Arts & Culture

Fans of chicken-fried everything have just a couple of weeks before that orgy of deep-frying known as the State Fair of Texas. But if you can’t wait, Central 214 at Hotel Palomar has a special battered-and-fried snack for you: Pride. OK, so Chicken-Fried Pride is probably symbolic, but executive chef…

So you love great design? We do too. A well-appointed home with personal style is ideal, for sure. The perfect couch is a challenge (I can attest to this after searching for one, re-covering, giving that one away, purchasing yet again and re-covering once more), the right paint can be…

Grandparents Day must be a hard holiday for nannies and gramps across the country. Whereas on Mother’s and Father’s day, they get a whole day for themselves, Grandparents Day is one they are forced to share. Here’s a slice of diabetic-friendly pie…and two forks. Hey, I got y’all new tennis…

Are you hipper if you drink your sake warm or cold? What’s so special about honjozo-shu sake? Is sake a wine, a beer or a spirit? Get the answer to these questions and others at Kenichi’s Japanese-themed sake tasting, held in coordination with the Dallas Opera’s production of Madame Butterfly…

When you leave the state–and say you’re from Texas–it’s common to be stereotyped quite quickly as a Southern, y’all-sayin’ lover of hot sauce and barbecue. There is, of course, some truth to the caricature–who doesn’t like Sonny Bryan’s or the convenience of sidestepping gender plurality with a simple y’all? But…

As a new homeowner, I can finally get behind–even get excited about–events like the Home & Garden Market. Take one part State Fair Expo and one part Home Depot and add a splash of yard sale and you can get yourself drunk on the awesomeness that is the Home &…

How do you cope with loss? Do you wear black and cover the mirrors? Do you sit shivah? Do you trap your husband’s soul in a box after he dies trying to save a baby from a burning building? Yeah, that does seem rare. But in Noah Haidle’s Vigils, that’s…

There’s a slew of community-driven biking events lately. Groups are popping up here and there. Riding through Oak Cliff. Following historic pathways a la Oswald and the like. For those who like to ride, but don’t feel too street/traffic savvy just yet, the North Texas Environmental Meetup is hosting a…

Do you consider Ferris Bueller’s Day Off a classic movie? Anyone? Anyone? Anyone? We do. After all, like most of John Hughes’ other movies, we’ve been quoting it for more than 20 years. It’s a film cornerstone of a pop culture genre that features some put-upon teen rallying the troops…

Sinatra–like Texas–is a state of mind. Yes, there’s Frank Sinatra, that Italian guy from Yonkers who made it big in the ’40s and spent the rest of the century riding high and low waves of his career to become a renowned singer, movie star and, finally, an American institution. Sinatra…

Artist Dale Chihuly may very well be the most famous glass sculptor in the world. His “Chihuly Bridge of Glass” received international attention when it was unveiled back in 2002 in his hometown of Tacoma, Washington, and his colorful glass garden installations have been exhibited all over the world. Plus,…

The Latino Cultural Center’s second annual Maestros Tejanos exhibit features the work of artist Tina Fuentes, who specializes in still-life paintings of fruit. A native of West Texas, Fuentes is heavily inspired by the desert borderlands and the life and death struggles of the many immigrants who try to cross…

Legendary New Orleans tunesmith Allen Toussaint has enjoyed a well-deserved career resurgence of late, crafting a critically acclaimed post-Katrina protest record with Elvis Costello a few years back (2006’s The River in Reverse) and seeing his 1971 classic “Sweet Touch of Love” resurrected in a surprisingly charming ad for Axe…

There are certain things in life that you just aren’t supposed to do, like sell acid out of an ice cream truck, switch out Grannie’s Fixodent with super glue, let your pet monkey ride around on your dog and steal your ex-girlfriend’s The Big Lebowski DVD–quite possibly the worst thing…

Comedians can get away with saying almost anything they want. “It’s just a joke!” is their shield of defense that entitles them to utter things that would likely never be acceptable at the dinner table. Perhaps people are so drawn to comedians because they are permitted to momentarily throw away…

Forget about the Ugly Duckling. It’s not that hard to morph from one bird to another. The really impressive transformation story belongs to the butterfly. It starts out as a caterpillar, inching along and not doing much besides chewing. Then after a brief time of solitude in the cocoon, it…

You may not be a millionaire, but you can play one this weekend. The Dallas Symphony Orchestra is celebrating 20 Years at the Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center, hosted by Honorary Gala Artist Van Cliburn, and everyone who’s anyone will be there this Saturday for what could be one of…

A couple of weeks ago, I was working at the day job and something occurred to me. I wanted to leave. And not just to go home–I wanted to leave my pile of work, head west on Interstate 30 and sit in the Ballpark with a hot dog, a beer…

Coulda sworn that The Black Monk was a ’70s kung fu flick starring Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, so it was a bit confusing when The Undermain Theatre announced the return of the play, claiming it was “back by popular demand.” Surely I’d have remembered a stage adaptation of a cheesy martial-arts movie,…