There are only a few career options with a name like Buster Cooper. You could be the star of screwball comedies. Maybe a very low-end private eye. Or you could be one of the world’s most beloved jazz and tap dancers. Dallas’ own Buster Cooper, a nationally known teacher and…
Chess tournaments have lost intensity on the national level since, say, the Cold War ended. True, chess is the game of kings, an ultimate test of strategy and has been used by brooding, Scandinavian directors to represent man’s attempts to cheat death. But without the reputation of capitalism at stake,…
Ah, Labor Day: the best excuse September offers to get completely wasted on a Sunday. You probably already know how you’re going to get your holiday weekend Sunday Funday started (Mimosas? A pool? Both?), so here is how you’re going to cap it off: by letting your inhibitions and your…
No ifs, ands or buts about it: cancer blows. We don’t know whether it’s because we’re getting older or the world’s just getting suckier, but it seems more prevalent than ever. And while it’s easy to stress, worry and fear the blight that is taking our loved ones, sometimes what…
Sundays are typically ho-hum, but this Sunday will be anything but. Especially if the Texas Association of Magicians has anything to say about it — and they do. They just say it with smoke poofs and sleight of hand. They’ll be holding their annual convention at Intercontinental Hotel Dallas in…
Many moons ago, my friends and I — having long since burned through all of the Studio Ghibli offerings—found an ad on the back of a newspaper for a place that promised a large selection of anime titles. When we arrived at the windowless building just outside the city limits,…
Life isn’t going as predicted for Scotty Mankin (Kevin Grammer) in the Ochre House’s newest original play Best Seat in Town. The down-and-out car salesman really messed up when he sold lemons to the puppet mafia. As we meet him, Mankin’s on a desperate mission to track down the mafia’s…
If your mother died in jail, imprisoned for murdering your father, and your fancy new fiancé fears you harbor similar murderous tendencies, what would you do? While most of us would either kick the dude to the curb or run and hide from the everlasting familial tragedy, Carla Le Merchant…
The circus left town a few weeks ago and you’re still whistling “Entrance of the Gladiators.” Maybe you’re thinking about chucking it all and heading for clown college: Elephant training seems preferable to cubicle dwelling, and flying trapezes sound way less treacherous than the office gossip mill. It’s tempting. Then…
If you’ve ever driven that stretch of Interstate 35 just south of Dallas and been floored that the miles of green pastures and wooded areas that lined the highway just a decade ago are now a perpetual tract of retail and restaurant and storage units, you’ll appreciate Debora Hunter’s exhibition…
Testing equally well with sample groups “Families” and “The Impossibly Stoned,” Super Buddies is Disney’s latest direct-to-video release. From what we gather, it mashes up Eastern philosophy, dogs dressed as humans and mohawed miniature horses to create some kind of lesson. We think it might be about string theory, so…
On Thursday, August 29, Sportsradio 1310 The Ticket takes over the Village Country Club with a ring, a copy of the Marquess of Queensbury Rules, and a slew of ever loyal P1s. That’s right folks, it’s time for Fight Night ’13, an event members of the Hardline call “The best…
I walk through a somewhat ordinary office — some desks, chairs, white boards — to a storage area in the back. It’s dark in here. Stacks of shipping boxes line the walls and litter the floor. Someone hits the lights, my eyes focus, and I see them. Round, beige heads…
This is the first trailer released for Dallas Buyers Club, the new drama based on the life of Ron Woodroof, who smuggled and sold unlicensed medications when he was diagnosed with AIDS in the mid-’80s. Naturally, it’s set in Dallas and stars our favorite paper doll, Matthew McConaughey, who lost…
Lara Almarcegui attracted international buzz when she filled the Spanish Pavilion with construction materials at the 2013 Venice Biennale. The 1922 building became the casing for its own eventual decay, with mountains of smashed rubble, bricks and building tiles authentic to the pavilion’s composition piled within. It’s work like that…
Name: Justin James Age: 23 Occupation: Student Style influences: Justin Timberlake Style breakdown: Shirt from H&M, jeans from HotTopic, shoes by Levis, watch from Kenneth Cole…
We’re not sure what each was up to when they got the call, but when we heard that the original cast of Dukes of Hazzard agreed to reunite for an All-Dukes weekend at Galaxy Drive-In? Well, more than a few beer cans hit the ground here at the Observer. They’re…
By the time I muscled through the traditional Fair Park gridlock traffic and made it inside Gexa Energy Pavilion for last night’s Oddball Comedy Festival, the place was flooded, with thousands splayed on the lawn waiting for the main stage and hundreds more in the concession area. The “Curiosity” part of the…
Why is a billboard advertisement for 2-year-old Norman Rockwell exhibition at Irving’s National Scouting Museum lately beaming down on Lemmon Avenue, just shy of Wycliff Avenue? Earlier this year, the Irving-based Boy Scouts of America reversed a long-held ban on admitting openly gay Scouts. But only a few short weeks…
The room we’re in looks like a bigger version of a high school art studio. There are sculptures clothed in plastic wrap, rows of Grecian urns, a worktable where staff was assembling mounts for a buffalo mask, a 3D printed lamp and ancient Roman jewelry. A lot of Jesus paintings…
Local burlesque babes the Lollie Bombs held their annual breast cancer benefit show at Pocket Sandwich Theatre on Friday night, simultaneously satisfying its audience’s desires for snacks, do-gooding and boobs errywhere. We sent photographer Ed Steele to capture the action in photos and he came back with a whole slideshow’s…
Those scamps at Oddball Comedy Festival still haven’t leaked the comedian line-up for tonight’s show, leaving many to wonder exactly how early they really must arrive at Gexa, where beers cost exactly one hundred million dollars. Well, we don’t know for sure, but we did find the schedule from Friday…
