Nuns. Those enigmatic, mysterious “Brides of Christ.” To some folks, nuns are a quaint throwback to a simpler, much churchier time. To others, nuns are vicious, scowling schoolmarms with knuckle-bruising rulers and itchy trigger fingers. Regardless of your personal opinion, the image of the nun has become an iconic symbol…
When you’re the Numero Uno sports talk radio station in the metroplex (in spite of a sometimes lacking broadcast signal, no less), how do you go about celebrating the 15th anniversary of your existence? Um, by continuing to talk, it seems. Because, yep, that’s what you’re gonna get at KTCK-1310…
It has been almost 40 years since Richie Havens was the opening act at Woodstock. His improvisational version of “Motherless Child,” punctuated by an added verse in which Havens repeats the word “freedom” in an intense frenzy became one of the anthems of Woodstock, and of the civil rights and…
The long reign of Riverdance may have scared away many musicians with affinity and talent for Celtic music. But not The Killdares. They’ve reclaimed the genre, regularly convening in Texas for the meeting of some of the best and brightest minds in music. They pair bagpipes and fiddles with electric…
Begin by stuffing yourself with the Inwood Theatre’s deliciously above-average popcorn and making your date pay. You should then veg out on a LoveSac in the downstairs theater and get really pissed off at the people making out between texts across the aisle. Show off your film nerd prowess by…
Money or sex?–probably isn’t the worst decision anyone’s had to make, but in this little Czech film (with English subtitles) it means big trouble for, you guessed it, one beautiful woman. Beauty in Trouble (Kraska v nesnazich) tells the story of Marcela, a young mother of two who is forced…
Most people know Glen Campbell from his late ’60s and ’70s heyday, when songs like “Gentle on My Mind,” “Galveston” and “Wichita Lineman” dominated the airwaves. Campbell attempted a comeback just last year with the covers collection Meet Glen Campbell, which obviously aims for Johnny Cash/Rick Rubin territory but misses…
The Wrestler may be plenty visceral, but it’s no more a sports movie than professional wrestling is a competitive sport. Chronic overreacher Darren Aronofsky’s relatively unpretentious follow-up to the ridiculous debacle that was The Fountain is all about showbiz. It’s also a canny example. You want to make a comeback…
Death never takes a holiday in the plays of Martin McDonagh. It’s always right there in the room, or at least close by, lurking, stalking. He populates his scripts with nasty old ladies, drunken louts and bad-tempered cops—potential murderers all. Insanely funny conversations about trivial matters erupt into bitter confrontations…
For as long as it forges ahead without explanations, The Unborn works in its way, as a series of snap-cut gotchas introducing each new contestant in its pageant of cold-sweat set-pieces. Often, this involves starlet Odette Yustman approaching some obscured, inevitably terrifying figure from behind very…very…slowly. Yustman plays Casey, a…
There’s a fine line between writing fiction and nonfiction, but one of the things that distinguishes a great writer of both is the ability to know what to leave out–what to leave unsaid–because, after all, truth is sometimes harder to believe than fiction. Best-selling author J.A. Jance learned that when…
For the past several years many residents of Fort Worth and other North Texas municipalities have accumulated vast amounts of new bling thanks to a windfall of natural gas money afforded them by mineral rights and new horizontal drilling techniques. Some locals have taken issue with the drilling and all…
“[John] Adelman is an artist who plays by the rules,” at least if you believe his press release. But which rules? The Ten Commandments? The Code of Hammurabi? The Rule of Four? Robert’s Rules of Order? The Rule of Thirds? The Rule of Thumb? Murphy’s Law? The Golden Rule? That…
When a comedian jokes about life, it’s funny, but try to quote him and suddenly the world is drained of a sense of humor. In this case we’ll just let the art do the talking. The Texas Visual Arts Association presents the third annual I See a Chuckle exhibition, featuring…
A star at the hall’s opening gala in 1998, Texas-born Carol Burnett returns once again to Bass Performance Hall in Fort Worth on Monday for a night of “laughter and reflection.” The treasured comedienne will share her stories and insights, spurred on by audience questions. “I love the spontaneity of…
Family Symphony Sundays is a series of concerts put on by the Plano Symphony Orchestra with the goal of instilling a love for music in rosy-cheeked young innocents. Knowing Plano, however, half of the target audience will be stoned out of their minds on cheese for Sunday’s “Swingin’ Strings” concert…
Support local art big time this month by checking out 500X Gallery’s juried annual, EXPO 2009. Texas’ oldest artist-run space, 500X Gallery, established in 1978, provides exhibition spaces to up-and-coming artists in Dallas. Located in a historic tire factory and air-conditioning warehouse with more than 3,000 square feet of exhibition…
If you’ve cooked over an open fire in the last 400 years, you’re probably familiar with Dutch ovens. This versatile pot lets hungry outdoors folk enjoy soup, stew, hash, bread, cobbler, pie and more. (Memories of my childhood are filled with campfire meals of Spam ‘n’ taters and pan de…
As American citizens, and therefore privileged, spoiled jerks, most of us have never been harassed or heavily questioned at a border security checkpoint. The closest we’ve ever gotten to that kind of tomfoolery is watching Children of Men and realizing, oh, man, that would suck to be treated like total…
I think New Year’s “fun runs” are an apocalyptically bad idea. Clearly, the whole point of a New Year’s run is to start off your year by being all healthy and athletic. And while the serious runners will always make it to a January 1 race, the Everyman will resolve…
My uncle still talks about the night he saw a belly dancer fold a dollar bill with her stomach. But there’s more to belly dancing than, well, drool. There’s shimmying, shiny veils and bells and all kinds of neat stuff that focuses attention on and glorifies that oft-maligned section of…
There are few things worse than a man falling asleep on the job, and if you’re Sleeping Beauty, then that can mean nothing but trouble. In the life of Sleeping Beauty, the prince had only one job–wake her (and everybody else) up with a kiss. Most guys would kill for…
