Buy some original art and help abused children at the same time? You can do just that at the annual ART + Advocacy art auction benefiting the Dallas Children’s Advocacy Center (DCAC) on Thursday. Speak up or put pen to paper–donated art in several media is featured in both live…
The Confucius Institute at the University of Texas at Dallas celebrates its first anniversary on Saturday with events that include a Chinese film festival (all films subtitled in English), performances of Chinese folk dancing and music, calligraphy demonstrations and even a fashion show. The institute was founded to promote the…
What a lot of people don’t get about Cheech and Chong is that they are playing characters. I’m not saying that Tommy Chong and Richard “Cheech” Marin have never smoked weed, or that they don’t subscribe somewhat to the culture they helped create, but they wouldn’t be funny if they…
I have a big problem with “regular” circuses that beat elephants, starve lions and drug dogs, but the Jim Rose Circus is one I can get behind. Consenting adult humans doing crazy shit to and with their bodies for my entertainment? Bring it on! For almost 20 years, Rose and…
Henry Rollins has led a somewhat chameleon-like existence. First, back in the old days he was a regular punk–pissed-off, getting in fights, playing in whatever bands he could. Then he became the singer for his favorite band, Black Flag, moved to California and became Henry Rollins. By that I don’t…
Ahh, the rock opera. It all started in 1966 when The Who released its second album, which contained the phenomenal nine-minute suite of songs “A Quick One While He’s Away,” the tale of Ivor the engine driver and his lustful ways. The Who followed this with a full-length opera, Tommy,…
Wow. Actor Jack Foltyn brings his Elvis-themed show, Just Jack, to The Cox Building Playhouse, 1517 H Ave. in Plano, and I am pretty sure you don’t want to miss it. Whether it’s because you love Elvis, or because you want to see this off-the-chain narcissist in action. It appears…
Rock and roll has so many genres and subgenres these days that nobody knows what it is anymore. Well, not nobody. Tom Petty knows. Yes, Tom Petty has always known what rock and roll is and has always been a champ at demonstrating how to play it. With no agenda…
I was raised to be a New York Mets fan. I have fuzzy memories of my father trying to teach me to bat when I could barely walk. I have a picture of myself with one front tooth missing, wearing a flannel nightgown and a Mets batting helmet. Oh yeah,…
The Creative Arts Theater and School (CATS) in Arlington, which puts on productions using all-kid casts and crews, presents a show for the whole family. Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf is a madcap adventure based on two stories everyone knows–The Three Little Pigs and Little Red Riding Hood–and…
When I see movie trailers, I usually have one of the following reactions: -“Never, no matter how desperate for entertainment I am, will I see that fucking movie.” -“Pretty sure I can skip that one.” -“Yeah, I’ll see that.” -“I wish I was about to see that instead of the…
The Modern in Fort Worth continues its Magnolia at the Modern series this weekend with And When Did You Last See Your Father? (2007). From director Anand Tucker (Shopgirl), the film captures a man’s reflections on his family and upbringing while his father lies on his deathbed. Based on Blake…
I adopted my dog 11 years ago from a Society For the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) shelter. She’s a little bit crazy and doesn’t always listen, and we also have yet to figure out exactly what breeds she is made of. Regardless, she is absolutely perfect; the best…
When I was 12, Howard Stern was the morning disc jockey on the local rock station WWDC-101.1 FM. I was 12, and I loved him. Over the next 25 years or so, I would occasionally bump into his syndicated show on the radio and couldn’t help but listen. I don’t…
I don’t need much ammunition to rationalize going out for some sushi. But now RA Sushi has given us all a bona fide reason to pig out on maki. From Sunday to May 31, 100 percent of sales from select food items and beverages at RA, 7501 Lone Star Drive…
Comedies are not France’s best-regarded export. No, they don’t even fall in the top ten. Surreal, suspenseful films (and, of course, bread) are more what they’re known for. Yet they do crank out a occasional romcom that American audiences eat up faster than a plate of frites. Hors De Prix…
My mother was a children’s librarian, and I am currently a reference librarian in a small public library, so I know children’s books. But even though I really like kids and they tend to be my favorite patrons to deal with, I am far from the children’s librarian type. Yes,…
Artist Michele Mikesell may live and work not far from DECORAZONgallery in Oak Cliff, but she’s a nationally known painter represented by many notable galleries. Mikesell was raised without a television, and she gives this fact a lot of credit when it comes to her artistic development. At a young…
I have said before that hating Journey is one of the things that definitively made me who I am today. The same could easily be said about Asia. They had less presence in my consciousness, but they were still really sucky in the same way: big, soulless, rockless rock that…
Ralph Stanley transcends genre, era, place and taste. His unique tenor voice has graced the world of bluegrass for 55 years, with his late brother Carter as the Stanley Brothers and with The Clinch Mountain Boys. He hypnotized old fans and the uninitiated alike with his heart-stopping performance of “O…
Everybody Loves Raymond is one of those shows I didn’t want to like. When it first came on the air it seemed to be about things that I couldn’t possibly relate to: parenthood, sports, suburbia and having an overbearing mother. Then I started to hear rumblings here and there—my smart,…
In this era overwhelmed by objectionable band reunions everywhere you turn, L.A. Guns is easily the most pathetic of all. They are so pathetic, in fact, that they never even actually broke up, at least not for any significant period of time. They just kept on going, switching out members…
