We all want to give money to worthy causes, but it’s so difficult to make room in the budget. Besides, after a hard week of work, you really just want to spend your hard-earned cash on something to help you unwind or divert you from the barrage of depressing news…
He’s got the stars in the sky in his hands. He’s got you and me, brother, in his hands. He’s got the whole world in his hands. He put his right arm out, he shook it all about. He did the Hokey Pokey and turned himself around. And that’s what…
Attending a gallery show can be a bit like walking into a dark room–there may be a happy surprise waiting for you, or you may want to run away screaming in horror. Luckily you know that shows at Conduit Gallery fall into the first category, as they’ve built a reputation…
Americans became more familiar with Eastern-European Jewish life than many would have thought possible with the success of the Tony Award winning musical Fiddler on the Roof, which hit Broadway in 1964. An instant hit, it filled theaters again and again and held the title for longest running Broadway musical…
Alfred Hitchcock’s twisted psychological thriller Vertigo is a strange and wondrous film, a bit of a departure from Rear Window and The Man Who Knew Too Much. In fact, most critics at the time called it “too slow” and were basically weirded out by the twisted and overtly sexual subject…
If you’re going to go see a movie in an outdoor venue, like, say…a park, it’s best to choose a film that is more style than substance. Because ultimately, you’re not really going for the movie, and anything but fluff is going to kill the vibe and make it impossible…
If you were born in the early ’80s, your first exposure to James Taylor was probably seeing him play “You’ve Got a Friend” for Homer Simpson and Buzz Aldrin, who are aboard a space shuttle in The Simpsons episode “Deep Space Homer.” Even now, it’s one of the show’s most…
For anyone interested in the war against the Taliban, Doug Stanton’s The Horse Soldiers is a must-read. Stanton received amazing access to Special Forces and government information to document the experiences of SF soldiers who rode on horseback into Afghanistan just after 9-11 to secure a crucial area and defeat…
If any star came out of the pop country explosion of the ’90s relatively unscathed, it was meat-and-potatoes new traditionalist Alan Jackson. While all of his ’90s contemporaries (save the far superior Dwight Yoakum) have managed to do everything in their power to embarrass themselves at one time or another–Garth…
If I was hard-pressed to name a famous ballet star, I’d default to Mikhail Baryshnikov. And though he is probably one of the greatest dancers of the Twentieth Century, I have a hard time seeing him as anything but the total doucher he played on Sex and the City. But…
Ask your grandma–American music royalty did not begin with Elvis. In the 1930s a four-eyed clarinet player from Chicago began to make an unlikely name for himself in the world of big-band music. Leading one of the first racially integrated bands, Benny Goodman became one of the most widely respected…
Local wordsmith Perla Sarabia Johnson isn’t messing around with her dangerous, morphing, epidemic-involving sci-fi so don’t pass off this former media maven for a softie. In fact, Johnson even sets her thriller, Global Warning, in both her home city of Miami and her current dispatch–Big D. Can protag Dustin Jones…
Too rare is the transcendent theater experience. Now there is one in And Then They Came for Me: Remembering the World of Anne Frank, onstage at Dallas Children’s Theater. In 90 minutes, this play does some extraordinary things, going beyond mere entertainment-with-a-message to offer true stories of the Holocaust told…
The face of Mike Tyson stares out from the screen like a sentry—intent, sober, watchful. The camera sits close, the framing is tight, and as we lock eyes with the former heavyweight champ who could shatter an opponent’s confidence with little more than a glance, he seems to look past…
It’s difficult for this long-time Trekkie to review J.J. Abrams’ relaunching of the U.S.S. Enterprise. It’s difficult to dispassionately dole out compliments and complaints per the job description. Because, yes, the professional critic understands: This is Paramount Pictures’ latest effort to jump-start a profitable but long-stalled franchise, to do for…
Master of blue-eyed R&B, Boz Scaggs has been laying down grooves since he was 12 years old. Raised in Dallas, he met Steve Miller (you know, “Fly Like an Eagle”) while attending St. Mark’s and they started rocking together. Years later, Boz achieved mainstream success with his signature style of…
Austinite Chad Hopper may be a respected collage and mixed-media artist, illustrator of the great World Salad comic series and Night Viking member. Most of his work involves the clever reworking of discarded kitsch into gag art and social commentary. But he also glorifies the hated squirrel, that deceptively cute…
Despite the fact that consumerism is not terribly hip right now, sprinkle it with a dose of nostalgia and it never goes out of style. Neiman Marcus has a corner on that market here in Dallas, a result of cultivating unique style and commitment to community that puts the department…
Mmm, mmm, good! Taste Addison is back, and I don’t mind if I do. Skip out on dinner the night before, grab your Tums and head out to Addison Circle Park. This three-day event will showcase more than 50 of Addison’s 170 restaurants, offering sample menu items at special prices…
It’s already that time of year again, when we begin that frantic search for the perfect gift for mom, one that says “thank you for enduring endless hours of pain and suffering just for me to be born.” When you wonder if some flowers and a fancy gravy boat will…
Moms and dads are two totally different entities. Biological differences aside, moms need recognition and appreciation, whereas dads need to be respected and left alone. This would be why Mother’s Day has always been a bigger deal–forget to do something nice for mom and you’ll be in the doghouse for…
Our country’s economy is on the precipice of collapse, and comedian Louis CK isn’t so sure it would be a bad thing if it took the plunge. “When I read things like, ‘The foundations of capitalism are collapsing,’ I think, ‘Maybe we need that,'” he said during a Late Night…
