BO C’EST TRES BEAU The Denmark-based BoConcept has added a Houston location to its international collection of 170 stores and studios. Located at 4302 Westheimer, the 11,500-square-foot furniture store offers contemporary, urban-style furniture (including the pieces in photo). The on-site “New York Loft” illustrates how small spaces can be decorated for optimum effectiveness.
SUSTAINING SPIRITS. Plans are well underway for the sixth annual Kindred Spirits Celebration, a reunion of the friends and family who frequented that fabled ’80s era women’s bar (and those who wish they had), owned by Marion Coleman (pictured here on right, applauding with organizing committee member Renee Tappe at the 2006 event).
Director Maureen McNamara created Hot Town, Cool City —a docu-ode to our fair city—as a means of answering the outsider question, “Why Houston?” True, on the surface, this is an industrial town, a place someone moves to only if seeking a profession in the petroleum game, or big medicine, or to shuffle off to the space shuttle. You hold your breath at every game, praying it won’t be another bitter defeat. It’s a town where you curse the oppressive humidity in August and wear short sleeves and sandals in December. But beyond all that is a sophisticated, international soul with an edgy, avant-garde,
Mak Chin’s is a casual restaurant serving pan-Asian fare in a modified self-serve fashion—diners order at the counter, but servers bring food to the table (think Pei Wei). Mak Chin’s is also a stylish bar catering to the lean and thirsty twenty-somethings that are increasingly drawn to the rapidly gentrifying Washington/Shepherd district. (Fortunately, the bar side seems to have shed any lingering frat-boy-on-a-bender karma in the redo of its old Richard Head’s location—hint: try the diminutive of the first name to get the full back-slapping impact of the popularly used moniker for that watering hole.)
Author and resident OutSmart wellness advisor Alan Davidson greets the spring with the release this month of Body Brilliance: Mastering Your Five Vital Intelligences.
You’d think that being an AIDS advocate in his hometown of Chicago would keep this crooner busy enough. But no. Hayford also found time to not only play piano and do all the vocals on this collection of obscure Cole Porter tunes, but also to arrange them. De-lovely! From LML Music (www.lmlmusic.com). — Preview: Nancy Ford
Attorney Mitchell Katine presents a free seminar on wills and probate on Mar. 1, 6-8 p.m., at the offices of his firm, Williams, Birnberg & Andersen, L.L.P. (2000 Bering Dr., Suite 909). Details: 713/225-5321.
After making a significant impression with her independently released 2004 album, The Color and the Light, out singer/songwriter Jennifer O’Connor has returned with her major label debut, Over the Mountain, Across the Valley and Back to the Stars (Matador). O’Connor visits familiar territory on her musical journey, such as love and family, but her uncommon approach to transforming it into something musical—”the bumpy ride through space and time” of “Complicated Rhyme,” for instance—is what makes the trip such a memorable one. I spoke to O’Connor last September
Oh, how we love Queen Latifah. She can serve up a Hip-Hop refrain with luster like the dirtiest ol’ bastard, yet simultaneously inspire sistahs to new heights with the magnificence of Oprah.
When lobbyists and concerned citizens join together at the state capitol to engage Texas lawmakers for Lobby Day 2007 on March 5, they will have plenty to discuss.
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