Sometimes it pays to be different. So what would you do if you had a nose that glowed? Would you join in all the reindeer games or would you use your powers for good and guide a historical and magical man around in a sleigh for the night? Talk about…
The Snow Queen by Hans Christian Andersen is the fairy tale that scared the hell out of me as a kid. A Snow Queen with a heart of ice holds a boy, Kai, captive until he can spell the word eternity with shards of ice. His friend Gerda saves him…
If Damian Elwes’ name sounds familiar it may be because his brother is man in tights and passionate farmboy Cary Elwes, but it may also be because he’s a well-collected artist. Elwes is exhibiting recent paintings–a collection entitled HUMANATURE–at the Kristy Stubbs Gallery through December 31. The works focus primarily…
This, like so many other times in history, is a tough time to be a girl. We ladies need to stick together, and I’m not just talking about all the single ladies throwing their hands up. Our sisters and daughters are searching for role models in TV shows and the…
If you are the kind of person who either A.) likes unconventional holiday outings or B.) has a Clark Griswold complex and is constantly in search of things for the whole family to do together, the Gaylord Texan Hotel and its annual ICE! attraction is right up your alley. This…
Talk about an art exhibition that really nails the interest of Dallas citizens: Try an installation that uses pre-made pieces and images of bridges (ahem) and maps of our city, along with art information carts and kiosks, to convey just how industrial and city structures affect people’s everyday lives. Maybe…
A teenage witch stands trembling behind her unsuspecting mother and father, wand raised. Obliviate, she whispers, and her parents’ eyes go glassy, their memories erased. On the mantel, the girl’s image disappears from the family’s photos. Blinking back tears, she walks into the street, the link between herself and her…
What if we choose to exist solely in a reality of our own making?” asks Pittsburgh community-college lit professor John Brennan (Russell Crowe) rhetorically during a discussion of Don Quixote in The Next Three Days, Paul Haggis’ fourth effort as director. Like his lumpy protagonist, Haggis, who also scripted this…
“I was recently sitting with a group of French directors, and at a certain point the conversation turned to Fred Wiseman,” critic Kent Jones wrote eight years ago in Film Comment. “Without hesitation, everyone agreed that he was probably America’s greatest living filmmaker”—not to mention the world-champion practitioner of the…
Except for the title and some dropped-in references to Parkland Hospital, Neiman Marcus and the long-gone H.L. Green downtown five-and-dime, the setting of The Trinity River Plays feels as geographically generic as the towns do in daytime soaps. So scant is the sense of Dallas-ness in Regina Taylor’s new trilogy…
Just because the kids get a Thanksgiving vacation doesn’t always mean moms and dads aren’t still stuck in the office. Sure, you can send the kids to granny’s house or off to daycare, but that probably wouldn’t be as exciting as a holiday camp at Oil and Canvas. With art…
What makes Louis CK a truly great stand-up comic is how completely fearless and honest he is about his least admirable qualities. Which, of course, are the undesirable qualities we all have in common but try to hide. What father hasn’t thought that his 4-year-old daughter is a complete asshole?…
You may remember Chris Hardwick as the co-host of ’90s MTV show Singled Out, but he has been doing plenty since with his popular podcast, The Nerdist, hosting two shows on the G4 network and taking his turn in a couple of movies. The whole time, he has been doing…
The Bath House Cultural Center is ready to kick its 2010 Winter Art Mart into gear. The event will feature more than 35 vendors hawking a variety of artsy stuff, including the painted kinds, the sculpted kinds, the fragile, polished, shiny kinds and much more. The money you spend will…
Some of us age gracefully, mellowing into supple silvers and golds, wearing each year as a pearl of wisdom rather than a battle scar. Unfortunately, many of us, like Beaujolais, are bright and crisp when we’re young, but quickly turn to unenjoyable vinegar. All the more reason to enjoy life–and…
You know the holiday season is just around the corner when tree ornaments and lights go up at Walgreen’s, Christmas gift ideas start showing up in magazines and newspapers, and The Nutcracker (in some form or fashion) starts popping up on theater marquees. And this season for DFW, the nutcracking…
Etsy is seriously one of the best things to ever come out of the Internet. I mean, I don’t want to start a big argument about whether a Husky’s auto-tuned singing voice is better than a cat jumping on a surprised baby, but buying other people’s handmade items on a…
Studs Terkel, the bow-tie wearing, oral historian from Chicago, was known for his books collecting the human experience. One of Terkel’s most famous books, Working: People Talk About What They Do All Day and How They Feel About What They Do (published in 1974), recounted the memories of people from…
My mom was a bookkeeper for MJ Designs, and she didn’t get out of there without becoming crafty with glitter-glazed pine cones, wire ribbon and Styrofoam berries. Mom’s busy this year, but you can check out wreaths made by some of the (second) best designers in Dallas at the DIFFA…
After screaming our throats raw as the Rangers won their way into their first World Series, and screaming now as FC Dallas kicks out the jams, as the Mavericks continue to pound the hardwood, and before Big D hosts the Super Bowl, there’s little denying that we have sports on…
Stephin Merritt’s Magnetic Fields released one of the most enduring documents of the indie rock era with 1999’s 69 Love Songs, an ambitious triple album that sounded a little like something Cole Porter might have written had he been a particularly big New Order fan. Since then, Merritt’s released three…
This Wednesday, Central Market Cooking School (5750 E. Lovers Lane) offers a hands-on Take Home Holiday Side Dishes class that will send each participant home with four to six servings of each of these basic, but badass-sounding items: cornbread dressing, cranberry chutney, gouda mashed potatoes, creamed spinach and sweet potato…
