Deathly Duo

Thrill Me: The Leopold and Loeb Story is not a musical about a heart-pounding relationship between Dallas songstress Lisa Loeb and Leopold Alexis Elijah Walker Gareth Thomas Mountbatten, the time-traveling character played by Hugh Jackman in the 2001 romantic comedy Kate and Leopold. It’s actually a musical recounting the true…

Kicking Television

Anything called Confessions of a Couch Potato sounds like it might be a Steve Blow column about the decline of our society due to that “new-fangled contraption” called a “television.” Or, it could be a play about a broken home. The family members no longer know how to communicate, sitting…

Sex Bomb

Laydeez, raise the terror alert to red and don your protective gear. Local authorities have identified a serious threat to your panties. Look out for Tom Jones, suspected leader of a known terror cell, the Panty Patrol (no confirmed affiliation with Taylor Hicks’ Soul Patrol, though they have similar M.O.s.)…

Poperatic High

According to interviews with the popera (pop + opera) boy band Il Divo, the name means “the male version of the divine.” What can be more divine than four clean-shaven, tanned gentlemen in tastefully disheveled tuxedos? Il Divo is not merely a group of comfortingly feminine but powerfully masculine vocalists…

The Parent Trap

If babies have the market cornered when it comes to cuteness, 6-month-old Jacob Wesley Cato is the CEO of cute. He bounces up and down in the baby-walker equivalent of a tricked-out sports car, giggling and poking the myriad attachments that whiz, spin and twirl. The primary-colored paint job makes…

For Art‘s Sake

Great artwork is about pulling off the unexpected, like pairing a cute pair of wedges with fatigue pants or throwing a litter of baby ferrets off a high-rise balcony. Nobody expects it to rain baby ferrets. But that would be sick, so maybe it’s better to stick to the predictable…

Portable Idol

The DreMak studio launch party at the Granada Theater has all the elements of a quintessential entertainment industry ‘do: live music, comp drinks, VIP tags and all kinds of free appetizers. But the crowd is hardly straight outta Los Angeles. It’s more like a family reunion, with middle-aged couples, their…

Titus Comedicus

It’s casual dining night. Mom wants Olive Garden and Dad wants Chili’s. Mom decides Dad thinks she’s too fat to eat pasta and that’s why he’s been seeing so much of that neighbor woman. Dad says maybe Mom could stand to lose a few pounds. Mom cries and then the…

Epps in Smoke

Duuuuude. With his roles in American classic films like Next Friday, Friday After Next, How High and All About the Benjamins, comedian Mike Epps has worked to heighten public awareness on an issue still taboo in some households: drugs. On his entertainment agent’s Web site, Epps is touted for his…

Unified Feet

In 1989, President George H. W. Bush managed to unite Republicans and Democrats under one banner on one of the most divisive issues of the day: tap-dancing. Rivals John Conyers Jr. (D-MI) and Alfonso D’Amato (R-NY) put aside their differences in joint resolutions honoring tap-dancing, which Bush signed into law…

Past and Peasant

Chris Rock once said, “If a homeless person has a funny sign, he hasn’t been homeless that long.” Some may find that humor to be in bad taste, but he’s got a point. If you don’t have any nourishment, free time should be spent obtaining food, not funny. So the…

King’s Scene

I have seen prog metal band King’s X in concert. I’m not saying I enjoyed it, but I am saying I sat on a barstool in leather pants with a freshly applied tramp stamp on my lower back in that smoky club that used to be attached to the Bronco…

The Broadway March

In bizarre stage adaptation news, Little Women—The Broadway Musical comes to Fair Park this week. What was the thinking there? “Hey, Kevin, I was thinking this antiquated 47-chapter weeper about four sisters during the Civil War—get this, one of ’em plays the piano and dies, dude—would really translate well to…

Crooned Tunes

The ladies feel my pain: You’re strolling down Lower Greenville one evening, clad respectably in appropriately fitting clothing, and a couple of jerks in a Civic crawl by, hollering out the window. They’re spouting gems like, “Wassup, baby?” and “Y’all need a ride, WOOOHOOOOHAHAHA?!” I know that it takes all…

Five Letter Words

One of the best parts about digital cable is the favorite channels list. The Game Show Network is not on mine, so I don’t know much about their Lingo show other than it’s hosted by Chuck Woolery, formerly of the Love Connection, who has remarkably well-highlighted hair. According to the…

Artistic Algebra

I was a nerd and took extra math in high school. Now the work has paid off. I invite you to join with me in using our algebra skills to decipher the title of Mark Collop’s latest exhibition of paintings at the Dallas Central Library: (me + x) + (you…

MuStossel

If I could, I would ask John Stossel’s mustache if it thinks the 20/20 correspondent to whose face it is attached would be able to get by without it. I have strong suspicions that John Stossel’s mustache is the driving force behind John Stossel, and that were Stossel deprived of…

2006 Dallas Observer Music Awards

Endure a few run-throughs of Pomp and Circumstance, make sure your tassel is on the correct side of your cap and ready your flask for the after-party at the rich kids lake house. Its a graduation, baby. Most years, the theme of the Dallas Observer Music Awards is an afterthought,…

Pray Tell

You’re busy. You’ve got to cram in that guy from sales and dinner with the accounts boss before heading out to cocktails with that cute blonde from the speed-dating event. You don’t have time for a full day of anything, let alone prayer. God understands, right? For your convenience, Dallas’…

To Put It Bluntly

Dear James Blunt, I remember the first time I saw you. It was an early morning in my small, stuffy apartment. I heard your voice calling from the living room, and I saw that gorgeous, angular, British-boy face. You stood on the beach in the “You’re Beautiful” video on VH-1,…

Star-Crossed Eyes

In English-speaking culture, we’ve long embraced such classic works as The Crucible, The Grapes of Wrath and Weekend at Bernie’s II. But perhaps the most well-known classic is the story of star-cross’d lovers Romeo Montague and Juliet Capulet, whose plight has been translated into such diverse renditions as the New…

Papa ‘Rita

When I got my first guitar at age 12, my dad had one question and one question only for me: “When do you learn to play ‘Margaritaville’?” Horrified at the thought of playing anything other than Jewel songs on the instrument, I pushed all thoughts of Jimmy Buffett to the…