They summon the footnotes of the Merriam Webster book of Idioms on demand. They solve your holophonic confusions through etymological dissection. They even exhume the roots of those regional phrases or heirloom colloquialisms that your grandmother imprinted on you — you know, the ones you say that make your friends…
It’s tough being a coin-op addict in 2013. Despite being the nation’s No. 1 resale hub for the things, most of Dallas’ pinball machines are preserved in the caring homes of collectors, rather than in the corners of bars and laundromats. For 51 weekends of each year, that is a…
A bitterly Good Night. The full list is posted, and it includes an earlier teased category of Italian films. In that showcase you’ll get a dusting off of two classics, Roberto Benigni’s Life is Beautiful and Fellini’s 8 1/2, along with three newbies. Probably the buzziest film In the Texas…
Over here at the Observer, we love a good convention. Last weekend’s All-Con was a thing of exceptional beauty — After all, when else can you walk through an Addison hotel and see men and women, bounty hunters and storm troopers, dressed down to suits and helmets partying in a…
Before he became the entrepreneurial Tom Haverford on Parks and Rec, he starred in the video sketch series Human Giant. And before both of those things, the major venue stand-up comedy tours, television specials and wildly enthusiastic reviews by music publications Rolling Stone and Pitchfork, Aziz Ansari was a gangly…
The set was a staged scene out of 1960s Miami, with slender tropical trees and full-length mirrors fencing in Joan Rivers’ six-piece orchestra. The supper club vibe carried a timeless quality, easily projecting an era when audiences left dinner reservations at The Palm to see the circuit’s biggest names in…
I wasn’t expecting much walking into last night’s State of the Arts: Art and Technology lecture at the DMA. I was worried it might be a little boring — you know: all circuits, no emotion. Wrong. So wrong. What a fascinating panel of art cyborgs humans. We got three speakers:…
There’s a distinctive meter to a Joan Rivers routine. A gap-filler, she’s quick to follow-up a joke or talking point with a rhetorical question. It’s a job most famously held by her “Can we talk?” catch phrase, tossed in to extend laughter until she pins it down with a punch…
Preach on, Joan. Preach on. (The Ed Sullivan Show, 1967) She’s always been bold and brash, and she hasn’t softened with age. See for yourself when Joan Rivers brings her stand-up to the Winspear on Sunday. That’s not all: Local street art crew Sour Grapes has an Open Studio session…
Occasionally our Dallas fashion stars shine bright, like when designer James Martinez made it onto Season 11 of Project Runway. Most of us think he’d have gone further if it weren’t for that cursed group challenge. Fortunately for all of us, Martinez is still hard at work, making charming garments…
On its surface, Dallas appears to be a polished city. A bustling community full of investment bankers and aspiring professional cheerleaders. Beneath that veneer lies a lusher and more intriguing ecosystem. I’m speaking, of course, about you: our elaborate, and highly necessary, network of nerds, dorks and geeks. Evidence of…
While it might seem that we’re buried under a haystack of feathers, beads and tassels in the bombshell bomb shelter that is Dallas, there are a few burlesque performances that manage to rise up and demand attention. Take Saturday’s unconventional twist on the art as Whiskey Tongue Burlesque and Frausun…
His work has been collected by the Guggenheim, the Tate Gallery, the MOMA and pretty much every other major institution worldwide, and yet we get a chance to see the work of Boston University professor John Walker in the Carillon Gallery of Tarrant County College South (5301 Campus Drive, Fort…
We’ve entered a period when technology isn’t only revered, it’s considered kinda sexy, a sentiment that trickles down and factors into even less obvious fields, like art. While 20 years ago, science and art were rarely caught in bed together, in 2013 we see them as a sort of power…
“Seven stormtroopers got together and actually devised All-Con in 2003,” says Todd Carlton, who’s both a proud representative of the Dark Side and an All-Con Content Manager. From those humble, difficult to walk-in beginnings, it sprung: A convention that adheres the best bits of Dallas’ other conventions together, like a…
I’m still waiting on that POGS film… Knowing that Pulitzer Prize winning author and cartoonist Art Spiegelman created the Garbage Pail Kids trading card series, makes their existence so much sweeter. Still, I can’t help but imagine his reaction went he went to see The Garbage Pail Kids Movie world…
With her vampires put to eternal rest, Twilight author Stephenie Meyer was able to dabble deeper into other science fiction avenues. In her book-turned-movie The Host, she invades the realm of alien body snatching and sets the stage for Earth’s invasion. There, a lone resistance group remains, pocketed away from…
Rochester Institute of Technology has captured stunning photographs of architectural landmarks since 1987 through an annual project called Big Shot. But what’s unique about this group’s approach, and what gives the night shoots their curious, ending glow, hinges on deviation from the standard. Rather than placing industrial photography lights around…
A sign of recovery in the retail market or a misallocation of funds? It’s a bit unclear, but the after-hours shopping phenomenon Fashion’s Night Out has been canceled for 2013, nationwide. Vogue brought it to fruition in 2009 as a way to encourage shoppers to spend, despite the economic collapse…
If you happen through NorthPark Center this weekend, be on the lookout for some art dancing. (Psst, it’ll be near The Art.) Funded through a grant by the Texas Commission of the Arts in collaboration with the National Endowment of the Arts, the project borrows the bodies of Contemporary Dance/Fort…
It’s begun. The Dallas International Film Festival is rolling out its selections for this year’s fest, which will consume our minds and eyes from April 4 through April 14. The first 10 films were just announced, and two of them are products of filmmakers who get their mail delivered in…
I know what you’re thinking: Did I drop acid and step inside of a paint-by-numbers, again? Possibly. Also, Night Comfort! It’s Friday’s celebration of music video and Beta-era television footage. What’s that Dallas? You’d like dirt track championships, tripped-out musicals on film, Irish Festivals, live comedy, great art AND opera…
