arts + events + social media musings
Imagine my glee when I received my fav arts eNewsletter, Flavorpill’s Artkrush, and slathered across the header was Houston: Art on the Bayou. Double take! Yup, us! Wheee! ‘Bout dang time, y’all.
Check out the lead story on Houston’s “long-established, internationally recognized art scene.” Thanks for noticing, FP.
For more Flavorpill Culture eNewsletters, check this.
I first heard about Amy Krause Rosenthal from my friend, and uber talented photog, Karen Walrond. Karen showed me the following video last week, and then shared with me that the creator of this video will be in Houston this Tuesday, to recreate the event here. Rosenthal created the video as an experiment to follow her video 17 Things I Made
I triple dog dare you to watch this video and not feel a little twinge of something. Anything. Lovely.
Please help me spread the word. And hope to see you there on Tuesday to help beckon lovely. Because there can never be enough lovely in the world.
WHERE: Blue Willow Bookshop, 14532 Memorial Drive (phone: 281.497.8675)
WHEN: Tuesday March 31st, 6:00-7:00 pm
WHO: Nice, interesting people like you
WHY: To feel like wow, that was an exceptionally well-spent hour
WHY NOT: Exactly.
Every fall and spring when I see flyers for the Westheimer Block Party I’m reminded of being young and attending the Westheimer Arts Festival. It was my very first exposure to Montrose and I remember thinking that that strip of Westheimer must always be a circus. Later, realizing it was just one weekend out of the year. Yes, the Westheimer Arts festival used to be a weekend long. A weekend I would look forward to every year, because it was the one time my parents would let us get hair beads, and temporary tatoos, and let us congregate with shirtless men with pythons slithering on their necks. I remember, even at that young age, feeling like I was experiencing something very special. Very unique. Very Houston.
Check out the now music-based Westheimer Block Party this Saturday. $20 gets you 20 bands at 4 venues. Wristsbands available at all venues: Avant Garden (Helio’s), Numbers, La Strada, and Mango’s.
Hit up new-ish Contents Boutique in the Heights tomorrow night, Wednesday, March 25th, from 5:30 – 7:30 p.m. for an event benefiting Dress for Success Houston.
DFS Women of Wardrobe invites you to make room in your closet by donating either a gently worn suit or $20. Sip, socialize and shop spring clothing and accessories – 25% of proceeds go to help out of work women land jobs. For more info, call 713.957.3779.
Women of Wardrobe is a group of young professional women whose mission is to support Dress for Success through volunteerism and fundraising. The membership year starts again in June 2009, and the dues are $75, the cost of a new suit. Members get into all of the year’s events for free, and drinks and bites at all the events on top of that!
Really looking forward to this, a great cause. I feel like I haven’t been out in ages. This no drinking thing for Lent is really a downer. I suppose crucifixtion wasn’t the bees’ knees either.
Two weeks after the Mom 2.0 Summit wrapped up, as I was continuing to catch up on 3 months loss of sleep and eating things other than the Weight Watchers + Quaker Oats swag bags items (which both, by the way are excellent–chocolate and raspberry True Delight Bars FTW!!), me + Maggie + the Kirtsy gals reunited again in Boulder, CO, for the much anticipated nuptials of our dear friend + fellow Kirtsy Gal, Gwen Bell.
Gwen, and her lovely fiancé Joel Longtine, had been quite the talk of the Twitterverse + Social Media world, ever since their love affair bloomed online for all to see last year. They embraced it, and continued to celebrate the role that technology has played in their relationship.
I’ll never forget the first conversation I had with Gwen about Joel. It was June, and Gwen was in town for the Caroline Collective opening party. I could tell she was bursting at the seams to share a bit of information with me, but I couldn’t tell what. When she began talking about Joel, and their initial courtship, I swear I never saw it coming, from the one who I gab with about technology, and business ideas, and social media. The one who we could talk for hours on the importance of brand, and community, and Mexican food. Never did I expect that the news she was so excited to tell me. was. about. a boy.
This boy, who I would over the next few months, get to know as a caring, loving, intelligent, lovely person. This boy, who had turned this girl on her head, and allowed her to experience true companionship. I watched as a strong partnership was formed. Amidst skeptics, and drama, and naysayers. I watched. As these two friends shared their lives. Online. Offline. Who made their networks of friends and acquaintances a part of their relationship.
On my 30th birthday, Oct 5th, I got a text message: Joel Proposed! It was a wonderful ancillary birthday gift. And over the next 5 months, I looked on as they planned the celebration of the beginning of their lives together. A day I was so fortunate to be a part of.
So as I traveled to Boulder, a town I once called home, what seems like decades ago, I was ever conscious of the relationship I was in at that time. And how much I have grown as a person. And how these two technology-clad lovers have shown me that love does exist. Even with wires, and no wires, and http’s and twitterstreams, iPhone applications, and custom gmail scripts. At the end of the day it’s still love. And it’s bold.
It’s been over a month since the first annual Mom 2.0 Summit in Houston. I’m sure most of you have heard me talk slash blog slash tweet about for the last six months or so.
Being that this year was the first year of the conference, it seems myself, along with the other conference organizers, had to do a lot of convincing of people to “trust us, this is going to be phenomenal.” The downtrodden economy was against us from the get go. But we forged on, with our insightful sponsors, dream-like speakers, and brave attendees. Hey, we know it was a gamble. You didn’t know what to expect. Honestly, neither did we.
Instead of spending a post recapping all of the best moments of this year’s summit, as so many great bloggers have already done, (Holly Buchanan + Glennia Campbell have 2 of my favs!) I decided to suggest why you should NOT attend the Mom 2.0 Summit.
Is 1/4 of the year REALLY almost over? Geez. You blink and you miss 3 months. Well, I haven’t been doing much blinking (nor blogging) in the last 3 months. Mostly just trying to stay sane, awake, and healthy. I’ve failed pretty miserably at 2 out of three of those. Sleep hasn’t come so easy, though.
So, yeah. It’s been awhile since I’ve cranked up the old Wordpress. Looks like she’s still working fine. Whew! I could come up with tons of excuses for not posting for awhile, but I think when you are done with reading the next few posts (yes, shooting for a marathon session today), you’ll form your own opinion. And hopefully, it’s of the opinion that you’re glad I’m blogging again. Because, well, I am glad to be blogging again. And we should get along just fine.
There’s so much to share and I’m really not sure where to start. The majority of this year has been consumed by the amazing, wonderful, successful the 2009 Mom 2.0 Summit, who will get her own post, as she deserves. Sprinkled in will be weddings (yes, 13 this year; 3 down, 10 to go!); new projects, all of which I’m extremely excited about!; and lots of new, big changes (and one little one).
Some tibits before I jump in:
Me: “Hey, I’ve been meaning to tell you and Dad that Andrew’s band, Runaway Sun, is playing at the House of Blues next week.”
Mom: (totally unphased) “Yeah, I know I saw it on his Facebook wall. The Battle of the Bar Bands.”
Me: (surprised she even knew what a wall was) “Oh, um, yeah. Cool.”
Mom: “Yeah, and his mom and sister are coming in from Lubbock for the show.”
Me: (nodding like I knew that, but really didn’t) “Um, yeah. So I guess you’re in the loop on that. Great.”
With that, I’ll jump into a few more dedicated posts to some awesome events that deserve their own space.
March Madness with Dr. Sketchy!!
All right, lads and lasses. Can you really think of a better way to spend a Sunday than with some crazy artists and a really awesome life model?
What: Houston Sketchy March life drawing
When: Sunday, March 8th 2-6pm
Where: upstairs at Avant Garden (411 Westheimer)
We’ve got another AMAZING male model (the rock star Shawn – local coffee guru, man about town and seasoned life model) to get your drawing chops into gear!
Wear your St. Paddy’s Day green (or we WILL pinch you and you know it’s true), watch out for sneaky leperchauns and prepare for one kick ass afternoon of sketching and chilling.
Copyright © 2010 CosmoPolitician All rights reserved. Theme by Laptop Geek.