With a title like A Feminine Ending, you would think that the WaterTower Theatre’s new production would culminate in a true love chase sequence a la The Graduate (or My Best Friend’s Wedding or 27 Dresses). Or maybe it takes the riot grrrl approach, with heroine Amanda Blue biting the…

As of this writing your Dallas Stars sit near the bottom of the Western Conference, in only slightly better shape than the Atlanta Thrashers of the Eastern Conference, who visit the AAC tonight. Named for the state bird of Georgia, the brown thrasher, the team obviously has a cooler name…

The work of artist J. Blake Harris could easily make for some striking concert posters were it not for the complete lack of text. His hand-colored photographs of simple, natural objects such as goldfish, pine cones and seahorses highlighted with splashes of bright blue, yellow and pink end up looking…

Honestly, the only thing I really know about Chris Botti is that he looks a whole lot like Robert Downey, Jr.’s character from Tropic Thunder (pre-surgery). See, if I read the words “smooth jazz” in a musician’s bio, visions of Kenny G playing over a war-torn, post apocalyptic wasteland fill…

If you’ve ever flipped through a field guide of birds or visited the new Trinity River Audubon Center, then you owe a debt of gratitude to the late, great John James Audubon, the namesake of the Audubon organization and the preeminent wildlife artist of his day. Audubon’s Birds of America…

American artist Allan Kaprow first used the term “Happening” to describe an art party on fellow artist George Segal’s New Jersey chicken farm, but we all know how that turned out, with hippies co-opting the phrase in the late ’60s to describe just about any place where good times were…

If you’ve ever watched an episode of Austin City Limits, then you’ve no doubt heard Gary P. Nunn’s “London Homesick Blues,” (“I wanna go home with the armadillo/good country music from Amarillo to Abilene/the friendliest people and the prettiest women you ever seen”) which served as the show’s theme song…

Most people know Glen Campbell from his late ’60s and ’70s heyday, when songs like “Gentle on My Mind,” “Galveston” and “Wichita Lineman” dominated the airwaves. Campbell attempted a comeback just last year with the covers collection Meet Glen Campbell, which obviously aims for Johnny Cash/Rick Rubin territory but misses…

Maybe if I read books like David Allen’s Getting Things Done, I wouldn’t be sitting here with a scowl on my face, cursing the economy and making snarky comments about everything. Then again, if I did read books like that, I’d be one of those people who reads books with…

I vividly remember the first time I used low-res photos off the Internet for a print project in college, which turned out to be a pixelated disaster. Photographer Paul Abbott employs a neat excuse for the pixelation in his photos, however–he wants them to look that way. “Pixelation is a…

Family Symphony Sundays is a series of concerts put on by the Plano Symphony Orchestra with the goal of instilling a love for music in rosy-cheeked young innocents. Knowing Plano, however, half of the target audience will be stoned out of their minds on cheese for Sunday’s “Swingin’ Strings” concert…

“[John] Adelman is an artist who plays by the rules,” at least if you believe his press release. But which rules? The Ten Commandments? The Code of Hammurabi? The Rule of Four? Robert’s Rules of Order? The Rule of Thirds? The Rule of Thumb? Murphy’s Law? The Golden Rule? That…

For the past several years many residents of Fort Worth and other North Texas municipalities have accumulated vast amounts of new bling thanks to a windfall of natural gas money afforded them by mineral rights and new horizontal drilling techniques. Some locals have taken issue with the drilling and all…

The Cotton Bowl has been a Dallas tradition since the first game between TCU and Marquette in 1937. From the 1947 “Ice Bowl” match between Arkansas and LSU–the game ended in 0-0 tie; must have been a blast to watch, huh?–to the three National Championships won by the Texas Longhorns…

I mostly remember Edwin McCain from his 1995 hit “Solitude,” which used a vocal cameo from Darius Rucker to help him ride Hootie and the Blowfish’s substantial frat-rock coattails into semi-fame. But even for the month or three I was into Hootie when I was 14, I pretty much thought…

Sculptor Ranjani Shettar lives and works in her native Bangalore, India, creating large, abstract installations by combining materials both manmade (PVC pipe, cloth, rubber, steel, etc.) and natural (beeswax, wood, etc.). FOCUS: Ranjani Shettar, a new exhibit at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, collects several of these pieces,…

If you’ve ever been to the desolate wonderland of Marfa, Texas, then you’re no doubt familiar with the work of Donald Judd, the late minimalist sculptor who made the tiny West Texas town a world-renowned destination for art aficionados. Colorado sculptor Pard Morrison shares some of Judd’s aesthetic, arranging aluminum…

I seem to remember a time when the Galleria ice rink played host to Kristi Yamaguchi and a cavalcade of other ice-skating celebs, but it appears the mall has a hard time attracting such star power in these cash-strapped times. No offense to 2007 U.S. Silver Medalist Ryan Bradley, but…

Nativity scenes are the lawn ornament du jour for those who like to beat the rest of us down with the Jesus stick this time of the year; the fact that they sell inflatable versions at the hardware store now really says all you need to know about the commercialization…