The State Fair of Texas, scheduled for September 27 to October 20, has just announced its 2013 theme will be The One & Only, to coincide with the phoenix-like resurrection of our corn dog guardian, Big Tex. They’ve promised that the 52-foot tall host will return refreshed and accompanied by…
Every last photo is by Bianca Montes It was a rather beautiful scene on Friday night, despite the chaos. There’s just something meditatively calming about watching lovely clothes stroll around pool. We got that, repeatedly, at the Texas Next Top Designer Awards Gala. Topping off the evening was the big…
“When I was younger, I had to choose between being a musician and being an artist. I chose artist: I wanted to be responsible for screwing myself up.” — Frank Campagna When Frank Campagna, Kirk Hopper and a tidy pack of painters and photographers assembled Kettle Art in ’05, they…
How should we feel about a main character who is willing to peel away the layers and show us the worst possible version of themselves? I suppose that’s what made Walter White so engaging as the anti-hero of Breaking Bad, or why Laura Dern’s anxious, naive Amy Jellicoe is so…
The first Friday of every month brings Viva Dallas burlesque to the Lakewood Theater, and this past Friday included an extra helping of sauce: a Mardi Gras theme. Hosted by Violet O’Hara, the show included performances by Iris Le Mour, Ruby Joule, Jolie Goodnight, Honey Cocoa Bordeaux and Pearl Lux,…
Theoretically, opera and heavy drinking go well together. Over-the-top spectacles plus a few cocktails should equate to amplified magnificence. And yet, that’s a rookie move. Want to be persona non grata at the Winspear? Just let the booze sleep carry you away, mid-aria. (I’m lookin’ at you Aïda.) The Fort…
Since returning to North Texas a year ago, I’ve looked for any excuse to get inside that fortress. Valentine’s Day was sold out. New Year’s Eve would have been spectacular. But when I finally ventured across the moat and into Medieval Times’ glorious and completely accurate facade, it was just…
During its 2013/2014, season the Dallas Symphony Orchestra will commemorate the anniversary of JFK’s assassination with a memorial concert, welcome back Music Director Emeritus Andrew Litton (DSO conductor from 1994-2006), and celebrate the music of Beethoven. The DSO’s upcoming season, released yesterday, features many familiar classical works by Beethoven (3rd,…
See this guy do this thing tonight at Phantasm! (See Thursday) Brace yo’ selves: This weekend’s charging out of the gate with two fashion shows, a boozy tattoo party and underground art. Oh, and did someone say there was a football game on Sunday? DON’T PANIC. We’ve broken it all…
Every Thursday we highlight the best comedy of the coming weekend. Find more comedy events at dallasobserver.com/calendar. Greg Fitzsimmons at Addison Improv A regular guest of David Letterman, Conan O’Brien, Jimmy Kimmel, and Jay Leno, Fitzsimmons’s set is infused with his acerbic wit and scathing sarcasm. For example, did you…
There’s two kinds of folks in this world: Those who like to throw a Super Bowl house party, and those who don’t trust their friends to get wasted anywhere near the new sofa, children and/or dear family pets. For those with rowdy pals, you’re in luck — Dallas is nothing…
In Death by Microphone, local Brit and barbecue blogger Gavin Cleaver attends stand-up comedy classes at the Dallas Comedy House and reports back for our amusement and education. Check back next week to revel further in his failure. After last week’s disaster, morale was low on the Good Ship Cleaver…
Actor Brian McEleney is the luckiest person in the Dee and Charles Wyly Theatre during Dallas Theater Center’s production of King Lear. He’s the only one in the hall who doesn’t have to watch his performance in the title role. For this co-production with Rhode Island’s Trinity Repertory Company, DTC…
Dallas actor and playwright Danny O’Connor first performed his one-man show Zero at WaterTower Theatre’s black box studio five and a half years ago. Since then, he’s lost 60 pounds and he and his show have gained some comedy muscle. Now he’s a taller, younger, leaner version of Louis C.K…
Please, for his own good, somebody clap Dustin Hoffman into a chastity belt. Based on what Al Pacino suffers in Stand Up Guys, and the identical humiliations visited up Robert De Niro in Little Fockers, it seems that Hollywood will not be satisfied until it has speared a hypodermic into…
Being a lucky guy, I’ve only been kicked in the balls once. How did it rate on the comedy scale? Well, it was funnier than a monologue by Chelsea Handler, but not quite as hilarious as my last screening for colorectal cancer. Yet despite the fact that this act hurts…
Charlie Sheen lives in a big yellow house on a T-shaped intersection in the middle of a fake neighborhood in a gated community off Mulholland Drive in Los Angeles. When I arrive there on a Saturday afternoon in January, I am intercepted in Sheen’s driveway by a security guard, a…
Long before there were Auto-Tune and GarageBand, music was recorded without all the bells and whistles straight to tape in these things called recording studios. One of the most respected (and beloved) studios of the last four decades was Los Angeles Sound City, where the likes of Neil Young, Fleetwood…
College football is interesting for exactly one reason, and it has nothing to do with fake girlfriends or NFL prospects. We dig it because of the drumline — those percussionist badasses who march out onto the field at halftime and lay down beats so precise and powerful that you’ll forget…
Sometimes Q&As exist to promote the movie you just saw, with the same generalized questions and canned answers, but the really good ones involve conversation, back story and inspiration. If you prefer the latter, then we recommend this Thursday’s screening and Q&A of Sassy Pants. It’s a girl’s coming of…
Texas is such a curious fashion market. We’re inherently prone to shopping and collecting, but when it comes to growing our own labels, there are very few to speak of. The Texas Next Top Designer Awards addresses that conundrum by choosing the state’s greatest fabric artists and then whittling them…
If you love Mardi Gras but want to save yourself from New Orleans’ immersive chaos, then think locally. What if I were to tell you that you can have all the Big Easy fun you want while saving yourself an eight-hour drive, courtesy of Viva Dallas Burlesque? Yes, it’s true…
