----- Original Message ----- From: "Julia Thompson" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "Killer Bs Discussion" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Sunday, February 01, 2004 9:03 AM Subject: Re: SCOUTED: Houston
> Robert Seeberger wrote: > > > Who would listen to me? > > You all know I would be biased on this subject! > > <G> > > I'd listen. :) > > And I've got tons of friends who get all excited about going to Houston > for this or that cultural or sporting event, so I know there's plenty of > good about it. > > What do you think of the Super Bowl being there, Rob? And of the > preparations for the same? Is it having any impact on you? > Having seen the preparations being made here for The Super Bowl (something like a 10 day event with parties and festivals and such), and having seen the city prepare for other events of slightly lesser import, it is my belief that the IOC was foolish and short sighted to give the Summer Olympics to NYC. Houston is the only city in the world with 3 professional quality Domed Stadiums, 2 of them with retractable roofs and those are pretty much the state of the art for stadiums. ( I would think that you baseball fans would really enjoy a game at MinuteMaid Stadium, its a fantastic facility) Reliant Stadium, the new football venue stands a few hundred feet from The Astrodome, and it completely dwarfs the old dome. http://www.space.com/php/multimedia/zoomviewer/index.php?display_img=superbowl38 This Superbowl will be pretty nifty, the facility is pretty spectacular. Houston also has 3 professional Basketball arenas, and several venues that were built for Olympic festivals (bicycling, track etc...). There are also several large highschool football facilities (as large as many middling colleges have) and of course there is Rice Stadium, the site of Houston's only other Superbowl. Houston has over 200 golf courses (if that is your bag), tennis courts out the wazoo, and around 500 parks/greenspaces a few of which are large enough to be measured in multiples of square miles, those mostly inside the city limits. Houston is a sports town. And there is a lot of excitement surrounding the SuperBowl festivities: http://www.chron.com/content/chronicle/special/04/superbowl/index.html I'm willing to bet a look at those pics would blow anyone's image of Houston. (BTW This is nothing compared to the crowds that showed for the "Rendezview Houston" celebration of the Texas Sesquicentennial. It was the largest music event [in terms of area and numbers] in history with estimates of over 2 million people spread over many square miles.) Its been said that there is not much to do in Houston at night. Not true really. Just do a search for "Houston Nightlife". Houston has more restaurants per capita than just about anywhere. We have a world famous Symphony and Grand Opera. Within 5 miles of my home there are 60 to 70 movie theaters. There are many stage theaters (one less than a block from my home) including the very good Alley Theater. There are nightclubs in every part of the city including a heaping helping of ahem....."Gentlemen's Clubs" (Houston is the titty bar capital of the world.....bar none)(Never been in one myself). Then there are the many museums, some of which are world class. The Museum Of Natural Science is very good, it has a planetarium, an IMAX, a butterfly livearium 3 or 4 stories tall, and pretty much the same travelling displays you see in the better museums of this type. There is the Houston Arboretum, Armand Bayou Park, Space Center Houston (Across the street from me), The beautiful Fred Hartmann Bridge: ( http://www.texasfreeway.com/houston/photos/146_bridge/146_bridge.shtml ) , The Kemah Boardwalk: ( http://www.kemahboardwalk.com/ ) where you can get all sorts of good seafood, The Aquarium Restaurant (downtown, not the one in Kemah), Astroworld/Six Flags, and a ton of places I probably haven't thought of. Houston has the tallest building west of the Mississippi, and an extensive underground tunnel system downtown (kind of like a mall that goes on forever) connecting almost the entire business district. Still...Houston is remarkably decentralized. There are several clusters of buildings that visitors mistake for "The Downtown Area" because the clusters are so large and the buildings so high. I think the worst thing about Houston is the proliferation of billboards. There are just too many of them, but the advertising interests are very powerful here and entrenched. (I would prefer none at all) Some people say Houston is ugly, but if the billboards were removed it would be a vast improvement. At least in Houston you *can* see some natural beauty. From above, Houston looks like a forest for the most part. When you get up 15 or more stories and look across the city, you see more trees than anything man-made. (Of course its human nature to see the man-made things first, ignoring the proliferation of plantlife) At worst (barring the billboards) Houston is plain rather than ugly. There isn't anything spectacularly beautiful in the landscape, but if you get in among the trees (and we have lots of them in town) there are places that are very nice to be. It really depends on how you view things. Are prairies beautiful? Coastal Plains? Swamps? Pine Forests? Admittedly Houston is not Colorado and has no Grand Canyon, but it does have "Fruited Plains" and forests. The last week Downtown has been one big party after another. People are really doing up the various SuperBowl celebrations in over the top Texas style. Most of the really big events happen after working hours so many people are leaving work and going straight to parties and searching for celebrities at the various venues. And there are a *lot* of venues. I'm not very impressed by "the cult of personality" and have not taken part in any of these doings. But some of my co-workers are very into this and come to work each day with stories about who they saw or met yadda yadda yadda. I think its great to have a "BIG" event come to town, and I enjoy the fun I see people having. People here have been very forthcoming in welcoming and enabling the plethora of events, and I think they have been a big part of this SuperBowls success (at least the parts of the event beyond the game itself). If this happens to be one of the better SuperBowl games, then this will be quite a memorable championship game for the NFL. xponent No Bowl Haircut Maru rob _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
