What do you do when a major life change occurs and you’re not happy about it? There are many negative ways to handle change. But when artist Gary Perrone was diagnosed with HIV 20-years ago, he ignored them all in favor of exploring his creativity. His mixed-media “mindscapes” (drawing, painting…
Every five years, like clockwork, Woodstock screams back into public consciousness thanks to an anniversary (this time it’s the 40th) and an opportunity to cash in on nostalgia. And while the event was something the likes of which we’ll probably never see again, all the footage of hippies rolling around…
The undead are so hot right now. Brooding, lifeless faces are plastered everywhere, but all I see is blatant discrimination. Sure they may not be sparkly-skinned, bare-chested, eternally 17-year-olds, but let’s not forget about those other sexy hunks of immortal flesh. Zombies have been keeping it real for just as…
I never understood why Iron Chef didn’t do a broke college student-themed episode. (Or maybe I just missed it.) But imagine the fright in Chef Todd English’s eyes when he’s given a 79-cent Taco Bell burrito–a delicacy in my kitchen–and told “Tick, tock, Todd.” Every time I open my fridge…
It’s almost unfair for any post-Travolta production of Grease to even exist in the world. Once someone takes over a character like Danny Zuko–flat, meatheaded at best–and turns him into a sex symbol for the ages, any subsequent portrayal that isn’t a spitting image of the original is going to…
It’s really hard to believe Motown Records is celebrating 50 years in the business–I would have thought the label was at least 80 by now. Seriously, have you seen the guys they trot out for those Motown/doo-wop specials on PBS? Let’s just say I wouldn’t be surprised if their 50th…
Energetic, inventive, swaggering fun, Quentin Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds is consummate Hollywood entertainment—rich in fantasy and blithely amoral. It’s also quintessential Tarantino—even more drenched in film references than gore, with a proudly misspelled title (lifted from Italian genre-meister Enzo Castellari’s 1978 Dirty Dozen knockoff) to underscore the movie’s cinematic hyperliteracy. Tepidly…
Sophie Barthes’ clever metaphysical comedy Cold Souls has been dubbed “Being Paul Giamatti” more than once since its Sundance 2009 debut. But if comparisons to the films of Charlie Kaufman are inevitable, the similarities only go so far. Sure, Paul Giamatti plays “Paul Giamatti,” another “real” actor unwittingly embroiled in…
All my friends know by now that I’m not the one to come running to with relationship problems if they’re seeking answers. My solution to those types of situations is to make a fruity drink with lots of liquor and an umbrella and let them borrow a season of Sex…
Charlie Sheen makes $875,000 per episode of Two and Half Men. That means he makes more per craptastic, predictable, woman-hating episode of that sitcom than most of us will make over the course of 15 years. And as much as I hate that Mr. Sheen can leer his way through…
I wonder if it’s easier or harder to get people to like your stand-up when you’re most famous for playing a villain in a wildly successful ’80s movie. My first thought was easier because of name recognition and claim-to-fame and all that stuff. But on the other hand, I don’t…
A friend once pointed out that minor league baseball has the same type of fan as MLS: few and far between (but increasing in number, thankfully), passionate, undeterred by the heat of the summer sun and always ready to cheer on their favorite professional athletes. Grand Prairie’s own minor league…
Comedian Dennis Miller hated on Ronald Reagan as much as any other comedian in the 1980s, but when 9/11 happened, the self-described libertarian was among the first celebrities calling for Dubya to nuke the Middle East back into the Stone Age. Of course, no one ever accused Miller of being…
To help finance the November relaunch of the quarterly magazine Art Prostitute (which features interviews with and works by modern artists) in hardback, The Public Trust needs a little help from its art-loving friends. Five local artists–Steven Hopwood-Lewis, Misty Keasler, Margaret Meehan, M and Brent Ozaeta–will attend the one-night-only event,…
Until Zombies of the Opera chronicles the undead love for a stunning soprano, The Phantom of the Opera maintains its hold as my favorite stage production. We’re talking favorite of all favorites, especially since seeing it at Her Majesty’s Theatre in London, where Andrew Lloyd Webber’s rendition opened in the…
Flex those vocal cords, because you’ll be singing operatics after a night of Mediterranean cuisine. Who knows, the food just might inspire you to sing your way over to the Dallas Opera for Giuseppe Verdi’s Otello in October. But back to the food: On Sunday from 4 to 6 p.m.,…
Foodies everywhere should know that it’s Hatch Chile season–the best time of year for those tasty treats from Hatch, New Mexico, aka “Chile Capital of the World.” If you love the peppers but don’t want to go through the trouble of preparing them yourself (pepper preparation is a fine art),…
The super-mellow sounds of the pop music sub-genre AM Gold reached a fever pitch as the 1970s came to a close. However, two of its biggest stars didn’t make their mark until the early 1980s, putting a musical exclamation point on the previous decade. Australia’s Air Supply was an unfathomably…
We love book clubs, but most of them are speculative. We really don’t know what the author meant by certain turns of phrase, or how the story was originally conceived. Since it gives us a headache to think about it too much, our book clubs end up with lengthy snack…
I wasted more than a decade of beer drinking before I tried beer pong. Drinking games always struck me as the realm of overgrown frat boys. My thinking: Beer is good–it shouldn’t be a negative consequence of poor game play. Then one night at a house party, the action at…
Guitar-Fest McKinney is a three-day event that gives guitar players a chance to bone up on their technique and learn new tricks. Offering private lessons and group workshops with Grammy-winning guitar professionals for three days and a concert on Saturday night, this event is for the real guitar enthusiast, eager…
Hope. It’s a simple four-letter word that, like love, is hard to define in concrete terms. In a way, the two are intertwined. What is love without hope? The best kind of love is seen in action. Roberta Harris believes hope should be seen the same way. That’s why her…
