With another Hurricane Season, it’s time to starting writing new Hurricana posts.
Our first named storm (in the Atlantic) is Alex. I’m going to go ahead and make Alex a guy. Houston hasn’t had great luck with female-named storms starting with Al- (Hurricane Alicia and Tropical Storm Allison, anyone?) in the past. There is, of course, a new wrinkle in this year’s hurricane season, the BP Oil Spill. It’s not clear to me how badly a hurricane in the Gulf would affect the oil spill. One thing for sure, however, is the media is doing their best to cheer on that particular event.
I haven’t read anything to indicate Alex is going to pose a threat to the oil spill area, but you wouldn’t think that was the case watching the national news. Local news outlets are bad enough when hurricane season comes around, it’s 10 times worse when the national media gets involved. I was watching MSNBC this morning, and after they had shown a projection that had Alex going nowhere near the spill, the talking head in the studio mentioned ‘some outlying computer models’ that do indicate Big Al could turn towards the spill, and make landfall near the Texas/Louisiana border.
Of course, this is entirely possible because, let’s face it, the scientific community is much more ignorant about the paths of storms than they are willing to admit. Still, I can’t recall a hurricane going so totally against the grain of a majority of the computer models available. Below is the latest computer model projections from Weather Underground’s Tropical Weather Center.
The GFS model is the one the local media is going to be most interested in. Granted, the models have been trending northward over the past 48 hours, but Mexico remains the betting man’s target for now. I’m not terribly worried for the oil spill or Houston at this point, nor should you. Let’s not allow the media to change that, shall we?
One important thing to remember, I read reports back in the Spring that we were looking at a very hot and dry summer. After the past week, and looking at this week’s forecast, I’d say listening to local media is shaky. Stick with the folks at Weather Underground.
The folks in Irving imploded Texas Stadium this morning. I have been browsing the net for different views. I’ve been most impressed by the cuts from CNN.com
If you go to YouTube and search implosion, you can spend a good part of the date watching videos of buildings being blown to bits. While you’re enjoying the carnage, take some time to pay particular attention to this video of the Kingdome implosion, it’s an amazing look from the inside out of the demolition of a sports stadium.
I can’t help but wonder if we’re going to see the same sight here in Houston soon with the Astrodome. We’ve been trying to figure out what to do with the Astrodome for almost 10 years now. I’m slowly starting to realize it may be time to simply blow it up, make room for something new. I mean, Texas Stadium is in rubble to day. It saw more history than a lot of stadiums in U.S. sports history. Boston Garden, Three Rivers, Yankee Stadium, Chicago Stadiu, the list is long and distinguished. Is the Astrodome any different?
My inner-native Houstonian wants to scream, “HELL YES IT’S DIFFERENT!”
But I’m not so sure. I was of the mind the Dome was a symbol of Houston. It is a to our creativity as a city, and our ability to solve a problem by working outside the box. Watching baseball outside in a Houston summer would be absolutely unbearable. And, let’s be honest, in a city that hardly sees a frigid temperature in the winter time, we wouldn’t be very well suited for watching football in the cold. We leave that sort of thing to the folks in Green Bay, Wisconsin. In addition to the functionality of indoor sports watching, the Dome was also very much a luxury item. Who wants to sweat watching baseball? Thus, the bigger-in-Texas fashion founds its way into the ballpark. Big hair, big jewels and LOTS of leather? No problem in the air conditioned confines of the Astrodome. Businessmen special? I don’t even have to untie my tie.
With Minute Maid Park and Reliant Stadium, we still have that luxury. So why are we still keeping the Dome? For my part, I want to keep it, make something out of it. It’s the Houston thing to do, taking a seemingly big problem, and coming up with a creative solution. In doing so, we would allow the Astrodome to once again grab the spotlight for the City of Houston. But do we need it?
We got a Super Bowl, and we’ve got not one but TWO Final Fours coming in the next 6 years. Did you know Houston is the only site in Final Four history to be awarded a second hosting BEFORE they had hosted their first? Houston doesn’t need the Dome to impress anyone anymore. That, I guess, is a pretty good thing, but it makes me sad. So while I am not necessarily in support of it, I am going to start campaigning for the demolition of the Dome, but with a few provisos.
#1. We have to have a PARTY!
And tot just any party, THE PARTY! A Dome-sized fiesta, and the world is invited! We’ll call it Dome Voyage! And it will forever be a day of celebration in the city of Houston.
#2. We must REMEMBER!
Texas remembers the Alamo, and here in Houston we will remember the Dome. A memorial should be the centerpiece of any development (see below) after the Dome is torn down. I recommend a bronze “bust” of the Astrodome that fans can rub for good luck going to a Houston Texans game at Reliant. Make the Dome a talisman on which we will build the future success of our football team. There is magic in that dilapidated Dome, and it must be harnessed when it is blown from those walls.
#3. Listen to Joni Mitchell
We can’t pave paradise, and put up a parking lot. I am 100% against any plan that calls for the demolition of the Dome so it can become a parking lot. Tearing down the Dome to make room for more parking would be a crime, and fit right into the sad reputation of this city. Instead, we must give the former site of the Dome new life! I already mentioned the Astrodome Memorial, and our Super Bowl XXXVIII champion friends have given us a great solution for all that new land, Patriot Place. It’s a little big boxy for my tastes, but the general idea would be a perfect fit in the post-Astrodome Reliant Park.
In the end, I expect we’ll be seeing a scene very similar to the one we saw this morning in Irving, TX. While I would really like to see the building saved, it’s becoming increasingly evident that is not financially feasible. Nevertheless, the legacy of the Dome must be protected and preserved, even if the building itself cannot. Whatever happens, I know I’ll be there one Sunday morning, cheering a little, crying a little and remembers all the great memories I’ve had in that old building. That was the one thing that made the Texas Stadium implosion different for me; I’d been inside the building.
Watching the Dome fall will be like watching an old friend pass away. I just hope when that day comes, I’ll know its future will be a better place.
Society for the Performing Arts (SPA) recently announced their 2010-2011 Season. The tagline for this season is Experience the Magic, as in the magic of experiencing a live performance. I worked at SPA for almot 5 seasons, and each season featured a handful of performances that were truly magical. The major drawback for you, the patron, was that you probably wouldn’t know much about the performances that had that magic. Furthermore, the most magical performances are those we attend as a leap of faith.
The mainstream patron is going to be drawn to the performances of Buena Vista Social Club, Ira Glass, Drumline LIVE, Handel’s Messiah Rocks, the Peking Acrobats, Blue Man Group, and, of course, David Sedaris. Don’t get me wrong, that is a very entertaining and wonderful line-up of performances, but you should really stretch yourself. If you’re really looking for magic in the Theater District, you’re going to have to get off the beaten path. There’s nothing to be scared of, think of it as a personal adventure full of thrills and excitement.
The first stop on your new adventure should be MOMIX, and their new piece Botanica. MOMIX is a company that combines dance and performance art into a whimsical, ethereal experience for your senses. You might think of it much like Cirque du Soleil, but with a stronger artistic feel. It is important to note MOMIX will be debuting a new piece when they visit October 15-16 at Jones Hall. Unless you travel around the world attending performing arts performances, this is one of those great opportunities to see something new right here in Houston.
If you read the my Curtain Call series covering my years as Group Sales Manager at Society for the Performing Arts, you will remember how much I gushed over Mariza in the final entry, Take a Bow. In any SPA season, there will be at least one musical artist who you’ve never heard of or performs a musical style of which you are unfamiliar with. This is always going to be a performance you need to attend. Whether it was Mariza, Chava Alberstein, Esperanza Spalding or Gilberto Gil, the artists I have discovered through SPA have quickly become some of my favorites. So it with great confidence I can recommend Buika when she arrives for her Houston debut on Friday, November 12 at the Wortham Center’s Cullen Theater. Buika will be absolutely MAGNIFICENT.
The 2010-2011 Season was my last season at SPA to have a behind-the-scenes look at the development of the season. I know much about these artists because of my time working at SPA. I am curious to know how I will feel about next season when I will be like you, unaware of these hidden gems. For instance, I am incredibly excited about seeing Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet because they have been on the radar for a while now. That and, well, I just love seeing new contemporary dance companies. I have now mentioned two dance performances in my little list. That is because dance is one of the most overlooked, yet most rewarding offerings from Society for the Performing Arts. I would also HIGHLY recommend Diavolo this season. They were one of my favorite performers during my stint at SPA.
In the end, the trick to experiencing the magic the folks at SPA are promising you this season is to mix a little of the unknown with your regular favorites. I hope to be a resource for you now and in the future, so comment below if you have questions. I spoke to the Netsquared group back in October about the Theater District, and I’ll close with what I felt was the most important point of my presentation:
If you are not taking advantage of the offerings of the Theater District at least a couple of times a season, you’re missing out on one of the greatest benefits of being a Houstonian. There be magic there, my friends, and SPA is one of many organizations making it available to you. So slip on your glass slippers (or loafers for the guys), and ride your pumpkins to Downtown Houston for a magical evening! It’s as easy as those three magical words . . .
If you’re like me, you’ve been greatly enjoying this wonderful weather over the past week. Indeed, we are just entering one of the best times for weather in Houston all year long. A beautiful three months that ends quickly with the summer heat and humidity.
However, Jack Frost rarely goes quietly in March, and he’ll generally force us to make that last final grab of our sweaters and jackets before all is said and done. It’s funny, I have this large plastic container where I keep my sweaters stored year round. Last winter, thinking Winter had gasped its last dying breath, I put it away in my closet. The next day we got an uncharacteristically late freeze. Yesterday, I only thought about whether it was time to put it away for the year. The temps dropped a good 10-15 degrees. Then, I checked the ABC 13 weekend forecast, and it appears we’re in for a low of 38 Saturday night; what should amount to the last “cold front” of the year.
I tell you this now so that you can stop packing away your winter best, and prep for one final dance with ol’ Jack Frost. And also to ask that you don’t bitch about the weather AGAIN. This is all perfectly normal behavior for the month of March. Savor that last night of the year where you can burrow under the covers before Houston’s balmy summer starts to take over.
I know, you live in Houston, this information might shock you!
I read a few months ago winter would be cold and wet. Amazingly enough, the meteorological community FINALLY got something right. I’ve been reading your status updates and tweets, and I am here to say . . .
ENOUGH is ENOUGH!
I’m going to follow-up this post with how soft I’ve gotten on Houston’s freeways, but today is about the sissies in Houston who can’t take a little cold in winter. You people are PATHETIC! I’m a native, and I am making it through these cold months just fine. Hunker down or move to California! Seriously, I know you think Texas is this wonderfully temperate climate, but this is still home of the Blue Northers!
You know what Blue Northers are, they are those crazy days when you wear shorts, skirts or generally warm weather clothing only to have the temperature drop some 30 degrees in a little less than 20 minutes. WAKE UP! If you live in Houston, and don’t check the weather forecast daily (if not hourly), you have no business living in Houston. There’s a saying about the weather in Houston . . .
If you don’t like the weather, wait a minute, it’ll change.
This is truth, and your constant tweets and status updates are nothing more than a dare to the Great Mother Nature to screw with you HARDCORE! Seriously, SHUT UP! Every time I read one of these status updates (knowing the 5-day forecast), it drives me nuts! If you don’t know the weather in over the next FIVE days, you’re not a real Houstonian. We get REAL weather here in Space City, not like you get it . . .
In Los Angeles: “Yeah, so like, it’s going to be sunny and stuff here in the Southern California idea. Be on the lookout for Brad and Angelina!”
In New York: “What do you care about the weather, it sucks! FUGGEDABOUTIT!”
In Chicago: “It’s going to be windy.”
In Miami: “Hace mucho calor, vive el Super Bowl!”
For the record, any of you sumbitches that complained out the weather this week, everyone on the Eastern Seaboard that will GLADY give you a swift kick in the ass. If you think our rainy, gloomy and cold week was bad, they’ll gladly show you how bad it could be. WAKE UP! Get over yourselves! It’s FEBRUARY, and officially what the ancients called WINTER! It’s going to be COLD.
In all seriousness, no pun intended, CHILL OUT! We just saw the Opening Ceremonies of the WINTER Olympics. This is no time for flip flops and shorts! Embrace a Hot, Buttered Rum and/or the Hot Toddy! While we do live in a semi-tropical climate, we still do get the fortunate, YES FORTUNATE, experience of Winter. Furthermore, if you have a romantic partner, I really do not know what you are complaining about! Who really needs an excuse for extra warmth in the bedroom. I mean, REALLY?!
So, as well continue through what has been promised to be a cold February, Puxsutawney Phil’s forecast notwithstanding, LIVE WITH IT! Everytime you tweet or update your status about the cold weather in Houston, a baby polar bear dies. It’s not fair, but I’m not of the mind to have Houston being the source of polar bears being listed as an endangered species. And, I really like those Coca Cola commercials!
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MGyn0hmTF6A]
So if you want to continue the blatant destruction of the world’s polar bear community, by all means, please update your status and tweet about how cold it is in Houston, TX. The world will certainly sympathize with your plight. God knows it doesn’t get cool anywhere else during the winter months, and your voice should be heard.
I will pause to say, if you do continue to bitch about the cold (and killing polar bear cubs the world round), and continue to bitch when it, believe it or not, gets hot in the summer. I will personally feed you to the mother of said polar bear cub myself.
And always, in the words of Oscar Wilde, remember:
“Conversation about the weather is the last refuge of the unimaginative.”
As the NBA All-Star festivities get under way in Big D this weekend, I just wanted to show a quick comparison of the Houston and Dallas NBA All-Star Weekend logos.
Fortunately, the NFL has enacted a new policy in Super Bowl logos that will prevent something like this from happening in the future. However, just in case. Dallas, you might want to stay away from this design when you start planning for your Super Bowl next year . . .
According to Wikipedia, this is going to be the logo for next year’s Super Bowl. The new format will feature the Lombardi Trophy with the host stadium sitting in the background. I must admit, this is a much cleaner look as the classic roman numeral format was starting to date itself.
Yeah, I’m starting my last Curtain Call with Madonna. I’m gay, sue me!
I’ve been giving a lot of thought about how I was going to feel today, my last day here at Society for the Performing Arts. I had lunch yesterday with some fellow group sales managers, and I have to admit there was a moment there I felt like crying a bit. I’m a real sap when it comes to moving on from something I care so deeply about. Don’t get me wrong, I am incredibly excited about this new adventure I am beginning, but I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t going to miss working in Houston’s Theater District.
That is why I plan on becoming a subscriber this summer. Of all the things I’ve learned from SPA, this is the most important part of the arts I’ll take with me. Right now, all around Houston, there are groups and organizations trying to engage younger audiences. (read: young professionals) I was always of the opinion that if you wanted to possess that level of sophistication that seems to be sought after by so many, the arts is the one place that gives it out freely. Well, once you buy in. That has become the problem in this day and age. The people want the appearance of sophistication that comes from being involved with arts with none of the investment. Give them free wine or some signature cocktail, and the line will be out the door. Ask them to JUST attend a performance? SEE YA!
However, if you become a subscriber, not only do you get first crack at the best seats to any performance, you are invested in the success of the organization. Maybe you skip a few nights out, add a nominal donation to your tickets? Then you start getting invited to cast parties and other special events. All this while having your life enriched by the arts. I can tell you from experience, the coolest events and memorable evenings are found on Facebook or Evite, but in the membership experience. Search those opportunities out. Unwind. Imagine. Escape. That is the theme of SPA’s 2009-2010 Season, and it is something I finally get to experience. Maybe leaving SPA won’t be so bad. I mean, I have seen a rough draft of next season, I’m going to have some fun!
Only one more thing to address before I end my curtain call. An Encore, if you will. I saw many artists from around the world in my five seasons with Society for the Performing Arts. My favorites were among the many mentioned in other curtain calls. However, there was one single artists that stood out from the crowd, and she represents everything I love about SPA. Her name is Mariza, and she is a fado singer from Portugal. You’ve probably not heard of her. I hadn’t when SPA first presented her during the 2007-2008 Season. I didn’t stay for her first performance, I opted out to attend a get together in my neighborhood. As it happened, a couple from my neighborhood attended the performance that night, and stopped by the party afterward. They gushed about the performance. I received the same review from my mother, I recommended Mariza to them for their subscription. “It was the best performance I have ever seen.” Now while my mother is prone to hyperbole after most SPA performances, this was the first time she was truly blown away.
Fado is Portuguese Blues. The musical style is very much a part of the cultural fabric of Portugal. The songs were lamentations of women over their husbands, sons and brothers leaving for war. Mariza has literally resurrected the art form, becoming the world authority of the genre. When SPA signed her on for the 2009-2010 Season, I was very excited about attended a performance I should not have missed the first time around. However, as it inevitably happens when you are working a performance, the urge to call it an early night to go home was pulling strongly on me. “Only a few songs, I’ll leave after the first break.” (There was no intermission) I sat down next to a co-worker on aisle WA to watch the performance. Over an hour later, when the performance had ended, I walked out of the theater. I couldn’t leave, I was in awe. I had listened to her music over the past two years, but hearing it live was truly mesmerizing. She is a delightful presence on stage. Furthermore, I have a very strong desire to see her perform in Portugal. While I enjoyed the performance immensely, it occurred to me it’s grandest form would only be achieved in the homeland of her art form. That said, I HIGHLY recommend, should your travels take you to Portugal, to make a point to search Mariza out while you are there.
Mariza was one of many performances where I left disappointed that more people had not been there to witness them. It was a steady reminder that you must take risks to discover hidden treasures. Every SPA season featured these hidden gems. I look forward, as an SPA patron, to discovering them this season and beyond.
My fourth season with Society for the Performing Arts will be remembered as much for what happened on stage as it did off stage. It began in the summer of 2008 when I discovered Aspen Santa Fe Ballet was going to be performing in Dallas on the same weekend I had planned a visit to see my brother. Catching Aspen Santa Fe Ballet in Dallas marked the first of two occasions during the 2008-2009 season where I got to see a artist before they performed in Houston. The season started a two weeks after Hurricane Ike with Patti LaBelle. Truth be told, I cracked up a bit post Ike, and ended up taking the week off to get my head on straight.
2008-2009 was also our best NiteSPA Season. We kicked off our slate with Jose Porcel. The cast party we held at Corkscrew after the performance was one of the best I’ve attended. I highly recommend getting involved with any organization that presents dance here in Houston, particularly if you have access to cast parties. Dancers are simply TOO much fun to hang out with!
The highlight of this season did not happed in Jones Hall. Hell, it didn’t even happen in HOUSTON! I had the wonderful and fortunate opportunity to travel to Tel Aviv for the Dance Israel conference. What made this trip so special from a SPA standpoint was that I got to see Batsheva Dance Company in Israel about a week before they were set to perform in Houston! It was a good thing too, because I was passed out in the Jones Hall Green Room during their performance as my jet lag finally knocked me flat. It was this experience, in addition to my trip to Dallas to see Aspen Santa Fe ballet, that taught me how important it was to experience the arts in other places besides Houston.
The 2008-2009 also featured what is arguably my favorite performance of my entire time here at Society for the Performing Arts. Alvin Ailey Dance Company comes to Houston every three to four seasons. It is something you should take the time to see any time they visit. Revelations, the piece from the video above, is a true classic of American choreography. They perform it EVERY time they come to Houston. HINT: It’ll be the third act of the performance. I missed catching Revelations when they visited in 2006. I was not going to miss it this time. While it was better than I had anticipated; it’s a thing of legend for those who have had the opportunity to see it, the real treat was watching it backstage during the final performance of their run. I know I’ll be in the audience when they return to Houston in the future.
The theme for Society for the Performing Arts 2007-2008 season was Live the Adventure. I want to say I was part of the discussion that came up with that tag line. My memories of this season are more anecdotal. The 2007-2008 Season started much like the previous season, with a legendary comedienne, Lily Tomlin. Please pause for a gratuitous celebrity photograph.
Yeah, that’s a shameful photograph, not going to deny it. This is also the only picture I have with an SPA artist. Like our evening with Carol Burnett, we had a post performance soiree on the Jones Hall stage. The highlight for me was having the opportunity to escort Ms. Tomlin across Texas Avenue to the Lancaster Hotel at the end of evening.
On of my personal highlights of this season was getting to watch Julio Bocca’s final dance performance in Houston with my mother. My parents became subscribers shortly after I started working at SPA. On the evening of Thursday, November 1, 2007, my father was out of town on business. My mother was going to exchange their tickets for another performance, but I urged her to attend this performance for the simple fact that it was one of those once in a lifetime opportunities that SPA presents from time to time.
The most enduring memory I’ll take from this season, if not my entire tenure at SPA, was the evening of Saturday, February 16, 2008 after the presentation of Ladysmith Black Mambazo. For this performance, I had the most enjoyable opportunity to work with the Kipp Shine Academy. They brought a group of 300 students to see the performance. In one of those great coincidences, a music teacher at Kipp had chosen to teach the children about the work of Joseph Shabalala, founder of Ladysmith Black Mambazo. She became incredibly excited when she discovered SPA would be presenting them that semester. After working out the details, she was able to raise enough money to bring the students to see this performance. Not only were the students learning about the music of Ladysmith, they started tracking the group as their tour brought them closer and closer to Houston.
On the evening of the performance, thunderstorms were rumbling around the Greater Houston area. This delayed the Kipp students’ departure from the school in Southwest Houston. As a group sales manager, there is nothing you fear more than a large group arriving at the hall late. Here we were 20 minutes before the start of the performance, and they still hadn’t shown up. However, when the bus finally arrived, with 15 minutes to spare, the students dutifully lined up, and marched their little selves into Jones Hall like a tiny army. Less than 10 minutes after entering the theater, all 300 of the little tykes were quietly seated, ready for the performance. I’ve never seen anything like it! But the biggest surprise of all came after the performance. We had arranged for Mr. Shabalala and the rest of the group to meet the students after the performance. When he came up to the second floor to meet them, they broke into a South African hymn. Parents, teachers and even members of the group broke into tears. I was right there with them, of course, and even get a little weepy as I type this. It was the most special moment of my time here at Society for the Performing Arts. It didn’t hurt that I was later invited back to the Kipp Academy to shine their Big Book of Shine, an honor bestowed upon adults who have helped the kids in some special way.
I’ll close with truly crazy backstage moment from this season. Murray Perahia, conductor of Academy of St. Martin in the Fields, was injured prior to his performance here in Houston. Fortunately for Houston audiences, we were able to bring in the founding conductor, Sir Neville Marriner. If the injury to Mr. Perahia wasn’t enough, Sir Neville impaled his left hand with his baton during rehearsals on the day of the performance. Yes, the baton went straight through his hand! With patent flair, Sir Neville refused to be taken to the hospital until after the rehearsal had ended. So you see, it is true what they say: The show must go on!
My second season at Society for the Performing Arts was memorable in a LOT of ways. SPA was also celebrating its 40th Anniversary. For a guy like me, who writes about Houston and the things that make it a great city, being a part of this momentous occasion was one of the highlights of my time at SPA. Permit me a short history lesson.
Society for the Performing Arts was created in 1966 shortly after the opening of the Jesse H. Jones Hall for the Performing Arts. When it opened, it remained dark, or not in use. City leaders, including Mr. Jones himself, set forth to create an organization that would present a series of performing artists to fill the hall’s empty dates. Forty years later, SPA has become the largest performing arts presenter of its kind in the southwest, and has presented more than 800 performances in Houston’s Theater District. That’s a lot of dancing, singing, banging, drumming, joking, conducting and playing!
The ’06-”07 Season opened on what became one of the more interesting nights of my life, and featured my first true moment of being in the presence of a true legend. We opened our season that year with Carol Burnett. It was a spur of the moment gig that she put together to raise money for her daughter’s playhouse in California. She did a three-show tour of Texas with the Houston stop coming on Friday, September 29, 2006. The performance that night looked a little like this:
There was a cast party on the Jones Hall stage with Ms. Burnett after the performance. Those on-stage cast parties are going to be one of the things I’ll miss most.
Speaking of cast parties, we always seemed to have more fun with those dance companies, and two companies Hubbard Street Dance Chicago and Tania Perez-Salas, provided two very memorable evenings. Hubbard Street hit Houston on Saturday, October 14, 2006. There was a cast party at a local gallery after the performance. As we got to talking to some of the dancers, the idea to take the party to Rich’s (when it was still gay) was thrown out, and readily accepted by the dancers. Well, you know how it goes . . . “after the show is the after party, after the party is the hotel lobby . . .” A coworker and I ended up back at the hotel with the company. Now I would LOVE to regale you with a hot story with deliciously salacious details, but we simply ended up hanging out in their rooms, chatting it up. The most exciting part of this story is the sun was rising in the east when I grabbed my car out of valet to head home for the evening. Not sure what I would have done had the opportunity presented itself that night, and little did I know I would be given such an opportunity less than a month later.
Saturday, November 4, 2006. Another dance performance, another cast party. I should tell you that Hubbard Street was something of a breakthrough for me when it came to dance. I discovered during that performance the kind of dance I enjoyed. I came into this night with an anticipation I had not yet felt for a dance performance. They did not disappoint. The piece pictured above was particularly memorable. The cast party was held at the home of one of our board members. Over the course of the evening, I got into an argument with one of my coworkers about our obligations when going out with artists after a performance. I was of the mind that if we took them somewhere, we were responsible to get them back to the hotel. He believed they were adults, and fully capable of getting home on their own. In the end, we were both right and both wrong. In any case, one of the dancers misunderstood the argument to be about which one of us was going to get the opportunity to, um, get to know him better. I ended up leaving the cast party with this dancer, and heading to (surprise, surprise) Guava Lamp. Me, being your faithful Houston tour guide, just wanted to show this dancer what our gay bars had to offer. However, once we got to Guava and ordered drinks, I CRASHED. It was just a LONG week, I guess, and I suggested we head out. The conversation in the car on the way back to the hotel went little something like this,
Dancer: Where are we going now?
Me: I’m taking you back to your hotel.
Dancer: I thought we were going back to your place . . .
Me: Oh no baby, I’m going home to go to SLEEP.
AWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW-kward!
The conversation was null and void after that exchange. He silently got out of my car, and walked into the hotel. I took my happy ass home to sleep the sleep of a thousand nights.
As I state above, the 2006-2007 Season helped me begin to appreciate the artistic side of what SPA presents. That moment of clarity came towards the end of that season during our presentation of Diavolo. A local non-profit booked a private performance through me as their annual fundraiser. I got the chance to watch Diavolo from the super secret viewing booth in the back of the Cullen Theater. While watching their final piece, Trajectoire pictured above, I was overcome with a sense of awe that brought me to tears.
It might have been my happiest moment as an employee of Society for the Performing Arts. Well, at least until that one night during the 2007-2008 season . . .
Catching Aspen Santa Fe Ballet in Dallas marked the first of two occasions during the 2008-2009 season where I got to see a artist before they performed in Houston. The season started a two weeks after Hurricane Ike with Patti LaBelle. Truth be told, I cracked up a bit post Ike, and ended up taking the week off to get my head on straight.
