Painter Edvard Munch said, “The camera will never compete with the brush and the palette until such time as photographs can be taken in heaven or hell.” To him the camera was clinical, confined to here and now. It was, and still is, objective. A camera can’t feel sorrow, joy,…
It’s a movie cliché that when someone is possessed by a spirit or Lucifer himself, the bewitched one takes on the mannerisms and speech patterns of the possessor. The effects can be subtle: demon-possessed victims singing a Rolling Stones tune in Fallen. Or they can be a bit more, um,…
“I’ve got the world’s largest pubic mound,” Margaret Cho yells. She’s joking about her weight again — -one of her comedy-show standards along with her family (her Korean mother leaves hysterical messages on her answering machine and has a curious fascination with gay porn) and her hometown of San Francisco,…
Ed Hamell talks like he sings and plays guitar — fast. It’s a necessity for him; he has much to say and little time. He tells true stories that other songwriters couldn’t make up to save their souls or secure a record contract. He’s seen both sides: Hamell had the…
Last year’s remake of The Mummy had all of Hollywood’s essential Egyptian movie standards — lots of sand, eternal love, priests and magic, Westerners who didn’t understand what they were messing with, treasure hunters and booby traps, and curses on those who entered tombs and disturbed the dead. While some…
The South Dallas Cultural Center serves up a week that will satisfy all four major food groups of the arts — visual art, music, film, and theater — for the climax of OurStory 2000: A Diaspora Perspective, the center’s celebration of Black History Month. For the film portion, Black Cinematheque…
The Handsome Family Unlike the Ramones or even Darlington, the Handsome Family are actually a family. The husband-and-wife duo of Brett and Rennie Sparks together write sinister, haunting country songs — more Appalachia than Nashville, more Edgar Allan Poe than cheatin’ heart/tears in my beer tales. Though the band is…
When There’s Something About Mary opened in July 1998, there was some speculation that Jonathan Richman was finally going to become a rock star and get the credit he’d been earning since his 1972 debut with his Boston band the Modern Lovers. So far, his two dozen-plus albums (with the…
Can an alien and an earthling live together in peace? That may sound more like a lead-in to Jerry Springer — or the plot to Starman, Earth Girls Are Easy, and a thousand other sci-fi yarns — but, no, it’s actually the premise of Mr. Spaceman, the new novel by…
Children’s programming is flooded with six-month fads and 90-minute toy ads masquerading as films. The odds that writers, illustrators, or directors will continue to create quality work are too risky even by Las Vegas standards. Perhaps that’s why so many of us worship the movies and shows from our childhoods:…
The Harlem Globetrotters are so associated with the 1970s, they could have ended up in flea-market bins beside fondue pots, Saturday Night Fever soundtracks, and Pet Rocks. But they’re what historians refer to as, er, timeless; they’ve existed since 1926, and likely will continue well into the next millennium. No…
When Linda Proach and Valerie Pankratz founded the Plano Chamber Orchestra in 1983, the musicians played for free to help get it started. Now, as it begins its 17th season, the once-harmonious group, which changed its name to Plano Symphony Orchestra in 1998, faces discord over money. The musicians and…
The large front door of the Dallas Museum of Natural History opens; a family enters. While her mother is paying, a young girl spots a Christmas tree decorated in origami animals — pandas, frogs, hummingbirds, camels — and runs toward it. She looks up and up, finally noticing the long,…
Oh, how this city tries. Dallas, otherwise known as America’s biggest small town, is celebrating the countdown to the new century with a street fair-meets-Times Square party. Our New Year’s Eve celebration features children’s activities and performances by kiddie fave Eddie Coker, Ballet Folklorico, and Earl Harvin’s jazz trio –…
Good Night, Little Girl of My Dreams Budapest One Self-released Keith Killoren has enough charisma to be labeled a dangerous man. Hell, he even got me to dance with him once, which is like talking a polar bear into vacationing in Death Valley. That charisma, plus obsessions with Rudy Vallee,…
Despite the lovable exterior of his famous character The Tramp, Charlie Chaplin was a consummate control freak. He kept his sets closed (shades of Stanley Kubrick and George Lucas) and did much of the work himself, using only a small group of regular players and whatever actress was his current…
There I am again, stuck in traffic and staring at the bumper of the orange ’80s Datsun idling in front of me. You know the kind of car — the one with the political bumper sticker that makes you want to do something drastic, violent, something that could raise your…
Calling Pinkston a new band is a bit of a misnomer, even though it hasn’t yet been a year since the quartet’s first show. Sure, that was Pinkston’s first show together, but it wasn’t each member’s first ever — not by a long shot. Pinkston is a band of young…
The Dallas Museum of Art has been enveloping Dallas with flowers and bones for a month now to promote its exhibit Georgia O’Keeffe: The Poetry of Things. There have been lectures, gallery talks, and symposiums discussing every aspect of her art and her life; O’Keeffe’s giant red poppies even adorn…
Bunny Lake is Missing is missing. The 1965 film by Otto Preminger isn’t available on video or DVD; it can’t be found at rental stores. The film has practically vanished, and Preminger himself has become fodder for film history books and Turner Classic Movie marathons during which his better-known films…
I heard my first excerpt from David Sedaris’ SantaLand Diaries last Christmas break. I was working at the University of North Texas library, hoping to earn enough money to make rent and buy a few presents before the next financial aid check arrived in January. The library was empty: Most…
Improv is for daredevil comedians. Getting up on stage without pre-written jokes is like walking the tight rope without a safety net — or a rope. And using audience suggestions to build jokes on the spot is like letting someone else pack your parachute — someone who has never skydived…
