You know what’s scary? Buying or making your kids a Halloween costume and only putting it to use once. There’s a lot of effort required: thinking up a great concept and assembling the pieces is labor-heavy, especially for one night of trick-or-treating. I personally believe that you should hit up…

As you sat on Woodall Rodgers over the past few years, staring at taillights, you wondered about Klyde Warren Park. What would it look like? When would you be able to access the Tollway again? Would there be food trucks? The answers are nigh, my friends, because said park opens…

When you were 17, most of your spare time was used perfecting your fake ID and trying to convince your parents that being 30 minutes late for curfew was within a scientific margin of error. In hindsight, it’s probably still time well spent in many ways — life experience and…

It’s a mistake any Dallas newbie can make. You get up one October morning and decide to catch breakfast somewhere west on Northwest Highway and then you see it: pink, pink, pink, as far as the eye can see. Traffic is at a standstill and you are left to marvel…

Not sure if you heard about this, but 100 years ago, there was this awesome ship that accidentally hit an iceberg. A bunch of really bad stuff happened to a lot of really good people, and history (and Hollywood) has told us all about some of the passengers: John Jacob…

The thing about TX/OU weekend is that you have to have a plan. If you don’t find someplace to hang your hat ahead of time, you’ll end up sitting in traffic, pleading with Siri to find you a bar with decent parking while fending off wayward Oklahoma drivers. Luckily, all…

Whether you’re sporting crimson and cream, burnt orange or just whatever you rolled out of bed in, there’s no shortage of parties in honor of the legendary Red River Shootout. Watch the game in neutral territory at the historic Granada Theater (3524 Greenville Ave.). Doors open at 1 p.m. and…

It’s never going to be easy for a victim of sexual assault. And despite the fact that we’ve come a long way in offering support for sexual assault survivors, all you need to do is look at the comments section of a news story related to the issue to see…

Growing up is fraught with so many pitfalls and tragedies and traumas that it’s a wonder any of us make it to adulthood. Add in a gender-identity issue, something wrapped up in so many aspects of sexuality and psychology and social identity, and you begin to think that it’s practically…

One day, Sandra Fluke was a law school graduate with interests in reproductive rights and domestic violence — and the next day Rush Limbaugh publicly branded her with a big ole scarlet letter for making a speech before House Democrats supporting the Affordable Care Act. Fluke talked to the House…

There are galleries that you walk through without saying a word — those places where everything is curated within an inch of its life and the prevailing feeling is one of intimidation. Waxahachie’s Webb Gallery (209 W. Franklin St.) is about as far from that tone as you can get,…

Beer: That single little word conjures up so much frothy, frosty goodness it almost seems redundant to have a festival celebrating such a, well, festive concoction. But the industrious folks here at the Dallas Observer, as well as at KJKK-FM Jack 100.3 and KRLD-FM The Fan 105.3, never pass up…

You waited patiently through your entire academic career for someone to yell “Food fight!” in the cafeteria, thereby sanctioning a spontaneous melee of spaghetti-throwing and pudding-dodging that not even Hollywood could top. It never happened — except that time those jock dudes threw a stick of butter at that goth…

There are two popular archetypes of the Southern women: polite marriage material and delightfully tacky diva. One of these is far more interesting than the other and I’ll give you a hint: The fun one doesn’t involve going to cotillion (at least not legitimately). Christy McBrayer seems like she may…

I’m not sure why the blues and barbecue go together so well. A big ol’ pile of smoky meat makes us so happy that you’d think it would pair better with something uptempo. But no. Those 12-bar progressions in 4/4 time really stoke the flames of the meat lover’s soul…

The free family festivities offered by some of our vaunted cultural institutions in Dallas are a godsend: a total lifesaver for parents overwhelmed with Montessori tuition, crew lesson installments and gym dues. I mean, people told us that kids were expensive, but who knew that each activity came with such…

There’s an artistic embarrassment of riches in the Dallas area — a huge helping of art galleries and collectives that make up the fabric of our art scene. On any given weekend, there’s a heaping handful of openings or receptions to hit up, featuring everything from photography to landscapes to…

Round about the time that you thought lava lamps and Bob Marley posters were, like, the apex of interior design, somebody told you that if you watched The Wizard of Oz but turned down the volume and used Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon as the soundtrack, some crazy…

Roller derby’s got something for everyone — theatrics, athleticism, costumes, physical violence, Ellen Page movies and so on and so forth. One thing it doesn’t have a lot of: dudes. Unlike synchronized swimming, guys aren’t expressly forbidden in the annals of roller derby, but the former just doesn’t pack the…

The members of the Extreme Midget Wrestling team don’t need your politically correct tiptoeing. They don’t care that the Little People of America organization are a bit dismayed at their insistence on using the “M” word. They just want to get in the ring, bounce off the ropes and beat…

We think we have Christmas and Thanksgiving and Hanukkah totally down, after centuries of tradition and decades of power shopping. But truthfully, our holidays are relatively tame. Depending on the subject of the celebration, we worship (or tune into the appropriate parade), we eat and we pass out on the…