“With or Without You,” “Where the Streets Have No Name,” “One,” “Beautiful Day”—Do you know all of the words to these songs? Do you have an extra 20 bucks? Well then, I’ve got just the event for you. Chicago’s Vertigo USA, a U2 tribute band, will bring the best of…
More than 25 attorneys, playing in seven different rock bands back-to-back, in the “ultimate battle of the lawyer bands.” It’s called Law Jam, and it benefits the Dallas Volunteer Attorney Program, which annually helps about 3,300 families too poor to hire a lawyer. So, OK, we’ll go along with the…
There’s just nothing as satisfying as making others feel really bad about themselves. Take it from the Observer. We’ve made an entire publishing career out of it. Most times, people deserve it. But we stand up for the little guy, and that means rooting for the underdog in The Nerd,…
In the world of art, the term DADA usually conjures up the 1920s anti-art images of Man Ray, Ernst and Duchamp. In Big D, however, it’s the world of art history and media all flourishing under the umbrella of the Dallas Art Dealers Association. Every year DADA offers a feast…
Cabela’s is hosting a YES event. That’s a Youth Education Seminar to you and me, and it’s the type of event one would expect from an outdoor outfitter. So, it will not feature riding in a pickup truck, hitting a bottle of whiskey and spotlighting deer, but it will “provide…
America has always been fascinated by the rebels that permeate our pop landscape. James Dean, Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Tom Waits, Bruce Springsteen, Neil Young, the Bandit, the Fonz, Dylan McKay—we love ’em all, and those are just the ones with sideburns. Local artist Mary Ann Turner shares this fascination;…
When you’re young, there are so many things that you take for granted. Cellulite-free legs, for one. The ability to wear sleeveless clothing without drawing stares. Total lack of responsibility. Those winding-wire toys you push the beads around on at the doctor’s office. But the most shameful of all? Kids…
If you’ve had an unexplainable urge for gazpacho lately, it’s because Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown was playing at the Angelika earlier this week, where it was the first installment of Viva Pedro, a Pedro Almodóvar film festival. If you hurry you can still catch the Oscar-winning…
On her first North American tour in more than three years, Mariah Carey promises a surprise-filled show that will “take fans on a summertime ride” and “be the must-see tour event of the year.” One of the surprises is that the 90-minute concert is about half Mariah and half filler—costume…
You: a gumshoe hunting a robber chick in a yellow coat. Them: Rockapella, the a cappella group that made the intro music so good. You remember them from Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego? (Who, by the way, was the O.G. of putting the Miss in misdemeanor.) But where…
In the same way that Willie Nelson is able to appeal to both rednecks and hippies, prog metal wizards Tool find faithful fans in everyone from Cro-Magnon WWE Smackdown attendees to jazz nerds who read nothing but music theory textbooks and Dungeon Master’s Guides. There’s just something about front man…
A physicist, a neurosurgeon, a martial artist, a rock musician and a comic book hero walk into a bar. His name is Buckaroo Banzai. The savior of the eighth dimension is multitalented and never boring. His team of assistants/rock and roll band, the Hong Kong Cavaliers, lives together in a…
If Superman Returns attempted to resurrect the Man of Steel as mythic hero, the season’s other Superman movie wants to disabuse us of any such childish illusions. Glamorously adult, Hollywoodland purports to part the veil on the circumstances by which George Reeves, the actor who embodied the superhero on ’50s…
A number of pregnant mysteries arise with the new remake of Robin Hardy’s 1973 cult-remembered genre work–namely, what’s in this kind of malarkey for gender combat provocateur Neil LaBute, and why was such a high-profile film tossed into theaters last Friday without letting critics see it first? The two simple…
Like Willy Loman, Classical Acting Company’s Death of a Salesman aspires to greatness and comes up well short of expectations. Arthur Miller’s 1949 drama is the heaving granddaddy of American tragedies. The play demands so much from its actors, designers and director that if anyone isn’t up to the task,…
United 93 (Universal) A suggestion to those who’ve put off watching the year’s most wrenching and essential film: Before rolling the feature, first watch the documentary in which the families of those who died on the plane give the filmmakers their blessing, without reservation. If the mother, father, and sister…
The mall in Dead Rising is pretty much like any other you’ve visited. There’s a bunch of women’s clothing stores, a movie theater, and of course the obligatory food court. The only real difference is that it’s teeming with enough zombies to fill a stadium. Dead Rising opens with freelance…
The Abbott and Costello Show: 100th Anniversary Collection, Season One (Passport) Ace Ventura Deluxe Double Feature (Warner Bros.) Amarcord: The Criterion Collection (Criterion) Anne of Avonlea (Koch Vision) Blade Runner: Director’s Cut (Warner Bros.) Broken Trail (Sony) Clive Barker’s The Plague (Sony) Commander in Chief: 2-Disc Inaugural Edition Part 2…
Every time I eat a doughnut, I think of Brian Regan. The comedian, so adept at turning simple everyday tales into side-splitting anecdotes, tackled doughnut shops, doughnut ladies and related doughnut issues in an act that challenged my ability to control urination. He didn’t address “holes” or “dough” or anything…
In the summer months, Mom turns to her “dark cult of Angel worship.” Funny, according to Amazon.com’s book description, that’s what the protagonist discovers in Melanie Wells’ The Soul Hunter. Wait. We can’t seem to find any references to right field, bull pens or batting statistics; we just see nods…
“Hey dude, how’s that Pokey O’s ice cream sandwich with the mint chocolate chip Blue Bell and the oatmeal cinnamon cookies?” “Oh, it’s only heaven!” “Man, what was it like getting backstage at the White Stripes show and playing checkers with Meg White?” “Only heaven, dude!” “Honey, did you enjoy…
A comedy club is simply no place for “safe” comedy—that’s what Jay Leno and afternoon Comedy Central are for. See, when I shell out a $15 or $20 cover (plus the two-item minimum), I want to hear the kind of foul-mouthed subversion that would make a suburban soccer mom cry…
