For centuries, music has served as an audible expression of freedom. Yes, for its requirement for performers to be free of nerves and fear to perform perfectly, and definitely for its ability to make even the imprisoned feel free during those rare moments of beauty. But sometimes, music is truly…
If it isn’t enough watching Jillian Michaels yell in Biggest Loser contestants’ faces and then spending alone time with her in your living room while you grunt and groan to her workout DVDs, then her Maximize Your Life tour might just be the perfect push for you to finally get…
Deep Ellum had a hard time a while back. Bars closed. Venues closed. Tattoo parlors seemed oddly unaffected. But now, with places like Pecan Lodge moving in and bars reopening, Deep Ellum is back. One feature of the neighborhood never went anywhere, though. This weekend, the Deep Ellum Arts Festival…
What if I told you that at 11 a.m. Saturday a selection of your fellow citizens plan to show up at the Texas Motorplex in Ennis to run with a herd of very alive bulls? They will place their bodies on the quarter-mile track to run in front of, behind,…
Brooklyn- and Dallas-based painter Michelle Mackey brings her new show Afterglow to town this week. Her paintings use dark and quiet hues and layer upon layer of paint, which mimic layers of memory. Using photographs and drawings as inspiration and source material, Mackey begins the pieces that are based on…
When it comes to performance art, the only artist who springs to mind is Marina Abramovic. Oh, you know, the woman who plopped down for a few days in New York’s Modern Museum of Art. Visitors sat at a table across from her and stared into her eyes. People ate…
Classical ballet can look pretty stern from the audience’s perspective. It’s all tightly pinned hair, feet that are ramrodded into impossible positions, and austere faces in the spotlight. Behind the scenes, things can look even worse — lots of body consciousness issues and, in some companies, backbiting to make it…
Are you, like a certain former U.S. president, a budding artist looking to expand your horizons? Tired of sketching the usual still lifes of bowls of fruit? The Dallas chapter of Dr. Sketchy’s Anti-Art School has just the thing to expand your endeavors into life drawing. Better yet, if you’re…
The Dallas Museum of Art currently hosts one of the most significant exhibitions to travel through Dallas. The only American stop of Nur: Light in Art and Science from the Islamic World will be at the DMA through June. This Monday, Arts & Letters Live presents a well-timed entry in…
If you think spelling her last name is tough, try playing the music the hot young pianist Khatia Buniatishvili will perform at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday at the Winspear Opera House. Buniatishvili comes to Dallas as part of the AT&T Performing Arts Center’s exciting new classical recital series. The young Georgian…
April 8 is an under-celebrated holiday. On this day alone, humans born before 1990 celebrate the day a washed-up rock star named Rex Manning was set to perform at the title store in the film Empire Records. I mean, it’s just a movie, right? Wrong. It’s a cult classic. And…
To fully understand the life of a poet, you’ll need to imagine working tirelessly, baring your soul and locking yourself in your room for hours on end, only to find yourself broke and unappreciated. Now imagine you continue this for 20 years while everyone tells you to give up, to…
Fredrik Vaerslev positions his work somewhere between place and non-place. His paintings in the new exhibition at Power Station bear resemblance to household features that he considers “ambivalent.” Think gardens, athletic fields, window panes. This purposeful ambiguity can be seen in the three collections of work, Canopy Paintings, Trolley Paintings…
It is physically impossible to see all of the films at this year’s Dallas International Film Festival. In its eighth year, the 2014 fest boasts more than 170 films over the course of 11 days all over the city. However unlikely their success, there will surely be noble souls who…
Did you know that the role of Rosina in Gioachino Rossini’s The Barber of Seville was originally written for contralto, but a general shortage of contraltos — who apparently are the operatic equivalent of rhythm and blues’ Big Mama Thornton — means the role is mostly performed by mezzo sopranos?…
Any parent understands the overwhelming dread a mandatory parent-teacher conference can bring. Children know no bounds in embarrassing their parents, from eating glue to pulling the cute girl’s hair or talking back to the teacher. But even your family’s black sheep will look little more than high-spirited compared to the…
“Just so you know, the first act is an hour and a half long,” the attendant warned as she handed me a program for The Dallas Opera’s Sunday matinee performance of The Barber of Seville and directed me to my seat. While I’m sure her comment was meant as a…
“I think the basic [cowboy] tradition is manliness, bravery, perseverance. You’ve got decades and decades of imagery that say that’s who it is. ” The opening lines of the film Queens & Cowboys are given by Western historian Michael Johnson. A few shots later, you meet Wade Earp, a 45-year-old…
Monday night Conan O’Brien played with guns; Tuesday night Conan put on lipstick. Clearly the man is taking a sincere interest in Dallas. He’s really doing some research. Last night he joked that during a visit to a strip club he met all of the Dallas Cowboys. I have quite…
Spring has arrived. With it, galleries across the city fling open their doors to present new work to curious souls fresh out of hibernation. In keeping with the season, here our freshly picked recommendations for your art-going pleasure…
If you see the world in visuals and aren’t afraid of interviewing, recording, cropping, color adjusting, and rendering, we have good news. The Dallas Observer is looking for multimedia interns for this summer. – Meat Fight 2013 – The Video – Greenville’s Truckyard – A Video Tour Above, you can…
Let me give you five excuses for why you didn’t watch Conan last night: You didn’t care. Your toddler finally let you get some sleep. You’re a bartender at one of the few local watering holes without a television. You hate funny gingers. Or maybe you didn’t know he’s filming…
