The screenwriter Steven Conrad writes movies about success and self-fulfillment in America—how we define it, the price we pay for it and what it looks like depending on where you’re standing. In Conrad’s The Weather Man, the central figure was a vain TV news personality who had everything that money…
The years have been kind to The Oldest Living Graduate. The last play in Preston Jones’ Texas Trilogy holds up even better than the second in the series, Lu Ann Hampton Laverty Oberlander. Contemporary Theatre of Dallas did a dandy Lu Ann last season. They have a not-so-dandy Graduate running…
The Happening What a bunch of nonsense—effective nonsense, chilling nonsense, occasionally wrenching nonsense, but nonsense nonetheless. This is what happens when M. Night Shyamalan tries to play both John Carpenter (bloody) and Stanley Kubrick (cold-blooded) while writing and directing what the literalist will either dismiss or embrace as the horror-film…
Apparently if you believe some modern art aficionados, “painting is dead,” to which Chicago artist Howard Fonda says “suck on these brushstrokes, fools!,” or something to that effect. You Go Your Way & I’ll Go Mine features several of his works, produced in one sitting with all the brushstrokes and…
I remember a high school production of The Music Man when I was a backstage assistant. All of the sets were built atop rolling platforms that were positioned during blackouts or behind the curtain. As I helped roll a platform during what may have been “Wells Fargo Wagon” or another…
Sarah Bird, author of chick-lit classics Virgin of the Rodeo, The Boyfriend School, Alamo House and The Flamenco Academy, is getting all, like, symbolic or something with her new novel, How Perfect Is That. Marketed as an old-fashioned morality tale, it traces the fall of Blythe Young, an Austin wannabe…
“My very excellent mother just served us nine pies.” That’s how I was taught to remember the order of the planets. I think there was another version about pizzas instead of pies, but it was usually something along those lines. These days, though, thanks to the genius scientists who decided…
Part of artist Cathey Miller’s inspiration for her latest show, Prepared Americans, came from the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s “Are You Ready? A Guide to Citizen Preparedness.” Can’t say I’m not freaked out by that since the series depicts women in gas masks, ski masks and other protective gear in…
You could’ve been Benny, but more likely you were one of the other eight. Hold on, ladies, I’m not talking to you. The Sandlot is a man’s movie or, more appropriately, a story about those crazy years before you started growing hair in unessential places. Yes, I know the yarn…
High school is a paradoxical time in a person’s life: While you’re there, you feel so world-weary and mature; then a few years later, you realize how much of a baby you still were. I blame this weird time warp mainly on movies and TV shows about high school kids…
Watching Blair, Tootie and Jo (sorry, Natalie) strut around Eastland in those cheeky little uniforms was too much. They thought they were too good for you, didn’t they? If only they were prostitutes, then they’d have to love you. Jamie Morris agreed. His play, The Facts of Life: The Lost…
The Dallas CityArts Festival is a noble endeavor indeed, aiming to showcase “the incredible cultural, performing, visul and culinary arts of Dallas and the region.” Note that they don’t say anything about being current, however, which explains why they snagged The Reverend Horton Heat to headline the first night of…
All of this talk about leaving lighter footprints just makes us want to buy flip-flops (recycled, of course.) But artists at Studio Fling are using their talents to do something constructive for environmental education. Some pieces are constructed with eco-friendly materials, and a portion of the sales benefit Heifer International…
Typically, I’d make some infantile joke about teams named the Frisco RoughRiders and the Corpus Christi Hooks. I’m not going that way this time, though. The Rangers’ AA affiliate is tearing through the Texas League right now with a roster chock full of beautiful babies, like Elvis Andrus, the best…
Walking along, you find a gigantic bone. Is it a dinosaur? A cow? Do you need to call 911? Learning how to tell is just one thing you can do at the Fort Worth Museum of Science and History “Dinosaur Round-up” through September 27. You can also make rubbings from…
In Bretton B. Holmes’ new play, cows are quarantined to prevent an attack on what the government has determined will be the terrorists’ most likely next target: our meat supply. I’d be on board with that move. I never felt safe flying even before 9/11, so all the security measures…
In 1982, several major events occurred. The first artificial heart was implanted. The Weather Channel debuted on cable. But looking back, the most important thing that happened in 1982 and perhaps the entire twentieth century was the release of a movie called TRON. When it was released, TRON blew minds…
I’ve always hated musicals, so naturally I’ve also always been highly suspicious of other forms of entertainment marketed to the same audience, be it Blue Man Group, Cirque du Soleil or Riverdance. So as a high school senior back in 1999, I was naturally perturbed when my girlfriend decided she…
Robin Armstrong is my new hero. Along with directing and designing Tom Sime’s scary comedy (scare-medy?), Bloodletters, she is also the Violence Choreographer. Seriously, turning savage knife play or drive-by shootings into a poetic ballet is my new dream. I’ll get a glimpse of it in Sime’s play about Grace,…
As the buzz of neon lights replaces the heat of the blazing sun after a hard day’s work, it’s reassuring to know that the voice cryin’ from the jukebox about rocky romances, tough times and lasting love isn’t just another product of the machinations of the recording industry. Born a…
If you’ve already got your tickets to Bill O’Reilly’s show (lecture? Passionate reincarnation of Satan himself? Bingo tournament?) at the Nokia Theatre this weekend, this article isn’t for you. Because chances are, you already know what you need to know about Bill O’Reilly, namely that he tells you want to…
Trying to figure out what to do for Father’s Day is harder than putting socks on a rooster. I use that saying because it’s one of the old man’s faves, and you know, it’s the least I could do. But, for real, people, if you’re not giving him a tool/toy…
