So what happens to a band like Death, three church-rooted black brothers from the Motor City, playing the essence of punk way back in ’73, before the genre even had a name? Well, their demo was sent into a world that wasn’t ready for it and marketed by a record…
Happy ‘Splosion Day, Y’all! By now, we’ve all agreed to give up on this week, right? Go ahead and straighten the sunglasses on your cubicle manikin and quietly back out of the office. It’s time to get this party started. (Odds that it will run for four days straight? 72:1)…
Animal rights activist, salsa entrepreneur, politician, author, musician, Jewish cowboy, non-Mensa member and proud winner of the National Organization of Women’s 1973 “Male Chauvinist Pig Award,” Kinky Friedman will weirdly keynote American Mensa’s 2013 Annual Gathering today in Fort Worth. The member’s-only partay takes place at the Worthington Renaissance Hotel,…
The audience for A Band Called Death, the new documentary by Mark Christopher Covino and Jeff Howlett opening tonight at Texas Theatre, is a self-selected batch. That’s because Death, a group that first cut its demo in Detroit back in 1974, went unknown until that same 45 resurfaced at a…
Dallas VideoFest’s founder and Artistic Director Bart Weiss says his artists will tackle the Omni Hotel’s lighting system later this year, programming it to run self-designed works in another public offering. This will be the second time DVF has tackled the 20 story-tall screen, reclaiming it as a display medium…
Aside from a swath of fabric draped across her own masterpiece, The Golden Goddess stands entirely in the buff. The statue pre-dates Deco, but looks like something that could guard Versace’s old South Beach nest. She’s had a peculiar life, this golden girl. And it seems like divine intervention that…
The Dallas Opera has announced that to celebrate next season’s opening night it will simulcast the Carmen at Klyde Warren Park. The free First Night screening will have all the perks: footage of attendees walking the Winspear’s red carpet in their opulent gala best; a “Toreador Song Sing-a-long”; beer and…
In this week’s Dallas Observer we profile 30 of the metro area’s most interesting characters, with new portraits of each from local photographer Stanton Stephens. See the entire Dallas Observer People Issue here Born into the lushly creative coupling of an Academy Award-winning filmmaker father and a theater critic/author mother,…
[Note to self: Buy more bodysuits.] Flashdance the Musical is jog-dancing in Fair Park, educating a new generation of ladies that it’s possible to be both a gentleman’s club headliner and a welder. You’re welcome, planet. That ain’t all: This weekend is loaded up with art openings, magazine release parties,…
This week’s print edition of the Observer is a celebration in portraits. It’s a highlight of those influential humans who are helping drive the city toward new, brighter goals. One of the chosen is the illuminating Sally Glass, local artist, curator, student, party-starter and editor in chief of semigloss. Magazine,…
One-on-one relationships are so … two-person. For those who prefer other mathematical permutations of the standard model, there’s the 50 Shades of Erotica Swinger’s Ball. I know what you’re thinking: “But Observer, aren’t swingers’ conventions confined to the humid nether regions of Central and Southern Florida?” That’s a logical assumption,…
It’s the final installment of the Edgar Wright directed “Blood and Ice Cream” Trilogy, and won’t see wide release until August 23. But the new Alamo Richardson (now set to open on August 9) refuses to wait, so it’s announced an early screening of The World’s End inside the yet-to-be-opened…
In this week’s Dallas Observer we profile 30 of the metro area’s most interesting characters, with new portraits of each from local photographer Stanton Stephens. See the entire Dallas Observer People Issue here Akwete and Bandele Tyehimba dove into their love affair and opened Pan-African Connection — a shop known…
The Nasher unveiled the second Xchange public art project on Friday, and it’s positioned to be the most public of them all. We mentioned a while back that Rick Lowe, Houston’s famous artist/activist and the man responsible for rebuilding the area’s Third Ward with his Project Row Houses, would be…
The Asian Film Festival of Dallas will usher in its 12 year of programming with an expansion, moving from its old Magnolia digs to the extra spacious Angelika for 2013. Last year’s showcase pulled in huge titles like Ace Attorney, the latest release by Takashi Miike (Ishi the Killer, Audition),…
Last weekend the Immersed in Ink Tattoo and Arts Convention arrived in Mesquite. Once there it dared to do the unthinkable: squish a small dining buffet, dozens of working tattoo artists, tiny-person extreme entertainment, sideshow spectacle and and a team of human suspension performers into one mid-sized showroom. The most…
Last weekend’s Screw Attack Gaming Convention was a massive celebration of video game culture, but that didn’t stop cosplay and costume die hards from showing off their best work. One man even diligently patrolled the event with an epically large 20-sided die perched on his shoulder, like a D&D-playing Atlas…
Screw Attack Gaming Convention occupied the downtown Dallas Hyatt last weekend, filling multiple floors with big name panel discussions, a showroom for indie game demos and more contests than you can shake an ancient Triforce at. It was a pure celebration of gaming culture, and we sent photographer Stephen Masker…
There’s a couple ways to look at Extreme Midget Wrestling: societal barometer, or ambitiously equal employment for short, ferocious athletes. The EMWF brought its folding chairs and trash can lids to Trees on Saturday night for an all-out slam fest, and by the match’s end, size no longer mattered. These…
Sitting on a vast stretch of prairie land in Sanger, Texas — a city whose name elicits involuntary drawl — is a magical space filled with dancing ponies, knights, a three-legged dog and wild-hair locals revving four-by-fours. It’s the Medieval Times Ranch, where an absurd, imagined world is drafted and…
Warning: It’s beautiful out. I repeat: It’s beautiful out. With temperatures slated to stay at mid-nineties and below, you’ll actually enjoy leaving your house this weekend. There’s a SUP paddle boarding party in Grapevine, a free block party in the Arts District and a giant beer festival and concert at…
Things are moving along at the new Richardson branch of Alamo Drafthouse, the Austin-based chain known for simultaneously serving up booze, food and great movies. Construction is in such good shape that the venue says it will open a full week sooner than originally thought, with a new date set…
