Del tha Funky Homosapien Granada Theater September 26, 2008 Better than: The GZA’s show a few weeks at ago at The Loft, despite a less-hip-hop-friendly venue. Del kept the fans at the Granada happy. (Bill Ellison) Del tha Funky Homosapien raised eyebrows recently when he moved to a new label…
In our world cartoons are just drawings. They don’t make contract negotiations, murder people or turn us on. No fun. So if you’re into that sort of thing but have yet to find the magical entrance to Toontown, I guess Hollywood is the next best place to turn for your…
You know how movies about cold places always leave you feeling a bit of a chill? Werner Herzog’s Encounters at the End of the World takes you one step further. This is not just a documentary about the landscape of Antarctica or the scientific research that goes on there. It…
Though shamelessly beloved by Texans for Fletcher’s corny dogs, fried Twinkies and Ferris wheels, the State Fair is more than a place where calories and acrophobia are irrelevant. If you make it past the midway and ginormous indoor food court (you have to anyway if you’re going to find the…
Del tha Funky Homosapien saw some commercial success as a teenager with Hieroglyphics, but it’s his solo work, and specifically 1993’s No Need for Alarm, that’s elevated Del to classic status in the world of hip-hop. Since then, Del’s taken more than his fair share of lengthy hiatuses, but he’s…
If you can label up-and-coming director Zack Snyder anything, it would be a visual storyteller. Or, more accurately, a visual story re-teller. He has tackled some of the most impossible re-tellings, from his feature film debut, a remake of the classic zombie flick Dawn of the Dead, to his upcoming…
Over dinner the other night the subject of “best movie you’ve seen this year” was brought up. While my fellow young film enthusiast friends and I discussed the merits of Wall-E, The Dark Knight and The Fall, the seasoned veteran at the table silenced our unrefined chatter with three words,…
Ratatat, Panther, E*Rock Granada Theater September 16, 2008 Better than: Momentarily passing out during the third song. Because, yeah, I did. The only place where things were a little calm was on stage. (Nikki Loehr) Ratatat did the expected and sold out the Granada Theater. And the crowd packed in…
I don’t know about you, but if my house got sucked up into a tornado and dropped in some distant land, the last thing I would feel like doing is singing. But if it was 1939, that distant land was Oz, and I was seeing munchkins, witches and Technicolor for…
When DJ Paul, Juicy J and crew made their first big tour run through Dallas nearly a decade ago, they played to a relatively small but raucous crowd in a gritty Deep Ellum club, a scene fitting of their hardcore roots, violent beats and dark lyrics. Since then, though, Three…
Why?, Mount Eerie, Fishboy Granada Theater September 9, 2008 Better than: Driving all the way to Denton on a Tuesday night. Why? brought out the artsy undergrads in spades, impressively packing the Granada’s lower half with well-behaved, vintage-clad kids. And while good music was certainly brought by all, the hyper-picky…
A young boy. A red balloon. Paris. These simple elements taken from Albert Lamorisse’s 1956 Academy Award-winning short film The Red Balloon are woven into a beautiful, modern-day story about art, childhood and family in Hou Hsiao-hsien’s Flight of the Red Balloon. When life begins to overwhelm Suzanne, a busy…
Some might say the MPAA has it in for Kevin Smith. Seriously, the dude can’t catch a break. His films have been given un-box-office-friendly ratings since the mid-’90s with his latest, Zack and Miri Make a Porno, getting smacked with an NC-17. Luckily, when you’ve got a mad cult following,…
Imagine you’re in college, walking across campus after a late class, thinking about the party you’ll soon be attending. Suddenly you’re distracted by an outdoor screen showing graphic images from real campus parties, emergency medical calls and police files. You watch details unfold surrounding the real-life death of a student…
It’s pitch black. You’re sitting on the edge of your Ultra-Recliner of Power doing an anterior shoulder stretch and your secret ninja thumb exercises. Suddenly a nearly blinding light floods the room, projecting an EA across your flawlessly mastered game face. You crack each knuckle in turn, pop your neck…
He spent 24 years in the U.S. Congress, famously co-leading one of the largest CIA covert operations ever. He holds the Afghan Freedom Medal and is the only civilian to hold the CIA award as “Honored Colleague.” He has been the subject of controversy and literature and has now been…
Once upon a time M. Night Shyamalan made a damn good scary movie. The Sixth Sense has it all: walking corpses (including a seriously creepy pre-DUI/-puberty Mischa Barton), a tension building score, haunting cinematography and a spooky twist at the end. It’s a psychological thriller about a child psychologist (natch)…
He may be on his way out of The Tonight Show door, but Jay Leno isn’t looking to settle down anytime soon. For starters, he’s bringing those one-liners and witticisms to North Texas for one night in Casa Mañana’s “Laugh With a Legend Gala,” benefiting the organization’s arts education and…
Remember the battle of the Davids? You don’t have to admit it to us, but with seven seasons spent dominating the Nielsen ratings and pretty much obliterating any other show that dare air during Tuesday or Wednesday prime time, somebody has to be watching American Idol. It’s OK, we won’t…
Someone (who was that?) once said “a picture is worth a thousand words.” If still pictures happen at 24 frames-per-second in movies…well, you do the math. The Museum of Modern Art in New York gets it. With more than 21,000 titles in their film collection, MoMA began Still Moving, a…
Good old LeVar, the big brother none of us had. All he wanted was to open our minds with a book. Hit up your local Borders bookstore now through the end of August and you can share the dream by donating a book to Big Brothers Big Sisters of North…
