Variety. We crave it, we love it, we eat it. It makes us, as people, comforted, unnerved, inspired, frightened and motivated. It’s a pretty powerful thing, that variety. That’s why we totally love it when And/Or Gallery presents a new group show. Rather than exhibiting a bunch of artists all…
For those who rarely escape Dallas, it’s easy to forget the diversity of natural beauty in Texas: beaches, forests, plains and even mountains. That’s right. Out in Big Bend country, Texas sports honest-to-God mountains, and they look like you’d expect Texas mountains to look: barren, steep, jagged things that look…
All I really remember about Driving Miss Daisy is the part where Morgan Freeman tells Jessica Tandy he has to go “make water.” Personally, I’d rather watch him in The Shawshank Redemption (and in Tandy’s case I prefer Nobody’s Fool, or hell, even *batteries not included.) But if Alfred Uhry’s…
It’s safe to assume that none of the artworks entered in Fort Worth ISD’s Got Gas? contest in May were re-submitted for the Buzzworms in the Backyard art exhibition. Got Gas? was sponsored by the Barnett Shale Expo, which was basically a gas-drilling pep rally, while the Buzzworms contest is…
Ah, Bob Dylan. There is little doubt that he is one of the most influential musicians in popular music history. But no matter how brilliant his songs are, there are few of us that can stand to listen to him sing them anymore. It’s downright painful, really, and I consider…
Do you think of joy when you think about Christmas shopping? It’s not impossible NorthPark Center, known for elevating the shopping experience through integration of the arts, is thinking outside the mall’s walls and tackling the most potentially tacky shopping experience of all: the holidays. They’re spreading joy—literally—by partnering with…
‘Tis the season to watch A Christmas Story over and over again. Even though you’ve always had to watch Ralphie and his friends battle Scut Farkus on the small screen at home every year, your kids don’t have to. Monday nights are Family Nights at Mockingbird Station (5307 E. Mockingbird…
You’d have to be a real Scrooge to hate on pet owners dressing up their furry little loved ones in itty-bitty Santa hats and having their pictures taken with Old St. Nick. Maybe it’s a bit weird, but what’s not weird about celebrating the birth of Jesus by dragging a…
That old song claims that Santa Claus, in his omniscience, knows if everyone has been naughty or nice throughout the year. Upon his findings, he bases the quality of gifts he gives…or if he gives them at all. So what of the Lollie Bombs? The burlesque troupe of vivacious and…
The key to a great party is a VIP guest—you know, the one whose name will dazzle the other invitees and ensure an event to remember. With no VIP to draw in the other A-listers, your party will slowly devolve into a sad game of drunken spin-the-bottle and a marathon…
If ever there was a perfect time to remedy your inability to throw a kickass dinner party, it’s now. From holiday parties to visiting in-laws, it’s not a bad idea to have at least a few meals you can serve without a microwave. Central Market, 5750 Lovers Lane, presents an…
Steve Nash broke my heart on May 20, 2005, drilling a clutch three at the end of regulation and taking over in OT to down the Mavs in the second round of the Western Conference playoffs. Sure, we beat them in the playoffs the next year, but I was at…
Bratz (Lionsgate) Drunken Angel: The Criterion Collection (Criterion) Elvis: Blue Suede Collection (Warner Bros.) ESPNU Honor Roll: The Best of College Football Vol. 3 (ESPN) Happy Days: The Third Season (Paramount) Hot Fuzz: 3-Disc Collector’s Edition (Universal) The Land Before Time: The Wisdom of Friends (Universal) Laverne & Shirley: The…
Hot Rod (Paramount) Andy Samberg, best known for stuffing his dick in a box on Saturday Night Live, is Rod Kimble, a wannabe stuntman with very little “man” in him. He lives with his mom (Sissy Spacek, not kidding) and a stepdad (Ian McShane), who needs a new heart at…
Though we first met back in 1991, when the NEA-funded homoeroticism of his first aboveground feature, Poison, was rattling the halls of Congress, Todd Haynes and I bonded in April of 1995, when we served as jurors for the short-film competition at the USA Film Festival in Dallas. On our…
The Widow Twankey is back! Theatre Britain’s annual “panto” production brings the silly old dame, played by a man in glam-drag, out front and center. This year she’s at her gawdy, bawdy best as portrayed by Dallas actor Mark Shum in Aladdin, now onstage for the hols at the KD…
There’s no surer sign that a franchise is in trouble than when it blasts into outer space. So you were right to be nervous when Nintendo announced its plans to follow up the subpar game Super Mario Sunshine with something called Super Mario Galaxy, which promised to launch the mustached…
This version is the “final cut” only because Warner Bros., director Ridley Scott and the producers have run out of cuts to peddle 25 years after its initial release. By most estimations, the latest offering—in which the biggest change is the revelation that Harrison Ford’s 21st-century Bogie is really a…
John Turturro’s third and loopiest film is prime film-studies fodder, perhaps best suited to the tail end of a musicals seminar, along with Dancer in the Dark and other “postmodern” song-and-dancers. A Coen brothers production with a cast as unlikely as it is impressive (including Susan Sarandon, Kate Winslet, James…
It struck me a few weeks ago that I’d never been to the opera. After spending half my life living in a town where culture meant a tour stop by Jeff Foxworthy, I decided to take advantage of the more highbrow offerings afforded by big-city livin’ and bought a couple…
Nothing enlivens family holiday gatherings quite like a burlesque routine. My favorite Thanksgiving ever was at the home of my mother-in-law two years ago, shortly after my wife’s cousin, Kelly Ball, completed her latest straight-to-video acting endeavor. Still high on the excitement of a finished project, she gathered an audience…
“Music is a world within itself with a language we all understand.” Who said that? No, not Jesus, but close. It was Stevie Wonder, the greatest song stylist of this or any other era. And who said, “As long as I know I have love I can make it?” Was…
