Mild Texas winters are good for one thing: outdoor grilling. Lately, it’s rarely been too chilly to light the grill on the patio. But a few times every winter, a cold wind rolls down from the north, forcing grillers to fire up the George Foreman in the kitchen, where the…
Enter the world of high-end hunting at Visions 2011, the Dallas Safari Club Show & Expo. The annual sporting show draws an international crowd interested in safaris and socializing. Hundreds of booths, with vendors ranging from local dealers to African hunting lodges, offer eye-popping items for sportsmen and -women who…
The Armed Forces Bowl match-up between the SMU Mustangs and the Army Black Knights is branded as “more than a bowl game,” presumably a nod to the game’s military theme. The military and its cohorts share a flair for cheesy dramatic marketing, which isn’t surprising considering the passel of patriotic…
If Willie Nelson is the king of the Texas-based country genre, then Robert Earl Keen is the prince behind the throne. Keen, who ranks high as a songwriter and performer, has penned boot thumpers like “That Buckin’ Song” and cry-into-your-beer ballads such as “Love’s a Word I Never Throw Around.”…
Texas high school football is more than an institution–it’s a religion. The football-flavored drama served up by the eerily on point TV show Friday Night Lights is repeated weekly around Texas in the fall. In December there can be only one winner, but that’s the beauty of competition. Texans worship…
Do a Marty McFly and travel back in time to the 19th century during Candlelight at Old City Park in Dallas. The two-day weekend festival conjures up ye olde holiday experience for the family: carriage rides courtesy of half-brother donkeys Nip and Tuck, storytelling, photos with St. Nick, crafts, entertainment…
For some unfathomable reason mothers can’t resist plopping their kid down on Santa’s knee, crocodile tears and leaky diapers be damned. No wonder some of the poor guys carry a flask filled with “holiday cheer.” The annual photo-with-Santa inevitably surfaces during inopportune times, such as first dates, or even worse,…
Break out the cigarette lighter–Cheap Trick is in town. The ’70s power-pop group is the poor man’s Rolling Stones: Both have been touring, like, forever. Cheap Trick has released more albums and compilations than Phil Spector has wigs, and guested on soundtracks from Top Gun to Transformers. The band’s bread…
Reality takes a backseat in Cairo Time, a love story targeted to ladies who buy J. Crew sweater sets and consider Nora Roberts a guilty pleasure. The AARP chick flick stars the excellent Patricia Clarkson, a fashion editor romanced by Alexander Siddig’s suave and swarthy guide on what’s supposed to…
Few face the problem of living up to a famous father’s legacy like Jason Bonham, son of John, revered Led Zeppelin drummer. The younger Bonham, only 14 when his father died, neatly sidestepped the issue by embracing his drummer dad’s fame rather than shunning it. Bonham learned to play the…
My most lasting memory of a visit to the Musee de Orsay in Paris is of Clesinger’s “Woman Bitten by a Snake.” Her naked body, sculpted straight from the artist’s model, is curvaceous and pockmarked with cellulite. I couldn’t take my eyes from it. The unaltered form shocked me–sadly–as the…
The Golden Dragon Acrobats spin from ropes, flip through hoops, balance umbrellas on their toes, and leap like cats. The traveling troupe of Chinese acrobats, seemingly made of rubber, twist and turn and contort in ways you never will, or would want to. The acrobats learn the tricks of the…
Hegemony (n.): the political, economic, ideological or cultural power exerted by a dominant group over another group, usually through unwitting consent. In less stilted graduate-school terms, hegemony is manipulating the masses to accept a way of thinking, acting, consuming, etc. without them realizing they’re being manipulated. The saps on Jersey…
The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas–no, this isn’t a belated “Best of Dallas” recommendation–is opening this weekend for a quickie run at Casa Manana. The whorehouse, dubbed the Chicken Ranch during the Depression, when the pleasure palace’s policy was “one bird, one lay,” does brisk business with college boys and…
When the usual spate of sub-par horror movies clog theaters in the weeks leading up to Halloween (Saw 36, anyone?), there’s a certain comfort in knowing the classics will never die. Such is the case during Hitchcocktober, a month-long celebration of Alfred Hitchcock, the unmatched master of on-screen suspense, dread…
Nothing loosens the wallet like an excellent glass of wine. 20 Dallas area chefs, lead by Kent Rathbun, will pair delicious food with dozens of Napa Valley wines for the Signature Chefs of Dallas Auction benefiting The March of Dimes. Local foodie mouths will water at the list of celebrity…
A cowgirl is more than a woman who ropes and rides and dons a ten gallon hat. Cowgirl poetess Helen Odom had a thing or two to say about these headstrong “Texas Wimmen:” “Thay allus does ac-com-plish/Whatever thay tries ter do. Ain’t nuthin’ never hard.” Shaky grammar aside, old Helen…
Tired of combing through dozens of Netflix recommendations for fresh flicks, only to be disappointed? Well, launch yourself off the couch and drive down to the Angelika. VideoFest, an annual local film festival showcasing documentaries, independent and experimental films, starts tonight. The Video Association of Dallas says the festival is…
“Oh, Great Pumpkin, where are you?” Linus laments in the classic kid’s flick It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown, as he awaits the hallowed pumpkin’s arrival. If Linus happened to be loitering with his blankie around these parts, I’d direct him to the Dallas Arboretum. He’d surely go out of…
The Dallas Symphony Orchestra is hosting a black-tie night of Beethoven for its annual gala, themed “Of Life and Love.” Music director Jaap van Zweden will lead the DSO in Beethoven’s Symphony No. 3, Eroica–Italian for “heroic.” Beethoven originally wrote the symphony for Napoleon, but changed the title after Napoleon…
The buzzing cacophony of vuvuzelas has long since faded from our collective consciousness and televisions. For those suffering from World Cup withdrawal (and really, who doesn’t miss the hotness that is Landon Donovan? Ladies?), then Pizza Hut Park is your Mecca. The local footballers of FC Dallas host the crazy…
The Great Recession has spurred a spike in the popularity of do-it-yourself projects. Learn to maximize your home’s potential at the Fort Worth Home and Garden Market. From indoors to outdoors, gardens to pools, the show promises a smorgasbord of decorating and remodeling ideas. Sit in on how-to workshops for…
