How Barnum and Bailey’s circus is still in business I’ll never know because these modern cirques blow that stuff out of the cannon. I never quite understood applauding when elephants prop up on each other’s back with their front legs or the mundane acrobatics of kids swinging bar to bar…
Doubtless, with the Christmas holidays coming up, you are scrambling to find activities to keep your kiddos busy while they’re out of school. You’ll want to find the right balance of arts and crafts activities, cultural outings and Guitar Hero II, I’m sure, so let me make a suggestion: glassblowing…
This Christmas Scrooge’s Puppet Theater celebrates its 31st year at NorthPark Center. Ah, it seems like yesterday that Scrooge was only a twinkle in his puppet-maker’s eye. Scrooge is known for his “acerbic wit” during these interactive puppet shows. Personally, when it comes to puppets with acerbic wit I prefer…
Charles Schulz’s Peanuts characters were lovably innocent with a relatable streak of melancholy. Fast-forward to their high school years as the melancholy consumes them, Charlie Brown loses his beloved beagle to rabies and existential calamity ensues. Thus begins the darkly satirical Peanuts stage parody Dog Sees God: Confessions of a…
My heart and liver both go out to Milly designer Michelle Smith and Neiman Marcus for their upcoming champagne reception. A new 2007 resort collection inspired by the lush blues and greens of Punta Mita, Mexico? Fabulous! A new ready-to-wear line of dresses, sportswear and more in bold prints and…
Where would we as a society be without pop culture hybrids? In some ways the proverbial chocolate getting all up in the quintessential peanut butter has become the new American ingenuity—a calculated collision where commerce and creativity conjoin. Breakfast plus burrito equals breakfast burrito. iPod plus cell phone equals iPhone…
It takes my brave and handsome 18-pound tabby less than two miles before he pisses himself in a moving vehicle. The other cat isn’t too interested in leaving a crate once he’s in it, so using my skills in logic, I have determined that it’s the pug who will have…
Seattle artist J. Gordon was definitely on the right track when he agreed to exhibit his latest collection, Old Crow, in a bar. With a name like that, where else would you have it? Unfortunately the bar/gallery at the Magnolia Theatre in the West Village, 3699 McKinney Ave., is more…
Hell yes, 26.2 miles is a long distance, even more so when the only thing between the asphalt and your asinine idea to run for hours is a pair of Nikes, thigh glide and a tube of energy goo. A marathon definitely sounded easier in Runner’s World.On Sunday, thousands of…
Performances by Red Monroe, Kristy Kruger, Sarah Jaffe, and The St. Anthony Gospel Choir, and DJ sets by Sober and Eddie Ruiz are reason enough to attend Art Conspiracy III. The chance to practically steal original works by some of the area’s best artists makes it an annual can’t-miss. More…
Dallas’ very own school of rock, Zounds Sounds, will once again show off their rock band students this Friday. The music school, which has some of the city’s best performers employed as instructors, imparts its wisdom to a new generation of musicians and puts on a rock show twice a…
It’s hard to tell from the television commercials, but beyond the yard ornaments and blinking lights, the crux of the Christmas holiday hasn’t changed since, well, pioneer days. Although we’re dwellers in an urban landscape rather than home on the range, Laura Ingalls Wilder’s Little House series has long enchanted…
Remember the days when you would shuffle into a school cafeteria, arrange yourself on those weird carpeted rafter things and sing your little off-key heart out to “Jingle Bell Rock” for the benefit of the PTA? Those were the good old days, when the Jewish kids had to sing “Silent…
Remember Aladdin, the 1992 Disney animated film about a street urchin who finds love with a princess? That was a pretty good movie. But it needed more of something. No, not more shots of Jasmine’s boobs, perv. It needed more ridiculousness. Sure, a big blue genie, cunning monkey and talking…
I have great taste in music. It’s probably because of my rating scale, which is a thumbs up or a thumbs down based on one question: Has your band covered “Santa Claus Is Coming to Town”? The correct answer, of course, being “Yes, I have covered ‘Santa Claus Is Coming…
I’m a little bit out of the Hanukkah/Chanukah loop. The Holiday Armadillo taught me a little, as did Seth Cohen, but I blame my lack of Jewish knowledge on my parents—Buddhist, Catholic and Lutheran parents tend to leave a person accepting of all but relating to few. Regardless, I have…
Sporting a cool eye patch and an Afro, Dale Chihuly is synonymous with artistic glass pieces. His creations infest galleries around the world like a multicolored bubonic plague. He’s a major figure in the “fine art vs. crafts” debate that rages amongst art critics with nothing better to do than…
Who says that fairy tales are only for kids? Just because there aren’t talking mirrors, poisoned apples or pumpkin carriages steered by horse-mice, it doesn’t mean that all magical love stories should be relegated to the nursery. In a story commissioned by the Undermain Theatre (3200 Main St.), poet and…
You should have heard the cheer when we were told that Hunter S. Thompson’s cremains had just been blasted into the sky above his Colorado compound. It was a cathartic collective whooping, many of us shaky-voiced on the verge of laughter or tears or both. It was at the Inwood…
I Want Someone to Eat Cheese With, a film by Curb Your Enthusiasm’s Jeff Garlin, has something for everyone. For the lovers, it’s a romantic story about a down-on-his-luck actor searching for a soul mate. Dark comedy fans will enjoy embarrassing scenes about just how low the main character will…
Three times this year it has happened to me. I have thoughtfully picked out the perfect gift for someone. It matches their character, their interests and, on occasion, what they’ve actually listed as something they want. Then, before I ever had a chance to gift these ideal items, the recipients…
TBAAL’s (Texas Black Academy of Arts and Letters) 15th Annual Christmas/Kwanzaa Concert features the choirs of just about every high school in South Dallas and Oak Cliff. Singing teens from Roosevelt, A. Maceo Smith, Madison, South Oak Cliff, Carter and Lincoln will take the stage along with the kids of…
