Long before The Food Network hocked up loogies like Paula Dean and Rachel Ray, TV cooking shows had some integrity. They aired on Sundays on PBS, and they RULED! Julia Child, The Frugal Gourmet and the transcendental “Rajin’ Cajun” Justin Wilson were but a few. My favorite cooking hero is…
I will readily admit I’ve never seen stand-up comic Sam Tripoli perform. But after looking through the “Rants and Ravs” section of his Web site (I can only assume he means “Rants and Raves,” but maybe he’s referring to the Hebrew word for “rabbi”…in which case, points for randomness), I…
Mmm, trite jokes: They go great with hyperbole and a nice Shiraz. Like when someone says “Man, I wish these kids would come with an instruction manual, HAHAHA!” In that case, it’s a great idea to say “That’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard!” and order another Shiraz, because you…
Few artists from the American folk-music scene have been more important than Ramblin’ Jack Elliott. For 50 years, the singer, storyteller and guitar picker has influenced artists and musicians from Jack Kerouac and Jerry Garcia to Beck and The Rolling Stones. (Supposedly, Mick Jagger bought his first guitar after hearing…
Yes, the rumors are true–there will be dachshunds. Clothed dachshunds, parading dachshunds, even racing dachshunds. Of course there will be other stuff at Addison’s annual Oktoberfest–after all, this is one of the largest Oktoberfests outside of that one in Munich. While sipping on beer and nibbling at a sausage, you’ll…
Do you think it’s true that everything in the universe is somehow connected to everything else? You know, sort of a circle of life, Out on a Limb, six degrees of separation thing? Well, I’ve discovered a fascinating connection between Black Sabbath’s song “Lord of this World,” paisley wallpaper and…
Reading is fundamental. After all, if you couldn’t read this I wouldn’t be able to tell you about the 8th Annual Champions of Literacy Luncheon benefiting Literacy Instruction for Texas (LIFT), an organization on a mission to “to enhance lives and strengthen communities by raising the adult literacy rate in…
Nathan used to walk me home from school. He was a cute blond-headed boy, and he was sweet to me. I wrote my first love letter to him–I had to ask mom how to spell “love.” But the sleaze-ball was two-timing me with that little twit, Emily. How could he…
Fort Worth native Bob Schieffer has been a guiding force at CBS News since the late ’60s, most recently filling in at anchor after Dan Rather’s departure and moderating the last 2004 debate between Senator Kerry and President Bush (he’ll reprise this role for the third debate between Senators Obama…
Over dinner the other night the subject of “best movie you’ve seen this year” was brought up. While my fellow young film enthusiast friends and I discussed the merits of Wall-E, The Dark Knight and The Fall, the seasoned veteran at the table silenced our unrefined chatter with three words,…
If you can label up-and-coming director Zack Snyder anything, it would be a visual storyteller. Or, more accurately, a visual story re-teller. He has tackled some of the most impossible re-tellings, from his feature film debut, a remake of the classic zombie flick Dawn of the Dead, to his upcoming…
Masters of the carefully crafted cheap shot, Joel and Ethan Coen have built a career on flippancy. Given their refusal to take anything seriously—least of all the enthusiasm of their fans—the brothers surely got a chuckle from an upcoming academic tome, The Philosophy of the Coen Brothers: “Once again, Kierkegaard’s…
If this year’s Toronto International Film Festival had a subtitle, it could be “When Good Directors Go Bad.” At least that’s what it has felt like around here as one anticipated new film after the next by some of the world’s name-brand auteurs—the Coen brothers, Spike Lee, Jonathan Demme—laid a-than-golden…
Scruffy but beautiful kids singing and dancing their angry, aching hearts out against graffiti-scrawled walls of Manhattan tenements—could be Rent, could be West Side Story. The shows have a lot in common, starting with how brilliantly they update a couple of classics. Rent is based on La Bohème; West Side…
It took four credited screenwriters to pen a script in which every other word is “dude” or “bra”; but then, how one “writes” or “directs” a film that’s essentially 90 minutes of Matthew McConaughey’s super-stoned summer-vacay footage remains equally unfathomable, as does its whispered release into theaters before its inevitable…
Carlos Santana, for better or worse, is a legend. He’s played guitar on some of FM radio’s most monstrous hits, including “Evil Ways,” “Oye Como Va” and “Black Magic Woman.” He’s shared stages and album credits with Alice Coltrane, Booker T. Jones, John Lee Hooker, Herbie Hancock and the recently…
Butterflies are all sunshine and puppy dogs, flitting from flower to flower with grace and beauty. Harmless, of course, and even inspirational. Except for the time back in ’92 when one of them flew in my ear while I was playing outside, and I nearly bailed headfirst out of my…
I know you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover, but if I hadn’t, I might not have discovered Junot Díaz. The cover of Drown, his 1996 short story collection, features a black-and-white photo of a small child walking down a dirty street at night. The image really struck me,…
Dear Bridezilla, As your maid of honor, on behalf of the rest of your wedding party, I would like to make you aware of the Plano Bridal Show. Please spare us your disastrous meltdown later and attend this event now; they promise there are merchants who can help you with…
Bill Bellamy is much more than just a pretty face. What, you never thought of Bill Bellamy as a “pretty face” to start off with? Honestly, we didn’t either. But apparently he was quite the looker back in his college days at Rutgers University in New Jersey, where he won…
Allison V. Smith’s Hall Pass, a show of color photographs to debut at Barry Whistler Gallery on Friday, is an excavation of Texas schools that still look, smell and feel like schools. The water fountain, the teacher’s globe, the roll-down map: In these iconic images Smith’s camera channels all that…
Finally, a festival I don’t have to drive to that’s not the Deep Ellum Arts Fest. Don’t get me wrong, Ellum, I love you, but I’ve chosen Uptown. Without having to head to Addison or Fort Worth, I can head to what sounds like it could be the kind of…
