Way back in the early ’80s, there was a magical Puerto Rican band filled with hit singles and pretty boys breaking hearts in shopping malls from San Juan to San Francisco. This band was called Menudo. They were one of the first “boy bands,” destined to stay that way due…
Artist and designer Evan Hecox is largely known for his skateboard work, which makes fine use of the rolling canvases by filling them with bright color and subtle commentary on “the everyday existence of the average person as they traverse the detritus of the modern metropolis.” He’s also shown his…
To refer to Super Diamond as simply a Neil Diamond tribute band is a gross understatement and a disservice to all involved. The San Francisco band faithfully performs a full range of mega-hits from the sequined troubadour’s extensive song catalog, but they do so with the full blessing of the…
After a lifetime of expensive, useless visits to Western doctors, homeopathy is tempting. Researching online, I’ve come across some wild-ass homeopathic meds, like this vial from a first-aid kit: Lachesis (Bushmaster Snake) 9x for “black, smelly wounds [and] disease state when body is thoroughly poisoned, great weakness.” Jeez, my Red…
If Perez Hilton had been around in the 1940s, Citizen Kane’s very existence would have been daily blog fodder, in amongst posts about Bette Davis’ drinking habits and Errol Flynn’s sexuality. I can just see the blue-haired blogger foaming at the mouth to write about William Randolph Hearst’s efforts to…
Attorney Morris Dees is best-known for creating the Southern Poverty Law Center, an organization founded in 1971 to protect civil rights while fighting racism. The center provides free legal counsel to victims of hate crimes and has won several landmark cases against white supremacist groups, which have responded in typically…
It’s autumn at the Arboretum and that means it’s time for the Great Pumpkin Festival. I’m glad the Arboretum let us know that fall has come, because since moving to Texas I honestly don’t know what time of the year it is anymore. Apparently there are nine months of summer…
Remember the “girl power” movement from the ’90s? Everywhere you looked, there was a pre-teen girl wearing a “Girl Power!” T-shirt with little mod flowers all over it, and us young ladies were supposed to look up to that lovable band of bra-burning feminists, the Spice Girls. And while I…
I never got into Jane Austen. The idea of corsets, arranged relationships, meddlers and bewitching looks that lead logically thinking folk to throw caution to the wind (in their imagination if not in real life) didn’t do much for me as a teen. I was satisfied to stick with fiction…
From global warming to research on the causes of cancer (everything!), science is a real downer. War, death, pestilence! The sure and quick destruction of all we hold dear! So travel back to a simpler time, when science was about making fun stuff in class with household products. The Arcadia…
The Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth is a force to be reckoned with in specialty cinema, especially since their Magnolia at the Modern series provides Cowtown’s only real outlet for independent film. With all those museums and that resplendent downtown, you would think they’d consider an indie movie theater…
A friend once said that Loreena McKennitt was what you’d get if you sent Sarah McLachlan into the forest for several years to build a mystery. Now, it’s true, both women are Canadian singer-songwriters concerned with various charities, but that’s pretty much where the similarities end. McKennitt’s ethereal recordings have…
I love sushi and sake, but ask me about either and I’ll give you a blank face of embarrassment. Thus, it would be wise for me to consider SushiSamba’s Guided Sake Tasting and Do-It and Eat-It Yourself Sushi Class. Drinking and eating for education’s sake is by far the best…
If you’d asked me to talk about bluegrass 10 or 12 years ago, chances are I’d have told you a story about my Aunt Velma, sittin’ on the porch of her house trailer in Marianna, Arkansas, slapping her substantial knees in tune to Uncle Bobby’s banjo stylings. But I’d like…
How do you get yourself famous? Is it necessary to sleep to the top like Oprah Winfrey’s slutty ass did? Or, is it all about being the most talented person in your field, like Brooke Hogan is in the field of Wearing Clothes That Don’’t Fit and Being Gross-Faced? What’s…
Many of you no doubt remember the 2005 case of Natalee Holloway, the pretty young blonde who disappeared in Aruba after a senior trip culminated in a night of foreigners and body shots at Carlos ‘n’ Charlie’s. (After all, you can take the girl out of Alabama, but you can’t…
Remember when your favorite black recording artists had huge ‘fros, wore funky hats and tuxes with velvet lapels? When groups consisted of three women or five men standing in a line, doing fancy spin dance moves? You do? Damn, man, you are old. We’re tempted to type in all capital…
In How Starbucks Saved My Life, Michael Gates Gill, a Yale-educated advertising executive, is on top of the world until he’s stricken with downsizing, an affair, the resultant fun baby, a crumbling family, brain cancer and no health care. When the manager at his favorite black-staffed Starbucks offers a job,…
Fifty years ago the Russians showed the world that they beat us into space, and damned if we didn’t resent it. Sure, we landed on the moon first (all conspiracy theories aside), but October 4, 1957, was the day we threw our asses into gear and joined the great Space…
Fifty years ago the Russians showed the world that they beat us into space, and damned if we didn’t resent it. Sure, we landed on the moon first (all conspiracy theories aside), but October 4, 1957, was the day we threw our asses into gear and joined the great Space…
Fifty years ago the Russians showed the world that they beat us into space, and damned if we didn’t resent it. Sure, we landed on the moon first (all conspiracy theories aside), but October 4, 1957, was the day we threw our asses into gear and joined the great Space…
The birth of a healthy child is a blessed event…at least, it should be if all the right factors are in place. You know, the pregnancy is expected, the marriage is a happy one, the family is supportive, finances are in order, basic elements like that. But what if, after…
