Festival season is upon us once again, and it’s time to start planning your schedule wisely. You may have already missed some of the big ones like the Wildflower Festival or ARTFEST, but don’t fret—it’s not too late to make it to the granddaddy of all local festivals, the fourth…

I’ve always had mixed feelings about A Few Good Men. Rob Reiner’s major motion picture adaptation of the Aaron Sorkin Broadway play gave me more reasons to hate Demi Moore and Tom Cruise, while giving everyone else yet another Jack Nicholson impression to beat to death. The truth indeed. Yet…

Have you ever sat around watching Sister Act on a Saturday afternoon and thought to yourself, “Damn, I really wish this were a British comedy starring Robbie Coltrane and Eric Idle dressed as zany nuns instead of that annoying Whoopi Goldberg trying to teach nuns how to sing?” After all,…

It’s summer again. Kids look forward to it all year, while parents dread it. It’s not so much the hot Texas sun (you’ve already stocked up on enough sunscreen to cover the whole Rangers team for a year) as the notion that those lazy days of summer are completely lost…

I don’t care how big your grill is, you’ll never be able to make me a steak as good as one I could get at a four-star steakhouse like Chamberlain’s Steak and Chop House, 5330 Belt Line Road. Perhaps they have steak elves helping them in the kitchen, because, more…

Everything I know about horse racing I learned from watching the Marx Brothers. In A Day at the Races Chico taught me about wagering (and to always steer clear of a guy selling tootsie frootsie ice cream and code books), Groucho taught me that horse doctors make questionable sanitarium doctors…

I can’t aim a gun for the life of me—I always sucked at Duck Hunt. I can say with certainty that I would never make a good hunter (besides, I don’t want to shoot animals, anyway, but that’s one girl’s opinion). But the way I figure it, if someone’s going…

“Living history” such as Dallas Heritage Village kind of freaks me out. I will never understand costumed characters who talk funny, churn butter and act like they’ve never heard of television. But here’s something you should know: Kids eat this stuff up. Well, this weekend there’s going to be a…

A lot of us are still recovering from the inaugural year of the AFI Dallas International Film Festival. We got the chance to run around like chickens with our heads cut off to screenings all over town, stand in lines for hours and rub elbows with the semi-rich and sort…

If you’ve ever spent a decent amount of time at the Dallas Museum of Art or The Modern in Fort Worth, then chances are you’ve already seen some of photographer Nic Nicosia’s work. Remember that little girl in a tutu spotlighted on the dining room table or those kids setting…

Realizing that backstage antics can be more entertaining than what actually happens onstage in theater, British playwright Michael Frayn penned one of the most entertaining plays, Noises Off, more than 20 years ago. A three-act piece that lets the audience experience (from backstage and the front of the house) the…

So you wanna be the coolest parent on the block? Consider sending the brood to the Ballpark After Dark Sleepover this weekend and you’ll be off to a good start. Better than an old school lock-in, it’s like spring training for your kids. The program, for grades 1 through 5,…

With Victory Plaza taking over downtown and the (possible) reinvention of Deep Ellum, downtown Dallas is poised to be the next big thing. But what about the old thing? We often forget about the past, and the fact that Dallas has so much history is unfortunately lost on a lot…

I hate to break the news to you, but there’s more to international dance and performance than watching Paulina Porizkova foxtrot or Heather Mills (not so much McCartney) try her hand, I mean leg, at Dancing With the Stars this week. Mills may samba, paso doble and tango alongside other…

With Posh and Becks moving stateside, people in this country may start caring about soccer, er, football, a bit more. We’ll go to the games, we’ll join Hoops Nation, we’ll proudly wear our red and white and we’ll be hooligans. OK, maybe not that last part, because that’d be a…

Cheese is, without a doubt, the greatest stuff on earth—I’d give up my left arm before I’d give up cheesy goodness. Luckily local legend Paula Lambert, founder of the Mozzarella Company, is here to make sure that fresh, quality cheeses are at our fingertips daily…allowing me to still use a…

More and more, I’m finding it hard to appreciate art shows. With so many galleries and local artists popping up everywhere, not to mention exhibitions passing through town, we’ve finally been given the opportunity to be picky about what we accept from the art world. Take, for example, Adam Ball’s…

I have a confession to make. I’ve lived in Dallas on and off for almost 20 years and, though I’ve been going to the State Fair every fall for a few years now, I’ve seen little beyond the midway and the car show. I know I’m a bad person because…

Think your kid’s got what it takes to be the next top chef? OK, maybe not right now, but Central Market can help you get a good start. Its cooking school staff has taken on the daunting task of teaching your little cookie monsters (ages 6 to 12) some baking…

There are a few movies that you know you should see, that you need to see, but you’re just a little afraid. You can handle gorefests with ghosts, demons and giant killer crocodiles, but what gets you more are the horrors of real life. Sometimes we tend to shy away…

Any person can take brush, roller or aerosol can to canvas and produce a painting these days, so what makes a work of art actually art? Moreover, what makes paint paint? It’s a question not easily answered (unless, say, you pull out your Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary because you’re a smartass),…

I’ll have to admit, your Dallas Stars are doing pretty well this season. Better than my team, but that’s beside the point. With the 55th NHL All-Star Game rolling through town at 8 p.m. Wednesday, we’re going to share a team when the Western Conference takes on the Eastern Conference…