Sara Bareilles, the lovely lady whose songs “Love Song” and “Bottle It Up” are featured, along with her performing in a guy’s living room on a Rhapsody TV commercial will be in concert in Houston on March 15th at the Meridian (1503 Chartres) For more about Sara and her music, which is kind of a blend between Soul and Pop, see www.myspace.com/sarabareilles. To see her on the 15th, click here:

www.meridianhouston.com/fontsize2color000000Eventsfont/tabid/767/Default.aspx

Let me not forget to show a little love for Houston’s other live music venue, Warehouse Live. Here’s the link to their events calendar, as well,

www.warehouselive.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=pubCalendar

Also on March 15th, The Alchemia Party returns to the Engine Room! It is hosted by none other than Frosty, the Nightlife Tyrant and Alchemia will feature world-renown Mr. Gonzalo Menoyo, imported from Spain, to spin a lively set at the next party. Gonzalo was at the first party back in June of 2006 at the Jet Lounge and people are STILL raving about how good he was! It’s Frosty’s intention to force-feed Houston some raw house beats from a part of the world that we are not used to. It's been WAYYYY past high-time to expand this scene. Be there or suffer the wrath of hearing all the cool kids say “you shoulda BEEN there!”

SURVIVOR is the Spoiled Boyz 7th Anniversary and Jungle 16 Weekend After-Hours party on Saturday, March 22nd (Sunday Morning) commencing at 3:00AM and lasting until 10:00AM at NEXT (2020 McKinney @ St. Emanuel, one block south of Warehouse Live. Will you be a survivor? Easter weekend and late night Saturday, March 22nd, BEYOND Entertainment's Spoiled Boyz will celebrate their 7th anniversary and official Jungle 16 weekend after-hours event at NEXT which is located at 2020 McKinney at St. Emanuel. That's right, the eclectic group of the boys and girls known as Spoiled Boyz have turned seven years young and this group is STILL recognized as being one of Houston's most successful and longest-running nightlife event series creators. You should plan to be a SURVIVOR as Miami's International DJ/Producer ALYSON CALAGNA (whom I have a raging crush on, might I add) takes you on a house/dance music journey that does not end until 10:00AM. Joining Alyson and performing live is LA's Fabulous Dance Diva, FLAVA. Chill and relax in the Groove Lounge with a CD Giveaway. There are VIP packages available if you contact Charles Solomon (a.k.a C- So!) at chassolomon@aol.com.

Doors open at 3:00AM Sunday morning. Please note a portion of the proceeds benefit local Houston charities. Advanced tickets are available at M2M Fashion (3407 Montrose.) For more info visit www.spoiledboyz.net.

NEW KID ON THE BLOCK: Everyone is chatting up THE GROVE. The Grove was even on the cover of the February issue of Houston Modern Luxury Magazine. It’s located at 1611 Lamar and is an all-glass design in the Discovery Green area. It’s brought to us by the folks who brought us Café Annie 27 years ago, led by famed chef, Robert Del Grande. The menu is considered to be “American Rustic Cuisine” but what I’m most excited about is the Treehouse, which is their open-air bar on the upstairs deck of the restaurant. The Treehouse just opened on March 1st and will be open Thursday – Saturday from 4PM until midnight. Call 713-337-7321 for information. There might just be a revival of the downtown scene on the horizon.

The Bayou City Art Festival Memorial Park commences March 28th through Sunday, March 30th from 10AM-6PM each day with more than 300 visual and performing artists transforming the park's trails into an outdoor art gallery and multicultural music and dance. Tickets are $10 and free for kids under 12 so this would make a great family outing. See www.bayoucityartfestival.com to get more information about the event.

Downtown will also soon welcome the Houston International Festival 2008 and this year’s theme is “Out of Africa: The Three Journeys.” Our iFest is one of the nation's largest presenters of world music, features hundreds of internationally acclaimed artists on ten performance stages and six themed entertainment zones showcase a world of cultures, cuisines and customs. iFest stretches across 16 acres of downtown parks and streets including City Hall, Bagby Street and Tranquility and Sam Houston Parks. The entertainment zones will include the WaMu Out of Africa Zone spanning from City Hall to Upper Sam Houston Park. It will celebrate the cultures of Africa and African influence in the Americas with a variety of educational and cultural stages and exhibits.

The International Festival will take place the weekends of April 19th and 20th and April 26th and 27th. The hours will be 12PM – 10PM on Saturdays and 12PM–8PM on Sundays and there will be free lunchtime concerts on April 18th and 25th from 11PM–1:30PM. Tickets are on sale as of March 10 at Houston area H-E-B stores and online at www.ifest.org. For more information, please contact the Houston International Festival office at 713-654-8808 or access the Festival’s website at www.ifest.org.

WEEKLY ITINERARY: Mondays are laid-back at The Tavern (1340 West Gray) my partner in crime, Sarah Diab and I are HUGE fans of hottie bartender, Brian and bartendress Mai pours up some fun too. Ask her about her new dobie puppy, Bella. Tuesdays at Bond (2700 Milam) are hosted by Joe Applewhite and the night features $5 u-call-its. On Wednesdays, you should head on over to Escobar (2905 Travis.) Say hello from the Queen to Crystal Lee, who is a promoter at Esco and she adds beauty to the lounge’s interior with her pretty face. Thursdays heat up at Zeppelin Lounge (3101 San Jacinto) DJs Bizz and Red get the crowd going and doors open at 10PM. See www.myspace.com/zeppelin713 or www.zeppelin713.net to get the lowdown. Fridays are getting packed at the new Pandora (1815 Washington.) Want to get some inside info before you go? Just click to www.pandorahouston.com to find out more about the new dance club, yet ANOTHER installment on Washington Avenue. On Saturday, go see my favorite bartender at one of my favorite places in town, Chris Lawless at the Flat (1701 Commonwealth.) Sunday Funday leaves many options and the Queen says “why not do them ALL?” Start at Cyclone Anaya’s in midtown (309 Gray at Bagby,) which was rated as one of Houston’s top 10 restaurants by Channel 13. I saw that one their website. Cyclone Anaya’s is also where I work as the Catering Coordinator, Event Planner and a server. Come and “get your brunch on” each weekend from 9:30AM-3PM. We offer both our brunch menu and our regular menu along with bottomless mimosas until 3PM, then our regular menu until we close at 9PM. From Cyclone Anaya’s, you can walk a block over to Deco (510 Gray) for Whip Cream Sundays, complete with go-go dancers and jello shots then head on to Mosiac (530 Texas at Smith in the Bayou Place) to hear one of my favorite DJs, Jessica Lozano. Those are my three picks for “Sundaze.”

This is a pretty simple request. The Animal Rescue Site is having trouble getting enough people to click on it daily to meet their quota of getting free food donated every day to abused and neglected animals. It takes less than a minute to go to their site and click on the purple box 'fund food for animals.’ This doesn't cost you a thing. Their corporate sponsors/advertisers use the number of daily visits to donate food to abandoned/neglected animals in exchange for advertising. Here's the web site http://www.theanimalrescuesite.com/

Okay, so if you’ve been reading since issue #1, which was in September 2004, by now you know (and LOVE) that I am a spoiled brat. If you haven’t been reading since the first issue, don’t fret because ALL the old QOC issues are posted on my website, www.houstonqueenofclubs.com. Just scroll down to past issues at the bottom of the website newsletter and get caught up on those you missed. Anyway, back to me being a brat…I need some input and I need some advertisers. I want to know WHAT you want to read about, where you want me to go to review, where YOU go, what you like about QOC, what you don’t like and any other feedback (or juicy gossip) you have for me. By the way, my designer, Khail Mills of www.hypermail.cc only gets paid each issue with the ad boxes on the left column of the newsletter so if you could, please click the boxes and patronize the businesses who make this newsletter possible. Better yet, if you are a business, BUY a box because it is dirt cheap and it pays my designer. For one issue, it is $25 and any consecutive issues after that are only $10. Promoters, it could link to a flyer of your next event, club owners it can tap into your website and it can even go to your myspace page if you want it to! Support QOC. Buy a box today. Email khail@hypermail.cc (pretty please!)

The Steve Miller Band and Joe Cocker are coming to the Woodlands Pavilion on Saturday May 31st. Buy your tickets at www.livenation.com or www.ticketmaster.com. Tickets are also available at all Ticketmaster Outlets or you may charge by phone at 713-629-3700. Tickets go on sale March 10th. Thank you, Brian Birr of Live Nation for this information.