Comicpalooza this year is bigger than ever before, with more stars and more than 300 hours worth of programming to keep you busy. Just to give you a heads up, here are the ten things you absolutely don't want to skip.

10. Cryptozoology 101: You might remember our own Ken Gerhard as a pillar of the goth music community with bands like Flowers and Machines. Turns out he actually managed to score an even more awesome post-rock star career, hunting Bigfoot and other legendary monsters. Gerhard will offer a basic guide to the field of monster hunting science, as well as stories gleaned from his own considerable research.

9. Quidditch: Believe it or not, Quidditch is incredibly fun to watch. Yes, running around holding a stick between your legs looks a little ridiculous, but the matches are high-speed and exciting, with truly dedicated collegiate players vying for championship status. Until we can figure out flying broom sticks (Or hoverboards, Mattel. The clock is ticking) Quidditch will remain ground based sport, albeit a very, very entertaining one.

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Photo by Simon Gentry

Dancers come Up for Air in site-specific dance work.

The Setup:
For most native Houstonians, Hermann Park and the Mary Gibbs and Jesse H. Jones Reflection Pool are as familiar to us as our own backyards. On May 18, during two afternoon performances, Recked Productions transfigured the space into a site-specific dance, Up for Air, that melded the realms of the heavenly and the earthbound, the natural and the man-made.

The Execution:
Erin Reck's site-specific project couldn't have happened on a more perfect day. It was the kind of bright Saturday afternoon that precludes a Houston summer. Standing at the Sam Houston Monument end of the pool, it was possible to witness the performance from its first steps. Dancers in white trickled along the sides of the water, teetering along the edges in contracting shapes of repose. They peered into the water in suspended balance and examined the space above their reflections. Their flighty flocking suggested birds of the long, stately variety.

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Comedy fans will find the documentary Mel Brooks: Make a Noise irresistible. Part of the upcoming American Masters series on PBS, Noise is more than just a retrospective of Brooks' career. He gives new interviews to filmmaker Robert Trachtenberg, as do many of his cohorts including frequent partner Carl Reiner, Nathan Lane and Joan Rivers, Rob Reiner, Cloris Leachman and Barry Levinson. Each of them sit at a simple table, nothing much in the way of a set around them, looking straight into the camera and recalling highlights (and insider jokes) about Brooks' career. There are, of course, some film clips: Young Frankenstein, The Producers and Blazing Saddles among them. Interviews with the late Anne Bancroft (the second Mrs. Brooks) and Madeline Kahn, two of his favorite collaborators, round out the portrait we see of Brooks.

Brooks plays down his own talent, insisting he got some lucky breaks but never tried to engineer his success. He says he played to an audience of one: "I've got to admit something, I don't really do anything for the audience ever. I do it for me, and most of the time the audience joins me." We've been among the many happy fans to have joined him on what's been one of comedy's most prolific and influential careers.

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Courtesy of the MFAH

The MFAH has always done an excellent job at getting top artists and critics to come speak during their many lecture series. One such series that they are now hosting is entitled, "Conversations with the Director," in which MFAH's Director Gary Tinterow chats about art-related topics such as the state of current collections and the museum, many of such conversations can be viewed online.

But every once in a while the MFAH brings someone on board that "makes you go hmmm..." For example, it was just announced that on June 4, Mr. Tinterow will have a lovely old chat with Dr. Ruth Westheimer, who, yes, is still alive.

Dr. Ruth, as she is more commonly known, is a therapist who focuses on sexuality and human sociology, and she has a very distinct German accent and a tiny frame. She is known for her candid and often amusing take on sex, and has been prominent in the media for years. She is probably the most well-known sex therapist, some of that having to do with the "her?" aspect to her physical appearance. She's a little old lady and has been her whole life, and it's gross to think about her having sex at all.

What in the world is she going to talk about with Tinterow, who's current webvlogs are about things such as the "Google Art Project," which I can't imagine can be tied to sex. Dr. Ruth did pen a book back in 1993 entitled The Art of Arousal: A Celebration of Erotic Art throughout History; which we assume will be the cornerstone of their conversation. Adding bizarreness to the bizarre is that the project is funded presented by Louis Vuitton, so it's fashion and sex and art all rolled up into one potentially awkward evening. Luckily a reception follows the lecture so people can stand around eating canapés not talking about sex, but rather how oppressive the heat was the other night at the Rothko.

If you were to go to this event, what questions might you want Tinterow to discuss with Dr. Ruth? I've got ten.

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Pretty much how every groom looks on their wedding day.

As is usually the case with Game of Thrones episodes, titles have two meanings. "Second Sons," the third to last ep of season three, refers to both the mercenary (or "sellsword," if we're sticking to the GRRM vernacular) company hired by the "Wise Masters" of Yunkai and to numerous secondborn of significance.

There's Stannis, whose order of birth continues to cause him consternation; or the Hound, forever trying to escape the stain of the name Clegane; or even Joffrey, if we're being honest, an assumed son of Robert Baratheon, but even if that were true, he'd be next in age behind the bastard Gendry.

It was another relatively action-free episode (don't tell that to Gendry though), setting up what look to be a couple significant installments to close us out.

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Thomas Singer

Album Cover for Norbert Leo Butz's Memory & Mayhem - Live at 54 BELOW.

2013 saw the beginning of a novel partnership between the new label Broadway Records, dedicated to Broadway and Off Broadway-related recordings, and 54 BELOW, a classically designed state-of-the-art nightclub located just a few blocks from the heart of Times Square below the legendary Studio 54. Norbert Leo Butz made his cabaret debut performing his Memory & Mayhem concerts on August 5, 10, and 11, 2012. These performances were so well received by fans ad critics alike, that he will return to 54 BELOW this summer with Mystery & Mayhem on June 7, 8, 21, and 22.

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The second biggest mystery in Into Darkness: Why does Alice Eve strip to her underwear in this scene?

Before we get in to the nuts and bolts of Star Trek Into Darkness, let us take a moment to see what the studio behind the film wants us to believe the movie is about:

When the crew of the Enterprise is called back home, they find an unstoppable force of terror from within their own organization has detonated the fleet and everything it stands for, leaving our world in a state of crisis. With a personal score to settle, Captain Kirk leads a manhunt to a war-zone world to capture a one man weapon of mass destruction.

Now, because this is a J.J. Abrams flick, we all knew that we were going to have to take this synopsis with a grain of salt. At least it gave fans something to spend the run up to the movie debating about: who is this "one man weapon of mass destruction?"

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Photo by Christy Pessagno

Dancers of Shen Wei Dance Arts perform Rite of Spring.

The Setup:

On May 18, in the Wortham Center's Brown Theater, a stage typically reserved for the artists of Houston Ballet, the Society for the Performing Arts presented Shen Wei Dance Arts and the company's riveting reinterpretation of The Rite of Spring.

The Execution:

Shen Wei's Houston engagement came 11 days before the 100th anniversary of the infamous Paris premiere of Vaslav Nijinsky's The Rite of Spring. Wei's reimagining of the Igor Stravinsky score is a decade old, but it's great to be able to see it so shortly after another major staging of the piece for comparison's sake. (I'm referring to, of course, Houston Ballet's spring engagement of Stanton Welch's version.)

Shen Wei strips the Stravinsky music of narrative theatricality and instead uses a minimalist, almost geometric sensibility to the choreography. Ten dancers take positions on opposing sides of a grid-like floor painting and then move onto it like pieces on a chest board. One by one, the dancers move into one another's space, causing them to react by readjusting their space on the grid. Then the music begins and the careful, strategic placements go haywire.

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I have watched hundreds of episodes of Doctor Who, both classic and new. I have read dozens of books and comics, heard a similar number of audio stories, and pored over Tardis Wiki daily. I have engrossed myself in this show so deep that I can honestly say I have occasionally lost the divide between fiction and reality.

But never, never in the years have I ever watched an episode before where I turned to my wife and said, "We're watching that again... right now." Never, until "The Name of the Doctor."

By now I will assume that everyone has seen the episode, and if not then please stop reading and go do so. I cannot in anyway comment on the depth and genius of Steven Moffat's masterpiece without mentioning the revelations it puts forth. So past this point, as River would say, spoilers.

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Li'l Sebastian: RIP.

Recently I received a surprise package in the mail. When I opened it, I was thrilled to find a mini-stuffed Li'l Sebastian horse courtesy of my husband. What an amazing gift for a huge Parks and Recreation fan. I posted a picture on Facebook and got lots of "likes" and then quite a few "what is that?" What! You don't know the tale of Li'l Sebastian? After my immediate shock, I took a step back to remember that I watch WAY too much television, and not everyone is capable of consuming the often dangerous and life-sucking amount of TV that I do. But in my defense, I get paid to watch the boob tube and I also really like it.

Everyone keeps saying we are in the golden age of television, and maybe this fact leaves you overwhelmed thinking about the sheer volume of good television you're being told you must watch. Just maybe, and this sounds crazy to me, you don't have 15 hours on Sundays to watch entire seasons of Justified, getting up only to empty your catheter bag. Well, you don't have to. I have made you a TV cheat sheet. Just toss around a few of these phrases and wow your coworkers with your immense knowledge of America's favorite pastime.

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