{"id":774841,"date":"2026-05-05T12:08:36","date_gmt":"2026-05-05T12:08:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/774841\/"},"modified":"2026-05-05T12:08:36","modified_gmt":"2026-05-05T12:08:36","slug":"what-notsuoh-and-tarot-cards-tell-us-about-trusting-the-journey","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/774841\/","title":{"rendered":"What Notsuoh and Tarot Cards Tell Us About Trusting the Journey"},"content":{"rendered":"

There probably aren\u2019t many places in Houston more suitable for a tarot card reading than Notsuoh<\/a>. The nooks and crannies of the eclectic Main Street art bar \u2013 which is celebrating its 30th anniversary this week \u2013 lend themselves perfectly to the mystery and enlightenment of tarot\u2019s divination.<\/p>\n

Producer\/director Seamus Moran<\/a> clearly considered this when he made Notsuoh the setting of his new short film, Today\u2019s the Day: TAROT. The experimental video was shot last fall and is helping kick off the Notsuoh Dirty Thirty Anniversary Festival<\/a>. The four-day event starts with the film\u2019s 8 p.m. debut on Wednesday, May 6 and concludes Saturday, May 9, book-ended by the premier of Purple Necklace, a film by Notsuoh owner, Jim Pirtle. In between, the festivities will include music, art installations, poetry, performance art, interactive crafts and more. In short, the kinds of weirdly wonderful activities the space at 314 Main has hosted since its inception in 1996.<\/p>\n

Moran is a longtime member of the city\u2019s arts and entertainment scenes, best known for his work on KPFT 90.1 FM, and as a photographer and filmmaker. He\u2019s worked with folks like Dead Kennedys\u2019 Jello Biafra, humorist David Sedaris and This American Life\u2019s Ira Glass. Moran said Today\u2019s the Day wasn\u2019t created expressly for Notsuoh\u2019s anniversary celebration, but it was a logical addition to the roster of events.<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, I know Jim Pirtle and I met Mark Pirtle first, his brother, back in the day, and he helped me learn about filmmaking. I wanted to shoot there because I was a fan of Notsuoh when it first opened,\u201d Moran said. \u201cI think I might have been one of the people that could see the potential because a lot of other people thought maybe that wasn\u2019t such a great purchase back in the day, \u00a030 years ago. But (Jim) saw something and I\u2019m happy to help him celebrate his 30th anniversary. And since I shot this there, we both thought it would make sense that I would show it there as part of the celebration.\u201d<\/p>\n

Moran teamed with students from Houston City College to bring the 22-minute film to life. He said he\u2019s had a long fascination with tarot and cards of all kinds. The film is the first of four shorts planned around cards. Future installments will feature playing cards, trading cards and resident alien\/immigration cards. For the series opener, Moran reached out to local tarot practitioner Amber Ambrose<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve always had interest in that kind of stuff, any meaningful coincidences or synchronistic events,\u201d he said, noting the attraction is also attached to the mysticism and risk-taking of tarot, an art which is traceable back to 1300 B.C., according to Moran. \u00a0\u201cYou know, I definitely had some meaningful coincidences, even when I started editing this. If I would have called or emailed Amber every time that I thought she would find something interesting, that \u00a0\u2018While I was editing, you won\u2019t believe what happened,\u2019 I think she would probably distance herself from me. So, I didn\u2019t do that. But I really did have some and it was cool to recognize what I thought was a meaningful coincidence.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Isa Machado at Notsuoh Credit: Seamus Moran<\/p>\n

The events which transpire in the film, shot in an alcove at Notsuoh which gives parlor vibes, were by chance because Moran elected to shoot Ambrose at work and unscripted.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe\u2019s just immediately likable. She\u2019s got great psychological insight into tarot, the cards and the history and the artwork of tarot,\u201d Moran said. He recruited artist and musician Isa Machado<\/a> to have her cards read and to engineer the film\u2019s audio and fellow HCC student Pegah Shariatmadari<\/a> to create credits for the film.<\/p>\n

Machado and Shariatmadari are recent graduates and Houstonians by way of Mexico and Iran, respectively. Moran said the story was formed \u201cby kind of letting the cards inform me how the structure of the video was going to be.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, yeah, it was a real video document. There was no script. They had never met before, Isa and Amber, so they had about 20 minutes to sit around while I got the cameras set up. And then the luck of the draw, whatever happened. You know, it happened in a really cool way. To say Isa got a great reading would be an understatement and it kind of surprised Amber about the cards that she drew. For this particular reading she drew from three different decks so the odds start getting pretty high for the cards that she drew to match from different decks.\u201d<\/p>\n

Without giving too much away, Moran said Machado got a very positive reading. With Ambrose turning and reading the cards, the experience was akin to \u201ctwo people wishing each other well and having the tarot cards be the mechanism for how that message is delivered. It\u2019s really cool,\u201d Moran shared. \u201cIt was like giving each other best wishes, like good stuff is in store for you. It\u2019s just something you don\u2019t hear a lot of these days.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Moran\u2019s short film kicks off Notsuoh\u2019s 30th anniversary celebration Credit: nacho_at_notsuoh<\/p>\n

The press materials Moran sent to pitch the screening included a blurb, describing the document as \u201ca timeless message about trusting the journey.\u201d You don\u2019t need tarot cards to read between the lines. Two immigrants new to Houston, trying to find their fortunes are involved in the film. Its director also came to Houston new \u2013 back in 1976, by way of Canada \u2013 and found a home here. The venue the film was shot in, which has become a Houston arts staple, was also a gamble for its visionary owner, Jim Pirtle.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m pretty sure it\u2019s common knowledge he took out his teacher retirement fund, which was a good amount of money, but that was just not a place that anyone went,\u201d Moran said of downtown Houston in the 1990s. \u201cNo one in Houston stayed after work to go somewhere downtown and no one came into town on the weekends to go anywhere downtown.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pirtle trusted his gut and the process and Notsuoh is presently experiencing a rebirth of sorts, with new generations of Houstonians, like Machado, enjoying new and improved elements of the bohemian space. Unlike many of her fellow Houstonians, she\u2019d never been to Notsuoh until the day of her reading.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe\u2019d only seen it from the outside and didn\u2019t know if it was abandoned because she\u2019d go by in the mornings or something and it was always closed. So, when she came in, she really did come in for the first time,\u201d Moran said.<\/p>\n

\u201cA week or so later, I asked her, you know, what do you think about this? I just did an audio interview with her and some of the things she said I diced up into the opening audio, so it kind of has a message. Really the takeaway is like, don\u2019t be scared. Even though it\u2019s a whole new world, coming to America, especially for Pegah as well, and then coming into this building and no one\u2019s sure what\u2019s going to happen. So, I made it a little creepy and then I made it very uplifting, all in the same video.\u201d<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s the Day: TAROT screens at 8 p.m. Wednesday, May 6 at Notsuoh, 314 Main. The film will be aired in The Dome at Notsuoh, the art bar\u2019s 20-foot mini-dome theater, and is part of the venue\u2019s 30th anniversary celebration. <\/p>\n

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