Summer is Shakespeare season on both sides of the Trinity River. If you like soaking up your classical works in a steam bath with added sound effects from drag racers, police sirens and cicadas, head over to the grassy outdoor amphitheater at Samuell-Grand Park in East Dallas for productions by…
The Comedy of Errors at Trinity Shakespeare Festival in Fort Worth offers some of one and too much of the other. It’s a weak play by Shakespearean standards, a one-note farce that blows that same note over and over and over. Director Joel Ferrell tries to liven things up with…
Romances are Hollywood’s most anxiety-inducing fantasy. Like superhero flicks or horror films, they exist in a phony world of big scenes and breathtaking climaxes. But while audiences know that geeks can’t meld with spiders and that the bogeyman isn’t real, they still hope to fall in love, and boy, it’d…
A truly punk act, a shout of freedom, frustration, and exaltation, hits about halfway through Lukas Moodysson’s girl-punk reverie We Are the Best! The three 13-year-old protagonists, high on the idea of the three-chord band they’ve just started, find some damp garbage bags on the street that, they discover, are…
Believe it or not, during Transformers: Age of Extinction, Michael Bay’s fourth rattling of the toy box, I felt one moment of near transcendence. Three-fourths of the way through the punishing 165-minute runtime — and 15 minutes after my seatmate took off her 3-D glasses in exhaustion — my brain…
Dallas has been tuned into Oak Cliff for the past few years, in large part because of the gentrification of the Bishop Arts District. Suddenly distinctions like North Oak Cliff and the rise of the culinary arts prove valuable for real estate companies who develop a neighborhood that many might…
If the idea of a “beer dinner” makes you salivate, head over to Addison where the Flying Saucer in conjunction with California-based Firestone Walker Brewing Company is holding an event that shouldn’t be missed. Firestone Walker Brewing Company is featuring five of the brewery’s iconic pale ales and barrel-aged beers…
Human interaction is a weird beast. It inspires a range of emotions from euphoria to awkwardness. It can make people fall in love and develop a deep seeded hatred for one another within the span of a single sentence. It can make people want to spend the rest of their…
Fashion etiquette dictates that there are roughly four months of the year during which white can be worn. And though no one follows the rules anymore, there is one photographer whose one demand is that if you want your picture taken on Saturday, you must be dressed in all white…
In Dallas, the Alan Ross Freedom Parade held on Cedar Springs every year is a celebration of queer identities. Some local activists, though, think that the Pride parade has become too commercialized and insistent on presenting a “straightwashed” image of what the gay community really is. Enter QueerBomb. Modeled after…
It shouldn’t make you sad that kids these days haven’t heard of Bob Wills. After all, they’re the ones missing out. One of Texas’ greatest musicians, he gave the world Western swing and most of his music is just one Youtube search away. But if you feel it’s your duty…
Besides burying a redcoat in a coffin filled with apple pie, fireworks may be one of the most patriotic ways to celebrate love for America. They’re also one of the cheapest. Basically, you just stand or sit outside on Independence Day and wait for explosions, then you look in their…
Do you feel like playing Cards Against Humanity with your friends is growing redundant? Are you searching for strangers to impress with your horribleness? Good news: Alamo Drafthouse (100 S. Central Expressway, Richardson) hosts a weekly Cards Against Humanity tournament. At 8 p.m. on Wednesdays, the theater’s Glass Half Full…
In art, different mediums have the capacity for different stories. Canvas conveys swaths of colors, sculpture evokes angles, mixed media gives us sounds and textures and videos. And ceramics—well, ceramics have a trick up their sleeve. They exude folk art sensibility within a cheerful medium, managing to convey a warmth…
Two things we’ll never be able to understand no matter how hard we try: how charming Anne Hathaway became such a polarizing figure in show business, and how a man’s life can be crippled by a loaf of bread. Sure, one is significantly less “life important” (say which one you…
It’s difficult to know why Archibald John Motley Jr. never received the recognition he deserved during his lifetime. This modernist painter depicted African-American life in his native Chicago, exploring race, gender and sexuality with a voyeuristic perspective. His paintings cast light on issues of racism through portrayals of folklore and…
The art world seems to be crazy about screen printing these days. From Tshirts to tote bags and now fine art, the once obscure practice of silk screening has had a major comeback in recent years, and of course, it’s huge in Austin. Well guess what? Now you can enjoy…
As if the act of walking through the Dallas Museum of Art wasn’t already a trip through time, their current exhibition The Museum is History, is a celebration of the past (and perhaps even the future) of art. The exhibition features over thirty works, spanning from the 1950’s to the…
Think about this night at the theater like you would any other one night stand. Except perhaps this time you’ll have wiled away the hours with a lively, charming man you won’t regret in the morning. For years, Rawlins Gilliland was a welcome voice on public radio, telling stories with…
In the fine arts world, printmaking often gets a bad rap. Whether it’s a design mass-produced on T-shirts or Andy Warhol’s poppy screenprinted Marilyn Monroe heads, critiques range from “simple” to “unoriginal.” Yet much of the art form of printmaking — both the process and the history — has fallen…
Funny or Die’s touring comedy show, the Oddball Comedy and Curiosity Festival, is coming back to Dallas this fall, with an even stronger lineup than last year: Louis CK, Marc Maron, Hannibal Buress, Sarah Silverman, Jeff Ross, Whitney Cummings and still others. The show is Friday, September 19, at Gexa…
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. Marianne Newsom and Sunny Sliger of The Color Condition are as colorful as their installations. They…
