Though most artists tend to start with the basics (pencil, paint, clay) before entering the world of au courant installations and found art, Texas native Kevin Renner seems to have taken an alternate journey. A former large installation man who worked with found art and natural materials to create his…
Meddling grandparents — what’s not to love? They ply you with food, then the questions come: When are you getting married? When are you having kids? If you’re happily single, well, they ignore that inconvenient fact. Those are the kind of grandparents that make Nick’s world go round in Over…
Everyone who has demanded a designated driver veer into the Taco Bell drive-through line at 2 a.m. knows that beer can enhance the flavor of food. But being drunk before you taste something isn’t the only way it works. Learn hands-on that using beer as an ingredient can turn a…
Gloria Steinem said a that “a woman without a man is like a fish without a bicycle,” but we’re inclined to think that a woman without a vibrator is just bad policy any way you slice it. Sarah Ruhl’s Tony nominated 2009 play, In the Next Room, Or the Vibrator…
There are few things that make you feel more cultured than going to see some Shakespeare. I’m generally pretty happy just to get out of the house for a showing of Bridesmaids or to commandeer a jukebox with repeats of Joy Division, because those are things I can afford and…
Today there are few living Holocaust survivors, but the emotional and personal impact of what they went through lives on in those loved ones that were closest to them. For DFW-based artists Julie Meetal and Veronique Jonas, their family’s history takes form in artwork that illustrates the impact that the…
Sculptor Tony Cragg has gained international notoriety through the course of his career by actively experimenting with his art, ranging from the simple, beautiful assemblages of found objects, to the increasingly complex large-scale plastic and metal constructions. His current exhibition, Tony Cragg: Seeing Things, now at the Nasher Sculpture Center,…
A couple of weeks ago, Pete over on DC9 announced the nominees for the 23rd annual Dallas Observer Music Awards. And oh, yes, there was much ado. But now — like, right now — you can officially go here and vote for your favorites. Make history, as they say. And…
Back in 1963, Andy Warhol pointed a small movie camera at his friend John Giorno, recorded him sleeping for six hours and released it as a six-hour film called Sleep. Warhol shot eight hours of the top of the Empire State Building and called it Empire. He filmed close-ups of…
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. When you see this week’s selection for Geek-Off, you’re probably going to think we called it in because we were too busy out enjoying the weather to…
Two Sundays back, Identity Festival — an EDM (electric dance music) festival — stopped at Gexa Energy Pavilion in Fair Park. The all-day music festival brought in EDM acts from around the world, and additionally, kids from all over the metroplex. Inside, neon-bursting bodies scampered between the stages and merchant…
It’s time once again to vote! And we’ve got a fairly diverse selection of books here, folks. Will you succumb to the peer pressure from Anna and select Tina Fey’s well-received autobiography, Bossypants (the only title to hold over from the last poll)? Will you go with the adult fantasy…
Common wisdom holds that books are usually superior to their film versions. Satisfying the individual expectations of thousands, if not millions, of fans is a Herculean task. There are exceptions, like Francis Ford Coppola’s Oscar-winning The Godfather, penned by Mario Puzo. Or the monumental achievement by Peter Jackson, who delivered…
We’re watching Bravo’s Most Eligible Dallas every week so you don’t have to. The fourth episode finds formerly minor characters becoming thunder thieves. Read on. Scene 1: Courtney and Tara meet for lunch at Toulouse. After a brief table-etiquette lesson from Court (FORK is on LEFT because both words have…
Sure, we’re no Vegas, but Dallas is known for some iconic neon signs, perhaps more so for the ones that have gone dark, like the original Pegasus and the Alamo Plaza Hotel Courts signs. The Alamo closed in 2008, and last summer Unfair Park toured the vacant property days before…
Over the past year he’s played Ebenezer Scrooge in A Christmas Carol and a Nazi officer in Cabaret. Now, cast in the lead as Prospero in Shakespeare’s mighty drama The Tempest, actor Chamblee Ferguson steps into the biggest role of his long career at Dallas Theater Center. The Tempest, opening…
No, it’s not exactly fall yet, but apparently, it’s time to start picking out plants for cool weather planting. Thing is, we here at Mixmaster HQ don’t know a damn thing about fall planting. Actually, come to think of it, we don’t know too much of anything about planting in…
According to the oh-so scientific minds at AAA, approximately 30.5 million Americans will be traveling this Labor Day weekend, which is down roughly 2 percent from last year. How do the guys at AAA figure this out? We don’t know, and we don’t care because we’re not hitting the road…
This summer I chose Instagram as my main source of social media. I ignored, for the most part, Facebook, Twitter, my blog and others like this one. I call Instagram the photo version of Twitter. They call it “a fast, beautiful and fun way to share your life with friends…
Some stores are open from 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. or 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Many specialty stores are open at inopportune times for those of us who have regular day job hours. Vitamin Cottage’s Natural Grocers — the health food and fresh product market in the old Casa…
Theater Caps are bite-sized punch-packing capsule reviews by resident theater critic Elaine Liner. Use them as a reminder — or a teaser, if you procrastinate — of her full-length reviews in The Mixmaster’s weekly sister. Playwright A.R. Gurney has written more than 40 plays, but it’s a good bet Sylvia…
By now most of you dear readers are well aware of the Gawker-produced list of the 50 Worst States In America. Gawker placed their home base at 50, and the Lone Star State at 13. Sure sure, our placement could be worse, but instead of celebrating that, we’d rather point…
