Another October means movie theaters yet again rolling out the orange carpet for their Halloween themed programming, and since we are the foremost experts of Halloweenocity in the area, we pulled all the best screenings together for you. Weirdly enough no one is showing John Carpenter’s Halloween this year, which…
Mixmaster presents “100 Creatives,” in which we feature cultural entrepreneurs of Dallas in random order. Know an artistic mind who deserves a little bit of blog love? Email lauren.smart@dallasobserver.com with the whos and whys. By Michelle Foster Planted in Dallas and blossomed in New York, Lucy Dang is back to…
Where is my Playboy pinball? Where is my Harley Davidson? Where have all the pinball tables gone? Look, I’m asking for a friend. With the recent shuttering of July Alley, he’s found himself despondent. He’s having to literally twiddle his thumbs with the loss of his beloved pinball tables…
By Sarah Wyatt “Once you’re on track that is really and truly YOUR track, you can’t help but make inspired choices in life,” writes Tig Notaro in our email conversation -the Caps Lock hers. Tig Notaro is a good person, a good friend, an honest person, and a very talented…
The brand new, sparkling iPhone 6 just rolled out, and in honor of its appearance, we’ve compiled a list of the top apps your Dallas dwelling just a little bit easier. Between sports teams, arts district and more fairs and festivals than you can count, Dallas is a hell of…
I spent last night at the fabulous Texas Theatre watching 20,000 Days on Earth, the new documentary about legendary Australian songsmith Nick Cave. You need to go and see it there before its extremely limited run closes on Thursday, and here is why. First off, it’s not even really a…
By Michelle Foster You could go as a Legs Avenue Slutty Superman. You could get a banana suit in a bag from Party City. Or you could use your imagination, Dallas. Wow the crowd with something totally unique and out-there and creative. Don’t wait until October 30. Get your pick…
Michael Morris likes film. Understatement of the year. He loves film. He lives and breathes it. Morris is the man when it comes to video. Since moving back to Dallas four years ago, he has carved a niche for himself in the local art scene, bringing the history of avant-garde…
Shakespeare seems to be on the minds of Dallas theatre-makers this month. Last weekend, there was a staged reading of Romeo and Juliet at the Wyly Theatre, Shakespeare in the Bar at Wild Detectives, and of course, Dallas Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra. Now, Sundown Collaborative Theatre is taking their stab…
Things were simpler when we were kids. Responsibilities consisted mainly of remembering to feed the dog, not touching the rat poison under the sink, and leaving dad alone when he’s drinking his “grown-up” apple juice in the front yard. But the absolute best part about being a kid no competition…
This weekend presents a hodgepodge of activities from a Tim Burton themed burlesque show to some world class musicians…
Alan Scherstuhl and Stephanie Zacharek of the Village Voice, along with LA Weekly’s Amy Nicholson, talk about one of the big movies of the year, Gone Girl, which opens in about 3,000 U.S. theaters on Friday, but the trio also makes room for lesser-known films like The Blue Room, Men,…
Three years ago, the Dallas VideoFest introduced a new program to their line-up of events that changed the way we view video in this city. “Expanded Cinema” followed Bart Weiss’ interest in non-traditional ways of bringing video to people. For years, Weiss had been dreaming up a plan to pair…
America’s “Horse With No Name” spins on an old fashioned record player and a scented candle burns at the checkout counter. I jab an old, wonky paintbrush into ivory chalk paint and start sweeping the color onto a small, totally white, wooden side table. It should take on a more…
Everything about Gone Girl, David Fincher’s adaptation of Gillian Flynn’s enormously popular 2012 thriller about a deteriorating marriage and a wife gone missing, is precise and thoughtful — it’s as well planned as the perfect murder, with its share of vicious, shivery delights. But at the end of the perfect…
Should we trust artists to tell the story of artists? On the plus side, who understands them better? If there’s a secret language of imagination and creativity, then the members of this sprawling tribe must be the ones who speak it best. On the other hand, could there be anything…
Good news: In the future, caftans make a comeback and toilet technology will be amazing. Bad news: Your house will know where you are and what you’re thinking at all times, the water will taste terrible and it will be too hot to ever go outside. In the world premiere…
Every child who’s thrown a tantrum, packed a bag and plotted to run away has shivered with the same vengeful thought: I wish I could see how sad they’ll be when I’m gone. The Left Behind franchise implies that evangelicals haven’t grown up. This new film version, the latest in…
In one Nick Cave song, a pedophiliac outlaw caps a murder spree by killing the devil himself. In another, the narrator muses on Miley Cyrus while seeking the “God particle” down a boulevard lined with burning trees. Cave is fluent in apocalyptic imagery and the Bible; his songs are filled…
Epiphany Dance Arts presents Diamonds at the Eisemann Center for the Performing Arts this October. Through movement and dance, seventeen “DanceArtists” tell the story of finding yourself and the freedom that comes with it. Follow them as they explore what it means to truly trust yourself and to not be…
Annabelle, an effective prequel to horror pastiche The Conjuring, surpasses its predecessor simply by virtue of occasionally being scary. Both films are over-reliant on deafening sound effects and side-eye glimpses of underwhelming ghosts. But Annabelle’s scare scenes are better paced and more thoughtfully lensed. Its hokey, funhouse-worthy spooks — a…
When presented with the theme of Viva Dallas Burlesque’s upcoming showcase, Burton Burlesque, a friend pointed out that unlike the normal expectations of burlesque, this one could actually be fabulously, awkwardly un-erotic. Which, despite the sound of it, is not actually an insult to the skills of the VDB performers,…
