Cultural arts organization seeks young professionals with an interest in socialization, arts outings and leadership for ballets, art exhibits and more--possibly even a long-term relationship. During Culture Shock, the Fort Worth Dallas Ballet's Members of Barre will wine and dine new recruits for its group, which provides a social and support group for the ballet. Likewise the 500 Inc., Crow Collection of Asian Art, Dallas Symphony Orchestra and Dallas Opera are looking for a few good men and women to help them out behind the scenes. Culture Shock is 6:30 p.m. to 9 p.m. at the Manhattan Bar, 3005 Routh St. at Cedar Springs. There's complimentary valet, a free first drink and pizza snacks until 8 p.m. Call 214-939-0225.
3/14
Let's just get this straight now: There is no Aretha Franklin. Or Norah Jones, LeAnn Rimes or any Dixie Chick. Dallas Divas! isn't a VH1 production, just a bunch of local musical theater actresses singing their non-celebrity hearts out. Of course, that's not nothing in this case. Several of Dallas' finest will trill, emote and high C their ways through Lyric Stage's past 10 years and 40 productions, providing a mini-retrospective of the theater company dedicated to "the development and preservation of the American musical." That means Gypsy, Cinderella, Sound of Music, Sweet Charity, I Do I Do and, thankfully, no Andrew Lloyd Webber. And, with no Franklin-sized egos in the room, it also means no backstage back-talking or onstage hair-pulling. Dallas Divas! will be performed at 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday in the Carpenter Performance Hall of the Irving Arts Center, 3333 N. MacArthur Blvd., Irving. Tickets are $22. Call the box office at 972-252-2787.
3/15
After countless hours of research watching Antiques Roadshow on KERA, we've learned that, first, the host Dan Elias is not human, but an android programmed with the speech patterns of William Shatner. Secondly, everybody thinks he has something of value stashed in boxes in his garage. We could be wrong on both accounts. More research may be required. But there are people with junk that's worth something, and some of them may even be hawking their goods at the Buchanan's Antique Market inside Fair Park's Automobile Building. More than 300 vendors will be selling antiques and collectibles from art glass to zebra skins. Buchanan's is open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday. Admission is $3 for adults or free for kids under 12. Call 405-478-4050.
3/16
We wish that "Kiss Me, I'm Irish" thing would work more often than just a few selected days during March. Then we'd play up that part of our heritage, maybe try some corned beef and buy a sports bra so we could learn to Irish dance. (The paralyzed arms would benefit us and our lack of coordination.) Until that day, we'll haunt the sidelines of the Downtown St. Patrick's Day Parade like the culture voyeur we are. And there are plenty of sights to view: the Lone Piper who starts the parade at 2 p.m., marching and military bands, antique fire engines, floats (think an Elvis impersonator with a green pompadour and people wearing green cowboy hats), plus more traditional attractions such as pipe and drum bands, walkers carrying banners representing cities in Ireland and contestants from the Texas Rose of Tralee pageant. The parade begins on Young Street at Houston Street and travels east on Young until it curves back to Dallas City Hall on Marilla Street. Check out the route at www.irishparade.com or call 972-234-2040.
3/17
Don't stereotype dinosaurs: Not all of them lived in warm rainforests, sunning themselves on boulders and frolicking in the ocean. Some lived in the arctic and wore long, knitted scarves on their tree trunk-like necks and sweaters made especially to accommodate both their girth and ridged spines. All right, so the paleontologists from the Dallas Museum of Natural History probably aren't finding any prehistoric outerwear in their excavations in Alaska, but they are finding things nearly as exciting. In the past several years, the museum's scientists along with others from the University of Alaska-Fairbanks and Southern Methodist University have discovered what is considered the most significant find of dinosaur fossils in that area, which have reshaped how people think of dinosaurs and the ecosystems that supported them. Their revelations will be on display at the Fair Park museum through May 31 as Expedition to Alaska. The collection of photographs and specimens shows what these arctic dinos looked like and how they survived in those conditions. The museum is open 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily at 3535 Grand Ave. Admission is $4 to $6.50. Call 214-421-3466.
3/18
At the Dallas International Organ Competition, there will be lots of filling the pipes, pushing the right buttons and fiddling with the keys. Like we couldn't mention an organ competition without a few sexual innuendoes. But, seriously, the eight-day contest wraps up this week with semifinals Friday through Sunday and two rounds of finals on Tuesday. The 12 finalists were chosen from auditions on three continents, and they'll get their chances to play pieces by Bach, Franck, Buxtehude and more at 4:30 p.m. during the semifinals, then music by Bach, Vierne and Messiaen during the recital round at 3 p.m. Tuesday, and that night at 7:30 they'll play compositions by Poulenc and Barber accompanied by the Dallas Symphony Orchestra during the aptly named orchestra round. Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center, 2301 Flora St. Call the box office at 214-692-0203.
3/19
Smog is one of the least sexy weather conditions. At least tornadoes have that danger factor going for them. Smog just looks gross and smells worse. But Dallas artist Johnny Robertson makes the fog and pollution combo seem mysterious with the objects in his monochromatic paintings appearing misty, out-of-focus and left to subjective classification by the viewer. Is it a tree or a medieval torture device? It's up to you. Smog, Robertson's exhibit of murky landscapes from Texas and California, opens Wednesday with a preview from 8 p.m. to 9 p.m. with the artist present and continues through April 20 in the New Works Space at the McKinney Avenue Contemporary, 3120 McKinney Ave. Preceding the artist preview is an art talk with Suzanne Weaver, the associate curator of contemporary art at the Dallas Museum of Art, who recently worked on the Come Forward: Emerging Art in Texas exhibit. The talk begins with a reception at 6:30 p.m. with the lecture beginning at 7 p.m. Call the MAC at 214-953-1212.
