Of course, it being the holidays and all (not to mention Houston in general; when people gripe about this city, they fail to recognize that in a place this big, there's always something cool going on, somewhere. There's literally a festival every freaking weekend in some part of the city, some film being shown at a microcinema somewhere, some band rocking out to a too-small crowd of hipsters, or some art crew displaying their stuff.

You may have to look for it -- for the art stuff, btw, I'd heartily recommend Spacetaker.org; they list a ton of stuff I'd never hear of otherwise -- and you may have to drive a little bit, but hell, this is Houston. If you're not driving, you're obviously just visiting the neighbors three houses down. We may not be a tourist-friendly town (as the wife's Swedish relatives, who'd come here expecting to be able to tour the city via mass transit -- hah! -- can attest), but fuck that. Who wants a horde of tourists roaming around, anyway? Instead, we get to keep the cool local happenings all to our local selves.

Today, for example, there appear to be a ton of Christmas/art markets going on. There's the Winter Holiday Art Market at Winter Street Studios (2101 Winter Street) from 12-8:30PM (it's also going on tomorrow from 12-5PM), and another, Mistletoe Madness at 548 West 19th from 12PM 'til I dunno when and featuring a caroling contest (& a shuttle to the WHAM). Both sound very cool, and I suspect they're just the tip of the iceberg.

The one that's really caught my eye, though, is the 4th Annual Taft Street Art Market, which is held over in Montrose at Ecclesia/Taft Street Coffee (2115 Taft @ Welch) and runs from 10AM (i.e., right now) to 5PM. There's reportedly piles of arty stuff for perusal and/or sale, from clothes to soap to ornaments to photo prints, all(?) by local artists, craftspeople, & entrepreneurs. I can't speak for everybody, but I've been trying to come up with a cool, artsy gift for the wife (esp. since she keeps telling me not to buy her any jewelry or anything expensive...sigh), and this seems like the perfect place to look. Gonna have to hit it myself in a little while, I think...

Labels: Arty Shit, Charitable Things, H-Town News, Public Service Announcements, Things To Do, Things To Get, Things To See

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