Say what you want about the aesthetic merits of urban graffiti, but you can’t deny its effectiveness as a medium. Like anti-billboards, tags and murals are messages we can’t avoid receiving, in a world where nearly everything comes on-demand with a built-in spam blocker. Spray-painted works on buildings, sidewalks, DART…
By now you’ve seen Brad Pitt aging backward, the little Indian film that could and, of course, Kate’s Oprah-approved rack. If you’re really good you’ve even seen the two politically inspired films going head-to-head in the Best Picture category at this year’s Academy Awards. But if you stopped there, you…
Old. That’s how I felt after I agreed to write about the upcoming performance of Gordon Lightfoot at Nokia Theatre. My feelings were exacerbated even further when I turned to the Nokia Web site, which described the singer-songwriter’s style as “time-defying” and his hits as “legendary.” Small wonder no one…
Lily Tomlin has done just about everything. She broke ground in comedy several times over; proved her dramatic moxie in several great films–including numerous forays with the late, great Robert Altman–and her essential role in the TV phenomenon that was West Wing; won two Tony Awards, four Emmys and a…
Not a bad time to invest in an entertainment stimulus package. Two just-opened shows are pretty fair bets, paying off with a high percentage of laughs at the expense of a few morally bankrupt characters. At Uptown Players is the Southwest premiere of Del Shores’ The Trials and Tribulations of…
Compare and contrast Laurent Cantet’s terrific The Class with any of the following schoolroom chestnuts—Mr. Holland’s Opus, Dangerous Minds or To Sir, With Love. Note the structural similarities: misbehaving students, an educator who wants them to succeed and big thoughts about the classroom as urban microcosm. Discuss the difference between…
Modest but cosmic, Kelly Reichardt’s Wendy and Lucy is a movie whose sad pixie heroine, Wendy (Michelle Williams), already skating on thin ice, stumbles and, without a single support to brace herself, slides into America’s lower depths. Introduced calling for her dog, Lucy, Wendy loses first her liberty (briefly), then…
Artist Olin Travis was the first native Dallasite to receive training at the prestigious Art Institute of Chicago, going on to paint landscapes and portraits that landed in the permanent collections of Austin’s Elisabet Ney Museum and the Dallas Museum of Art and drew him comparisons to artists like Winslow…
Tommy Davidson got his start on In Living Color, but he was somewhat overshadowed by the show’s more uproarious comics as he played straight man to Homey D. Clown or a victim to Fire Marshal Bill’s pyromania. Since then, however, he’s abandoned the madcap antics of the hit-or-miss sketch comedy…
I like to think I’m savvy to international politics and foreign cultures–I’m a news junkie who’s lived in several countries–or at least I can BS my way through most conversations, but I’ll be damned if I know what to make of Iran. The place seems to have a functioning democracy…
If J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series is still a children’s favorite in 2147, perhaps community theaters worldwide will mount imaginative musical adaptations of Goblet of Fire and Half-Blood Prince, but luckily I won’t live to see it. Lewis Carroll’s Through the Looking Glass, and What Alice Found There has already…
John Williams is the most well-known composer ever. What about Beethoven and Mozart, you say? Just think about it. Ask an average person to hum you a piece by Beethoven and you may get the first four notes of the Fifth Symphony. However, I guarantee that if you ask any…
“He can fix it! He can fix it,” they’ll chant. Two-year-olds in mosh pits, bottles thrown onstage and signatures on teething rings. After all, he is an international superstar. OK, so it probably won’t be that wild, but kids do love Bob the Builder. Fixing things in the United States…
Musical theater’s rampant burlesque theme, made popular in shows such as Gypsy and Cabaret, is apparently still alive and well. Not too surprising, since scantily clad dancers have been a stable ticket-seller since the beginning. There’s just something about long legs, garter belts and flapper dresses that equates to magic…
Sometimes, when reading a piece by an art critic, I get the impression it’s less about describing the art and more of a global conspiracy to win at art critic bingo. That’s right, if you can use the words “subsume,” “metaphysical,” “fetishistic,” “disaffection” and “melancholic” in one paragraph…bingo. Understandably, it’s…
When it comes to advice columns, I’m a lot more interested in Dan Savage’s words of wisdom than those of Ann Landers’ replacement, Amy Dickinson. Maybe I’m a perv, but weird fetishes are just a lot more entertaining than social gaffes and grieving children. But if you want to know…
A pricey, gourmet luncheon to fight community hunger seems a bit oxymoronic on the surface. While the poor wait in lines for a ladle of generic slop, the well-off will indulge in exquisite soups and desserts from 20 high-end establishments–to fight hunger. But kind of like that Rick Steves travel…
Texas artist Otis Jones “combines multiple materials–both fine art and industrial–to produce nonrepresentational, meditative colorscapes. Intricate fields of color comprise layer upon layer of mixed media that have been built up, sanded down, painted, marked or otherwise manipulated. By continually adding and removing surface elements, the artist exposes the compositional…
Keepsakes, inherited objects, ephemera: These pieces of the past take on a certain value whether adopted or truly sentimental. Over the course of time, items that are precious become a sort of art to us–perhaps kick-starting a mental masterpiece in memories or just serving as a beautiful thing from another…
All appropriate paperwork has been filed with the Ministry of Entertainment and received the go-ahead from the Ministry of Exhibition. One final formality exists in the purchase of tickets, in compliance with midnight screening guidelines as outlined in document 27B Stroke 6. Upon adherence to procedure and procurement of seat…
I’m not quite an expert on ballroom dance. My credentials are as follows: A) I’ve seen several episodes of Dancing With the Stars and B) a friend of a friend used to compete in ballroom dancing competitions 10 years ago. And yet, despite my lack of experience or research on…
Last year, my book club broke one of our rules: No books associated with Oprah. Not that Lady Harpo is evil or anything, but we like word-of-mouth, personal recommendations and–maybe it’s superficial of us, but I don’t care–books that aren’t publicly sanctioned by a multibillion-dollar empire. But we read Eat,…
