Thursday, July 3 Mmm, spitting. Nothing says America like spitting. At least, that’s what the Lakewood Library is going with today at 2 p.m. for its Watermelon Fun Day. We must admit, the name was reason enough for a mention, then when we heard about the seed-spitting contests we knew…
You’re in your grade-school seat stiff with anticipation. You have no idea what the teacher is saying. Timmy’s picking his nose, and for once you don’t care enough to announce it. But you gotta show someone; it’s so cool. You can’t even believe Mom let you get it. You’ve wanted…
Thursday, June 19 Sleep Number, Tempur-Pedic, Isotonic Foam, Craftmatic. Bedding is out of control. No one sleeps on a normal mattress anymore. We even admit ours has a coveted “pillow top.” It may have taken years of technological breakthroughs, but we’ve discovered where mattress mania began. Thanks to that damn…
Everybody knows David Brent. We’ve worked with, under or over someone like him, and it’s nothing other than excruciating. He’s the boss who points to a “Billy the Big Mouth” fish plaque and says, “You can’t put a price on comedy.” He’s the guy who warrants an unflattering PhotoShop job…
Real men don’t eat quiche. Real men don’t cry. Real men don’t ask for directions. Real men don’t use clichés. We’re clear on what “real men” don’t do, but we have a bit less information on what bastions of manliness do do. Apparently, this is the fourth year that Real…
Dana Carvey made an excellent point in his 1995 HBO special Critic’s Choice. Gordon Sumner must have had serious balls to ask his friends to start referring to him as Sting. Carvey describes the young musician with his pals as he reminds them of his new name, to which they…
We’ve always wanted to travel on a passenger train. A lifetime of watching Hitchcock’s The Lady Vanishes, North by Northwest and Strangers on a Train (the list of Hitch’s films with train scenes could go on), and we’re completely wrapped up in that seduction and mystery that roll along two…
Thursday, May 29 Joni Mitchell says, “They paved paradise and put up a parking lot.” So what if it’s your mother’s cemetery plot instead of paradise and a supermarket instead of that parking lot? Suzan-Lori Parks assigns that li’l problem to Billy, the main character of Parks’ novel Getting Mother’s…
Thursday, May 22 Casting a Spell: Winslow Homer, Artist and Angler has caused a whirlwind of traffic from both art lovers and fishing enthusiasts alike. In conjunction, Fort Worth’s Amon Carter Museum offers a special gallery talk today from 12:15 p.m. to 12:45 p.m. led by docent Alan Laureyns and…
“The Beam Walk,” “Bed of Nails” and “Ball of Danger” all sound like they should be episodes of Buck Rogers. In fact, they are the situations that make up Risk! at the Fort Worth Museum of Science and History. The interactive exhibit offers insight into risk and risk assessment. For…
Marble shooting is so satisfying it’s easy to become passionate or even obsessive about it. There’s care taken to arrange the targets in a perfect formation after choosing the perfect ledge upon which to set them. There’s the weightiness of the rifle, a .22 perhaps, and the cold feel of…
Thursday, May 8 The two raunchiest and yet completely enthralling autobiographies we’ve ever read: Klaus Kinski’s Kinski Uncut and Lenny Bruce’s How to Talk Dirty and Influence People. Their juxtaposition of real-life heartache and happiness with gutter-dwelling and porn-ish anecdotes is a literary treat when well-written. OK, so no one’s…
Country music raised me. Sunday afternoons, watching tapes of Austin City Limits featuring George Jones and Merle Haggard with Dad, Willie on the console record player and a transistor radio in “the shop” out in the garage that was never turned off. A rather pensive child, my favorites were the…
The last time we saw a dog fly was when we threw a Hebrew National at Carl Everett’s head. Seriously, we aren’t foolish enough to waste a good cell phone and be completely conspicuous. Nevertheless, we had never seen a Scottish terrier fly until Michael McWillie came along, paintbrush in…
Thursday, April 24 Parties are great and all, unless the gathering prompts one of our group members to network the entire time, leaving us in a corner with Ted in Accounting from who knows what company. ProvenBrilliance Productions and Gregory Jones have a take on the party we fully support…
Thursday, April 17 MTV and reality do not a pairing make. We’ve never once had a wall-sized aquarium or a penthouse atop a Vegas casino. The network, though, does promote an original series called True Life, and tonight the Lakewood Theater is showing a documentary scheduled to air as part…
Thirty or so nominators, culled from the rank and file of the local music industry, decided what names made it onto the ballot for the 2003 Dallas Observer Music Awards. Slightly fewer than 6,000 of you decided what names made it onto the 15 pounds of sculpted metal we call…
David Sedaris is no stranger. He’s a regular on radio’s This American Life, he’s written best sellers, he’s co-written plays, he’s molded the minds of tuition-paying students. He’s also experienced the mundane and worked the shitty jobs that make for great anecdotes and not-so-great paychecks. And he’ll tell a little…
4/3 We tried to read Great Expectations twice before giving up and buying the Cliffs Notes. Charles Dickens just never really appealed to us. If you’re of the same bent, or even if you like Dickens, you’re bound to enjoy The Mystery of Edwin Drood, a “music whodunit” based on…
4/4 North Texas’ reputation as a hothouse for budding jazz talent blossoms a little wider this weekend at the Third Annual North Texas Jazz Festival in Addison, a three-day event mixing established national artists with the best of the next generation. Focused around the renowned jazz program at the University…
One of the hands-down best privileges of being a kid: temper tantrums. Face first on the bed or floor (or surface of choice), tiny fists clenched, just wailing. To hell with the drool, the tears were flying free and easy. Whatever brought it on was serious, aggravating and quite possibly…
The big F: not freedom nor France nor finance nor whatever else is going through those sordid Dallas brains. They’re talkin’ failure, and maybe a comment or two on freedom. The University of Texas at Dallas presents an innovative exhibit we’re willing to bet the good ole deans aren’t entirely…
