Monday, April 28, 2008

The Best Laid Plans....

Well, you know what they say about the best laid plans.

We had every intention of going out on Saturday afternoon to what is my favorite music and cultural event, the
Houston International Festival. The plan was to hook up with some friends, eat some good food, and enjoy the music, culture, and arts on a beautiful spring day. Yeah, that was the plan.

Didn't happen.

In short, minutes before walking out the door we had a relatively major plumbing disaster, so I spent the afternoon cleaning up, well, let's just say a mess. Neville Brothers? Not on Saturday. A major disappointment to say the least.

But there's good news. The iFest is a multi-day, multi-weekend event, so we went Sunday instead, and had a pretty good time. The theme was Out of Africa - The Three Journeys, and the cultural performances were very good.

We caught a portion of the National Dance Theater of Ethiopia's performance,
a stage reenactment of a slave auction in Huntsville, TX, and a Brazilian capobeira demonstration. There was even a replica of the solid rock churches from Ethiopia. In other words, pretty cool stuff.

Then there was the music. We saw in whole or in part performances by
Trudy Lynn and the Houston Blues Stars (blues), Karina Nistal and the Rebel Crew (latin), Step Rideau and the Zydeco Outlaws (zydeco), the Jones Family Gospel Singers (gospel), and headliner Taj Mahal (uncategorizable).


So while I didn't get to see the Neville Brothers, overall this wasn't exactly a bad day's entertainment. Not to mention I have an excuse to go to New Orleans and catch them on their home turf. I can live with that.

Were any of you there on any of the days? Drop us a line in the comments and let me know your thoughts on this years event.


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