A cupcake is the little black dress of desserts. Both can be dressed up for a wedding or toned down for a birthday party. Wannabe bakers can learn how to do the former–whip up fancy pants cupcakes–at the Central Market Cooking School. The instructor will teach how to make rhubarb…

The general rule of movie sequels is simple: don’t make them. Good movies come singly and perhaps in the rare trilogy, but as is the case with most sequels, there’s never a good reason to make a fourth one. Case in point: Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal…

Gandhi, generally considered to be a pretty smart guy, once said no culture can live if it attempts to be exclusive. Expand horizons by immersing yourself in Mexican culture for an evening this weekend. The Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, in partnership with the General Consul of Mexico and…

Empty Red Bull cans don’t have to be an unwelcome reminder of last night’s Jagerbombs. With a little imagination (and maybe a dash of Jager for inspiration) they can become a work of art. The maker of the energy drink asked artists, dabblers and anyone else with a creative streak…

The City of Your Final Destination is as provocative as the title suggests. Based on the book of the same name, the film follows graduate student Omar (Omar Metwally), who wants to write an authorized biography of a Uruguayan novelist who committed suicide. His request having been rejected by the…

There are two stories my dad always tells when the subject of boats comes up. One involves the time he ate beer and eggs for breakfast, got on a boat and promptly barfed, while the second recalls the incident in which he launched himself, my mother and my toddler self…

Payback is due this weekend at Dr Pepper Ballpark in Frisco, where the hometown RoughRiders will take on the Springfield Cardinals. The ‘Riders put up more Ls than Ws against the corn-fed Cards at their last meeting in April. Time to even the score, boys. The three-game series against the…

John DeMers is a triple threat: he cooks like the devil, writes mystery novels, and hosts a radio show. I’ve never met DeMers, but I bet you my grandmother’s top-secret banana pudding recipe (the secret’s in the Nilla wafers!) that women love him and men want to be him. Heck,…

I love a good nap (who doesn’t?), but Rip van Winkle-ing it for a century until some guy finally shows up for a make-out session rankles my little feminist heart. But who am I to argue the merits of The Sleeping Beauty? The Texas Ballet Theater is performing the classic…

Dallas artist Cathey Miller says she’s painted on a variety of surfaces, including naked ladies. Unfortunately, no babes in the buff will be included in Miller’s Trigger Happy, an exhibition featuring vintage Hollywood starlets packing heat. However, you’ll come face to face with a crazy-eyed Jane Russell armed with a…

One day, when my sugar daddy comes along, he’s going to buy me a purple Lamborghini. That’s right, I said purple. However, today is not that day. For now, I’ll have to be satisfied lusting after the sweet rides parked at NorthPark Center during the AutoShow. There’s a little something…

James Bond movies are classics, but they also fall into another category: car porn. It’s simply Bond’s birthright to drive–and wreck–the kind of cars most men only get to test-drive during the obligatory midlife crisis. Let’s face it; Bond’s not going to settle for my grandma’s Grand Marquis when he…

These days, vampires are like viruses. They’re everywhere, thanks to Twilight. There are the garden variety evil vampires, vegetarian vampires, vamps who drink synthetic blood, and–wait for it–singing vampires. One wonders if the fangs get in the way of a high A. That’s a question for The Urban Vampires, a…

An English playwright who wasn’t Shakespeare once wrote “all’s fair in love and war,” but a French guy deserves credit for taking it to extremes. Psychological warfare outweighs true love in Cruel Intentions, the decade-old movie adapted for the stage by the Collin Theatre Center. The story–based on a scandalous…

Strippers and trailer parks and intrigue, oh my! Armadillo Acres–a trailer park populated by bleached blondes and men in dirty wife beaters–is home, sweet home to high school sweethearts Jeannie and Norbert. But there’s trouble brewing inside their love nest on wheels. An agoraphobic Jeannie refuses to leave their trailer…

For Dylan Hollingsworth, the end of the beginning is another beginning–or something like that. Three years ago, the artist picked up a camera and, as they say, the rest is history. Documented history, that is. A three-year retrospective of Hollingsworth’s photography, The End of the Beginning (2007 – 2010), is…

Bacchus–the old Roman god–landed an enviable gig among the mighty on Mount Olympus: He was the patron of winemaking. Bacchus’ nickname is the “Liberator,” otherwise known among undergraduates as the little voice saying, “Oh, one more couldn’t hurt!” That little voice, buried from years of adult repression, may creep up…

The best scene in My Fair Lady–the classic flick starring Audrey Hepburn as a Cockney flower girl turned faux aristocrat–happens at the horse races. An excited Eliza Doolittle loses her head and yells, “Come on Dover, move yer bloomin’ arse!” Truer words have never been spoken. Despite the gaudy hats…

Some days it’s all a girl can do to brush on some powder and mascara before leaving the house. No problem, says Carmindy, makeup artist extraordinaire of TLC’s What Not to Wear. She believes in less makeup with more impact, a motto any girl on the go can get behind…

25 years ago, Life magazine immortalized a stretch of U.S. Route 50 than runs through Nevada as “The Loneliest Road in America.” The nickname stuck. Ghost towns, cemeteries, mountains, railroad tracks and remnants of the Pony Express Trail flash by drivers headed along Route 50. These images burned themselves into…

It’s easy to tell which generation one belongs to by discussing favorite Disney movies. I’m all about the 1973 animated version of Robin Hood (suck it, Toy Story.) Americans big and small are well-acquainted with Disney characters, thanks to Walt and his empire. If you can’t take the family on…

After President John F. Kennedy’s assassination, more than 1.5 million people picked up their pens to express their profound grief in letters to former first lady Jackie Kennedy. The condolence letters were an outlet for a deep, collective sadness best conveyed by a writer from Oklahoma City: “Mrs. Kennedy, I’m…