Every young reader needs an adventurous heroine. For those of a certain age, it was Beverly Cleary’s Ramona Quimby. But if we’re of “a certain age,” then Ramona is too. Enter Junie B. Jones, a 6-year-old girl whose adventures inspire readers to keep the pages (and the wheels in their…
At my place, the “Four Steps to Lasting Happiness and Bliss” are the distance between the couch and a fridge full of cold Stella Artois. But if you’re interested in four alternate steps to lasting happiness and bliss, Sandi Smith’s got ’em. The pilot, CPA and pro traveler has developed…
Iowa native Eric Tosten has been carving out his place in the Dallas art scene with fluid plastic and acrylic shapes that bend and swirl against medium-density fiberboard and paper like magnified blood samples from one of Keith Haring’s stick figures. Tosten’s more recent pieces seem to shed some of…
What one considers to be art is subjective. Great art, however, leans on this principle to the point of breaking it, becoming a subversive force that tears through quiet salons and galleries with its raw attitude and unprincipled demands. Matthew Barney has the soul of great revolutionaries such as Dali,…
Click may be the first Adam Sandler movie in which the high concept isn’t dependent upon the star. Sandler comedies tend to take his standard character of the petulant man-child with anger-management issues and place him in different wacky situations: elementary school (Billy Madison), the golf course (Happy Gilmore), the…
It may not be an “iconic manifestation of civilization,” as documentarian Ken Burns proclaims, but The New York Times crossword puzzle is undoubtedly an institution. Printed every day for the past 64 years, in weekly cycles of increasing difficulty, the puzzle draws politicians, working stiffs, comedians, musicians, coders and homemakers…
Less is more entertaining in the perversely spare little oddity called Thom Pain (based on nothing), playing in the intimate Bryant Hall at Dallas Theater Center. Clocking in under an hour, Will Eno’s one-man one-act unfolds in a nearly bare space (just a red chair nobody sits in and a…
Night Watch (Fox Searchlight) Every once in a while, Hollywood needs somebody else to steal a genre and totally reimagine it; it keeps old ideas young, like celluloid Botox. Well, Hollywood’s gonna need one big needle to absorb Night Watch, an insane, insanely cool Russian action/horror/sci-fi brew that’s like nothing…
Not long ago, videogames were about collecting coins and rescuing the princess. Now you’re more likely to gun her down in a drive-by. Or eat her alive. Welcome to JAWS Unleashed. You’re a pitiless great white, hungry for human flesh. Unfortunately, this absurd and aimless chompfest can’t decide whether the…
Adventures of Superman: The Complete First Four Seasons (Warner Bros.) The Art of Erotic Dancing (BFS) Austin City Limits 2005 Music Festival (Image) Charlie Chan: Volume One (Fox) The Cult of the Suicide Bomber (The Disinformation Company) Eight Below (Disney) Equinox: The Criterion Collection (Criterion) A Fine Madness (Warner Bros.)…
Few artists have the ability to polarize an audience like Tom Waits. Music critics swear by him as one of America’s greatest songwriters. Most everybody else just marvels at the fact the man who had a broken-glass-on-a-gravel-road voice during his early-’70s heyday (and sounded like he was singing from the…
Did you hear about Dakota Fanning’s rehab stint last year? Of course it was a joke, though some people didn’t find it all that funny. E! learned their lesson that day: Don’t hire a D-list celebrity like Kathy Griffin (known for her entertaining celebrity smack-talk) to represent you on the…
If you’re new to competitive bullriding, you might not know about the rise of Brazilian riders in the American Professional Bull Riders (PBR) circuit. Might seem strange, but did you know that one of the country’s best is not only Brazilian but also calls Keller home? Adriano Moraes, the two-time…
Doug Stanhope is one dirty, dirty man. Most famous for his stints as host of the second generation of The Man Show—along with friend and fellow sell-out Joe Rogan—and that Girls Gone Wild video where he told a drunken young co-ed to show him “where babies feed” (both of which…
When Ralphie May was asked to lose weight for the role of “fat guy” at an audition, it had to be a rude awakening. But I would think coming in second to Dat “I’ve proven it’s possible to take Margaret Cho’s act and make it less funny” Phan on NBC’s…
Hey, nerds! Put on your capes and charge up your light sabers—it’s book-signing time. Aaron Allston will be on hand at area Borders stores to discuss and sign the first of a new nine-book series in the ever-continuing Star Wars saga, Star Wars Legacy of the Force: Betrayal. For fans…
Hey, nerds! Put on your capes and charge up your light sabers—it’s book-signing time. Aaron Allston will be on hand at area Borders stores to discuss and sign the first of a new nine-book series in the ever-continuing Star Wars saga, Star Wars Legacy of the Force: Betrayal. For fans…
The batboy is one of the most revered supporting characters in all of sport, easily besting other favorites like “kid who mops up Dirk’s sweat” and “kid who chases errant tennis serves.” After all, who could forget the batboy in The Natural, offering Robert Redford his handmade bat to knock…
Lewis Black cannot let things go. From politics to the fact that he’s running behind for our interview, Black has got troubles that aren’t going anywhere. And yet, the notoriously surly comedian is friendly and unintimidating off screen (a shock, since he owns one of the most distinctive baritones in…
Seems we’ll plug just about anything in this paper; who’s on the schedule next week, Anne Murray and Nickelback? What’s left to say about Chicago at this late date? Started as a horny pop band, wound up as a schmaltz factory; music rarely gets this innocuous and offensive at the…
Gloria Allred belongs to that odd subset of celebrities whose fame comes from dispensing opinions on topics they know nothing about. One of the more irritating television commentators just white of Starr Jones—I’ve heard her speak dozens of times and can’t recall a single provocative thought—Allred never turns down an…
J. Michelle Martin-Coyne must be the most frequently inspired photographer around. When you’re living with a guy like Wayne Coyne of the Flaming Lips, how could you not be? Let’s run down a short list of potential subjects at your average Flaming Lips show: Steven Drozd and Michael Ivins rocking…
