“The Red Shoes” is the singularly most messed-up fairy tale in Hans Christian Andersen’s oeuvre; reading it as a 5-year-old is a pretty horrifying experience that will not only stunt any inclination toward shoe hoarding, but also burn into your head a long-lasting image of a pair of bright red…
There are people in this world who are diehard runners. Those people don’t make excuses like “It’s too cold outside to run” or “The wind makes my hair frizzy” or “My kid is too big to be strapped in a stroller while I run for two hours.” They get out…
Dallas has a growing comedy community but just the simple act of going to a comedy club can be a huge hassle. If you’re going to see just one comedian, there is no guarantee that the person you are paying your hard earned money to see will actually be funny…
The recent bouts of cold weather have taken a devastating toll on our roads, psyche and soul. We may not get as much snow as other parts of the country but as every resident Texan knows, just a few inches of snowfall means that certain doom is soon to follow…
Puccini’s La Bohème was, in its day, the opera equivalent of a cinematic tearjerker à la Steel Magnolias or A Walk to Remember. It wasn’t especially highbrow, but it attracted crowds due to its simple, sweet, hankie-wringing plot — and still remains one of the most frequently performed and most…
Sometimes, in certain parts of Dallas that have been largely spared bulldozer-happy redevelopment, you can almost imagine what this city might have been like at the beginning of the 20th century. Squint hard enough at Fair Park, and in sections of Deep Ellum and Oak Cliff, and there are enough…
Long before it was a show, Fargo was a movie staring Frances McDormand and co-starring her gnarly accent. She plays a pregnant police chief who stumbles on a disturbingly bumbled crime. William H. Macy plays a struggling car salesman with a hot tip on an investment property. The only problem?…
For generations, the works of Shakespeare have been lauded as tales and tragedies that will forever remain relevant. It’s impossible to argue with that when modern works of all media set in realms that seem to be worlds apart from the Globe Theatre heavily employ the storylines ol’ Will brought…
Being in your twenties in this past decade has certainly brought upon an anger and animosity at older generations, politics and society. Banksy’s street pieces scattered across the map sparked a new fascination with street art and their greater social meaning. Texas Christian University recognizes that value and is having…
George Henson first heard rumors of a man interested in starting a translation publishing house in Dallas about two years ago. Henson was teaching Spanish at the University of Texas at Dallas and working toward a PhD in Humanities with an emphasis on literary and translation studies. He reached out…
Joy Laville, Chuck & George, and Flor Garduño Three very different artists take over the McKinney Avenue Contemporary this weekend. Mexican-based artist Joy Laville’s paintings return to Dallas for her first exhibition in 30 years, featuring work from five decades of painting. In the square gallery, Dallas-based collaborative duo Chuck…
Most of us wouldn’t think that there is a lot of art to working in the nonprofit world, and that’s probably a pretty fair assessment. Many agencies that work with struggling families are so focused on providing basic assistance like food and shelter that sometimes life’s finer details aren’t always…
Agatha Christie’s 1943 whodunit And Then There Were None is packing them in at Plano’s Cox Building Playhouse. Audiences love a well-done mystery and this one, creaky as it is, and so repetitive in its three acts that you might wish the murderer would kill faster, is sufficiently entertaining…
A new aspect of the 20th season of Dancing With The Stars is the viewers at home can watch a livestream of each of the couples practicing throughout the day. Congratulations, you have enough time to waste to watch an actual dance rehearsal that isn’t your 4-year-old daughter! Personally, I…
A series of winged, masked men are all over Dallas. And no, they’re not tardy promos for Birdman. They’ve popped up in Facebook and Instagram news feeds, captioned with varying degrees of creeped out and surprise, as they appeared with little to no explanation March 7…
Mixmaster presents “100 Creatives,” in which we feature cultural entrepreneurs of Dallas in random order. Kevin Rubén Jacobs isn’t your average Dallas curator. In a city that worships blue chip artists and lets money do most of the talking in the art world, Jacobs is far more interested in shaking…
“I am sick to death of cleverness,” says the character Jack Worthing in Oscar Wilde’s 1895 comedy The Importance of Being Earnest. “Everybody is clever nowadays. You can’t go anywhere without meeting clever people. The thing has become an absolute public nuisance. I wish to goodness we had a few…
In fall of 2013, tucked away in a small upstairs space in the Kalita Humphreys Theatre in Turtle Creek, a small cast of actors began to sing the first few lines of a musical. Recognizable from a staged reading at the Out of the Loop Fringe Festival in 2010, the…
As the curtain opens at the Dallas Opera, behind it are glimpses of the city of lights of a century ago complete with shop-fronts stenciled with French appellations and Parisian apartments whose residents are visible in their second-floor windows. Scenic designer Jean-Pierre Ponnelle has created a vivid world that invites…
Last year, I attended my very first ComicCon, and I was skeptical. I wasn’t into anime or most other aspects of nerd culture, but I ultimately ended up having a really good time and embracing my own inner nerdiness. Still, I wasn’t sold on the idea of “cons” until I…
After blowing all your money (and any chance at a healthy liver) at the St. Patrick’s Day parade this weekend, you’re probably going to have to do a little penny-pinching until payday. But being cheap doesn’t have to mean sitting at home eating Kraft dinner and praying that your Netflix…
Every now and again, rumors surface that a big time theme park developer wants to set up their rolly-coasters and flying thingamabobs somewhere in our neck of the woods. Not long after I first moved here and started working in the news business, someone gave me a tip that Disney…
