Arts & Culture

Tragedy, death and family drama are three favorite themes of great literature, and they seem to be amped up for maximum impact in women’s literature. Whether you think best-selling author Kristin Hannah’s work qualifies as great literature, dismiss it as chick-lit or don’t see why it can’t be both, you…

We want to hate Bill Maher. We’ve wanted to smack that smug look off his face since his Politically Incorrect days, and his 2008 film Religulous, in which he interviews the nuttiest, most ignorant people he can find about their religious beliefs in a purported quest to discover why faith…

Want to party with a some really old friends? We’re not talking about cocktail hour at a retirement home, but if you’d like to meet a few fossils head to the Museum of Nature & Science for Beer & Bones, an adults-only evening featuring drinks, a DJ and dinosaurs. Hang…

When it comes to childhood fantasies fully realized, an event like the 2011 Texas Pinball Festival sure seems like an epic dream come true. Because a 10,000-square-foot game room filled with more than 200 vintage and new pinball machines, classic video games and slot machines and other game room oddities…

Have you ever wondered what motivates runners to complete long-distance races? While we aren’t qualified to answer that, a bonus incentive waits at the end of the Rock ‘n’ Roll Half Marathon. It’s a Bret Michaels concert (and something called a beer garden that sounds promising). Several bands will rock…

Nothing in the music business is sacred anymore–if anything ever was–including Queen’s greatest hits. Singer Freddie Mercury’s doppelganger, an English bloke named plain ol’ Gary Mullen, has crafted a career belting Queen classics backed by Mullen’s band, The Works. Mercury must be rolling over his in grave. The dark-haired Mullen,…

For quality drama and damnation, leave the Real Housewives and kids of Jersey Shore behind and go old school with the Dallas Opera. With only two operas left in its 2010-2011 of “Dangerous Desires,” it’s only fitting that the Dallas Opera would include a performance of the Giuseppe Verdi classic…

Be prepared to watch elbows and knees fly as Trigger Mortis, Smack the Ripper, and the rest of the Lone Star Assassins take on Gloria Vanderbitch, Amelia Airhead and their Bombshell Brigade cohorts. It might sound like a video game, but this is Assassination City Roller Derby, where broken arms…

Being known as something other than your given name can either be a really good thing or a really bad thing. George Costanza obviously represents the worst-case scenario for receiving an alias, having been known as “Can’t-Stand-Ya,” “Koko the Monkey” and “Gammy.” On the flip side, though, there are people…

For nearly 70 years, the country we know as Vietnam was under French rule as part of French Indochina. So it makes sense that Vietnamese food is an interesting blend of traditional Asian cooking and French flavors; it was “Asian fusion” way before a savvy marketer thought up that term…

Neither One-Eyed Willy’s booty nor a band of foul-mouthed preteens are likely candidates for a modern PG-13 movie, but they were in the 1980s. After they find a treasure map in an attic, the children from Goon Docks neighborhood set out in a desperate attempt to find enough treasure to…

From 1960s protest songs, to Grandpa and the Family Band, Arlo Guthrie has just about done it all. Born into a family of musicians, Guthrie’s early career culminated amidst the political unrest of the Vietnam War and led him to pen his most famous work, “Alice’s Restaurant Massacree.” Clocking in…

Kevin Love could be the only thing going right for the Minnesota Timberwolves this season. Unfortunately for them, his 53-game double-double streak ended two weeks ago and his team, for the time being, remain near the bottom of conference standings. The home-team on the other hand, gear up for a…

Sasha Garza likes paperclips. No, it’s not some weird obsession; she actually uses the small metal instruments to create unique pieces of art. In fact, Garza has an entire Paperclip Safari series, and she’s putting it up for exhibition for art enthusiasts across the Metroplex. Come take a peek at…

Flip on any documentary channel–or, heck, step outside your front door–to see that the relationship of humanity to the rest of the natural world is one marked by greed (on the human side) and indifference (on nature’s side). Our society is shaped by how we attempt to bend wilderness to…

While more than 200,000 people have volunteered with the Peace Corps over the past five decades, two local groups are showcasing the experiences of 35 North Texas volunteers. The Latino Cultural Center and the North Texas Peace Corps Association celebrates 50 years worth of effort from local volunteers working to…

Art can sit tucked away and unseen for years at a time, either being slowly developed by the artist or forgotten and left to ferment. The Barry Whistler Gallery has examples of both instances from artists Ann Stautberg and Toni LaSelle on display until April 23. Part of an ongoing…

If you eventually encounter some sort of magical being/water source that could potentially allow you to live forever, then you have a big decision to make. You should probably prepare for that day by making a list of pros and cons ahead of time. For example, one pro is that…

The art world doesn’t come with the cult of personality that music or movies do and that frequently means that we miss out on some of the more interesting dialogues on perspective and culture. Take Martin Creed, a slightly scruffy Scotsman known for his widely acclaimed conceptual pieces, like the…