Arts & Culture

Fogy that I am, the first time I heard of the Cheetah Girls was this summer from my 12-year-old cousin, who in August began planning her Halloween costume as one of the girl stars. The only problem was that her fourth “best friend” felt left out, since there are only…

The Good German is a noir-style romance-thriller-mystery set in post-World War II Berlin. Shot in black and white and full of references to the Potsdam Peace Conference, allies and the Russian Zone, it’s the perfect flick for the history buff. Especially one with kids. The film’s being shown as a…

The first day of any new year sets the tone for the months to come. For sports fans and college students, that means kick-ass “footbowl” games featuring the best up-and-coming players in the country. An exciting show of talent and testosterone is headed for Dallas’ bowl game this year, where…

Arguably the lamest holiday of the year, New Year’s Eve boils down to a celebration of one thing: relationships. Every year at the stroke of midnight, New Year’s Eve points at you and says, “Ha, ha! You’re single and alone!” At that precise moment in time, you can actually feel…

Recipe for a Gingerbread Village: Gather ingredients. With an electric mixer, cream 100 pounds of butter and 80 pounds of sugar until fluffy. Beat in 500 eggs, one at a time. Add cinnamon, ginger, salt, baking soda, and flour. Mix well. Bake at 350 degrees for at least one hour…

Happy Kwanzaa and Kujichagulia to you too. Kujichagulia, pronounced koo-jee-cha-goo-LEE-ah, is self-determination in Swahili. And it’ll take a fair amount of self-determination to learn to say that. Kujichagulia is day two of the seven day long Kwanzaa holiday, created in celebration of family, community and culture. Kuchichagulia is a day…

Black Nativity is the re-telling of the birth of Christ from an African-American perspective. Written by Langston Hughes, who died in 1967 and was known as the “Poet Laureate of the Negro Race,” the play runs at the Jubilee Theatre, 506 Main St. in Fort Worth, through Saturday. Catch performances…

Sometimes it’s annoyingly cute, but other times it’s kind of convenient and nice when a band’s name hints as to what it sounds like—sort of a musical onomatopoeia. Texarkana’s Pilotdrift falls into that latter category. The group’s lilting, chiming, unearthly rock evokes the sensation of a pleasant extraterrestrial experience, as…

If you have any idea what the Ticket’s Mike Rhyner is talking about when he waxes nostalgic about Dallas bands of the ’60s and ’70s, then you’re probably close to qualifying for a senior discount at IHOP. However, you probably also saw some great music in your day, frequenting long-forgotten…

James McMurtry, son of author Larry McMurtry, fronts a band called the Heartless Bastards. He also recently won the 2006 Americana Song of the Year and Album of the Year. Described by author Stephen King as “the truest, fiercest songwriter of his generation,” McMurtry is known lately for blasting the…

When classical music is mentioned a few names invariably pop up, and Mozart is certainly one of them. A composer with a wide range of influences and output, he produced pieces for symphony, opera, solo concertos, quartets, quintets, piano sonatas, masses, dances and more, leaving work of a quantity and…

There are any number of crappy songs I never need to hear again, including the entire Styx and Steve Miller catalogs and, most of all, John Mellencamp’s revolting “Our Country.” Then there are some legendary songs that I’d like to go 10 years without hearing, if only because I’ve been…

In high school, I drove a red ’75 Camaro. It had a 350 V8, and in it I won my first (and only) drag race…against a Chevy Nova down Garland Avenue, no less. Now, for a girl it’s a little unusual to be totally stoked about an old Camaro, but…

Seeing a concert by the Gourds is one of those quintessential experiences that every Texas music fan should have at least once, like dancing to a fiddle tune at Gruene Hall or seeing Willie on the Fourth of July. Over 10 years, seven proper albums and countless concerts, they’ve proven…

Do you live for the company holiday party? Cozying up next to the spiked punchbowl far away from where the conga line forms and your boss barks the canine “Jingle Bells” into the karaoke mic (Just remember: That new account WILL be yours by New Year’s!)—now that’s our idea of…

Take some ’70s-era hippy folk, mix in a heap of religion, add a touch of makeup and stage it as a bouncy, Broadway-style musical performed at a “family-friendly” theater in Hurst. Sounds like a night in hell to me, but maybe you’re into that sort of thing. Well then, slip…

New Year’s Eve is bound to suck, right? Do you really want to go to another lame condo party in Uptown, do some lines off the latest issue of Luxe and end up screwing that cocktail waitress from the Candle Room? Eff that! This December 31, you gotta know the…

The Pegasus Theater’s black and white shows are a true Dallas tradition. For a while, I was going year after year to their small theater digs just outside of Deep Ellum, and then poof, they seemed to disappear. They ended up moving to Richardson but are definitely worth the drive…

Is it weird to anyone else that comedian Jeff Burghart includes a “Testimonials” section on his Web site? Something about that “Proof that people think I’m funny” page screams not only, “Look at my giant ego!” but also, “I might possibly be desperate for gigs…corporate functions are no problem!” But…

As a young acolyte of Beavis and Butt-head and Wayne’s World in the mid ’90s, I often found myself renting Dazed and Confused for its similar mix of badass jams and lowbrow humor. But when Richard Linklater’s masterpiece was already checked out, there was always The Stoned Age, the story…