Dish-Houston

Plenty of off-court events are planned during the 2013 US Men's Clay Court Championship at River Oaks Country Club April 8-14. While four members of the Top 20 of the ATP World Tour Rankings will headline the action on-court, events ranging from a Wound Warrior exhibition to fashion shows will be among the highlights away from the courts.

Here's a look at the event schedule for the week:

Monday, April 8
Junior Night - Youth tennis will be celebrated on Junior Night, which will include a Q&A session with an ATP World Tour player for the participating kids before the night session of matches begins.

Tuesday, April 9
HLTA Ladies Day - The Houston Ladies Tennis Association will host a special clinic and Q&A with Wayne Bryan and ATP World Tour players at 10:30 a.m. The special ticket price includes both the clinic and a ticket to the day session.

Tuesday and Thursday, April 9 and 11
Corona Q&A - An ATP World Tour player will visit the Corona Beach House during happy hour for a Q&A session with fans.

Wednesday, April 10
Armed Forces Appreciation Night - Several events will take place to honor members of the military, including a special Wounded Warrior tennis exhibition before the night session begins. A military color guard will also help open the night session.

Wednesday-Thursday, April 10-11
Tootsies Fashion Show SOLD OUT - A fabulous brunch is served while fashions and accessories from Tootsies are showcased on the runways over the pool at River Oaks Country Club. This popular event once again sold out in just minutes for 2013.

Friday, April 12
USTA Member Appreciation Day - USTA members will receive a gift with proof of their membership from USTA Texas. There will also be a reception held for USTA members before the start of the day session on Friday.

On Court
Opening rounds of the qualifying tournament will be held Saturday and Sunday, April 6-7, and these matches are FREE to the public. Several main draw players will also be practicing at the courts over these days, so it's a great chance for fans to see a lot of tennis action! Monday-Friday, day sessions will begin at Noon, and night sessions will start at 6 p.m. On Saturday, April 13, the singles semifinals will be played back-to-back beginning at 1 p.m., and the doubles final will be held at 6 p.m. Sunday's singles final will begin at 2 p.m.

The main draw for the tournament will be made late in the afternoon on Friday, April 5. The projected top four seeds, who will all have first round byes, are projected to be No. 12 Nicolas Almagro, No. 14 and defending champion Juan Monaco, No. 18 Tommy Haas and No. 20 and the top-ranked American Sam Querrey. Other players in the main draw who will play Monday or Tuesday include two-time Grand Slam champion from Australia Lleyton Hewitt, Spain's Fernando Verdasco, France's Nicolas Almagro, and AmericansJohn Isner, James Blake, Ryan Harrison and Houston resident Michael Russell.

In addition to these singles players, four-time doubles champion the Bryan Brothers will return to River Oaks. The twin brothers Bob and Mike are the World No. 1 doubles team. They own the record for Grand Slam titles with 13 together as well as total career titles together with 86. 

Information on these special events and tickets can be found at www.mensclaycourt.com or by calling 713-874-6294. Several sessions are very close to selling out, however the Ticket Turnback program will return for fans to donate tickets for sessions they cannot attend to the box office so they can be resold with the purchase price being donated to charity. A new beneficiary for the Ticket Turnback program will be announced before the tournament.

CESAR GALINDO will be showing his FALL 2010 collection, Tuesday, February 16th at 9PM in affiliation with Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week at THE BOX at 189 Chrystie Street, between Stanton & Rivington.  Sponsors: REDKEN 5^th Avenue NYC. 

For FALL 2010 Galindo rocks it! His muse and inspiration- the one and only die-hard, sexy, stylish, icon rocker- MS. JOAN JETT.  Galindo is her officially commissioned designer regarding her appearances at the SUNDANCE FILM FESTIVAL. 

Galindo states, “this is an honor for me, I remember dancing to Jett’s music in my high school cafeteria and rocking out!  Today that rock n’ roll spirit is alive and well as I hone in on her aura and iconic rebel message, which is reflected, in my designs. For me, Joan Jett has always been true to herself; she is the ultimate, radical and uncompromising female rocker.  Her style, persona, music and lyrics emanate from the core- very grassroots.  It is the same message I have always applied as a fashion designer- to stay true to yourself, allow to be stimulated and apply the fire inside you.”

Galindo’s runway looks will be a juxtaposition of head-turning fashion with style, color and details. A ROCK and ROLL fantasy, rebel nights, classic Goth- THEATER!  He will deliver double-faced sequin gowns, party tanks, CATSUITS his drive and statement of this fashion season. Some in solids, with textures, sequined and animal prints. Corseted jackets with knit details, tailored sequined pants, circle coats and multiple cover-ups in varying fabrics.  Textures with matte and shine, colors- red, silver, gold, purple, turquoise, and his signature vibrant and classic Fuchsia.

Galindo is a big supporter of Houston, Texas- his hometown, its creative communities and designers. For this season he pairs up with Angelica Ximenes Chapman designs, her jewelry will reflect color, clarity, precision, bold and simple designs from rings, to earrings, to chokers, pendants and necklaces.

For FALL 2010 it’s only ROCK n’ ROLL!  For Cesar will captivate us and turn out a show at a venue whose unsuspecting door in a sketchy Lower East Side alleyway will take you back to the 1930’s with the realness of 2010.  If you have never been to a Galindo show then do and get there early if you have an INVITE and as always expect a packed house, good people and a night charged with ROCK-HARD surprises!

Ok it may be pretty clear to most judges by now that these two aren't going to learn their lesson until a little jail time has been served.

Randy and Evi Quaid were due in court in early December for the fourth time and didn't show up — AGAIN!

Their lawyer tried to have the judge hold the bench warrant for two weeks, he declined and issued two arrest warrants for each of them at $40,000 apiece.

They posted $20,000 bail last time they failed to show up in court and signed a promise that they would appear on December 15, which they have obviously broken.

So....How much longer will this pathetic story go on?

Houston's own son Patrick Swayze, the hunky actor who danced his way into moviegoers' hearts with "Dirty Dancing" and then broke them with "Ghost," died Monday after a battle with pancreatic cancer. He was 57.

"Patrick Swayze passed away peacefully today with family at his side after facing the challenges of his illness for the last 20 months,"

said a statement released Monday evening by his publicist, Annett Wolf. Swayze died in Los Angeles, Wolf said, but declined to give further details.

Fans of the actor were saddened to learn in March 2008 that Swayze was suffering from a particularly deadly form of cancer. He kept working despite the diagnosis, putting together a memoir with his wife and shooting "The Beast," an A&E drama series for which he had already made the pilot.

Swayze said he opted not to use painkilling drugs while making "The Beast" because they would have taken the edge off his performance. The show drew a respectable 1.3 million viewers when the 13 episodes ran in 2009, but A&E said it had reluctantly decided not to renew it for a second season.

When he first went public with the illness, some reports gave him only weeks to live, but his doctor said his situation was "considerably more optimistic" than that. Swayze acknowledged that time might be running out given the grim nature of the disease.

"I'd say five years is pretty wishful thinking," Swayze told ABC's Barbara Walters in early 2009. "Two years seems likely if you're going to believe statistics. I want to last until they find a cure, which means I'd better get a fire under it."

C. Thomas Howell, who co-starred with Swayze in "The Outsiders," "Grandview U.S.A." and "Red Dawn", said:

 "I have always had a special place in my heart for Patrick. While I was fortunate enough to work with him in three films, it was our passion for horses that forged a friendship between us that I treasure to this day. Not only did we lose a fine actor today, I lost my older `Outsiders' brother."

Other celebrities used Twitter to express condolences, and "Dirty Dancing" was the top trending topic for a while Monday night, trailed by several other Swayze films.

Ashton Kutcher — whose wife, Demi Moore, co-starred with Swayze in "Ghost" — wrote: "RIP P Swayze." Kutcher also linked to a YouTube clip of the actor poking fun at himself in a classic "Saturday Night Live" sketch, in which he played a wannabe Chippendales dancer alongside the corpulent — and frighteningly shirtless — Chris Farley.

And Larry King wrote:

"Patrick Swayze was a wonderful actor & a terrific guy. He put his heart in everything. He was an extraordinary fighter in his battle w Cancer." King added that he'd do a tribute to Swayze on his CNN program Tuesday night.

A three-time Golden Globe nominee, Swayze became a star with his performance as the misunderstood bad-boy Johnny Castle in "Dirty Dancing." As the son of a choreographer who began his career in musical theater, he seemed a natural to play the role.

Swayze performed and co-wrote a song on the soundtrack, the ballad "She's Like the Wind," inspired by his wife, Lisa Niemi. The film also gave him the chance to utter the now-classic line, "Nobody puts Baby in a corner."

Swayze followed that up with the 1989 action flick "Road House," in which he played a bouncer at a rowdy bar. But it was his performance in 1990's "Ghost" that showed his vulnerable, sensitive side. He starred as a murdered man trying to communicate with his fiancee (Moore) — with great frustration and longing — through a psychic played by Whoopi Goldberg.

Swayze said at the time that he fought for the role of Sam Wheat (director Jerry Zucker wanted Kevin Kline) but once he went in for an audition and read six scenes, he got it.

Why did he want the part so badly? "It made me cry four or five times," he said of Bruce Joel Rubin's Oscar-winning script in an AP interview.

"Ghost" provided yet another indelible musical moment: Swayze and Moore sensually molding pottery together to the strains of the Righteous Brothers' "Unchained Melody." It also earned a best-picture nomination and a supporting-actress Oscar for Goldberg, who said she wouldn't have won if it weren't for Swayze.

"When I won my Academy Award, the only person I really thanked was Patrick," Goldberg said in March 2008 on the ABC daytime talk show "The View."

Swayze himself earned three Golden Globe nominations, for "Dirty Dancing," "Ghost" and 1995's "To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar," which further allowed him to toy with his masculine image. The role called for him to play a drag queen on a cross-country road trip alongside Wesley Snipes and John Leguizamo.

His heartthrob status almost kept him from being considered for the role of Vida Boheme.

"I couldn't get seen on it because everyone viewed me as terminally heterosexually masculine-macho,"

he told the AP then. But he transformed himself so completely that when his screen test was sent to Steven Spielberg, whose Amblin pictures produced "To Wong Foo," Spielberg didn't recognize him.

Among his earlier films, Swayze was part of the star-studded lineup of up-and-comers in Francis Ford Coppola's 1983 adaptation of S.E. Hinton's novel "The Outsiders," alongside Rob Lowe, Tom Cruise, Matt Dillon, Ralph Macchio, Emilio Estevez and Diane Lane.

Other '80s films included "Red Dawn," "Grandview U.S.A." (for which he also provided choreography) and "Youngblood," once more with Lowe, as Canadian hockey teammates.

In the '90s, he made such eclectic films as "Point Break" (1991), in which he played the leader of a band of bank-robbing surfers, and the family Western "Tall Tale" (1995), in which he starred as Pecos Bill. He appeared on the cover of People magazine as its "Sexiest Man Alive" in 1991, but his career tapered off toward the end of the 1990s, when he also had stay in rehab for alcohol abuse. In 2001, he appeared in the cult favorite "Donnie Darko," and in 2003 he returned to the New York stage with "Chicago"; 2006 found him in the musical "Guys and Dolls" in London.

Swayze was born in 1952 in Houston, the son of Jesse Swayze and choreographer Patsy Swayze, whose films include "Urban Cowboy."

He played football but also was drawn to dance and theater, performing with the Feld, Joffrey and Harkness Ballets and appearing on Broadway as Danny Zuko in "Grease." But he turned to acting in 1978 after a series of injuries.

Within a couple years of moving to Los Angeles, he made his debut in the roller-disco movie "Skatetown, U.S.A." The eclectic cast included Scott Baio, Flip Wilson, Maureen McCormack and Billy Barty.

Off-screen, he was an avid conservationist who was moved by his time in Africa to shine a light on "man's greed and absolute unwillingness to operate according to Mother Nature's laws," he told the AP in 2004.

Swayze was married since 1975 to Niemi, a fellow dancer who took lessons with his mother; they met when he was 19 and she was 15. A licensed pilot, Niemi would fly her husband from Los Angeles to Northern California for treatment at Stanford University Medical Center.

-AP

NOTE: DISH reprinted the AP obit because it was too difficult to actually write one. Every once in a while something hits home and makes it difficult to write or communicate clearly. This is one of those moments. We will be printing some of the memories people have been sending us of Partick soon.

God Bless your soul Patrick. Thank you for blessing ours while you were here.

You know DISH'S fav price is FREE!!! And the building of community is a pretty fab thing to do too! Plus supporting the arts...well that is just bonus! Guess what you can do Friday evening at Discovery Green beginning at 6 pm???