A new case of cultural appropriation is making headlines, and for once it has nothing to do with the Kardashian/Jenners. A Dallas company called The Mahjong Line has recently come under fire for releasing a line of mahjong sets that critics say “whitewash” Chinese culture. Mahjong is a traditional Chinese…
Dallas-based Match is celebrating “Dating Sunday” on Jan. 3, an unofficial holiday that marks the busiest online dating day of the year.
During the premiere episode of season 5 of The Real Housewives of Dallas, which aired New Year’s Eve night, Stephanie Hollman greets Brandi Redmond at Redmond’s house with a big hug. “This is a corona-free zone,” Hollman says during a confessional. “We’re filming a TV show. We’ve been tested, like,…
Every list you’ve read this year likely reminded you just how bad 2020 was for all of us. According to several retrospective features from news outlets (including this one), 2020 was “volatile,” “disruptive,” “frustrating,” “disorienting,” “surreal,” “chaotic,” “the worst,” “a horror story,” “an American nightmare,” “a dumpster fire,” “a radioactive…
Just before midnight, fireworks cascaded from the top of Reunion Tower, celebrating the end of 2020 and the beginning of a new year. If ever a departing year deserved a “don’t let the screen door hit you on the way out,” this was it. With many of the normal New…
If you scrolled back to the beginning of the year and looked at any lists of “the most anticipated films of 2021,” you’d see titles such as Dune, Black Widow, Halloween Kills, Top Gun: Maverick, Ghostbusters: Afterlife, Godzilla vs. Kong, Fast and Furious 9, A Quiet Place: Part II, Coming…
If you spent some time on social media looking for local businesses to support with your holiday shopping, you might have noticed more people selling nail polish strips, candles and skincare products from their homes. “Just in time for Christmas,” Deborah Ines wrote in a Dec. 9 Facebook post. “Scentsy…
The end of the year generally marks an exciting time for movie buffs, when fans can put together their yearly lists of favorite films, speculate on the offerings of the new year and dedicate some time to that stack of Blu-Rays gifted over the holidays. “New Year’s Movies” doesn’t have…
Hair can be a deeply personal topic. For Oak Cliff artist LaShonda Cooks, its cause for reflection — about artistry and politics, especially for Black women. Recently, Cooks has been on a quest to collect stories about hair, resulting in Hair Story, an exhibition by seven artists at the African American…
D’Andra Simmons, star of The Real Housewives of Dallas, is in the hospital with COVID-19, her rep confirms to the Observer. Simmons was admitted into UT Southwestern Medical Center. “Her oxygen levels were borderline, and she will start Remdesivir,” her rep wrote in an email. “At this time we ask…
If there’s one positive thing we can take away from this year, it’s that through the pain and hardship, new cheerful endeavors were born. Gossypion (Gossy) Investments, founded by Darryl Ratcliff and Maya Crawford, is an agency that aims to represent artists while helping communities and businesses thrive together —…
One of the perks of working for the Dallas Observer is getting to meet interesting people, and pretty much every encounter gives us a nugget of wisdom that has the potential to change the course of our beliefs. 2020 has been a dark year, and we’ve all been waiting for…
Movies will never be the same. The industry has been changing rapidly over the past several years, but the biggest development has been the antiquated notion of seeing new theatrical films in theaters. Maybe Parasite winning Best Picture was the last good thing to happen? This was a big year…
In a year that was tumultuous and tragic, there is a collective hope that 2021 will bring us all good fortune. Let us start with a New Year’s Eve celebration. While in previous years, we’ve aimed to out-drink and out-slut everyone we know with the wildest party we could find,…
Oh, no, this probably isn’t the news you were expecting to read on Christmas Eve, but someone has to tell you. Ivan Hall, an engineer from Dallas, didn’t win Tayshia Adams’s heart on The Bachelorette. And it’s because of Jesus. While spending the night together in the Fantasy Suite, Hall…
Live entertainment has taken one of the hardest hits from the coronavirus outbreak. A survey conducted by the National Independent Venue Association last June revealed that 90 percent of the nation’s entertainment venue owners said they may have to close without more federal funding to replace their disappearing revenue. It’s…
During the second episode of the 15th season of Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders: Making The Team, the reality show that chronicles DCC hopefuls through the audition process, DCC director Kelli Finglass fitted the women for their potential uniform. This segment happens every season and in past seasons, it was usually filled…
John Ashley Bellamy, a Dallas artist and arts patron, died Tuesday, Dec. 8, at age 77. For many Dallasites, Bellamy’s death also means an end to a long-standing holiday tradition: the annual Christmas Eve party where eclectic crowds gathered each year to celebrate at Bellamy’s home, an old church known…
Resurrected tales of terror are moving listeners to the edge of their seats. Culling through reporter notes from stories he’d written decades ago, Robert Riggs created a hair-raising podcast that’s attracted more than 55,000 listeners in its first three months. “It’s a journey into darkness when you’re listening to it,”…
Every parent goes through one common, obligatory milestone: sitting through a school play. These are invariably universal experiences — you can count on being equally impressed and irritated by the preparing-for-showbiz lead actor, dreading the bad acting while ignoring your own child’s limitations as a thespian. If you’re local (or…
Two notable Dallas artists have ganged up against an artless pandemic world with an art exposition in Fair Park. Exposition Gallery’s Ongoing exhibition, which is available by appointment only through the month of December, offers the works of Bobby Weiss and IZK Davies, just two old friends with a common love…
The pandemic has given actor and Dallas native Stephen Tobolowsky a lot of time to think. Mostly, at first, his thoughts were that he might have the COVID-19 virus. “I was wanting to kill myself every day,” Tobolowsky says from his home in Los Angeles. “I was convinced I had…
