New media artist Brittany Ransom is a visual, interactive artist who examines the divide between human, animal and environment. Take for instance her “Track Series,” a research series that examines the paths of beetles via video, photos and motion capture images. Or “HOST” a five-channel video installation with a single…
Over the last three months, the Mixmaster’s resident dancer, Katie Toohil, has allowed us through her Director’s Notes series to peer into the intimate details of producing a show based on the confrontation of sorrow, a unique introspection expressed through emotional, original choreography and contemporary music. Loosely based on the…
There’s art and then there’s art. And while I typically skew low-brow, I can’t help but be curious, impressed and several other adjectives with For The Birds, an art show featuring Chaitra Linehan. The press release for the show states that Chaitra has created an effect “that implies the dissociation…
Most of us think first of beer when it comes to Oktoberfest, following that thought with images of Teutonic hotties in dirndls or lederhosen. But at BlackFinn American Saloon (4440 Belt Line Road in Addison and 4001 Bagpiper Way, Suite 101 in Arlington), German food is no O-fest afterthought. Through…
The SlaughterHouse has been terrorizing Dallas for a full decade. In their second year at their new Deep Ellum location, the 16,000 square-foot haunted house has been completely renovated. It’s populated by 40 actors, old horror movie sets, hundreds of props and something to scare just about everyone: bloody chainsaws,…
Ontario expat Christine Bisetto is an artist. Her shtick? She is very much into time — fascinated by it, even. Bisetto, these days a Texan through and through, incorporates the idea of days, months and years into her work, where it serves forevermore as a reflection of her own life…
If you can’t watch a scary movie without flinching every 30 seconds, you may not want to partake in a night full of skeletons, chain saws and men in masks. As horrifying as it may sound, some people actually love the few minutes of torture. This year’s lineup of haunted…
If you’re a fan of works by actor, director, author and playwright Sam Shepard, you should know that although he’s from Illinois, he does have Texas ties, having donated his papers to Texas State University a few years back. So, you could take a road trip down to San Marcos…
Are you skeptical about the investment value of photography? If so, Afterimage Gallery has a story for you. The gallery sold an Ansel Adams print in 1973. At the time, the 16-by-20-inch print of “Moonrise” went for $250. Today, it’s worth more than $55,000. But although Afterimage has shown many…
If Southern Gothic is notable for its bleak, surreal look at Southern society, then Texas Gothic, in its particularly desolate setting and with its high concentration of eccentrics, is even more so. The Webb Gallery’s Texas Gothic exhibition gathers together the artwork of Texas natives who specialize in the strange…
It’s like art Christmas in the Dallas area this autumn. The much anticipated Gaultier exhibit is here; Tony Cragg sculptures fill the Nasher; and the Kimball is hosting the only American exhibition of Caravaggio and His Followers in Rome. To top it all off, one of the most interesting and…
Much of art is about the intangible: anger, hate, joy, hope, ideas, myths, fantasies, the love of a person or thing and fear of the future. So it’s no surprise that ghost stories are a deep well for artistic creation. These stories wrap numerous ideas about death, the afterlife and…
Love makes you do crazy things. Romeo and Juliet sacrificed themselves for one another. Cyrano de Bergerac, well, he gave up his girl to another man. Army Captain Silvio? He disguises himself over and over again to win over his one, true love. Join him in 19th century Padua, Italy,…
Stop-motion animation makes us think of the chunky clay cartoon, Gumby, or the simple waddling paper cutouts used to animate the television show Southpark. We wouldn’t have considered stop-motion to be an elegant form of animation, but artist Qiu Anxiong has created two narrative movies with the animation technique that…
In 1968 Roman Polanski produced a bit of magic that remains one of the best pieces of film to combine the quiet and the horrific. Now, before you say that we should never comment on his work, Rosemary’s Baby was filmed and released before both the Manson Family’s murder of…
The new musical version of Edna Ferber’s Giant, about a mid-century West Texas oil-and-ranch family, won’t open at Dallas Theater Center until January. But to prime the pump, the theater, ATTPAC and the Dallas Film Society are hosting a free screening of the 1956 epic movie of the same name…
Welcome to another edition of Geek-Offs, where you’ll find the perfect distractions to help you muddle your way through hump day each week. We’re a big fan of Armor Games around here, as if you couldn’t tell. They’re the purveyors of some of our favorite Geek-Off games from the past…
“I want to share some advice from my grandmother,” author Alice Hoffman told the female-dominated audience at Tuesday night’s Arts and Letters Live at the Dallas Museum of Art, co-sponsored by the Dallas Holocaust Museum. Hoffman, wearing flats, glasses perched on her nose, reached into her bag for some papers…
Over the past week, Unfair Park has racked up a number of recaps in the wake of Occupy Wall Street in Dallas. There was the march, and–of course–Infowars host Alex Jones’ protest on the Dallas Federal Reserve on Friday. While that’s going on, which it totally still is, here’s a…
I give The Fatal End three-and-a-half rotting bones out of a possible five. It’s in the West End so it’s a short drive, and that’s nice. I’m not big on commuting for terror. It’ll scare you in some sections and startle the shit out of you in others. I will…
Since Silence of the Lambs, there’ve been dozens of trashy Hollywood attempts at remaking the success behind the brooding, dark serial killer thriller. They’ve all been punch-yourself-in-the-nuts bad. Except for Se7en. You don’t forget Se7en. Who can: there’s a scene where you see a knife attached to a dildo [shudder]…
In a big cast of hot young actors, two of the stars of WaterTower Theatre’s current production of Spring Awakening are sizzling standouts: Adam Garst, a 2010 Baylor theater grad in only his second role on a local stage, and Kayla Carlyle, who’s been acting and singing professionally in Dallas…
