While the rest of the country is getting over their gay pride celebration-induced hangovers, Dallas is just kicking its own festivities into high gear. That means it’s also time for the annual Dallas Pride Performing Arts Festival, presented by the Uptown Players. Since you can’t start off a good pride…
There are so many things right about Fall Fly Days that the complete and total misname, Family Friendly Babes and Bombers, is almost worth an overlook. Almost. You can’t say babes and then call yourself fun for all ages, unless you’re that coronary-inducing chicken restaurant over in Carrollton. But this…
The Dallas Pride Performing Arts Festival wraps up Sunday with a staged reading of Cock by Mike Bartlett. Bartlett is from England, so before you get in a lather about the name being smutty, just know that the word has a different meaning there (actually, no, it still means penis)…
If you can’t make it to TacoCon, head to FIG. Better yet, learn to manage your time and attend both. FIG sounds like a lesser food, right? WRONG! It’s the Fashion Industry Gallery and it’s holding its Finale — which isn’t a celebration of the gallery’s untimely demise, but actually…
As we direct our gaze to San Antonio’s Blue Star Contemporary Art Museum, where the bulk of 2013 Texas Biennial action shakes out, it’s easy to miss a local contribution occurring at CentralTrak (800 Exposition Ave.). Friskt kopplat, hälften brunnet (Quickly connected, half burned) is the newest mission launched by…
If you think Jewish cinema begins and ends with Mel Brooks, might we gently suggest that you expand your references? And the 17th Annual International Jewish Film Festival of Dallas is an excellent place to get a glimpse of how alive and, well, international Jewish films are right now. The…
Talk about bang for your buck: Where most theater treats you to one solid piece of play writing, Kiss Me Kate gives you layers of it. The Cole Porter masterpiece takes on two separate but kind of intertwined romances, a dose of ’40s-era gangster drama and an entire Shakespeare production…
As Fort Worth celebrates its annual Fall Gallery Walk — a magical, lengthy day when art spaces filled with new work stay open from noon to dusk — Dallas is again left to fend for itself. The Design District shakes off its summer break with the standard three-hour art window…
Long before Cindy Sherman, that gender-bending, class-blurring, social-hierarchy smashing doyenne of dress-up photography, there was Hannah Cullwick. Cullwick was a maid in Victorian England who, along with her employer/boyfriend/dominant Arthur Munby, produced a series of photographs that totally out-Sherman good ol’ Cindy. Cullwick is photographed as a chimney sweep, a…
Dallas benefactor Algur H. Meadow found himself at a Spanish museum during a business trip in the 1950s, and it changed everything for him. Story has it, he fell in love with the Prado Museum and with the works contained within it, and decided to open his own “Prado on…
It’s Gourmet Easy Bake Oven Night at schoolclass in Oak Cliff. Remember that little fire hazard? The one that made those dough-y hunks of shit? Yeah, that one! Well tonight, a real live caterer/baker/person who knows how to use an actual oven will be teaching a class featuring actual edible…
In addition to its roster (impressive), its kitschy theme (snail mail) and its awkward environment (inside someone’s house), Going Postal at RE Gallery had the added benefit (when I was there) of the fast-talking, funny, devilishly charming Irishman Gary Farrelly as exhibition tour guide. Alas, he has returned home by…
“There is no magic. There are only magicians,” said Harry Anderson, veteran magician and former sitcom star. He was onstage in a ballroom full of amateur and professional conjurers at the 2013 convention of the Texas Association of Magicians, held Labor Day weekend at Addison’s Intercontinental Hotel. More than 500…
As collectors hop jets back to the city, abandoning their summer homes in cooler climates, Dallas braces itself for its first big run of seasonal shows. Sure, in Fort Worth that’s met with the Fall Gallery Night, a nine-hour long celebration of fresh art. In Dallas we’re left to fight…
Whether you’re an avid classical music nerd fan, or a novice looking to expand your musical palette, there are plenty of diverse opportunities to hear exceptional live classical music in Dallas this month. From the alien sounds of a 200+ year-old organ in a museum, to the rich swells of…
Last weekend the Sheraton Hotel Dallas was home to AnimeFest 2013, a four-day celebration of gaming and animation culture. There were panels, parties, and more costumes than you could shake a four-foot laser sword at. We sent photographer Ed Steele out to find his favorite monsters, and well, he might…
The Texas Association of Magicians held their annual conference at the InterContinental Hotel last weekend in an event so grand it even included a visit by Observer staff favorite, Harry Anderson (Night Court). (On an unrelated note: Housekeeping staff of the InterContinental found 3,000 colorful, unclaimed scarves tucked into one…
The Winspear Opera House’s underground parking can be a mess, but it doesn’t exactly sneak up on you. From the moment you pull your car in for a big performance, you’re reminded, Oh yeah, this is three-act: Two acts in the theater, one in the garage. It’s maddening, but you…
Last Saturday Deep Ellum felt the friction of hundreds of wheels as pre-1964 hot rod and kustom car enthusiasts took their victory laps. We love Invasion because its a celebration of that grittier car era, before the body styles got too bubbly and cheerful. Plus, it’s a chance to break…
As at most festivals, screenings at Venice are preceded by a recorded message asking everyone to turn off their cell phones. A very cultured-sounding lady delivers this request first in Italian and then in English. She caps off the English version with the words, “Thank you for your collaboration.” My…
Dallas sometimes has a penchant for getting excited about what’s most shiny and new. Amidst all the demolition and reconstruction, it’s invigorating to hear about preservation efforts. As KERA reported earlier this week, the Trinity Lutheran Church near White Rock Lake is being torn down, to be replaced with a…
The thing that really stood out at the Ticket’s Fight Night yesterday was that these were definitely amateurs in the ring. Bout after bout would start in a flurry of punches and a burst of energy, only to quickly turn into a lethargic affair of tired legs and weak punches…
