Opening with a close-up of the crow’s feet around its subject’s eyes and expanding to reveal her Botox-frozen upper lip, the documentary-portrait Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work celebrates Saint Joan the Resilient, Showbiz Survivor. Ricki Stern and Annie Sundberg dogged the indomitable stand-up comic throughout the course of her…
Fifteen years after ushering in a new era of CGI animation, and 11 years after a colossally successful pre-millennial sequel, the Toy Story franchise returns to a changed world. Its irresistible conceit and snappy good humor remain largely intact, though now it also hauls a saltier and more anxious sensibility…
An exhibit like the new Geometric Interpretations: Works Using Paper at the Museum of Geometric and MADI Art (3109 Carlisle St.) makes me wonder how many of these artists got their start making cootie catchers, paper sailor’s hats and Origami swans. Curated by Ruth Anderson, the exhibit features inspired (mostly)…
Painter Deya Harris can’t seem to decide what to specialize in, which makes her work all the more interesting. One painting might be a surreal spacescape on canvas, followed by a portrait painted on a smooth rock, followed by abstract swirls painted on a cross. Influenced by Diego Rivera, Pablo…
Around the world they called it The Incredible Trip in a Crazy Airplane and Tighten Your Seat Belts…The Pilot Is Gone!, but here in America we needed just one word and one big punctuation mark to name the greatest disaster comedy of all time. Airplane! turns 30 this year, and…
Some things you might not know about Whoopi Goldberg: She has been married (and divorced) three times; she has won almost every notable award one can win in entertainment (save an MTV Video Music Award or a CMA); she doesn’t seem to despise The View like everyone else in America;…
Before White America appropriated “bling bling,” “fo’ shizzle” and, yes, even “Superman that ho,” from Black America and placed those terms into its own lexicon, it did so with Blackstreet’s Dr. Dre-supported “No Diggity”–and not just with the title of the track, but also with the term from which it…
All the TV lovers out there know that the weekend (at least until Sunday night) is a television wasteland, full of reality dross and reruns. But once upon a time, there was a reason to watch on Friday nights–a little block of shows called TGIF. Childhood memories are firmly anchored…
In the beginning, the idea of Sarah Geronimo evoked in me the jaded cynic full of snark, but the tween in me (whose first concert was The Jets and who currently follows @DeborahGibson on Twitter) brought the smack down and rallied behind The Popstar Princess (her official title, FYI). Sure,…
For most folks, dancing happens all too rarely–maybe the DJ finally plays ‘Don’t Stop Believin'” and you and your friends with banal musical taste finally get to cut loose at the bar after downing several Miller Lites. Or someone gets married and the rare opportunity to shake an ass or…
I know its hot outside, so what are you gonna do? You could sit under a cold shower and catch pneumonia or you could listen to the ice-cold sounds of Margo Timmins and the Cowboy Junkies, who’ll keep you and your baby nice and cool on Thursday. Seriously. If I…
Summer may bring sweltering days in Dallas, but it isn’t impossible to cool down. In fact, now that strawberries are finally in season again, a fruit salad by the pool doesn’t sound too shabby. Why mention strawberries? They’re only the most popular berry fruit in the world! So popular, in…
Trying to transcribe a Kevin Hart joke is difficult, as many of his funniest moments are imitations of people whose speech he doesn’t understand–his toddler daughter, thugs, women. But he does have some advice that shows he has at least some grasp of how to deal with the latter, as…
Go to papernerds.blogspot.com, scroll past the artsy butt cheeks to April 14 and look–if you mumble an “ooh” that has more than two o’s in it when you see the paper marbling photo, you’ve got to check out this class. From 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday, join Paper Nerds…
Art is something that many of us take very seriously. We go see an exhibit and try and figure out the story behind the artist…what drove him or her to express themselves in this way? For the most part, we think of the cultural context behind the piece, and don’t…
Some people love to live life on the edge. Skydiving, mountain climbing, deep sea fishing–the more the activity is drenched in adrenaline, the better. Then there are others who like to live vicariously–or, a hell of a lot more safely–through others. Instead of actually touring the Sahara, they’d rather read…
Sometimes abstract art can be infuriatingly obtuse. Sometimes if you unfocus your vision you can see a pony, like in the Magic Eye books. Sometimes it’s intriguing and strikes you upon glance. And sometimes it really is upside down. Or you can just go with whatever they tell you at…
You know, these days it seems as though the term “starving artist” is more relevant than ever before. Well, with the economy the way it is right now, it seems as though it’s becoming harder and harder to get where you want to be. Have no fear, my gifted, creative…
JFK went to Berlin and was inspired to proclaim himself a jelly donut (“Ich bin ein Berliner”). OK, he was actually trying to say he was a Berliner, and got the translation wrong. While the odds are good that Berlin won’t inspire most of us to make an internationally quotable…
Before Britney was toxic, before Brandy and Monica were fighting over a boy and before Lady Gaga was suffering from a bad romance, there were Janis, Aretha, Diana and very big hair. Janis sang about her and Bobby McGee, Aretha just wanted a little respect and Diana, well, Diana wasn’t…
The animals take over the barnyard in this musical comedy for kids at Dallas Children’s Theater. But it doesn’t become Animal Farm. The beasties merely want pizza instead of hay for dinner and while Farmer Brown is on vacation, they want his city-slicker brother to come out and play with…
Are you bound and determined to learn your kid into a pint-sized locavore? Did you catch little Johnny swapping his organic Arugula for his friend’s Cheetos one day? Then send him off for a little reeducation camp as Central Market hosts Kid’s Camp: From Market to Table. Kids ages 8…
