As it turns out, the Asian Lunar New Year entails more than just exchanging those tasty little Chinese rice candies they used to give out when I was a kid. According to one Web site, in Vietnam, people commemorate the Buddhist occasion this way: “For three days, one takes painstaking…
Chicago has given the world some great gifts, such as deep-dish pizza, Steve Albini and the Blues Brothers. It’s also been home to some rather unfortunate events, like the Haymarket Riot, Al Capone’s gangland battles and the Manhattan Project. And then there are those Windy City contributions that can be…
I know you want some, but chances are you won’t be able to head to your local grocer of choice to pick up a jar of Monster Jam anytime soon. Sure, nothing says “yummy treat” like a Frankenstein Zombie Marmalade sandwich with a side of Vampire crisps, but that’s not…
There are a lot of people out there today with their minds in the gutter. It’s not uncommon lately for me to make some seemingly innocuous statement, only to have someone giggle uncontrollably and/or yell, “That’s what she said!” (Oh, Michael Scott, how I miss you. Please end soon, writers’…
The Pilobolus dance troupe is “the dance world’s equivalent of a summer movie blockbuster,” according to a press release about the group’s upcoming performance at the Eisemann Center. The creepy, bulging codpieces worn by male ballet dancers will surely be upset by this claim. Historically, the coveted “dance world equivalent…
The Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra aims to give audiences a little 1960s flashback and a happy heart with this weekend’s i>Music of the Baby Boomers concerts. They think that a revue of tunes by The Beatles, the Beach Boys, Motown’s finest, Frankie Valli, Burt Bacharach and others, conducted by Jack…
Imagine a night of blues music in modern-day Dallas. Ready? Let me guess: The first image that came to your mind was a middle-aged white guy wearing a leather vest and turquoise bolo tie, doing a passable-but-unnecessary Stevie Ray Vaughan imitation to a bar full of yuppie weekend bikers. As…
La Cage aux Folles is a classic story of love triumphing in the face of diversity. Except it is a little more, well, diverse than it is classic. Georges owns a nightclub in Saint-Tropez, La Cage aux Folles (The Birdcage). He and his longtime partner, Albin, who is also the…
There aren’t a lot of past and present members of the Bush administration that I care to know anything about. Maybe I’d like to know where Condoleezza Rice got those kickin’ shoes she was sporting on Meet the Press the other day. Or perhaps I’d like to know if Dick…
Looking at Eddie Griffin’s filmography, there is not much to be proud of, which really isn’t too surprising. Seriously, comedians make some of the dumbest movies. But he is the star of one of my all-time favorite indulgences, Undercover Brother. This really bad homage to 70s blaxploitation cinema/Austin Powers knockoff…
New Year’s resolution: “Get more in tune with the basics of life.” Well, get resolved. The House of Blues has your bass-ics funkin’ into town Thursday as bass legend Victor Wooten takes the stage. Most know him as the bassist for Nashville’s Grammy Award-winning jazz-funk-bluegrass-swing super-group Béla Fleck and the…
I’m getting the feeling that the people who show movies don’t really get the movies. Case in point—the Angelika is kicking off its Oscar Classics series as the anticipation builds for this year’s Academy Awards. But instead of going for something a little more worthwhile and basically easy, they pull…
It’s never just right. At least, not romance’s big picture. But those tiny, ideal moments and whimsical details counteract the gigantic fuck-ups and earth-shattering misspeaks in relationships. One silly reminder note can end up being better than any expensive gift. And one back rub can make up for many a…
I’ve never really understood extreme sports—skydiving, bungee jumping, Zorbing, urban rappelling, base jumping, street luge, parkour (aka freestyle jumping), etc., etc. To me it’s more like dumbass in the sky, dumbass on a rubber band, dumbass in a rubber ball, dumbass with a parachute, dumbass with road rash, bouncing French…
The very first time I saw the Wii’s motion-sensitive “Wiimote,” a single thought bounced in my head like a toddler on corn syrup: Finally we’re gonna get an f-ing brilliant lightsaber game. It was inevitable, a perfect match for the technology. Never again would I be caught doing the Star…
Aqua Teen Hunger Force: 5 (Warner Bros.) Barn of the Naked Dead (Legend House) Bordertown (THINKFilm) Canvas (Universal) Chancer: Series 2 (Acorn Media) The Comebacks (Fox) Curb Your Enthusiasm: The Complete Sixth Season (HBO) Daddy Day Camp (Sony) Damages: The Complete First Season (Sony) Drumline: Special Edition (Fox) El Cid:…
The King of Kong (New Line) Seth Gordon’s best-of-2007 documentary about the battle for Donkey Kong supremacy remains a work-in-progress: Billy Mitchell, the longtime titleholder dethroned by Steve Wiebe over the course of this hysterical, thrilling, and occasionally sad little film, recently reclaimed the throne — and Wiebe has vowed…
Ryan Fleck and Anna Boden’s Sugar, which premiered in the U.S. Dramatic Competition at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival (and was inexplicably shut out at the closing-night awards ceremony), gets as much right about baseball as any movie I’ve ever seen. It gets the hum of the electric lights in…
Things just got a whole lot cooler around here. At two Dallas theaters, Ella Fitzgerald and Billie Holiday are back and ready to swing. Giving remarkably convincing performances as the late, great jazz icons in separate shows, E. Faye Butler is Lady Ella and M. Denise Lee is Lady Day…
These days, it seems like it’s harder not to be the cool, hipster parent. What with the availability of adorable onesies adorned with choice crass, four-letter words and schools of rock for aspiring underage Lemmys, the hip life has been pre- and tinily packaged for kiddos. Case in point: The…
Things will get a little steamy at the Dallas Opera when Richard Strauss’ Salome opens on Friday. Salome is the name of a sexy bad girl in the Bible. According to the biblical account, John the Baptist is in prison for protesting the unholy union of King Herod with Herodias,…
The Harlem Globetrotters were originally named the “Savoy Big Five,” and the team was founded in 1926 in Chicago by Abe Saperstein. That’s right, Chicago. They didn’t actually play a game in Harlem until 42 years later, in 1968. Also, they played pretty serious basketball, honing the tricks and routines…
