There are only so many Cratchits and Nutcrackers and flock-watching shepherds a person can stomach this time of year. It’s nice to see theaters offering alternatives to the traditional tinsel-dripping holiday hooha. Opening over the next couple of weeks: Theatre Britain’s lighthearted “panto” version of Snow White at Trinity River…
Circumference of a Squirrel (A Riff With an Inner Tube) It’s not really about a squirrel. And yet, it is. John Walch’s one-man one-act considers the fuzzy circle of life, namely the connections between fathers and sons and men and squirrels. Chester (played with great physical and vocal pizzazz by…
Libby Johnson, New Paintings Johnson paints still-life flora–flowers in vases set against velvety backgrounds, made otherworldly by way of crepuscular glow. Her obsession with the transformation of light at sunset brings to mind the odd counterfeit quality of photo-realist painting, such as early Chuck Close, Richard Estes and Malcolm Morley…
Thursday, November 25 This holiday season, we’re launching a new dieting fad we’re calling The Charitable Diet. The theory is that if you do all the walks and fun runs between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day, you’ll burn enough calories to counter all the extra ones you’re eating this season…
When last we saw David Brent, manager at Wernham Hogg’s Slough branch, he was being fired by higher-ups Neil and Jennifer. Brent, his eyes welling with tears, begged for his job, without which he believed he would cease to exist. “I will try twice as hard, I really will,” Brent…
11/26 The 24th annual Dickens of a Christmas on McKinney’s Main Street is met with nothing but a warm embrace and a bit of nostalgia on our part. Our first recollection of Christmas, in fact, is that of logically debunking the myth of any jolly, bearded, red-and-white chimney-giver and adopting…
11/26 You know that wacky family on your block that always goes overboard with the Christmas decorations every year? The one that always manages to come up with a new and different way of working Santa and his reindeer into the Nativity scene with Jesus, Mary and Snoopy? You can…
12/1 In photographer A.O. “Malek” Matesun’s studio is a photo of a woman staring right into the camera, defiant but also worn-out and wasted. Even if you didn’t know that Matesun is putting on an exhibition of photos from sub-Saharan Africa, so overwhelmed by AIDS, it would not be difficult…
11/27 It makes us puke when the Neo-Cons espouse their pet theory: The U.S. government doesn’t have to help anybody. Just let other people help everybody. Keep it in the private sector. Now go away and let us preach to the kiddies. Well, it goes something like that–we don’t always…
We doubt our mater knows the word “punk.” If it is in her vocabulary, it surely appears only when preceded by the words “some little neighborhood.” Rarely would she think to couple it with “rock” or “music.” And in her tapered jeans and layered hair, she would never apply that…
Oh, that Johnny Depp. Played in some dime-a-dozen rock bands, did some average television, made a few cutesy little movies. Whatever. Yeah, he messes with his looks in a fun way sometimes, but otherwise he merely rides that nicotine-sunken-cheeks thing all the way to the bank. The guy’s popular, but…
Jerry Bruckheimer has always insisted he cares less about critical acclaim than commercial appeal. “We make movies for the common man,” he said when we spoke almost three years ago, as Black Hawk Down was crash-landing in theaters. “The pictures that I’ve made over the last 20 years or so…
They’re packing ’em in over at Teatro Dallas for the touring production of Making Porn, a lurid little comedy about the gay porn industry that stars one of its bigger, um, talents. That would be Matthew Rush, a puffy-lipped he-man with arms that hang like chuck roasts from his massive…
Making Porn It’s a bad play with a bunch of naked men in it. And it’s selling out the house at every performance. Matthew Rush, a star of gay porn flicks (one hesitates to call him an actor), plays Jack Hawk, a newcomer to the X-rated world of gay-for-pay. When…
Miroslav Antic, Recent Paintings If these paintings were actually more antic, like the author’s surname, we might have something interesting on our hands. They’re not terrible paintings, just woefully tepid both intellectually and formally. A native of Yugoslavia now heading up the painting and drawing department at the Armory Art…
As exciting as it may be to have the engine of your vehicle rumbling between your legs instead of safely tucked away under the hood, we’d like more between us and the road than a leather jacket and hard plastic helmet. Despite the many horrific car wrecks we’ve seen–twisted metal…
Thursday, November 18 The first time we saw the work of Jennifer Morgan, we immediately wanted to commission her to create some grand mural in our home. Her paintings are bright, whimsical (but not beyond taking on the heavy subject here and there) and totally infectious. We want her energetic…
11/20 King Kong has nothing on you, as you exercise your Napoleon complex over the iconic sites of America. The Trains of NorthPark, the miniature work of tedious craftsmanship, is here again to fill us with childlike wonder and excitement with tiny trains and tinier replica landscapes. More than 35…
11/20 We’ll put aside our proclivity for arriving at work at the crack of 10 a.m., our 85-minute lunches and our 5 p.m. happy hour if you’ll exercise some modesty as you read this mid-Starbucks sip or whilst searching for the nightclub with the best per-night chance of getting laid…
11/20 Have you ever broken up with somebody because he or she didn’t get along with your cat? Or did you know a first date would be the last the moment Fido started growling at the paramour in question? If your dating life has suffered because your pets don’t approve,…
11/19 Ah, squirrels–so cute… so deadly. Don’t let the bushy tail fool you; have you seen what those guys can do to a nut? The main character of Circumference of a Squirrel knows what we’re talking about. He’s terrified of squirrels, ever since his father was bitten and had to…
The most shocking thing about Kinsey, the first film from writer-director Bill Condon since 1998’s Gods and Monsters, is how shocking it actually is. Within the confines of a standard biopic (A Beautiful Dirty Mind, you might call it), Condon refuses to play it straight–which is only appropriate, since his…
