GRAPEVINE

Shell Game
The Kemp’s ridley, Texas’ official sea turtle, is born an underdog. Only one in 300 hatchlings makes it to adulthood,  after an initial scamper across the beach, past preying sea gulls and into the water, where it is under threat of errant shrimp nets and poachers, who use its eggs as an aphrodisiac and its skin for cowboy boots.

Roxy and Squirt are two of the lucky ones who have survived. They will be the primary attractions at the Turtle Rescue Center, which  opens Thursday at Sea Life Aquarium.

Roxy was found on Mustang Island in 2007. Crabs had eaten her left flippers, she weighed all of nineteen grams, and she was about the size of a half-dollar. After rehabilitation, she is now over forty pounds but will never be fit for release.

Squirt is in a similar situation. In 2009, a boat struck him when he came out of the water for some fresh air near Padre Island. Shell damage trapped air permanently under his  shell, causing a condition called “bubble butt,” which causes Squirt to float on the water’s surface.

“We’re showing the dichotomy of what can happen to you in the ocean,” said the aquarium curator, Karen Rifenbury. “You’ve got Mother Nature having some say in whether an animal will live or die, but also you’ve got human beings and the damage that we do to the species.”

Visitors can see three other endangered turtles—green, leatherback, and hawksbill—and then maybe begin learning how to save them.
Sea Life Aquarium, July 11, 10 a.m., visitsealife.com

HOUSTON 

Swing Set
The music of Asleep at the Wheel, the nine-time Grammy-winning western swing ensemble, is the sound of Texas. But its appeal is widespread.

That is clear in Asleep at the Wheel Then and Now, a  short documentary about the band, which formed in Paw Paw, West Virginia, in 1970 and has had several lineups in the decades since. The movie had its premiere  at this year’s South by Southwest Film Festival and will be screened again in conjunction with the band’s concert on Friday. It shows Asleep at the Wheel immersed in the hippie culture in the San Francisco Bay Area, where the band had relocated before Willie Nelson lured them to Austin in the mid-seventies.

There is also a scene from 1975 in which the band jams on The Dinah Shore Show, on a day when the special guest was Bill Cosby.

“It was our first network appearance,” Ray Benson, the band’s frontman, recalled in an email. “She was so nice. And later in the show, Cosby came up with Dinah and danced and rapped to us doing ‘Cotton- Eye Joe.’.”
Miller Outdoor Theater, July 5, 8:30 p.m., asleepatthewheel.com

FORT WORTH

Satisfaction
Although the Rolling Stones’ music is rock ’n’ roll of the highest order, it is also keyed for classical. The album Symphonic Music of the Rolling Stones, released in 1994, is a compilation of the group’s signature songs reinterpreted by the London Symphony Orchestra and the singers  Michael Hutchence, formerly of INXS, and Marianne Faithfull.

The concept  has spawned “Music of the Rolling Stones,” a touring production. Brent Havens, the  conductor, and Brody Dolyniuk, the  vocalist, pair with various symphonies, like the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra,  to make sure fans can always get that they want: the Stones, live, or something close to it.
Fort Worth Botanic Garden, July 5, 8:15 p.m., fwsymphony 2.org

AUSTIN

Nor Any Drop to Drink

Erika Blumenfeld’s exhibition “Water, water every where”—which takes its title  from  “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner”—reflects  on the absence of water caused by climate disruption. It documents the recent wildfires in the Southwest, which have been exacerbated by drought, among them  the 2011 Rock House fire in Marfa, where Blumenfeld, an “ecological archivist,” has created and shown work several times.

Blumenfeld presents her message in photographs and paintings and in two installations composed of actual charred remains from the fires.
Women and Their Work, July 11-Aug. 29, erikablumenfeld.com

ROCKPORT

Coast to Coast
Coastal Living magazine last year included Rockport on its list of the top ten artists’ colonies, citing as its hub the Rockport Center for the Arts, whose pinnacle event is the Rockport Art Festival, featuring 120 juried artists this weekend, selling paintings, ceramics, wood carvings, jewelry and knickknacks.
Rockport Art Center, July 6-7, 10 a.m., rockportartcenter.com

DALLAS

No Pictures, Please
Unflattering images of Beyoncé dancing during her Super Bowl appearance  prompted her to ban photographers from her sold-out world tour, “The Mrs. Carter Show,” so the only way to see the megastar bust a move onstage is to pay $1,095 for a “priceless” VIP ticket.
American Airlines Center, July 6, 8 p.m., beyonce.com