Arts & Entertainment

Fascination with a family member’s body art led tattoo artist Char McGaughy to work her way up to the top of the tattoo industry in 2010 and eventually open a her own tattoo shop, Gold Dust Tattoos & Fine Art in Dallas. She has received multiple awards for her work. She’s tattooed Hercules and an owl spreading its wings on a shoulder, Jerry Garcia from the Grateful Dead chilling on an arm and Wonder Woman being a badass on a customer’s leg. Her style varies with the customer’s desire, but she specializes in black and gray and photorealism. The demand for her work means she’s available only by appointment.

Readers’ Pick: Jay Joree

One thing is certain: Dallas Contemporary never fails to capture the imagination. It consistently fills its space with sculptures, photography and paintings that are whimsical and push the envelope. As a testament to its success, the museum always draws large crowds of eager revelers on opening nights to see its newest exhibitions. One standout show was Betty Tompkin’s Fuck Paintings. The images were censored in the 1970s for lewdness, yet these photorealistic renderings of genitalia mid-coitus lined the walls of the museum. On the other end of the spectrum, Paola Pivi’s life-sized technicolor polar bears danced, lounged and posed mischievously, inviting onlookers to pose with them. A recent favorite, Pia Camil, sewed together second-hand T-shirts from Mexican markets to create interactive fabric sculptures the size of parachutes. The shirts’ neck holes begged for onlookers to poke their heads through and experience the installation from the other side.

Readers’ Pick: Perot Museum of Nature and Science

This gallery in the Design District not only exhibits crowd-pleasers, it takes risks that pay off. Gabriel Dawe is an industry favorite who had a massive, critically acclaimed installation at the Amon Carter in Fort Worth, yet his work found a more intimate scale in Conduit’s smaller space. He strung an iridescent web of thread between two walls, creating an optical illusion of waves. On the other hand, Heyd Fontenot, former director of Central Trak, created a wild installation akin to his adult version of Pee-Wee’s Playhouse. It was complete with (almost) nude live models; one danced provocatively on a makeshift stage while faux snow rained from above. Maria Molteni, who’d never shown in Dallas before, got a local foothold at Conduit. Her brightly colored crocheted basketball nets were hung at NBA-regulation height in the gallery’s intimate backroom, giving the delicate assemblages a weighty presence. Whether the space is filled with quiet drawings or larger-than-life installations, there’s always something interesting and unexpected behind these doors.

Readers’ Pick: Dallas Museum of Art

Looking for an off-the-map, quirky, small museum dedicated to midcentury geometric moving sculpture? Dallas has it. Housed in an interesting Uptown building is the Museum of Geometric and MADI Art. The MADI art concept was born in the 1940s in Buenos Aires. Although it’s hard to define, MADI art can be described as colorful, often three-dimensional with moving parts. Dallasites Dorothy and Bill Masterson used their personal collection and love for MADI art to create the museum in 2003. The museum includes exhibits spanning the globe, most created in the 20th century. It also has rotating shows. The Museum of Geometric and MADI art is a delightful inspiration to graphic designers, architects and lovers of modern art. Admission is an optional donation.

Volunteer-run and supported by membership dues and donations, the nonprofit Dallas Makerspace is the powerhouse of creativity. Want to learn to knit or paint a watercolor of your dog? There are plenty of places around offering classes for that. Want to learn how to use a CNC plasma cutter or a 3-D printer? Makerspace not only has the tools available for its members to use, it offers a full schedule of classes in how to use them. Traditional woodcarving, soap making and jewelry casting are among the classes on Makerspace’s calendar. You can also learn how to use a forge and make chainmail, which might be a lot more useful in the city of tomorrow than a piece of embroidered denim.

Readers’ Pick: Bishop Arts Theatre Center

Formed in 2011, DGDG is constantly cooking up new dance-theater hybrid shows that buck what we expect when we think of dance. Georgiou and her partner, Justin Locklear, are one of the most prolific teams in Dallas in terms of writing and producing new works. This year, we’ve seen DGDG’s War Flower and Donkey Beach, two completely different shows that display Georgiou’s knack for choreography with Locklear’s theater chops. They also compose original music for almost every show they do and regularly employ nonprofessional dancers. DGDG isn’t just dance or just theater, but a true collision of both. The result is thought-provoking, visually stunning productions that are accessible to audiences.

Readers’ Pick: Dallas School of Burlesque

Kitchen Dog Theater co-artistic director Tina Parker has had a big year. The 27-year-old company secured permanent digs in the spring, which sent KDT on a bit of a nomad’s journey until its new space, a former tile warehouse in the Design District, is up and running. An exciting development for the longtime Dallas company has meant some growing pains in the interim. KDT has churned out innovative theater while shuffling productions all over town, including one of the darkest and funniest plays all year, Trevor by Nick Jones. With Max Hartman deftly embodying the real-life chimpanzee that attacked his owner’s neighbor, this production was a true example of KDT’s ability to bang out weird and cool plays even while under duress. (Unexpectedly, it had to move the play to the Wyly Theater.) Parker also made a big splash this year with the return of her Breaking Bad character, Francesca, on the AMC series Better Call Saul. With a “keep going” attitude and affable good humor, Parker is a workhorse in the Dallas theater scene.

Readers’ Pick: Amanda Austin

They say, “If you love something, set it free; if it comes back, it was meant to be.” That makes us feel great about the return of rock radio station KZEW The Zoo, which reigned supreme in the ’70s and ’80s and then left the airwaves. But this year, 28 years after The Zoo said goodbye, host George Gimarc has brought it back at vokalnow.com and via the Vokal app. Gimarc calls the station a spiritual successor to the original Zoo and a love letter to what radio was like before Clear Channel homogenized the industry. The new Zoo’s playlist is drawn from a collection of 5,000 records, and many songs will be familiar to longtime listeners, but the station also plays newer music that jibes with its spirit. Many of the on-air personalities from the ’80s are back, including Ira Lipson, John Rody, Beverly Beasley and KTCK The Ticket’s Mike Rhyner. Also, don’t be surprised if you hear classic commercials interspersed.

Readers’ Pick: KXT 91.7 FM

In 2012, the Tony Awards committee went cuckoo for Richard Bean’s One Man, Two Guvnors. The smart slapstick comedy, a reinterpretation of a 1743 Italian play, originally starred James Corden in the role of Francis Henshall, a right-hand man to two criminals staying at the same hotel, each of whom must be kept a secret from the other. The magic of the play, set in ’60s London, is largely because of copious breaking of the fourth wall and musical interludes by a live band. The play was nominated for seven Tonys, and Corden won best actor, but it wasn’t until August 2016 that Dallasites got their first chance to see it, thanks to Addison’s small and vastly underappreciated WaterTower Theatre. Even with a smaller budget, WaterTower managed to carry out a production comparable to the Broadway show, and even better, Corden’s Broadway understudy 0x000A— Dallas native Brian Gonzales — finally got to step into the limelight and show his hometown what he could do as Francis.

Readers’ Pick: Frisky Business at Dallas Comedy House

In 2001, the Angelika Film Center was the hippest, most sparkling theater in town. It was the crown jewel of the new Mockingbird Station and was among the first to expand the standard popcorn and Milk Duds menu to include gourmet snacks and alcohol that doesn’t suck. Sixteen years later, more ambitious chains have in some ways outpaced Angelika. Look Cinemas has chairs designed by Lexus, and Alamo Drafthouse will serve you a themed menu while you watch. But even if it’s not as shiny and exciting as it once was, Angelika still wins out where it counts most: film selection. Sure, you won’t find many of the blockbuster hits, but you’re also much less likely to find a dud than at an ordinary theater. Angelika’s lineup is made up of all the indie Oscar contenders, and it’s safe to pick at random. It also hosts some of the city’s best film festivals, from big ones like the Dallas International Film Festival to the small Studio Ghibli Festival of Hayao Miyazaki’s animated films.

Readers’ Pick: Alamo Drafthouse

In a year when discussion of a bill that would prevent transgender people from using bathrooms that correspond with their gender identity has dominated state politics, the first national tour of Hedwig and the Angry Inch also visited Texas. John Cameron Mitchell’s musical has been familiarizing American audiences with what it means to be transgender for nearly 20 years, long before gender dysphoria was part of the national lexicon, and it won a Tony when it debuted on Broadway in 2014. On Broadway, Neil Patrick Harris played the role Hedwig Robinson, a transgender woman from East Germany, who tells the story of her sex change, move to Kansas and career as a rock singer, all set to a ’70s glam rock soundtrack. In February, Euan Morton appeared as Hedwig for the musical’s performance at the Winspear Opera House. It was a marvelous feat of set design, with a giant, translucent screen that served as a striking canvas for the show’s graphics — but most important, it was a fun, funny and emotional tale that couldn’t have come at a better time.

Readers’ Pick: Wicked

Most festivals are fairly predictable. If it’s a music fest, you can expect some big names, a bad vantage point and to spend a whole paycheck on bacon-wrapped macarons or some other food gimmick. Frightmare Fest is anything but predictable, and if you’re a fan of horror or even just the macabre, it’s one you must attend. The three-day festival, which has been going on for 12 years, is laid out inside the labyrinthine Hyatt Regency at D/FW Airport. When you round a corner, you might run into Malcolm McDowell of A Clockwork Orange, a stand selling Venus flytraps or a lifelike corpse prop being autopsied. Frightmare Weekend, founded by Lord Cryer, returns every May. The itinerary each day is packed with roundtables, panels, parties and meet-and-greets — plus plenty of opportunities to grab a T-shirt of your favorite Stephen King adaptation from hundreds of vendors.

Readers’ Pick: Deep Ellum Arts Festival

The symphony, the opera, the theater … these are not venues people with short attention spans are likely to visit, however beautiful the work created inside them may be. That’s why we’re grateful for Dead White Zombies, a theater experience that’s perfect for anyone with an insatiable curiosity and an inability to sit still. University of Texas at Dallas drama professor Thomas Riccio writes all the performances, which Dead White Zombies call “instigations.” They’re loosely scripted, interactive and staged in unconventional spaces. Last May, Holy Bone, a performance designed to encourage attendees to disconnect from technology and reconnect to their humanity, started out at Tacos Mariachi and sent attendees — broken into small groups — on an adventure through spaces in West Dallas. The plots are a bit hard to follow, but a Dead White Zombies experience is always stimulating and mind expanding.

Readers’ Pick: Pocket Sandwich Theatre

Dallas is no stranger to reality shows. We have a Housewives and a Little Women, and the two most recent Bachelorettes have called Dallas home. But the best reality show is one that has been around since 2006 and is filming its 12th season. CMT’s Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders: Making The Team is essentially the same story line every season: Hundreds of hopeful women try out to be part of the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders, but only about 36 make it. There are tears, injuries, dances and a lot of speculation from the judges and coaches on whether the women are fit to represent America’s team as one of America’s sweethearts. Despite its repetitiveness, it is fascinating to watch a skinny woman be told she needs to lose more weight to look good in the iconic uniform. Nothing about it is politically correct, but that’s why it’s so captivating. And the tears. There are a lot of tears.

Each season of Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders: Making The Team, the two directors of the team critique the women trying out for spots on the most famous cheerleading squad in the world. They make cuts, tell women they need to lose weight and try their best to narrow the squad down to the best. Then the team’s technical instructor makes a cameo each season and heightens everything. She yells at the women, telling them their high kicks suck and that if they don’t get it together, they will never dance on the squad. That technical instructor is Kitty Carter. A former Dallas Cowboys cheerleader, she knows what it takes to be on the team and often passes down her wisdom with sarcastic jabs. When we met her off camera, she was exactly the same.

A good reality show is nothing without dramatic moments, and an episode of The Real Housewives of Dallas is certainly nothing without seemingly rich women doing seemingly dramatic things. When LeeAnne Locken got so angry at an event that she ran out of the place and hit a moving trolley, the world stopped turning. Her friend beside her was shocked at her behavior. The valet man behind her was unfazed. America was confused. And Dallas was embarrassed. It was easily the highlight of the season and made Locken one of the crazier housewives in recent history. The moment is what GIFs and memes are made of and will go down in Housewives history.

Brandi Redmond is the fiery redhead who danced with the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders. She’s once again America’s sweetheart, this time as a real housewife. Audiences loved her during the first season of the show because she made fart jokes with BFF Stephanie Hollman and made her Housewives frenemies claim her behavior was a little too Plano. When she wasn’t making fart jokes or spreading rumors that her co-star LeeAnne Locken once pooped in a box, she was drinking Jesus juice — a phrase she coined for everyone’s favorite adult beverage, wine. Now, she’s making money by selling T-shirts and wine glasses with that term plastered on them via Take Me To BrandiLand, her line of clothes and gifts. What’s not to love about her?

Whether you’re looking for a Dallas comic to perform a clean set at your corporate event or want to head to the Addison Improv for non-workplace-approved humor, Aaron Aryanpur is your guy. Not only does Dallas think he’s funny (the Funniest Comic in Texas in 2012), America is also impressed with him. When he released his debut comedy album, In Spite Of, it quickly rose to No. 1 on the iTunes comedy chart, and he was a semifinalist on Comedy Central’s Up Next Talent Search. He’s a regular at comedy festivals around the country, giving his best funny takes on weight, marriage and more.

Because there may be roughly 1 million fashion bloggers just in Dallas, it’s hard to tell one from the others. If you follow more than one on Instagram, you realize they are sharing all the same clothes from all the same department stores. Dallastyle’s Taylor thankfully shows us unique fashion finds paired with shoes and accessories we thought only runway models were allowed to wear. Plus, her Instagram feed doesn’t feel like one giant ad for whatever brand last offered to pay. Dallastyle has a way of inviting followers into Taylor’s life through the pictures and words on her blog while inspiring fashion fans all over Dallas and the world with different outfits.

When the Little Women reality TV franchise invaded Dallas, our hopes were high. The show is like Real Housewives, but the stars all have dwarfism. The breakout star of the Dallas installment was easily Caylea Woodbury as the show tracked her trying to find her place in Dallas. Wanting to follow in her co-stars’ footsteps, Woodbury began twerking in clubs for money like Bri Barlup and Emily Fernandez. Woodbury was frequently the center of attention during Season 1 whether she was getting in fights with her co-stars about their deadbeat boyfriends or having a pregnancy scare. While there were five stars of this show, it’s easy to see why Woodbury is our favorite one of the group.

Few personal trainers can make you trim you down to your goal weight and also call you a friend. Luckily for a few models and nonmodels, both in Dallas and all over the world, John Benton is the personal trainer of the their dreams. When he helped one one model lose 4 inches around her waist, his services quickly became known in the modeling industry. Soon, modeling agencies and other women began recommending him, and today, his clientele is women only. The atmosphere at his studio brings customers back each time. While other gyms or workout studios might have creepy men lurking in the background, Benton’s studio offers a welcoming environment so his clients aren’t worried about impressing anyone but themselves. When Harper’s Bazaar wrote about his services, his demand went up — in the form of more than 10,000 Instagram likes and thousands of messages from models begging to schedule training sessions with him.

If you’ve seen RuPaul’s Drag Race, you are aware of the force of nature Alyssa Edwards. She’s stunning, she’s funny, she’s talented and she’s everything you would expect from a contender on that show. But when she’s not being one of the best drag queens in the business, Edwards is Justin Johnson, owner and instructor at his Mesquite dance studio, Beyond Belief Dance. Johnson is a role model for the young dancers at his studio, who idolize him. His teaching style is one of a kind because he expects perfection from his dancers. If RuPaul pushes Alyssa Edwards to greatness on a season of Drag Race, Johnson pushes his students to an even greater level of achievement at their recitals, at competitions and when they’re practicing in front of the mirror.

For those who need help believing in magic, Dragon Park is Dallas’ zenith of enchantment. You may miss it if you’re driving too fast along Cedar Springs Road in Oak Lawn, and you’ll certainly be disappointed if you think it’s any place to let the kids run wild on park equipment. Despite the name, it’s not a park. This small, privately owned secret garden of gargoyle, angel and dragon statues; lush, green grass; hidden nooks and water fountains is a place for solitude in an otherwise hectic part of town. Whether you’re out for a picnic, looking to read a book or wanting a romantic pitstop on your way to dinner, Dragon Park provides a little slice of Zen.

Dogs love bars. Well, not all dogs. But if your pooch can take a lot of stimulation and distraction, the Truck Yard is a surprisingly good venue. The place gets crowded, seemingly with dog lovers. The spacing of the tables enables the free flow of leashed animals while the heights are low enough for the dogs to feel engaged — and for helicopter owners to keep an eye on them. The layout encourages interaction between your dog and other tables. This makes the joint the best place to socialize with your dog, and it’s a place you socialize because of it. So you can go to a dog park and get giardia, or you can go to the Truck Yard and get a beer. Take your pick.

Readers’ Pick: White Rock Dog Park

He invades our homes every night at 5, 6 and 10 on KTVT-TV (CBS 11) to give us the breaking and nonbreaking news of Dallas-Fort Worth. His smile and authoritative voice help the news go down easier, but what Dunbar does off the screen makes him one of the best. Last October, he headed to Kona, Hawaii, to compete in the IronMan Triathlon World Championship to raise money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. Not only did he complete the race in 14 hours, but he also raised more than $156,000 for the fight against blood cancers. Channel 11 followed him along the way as he met fellow racers — cancer warriors, cancer survivors and one who competed without arms. Dunbar says the race was the hardest day of his life and completely humbling.

Readers’ Pick: Pete Delkus, WFAA

Dallas’ spring saga, the federal corruption trial of County Commissioner John Wiley Price, would’ve been a lot harder to understand without the yeoman’s work of KRLD reporter L.P. Phillips. Day after day, Phillips showed up to the Earle Cabell Federal Building downtown, updating KRLD’s listeners throughout the day about the latest goings on in Dallas’ trial of the decade. Austin York, Phillips’ colleague at the station, is an essential resource for anyone in Dallas who wants a live window into the city’s breaking news. While the station’s opinion content, led by Christian financial guru Dave Ramsey’s nightly show, leaves a lot to be desired, there is nowhere better than 1080 on your AM dial for a Dallas hard news fix.

Readers’ Pick: KERA 90.1

In 2017, the rest of Texas found out what Dallas has known for a long time: Krys Boyd, host of KERA’s flagship midday program, Think, conducts some of the best interviews anywhere. The first hour of Boyd’s show began airing in Texas’ other big markets, including Houston, Austin and San Antonio, in January. Now, her lengthy interviews with big names from across the cultural, political and entertainment worlds are available to double the previous audience. New listeners will hear a host who’s engaged, prepared and capable of eliciting candid responses from the most reticent guest. It’s as good as lunchtime desk radio listening gets.

Readers’ Pick: The Kidd Kraddick Morning Show

After two years in exile thanks to term limits, Dallas most entertaining City Council member is back at City Hall. Dwaine Caraway cruised to election over incumbent Carolyn Arnold in May, beating the woman he’d endorsed to take over his seat in 2015. This time around, Caraway promises that he’ll help get a deck park built near the Dallas Zoo and that he’ll continue the economic revitalization of council District 4 that he spurred during his previous four terms. Caraway’s ascension means a return of showmanship and good humor to the council horseshoe, a welcome change for anyone who’s sat through even one of Arnold’s lectures.

This spring, the Dallas City Council finally passed a cite-and-release policy for marijuana possession. The decision, which maintains the same penalties for marijuana possession while allowing those busted to respond to a summons rather than immediately head to jail, isn’t perfect. It’s not decriminalization or legalization. It is a start, however, one for which Dallas City Council member Philip Kingston fought for years. While getting busted for weed can still seriously screw up one’s life, anyone given a citation has a fighting chance to get his or her affairs in order at home before a court date, rather than spending a night or two in jail.

For going on 20 years, to build or not to build — that was the question. Now we have an answer. The Trinity toll road, that six-lane behemoth that supposedly would relieve traffic congestion downtown (except it wouldn’t), bring $1 billion in state and federal construction dollars to Dallas (not really), improve flood control (nope) and even raise the level of racial equality in southern Dallas (seriously, someone said that) has passed on to its final reward. The fulcrum of Dallas city politics was laid to rest by a City Council vote in August. Let us not mourn the toll road. Instead, shed a tear or two for the editorial writers, the bloggers, the internet commenters, the flacks and pols and consultants who bothered to learn what a charrette was, who educated themselves on traffic flows, toll financing, Alternative 3-C and complicated federal procedures for building a road that’s now deader than disco. What on earth are they going to talk about now?

Only a particularly crass sort of person — that would be us — could find humor in the knowledge that the city of Dallas will spend $2 million to partially remove the Standing Wave, the pile of concrete that the same people who supported the Trinity toll road decided to toss into the Trinity River to create fake rapids for the entertainment of kayakers. Built for $4 million, the “whitewater feature” opened with much fanfare in 2011 — for one day. The city immediately shut it down when it figured out that its design had the unfortunate, unexpected side effect of likely killing anyone who tried to paddle through the supposedly safe bypass around the rapids. It sat in the river since then, unused, blocking canoeists, filling with silt and creating a slew of finger-pointing and legal threats among city staff until the City Council voted this spring to remove at least enough of the concrete so that canoeing Cub Scouts wouldn’t be sent to Davy Jones’ locker.

To hear his detractors tell it, District 14 City Councilman Philip Kingston is a dick. To his supporters, however, Kingston is better known as a dick. He’s certainly no friend of Mayor Mike Rawlings, whom he recently called an “overgrown jackleg.” (We looked it up. A jackleg is an unskilled, incompetent or dishonest person.) He also called the mayor an “ass-clown.” (We didn’t have to look that one up.) Kingston’s temperament became the cornerstone of a campaign by a super-PAC called For Our Community, which raised more than $200,000 from Dallas’ political old guard to support the mayor’s allies on the council and unseat Kingston in his race against challenger Matt Wood. The result: The Dick trounced Wood, proving three things: Money isn’t everything, East Dallas voters like their politicians to be dickish and Leo Durocher was right — nice guys finish last.

If you’ve ever listened to live music in Deep Ellum, chances are you’ve seen Gavin Mulloy walk through the front door, high-five a few employees, make his way through a sea of drunken fans (never spilling his drink, surely) to the bottom of the stage to let loose with the rest of the crowd. Mulloy knows everyone, and everyone knows him. So who better than him to sell us fun every weekend on behalf of the top two music venues in town? He’s creative director for Trees and The Bomb Factory, and you can rest assured he does his part in getting the word out for all the best shows Dallas experiences on a daily basis — including marketing, promotions and creative services. Before his time in Deep Ellum, Mulloy was marketing director for another top venue in town, Granada Theater, promoting bands and designing posters. Mulloy is our ambassador for the Dallas music scene. So the next time you see him at a show, go ahead and give the man a high-five.

For months, the drumbeat from Mayor Mike Rawlings and The Dallas Morning News was the same: Khraish H. Khraish and his father, Hanna Khraish, were bad, bad men. They were slumlords whose company, HMK Ltd., was sucking the lifeblood out of the poor who lived in their substandard, low-rent houses in southern and West Dallas. The Khraishes were threatened with millions in fines if they didn’t bring their properties up to new, stricter building codes. The focus was particularly on their properties in West Dallas, which, coincidentally, were in one of the fastest-gentrifying neighborhoods in the city. It just so happened, the mayor told the Khraishes in a meeting they secretly recorded, that the mayor knew some guys who might be willing to take the substandard houses off their hands, all aimed at the goal of increasing private (wink-wink) homeownership in West Dallas. Sure, some 300 poor families might end up on the streets, but you can’t make an omelet, you know … . It’s too long a story to recount here, so let’s skip to the end. The Khraishes stopped renting homes that can’t affordably be fixed up, laid out a plan for redeveloping new affordable housing and self-financed the sale of more than 100 of the other houses to their current residents at rates that put their mortgages roughly the same as their rents. The League of United Latin American Citizens commend Khraish Khraish — not the mayor — for his work in creating homeownership among the working poor.

We’re declaring it now: out with Highland Park and in with Lakewood. Well, Highland Park might not be out, but Lakewood is definitely in. Whether you are a single person looking for a good time with a hopping nightlife or someone looking to settle down and find a nice school district to raise your babies in, Lakewood has it all. There’s the Dallas Arboretum, White Rock Lake, the Lakewood Shopping Center, and plenty of restaurants and bars to keep you happy. Of course, if you can afford to live in Lakewood, you should be pretty happy already.

Readers’ Pick: Deep Ellum

Did you start your school day with a choreographed routine to a Justin Timberlake jam, an empowering pledge that starts out with “I believe in myself; I play big; I refuse to let anyone define me” and a dedicated time for fostering positive relationships among students? Us neither, but if you think it sounds awesome … it is. Dallas ISD’s Solar Preparatory School for Girls kicked off with kindergarten, first grade and second grade last fall (it’ll add a grade level each year, through eighth grade) and the little girls that skip through the former James B. Bonham campus get things done. The curriculum is STEAM focused: You’ll find pig-tailed kiddos coding, engineering lemonade stands and planning guerrilla art projects — and that’s before lunch. There’s also an emphasis on socio-emotional learning, allowing girls space to build self-esteem and support each other. The mean girl ethos that can so easily upend female confidence is not a thing here. Instead, girls focus on the Solar Six: curiosity, self-awareness, empathy, humility, leadership and grit. In the hallways and classrooms of Solar Prep, there’s a joyful and palpable energy among the diverse students. It’s like they know that someday, they’re gonna run this motha.

Since 2005, Kettle Art Gallery has given Dallas-based up-and-coming artists a place to let their work shine in a city synonymous with stuffy art galleries and constant importing. In the heart of Deep Ellum, Kettle is by artists, for artists, and a place for the underrepresented to feel acknowledged. “Godfather of Deep Ellum” Frank Campagna owns the volunteer-run gallery that first opened its doors when Deep Ellum’s popularity and revenue were at a standstill. His persistence and dedication to the job and the gallery’s mission to be a welcoming venue for area artists of all styles make Kettle Art Gallery the top locally driven arts destination.

He started the job only in January, so maybe nine months is a little premature to make this call. But so far, T.C. Broadnax, former city manager of Tacoma, Washington, has yet to make any splashy headlines. By Dallas standards, that’s a pretty good record for a city manager. There’ve been no reports of secret deals with drilling companies to plant rigs in city parks. No conspiracies with cab companies to use the cops to harass ride-sharing outfits. No major audits under his watch showing that scads of money have disappeared into the ether. No one’s tried to gin up fake felony charges against sitting City Council members. The tide of bullshit flowing from City Hall has abated somewhat. In fact, things have been remarkably quiet under Broadnax’s leadership. Maybe too quiet. Uh-oh.

The deal was all but done. Under a plan pushed by Mayor Mike Rawlings, the City Council looked set to hand over management of Fair Park, home of the State Fair of Texas and one of the largest collections of decrepit Art Deco buildings in the country, to a private entity led by the mayor’s pal, Walt Humann, along with $20 million a year in city money to Humann’s group, the Fair Park Foundation. Dallas was between city attorneys at the time, and the interim city attorney signed off on the deal. Then two things happened: Dallas got a new city attorney, Larry Casto, and mayoral adversary, lawyer and all-around sweet guy, City Councilman Philip Kingston, asked a question. Can the city really just hand over a major hunk of city property without seeking competitive bids? Casto had an answer — and a pair of big ones, considering the way City Hall works: No, it can’t. The city has to put out a request for proposals for bidders if it wants to hand management of the 277 acres of city property over to a private entity. That opens the door for other groups to bring fresh ideas for rebuilding the park in a way that might help lift the blighted South Dallas neighborhood around it. If that happens, and that’s a pretty big if, whichever group wins the bid can erect a small bronze plaque commemorating Larry Casto in some corner of the park.

Odd thing about the Texas GOP: It’s all for small government and local control except when its philosophy runs up against one simple fact. Texas’ largest urban areas tend to be Democratic strongholds. They also tend to have sizable populations of Latinos. So when Senate Bill 4 came up before this year’s legislative session, the party faced a philosophical conundrum. Can right-thinking Republicans support a bill that threatens criminal penalties for local officials who refuse to act as federal proxies in enforcing immigration law? You bet they can. When it comes to immigrant-bashing, there’s no low that the party of Donald Trump won’t sink to. Under SB 4, local sheriffs and police chiefs are forbidden from adopting any policy that might hinder the enforcement of federal immigration laws, even if that means local immigrant communities are less likely to turn to the police when they’re victims of crime for fear of being deported. Texas’ major cities aren’t taking that lying down. Dallas joined Houston, San Antonio, Austin and other communities in a federal lawsuit challenging the bill, which means that eventually a federal court will determine for Texas whether its state government can order local government to act as proxies for the federal government. The word you’re looking for, by the way, is “hypocrites.”

During what was otherwise a desultory session of the Texas Legislature, several Dallas reps stood out by sticking up for their city. Freshman Victoria Neave repeatedly stood up for women and immigrants. Eric Johnson, West Dallas’ rising star, worked hard for criminal justice reform and proposed innovative solutions to smooth out the effect of gentrification in his neighborhood. In a session notorious for its ugliness toward Texas’ immigrant community, however, Rafael Anchia’s voice was essential. Anchia, head of the Mexican American Legislative Caucus, couldn’t stop Senate Bill 4, Texas’ sanctuary cities bill, but he made sure those who fought for it couldn’t do so in the dark, calling out the bill for cranking up the fear in Latino communities around the state and turning Texas cops into immigration officers. If Texas’ demographics ever prove to be destiny, Anchia will be a progressively more powerful figure as the state gets bluer.

When newly elected President Donald Trump announced he was banning travelers from seven Middle Eastern countries, effective immediately, at the beginning of January, sympathetic North Texans flocked to D/FW Airport to show their support for those who might be stuck there, as well as those who might be arriving from one of the banned countries. Lawyers helped stranded travelers free of charge, and Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings and Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins showed up to take a stand with the immigrants and against Trump. Eventually, thanks to help of a couple of court orders, those detained were released and reunited with their loved ones. During the first domestic crisis of the Trump administration, Dallas stood up.

Glenn Beck and Tomi Lahren deserve each other. That’s what made it so sad when the two right-wing yakkers, thrown together at Beck’s The Blaze, went through such an acrimonious divorce earlier this year. The Blaze froze Lahren out after she went on The View and told the world that, as a civil libertarian, she was pro-choice. Lahren sued the network for wrongful termination. Beck fired back that Lahren was a nightmare to deal with on staff and that she hadn’t been fired; she just wasn’t going on the air anymore. Eventually, the parties settled. Lahren got her Facebook page back, and Beck got Lahren off his network for good. The Blaze is getting along just fine in Lahren’s absence, and Lahren’s profanity-filled tirade about activist Dominique Alexander’s spot on a community panel interviewing Dallas police chief candidates got more than two million views on Facebook, so everybody seems to have come out OK.

At least one vote took place last November that left us not appalled, but applauding. After careful consideration and a review by a church committee, Wilshire Baptist Church’s congregation took a vote on whether to accept LGBT people as full members, meaning they can serve in church office as lay leaders and clergy and even get married there. It was a gut-wrenching vote for the church, led by the Rev. George Mason, but in the end the congregation voted 577-367 to welcome LGBT people as full participants in the church. The vote was a rare move by a Baptist congregation, and it cost the church some longtime members, gained its others and led to the its break from the Baptist General Convention of Texas. But in the end, when asking the question WWJD, Wilshire came back with a compassionate and loving answer.

In late February, Dallas’ broadcast airwaves overflowed with the tragic tale of Lucky the 4-month-old Chihuahua mix who ate a bag of heroin as he sat in the parking lot while his owners ran a pricetag switching scam inside a Carrollton Home Depot. Luckily for Lucky, cops busted his owners and found him in the scammers’ truck just after his overdose. Doctors at the North Texas Emergency Vet Clinic saved Lucky’s life, and he headed to rehab for a couple of weeks at Carrollton Animal Control Services Center. A Carrollton couple and their 5-year-old granddaughter adopted Lucky on March 8.

Over the six years between the FBI’s 2011 raid of John Wiley Price’s Lake Cliff home and his trial this spring, a consensus developed: Price was likely guilty and likely to be found guilty of the corruption charges brought against him by the federal government. The feds had so much evidence and had spent so much time on the Dallas County commissioner that it was hard to imagine Price walking out of the federal courthouse in downtown Dallas a free man. But that’s exactly what Price did in April. The not-guilty verdict wasn’t undeserved, either. Despite the terabytes upon terabytes of evidence maintained by the feds, prosecutors never shook the vibe that they just didn’t quite have the goods. While Price’s explanation for the nearly $1 million in cash payments he received from his political consultant didn’t really make sense, neither did the case against him. Price may not be innocent, but he certainly deserved to be found not guilty.

Over the last two years, the Dallas Police and Fire Pension System’s unfunded liability grew from a constant source of frustration into an existential threat to the city of Dallas. Because of changes in federal accounting rules and the hits on the city’s bond rating, the DPFP’s multibillion-dollar unfunded liability placed the city’s continued solvency at risk. Something had to be done, and, thanks to a shove from Texas state Sens. Royce West and Don Huffines, pensioners agreed to a deal that cuts benefits for retirees and increases city contributions to the fund for the next several decades. The fix leans heavily on police and is no sure thing, but it represents the biggest step taken to fix the fund in decades.

Recently, one of our staff members moved to — dare we say it? — Plano. The looks of pity on the faces of his tattooed co-workers were a disheartening sight. Plano! The epitome of white-bread, cookie-cutter suburbia totally lacking in hipness. The only people who want to move there are major industries like Toyota and their well-educated employees. Why would any self-respecting alternative journalist want to relocate there? Well, let’s see: A recently remodeled house with a yard rents for roughly $700 less per month than a slightly smaller, yardless townhouse in central Dallas. It has a functioning government that makes signing up for city services and finding info a snap. It’s possible to drive down its wide, well-maintained streets without fear of breaking an axle on one’s car. It’s redone old downtown is sort of a like a Deep Ellum for grownups. Good street tacos are scarce, but great Asian food is abundant. We’ve yet to see a restaurant — and they have plenty of good ones, believe it or not — that requires valet parking. It has miles of bike trails and plenty of parks. And it’s possible to walk the streets of Plano without being hit up for change by a homeless person every 50 yards. Not that anyone ever walks anywhere in Plano.

Edward Ruiz’s magic shows are really one part magic, one part vaudeville, one part burlesque and something totally unique. Ruiz, who goes by the moniker Confetti Eddie, got his start (and the nickname) while firing a confetti cannon for Ruby Revue burlesque shows. His personal style and approach to his craft match wits with the magicians of yesterday, but the scantily clad beauties onstage certainly don’t discourage the younger generation from showing up to this often-overlooked form of entertainment. When Ruiz isn’t escaping a straitjacket or slicing his lovely assistants in half, local musicians provide a soundtrack for the evening. You’ll want to snag tickets for his latest and most popular gig, The Naughty Magic Show, which takes place at Dallas’ premier burlesque venue, Viva’s Lounge; they disappear pretty fast.

At Good Records, music is always playing, and every day is record store day. But some days also include live musical performances. The Lower Greenville Avenue record store’s pink AstroTurf stage, no larger than a midsize kitchen, plays host to national touring acts and local bands alike. A far cry from neighboring music venues’ gigs, the Live from the AstroTurf shows offer intimate performances alongside a great selection of vinyl records, CDs, cassette tapes, DVDs and more. Typically, after their sets, the performers hang out near the stage for a bit to chat with the audience, which offers fans the chance to meet and rub elbows with (and often get autographs from) the likes of Alice Cooper and Steve Earle, as well as indie acts such as Matthew Sweet and No Age.

The times, they are a (not really) changing. The past year goose-stepped us further into protest for both sides of the law — especially within the black community. And a T-shirt that spells out “Legalize Being Black” began populating Dallas in 2016, worn by artists and activists alike. Designed by Stem & Thorn owner Jeremy Biggers, the shirt, simple with white letters on black, is a response to modern racism. It’s become synonymous with spreading the straightforward idea of equality at a time when it is seemingly nonexistent. Biggers’ printed statement is uncomplicated but bold and represents the best of Dallas.

In April, Josey Records drew attention when it announced a book club that didn’t involve reading any books. But Hip-Hop Book Club has proven with its monthly discussions of seminal rap albums that reading need not be the defining feature of book clubs. Instead, it’s the willingness to dig deeply into a topic and share your thoughts with enthusiastic strangers. Each month, Josey picks a new album and hosts an open forum to discuss what does or doesn’t make it a classic, and dozens turn out to participate. Albums discussed so far include Kendrick Lamar’s Good Kid, M.A.A.D City, Jay-Z’s Reasonable Doubt, Outkast’s Aquemini and Kanye West’s The College Dropout. Four friends were inspired to found the club by their passionate text message conversations. Kenny Reeves, Terrance Lee, Attah “A.T.” Essien and Sobechi “Sobe” Ibekwe lead the conversation, which is organized into four categories: influence, visuals, production and lyrics. Attendees are invited to approach the mic and share their opinions. When the conversation is over, a vinyl copy of the album under discussion isn’t far away.

Jeffrey Brown has made magic at Armoury D.E. this year with his free Saturday night series, Locked and Loaded. Under the name King Camel, Brown has booked many shows at venues like Crown & Harp and Three Links over the past few years, but he’s the first person to helm Armoury’s new music program, and he’s really made it his baby. Under his guidance, the bar/restaurant has also become a place where up-and-coming local bands like Polystarra and buzzy national acts like A Giant Dog get often promised but rarely delivered exposure. The well-heeled patrons who come for the food and drink are a distinct group from the bohemian music-lovers who show up for what’s on the patio. The beauty is that the two groups spontaneously and peacefully mingle. Lots of people now leave Armoury having experienced something they otherwise wouldn’t have — and that’s pretty cool.

Readers’ Pick: The Bomb Factory

Last year, Independent Bar & Kitchen blended into the landscape of Deep Ellum. The bar and restaurant, opened by the owners of Club Dada and Off the Record in spring 2016, fit right in with the evolving neighborhood’s penchant for upscale comfort food, but until this year it had failed to truly differentiate itself. That’s when former Dada talent buyer Moody Fuqua was given reign over the back room, renamed Regal Room, on Wednesday nights. Each week, Fuqua curates a free lineup of some of the best new bands in town, from Starfruit to Talkie Walkie to Mother 2. Since Regal Room got off the ground, IBK has been attracting a noticeably more diverse clientele that no doubt appreciates the opportunity to hear some free music midweek, the only time parking in Deep Ellum isn’t an Olympic sport.

There hasn’t been any boot-scooting at the Longhorn Ballroom, built in 1950, in nearly a decade. In the ’50s and ’60s, it was a regular stop for country stars such as Bob Wills and R&B singers Otis Redding and Al Green; in the ’70s it went on to host more rowdy shows by punk acts such as the Sex Pistols. But after it was sold in ’86, the Longhorn Ballroom lost its luster — and its draw. In recent years, it has been an event space primarily used for quinceañeras. But this year, entrepreneur Jay LaFrance bought the property, and he’s dead set on restoring this piece of Dallas history to its former glory. Another bidder was going to tear down the Longhorn Ballroom for an apartment complex, but LaFrance is fixing up the Western murals, hanging the original lighted sign.With the help of his music publicist daughter, Amber, LaFrance is planning retail space, a restaurant and an outdoor space that will open onto the Trinity River this month.

The first handful of times we passed King’s X, in a shopping center near Forest Lane and Greenville Avenue, we were fairly certain it was a strip club. The windows are mirrored, so it’s impossible to see in. One day, after visiting the excellent Ethiopian restaurant next door, our curiosity compelled us to go in. It’s not a gentleman’s club at all, but one of the most inviting bars in all of Dallas. King’s X is a ’70s paradise: The walls are wood-paneled, the ceilings are covered with Budweiser lamps, there’s shuffleboard and pool, there are dishes of snacks on the bar and the lighting is low, low, low. On our visit there were five or six other patrons, and the charming bartender was amusing everyone with a story of an affair she’d had in Jamaica. On our way out, we received the traditional “Y’all come back now,” but this time it was everyone in the bar in unison. At King’s X, you’re a regular after one visit.

Readers’ Pick: Lakewood Landing

On the spectrum of karaoke experiences, a night out at Barb’s in Oak Cliff, which has karaoke Thursdays and Saturdays, falls somewhere between getting onstage in front of hundreds at Sherlock’s and booking a private room in Korea Town. The former is too much pressure, and there’s not much point in intentionally embarrassing yourself in front of friends who are already bound to love you. Barb’s is technically a gay bar, but the only universal descriptors for its karaoke clientele are laid back and supportive. The drinks are strong and there are bags of chips hanging behind the bar if singing Adele, Fleetwood Mac and the Beatles makes you a bit peckish. Speaking of which, the song choices tend to be pretty inoffensive here. Your ears might bleed a bit, as they should at any karaoke night, but it won’t be due to a cover of Papa Roach.

Readers’ Pick: Twilite Lounge

In the last decade, Greenville Avenue has sacrificed its reputation as a live music strip to cater to the brunch and artisanal Popsicle crowd. That’s well and good, but we were still sad to see the street’s last great music venue, Crown & Harp, hand over its keys in May. The two-story bar venue got its start in ’97 as The Cavern and rebranded as The Crown & Harp in 2011, when it further embraced its British pub aesthetic. Throughout its two-decade tenure, the upstairs was one of the best spots in Dallas to dance during DJ nights and the downstairs was an equally great spot to see a rock show. The small stage, booth area and even the fish tank in back created a cozy house party feel. If even 10 people showed up to see a band, the layout made it feel like a rager.

There are only a few acceptable reasons to end a show early, but your keyboard catching on fire is definitely one of them. In May, Medicine Man Revival proved it has a crazy work ethic when that happened mid-song at Independent Bar & Kitchen, and the group finished out the show. The 1974 Rhodes had been in storage and unplayed for 30 years, which resulted in some undetected loose ground wiring. During the climax of the band’s set, “Bittersweet,” the keyboard began smoking and then went up in flames. A nearby photographer unplugged the equipment while also capturing the event on video, making room for the band’s manager to come in and douse the keyboard with a fire extinguisher. Many attendees evacuated because of the smoke filling up the room, but just as many kept right on dancing — the keyboardist included. He kept playing the Rhodes until someone carted it off and brought him a new instrument.

Lakewood Landing doesn’t have the largest pool table or the most well-cared-for pool table. But it has the best pool table. The Landing is a pit stop for anyone east of Central Expressway who feels like a nightcap, so you’re never short of partners, whether friends you’ve run into or ones you haven’t met yet. Booths are arranged around the table, ideal for spectating and commentary. And during the game, you’re an arm’s length away from the killer jukebox, where you can play everything from Bowie to Hank Williams. When Hank starts singing “what you got cookin’?” check your watch. If it’s after midnight, you might think about ordering one of the bar’s famous jalapeño cornbread-battered dogs. They’re off the menu.

A Morrissey show isn’t a Morrissey show until he’s canceled and rescheduled. But when the English singer and songwriter, best known for his time as the frontman of the Smiths, did this three times with his November 2016 Dallas date, we were skeptical the show would happen at all. We even went so far as to prepare a list of Morrissey-inspired events to attend when it fell through. So color us surprised when Morrissey showed up to the Majestic Theatre on April 15 and gave what was by all accounts one of his best shows in years. Wearing “Fuck Trump” shirts, Morrissey and his band played through a 70-minute set list of songs from his solo career, as well as a few Smiths covers like “Last Night I Dreamt That Somebody Loved Me” and “How Soon Is Now?” That will do for an apology, Morrissey.

It’s not hard to declare It’ll Do the best dance club in Dallas because it’s leagues beyond all the others. Those who value exclusivity, expensive bottle service and waitresses in short dresses on their nights out dancing may disagree. But for those who just want an unpretentious and fun place to let loose to good music and maybe meet a new dance partner, it doesn’t get better than Brooke Humphries’ Old East Dallas establishment. For a cover that usually falls between $10 and $20, you can hear some of the best DJs in the world, like Kevin Saunderson and Danny Tenaglia, who make It’ll Do their stopping point when they come through Dallas. And the multicolored, light-up dance floor is the perfect stage for your peacock courtship display.

Readers’ Pick: Station 4

Even the sparsest green room is, by definition, awesome. There’s almost always free stuff to eat and drink, and unless you’re in the band, which you’re probably not, you’re not supposed to be there. Who doesn’t enjoy trespassing? So you can imagine our level of excitement when we got a look at what the Bomb Factory has backstage: It’s like every other venue’s green room on steroids. There’s a dining area; a weight room; and three rooms with TVs, couches and spacious, fully stocked showers. Most useful of all to touring bands, there are three sets of washers and dryers for catching up on the dirty laundry that has stacked up on the road. Can we move in?

Every band needs a cool shirt, and who better to help you whip one up than fellow Dallas musicians? The owner of Lewellyn’s Print Shop, Chris Lewellyn, is a drummer who has been in the music merch business for nearly 20 years. He got his start working with Reverend Horton Heat and opened his own shop between Deep Ellum and East Dallas after teaching himself how to screen print. Lewellyn’s employs Hunter Moehring of Sealion and Taylor Smith of Loafers and also designs posters, album covers and even websites. You’ll see the team’s handiwork on merch for local bands like Party Static, the venues Three Links and Double Wide, and on goods for national acts like the Toadies and Hank Williams III, too. Lewellyn also strives to accommodate his employees’ rehearsal, performing and touring schedules, so when you give your business to this shop, you can feel good about supporting the Dallas artist community.

When Kanye West brought his Saint Pablo tour to American Airlines Center last fall, he brought with him a moving stage unlike any we’d ever seen. Throughout his succinct, one-hour-and-40-minute set, West was suspended above his 20,000-person audience on a giant platform that glided around the arena and left him mostly in shadows. Smoke and light billowing below him gave his ride the appearance of a UFO, and when they weren’t surging with him, the illuminated attendees had their phones out to capture its brilliance. The notion of audience as spectacle is not a new one, but it felt new in West’s hands. As we wrote in our review, the stage design was a perfect metaphor for West, whose public persona is at once an enigma and an attention hog. The 40-year-old rapper didn’t phone it in with his 30-plus song set list. He made the unusual choice of performing covers of songs by Schoolboy Q, Chief Keef and Drake — on which he has features — along with inspired medleys of his own hits, such as “Power” and “Can’t Tell Me Nothing.”

What happens when you get comedians and actors Charlyne Yi, Thomas Lennon, Udo Kier and Michael Pare together? They head to the Addison Improv. (And no, that wasn’t the punch line to a bad joke.) This spring, they were all in town filming Puppet Master: The Littlest Reich and took a trip to see their friend, Craig Robinson, perform at the Addison comedy house. Few comedians, save Louis CK, Bill Maher and Jerry Seinfeld, are big enough to fill out a venue like the Majestic or Music Hall at Fair Park; anyone else who’s any good — and there a lot of them — heads to the Improv. In addition to Robinson, this year the club hosted Piff the Magic Dragon, Steve-O of Jackass fame and India’s most famous comic, Vir Das. Addison Improv is useful, too. If you’re working off a ticket, it has a defensive driving course that, unlike most, won’t bore you to tears and is somehow also legit.

Readers’ Pick: Addison Improv

Eighteen years after it quit playing, legendary Dallas rock band Tripping Daisy returned for a victory lap. Its first show back, at Club Dada, was packed equally with Gen-Xers who followed them closely in the ’90s and young fans who had, until that moment, never had a chance to hear the MTV hit “I Got a Girl” performed live. The reception was so positive and powerful that the band played for two hours, including repeats of six songs. The reunion continued with two more dates in the Dallas area — at Homegrown Fest and NyTex Sports Centre — as well as gigs in Houston, Waco, San Antonio and Austin. Frontman Tim DeLaughter remained vague about the band’s future, but when the NyTex gig arrived, it was clear another goodbye was imminent. Energy at the show was sky high, with laser lights, bubbles, 750 pounds of confetti and numerous crowd-surfers, including DeLaughter’s son. Breaking up is hard to do, but we applaud the band for giving the brief reunion its all and leaving us wanting more. Here’s hoping DeLaughter was serious when he said the group might return in another 18 years.

Strokers Ice House isn’t a “Disneyland for bikers.” It’s as close to motorcycle paradise as can be found on Harry Hines Boulevard near Love Field with its custom motorcycle fabrication studio, bar and tattoo parlor, and live music. Revered custom bike builder Rick Fairless wanted it to be a one-stop shop for bikers, a place where classic rock and blues hold court for the 500 to 1,000 bikes that roll through Strokers on a given night. “It’s definitely a biker bar,” Tony Avezzano, the former owner of Hat Tricks, a live music venue in Lewisville, told the Observer in June 2016. “But it’s not a rough place with a bunch of big biker dudes fighting all the time.”

If you’re going to drunkenly stumble into a bar bathroom to take a piss, it might as well be entertaining. Nothing says a Saturday night out on the town like crying alone in a bathroom stall. And if you’re going to do that, you might as well have a nice view. Adair’s Saloon’s bathroom isn’t necessarily nice or where you would want to change a baby’s diaper, but it’s fun. And by fun, we mean covered in graffiti. “Let go and let God” and other seemingly inspirational sayings fill the walls. Or, you know, you can always call Susie for a good time. Either way, wander into Adair’s bathroom for a leak or cry next time you’re there and add your own message. We all need it.

It’s long been said that Deep Ellum begins at Elm and Exhibition streets with Sons of Hermann Hall. Times may be a-changin’, but this mainstay country and western Dallas fixture ain’t goin’ nowhere. It’s old as hell, having remained unmoved since 1890. Still used as a private lodge, the building is now a Texas Historic Landmark and was home to native daughter Kelly Clarkson’s first audition for American Idol. Visit the downstairs dive bar for drinks over a game of shuffleboard, or take a tour of the lodge’s historical bowling alley. It’s rumored to be haunted, but as the dance floor announcer says, “Welcome to Texas, boys and girls, that’s fantastic!” Not much has changed inside the Sons of Hermann Hall since its inception year, when Benjamin Harrison was president. Can we all agree that’s a beautiful thing?

Readers’ Pick: Billy Bob’s Texas

Beautiful people. Technically gifted dancers. The occasional Lady Gaga appearance. Polish up them spurs, y’all, because not only is 37-year-old Round Up Saloon the best gay bar in Dallas, it’s been voted, word has it, the best in the nation. Tim Smith, the statewide president of the Texas Gay Rodeo Association, tells us its original name was Magnolia Thunderpussies. This has not been verified, but dang it, of course it was. If you’re a person with dance envy, no need to worry: The dance floor is huge, so you can join fellow onlookers around the edges and watch the people do their thangs. Don’t let the comparatively timid pre-midnight crowd fool you; come 12 o’clock, Round Up turns into a cowboy’s dream. Perhaps the best thing about Round Up is that it’s a melting pot. You’re as likely to encounter a den of straight cheerleading moms as you are a Stetson-sporting, belt buckle-polishing group of vaqueros.

Readers’ Pick: Round-Up Saloon

This minimalist, high-end restaurant really knows how to create an ideal happy hour. Happy hours usually land within 3-7 p.m., but Gemma has a “reversed” happy hour that goes from 10:30 p.m. to 1 a.m. It offers $6 specialty cocktails, $3 beers, $6 selected wines and $2 oysters. Raw, delicious and affordable oysters … Gemma wins Best Happy Hour just for that. Gemma has a grasp on what is quality while making sure to not complicate a menu by listing too much. If your partner is a lover of Bob Dylan’s music, grab the “Tangled Up In Blue,” which has Tito’s Vodka, fresh blueberries, blueberry shrub, lavender syrup, lemon, house vanilla and Vouvray sparkling wine. If you want a cocktail with more spice and burn, check out the Texas Heat, which has jalapeño-infused tequila, lemon, cilantro and lime. So treat yourself to a late night of delicious drinks, oysters and top-notch service.

When Free Play Arcade opened its first location in Richardson in 2015, it was the first video game arcade to offer a buffet of classic games to more grownup players. It also offered a true retro feel, from the neon striped walls to the sounds of ’80s staples like Rush and Cyndi Lauper filling the air. Free Play Arcade’s massive success brought a new level of competition among the local arcade scene and brought on some interesting competition with new entries like the Bishop Cider Company’s Cidercade and the eSports-focused Versus Gameplay in Plano. Free Play Arcade fired back by expanding its empire to a second, much larger location in Arlington that provides more space to show off an impressive collection of classic video game machines that are set to open play without requiring those annoying credits to continue. The arcade chain takes a moral obligation to achieving greatness by refusing to install emulating machines that cram hundreds of titles into one cabinet. Owner Corey Hyden dedicates his time to making sure his customers feel like they’ve stepped into the same video game arcade they visited when their parents had to drive them there or they weren’t old enough to order any of the adult beverages served by Free Play’s bartenders. The only difference is that they don’t have to carry around the $10 in quarters needed to beat the Evil MC boss at the end of Smash TV.

JT Donaldson is so much more than just a DJ. With his involvement with local vinyl holy ground Josey Records, Donaldson has the well-curated label New Math Records, a more than 20-year career as a producer and a string of reputable residencies around town. With his New Math Mondays Residency at Off the Record, he has also filled the role of talent buyer, featuring some of the most forward-thinking Dallas artists along with notable artists and DJs from all over the country, like house heavyweights Seven Davis Jr. and Honey Dijon. The connecting thread through all these roles is curation, one of the most important roles of any club DJ, and Donaldson’s fine ear runs through everything he does, especially his actual DJ sets. Although his discography of music boasts more than 50 releases stretching back to the mid ’90s, his expert cart-digging skills have served him well.

Readers’ Pick: DJ Red Eye

Rock music has a home in Deep Ellum, and that home is Three Links. With a calendar that leans heavy toward the punk side of things, Three Links still covers all kinds of ground, from touring punk and indie acts to up-and-coming local bands of all stripes, along with a who’s who of classic punk bands. Every Tuesday, it hosts a performance by funk and soul outfit Colab, curating one of the most consistent weeknight events in Deep Ellum showcasing bands from the groovier side of the Dallas music scene. The room is the perfect size for small road shows and local acts without skimping on top-notch sound. This makes for a standout experience for live music fans. In a neighborhood that seems to look less and less like the Deep Ellum we used to know, Three Links is a welcome constant for live music.

Readers’ Pick: Gas Monkey Live!

In the outskirts of Fort Worth, Tomcats West offers local metal bands a more intimate experience with their fans. It’s been called a true dive bar with a good stage setup and a great sound system. The location has been called scary, adding to the bar’s overall underground feel. Customers have complained about the smoking but complimented the staff members on their ability to make a drink. “This place is great to catch some of the best local bands as well as national acts,” wrote one four-star reviewer on Yelp. Some would say longtime Urizen bassist Rustin Luther was the key to the bar’s success. He opened the bar about seven years ago and recently opened another bar in Dallas called the Dirty 30. He died in early August after a yearlong battle with a brain tumor.

Readers’ Pick: Gas Monkey Live!

In its five-year existence, JMBLYA has quickly grown to become one of the city’s biggest and most anticipated annual music festivals by blending top artists from hip-hop and EDM for a daylong festival setting with all the accouterments of mega festivals like ACL or Lollapalooza. This year, headliners Chance The Rapper, Steve Aoki, Gucci Mane and Migos drew an estimated 25,000 people to Fair Park, and anticipation for next year’s edition is already ramping up. Presenter ScoreMore turned the annual music festival into a must-see event by tapping into the extensive network of rappers it’s had relationships with since before they were stars. Teenagers are the priority of the festival, which has a motto of “for the students, by the students,” offers internships to local kids and works with organizations to give tickets to the needy. Superstar performers and teen buzz have turned JMBLYA into one of the most popular music festivals of the year, but ScoreMore’s concert expertise makes it the best festival in the city.

Readers’ Pick: Deep Ellum Arts Festival

Lee Harvey’s, nestled in a neighborhood just south of downtown, has won plenty of awards in the past for being a dive bar, but its patio remains a year-round attraction worthy of this praise. The wooden seating area is large, and sometimes bands play there. Even in the coldest of winter, no matter how short it is in North Texas, the heaters and sealed plastic make the place warm and friendly. The dog-friendly patio has plenty of room to move around with an excellent menu and substantial beer list. And it’s a free place to get into, so if you haven’t made it out there yet, what are you waiting for?

There’s no better spot to watch the sun set over the Dallas skyline than on HG Sply Co.’s massive rooftop patio. With fireplaces, lengthy bar and herbs growing all around the rustic space, it’s a gorgeous spot to settle in with a kombucha Moscow mule and vegan queso.

Readers’ Pick: HG Sply Co.

The Cockpit has been an institution in the neighborhood north of Dallas Love Field for decades, but nowadays instead of serving the now (hopefully) outmoded stereotype of the hard-drinking airplane pilot, this neighborhood bar has become town square to some and a hidden gem to others. While the selection of craft brews and exotic liquors may be somewhat modest compared with most Dallas bars, The Cockpit makes up for its shortcomings with both atmosphere and price point. Like you’ve stumbled into an episode of Cheers, you see the clientele is largely local regulars looking to partake of the bar’s $2.25 pints of beer and $3.75 wells between games of video golf and buzzing conversation. While The Cockpit isn’t the best-known Dallas dive bar, it’s definitely an overlooked gem that may leave you with a headache in the morning but plenty of cash left over for aspirin.

Despite a bevy of changes that continue to alter the landscape of Deep Ellum, music remains at its core. As patrons file out of the numerous neighborhood venues, the Twilite Lounge serves as a shining beacon for those looking to keep the evening’s festivities going. With a top-notch jukebox, a rustic outdoor patio and some of the most attentive bartenders in town, the atmosphere serves as a natural coda to any live music experience. The bar also doubles as a fine live music venue in its own right. Indoors, there’s often a steady stream of singer-songwriters and jazz bands performing. On special occasions, the back patio opens up into a larger space that recently hosted the likes of Old 97’s, Sam Outlaw and Erika Wennerstrom. It’s been four years since local musicians Danny Balis and Jess Barr opened up shop, and their endeavor shows no signs of slowing down.

Scott Shelby has been dominating the stage as a metal guitarist in the Dallas-Fort Worth area since the days of Rascals and The Tombstone Factory in the late ’80s. As a member of Gammacide, he traded licks with guitar maestro Rick Perry, formerly of Warlock. He went on to perfect his chops in other metal bands such as Hammer Witch, Rotting Corpse and Null & Void before hooking up with Perry in Texas Metal Alliance, which later changed its name to Warbeast. Shelby has been called “the last man standing” after the untimely deaths of local metal alumni Dimebag Darrell Abbott Mike Scaccia in 2004 and 2013. Now, with lead vocalist Bruce Corbitt announcing the end of Warbeast, Shelby finds himself without a band, but it’s never been a major concern for the “Beast.” “The fact I’ve been able to put out records, play and tour, that’s the biggest thing for me,” Shelby once told the Observer. “I dreamed about it when I was little, and now I have records on the wall.”

Dallas’ Jim Suhler is known for his no-holds-barred approach to blues-inspired rock ‘n’ roll roots music as part of his band Monkey Beat. As the lead guitarist for George Thorogood & the Destroyers since the late ’90s, he’s helped to infuse classics such as “One Bourbon, One Shot, One Beer” with Texas swagger. Buddy Magazine made him a member of the Texas Tornado Hall of Fame. Alhough his playing can become a swirling storm of licks, it’s more precise than chaotic, blues picking at its finest from a local blues veteran who has shared the stage with Johnny Winter, Billy Gibbons and Buddy Guy. Suhler once told the Observer that he didn’t consider himself a “true blues artist,” but he’s spent most of his life playing the blues.”There are blues Nazis, and I’m not one of them,” he says. “The blues isn’t for me to decide.”

Kelley Juett has been called one of the world’s most underrated guitar players. But it’s a title he’s quickly shedding. As part of Dallas-based Mothership, a heavy rock band he started with his brother Kyle in 2010, the Dallas guitarist harnesses classic-rock-inspired riffs from legends like Angus Young from AC/DC. “Angus took over me whole world,” Juett told Fret12.com in April. “I learned all of his stuff once I started jamming.” He picked up his love of classic rock from his father, John “Big J” Juett, a drummer and music lover with an impressive collection of vinyl records from blues, classic rock, hard rock, metal and Southern rock artists. It’s a foundation that helped to define Juett’s style and eventually led to his signature guitar series from Boult Guitars called the Galaxy collection.

Over seven years, Warbeast has gifted fans with three studio albums and an EP filled with pulse-pounding Texas metal. It’s a local supergroup made up of metal veterans: vocalist Bruce Corbitt from Rigor Mortis; guitarist Scott Shelby, formerly of Gammacide; and drummer Joey “Blue” Gonzalzes from Philip H. Anselmo and The Illegals, Superjoint and The Black Moriah. Warbeast offers music birthed in the legendary ’80s underground Texas metal scene. Over the years, the band has had other members come and go. The latest lineup includes guitarist Drew Shoup and bassist Lyric Ferchaud, but the band’s future was altered with Corbitt’s recent diagnosis of Stage 3 esophageal cancer. But it released its magnum opus of Texas metal with its third full-length studio album from Anselmo’s Housecore Records, Enter the Arena, in August. “I want people to feel like they’ve been hit with a sledgehammer 10 times in a row when they hear this,” says Corbitt of the release. “As long as they feel strongly about [it], we’ve accomplished our mission.”

Now that Mötley Crüe is retired, it’s up to tribute bands like Dallas’ Crüed and Tattooed to take fans back to the late ’80s. But these guys and lady don’t just sound like Mötley Crüe rehashing old classics like “Shout at the Devil.” They also kind of resemble them from a distance. Mike Crue (Vince Neil), DieTrich Thrall (Nikki Sixx), Jay Patterson (Mick Mars) and Nikki Heimann (scantily clad backup vocalist) dress in similar fashion as their Mötley Crüe counterparts onstage. Crued and Tattooed drummer Matt Cayer even jams onstage strapped to his drum kit and spinning like Tommy Lee from the Girls, Girls, Girls tour. “Crüe is the reason I bought my first guitar, got my first tattoo, got into hard rock,” Patterson says.

Messer recently came in third place in Metallica’s Hit the Lights local band competition, but it’s no loser. Formed in 2009 in Dallas, the group creates a synergy when it goes onstage, a kind of magic that propelled bands like Drowning Pool to stardom in the early 2000s. It’s called a “cutting-edge modern rock sound,” and it can be addictive. The band — Dereak, vocals; Javier, guitar; Kenn, drums; Maddox, bass; and Donnie, guitar — quickly became a favorite in Deep Ellum when it formed in 2009, but it didn’t take long before it hit the road to bars and venues outside of Texas. The band recently completed its self-titled debut album and made an appearance onstage with Local H on Metallica’s 2017 Worldwired tour. Local H members may have simply felt like douches for winning the Hit the Lights local band competition when they were, in fact, a signed band.

It was the contest of a lifetime for one local band: a chance to play 30-minute set openings on a partial leg of the Metallica Worldwide tour, it sounded like a pipe dream come true. And two Dallas bands — Mothership and Messer — made it to the final round. Fans voted online, and the two Dallas bands were nearly neck and neck, with Mothership appearing to be the winner. The WTF moment happened when Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich announced the winner was Local H, an alternative grunge band from Chicago with eight studio albums, two greatest-hits albums, a live album and three concert films. Radio disc jockey Cindy Scull from KEGL-FM (97.1 The Eagle) said it best: “Maybe we didn’t read the small print, but if signed bands were up for this, then we could have had a myriad of Dallas-Fort Worth bands that would be awesome, starting with Drowning Pool. Please, they would have obliterated Local H in a national vote.”

Charley Crockett, a Rio Grande Valley native, started singing and playing the blues on the street in the French Quarter and Deep Ellum when he was a teenager. “That’s where performance started for me,” he told D Magazine in March 2016. “Playing on the street was hard love. You make the sacrifice to not have the stability of a paycheck, but you’re playing music every day and sharpening your voice and guitar skills.” Like an old bluesman from the roaring ’20s, Crockett hitchhiked and rode a freight, traveling from town to town around the country to perfect his music on the streets with other performers along the way. He released his debut album, A Stolen Jewel, in 2015, followed by In the Night in 2016. Crockett is known to take an artful blend to his music, sometimes incorporating R&B and honky tonk with his blues.

Jason Elmore & Hoodoo Witch — Brandon Katona and Mike Talbot — blends jump blues, hard-hitting rock and vintage soul with a trace of 1960s country into a blues-inspired sound that offers a fresh take on Texas blues. Elmore grew up immersed in all genres of American roots music and mentored for a time under Jim Suhler, and it shows in his soulful vocals and guitar licks that always seem to evoke an emotional response from the listener. Formed in 2008 in Dallas, the band’s most recent album, Champagne Valet, debuted at No. 13 on the Billboard blues charts, No. 3 on the Roots Music Report blues charts and No.1 on the Texas music chart for six weeks.

Jasen Moreno says one of his greatest influences was Freddie Mercury from Queen, but he didn’t envision himself as a singer when he first walked into the store and bought a Queen album. Listening to Iron Maiden’s Bruce Dickinson and Pantera’s Phil Anselmo helped to shape his vocals as the frontman first for The Suicide Hook and later Drowning Pool. He joined the band in 2012 after Ryan McCombs left to reunite with his original band, SOiL. Moreno’s joining took some fans outside of Dallas by surprise. Drowning Pool, however, has always been one of those bands that could be considered heavy metal or hard rock, and Moreno is the kind of vocalist who can feel and relay the emotion in songs of both genres, much like his predecessor and friend Dave Williams, who helped to lead Drowning Pool to the national spotlight with hits like “Bodies” and “Tear Away” until his death from cardiomyopathy in 2002.

Bruce Corbitt, frontman for Warbeast, has spent the last 35 years perfecting his dark vocal art. Influenced by Iron Maiden vocalist Bruce Dickinson and many others, Corbitt evokes a similar power, the kind that causes heads to bang. He first unleashed it as the frontman for speed metal band Rigor Mortis in the ’80s with the late legendary speed metal guitarist Mike Scaccia by his side. A year after he joined the band, it signed with Capitol Records and released its self-titled debut album. Some called the group “the next Metallica,” but Corbitt doesn’t sound like James Hetfield. Instead, he assaults the microphone with his unique sound — one part demonic, two parts monstrous — as he unleashes lyrics such as “the fragrance of the corpse is the stench of his kin” on fans who seem to devour his music in the mosh pit.

Five years had passed since Iron Maiden slayed a Dallas stage, but the six-piece British metal band proved why it’s considered a legend of heavy metal when it took the stage at American Airlines Center in late June. Jamming in front of a Mayan ruins backdrop, the band played a 15-song set filled with classics such as “Wrathchild,” Children of the Damned” and “Fear of the Dark,” along with new songs from its 16th studio album, The Book of Souls. Frontman Bruce Dickinson performed to a sold-out crowd with “his characteristic intensity, vigor and showmanship,” as our reviewer said in the June review, proving that even a cancer couldn’t keep this legendary frontman down.

Tigger’s Body Art set the standard for modern-day tattoo shops in Dallas when the late Mark “Tigger” Liddell began slinging ink at the shop in the ’80s. It was the first tattoo shop in Deep Ellum and the kind of shop where art was explored and challenged. Tigger started tattooing in Oklahoma but moved to Dallas, where it was legal to tattoo. He was the first to take tattooing out of the backroom and put everything on display. Today, Tigger’s Tattoo Shop no longer resembles its former self after a remodel in 2014 updated it with a more modern feel, but its artists — Joey, Jake, Randy and Chef Joey — are still slinging ink as if Tigger is guiding their tattoo guns.

In a traditionally male-dominated Texas country music industry, Madison King is a guitar-picking lyricist who, as we pointed out in April 2014, “brings a unique timbre and color to the state that sets her apart from the rest, especially in soulful tunes.” King picked up the guitar when she was 8, started singing as a teenager, and honed her guitar and vocal skills in church. Influenced by artists such as Ryan Adams, Joni Mitchell and Bob Dylan, she later shared the stage with artists like the Old 97’s, Polyphonic Spree and Foreigner. She released her first album, Darlin, Here’s to You, to critical acclaim in 2011, appeared on NBC’s The Voice in 2012 and gained radio airplay. She followed it with Onward & Upward.

Formed in a bedroom in a trailer park in 2014, Teenage Sexx began as a garage-punk solo project, as we pointed out in our May 31 profile, before lead guitarist Caleb Lewis and bassist Kevin Adkins hooked up and later joined drummer Charlie Debolt. They claim they’re a pop-punk band, “like a ’90s band that’s still trying to make it,” but they released a self-titled debut album in 2015, followed with Flavour Country and performed on a split EP with their “big-brother band,” the Loafers, in 2016. They recently released another EP, Jesus Christ. “Our songs may sound angry and sad, but I think we’re basically writing pop songs,” Lewis told the Observer in May.

In Tombstone, Arizona, in the 19th century, “The Black Moriah” was a hearse that took the dead to Boot Hill. Flash forward to the 21st century, and The Black Moriah is a local metal band that’s been shaping thrash metal into a unique dark sound since 2011. And with the recent addition of drummer Joey “Blue” Gonzalez from Warbeast and Philip H. Anselmo and the Illegals, its black metal sound has kicked into overdrive. The band, which includes guitarist Zawicizuz Sawicky, bassist Syzygy Derive and vocalist “The Mad Arab,” recently released the single “Summer of the Diabolical Holocaust” on iTunes and the fifth edition of its album Casket Prospects to some rave reviews by local metal sites.

Formed in Denton in 2014, Buffalo Ruckus came together to make Southern rock ‘n’ roll, Texas style, but created psychedelic Americana injected with ’70s Southern soul. It’s better described as experimental country-fried rock, but it’s really just Texas music at its finest. The band members, admirers of Ray Wylie Hubbard, released their self-titled debut shortly after they formed and spawned two radio singles, “High Again” and “Angilee.” Then they wowed critics with the release of their album Peace & Cornbread in 2016. “Soulful, wild and crazy, strong lyrics that make you listen,” Brett Dylan from KHYI-FM (95.3 The Range) claimed. “Jason Lovell has the voice and spirit. Great name, great band.” Lovell is joined by guitarist and mandolin slayer Brad Haefner, bassist Michael Burgess and percussionist Jerrod Ford. They’ve “spread the Ruckus” at places like Billy Bob’s and House of Blues and opened for bands such as Foghat, Cheap Trick, The Dirty River Boys and Merle Haggard before he died in April 2016.

This year Jack White appeared in Deep Ellum with a surprise announcement. The lead singer and guitarist of The White Stripes is co-partner and lead investor in Warstic, a local outfit that designs and produces fancy baseball bats. He’s been seen around town quite a bit this year, shopping and drinking at Deep Ellum haunts like High & Tight and Drugstore Cowboy and appearing at a pop-up shop for the brand. Those who’ve run into him report he’s an affable and charitable fellow, and the more he visits, the more that reputation seems to be true. In August, he showed up at a baseball game with former Texas Ranger Ian Kinsler — another partner in Warstic — to raise money for Texas Scottish Rite Hospital for Children. Warstic founder Ben Jenkins, a Dallas native who played minor league ball, said White approached him and has been very hands-on with the company. We’re looking forward to seeing more of you, Jack.

When choosing the restaurant with the best brunch drinks, we had three qualifiers. First, the drinks must be cheap. Second, the drinks must stand on their own — good enough to merit a trip solely to consume one. Third, the food must also be merit worthy, for even the most devout of drinkers will inevitably wind up ordering some sustenance. The White Rock location of Cane Rosso checks all three boxes and does so with great panache. With $1 mimosas and $3 micheladas and bloody marys, it’s beating the majority of the competition when it comes to price and to quality. That, coupled with the fact that you can chow down on a Neapolitan-style pizza or potato-batter waffles, makes this choice easy.