Catch a Fire (Focus) In his commentary for the underrated, undervalued Catch a Fire, director Phillip Noyce discusses the inspiration: witnessing the terror attacks on the World Trade Center in 2001. He wanted to comprehend “the terrorist’s mind,” so he found a story that accomplishes such a difficult thing: the…
Anyone who played games back in the olden days (i.e., the late ’80s) knows they used to be a lot tougher. Cartridges back then subscribed to the “Oh, you want some of this?” school of game design. They made you gnash your teeth, throw your controller, and bellow four-letter words…
Academy Awards Collection (MGM) The Comedians of Comedy (Anchor Bay) Dallas: The Complete Sixth Season (Warner Bros.) The Doctor, the Tornado & the Kentucky Kid: Ultimate Collector’s Edition (New Video Group) Dora the Explorer: Cowgirl Dora (Paramount) The Fabulous Baker Boys (MGM) Facing the Giants (Sony) The Festival: The Complete…
Now a staple of weekend entertainment in Dallas, most people go to midnight movies at the Inwood to relive the magic of seeing the movies for the first time. Personally, though, I go for the educational value—not from the movie itself, but from the trivia contest that precedes it. At…
Remember when you were sipping your latté at the Uptown Starbucks and you laughed at the handicapped kid trying to cross the West Village parking lot? Make yourself feel a little better–jerk–by going to see Josh Blue at the Addison Improv. The comedian has cerebral palsy and encourages you to…
Sudden death is neither easily understood nor reconciled. Oftentimes, survivors cling to the tangible, material memories those that pass leave behind. When possible, the most amazing mourning for and celebration of a life can take place thanks to the dead’s creations. We can feel the artist’s energy. We can fawn…
If you’ve ever had a dollar bill in your pocket, then you’ve seen the inspiration for artist Ike E. Morgan’s painting career. One of his first subjects was the little green portrait of George Washington that we’ve all carried in our wallets at one time or another. But, despite most…
Children’s author Christopher Paul Curtis will be the featured guest reader at the 2007 African-American Read-In hosted by the Dallas County Community College District. He will read from his new book, Mr. Chickee’s Messy Mission. The theme for this year’s read-in is “Light Up Your Life with Reading, Books and…
We could pretend that we know a lot about basketball and the Harlem Globetrotters’ many contributions to the sport. We could talk about the team’s championship win at the 1940 World Professional Basketball Tournament. We could detail the team’s historic triumphs over the (ahem, all-white) Minneapolis Lakers in the late…
Lots of artists take the occasional hiatus after pouring themselves into and releasing solid projects. There’s Jeff Magnum, Lindsay Buckingham, Warren Beatty and freakin’ Joe Pesci. It’s a motley crew of sorts but it proves the point that when the work is important to creator, time lapse doesn’t make it…
If you haven’t been to the rodeo, you haven’t lived. There’s just something about the combined smells of horse crap, hay and chili dogs that’ll change a person’s life altogether. Plus, the barrel racing is rad, the bull riding is zero to eight seconds of awesome, and the cotton candy…
I miss ¡Three Amigos! Steve Martin. I miss Little Shop Creepy Dentist Steve Martin. Who wants Cheaper by the Dozen Steve Martin? Or Shop Girl “Now that I’m a senior, I decided to be a love interest and kiss Claire Danes on the face” Steve Martin? Not me. But, Writer…
I was raised in a blue state where the most popular sports are skiing and soccer, and we mocked people who meant “choppers” when they said “bikes” and lived for Monster Trucks and Nascar. But a couple years ago, I was at the IMAX theater in downtown San Francisco and…
I suppose there are children who find the combination of puppetry and classical music delightful. They’re probably the same plaid- and Mary Janes-wearing waifs who squeal when they get one of those meticulously handcrafted wooden “traditional” toys for Christmas. As for the house-apes I know, if a gift doesn’t have…
When I first saw that [bjm_danse] was performing at SMU’s McFarlin Auditorium, I naturally assumed it had something to do with the Brian Jonestown Massacre. A full-blown interpretive dance version of DiG! perhaps. Or maybe just Anton Newcombe and Co. playing sitars as the Dandy Warhols’ Courtney Taylor-Taylor–clad only in…
“I’m not 100 percent in love with your tone right now,” he said to me after I tossed out a rather off-handed remark. Spending my Saturday night at a bowling alley with a few friends, I had just nailed my fifth strike in a row. “This is so easy a…
Who is Kim Dawson and what is this Kim Dawson Award all about, you ask? It says here in the press announcement, “The Kim Dawson Award was created in honor of Texan, former model, and founder of the Kim Dawson Agency, Kim Dawson.” More specific, the 2007 Kim Dawson Award…
There are a few movies that you know you should see, that you need to see, but you’re just a little afraid. You can handle gorefests with ghosts, demons and giant killer crocodiles, but what gets you more are the horrors of real life. Sometimes we tend to shy away…
The end isn’t nigh by a long shot. Not according to the 30-something German graphic artist wunderkind Ralf Ziervogel. He views our modern society—obsessed with sex and violence, bathed in designer labels and incessantly groping each other over invisible airwaves–as evolutionary progress. A sort of medieval hell on earth that…
According to the nonprofit youth organization Girls Incorporated, its mission is to “help girls confront subtle societal messages about their value and potential.” Great! Down with gender roles and materialistic obsessions! To raise money for this admirable goal, Girls Incorporated is having a “Sparkly Sidewalk Sale.” Shoppers get 20 percent…
There’s plenty that’s eye-catching about the acrobatic dance troupe Pilobolus, but the first thing to catch my eye was that funky name. It sounds suspiciously unsanitary, and sure enough, pilobolus is a type of icky fungi that thrives on herbivore dung. Now why, you ask, would a bunch of talented…
Here’s a number that might encourage you to attend New Tang Dynasty Television’s Chinese New Year Spectacular in Richardson: $346.5 billion. That’s how much China held in U.S. Treasury securities at the end of November, an amount second only to Japan. That’s how much we’re borrowing from China’s smoking-hot economy…
