A Little Bit of Bam!

For some of us, Italian seasoning begins with garlic and ends with whatever desiccated remnants are left in the generic “Italian Seasoning” jar that came with that wedding-gift spice rack. But as author and chef Gina Stipo will show in her Traditional Italian Spices class 6:30 to 9 p.m. Monday…

On the Road Again

Originating in 2010, the North Texas Road Trip project–consisting of 15 members of the Dead Photographers Society–set out to capture and interpret the people and scenes of several small, rural communities 75 miles north of McKinney. The resulting exhibit chronicles each photographer’s one-day journey into the outside stretches of the…

Live Torture

Nothing says a great time like waking up in bed with a guy you can’t remember from your night out at Hooters. Unfortunately for Felicia, the protagonist of Why Torture Is Wrong and the People Who Love Them, this little mishap becomes much more serious when she realizes she married…

Haunting Hurst

So, if you’re a soon-to-be-famous opera singer, you’re faced with all kinds of challenges right? Singing well, staying inspired, not being carried off by the deformed musical genius who hides in your dressing room to give you voice lessons–the usual stuff. This isn’t Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Phantom of the Opera…

May the Luck of the Irish Be With You

Do you really need us to explain this one? Good Luck Karaoke? It’s so obvious, but we’ll do it anyway: First of all, there’s the whole luck o’ the Irish thing — that ties in with the name. Then there’s the ancient Irish tradition of karaoke. The word “karaoke” roughly…

Mars Needs Moms: Maternal Anxiety in Outer Space Flounders.

Who said animation should look real? Robert Zemeckis, for one, though as evidenced by Disney’s recent closing of his ImageMovers Digital studio, he increasingly appears to be alone in that sentiment. Mars Needs Moms stands as the potentially final Zemeckis-produced motion-capture effort, and like The Polar Express, Beowulf and A…

Cold Weather: Take a Trip to the Mysterious World of Mumble-Noir.

Cheerfully diffident, garrulous yet uninflected, blithely self-absorbed, the mumblecore brand proliferates: Last year’s star vehicles Greenberg and Cyrus introduced the concept of mega-mumble. The low-budget musical Guy and Madeline on a Park Bench pioneered mumble-chord; Tiny Furniture was part psycho-drumble, part sit-cumble. Premiering with the latter at last spring’s South…

Beyond Fish And Chips

Are you an adventurous beer-lover looking for something more? Well, we have the class for you, and it’s not just about perfecting your jalapeno poppers. Learn how to make several gourmet treats using beers and ales at Central Market’s hands-on Upscale Pub Grub class this Wednesday. Participants will learn to…

Garden Party

Open your pantry or refrigerator. Pick up a fruit or vegetable, a jar of honey, or a block of cheese. Without looking at the label, quick, where was that item grown or produced? Who planted it? How did it get to the store where you bought it? OK — take…

Mustang Opera

A mysterious stranger. A shameful secret. And even nuns! If it wasn’t set to a score by Puccini, you’d think it came straight out of the morning soaps. An English adaptation of the Italian opera Suor Angelica is the latest production from the Meadows School of the Arts’ monthly “Opera…

Build Us a House

Today, Ty Pennington is best known as the host of ABC’s Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, where he shouts through a megaphone and makes people cry the saltiest, most joyful tears of their lives. But that’s not the only spotlight to have shone on this Sears-lovin’ handyman. Back in the day,…

Shearer Gets Serious

Harry Shearer is probably best known as the voice of Mr. Burns on The Simpsons or for classic mockumentaries like This Is Spinal Tap and A Mighty Wind, but his recent documentary is nothing to laugh about. Directed and narrated by Shearer, The Big Uneasy explores the after effects of…

Little Orphan Trannie

It’s a knocked up life for him. Oh, but don’t worry — you can bet your bottom dollar he’ll come out tomorrow. He’ll clear away all the cobwebs and the sorrow until there’s none, because he’ll never be stuck feeling gray when he’s gay and lovely. Join little orphan Trannie…

Rent‘s Due

Generally AIDS doesn’t make things better. But there’s an exception to every rule, and Jonathan Larson’s Rent — a rock adaptation of Puccini’s La Boheme — improves on the opera, showing us New York City’s Bohemian life back when it was booming, even as the shadow of AIDS and HIV…

Going For Green

For native Dallas residents, and even transplants and/or former residents who have since moved away, the St. Patrick’s Day Parade is an institution that is as much a part of the city’s identity as the State Fair. And this year, the time-honored tradition will snake it’s way through the streets…

The Visible Voice

Thursday and Friday are the final days to catch SMU’s spring playwriting festival featuring staged readings. If you sleep on New Visions, New Voices, chances are you’ll get another chance to see the work of participating Meadows theater students, as past NVNV participants have gone on to bigger stages…but you…

Dirty Dancing

No, Forbidden Broadway Dances with the Stars isn’t a production about the many terrible things you can do with the prosthetic leg of a certain Beatle’s ex-wife. But it is naughty. Culminating from all the Broadway musicals that will never leave your inner sanctum, this production knows no bounds, shows…

Aidan Goes Country

If you’re a Sex & the City fan, a Northern Exposure fan or a United States of Tara fan, we’ve got some great news for you. John Corbett, the actor known for his rugged, romantic everyman roles, is coming to a stage near you, Dallas. But don’t expect him to…

Use Your Illusion

One of the more buzzed about competitions in the 2011 Oscar race was the Best Animated Feature showdown between How to Train Your Dragon, Toy Story 3 and a quaint little French film by Sylvain Chomet, the man behind 2003’s The Triplets of Belleville. The Illusionist, definitely not to be…

Night of Noir

To the casual first-time viewer, The Maltese Falcon’s plot — loaded with red herrings, rabbit trails and double crosses — must seem dizzying. But, as Roger Ebert writes in his book The Great Movies: “the plot is the last thing you think of about The Maltese Falcon.” Rather, it’s the…

The British One

This Saturday, John Oliver — sometimes cast member of NBC’s Community and beloved Daily Show correspondent — will appear at the House of Blues, and probably perform a stand-up routine of some kind. We say probably, because rumor has it that John Oliver loves American football, but hates the Dallas…