Cedric Delsaux’s Star Wars on Earth photo series shows characters from the Star Wars movies (Episodes IV through VI, the ones that didn’t suck) in modern Paris. The backdrops generally seem gritty and moody, like a parking garage, and strangely, the characters look right at home. There’ll be a junked…
There are few more controversial political figures than former Ugandan dictator Idi Amin. At once beloved and despised by his people, Amin was paranoid, bloodthirsty and a laugh riot. Wild rumors swarmed around him that only increased his appeal. Who wouldn’t love a ruler who ate the heart of a…
Twenty years ago in Hawaii, chef (and James Beard Award winner) Roy Yamaguchi founded the first Roy’s. Now, “Hawaiian Fusion” is still going strong with more than 34 locations—including one in Japan and, surprisingly, Guam. Through Saturday, Roy’s Plano, 2840 Dallas Parkway, celebrates the big 2-0 with a special birthday…
Just when you thought Nancy Drew was forever besmirched by last year’s syrupy tween movie, two Dallas artists are bringing the true girl sleuth back. Sarah Jane Semrad and Erica Felicella channeled the protofeminist and her two BFFs for their latest curated show: Nancy, George and Bess. The all-female exhibit…
Minis, Maxis and Mods sounds less like a fashion exhibit and more like a group of products I was terrified to buy at the drugstore in the 6th grade. This collection of designer clothing from 1965-1975 doesn’t have wings or come in extra-long/overnight, but it does feature brightly colored caftans,…
Please imagine me eating a raw steak and drinking dark beer as I tell you about the 20th Annual Mad Hatter’s Garden Party. It takes place during Dallas Blooms and is hosted by the Women’s Council of The Dallas Arboretum and Botanical Garden. It features a luncheon, a mystery hatbox…
Sampling a vineyard’s varied wines is one of the great pleasures of visiting Napa Valley. If you can’t make it to the Stags Leap District, try the Pine Ridge Winery’s appellations paired with a three-course dinner prepared by Abel Castillo, executive chef at Cru. Winemaker Stacy Clark will greet guests…
Everybody Loves Raymond is one of those shows I didn’t want to like. When it first came on the air it seemed to be about things that I couldn’t possibly relate to: parenthood, sports, suburbia and having an overbearing mother. Then I started to hear rumblings here and there—my smart,…
You’re Texan from the top of your hat to the tip of your boots. Why should your garden blooms be less than Lone Star? There’s more to Texas plants than the bluebonnet, and the Heard Spring Plant Sale proves it, with offerings that include native grasses, perennial vines, roses, herbs…
There’s a scene in The Magnificent Seven that sticks with you. It’s an ambush scene, where the heroes of the movie fall into a trap that nobody sees coming, and it’s so flawlessly executed on film that you feel every bit as surprised and taken off guard as the characters…
Oral historian Studs Terkel published the bestseller Working in 1974. Subtitled People Talk About What They Do All Day and How They Feel About What They Do, the book features interviews with people from all walks of life: farmers, miners, phone operators, hookers, truck drivers, actors, janitors, garbage men, cops,…
I hate to say it, but I don’t really do much “for the kids.” I’ve never volunteered at a children’s hospital or even knowingly contributed to a children’s charity. It’s not that I don’t care, really. I might even hit up Friday’s 2008 Race for the Kids Gala at Lone…
What is it about Hollywood gossip shows that keep us watching? They’re like eating whipped cream straight out of the container—tasty but not much substance. Periodically, though, these shows serve up some less savory fare. Disturbing images of Holocaust-thin actresses and models in the last stages of anorexia flash across…
Wikipedia is my source of all sources, so when the idea of covering the Frisco RoughRiders came up, I went the wiki way. Sadly, there wasn’t too much info, but then I realized that this may be a good thing. See, we have an excellent opportunity to get in on…
Javier Bardem’s Oscar-winning portrayal of Anton Chigurh, No Country for Old Men’s unstoppable killer, was one of the most chilling and memorable villains ever portrayed on film. Cunning, heartless and yet possessing an unwavering but twisted sense of morality, he is at once a forceful personality and an archetype of…
As a child named Peter, I was often accused of being a “pumpkin eater” and having a wife I couldn’t keep. Both are completely false, I’ll have you know. So I felt no remorse in claiming to be Peter Pan in my defense. As a 6-year-old, that’s what life was…
I’m a total wuss when it comes to camping. I get freaked out by bugs, and I sure as hell have never mastered the mid-forest squat ‘n’ piss (I don’t care what you tell me, either, just bending over doesn’t work). I blame it on the fact that I never…
Save for Friday Night Lights and We Are Marshall, there are just a few options left for good high school football drama. Well, that should read “cheesy, feel-good flick where rag-tag underdogs pull it together, the black and white guys resolve racial tensions, the cheerleader and the quarterback really do…
The plot summary for The Foreigner, a comic farce by the late playwright Larry Shue, has completely changed how I’m going to approach my next vacation. In the play, Charlie Baker is a shy man who travels with a friend to rural Georgia and pretends to be a foreigner who…
I’ve always wanted to travel in Africa, but so far the closest I’ve come was last weekend, when I viewed friends’ slides from South Africa, Zambia and Tanzania. There were photos of elephants, giraffes and impalas, even a close-up of a leopard in mid-stride. The tensest moment of the trip…
Hell, we’ve all had occasion to desire a place where assholes got their just rewards—mired in helplessness, screaming with pain, heads being bitten off. In 1319 Dante Alighieri unveiled a most exquisitely wicked 7-layer, sin-roasting pit in his famous Inferno epic poem. Beginning “Abandon all hope, ye who enter here!”…
Stefan Merrill Block’s debut novel, The Story of Forgetting/i>, despite receiving a rave review from Publishers Weekly, makes me nervous. First, there’s the separate but slightly parallel stories of Texans Abel and Seth (old and young, respectively). Then there’s a sort of fantasyland-daydream escapism. And lastly, there’s Alzheimer’s. To be…
