Resurrecting the Champ is a great movie about journalism—maybe the best there ever was—because Resurrecting the Champ is mind-erasingly boring. It’s a solid story about the newspaper business—specifically, about how a well-intentioned writer occasionally makes a mistake totally by accident, a mistake that is pretty much victimless and easily fixable…
You’ve got to climb to the top of Mount Everest to reach the Valley of the Dolls. That’s the opener of Jacqueline Susann’s crapgasmic 1966 novel, and the first words spoken in a new Valley of the Dolls theatrical adaptation now running at Uptown Players. Transporting this immortal phrase from page…
Shortly after graduating from film school, I took a part-time job as the assistant to a successful movie and television director who told me I’d be handling a mix of personal and professional responsibilities. Not long after, I was put to work maintaining the good humor of the tenants at…
Leonardo DiCaprio wants you to know that we are in serious trouble. No amount of artful chin stubble, it seems, will reverse the depletion of fossil fuels or help to slow population growth. Not even three Oscar nominations will save you—without an actual statuette, there’s nothing to wedge under the…
“Listen to your imagination,” says the Web page for the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, which features a photo of a face-lifted Kenny “The Gambler” Rogers, who will perform with the orchestra 7:30 p.m. Wednesday at the Meyerson Symphony Center, 2301 Flora St. Okey-dokey then, let’s tune in and listen…Hmm. How odd,…
There’s more to Asian cinema than Jackie Chan and creepy Japanese horror. Sure, the shoot ’em up action of Triad movies is always entertaining, and there’s a cult following for Jidaigeki (samurai period pieces), but what about everything else that slips through the cracks? The 6th Annual Asian Film Festival…
Once upon a time, in a town not far enough away, a college freshman (that would be me) pushed open the door to a CD store and saw a salesman and three of his friends jumping up and down in rhythm to Green Day’s recently released Dookie. The guys knew…
Oy vey! It’s like Purim in August! The Jewish Community Center of Dallas hosts their 11th Annual Jewish Arts Fest Sunday at the Meyerson Symphony Center, 2301 Flora St. Themed “It’s no secret how Jewish life is built!” the 12-ring party (with kosher nosh and enough simultaneous glitter to captivate…
Recent studies suggest so-called educational videos for toddlers and babies (like Baby Einstein) don’t do your kids any good; in fact they may do them harm, possibly even causing autism. I welcome this news cheerily, because those sorts of videos have always seemed sort of pretentious, to say nothing of…
Supposedly everything’s bigger in Texas; I haven’t seen a lot of evidence to support that claim, especially since my bank account does nothing but shrink and the miniskirts and tank tops on the smaller-than-life Texas girls at NorthPark Center get tinier all time. But one reliable constant remains: monster trucks…
Six months after Hurricane Katrina nearly destroyed New Orleans, photographer Elliot Snedden headed to the tortured city during its world-famous Mardi Gras celebration, intent on capturing the celebration amid the gloom and sorrow. This week he’ll be presenting photos from his visit, which also include shots of the surrounding cities…
Life in Texas is never bland, foodwise, but we still don’t really understand super-hot habanero shooters (followed by a glass of milk). Hatch chiles, which are in season now, aren’t high on the Scoville scale, though, so we may expand our chile palate at Blue Mesa Grill’s Hatch Dinner Party…
You may try to control every aspect of your life, but often chance encounters prove more significant than the meetings you’ve inked in your day-planner. In Blind Date, by Argentinean writer Mario Diament, a man (Kevin Grammer) alters his usual routine one day and sits on a park bench for…
People in general are so often forgetful. We forget birthdays, anniversaries, our coats, where we put our cellphones, etc. And so what? Those little things don’t matter. But what about when we forget the really important stuff? Immediately following the Hurricane Katrina disaster, lots of people did amazing things for…
Back in the ’70s, Peter Frampton was so famous he could have legally changed his middle name to an expletive. His double-live album Frampton Comes Alive sold so many copies that it even gets a mention in the movie Wayne’s World, where Wayne states “Everybody in the world has Frampton…
Transcending boundaries is a theme shared by art and religion, so it makes sense that an exhibit with transcendence as a theme is shown in a spiritual space. This month, 22 artists–including Sarah Jane Semrad, Eva Semrad, Guy Reynolds and Courtney Perry–display their photographs in the CityGallery, an entity of…
For years after my mom shared her late mother’s so-called “Caesar” salad dressing recipe, I didn’t even let my wife read it. According to family legend, my grandmother sweet-talked the chef at a St. Louis restaurant out of the secret recipe. The restaurant was subsequently destroyed by fire, a fate…
Book fairs used to be an all-important matter in schools, a day when the library would mysteriously shut down and re-open with rows of Beverly Cleary books for sale to excited third-graders. It was a powerful sort of affair—elementary school-wise—unifying all manner of readers, from the kids that read the…
11 a.m. and 4 p.m. Saturday, see Paula Deen Live 2007! presented by Smithfield Foods at the Music Hall at Fair Park, 909 First Ave. Paula Deen should be cooking and teaching people how to get more out of their time in the kitchen, but because it’s at the Music…
Quilting, the quintessential American craft. You can just picture them, can’t you? The Mennonite womenfolk gathered in the farmhouse parlor, peacefully stitching and chatting. Yeah…and where the hell you been, stuck in 1911? In small towns in the heart of the nation’s Craft Belt are shops at which one can…
Internationally renowned artist Peter Max is coming to Dallas. Ever heard of him? Apparently he’s done everything. Max’s work has appeared on stamps, U.S. Border murals, phone books and even a jumbo jet. He has been designated the official artist for five Super Bowls, the World Series, the 2006 U.S…
At 8:30 p.m. Saturday, get your Hamiltons together and come see Mandy Patinkin: In Concert (featuring Paul Ford tickling the ivories) for a fund-raising gala to support Casa Mañana’s arts education programs at (you guessed it) Casa Mañana Theatre, 3101 W. Lancaster Ave. in Fort Worth. Mandy will be singing,…
