Thursday, July 10 Bela Lugosi will always be Count Dracula. He was even buried in the cape he wore in the movie. But some critics say there is a better vampire film than the one Lugosi starred in, and the story behind it is worthy of a movie itself. While…
Thursday, June 26 Grapevine will be a mad, mad, mad, mad world this weekend, minus the buried treasure, stoic police detective and, thankfully, Milton Berle when the Great Race’s 120 vintage and historic cars make a pit stop on their way to Daytona Beach. But there will be a stream…
A burlesque show isn’t just stripping with rhinestones, pleather thongs and Kid Rock tunes. To quote contemporary cabaret girl Miss Kitty Crimson, “Burlesque is really an art form. It is sexy without being lurid, racy but not X-rated. Striptease is one thing, but burlesque is much more about the tease…
A film festival with queens, bears and fairies? Think it must be time for the cartoons and Grimm tales of the KidFilm fest again? Catch up on the lingo because this is Q Cinema. But that’s not “Q” for quadruplets or quintuplets or any other combination of munchkins and rug…
Thursday, June 5 Baseball often involves three things we find repugnant: food cooked under heat lamps, sitting outside in the heat and people wearing white pants. But more important than inappropriate heat and fashion emergencies is that guy, the one who thinks he’ll change our mind. If only we knew…
We had no idea how much trouble Sandra Bullock’s career was in until we heard about Top Speed coming soon to a theater near us. The final film in the trilogy of Speed action flicks, Top Speed takes place when, on their honeymoon, Annie Porter (Bullock) and Alex (played by…
We have one of those friends, and we bet you do, too. That person who can’t finish an e-mail message without some sort of smiling, winking, tongue-sticking-out face using a combination of punctuation marks and numbers. Then there’s the worst of all: the heart, the sideways one using a “less…
The only time we’ve paddled across a body of water in a canoe was in Girl Scout camp one summer in elementary school. We were terrified to wiggle or exert too much force, convinced after watching weeks and weeks of summer camp movies that we’d rock the boat and be…
Just a few songs into Deep Blue Somethings hour-long set, it happens. A stagehand brings guitarist Taylor Tatsch an acoustic, replacing the electric model he had been usinga subtle transaction, a swap that takes place unnoticed at most concerts. But here its important. Because only a few seconds later, Tatsch…
Thursday, May 15 A lunar eclipse may be less end-of-the-world-ish and happen more frequently than its solar counterpart, but it’s still pretty cool. For one, you don’t need those dorky eye protectors to watch as Earth’s shadow eats the moon. And, secondly, the moon is made of cheese (which is…
Near the beginning of her Sex Tips for Girls, author Cynthia Heimel complains that so-called “women’s magazines” like Glamour and Cosmopolitan are actually all about men. How to please men; how to take care of men. Even how to keep men around. But we don’t see how Heimel’s stream of…
The pinnacle of our public television contribution history came when we weren’t even old enough to have an allowance. We were in preschool (or would have been if we hadn’t cried and screamed until the teacher called our mom to pick us up early…and never come back). We cried and…
Thursday, May 1 To Fort Worth filmmaker Philip R. Fagan, short films dont mean short attention span. Though his seven works clock in at about an hour together, theres a lot to digest here: silent Chaplin-style slapstick, heroin addiction portrayed through Ghoultowns Count Lyle, Jekyll and Hyde retold at a…
Southern Methodist University’s Division of Theater’s new production Smash! is about the consequences of introducing Marxism to a private all-girls school. Though we have visions of Groucho, Harpo and Chico hiding in closets, taunting naïve girls with mildly suggestive comments and starting food fights in the cafeteria, it’s actually about…
Matthew Shepard’s father, Dennis, perhaps said it best: “Matt’s beating, hospitalization and funeral focused worldwide attention on hate. Good is coming out of evil.” Though the words came in a statement in which Dennis Shepard rejected the death penalty for one of two men convicted of luring 21-year-old Matthew from…
We love birds. We adore the way they peck under their wings while cleaning. And the way they cock their heads side to side when they hear an intriguing sound. We also love the way they can fly and land and grab things in their talons. But we especially love…
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…
Thursday, April 10 We keep hearing the joke–a term we’re using lightly here–that Turkey should change its name to Chicken for not shouldering its burden in America’s war against Iraq. Those “comedians” who think Turkey’s lack of involvement is about cowardice need to check out the premiere screening of the…
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…
Thursday, March 27 ThursdayWe’d like to see Hugh Grant and John Cusack duke it out over whether Yanks or Brits better portray the 30-something scoundrel with the mind of an adolescent that they both played in the films About A Boy and High Fidelity. But a much better choice might…
There’s “freedom” fries, “freedom” toast and Inspector Gadget starring “Freedom” Stewart. One more and we’ll stick our “freedom” manicured nail down our throat and hurl, or “freedom” kiss a wall outlet and electrocute ourselves. But we have compatriots in our disdain. We have Beret!, the hardcore band so angry the…
Thursday, March 20 ThursdayIt’s hard to imagine a Neverland scarier than the one in which Michael Jackson lives (either the one in his head or the actual property that houses him and his menagerie). But Damion Dietz’s Neverland comes close. The film, presented as part of a series hosted by…
