In much of Casey Gray’s art, there’s a humorous tension between message and medium. Imagine if the 17th century Flemish painters had worked in spray paint. Conversely, picture Peter Paul Rubens on a skateboard. See? Funny. This was the crux of much of San Francisco-based Gray’s early work, some of…
Having a personal insight into American history is something so few people can really boast. You may have been a part of a historic gathering in your time, but it’s likely nobody will ever ask you about that time you drank your way through the crowds at Cowboy’s Stadium record-breaking…
To open its 2014/2015 Pops Season, The Dallas Symphony orchestra and Principal Pops Conductor Jeff Tyzik have enlisted the help of some exceptionally talented dancers. On Friday, September 5th at 7:30pm, the orchestra will present “Let’s Dance,” a concert of music that spans centuries of music history and a variety…
It seems like everyone in Dallas has literature on the mind lately thanks in large part to Oak Cliff’s massively popular Wild Detectives and Will Evans’ brand new publishing house Deep Vellum. As much as we love both organizations it might be worth some of your time to get to…
What do you get for the Symphony Center that has everything? It’s tough—not like a gift card will suffice for such a cultured and sophisticated old friend, especially one designed by badass architect I.M. Pei and who has been deemed one of the best orchestra venues in the world. The…
You might say that this month, TeCo Theatrical Productions is celebrating gay marriage, because their PlayPride festival is the perfect union between theatre and the gay pride movement. The festival features six one-act plays about LGBT issues, all written by Texans. There’s also a competitive element: each playwright will vie…
Hard to believe it, but Sebadoh is almost 30 years old. Yes, these pioneers of lo-fi indie rock from Massachusetts started all the way back in 1986 when Lou Barlow (before he had even left Dinosaur Jr.) co-founded the group with Eric Gaffney. Jason Loewenstein joined in 1989 and these…
You could be forgiven, after watching the opening minutes of Ira Sachs’ fine-grained and flinty Love Is Strange, for thinking it’s going to be a movie about Gay Marriage, with all the import those initial caps imply. We see two older men, clearly a couple, roll out of bed in…
If older man/younger women matchups make many people uncomfortable, the older man/much younger women combo tends to make them apoplectic. It would be impossible for Nabokov to publish Lolita today, now that all of life, and all of art, must be arranged, categorized and restricted as a way of protecting…
Forrest Gump has turned 20 and is celebrating its birthday with a week-long IMAX release. It’s a significant milestone for the six-time Academy Award winner. Today, 1994 is as far away from the present as the Vietnam War was from it. Forrest Gump was a fable without a moral, the…
The Identical is Elvis slash fiction that could have been written by a spinster church organist. Its premise is intriguing: What if Jesse Presley, Elvis’ twin brother who was stillborn at birth, was in fact secretly given to a traveler minister (Ray Liotta) and his infertile wife (Ashley Judd)? What…
Every other year or so, someone comes down the indie-movie pike with an idea for an unconventional zombie movie — as opposed to the workaday ones, where the dead simply return to life and chew on limbs and stuff. Life After Beth, the debut film from writer-director Jeff Baena, strives…
As most Texans are well aware, our state’s image and history is rife with cultural intrigue and mystery. From the grizzled cowboy to Charles Whitman, there is no shortage of exotic motifs in the Lone Star state, and since 1996 California native Gary Sweeney has utilized our eccentric history to…
If you’re looking to see a lot of great art in one place, head to the Mary Tomas Gallery in the Design District for one the neighborhood’s best shows Saturday night. In her own right, Mary Tomas is creating some great art, and now she’s bringing in some of her…
Most of the animals that we see in art these days seem to come in the form of cat photos on the internet, but the McKinney Avenue Contemporary is looking to change that. In Texas Critters, the MAC will play host to Texas art that features the state’s bounty of,…
I would place money on the guess that you’ve probably never been to the Dallas Center for Architecture. You might not even know that it’s seconds away from Klyde Warren Park, which there are pretty good odds you have visited. But we’re betting that during the month of September, the…
Put down the box of Goldfish and wipe off your flavor blasted hands. You’re going to need your fingers to punch a few numbers in the calculator because the perfect addition to the following list of houses is a Koi pond. That’s right. We think it’s about time you bought…
Mixmaster presents “100 Creatives,” in which we feature cultural entrepreneurs of Dallas in random order. Know an artistic mind who deserves a little bit of blog love? Email lauren.smart@dallasobserver.com with the whos and whys. When I meet him for coffee, Nathan Olson is sporting a new look — a thick…
The visual art season starts this month with lots of exciting exhibitions.
“It’s just a jump to the left. And then a step to the right. With your hand on your hips. You bring your knees in tight. But it’s the pelvic thrust. That really drives you insane. Let’s do the Time Warp again.” I promise you, this will be your anthem…
If therapy has ever been in vogue, it started somewhere after the mid-20th century. When Chrisopher Durang’s Beyond Therapy first premiered in New York City in 1981, this idea of therapy was almost trendy. A hip socialite might ask, “who’s your therapist?” directly after asking about the designer of your…
When Teresa Coleman-Walsh, founder and artistic director of TeCo Theatrical Productions, received a submission to the company’s annual New Play competition entitled Three Guys in a Bed, she immediately wanted to help bring it to the stage. But the play was far too edgy –think full frontal nudity– for the fairly…
