A picture is worth a thousand words, and you’ll need more than just one to show the history of the Mexican-American community in Dallas. Luckily the Dallas Mexican-American Historical League (DMAHL), in collaboration with the Lakewood Library Friends, has amassed dozens of found photos to tell this important story in…
If the private life of famous attractive couples grabs your attention (hello, Tiger!), then observe as the Goss-Michael Foundation presents a new exhibition by Michael Craig-Martin, featuring works on canvas spanning from the early ’90s till today, including computer portraits of glamorous gallery owners–and longtime couple–Kenny Goss and George Michael…
The other morning, before my alarm clock woke me by opening the electronic blinds while reciting “Eye of the Tiger” in perfect iambic pentameter, I dreamt that L.O.U., my robot companion, forgot to program my weekly breakfast menu into the kitchen’s control center! Well, maybe that was all a dream,…
Martin Luther King Jr., Harriet Tubman, Jackie Robinson, Rosa Parks and Barack Obama–any of these names ring a bell? Well, they should, since they’re some of the most important figures in our nation’s history–especially black history. Such figures and the milestones they’re associated with have more than earned an entire…
Divorce is tricky to navigate in any corner of the world, but (let’s face it) divorce in the South is something that even the bravest, most foolhardy person quails before facing. There are all kinds of things to contend with–guns, hard liquor, prying neighbors–but a real Southerner can handle it…
If you really want to disappoint your wife or girlfriend this Valentine’s Day, get her a Russell Stover box or, better yet, an even cheaper generic variety pack. Then sit back and watch as she eats and exclaims, “Ooh, this one tastes like wax. Hmm, this one must be toothpaste-flavored…
Just in case you live under a rock, or have somehow missed the giant building wraps and accompanying media frenzy (including the majority of this week’s Dallas Observer, in case you haven’t noticed), here’s some news for you: ALL-STAR WEEKEND IS HERE. What does that mean exactly, you say? Well,…
Neil Simon wrote Barefoot in the Park, his second play and first hit, with inspiration from his early days of marriage. From the get-go, Corie and Paul Bratter, the play’s newlyweds, hit trouble setting up their first apartment–a minuscule fifth-floor walkup in a downtown Manhattan brownstone. The heat is on…
I fell in love with the woman I married while attending the University of North Texas, so I don’t know firsthand what “Love Dallas Style,” the title of the Old Red Museum’s Valentine’s Day program, means. From what I’ve observed in the Little D, “Love Denton Style” means bonding over…
I don’t know about you, but nothing screams comedy to me more than a 7-foot-1-inch, 325-pound basketball player. Whether he was joking or not, Shaq’s performance in Kazaam certainly left me laughing…at him, not with him. This time, having probably thought better of it himself, he is leaving the comedy…
The twisted saga of Falcon the Balloon Boy might have hit a little close to home for artist Esther Pearl Watson, who grew up watching her father build his own scrap metal flying saucers in their North Texas backyard. Or actually, backyards–apparently a yard full of flying saucers is a…
You swore that in 2010 there would be no supermarket flowers, no gas-station teddy bears. You promised yourself that this year your honey would get a Valentine’s Day gift that you actually put a little work into. And yet, here you are, with February 14 creeping up on you again…
It’s that time of year when you show your loved one how special they are–and spontaneous you can be–by providing a night out with every other couple in the city. This year, add a little sexiness with Nana’s seared Hudson Valley foie gras and shallot-raisin-cinnamon marmalade. If that doesn’t get…
“This situation is fraught.” It is, it is, it is. August: Osage County, the Steppenwolf production finishing its two-week run at the Winspear Opera House, is a festival of fraught-ness. Tracy Letts’ prize-laden three-act masterpiece finds the Weston family of Pawhuska, Oklahoma, about as frightfully fraught as any family ought…
Recent American films about families, like last year’s Rachel Getting Married and Revolutionary Road, all too often pierce eardrums with unrelenting shrieks of dysfunction and misery. Amid the din, French filmmaker Claire Denis’ sublime 35 Shots of Rum stands out all the more for its soothing quiet, conveying the easy,…
Extraordinary Measures is a race-against-time thriller in which a desperate dad (Brendan Fraser) sacrifices everything to cure a rare disease that’s seconds away from killing his kids. Extraordinary Measures is also a heartwarming tale about a disgruntled doc (Harrison Ford) who throws in with a biotech startup fronted by…well, a…
It’s 2010. We thought we’d have flying cars and jet packs. We do not. But, what we do have is burlesque. Is that an even trade? Some think so. If your last hours of 2009 weren’t seductive enough, you get another chance at The Crystal Palace Burlesque Revue, La Divina…
I didn’t know it as a warped junior-high dork, but Glenn Barr’s art was already informing the love of surreal visuals that I shared with millions of other kids who loved The Ren & Stimpy Show. That stint doing background styling for the cartoon is only part of the Lowbrow…
Yang Jin Long came of age in the intellectually and creatively stifling environment of post-Cultural Revolution China. Apparently, the result of leaving behind such a tightly wound upbringing is to create vibrantly colorful art that looks like it belongs on the cover of a ’70s prog-rock album. In other words,…
If one of your New Year’s resolutions this year is to be more a more charitable member of the community, then the 2nd annual Soup’s On! event is here to give you a jump start. 2010’s Soup’s On! luncheon will fill your stomach and your heart, both while benefiting The…
To celebrate the University of Texas-Dallas’ 40-year anniversary, the Visual Arts and Humanities Faculty presents an exhibition of works spanning the past four decades, courageously titled Years of Living Dangerously. Sparked from an attitude of continual change, the faculty’s exhibit is a little less dangerous-battle-scene and more of a dangerously…
Before I got old enough to pair up with a lady and start attending dinner parties, I never really understood why said parties were the setting for so many pivotal events in film and theater. After all, they look pretty boring on the surface, especially if you’re used to your…
