Long before Cindy Sherman, that gender-bending, class-blurring, social-hierarchy smashing doyenne of dress-up photography, there was Hannah Cullwick. Cullwick was a maid in Victorian England who, along with her employer/boyfriend/dominant Arthur Munby, produced a series of photographs that totally out-Sherman good ol’ Cindy. Cullwick is photographed as a chimney sweep, a…
Dallas benefactor Algur H. Meadow found himself at a Spanish museum during a business trip in the 1950s, and it changed everything for him. Story has it, he fell in love with the Prado Museum and with the works contained within it, and decided to open his own “Prado on…
It’s Gourmet Easy Bake Oven Night at schoolclass in Oak Cliff. Remember that little fire hazard? The one that made those dough-y hunks of shit? Yeah, that one! Well tonight, a real live caterer/baker/person who knows how to use an actual oven will be teaching a class featuring actual edible…
In addition to its roster (impressive), its kitschy theme (snail mail) and its awkward environment (inside someone’s house), Going Postal at RE Gallery had the added benefit (when I was there) of the fast-talking, funny, devilishly charming Irishman Gary Farrelly as exhibition tour guide. Alas, he has returned home by…
“There is no magic. There are only magicians,” said Harry Anderson, veteran magician and former sitcom star. He was onstage in a ballroom full of amateur and professional conjurers at the 2013 convention of the Texas Association of Magicians, held Labor Day weekend at Addison’s Intercontinental Hotel. More than 500…
As collectors hop jets back to the city, abandoning their summer homes in cooler climates, Dallas braces itself for its first big run of seasonal shows. Sure, in Fort Worth that’s met with the Fall Gallery Night, a nine-hour long celebration of fresh art. In Dallas we’re left to fight…
Whether you’re an avid classical music nerd fan, or a novice looking to expand your musical palette, there are plenty of diverse opportunities to hear exceptional live classical music in Dallas this month. From the alien sounds of a 200+ year-old organ in a museum, to the rich swells of…
Last weekend the Sheraton Hotel Dallas was home to AnimeFest 2013, a four-day celebration of gaming and animation culture. There were panels, parties, and more costumes than you could shake a four-foot laser sword at. We sent photographer Ed Steele out to find his favorite monsters, and well, he might…
The Texas Association of Magicians held their annual conference at the InterContinental Hotel last weekend in an event so grand it even included a visit by Observer staff favorite, Harry Anderson (Night Court). (On an unrelated note: Housekeeping staff of the InterContinental found 3,000 colorful, unclaimed scarves tucked into one…
The Winspear Opera House’s underground parking can be a mess, but it doesn’t exactly sneak up on you. From the moment you pull your car in for a big performance, you’re reminded, Oh yeah, this is three-act: Two acts in the theater, one in the garage. It’s maddening, but you…
Last Saturday Deep Ellum felt the friction of hundreds of wheels as pre-1964 hot rod and kustom car enthusiasts took their victory laps. We love Invasion because its a celebration of that grittier car era, before the body styles got too bubbly and cheerful. Plus, it’s a chance to break…
As at most festivals, screenings at Venice are preceded by a recorded message asking everyone to turn off their cell phones. A very cultured-sounding lady delivers this request first in Italian and then in English. She caps off the English version with the words, “Thank you for your collaboration.” My…
Dallas sometimes has a penchant for getting excited about what’s most shiny and new. Amidst all the demolition and reconstruction, it’s invigorating to hear about preservation efforts. As KERA reported earlier this week, the Trinity Lutheran Church near White Rock Lake is being torn down, to be replaced with a…
The thing that really stood out at the Ticket’s Fight Night yesterday was that these were definitely amateurs in the ring. Bout after bout would start in a flurry of punches and a burst of energy, only to quickly turn into a lethargic affair of tired legs and weak punches…
The Nasher Sculpture Center has announced that New York-based artist Rachel Harrison will design the tenth and final project in the Nasher XChange, the first museum-organized, citywide art exhibition in the country, running from October 19 through February 16, 2014. See also: Vicki Meek’s Nasher XChange Project Puts Black Dallas’…
For the third year in a row, Isis Brantely, natural hair stylist, founder of the Institute of Ancestral Braiding and once arrested for illegally styling hair, is organizing the Naturally Isis Hair Parade and Festival. And for the second year in a row, Erykah “Badoula Oblongata” Badu will return to…
There’s a magicians conference this weekend. More importantly, there’s this video about the magicians conference. Watching it feels like eating drugs. You’re lookin’ at a long weekend, so grab your HOV lane manikin, prop ’em up in your office chair, Ferris Bueller the guy… then slowly press back to the…
It’s intermission at Book of Mormon and my face feels like I fed it psychedelic mushrooms instead of dinner. I’m explaining this to the lobby bartender who asked if the show is as good as everyone says. I point to my teary eye ducts and try to push down my…
Plenty of film critics and Asian cinema aficionados care deeply that The Grandmaster, Wong Kar-wai’s pointillist biopic of martial arts master Ip Man and the director’s first picture in six years, will be released in the States only in a 108-minute version. The cut released in China earlier this year…
Since it’s called Austenland, and since it’s a romantic comedy, you probably expect it to open with “It’s a truth universally acknowledged” and to wrap with one lovesick sap madly dashing after another, right up to an airport’s departure gates, even though both presumably have cell phones and could just…
Intricate, intelligent thrillers made specifically for grown-ups are so rare these days that it’s tempting to award extra points to anyone who even scales an attempt. Tomas Alfredson’s 2011 John le Carré adaptation, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, may have been the last great example of an adult thriller that refused…
Director Shola Lynch has been mining the rich terrain of black American history for a while now, notably in the award-winning 2004 documentary Chisholm ‘72: Unbought & Unbossed, about the 1972 presidential campaign by the late Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm, the first African-American and the first woman to mount a serious,…
