Last August, Tig Notaro got on stage at the L.A. comedy club Largo and addressed the crowd. “Good evening. Hello. I have cancer. How are you?” Notaro had just been diagnosed with Stage II breast cancer, and knew she couldn’t do her typical set, which often illuminates the absurd in…
I love a reliable party. And gambling. And white linen, mint juleps, ponies, big hats, the look of relaxation that floats in wealthy people’s eyes, ironed tablecloths and spontaneous hugging. The Kentucky Derby has all of those things, and has consistently showed ’em off since 1875. Bless its heart. Dallas…
Last week, Manhunt, a new documentary, opened the 43rd annual USA Film Festival at the Angelika Film Center in Dallas. Like Kathryn Bigelow’s Zero Dark Thirty, it chronicles the CIA’s search for Osama bin Laden. But where Bigelow and screenwriter Mark Boal condensed characters and dramatized history, Manhunt director Greg…
I know, I know: It goes too fast, I should be careful what I wish for, etc. etc. But for the moment, damn, I wish my infant son was 5 or 7 or 9, and that he had a perfectly oiled glove, and that he knew what to do with…
WWF legend The Ultimate Warrior stands in front of a U.W. branded background, shirtless and in full guise. His chest is wet with sweat, muscles flexed to full suspension and nipples sharp enough to gouge the canvas mat. What was probably a reactionary response to an interviewer’s mention of arch-nemesis…
Last week’s Not Waiting For Permission, the 2nd Annual State of the Emerging Arts at UTD’s CentralTrak, continued the out-in-the-open conversation that’s forcing people to take notice, and perhaps sides, in their support of local art. For too long it seemed the conversations dictating the fate of independent galleries and…
The Kessler received the royal treatment on Friday as the Burlesque Hall of Fame Queens Tour dropped its dazzle on the main stage. The show gave glamor a spotlight, providing a look at which gals are currently werkin’ it to the most acclaim. We were voodoo-charmed by reining champ Imogen…
I’ve got a soft spot for illustrators. And love stories. We get both in husband wife team Mark Todd and Esther Pearl Watson who have been collaborators in life’s eccentric aesthetic since meeting in art school. See Also: Webb Gallery Harbors Spaceships: The Art of Esther Pearl Watson I fell…
Let ’em rework the model. No game show can match the riveting design perfection of The Price is Right. It’s an unapologetic celebration of consumerism, populated with games of chance — I still excited when the yodeling starts on Cliffhanger. I’m not alone on this. We all harbor secret Plinko…
“I’ve never been anywhere where there’s such an attentive audience as there is in North Texas,” says Lily Taylor, the hostess behind Sunday’s Home Theater Festival, an event that invites strangers to meet up at vaguely alluded-to addresses and pal around. You know, in the name of art. “People are…
So … this will be happening in a Waxahachie art gallery on Sunday. But wait, there’s more!!! An adorable Denton couple will open their home for an experimental theater festival, two big-name comedians grab the Majestic’s stage, there’s a course in kink at the Bondage Expo and a celebration of…
Three years ago, when Jake Heggie finished the music for the opera Moby-Dick, he didn’t expect to return to the source material. But the book is big enough to have its own gravitational pull. Last night was the world premiere of Heggie’s Ahab Symphony at the Murchison Performing Arts Center…
Every week, we find you five movies for you to check out over the coming week or weekend, from the latest wide release to weird local screenings to timely classics you can watch on your couch. Did we miss something? Let readers know in the comments. Mud Opens Friday at…
Daniel Lugo (Mark Wahlberg) believes life has cheated him. Doesn’t America promise riches and luxury to people who deserve it? He’s worked hard to build his body into a hulking knot of muscles; success should follow. But Lugo — the lead in Michael Bay’s neon-noir ode to Miami, muscle tone…
Has anyone ever been so perfectly cast as Matthew McConaughey in Dazed and Confused? Sculpted entirely of charisma and cheekbones yet still seedier than a stash of gym-locker pot, McConaughey’s radiant stoner exemplified high school promise gone bad. He looked like the little man on top of trophies, just horny,…
Ah, now we know what was missing from all of Uptown Players’ previous men-in-drag comedies by Las Vegas playwright Jamie Morris: Jamie Morris wasn’t in them. He’s in his latest — Re-Designing Women, now in its world premiere at the Rose Room on Cedar Springs — and he’s terrific. In…
Boston’s Bill Burr is trying to keep the dignity of the working man’s comic alive. His stand-up sets often focus on the tried-and-true “women are like this, and men are like this” bit, but he also has moments of clarity when his material transcends the generic boundaries of a comedy…
As the Arts District builds more structures and our museums snag larger sponsorships, we easily see that our art community is growing, along with the market that it’s servicing. But that’s only a portion of the story. That’s a macro view. What we don’t see when we walk the Cindy…
Dallas loves its burlesque. It’s almost hard to keep track of the who’s who when we see it literally every weekend. Thankfully, the Kessler Theater (1230 West Davis St.) is hosting the Burlesque Hall of Fame Queens Tour, to give you an idea of which ladies are currently owning it,…
Lisa Lampanelli is coming to town and she’s bringing her big mouth with her. You know Lisa from all the Comedy Central roasts where she carves up the honored guests with her Ginsu-sharp tongue. What you may not know is that she started as a magazine editor. She switched over…
Ex Mus, CentralTrak’s (800 Exposition Ave.) experimental concert series, kicked off last fall with a local collective reinterpreting the music of minimalist Greek composer Anatassis Phillippakopoulous. We get the spring installment of Ex Mus on Saturday, with a performance from Austin percussionist Nick Hennies, who has shared a stage with…
We take joy in the analog and find romance in the authentic. And when those orders jell together, like they do in the tintype and ambrotype photographs of Frank Lopez, we get weak in the knees. As a steward of a thinning medium, Lopez’s work is inspirational, which is why…
