The Art of Change

Change is difficult. Change is emotional. Change is also fun and inspiring and often leads to growth. Just look at the Ice House Cultural Center as it nears its final days and prepares to morph into a new location, a new being: the Oak Cliff Cultural Center. For years, the…

Watson + Young = Exhibition

Oh, the power of uncertainty. The beauty of ongoing research. Take Stephen Hawking for example. Even his Elegant Equation–that posed an understanding of the universe through combinations of mathematical findings, physics and works by greats from Newton to Eistein–is still questioned…even by Hawking. TCU’s chairman and gallery director for the…

Getting Perspective

Finally! What a relief. Seriously. After all these years of going to art shows where we’re supposed to be all objective and look at art with “fresh, open eyes,” here’s one that’s allowing us to do the opposite. Well, at least that’s what we’re assuming from the title of Texas…

A Shopaholic’s Dream

You’d never know that I was a fashion nut. Why? Because I’m a browser. A window shopper. A bargain hunter who doesn’t often find a bargain I can justify unless my e-mail sale alerts offer something that is absolutely, earth-shatteringly on sale. We’re talking more than 60 percent off, people…

Buscar Bronca

Looking back at the musical career of Aryn Dalton, you’d assume his latest project would either ring bombastic and sordid (a la his many years drumming for indie darlings The Paper Chase) or full-on country (based on his work in Evan Birdsong’s Blackbird Harmony). But Buscar Bronca’s inaugural release, Kings…

Heavy on the Cheese

He’s sold 175,000 CDs since 2000, people. This cat has swanked up sets for TV hosts from Jimmy Kimmel to silver fox Anderson Cooper. But you might want to go ahead and start weeping for the future because Richard Cheese is retiring from tourdom. Yes, the man who is responsible…

Minor League, Major Fun

A friend once pointed out that minor league baseball has the same type of fan as MLS: few and far between (but increasing in number, thankfully), passionate, undeterred by the heat of the summer sun and always ready to cheer on their favorite professional athletes. Grand Prairie’s own minor league…

Girl Drink Drunk: Lazare

Recently, I moved my ass out of a beloved one-bedroom apartment that I often forgave for its thin walls (and even thinner ceilings) and communal air ducts due to the low rent and friendly manager. I am now shacking up with the boy. In a house. We can’t hear people…

Bonus MP3: Buscar Bronca — “Angels Sing”

We haven’t heard from Aryn Dalton for some time now that Blackbird Harmony went teats up, but that’s not to say the former drummer for BH and The Paper Chase hasn’t been lurking behind the scenes, conjuring up some new noise of his own. Dalton’s project Buscar Bronca, however, is…

Kids and ‘Dults Get Wiggly

As an adult with a two-and-a-half-year-old niece and no children of my own, I dig The Wiggles. Compared with the awkward questions of Dora and the goofy voice of Barney, I’m down with the real humans having fun. Along with Gustafer Yellowgold and Yo Gabba Gabba!, they’re making the baby-sitting…

This Could Be Your Kitchen

Are you a speed, steam or double oven kind of person? Do you desire warming capabilities where your junk drawer currently resides? When you watch the Food Network, does your heart race at the thought of replacing your ancient electric with an induction cooktop? Fortunately for you, the Miele Dallas…

Girl Drink Drunk: The Windmill Lounge

A couple of weeks ago the Dallas Observer and its readers bid farewell to Alexa Schirtzinger, aka Veggie Girl. She was heading out to travel in South America and have fantastic adventures, and we just had to send her off with an after work bon voyage. Veggie Girl and Girl…

Can’t Let Go

You saw, or maybe even read (gasp!), High Fidelity, right? So you know about a guy who can’t figure out where he screwed things up. But not everyone is Rob Gordon. Some folks have it way worse. Some folks don’t take a break-up as a sign to examine their failures,…

They Bang

I’ve personally never been thanked for loyalty and (ahem) patronage with a really good bang, but I guess there’s a first time for everything. Starting Saturday, Thornwood Gallery is thanking, nay, rewarding its collectors/patrons with a big ol’ group exhibition (which is not as naughty as it sounds) of more…

Dallas Observer Music Awards

Last year, at our 20th annual Dallas Observer Music Awards, there was a distinct theme of tradition behind all the festivities. And rightfully so: 20 years is indeed a long time. Countless great acts have passed through and risen up in Dallas during that time period. But there’s just something…

Girl Drink Drunk: Family Karaoke

First of all, I realize some people don’t like karaoke, that it ain’t their thing and they’d prefer to sit there and just watch the fun. That’s cool. But just trust that at Family Karaoke — where parties of up to 25 can reserve private sound-proofed rooms with wait-service who…

The Perfect Pair

Some people have a certain obsession with perfection, and as artist Polly Lanning Sparrow likes to examine with her painting installations, perfection is pretty hard to come by when the human is involved. Sparrow may lean a painting on the ground, or put it’s nose to the wall–not for being…

The Perfect Pair

Some people have a certain obsession with perfection, and as artist Polly Lanning Sparrow likes to examine with her painting installations, perfection is pretty hard to come by when the human is involved. Sparrow may lean a painting on the ground, or put it’s nose to the wall–not for being…

No Trespassing?

Sometimes, just seeing is enough. It’s the heat and energy of voyeurism without the sneak and the sordid. It’s looking past a fence, into someone’s yard, onto a lot, down a train track. There’s a restricted area, sure, but you’re body’s not in it, and yet you’re venturing past what’s…

Pope Johnson the First

What is it you people want out of original theater these days? What will make you come in droves to fill in rows of seats before yelling “Bravo!” and tossing all manner of cut flowers upon the stage? Mark-Brian Sonna had penned drama, personal accounts and comedy and had been…