Imagine you are putting on a spacesuit, not only preparing physically, but mentally. We’ve all seen Apollo 13 and Armageddon, so we get the gist of what being an astronaut entails…right? Like a lot of other people in Dallas area, the closest I can get to a space shuttle would…
If you’re here, and you think Texas isn’t queer, you might need to get your senses cleared. The Dallas Convention and Visitors Bureau has been promoting the city’s plentiful LGBTQ offerings for years, and maybe you’ve heard of that giant, massive pride parade every year over in Oak Lawn? The…
It’s no secret: I like to drink boxed wine and maybe eat a small bag of Cheetos at night sometimes. It’s my weird version of wine and cheese. I even like to be called a wino, or rather, I used to until Amy Winehouse screwed that nickname up for us…
As a part of their 30th anniversary season, Stage West presents The Skin of Our Teeth, Thornton Wilder’s 1942 Pulitzer Prize winning play about…well, everything. The Skin of Our Teeth tells the story of the Antrobus family, a biblical every-family in every way imaginable. Take Adam, Eve and their kin…
I have mixed feelings about Junie B. Jones, of the hugely successful series of books by the same name written by Barbara Park. On the one hand, the books are written in a way that really appeals to kids. On the other hand, part of me is really put off…
George Fowler is a sculptor whose work toes the line between being incredibly ecological in nature and being kind of creepy. I don’t mean creepy in a negative sense at all…I mean it literally creeps up on you in a way that kind of gives you the chills and makes…
A few weeks back on City of Ate, the Dallas Observer’s food blog, an off-the-cuff Tweet admonishing parents who take their children into bars sparked a spirited online discussion. Some readers claimed that taking kids to such establishments is an acceptable way to spend time with the family, while others…
It must be weird to have the same name as someone famous. I don’t deal with this issue because my name is unique and special, but I do know a chick named Aimee Mann. Or, take Paul Greco, for example, an artist whose work is part of the (free!) exhibit…
I think Slappy’s Puppet Playhouse has been reading my mind lately. I always wondered how the fairy tale Cinderella would have turned out if her glass slipper had a bit of an odor to it. Yes, I know it is an odd thought, but apparently I’m not alone on this…
Certainly, the argument can be made that film, by definition, is art. I think that anyone who has seen a Michael Bay movie might dispute that assertion pretty handily, but for the most part, artists have always recognized the power of that medium to convey their ideas to a mass…
Though great fans of Muppets, it never really occurred to us to take puppets seriously. Sure, their cute songs offered preschool lessons (sharing, potty training), but puppets didn’t strike us as something that adults would ever call thought-provoking. Then, 10 years ago, Charlie Kaufman wrote a film–Being John Malkovich–that changed…
No one should go through life without indulging in a juicy paperback packed with suspense and perhaps a heaving bosom or two. Literacy Instruction for Texas invited an expert–award-winning mystery author from McKinney, Deborah Crombie–to talk at the 9th Annual Champions of Literacy Luncheon. Crombie’s novels follow Scotland Yard detectives…
If you’ve ever read a classic fantasy book by the likes of Stephen King, Isaac Asimov or C.S. Lewis, you may have held on tight to the art of Japanese-born artist Kinuko Y. Craft. Matthew Abramowitz of The 4th Wall Gallery says, “Without doubt, Kinuku is one of the most…
national Lampoon’s Animal House–some people love it, some people hate it, but between Belushi-as-Bluto’s inspirational speech, (“Did you say ‘over’? Nothing is over until we decide it is! Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor? Hell no!”) and the moment when cream cheese spews from his mouth as…
There was a time in America when people didn’t wear flip-flops mostly everywhere. Shoe shiners once crowded city street corners; now they’re relegated to airports and hotels. The golden age of shoe shiners, from the Depression to disco, is documented in Shine, an exhibition of black and white photographs and…
One hilarious scene in Anthony Bourdain’s Kitchen Confidential is the description of an “Oriental” class at the Culinary Institute of America, with a Chinese man resentful about the Rape of Nanking as the instructor. Tasked with providing an overview of Asian cuisine, he dismisses sushi as “Japanese shit!” You’ll get…
Anyone who’s ever picked up a guitar knows it’s not as easy as the Greats make it look. Sure, it’s simple enough to pick up three or four chords and play “La Bamba” or “You Really Got Me,” but mastering scales and playing solos is another thing altogether–unless you’re the…
Dog Day Afternoon sounds like a fun event for dogs and dog people. But because my older mutt has had some recent misfortunes and bears a resemblance to Al Pacino, I’m hesitant to take him. I’m afraid he’d snap and rush the event’s vendor-packed “Doggie Mall,” use his doggie rifle…
Pink started off as a charter member of the “girl singer” onslaught that trampled the pop charts at the turn of the century. She broke out a few years later, re-emerging as a tough, punkish upstart bending the rules of pop music by mixing elements of dance and hip-hop production…
Early in Shane Acker’s computer-animated debut feature 9, a diminutive anthropomorphic whatsit with wooden hands, copper fingers and the titular numeral emblazoned on his chest awakens to the lifeless body of his human creator and sets forth into a decimated industrial landscape—all twisted metal and smokestacks—that calls to mind London…
When, in the early ’00s, I worked as a freelancer for a publication two floors below Vogue—this was pre-Devil Wears Prada—each sighting of Anna Wintour, no matter from how great a distance, was terrifying enough to immobilize me for a few seconds, leading to a sweaty paralysis when I found…
The laws of supply and demand should be more carefully adhered to when you’re trying to decide what musical instrument to play. Sure, piano is a good skill to have, and guitar proficiency will help your chances of getting laid, but really–the market is a little flooded. Abilities with less…
