Yesterday Culture Editor Jamie Laughlin checked in with a dispatch from Tiny Thumbs, the pop-up arcade at UTD. Today, in her regular column, art critic Betsy Lewis chimes in. Popping with delightful, brainy concepts and aberrant deviations from the gaming norm, CentralTrak’s “Tiny Thumbs” pop-up video arcade, which popped up…
When news hit my Twitter feed yesterday that Louis C.K.’s next stand-up special — the one based on the act he blessed Dallas with last month — would premiere on HBO, my first reaction was: Oh, that download-forever thing didn’t work. Too bad. I liked paying $5 for some funny…
It’s a rowdy scene for a novice to enter, but as I walked up the ramp leading into Art Con 8, I got excited. Of course I did: The warehouse was reconfigured with stages, interactive drawing boards, auction realms, a bar and a main performance platform for the bands. Each…
Nate Wedan, the 28-year-old drummer for DOMA-nominated Somebody’s Darling, is always stationed at the back of the stage, where it’s hard to see that his traditional-style tattoos are marvelous. See also: An Art Student and Graffiti Artist Shows Off His Many Tattoos His left arm is dedicated to his faith…
I wasn’t entirely sure what to expect walking into Tiny Thumbs, the pop-up video art arcade that materialized Saturday evening at CentralTrak. I’d been briefed, but I was still apprehensive. Here’s the thing: I’m terrible at most modern video games and wasn’t looking forward to a room of seasoned players…
It’s the biggest cultural philanthropy event of the year, without a dress code. And this Saturday, November 10, Dallas gets another shot to bid on locally crafted artwork in a high-energy environment at Art Con 8. See Also: Behind the Scenes at Art Con 8, a Slideshow Since launching in…
A beautiful symphony hall is like a sanctuary. It’s a place where members of a community gather to share a common experience. With phones off and conversations muted, there is communion between people and art. Last weekend at the Meyerson symphony hall felt like a celebration of Easter Sunday proportions…
No one would ever call John Hawkes a movie star, and he likes that just fine. Unfortunately for him, the buzz about him is growing by the day. The ever-private actor is finding himself in the spotlight more and more. The Oscar-betting machine is putting its money of Hawkes for…
Trailer for Super Hexagon, a new game by Terry Cavanagh. Film. Literature. Music. Sculpture. All are considered art. But what separates them from their sibling medium, video games? It’s a question that’s being asked more frequently as a new generation of inventors write code that blurs the line between entertainment…
The Instant Film Society is at it again this weekend, converging at the oldest zoo in Texas with analog cameras and film in hand for another rain-or-shine “#Polawalk.” After shooting the State Fair of Texas on opening weekend (in spite of the wind and pouring rain) the rag-tag band of…
Billy Bob Thornton’s in town for the Lone Star Film Festival, where Jayne Mansfield’s Car, his first film behind the camera in more than 10 years, screened on Wednesday. It’s a story about two families — one southern and one British — that are pressed together over a shared loss…
“I grew up in Austin, so Dallas was always the great, big, scary city,” Sean Kent says over the phone. I called him up to talk about his return to the big southern state, where he’ll do five nights of shows this weekend. “I love Hyena’s,” he says. “There’s just…
When we see you on the street and think you put some thought into your style, we may take your picture and ask you things. See previous installations in the Street Style archive. A small cluster of fashionistas caught our eye at the SSION show Saturday night at Club Dada…
A loyal reader sent in this photo, restoring our faith in the nation’s need for print media…
Every Thursday we highlight the best comedy of the coming weekend. Find more comedy events at dallasobserver.com/calendar. Sean Kent at Hyena’s in Fort Worth “I write a fuckload ’cause otherwise I get bored,” says Sean Kent. “I don’t wanna say the same stuff every year.” You hear that, guys? A…
When I spoke with Dallas Symphony Orchestra Maestro Jaap van Zweden earlier this year, he told me that the Meyerson Symphony Center is, in his opinion, “probably one of the top three halls in the world.” “What is very important,” he went on, “is not to underestimate the relationship between…
ArtCon8Final from Kyle Kondas on Vimeo. Hey Dallas, I hope you’ve been doing your power lunges because this Saturday requires a full-court sprint. There’s a pop-up video game art arcade at CentralTrak, then that giant philanthropic art-a-palooza bash, Art Con 8, over on Dragon Street, ending off at the Dallas…
If Hollywood’s rut du jour is the origin story as bid for franchise immortality, you can’t say that Skyfall — the 23rd “official” James Bond film in 50 years — isn’t on trend. Eight years ago in Casino Royale, Daniel Craig’s first outing as Bond, we learned that 007 owes…
There’s an unfun tendency in American life to fictionalize our national heroes as rigid statue-people who only speak as though they are delivering commencement addresses, a kind of unlovable, Al Gore-ish anti-charisma that would inhibit anyone in real life from becoming a national hero in the first place. Own it,…
If you Google the phrase “Danzig shopping for cat supplies,” you’ll find links to phone-cam shots of former Misfits singer Glenn Danzig crossing a grocery-store parking lot while wearing a Danzig T-shirt and carrying Fresh Step. He’s a striking figure, and, with his pale, vampiric aspect, totally incongruent with the…
While the foundations of printmaking are thinning out in a digital age, there are those who carry the legacy forward. Beauvais Lyons is one of those artists. A professor at the University of Tennessee since 1985, Lyons finds humor in nature’s improbability. He monster-mashes animals together, producing work with scholarly…
More than just a Dallas cultural hub, Fair Park is a fascinating piece of Texas history. Much of the art deco shrine was erected in honor of the 1936 Texas Centennial Exposition, despite the economic shortfalls of the Dust Bowl era. Still, you can’t help but wonder about the precise…
