Reading Assignment #3: Finish In the Garden of Beasts

This is it, MOBCers. The final assignment of our first book club selection, Erik Larson’s In the Garden of Beasts is, naturally, Part 7 and the Epilogue. Finish it by Friday, August 12, for another comments meeting at approximately 3:30 p.m. We had a good discussion Friday about the middle…

Can Do, Can Do: DSM’s Guys and Dolls

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. The touring production of Guys and Dolls winding up its run this weekend at the…

The MOBC Is Now In Session Over!

Welcome! We hope you snooped during our inaugural MOBC meeting two weeks ago and have decided to return, either to snoop again or, better yet, to join in the action. The reading assignment for this round was sections three through six of Erik Larson’s In the Garden of Beasts. As…

Bath House Steams Up With Hot FIT Shows

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. If you haven’t made it over to the Festival of Independent Theatres yet, get there…

Eavesdropping Dralion: Overheard at Cirque du Soleil

There are always a few people who like to share — out loud — their opinions at live performances, and they’re not much different than those overzealous viewers at the movies who feel the need to express every thought that comes to mind. You know, the people who gasp, scream…

Question The Artist: Illustrator Chris Gash

​As you can read in this week’s cover story, you’ll see that the kids are still not all right. Certainly not a fun topic, but certainly one that demands attention. With such a serious subject of suburban teen drug abuse, one might think it wise to go a more somber…

Just an FYI, Mixmaster-ers

Just so you know, earlier today a sweet little squirrel decided to check out a curious connecting device that is crucial to providing electricity to the Mixmaster’s HQ. And well, he died in a rather unglamorous way. We lost some time on this here blog even after the electricity came…

Question The Artist: Illustrator Sachin Teng

​Last week, we took a quick look Behind The Cover without the artist in question to give us his insight and thoughts that we usually inquire about. Fortunately, the illustrator of everyone’s favorite Gorilla Vs. Bear cover is back from his secret mission in the Far East and has provided…

Small Budgets, Big Performances at 13th Festival of Indie Theatres

Fireworks keep going off every night of the Festival of Independent Theatres at the Bath House Cultural Center. Not outside over White Rock Lake; inside, on the little stage under a wheezy air-conditioner that doesn’t quite keep up with the crush of bodies crowding in to see the best written,…

Crazy, Stupid, Love: Not Crazy Enough

In the first scene of Crazy, Stupid, Love, Emily (Julianne Moore) tells Cal (Steve Carell), her high school sweetheart and husband of 20-plus years, that she wants a divorce. She goes on to mention that she had an affair with a co-worker named Dave Lindhagen (Kevin Bacon), at which point…

Beats, Rhymes, & Life: The Travels of a Tribe Called Quest

So much petty drama has clouded the release of Michael Rapaport’s A Tribe Called Quest documentary. One version of the back story casts the first-time director as a doofus actor wannabe who persuades the seminal, but privately splintered, hip-hop crew to participate in a consummate career doc. After two and…

Burning Down the Gallery

Helen Altman is an artist. Her preferred medium? Oh, just fire. Fire? That’s right. Using a method she refers to as “torch drawing”, the Tuscaloosa native uses a controlled flame on paper to create stunning images of lush landscapes, frolicking birds and charging steeds. Talley Dunn Gallery is featuring over…

Take the Road Headed East

Road-trip season might be over, but at Crow Collection there are journeys taking place through the winter. They might even be more inspiring than the traditional trip in the family minivan. The Crow Collection’s Fabled Journeys in Asian Art: South and Southeast Asia exhibition features art of varying mediums, from…

PajamaJeans Are Having a Moment

From a world beyond casual, a dimension without shape or size, a place where Rod Serling hosts Project Runway, come PajamaJeans. Sold by the thousands on Home Shopping Network and through TV commercials, PajamaJeans are exactly that. They are Snuggies with legs, “jeans” that pull on and, apparently, stay on…