Dallas painter Jerry Bywaters wrote his father a come-to-Jesus letter in 1928, explaining why he was turning his back on the world of commercial art to work in the outdoors as a studio painter. “I must be out of doors,” he said, and he lived up to that promise till…
You want to be prepared. You don’t want just any champagne. The cheap stuff is going to give you one mean hangover, and chances are it could start before the night is through. The ‘spensive stuff ain’t always what it’s cracked up to be…especially if you discover you just dropped…
While touring the Holy Land several years ago I visited a church which had some rather unique art on display. Lining the walls were dozens of depictions of the Madonna and Christ-child. Jesus was pictured as Asian, Caucasian, black and Hispanic. Every culture had made him their own. And that…
Let’s briefly review 2007. Presidential campaigning began in earnest. Wildfires in California. The Virginia Tech massacre. Turns out everything from China will kill you, and everything you buy is from China. ‘Roidy Bonds broke the most cherished record in sports. The Sopranos ended—badly. Striking TV writers means you have to…
As a seventh-grade movie fan, I was about as sophisticated as Joe Bob Briggs, but without the irony. All a movie required was bullets, blood or boobs. Beautiful cinematography and complex characters were mere distractions. An interesting plot meant the screenwriter came up with some novel killing method. Trying to…
There’s no getting around it: The Rape of Europa is not a cheerful holiday flick. It’s more of a historical odyssey, tracing the plight of countless works of art looted by the Nazis during World War II. Some were lost, some were destroyed, many are still in limbo. While most…
What is Christmas without snow and Santa? Unless you’re on a Caribbean beach, then there’s gotta be snow on the lawn and a fat guy coming down the chimney to eat your cookies. (This second miracle of Christmas is a more physical phenomenon.) Since cold and wet have not yielded…
Kwanzaa has always freaked me out a little. It’s hard to grasp the idea of a holiday that my parents predate. I mean, it’s a good idea in theory, but then so are most festivals and celebrations. Since it’s such a new holiday, there’s still a bit of learning and…
The Lord said to Noah, “There’s going to be a floody, floody. Get those mofos out of the muddy, muddy” and so forth. Obedient chap that he is, Noah gathers the animals two by two so if and when everybody drowns in the flood, the animals can do it and…
Time to bust out the wallets yet again. Valley House Gallery & Sculpture Garden has rounded up contemporary art, early Texas art and 19th- and 20th-century American and European art for an exhibition with a cause. Holidays Are a Time for Giving not only represents the wide range of art…
Nothing says “holiday spirit” quite like stabbing a terrorist or hammering a goombah, as the hottest games this season invite us to do. But no matter how cutting-edge the stars of 2007 may be, they are also unmistakably familiar. This week, we stack the holiday hits of today against the…
The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones: Volume Two — The War Years (Paramount) Alien Apocalypse (Anchor Bay) Balls of Fury (Universal) Black Moon Rising (Anchor Bay) Boy Eats Girl (Lionsgate) Braveheart: Special Collector’s Edition (Paramount) Bring It On: In It to Win It (Universal) Cinderella II: Dreams Come True Special…
Simmering below the squeamish elder-care euphemism “uncharted territory” is a fearful awareness that when it comes to dealing with the growing army of senile parents, we have no idea what the hell we’re doing. Tamara Jenkins plumbs the depths of that terror in her new film, The Savages, and jacks…
As an actor, John C. Reilly is the opposite of Mr. Cellophane. He doesn’t disappear into a role; roles disappear onto him—the unlikely porn sidekick of Boogie Nights, the inadequately adequate family man of The Hours, the cutup cowboy of A Prairie Home Companion, all stamped and imprinted with the…
Youth Without Youth, Francis Ford Coppola’s self-financed return to the fray, is a curious project—well-crafted, personal and movie-movie old-fashioned even in its vanguard aspirations. Simply put, it’s a Faustian romance about the reversal of time and transmigration of souls which, shot mainly in Romania, adds a soupçon of Balkan chic…
Once (Fox) Easily the year’s most perfect pop album — damned good movie too, the finest “musical” of the past 20 years. The disc’s making-of refers to it as a “modern musical,” but Once is as old-fashioned as it gets: Guy (Glen Hansard) meets Girl (Markéta Irglová), they fall in…
Here’s the thing: Tim Burton pulled it off. Nearing the end of an uncommonly strong year for American movies, he’s taken a hallowed classic of the modern musical theater, hemmed in the narrative from well over two hours to well under, cast confessed non-singers in the principal roles and somehow…
Hell of a thing, getting Mike Nichols to adapt the yer-kiddin’-me story of Charlie Wilson, the congressman from Lufkin, Texas, who damned near single-handedly helped the Afghans kick out the Russians in the 1980s. Says right there on page 11 of the paperback edition of George Crile’s 2003 book Charlie…
Ghosts of Christmas plays past are haunting Dallas theaters this season. So many playhouses are doing the same shows they did at the same time last year that reviewing them again feels like “OK, campers, rise and shine, and don’t forget your booties ’cause it’s cooooold out there.” That’s from…
There are the holiday traditions we all love, like lighting the Christmas tree with loved ones (oh, how Grandma yelps sweetly when you stick her on the upper branches!) And then there are the holiday traditions we hate, like watching cousin Bubba’s fifth child star as Jesus or some other…
It’s only a matter of time before some total genius turns A Christmas Story into a stage production, or better yet, a jaunty musical. The score will include a selection of instant hits such as “C Plus,” “I Double Dog Dare You” and, of course, “You’ll Shoot Your Eye Out.”…
Some people argue that the best Christmas gifts are homemade, but everybody knows the best presents are really the ones that you can eat. Leave it to the foodies at Central Market to combine these two ideologies into a fun, tasty, possibly messy and slightly educational holiday experience that can…
