Not to pooh-pooh the arts or anything, but do any of you really think the average dad wants to spend Father’s Day at the Nasher Sculpture Center? Yeah, me neither–though I suppose more than a few might be interested in talking to whoever maintains the museum’s lawn. (How do they…
The impact of Woody Guthrie on the American landscape cannot be overstated. From riding the Depression-era rails and writing the immortal classic “This Land Is Your Land” to playing union meetings with Pete Seeger and inspiring a young Bob Dylan, the man did no shortage of interesting things in his…
Think of artist Sevan Melikyan as the visual equivalent of Danger Mouse if you want, taking source material from other artists and reshaping it into something equally compelling. By running classic paintings by Van Gogh, Degas and Cezanne through photo software and breaking down their composition, Melikyan exposes the basic…
Sure, most of my exposure to motocross consists of the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey circuses I attended as a kid. At least, I’m pretty sure the guys in the Globe of Death were riding dirt bikes–if they were riding Harleys, then they truly are the biggest badasses in…
The 15th Annual Don’t Believe the Hype Celebrity Bowl-a-thon continues the event’s long tradition of raising money for black charities and organizations like the Africa Care Academy, the Emmett Till Foundation, the Texas Black Academy of Arts and Letters, and the Dallas-Fort Worth Association of Black Journalists scholarship fund. Past…
Each week the Dude Food guys assess the ‘masculinity’ of Dallas area dives. The more fried meat and junk on the walls, the better the rating…Hook Line & Sinker3103 Lemmon Ave.214-965-0707Dude Factor: 10, or anyone on Deadliest Catch, on a scale of 1, Steve Irwin, to 10.Between reading John Graves’…
It’s been impossible not to notice the flowers this year, from the bluebonnets that dotted the roadsides a couple months back to the hibiscus and coral honeysuckle we’ve seen blooming in abundance more recently. Artist Carolyn Brown has a similar affinity for these eye-catching reproductive structures, evolved over millions of…
Bonnie “Prince” BillyGranada TheaterJune 6, 2009Better Than: The George Strait concert at Cowboys Stadium, or pretty much anything else any of you suckers were doing on Saturday night. Opening with a ramshackle version of the Stanley Brothers classic “Nobody’s Darling on Earth,” it was readily apparent that Bonnie “Prince” Billy’s…
I’ve always wondered what it must be like for actors to play roles that denigrate themselves or the culture that spawned them, whether it’s a little person playing a munchkin in The Wizard of Oz or a Latino actor playing a stereotypical East L.A. gang banger in a straight-to-DVD action…
Ladies, unless you have a microphone hidden in the locker of your man’s clubhouse, then there’s no way you can truly know him. At least that’s the idea behind Ron Stout’s Secrets From Inside the Clubhouse: What Men REALLY Think About Women. Never mind the fact that most guys I…
Anyone can take a trip to France and get a nice, artsy shot of the Eiffel Tower, but it often takes a keener eye to find the beauty in your own backyard. An eye like that of photographer Jenny Ellerbe, who finds her inspiration in the small towns, bayous and…
Even over the phone, it’s hard to mistake the voice of Jimmie Dale Gilmore. A high, dusty warble perfectly suited to the Panhandle plains from which it came, it’s instantly, unmistakably recognizable, worthy of inclusion in the choir of uniquely American voices like Bob Dylan, Otis Redding and George Jones…
Sonny Bryan’s2202 Inwood Road 214-357-7120Dude Factor: 9, or Nolan Ryan, on a scale of 1 (“Tom Hicks”) to 10 (“Tom Landry”)Sure, Sonny Bryan’s is a Dallas institution, but I can’t say I ever darkened the original’s door until the Observer moved to our current offices at Maple and Oak Lawn…
When I first saw Thomas the Tank Engine on Shining Time Station, I immediately thought, “Why is this show ripping off The Little Engine That Could?” The beloved children’s story was my favorite, after all, and Thomas seemed a poor substitute, even if they somehow landed George Carlin to co-star…
Artist Judy Youngblood’s paintings look a lot like the water cycle illustrations you’d find in your average environmental science textbook. If they’d been drawn while on mushrooms, that is. “Autumn Bluster” shows giant raindrops falling on the silhouette of a running figure, while “Plenty of Sunshine” features giant raindrops splashing…
My first conscious memory of seeing hypnotism in action came courtesy of a Pee-Wee Herman HBO Special I watched as a little kid–and if you’ve ever seen said HBO special, then you know it was slightly more naughty than even the most double-entendre-filled episode of Pee-Wee’s Playhouse. If I recall…
The Wizard of Oz is one of those things that will never die, like baseball and Dick Clark. As someone who once played a bit part in a multi-thousand-dollar high school musical production of the classic L. Frank Baum tale (I recall people flying on wires and an actual, trained…
The shadow of the late West Texas art legend Donald Judd looms large over Spatial Shifts, the newest exhibit at Marty Walker Gallery (2135 Farrington St.). Artist Jay Shinn’s work–which features stainless steel rods and paint fashioned into minimalist installations–has been compared to that of Judd, while New Yorker Rupert…
Olive Garden639 N. Cockrell Hill Road, DuncanvilleDude Factor: 3, or Roseanne (waitress/proprieter of loose meat sandwich specialty diner The Lanford Lunch Box), on a scale of 1 (Zach Braff in Garden State) to 10 (Jonah Hill in Forgetting Sarah Marshall)Last Saturday my lady and I–with tired bones, no pressing social…
If any star came out of the pop country explosion of the ’90s relatively unscathed, it was meat-and-potatoes new traditionalist Alan Jackson. While all of his ’90s contemporaries (save the far superior Dwight Yoakum) have managed to do everything in their power to embarrass themselves at one time or another–Garth…
If you’ve ever driven through Little Forest Hills and some of the surrounding ‘hoods, then you know how distinctly un-Dallas that part of town can be (if you ignore the encroaching McMansions, that is), with funky artists’ homes and haphazard gardens catching the eye as you wind through the streets,…
Comedian Jeff Dunham is arguably the most famous ventriloquist in the world at this point, thanks in large part to his Comedy Central specials. In fact, the premiere of his most recent show, Jeff Dunham’s Very Special Christmas Special, was the highest-rated telecast in the history of the network, besting…
