For four days before writing this, I checked several online book retailers regarding The Complete Quincy Jones: My Journey, My Passions: Photos and Mementos from Q’;s Personal Collection. At least twice during the searches, the book–which features a preface by the renowned Maya Angelou, a foreword by Clint Eastwood and…
The most eagerly anticipated (as well as the most beleaguered) movie of the year (if not the century), Watchmen is neither desecratory disaster nor total triumph. In filming David Hayter and Alex Tse’s adaptation of the most ambitious superhero comic book ever written, director Zack Snyder has managed to address…
Martin Scorsese may be presenting Matteo Garrone’s Gomorrah, but this corrosive, slapdash, grimly exciting exposé of organized crime in and around Naples comes on like Mean Streets cubed. Detailing daily life inside a criminal state, it’s a new sort of gangster film for America to ponder. Gomorrah takes its punning…
The next few months are ripe with possibilities for mustached, Converse-clad, Brit-pop loving men in the Dallas area. Zooey Deschanel is rumored to be making an appearance at AFI. South by Southwest is creeping up, promising potential hook-ups with Zooey Deschanel wannabes. Morrissey is coming to town. How much better…
One thing is clear from all recent editorials, letters to the editor and angry reader comments we’ve received regarding the less-than-victorious Victory Park, the subject of a recent cover story here at the Observer. You love to hate it. We all do. It’s what the Germans coined schadenfreude, taking pleasure…
What would be the question if the answer was “they were both Texas natives in the 1950s”? What’s the only thing singer Janis Joplin and comedian Bill Engvall will ever have in common? One of them happens to be returning to our oh-so-lovely state this week, and unless you believe…
The Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth offers something for the kids on Hump Day. Their free gallery program, Wonderful Wednesdays, is designed for families as an informal introduction to the collection and special exhibitions. Held once a month, Wonderful Wednesdays offers a focused tour along with a gallery project…
Comedian Richard Lewis doesn’t answer questions. He responds to keywords that relate–no matter how tenuously–to a subject on which he’s prepared one of his signature rants. Ask how he is and he’ll reply he hasn’t had 14 children, segueing into a 90-second bit about media fascination with the Octuplet Mom…
What is a hyperpower? According to Amy Chua, right now, the United States is. But, it’s one threatened without a change in “tolerance.” Her bestselling book Day of Empire: How Hyperpowers Rise to Global Dominance–And Why They Fall, compares even ancient empires such as Persia and the Roman Empire to…
America in 2009 is a tough place for the working class. Lay-offs could be reported like the weather, with a five-day forecast (mostly cloudy with occasional drizzle), while CEOs head to sunny Dubai with billions of our tax dollars in their pockets. The few manufacturing plants left plan on moving…
We’ve dreamed of this all winter. When the weather is icy and the trees are bare, we return in our minds to Dallas Blooms at the Dallas Arboretum, an annual springtime event that is a fitting reward for making it through the last months of dreary. This year’s celebration, Dallas…
Comedian Eddie Izzard jokes that Europe’s “where the history comes from,” because in America we tear down anything more than 30 years old. I guess Europeans would also chuckle at our historic home tours; after all, they can tour Le Donjon du Faucon Noir, a castle built in the 990s…
Queue up the banjo, pour yourself some moonshine and get real comfy-like, because the Clampetts are coming to North Texas, where the Garland Civic Theatre is hosting its own version of The Beverly Hillbillies based on the classic television show,. There’s nothing more entertaining than watching country bumpkins stumble upon…
If you watched last summer’s Olympic Games then you surely remember the massive show the Chinese people put on for the world, from the dramatic opening ceremonies in the Bird’s Nest–arguably the greatest human spectacle in recorded history–to the massive smoke machine they constructed to set the mood for the…
If someone told you they were going to give you the golden palm, wouldn’t you think you were about to receive some kind of awesome high-five? Maybe even from a king or the Dalai Lama or something? I sure would. But, alas, no, it turns out the Golden Palm (or…
One day soon opera will make a comeback, and now’s as good of a time as any to get your start. With the opera being declared the place to be on a recent episode of Gossip Girl, it’s only a matter of time before the young and the beautiful start…
Opinions about author Denis Johnson are rarely lukewarm. You might adore his work or despise it, but chances are you have a strong opinion one way or the other. He is best known for Jesus’ Son, a collection of loosely interweaving short stories that matter-of-factly depict a nameless junky protagonist…
What’s your function? If you’re a conjunction, it’s hooking up words, phrases and clauses. We know this because we were raised on Schoolhouse Rock, which cleverly taught grammar, science and math through catchy cartoon jingles. However, the only way we can problem-solve is by singing little songs in our head…
Tonight you’re gonna have yourself a real good time. You’ll feel ali-i-i-ive. Yeah, you know what I’m talking about. If you’ve ever danced drunkenly in front of a karaoke bar, or nakedly in front of a mirror, doing your best Freddie Mercury impression (and who hasn’t?), you might be interested…
If you ask us, traditional Irish bands are best enjoyed in the confines of a pub or at least at a drunken street festival, so forgive us if we don’t find the idea of The Irish Rovers concert at the Meyerson a particularly appropriate way to gear up for St…
Few contemporary pop songs elicit such gut-wrenching emotion, than that felt by any dejected, middle-aged woman while listening to “I Can’t Make You Love Me” as performed by bluesy skunk-striped Bonnie Raitt. But Raitt isn’t only beloved in the forties female demographic. The songstress earns high praise among fellow musicians…
The common theme of Deft Touch, an art exhibit on display this month at Mighty Fine Arts, is a re-examination of ordinary objects that explores their deeper meaning, aesthetics and subtle humor. Artist Anne Allen examines household items–wallpaper patterns, doilies, hairnets, etc.–while fellow exhibitor Luke Sides’ portfolio includes sculptures such…
