Few artists from the American folk-music scene have been more important than Ramblin’ Jack Elliott. For 50 years, the singer, storyteller and guitar picker has influenced artists and musicians from Jack Kerouac and Jerry Garcia to Beck and The Rolling Stones. (Supposedly, Mick Jagger bought his first guitar after hearing…
Good luck getting Thomas Friedman’s new book Hot, Flat, and Crowded: Why We Need a Green Revolution–and How It Can Renew America from the library when it comes out this September. When Mr. Globalization’s best seller The World Is Flat hit the shelves in 2005, so many patrons requested it…
When describing These Are Powers’ sound, it’s impossible not to throw out terms like noisy, raw or atonal. But, whatever you do, don’t call the band’s powerful racket post-punk or No Wave. By dubbing their own sound “ghost-punk,” the members of this noise-rock outfit beat critics to the punch. And—thoughts…
For the 15th year, Fort Worth will play host to Chile Pepper magazine’s Zest Fest. A surefire way to spice up the weekend, the event is a celebration of piquant preparations and fiery fare. Billed as “the ultimate party for bold and flavorful food enthusiasts,” attendees will be serenaded by…
I fell under the spell of bluegrass music long before the Coen brothers’ O Brother, Where Art Thou? I was 9 and riding with my grandpa through the pinewood forests surrounding Hot Springs, Arkansas. Grandpa was running errands. I was tagging along. He slid a cassette into the tape player,…
If you can’t imagine going to the zoo without your camera, then you should probably enter the Dallas Zoo’s 6th annual photography contest. Open to amateurs and seasoned professional photographers of all ages, the deadline to enter the Feathers, Fur & Scales photo contest is September 30. There’s a $15…
Even if you’ve never heard of Sunny Day Real Estate, you’ve undoubtedly heard countless groups that have been heavily influenced by the band’s sound. Dubbed “emo-core” by Sub Pop when the label released the band’s debut album in ’94, frontman Jeremy Enigk’s emotionally strained, mercurial vocals paired with the group’s…
When someone mentions Paul Newman, I immediately think salad dressings, salsas and Ginger-O’s, but then I picture him as Luke in the opening scene of Cool Hand Luke. Drunk and wearing a satisfied, smug grin, he’s slowly, methodically cutting the heads off rows of parking meters with a pipe cutter…
As far as honeymoons go, taking a steam ship down the Nile sounds like quite the romantic plan. But in Agatha Christie’s play Murder on the Nile, the exotic trip of newlyweds Simon and Kay Mostyn quickly turns to murder, mayhem and red herrings when they discover Simon’s jilted ex…
Suppose two guys want to make a Broadway musical about the history of the planet from the beginning of time through the present day. Well, first they’d need some major financial backing, but, when the musical would require a cast of more than 300 actors and cost $83.5 million to…
When I was a kid, nothing sparked the flames of fantasy and adventure like a treehouse, a playhouse or a makeshift fort. I didn’t care whether the fort was built around the trunk of a tree, a quilt strung up across a few dining room chairs or the cardboard box…
The first single off Joe Diffie’s debut album shot straight to No. 1 in 1990. Since then, he’s released more than a dozen top-10 hits, won a Grammy and, sadly, chopped off his mullet. Now, after nine studio albums, he’s joining the ranks of Merle Haggard, Roy Clark, Cross Canadian…
After struggling through a horrible time in his life, playwright Mark-Brian Sonna wrote a dark comedy based on his horrifying experience. Persistence in Memory features a “Man” dealing with the cleaning lady from hell, while simultaneously trying to purge some haunting memories. For the first time, Sonna is playing the…
This weekend, if you haven’t “been around,” or if you don’t like bawdy sketches, waggish bits or silly things–nudge-nudge, wink-wink–then you’d better avoid Grapevine like the plague, because The British Emporium, 140 N. Main St., is unleashing a three-day Monty Python Madness festival and charity fund-raiser. Starting tonight and running…
For decades, Larry McMurtry has kept the same daily ritual. Most mornings, he feeds sheet after sheet of paper into his Hermes 3000 typewriter. He’ll write for hours. But his routine was interrupted by a heart attack and quadruple bypass surgery in the early ’90s that left him shattered and…
The best thing about Paul Varghese’s incendiary stand-up routines is that he dishes scorching commentary without leaving anyone feeling burnt. He lobs fiery jokes at audiences about religion, race and rending stereotypes — like joking about taking Salsa lessons ’cause he “wants to be the only Arabic looking guy who…
Sure, I did it back in the day, and all my friends were doing it. In the early ’90s, it was as inescapable as Hypercolor and Hammertime. Weezing the juice was epidemic. Glassy-eyed teens would sit for hours eating Cheetos while watching Pauly Shore’s antics on MTV. Before long, we…
I understand most phobias, like a nice rational fear of snakes or heights or pink-eyed, snow-white bunny rabbits. But I’ll never fathom lepidopterophobia — the fear of butterflies. It’s not that I don’t sympathize with lepidopterophobes like Nicole Kidman. I just don’t get it. For me, the thought of being…
For years after seeing Spielberg’s thriller Jaws, I naturally assumed every lake, pond and swimming pool was a deathtrap with its own great white. Sure the shark’s jerky movements don’t hold up to today’s CGI-laden standards, but John Williams’ menacing score more than makes up for the passé special effects…
Comedian Tony Rock is probably sick of people mentioning he’s Chris Rock’s little brother. But, he’d be compared to Chris even if they weren’t related, because both their routines tend to be heavily battered in class and race, and well-seasoned with both the F-word and the N-word. In Tony’s appearance…
After CBS pulled the plug on Good Times in 1979, Jimmie “J.J.” Walker returned to his roots on the stand-up club circuit. In the ’80s, he made guest appearances on TV shows like The Love Boat, Fantasy Island and The Fall Guy. For a while, his roles were limited to…
With the nominees for the upcoming presidential election finally secure, I know we’re all itchin’ to vote. So listen up, because unlike in November (Google: electoral college), your voice will be heard. For the final night of AllGood Cafe’s Wednesday Night Film Festival screening films by Francis Ford Coppola, they’ve…
