As you probably know by now, John Amaechi is the first NBA player to ever divulge his gayness (I think the word “homosexuality” sounds so…Falwell) and Man in the Middle, his new book, is the story of his life in the closet of an NBA locker room. Reading it you…
Just about anywhere else in the country, aside from maybe Manhattan or Los Angeles, a few days’ worth of breathing and meditation classes for $375 might seem a bit expensive. Not around these parts. Whether it’s extreme, experimental plastic surgery or dippy, hippie, New Age yoga, we don’t mind paying…
Whether the phrase makes you think of the 1978 film with Brooke Shields as a child prostitute or a brilliant but creepy Cursive song, “pretty baby” always seems to refer to a loss of innocence in childhood. However, the works in the new Pretty Baby exhibit at the Modern Art…
As a kid, when I first heard of The Vagina Monologues, I assumed what any reasonable person would: that the show features people dancing around in costumes that resemble female sex organs. Perhaps, I thought, the performance has a kick-line or two, with big musical numbers and fireworks during the…
More and more, I’m finding it hard to appreciate art shows. With so many galleries and local artists popping up everywhere, not to mention exhibitions passing through town, we’ve finally been given the opportunity to be picky about what we accept from the art world. Take, for example, Adam Ball’s…
Where there’s a great story, there’s a journalist close by. And, sometimes, the journalist is the great story. The Black Academy of Arts and Letters (TBAAL) presents a double bill with two great stories when it brings to life journalist and publisher Marcus Garvey and civil rights activist Rosa Parks…
War is bad. We get it, Bono. Now go redeem your Messiah Points before they expire. But some artists–real ones–join the battle, literally, and return to tell the world. Like English singer-songwriter James Blunt, who dropped panties the world over with “You’re Beautiful.” Blunt was a captain in the British…
The first time I watched Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, starring Johnny Depp as Hunter S. Thompson, I had no idea what was going on. I was 14 years old, and I didn’t get a single minute of the drug-addled dialogue. So maybe I should give Puerto Rican artist…
In the summer of 2004, it seemed impossible to escape the song “Culo”—ass—by Miami rapper Pitbull: “Mami, feel me, let me see you touch your toes…tiene tremendo CULO!” Using the term in a more symbolic way is a trio of Latina artists with an exhibition called Bésame mucho. Besa mi…
Members of the Fantastic Four have special powers, like the ability to turn invisible. My special power involves an uncanny ability to drunkenly slip and fall as I’m trying to hit on hot girls. Thursday’s Vogue and Cointreau party at Ghostbar, 2440 Victory Park Lane, Suite 3300—hosted by Chris Evens,…
It’s odd that a cultural touchstone like Hair is now just a novelty, a throwback that almost belongs in a museum (or worse yet, a zoo). For the 40th anniversary of the American tribal love/rock musical, the Uptown Players will present the play, which made its off-Broadway debut in 1967…
As much nostalgia as Sesame Street personally evokes, I also have a well-founded suspicion that it’s simply one of the earliest electronic baby-sitters. I loved Snuffleupagus, the Count and Oscar the Grouch as much as the next bed-wetter, but I sure don’t remember my parents watching with me. And as…
We’re working on a screenplay about two opposing college dance squads (a square-dance team and a step team) who face off in nationwide competition to defend the honor of their fraternities and the wizened coaches who taught them the tradition and techniques of their respective dances. For some reason, both…
When was the last time you saw an Asian fella banging the skins in a rock band? Unless you’re a fan of popular Japanese rock bands such as Acid Mothers Temple, Boris or Electric Eel Shock, it has probably been way too long—and that’s a damn shame. Perhaps we just…
Every year, I threaten to attend the All Texas All Garden Show with Neil Sperry to learn once and for all if it is really possible to grow a tasty Texas homegrown tomato. Then I look at my shameful yard and realize that the last thing I need is more…
It’s a real shame that movie theaters don’t show more shorts, especially considering all the lame trivia questions and banal commercials moviegoers have to sit through before your average Hollywood flick. About the only time you ever see shorts these days is before Pixar movies, or when they show short…
You remember Andrew Ridgeley, don’t you? He was the other guy in Wham!, the one who found himself stranded in 1986 after George Michael had faith enough in his own talents to break up the act. Ridgeley went on to record one solo record before CBS Records decided, yeah, no…
In December 2002, ABC’s 20/20 ran a story on Eric O’Neill, an undercover surveillance specialist for the FBI. The piece was titled “Spycatcher,” because it was O’Neill who, at a mere 27 years old, helped bring down Robert Hanssen, an FBI agent who, for more than two decades, sold thousands…
The box of Kleenex on each table is the tip-off. Shadowlands, the latest production at Contemporary Theatre of Dallas, is a four-tissue romance about an unlikely couple and the deep love they share only when one of them is dying. The story’s a heartbreaker to the end, so why is…
Marie Antoinette (Sony) Sofia Coppola’s third feature grabs you by your frilly lapels from the jump, with Gang of Four’s “Natural’s Not in It” showering guitar chords all over the credits as Kirsten Dunst nods to the audience, as if to say, Hang tight–this thing’s gonna be a gas. Only…
Lately, the Nintendo DS has become a virtual Monster.com. You can play a defense attorney (Phoenix Wright), surgeon (Trauma Center), and even a cook (Cooking Mama). Now, thanks to Hotel Dusk: Room 215, you can add private eye to that list. But don’t expect the sexy detective work of Chinatown…
Bicycle Thieves: The Criterion Collection (Criterion) The Boy From Lebanon (Picture This) The Butcher Boy (Warner Bros.) The Cave of the Yellow Dog (Tartan) The Departed (Warner Bros.) Devil’s Den (Starz) F**K (ThinkFilm) Green for Danger: The Criterion Collection (Criterion) The Hills: The Complete First Season (Paramount) Hustle: Complete Season…
