It doesn’t feature iPhones, Twitter or an internet, and yet Paul Verhoeven’s RoboCop remains perhaps the most prescient sci-fi effort of the past 30 years — a work from 1987 whose continuing relevance is matched by the fact that no one would dare make it today. Or, at least, remake…
Here’s the last thing I ever would have expected out of Pompeii, that sword-thrust of 3D gladiator-vs.-volcano madness coming right at your disbelieving eyeholes. An hour or so in, when Vesuvius exhausts its portentous rumblings and blows its top (3D!), I legitimately wasn’t ready. Yes, all that third-act destruction is…
In 1990, the same year that Kevin Costner released the massive global hit Dances with Wolves, a curious thing happened in France. The name Kevin became the country’s most popular for new babies, a Gaelic moniker edging out national stalwarts like Antoine and Jules. Imagine if everyone in America suddenly…
The significance of an object is directly related to how interesting the object’s story is. Need proof? Just ask Rob Walker. In an experiment designed to explore the importance of narrative in relation to the value of objects, he joined forces with several storytellers and let them spin their tales…
There’s a passage in J.M. Barrie’s Peter Pan that says something about how stars are really only observers, that they have been put in that role as punishment for assorted karmic misdeeds and that as such, they can’t really participate in the fun around them — they can only watch…
Think you have what it takes to rip up a model runway or the camera using nothing but your raw talent? Here’s your chance to prove it. Rich Dollaz of VH1’s Love & Hip Hop will host a two-day talent and model search to find the next big model and…
Spanish surrealist figureheads Luis Buñuel and Salvador Dalí were classic frienemies. After meeting in college, they went on to share a complicated relationship. Jealousy, adoration, respect, criticism and conflicting philosophies regarding their work’s role and message — especially surrounding its palatability to the wealthy social class — generated a lot…
The Pin Show is more than a night of fashion; it’s Dallas’ most fashionable night. Two-time winner of Best Fashion Show as awarded by us, the Dallas Observer, the production merges a heavily local talent base with a few faraway ringers. Then it sets their work loose on the runway…
The Song of Solomon is not your garden variety selection of Bible verses. The Old Testament poem, found way at the back of the Tanakh, imparts no real lesson: no discussion of laws or covenants; no exhortations to refrain from deviant behavior or else get smote. Instead, it’s a collection…
Anyone who has buried a parent knows there’s nothing like a sudden death in the family to uncork a little introspection, reconciliation and the occasional secret. Alexander’s House, a “play with music,” explores the fallout from the sudden death of a gay man, whose passing brings together his partner and…
Round up the rugrats, Sesame Street Live Make a New Friend is hitting the Verizon Theatre at Grand Prairie. Treat your kids and all their sticky friends to the story of Chamki, Grover’s new friend from India. As Chamki meets Elmo, Abby Cadabby and all the other Street-ers, they discover…
Harvey Schmidt and Tom Jones’ The Fantasticks currently holds the record for the longest-running musical in history and, much like your grandparents’ love life, after 54 years and thousands of performances the occasional bout of ennui is inevitable. In an attempt to spice things up a little, The Nebraska Theatre…
Philip Glass is a musical boundary breaker. In the mid-20th century, he helped invent musical minimalism, but he doesn’t like to be pigeonholed as a minimalist. He’s composed some of film’s most recognizable and memorable soundtracks. He is also the genius behind some of the last century’s most avant-garde, genre-bending…
The Dallas Chamber Symphony presents a program at City Performance Hall (2520 Flora St.) that will defy your preconceptions about classical symphonic concerts. In addition to beautiful, live performances of modern and classic works, you’ll see the music come alive through both dance and film. Opening at 8 p.m. Tuesday…
Admit it. You’ve spent several hours engrossed in the Scripps National Spelling Bee, completely mesmerized by a bunch of kids spelling words that you’ve never even heard. It’s quite impressive, watching middle-schoolers go head to head in the coolest of all nerdy competitions. Adults don’t do it because, quite honestly,…
Before Spanish conquerors and churchmen stepped foot in the New World, representations of the human heart were not uncommon in pre-Columbian art. Aztecs adorned religious statuary with depictions of human hearts. And skulls. And hands. And human sacrifice. Meanwhile, on the other side of the world, images of Jesus (also…
Twenty minutes can be magical, but 20 years can be quite the haul. In this case, that haul’s a fantastic one: TeCo Theatrical Productions is celebrating 20 years of staging multicultural theater by emerging artists. And this anniversary season is no different, with the 12th Annual New Play Competition. Running…
If you attended Artopia, you’ve already peered into the crazy mind of Danielle Georgiou. But the women in blue lipstick and graceful, contorted bodies were just the beginning. Her newest show, Dirty Filthy Diamonds, takes over the Margo Jones Theatre in Fair Park at 8 p.m. Wednesday with a perversely…
The couple who paints together, stays together. Well, that’s what we are to believe about Santa Fe artists Blair Vaughn-Gruler and her husband Ernst Gruler, who claim to paint side-by-side everyday. Mary Tomas Gallery, which happens to be owned by happily married artist types, displays the newest work of the…
All great literary and theatrical figures seem to be getting their own origin stories these days, whether it’s the Wicked Witch of the West from The Wizard of Oz in the musical Wicked or Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson’s origin stories for Peter Pan with Peter and the Starcatchers. Now,…
We’re all sick of winter and coats and mittens and those damn scarves. Escape the crap, if only for a day, and look at pretty flowers at the Dallas Arboretum (8525 Garland Road). Dallas Blooms Festival is in full swing and it’s “one of the most spectacular floral displays in…
What’s the saying? A picture says a thousand words, but granite says it better? OK, it may not have caught on just yet, but in its latest exhibition Photographs Do Not Bend Gallery breaks its tradition of photo-based work to feature large-scale granite sculpture by Jesús Moroles. A native Texan…
