Totally Cute

Rarely does one hear art revered for being “cute.” It’s refreshing in a sense. Think about it. How many times do you read a review of an art exhibition and find words such as “intense,” “introspective,” “profound” or “sensual”? Too damn many. So let’s regard The Modern Art Museum of…

Rent By the Hour

Since publishing photographs in D magazine documenting the heroin epidemic among Plano teens in the late ’90s, Misty Keasler has developed a reputation as a photographer with a singular eye for the strange places people live. Her pictures of the people who live in cardboard huts on the fringes of…

Light It Up

Don’t let the name fool you—while it may sound like an apocalyptic Bruce Willis movie with lots of bombs, Light Up the Sky is actually a classic Broadway comedy by Moss Hart. Catch it now in the Black Box Theatre at Collin County Community College, 2800 E. Spring Creek Parkway…

Swish, Swish, Swish

The Museum of Nature and Science, formerly known as the Dallas Museum of Natural History and the Science Place, follows its education objectives (focusing on the nature of science, life science and earth science) by presenting Scholastic’s The Magic School Bus Kicks Up a Storm. A magical school bus, hmmm?…

Get in Line

For me, parades are a perfect storm: They draw huge crowds of people (which scare me), and they include giant inflatable Santas (which scare me almost as much as Fall Out Boy and JoJo being at the same concert venue at the same time. What if they do a duet?…

Country Christmas

Bruce Robison and Kelly Willis are Texas country’s favorite couple, our very own modern George and Tammy minus most of the drama and substance abuse (save a very public addiction to the allergy drug Claritin). After taking a break from recording to make babies, both songwriters are back this year,…

Country Christmas

Bruce Robison and Kelly Willis are Texas country’s favorite couple, our very own modern George and Tammy minus most of the drama and substance abuse (save a very public addiction to the allergy drug Claritin). After taking a break from recording to make babies, both songwriters are back this year,…

Last Chance

It’s a fact that appearances can be deceiving. It’s also a cliché, sure, but forgive that irritation for a moment and understand there’s a reason for it. In fact, let’s look at some evidence. Take a hoppin’ Dallas nightclub and that hot blonde at the bar you assume is plastic…

The Bones Collector

Critical and necessary art movement, or just the blatant defacing of property? The graffiti debate rages on. One thing not up for debate is the fact that the Dallas Police Department has been cracking down on graffiti in the downtown area. Last December, six graffiti artists were arrested and accused…

Hobo Children

There are certain holiday staples in everyone’s life, many of which are developed in childhood. Whether it’s sitting on Santa’s lap for a photo op, viewing The Nutcracker for the millionth time or dreaming of a white Christmas (and usually being disappointed by brown grass instead), every December brings the…

It Was the Art!

While the bands (The Theater Fire, Pleasant Grove, I Love Math), the art up for auction (created by 150 local artists during a 24-hour period) and the charitable cause (Children’s Health Fund) were mighty impressive, what made last year’s inaugural Art Conspiracy event exponentially interesting was its historic choice of…

Training Day

We understand there are many reasons why people think that Fort Worth is a better city than Dallas. A much cooler downtown, more affordable homes, better steak houses and, of course, the Trinity actually resembling a river as it winds through Cowtown. But then again, Dallas has the Mavericks, who…

No Humbugs Allowed

Christmas doesn’t come in a box; it doesn’t come from a store. Christmas isn’t about dressing up your doghouse with lights. Or maybe Yuletide is about getting that Red Ryder BB gun. Whatever. From Thanksgiving to December 25 we’ll be fed several stockings full of “the true meaning of Christmas,”…

Cuttin’ Up

Since I lived a big chunk of my life in Mesquite, home of the rodeo, imagine my embarrassment when I thought a Celebrity Cutting Event had something to do with ribbons. Kanye was going to wrap my Christmas presents? Hardly. Turns out cutting is where a rider selects a calf…

Paper Or Plastic?

Damn you people. You know that you have more than 10 items in your basket, but you pull into the express lane anyway. When everyone else in line is holding their little basket in the crook of their arm, you roll up with your entire cart full of groceries and…

Fountain of Shame

Solemn, flashy and flabbergasting, The Fountain—adapted by Darren Aronofsky from his own graphic novel—should really be called “The Shpritz.” The premise is lachrymose, the sets are clammy and the metaphysics all wet. The screen is awash in spiraling nebulae and misty points of light, with the soundtrack supplying appropriately moist…

One-Toke Wonder

The first few minutes of Tenacious D in ¨The Pick of Destiny¨ are something to behold: a four-minute rock opera cranked to 11. A doughy young boy with dirty-mop locks (Nacho Libre’s Troy Gentile, once more playing li’l Jack Black) laments his tragic plight: He’s stuck in Kickapoo with “a…

Maim That Tune

Ear-bruising vocals and eye-stinging costumes are no strangers to Theatre Three. But with Glorious! this impecunious 45-year-old theater in the Quadrangle near downtown finally grabs hold of a show that demands those things. Talk about a perfect fit. In song and story, Glorious! tells of the silly, sad and very…

Bad News With Al

An Inconvenient Truth (Paramount) This isn’t exactly the kind of DVD you buy to watch again and again; the ending doesn’t get happier, and there are no twists to decipher with repeated viewings. The producers hope instead that you buy it and share it; it’s less movie, after all, than…

Encore Performance

Guitar Hero gave party games a much-needed kick in the ass. No one expected this rhythm game — sold with a miniature plastic guitar — to play to sellout crowds. But it became the most addictive game of the year and one of the most attractive to nongamers. The reason…

Our top DVD picks for the week of November 21:

American Slapstick (Image) Alias: The Complete Fifth Season (Buena Vista) Boston Legal: Season Two (Fox) The Cry Baby Killer (Buena Vista) Devil Times Five (Code Red) Dr. Katz, Professional Therapist: Season Two (Paramount) Fall Out Boy: Solid Gold Uncertainty (Music Video Dist.) A Fish Called Wanda: Collector’s Edition (MGM) Freedom…

Sweet, Sweet Fantasy

This year I am participating in not one, not two, but three fantasy basketball leagues. It’s been a rocky road thus far—damn you, Boris Diaw—but with Dirk Nowitzki to see me through, I know I’m up for the challenge. Wednesday night presents a game filled with fantasy implications for my…