“Don’t touch” will be a hard request to honor at Surface and Mark, the latest group show at El Centro College’s H. Paxton Moore Fine Art Gallery (801 Main St.). Two-dimensional art from Justin Hunter Allen, C.J. Davis, Timothy Harding, Nicholas Mathis, Jeff Parrott, Arthur Peña, Ben Terry and Michael…

Montreal group 7 Fingers wants to make the circus relatable. If you’ve ever seen the psychosexual alien invasion that is a Cirque du Soleil production, the scale and structure is dizzying; it’s about spectacle and endurance. With Traces, 7 Fingers is attempting to draw something a bit more personal out…

The plight of the office drone is the subject of Good Nuts, the latest play at Ochre House (825 Exposition Ave.). But, this being Ochre House, it’s not that black and white. Indeed, there is much color to Kevin Grammer’s script, which follows Ochre House faves Carla Parker, Trent Stephenson,…

I know, I know. We’re all waiting for Flashdance at the end of the month, but in the meantime, Dallas Summer Musicals presents another Broadway tale of overcoming adversity and learning the value of being yourself: Sister Act. If you thought the plot of this Whoopi Goldberg film could only…

Austin director Andrew Bujalski’s latest film, Computer Chess, is a radical departure from his previous works, Mutual Appreciation, Funny Ha Ha and Beeswax. It centers around a computer chess tournament at a hotel in 1980, and was filmed on black and white Sony AVC-3260 video cameras from 1968, giving it…

I’m not surprised to learn Anthony Jeselnik is a fan of Bret Easton Ellis, that he was drawn to the tone of American Psycho as well as the fact that the book was banned. The comedian has cultivated an arrogant dick persona, which helps his steely delivery of one-liners about…

A trip to the National Cowgirl Museum and Hall of Fame (1720 Gendy St., Fort Worth) is a must for anyone interested in Texas history, and its latest exhibit, Tough by Nature: Portraits of Cowgirls and Ranch Women of the American West, is an excellent example of the kind of…

If you have yet to make it out to the Bath House Cultural Center (521 E. Lawther Drive) and fancy yourself a fan of theater, you now have roughly three weeks to make it up to yourself. The 15th Annual Festival of Independent Theatres runs through June 22, and features…

The line between Tracy Morgan, the actor and comedian, and Tracy Jordan, his unpredictable, stubborn character on 30 Rock, got pretty blurry for a while, especially during a 2011 run of stand-up appearances, in which he upset both LGBT and disabled communities. Morgan seems to be more in control these…

In our adolescence, we cling to those writers who can reach us. For some, that writer was George Orwell or Stephen King, Anne Rice or Stephen Chbosky. For aspiring riot grrrls, it was Margaret Atwood — a Canadian feminist fiction writer perhaps best known for The Handmaid’sTale, an lyrical dystopian…

That Mortal Coil: Rebuking the Ideal in Contemporary Figurative Art, is the latest group exhibition at CentralTrak (800 Exposition Ave.). It explores less traditional, more radical ideas about the human body, beauty and sexuality, via pieces from Denise Prince (who had her art psychoanalyzed live a couple weeks ago), Seth…

Dallas started gearing up for the 50th anniversary of John F. Kennedy’s assassination a year ago, and it will be interesting to see how much revision and hand-wringing goes into November’s “festivities.” On a more interesting note, the Dallas Museum of Art (1717 N. Harwood St.) is presenting Hotel Texas:…

Dallas Theater Center’s recent production of Neil Simon’s 1965 play The Odd Couple, which focuses on the dynamic between neat freak Felix Unger and his slob roommate Oscar Madison, showed how timeless the story is. However, Pocket Sandwich Theatre (5400 E. Mockingbird Lane) thought it was time for an update,…

Did you know Deepak Chopra gave spiritual advice to 50 Cent? Why that relationship was never turned into a reality show is an unsolvable riddle, but he taught Curtis Jackson how to meditate by giving him the mantra “I am.” Chopra’s status as a celebrity advisor might often overshadow the…

Dallas has two excellent plays about power failures currently running: Dallas Theater Center’s colorful, charming Fly By Night, and the Jeffrey Schmidt-directed Enron, over at Theatre Three (2800 Routh St.). The latter takes us all the way back to 2001, when it was revealed the Houston-based energy giant had made…

More and more open-mic comedy nights are popping up in unexpected places around town, like The Amsterdam Bar and the Texas Theatre. Joker’s Wild started last fall in the Voodoo Room at House of Blues (2200 N. Lamar St.), and has now become a monthly gig for Dallas comedians, hosted…

The first time I heard the alert for a lost child in the main convention hall, I was reminded how much Irving Convention Center feels like a suburban mall. From the outside, it looks sort of like an unfinished Rubik’s Cube. Being in that space for my first Dallas Comic…

Playing with the idea that the urban landscape can be used for more than just commerce, Red Bull is transforming downtown Dallas’ Victory Park into a golf course for its latest event. Rising pro golf star Rickie Fowler will be taking it “Off the Course,” and instead of playing the…

Most well-rounded humans spent lazy afternoons soundtracked by two things: Mr. Show and Whose Line Is It Anyway?. Originally a BBC Radio program, Whose Line challenged four comedic performers to games of improv and sketch, which would often devolve into absurdity. It made a leap to American television in the…

Have you ever yearned to try curling, the Olympic sport that originated in medieval Scotland and involves strategically pushing stones across a sheet of ice? Of course you have. Summer is beating down on us, and it’s time to sweep some ice! Your dreams can come true at Ice Training…