5th Ward Jam by Dan Havel and Dean Ruck. Article about it on Chron. It is located at 3705 Lyons Street Houston Texas (and YOU should go see it!). Regardless here is a video from the brave quadracopter “yellow” and a few photos from the not so brave 5D-Mii:

I saw the most beautiful moment last weekend at the Ren Fest and I have to share it with you. It involves children and green giants. (stay with me for a moment…)

I started going to the Texas Renaissance Festival in either 1987 or 1988 while going to Texas A&M as an undergrad. I can’t recall the exact date. I went many times, but it was college so that might have been three times in one year or two times each year, or who knows. It’s lucky I remember my own name from 20+ years ago.

But I DO remember the texas renaissance festival. We were broke students so we bought the discount tickets from HEB and had to sneak in our own beer because we couldn’t afford the beer inside. In the late 80s my favorite renfest-shows were, in priority order, the falconry show followed by the mud show. The mud show back then was a mud pit in an open field and people who would gather around said pit. Falconry on the other hand, always had the most beautiful arena. But that is probably an artifact of not wanting the birds of prey to perch on small children during the act. I gotta figure being the falconry guy at the RenFest is like being the lion keeper at the zoo; if you say you need something you might bump the queue over the guy who takes care of the armadillos. There’s only so much that can go wrong if an armadillo is on the loose. But a lion? Definite priority. Just sayin’

I love the Renaissance Festival. (Disclaimer, as of a couple years ago RenFest is a client. But that doesn’t change things. I still pay for my ticket and I still take my whole family every year.) I have so many great memories and so many great photos. But this year, a 10 second interchange, stopped me dead on all-hallows-eve. This is what happened:

An ENORMOUS green man was attacked by a small child. Or torpedo-hugged. I don’t know the guy, and I’m not small, but he was larger than me and commanded a presence with his huge frame. And this giant man was reduced to a puddle of love by a child he had never met. Until that moment. That man was Shrek:

Shrek hugged a kid.

Or to more accurately state it, a tiny 3 or 4 year old little girl propelled herself out of her parents arms like an Olympic athlete and flew above the ground like a hydrofoil to Shrek. It was kinda like the “human torpedo” move in WWE.

Shrek knelt down on one knee and caught her. The young’un quickly buried her head against his enormous frame. The giant man, in costume of course, brought her to a safe position and looked up at her parents for approval. Mrs. Shrek right next to him.

The parents of the star of our story 5 feet away nodded approval and smiled. Myself 20 feet away dumbstruck.

And all of us were frozen. We froze watching this beautiful young lady who completely believed not only in Shrek, but that THIS was SHREK. And she loved him. It looked like this photo I took after I snapped out of it.

I can’t really explain it. It was just beautiful. It was respectful. The parents were smiling ear to ear. The actor-volunteer-Shrek was well aware of a responsibility that I had no idea he had; to represent honorably the image of Shrek and the dreams of little kids.

And the child demonstrated a complete lack of prejudice, she charged and jumped into the arms of a 300+ pound green man! How many of us could jump into the arms of a giant green man with complete faith that he in turn was a gentle giant? I fear I have lost the ability to be that child-like and I miss it. I am working on that…

The shrek-hug was the most beautiful thing I have seen all year. God bless you Shrek. And God bless this child and her family for their wisdom to allow her to have this moment. And thank you that I was there with my family to witness it. ‘Cause my kids are pretty awesome too IMHO.

#peace

(this is a cross-post. To comment visit the shrek-renfest-post on chron.com and comment there please.)

Through an act of extremely poor decision making, I agreed to be roasted. It happens tonight. In Houston. Apparently they have made a video. Borrowed my car without asking for unknown reasons. And one person commented “you have so many quirks it’s too easy…” which gives me lots of confidence going into the evening. If this were MadMen this would definitely be a day for a two-martini-lunch. I am posting this at the last minute in the hopes that if anyone sees it, it will be too late for them to attend.

Note the sponsor is “Boner Beer” cause that’s just how classy we are. The deets:

View the full gala photo gallery on the orange show site.

UPDATE: After a few days of testing, it seems to me that do713 comes closest to generating a consolidated list of events that I might want to attend. So a tip of the hat to the folks at do713.

Trying to find something interesting to do in Houston tonight? Try these arts calendars. Yes a million different people have tried to make consolidated arts calendars, but until someone figures out how to herd cats get arts people to be more organized, you just gotta hit them individually.

For profit maintained calendars:

1. Houston Chronicle Entertainment Section
2. Houston Press Calendar
3. Facebook – your events (shows ones you said “no” to as well)
4. Houston Public Radio Arts Calendar
5. Meetup Events Calendar for Houston

Arts Organizations Calendars

1. Spacetaker arts calendar
2. DiverseWorks calendar – downtown area
3. ArtsHound events calendar
4. Fresh Arts Coalition – then click “calendar”
5. Discovery Green Events Calendar

Blogs and stuff

1. Glasstire Arts Calendar
2. Caroline Collective Events
3. Chron Entertainment Blog
4. “Tonight in Houston” search on twitter (today)
5. Houstonist Blog
6. do713 blog on events in Houston
7. Culture Map Blog
8. Only in Houston Events Calendar
9. Art League of Houston

Not so big venues that we like

1. AvantGarden Houston Calendar
2. McGonigels Mucky Duck
3. Fitzgerald’s
4. St. Arnold Brewery
5. Block 7 Wine Co

Museums

1. Menil Collection Events
2. Houston Museum of Fine Arts Programs
3. Contemporary Arts Museum
4. Houston Museum of Natural Science Events
5. Rothko Chapel Calendar
6. Lawndale Art Center

Photography

1. Houston Center for Photography
2. Fotofest

Big venues

1. House of Blues Houston
2. Reliant Park Calendar
3. Wortham Center
4. Miller Outdoor Theater
5. Cynthia Woods Pavilion
6. Verizon Theater
7. Blaffer Gallery at U of H
8. Orange Show Center for Visionary Arts
9. Alley Theater

…. DRAFT … let me know what I missed, or misclassified, or where you look for events to do in Houston related to arts and music and I’ll try to get it added.

As a favor, made some revisions to the Saint Arnold Facebook Fan Page. Become a fan!

Very excited to be working on a new web site for the Orange Show, sponsors of the World’s Largest Art Car Parade! This photo is from a recent visit.

Houston’s own Caroline Collective Coworking Space is having an anniversary party this Saturday!

And a few more related links to the party THIS Saturday at Caroline.

1. Caroline link post: http://carolinecollective.cc/2009/06/04/were-one-lets-have-some-fun/
2. Facebook invite: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=184256345206
3. Artshound: http://www.artshound.com/event/detail/25097
4. Mentions on twitter: http://twitter.com/#search?q=@carolineco%20party

I hope to make it on Saturday and hope to see y’all there too! From the announcement:

And a special thanks to the party sponsors step up to offer things to donate and would love to show them some love, including Riazul Tequila, Sweet Leaf Tea, Saint Arnold, 29-95.com, Tacos A-go-go, Danton’s Gulf Coast Seafood, and Aztec Party & Tent Rental.

Don’t Fight It will DJ and the illustrious (you)genious will serve as MC.

Houston Green Scene will be providing the party favors: 2″ biodegradable peat pots with organic potting soil and planted daisy seeds.

Houston Arts Alliance, the Houston Museum District Association, and Houston Theater District present: The Houston Mayoral Forum on the Arts

Candidates for Mayor:Gene Locke, Roy Morales, Annise Parker, Peter Brown

Photos from the Houston Mayoral Forum on the Arts are posted by me on facebook as well as flickr and picasa. All are creative commons attribution and can be used WITH ATTRIBUTION.