Category: Friday Fun

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Friday Fun Post: Houston Restaurant Week at Brennan’s

As a transplant to Houston, I have a long list of restaurants I have yet to try. Brennan’s is a Schipul client, and also extremely high on that list.

With reservations moving quickly in the first months since the February reopening and my budget going to other things lately, I hadn’t taken the plunge. Until last night for Restaurant Week.

Restaurant Week

Restaurant “Week” is a bit of a misnomer, the event actually lasts for the 3 weeks from August 1- August 21. Local restaurants offer a $35 three course dinner, with $5 of your meal cost going directly to the Houston Food Bank (the event is completely organized by volunteers, so every penny goes to the cause). New this year is the $20 two course lunch, with $3 going to the food bank. Eat great food with great friends for a great cause? Sign me up!

Brennan’s

It’s beautiful inside, somehow classic and modern at the same time, and it feels very posh when the waiter points to the corner table next to you with the high backed yellow armchairs and says “that’s where George H.W. Bush likes to sit when he comes.” The staff was fantastic, and the food was delicious.

I was dining with a group of LSU alums who know their Cajun food, so it was great to see them gush over the Bread Pudding and Pralines. For me, the sweet things stole the show – the peaches and candied pecans in my salad, the pecan crust on my fish, and the Bananas Foster (prepared table side with a huge impressive flame).

Brennan’s Restaurant Week Menu

1st
Turtle Soup Au Sherry
Cooper Farms Peach Salad
Summer Tomato Salad

2nd
Pecan Crusted Gulf Fish
Black Grouper & Local Field Peas
Tournedos of Beef

3rd
Texas Blueberry Shortcake
Creole Bread Pudding Soufflé
Traditional Bananas Foster

Don’t worry, it’s not too late!

You have until August 21 to enjoy Restaurant Week. Check out houstonrestaurantweek.com for participating restaurants and menus, and make a reservation now at a restaurant you’ve always wanted to try!

Happy dining!
~ Qcait

http://www.houstonrestaurantweek.com/Menus-2010-A_through_L.htm
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Friday Fun Post: And That’s Why IKEA Totally Rocks!

Shipulites pose for the mock IKEA catalog at the IKEA 2011 Catalog preview party

Special thanks to photographer Annie Ray for the wonderful photo! To see more of her work or more photos from the event visit her site: www.AnnieRay.net

*Sigh* I love you IKEA.

Long before it was a Schipul client and I was Schipulite, IKEA was my home goods haven.

I’m a neat freak. Let’s just get that out of the way.

Also, it’s pronounced /ee-KAY-uh/. I promise. Let’s get that out of the way, too.

Yesterday I Went on a Field Trip to IKEA’s Cafeteria

*Faints*Food at Ikea is reasonably priced.

It was exciting. And that’s when the magic of it all hit me, and I realized how much I love this place.

The menu is decent. The food is good. The view isn’t bad. So what’s the magic you ask?

For me, it’s the same magic most sane people feel when they open the catalog and start imagining the room they’ll build with the furniture they’re eyeballing.

Eating in IKEA’s cafeteria is like eating in IKEA’s catalog.

And I’m not afraid to admit it:   I’d love to live in the IKEA catalog. (The photos that Annie Ray took at the IKEA 2011 Catalog Preview Party prove that most people would!)

Some of the menu items include their famous Swedish meatballs, organic pasta and Princess Cake. Also, shoppers can purchase some of the goods in the Swedish Food Market section of the store and take the yummy goodness home. (It’s near the Bistro/Exit Cafe‘, which is a whole other blog post).

I’m Still A Neat Freak

The best part of the experience came with putting away my tray.   There’s a pretty blue wall, and in front it looks like a condiment station. But be not fooled! The hind side of the wall holds a shelving system just for trays. It’s the most efficient, DIY, tray taking system I’ve ever seen. I shed a tear (@happykatie saw it…maybe).

I encourage you to visit the restaurant. No. You’re not gonna get a five-star, Zagat-rated meal. But you’ll get good food in a pretty place. And who wouldn’t want that?

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Friday Fun Post: NERDS AND GEEKS ONLY.

Guys, do you know what today is? No, it is not just Friday, July 23rd. It is COMIC-CON!

For those not in the know (even though the title of this post specifically says for nerds and geeks only), San Diego Comic-Con kicked off yesterday. SDCC is the largest and most amazing comic convention and is the dream vacation for almost every nerd in the world.

The meat of the convention actually happens during Saturday and Sunday, though today is the big film festival, portfolio review, and the Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards.

No, I am NOT at the convention this year. I am simply too busy doing awesome things for awesome clients at the moment. However, I am keeping constant tabs on what is going on in the geek-o-sphere. For this edition of Friday Fun Post, I am providing a list of the best ways to keep track of the awesomesauce-ness of SDCC.

UGO.com
One of my personal favorite sources for the latest news.  Because of UGO, I heard the exciting news that there will be an Avatar sequel.   (I’m not talking about that movie with the smurfs.)

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Comic Vine
One of the best sources for comic news is now one of the best sources for Comic-Con news.   They feature a feed of their Twitter accounts with real-time updates and there are forums to jump into when the news feed slows or takes a break between sessions. I am in love with them.

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IGN
Looks like big boy IGN is doing a full-court press on the convention. They have their news split up so that you can find what your main interest is and go after it. This is a rad feed for anyone who is not super geeky but is interested in what is going on.

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GameSpot
You have got to give props to GameSpot’s coverage of the gaming side of SDCC. They are doing interviews, posting trailers, and they even have a live camera feed. If you love the PS3 over the Xbox 360, then you can filter the updates based on your platform preference.

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Topless Robot
Rob is the man behind Topless Robot and he has decided to blog about his adventure at SDCC in his typical snarky fashion.   For a guy running his own blog, he is actually providing more useful information than WIRED.

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ScreenRant
If you are more interested into the movie/film side of what’s taking place at Comic-Con, ScreenRant is doing an excellent job of posting news and trailers at rapid fire. Bust out the snacks and watch enough videos to waste your day.

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G4
G4 is actually filming live from SDCC, so get your fill this weekend. But, if you don’t have cable or if you won’t be in front of a television, definitely check out their online live feed of what is going on at the different panels.

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If following websites is a little overwhelming, make sure you use the power of   searching Twitter.   Or, even better, follow SDCC updates on Tumblr:

  1. http://www.tumblr.com/tagged/SDCC
  2. http://www.tumblr.com/tagged/comic-con

My final recommendation is the one and only YouTube where screenings, trailers, previews, interviews, and everything else is up for watching:   Comic-Con on Youtube.

That’s the list of awesome I have for you kids today. Before I take off, I want to leave you all with a gift. That’s right, a breakdown/preview of the new animated amazingness of Young Justice:

(Oh, and I would like to brag that I got see “Batman: Under the Red Hood” before it’s release and yes, I will in fact be seeing an advance screening of   “Scott Pilgrim vs. The World”)

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Friday Fun Post – Happy Birthday Bill White!

The Bill White for Texas campaign has created a Bill White birthday card for the former Houston mayor posted Wednesday (happy belated, Bill!). The idea is that visitors can ‘give Bill hair”’ add famous hairdos to a smiling photo of Bill.

My personal favorite Bill hairdo, the Beyonce

The more people who signed the card by filling out a form (email, name, zip code, message for Bill)’ the more hairdos the community ‘unlocked.” Hairdos include Texas celebs Ross Perot, Yao Ming, Don Henley, Willie Nelson, Beyonce, and… once the card reaches the goal of 25,000 signatures, you can add the one and only coiffure of Rick Perry to Bill’s bald head. Don’t forget that Rick’s hair infamously has its own Twitter account @govperryshair.

I love this campaign because it’s a great way to encourage people to share the website with their friends, and for the White team to connect with thousands of potential voters in a fun way. Mad props to the Bill White team!

I think Bill might just have inspired me to get a haircut myself this weekend… Happy Friday to all!

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Friday Fun: Python-Driven Music Converter!

Straight from last month’s Music Hackday in San Fransico comes “Swinger” . A Python built app that takes any song like my personal favorite “Around The World” By Daft Punk and makes it swing! Want to hear for yourself? Be sure to check it out and dance along.

What is Music Hackday?

“The main goal of Music Hack Day is to explore and build the next generation of music applications. It’s a full weekend of hacking in which participants will conceptualize, create and present their projects. Music + software + hardware + art + the web. Anything goes as long as it’s music related.”

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Friday Fun: New Music for Memorial Day Weekend

With Memorial Day weekend upon us, it’s usually safe to say some form of travel or outdoor activity will be in order. And if you are like me you will need some tunes to accompany you. So before you go traveling with friends, visiting family or just relaxing by the pool, check out some of my favorite places for last minute jams.

Yours Truly – Some of my favorite discoveries here lately range from the Golden Ages remix of ‘Swimmer’s Ear’, ‘Grow‘ by Barcelona musicians Delorean, and this awesome live version of ‘Excuses‘ by The Morning Benders (you can dl the mp3 free from the band’s site)

Gorilla vs Bear – Another “indie rock” blog (based in Texas!) where I found Australia’s Tame Impala (opening for MGMT this summer) and their song ‘Solitude is Bliss‘, ‘Chinatown‘ by Wild Nothing (accompanied by video here), ‘The High Road‘ by Broken Bells and ‘Voices‘ by Big K.R.I.T.

NPR’s First Listen (currently featuring Ratatat) brought me what is my favorite album in a while, ‘Brothers‘ by The Black Keys. You can throw this on and not get a bad track from start to finish.

And if you are looking for a some local Houston flavor, my go-to’s are: Dave Wrangler who’s album ‘Under the Influence’ (free dl at his site) will get any pool party going, Runaway Sun (free listen online and link to buy) for the rockers, and ‘Let the Beat Drop‘ from our very own A. Hughes and D. Stagg.

I hope that helps your iPod a little anyways and gets some fresh tunes in for the holiday weekend. What will you be listening to this weekend?

Derek Key
@derekskey

photo credit

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The 22nd Annual Art Car Parade Comes To Houston

Last weekend our beloved client The Orange Show hosted their annual Art Car Parade. The parade features local and international artists that come together to create over 250+ art cars. Parade entries include anything on wheels, from unicycles to go-carts and even lawnmowers. Dan Akryod decided to stop by to hold the position of this year’s grand marshal. If you were unable to come out and see these artworks, take a look some pictures we took, and even the making-of an art car!

Enjoy some pics below!

Photos Courtesy of Ed Schipul.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/eschipul/

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Friday Fun Post: Congrats to Houston Zoo new arrival!

Baylor the baby elephant! Photo from The Houston Zoo

Congratulations are in order for our client the Houston Zoo! After 23 months, Shanti the elephant has given birth to baby Baylor ~ named after the Baylor College of Medicine team in recognition for all they’ve done to reduce the threat of the elephant herpes virus. Appropriately, the week before Mother’s Day!

Elephant babies!

The adorable Baylor was born Tuesday morning at a healthy 348 pounds. It’s been an exciting time – over 50 volunteers and staff have been on 24-hour birth watch since February. The zoo held a baby shower for Shanti last month and showered her with gifts and a specially-made elephant cake.

And there’s more to come! Another Houston Zoo elephant, Tess, is due to give birth later this year.

More on baby Baylor

For more on baby Baylor and all of the elephants at the Houston Zoo, check out the zoo’s elephant blog Trunk Tales

And be sure to check out this slide show of the newborn elephant on Chron.com

Check out elephant baby Baylor slideshow on Chron.com

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Friday Fun: SXSWi 2010 Wrap-Up Video

Believe it or not, only a month ago we were having a blast at SXSW interactive. Relive these good times by watching the SXSWi Wrap-Up video! If you were unable to attend, or just want to see more, be sure to check out these follow-up blogs to see what you missed!

http://www.donewaiting.com/category/sxsw/- This blog provides a day-to-day update with the bands who played during SXSW.

http://stereogum.com/309491/sxsw-2010-the-wrap-up/news/– A wrap-up blog of what went down!

http://www.austinkleon.com/2010/03/28/my-sxsw-2010/ – An interesting perspective of SXSW

https://www.sxsw.com/ – The official website for SXSW