Typically, we’ll hear about a woman on an inner voyage to discover her identity in a new land and file it somewhere on the scale between tired feminism and an indulgent cliche. But the Valley House Gallery insists that it’s art–and inspiring, opportunistic art at that. Israeli-born artist Hadar Sobol’s…
Suburbia used to be an integral part of the great American dream. Is it still? Urban sprawl and other challenges often mean that the suburbs aren’t the picket fence utopias that their reputations once suggested. Disquiet: Unsettled Suburbia explores the reality of modern suburbia through photographs of suburban, middle class…
Perhaps the perception is different in person, but Pard Morrison’s work brings to mind a spin on the old “My kid could make that” criticism of modern art. In fact, his work looks remarkably similar to larger versions of things most people have made as kids–accidentally–with unsolved Rubik’s Cubes and…
Let’s forget for a moment about the potentially awful offensive line this season, the missed opportunities throughout the past few years, and the entire latter half of the 1990s. The Dallas Cowboys may not be the best team in the country, but to NFL fans everywhere, they’re the football paradigm;…
Lots of people believe that art is all about interpretation. For instance, a sculpture you think is stunning may look like an ugly hunk of clay to the next guy. But what happens when artists base their work on interpretation itself? That’s exactly the theme of Sustenance, an art exhibition…
In DFW, nothing says Fall quite like temperatures below 90 degrees, Cowboys football, and the great State Fair of Texas. I’d be willing to bet (basically for no other reason than state pride and instinct) that no other city or state’s attempt at a fair of any sort can even…
Henry David Thoreau’s Walden was published way back in 1854, yet it continues to inspire readers, environmentalists and thinkers over 150 years later with its tale of simple living and the beauty of nature. Dallas photographer Scot Miller had the honor of taking photographs of the Walden Woods (located in…
In moving the hit film to the stage, with dozens of show tunes, the edgy humor of the DreamWorks flicks gets lost in a mountain of in-jokes about other Broadway shows. Now Shrek, Donkey and Fiona seem to exist in a sort of fairytale Shubert Alley, where every character knows…
Thornton Wilder’s Pulitzer winner from 1938 is on few critics’ lists of plays they’d love to see again. It’s usually done with heavy doses of quaintness and really bad New England accents. Not so in the new and surprisingly fresh production at Addison’s WaterTower Theatre. Director Terry Martin, who also…
At some point in adult life, things that are supposed to symbolize innocent fun in childhood become terrifying. Or maybe the fear is always there, but only as adults can we finally admit that the clown at a neighbor’s birthday party haunted our dreams or that we didn’t want to…
Oliver Stone’s Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps doesn’t have the clean, fable-like arc of its predecessor. Everything is so much murkier now. The white-shoe “Keller-Zabel” firm employs whiz-kid proprietary trader Jake Moore (Shia LaBeouf), a specialist in alternative energy, whose story begins in oblivious, pre-crash 2008, as he sights a…
Published five years ago, Kazuo Ishiguro’s massively praised Never Let Me Go is set in an alternate universe where life has been extended and catastrophic illness eliminated thanks to an evolutionary advance, namely the harvesting of vital organs from specially bred human clones. But that’s backstory. Despite its lurid premise,…
What Hamlet says about mothers and sons, Henry IV says about fathers (and father figures) and sons. Shakespeare’s drama about medieval kings, now getting a handsome, if gimmick-strewn, production at Dallas Theater Center, presents a troubled royal son, Hal, the Prince of Wales, and his uneasy relationships with his father…
I first saw the 1971 film Billy Jack when I was about twelve, while attending an idealistic, socialist, Zionist summer camp in the mountains of West Virginia, so the whole thing seemed probable to me. We were living this idyllic, lefty-pinko life, with peace and love on our brains, much…
Go make some Mexican arts and crafts! It’s a matter of life and death! Really! Well, sort of. You won’t be saving the world, dismantling a bomb or saving a life or anything, but if you go to the “Life and Death” workshop you’ll have the chance to think about…
The best way to spice up a party is to grab hold of a theme and take it as far as you possibly can. Having an animal-themed party? Make the guests wear animal face masks and serve them nothing but cream-cheese penguins. The event chairs of the 2010 Great Gatsby…
Pair the cultured air of John Malkovich with the preachiness of Sean Penn and the looks of former Dallas Mayor Pro Tem Don Hill (with some serious dental work), and you’ve got an idea what kind of a dinner companion you’ll have in Garrett Oliver, the craft beer guru and…
There are a few childhood characters that people should never outgrow, and Curious George is most likely at the top of that list. The mischievous monkey and his adventures (along with the Man with the Yellow Hat’s awesome ability to fix every situation) have peppered our childhood memories for decades,…
Do you like to think of Jesus as a mischievous badger? Do you like to shake and bake? Is laughing at French people a real good time? Do you think “diablo” is Spanish for “fighting chicken?” If you love Talladega Nights like Kate Gosselin loves stupid hair and paparazzi, imagine…
The Southwest Airlines State Fair Classic pits the Tigers of Grambling State University against the Panthers of Prairie View A & M in a historic contest that is arguably the biggest event of the year for Dallas’ black community. But seeing as how neither team is really challenging for a…
How well-established were you when you were just 25? Remember that year? The year you finally learned not to mix your liquors, that 401Ks might be a good idea, that paying rent is truly better than couch-surfing, and that Friday night is a good night to stay in and decompress…
Yo bro-dawgs, round up that skirt you took home from the Loon last night (or was it Social House?) and iron your best whisker-washed $200 Ed Hardy khakis: it’s time for the All About Uptown Festival. The day-long event showcases the best of Uptown, which according to organizers is food,…
