Remember in school when they made us identify different minerals based on stuff like their hardness, their luster, their streak, etc.? Yeah, that sucked. I mean, I’m all about minerals hanging out and looking cool, but I’d rather someone just tell me what they are. No one wins in a…
When someone mentions sampling milk, all I can think of is that nasty scene in Napoleon Dynamite. I can’t help it. Ick. Hopefully the milk sampling portion of the Got Milk? Mustache Mobile Tour will be less revolting. That’s right, ladies and gents, the Mustache Mobile Tour is coming to…
I’m all for weird, unofficial holidays. Forget about Halloween and Valentine’s Day and all that kids’ stuff. We should really be celebrating gems like “Draw a Picture of a Bird Day” and “Hollerin’ Contest Day.” The Dance Council is having a big festival to celebrate “National Dance Week,” which is…
During a routine visit to the Fort Worth Zoo several weeks ago, a few odd creatures in particular caught my eye. One was a man tossing Cheetos to the orangutans, right in front of the “Don’t feed the animals” sign. Another was a little boy hanging out in the “Parrot…
In some ways, ladies these days have become expert worriers. We’re awesome at worrying about horizontal stripes and our skin and dark parking garages. But for some reason, we often forget to worry about the most worrisome thing of all: heart disease, which is the number one killer of American…
On a recent episode of Top Chef, the elimination challenge was to create a dish based on the chef’s favorite film. Somebody picked Good Morning, Vietnam and made a Vietnamese spring roll (lame), and the winning team did Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (with a fizzy lifting drink and all!)…
Some brigades are dangerous. If you were part of the Light Brigade in the Crimean War, you died. If you were to join the Kansas City Brigade arena football team, you’d be repeatedly smashing your skull into other skulls, which probably hurts, helmet or no. That’s why the Barefoot Brigade…
It’s a simple story, really. A tale as old as time: Girl rides on boat. Girl meets boy. Boy turns out to be detective. Detective accuses girl of killing her son. Series of flashbacks reveals a tangled web of murder, lies, deceit and betrayal in girl’s past. From the first…
I have mixed feelings about how effective Dancing Through Time is as the title of the newest Collin County Ballet Theatre performance. At first, it seems exciting, because you picture ballerinas doing the Charleston, then swing dancing, then disco dancing, etc. That would be one hip ballet! But then you…
And the award for longest high school name ever goes to…Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts! Congratulations, BTWHSPVA! And, on that note, more congrats for the school will soon be in order when renovations on the downtown campus are completed and students can return from…
As you probably know, a lot of people like to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day on March 17. And that’s cool, I guess, but when I was a kid, we reserved that day for the birthday celebration of someone whom we considered to be a true saint: Billy “Bullet With Butterfly…
Sure, it’s common knowledge that blondes are dumb and brunettes are smart…but where does that leave redheads? According to the new Dallas Theater Center play, The Blonde, the Brunette and the Vengeful Redhead, they’re, ahem, vengeful. But as someone who’s been all three at one point or another, I’m kind…
George Gershwin’s aria “Summertime” is covered so often that there’s actually an international group devoted to collecting recordings of the song. (I like Janis Joplin’s and Billy Stewart’s covers the best. So sue me.) But enjoying newer versions is no reason to forget where “Summertime” originally came from: the self-proclaimed…
We’ve all heard the rumor: While filming the famous chariot race scene in Ben-Hur (1959), Stephen Boyd’s stunt double died when he was run over by a chariot, and they kept the scene in the final cut of the film. Exciting, no? But is it true? Snopes.com and IMDB attempt…
You know what I’ve never understood? Why when people are being all cutesy and disgusting, they turn the “o” in the word “love” into a heart instead of the “v.” An “o” looks nothing like a heart. The “v,” on the other hand, already has the whole bottom part done…
There are a lot of people out there today with their minds in the gutter. It’s not uncommon lately for me to make some seemingly innocuous statement, only to have someone giggle uncontrollably and/or yell, “That’s what she said!” (Oh, Michael Scott, how I miss you. Please end soon, writers’…
I’m stressed, you’re stressed, we’re all stressed. I miss the kindergarten days, when the only stress we had came from deciding which crayon to use or whether to play on the swings or do the monkey bars at recess. And one’s love life was so simple too: The threat of…
After seeing The Ten (2007) a few months back, my perception of ventriloquist dummies changed forever. I used to think of them as sad relics of a dead art, but now I see them for what they really are: sexy objects of desire. Come on, 30 other people in America…
Now that the holidays are finally over, and you’ve gained 10 or 15 pounds, given up smoking and started smoking again, it’s time to get back to what’s really important: watching Japanese animation films. And there’s no better place to start than with Steamboy, the 2004 flick about a boy…
When is it OK to spend $250 on a concert ticket? As someone who’ll admittedly do anything to save a buck, I’d have to say never. (I prefer the term “thrifty” to “cheap,” in case you were wondering.) But if you’ve got a little money to spare and wanna feel…
Congratulations are in order for the Dallas Opera, which celebrates its 50th anniversary this month! And, of course, the 50th means gold, so make sure to pick them up something nice. To kick off its 2007-2008 “Death by Diva” season, the Dallas Opera will be performing Verdi’s Macbeth at 7:30…
Been lookin’ for a way to have some nice, wholesome family fun in the West Village? No? Okay, so it might not be the most logical place for that kind of thing, being that it’s usually home to sexier events like outdoor fashion shows. But all that changes noon to…
