Another Hobbit movie means Tolkien-heads will emerge from their Dallas shires to see the latest installation of this quest. The Alamo Drafthouse in Richardson couldn’t resist the chance to offer fans the ultimate Hobbit experience before the premiere of Peter Jackson’s next big-screen J.R.R. Tolkien adventure. This time, the Drafthouse…
It’s Dallas, so ice skating outside isn’t really a thing. Every year the Hilton Anatole rights this egregious wrong with Sparkle!, a mega-holiday-evergreen-lighted-smitten-mittens event. If you have a sugar or a booger or a sugarbooger, head out to the festivities from 8 to 10 p.m. Friday for Date Night-Skate Night…
Christmas is a time of giving and loving. Burlesque is a time of teasing and seducing. Mix the two traditions and the alchemy creates Iggy’s Fourth Annual Christmas Extravaganza: Babes in Toyland! By paying a $5 cover fee and bringing an unwrapped $5 toy, you get a night of sinful…
Winter brings many reasons to party and, as it is every season, beer is a big one. The second annual Dallas Winter Warmer celebrates winter beers, like stouts, porters, barleywines, barrel-aged beers and winter seasonals. Come rain or snow or whatever gross in-between slush, Main Street Park, 1902 Main St.,…
You just don’t see 200 slutty Santas doing shots and hopping DART every day. Just once or twice a year, thanks to start-up fun-makers Santa Rampage. The bar tour has become more than a drunken Dallas tradition, it’s an excuse to go jingle balls-out with the old hot-glue gun to…
Small-town Christmas is the best. Of course, the big city has its perks during the holiday season — ice-skating rinks, ballet productions and shopping meccas chief among them — but it almost seems that the Christmas spirit looms largest in the tiniest of hamlets. It’s the places where the local…
We can all agree that Die Hard is more than just an amazing holiday movie: It’s also the greatest action film ever made in which an off-duty New York cop becomes ensnared in a high-stakes heist disguised as a grand act of terrorism in a glass office tower on an…
One of the more frustrating parts of walking through a museum and finding something amazing on display is the nagging thought that follows through the rest of your visit: “Dammit, I want that.” You know that even if the Dallas Museum of Art would let you make an offer on…
Unlike other comic-book obsessed stand-ups who try to turn their collections into stand-up shtick, comedian Brian Posehn has nerd cred clout to spare. He’s got bylines on best-selling graphic novels like his post-apocalyptic Christmas tome The Last Christmas and Marvel’s Deadpool series. He’s also got a couple of best-selling comedy…
Observer theater critic Elaine Liner knows a thing or 30 about what makes a play exceptional. (Lord knows she’s done her share of research.) That’s great news for you because Liner has recently switched teams — artfully speaking — to write a one-woman show called Sweater Curse, A Yarn About…
This Sunday, World Wrestling Entertainment’s pay-per-view, TLC — also known as Tables, Ladders, and Chairs — will feature one of the most exciting lineups in the history of the franchise. Long-time rivals John Cena and Randy Orton will face off in the main event with the winner walking away with…
There’s not much that can be said about It’s a Wonderful Life that hasn’t been said before. Even the most cynical among us are drawn in by the story of the suicidal George Bailey and his journey through what life would have looked like had he never been born. It’s…
Scripture states that someone shoved mescaline fruitcake into the manger’s VHS player and nine months later the Everything is Terrible! Holiday Special was born. Now, let us all give thanks. This Chicago-based video blog tours its tripped-out seasonal offering through Dallas on Wednesday night, stopping for one screening at Texas…
To those naysayers who said acrylic fibers couldn’t save the world, listen up. Thursday, we’ll gather around Dallas’ favorite fireplace to drink, munch on snacks and generally look like dorks, trussed up in ugly Christmas sweaters, and we’ll do it — dammit — because it’s our civic duty. The Ugly…
The holiday season can be a bleak time of year, caused just as much by bare trees and gray skies as it is by family drama. The story of the child returning home for a confrontational holiday has a long pedigree, so when one comes along that sounds fresh and…
When you grow weary of tear-jerking, leg-lamp-shattering, Clark Griswold-flustering, keep-the-change-you-filthy-animal Christmas films, head to the Dallas Comedy House to see those smartasses mock it all in ImprovisedChristmasMovie. (They saved the cleverness for the stage.) No one’s getting wings in this production either, but there is a SantaGremlin, so suck on…
The best Christmas events are all tagged “Contains mature themes and images. Not suitable for children.” Because if we’re all being honest, Christmas brings the most mature language out of all of us and sometimes causes us to produce some mature themes and imagery too, but that varies from person…
RIGHTEOUS! Just because our Observer staff’s hearts are made of artificial ice doesn’t mean we’re immune to the hypnotic power of glowing things. Our brains are pretty primitive in that regard, among others. Bright stuff is awesome, and you better believe we’ll stare at it, unquestioning, for hours at a…
Christmas is coming up and if you’re having trouble buying a gift for that hardcore movie buff in your life and you have a few thousand dollars just taking up real estate in your couch cushions, Heritage Auctions of Dallas may have a solution. The local auction house is getting…
Once, while deep in the rabbit holes of Instagram hashtags, I stumbled upon jewelry maven Holly Shipley’s little shop @DearHolly.
Don’t let the haters get you down, Cleon. Some of us loved you, baby. Here’s why: 1. Price is Right One whole hour of the Cliffhanger, PLINKO and debating who’s creepier — thin Drew Carey or everyday Lara Flynn Boyle…
Winter Storm Cleon, aka the “Icepocalypse,” was a cruel master, leaving some without power and others trapped on icy roads. But then there were those who saw the lining of those dark, menacing clouds as an excuse to spark a little romance. Match.com reported a 22 percent increase in new…
