Counter Attack

On September 11, 2001, 19 men coordinated a vile attack against targets they considered symbolic of an evil empire to avenge U.S. support of Israel and its perceived wrongdoings in the Middle East. On September 11, 2010, the 25 or so men on the Rangers’ active roster will coordinate a…

The American Turns the Tried-And-True Thriller Inward.

Sometimes you feel bad for movie marketers, tasked with connecting any given film to an audience as large as possible. Take, for example, The American. Judging by the film’s trailers and advertisements, it’s a fast-paced Euro-stylish thriller starring George Clooney as a dashing, conflicted hero. Yet it quickly becomes apparent…

The Tillman Story Sets the Record Straight.

Pat Tillman, the Arizona Cardinals safety who enlisted in the Army Rangers eight months after September 11, read Emerson, Chomsky and, though an atheist, the Bible. Resembling a beefier Seann William Scott, he shunned cell phones, cars and professional-athlete megalomania. A fiercely private (and principled) person, his death in Afghanistan…

Machete: When It’s Not Funny, It’s Just Dull.

In 1993, inspired by his second cousin Danny Trejo’s work in Desperado, Robert Rodriguez wrote a screenplay around the character of Machete—a stringy-haired, leather-faced, ex-Federale turned down-and-dirty hitman turned violent crusader on behalf of his fellow illegal immigrants. While Trejo played a different character named Machete in Rodriguez’s Spy Kids…

Those Who Can Do Also Teach

It can be pretty tough to satisfy every art fanatic, so why not exhibit a variety of mediums? Whether you’re into paintings or 3D visual art, the faculty at El Centro College has got you covered. Repeat Offenders: An Exhibition of New Works by the Visual Fine Art Faculty of…

Nana for a Song

Nana is extending its “Summer Savings Menu” through September 30, though we wonder if the $45 prix fixe three-course dinner (with choices including mesquite-grilled flank steak, seared Scottish salmon and more) could attract the wrong crowd. By which we mean people like us, who didn’t realize it was pronounced “prefix”…

Rolling in Sheets…of Music

Sure, we love critics, but we love our word of mouth even more, and rumor (interwebs and otherwise) says that Mark Campbell’s Songs from an Unmade Bed is a pretty awesome…er, rather, a “must-see” this season. Not your “typical” musical, Songs from an Unmade Bed is the product of a…

Experience a Revelation in the Nasher

Seventy miles east of El Paso, in the middle of two thousand acres of desert, is a structure, or series of structures that have grown over the course of the last 30 years. In each structure is a room and in each room is an installation. Buildings face each other,…

Actors Gone Wilde

If you haven’t witnessed intense theatre eroticism, than you’re seriously missing something in your life. Caligula is available, but you can go deeper into a live, tortured-psyche at the Hip Pocket Theatre in Fort Worth for Circus Salome: a re-imagining of Oscar Wilde’s much-adapted play. This version, adapted and directed…

Good Looks and Good Intentions

In the wise words of Derek Zoolander, “There’s a lot more to life than being really, really, ridiculously good looking.” And yet, sometimes, when we’re watching models strut down a runway, we forget this. But the KidneyTexas 2010 luncheon and fashion show is different. This year’s program, titled “The Runway…

Here For Your Entertainment

American Idol almost-winner, Adam Lambert, has a single out you might have heard called “Whataya Want From Me?” Adam, we’re so glad you asked. Adam: Hey, what do you want from me? Me: How about 20 bucks? Adam: What do you want from meeeee? Me: A rainbow made of puppies…

Clap Your Hands, Say Ay!

Mariachi music is always fun. Well, almost always. Perhaps, not for a person with a pounding hangover, but otherwise, always fun, passionate, festive and often emotionally compelling. Mariachi Vargas de Tecalitlan are bringing true celebration to the Winspear Opera House, 2100 Ross Ave., 8 p.m. Tuesday and you don’t want…

He’s Such a Koy One

Anyone with experience raising a boy knows that at times, especially around age 5, they seem to be completely insane–and obsessed with their own penises (unfortunately the latter isn’t usually just a passing phase). Comedian Jo Koy is no exception. “My son is out of his mind,” he says on…

Get Bent for Free

How many times have you thought to yourself while doing the Bird of Paradise yoga pose that they should be paying you to do this instead of you paying them? We mean, come on, you have to put your body in all these weird positions while listening to some birds…

Laughing Through the Grunts

Yes, it’s 2010 but somehow America is experiencing a caveman invasion. It’s not enough that they discovered fire and invented the wheel. Now the hairy apes have come back to take over movies like 10,000 BC and Jack Black’s Year One, not to mention the Geico commercials. Now, if my…

Check Out the Gams on Grandma

When you hear “active seniors,” you might picture a kindly but wizened bunch who shuffle between brunch, bridge games, grandchildren’s recitals, and the early-bird special at Denny’s, and then retire to bed as soon as 60 Minutes is over. And then there are those active seniors who put 20- and…

The Cowboys Host the Cowboy

Carnegie Hall is to classical music as Cowboys Stadium is to football. And for those who have taken residence under a rock somewhere in the past two years, it is the largest domed stadium in the world and houses the largest high definition video screen in the world at its…

He’s Just Kiddin’ Around

It’s long been noted how swiftly pop culture eccentrics can quickly fall from their status as household names to household jokes, then to obscurity, and then finally, inevitably, into celebrity rehab shows. Or they can just skip the rehab shows and hit the comedy club circuit where they can lampoon…

One-Man’s Dreamgirls

Once upon a time there was Mariah and Whitney. And oh, let’s not forget Madonna and Britney. They’ve been the cream of the crop, the creme de la creme of America’s most feisty females. Well, until now that is. Move over Mariah, Whitney, Madonna and Britney because there’s a bigger…

Analyze This

Ever find yourself belaboring body language, playlists and text messages only to end up with a gawking list of unanswerables? “What did he mean?” or “Is this a sign?” Dallas-native Rebecca Carter’s new exhibition, Friendliness Towards all Things: or I Also Read (this)(into) What You Wrote, at Eastfield College, 3737…

Nuke ‘Em U

Desperation truly pushes man into the harsh polarities of nature, elevating one to either the peaks of virtue or sinking one into the most slovenly, despicable depths. Especially in the realm of food foraging. For instance, upon arriving home in the first hours of the morning, I once created a…