You’ve never seen Shallow Grave? Shame on you. Danny Boyle’s directorial debut is both hysterically funny and psychotically scary at the same time. So what better way to spend a hot summer night than relaxing poolside, drink in hand, at a classic mid-century motor hotel (a la Psycho) watching this…
At first glance, we got really excited, assuming that Alloy would be an exhibition of affordable, trendy clothing from alloy.com that would propel our status from scenester to hipster in no time. But the show is actually a collection of works by several artists showcasing various materials that can be…
Once upon a time there was a story called Jack and the Beanstalk. It was a fairy tale about a tall boy nicknamed “the Beanstalk” and the wise-cracking spokes-mascot for national fast-food chain Jack in the Box. A key scene between Jack, who is trying to find more low-wage workers,…
Art, like pornography, is difficult to define. It can be purely decorative or completely utilitarian, the result of some spontaneous expression or a well-planned and rehearsed performance or ceremony. Art is many things, and we’d like to hope it is in all things, but what it is exactly is difficult…
To appreciate just how clever our Chinese neighbors are, you’d have to look beyond the cheap imports and knock-offs they ship by the container load to the dollar stores. More than 2,000 years ago, when Western civilization was just a glimmer in some Greco-Roman’s eye, the Chinese were dreaming up…
Hundreds, maybe thousands, of felines will be rolling into town this weekend for an International Cat Association show. There’s a crude joke to be made here about a naughty synonym for “cat” and the amount available to be had on the odd Saturday in Arlington, Texas, but this time, I’m…
Flowers: beautiful, delicate embodiments of youth. Some gardeners even consider fragile blooms to be their children. Such flowers are the subject of watercolor artist Soon Y Warren. Now, let’s not get her confused with Soon-Yi Previn, Woody Allen’s wife who, oddly, at the start of their romance, was also a…
The word “hero” gets tossed around a bit too liberally these days, with fictional superheroes on movie screens and actors and ball players getting too much money and fame. The Dallas Historical Society’s new exhibit, Texas Heroes: Courage, Honor & Dignity, honors real people who actually did something to make…
The name Homer sucks. In the history of the world only two men of any significance have had the misfortune of being named Homer. One is a yellow cartoon idiot and the other posthumously bores English classes throughout the nation with his ridiculously long books. But this weekend the Jubilee…
It was either founding father Benjamin Franklin or WWE megastar Jimmy “Superfly” Snooka who said, “Every single time I smash an opponent’s face into the turnbuckle I get a mean boner.” Actually neither of those guys said that. I just made it up. But both men would probably be appalled…
Comic impressionist Frank Caliendo is best known for his tenure on Fox’s MADtv (I thought that show got canceled, like, five years ago. I was wrong.) and FOX NFL Sunday, where he gets paid the big bucks for making weekly picks and poking fun at Terry Bradshaw for being bald…
As far as I know, FDR: A Comedy New Deal has nothing at all to do with Franklin Delano Roosevelt. So don’t go expecting jokes about polio and the Great Depression (although, seriously, that is some funny stuff). Instead, FDR stands for Fickert, Davis and Rainone—a trio of entertainers who…
The fact 2003’s Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl was such a hit had much to do with viewers’ pre-launch expectations, which were approximately none. Who could have been blamed for thinking a Gore Verbinski-directed, Jerry Bruckheimer-produced movie based on a theme-park ride wouldn’t proffer anything…
Originally, Ward Serrill set out to make a documentary–and a short one at that–about Bill Resler, an avuncular tax professor at the University of Washington who thought he knew enough about basketball to coach the girls team at Roosevelt High School in Seattle. Never mind that he had no previous…
The Matador (Weinstein) Richard Shepard’s spec script, sent to Pierce Brosnan’s production company out of desperation, wound up as 2005’s best buddy pic — damned if I can recall a funnier movie from last year, except the one with the middle-aged virgin. Brosnan, not afraid to don cheerleading skirts and…
When Rockstar Games, the company behind the infamous Grand Theft Auto series, announced that it would be making a title for Xbox 360, gamers naturally envisioned a game featuring next-gen hookers. But then Rockstar revealed that the game was actually going to be an elaborate Ping-Pong sim, and fanboys the…
Charlie’s Angels: The Complete Third Season (Sony) Cyberteam in Akihabara: Complete Collection (ADV) Eastern Horror Double Feature: Satan’s Slave and Corpse Master (Brentwood) King of the Cage: The Superstars of KOTC (Brentwood) The Kinks: The Live Broadcasts (Classic Rock Legends) The Legend of Prince Valiant: The Complete Series, Volume One…
Sure, it’s likely to be 104 degrees outside, but what’s a summer festival in Texas without a couple of trips to the medical tent to be treated for heat exhaustion? But, free food is enough to get me just about anywhere; and free food prepared by Dallas’ top chefs and…
In kindergarten, it never occurred to many of us tykes that in between lying on fold-out mats and playing with four-square balls, we could find our artistic voice. Many of us were more concerned with the taste of Elmer’s than with what we were applying with it. Evita Tezeno, however,…
Not content to Monkee-walk into relative obscurity, Peter Tork is known for more than songs about daydream believers—he is also the singer, guitarist and keyboard player for a rotating band called the Shoe Suede Blues. It’s the other end of the musical spectrum from the pop ditties of his youth,…
“That ship has sailed,” is a familiar lament, most often used to describe missed opportunities. But sometimes the sailing ship of opportunity is a dinghy that we’re best rid of, like the “carefree” days of our youth. There are those who seek to recreate the sag-free days, minus the hardships…
Donald Fagen ought to be out pushing Morph the Cat, his latest solo disc that, let’s face it, sounds like Steely Dan anyway; guess it makes sense and cents to just hit the road with Walter Becker and the boys and work in the new songs amongst the old standards,…
