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. Classical music. It seems as though we’ve had a love/hate relationship with it over the past…
Cymbeline is the misunderstood schoolchild of Shakespeare’s plays, the misfit who speaks up at odd times and sometimes says the wrong thing, awkward in all kinds of obvious ways. It’s a special-needs play, but the beauty of it is right there in its bones, not least because in it we…
Most of us would agree that there’s only one Al Pacino. But this year in Venice, there are actually two: Pacino appears in two films at the festival this year, David Gordon Green’s Manglehorn, about a lonely Texas locksmith stuck in a romantic dream, and, playing out of competition, Barry…
In 2012, documentary filmmaker Joshua Oppenheimer made a splash with The Act of Killing, in which he sought out members of Indonesian killing squads, individuals who murdered thousands of innocent citizens accused of being communists after a military takeover in 1965, and invited them to re-enact their crimes in the…
The gent at the Delta check-in counter back in New York sighed when he saw where I was headed. “Romantic Venezia!” he said, and the comment stopped me short, because film festivals located in the most beautiful settings in the world have a way of making you forget – almost…
The visual art scene reignites for the fall season this weekend, with a plethora of openings throughout Dallas. If you land in the Design District at 6 p.m. Saturday, you can walk in just about any direction and find an exhibition to wander into. From Conduit Gallery (above photo) to…
Dark Circles Contemporary Dance has already scheduled an additional performance this weekend. Saturday night sold out quickly. The season premiere of one of Dallas’ top emerging companies expects full houses at the Sanders Theatre in Fort Worth. Originally founded in Seoul, South Korea in 2010, DCCD moved state-side in 2013,…
The urge to hop in a time machine and head back to our youth is universal. Obviously, science hasn’t resulted in a Back To The Future-style time travel option just yet, but that doesn’t mean that it isn’t possible to take a nostalgic trip down memory lane. There are still…
By Monica Hinman How to deal with the trials and travails of life? Anxiety about the future, the disappointments of today and the scars from yesterday can be ameliorated with a Xanax or a bottle of wine, a little shopping or a gallon of ice cream. Or if you are…
For much of its existence, the Goss Michael Foundation has been known as that George Michael art place. But in the past few years, it’s beginning to prove that it can be so much more. With Kenny Goss at the helm, the space has introduced innovative educational and charitable initiatives…
The Jewish Community Center of Dallas’ annual film festival is one of the smaller jewels in the DFW’s cinematic crown. It may not take up as much real estate as the USA Film Festival or the Dallas International Film Festival but it still sparkles when the light shines upon it…
What’s that saying about tides and ships? As the arts scene in Texas swells, so does the opportunity for cross-city collaboration. Whether it be sending Dallas artists to Austin, or bringing Houston artists here, as is the case with Draped Up & Dripped Out, a two-part exhibition at the Oak…
Tifa Tittlywinks, Kiki Maroon, Divertida Devotchka, Vivienne Vermuth, Layna D’Luna, and Lola LeStrange want to show you their naughty bits. Seriously. And, they are doing it all in the name of video games. A dream come true, right? You can thank Viva Dallas Burlesque for it; see, there’s a reason…
The man with the most distinctive voice in comedy defines the concept of a “comic’s comic.” Gilbert Gottfried did more than just spend a lifetime doing comedy and spending a season or two on Saturday Night Live. He stuck to his comedy no matter where his career took him through…
In much of Casey Gray’s art, there’s a humorous tension between message and medium. Imagine if the 17th century Flemish painters had worked in spray paint. Conversely, picture Peter Paul Rubens on a skateboard. See? Funny. This was the crux of much of San Francisco-based Gray’s early work, some of…
Having a personal insight into American history is something so few people can really boast. You may have been a part of a historic gathering in your time, but it’s likely nobody will ever ask you about that time you drank your way through the crowds at Cowboy’s Stadium record-breaking…
To open its 2014/2015 Pops Season, The Dallas Symphony orchestra and Principal Pops Conductor Jeff Tyzik have enlisted the help of some exceptionally talented dancers. On Friday, September 5th at 7:30pm, the orchestra will present “Let’s Dance,” a concert of music that spans centuries of music history and a variety…
It seems like everyone in Dallas has literature on the mind lately thanks in large part to Oak Cliff’s massively popular Wild Detectives and Will Evans’ brand new publishing house Deep Vellum. As much as we love both organizations it might be worth some of your time to get to…
What do you get for the Symphony Center that has everything? It’s tough—not like a gift card will suffice for such a cultured and sophisticated old friend, especially one designed by badass architect I.M. Pei and who has been deemed one of the best orchestra venues in the world. The…
You might say that this month, TeCo Theatrical Productions is celebrating gay marriage, because their PlayPride festival is the perfect union between theatre and the gay pride movement. The festival features six one-act plays about LGBT issues, all written by Texans. There’s also a competitive element: each playwright will vie…
Hard to believe it, but Sebadoh is almost 30 years old. Yes, these pioneers of lo-fi indie rock from Massachusetts started all the way back in 1986 when Lou Barlow (before he had even left Dinosaur Jr.) co-founded the group with Eric Gaffney. Jason Loewenstein joined in 1989 and these…
You could be forgiven, after watching the opening minutes of Ira Sachs’ fine-grained and flinty Love Is Strange, for thinking it’s going to be a movie about Gay Marriage, with all the import those initial caps imply. We see two older men, clearly a couple, roll out of bed in…
