May’s Perfect Party

When people care deeply about something, we care deeply about partying with them. Hence, our invitation to James Hutton, the vice president of Compressor Engineering Corporation, who’s held a professional engineer’s license for 60 years and is one of the oldest practitioners in Texas. He’s 94, just six years younger than Hermann Park, whose first century we celebrate in 2014, and whose new Grand Gateway, designed by landscape architect Kevin Shanley, opens later this year. Trenton Doyle Hancock just completed a permanent installation inside the park’s iconic train tunnel, even as he has a solo show up at the Contemporary Art Museum Houston. Brittany Bly drew 5,000 fashion fans to her last Pop Shop Houston, and she’s expecting even bigger numbers at this month’s event, May 3 and 4 at Silver Street Studios. Mike Freedman, Rice MBA candidate and former Green Beret, just published his debut novel, School Board, about the goings on at fictional Jefferson High School (read: Memorial).  Malcolm Brenner, the founding director of the Center for Cell and Gene Therapy at Baylor, recently received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Pediatric Blood and Marrow Transplant Consortium for his groundbreaking work over a 30-year career. Hayle Lyles, Yates High School sophomore, is one of only 120 students worldwide chosen to study climate change this summer in Pretoria, South Africa. And finally, Karla M., Houstonia gadfly and Spring resident, has twice sent us emails with the subject line, “Perfect Party not so perfect.” We know. Anyway, after exhorting us to “Keep Houston and Houstonia nice,” she then broke things off altogether. “I’m sure there’s a lot of other good content in the magazine, but it gets tainted by Perfect Party. I just don’t want to pay to be insulted anymore so I’m canceling my subscription.” And while we found Karla’s manner kantankerous, kaustic, and borderline kruel, we will not blithely dismiss it. After all, what’s a party without a little drama?

Published in the 52 Road Trips (on One Tank of Gas!) issue of Houstonia Mag.