Assignment: Houston

It's Rodeo Time!

Saddle up buckaroos and get those cameras ready for the 210 Houston Livestock Show & Rodeo.  There is so much going on that I'm going to encourage you to visit the official website to look at the different events and schedules, but here are some photos to get your creative juices flowing.  Are you ready to rodeo?

  
  

Photos by gwenturnerjuarez, crossmage, espngo, and aggiechristine.

Glenwood's Live Oak

Thanks to Assignment: Houston member Sandy, I found this article on one of my favorite places in Houston, the Glenwood Live Oak.  Go read the article about this beautiful tree and the next time you are at Glenwood Cemetery make sure to stop by and take a few photos.  

Houston Marathon

http://www.flickr.com/photos/euthman/
CC BY-SA 2.0

On Sunday Houston's largest one day sporting events takes place as the Chevron  Houston Marathon takes to the streets.  Tomorrow the marathon and the half marathon both kick off at 7 a.m.  The marathon website has a spectators page that has information on parking and the best places to watch the race.Take your camera and cheer on these athletes.

Website: Chevron Houston Marathon

Extreme Makeover: Houston Edition

"Gooooood Mooooooorniiiinnnnng  ____________ family."  

One lucky family in the Houston area will hear their name in this sentence tomorrow morning as Ty Pennington, ABC and the Extreme Makeover: Home Edition team knock on their door and let them know they have been chosen for a new home. 

If you haven't heard of Extreme Makeover: Home Edition (EM: HE), each episode of this reality show builds a new home for a deserving family in only one week.  The Houston area home is located in League City (I'm 99% sure) and the family will be notified on January 7th.  One week later they will "move that bus" and see their new home.  You will be able to take a shuttle bus to the location to view the build in progress. This will be the largest house the show has ever built. The builder's website has a schedule of events as well as a Facebook page and Twitter stream where you can follow along. Much more information will be released after the family has been notified.

There are also many opportunities to volunteer if you want to be directly involved.  The money for the house, furnishings and everything else that the family will receive is all from community donations.

HIWI Website

Our friends at  Houston It's Worth It have a brand new spiffy website and you get to participate.  The new website has several ways you can share your HIWI thoughts.  

Follow the Add your Photo/Story link to the upload form where you can not only upload photographs of the various afflictions, but also share your thoughts on why Houston It's Worth It.  You will also have the option to allow the HIWI staff to consider your photo or story for future publication.

Besides the famous afflictions there is one more category for photo uploads.  The Worth.  Why do you think Houston It's Worth It.  I know people have plenty of photos in this category.

And there is one more way to share your HIWI thoughts.  If you have a Twitter account you can add the hashtag #HIWI to any appropriately related tweet and it will appear on the website.

Lots of ways to show the Houston love.  

Links:
http://www.houstonitsworthit.com/
http://twitter.com/Team_HIWI

Swamplot Assignments

Want to discover new corners of the city by completing assignments for a super cool website?  No not us, but thank, you we think Assignment: Houston is pretty cool.  No, this assignment group is by our friends at Swamplot.  Swamplot takes a humorous look at real estate news in and around the Houston area and they are starting a new group documentation project.

Here’s how it’ll work: Each week, Swamplot will ask readers to document a particular location in the Houston area. If you’d like to participate, just visit the location, take some terrific photos, and send them in!  ......  Photos of what? You get to choose! We’re just hoping to find an interesting portrait of that location — once we view all the submitted photos together.

The first assignment is the intersection of Kirby and West Alabama.  Photos need to be taken with 500 feet of the intersection.  Can't get to that intersection this week?  No problem!  A new assignment will be announced each Friday.  So break out your camera or even your camera phone and help Swamplot document Houston.

Link: Your Photos Here: Announcing Swamplot's New Group Photo Feature

Zoo Commissary

At the end of the day, when you are tired from a long day of work, sometimes the last thing you want to do is prepare a meal.  How about preparing 4,500 meals for some very particular eaters.  That is what the Houston Zoo commissary does every day and you have a chance to go behind the scenes and learn all about it.  The tour is on August 15th and tickets are $25 for members and $35 for non-members.  If you are interested in checking this out the registration deadline is this Monday August 10th at 9:00 a.m. so hop to it.

Walk on the Wild Side - Commissary Tour

New Downtown Building

Houston has some beautiful buildings downtown and the Houston Ballet is about to add to the collection.  The ballet broke ground on a new facility that will house rehearsal facilities and administrative offices for the ballet.  If you like architectural photography listen to this description:

With two distinct sections — one clad in a light plaster, the other in black granite — the exterior might remind ballet fans of Swan Lake's Odette and Odile. That wasn't intended; the architects instead envisioned the granite like a proscenium stage, framing views from the street through windows on several floors of the north and west facades.

Those windows, are like a “billboard for dance,” enabling passersby to see classes and rehearsals. An elevated walkway, also glass-clad, will connect the center to the backstage area of the Wortham Theater Center, where the company performs.

It sounds beautiful and I can't wait to see it.  You can read more about this new building and see the artist renderings (worth the look!) at the Houston Chronicle article.

Chron.com: Houston Ballet breaks ground on new downtown home