Before you buy that tiny box turtle in Chinatown, know that it can live for 100 years. Which means that among all the Mad Libs nonsense of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles — a comic book-turned-media-phenomenon that’s always half-admitted it’s a goof — at least the teenage part is accurate…
Incompatible fronts collide in director Steven Quale’s weather-horror patience-tester Into the Storm. The first is the summertime yen for righteous kablooey, the dumber the better, exemplified here by drunk galoots hauling ass into a twister on a four-wheeler ATV, tossing beer cans and whooping about getting a “million YouTube hits.”…
Star presence, that distillation of charisma and sometimes glamour, lies at the heart of the movies’ appeal. The star presence James Harvey evokes so richly in his new book, Watching Them Be, is never simply about physical beauty. Harvey rightly points out that Ingrid Bergman’s fresh unaffectedness was distinctly unglamorous,…
In the highly imperfect world of contemporary romantic comedies, What If is as close to perfect as anything we’ve got, not least for the way it captures the abject hopefulness of young people who’d like to be in love but don’t know how to go about it. Who does know…
What’s that screwy motto for the City of Dallas? “Live Large, Think Big” or did they change it to “Big Things Happen Here?” It seems we’re hellbent on letting the outside world know that Dallas is a big city that does, well, big things. But big is such a broad…
Even those of us who loved Robin Williams as a performer would have to say that sometimes he was too much — too wired, too pleading, too on. There were times when I’d see him nattering away on a late-night talk show, or suffer through a performance like the one…
Like a fine wine and a good cheese, no one complains about pairing art and music. What could be better than wiling the hot summer hours away in an artist’s studio, listening to some jams, and sipping on a cold beer you picked up from the corner store. Sound like…
For the past few years the Oak Cliff Cultural Center has been working hard providing outreach and education programs for Oak Cliff residents and neighbors. The staff at the Cultural Center provides a wide array of activities intended to foster community engagement and it’s time to celebrate their hard work…
Sure, Dallas might be at a disadvantage without easy access to the coasts, but it’s smack dab between Los Angeles and New York, which for this weekend proves lucky. A two-part exhibition, Lifetime Personal Fantasies, LLC, features the work of LA-based artist Keith J. Varadi and NY-based Michael Kennedy Costa…
The Creative Arts Center of Dallas (CAC) will present its annual juried membership show at the Mary Tomás Gallery in the Dallas Design District. CAC is a nonprofit community arts organization and school of visual arts geared toward beginning, emerging, and working artists, and the selections for the show represent…
Armaggedon Michael Bay cannot be mocked enough. His films deserve to be taken down with an unrelenting spray of scorn and ridicule and not just because they are among some of the worst, highest-grossing movies to come out of Hollywood. They should be the only movies during which it’s OK…
The word arena might usually conjure images of tall men in brightly colored uniforms, dribbling an orange ball down a court. Trade the men for women, the uniforms for outfits, and just ditch the balls entirely, and you’ve got a pretty good idea of The Fashion Opera’s next event, Fashion…
There are few things more satisfying than the first bite of the warm, cheesy goodness of a pizza slice. The only way to make it even better is knowing that you earned that slice by enriching the life of a child. Monday night Greenville Avenue Pizza Company (GAPCo) hosts the…
It’s the archetype of every buddy/cop movie since. Old guy paired with rule-breaking buck. They dislike each other at first, then become BFFs. Over-the-top bad guys. Shooting. Lots and lots of shooting. It’s 1987’s Lethal Weapon, starring Mel Gibson and Danny Glover as mismatched police partners who something something bang…
Many a love letter has been written to the short play. If it’s a bad play, the 60-minute run time gives a quick release from shoddy dialogue, or accents that need tuning. If it’s a good play, it leaves you wanting more. Plus the actors and the audience won’t have…
There was always a group of girls in the back of the school bus that sat together and sang Broadway tunes. They got all emotive and rolled through the soundtracks from Les Mis and Godspell and Phantom of the Opera. You always thought those girls were so cool and worldly…the…
You could say a lot of things about Miss Candy Barr, but accusing her of leading a boring life is not something you could get away with. The famed stripper/burlesque dancer and one-time Dallas resident had ties to a number of fascinating men (including Mr. Jack Ruby), gallivanted with mobsters,…
It’s all shapes and colors from the outside and even though you’ve been told not to judge a book by its cover, in the case of The Museum of Geometric and MADI Art, your assumptions will be fulfilled within. The art on display almost always feels like a psychedelic trip,…
Emma Stone and Colin Firth in Magic in the Moonlight.On this week’s Voice Film Club podcast, Alan Scherstuhl and Stephanie Zacharek of the Village Voice and Amy Nicholson of L.A. Weekly discuss Woody Allen’s latest, Magic in the Moonlight, and revisit Get on Up and Guardians of the Galaxy, and…
Rio Ritz 2722 Routh St. A well-run boutique needs a welcoming atmosphere, trendy clothes, and pristine changing rooms. Oh, and booze. Rio Ritz has all of this in spades. Earlier this year, Thais Moses opened the doors of her well-curated shop to the benefit of closets throughout Dallas. The store…
What’s that saying about tides and ships? As the arts scene in Texas swells, the opportunity for cross-city collaboration. Whether it be sending Dallas artists to Austin, or bringing Houston artists here, as is the case with Draped Up & Dripped Out, which opened at the Oak Cliff Cultural Center…
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. Aaron Aryanpur is more than just one of DFW’s most admired comedians. He’s an admirer of…
