This issue is about our recent trivia contest, but first, for some news:

Live Music this Saturday

One of our jazz musicians was ill last Saturday, so they canceled their gig.  So, it's been rescheduled to this Saturday, August 25.  Come join us between 9 pm and midnight for some live, cool jazz and blues music.

By the way, if you had happened to drive by last Saturday, you would have missed the jazz music but would have perhaps been surprised to hear the strains of an accordionist floating out our doors!  Yes, we were pleasantly surprised too when one of our customers came by, asking if it was open mic night.  "Well, no", we said, "but our jazz band canceled; would you like to play?"  So, he whips an accordion out from his pocket, and says, "sure!"

(Ok, we exaggerate; his pocket wasn't that big - he actually said, "Great! I'll go get my box from the car."  "Box?", we were wondering, but our fears were calmed when he came back carrying his grand accordion).

He set up, and started to play a string of lovely, romantic songs on his box.  Then, surprise of surprises, one of the audience members also happened to be an accordion player, so we had a guest accordionist!  Everyone was enjoying tea, romance, and music, and we felt as if our place had been transformed into a little European cafe.

Oh, this reminds us: next Saturday, September 1, is our monthly Open Mic Night.  Sign ups are open now: check our Event calendar for details.

Trivia Poll

Our latest poll was a trivia contest: in what movie has our tea house building appeared?  The most popular reply, at 36%, was Reality Bites; but, last week, we eliminated that answer.  The second most popular reply, 27% was Rushmore, another made-in-Houston movie by Houston native  Wes Anderson, starring Bill Murray.   This movie features scenes from Lamar High School and St. John's School (in the movie depicted as rival cross-town schools, but in reality  just across the street from each other) and several other Houston area scenes - but, guess what?  No laundromat scene that we can recall from that movie.

Then there's Terms of Endearment, with 23% of the respondents.  Starring Shirley MacLaine, Debra Winger, Jeff Daniels & Jack Nicholson, this Oscar-winning movie has several scenes from Houston, including wonderful shots of the Heights.  We particularly liked the car ride on the beach in Galveston too!  While it's been a while, we can't remember any laundromat in that movie either.  So, no luck there.

Then, there's Robocop 2, RocketMan, and Rush.  If you haven't guessed by now, all of these movies were filmed in Houston, among 300+ movies that use our fair city as a shooting location.  We'll have to admit to having never watched Robocop 2 nor RocketMan, but upon reading about Rush, we were curious enough to rent it.  It's a dark movie, for sure; it's about 2 narcotic cops who become addicts themselves, and then are arrested after planting false evidence against a targeted drug dealer.  With excellent performances by Jason Patric and Jennifer Jason Leigh, the movie is based on the true story of Tyler, Texas  police officers Kim Wozencraft (now author) and Creig Matthews, and the movie was filmed entirely in Houston.  It features an apartment in Montrose (at 219 Marshall), and several other scenes around town.  The soundtrack to this movie is particularly cool, produced completely by Eric Clampton.  His music adds a slow, somber aspect to the declining morals of the movie's main characters.

And by now, you've probably guessed, this movie is the answer to our trivia contest!!  There's a brief (10 seconds at most!) scene of Jennifer Jason Leigh crying while sitting atop a washing machine, doing her clothes inside the local laundromat.  This scene was filmed at 1927 Fairview, our building!  Here's what our building looked like at one time:

photo courtesty of infousa.com

Yep, we've changed its look quite considerably!

New Shipment of Tea