Look at James and the Giant Peach through the eyes of a 5-year-old and you’ll see a cute play about a sad British orphan boy who grows a big piece of fruit, makes friends with giant bugs and lives happily ever after in New York City. A super-sized stage adaptation…
Children of Men (Universal) Set in a tomorrow that looks like yesterday, Alfonso Cuarón’s wrenching adaptation of P.D. James’ novel feels more like documentary than fiction. In the movie’s world, women have gone barren, and immigrants are tossed into prison camps; it’s the proverbial nightmare to which we might actually…
In the poem “In Just-,” e.e. cummings described the world as “mud-luscious” and “puddle-wonderful” — words so perfectly befitting MotorStorm’s gorgeously sloppy off-road hijinks, the game’s designers probably had them tacked up on a wall somewhere. And had Cummings paid $60 for MotorStorm, the verbally inventive (and upper-case averse) poet…
Bow (Tartan) Comeback Season (First Look) Curse of the Golden Flower (Sony) The Eden Formula (Westlake) The Addams Family: Volume 2 (MGM) Errol Flynn: The Signature Collection, Volume 2 (Warner Bros.) Fantastic Four: World’s Greatest Heroes, Volume 1 (Fox) Following Sean (New Video Group) Hacking Democracy (Docurama) Happy Feet (Warner…
At midnight Friday, the revolution begins. Well, at least the documentary of a revolution. Well, at least the documentary chronicling what could have been a revolution, had ego, drugs, booze and generally self-destructive behavior not brought the rebels down from the inside. The revolution in question is the British punk…
With all the controversy over Anna Nicole Smith and her will recently, it’s interesting that the Kimbell Art Museum would host a screening of The Will of the Shogun. I mean, an art museum is a pretty hoity-toity place to have your will read, shogun or not. How exactly would…
Dear sweet, sweet Bacon. I love you. Especially when you’re all peppery and yummified at the AllGood Café. I don’t know why it should come as such a shock to me that I would fall in love with a pork product, but you are the best. I love you in…
Herbs. It’s a word with a controversial “H” (just ask Eddie Izzard), but shockingly enough, herbs are also an intricate, necessary and dynamic element for mystery. No, not a mystery like “What’s in this? Tarragon?” but actual literary works of whodunit-ness. Native Texan mystery author Susan Wittig Albert will discuss…
Lord of the Fries! Tropic of Scalloped Corn! The Chicken on the Rye! Let’s face it—reading ain’t easy, and you can work up quite an appetite trying to get through the latest book Oprah told you to read. Wouldn’t it be nice if you could have your prose and eat…
You know you’re in for a cinematic tour de force when a film stars rapper, thespian and noted pimping enthusiast Ice-T, the mayor of Batshit Crazy Town Gary Busey, F. Murray Abraham and Rutger Hauer. Equally eclectic is the string of plot keywords listed on the movie’s IMDB profile, including…
Typecasting always works. Charlotte Rae didn’t just portray Mrs. Edna Ann Garrett, she was Mrs. Garrett. Jim J. Bullock was Monroe on Too Close for Comfort. Mr. T was Clubber Lang. Similarly, he was also B.A. Baracus. Kinda the same dude. What happens when you go against type? John Belushi…
Look at a Joachim Kersten painting once and you’ll enjoy it, sure, but look at it twice and it may take on an entirely new attitude, once you notice all the layers or shapes or whatever you missed the first time. (And you will. It’s sort of a rule.) Kersten…
So you haven’t seen Barbershop, Johnson Family Vacation, Big Momma’s House or Kingdom Come. Perhaps you’ve seen Ice Age, Madagascar, Serving Sara, Intolerable Cruelty, Be Cool or Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events. Stand-up comedian Cedric the Entertainer doesn’t subscribe to typecasting…or at least not all the time. No,…
If there’s a group of people you don’t want to piss off, it’s the Germans. No, not because they once tried to take over the world, but because they have given us a variety of important artifacts, and we don’t want to have to give them back. I’m talking beer—I’ll…
Despite being timelessly cool, Rube Goldberg machines can be a giant pain in the ass. Anyone who’s ever played Mouse Trap can attest to this, I’m sure—I never got all those damn pieces working together, and once you lost one or two of them the game was about as useless…
The University of North Texas’ celebrated One O’Clock Lab Band, the North Texas Jazz Singers and the Kenny Barron Trio will headline the Seventh Annual North Texas Jazz Festival Thursday through Sunday at the Hotel InterContinental, 15201 Dallas Parkway in Addison. But it’s not all big names on campus. Aspiring…
That buzzing sound you hear is not a giant swarm of meth-addict bees, nor is it the leftover ear-fuzz from that last Hogpig gig. Nope, that’s the sound of dozens of motorbikes grinding their way through the dirt field in Texas Stadium, home of the Dallas stop of the American…
Do you ever feel as though the rhythms of your daily life are inexplicably linked to the moon and the tides? Is there a dreamcatcher hanging from the rear-view mirror of your Volkswagen/Volvo/Prius? Have you ever bought a Putamayo world music sampler from the rack at Whole Foods? Are you…
I have DIFFA to thank for two things. Because of them, I learned the proper way of opening a champagne bottle and discovered the taste of a high quality chocolate truffle. See? Good things happen to people who volunteer. But I’m here to urge you to buy a ticket for…
Slappy’s Puppet Playhouse says its shows are “outstanding family entertainment.” Phew. I was wondering where I’d take the kiddies after their purity was spoiled at the “fun for the whole family” St. Patrick’s Day Parade, in which one float glided down Greenville Avenue bearing a troupe of thong-clad strippers gyrating…
I’ve seen street performers before. Some of them are pretty cool. Like, Really Old White Dude Who Does The Robot To No Music, and I Painted Myself Gold And I Will Not Do Even One Trick Guy, and Uncle No Pants. My favorite is Girl In A Short Skirt And…
It’s time for Revenge of the Classics. South by Southwest artists just stumbled back through town dropping a trail of rock-pop-latino-electronic-soul-indie-avant-punk riff crumbs and sound-bite wrapping paper left over from their latest Austin love fest. Time for a little classical clean-up, Southeastern style—and Southeastern Festival of Song is the Georgia…
