As much as I’d like to think that all the best music happened in the ’60s, it has to be conceded that one or two good things happened after the first Star Trek series went off the air. In recognition that maybe not all the musical highlights of Star Trek…

Tower of Power released their first album in 1970. They have upward of 18 releases so we haven’t heard all their music, but we’ve heard enough to know what it’s all about. It’s pretty high-energy stuff, a very danceable sort of jazz/funk/soul hybrid with some rock elements. Around 60 musicians…

Have you ever thought that the solar system is just like one big molecule and…oh, you haven’t? Maybe it’s just us. What was I saying? Oh, yeah. As part of The British Are Coming…2006-2007 season, Symphony Arlington presents Gustav Holst’s The Planets. This particular concert promises to be a sort…

At last recollection the Trinity River in Fort Worth doesn’t smell like an overflowing cesspool. Good ol’ Panther City can actually promise pretty good times then at the 35th annual Mayfest, with activities actually in and on the river! Special attractions include aqua golf, a water balloon launch and canoes,…

Although we’re no strangers to the phrase “better living through chemistry,” our take on it is probably a little different than the approach offered in Authenticity and Ambivalence: The Debate About Using Medical Technologies to “Enhance” Human Beings. As part of The University of Texas at Dallas’ Public Forum series,…

Here’s an idea: Have an event featuring a couple of days of rodeo topped with a bull-riding invitational. Feature music from Jason Boland and the Stragglers, Kevin Fowler Band, Blake Shelton and many others. Call it the Real. Texas. Festival. This is a great idea from a marketing standpoint, but…

If you want to start a fight (not that we’d condone it), head to Denton this weekend and proclaim loudly how lousy the arts scene is there. Be warned, though. You will find yourself receiving the business end of a sausage-on-a-stick mighty quick because The Denton Arts and Jazz Festival…

A panel of scientists, intelligent design experts and authors will discuss no less than the development of life at this weekend’s “Darwin vs. Design” conference. All of the panel are directly or indirectly involved with the Center for Science and Culture, proponents of intelligent design, so they may be a…

I love festivals, and the Deep Ellum Arts Festival is one of the good ones. I know because I’ve been somewhat of a connoisseur since the time many years ago when I randomly ran into a beautiful Texas girl whose mother was displaying pottery at a festival in Park City,…

In college lingo, “101” translates to “for beginners.” Generally, one doesn’t learn much in a 101 (due to sleeping late and skipping), but they are sometimes good for getting dates. Probably the only 101 class that would be good to take a date to would be Sushi 101 at Central…

Like many of us, Chris Hillman was introduced to music by his older sister. Unlike most of us, his songs have been recorded by Beck, Emmylou Harris and Tom Petty. He’s had songs on the pop charts and country charts and is a member of the Rock and Roll Hall…

Even during the worst of the Cold War, Americans never lost respect for the arts we received from Russia. Unfortunately they lived up to the “evil empire” tag given to them by Ronald Reagan when they played dirty pool by sending us Yakov Smirnoff. Thankfully, the classics endured through those…

They say that since its inception in 1983, the North Texas Irish Festival has always been centered on the music, dance and culture of Ireland. With a majority of its demographic aged 21 to 45, we gotta wonder what it’s really all about. What do people over 21 want in…

It’s odd that a cultural touchstone like Hair is now just a novelty, a throwback that almost belongs in a museum (or worse yet, a zoo). For the 40th anniversary of the American tribal love/rock musical, the Uptown Players will present the play, which made its off-Broadway debut in 1967…

Twelve Angry Men was originally produced for television, using a single set and good acting to tell a story of race, justice and reasonable doubt. This week the Roundabout Theatre Company brings the courtroom drama to Dallas’ Majestic Theatre. This production boasts a great cast, with George Wendt as the…

Probably by singing a song that can be commonly heard as a ringtone, somebody is going to win Eagle Idol 3: The Search for a Mean Green Superstar, the University of North Texas’ version of the show American Idol. Judges will weed out the delusional, but the audience will choose…

We haven’t noticed Neil Young among the artists in the collection of outlaw country and country-rock concert posters that line the walls of the AllGood Café, providing inspiration and looking down in seeming empathy as hangovers are tended to with spicy comfort food and coffee refills on Sunday (and Thursday,…

Called the “Gypsy Jazz King,” guitarist Django Reinhardt was not only a lyrical, tasteful and sprightly soloist; he could be a very supportive and complementary accompanist as well. His playing was amazing on its own and almost unbelievable considering the setback that occurred early in his playing career. When he…

Roughly eight years ago a group of 15 longhorns from ranches all over Texas was herded by modern cowboys through Fort Worth, from Sundance Square all the way to the northside Stockyards. Photographers documented the event—The Last Great Cattle Drive of the 20th Century—and the result is a portfolio of…

If you have a rock act, you can only squeeze in a couple of brothers, or maybe a brother and sister every now and then. Cherryholmes, the “First Family of Bluegrass,” is an act consisting of a dad, a mom and four (yeah, four) children. While most families can barely…

The cathedral organ is best positioned to fill the house of God with music because it sounds most like the voice of God itself, capable of both bombast and whimsy. Its inspirational and reverent sound is explained and demonstrated in The Cathedral Shrine of the Virgin of Guadalupe’s The Cathedral…

When classical music is mentioned a few names invariably pop up, and Mozart is certainly one of them. A composer with a wide range of influences and output, he produced pieces for symphony, opera, solo concertos, quartets, quintets, piano sonatas, masses, dances and more, leaving work of a quantity and…