Arts and Entertainment

Celebrating Día de los Muertos in Houston: MECA Makes an Impact

A local nonprofit is involving local Houston communities in the exploration and appreciation of Latinx culture with its annual festival celebrating Día de los Muertos. Multicultural Education and Counseling through the Arts (MECA) hosts the annual event that boasted upwards of 10,000 visitors in 2017. The festival runs for two days in late October and offers festival-goers the chance to experience various facets of Latinx traditions, including food, music and crafts. 

Perfect Imperfections: VADA and Comp Sci senior Priyanka Jain

The walls of Priyanka Jain’s studio flow with pink and purple. From a distance, her in-progress piece looks like an ocean wave made of tiny trapezoids. Up close, you’ll find that each trapezoid is slightly different from the one next to it. Jain, a Will Rice College senior studying computer science and visual and dramatic arts, says these slight imperfections are exactly what she is going for.

Spotify and Horrify: 10 songs that are actually scary

Halloween “scary” has become cliche when it comes to music. Real spooks come from multiple aspects that are much deeper and can be conveyed deeper in music. They tap into personal, distressing fears.

Immigration-focused ‘CAN – YOU – DREAM – AMERICA’ opens Inferno Gallery

The Sewall Hall courtyard is often home to strange sounds, and Thursday evening was no exception. Laughter mingled with soft indie music and juxtaposed with the sharp, peculiar clanging noise of falling forks as students and visitors took in Inferno Gallery’s first fall opening, “CAN – YOU – DREAM – AMERICA.”

The Threadsher Exclusive: Talking style, fashion ethics with Matthew Lim

Season three of “Daredevil”: Darker and more impressive than ever

The third season of the Marvel show “Daredevil,” released Oct. 19, delivers as the finest installment yet. Its intricate yet bleak story provides a powerful emotional frame that serves as some of the most impressive superhero storytelling seen outside of comic book panels.

Quavo flounders without his fellow Migos on “Quavo Huncho”

R2’s Fall Open Mic Night: A nest of creativity

Rainbow fairy lights hung from the ceiling, enshrouding the room in a soft glow.  Artists of all crafts lounged on the blue couches of Lyle’s while munching on Thai Spice, pita chips and cookies. R2, Rice’s literary magazine, created this atmosphere for its fall Open Mic Night last Thursday at 7 p.m. in Lyle’s within the basement of Lovett College. 

Get goosebumps with 'Netflix and Chills'

It’s spoopy season — a time for pumpkin carving, trick or treating and “Hocus Pocus” reruns. But, if you’re anything like me, you want more out of your October than wholesome spooks and friendly ghouls. You crave the most petrifying scares, the goriest misfortunes and the creepiest tales. 

Curving Bodies: Featuring VADA and Policy Studies Senior, Miranda Morris

For McMurtry College senior Miranda Morris, art is a way to explore the human body. Her studio is a collection of portrayals of the curves and shadows formed by shoulders, arms and torsos. In one corner, a charcoal sketch of an elbow propped against a knee. In another, a golden sculpture of a foot curved against a woman’s face.

Freaky Deaky: DJs to look out for

The whole point of a music festival is to walk around and explore the acts around you to discover more artists to love. However, for festival goers looking for a sure way to enjoy themselves, these three artists are going to deliver a ticket money’s worth and then some. 

A Survival Guide for Freaky Deaky

PLURR stands for peace, love, unity, respect and responsibility and embodies the spirit of rave culture care – maybe Dean Hutch wasn’t thinking big enough when he came up with the three R’s.

Korean Festival Houston: A Celebration of Heritage in the Heart of Houston

Worldbuilding: ‘She Kills Monsters’ brings fantasy to its cast and audience

What can fantasy tell us about reality? We are often told that fantasy is the opposite of reality, an imagined, idealized world existing solely in one’s dreams. What is often lost in that analysis is the opportunity for us to uncover the circumstances of one’s reality that inform and create their fantasies. What battles are we losing that we can win only in our imaginations?

Daiso opening brings Japanese whimsy to Houston

A sock for a water bottle, a hammock for bathroom items, slippers that clean the floor as you walk – these are some of the many items one can find in Daiso, the most recent Asian craze to enter the Houston scene since 85C Bakery Cafe. Daiso is a Japanese dollar store that has an international presence. But to call it a dollar store does not do it justice, because Daiso is more than an exporter of Japanese commercial items – it’s an exporter of Japanese lifestyle. 

MFAH’s ‘Tudors to Windsors’: A detailed view into an incomplete history

“Tudors to Windsors: British Royal Portraits from Holbein to Warhol” is not only the Museum of Fine Arts Houston’s latest exhibit, but also clearly a point of particular pride. Through an exclusive partnership with the National Portrait Gallery in London, the MFAH can now boast that it is the only U.S. venue to host the impressively numbered collection, most of which has never been viewed outside of the United Kingdom. The works’ unprecedented display is enthusiastically emphasized in the exhibit’s catalogue, advertisements and opening text. 

Colors and Code: Featuring VADA and COMP Senior, Si Si Zimmerman

A step inside the four walls of Baker College senior Si Si Zimmerman’s senior studio is like a step into a world of curved lines, each one arched along another and containing endless possibilities. There are paintings bursting with color, drawings composed solely of black ink on stark white paper and sculptures molded into shapes that have yet to be named. 

Gaga and Cooper successfully revitalize ‘A Star is Born’

“A Star is Born” is a refreshing, honest take on a vintage love story. Its lead performers’ career-defining work and its emotionally-devastating moments will undoubtedly move crowds everywhere. 

BROCKHAMPTON delivers a high energy ‘I'll Be There’ performance

The setlist of BROCKHAMPTON’s “I’ll Be There Tour” was a perfect mix of fresh new songs and iconic older songs. Even without Vann, the band carried on, making energetic music and delivering exuberant performances.

Texas Contemporary Art Fair: A little too dazzling

The fair, condensed almost entirely on a single, open floor, featured a dizzying array of subjects and styles; portraits inspired by West African Ankara wax prints competed for air against what I can only describe as a conclave of Jaeger-drinking teddy bears.