Arts & Culture

Considering that we’ve never “made it” by anyone’s definition, the phrase “fake it till you make it” has become a way of life. Some things are tough to fake, though, like pulling a yacht into Ibiza and partying with the rich and famous. Well, maybe now we have a metroplex…

He spent 24 years in the U.S. Congress, famously co-leading one of the largest CIA covert operations ever. He holds the Afghan Freedom Medal and is the only civilian to hold the CIA award as “Honored Colleague.” He has been the subject of controversy and literature and has now been…

We don’t really want to see a dinosaur eat a child. That would be wrong. Entertaining? Perhaps. Be that as it may, if the Heard Natural Science Museum & Wildlife Sanctuary really wants to thrill its patrons with its Dinosaurs Alive! exhibit of life-size, animatronic dinosaurs and demonstrate the glory…

Nice to see that The Granada Theater is continuing the tradition of honoring one of the most influential musicians associated with the city. Freddie “The Texas Cannonball” King had a distinctive fingerpicking style that caught the ear of many an aspiring blues guitarist, including Eric Clapton, who shared a tour…

It’s pitch black. You’re sitting on the edge of your Ultra-Recliner of Power doing an anterior shoulder stretch and your secret ninja thumb exercises. Suddenly a nearly blinding light floods the room, projecting an EA across your flawlessly mastered game face. You crack each knuckle in turn, pop your neck…

When you come in the door at night, do you say hello to a meowing, four-legged family member? Do you occasionally leave the TV on so someone with whiskers can watch his “favorite show” and have “company”? Do you have more cat food bowls than you do cereal ones? If…

Tulisoma, brothers and sisters. In Swahili, that means “we read.” In South Dallas, that means a weekend of entertainment, politics, poetry slams and celebrity elbow-rubbing at the 6th Annual Tulisoma South Dallas Book Fair & Arts Festival. Guest author readings cover topics on politics, children’s fiction, literacy, romance, teen dating,…

Nothing says “Texas is a melting pot” like the Czechfest…er, I mean Westfest, held annually in West, Texas, to raise money for community projects. (Think the Texas State Fair with kolaches at every turn and polka dancing instead of roller-coaster rides.) Westfest has Brave Combo, Grammy winners from Denton, on…

It’s fun to learn surprising, fun facts about people. Who woulda thought that playboy gazillionaire Bruce Wayne secretly liked to dress up like a bat and kick ass all night long? Or that mild-mannered reporter Clark Kent was from another planet? Or that Dina Lohan is not covered in a…

OK, everybody, let’s sing! “Oklahoma, where the storms come roarin’ down the plains/And the trailer parks fly just like larks/And we pee our pants ev’ry time it rains.” Hah! We kid you, Oklahoma. Loves ya. You’re a proud state that has made many fine cultural contributions to our nation–chiefly amateur…

Illicit teacher-student relationships are all the rage these days, whether it’s creepy pedo guys hitting on helpless teenage girls or hot MILFs sleeping with football players. Yawn. So cliché. Love affairs are on their way out, anyway. Tormented master and protégé relationships, however, are so hot right now, like in…

If you can’t imagine going to the zoo without your camera, then you should probably enter the Dallas Zoo’s 6th annual photography contest. Open to amateurs and seasoned professional photographers of all ages, the deadline to enter the Feathers, Fur & Scales photo contest is September 30. There’s a $15…

I despise Ikea. The store’s furniture is rickety, particle-board crap that costs about twice what you’d pay at Wal-Mart and is distinguished only in its “modern” styling that apparently appeals to the store’s customer base, middle-aged divorcees and Wayne Coyne. Canadian comedian Jeremy Hotz is with me, judging by his…

For the longest time I never really understood the time-honored practice of rich people giving away their art collections to museums. But then I got older, moved a couple of times and helped clean out my grandparents’ house. Translation: Some people, like myself, tend to accumulate a lot of crap…

Who didn’t spend many a freshman-year Friday night passed out and still clutching an empty bottle of Boone’s Farm Strawberry Hill? Well, we didn’t, but that was just because we were too uncool to have a fake ID. Now that we’re old enough to buy wine legally, we still occasionally…

Designers gain inspiration from art, so this seems like a natural conclusion: In our fashion-obsessed society, why not send an artistic statement through fabric? Artist Sunny Sliger has done just that, creating soft sculptures by tearing fabric pieces and attaching them in ways that allow the “tendrils” to flow from…

There are very few bands that manage to come up with a name that really says something about the band’s sound, but The Slow Burners have done it perfectly. The electrified, countrified folk songs of George Neal’s post-Little Grizzly band smolder intensely but deliberately. Drummer Grady Don Sandlin and guitarist/keyboardist…

The small screen brings some very memorable characters into our homes, but relatively few of them make a lasting impression in our consciousness. Those that do tend to be larger-than-life figures such as James Gandolfini’s Tony Soprano. As a scholar of all things Homicide: Life on the Street, I would…

For better or worse, Peter Frampton is permanently ingrained in the fabric of rock and roll. It probably doesn’t hurt that he’s sold more than 16 million copies of Frampton Comes Alive! worldwide (though he’s since been eclipsed by Garth Brooks, Bruce Springsteen and The Eagles, whose live albums have…

I must admit, I’m having a hard time deciding how to spend the Labor Day weekend. (I totally won’t admit it’s the same weekend as my birthday because, um, that would just be tacky.) Right now, it’s a toss-up between the Michael Jackson cover band over at House of Blues…

If you can say you inspired F. Scott Fitzgerald, Pablo Picasso, Jean Cocteau and Coco Chanel (among others), simply because of the way you lived your life, then you deserve a touring museum exhibition dedicated to your legacy. If you can say, in even uncertain terms, that you are a…