of North America, schools getting ready to reconvene, and sports seasons getting exciting, it's a busy time of year for us here in the Ist-A-Verse. Luckily, even with all the things we have to do, we still managed to get together to let you know what we've all been up to. After cooling down from a hot weekend of many badass Sunset Junction Street Fair photo dispatches, LAist asked......

If Amy Winehouse has inspired you to hear more fantastic women's jazz voices (rather than go to rehab), you're in luck tonight. The 2007 version of Jazz Cross Roads presents "Women in Jazz" showcasing the work of the great Sarah Vaughan through female jazz vocalists Kamil Bonner and Mickie Moseley and saxophonist Theresa Grayson. The women will perform both in small ensemble and with the Scott Joplin Chamber Orchestra. The evening is presented by the......

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......

Many is the time Houstonist has passed by Courtlandt Place and wished we had the wherewithal to live there. And we were reminded of that when we saw that one of the homes on the boulevard, the Jones-Hunt house, is up for sale. It's actually among our least favorite homes on the street. but hey, we can't afford to be that picky. The house was built in 1919 for Sarah Brashear Jones, the wife......

Juneteenth Celebration at Miller Outdoor Theater Happy Juneteenth! Join the city in celebrating the anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation when slavery in Texas offically became a thing of the past. Tonight, Miller Outdoor Theater presents “Sarah and Joshua – a Juneteenth Musical” – the premiere of a new musical drama by Texas Southern University playwright Thomas Meloncon in commemoration of Juneteenth. The play tells the story of two slaves in love and the events leading......

Saturday, March 31: Mixed Media @ MFA Prince Language, one of NYC's premier underground DJs and producers brings his famed remixes to the third segment of the Starbucks Mixed Media Music Series at the MFAH featuring Hélio Oiticica: The Body of Color. With performances by DJ Franki Chan with iheartcomix out of LA, Austin-based DJ New Berlin, local favorite resident DJ Ceeplus Bad Knives, and the Brazilian Arts Foundation, after hours access to the Hélio......

Tonight marks the final and farewell visit to Houston of renowned Polish poet Adam Zagajewski at The Menil Collection, aptly titled Without End: A Celebration in Words and Music of Adam Zagajewksi. Beginning in 1988, Zagajewski began teaching each spring in the University of Houston Creative Writing Program. This reading both honors his eighteen years of teaching in Houston and bids him farewell. On the agenda this evening, an appreciation by poet Edward Hirsch, a......

Austinist gets arty with an interactive guide to SXSW, loved some local art galleries and a new art exhibit and lamented the possible loss of "Friday Night Lights" production to New Mexico. Bostonist was happy they finally found an Anna Nicole Smith connection to their fair city and that an Apple Store was opening up. They were less happy that new rules have been established limiting underage shows and that their Governor is spending......

Saturday: MFAH Mixed Media Series It's back! Quickly becoming a Houstonist favorite, Mixed Media Series returns this weekend with a Brazilian flare. This month's musical artists include: The Juan Maclean | NYC / DFA Records / Astralwerks / EMI / thejuanmaclean.com Cassiano & DJ Sujinho | NYC / Brazil / I Love Baile Funk mix cd / nossadesign.com Ceeplus Bad Knives | 90.1 KPFT / ReprogramMusic.com / Le Crash Club Jeffery Mac | Hard......

Classical music has a bad rap, some of which is deserved. After all, who really wants to listen to the slow, soft harpsichord-loaded music that trickles out of bookstore speakers, or to the stuff advertised on television to make you relax? Classical music, like any other music, is best experienced live. At it's best, classical music is powerful with incredible emotional depth. On stage are almost 100 instruments played by almost 100 musicians who each......

Saturday: MFAH Mixed Media Series Once in a while, an event comes along that makes even us proud, art-loving citizens feel lucky. We are quickly learning to play with the big boys of the art world, and more and more often people are taking notice of the untapped energy in this city's metropolis. Last year's Starbucks Mixed Media Series at the Museum of Fine Arts was evidence that Houston is bursting at the seams......

It's not that Houstonist doesn't love Pasadena, but we have always had the sneaking suspicion that we should take our own bottled water when we visit there. And it turns out we might not have been that far off base, according to a KTRK report: City of Pasadena officials are concerned about someone dumping chemical waste into the Vince Bayou Water Treatment Plant. The facility processes and treats water coming from residents' homes, but authorities......

On Tuesday, the American -ists will be celebrating democracy and hitting the polls, letting politicians know what they really think. It just made us wonder: if it were up to the -ist-a-verse, what would we be voting for? Londonist votes for better skincare, alternative spaces for art, cute little birds and the men who keep them, and concrete. Lots of concrete. Shanghaiist votes for one of the Bee Gees and Air Supply (it's a double-ticket),......

Fangirls everywhere, rejoice: Wolverine (the multi-talented Hugh Jackman, who can also sing and dance--we saw him in Oklahoma! once on stage on London) and Batman (Christian Bale, who can brood, and also brood) are together in a movie at last. Everyone else should rejoice too, though, because The Prestige is one of the smartest, most engaging big-studio pictures to hit theaters in recent months. And clocking in at significantly more than two hours, it......

There was a long weekend, you see. Consquently, we woke up on Thursday, though it was Wedneday, and you were left last night bereft, unable to figure out the best thing to do with your ten dollars. Remind us when it's Thursday next time, y'all. Friday, September 8 Since the sad demise of Actor's Theatre of Houston, our theatre scene's been missing something around here: now maybe we've gotten it back. Pendulum Theatre's first production......

We spend a lot of time on the internet. And occasionally, we run across something about this city or the state it's in that we like enough to share. So if you've got reflections on anything from why you're a Houstonian-not-a-Texan to why it is nobody ever says "Don't Mess With Rhode Island" with a straight face, send them our way. We'll use them in our new occasional series, Read This. Lilit Marcus is a......

God, we're so sick of Snakes on a Plane that we want to kill anyone and everyone that makes a "something on a something" joke. But then we realized that there was no way we could ever win this fight, and, hell, if you can't beat them, we might as well join them. And with that, you have the theme of this week's Gothamist network post. Austinist makes it easy for us, with Candidate......

From this weekend's news, another reason not to live in those townhomes that are going up all over the Inner Loop: If you do, the city might not pick up your trash. That's the issue at the Calumet Street Lofts in the Third Ward, one of those Urban Lofts developments that shoehorns a bunch of metal townhomes into a tiny area by putting some on the inside of the property, accessible by narrow driveways. And......

Tuesday We can’t think of a better way to start off your concert week than with the hardest working man in show business, the Godfather of Soul, James Brown. Now in his seventies, he still has the energy that will leave you feeling … well, you know. 8 p.m. at Verizon Wireless Theater | tickets and info Wednesday Beautiful female vocals are on tap tonight at Super Happy Fun Land. Seekonk hails from Maine,......

We know our friends up in Waco aren't as aggresively Baptist as they once were — they do dance now, you know — but Baylor still ain't gonna put up with co-eds baring it all for Playboy. Photographers from the magazine spent two days this week on the Baylor campus interviewing students for the Big 12 issue, which will appear in October. ("Big 12," by the way, refers to the football conference. Get your minds......

Ken Lay and Jeff Skilling's lawyers continued hammering at key points of the prosecution's case in the trial of the two ex-Enron executives yesterday, focusing on former CFO Andy Fastow's alleged attempt to get preferential treatment for his LJM side companies. Mark Metts, a former corporate development executive at Enron, said Fastow tried to get inside information so he could use LJM2 to counter-bid during Enron's planned sale of its wind farms to UBS in......

One of the world's potentially worst jobs is about to get amazingly better — well, relatively amazingly, anyway: Effective Sunday, Texas jurors will have their first pay raise since 1954. The pay will be $40 a day, up from the current $6 — it's not going to pay your bills (unless you're a serial jurist), but it'll at least cover parking and lunch. The increase comes after a statewide study by Houston law firm......

Houstonist loves books. They're the perfect gift, they look impressive on your bookshelf, and they're even fun to read on occasion. With the holiday season fully upon us and plenty of travel looming on the horizon, now is the perfect time to pick one up. Houstonist offers these suggestions from the year that was: Fiction: Gilead by Marilynne Robinson - Winner of the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Critics award, and a nigh endless......