Arts & Culture

There’s a thing called the Bad Prom 5K that’s so much more than just Bad Prom and a 5K. First of all, you run in your worst prom dress … at dark. (Fingers crossed it’s plastered with sequins.) Along the race path, you’ll dash through every predictable prom theme, loaded…

If you think the symphony isn’t for you — that it’s too snooty, too drowsy, too expensive — we urge you to reconsider. Not because it can’t sometimes be all of those things, but because on a good night going to a symphony can be completely thrilling, and the Dallas…

Don’t put that costume away just yet, because the Halloween spirit is being extended, and it’s for a good cause. At the 2013 Witches’ Ball, Feline Phantasm, all the lovely witches will be trading in their black cats for a special benefit honoring their big cat brethren. An outbreak of…

Herb and Dorothy Vogel are two New York civil servants, a postal clerk and a librarian, who managed to amass one of the biggest collections of contemporary and conceptual art of the last 50 years. All told they had nearly 5,000 pieces, including works by Picasso and John Chamberlain. In…

When buddies and collaborators Seth Romatelli and Jonathan Larroquette talk shop in their podcast Uhh, Yeah Dude, there’s no pop culture faction left unrepresented. They dig through the fat folds of the Internet — lifting up its smelliest skin flaps — then peer in that mess to see what’s growing…

Last April Price is Right Live! announced the game show would visit the Majestic. We called in sick to our jobs, using the time to intensively study price points of common consumer goods — blenders, dreaded dinette sets, sexytime hot tubs and jet skis — so that victory would be…

The period between Halloween and Thanksgiving can be a bleak spot in an otherwise holiday-laden season. Thankfully there’s still reason to be festive. The Dallas Observer Music Awards (don’t think about the initials) is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year and is officially old enough to get drunk or rent…

Dallas skateboarder Jeff Phillips was landing tricks in skate parks before Bob Burnquist could walk. He popularized “Phillips 66,” an adaptation of the fakie 360 invert. He even beat skateboard legends Tony Hawk, Mike McGill and Steve Caballero in the same tournament (reportedly while he was tripping on acid). But…

Got a special place in your heart for a pit bull? You’re not alone. Those square-headed beasts have a bad rap, to be sure, but plenty of pitty lovers are putty in the paws of the misunderstood pets. At the third annual Rock-A-Bully, you’ll get a chance to meet up…

Don’t know an armature from an architrave? Does a balustrade sound like a piece of maddening Scandinavian furniture? It’s OK. Despite all the fancy words, architecture is way open-source these days, drawing from and contributing to popular art and communication in a way that’s never happened before. In other words,…

If you haven’t heard of it, WNYC’s Radiolab is like This American Life’s cool little brother. As with This American Life, there are moving stories, freak phenomena, surprising coincidences — but with a lot more science. And sound effects. On their show, hosts Jad Abrumrad and Robert Krulwich have explored…

The NY Film Critic Series is a pretty sweet setup. It presents advance screenings of award-winning independent films, throws in live Q&As with big-name filmmakers and stars, and gives us normal folk an opportunity to join in the action. So why are we telling you about it? After all, the…

Long before Spaniards came and mixed things up with Catholicism, Meso-Americans dedicated a festival to Mictecacihuatl, the Aztec queen of the underworld. The natives decorated their ofrendas (altars of the dead) and crafted skull figurines and art to pray and remember deceased family and friends. Now the Mexican holiday is…

Tom Sale is curating The Florence Project at the Webb Gallery and it’s going to be a real doozy. The brain that has created skull spoons, handjobs in hell and foul-mouthed elf ornaments has now created an entire show on his latest obsession — Florence Nightingale. Sale has been studying…

We’re modern home voyeurs. Floor-to-ceiling window gazers. Xeriscape fanatics. We trail in Le Corbusier’s wake, intrigued by architecture designed to serve its interior. That’s why we grow impatient each Fall, waiting for the AIA Dallas Tour of Homes to illuminate the city’s most captivating residences. This is the seventh annual…

I bet it smells so good in there. The AIA Dallas Tour of Homes is gorgeous. Organized by local architects to celebrate great design, the hunt invites you through the interiors of ten stunning residences. Once there you’ll marvel and say, “Where do they put all of their stuff?” It…

Last night at Fort Worth’s Bass Hall, classic horror film geeks and avant-garde minimalist music fans united in nerdom to do what they do best: sit in the dark, watch, listen, and quietly freak-out in the presence of their idols. The occasion was a screening of the classic Bela Lugosi…

One of the biggest mush mouths of reality television, Duck Dynasty’s Tim “Mountain Man” Guraedy, is an air conditioning repairman who talks like an extra in every John Grisham book-turned-movie ever made. If you’re a fan of the show and Mountain Man, one of your dreams could come true this…

If you live in Seattle, San Francisco or New York today, you’re the luckiest mother fucker on the planet. In those markets Uber has paired up with meme blog Cheezeburger to deliver adorable kittens to anyone wanting 15 minutes of playtime — today only — from 11 a.m. to 4…

You’ve suffered through the tough part: hot gluing sequins, cardboard and feathers into a perfect — or at least somewhat wearable — costume. It’s time to take that thing for a ride. We do Halloween well in Dallas, so plan on calling in sick this Friday and spend Thursday night…