The newly restored Belmont Hotel has quickly become one of the trendiest hangouts in Dallas, drawing in a diverse crowd of Oak Cliff hipsters and well-to-do art aficionados with its stunning bluff-side views of downtown and the Trinity (not to mention the neon signs and street hookers of Fort Worth…
You don’t have to agree with his politics, but you gotta give it up for George H. W.’s post-presidency platforms, particularly his partnership with his son’s archrival, Bill Clinton, in the tsunami relief efforts. And closer to home, he and his wife Barbara have joined with Dallas’ Genesis Women’s Shelter…
It goes in cycles, our relationship with the USA Film Festival; we hate to love it, it loves to hate us, and on and on it goes to the point where we barely even cover a once-major cultural event. It has something to do with our pestering the fest organizers…
Ask any novelty T-shirt distributor and he’ll confirm that the nuances of crawfish consumption are infinitely ripe for dirty double-entendre. First you “pinch the tail” and then you “suck the head.” Everyone knows that there’s nothing more hilarious than using interchangeable verbiage for both lunch and fellatio. The fine folks…
A few days ago, I received an e-mail extolling the virtues of the banana. Hangovers, heartburn, woman troubles, you name it—it appears as though the banana is seriously, as Chiquita offers, “the world’s perfect food.” No one had to tell me twice; I find the banana to be an exceptionally…
That poor Dallas Zoo gets such a bad rap for not being a bigger, better zoo. Which I never understood because it’s always fulfilled my needs. What exactly is it that people expect out of this city gem? Well, to answer that question, the zoo folks are hosting Dallas Roars,…
When you stretch your legs, double-knot your laces and chug your water bottles at the Third Annual United States Secret Service 5K Run, you might want to be a little extra careful. The run is advertised as a benefit for the American Cancer Society, and the 5K festivities also include…
Former D Magazine editor and frustrated college basketball player Terry Murphy began the Hoop-It-Up three-on-three basketball tournament 20 years ago to raise money for the Dallas Special Olympics. Originally named Hoop-D-Do, its beginnings were slow. But the tournament grew rapidly, and by 1991 it became the official three-on-three streetball tournament…
Wanna knock the prez? Let’s make a show… preferably on television. Paul Weitz’s new satire American Dreamz imagines the Bush regime as an episode in the history of American entertainment and American Idol as the quintessence of U.S. democracy. So what else is new? The vision of America as a…
in the Hole
Countless are the creative souls who struggled with mental illness, as are the novels and films dedicated to them. Again and again, we’ve encountered artists both inspired and undermined by their madness, whose torment and tumult produce works of beauty and depth. So can a documentary about a singer-songwriter and…
If you can tell a society by its smut, America in the 1950s couldn’t have been just a Frigidaire of repressive hysteria. Hidden somewhere in the closets of Pleasantville and Peyton Place, after all, was a stack of fetish mags bearing the face and hourglass figure of Bettie Page and…
Funny how two shows about feeling bad turn out to be the feel-good musicals of the year so far. They’re all about heartache and despair and what it’s like when you’re so lonesome you could cry. And by doggies, if you don’t walk out of the things at the end…
Back in 1969, The Who sang plaudits to Tommy, the Helen Keller of ur-gaming. Deaf, dumb and blind, the miraculous Tommy “plays by sense of smell,” letting lie fallow his senses of sight and sound until he snaps out of temporary sensual oblivion and leads the caulk-clad, eye-shaded and ear-plugged…
Americano (MTI) Before he is due to take a high-powered corporate job, college graduate Chris (Joshua Jackson) heads off with two friends (Timm Sharp and Ruthanna Hopper) to Europe, where they end up in Pamplona for the running of the bulls. There, he encounters one of those saucy Latinas (Blade…
Marlon Brando sleeps with the fishes. But before the legendary actor died, he worked one last job. Curiously, it was for a videogame. In The Godfather: The Game, Brando attempts to relive his Oscar-winning role as Don Vito Corleone. From the raspy voice to the drooping jowls, it’s Vito, all…
A Bigger Splash (First Run) Breakfast on Pluto (Sony) Cross of Iron (Henstooth) Event Horizon: Collector’s Edition (Paramount) Games of Love and Chance (New Yorker) Herbie Hancock: Possibilities (Magnolia) Hostel (Sony) I Am Trying to Break Your Heart (Plexifilm) Kickboxer: Five-Disc Collector’s Set (Lions Gate) The Killing Time (Anchor Bay)…
Home tours have always prompted a voyeuristic curiosity in me—if only because my hovel would probably fit in the garage of one of the featured abodes. But it’s about something more meaningful. Like finding small mistakes in their decorating scheme or noticing the spot on their carpet not so successfully…
If you’re a Neil Young fan and your ears still haven’t quit ringing from the last time he played over in Fair Park, then watching his recent concert film Heart of Gold in the sophisticated confines of the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth will definitely be more your speed…
There are a multitude of associations that attest to Todd Glass’ professional success while simultaneously belying his true talent and craftsmanship. He’s in the midst of some Vegas engagements with smarmy elvish wiseacre David Spade, he appeared in Martin Lawrence’s cinematic tour de force Rebound, and he’s been featured on…
Home tours have always prompted a voyeuristic curiosity in me—if only because my hovel would probably fit in the garage of one of the featured abodes. But it’s about something more meaningful. Like finding small mistakes in their decorating scheme or noticing the spot on their carpet not so successfully…
Here’s the great thing about pop music: Even when it’s not transcendent, or particularly creative or insightful or even, well, decent, it can still hit the spot. At least for me. This may fall under the “too much information” department, but there may have been a time or two when,…
Rubber gloves, frost-encrusted freezers, stark bathroom fixtures, bars of soap, etched desktops—Orit Raff’s artistic subjects sound like a cross between local performance venues and Diary of an Insomniac at 2 a.m. This young Israeli-born minimalist captures common objects through video and camera lens in a way that turns their innocent…
