Hankering to get out of Dallas, but bound to this slice of sunbaked, heat-stroked geography for the foreseeable future? It can seem dire; days on end of feeling trapped in an air-conditioned space will wear on you, even if you are grateful for the cold air. But this city has…
There are very few bugs that don’t deserve squashing. Flies deserve a swift, crunchy end to their lives, as do beetles. And no one likes a slug. But everyone loves butterflies. What’s not to love? The ugly ducklings of bugs transform from slinky caterpillars to gorgeous, friendly butterflies, which provide…
Most of America is satisfied with a few beers, a semi-burnt burger, and some sparklers on the Fourth of July. But for those of you looking for an adventure, we have a few ideas for you. After all, our founding fathers were known for being rebels. They held their meetings…
By the time Iván Navarro’s “This Land is Your Land” was installed in NorthPark Mall, he’d already discussed the piece’s themes of immigration and industrialism. The piece, originally commissioned for placement in Madison Square Park, is a series of three small water towers, which viewers stand underneath to see neon…
Don’t let Nicole Stewart’s stature fool you. She may be petite, but she is all power and passion (and a little bit Pilates). For Stewart, pursuing a career in the arts was a no brainer. Her maternal grandparents, Juanita and Henry S. Miller, founded The Dallas Opera, contributed to the creation of the Dallas Theater Center and the Dallas Symphony. As a young actress, she left Dallas for over a decade to pursue both the stage and the screen, but when she was living in Los Angeles, she stumbled into the storytelling arena.
The first and last time I saw Forbidden Broadway, one of the sketches lampooned Les Miserables by having the actors run in circles, executing costume changes and singing dramatic songs. The 1985 musical about a man who stole a loaf of bread is infamous for having a stage that rotates…
Summertime can lead to feelings of wanderlust, boredom, and – if you’re lucky – a really good tan. In the summer, it’s super easy to just want to relax all day long, stare out your window, and daydream. But it is in those dreams that something great can come. The…
Thanks to the Fine Arts Chamber Players’ annual Basically Beethoven Festival, local music fans can get their classical fix this month in the midst of what is otherwise a pretty quiet summer on the classical calendar. Offering a free concert at Dallas City Performance Hall every Sunday in July, the…
It’s Friday night, and I’m at the Angelika with my best gal pal to see Joe Manganiello’s new documentary, La Bare, about Dallas’ premier (and only) male strip club. Afterward, with my friend acting as my ticket — only men accompanied by women can enter La Bare — we plan…
“Sometimes you have to break up to see if you fall back in love.” A boyfriend once told me this as I was trying to end a three-month relationship gone sour. I remember thinking that was the strangest last-ditch plea I’d ever heard. Of course, this idea of appreciative hindsight…
Paul Varghese, one of the funniest men in Dallas, has organized another Dallas Observer Comedy Crawl. After last fall’s inaugural crawl was hilariously successful, we couldn’t even wait a year to bring back more laughs. If you’re sick of listening to your friend’s jokes at a bar, but still want…
Horror movies are so not-horrifying because generally the idiots who get speared in the skull or chainsawed by a masked loon generally don’t have the wits to survive a weekend getaway. If you sent these dolts to a lavish weekend at the Mirabeau Inn in Skaneateles, New York, they would…
Mixmaster presents “100 Creatives,” in which we feature cultural entrepreneurs of Dallas in random order. Know an artistic mind who deserves a little bit of blog love? Email lauren.smart@dallasobserver.com with the whos and whys. While the Dallas filmmaking scene may not have the hipster gravitas of Austin, we can claim…
To step into the Dallas Museum of Art this summer is take a peek into the mechanics of a large-scale museum operation. Curators at the DMA are airing out vaults, scouring private collections and presenting new acquisitions, allowing visitors to take pride in the masterpieces in Dallas, but also to…
Chances are, you have a smart phone, and considering the fact that Instagram has over 200 million monthly users, you probably have one of those too. But with that many people using what is essentially a global photo album you might have a hard time avoiding the awkward side of…
Mixmaster presents “100 Creatives,” in which we feature cultural entrepreneurs of Dallas in random order. Know an artistic mind who deserves a little bit of blog love? Email lauren.smart@dallasobserver.com with the whos and whys. To say that Thea Temple’s childhood was typical would be an understatement. Early on she was…
Spend Saturday night in the Design District Head to the West Dallas haven of fine art for a few gallery exhibition openings. At Red Arrow Contemporary, catch a modern exploration of printmaking in the latest exhibition Stay Up All Nite, featuring the work of Austin art collective, Industry Wrecking Crew…
In this week’s Dallas Observer we profile 20 of the metro area’s most interesting characters, with new portraits of each from local photographer Can Turkyilmaz. See the entire Dallas Observer People Issue here. Ronnie Claire Edwards still receives fan mail from her time as Corabeth on the 1970s television drama…
In this week’s Dallas Observer we profile 20 of the metro area’s most interesting characters, with new portraits of each from local photographer Can Turkyilmaz. See the entire Dallas Observer People Issue here. Under artistic director Kevin Moriarty, Dallas Theater Center has been acting like a big-time regional playhouse again…
In this week’s Dallas Observer we profile 20 of the metro area’s most interesting characters, with new portraits of each from local photographer Can Turkyilmaz. See the entire Dallas Observer People Issue here. “You know what I’m excited about this year? Turning 30,” Mina Chang says through her ever-beaming smile…
In this week’s Dallas Observer we profile 20 of the metro area’s most interesting characters, with new portraits of each from local photographer Can Turkyilmaz. See the entire Dallas Observer People Issue here. He’s the unofficial father of mural art in Deep Ellum, but maybe it’s time we made it…
In this week’s Dallas Observer we profile 20 of the metro area’s most interesting characters, with new portraits of each from local photographer Can Turkyilmaz. See the entire Dallas Observer People Issue here. Before Paco Vique and Javier Garcia del Moral settle into yet another interview about The Wild Detectives,…
