Red Is the Color of the Season

It’s that time of year when you really should just be able to carry a giant tumbler of wine around with you everywhere you go. (Honestly, that time is between January 1 and December 31, but especially the holidays.) The magical elixir makes everything so much more bearable. Squeezing through…

Everyone Was Having Fun Until …

The third installment of The Hunger Games is upon us, which means you can’t escape Jennifer Lawrence and it’s time to dust off your old bow and arrow. To celebrate the insanely popular movie franchise, Alamo Drafthouse Richardson is hosting a special event that involves archery tag, a screening and…

Happy Beer Day to Them

The rise of the craft beer movement may be a relatively new concept, but Rahr & Sons was making local brews when most of those beer aficionados were just about to hit those awkward teenage years. Ten years ago, Rahr & Sons opened their doors to a thirsty Dallas-Fort Worth,…

The Time of Nick

It’s time to let it glow, let it glow, let it glow, y’all: City Lights 2014 has arrived. In an urban setting generally festooned with giant eyeballs and Important Business People, the giant Christmas tree anchored in Main Street Garden, 1920 Main St., is a veritable touchstone of warm fuzziness…

If He Can Make It Here …

New York-based dance companies are a dime a dozen. They seem to pop up all the time ready to give you the ballet, jazz, and experimental dance you desire. Sometimes those dance companies get a special grant that allows them to tour, and those choreographers start establishing themselves as a…

A Little Light Chamber Music

Coinciding with the DMA’s Concentrations 57: Slavs and Tatars exhibit (a high/low art investigation of the geopolitics of language and culture), The Fine Arts Chamber Players present an afternoon of folk-informed musical performance. Held at the DMA’s Horchow Auditorium, the concert includes Khachaturian’s trio for clarinet, violin and piano (performed…

A Whimsy Christmas

For many, the tradition of sending holiday cards has devolved into a mindless chore. Whether you’re scrambling to take an attractive family photo, rushing to have cards printed, or signing season’s greetings until your ink stained hand is sore, the process can feel less than joyful. Luckily, the art mavens…

Hey Sirs! Hey Dames! Let’s Ride!

Grab your tweedy cape, don a Sherlock hat and get your danderfanny on a bike for the Dallas Tweed Ride, beginning at 2:30 p.m. at the Grassy Knoll. Jason Roberts will lead the pack of time travelers through downtown, inside Dallas Heritage Village and ultimately through Oak Cliff where the…

DSO Gets Jazzy

“The Dallas Symphony Orchestra presents ‘The Golden Age of Jazz’” reads the program. Truthfully, there’s something strange about the DSO presenting jazz, a musical form whose very maturation was dependent on deconstructing the aesthetic assumptions of European music. Although jazz initially borrowed heavily from classical music, especially melodically, and despite…

Music Nerds Start Book Club

Most book clubs are about the wine, so why not skip the living room pretense and host it at the source? Off the Record kicks off its music-themed book club, which is part discussion part cocktail club. And since they’ve named it High Fidelity Book Club, they’re starting off with…

Bonnie Friedman

Bonnie Friedman will read selections from her newest book Surrendering Oz at The Wild Detectives Tuesday. Friedman is the author of Village Voice best seller Writing Past Dark: Envy, Fear, Distraction and Other Dilemmas in the Writer’s Life. She’s won numerous writing awards. Tue., Nov. 25, 7 p.m., 2014…

A Peek and a Peep

This isn’t your daddy’s magic show. Gone are the days of simply pulling a rabbit out of a hat or cutting up some nameless woman. During Confetti Eddie’s Magic Burlesk and Sideshow, you’ll be able to get a behind-the-scenes look at how exactly his tricks are brought to life in…

What Exactly Is Strange About Cat Serenades?

Random acts of absurdity are what keep life interesting. You don’t remember each and every run around White Rock Lake, but you do remember the one when you saw the guy strumming his guitar and singing to his cat, who was lounging on a blanket by the shore. It was…

Please, God, No Karaoke in Heaven

“Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy?” Queen’s lyrics would accurately describe the questions presented to the audience — dare we say, the “souls” — by kaRaoKe MoTeL, Dead White Zombies’ last installment in their three-part series on the afterlife. An immersive performance of chance and choice, kaRaoKe…

Ho, Ho, Ho, It’s the Civil War

We’ve come to expect that our holiday entertainment be either sickly sweet or garishly bright in depictions of the Christmas season. Sugarplum fairies dance, eyes twinkle merrily and bells ring out in our viewing traditions, while strife is neatly resolved with a healthy helping of the Christmas spirit. A Civil…

Dream a Little Dream

To build their latest new media installation at the Dallas Contemporary, Frank and Lee Dufour spent copious amounts of time researching the most common dreams humans have when they travel into their own subconcious. They surveyed friends, scoured Web sites and interviewed experts. Then, they built a computer that can…

What Is a Humbug?

In the grand scheme of Dallas’ holiday offerings, we have everything from big and bright lights to restaurant feasts with leftovers provided. But there are certain things that must be done on the annual: cruising Highland Park’s Christmas lights, visiting the ultimate natural Santa at NorthPark, visiting the Operation Kindness’…

Monsters of Art

In the music world, there are superbands, bands composed of a number of industry stars. The New Pornographers or Broken Bells, for example. What Circuit 12 has on its hands with Sundowner is a collaborative exhibition studded with Dallas art stars. From JJESSE MORGAN BARNETT, NINO BAUMGARTNER, C.J. DAVIS, JEFF…

Five Art Exhibitions To See This Weekend

Peter Ligon It would be difficult to dig up someone who doesn’t like Peter Ligon’s landscapes. Even if you’re not keen on landscape painting generally, there’s something about Ligon’s emotive, messy pieces that don’t scream of photo source material. The painter captures every Dallas scene from trees in winter to…