The Hobbit Gets Neither There Nor Back Again
Welcome back to Middle-Earth. It has been nearly a decade since writer-director Peter Jackson last set foot on J.R.R. Tolkien’s hallowed ground, signing off on a spectacular trilogy of films adapted from the British author’s Lord of the Rings novels. There were box office billions and well-earned Oscars aplenty and…
Holiday shopping can leave you feeling dead inside, quoting things your parents say that you never thought you’d dare repeat. “The traffic!” “Well someone’s awfully proud of this sweater, just look at that price tag!” I say avoid those unnecessary evils at all cost and look for gifts that have…
Being an introvert doesn’t make you unfriendly or a social Grinch. It can, in fact, be a celebrated quality. What it would definitely do, however, would make doing publicity for your new book on introversion a bit of a challenge. Take local author (and occasional Dallas Observer contributor) Sophia Dembling…
You’ve been making that list, checking it twice, and have decided it’s way more fun to be naughty than nice. Sure, you could curl up in bed with a cup of hot chocolate and a Christmas movie on the DVR, but where’s the fun in that? Especially when you could…
Holiday shopping is either the thing that gets you the most jazzed about the season, or the thing that sends your stress level right into Santa’s flight path. No matter which reaction you have to the ubiquitous carols, perfectly folded displays and jam-packed mallways, shopping season is in full swing…
Let us let you in on a little secret: Your friends and relatives are used to you showing up at holiday gatherings with a sixer of Miller Lite, and they judge you for it. If you want to get yourself out of the doghouse but don’t know where to start,…
Ho! Ho! Holy shit!!! A blood-covered elf and Santa wielding a chain saw! What the hell is happening? We are no more than a month and a half removed from Halloween, but that doesn’t mean the fright-inciting folks over at Moxley Manor have closed their doors for the season, not…
Almost 30 years ago, Al Pacino had a little friend, Michelle Pfeiffer was a sexy cokehead who liked bad boys, and Steven Bauer had a full TV and film career to look forward to. Ah, those were the days. When Scarface hit the screens in 1983, it was a shock…
On Sunday, the Denton Bach Society presents one of J.S. Bach’s most magnificent choral celebrations of the holiday season. The Christmas Oratorio (Das Weihnachts-Oratorium) is less somber than some of the composer’s more serious religious contemplations of Jesus’ birth because Bach borrowed popular non-religious tunes for many of this piece’s…
He was here, then he wasn’t, and now he is again. Artist Brandon Kennedy’s show Exit for Sale is currently on display at the Reading Room, and is composed of four works ripped from the recesses of his grayest gray matter. Lovingly billed as “flirting with both failure and disruption,”…
If you haven’t completed your holiday shopping, you’re about to be screwed. Well, you were, until WIGWAM Holiday Pop-Up Shop decided to pop up once again. What started as an experiment among eight friends has grown into the sporadic place for handmade everything from local artisans. WIGWAM is as well-curated…
Join pianist Jeffrey Siegel at the Eisemann Center in Richardson on Monday for an unconventional piano recital. Siegel’s Keyboard Conversations features the pianist both performing on the piano and providing commentary on the music he presents. In this recital, the works of French composer Claude Debussy — both familiar and…
In between all the Thanksgiving traditions, Christmas miracles or Hanukkah heartwarmers that we’ve experienced throughout the years, we’ve all got one or two memories that we’d rather keep to ourselves. Like that time your boyfriend had to retrieve you from your job’s holiday party because you passed out in the…
You’re likely sitting on a half-dozen wedding invitations for the evening, since wedding bliss and numerology go strangely hand-in-hand. Ignore them. Who makes their friends and family attend a Wednesday night ceremony simply so their anniversary is tougher to forget? People on the outskirts of your social circle, that’s who…
Remember when you were younger, sitting around the fireplace and listening to It’s a Wonderful Life on the radio with your family every holiday season? Neither do we, but it would’ve been a great memory. Instead, we’ve spent our winter breaks watching the Frank Capra holiday classic on the small…
Oak Cliff artist Chris Bingham is a favorite around these parts, and it’s easy to see why. In his newest show, Art in Motion: An Ode to Graffiti, his nostalgic realism style is front and center, as he pulls inspiration from the graffiti on the streets to use in his…
We are pinned between hard angles as 2013 approaches. Holidays. Grid-riddled traffic. The pending apocalypse. They’ll press together to cause an eruption, popping out any spare shards of energy currently left at your disposal. You can recharge through the psychedelic exploration of platonic solids that is Post Future. Happening at…
There are 23 people in the cast of Jekyll & Hyde, but the real star of the show is lead actor Constantine Maroulis’ hair. It shimmers, it glistens, it flips, flies and flaps. It goes back in a long ponytail when he’s playing brooding Dr. Jekyll and falls down in…
When we see you on the street and think you put some thought into your style, we may take your picture and ask you things. See previous installations in the Street Style archive. We spotted Coloradans, Max and Bryce in Expo Park on Saturday afternoon. They were attending the Unsilent…
When living in Miami, I was surrounded. Every South Beach bodega window displays look the same, outfitted with grotesquely (read: AMAZING) tacky odes to Tony Montana. Rifles, framed “art,” and joint rollers branded with His Image face the streets — a city’s twisted welcome to out-of-towners. Since Scarface is turning…
It’s the movie that inspired a thousand lazy dick jokes and provided pop-culture context for the mounds of cocaine on many an American dresser: Scarface, Brian DePalma’s classic about a Cuban refugee who makes it big in America. It was released on December 9, 1983, and in honor of its…
The Modern turns 10 years old this month. To celebrate Tadao Ando’s glass leisure labyrinth, the museum’s staff has gone all out. It’s been purchasing new acquisitions by contemporary daddy macs like Nauman and Flaven, and has even brought some of these greats in, Bruce Nauman most recently, to give…
