Former D Magazine editor and frustrated college basketball player Terry Murphy began the Hoop-It-Up three-on-three basketball tournament 20 years ago to raise money for the Dallas Special Olympics. Originally named Hoop-D-Do, its beginnings were slow. But the tournament grew rapidly, and by 1991 it became the official three-on-three streetball tournament…
Wanna knock the prez? Let’s make a show… preferably on television. Paul Weitz’s new satire American Dreamz imagines the Bush regime as an episode in the history of American entertainment and American Idol as the quintessence of U.S. democracy. So what else is new? The vision of America as a…
in the Hole
Countless are the creative souls who struggled with mental illness, as are the novels and films dedicated to them. Again and again, we’ve encountered artists both inspired and undermined by their madness, whose torment and tumult produce works of beauty and depth. So can a documentary about a singer-songwriter and…
If you can tell a society by its smut, America in the 1950s couldn’t have been just a Frigidaire of repressive hysteria. Hidden somewhere in the closets of Pleasantville and Peyton Place, after all, was a stack of fetish mags bearing the face and hourglass figure of Bettie Page and…
Funny how two shows about feeling bad turn out to be the feel-good musicals of the year so far. They’re all about heartache and despair and what it’s like when you’re so lonesome you could cry. And by doggies, if you don’t walk out of the things at the end…
Back in 1969, The Who sang plaudits to Tommy, the Helen Keller of ur-gaming. Deaf, dumb and blind, the miraculous Tommy “plays by sense of smell,” letting lie fallow his senses of sight and sound until he snaps out of temporary sensual oblivion and leads the caulk-clad, eye-shaded and ear-plugged…
Americano (MTI) Before he is due to take a high-powered corporate job, college graduate Chris (Joshua Jackson) heads off with two friends (Timm Sharp and Ruthanna Hopper) to Europe, where they end up in Pamplona for the running of the bulls. There, he encounters one of those saucy Latinas (Blade…
Marlon Brando sleeps with the fishes. But before the legendary actor died, he worked one last job. Curiously, it was for a videogame. In The Godfather: The Game, Brando attempts to relive his Oscar-winning role as Don Vito Corleone. From the raspy voice to the drooping jowls, it’s Vito, all…
A Bigger Splash (First Run) Breakfast on Pluto (Sony) Cross of Iron (Henstooth) Event Horizon: Collector’s Edition (Paramount) Games of Love and Chance (New Yorker) Herbie Hancock: Possibilities (Magnolia) Hostel (Sony) I Am Trying to Break Your Heart (Plexifilm) Kickboxer: Five-Disc Collector’s Set (Lions Gate) The Killing Time (Anchor Bay)…
Home tours have always prompted a voyeuristic curiosity in me—if only because my hovel would probably fit in the garage of one of the featured abodes. But it’s about something more meaningful. Like finding small mistakes in their decorating scheme or noticing the spot on their carpet not so successfully…
If you’re a Neil Young fan and your ears still haven’t quit ringing from the last time he played over in Fair Park, then watching his recent concert film Heart of Gold in the sophisticated confines of the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth will definitely be more your speed…
There are a multitude of associations that attest to Todd Glass’ professional success while simultaneously belying his true talent and craftsmanship. He’s in the midst of some Vegas engagements with smarmy elvish wiseacre David Spade, he appeared in Martin Lawrence’s cinematic tour de force Rebound, and he’s been featured on…
Home tours have always prompted a voyeuristic curiosity in me—if only because my hovel would probably fit in the garage of one of the featured abodes. But it’s about something more meaningful. Like finding small mistakes in their decorating scheme or noticing the spot on their carpet not so successfully…
Here’s the great thing about pop music: Even when it’s not transcendent, or particularly creative or insightful or even, well, decent, it can still hit the spot. At least for me. This may fall under the “too much information” department, but there may have been a time or two when,…
Rubber gloves, frost-encrusted freezers, stark bathroom fixtures, bars of soap, etched desktops—Orit Raff’s artistic subjects sound like a cross between local performance venues and Diary of an Insomniac at 2 a.m. This young Israeli-born minimalist captures common objects through video and camera lens in a way that turns their innocent…
Way to blow it, Zac Crain. You spent years pissing off local bands as this paper’s music editor, and now that you’ve announced your mayoral candidacy in Dallas, you might expect them to come rushing back with open arms and cheerful votes. Time heals all wounds, right? Well, a certain…
Ah, further proof that parents should never, never, ever meddle in their offsprings’ love lives: The Fantasticks. Now I’m not saying that I have experience in this arena. I would never discuss, for example, how my mother tried to hook me up with a prom date through her Wichita Falls…
Those of you who know downtown Dallas only during the work week probably think that a bike tour downtown is something less than a good idea. It’s about as smart, maybe, as sewing your own parachute or chucking a tiger under the chin and saying, “Him’s a big kitty, isn’t…
If you live in Grand Prairie and are rudely awakened Saturday morning by what sounds like an earthquake or a crashing jetliner, don’t be afraid. That’s just the sound of morons revving their motorcycle engines (They’re trying to tell you how big their ding-dongs are). And these aren’t your average…
What would Thomas Jefferson do if he ran things today? Faced with Congressional deadlock, he would found a new party—he did start the Democratic Party after all. Illegal immigration? He would buy Mexico. After the Louisiana Purchase that’s no big deal. WMDs? Send Lewis and Clark to look for them…
Running wild through the streets has a lot of appeal. Imagine running wild through the jungle. Better yet, imagine your kids running wild through the jungle. Oh, wait, that’s fifth grade. Never mind. The Fort Worth Zoo, which beats the Dallas Zoo by a mile, gets two-leggers moving fast in…
I don’t fish but can spend a happy afternoon ogling tackle in a sporting goods store. Don’t do woodworking, but that tool section at Home Depot? I’m the kid in a candy store. Guns, auto parts, camping equipment, electronics—hell, sewing machines—it’s all the same. You may know someone similar. We…
