Wisdom in Your Tea Leaves

Do you have a burning question you’ve always wanted to ask someone older and wiser than yourself? Do you feel like your lunch hour could be better spent than with water cooler American Idol conversation? Follow-up question: Does anyone still watch American Idol? If you’re looking for wisdom in the…

10 Songs from Animated Films that Are Better than “Let it Go”

It’s everywhere. The horribly catchy Oscar-winning song from the cartoon film that everyone saw except you. Until last year, Disney hadn’t made a movie anyone cared about in over a decade. When Frozen came out, no one could possibly have predicted its quick rise to ubiquity. But now you can’t…

Richard Phillips and the Tricky Nature of Artist-Viewer Transactions

It’s Saturday morning just before 11:30 a.m. and the staff at the Dallas Contemporary is adjusting microphones and setting up chairs for its Chit Chat with Richard Phillips. I dusted off my hangover from Friday night’s champagne-laced gallery hopping, because I felt I owed it to Phillips to show up…

Five Events to Celebrate National Poetry Month in Dallas

“April is the cruelest month,” TS Eliot penned to open his poetic triumph, The Wasteland. Poets have written at length about this month filled with spring showers and a sense of renewal. Odgen Nash exhorted readers to marry an April girl; Robert Frost described the days of April as blue…

18 Awesome Things to Do in Dallas, April 10- 13

If you want to stuff any more into this weekend, you’re going to have to pack it to the point of bursting. There are so many art events, we’re struggling to zip it all together. There are gallery openings, farmer’s markets, festivals, dance show, theater productions, a huge film festival,…

An Artist With A Really Big Pair of Ears

There aren’t many artists with the balls to install a set of neon Playboy bunny ears on the side of the road. That’s exactly what Richard Phillips did out in the wild West Texas town of Marfa. Of course, it encouraged the rest of the world the to debate the…

Fill Up Your Artistic Tank

It’s not every day that a museum announces an exhibition that is a re-creation of a gasoline service station, but those are the exact words the Nasher Sculpture Center used for Bettina Pousttchi’s Sightings installation that opens Saturday. The first American exhibition for German-Iranian artist Pousttchi will be a “drive-thru”…

I Don’t Want to Grow Up

A grown man who lives with his parents; your cousin who has no desire to keep her day job. A psychologist nicknamed them “kidults.” Everybody knows a few. Hell, I’ve dated a few. These stunted adults are the subject of Brooke Berman’s sharp new play Hunting + Gathering, about characters…

Tale as Old as Time

Sure, Beauty and the Beast is one of those shows that parents will attach leashes to their babies and drag them along to “expose” them to art. Sure, the toddlers might hum along through their snot noses to “Be our Guest.” And sure, I may find myself sitting next to…

It’s like Shakespeare, but Better

If you’ve not yet made it to Ochre House Theater to see a show, shame on you. When you step into the tiny storefront in Exposition Park, you enter the crazy mind of Matthew Posey. It’s a strange and beautiful place. The shows are dark, zany adventures and the latest,…

Lost in the Dark

Playwright Kevin Christensen unveils his work about an astronomy professor whose life begins to unravel around him, pending an alien invasion. Sat., April 5, 8 p.m.; Sun., April 6, 3 p.m.; Fri., April 11, 8 p.m.; Sat., April 12, 8 p.m.; Sun., April 13, 3 p.m., 2014…

Fall in Love with Art

Collecting art is like raising race horses: a real knack for it is rare and you need a ton of money to raise a good one. But unlike speedy thoroughbreds, it’s never to late to take up an interest in building your collection or window shop. This weekend the Dallas…

Give Mother Nature a Break

You’ve probably heard the alarmist statistics about the swiftly approaching demise of the Earth. We’re treating the planet poorly and our lifestyles are evidence of our guilt. And no, driving a Prius does not exempt you. Once a year, groups of Earth’s inhabitants gather in remorse. On Earth Day, we…

Highlights from Mayor Rawlings’ #DallasArtsWeek Panel

The panel begins and immediately the question of diversity arises. Mayor Mike Rawlings poses the question, what’s exciting in Dallas and what needs improvements? Anne Bothwell, director of KERA’s Art & Seek, answers first. The arts here, she says, reflects the spirit of Dallas. Artists are independently creating really ambitious…