Gish Picks: Week of May 5, 2010

Click here for more information about The Summer Book® 2010!

Click here to visit the Hollywood Frame Gallery website

WHAT'S NEW THIS WEEK?

It’s all about mom for me this week: my mom, me as a mom, moms everywhere…I’m ready to celebrate all that the word MOM embodies. When I think of “MOM,” however, sometimes I think it’s an acronym for “Mostly Out of my Mind” but more often I think of all the joys and all the heartache and all the chaos and all the fun that come with being a mom. And Mother’s Day makes me appreciate my own mom so much more -- in fact, I’m taking her out for lunch on Sunday. I hope this weekend that you’ll do something special for yourself (if you are a mom) and your mom or other moms you know.

For inspiration on Mother’s Day, I have a few suggestions. Read Julia Ward Howe’s “Mother’s Day Proclamation”; Howe wrote “The Battle Hymn of the Republic” and is responsible for creating Mother’s Day. Notice that her proclamation ends in the word “peace” – need I say more? StoryCorps just released Mom: A Celebration of Mothers from StoryCorps and two friends of mine have released new books about the delicate balance of mothering and parenting and ordinary living: Healthy Mother, Healthy Child: Creating Whole Families from the Inside Out and A Moment’s Peace: A Mom’s Guide to Creating Calm Amidst Chaos by Beth Irvine; and Hand Wash Cold: Care Instructions for an Ordinary Life by Karen Maezen Miller. Beth will be at Kuhl-Linscomb tomorrow night at 6pm with Dress for Success to launch her book and Karen will be at the Rothko Chapel this Saturday at 2pm discussing how to create Zen in an ordinary life.

Happy Mother’s Day!

ENJOY A SPECIAL CLASSICAL MUSIC PERFORMANCE FOR FAMILIES.

Take your kids back in time with Mercury Baroque and “The Adventure of Baroque Music,” presented this Saturday, May 8 at 10:30am at the Wortham Center, Cullen Theatre. It’s 1704 and England is at war with France. In England, Queen Anne’s orchestra is quickly running out of Arundo Donax, the French wood that is used to make reeds. Without more Arundo Donax, the orchestra’s Oboists and Bassoonists can’t play their instruments. Queen Anne dispatches her young subjects Frances and Edward on a journey across Europe to track down this important wood. From Venice to Versailles, Frances and Edward encounter the people and music that ruled Europe. Will they succeed in their mission? Will Queen Anne’s orchestra be able to perform? “The Adventure of Baroque Music” is the perfect performance to introduce your children to classical music in a fun and engaging way!

Tickets are $12/each and can be purchased online or by phone at 713.533.0080.

POLKA YOUR EYES OUT AT SENGELMANN HALL.

I love historic buildings, especially German ones since my dad was a Texas German historian, so my husband and I made the drive out to the recently restored historic Sengelmann Hall in Schulenburg one weekend to see Ray Wylie Hubbard and it was so worth it! This week I am recommending you gas ‘er up, grab mom, and get out of town for their special “Polka Sunday Mother's Day Brunch” this Sunday, May 9. The brunch/lunch is on from 11am-3pm and there will be polka dancing from 2-6pm. The Ennis Czech Boys will provide the tunes and there will be free polka dancing classes with Valina Polka. Sengelmann Hall is a restored 1890s Texas dance hall, complete with a restaurant, saloon and biergarten, located in historic downtown Schulenburg. Houstonians Dana Harper and Hana Hillerova lovingly restored the saloon and restaurant, which features the original plank flooring, decorative stenciling, pressed tin ceilings and carved marble pillars (with bullet holes from brawls during the 1800s!). The grand mahogany bar was painstakingly rebuilt from original photographs. Until it closed in the 1940s, Sengelmann Hall was known as the Two Brothers Saloon, and it stood as a cultural hub in downtown Schulenburg. Residents and visitors would gather there for drinks, games, socializing and plenty of dancing. Make it a day trip and you can enjoy the town of Schulenburg and its newly opened Texas Polka Museum as well as nearby “Painted Churches” -- beautiful 19th century German and Czech buildings.

Tickets for this Sunday are $18.95/person and include the music, dancing, and food.

BOOKS ALIVE! FROM FANTASY TO FABLES.

This Saturday, May 8, from 12:30-3:30pm, children are invited to enjoy all the fun and exciting activities scheduled for the Houston Public Library’s “Books Alive! From Fantasy to Fables” First Annual Children’s Book Celebration. The “Books Alive!” celebration will take place this Saturday, May 8 and next Saturday, May 15 for children of all ages at the Central Library downtown. This Saturday there will be several fantasy themed performances, hands-on arts and crafts activities and other special events, the highlight of which will be the appearance of T. A. Barron, renowned children’s book author. Barron is best known for his books The Lost Years of Merlin epic, The Great Tree of Avalon trilogy, and Adventures of Kate, among other award winning novels. The “Books Alive!” celebration will culminate next Saturday with another full day of fable fantasy inspired activities and a meet and greet session with author Jerry Pinkney, this year’s Caldecott Award Winner. Pinkney’s book The Lion and the Mouse won the award for excellence in artwork in children’s literature.

Blue Willow Bookshop, located at 14532 Memorial Drive, was chosen as an official site to celebrate “Books Alive!” and has invited authors Brandon Mull (Fablehaven series for children) and James Dashner (13th Reality series for children and The Maze Runner for young adults) to speak at their store on Monday, May 10 at 5pm. As a special offer, the first 40 people to buy a book at that event will receive a Children's Book Week tote and poster with artwork designed by Jon Muth.

THIS WEEK'S ATTRACTION...VARIETY FAIR 5&10. For more attractions, go to www.gishcreative.com/attractions.htm.

It’s unusual for me to tout a store as an attraction, but I feel compelled to this week because one of my two favorite childhood stores in the Village, the Variety Fair 5&10, is closing June 30 and I want all of you to visit it! It’s a special “Five and Dime” store that opened in 1948, when there were many of its kind around – and stood as one of the remaining few as the years went on. Owner Ben Klinger (now deceased) was a friendly face greeting kids as they entered and he boasted that his shop carried everything but spaceship parts! The store stands as it was originally, complete with a National Cash Register that’s mechanical and full of strange buttons and bells (and, gasp, change has to be made by hand!). Stocked with everything from straight pins to boxing nuns, it’s a fun place to explore. Daughter Cathy Irby still runs the place, which is open six days a week. She hopes to close without any debt, so shop away and help them close their doors with a bang!

Variety 5&10 is located at 2415 Rice Boulevard. By the way, for those of you wondering what my other favorite childhood store in the Village was, it was World Toy and Gift, which closed in the 1970s and had the coolest movie marquee around.

DO YOU KNOW HOW TO CONNECT WITH KIDS?

Connecting with kids is very important to me, so I was excited to find CWK Network a few years ago. It’s a great resource for parents and educators that produces innovative journalistic and educational content covering children's and teens’ issues. They offer more than 100 “Connect with Kids” programs for elementary, middle and high school students and their parents. I subscribe to their e-newsletter and always find information that helps me. Recently I read about an interesting book for parents of teens (that would be me!) written by a teen called Inside Out: Real Stories About the Inner Choices that Shape Our Lives. I can’t wait to read it! Check out their site and I’ll bet you’ll find topics of interest to you as well.

GISH PICKS is a free weekly email in which I highlight family-oriented cultural events, products or services. Please note that I "highlight" events, but I don't know if they are appropriate for your particular children, so choose wisely based on age, maturity and interests. I know many of you go to events based on GISH PICKS recommendations; PLEASE remember to tell the organization that you are there because of us. Word-of-mouth like yours helps our business to grow. In the same spirit, please also feel free to share GISH PICKS with friends and families.

Do you have something you would like to promote on Gish Picks? You can promote family-friendly events, products or services to Houstonians all over the city and the surrounding area who are active parents, involved citizens and great shoppers. We love doing this community service and want to keep it free for our readers but in order to justify the hours spent researching, writing and designing this newsletter, we need advertising support. If you'd like to learn more, please click below.

The purpose of GISH PICKS is to help parents become aware of all the fun things they can do with their children in Houston and the surrounding area, so GO FIND FUN! Please do give me feedback and ideas, as you are out there in the trenches also looking for interesting things for your family and I want to hear what you find.

If you are having trouble getting to a website listed here, try hitting the "Ctrl" button and left-clicking on the web address, which should make it "live".

For more about my marketing company, Gish Creative, and the services we offer, please click here. You are on this list because I thought this e-newsletter would be helpful to you or because you signed up for it. Please feel free to tell your friends to subscribe by clicking here. My goal is to serve as an information resource for Houston parents through my various endeavors, including:

GISH PICKS, which is online (www.thesummerbook.com/gishpicks_archive.html) and in the Houston Community Newspaper group (www.hcnonline.com);

THE SUMMER BOOK®: A GUIDE TO HOUSTON DAY CAMPS AND CLASSES FOR KIDS AND TEENS (www.thesummerbook.com) which comes out annually on March 1 and is sold at bookstores all over Houston, including Barnes and Noble and Borders; and

SPEAKING ENGAGEMENTS, INTERACTIVE WORKSHOPS, PRIVATE CONSULTATIONS, and ART PROGRAMS that cover topics such as summertime fun, passion-finding (for adults, children and parents and children together), marketing, historic preservation, art classes, and activism. All of these services can be tailored for any audience and budget.


Sarah Gish Gish Creative 1940-A Fountainview, PMB 116 Houston, Texas 77057 phone/fax: 713.532.1173 email: sarah@gishcreative.com web: www.gishcreative.com and: www.thesummerbook.com and: www.saveourlandmarks.org © 2010 Sarah Gish Designed by West of the World