Arts & Culture

When you think Oktoberfest, you think Germany, October and beer. But, dear schnitzel, you’re thinking wrong. Change the first two to “Addison” and “September” and you’re in business, Mister. Addison Oktoberfest is here and that means four days of nonstop German things. Beer, tavern-style snacks, arts and crafts, a yodeling…

The job of a comedian is to take an event, a philosophy, an everyday experience, and explain it in a way that underscores both the hilarity and the universality of it. We slap our knees, we look at everyone else in the audience to ensure they’re laughing, too, and we…

We’re coming up on the end of Breaking Bad, possibly one of the most successful shows in history to feature both crystal meth and exploding tortoises (remember that?). To help gear up for the coming finale, the manic quiz masters at Geeks Who Drink have organized Los Geeks Hermanos: A…

The story of Peter Pan is the literary gift that keeps giving. Over 100 years after J.M. Barrie’s masterpiece was first published, the story of the boy who wouldn’t, couldn’t grow up continues to spawn a legacy of stories and sequels, appropriate for a tale of imagination without bounds. We’ve…

Profanity, the play written by Sylvan Oswald that’s making its world premiere this season at Undermain Theatre, 3200 Main St., is about real estate agents in Philadelphia in the 1950s selling land that doesn’t exist. While that may sound vaguely related to David Mamet’s Glengarry Glen Ross, the profanity here…

The Perot opens its first touring exhibition this week with Animal Inside Out, a Kingdom offshoot of the popular Body World series. Dallas is the second American city to get the show, which just finished dazzling audiences at the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago. The presentation looks at…

As the name implies, when it comes to chamber music — music composed for a small ensemble as opposed to a large orchestra — the space in which the music is performed matters. The slimmed-down size of a chamber orchestra creates a sense of intimacy and vulnerability between the performers…

The weekend’s biggest party, Red Bull Flugtag, is this Saturday. Watch in greedy anticipation as 34 teams launch home-built crashing/sinking flying machines over Lake Carolyn in a quest for extreme distance and peer-review glory. Everyone’s going to be there. You’re more than a face in the crowd to us. That’s…

Last night, the Dallas Chamber Symphony launched its second season of concerts at City Performance Hall with an artistically compelling program featuring the group’s new concertmaster, Japanese violinist Kazuhiro Takagi, as soloist. The orchestra and its new concertmaster will perform four subscription concerts during its 2013/2014 season — two less…

The most deliciously twisted mind ever to rise from Baltimore’s cultural coagulate will visit the Kessler in May. The author/playwright/sexybeast will present his one-man show, This Filthy World, wherein Waters discusses his rises and falls within the industry he’s spent a career both celebrating and mocking. It’s part of this…

Update: HOMECOMING! has stopped taking furnishings for this project, but is still accepting donations to cover shipping. While the bulk of the Texas Biennial happens at San Antonio’s Blue Star Contemporary Art Museum and other satellite cities’ venues, Dallas has a couple offerings of its own. The most flammable of…

Local writers love scribbling out pieces that “Deep Ellum is back.” It happens whenever they find themselves immersed in an Elm Street festival or caught in the afterglow of an exceptionally great evening in the neighborhood. But that approach is tired and lazy. Writing that story further validates that the…

Frederic Church’s The Icebergs returned home to the DMA this week after an exhausting year of touring. Like any proper rock star, Icebergs immediately took a cold shower, ordered champagne delivery and then bought lots and lots of pay-per-view. [Checking notes.] Actually, that isn’t right. It looks like the painting…

Rainn Wilson’s more than just a great Twitter voice, and his vision extends further than the Schrute family beet farm. Wilson lives a life of civic service through volunteership, social activism and by using his celebrity platform to share good, big ideas via his website and book, SoulPancake. Yep, he’s…

Most of us have a love or obsession with something that we’d rather not tell other people about because we fear being judged or called names. Some people cultivate those loves or obsessions for that very reason — because it makes them unique and they love telling you about it…

The Dallas Opera has announced that not only will it share Tod Machover’s robot opera Death and the Powers in a global simulcast, it’ll present the thing with something called a “robot’s eye view.” On Sunday, February 16 at 2 p.m., Powers, Machover’s look at technology, immortality and conscious, will…

Gardeners can be classified into several groups. There’s veggie people, tree folk, general landscaping enthusiasts, and the most passionate off them all: cactus addicts. It’s a nerdy affliction, being seduced by succulents, but there’s something intrinsically satisfying about their subtle variations and perky personalities. None of that is lost on…

Why? Because this weekend is crowdsurf, come on down good. That’s why. Immediately locate your smallest outfit because the Alan Ross Texas Freedom Parade is this Sunday. Got a glitter allergy? Okay, fine. How about the year’s biggest vinyl toy show; a party for our favorite local jewelry line; or…