City worker types, mostly from the Dallas Convention & Visitors Bureau--people in the business of selling our city--were rounded up to devise a plan on how to bring people here. So they thought for a while until...Ah ha! Of course! That's brilliant! They decided on gluttony. Gluttony is the answer. Of course, it is. Dallas has more restaurants per capita than any city in the United States, so why not host a citywide event in which you offer even more food? Then again, why stop there? Why not have wine tastings? Get 'em drunk, too. All right. Now you're thinking. Except, well, this shouldn't be a burpy booze fest. This should be sophisticated. So why not house some events in the Dallas Arts District? And get the Latino Cultural Center involved with something "South of the Border"? Savor Dallas is the result of all this thinking: a wine, food, spirits and arts extravaganza Friday through Sunday. Friday night, drink some wine and check out Splendors of China's Forbidden City at the Dallas Museum of Art. Saturday, more wine, but this time it's wine education at the Wyndham Anatole Hotel with, among other experts, a writer from Bon Appétit and the author of The Craft of the Cocktail. More wine and spirits follow later that day. Then more wine that night--this time Texas wine--as well as food and music at the Wyndham. Then, Sunday, a huge gorge fest of a brunch at the Wyndham. Tickets are available for individual events, or you can get a weekend package for $350. Call 1-800-729-1029 or visit www.SavorDallas.com. --Paul Kix
In the Stew
2/19
Gumbo--so tasty, so rich with metaphor. The N'awleans classic is a literary goldmine, what with all those spices and that seafood, all the years of drama and history folded into each simmering pot. Kim Robinson's The Roux in the Gumbo uses the thick soup as a metaphor for her own family saga, including tales of her great-grandparents' struggle and hardship that have been passed down through generations, just like a crinkled recipe, browned with age. On Saturday, Robinson will give a book signing at Black Images Book Bazaar, 230 Wynnewood Village, at 4 p.m. We can't predict what will happen. But if you miss out, you may live to roux the day. (Sorry, we just had to.) Call 214-943-0142. --Sarah Hepola
Bug Hunt
2/18
It's a defining question of the age--not red state or blue, Bud Light or Miller Lite--but this: Alien or Aliens? Tough call. The first film in the Alien franchise had a big prawn jumping out of John Hurt's torso and Sigourney Weaver in her underwear. Aliens had a bunch of whupass fighting and one of the best lines: "We're in some real pretty shit now, man...That's it man, game over, man, game over, man!" Forget the other two sequels--they suck. Instead, rent Alien, then go to Midnight Madness at the Inwood Theatre, 5458 W. Lovers Lane, showing of Aliens on February 18 and February 19 and decide for yourself. Our vote? Did you not read the words "Sigourney Weaver in her underwear"? Call the Inwood at 214-764-9106. --Patrick Williams
Saddle Up
2/18
If you subscribe to the belief that a woman's place is in the saddle, then you have a kindred spirit in Donna Howell-Sickles. The local artist has made a national reputation with her images of cowgirls confronting life on the feminist frontier. More than 120 of Howell-Sickles' paintings, etchings and monotypes will be on display at The National Cowgirl Museum and Hall of Fame in Fort Worth starting February 18. The artist will give a collaborative lecture with women's studies author Peg Streep to mark the opening of the show, The Timeless Image of the Cowgirl. A warning to the suggestible, however: You may leave with the equally timeless Boys Don't Cry refrain ("I wanna be a cowboy, and you can be my cowgirl...") branded into your brain. The lecture is at 7 p.m.; the exhibit runs through May 21. Call 1-800-476-FAME. --Rick Kennedy
Finding Lost
2/17
They live among us, the witnesses to one of the most tragic events of recent history: young boys who returned home with their cattle herds only to find fires, bodies of loved ones and soldiers with machetes as the ethnic-cleansing massacres of the 1980s Sudanese civil war erupted. Narrowly escaping, they hid for years in fear and hunger, and then volunteer families brought them to North Texas for rehabilitation. Not Lost is the moving documentary of their past and what possibilities lie in their future. Not Lost will be screened with another locally produced documentary called Standing Room Only for the Dallas Film Series program at 7:30 p.m. Thursday at Studio Movie Grill, 5405 Belt Line Road at Prestonwood Boulevard, and at 7:30 p.m. February 24 for the Fort Worth Film Series at RAVE Motion Pictures, 2300 Green Oaks Road at Ridgmar Mall. Tickets are $5. Visit twww.filmfrogproductions.com or call 972-991-MOVIE (Dallas) or 817-566-0021 (Fort Worth). --Danna Berger
