The Sergio Leone Anthology (MGM) Sergio Leone made westerns like Wagner made ditties. This essential boxed set–four films with four discs of supplemental material, much of it scholarly and insightful–shows the Italian director supplanting the elegiac Monument Valley iconography of John Ford with a darker, ruder, more bleak-humored brand of…
Bold proclamation time: There wouldn’t even be an Xbox 360 without Halo. Microsoft lost billions on the original Xbox even with its mega-successful sci-fi games, so it’s hard to imagine the red ink that would have spilled without them; even suggesting a second go at the console business would’ve had…
The Abyss: Special Edition (Fox) The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert: Extra Frills Edition (MGM) Bruce Springsteen With the Sessions Band: Live in Dublin (Sony) The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari: A Re-Imagining of the 1919 Masterpiece of Horror (Image) CHiPs: The Complete First Season (Turner) Coming to America:…
Imagine your husband goes on a fishing trip with some friends and comes upon a dead body in the river. Rather than interrupt their male-bonding fun, they figure they’ll just forget about it until they get back a few days later. Perfectly acceptable decision, right? The girl will still be…
I would have made a better Italian. No doubt about it. I have total appreciation for my Hispanic culture and live safely distant from Farmers Branch, but the bottom line is Italians have better food. Despite the similarities between Mexican and Italian cuisine—lots of carbs, cheeses and fatty meats—I think…
Playwright Tony Kushner is perhaps best known for his epic Angels in America, which illuminated the AIDS crisis. Now, that vision is applied to the civil rights movement in Caroline, or Change, an award-winning musical that chronicles the life of Caroline, a black maid in 1960s Louisiana. The “change” refers…
Ever feel like you just can’t seem to get it together? That everyone around you knows what they’re doing with their lives and you don’t? That someone your age should have a career, a family and a plan? Yeah, I wouldn’t know about that either. But playwright Jonathan Larson does,…
Just in case you haven’t read John Steinbeck or listened to Woody Guthrie lately, here’s a news flash: living in the Dust Bowl sucked. How else could you explain thousands of Texans wanting to move to California? Playwright Allison Moore, a Texas expat living in Minneapolis, has brought the story…
While it might sound like a real go-getter’s guide to the art of self-love, the book Do You! is actually a how-to for something much more valuable: how to, paraphrasing the press materials from Barnes & Noble, realize your dreams and achieve personal success. That may sound pretty dang geeky…
If someone asked me to a cropping party, I’d think I was getting an invite to drink beer with farmers in a corn field. But I’d be wrong. A cropping party is a chance for hard-core scrapbookers to get together and work on their masterpieces, and you can be a…
Festival season is upon us once again, and it’s time to start planning your schedule wisely. You may have already missed some of the big ones like the Wildflower Festival or ARTFEST, but don’t fret—it’s not too late to make it to the granddaddy of all local festivals, the fourth…
What exactly is the motivation to take a sport like football and alter its rules, change some of its logistics around—like the size of the end zone, for instance—and try to liven up the equipment, like using a design-oriented football that’s the modern equivalent of the ABA’s red, white and…
What a relief. After all the conflicting news stories, health articles and general word o’ mouth, it’s finally official: Wine, in all available varieties no less, is good for the heart…or, at least, Heart House, a nonprofit agency that provides after-school (and, hopefully, summer, if this event is successful) programs…
If I ever thought global warming was a load of donkey crap, all those ideas washed away as Rain Tour 2007 was like “Is that all you got?” to my windshield wipers last week. I say it’s time to seriously think about how we’re gonna win the war against global…
One-name wonders are so yesterday. The cool kids now boil it down to a simple initial. Take M, for example. Like many great Dallas artists, he sharpened his skill in Denton’s Good/Bad Art Collective and has gone on to create critically acclaimed works like those in Pretend You Hear Voices…
For better or for worse—worse, only because action figures ain’t cheap when they’re purchased by the pound—Star Wars has become our children’s Wizard of Oz. OK, perhaps not your children’s, but I know a few almost-4-year-olds who’d rather go to Tatooine than travel over any silly rainbow, ride with C-3PO…
At first glance, Robyn Raggio’s photographs seem pretty simple, with subjects such as a moss-covered tree branch or a rusty old Dodge. Her gift, however, lies in her ability to bring out the hidden beauty in these everyday things. Hers are the sort of photos that are appreciated most after…
Has it really been six years since Flickerstick won that Bands on the Run reality show on VH-1? It doesn’t seem that long ago that we watched the hard-drinking band agonize more about cheating on their girlfriends than making music or winning the competition. They still managed to win, though…
I love cable shows like Iron Chef, Trading Spaces and Smack My Donkey. That’s why I don’t have cable. I’d never get off the couch. If you’re a fan of HGTV’s Sensible Chic and Curb Appeal, then chances are you’ve seen Richardson native and designer Linda Applewhite at work. Linda…
Never thought I’d see the day that a NASCAR event would be sponsored by the Killers. But here it is, clear as day: the Sam’s Town 400. Must be a good promotion for that crapalicious sophomore album. Strange, I never thought that qualifying sessions for the Indy Racing League IndyCar…
Me: Knock, knock. You: Who’s there? Me: Shawn Wayans. You: Shawn Wayans who? Me: Shawn Wayans. Ya know, that guy who used to be the DJ on In Living Color and now changed his job from being cool to being the guy who lets you know in the preview for…
In an Al-Jazeera (stick with us, rednecks) profile of Arab comedian Maysoon Zayid, the 30-year-old Muslim virgin with cerebral palsy laments that being 30 and single in America is fabulous and very Sex and the City, but being 30 and Arab and single is like being 67. The remarkable Zayid…
