In May in the Summer, Dahlia (Arrested Development’s hilarious Alia Shawkat) is a lesbian tentatively trying to step out of the closet.by Scott Foundas In his brief remarks before the first public screening of the 2013 Sundance Film Festival, Robert Redford praised the Sundance Institute’s ongoing filmmaker development labs as…
Last night the Dallas Symphony Orchestra performed an all-Mozart concert, the first in its two-week-long mini-festival celebrating history’s most famous boy genius. Mozart’s 257th birthday is next weekend, which seems as good a reason as any to indulge in a little gratuitous Amadeus worship. Starting with last night, this weekend’s…
Here’s local artist Anna Dunavin’s predictive sketch of Social Science, the sold-out, adults-only, drunken party happening at the Perot Museum this evening. Check back with Mixmaster for the follow-up, and to see if I do, in fact, make out with a robot. (Didn’t get tickets in time? Bummer. Grab them…
“Sorry, I need to wash my hands,” apologizes Joel Hodgson. The MST3K founder was discussing his background in comedy writing when this sanitation issue hit Code Red. He was the socially awkward pen behind half of Jerry Seinfeld’s HBO special, and right now, as he frets, that fact makes perfect…
Igor Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring is like the Beethoven’s Fifth of 20th-century classical music. It’s such an iconic work that even if you don’t know it, you probably know it. In 1940, Walt Disney’s animators, inspired by the primitive undertones of Stravinsky’s aggressive, pulsating music, set to the score visions…
If you didn’t get a chance to pile into that adorably retrofitted Warby Parker school bus at its welcome party on Saturday, I completely understand. It was slammin’ in there. For slackers like me and possibly you, the Warby Parker bus is pulling the parking break at 2323 Henderson Avenue…
I didn’t expect a cultural explosion, or an immersion into the raucous waters of the Mediterranean, but that’s what I got. When I pulled up to the tall white building on Northwest Highway, wrapped in wavy iron and bathed in blue neon, I mistakenly thought to myself, Here’s another dim…
Every Thursday we highlight the best comedy of the coming weekend. Find more comedy events at dallasobserver.com/calendar. Pablo Francisco at the Addison Improv Feel like seeing a few shows this weekend, but only have time for one? Come check out Pablo Francisco as he flashes through myriad characters while doing…
Cro–oo-o-oo-w! Yay! Our favorite intergalactic, film-riffing janitor, MST3K’s creator and main mocker, Joel Hodgson, will be at Texas Theatre on Saturday night! There’s also a massive celebration of low rider culture at the Dallas Contemporary, a riotous relaunch of Rite of Spring by the Joffrey Ballet, and a visit by…
Couple things. Christopher Walken’s got nothing on Van Quattro. More about that in a sec. If you have avoided live theater lately because you think it’s boring and the plays are too long, Second Thought Theatre’s season-opening production of Martin McDonagh’s A Behanding in Spokane will change your mind. Get…
There are two things that are certain in life. One is that death will come for every one of us. The other is that every film Michael Haneke makes will have a fair shot at the Cannes Palme d’Or. Amour, Haneke’s much-garlanded latest, is set almost entirely within a well-appointed…
We’re now a generation removed from Arnold Schwarzenegger’s brief, odd reign as the biggest star in movies. This Coppertone age lasted from 1990, when two of the 10 top-grossing pictures were Schwarzenegger’s Total Recall and Kindergarten Cop, until 1993, when Last Action Hero — an attempt at a tonal gene…
For the next 10 days, all Hollywood eyes will turn toward Park City, Utah, at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival (January 17 through 26). Here’s an early look at some standouts sure to be generating buzz on Main Street: Charlie Victor Romeo If France’s master post-structuralist filmmakers Jean-Marie Straub and…
The coffee shop in New York’s Union Square might be packed on this cold afternoon, but scanning the crowded bar it’s hard to miss Alex Karpovsky looming at the far end — even if you’re not familiar with his work. He’s more than six feet tall, so he towers a…
With the recent news that a living giant squid has been captured on film by a Japanese research team, your nightmares should be booked up until spring. As National Geographic’s deep-sea explorer-in-residence, Robert Ballard has no doubt come eyeball-to-eyeball with his share of magnificent creatures and treasures. He’s responsible for…
When professional athletes are mentioned in conversation, it’s frequently in tales of “the selfish athlete.” One man’s story might change that unfair label: NFL star Everson Walls embodies the term “giving of yourself.” When ex-teammate and longtime friend Ron Springs needed a kidney transplant, Walls stepped in and offered his…
The original Ballets Russes company performance of Rite of Spring is one of the most fascinating stories in music history. Whether it was Igor Stravinsky’s score or the accompanying choreography that instigated the rioting crowd is still something of a debate. Most likely, it was the combination of the two…
The MAC (3120 McKinney Ave.) launches its latest and greatest Friday evening in a two-show 2013 opener. In the main space, celebrate 20 years of subversive collage with work by A&M Commerce School’s painting professor and Director of Studio Art Graduate Studies, Micheal Miller. Just how influential has Miller been…
You know the back of his head better than the front. That’s because Joel Hodgson is the human creator of Mystery Science Theater 3000. For six years he served as camp cinema’s whistleblower, pelting verbal tomatoes at sacrificial B and C genre films with assists by snarky robot sidekicks. Now…
While last weekend we toasted Dragon Street’s 2013 openers, this weekend’s art events speak to Dallas’ younger, more experimental circuit hoppers. You’ll need to hit up four spots to catch the action, so start the night off early at the Power Station (3816 Commerce St.) from 5 to 7 p.m…
The musical du jour is obviously Les Mis — you can’t get away from the posters of those wretched faces. But the film (and the book, and the play) are all exercises in Jack Tripper-dom; it’s hard to understand why the hell Jean Valjean didn’t just suck it up and…
There’s a special type of person who becomes an impressionist. And by special, we mean a scatterbrained ADHD kid who likely sweetens his morning cereal with Coke and Red Bull. And now, ladies and gentlemen: Pablo Francisco. The MADtv alum turned social-media darling is on the stand-up circuit once again,…
