On Friday the 2013 French Cultures Festival, the sixth annual celebration of all things French across Texas, Oklahoma and Arkansas kicks off with a free outdoor concert downtown. The French indie group LYS will share the stage with local band The Tontons and the swamp-pop, Cajun band The Revelers. LYS is stopping in Houston before heading to Austin for South by Southwest. Besides the concert, a number of other events are scheduled for the 17-day festival, including film screenings at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, lectures, French cooking classes and more.

Enjoy the kick off concert 6 to 10 p.m. on Friday at Discovery Green, 1500 McKinney. Other events continue through March 21 at various locations. For information, visit the festival's website or call 713-985-3273. Free.

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Photos by Christina Uticone

Three days of yoga, music, dance and more at the Texas Yoga Conference.

This year the Texas Yoga Conference celebrated its fourth anniversary, and its growing popularity allowed it to graduate to a conference space at the George R. Brown Convention Center. The three-day conference (March 1-3) offered local and visiting yogis the opportunity to experience yoga in its various incarnations as well as tap into the creative culture of Houston's yoga scene.

More than just a few days of fancy bending and heavy breathing, the Texas Yoga Conference invited yogis of all levels to delve deeper into their practice while also enjoying a full menu of practice-enhancing arts: music, art, dance and a marketplace where you could scratch your yogi fashion itch with new gear and jewelry.

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On March 8, the French Cultures Festival, a celebration of all things French, will kick off its sixth annual appearance in Houston with something it has never tried here before, says Program Director Charlotte Esnou.

"We are organizing a big live concert downtown at Discovery Green on March 8. This is going to kick off the whole festival in a more glamorous, young, interactive way."

The live concert is free and takes place from 6 to 10 p.m. It's going to include, direct from France, LYS. This French band will stop in Houston for the concert before heading to Austin to take part in South by Southwest. Houston's own local indie band The Tontons will also be performing, as will swamp-pop Cajun band The Revelers.

"What we want to do specifically is have those two cultures, like the French bands and the local bands from Houston, kind of interacting onstage. We kind of show that it's not only French-centered, but also the exchange of cultures, " says Esnou.

Recently there have been actions taken around the country to cut French as a language offering in public schools. The feeling is that French is not as important a language as Spanish or the sudden rush to the Chinese languages. Esnou said that the festival addresses this.

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Clip from Henry O.

Four injured Iraq War veterans set out to become Olympians. A television star and lothario suffers a brain injury and tries to put his life back together again. A group of wheelchair-bound women redefine standards of beauty. Two singles have a crush on each other; both are deaf, but neither knows of the other's hearing impairment.

These films by, about and for people with disabilities show perseverance and triumph over a world that categorizes them as less-than due to their physical and/or mental handicaps. However, when watching these films, you don't see people living with disabilities at all. You see people with real abilities -- or better yet, ReelAbilities.

The ReelAbilities: Houston Disabilities Film Festival 2013 starts today, February 6, and lasts until February 13. Fifteen documentary, short and full-length movies will be shown, starting with an opening night screening of Ocean Heaven, the story of a father's unconditional love for his autistic son, at Asia Society Texas Center. Screening locations include the Houston Public Library, the Talento Bilingue de Houston and Memorial Hermann Southwest, among others.

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Just in time for all of you procrastinating husbands, boyfriends, wives, girlfriends and single people with mucho disposable income comes the Lone Star Bazaar, set to invade Montrose at the Numbers complex on December 22.

The organizers say that the response from the community about the event has been so great that they are looking into ways they can expand the most reasonable way they can.

This "Montrose Sideshow" edition of the LSB already has Tin Roof Soap Co., Yoko Vintage, Orange Is the Sun, Nom Nom Friends and Lady Lazarus lined up as vendors.

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La Passione

Turkey, France, Israel, Italy, Egypt and Greece, are all scheduled stops on the Mediterranean Film Festival's cinematic tour. There's Greece's Nicostratos, Olivier Horlait's cuddly family-friendly about a boy who rescues and raises a pelican on Friday and France's Khamsa by director Karim Dridi which follows a young boy who runs away from his foster family and returns to the gypsy camp where he was born.Turkey's comedy Ice Cream, I Scream about an ice cream peddler whose shiny new truck is stolen by bad little boys screens on Saturday. Israel's Turn Left at the End of the World, a coming-of-age story of two immigrant girls in the Negev desert, is scheduled for Sunday, followed by Egypt's The Yacoubian Building, set on the rooftop of the Cairo icon where poor families have moved into the storage sheds. Italy's La Passione, Chris Rea's race car fantasy, closes out the festival on Monday.

See Nicostratos at 7 p.m. Friday, Ice Cream at 7 p.m., followed by Khamsa at 9 p.m on Saturday; Turn Left and Yacoubian at 5 p.m. Sunday; Passion at 7 p.m. Monday. Rice University, 6100 Main. For information, visit the Rice Cinema website or call 713-348-4882.

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Robert Redford at the Sundance Cinema Friday night

Friday night, Houston got a little taste of Hollywood when renowned actor, producer and director Robert Redford graced us with his presence. Redford was in town because of the 2012 Houston Cinema Arts Festival (HCAF), which ran from November 7 through November 11. Redford did not just come for the showcase of films; he was the recipient of the third Levantine Cinema Arts Award, which honored his artistic achievements.

A line of fans waited outside the Sundance Cinema Friday night hoping that Redford would honor them with a signature or at the very least show off his famous smile. Several fans held up large posters from Redford's oeuvre, All the President's Men, Butch Cassedy and the Sundance Kid and I think I caught a glance of an album cover for The Way We Were.

Redford was welcomed by the flashing of camera bulbs and a semi-red carpet. The eager fans broke into applause, coupled with a few "we love yous" before the actor headed into the movie theater that he is responsible for creating.

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Artist/filmmaker Kip Fulbeck is what's popularly known as a Hapa, that is, a person who has a mixed ethnic heritage that includes Asian roots. Starting in 2001, Fulbeck traveled the country taking photographs of fellow Hapas in order to create a book that he wished he had had as a child. The result was Part Asian, 100 percent Hapa. Growing up, Fulbeck longed to see more people who looked like him, or rather that, like him, didn't look exactly like anyone else in his family. Not exactly white and not completely Asian. The book led to "kip fulbeck: part asian, 100 percent hapa," a traveling exhibit, which has just opened at Asia Society Texas. In Houston, the exhibit includes 36 images. The portraits are stark, with each person shown from the shoulders up, with no clothes, no makeup and no expression, standing against a white background. Each is accompanied by a handwritten answer to Fulbeck's question "What are you?" One young woman with blond hair writes, "I am not half-white. I am not half-Asian. I am a whole other," in small, neat handwriting. A dark-skinned young man writes, "I am 100% Black and 100% Japanese" in large, bold writing. Visitors may add their own portraits and handwritten answers to an interactive display that accompanies the exhibit.

See "kip fulbeck: part asian, 100% hapa" 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesdays through Sundays. Through April 14. 1370 Southmore. For information, visit the center's website or call 713-496-9901. Free to $5.

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Photos by Marco Torres

A beard looking forward through time at American cities trampled under foot by President Bieber.

The last few years at FFFF it was moustaches that were ruling the roost on the faces of men and hipster boys at the music festival. Even some girls were sporting them, albeit fake ones. This year the long and lustrous beard made its appearance, with some fellas sporting inches and inches of growth, in direct defiance of the razor and shaving cream industry.

With a body covered in tattoos, a Hitler Youth haircut, and a glorious beard, one can get anyone and anything at a festival like FFFF. A golden ticket into realms of untold luxury, with harems filled with buxom girls that look like Christy Mack, where there are rivers of craft beer and tacos appear in your hand with the ease of a wish.

We chronicled the beards of FFFF this year to give some of you afraid to take the hirsute plunge a bit of motivation. Come on, work will understand if you don't shave for six months. And if they don't? Well, do you really wanna work with a bunch of dicks like that?

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Photo by Marco Torres

Val Kilmer and the Black Lips at Fun Fun Fun Fest.

Lots more photos of Kilmer, Rooney Mara, bands and fans in our slideshow.

As we've known for at least a year now, director Terrence Malick has been making a movie in Austin. Film gossip sites say the movie is about a love triangle, set to the backdrop of Austin's music scene, and will be called Lawless.

Last year Ryan Gosling caroused the grounds at Fun Fun Fun Fest, and just last month Malick himself was at Austin City Limits, camera in hand, filming scenes with Gosling, Girl With the Dragon Tattoo star Rooney Mara, Prometheus actor Michael Fassbender and Christian Bale.

Yesterday at Fun Fun Fun Fest, Val Kilmer was added to the mix. As Craig Hlavaty said, that's two Batmans in one movie.

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