The Houston Ballet is performing Dracula, a dramatic ballet based on the well-known Transylvanian legend of blood, lust and pointy teeth.

I’m envisioning black and red satin en pointe, along with ghostly pale faces and glimmers of sharp incisors. The reviews have been great – let us know if you make one of the September 21 – October 1 shows!

For all you foodies who love to cook – have you checked out Penzey’s Spices ( 516 W 19th St. ) yet? It is a homey and amazingly scented shop dedicated to nothing but herbs and spices for your cooking and consumption pleasure.

If you are already a fan of their catalog, you’ll love being able to actually smell the spices you are buying. I guess scratch-n-sniff tecnhnologies haven’t made it big yet in the spice world :)

Because I personally like to cheat when cooking my own curries, I went just for a bag of sweet curry powder (see spice wheel above) and barely escaped without a bagful of other spices. Soooo tempting. It’s worth a trip, especially as you know you’ve got that 2-year-old bottle of oregano that you’ve been meaning to replace.

Remember all of the hurricane ordeal last year? It’s this time of year again.

I’m sure we had all kinds of experiences with Hurricane Rita. We haven’t even finished taking care of and giving relief to those who came to Houston from Hurricane Katrina, and now we had to deal with Hurricane Rita (just 3 weeks later).

Some people think Hurricane Rita was a tease, others thought it was RITArded, and still others think Houston still has a long way to go, in terms of preparation for future hurricane evacuations.

For me, at least, the whole thing felt ridiculous, and I was frustrated. Since I live way out (in Friendswood and Clear Lake area), we were ordered to evacuate. And what do you know, I think I spent at least 24 hours on the road getting out of Houston and returning home to Houston. I wish I had photographs, but I was watching people acting very much like ants–hoarding carts and carts of water, tanks of gas, nonperishable food, and hygienic items. I find it scarier to meet cars (or drivers really) fighting each other for gas at gas stations than the whole evacuation itself.

Plus, I think we coined a new term for the dictionary. Instead of “major traffic,” it’s now called gridlock.
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The Metblog family is sponsoring a theme in the awesome JPG digital photography magazine called ‘Hometown‘. All submitted photos will be voted on by the photog community and winners will be featured in the November issue.

“Home is not just about where you’re from – it’s also about where you’ve chosen to be. What does your hometown look like, and how does it feel?”

Represent our fair city and let us see how you view H-Town! Don’t forget to post your Houston photos to the Houston Metblog Flickr group too…

Photo thanks to Notsuoh Photography!

I happened to notice that local watering hole Volcano is sponsoring a cross decorating silent-auction fundraiser for La Rosa/The Rose, a non-profit that helps abused Hispanic women and their children. You can pick up a cross at Volano, bring it back and it will be auctioned off for the silent auction on El Dia Del Muerto, Nov. 1st, 2006.

If you’re interested in decorating a cross to be auctioned, drop by Volcano at 2349 Bissonnet and pick one up or call 713-526-5282. The festivities are slated for Wednesday, Nov. 1st with a preview party from 5-7, with silent auction following from 7-9. Admission is $5 for adults, free for kids.

The Christian Rock band, from South Africa famous for their song, “Blessed be your name” would be performing at Sugarland, for Haiti’s Children Benefit.

They will be performing at 2140 First Colony Blvd Sugar Land, TX 77479. The tickets, Cost $20.00 and you can contact :281-980-7070 for further information

Feel like watching something irreverantly funny, bitingly honest and uber-political? Get Your War On, the Rude Mechanicals’ adaptation of the online comic, is performing at DiverseWorks September 21-30 with a workshops scheduled for September 25 and 26.

Political theater is fun! Check out the Austin Metblogs’ review of this Austin-based group’s show and buy your tickets asap as they will most definitely be sold out and you will be left home crying into your pillow.

In celebration of the Orange Show‘s (2402 Munger St.) 25th anniversary, they are holding angeshow.org/events.html”>Car Wars, a funtastic *free* car show and breakdance competition from 1-6pm today.

Check out local art cars, lowriders and custom bikes as they compete for prizes and make the rest of our vehicles look boring and crappy. The breakdancers will also be competing for cash money and a chance to perform at the upcoming Orange Show Gala. Should be a cool time…

I’ve seen its all. At the least I believe so, when it comes to movies and movie going. Crowds, noise, different people, the hero worship, naked women(in the audience) and sometimes being crazy enough to watch the movie without even understanding the language it was dubbed into. Theaters, movie theaters.
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I’ve never been so keen for museums, expect after reading some novels involving them in the recent years. Houston has some of the best museums, and even though I wont be able to cover them all today, I’ll try and stick to just one museum and try to see it all. I just realized that a~lotus had just made a post regarding the same, right below.

Here are some other direct links for parking access and the other for location, hours and contact information for these institutions. And if you just happen to see, a really tired, weird looking guy just clicking at everything and anything, don’t fret it just might be me.