We’re not gonna lie: We love the Los Angeles-based artist that is Brandon Bird and have for years now. We love that his favorite thing to eat is meals (followed closely by snacks)” and we ordered our first set of Law & Order valentines around five years ago. When an…
Every few months Dallas-area theaters pile on the new shows. This is one of those weekends, with 10 productions opening. One of those, Dallas Pride Performing Arts Festival at Uptown Players, is a multi-show offering filling several performance spaces at Kalita Humphreys Theater. So go see a show. Tickets start…
My kid and I were just walking through Toys R Us and there it was: the Disney Princess wedding dress. She was drawn to it like I’m drawn to fried anything: She was mesmerized. Meanwhile, the feminist angel on my shoulder was like, “Wait — Disney princess? Plus wedding?! Plus…
Dallas Opera and the AT&T Performing Arts Center open the 2011-’12 “Tragic Obsessions” opera season at 7:30 p.m., Friday, October 21, with a live street-level “Plazacast” in Sammons Park in front of the Winspear Opera House. Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor starring Romanian soprano Elena Mosuc and Italian baritone Luca Grassi…
Currently the fifth-to-last film on Steven Soderbergh’s ever-expanding pre-retirement slate, Contagion opens on day two of a global viral epidemic. Gwyneth Paltrow plays Beth Emhoff, an American employee for an ominously unspecific multinational corporation who returns from a business trip in Hong Kong to her wintry Midwestern home feeling like…
At one point in Higher Ground, Vera Farmiga’s decade-spanning directorial debut, the actress, playing Corinne, a woman still soaked with lake water after her baptism into an evangelical sect, resembles no less a touchstone than Ronee Blakley in Robert Altman’s Nashville: slightly high hair; starchy, sexless, long tunic dress; swaying…
As much as we love DIY design and craft projects, there just isn’t enough room in our house for a studio worthy of Martha Stewart’s praise. That’s why workshops at Oil & Cotton make more sense, especially when it’s no-brainer creativity craft time like the Neighborhood Collage workshop. Go to…
Dim sum is one of the greatest inventions of all time. All the bite-sized tasty Chinese treats are the perfect way to enjoy a meal – the only real problem with the dim sum tradition is waiting for a table and dodging the carnival of carts weaving their way through…
We adults would be as enamored with the zoo as our kids are if, say, there was an adults-only evening replete with food, music and plenty of beer on tap. Where can we sign up for that? We’ll tell you where you can sign up for the Dallas Observer’s inaugural…
Over the past few years, the Italian culture has garnered lots of attention, not always so positive. First, we were graced with The Real Housewives of New Jersey, and now just about everyone seems to talk about Snooki as if she’s a disdained yet household name. At least there’s still…
Ballet has a bum rap. It evokes cute little girls with chubby cheeks running around in pink leotards. At worst, it brings back memories of suffering through stodgy performances of Sleeping Beauty with a grandma determined to get her grandkids some culture. The Aspen Santa Fe Ballet will crush those…
It’s nearly impossible to talk about Bernie Taupin without acknowledging his work with Elton John. As John himself has said, “Without Bernie Taupin, there would be no Elton John,” but chances are that even without Elton John, Bernie Taupin would still have managed to find a way to make it…
There is absolutely no better time to watch Jim Henson’s tour de force, The Dark Crystal, than at the crack of midnight. The dark and dreamy fantasy film, noted for its then state-of-the-art animatronics and absurd folklore-inspired plot, is going to be 30 years old in just a couple of…
Hollywood likes to think that it will fearlessly tackle any topic of cultural relevance. Terrorism? Check. The LGBT experience? Ok. Bullying? Sure. Zookeeping? Obviously. Christianity? Hello? Is this thing on? There are scant recent films from mainstream Hollywood about the American Christian experience that aren’t skewering satire. This is surprising:…
With more than 700 vendors, the Dallas Home & Garden Show is a little less “show” and a little more “every damn thing you’ll ever need for a home expo.” Sweet Hercules, that’s a lot of vendors. If it continues to expand, they’ll have to hold it on the moon…
Just because we can’t remember just what the hell our country is doing in Afghanistan now that 9/11 mastermind Osama Bin Laden has been sent to hell, or just why we’re still in Iraq after toppling first Saddam Hussein’s statue and then the dictator himself, doesn’t mean we should forget…
With three different Comedy Central stand-up shows and a breakout performance in 2003 on Last Comic Standing, it’s safe to say that Ralphie May is funnier than the average stand-up performers. Known for his sarcasm and politically incorrect jokes, May’s become a well known comedian on the boob tube. Addison…
Saw off your devil horns and tuck your tail. It’s time for Legacy Counseling Center’s Be an Angel. Every year, LCC throws a fundraiser at Monica’s Aca y Alla, and you’d think there would be a queso-eating contest, because seriously that stuff is delicious, but there isn’t. There is, however,…
Last fall we heartily cheered the disappearance of the vuvuzela, the horn heard ’round the world during World Cup. Well, now we kinda miss it. There’s an online radio station dedicated to playing the sound of the vuvuzela 24/7, but it just isn’t the same. We checked with Pizza Hut…
Former English majors will be relieved to learn that master crafts(wo)man George Eliot is no longer relegated to junior-level literature classes. Even better, the gender-bending bad girl of Victorian England is the subject of a new play by Cathy Tempelsman, A Most Dangerous Woman, that is being staged by Echo…
If your knowledge of Jewish filmmaking only extends as far as nebbishy fellows whose names rhyme with “Schmoody Schmallen,” it’s time to look again. The 15th Annual Jewish Film Festival of Dallas, which runs this year from Saturday through September 25, is a perfect way to start. The nine offerings,…
Though most artists tend to start with the basics (pencil, paint, clay) before entering the world of au courant installations and found art, Texas native Kevin Renner seems to have taken an alternate journey. A former large installation man who worked with found art and natural materials to create his…
