To paraphrase the old Saturday Night Live skit, if it’s not A Scottish Christmas, it’s crap. Which is all the more reason why you want to catch A Scottish Christmas, a veritable holiday extravaganza coming to the Bass Performance Hall in Fort Worth. The event will include traditional Scottish carols,…
Good news. It’s officially no longer lame to find your main squeeze through an online dating service, through personal matching services or even on MySpace. Even the most socially inept of us has a shot at love these days. And if you’re looking for love in a hurry, you might…
Aren’t Pentecostal churches the only place in the world where a man can get away with wearing a bright purple sportcoat? And did I not see with my very own eyes a Pentecostal preacher step behind the pulpit in a pastel yellow suit with matching shoes? Oh, I forgot. The…
The first time I saw Rachael Ray on the Food Network, she was teaching her viewers how to prepare a frozen bag of mixed veggies for dinner. I would rather put my hand in a KitchenAid mixer set on “HI” than watch this lady’s TV show. I would rather lick…
Many artists have found inspiration in the world of animals; we humans are a part of it, after all, descended from the ape so that we might learn to paint them in oils and pastels. However, finding “stimulation in the Kingdom Animalia” sounds like something different altogether (was Catherine the…
Got a loved one with a green thumb, or have any kids on your Christmas list whom you really hate? Texas Discovery Gardens is selling plants, shrubs and flowering plants that they say are “great gift ideas for all occasions and ages.” Um…right. “Sorry, Junior, but those Playstation 3s were…
Michael Martin Murphy doesn’t call himself a country artist, and with good reason. He’s a “singing cowboy poet,” and his are the sorts of songs one rarely, if ever, hears on country radio anymore. Of his six gold records, the most notable may be Cowboy Songs, the first collection of…
I protested for oh so long. For approximately two years I refused to see the movie Elf. It’s not the Will Ferrell thing—I quite like him actually. It’s not that it’s a holiday flick—I got the spirit in me. No, all of those things really should sell me on the…
Look, lemme be straight with you: Hanukkah’s a very, very minor holiday. It’s so minor there are, like, 24 spellings of the thing. It’s so minor the 3-year-old who lives in my house thinks the menorah’s for Christmas and Santa’s bringing him a dreidel. It’s so minor that to celebrate…
Olivia Newton-John is magic. I’m not talking about the David Copperfield/Doug Henning type of magic, but more of a general feeling of indescribable power that emanates from her like the glow from a wizard’s talisman. Her career has spanned decades. Starting off in the early ’70s with a soft rock…
One design student’s much-blogged-about tattoo sleeve, by artist Nick Baxter, features not pinup girls, but chairs. That’s right—photorealistic skin artworks such as Charles and Ray Eames’ Lounge Chair and Ottoman. But the Eameses were more than furniture-makers (and tattoo inspiration): They also made 100-plus short films addressing their theories of…
Some days it seems like all the good ideas have been taken. That great movie idea? Done, with both remakes and sequels. That amazing invention that no one will be able to live without? Tied up in patent and trademark limbo. But if you’re one of those optimistic types who…
The true crime buff on your gift list doesn’t have to take a holiday from her gruesome hobby when she unwraps The Christmas Day Murders, by Smith County Sheriff J.B. Smith and Dr. Dana Adams. Sheriff Smith signs copies of his book—about a Tyler teenager who killed her parents on…
The true crime buff on your gift list doesn’t have to take a holiday from her gruesome hobby when she unwraps The Christmas Day Murders, by Smith County Sheriff J.B. Smith and Dr. Dana Adams. Sheriff Smith signs copies of his book—about a Tyler teenager who killed her parents on…
The stage adaptation of David Sedaris’ contemporary Christmas comedy classic, The Santaland Diaries,/B>, returns for its spectacular sixth season, this time in the Studio Theatre of the Addison Theatre Centre. Ted Wold fills Crumpet’s tiny, bell-toed booties and relives the tales of Sedaris’ brief employ as a department store elf…
There are four things every human should do. Plant a tree, write a poem, be intimate with someone of the same sex and kill a person. At least, that’s the notion Senta has in the Hitchcockian French film, The Bridesmaid. Poor Philippe falls in love with Senta only to find…
Trimming Christmas trees is a fine art for some, so why not trim your tree with some real fine art this year? For the 10th Annual Blue Yule Artists’ Party and Ornament Sale, the McKinney Avenue Contemporary has teamed together with local and international artists, designers and architects to provide…
If you’re one of Howard Stern’s faithful followers who long ago migrated over to Sirius Satellite Radio, then you’re probably already familiar with the performers on his Killers of Comedy tour, and you’re most likely reading this with a ticket to the upcoming show clutched tightly in your meaty paw…
Plants have dictated the course of history. Toby and Will Musgrave discuss how trade led by the Western world became the catalyst for addiction, slavery and industrialization in their book An Empire of Plant: People and Plants That Changed the World. Celebrating the power and beauty of the garden, the…
Now that the weather has decided to turn colder, it’s time to think of some indoor activities. Then again, this is Dallas, so it might be just as necessary to go indoors to avoid the heat, no matter what the season. A cool (ha!) indoor activity is checking out new…
Holiday music for children doesn’t have to stop at “I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus.” This season the Elan Circle of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra League presents its 18th annual concert called Deck the Hall: A Celebration of Music for Children, featuring Rebecca Frezza and her eight-member Big Truck Band,…
When it premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January, Bobcat Goldthwait’s Stay, now rebranded as Sleeping Dogs Lie for some inexplicable reason, was the talk of Park City, Utah, before anyone had even seen the movie. Based on pre-screening buzz, most folks figured the movie—shot on digital video, though…
