Etsy Steps Out of the Virtual World

Oh, Etsy — online purveyors of everything cute and unique and of that which inspires so much coveting from house guests and neighbors and random girls at the mall. I love you Etsy. I love your handmade diaper bags and kitschy cushions and striking scarves. I love that I can…

Hope You Have The Time Of Your Life

You understand that because Green Day has managed to have American Idiot adapted into a Broadway show, anything is possible — right? Think of the possibilities. Carrie Brownstein of Sleater Kinney waxed poetic on this very topic a few years ago when the show first hit the stage, suggesting works…

Learn How to Flaunt It

There are people in the world who roll out of their beds each morning, stumble through their closets and manage to throw together an array of patterns, prints, colors and accessories to make An Outfit. These are the people you see at shows and at art openings who stop traffic…

Ready to Drink, Ready to Run… In Fuzzy Helmets

In his new book The Big Miss, golf coach Hank Haney tells a story about how Tiger Woods decided he wanted to be a Navy SEAL a few years back. Apparently, Woods trained with them and even told Haney that the Navy was willing to waive their age restriction for…

Spring Into Art

Weekend after weekend, the cars pile up on the service roads that lead to NorthPark Center and I wonder why. Why do we load the kids into the car, circle the lots and curse at predatory parkers only to enter a noisy, crowded space and then fork over our hard-earned…

Be Cool with the Uptown Gang

Barring the occasional tornado (please do), now is the best possible time for an outdoor celebration in Dallas. So we celebrate. We celebrate just about anything we can, while we can. This week we celebrate a part of town known for Kardashian sightings, fancy brunch and well-dressed joggers, and we…

Racing With Class

Racing season is upon us, and I’m not talking NASCAR. Though exhaust fumes may fill the air and RVs may clog the highways on their way to see Kyle Busch kill an afternoon going in circles, these races are being run on dirt by our equine friends. And while I…

The Madcap Sound of Silence

The Oyster Princess is a crazy acid trip of a silent film. It’s a German silent movie that features a heroine who makes those girls on My Super Sweet Sixteen look austere, features a foxtrot that must be one of the weirdest dance scenes ever captured on film, and it’s…

Here’s Listening to You, Kid

If ever a movie called for a live orchestra, it’s Casablanca. The moody, noir-ish classic, set during World War II, is one of the most stunning films ever made and I’ll stand by that hyperbole. Even viewed 70 years after it was released, it doesn’t seem stilted and outdated the…

On Thin, but Magical, Ice

Disney is nothing if not a multi-tasker. The fairy tale conglomerate has its hand in everything from juice boxes to dinnerware to upholstery to personal care items. It has TV shows and (obviously) movies, and a radio station. And just when you thought you could leave your house, get out…

Get Your Kicks

I spend a lot of time in parks these days, and while I’m running back and forth prying acorns out of a toddler’s mouth and regulating whose turn it is on the slide (before the hair pulling starts), I’m often staring wistfully at a field just south of the playground…

As R.E.M. Said, Everybody Farts

Remember when you were in third grade and one stray toot enveloping the classroom was enough to keep the whole class buzzing for hours? You tried to deduce who did it. Then you discussed all the other memorable gas clouds you could think of (like what the dog did last…

The Observer Goes Greenville

You’ve traversed your way up and down Greenville Avenue since the wee hours of the morning, gone balls out just to snag a set of green beads from a sorority girl on a flat-bed truck and openly wondered how the hell one decides to take up bagpipes as a hobby…

Kid-Lit And Grown-Up Flicks, Stay Young At The DMA

The literature that starts to fill up your house when you have a little one is one of the best parts of being a parent. Board books, pop-up books, picture books and more fill your shelves, litter the floors and scatter underfoot — each taking the most mundane of topics…

Get Your Family Hooked on Art

When you grow up in a town whose only museum featured the same quilting exhibit for nearly 12 years, you learn to appreciate the multitude of activities offered for families in our own arts community. One of the best of these activities is the Family Day Celebration at the DMA,…

Sesame Street Live: Elmo Makes Music

My toddler doesn’t know who Elmo is. That isn’t because we’ve taken a holier-than-though stance on TV viewing, but rather because we are selfishly holding out as long as possible to avoid the influx of the high-pitched red devil into our tidy little home. Red isn’t really compatible with my…

Tuna On A Roll

Did you know that Tuna, Texas, once was a real place? The great and mighty Texas State Historical Association posits that indeed, it was a lively little town “six miles south of Cotulla on the International and Great Northern line in west central La Salle County.” I made up the…

Magic in the Interim

There’s something magical about watching an artist in the process of creation. And I don’t mean magical in the way that the vitamin guy at Whole Foods meant the other day when he said that probiotics would “work magic” on my child. That ain’t magic. I mean it like Harry…

In the Lee of Valentine’s Day

It’s the day after Valentine’s Day and you need a little grit to get the too-sweet taste of chocolate out of your mouth. You need to get far, far away from a world of dinner reservations and floral arrangements and all things sappy, and the cinematic gods have united to…

Little Red Ballet

According to weatherman (and stone cold fox) Pete Delkus, Canada has ruined our chances of having an actual winter this year by refusing to play nice and send us a heaping helping of arctic air. So, this summer when you’re battling hoards of fleas and swatting the legions of mosquitoes…

How Goal-Oriented Moms Do It

Oh, but I would love to know the secrets of the soccer mom. They float onto the playground with their impossibly glossy hair, their North Face gear and their iPhones that chirp at them when it’s time to leave and pick up their other kids from practice. They make it…

Giant Is Epic, Damn It!

I was reprimanded recently for misusing the word “epic”. I said something to the effect that my Buffalo wings were epic, and my dining companion pointed out that my Buffalo wings were not in any, way, shape or form related to long-form poetry and that if Homer (the poet, not…