:: 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......

Good morning, Houston. If the dearth of new TV in the wake of the writer's strike has left you willing to watch anything, we've got some news for you: HTV, the municipal station, is launching a new program! Woohoo! Entertainment Houston, a 30-minute show, will focus on — wait for it — Houston's facilities, included the Wortham Center, Jones Hall, the George R. Brown Convention Center and the not-quite-finished Discovery Green. A new episode......

::Inprint Brown Reading Series Featuring Dave Eggers and Chimamanda Adichie:: Houstonist just finished reading the new books by both these authors and was *blown away.* HALF OF A YELLOW SUN, Chimamanda Adichie's novel about the Biafran War in Nigeria in the late sixties, follows the political and military developments through the eyes of several civilians, painting a human and devastating portrait of war. Similarly, Dave Eggers' fictionalized autobiography of the very real Valentino Achak......

::Edward Grigassy Trio - Gypsy Anthems:: We just love Da Camera. And we especially love the free lunchtime concerts. Pack your own and take in some beautiful music at lunch today -- so much better than killing time on the internets. Guitarist Edward Grigassy plays throughout central and east Texas, as well as teaches guitar at Bellaire High School. He has studied classical guitar at UT Austin and received his masters from the New......

::Hope Stone Dance Company premieres SEE Me:: How do we see? Do we need sight to know the world? How are we blind to ourselves? Tonight at the Wortham Center, under the direction of award-winning choreographer Jane Weiner, Hope Stone Dance Company wil premeire SEE Me, . While general admission is $25, Hope Stone, Inc. will open the 800 balcony seats free to at risk youth from local schools and after-school programs. Implicit in......

::Touring Taste of Dance Salad Film at MFA:: Ok, so you're perplexed on what to watch now that Dancing With the Stars and So You Think You Can Dance have both finished their seasons. We feel your pain. I mean, how else are you supposed to practice your movers for the company holiday party? Well, dance friends, you are in luck. If you missed the 2007 Dance Salad Festival, catch a special (read: free) screening......

::Ken Burns' The War at the Wortham Center:: How did you spend your Veteran's Day? Did you fly a flag? Did you hug a Vet? No? Well, here's your last chance at redemption. If you missed Ken Burns' World War II Series, The War, on PBS a few months back, you can catch it again tonight at the Wortham Center, as Burns is on hand to screen and discuss the series. Burns' works are......

Remember when you were a little bitty Houstonist and someone would read to you at night and you could just lose yourself in the story, abandoning all other thoughts of the day? Well you can still do it now, you know. In fact, you might be all the more eager to shed your quotidian annoyances now that you're grown. Here are a few places to hear some stellar writers read from their work: Friday......

Gloria Steinem presents "The Progression Of Feminism: Where Are We Going?" Tonight at Wortham Center, the Progressive Forum Houston presents pioneer of the modern feminsit movement, Gloria Steinem, in a program that urges audiences to reconstruct their understanding of gender roles to foster a national spirit of cooperation for advancing of the rights of all citizens, especially our children. Gloria Steinem's philosophy and fight for equal rights for women transformed America, creating a social acceptance......

Did you notice our lazy capitalization in the title? Well, that's exaclty how we're feeling today. A lazy weekend in the blazing sun out by the pool is just what we've been waiting for all summer. So here it is, make the most of it! For the record, FOX, yes we do think we can dance. And very well, might we add. With the recent success of the reality contest show, So You Think......

So, you might have heard about this already, but the story is too good to pass up: There was a power outage in the north end of downtown early Thursday morning, and it was caused by a raccoon trying to raid a bird nest. It happened around 12:30 a.m. at CenterPoint Energy's Gable Street substation in the 500 block of McKee when the unfortunate raccoon got electrocuted, plunging more than 1,500 customers north of Congress......

Needing to brush up on your smarts? No date for Monday night? Good news. On Monday, May 21, Progressive Forum Houston welcomes playwright and queen of academe, Anna Deveare Smith to the Wortham Center. Smith first received national attention for her play, Fires in the Mirror, which brought the harsh street realities of 1990's Brooklyn to the stage. Smith's work in the theater addresses issues of identity politics and race, and her academic reputation is......

The Society of Performing Arts Houston presents: Daniel Bernard Roumain Composer, performer, violinist and band-leader Daniel Bernard Roumain (DBR), seamlessly blends funk, rock, hip-hop and classical into a new sonic vision that is “far out and creative in another world.” DBR and THE MISSION is comprised of nine young musicians from diverse musical backgrounds including an amplified string quartet, percussionist, keyboardist, DJ and a “laptopist.” Each member is well-versed in classical, jazz, rock and hip-hop......

Today’s Photo of the Day comes from flickr user and Houstonist photo contributor Erci who gives us this performers perspective of the Wortham Center. It's not very often that anyone, much less Houstonist, gets this magnificent view of the theater. The Wortham Center is located downtown in the Theater District and hosts performances by such fine institutions as, The Houston Ballet and The Houston Grand Opera. If you enjoy taking pictures of Houston, consider......

Senior Time magazine columnist Joe Klein will speak tonight at the Wortham Center on Islam, Iraq, and the War on Terror. Klein is "one of America’s most astute observers of politics and international affairs" and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. He is the author of a number of books, including his most recent Politics Lost: How American Politics Was Trivialized By People Who Think You’re Stupid, a tirade against political consultants in......

Two internationally acclaimed artists join the Houston Chamber Orchestra for a diverse program tonight at the Hobby Center. Pianist Charles Asche performs as soloist in Ludwig van Beethoven’s “Piano Concerto No. 4 in G Major, Op. 58.” Asche has performed throughout the United States, in Russia and South America and is currently on the piano faculty at the University of California at Santa Barbara. He was among the first American pianists to perform in the......

Tonight Progressive Forum Houston will bring Tim Flannery, author of The Weather Makers: How Man Is Changing the Climate, to speak at the Wortham Center on what he knows best: global warming. His book is renowned as the finest and clearest account on the science behind global warming. It presents the powerful connection between climate change and human activity, and lays out a game plan for halting and eventually reversing the damage that we “weather......

A little Prairie Home Companion in Houston He has one of the most distinctive voices on radio, and after the success of last year’s movie A Prairie Home Companion, his voice and work is now known by more than just the NPR crowd. Author, humorist, satirist, and occasional musician Garrison Keillor brings his Lake Wobegon Days to the Wortham Center tonight. Keillor created the radio show A Prairie Home Companion in 1974. The show, which......

Alliance Francaise Lecture Series: Antoine Plante First the MET lends us French Masterpieces and now tonight's Lecture at l'Alliance Francaise. Houston's gone Haute for the Frenchies! Touche! (Ok, cliche). Actually, we were really just inspired by this cool pic of the Winged Victory from local photog Mark Austin. As part of the lecture series sponsored by the Consulat Général de France, Patrick Berron, Consul Général, on diverse subjects in the arts and in science at......

Call us inspired by this week's arrival of the MET's French Masterpieces exhibit at the MFA, but this week we sought out some of the many art & theather events, performances, and exhibitions going on in the city. Hey, we're hip! Monday, Feb 5 MFA's Hitchock's Blondes Film Series: To Catch a Theif This film series complements the Alley Theatre´s production of Hitchcock Blonde (February 23—March 18), a cinematic mystery that combines theater and......

Flip the Script: The Devil Made Me Do It In conjunciton with the Houston Grand Opera's (HGO)Gounod´s famous opera Faust, the Museum of Fine Arts features a lecture tonight in Brown Auditorium discussing films that share the same theme as the German-based, French-sung, English-subtitled opera: Selling your soul to the Devil. (Houstonist wonder's if Weingarten Realty Investors will serve as sponsors for the performance) Many film writers are inspired by classical stories. Join us as......

Choreographer Donald Byrd, who was nominated for a Tony for his work in the 2006 Broadway production of The Color Purple, is bringing Indian industrial/club dance music to Houston this weekend. Seattle-based Spectrum Dance Theater, for whom Donald Byrd is the artistic director, will perform at the Wortham Center's Cullen Theater - part of the IW Marks Dance Series tonight and tomorrow night. A pre-performance lecture by Donald Byrd begins each evening at 7:10 in......

The shot from flickr user and Houstonist photo contributor Eric_Melear. This photo is worth a thousand words, so forgive us if we can't do it justice. This is one of the many Christmas trees one finds every year in front of the Wortham Center downtown. There is something particularly brilliant about this tree. If you've got a camera, and you love Houston, consider joining Houston's best photographers in the Houstonist Flickr Photo Group. Also,......

When her debut, White Teeth, was published in 2000, Zadie Smith was hailed as a wunderkind of literature: her characterizations drew comparisons to Dickens and her unique voice was celebrated right and left. This weekend, Smith read from her newest novel, On Beauty, as [part of the 2006-2007 Imprint Brown Reading Series, sponsored by Imprint Houston, a nationally-heralded creative writing organization with roots at U of H. Imprint's reading series, which this year includes writers......

We were kind of surprised to read about Houston's 170th birthday party, which will be held downtown this evening — not that Houston doesn't deserve a birthday bash, but we've always heard the city's real birthday was Aug. 30, 1836, the day the Allen brothers opened Houston up for development with a series of, um, optimistic newspaper ads. So the city is celebrating its birthday a week early? Well, whatever. More important to most people,......

S.I. Morris, 91, leaves a legacy of renowned architecture and civic involvement. A 1935 Rice University graduate, Morris helped create the architectual firm Wilson, Morris, Crain, and Anderson, which is now known as Morris Architects. The firm was involved in the designing of the Astrodome, Wortham Center, and Pennzoil Place, among others. Morris spent the last decade as an advisor for Jackson & Ryan Architects. He was also involved with the Award for Design Excellence......

The Gilbert and Sullivan Society of Houston is one of the oldest organizations of its kind in the country. They're the recipient of numerous awards, as every summer a band of dedicated amateurs and professionals come together to perform the 19th century comic operas of W.S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan, which have remained popular throughout the years. You're sure to hear tune you recognize at this year's production, a double bill featuring the one-act operetta......

We're supposed to have excellent springtime weather this weekend — so why not take advantage of it by grabbing your tennies, leash and four-legged friend (we're talking about your dog) and heading downtown tomorrow for the Houston SPCA's Mutt Strut? After a trot around the Theater District, you and your dog can check out food and vendor booths, live music, activities for kids and the chance to compete for a panel of celebrity judges in......

Come Thursday, Houston Ballet will give Houston the chance to dip its hands in Swan Lake — well, sort of. Director Stanton Welch is touting the production as a rare modern/traditional hybrid. "There's not an ultimate version of Swan Lake that hangs in a museum and everyone comes to see," says Welch. "That's what makes it so exciting to work with today. It's absolutely limitless." Let’s rack up the differences between previous versions and Welch’s......

In the holiday rush this week, we didn't notice an article in the Chronicle about Houston's proposed "Walk of Fame" (which actually doesn't have an official name yet). The walk, which will begin at the Wortham Center and extend east along Texas Avenue to Minute Maid Park, then south along Avenida de las Americas to Toyota Center, then back west along Polk, will "honor people and things that have taken the city to national and......