Witness for the Prosecution is the gripping tale of a Dallas crime victim, who with the aid of local cops, picks her alleged assailant out of a photo lineup in which the chief suspect was circled in red marker, with the words “Pick this guy, stupid!” printed in large, bold…
Used to be, when you wanted to hang with Mr. Cooper, aka comedian Mark Curry, you tuned into TGIF. In 2004, you’d hang by watching Celebrity Mole: Yucatan, somehow without injuring yourself or others. Today, you can see the comedian where he really shines: onstage. Curry’s at the Addison Improv,…
Though the title sounds more like it would be a Christopher Pike teen novel (don’t lie—you know what I’m talking about), Many Bloody Returns is actually a compilation of vampire-related birthday stories by authors who are notorious amongst the vamp-lit crowd. Yeah, that’s what I said. Like cakes and candles…
I’m a huge fan of picnics, but since my friends aren’t too keen on them, a picnic for one is probably on the top-10 list of most depressing things to do. So I refrain. All that just might change, however, with the addition of lots of pretty flowers, relaxing crisp…
Red dirt has never been much of a draw for me. When man-made waterfalls were turned on in my hometown, they bubbled over with red dirt, and I summarily avoided the site for years. I avoided hitting the ball for my fifth-grade softball team out of fear that I would…
It began as just an event newsletter from writer Amy “the Moonlady” Martin. Now, the Moonlady Community has now grown into a Listserv/online community with seasonal events celebrating the mystical, spiritual, holistic and more. This Saturday finds Martin and company presenting Moonlady Night at the Bath House Cultural Center, 521…
There’s a sour grapes saying that those who can’t “do,” teach. It’s usually said by a hoity-toity “artiste” who fancies himself above those who choose to spend time educating the next generation of hoity-toity “artistes.” The faculty at the University of North Texas debunks that with a showcase of recent…
The city of West has the most confusing name ever. Tell someone you’re going to West, Texas, and they’ll assume you mean West Texas. Tell them you’re going to West, and they’ll think you’re going westward. Actually, those situations are pretty unlikely, because when does anyone travel to West? Gorging…
The Lives of Others(Sony) Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck’s film, easily the best of last year, exists on many levels: as tragedy, dark comedy and love story—not between a man and a woman, but between two seemingly opposite men bound by the same damnation. On the one hand is Georg Dreyman…
Back in 1995, Richard Linklater’s Before Sunrise gave flesh to a Yank’s fantasy of worldly European womanhood: Julie Delpy’s Celine, a sprite who materialized on a passenger train for one sweet Viennese night of courtship and flirtation, as if willed from the fevered dreams above a thousand hostel beds. As…
Resurrecting the Champ is a great movie about journalism—maybe the best there ever was—because Resurrecting the Champ is mind-erasingly boring. It’s a solid story about the newspaper business—specifically, about how a well-intentioned writer occasionally makes a mistake totally by accident, a mistake that is pretty much victimless and easily fixable…
You’ve got to climb to the top of Mount Everest to reach the Valley of the Dolls. That’s the opener of Jacqueline Susann’s crapgasmic 1966 novel, and the first words spoken in a new Valley of the Dolls theatrical adaptation now running at Uptown Players. Transporting this immortal phrase from page…
Shortly after graduating from film school, I took a part-time job as the assistant to a successful movie and television director who told me I’d be handling a mix of personal and professional responsibilities. Not long after, I was put to work maintaining the good humor of the tenants at…
Leonardo DiCaprio wants you to know that we are in serious trouble. No amount of artful chin stubble, it seems, will reverse the depletion of fossil fuels or help to slow population growth. Not even three Oscar nominations will save you—without an actual statuette, there’s nothing to wedge under the…
“Listen to your imagination,” says the Web page for the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, which features a photo of a face-lifted Kenny “The Gambler” Rogers, who will perform with the orchestra 7:30 p.m. Wednesday at the Meyerson Symphony Center, 2301 Flora St. Okey-dokey then, let’s tune in and listen…Hmm. How odd,…
There’s more to Asian cinema than Jackie Chan and creepy Japanese horror. Sure, the shoot ’em up action of Triad movies is always entertaining, and there’s a cult following for Jidaigeki (samurai period pieces), but what about everything else that slips through the cracks? The 6th Annual Asian Film Festival…
Once upon a time, in a town not far enough away, a college freshman (that would be me) pushed open the door to a CD store and saw a salesman and three of his friends jumping up and down in rhythm to Green Day’s recently released Dookie. The guys knew…
Oy vey! It’s like Purim in August! The Jewish Community Center of Dallas hosts their 11th Annual Jewish Arts Fest Sunday at the Meyerson Symphony Center, 2301 Flora St. Themed “It’s no secret how Jewish life is built!” the 12-ring party (with kosher nosh and enough simultaneous glitter to captivate…
Recent studies suggest so-called educational videos for toddlers and babies (like Baby Einstein) don’t do your kids any good; in fact they may do them harm, possibly even causing autism. I welcome this news cheerily, because those sorts of videos have always seemed sort of pretentious, to say nothing of…
Supposedly everything’s bigger in Texas; I haven’t seen a lot of evidence to support that claim, especially since my bank account does nothing but shrink and the miniskirts and tank tops on the smaller-than-life Texas girls at NorthPark Center get tinier all time. But one reliable constant remains: monster trucks…
Six months after Hurricane Katrina nearly destroyed New Orleans, photographer Elliot Snedden headed to the tortured city during its world-famous Mardi Gras celebration, intent on capturing the celebration amid the gloom and sorrow. This week he’ll be presenting photos from his visit, which also include shots of the surrounding cities…
Life in Texas is never bland, foodwise, but we still don’t really understand super-hot habanero shooters (followed by a glass of milk). Hatch chiles, which are in season now, aren’t high on the Scoville scale, though, so we may expand our chile palate at Blue Mesa Grill’s Hatch Dinner Party…
