Six by Hitch Lonestar Film Society pays tribute to one of film’s master directors all weekend by screening six of his best films at The Modern in Fort Worth. Starting Thursday with a screening of one of Alfred Hitchcock’s earliest films, Blackmail, this weekend walks through his career presenting classics,…
Contrary to popular media narrative, there are still young people in America who read books. Libraries still serve as place for children to be swept away by on trails of adventure or romance. This hope that literature will forever remain a cornerstone of the human experience is an impetus for…
The ’20s were a great decade for women. It gave us bobbed hair, trousers, and oh yeah, a tiny thing called women’s suffrage. It would be a few decades before we mastered the art of second wave feminism, in which women began to reclaim their sexuality, but it’s certainly the…
I was 13-years-old before my parents would let me watch Psycho. Growing up on a steady diet of Alfred Hitchcock films (Rope was too boring; The Birds was too campy), I expected another suspenseful romantic black and white with a handsome devil like Cary Grant or Jimmy Stewart trying to…
Some movies are just downright trashy. Not trashy in a sexy, tawdry way but trashy in a why-the-hell-can’t-I-turn-this-POS-off way. When the acting is downright awful, the plot absurd and the production quality minimal, the filmmaker may not have a blockbuster, but it might have a late-night hit on its hands…
If you’ve never seen a Marx Brothers film, stop reading and download one right now. We’ll wait. Too busy now? Then just make plans to head to the Alamo Drafthouse (100 S. Central Expressway in Richardson) at 12:30 p.m. Sunday, when the movie theater screens Duck Soup, which is often…
Mixmaster presents “100 Creatives,” in which we feature cultural entrepreneurs of Dallas in random order. Know an artistic mind who deserves a little bit of blog love? Email lauren.smart@dallasobserver.com with the whos and whys. No matter the medium, the work of Roberto Munguia seems riddled with mystery. It’s not that…
Dan Domenech wears jeans and a casual blue hooded sweater as he sips a root beer. Standing over 6 feet tall, it’s easier to imagine him dribbling a basketball than wearing fishnets and eyeliner. His dark brown eyes light up in sheepish amusement when he admits that he walks around…
It was unbearably hot on Saturday. A friend of mine says people shouldn’t be allowed to complain about the weather in August. “It’s supposed to be hot in August,” he says. “If it’s this hot in December, then you can complain.” You know what I have to say about that?…
For centuries, white male narrators have dominated storytelling. We’re talking everyone from Homer’s Odysseus to Shakespeare’s Hamlet to America’s Rick Perry. Western cultural mythology is steeped in white male hegemony. And at the center of most of those stories is a tricky little devil known as ego. Whether characters are…
The Nasher Sculpture Center gets a lot of things right. Jeremy Strick runs a tight artistic ship, with impressive exhibitions and thought-provoking programming. One of the most underrated programs is the 360 Speaker Series, which gives the microphone to world-renowned artists across a variety of disciplines. On Saturday at 2…
The Circuit 12 Contemporary gallery is constantly in a state of flux. Of late, gallerists Gina and Dustin Orlando have taken interest in playing with environment in exhibitions. Not only have owners Gina and Dustin Orlando recently made some renovations to the space and added a fashion component, they’ve also…
We’ve got quite a weekend up our sleeves for you. From theater to sideshows to film screenings and art exhibitions, we’ve shuffled up the cards and stacked the deck just for you. You might call it magic, we call it the Mixmaster…
There can’t be much to see in Garland, right? Wrong. Apparently. For years, a Web site called “Garland Eyes” has been documenting the unknown beauty of Dallas suburb. Photographers for the site have turned their lenses on nature, architecture, and the “Garlandites,” defying the stereotype that the best thing about…
The summer is coming to an end, marking a beginning for the art season , which typically flourishes Fall through Spring. Of course, Kettle Art Gallery isn’t afraid of a little heat. The Deep Ellum space keeps artists on the walls year round and this upcoming exhibition might be titled…
I’ll let you in on a bit of semantics. When you read the word “intimate,” the writer actually means really freaking small. When you read the word “high brow,” the writer means pedantic and probably boring. And when a calendar editor tells you the best thing to do on a…
Running outside in August is not recommended by doctors. If I remember right, it has something to do with ozone levels, allergens, and….oh,yeah… the heat. But if you feel setting common sense aside or need to punish yourself for something, then Community Beer Company’s got your back. At 7:30 a.m…
Art can’t talk to you. But wouldn’t that be one hell of a conversation? Just think of Mona Lisa’s stories or the things Duchamp’s Fountain has seen. This idea of one-sided dialogue has become bothersome to Liberian-born artist Christopher Blay – currently in residence at CentralTrak. After all, he can…
Have you ever wondered if beer makes you more fun to be around? Do you find yourself building an identity based on how other people treat you? Or is your job the most “you” thing about you? Identity is a tricky thing. Insecurities and egos are two of the biggest…
Christopher Blay’s work functions on borderlines. If life is a Venn diagram, he’s creating art in the overlaps. He wants to ask questions, start conversations, and challenge the viewer to see things “outside of their bubble.” As it happens, earlier this year he built himself into a bubble for Deep…
When OKCupid announced they’d been tricking users into believing they were compatible, thousands of angry couples reexamined their relationships from the dirty socks lining the bottom of the sheets to the “beard” on their boyfriend’s chin that looks more like overgrown pubic hairs. Probably. Probably that’s what happened. I’m just…
Tongue, meet cheek. It’s not that the story of Back on Badstreet won’t be true. The documentary from Fort Worth native Keith Alcorn (Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius) really will chronicle the story of the first theme song of professional wrestling. It’s just that it won’t take it too seriously. The…
