Arts & Culture

Black Friday is going to be exhausting whether you embrace it or run from it. You might spend the whole day ransacking stores for deals, you might try to hit up just one and become trapped for hours in the Walking Dead-esque frenzy, or you can try to avoid it…

Veteran performers are a rarity in striptease. Burlesque too, for that matter, though proponents of burlesque say that it’s less about conventional beauty and sexuality and more about entertainment and provocation. In either case it’s unusual to see someone old enough to be a grandmother take the stage, but that’s…

We’re digging on this comedy series Behind the Screen, organized by local chuckles harvester Elizabeth Howard. It brings you back — or, rather, forward — through Texas Theatre, and plops you down in a makeshift comedy club set in a part of the building you rarely experience. The things are…

Cronenberg apostles, listen up. The Angelika loves and understands your obsession with exploding heads and all things ConSec, because it’s showing Scanners at 11 p.m. on Friday and Saturday. Weird, dark and riddled with telepathy, this one’s got it all. Governmental ill deeds? Check. Subversive counterculture messages and gruesome theories…

Whether delivering a treehouse harangue as dictator-for-life of G.R.O.S.S. or getting sneak-pounced by his tiger sidekick, Calvin was our kid id. Operating on a combination of misunderstood genius and prankster mischief, he and Hobbes conquered the world, time travel, art, dumb girls and physics, one perfectly drawn frame at a…

When the phrase “national treasure” gets tossed around, it’s usually questionable or an outright joke. For example, “Ted Cruz is a national treasure” is questionable. “Taylor Swift is a national treasure” is clearly a joke. The statement “Tom Hanks is a national treasure” is neither of those things. Tom Hanks…

Tone Bell is from Atlanta, but he started his standup in Dallas, so show him some of that B_G love. Tone was on the now-canceled Whitney, a show in which the parts were greater than the whole. (Individually funny, but put them all together and it was like a one-way…

Comedy may look like it’s all fun and games but it’s actually a very competitive affair. Comics are constantly competing for stage time and the love and affection of a crowd who can’t come up with those nuggets of humor on their own. The competition really heats up toward the…

When you first hear Rick Steves on the radio, your natural immediate response is “Jeez, what a nerd.” Maybe it’s the nasal voice or his intense hatred of Naples, but there’s something a bit off-putting about the whole thing. But here’s the deal: When you travel, you need to bring…

They say every writer has a screenplay tucked away in a bottom desk drawer. In the case of Brooke Wyeth, that publication is a memoir, set to revive a long-buried family secret. So, you know, this holiday at the Wyeth house is shaping up to be one helluva par-tay. That’s…

Earlier this month, Unfair Park’s Eric Nicholson broke news that internet celebrity, Teddy Bear the talking porcupine is a Dallasite. We’re only human, so after learning distance wasn’t a barrier we sent Ted a formal invitation to visit our home office. We etched the address into a sweet potato, couriered…

During any discussion of Kennedy’s final day, Dallas’ infamous geography eclipses our sister city’s. A new commission by the Fort Worth Opera will address those lesser-seen moments, focused on bonds and experiences the president held dear during the 15 hours prior the assassination. It will be based mostly in Fort…

“Pineapple do” Usually for our #Dallas Instagram weekly recap we feature events, places, food, fashion, even pets. But this week, while actively scrolling through your photos we noticed a trend: dudes with highly stylized hair. So we’re giving you a special, more follicle-based edition of #Dallas Instagrams…

This past week may have marked the 50th anniversary of one of Dallas’ darker moments, but we didn’t have to spend the entire time in the shadow of maudlin JFK introspection, thanks to a more upbeat 50th anniversary: the beginning of the adventures of TV’s Doctor Who. Conventions across the…

Dallas has a burlesque troupe for every personality. Ruby Revue serves up old time glam, Viva Burlesque caters dolled-up routines to themes and those Lolli Bombs like to get a little freaky. But what if you’re into hot wax, barbed wire, machetes, broken glass and big top spectacle — all…

While Dallas was fixated on one 50th anniversary, fans of Dr. Who were busy with another entirely over at WhoFest. The sold-out fan convention ran for three-days in Addison, giving local Whoheads a chance to rub costumed elbows and geek out together. Every iteration of the good Doctor was represented,…

The pop star who single-handedly made The Dukes of Hazzard much worse than it could have been, and her sister, will be our neck of the woods Saturday. Jessica and Ashlee Simpson will make a public appearance at NorthPark Center on North Central Expressway, according to a post on the…

When the West Texas town of Marfa saw that one of its major interstates had a giant, metal Playboy bunny logo trying to titillate anyone who drove by it, the town erupted into an angry orgy of outrage. They were shocked that New York artist Richard Phillips would dare to…