In the town where I grew up, there were three Jewish families. Most of the kids in my elementary school were absolutely fascinated by the lone Jewish student, who we thought was the luckiest kid in the world…because he got eight full days of Christmas presents. Obviously, cultural sensitivity was…
“In the beginnin’ there weren’t nothin’,” or so begins the backwoods biblical genesis of the world in the play Beautiful Star: An Appalachian Nativity. The WaterTower Theatre has a seasonal offering of a more hillbilly-ish variety this Christmas, presenting a play about the Reverend Ledbetter and his Open Heart Congregation…
Nine miles is a short distance relative to oh, say, the distance to the moon. However, I can think of a couple of times when traveling nine miles can feel like 90. For instance, nine miles in five o’clock traffic can be excruciating, or how about running those nine miles?…
I seem to remember a time when the Galleria ice rink played host to Kristi Yamaguchi and a cavalcade of other ice-skating celebs, but it appears the mall has a hard time attracting such star power in these cash-strapped times. No offense to 2007 U.S. Silver Medalist Ryan Bradley, but…
The Webb Gallery in Waxahachie has been a haven for outsider, folk and just plain strange art for more than two decades. If you make the 30-mile drive south of Dallas to this wonderland of esoterica, you are guaranteed a banquet for the senses. Gallery owners Bruce and Julie Webb…
Much of 2006 Last Comic Standing winner Josh Blue’s material centers on how funny people with cerebral palsy are. He’d be a tremendous asshole…if he didn’t have it himself. “I was like, ‘Wait a minute, I’m not drunk, I’ve got cerebral palsy,'” he says in a routine about cops. “They…
You may think that you’ve seen all the good musicals ever created, but if you’ve never seen Thoroughly Modern Millie then you’ve got another think coming. The Repertory Theater Company is putting on a production of the Broadway show and it’s chock full of musical flapper fun. Adapted from the…
If you’ve ever been to the desolate wonderland of Marfa, Texas, then you’re no doubt familiar with the work of Donald Judd, the late minimalist sculptor who made the tiny West Texas town a world-renowned destination for art aficionados. Colorado sculptor Pard Morrison shares some of Judd’s aesthetic, arranging aluminum…
Back when I was a junior-high Bible study regular, the idea of a gay-friendly church holding a winter solstice celebration would have struck me as so inherently blasphemous that I would have completely distanced my right-thinking self from the sodomites and pagans who would attend such an event. Since then,…
At first, I was a little disappointed to discover that the Papel Chicano: Works on Paper from the Collection of Cheech Marin exhibit presented by The Latino Cultural Center wasn’t going to feature a bunch of artwork produced by Richard “Cheech” Marin. I had allowed myself to imagine some far-out,…
Controversy, like most things, often fades with time. Films that were once banned or censored are now shown in all their glory to art-house and even mainstream audiences. But some, like Sam Peckinpah’s Straw Dogs, raise questions and illustrate issues that withstand time and modern desensitization. Dustin Hoffman plays David…
Holiday time stresses me the crap out. It seems the holidays come at the worst time of the year…every year. Why aren’t the holidays right after income tax return time–would make sense to me. Whatever the cause for panic, I’m fairly certain that laughing at a slew of people in…
Everyone has their own personal El Guapo. For some it’s shyness; for others, a lack of education. But for Chevy Chase, Steve Martin and Martin Short it’s outdoing their legendary roles as Dusty Bottoms, Lucky Day and Ned Nederlander in Three Amigos! If you’ve been living under a rock since…
No one likes a Debbie Downer, but they don’t really want to hang out with Pollyanna either. Mike Leigh’s Happy-Go-Lucky explores how the world looks through the eyes of (and how the world looks at) an eternal optimist. Sally Hawkins plays Poppy, a 30-year-old, single preschool teacher in London who…
It’s been a rough season on my football psyche. It started with so much hope and swagger. In the days leading up to the start of the season, my eight-hour-a-day Ticket habit left me assured that my beloved boys in blue and silver would be making a Super Bowl appearance…
I hear America singing, and I see…Richard Nixon. Not the man but the muse: Has any president since Lincoln inspired more movies, TV miniseries and operas? As Nixon’s beetle brows, ski nose and mirthless grin were made for caricature, so his rampant pathology was a gift for novelists and psycho-historians…
In a cage match, Crumpet the Elf could kick the cranberries off Ebenezer Scrooge and still have the energy to stomp Tiny Tim and the Ghost of Christmas Past. Don’t mess with Crumpet, the nom de Noel of writer David Sedaris. His mean and funny chronicle of time served as…
Back in the early 1980s, when I was a graduate student in Boston, a prominent professor I knew was accused of sexually harassing a female colleague. This man was a compulsive flirt who couldn’t get within feet of a woman without coming on to her, so I wasn’t altogether surprised…
Flying saucers just aren’t that scary anymore. Especially after Ed Wood and Mars Attacks, it’s hard to take a threat from a giant Frisbee all that seriously. So what’s an update of the iconic 1951 sci-fi flick, The Day the Earth Stood Still, to do? In an extremely bold move,…
Ahh, the perennial excuse for doing drag–the man in the nun’s habit. It’s the old standby for a guy to get in touch with his feminine side without tucking anything away or using makeup and high heels. And if it’s for comedy’s sake, well then, it’s going to be hilarious,…
A holiday without a nutcracker is like a margarita without salt. You can deal with it, but there’s just something missing. Lucky for all of us, the Dallas Arboretum celebrates the oddly cute wooden soldiers by the hundreds. Nutcrackers in all shapes, sizes and themes are on display at the…
No offense, IwannaBeFamous2007, but we kinda doubt that you were what Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II had in mind when they wrote their 1950s musical version of the fairy tale Cinderella. Don’t get us wrong. Your YouTube video of yourself singing Cinderella’s dreamy solo “In My Own Little Corner”…
