By The Way, Meet Vera Stark is showing at Theatre Three. It’s not a new story, but it’s a captivating one. If you want the Cliff Notes of Cliffs Notes, keep reading. “Hollywood, 1930, movies were glitzy, glamorous and all the rage. Everyone wanted to be a starlet, including Vera…
By Scott Mitchell This weekend, there will be a bit of competition for your indie film appreciation. While the Oak Cliff Film Festival takes over West Dallas, the inaugural Dallas Indie Film Festival will be going down this weekend from June 19 to 22 at the Bath House Cultural Center…
In the past month, I have received five press releases about upcoming productions of 13 Shakespeare plays. Well, technically one is a performance of his sonnets. If Mama Mia! is ubiquitous, Billy Shakes is omnipresent. As a nerdy lit major in college, the idea that I would someday grow tired…
“They are all untitled, and I think he did it on purpose, so as to minimize preconceptions that might influence anyone looking at them,” curator Dr. Karin Oen tells me as she walks me through the installation of artist Shen Wei’s exhibition at the Crow Collection of Asian Art. The…
When you have an appointment to meet George Quartz, there’s necessarily some uncertainty about who will show up. Will you be speaking with Bryan Campbell, the man behind the man George Quartz? Or should you prepare yourself for the flurry of ostrich feathers and blaze of neon light that would appropriately accompany his alter ego?
By Scott Mitchell Walking around the streets of Dallas Saturday afternoon at East Dallas Gallery Day spaces, you may have been getting a few mixed signals. For starters, the area around Deep Ellum and Expo Park was dominated by the Elm Street Tattoo and Music Festival the entire weekend. So,…
People who talk through movies are the absolute worst. No matter how funny the clever asides may be, nobody likes a movie talker. But sometimes there’s nothing better than quoting along with or poking fun at an old film – especially if the person doing the poking is a stand-up…
Aviation Cinemas staked its claim to Dallas’ film circuit three years ago with the annual Oak Cliff Film Festival, and from the onset OCFF’s programmers did things differently. A blend of old and new, the festival brings together the latest in experimental film from the indie world along with repertory…
Ravenous is a film-shaped UFO: It’s so delightfully weird that its very existence defies logic. Imagine a film that makes A Modest Proposal–style satire out of Dracula’s gothic horror tropes in the spaghetti western milieu of The Great Silence. It’s a pitch-black comedy about Manifest Destiny and cannibal frontiersmen. Set…
There are no new stories. It’s a maxim we all accept. And this column is proof. Every week I wax lyrical about a weekend in the blossoming Dallas arts world. Most Friday nights I see a play, most Saturday evenings I visit galleries and then I while away the late…
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. All artists invest in a bit of illusion, transcribing ideas into creations using tricks of trade,…
If you’re looking for a break from World Cup watching this week, we’ve got you covered. This week in Dallas, there’s plenty to do. We’ve narrowed it down to a few cool parties, some art and Shakespeare in the Park. See you in the streets…
“What I hope people gain from my work is a glimpse of beauty, and to engage in the mysteriousness of the unknown.” Shen Wei. Dancer. Choreographer. Painter. Art historian. Creator of the internationally lauded Shen Wei Dance Arts in New York City, and coming to Dallas’ Winspear Opera House on…
Let’s say you took a six-month-long apprenticeship as a publisher with Open Letter Books — a small independent publishing house at The University of Rochester in New York, dedicated to bringing great works from around the world to the English-speaking world. Now let’s say you move to Dallas in 2013,…
Sally Glass is an artist with a wicked sense of humor. There’s a handmade sign outside her CentralTrak resident dorm that says, “Nevermind, I started my period.” We’ve had a love affair with this chick since she burst onto the scene with her art zine, semigloss. She just graduated with…
We don’t actually know if you will be able to inflate your bike tires at Trinity River Revel this Sunday, but you can definitely bike to the party. Talk of the Trinity River tollroad has completely overshadowed the other exciting developments taking place along Dallas’ measly water feature. Put talk…
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. Arthur Peña is more than just an artist, although that’s how he would identify himself. This…
Every group of hard working, blue-collar, pop culture icons needs a proper vehicle. The A*Team raced in a custom painted 1978 Chevy van to the scene of ordinary folks getting screwed. Michael Knight argued with the teacher from Boy Meets World who was trapped like a possessed soul in a…
There is so much art and culture happening in the city this weekend, it’s absurd. It’s also wholly impossible for you to see it all. Writing those words makes me absolutely gleeful. Sure, it’s mid-June, but as you know, art is always in vogue in Dallas, or haven’t you been…
“I don’t have sex with any of my clients, I should probably address that misconception first,” she says, running her hands down the front of her bright red latex dress. It’s a hot Wednesday afternoon and I’ve arrived with a photographer to meet the city’s foremost dominatrix – a title…
Plenty of reality television shows seem to go the extra mile in supporting stereotypes. Two of the most popular reality shows in the format’s history, MTV’s Jersey Shore and A&E’s Duck Dynasty, certainly focus on — and capitalize on — the most outrageous traits of the respective shows’ characters. Thick…
If you ever have days when you prefer animals to human beings, How to Train Your Dragon 2 is your kind of movie. In some ways the second entry in this animated franchise is inferior to the first, released in 2010: The plot is needlessly busy, and much of the…
