Stan Lee, godfather of Marvel Comics and creator of Spider-Man, Fantastic Four, Iron Man, Avengers, Incredible Hulk and X-Men, spilled secrets about comics and cameos Sunday afternoon at Dallas Comic Con. Lee, casually dressed in a green shirt and khakis, was greeted with a standing ovation and a shout of…
Betty Friedan opened the proverbial can of worms when she introduced the phrase “feminine mystique” into the vernacular. Friedan’s diagnosis for bored, unsatisfied housewives–“the problem that has no name”–led to an ongoing recovery both spiritual and economic. But the question “What does it mean to be a woman?” persists. Paint…
Galaxies will collide when a pair of science fiction icons, Star Trek’s Leonard Nimoy and Star Wars’ Carrie Fisher, enter the same orbit at Dallas Comic Con at Irving Convention Center this weekend. If that isn’t enough to incite a fanboy riot, the place might blow when headliner Stan Lee,…
Sink into summer at the très chic Hotel ZaZa with a visit to the hotel’s gallery—not the pool. Wet, an exhibition dedicated to water-themed artwork, will evoke the coconut smell of sunscreen and the sensation of gentle waves. The featured artists hail from states to the west: Eric Zener (painter,…
Sidewalks are social spaces native to the urban landscape. Cafes spill out upon them; busking musicians claim their corners. They’re also shared turf, used for an infinite number of purposes; walking, running or biking are among the more mundane. One might dance upon them, if so inclined. Contemporary Ballet Dallas…
Children, with their unfettered egos, often confound adults. It’s an odd notion, since we all used to be kids — no matter how long ago. Philosopher and father of four Ralph Waldo Emerson once noted, “A child is a curly dimpled lunatic.” Considering he stuck two of his sons with…
In the frenzy of fetes for Ebby Halliday’s 100th birthday, Dallas hasn’t forgotten the city’s other new centenarian: White Rock Lake. The lake’s history is a microcosm of how Dallas transformed from farmland to urban playground over the last hundred years. If the clock suddenly spun backward, the paved jogging…
Nosy scientists, armed with increasingly complicated technology, are unearthing dirty little secrets sealed for millennia in the tombs of ancient Egypt. DNA tests, a staple on Jerry Springer and Maury Povich, also dug up skeletons in King Tut’s closet. In true Springer style, Tutankhamen married his sister and their parents…
Burlesque is the flaming phoenix of American theater traditions; the alcoholic-fueled free-for-all was effectively extinguished by Prohibition (damn those teetotalers and their fake middle class morality). But burlesque rose from the ashes with help from garter-strapped performers like Dita von Teese (Marilyn Manson’s ex-wife), who sexily sashays the fine line…
Nothing in the music business is sacred anymore–if anything ever was–including Queen’s greatest hits. Singer Freddie Mercury’s doppelganger, an English bloke named plain ol’ Gary Mullen, has crafted a career belting Queen classics backed by Mullen’s band, The Works. Mercury must be rolling over his in grave. The dark-haired Mullen,…
Shakespeare may look like a dour dude in a ruffled collar, but he knew how to party. “Good wine is a good familiar creature if it be well used,” he wrote in Othello (a performance of which would drive anyone to drink). A personal favorite, “Good wine needs no bush,”…
The interminable gap between All-Star Weekend and the Western Conference playoffs must be a hellish version of Groundhog Day for Mark Cuban, watching his Mavericks fumble year after year as the Lakers (or Spurs) head to the Finals for yet another shot at yet another title. Zen master Phil Jackson…
“To forget the dead would be akin to killing them a second time,” Elie Wiesel wrote in his acclaimed account of the Holocaust. Wiesel survived multiple concentration camps, including Auschwitz-Birkenau, where more than a million Jews were exterminated by the Nazis during World War II. The death camp is the…
Dr. Seuss, king of kids books, had the formula down. Pair cute creatures with a couple of bad-ass rhymes, and boom: instant gold. It can’t be that hard, right? Here goes: Seuss is a pimp/ He ain’t no wimp/ That green eggs and ham/ Much better than Spam. Word. If…
With newspapers across the country self-destructing like gadgets in a bad spy movie, it’s surprising–no, shocking–that the Chicago Tribune has managed to keep around a guy who earns his pay critiquing architecture. That’s how Blair Kamin rolls, God love him, and he’s good enough to have earned a Pulitzer Prize…
Dallas photographer Laura Wilson–AKA as the football mom for brothers Luke, Owen and Andrew (yes, those Wilsons)–trekked around Texas documenting the sport on its smallest scale: six-man football. The six-man tradition, a faster and higher scoring adaptation of the 11-man lineup, emerged from the Great Depression, when many smaller schools…
Spend Valentine’s Day with your sweetie gliding to dinner aboard the McKinney Ave. Trolley with only a dollop of irony: The McKinney Ave. Transit Authority named its Valentine’s deal “Streetcar Named Desire,” though the namesake play has absolutely nothing to do with romance. Quite the opposite, in fact. But if…
Back in the ’80s, The Dallas Museum of Art replicated several rooms of the art-packed French Riviera villa of Wendy (Texan and fashion model) and Emery (Hungarian writer and art collector) Reves to display the couple’s dizzying collection of impressionist and post-impressionist art including pieces by van Gogh, Monet and…
Calling all douchebags and $30,000 millionaires! If your dearest dream is to party like a rockstar–even if only for one short night–P. Diddy has you covered. Mr. Diddy and DJ Clinton Sparks are headliners for “Fantasy,” a fiesta thrown by Capital A Entertainment on Super Bowl eve. The party’s website…
The tango–perhaps the sexiest dance known to man–was birthed in the brothels and rundown neighborhoods of old Argentina. The word means “a place for slaves to meet.” There’s no doubt many, many lovers–enslaved or not–have met through the embrace of the tango. We Americans are familiar with the (still sexy)…
“O body swayed to music, O brightening glance, How can we know the dancer from the dance?” Irish poet William Butler Yeats mused. Dancing, some say, is physical poetry. And if movement is an act of self-expression, then it stands to reason the dance is the dancer, just as poetry…
If y’all are ready to laugh your dicks off, let me hear you say YEAH! If that offends you, read no further. That said, Aziz Ansari should need no introduction to comedy fans. The enduring popularity of Randy (“Raaaaaaaaandy!”), the boorish character in Judd Apatow’s Funny People, has outlived the…
