Hobby Center, Again

There is not much to say about the Hobby Center this year that I did not say last year. In some ways it is has some of the most luxurious facilities of the venues that we have played including a musician's lounge with couches and a TV right next to the pit. The pit is very spacious, and the locals were very nice to us this year. In fact they had a cookie and cobbler bakeoff, and a small brunch for us. Funny thing is they had nothing for us last year. Hmm I wonder why?!

As for the house itself, it lacks the charm of an old theatre, but it is much nicer than say the soulless Syracuse Cultural Center or New York's Gershwin Theatre.

One of the more interesting aspects of the theatre is the ceiling. There is a theatre group in Houston called Theater Under The Stars (TUTS), and the Hobby Center was built partly to give TUTS a home. So along with the touring shows, TUTS also produces shows at the Hobby. In fact they did a production of Bombay Dreams which they toured and I saw in Atlanta. But to get back to the point, the ceiling in the Sarofim Hall at the Hobby lights up in the star pattern of the Summer Solstice over Houston. And actually every five minutes there is a strand that lights up and looks like a shooting star. Sadly the ceiling is hard to get a good picture of because of the oval of bright lights around the stars.

Of course sometimes it is cloudy over Houston!