Facebook is nothing if not a cultural barometer. At any given time, I can login and see what people are reading (a disturbing amount of Twilight, apparently), listening to (OMG, the new Vampire Weekend!) and planning to do. And apparently, a pretty good cross-section of the metroplex–spanning all age groups–has…
Who was that masked man? Was it the Lone Ranger? Was it Zorro? No, it was that good old stalwart, The Phantom of the Opera. This musical joyride of thrills and tears was first performed in 1986, and it’s still playing to packed houses worldwide. The show was birthed by…
Mariah Carey recently pulled an Anna Nicole Smith while accepting a Breakthrough Actress Performance award at the Palm Springs International Film Festival Awards. She slurred her speech and had that “I may have just drank a whole bottle of expensive Champagne by myself” look in her eyes. Girlfriend was definitely…
The J PLAYERS of the Jewish Community Center of Dallas presents an award-winning Broadway show, Ragtime, The Musical. The show explores the lives of an upper-class housewife, a Jewish immigrant and a Harlem musician all living in New York at the turn of the 20th century and united by their…
From Catholic Sacred Heart of Jesus imagery to the classic sweetheart tattoo, the human heart has inspired artists for as long as there have been artists. But my favorite piece of heart art isn’t a painting or a sculpture. Rather, it’s the moment in Indiana Jones and the Temple of…
I always thought the most relevant thing Pauly Shore could ever do after the turn of the century was–just like most celebrities whose fame peaked in the ’90s–appear on the newest season of Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew. Or get his very own help-me-find-fake-double-d-sized-love dating show (thanks, VH1). Surprisingly enough,…
If you’ve ever been to a bluegrass jam before, than odds are pretty good you’re heard at least one bluegrass version of a Beatles tune–usually “I’ve Just Seen A Face” or “I’m Looking Through You,” two of the twangier numbers in the Fab Four’s catalog. But the band Beatlegras takes…
Being a part of the royal family definitely has its perks. I mean, what could be better than being the Queen of England? For one, she wakes up in a palace every day, but even more mind-blowing is the fact that she pretty much has her own 49-piece group of…
I think it’s possible someone has found a workable solution to ending illiteracy: Give a book to a naked chick and have her read it aloud. Hell, even require people to pay to hear, er, watch it. On Saturday and Sunday, at the Luminarte Design Studio, La Divina Productions is…
More than a few nights during our childhood, my sister and I were awakened by storm sirens. We would sit with our Barbies in the family’s first-floor bathroom as our father stood at the open front door, watching for tornadoes. The power of nature manifested in thunderstorms and tornadoes is…
Normally car shows are highlighted by celebrity appearances and deals, deals, deals! But not this year. No, for the 50th anniversary of the O’Reilly Auto Parts AutoRama, the real draw isn’t an autographed 8-by-10, but a chance to glimpse some of the coolest cars from the last five decades–dragsters like…
Forget the traditional pointe shoes and pantyhose, people. You need a little spice in your life, and the Black Academy of Arts and Letters’ 6th Annual Weekend Festival of Black Dance is just the ticket. The festival, titled Rhythm and Soul of a People, features Happy Nia Dance Theatre, Djely…
It is, once again, my favorite time of the year–Chinese New Year. Now that you’ve probably had your fill of yummies and filled your pockets with little red envelopes (cha-ching!), it’s time to bring the celebration to a close, and you can do so with style at The Crow Collection…
Usually, an empty bowl is a bad thing, like if your cat is hungry, or your pipe needs to be refilled. But sometimes, it’s a great thing, like an empty toilet bowl, or Empty Bowls 2010, a Tarrant Area Food Bank art luncheon that helps fight hunger. For $35, you…
They say it takes a village to raise a child. In the Austrian film The White Ribbon, it takes children to ruin a village. A series of unfortunate events in fictional, rural, pre-World War I Eichwald, Germany, are not only imposed on the village youth, but attributed to them. A…
Ooh, it’s another Quick Fire Challenge! Well, not exactly, but as many Top Chef fans know, former contestant (and executive chef at Plano’s Loft 610) Tre Wilcox knows how to prepare an amazing meal in a flash. Now it’s your chance to learn his secrets. Once you master some techniques,…
The composer Donizetti probably died of syphilis, but before he went stark raving mad, dying in an insane asylum, he wrote a whole bunch of operas, including Don Pasquale. In this opera, young Ernesto is in love with the penniless Norina, but his cranky, rich uncle won’t let him marry…
There are certain sports moments from years past that, whenever I reflect on their outcomes, reduce me to an epic level of grumpiness. The Dallas Cowboys and the New York Giants (2008 playoffs, anyone?), basically anything and anyone associated with the New York Yankees (seriously, is there a snottier franchise…
Men with men, men with women, women with women, nymphs with clowns. Stop what you’re thinking, and instead put your mind in a wonderful place filled with impressive stamina and intense acrobatics. Still can’t follow? Imagine daring aerialists on trapezes soaring to their partners 40 feet above the stage floor…
Henry Rollins isn’t for everyone. No, the former Black Flag frontman isn’t for the faint of heart, but neither is he for many of the cynical and jaded. A large contingent of those who may seem like they would be fans of Rollins–who may have been fans of his in…
Beginning Saturday, Dallas art fans and fanatics will have the fortunate opportunity to behold the imagination of the late Houston artist Virgil Grotfeldt. Virgil Grotfeldt: Memories and Transformations will feature the works of a man who used “the anthropological, sociological and geological composition of our world” as the basis for…
Native American food must suck. Even though India is an ocean away from America, menus and grocery stores are far more likely to carry Indian food than the cuisine of the people formerly and incorrectly called “Indians.” Or maybe it’s that the sight of a diner offering Native American food…
