Arts & Culture

Addison is so cute and innocent, with its Flight Museum and its piano bar and its street signs that exclaim, “Addison!” So, of course, they’re inviting sweet Jim Norton (of Lucky Louie awesomeness—Is HBO seriously dropping that? Stupid, HBO.) to perform at the Improv Comedy Club in Addison this week…

Well, it wouldn’t be the Oscars without a nomination for Judi Dench, but really, all I have to say is Alan Arkin. C’mon, people. Have you seen Little Miss Sunshine? ‘Cause you’re gonna need to. STAT. Don’t give me your Dreamgirls shtick, because frankly, the whole musician biopic thing is…

The famous Pulitzer Prize-winning photo of Ruby shooting Oswald has always fascinated me, being a fan of true crime photography. I always thought it should be more gruesome than it was. I mean, this guy is getting shot at close range. Then I read what photographer Bob Jackson told The…

Even if Eric Clapton’s post-1989 offerings include such lowlights as “My Father’s Eyes” and “Tears in Heaven,” the guitar legend has earned the right to sing all the adult contemporary fare he wants. He could cover Toby Keith’s “Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue,” fuse it into John Lennon’s…

After hearing the tale of Gram Parsons being “laid to rest” in Joshua Tree National Monument (it’s one of the best rock ‘n’ roll stories ever), I had to wonder if I had any friends loyal enough to steal my corpse. It also made me think of how people recuperating…

When I took singing lessons, I could have sworn I saw my teacher wince as I hit my first notes. I knew then my singing career would be limited to the car—where every time I’d be a star. Thus I won’t be at Lone Star Park’s 11th Annual National Anthem…

Twelve Angry Men was originally produced for television, using a single set and good acting to tell a story of race, justice and reasonable doubt. This week the Roundabout Theatre Company brings the courtroom drama to Dallas’ Majestic Theatre. This production boasts a great cast, with George Wendt as the…

As you probably know by now, John Amaechi is the first NBA player to ever divulge his gayness (I think the word “homosexuality” sounds so…Falwell) and Man in the Middle, his new book, is the story of his life in the closet of an NBA locker room. Reading it you…

Just about anywhere else in the country, aside from maybe Manhattan or Los Angeles, a few days’ worth of breathing and meditation classes for $375 might seem a bit expensive. Not around these parts. Whether it’s extreme, experimental plastic surgery or dippy, hippie, New Age yoga, we don’t mind paying…

Whether the phrase makes you think of the 1978 film with Brooke Shields as a child prostitute or a brilliant but creepy Cursive song, “pretty baby” always seems to refer to a loss of innocence in childhood. However, the works in the new Pretty Baby exhibit at the Modern Art…

As a kid, when I first heard of The Vagina Monologues, I assumed what any reasonable person would: that the show features people dancing around in costumes that resemble female sex organs. Perhaps, I thought, the performance has a kick-line or two, with big musical numbers and fireworks during the…

More and more, I’m finding it hard to appreciate art shows. With so many galleries and local artists popping up everywhere, not to mention exhibitions passing through town, we’ve finally been given the opportunity to be picky about what we accept from the art world. Take, for example, Adam Ball’s…

Where there’s a great story, there’s a journalist close by. And, sometimes, the journalist is the great story. The Black Academy of Arts and Letters (TBAAL) presents a double bill with two great stories when it brings to life journalist and publisher Marcus Garvey and civil rights activist Rosa Parks…

War is bad. We get it, Bono. Now go redeem your Messiah Points before they expire. But some artists–real ones–join the battle, literally, and return to tell the world. Like English singer-songwriter James Blunt, who dropped panties the world over with “You’re Beautiful.” Blunt was a captain in the British…

The first time I watched Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, starring Johnny Depp as Hunter S. Thompson, I had no idea what was going on. I was 14 years old, and I didn’t get a single minute of the drug-addled dialogue. So maybe I should give Puerto Rican artist…

In the summer of 2004, it seemed impossible to escape the song “Culo”—ass—by Miami rapper Pitbull: “Mami, feel me, let me see you touch your toes…tiene tremendo CULO!” Using the term in a more symbolic way is a trio of Latina artists with an exhibition called Bésame mucho. Besa mi…

Members of the Fantastic Four have special powers, like the ability to turn invisible. My special power involves an uncanny ability to drunkenly slip and fall as I’m trying to hit on hot girls. Thursday’s Vogue and Cointreau party at Ghostbar, 2440 Victory Park Lane, Suite 3300—hosted by Chris Evens,…

It’s odd that a cultural touchstone like Hair is now just a novelty, a throwback that almost belongs in a museum (or worse yet, a zoo). For the 40th anniversary of the American tribal love/rock musical, the Uptown Players will present the play, which made its off-Broadway debut in 1967…

As much nostalgia as Sesame Street personally evokes, I also have a well-founded suspicion that it’s simply one of the earliest electronic baby-sitters. I loved Snuffleupagus, the Count and Oscar the Grouch as much as the next bed-wetter, but I sure don’t remember my parents watching with me. And as…

We’re working on a screenplay about two opposing college dance squads (a square-dance team and a step team) who face off in nationwide competition to defend the honor of their fraternities and the wizened coaches who taught them the tradition and techniques of their respective dances. For some reason, both…

When was the last time you saw an Asian fella banging the skins in a rock band? Unless you’re a fan of popular Japanese rock bands such as Acid Mothers Temple, Boris or Electric Eel Shock, it has probably been way too long—and that’s a damn shame. Perhaps we just…