Confession may be good for the soul, but the handful of practicing Roman Catholics we know have an increasingly cynical take on it. "It's gotten so bad," one says of her weekly trek to the confessional and the recent troubles in the priesthood, "I feel like saying, 'You first.'" Devoted followers of retired Texas A&M drawing professor Lee Baxter Davis don't revere him for his lifelong service as a deacon in the Catholic Church. They confess it's Davis' "personal and bizarre" cartoonish drawings that inspired them. Former Davis student and University of Texas at Dallas art instructor Greg Metz curated an homage and eccentric exhibition for the Dallas Center for Contemporary Art, Drawing Under the Influence, featuring other former students from across the United States. Contemporary director Joan Davidow calls Davis' work "inspired, phantasmagoric iconography," and a hybridization of poet/artist William Blake and infamous painter Hieronymous Bosch. Some of the catchers of the wry humor of their mentor featured in the show, alongside Davis and Metz, are Georganne Deen, Trenton Doyle Hancock, Robyn O'Neil, Christian Schumann and Linda Stokes. Get an eyeful at the opening reception from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. Friday at 2801 Swiss Ave., plus an earful of live music by Song Gods. Call 214-821-2522. --Annabelle Massey Helber
Gulp and Gallop
4/3
Peanut butter and jelly. Fish and chips. Ballet and sloshed ballet-goers. They're all great tastes that taste great together, but the latter will be featured at Bubbles and Ballet, a charity event presented by and benefiting Contemporary Ballet Dallas. Cocktail-attired attendees will sample sparkling wines and the accompanying foods while enjoying ballet and a silent auction. The event begins at 8 p.m. Saturday at The Dallas Center for Contemporary Art, 2801 Swiss Ave. Tickets are $85. Call 214-683-7593 or visit www.contemporaryballetdallas.com. --Mary Monigold
In the Red
And we thought signing underwear was funny
4/6
If you're unclassy, like most of us, the most exciting autograph you've ever gotten was on the back of a ticket stub, a cocktail napkin or, uh, a bra strap. We can only imagine how the more hoity-toity collect autographs--on their yachts, their tennis rackets and...their wine bottles? Oenophiles won't want to miss the winemaker of the Icaria Creek Winery signing bottles of the cabernet sauvignon at Into the Glass, 230 State St., Southlake. Icaria Creek, a small vintner in Sonoma County, California, promises an elegant cabernet that will neither "overwhelm you nor underestimate you"--we'll judge for ourselves on April 6 from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. Call 817-442-1969. --Michelle Martinez
Limo Limbo
Your carriage awaits for the Code Red Caper
4/1
Oodles of cash would make slumber parties so much cooler. Just think of it: Feathers of extinct birds would fill the pillows of pillow fights, and late-night snack runs on private jets would fly us to whichever time zone had a McDonald's that was currently serving breakfast. Also, scavenger hunts would spread across an entire town, and each eight-person scavenging team would get its own private limo for the hunt. That life seems out of reach, right? Well, the Code Red Caper looks to change that for Dallas' semi-rich. Don't expect jets or dodo birds at this fund-raiser for Bryan's House, a local nonprofit benefiting children with HIV/AIDS, but the caper's kickoff event at Steel, 3102 Oak Lawn Ave., does involve that whole scavenger/limo thing. Granted, the kickoff party is only a prelude to the actual hunt on May 2, but the free gathering Thursday at 5:30 p.m. doesn't require the $1,000 minimum donation that the hunt does, so poorer visitors can at least pretend to join the rich slumber party. Call 214-559-3946. --Sam Machkovech
