Dallas has a reputation for being materialistic and sex-crazed, but that’s judging a city against its veneer. For as many valet brawls and big hair meltdowns as you witness in Uptown, there are dozens of less-visible, more important scenes occurring — humble moments, where neighbors work together to improve our…
Texas Theatre is going to screen Who Framed Roger Rabbit in 35 mm this weekend (Friday, July 12 to Sunday, July 14), honoring the film’s quarter century anniversary. Now, if our math is right, that means it’s been 25 years since you experienced one of your childhood’s most confusing, conflicting…
“Nothing free in life is really free,” says my mom. And she’s right. The last time my phone company told me I was eligible for a “free” upgrade, they also charged me a $30 upgrading fee. Hey, phone company, $30 is not free. One truly free thing Dallasites have been…
Across this great nation Strawberry Deathcakes and Necronancys are lacing up to duke it out on roller derby rinks. While I’ve always appreciated the pleasantly perverse combination of dolled-up costuming and bloodsports, I hadn’t actually made it inside a roller derby bout. On Saturday, that changed as I walked into…
A while back we told you about Oil and Cotton’s class, “Believing Your Own Hype: Manifesto Writing for Not Necessarily Angry Individuals,” and broke down the types of people who could benefit from taking that class. Apparently you paid attention because instructor Joe Milazzo had a full class of students…
If you need to quickly get your hands on $1 million but don’t have the resources or skills to pull off an “Italian Job” style heist, do not fret. Monday, July 8 could be your lucky day. There’s a chance you’ll get the money you need to keep your elbows…
It sounds perverse, but failure can be a welcome motivator. When you’re molding your masterpiece, it’s rarely the success at the end of the road that drives you. It’s the potential blown-tire-flip-over-median-and-tumble-over-cliff-on-the-way-there that keeps you going…
According to the creators of the Broadway-bound (eventually) stage musical, what the 95-minute 1983 movie version of Flashdance lacked was 16 more musical numbers — on top of the soundtrack’s period cheese-rock “Maniac,” “Gloria,” “Manhunt” and “What a Feeling” — and another hour or so of dialogue and dancing. They’re…
The great movie Westerns are about honor, dignity, the majesty of the landscape. But they’re also about beautiful men, charismatic, sometimes dangerous-looking demigods like Robert Ryan, James Stewart, Franco Nero, Randolph Scott and, of course, John Wayne. The Lone Ranger has Armie Hammer and Johnny Depp, the former a long-legged…
Though the script includes bits and pieces of writer-directors Nat Faxon and Jim Rash’s real childhoods, The Way, Way Back is a slick debut that feels like a recycling of familiar coming-of-age materials. It even shares with The Descendants, for which Faxon and Rash won an adapted screenplay Oscar, the…
Admit it: Redemption is boring. We think we want characters to “grow” and “change,” but really, it’s the people around us in real life — people who, say, loudly pick their teeth in restaurants, or walk too slowly in public thoroughfares — who need revamping. (We ourselves, of course, need…
Since it opens with a suicide bombing in downtown Tel Aviv, and since its mystery plot involves an attempt to track down a sheik whose public expectorations call for the slaughter of Israeli civilians, The Attack is most avowedly “about” terrorism. But that’s a subject, not the subject. The film,…
If your idea of an exciting Fourth of July includes a kiddie pool, a six-pack and looking up at big sky booms, you really don’t need us to guide you to the action. For the rest of you, let’s do this thing. Head over to Fair Park for the MetroPCS…
Pronail Princesa is the nail-game name of Vanessa Quilantan, who can be found buffing and filing at Oak Cliff’s Studio 410 with her beauty gang, the Lady Misfits, or perhaps a random rap show. (She also writes about rap for the Dallas Observer.) On Friday night, at Texas Theatre (231…
So what happens to a band like Death, three church-rooted black brothers from the Motor City, playing the essence of punk way back in ’73, before the genre even had a name? Well, their demo was sent into a world that wasn’t ready for it and marketed by a record…
It’s unclear exactly when our society become so masochistic, but it has. It really, really has. Take the Color Mob 5K for example, an event that involves 1) running for fun in the heat of a Texas summer and 2) people throwing neon powder at a sweaty, hot and hyperventilating…
Looking for a mental vacation? Sunday is the last day to catch Impressions of Europe: 19th Century Vistas at SMU’s Meadows Museum (5900 Bishop Blvd.), a collection of works by Spanish painter Martín Rico. He was known for capturing the landscape of 19th century Europe in vivid colors, heralding an…
If you can say the words “dog show” without singing the clap, clap, clap, clap, clap song from SNL, or picturing any scene from Best in Show, you’re a better human than the rest of us. Either way, it’s time to cash in that vacation day and head to the…
Oil and Cotton (837 W. 7th St.) has earned a reputation as one of the coolest craft shops around. This is partly because of its class schedule, which varies to complement any burgeoning artist’s desired aesthetic. Some of its coolest programs are the shop’s kids’ summer camp offerings, like this…
Tuesday Night Trash, Texas Theatre’s now monthly-ish offering, has shifted substantially in recent screenings. It’s jumped from presenting the Garbage Pail Kids Movie to a recent special edition of old Transgression cinema guest-curated by Michael Morris to this Tuesday’s screening of Blank Generation, by filmmaker (and guitarist for Blondie, Iggy…
Oh, the strange cultural magnetism of 50 Shades of Grey. The E.L. James trilogy, which tells the story of Anastasia Steele and Christian Grey and their kinky relationship, surpassed sales of the Harry Potter series in the UK last year. There was never any question it would be made into…
It’s a lazy summer Sunday in Texas and you’ll need to arrive early if you want to catch the first installment of the Fine Arts Chamber Players’ annual Basically Beethoven festival. These concerts — presented every Sunday in July — are free to the public, don’t require a ticket or…
