Jason Segel is responsible for two of the most cringe-inducing, hands-in-front-of-your-face moments in the recent history of television, both of which occurred during the sole season of NBC’s Freaks and Geeks, on which Segel played bright-eyed burnout Nick Andopolis. On the episode “I’m With the Band,” Nick imagined himself an…
Morgan Spurlock, the daredevil documentarian who lived on Big Macs for a month and turned this exercise in “body art” into the 2004 hit Super Size Me, returns—this time expanding his horizons rather than his girth. Paraphrasing the title of a venerable computer game, Where in the World Is Osama…
A comedy about terminal illness? That’s the ticket at Contemporary Theatre of Dallas’ production of the late Scott McPherson’s 1991 play Marvin’s Room. An absurd, off-kilter tone is established in the opening scene. Middle-aged Bessie (Cindee Mayfield) sits in her doctor’s office, patiently watching her inept physician (Nye Cooper) chase…
It’s always painful when we want most what we can’t have, particularly when it comes to love. How often we pine for someone who has no interest in us, only to realize that the answer to our problems is to dress up in sequined 19th-century clothing, sing show tunes and…
You say you want to experience the Renaissance? Fine, try this: Stop bathing for a few months, get yourself some body lice, cut off your nose to simulate syphilis, kill off a couple of your kids with the plague, burn your sister as a witch and dig a ditch in…
I have to admit, what I know about Antwone Fisher doesn’t surpass the 120 minutes from the film of the same name. He was born in a jail, went into the Navy, confronted childhood horrors and ended up turning a bleak life into something prominent and heroic. It’s not fair…
If you wave your Texas flag with pride, then this weekend you should go east of Big D and check out Mesquite’s Real. Texas. Festival. The Real Texans will come out and enjoy events like the Taste of Mesquite Barbecue Competition (a stepping stone to the National Barbecue Championship), Old…
On a recent episode of Top Chef, the elimination challenge was to create a dish based on the chef’s favorite film. Somebody picked Good Morning, Vietnam and made a Vietnamese spring roll (lame), and the winning team did Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (with a fizzy lifting drink and all!)…
My typical Friday night is dinner and a DVD. But sometimes my obsessive-compulsive nature kicks in, and I have to dine appropriately for whatever I’m watching. For instance, there’s just no way I could eat pizza while watching Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, and a nice cold beer is the best…
I often find myself longing for the days of good old-fashioned freak shows since I never really got to see one myself. I’ve seen some two-headed snakes and tiny horses and such, but no two-headed boys or dog-faced ladies, if you catch my drift. (Sure, the crowds at the State…
I’ve never called myself a “Beatles fan” (though I have favorite songs and have the utmost respect for the group’s influence on pop music). I just didn’t feel that I was educated enough in all the minutiae to have earned that title. I was, however, horror-struck at the butchered version…
[The scene opens on a post-collegiate girls’ slumber party. The ladies are painting their nails and joking about the most embarrassing things their fathers ever did.] “One time my high school girlfriends were over and my dad walked out to the kitchen in his underwear!” “Oh my goodness! Hee hee…
Fifty-something years is a long time to stay relevant in the music business, but that’s what Clinton has done. Part musical genius, part social commentator and several parts showman, Clinton is still very much in the game. Clinton, known for his outlandish costumes and multicolored dreadlocks, says it was crooner…
UFO was the band that your cool older brother would blast in his van while smoking weed and drinking Coors. While not a household name like your Sabbaths or Zepplins, they were still one of the most influential hard rock bands of the 1970s. Their 1974 album, Phenomenon, helped build…
Artist Kehinde Wiley’s paintings mix the vastly different aesthetics of formal European portraiture and urban hip-hop, resulting in the type of colorful mash-up images you might see on the cover of say, an Outkast record. Spoofing such classic images as David’s “Napoleon Leading the Army over the Alps” and Géricault’s…
Canadians—our mild-mannered neighbors to the north—are so irreverent. I did a Google search on Canadian comedians and the words “groundbreaking” and “irreverent” popped up on nearly every result. British comedy is bawdy and dry, American comedy has its moments (Dane Cook excepted), but the Canucks have the market on irreverent…
The last time you saw something Belgian, it was probably a crisp, golden bier—or it was, until your unrefined tastes caused you to chug it down. Show Belgium some respect, will you? Throw on your finest lace doily, load up on chocolat and head over to the Light & Sie…
One of the beautiful things about nature is that it’s free—minus the cost of mosquito bites, sun burns, poison ivy and other sweet treats provided by the outdoors. But for some, avoiding bites and burns is priceless. Or, if not exactly priceless, worth forking over $15,000 if that means they…
We don’t have to go out of our way to spice up breast cancer; it already has two attention-grabbing words. Though, in truth, we’d much rather see the word “breasts” coupled with “firm” or “luscious” or “ginormous.” But thanks to 25 years of work on the part of Susan G…
Ralph Stanley transcends genre, era, place and taste. His unique tenor voice has graced the world of bluegrass for 55 years, with his late brother Carter as the Stanley Brothers and with The Clinch Mountain Boys. He hypnotized old fans and the uninitiated alike with his heart-stopping performance of “O…
In some ways, ladies these days have become expert worriers. We’re awesome at worrying about horizontal stripes and our skin and dark parking garages. But for some reason, we often forget to worry about the most worrisome thing of all: heart disease, which is the number one killer of American…
One of the better moments of this year’s Oscars was Marion Cotillard’s win for Best Actress. Her portrayal of chanteuse Edith Piaf in La Vie en Rose was flat out first-class and much more deserving than that of favorite Julie Christie. Cotillard’s little girl excitement, somewhat broken English and hug…
