Even though many would consider soccer a form of art, it’s not often enough that sports and fine art come together in meaningful ways. But Texas-born soccer star Brek Shea is also an artist and he’s bringing his two loves under the same roof at 6 p.m. Thursday for an…
There’s something aggressively patriotic about fireworks over Fair Park. Maybe it’s the stunning art deco architecture or the childhood memories of the State Fair, but seeing sparklers crackle in the night sky while Lee Greenwood plays over the loud speakers brings an American tear to my eye every red, white,…
So few days each year are designated for real family time that it would be a waste to spend Independence Day on your dang smartphone. You’ve gotta park that phone, stop looking at photos crazy friend posted of herself drinking a placenta smoothie and admit that technology probably ruins everything…
Science fiction has often been dismissed by cultural watchdogs as anodyne, low-brow trash deserving of its exile to cheap paperbacks and B-movies. Aided by this perception radical artists have long recognized the genre’s potential as a medium for propaganda and veiled social commentary. Case in point — extraterrestrials in sci-fi…
Calling Paul Varghese Dallas’ first breakout comedy star really isn’t giving him enough credit. Dallas wouldn’t have a modern comedy scene to go to without him. He’s not only become one of the city’s most recognizable faces but he’s become a national touring comic who has opened for some of…
Human beings can make the strangest noises. That little vocal box in your throat can imitate everything from animals to other people. Like the rest of the animal kingdom, we use noise to communicate or entertain. And if your name is Michael Winslow, noise is your personal brand of comedy…
Horror movies have an odd appeal. Most of them are an outlet that tap into our subconscious inferiority complexes and gives it a chance to yell at a group of human beings who truly have it worse than we ever will, “Man, it sucks to be them.” Those of us…
Classical music may seem snooty but there are even music snobs exist amongst the snobbiest sound form of music. Beethoven is to classical music what the Beatles are to indie music fans. Hell, Jack Black even made fun of the Belgian born composer as an easy choice on one of…
Why simply stroll from your office to your car when you can propel yourself through the air, using the buildings and bus stop benches around you as concrete trampolines? My Playground is a film that might inspire you to do just that, or, at the very least, to look at…
If you were looking for Matthew Posey when he lived in Los Angeles, you’d need look no further than the local watering hole. Every night, he’d sit around with “a bunch of drunks making their own religion.” Those experiences, drinking with the likes of Amanda Plummer or Jeff Goldblum, were…
Hankering to get out of Dallas, but bound to this slice of sunbaked, heat-stroked geography for the foreseeable future? It can seem dire; days on end of feeling trapped in an air-conditioned space will wear on you, even if you are grateful for the cold air. But this city has…
There are very few bugs that don’t deserve squashing. Flies deserve a swift, crunchy end to their lives, as do beetles. And no one likes a slug. But everyone loves butterflies. What’s not to love? The ugly ducklings of bugs transform from slinky caterpillars to gorgeous, friendly butterflies, which provide…
Most of America is satisfied with a few beers, a semi-burnt burger, and some sparklers on the Fourth of July. But for those of you looking for an adventure, we have a few ideas for you. After all, our founding fathers were known for being rebels. They held their meetings…
By the time Iván Navarro’s “This Land is Your Land” was installed in NorthPark Mall, he’d already discussed the piece’s themes of immigration and industrialism. The piece, originally commissioned for placement in Madison Square Park, is a series of three small water towers, which viewers stand underneath to see neon…
Don’t let Nicole Stewart’s stature fool you. She may be petite, but she is all power and passion (and a little bit Pilates). For Stewart, pursuing a career in the arts was a no brainer. Her maternal grandparents, Juanita and Henry S. Miller, founded The Dallas Opera, contributed to the creation of the Dallas Theater Center and the Dallas Symphony. As a young actress, she left Dallas for over a decade to pursue both the stage and the screen, but when she was living in Los Angeles, she stumbled into the storytelling arena.
The first and last time I saw Forbidden Broadway, one of the sketches lampooned Les Miserables by having the actors run in circles, executing costume changes and singing dramatic songs. The 1985 musical about a man who stole a loaf of bread is infamous for having a stage that rotates…
Summertime can lead to feelings of wanderlust, boredom, and – if you’re lucky – a really good tan. In the summer, it’s super easy to just want to relax all day long, stare out your window, and daydream. But it is in those dreams that something great can come. The…
Thanks to the Fine Arts Chamber Players’ annual Basically Beethoven Festival, local music fans can get their classical fix this month in the midst of what is otherwise a pretty quiet summer on the classical calendar. Offering a free concert at Dallas City Performance Hall every Sunday in July, the…
It’s Friday night, and I’m at the Angelika with my best gal pal to see Joe Manganiello’s new documentary, La Bare, about Dallas’ premier (and only) male strip club. Afterward, with my friend acting as my ticket — only men accompanied by women can enter La Bare — we plan…
“Sometimes you have to break up to see if you fall back in love.” A boyfriend once told me this as I was trying to end a three-month relationship gone sour. I remember thinking that was the strangest last-ditch plea I’d ever heard. Of course, this idea of appreciative hindsight…
Paul Varghese, one of the funniest men in Dallas, has organized another Dallas Observer Comedy Crawl. After last fall’s inaugural crawl was hilariously successful, we couldn’t even wait a year to bring back more laughs. If you’re sick of listening to your friend’s jokes at a bar, but still want…
Horror movies are so not-horrifying because generally the idiots who get speared in the skull or chainsawed by a masked loon generally don’t have the wits to survive a weekend getaway. If you sent these dolts to a lavish weekend at the Mirabeau Inn in Skaneateles, New York, they would…
