Kitchen Dog’s Tina Parker puts the shine on Charm; gods are not great at Theatre Too’s Tales From Mount Olympus.

The leading role in Kitchen Dog Theater’s Charm fits actress Tina Parker like a velvet glove. But the character she plays, 19th century writer, feminist and transcendentalist Margaret Fuller, wasn’t the glove-wearing sort, though she lived in glove-and-corset-wearing times. Kathleen Cahill’s immensely satisfying 90-minute biographical comedy, getting its Southwest premiere…

The First of Eight Crazy Nights

They say that everything’s bigger in Texas. Unfortunately, however, New York has us beat when it comes to public menorahs–the 9-armed candelabrum erected every year near Central Park at 59th Street and 5th Avenue reaches 32 feet into the sky and weighs 4,000 pounds. Still, with the oversized menorah on…

Ready or Not, Here It Comes

Whether you’re another Ebenezer Scrooge or the merriest of them all, the holidays can bring joy to just about everyone–especially if they involves a little shopping and a few giddy Christmas tunes. Kick off this year’s holiday season at Mockingbird Station with a little discounted shopping at places like Gap…

Get Down to the Gritty City

If the pretties of Cirque du Soleil were to find themselves on a street corner in New York, one of two things would happen: They’d get a smackdown unlike any other, or they’d emerge from the experience looking a little something like Cirque Dreams Illumination. A stunning sight all its…

Laugh Test Dummies

Spend an evening with a cranky old war vet, a boozy redneck and a jalapeno… on a stick! Don’t worry, it’s not a nightmare dinner party, but there’ll be no shortage of entertaining personalities when Dallas native Jeff Dunham comes to town this weekend. The popular stand-up comedian and ventriloquist…

Bough Before Us

The lighting of Lee Park along Turtle Creek is one of the most beautiful harbingers of the holidays. This year, be part of the celebration with Bough*Wow, a showcase of holiday trees decorated by artisans from Urban Flower/Grange Hall, Anthropologie and more. Vendors like Hail Merry, Molto Fromaggio and Paper…

This Is The Night

I don’t get why standing in the dark surrounded by coyotes and strange rustling wouldn’t be a nightmare, but I’m a nature-hating person who sucks down high-fructose corn syrup, dumps pollutants in the ground water, kicks a tree and calls it a day. If you’re a better person, check out…

It’s A Total Knockout

Let’s talk about Fight Club. In his film Boxing Gym, director Frederick Wiseman got into the ring with a Texas boxing gym. Basically, he planted his tripod in Lord’s Gym in Austin and waited. Wiseman allowed his camera to soak in the gym’s rhythm, without giving direction or asking too…

Becoming New Again

Long ago, folks trash-talked Oak Cliff as if it was the redheaded stepchild of Dallas with nothing going on worth experiencing. Things change. Blocks are bettered, communities are developed, artists adapt. Now, the happening burg is the hip tip of Dallas’ cultural iceberg with more meaning underneath its once placid-seeming…

Give Thanks for Dining Out

You could celebrate Thanksgiving by cooking a massive meal, but do you want to spend the holiday pulling the innards out of a turkey and washing hundreds of dishes? Instead, head to Nana atop the Hilton Anatole Hotel, 2201 Stemmons Freeway for a Thanksgiving brunch with unconventional offerings. Feast on…

Waddle, Then Gobble

Kick off your Thanksgiving holiday with a decades-old tradition that’s better than can-shaped cranberry sauce. With turkey hats and silly waddles, the Turkey Trot is a holiday ritual now adopted by thousands of North Texans. Finish the race and you’ve earned yourself all the pumpkin pie and gluttony you can…

Three, In Kind

Work from the three artists on display at the McKinney Avenue Contemporary have little in common, but all “deal with women’s issues in compelling and provocative ways,” if the MAC is to be believed. Mary Beth Edelson’s There Is Never Only One Game in Town and Other Stories is an…

Getting Over the Blues

If you haven’t heard much about your Dallas Stars this season, don’t fret. Thus far there hasn’t been any real reason to unless you’re a passionate hockey fan. The team has started the first season of the post-Modano era with a 9-7 whimper–not Mavericks great, but not Cowboys bad, either,…

What Happens In Cairo…

Reality takes a backseat in Cairo Time, a love story targeted to ladies who buy J. Crew sweater sets and consider Nora Roberts a guilty pleasure. The AARP chick flick stars the excellent Patricia Clarkson, a fashion editor romanced by Alexander Siddig’s suave and swarthy guide on what’s supposed to…

The Big German Takes on King James

Lebron James broke ten million Ohioan hearts this summer with his Decision, perhaps the best example of misguided egotism in the history of sports. In bolting to South Beach, he also helped create the NBA’s most evil franchise, a basketball Death Star with Pat Riley in the role of the…

Saints or Winners?

So which Dallas Cowboys team will show up to play the New Orleans Saints on Thanksgiving? Will it be the ‘Boys who played with passion and heart and a fire under their asses and clobbered the New York Giants after the firing of Wade Phillips put the fear of God…

It’s A Hard-Knock Life

Annie mania struck me hard as a seven-year-old. The movie came out that year leaving a sea of red-headed merchandise in its wake: I had Annie T-shirts, Annie dolls and Annie records. I wanted curly ginger hair. I wanted a scruffy dog named Sandy. And most of all, I wanted…

The Nose Knows

Sometimes it pays to be different. So what would you do if you had a nose that glowed? Would you join in all the reindeer games or would you use your powers for good and guide a historical and magical man around in a sleigh for the night? Talk about…

Puppets Require Hans

The Snow Queen by Hans Christian Andersen is the fairy tale that scared the hell out of me as a kid. A Snow Queen with a heart of ice holds a boy, Kai, captive until he can spell the word eternity with shards of ice. His friend Gerda saves him…

Woman, Naturally

If Damian Elwes’ name sounds familiar it may be because his brother is man in tights and passionate farmboy Cary Elwes, but it may also be because he’s a well-collected artist. Elwes is exhibiting recent paintings–a collection entitled HUMANATURE–at the Kristy Stubbs Gallery through December 31. The works focus primarily…

Take Pride In The Power

This, like so many other times in history, is a tough time to be a girl. We ladies need to stick together, and I’m not just talking about all the single ladies throwing their hands up. Our sisters and daughters are searching for role models in TV shows and the…

Red Baron’s Frozen Beagles

If you are the kind of person who either A.) likes unconventional holiday outings or B.) has a Clark Griswold complex and is constantly in search of things for the whole family to do together, the Gaylord Texan Hotel and its annual ICE! attraction is right up your alley. This…