Love in the Pub

For $35, you could probably buy your sweetheart an assortment of gourmet chocolate–or about four of those heart-shaped boxes full of wax-flavored disappointment from Russel Stover. Here’s a better gift that you’ll both enjoy: the Beer and Chocolate tasting 2:30 p.m. Saturday at the Plano Ginger Man Pub, 7205 Bishop…

Under the Bridge Downtown

Don’t get your hopes up, Dallas–ArtLoveMagic’s Underground event isn’t a secret Red Hot Chili Peppers performance (the album was called Blood Sugar Sex Magik, remember?). Instead, you’ll find dozens of artists and musicians at the event, happening from 9 a.m. to 12 a.m. this Saturday in the Janette Kennedy Gallery…

The Most Challenging Stage…On Stage

Dallas Children’s Theater hosts its TEEN SCENE Festival through February 20. Unlike the after-school specials of yesteryear, TEEN SCENE is unrestrained in order to create meaningful works that raise awareness to the issues that teens currently face. The 2011 festival will include a quartet of plays written by playwright in…

They’ll All Float On, OK

A time-honored tradition–there is nothing like rounding up the family and killing a few weekend hours wondering who the hell can afford a new boat in this economy. But, since 1955, the Dallas International Boat Show has brought the largest collection of watercraft imaginable to North Texas and this year…

A Lick of the Paintbrush

Back in the ’80s, The Dallas Museum of Art replicated several rooms of the art-packed French Riviera villa of Wendy (Texan and fashion model) and Emery (Hungarian writer and art collector) Reves to display the couple’s dizzying collection of impressionist and post-impressionist art including pieces by van Gogh, Monet and…

Search Your Favorite SlashTags

There are many sites upon which we budget-minded fashion freaks can find a name brand deal, but let’s be honest, if you sale-surf online you don’t get to touch the clothes, to hold them up like a human paper doll, to see how your calves will look sticking out of…

Ride the Rails of Romance

Spend Valentine’s Day with your sweetie gliding to dinner aboard the McKinney Ave. Trolley with only a dollop of irony: The McKinney Ave. Transit Authority named its Valentine’s deal “Streetcar Named Desire,” though the namesake play has absolutely nothing to do with romance. Quite the opposite, in fact. But if…

For Those Who Love Their Wine

Let’s face it; Valentine’s Day can be super depressing. But if you’ve got a love bird, Valentine’s Day is quite possibly one of the best days of the year; at least, for the ladies. This year, don’t just exchange chocolate and teddy bears; take a ride on the 4th Annual…

For All the Lovers (of Comedy) Out There…

If you are one of those people that scoffs at all of the love sick idiots who waste money celebrating a holiday almost completely manufactured by card and chocolate companies (and your lonely, bitter rant is just as obnoxious as all of those rose-wielding couples) then Valentine’s Day at Backdoor…

Is There a Heart-Shaped Asana?

Valentine’s Day is currently recognized by most people I know as nothing more than a nasty ploy by greeting card companies to get us to spend our hard earned dollars on their sappy, one-size-fits-all sentiments. To me, though, the real problem with the holiday is the chocolate. I could see…

Just Like Bogie and Bergman

Is there anything more romantic than Rick telling Ilsa, the love of his life, to get on the plane at the end of Casablanca? Maybe the part where he holds his hands in his heads and says, “Of all the gin joints in all the world, she walks into mine.”…

Feed Each Other Grape’s

Intimate? Check! Dimly lit? Check! Located in a happening part of town? Check! With these romantic pieces in place, its no wonder that The Grape is at the top of the list for special dinners out. Valentine’s Day is one of the most special occasions of the year, and Chef/Owner…

‘Cause He’s the Ax Man

There are only so many times a person can sit through yet another production of a classic or one of the Broadway hits, so it’s always a special treat when a theater company dares to take on a new play. Billed as “a dark comedy about love, family, loyalty and…

Spill the Beans, Sister

The plot of the The Sugar Bean Sisters hinges around two sisters in the timeless pursuit of escaping their lots in life. What would you do if you wanted to change your life? We’ll bet you didn’t say “Why, I’d hop on the next spaceship outta here and leave planet…

The Lady In White

Isabelle Huppert is one of those actresses that you know is a force to be reckoned with the second you set eyes on her. I first saw her in Hal Hartley’s The Amateur with a pageboy haircut I promptly copied and a sophisticated intensity that should have made her a…

Twelve By Ten

In 1952, artists including Jackson Pollock and Clifford Still were introduced to American art lovers in the Museum of Modern Art exhibit Fifteen Americans, and this was just one of curator Dorothy Canning Miller’s landmark Americans exhibitions. Taking inspiration from the series of exhibits, the Barry Whistler Gallery presents a…

Down the Road, They’re Back Again

Long before Kim Cattrall portrayed vixen Samantha on Sex and the City, there was Blanche Devereaux, the senior siren whose voracious appetite for men made viewers tune in weekly. It’s been two decades since smartass Dorothy Zbornak, flirtatious Blanche Devereaux, naive Rose Nylund and wisecracking Sophia Petrillo first appeared on…

Unleaded Art

Everyone knows that best way of getting away from it all known as “the roadtrip.” Whether you’re piling into a car with family or a couple of friends and two bottles of tequila, every roadtrip is about experiencing the journey as much as the destination. Think on that when you…

From a Balcony Downtown

Teen angst is a world of pain. He said this. She said that. I hate my nose. I hate my face. I hate my butt. How can I get rid of that enormous zit? Will she laugh at my jokes? When you’re a teenager your hormones are raging, and you…

Peaces of Her

One can find conflict at every turn–from high profile football games to children’s playground disagreements to international warfare. Take a breather from all the fighting and celebrate a Woman of Peace. Fort Worth artist Jo Dufo celebrates not only harmony, but also the female form. Through her vibrantly colored paintings,…

Repo Chick: A Woman Moves in on the Alex Cox Series.

A not-quite sequel to the 1984 L.A. punk classic Repo Man, Alex Cox’s Repo Chick is both an extreme formal experiment and a genre-mashing goof-off. Starring some of the same actors but none of the same characters, and still using the grungy edge-of-L.A. milieu as ground zero for apocalyptic panic,…

The Illusionist: Reanimating a Celluloid Fossil.

Sylvain Chomet’s The Illusionist breathes life into a celluloid fossil, lovingly animating an unproduced script by the great filmmaker Jacques Tati. Chomet sets The Illusionist on the cusp of the ’60s, around the time Tati wrote the script as a follow-up to his hit Mon Oncle. The title character, a…