Life was hard for the Egyptian temple cat. Worshiped as a god, he longed for freedom. We know how he feels. We Observer writers are inundated with fruit baskets, flower arrangements and free liquor flowing upon us from the cheerful givers of the metroplex. It’s a hard-knock life. We envy…
The haunting sound made famous by Robert Moog, the Beach Boys’ “Good Vibrations” and almost every science fiction movie made in the ’50s and ’60s was a product of Russian physicist and trained cellist, Lev Termen. The theremin was invented in 1919 quite by accident. Termen had created a large…
I have the upper-arm strength of an infant. I can lift boxes of moderate weight, the occasional appliance and adjust myself on the couch when my legs have fallen asleep, but I can safely say I am in no shape to climb a mountain. Watching other people do it, however,…
In 1999, out of the shadowy darkness of Indiana University came Jared Fogle and his 60-inch pants. Jared “The Subway Guy” quickly became a new hero to dieters looking for a new way. In a single year, on two hoagies a day, Fogle slimmed down from a dangerous 425 pounds…
The trend on Broadway is taking great movies and making them into musicals. It worked great with The Producers, OK with The Full Monty. Now comes a play based on one of my favorite comedies, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels. In the movie, the pleasure was in the duel between Michael Caine…
My teeth fall out all the time, smushed into little pieces—in my dreams, of course. Apparently it’s a common theme, but that doesn’t make it any less creepy—or complex—in my opinion. The Dallas School of Metaphysics disagrees. In promoting their upcoming dream interpretation seminar, they invite all dreamers, from the…
Celia Rivenbark is kinda like the Highland Park soccer mom equivalent of David Sedaris. And whereas Sedaris has a popular collection of essays suggesting that you Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim, Rivenbank’s latest assortment of sassy, Southern-fried social commentary instructs readers to Stop Dressing Your Six-year-old Like a…
Ask Dallas residents how Reunion Arena got its name and very few will tell you of Francois Fourier and his colony “La Reunion,” which settled in Dallas more than 150 years ago. Dr. Charissa Terranova—the Dallas Observer’s visual art critic—lectures on Fourier’s philosophy and the colony’s history in a talk…
On the eve of its 10-year anniversary, the Angstrom Gallery (3609 Parry Ave.) re-opens with Ab Ova, a show so conceptually bizarre it’s worthy of a Charlie Kaufman screenplay. Fifty-seven artists (including Mike Kelley, Jim Shaw and Paul Noble) were involved in this project, where one group was given the…
According to its publicity, bringing Robert Penn Warren’s 1946 novel All the King’s Men to the screen again has always been “a cherished dream” of executive producer James Carville–suggesting a lurking sense of payback frustration with the insubstantial legacy of the real populist Southerner Carville himself helped to elect president…
Fans of Hong Kong cinema have been anticipating Jet Li’s Fearless all year, if not longer. The star is arguably the best in the business at combining major ass-kicking with actual acting; the director is Ronny Yu, known here for over-the-top horror sequels but more familiar to genre fans as…
The Proposition (First Look) There’s an old saying about Ginger Rogers, who did everything Fred Astaire did–but backwards and in heels. This Australian western seems to be saying something similar about gritty American westerns: You think that’s hard? Try living in the Outback. The Proposition mucks about in dust, blood,…
LocoRoco arrived with impossibly high expectations. This ridiculously cute new game for the PlayStation Portable debuted as a demo in April, and since then, the gaming press has tripped over itself to anoint it the successor to Katamari Damacy or Guitar Hero. Now the game’s finally here, and at first…
After Sex (New Yorker) Bob & Tom Radio: The Comedy Tour (Image) The Boris Karloff Collection (Universal) Crossing the Bridge: The Sound of Istanbul (Strand) 8th & Ocean: The Complete First Season (Paramount) Fabulous! The Story of Queer Cinema (Wolfe) Gilmore Girls: The Complete Sixth Season (Warner Bros.) Go for…
The message of Women and Horses and a Shot Straight From the Bottle is, “Mamas, do let your babies grow up to be cowgirls.” The play by Los Angeles playwright Mary F. Casey is getting its world premiere production–and a strong one in most respects–at Echo Theatre at the Bath…
While I certainly respect her skills with a guitar, Bonnie Raitt’s songs have never really given me “something to talk about.” Her hair, however, is a different story. A sparkling red mane accented by a streak of gray, Raitt’s mop has long sported a color scheme found more often on…
“Writers are shameless spies,” wrote Tennessee Williams. All the pleasures—and pain—of the writer as voyeur provide the core of Vieux Carré, a little-produced drama by Williams. Based on a year the author spent in the French Quarter of New Orleans from 1938 to 1939, Williams portrays the various inhabitants of…
The Black Academy of Arts and Letters is celebrating 30 years—and they’re doing it big. This year’s 30th Anniversary Black Tie and Red Carpet Season Opening Gala features a who’s who list of black star power. The lineup includes appearances and performances by no less than Oleta Adams, Erykah Badu,…
I’ve often wondered the what-ifs of life—the ramifications of social smoking, how far I can push my hair color and still be taken seriously, my future as a cat lady. Here’s something I never really wondered about until author Laura Numeroff brought it up: If You Give a Pig a…
Technology may have made it easier to access new music, but it’s also taken a lot of the fun out of discovering it. Internet music services such as Last.fm and Live365.com provide user-programmed streaming radio with varying degrees of success, as the selections are often limited and of questionable quality…
Unlike the goddess Athena, mortal women didn’t spring forth into the world wearing a helmet. But we did “spring forth” armed with similar potential to do great things. The 2006 Athena Award, given at this year’s Women’s Business Conference, honors Wendy Lopez (owner of engineering design and environmental planning firms)…
There’s a certain irony in receiving a black-and-white press release for a one-night-only art event from a gallery with a mission of providing space for eclectic art. Well, there is a little blue on it. I’m hoping for a more colorful display at Mighty Fine Arts’ Big as Night. And…
