Ted's gone, splitting City Hall and heading off to train young minds in government at the University of Texas at Dallas. Mike's gone, too, leaving DISD and serving on the board of Trammell Crow Co. A-Rod's a Yankee now. And poor Jabari is really gone, up to that happy banana...
Kent Rathbun leaned back in his chair, glanced in our general direction and ran his fingers over a case, which we knew contained a set of razor-sharp knives. He then suggested this week's topic. The frustrations arising from a finite number of seats, the uncertainties of weather and traffic, capricious...
In former Housemartin Norman Cook's career as dance music's most successful exponent, Fatboy Slim, he's never come this close to acknowledging his guitar-toting past. Maybe it's a result of his turning 40 or nearly splitting with his wife, or of what he's recognized as the stagnant state of dance and...
There's art and there's math. Great lovers of the past--Casanova, Mae West, Pepe Le Pew--approached sexual conquest as an art form. They practiced persistence, with longing glances, languid eyes, bits of conversational intrigue, engaging mannerisms and a leisurely buildup to the moment when resistance crumbles. But who has time for...
Tom Waits is back, and he's a little hard to love. The man capable of writing a ballad as fragile as a convict's conscience just wants to make the sonic equivalent of a dirty bomb. The result is an album full of wicked foot-stompers, riddled with minor-key buzzmuffle and drenched...
The death of art is a well-worn idea. Once the anti-aesthetic rallying cry of so many pious avant-gardists, declaring that art has met the grim reaper is another way of saying "where's the price tag?" In a rather cynical turn of events, it would seem that the avant-garde has revealed...
Whatever else can be said about Tarnation--and there is plenty to say--there is no denying this: It is a very brave movie. Rarely is the subject of a documentary willing to lay himself bare before the camera, exposing his very consciousness to the audience, and it's still more uncommon for...
12/12 Ballet gets a big boost this time of year--like when a scrawny male dancer determinedly hoists his flabby-tushed partner high up on his shoulder. The Nutcracker is an audience-builder and a money-maker, so area ballet companies gut up and produce the complicated ballet. Many dancers, many costumes, plus quarrelsome,...
A little bit of Argentina has come to Texas--a taste of Buenos Aires is livening up the fair but jaunty mix of Dallas. Yet in the photographs of Argentinean artist Esteban Pastorino Diaz, now showing at Photographs Do Not Bend Gallery, visual piquancy is the result of a much more...
Take this apart: A citizens group brings forward petitions calling for a vote to gut the Dallas City Council and concentrate power in a "strong mayor." Naturally, the council resents the suggestion. Who wants to be gutted? So they're going to come up with a strategy to fight it. But...
To bastardize something is not usually a good thing. Bastardization--or crossbreeding, as one might have it--signals the trivializing or making hackneyed of an idea or object once thought awesome, taken seriously or held in esteem. To bastardize is to make something impure--to contaminate or pollute that which is otherwise pristine...
Reformed after a 10-year hiatus, San Francisco's mope-rock kings have retooled for a new generation of manic-depressives. Gone are the country/punk influences that made early releases California and Engine so vital. Instead, lead moaner Mark Eitzel has brought along the song stylist baggage that cluttered up his spotty solo efforts...
"Food is life." Promo materials for George Restaurant attribute the above quotation to George Brown, the lauded Dallas chef who just opened his own restaurant in the spot that was once home to the Riviera. Not only that, he has adopted the words as his personal motto. Though Brown may...
Norma's Café“We eat here every Friday because Norma’s is Oak Cliff,” said businessman and community activist Ralph Isenberg. Norma’s is that and much more. It’s an archetypal Southern breakfast and lunch spot, a place that feels familiar from the first visit, and, best of all, it’s a living time capsule of a long-gone Dallas. Opened in […]
Norma's Caf�“We eat here every Friday because Norma’s is Oak Cliff,” said businessman and community activist Ralph Isenberg. Norma’s is that and much more. It’s an archetypal Southern breakfast and lunch spot, a place that feels familiar from the first visit, and, best of all, it’s a living time capsule of a long-gone Dallas. Opened in […]
The first seconds of Abattoir Blues/The Lyre of Orpheus could've gone so wrong: Banging guitar wails and gospel choir harmonies blast off at high volume as Nick Cave howls, "Get ready for love!" It reads like overblown VH1-ready fare, but after the boredom of Nocturama and the loss of founding...
Let's set the scene, because this particular incident took place about 10 years ago. We were running a bit late, our timetable disrupted by a few extra drinks "accidentally" ordered by a member of the crew not yet known by the Burning Question moniker. Meanwhile, a female friend waited for...
Once upon a time there was nobody scarier than Skinny Puppy. Their demonic soundscapes made them a one-of-a-kind proposition among the '80s underground club crowd. There were (mostly unfounded) whispers of them maiming animals onstage. The band's mid-'90s implosion was similarly lurid, following the nightmarish scripts of disaster, death, trauma...
Neiman MarcusA man, at least once in his life, needs to go Tom Wolfe, take the money he saved for the kids’ education and buy himself a killer suit. The best place to shop is at Neiman Marcus on Main Street in downtown. There he’ll find Oxxford, Zegna, Armani, Hickey Freeman, Paul Smith and Brioni suits. […]
Neiman MarcusA man, at least once in his life, needs to go Tom Wolfe, take the money he saved for the kids’ education and buy himself a killer suit. The best place to shop is at Neiman Marcus on Main Street in downtown. There he’ll find Oxxford, Zegna, Armani, Hickey Freeman, Paul Smith and Brioni suits. […]
Roy Williams is a punk. Or maybe Torrin Tucker is. Or maybe it's some other Dallas Cowboy. I'm not entirely sure, but I do know this for certain: For a group of men who play a rough sport, who purport to be badasses with oversized balls, there are some surprisingly...
A Closer Walk With Patsy Cline Nobody can sing Patsy Cline the way Jenny Thurman can, and she gets to do it again in this two-hour musical tribute. All the hit songs are here: "Crazy," "Walkin' After Midnight," "Leavin' on Your Mind," "Back in Baby's Arms." It's like a living...
