Everyone loves a good coloring book. Whether you’re a classic Crayola eight-pack fan or you carry the briefcase of millions of colors, if you choose to color in the lines or prefer to make dogs green, you should head out to ArtWalk this weekend and get your hands on the…
A photograph only has a flat page on which to work its mystery. How good must a photograph be to grab our attention and change the world then? What must be captured on paper to change public perception or policy? Whatever that mysterious “it” is, it seems that every year…
Huh, how about that? Slappy’s Puppet Playhouse is not another name for the confessional booth during youth services at your local Catholic church, but an actual puppet theater. OK. We knew that, but that Catholic pederast humor just never gets old, does it? You say it does? Well then, let’s…
Did you know that the University of Texas system is the largest wine producer in the state? Yes, folks, it’s right there in black and white on Wikipedia, so it must be true. And, yeah, it’s a little surprising that UT dabbles in the winery business, but when you think…
Man From Nebraska isn’t the catchiest title in the world, but that didn’t stop the play from garnering lots of critical acclaim. Tracy Lett’s play was a 2004 Pulitzer Prize finalist and made Time Magazine’s “Best Theater 2003” list. Revenge of the Cornhusker, uh, I mean, Man From Nebraska, is…
Huffing and puffing to resuscitate a long-moribund genre, James Mangold manages to imbue a 50-year-old Western with the semblance of life. Mangold’s remake of 3:10 to Yuma isn’t as startling a resurrection job as his Johnny Cash biopic, but it does send a saddlebag full of Western tropes skittering into…
Don’t worry about what to wear to Dallas Theater Center’s season opener, Pride and Prejudice. By the last scene, your outfit will be out of style. At least it feels that way. Three hours is a long sit at any play. Three hours of the quaint jibber-jabber of Jane Austen’s…
There have already been critical rumblings about the extreme violence in Shoot ‘Em Up, but it’s hard to get too worked up about a film whose very title announces its maker’s intent and which opens by raking the New Line Cinema corporate logo with machine gun fire (a gesture long…
1. Balls of Fury is a movie about: a. A former table tennis prodigy (Dan Fogler as Randy Daytona) enlisted by the FBI to infiltrate the underground ping-pong tournament of a legendary Chinese criminal (Christopher Walken). b. Suppository jokes. c. Little worth discussing and even less worth seeing. d. All…
The Office: Season Three (Universal)After a shaky first season and a better-with-every-episode second, The Office proved itself one of the most consistent comedies in the history of the medium. The show has long since escaped the shadow of its BBC forebear and boasts an ensemble from which you could pick…
Sundance signals, for better or worse, the state of American independent filmmaking. Cannes keeps faith, for those who still believe, with the cinema d’auteur. And Toronto? The largest and most important film festival in North America seems to do nearly as many things as there are movies to see—349 in…
It’s pretty much a toss-up which I love more: gorging on cinema or getting up at noon. And so, on the first day of the Toronto International Film Festival, in lieu of contemplating Bela Tarr’s The Man from London, I lingered in my pajamas anticipating Delta Chelsea’s The Breakfast from…
Funny how gaming’s most epic genre — the role-playing game — often feels the most limited in scope. After all, how many times can we traverse a medieval land, defeat the orcs, rescue the girl, save the world, and level up along the way?Never enough times would be the answer…
The Black Donnellys: The Complete Series (Universal)Chill Out Scooby-Doo! (Warner Bros.)City of Violence (Weinstein)Delta Farce (Lionsgate)Desperate Housewives: The Complete Third Season (Buena Vista)Disney Princess Enchanted Tales: Follow Your Dreams (Disney)Georgia Rule (Universal)Gumby Essentials (Classic Media)It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia: Seasons 1 & 2 (Fox)Mr. Magoo’s Christmas Carol (Classic Media)Nip/Tuck: The…
Of all the things you need to know about Brooks and Dunn, the most important is that George W. Bush is a huge fan. Like, “my campaign song is by Brooks and Dunn” huge. Brooks and Dunn is to W like Fleetwood Mac is to Bill Clinton. Fleetwood Mac could…
People are always griping that Dallas is not a “real city.” You know, the suburbs, the questionable public transportation, the lack of a real center—oh, and the Republicans—all these things convince some folks that the shit ain’t real. Well, if you’re one of the haters, we suggest you check out…
Gene Hackman is a supreme badass. He’s The Man. He’s so The Man that his name has the word “man” in it. Let him play any character in any movie and the character instantly becomes a badass whether or not you even wrote the character that way. Gene Hackman is…
Calling all of DFW’s experienced locksmiths: Are you available for a one-time contract assignment this weekend in Grand Prairie? Local talk radio station Live 105.3 is hosting what they’re calling “DFW’s Largest Frat Party” that night at the Nokia Theatre. Can you work quickly and quietly, sealing Nokia’s doors from…
Denison-born artist Roger Winter once advised that one could learn more about drawing by observing passengers on a bus to South Dallas than by drawing a nude model in a classroom. And, although his work has surrealist tendencies, his affinity for its subject matter is clear. This ability to mix…
Had there not already been a Japanese cartoon from the 1970s with the same name, Firebomb Production’s The Secret War might have been titled Battle of the Planets. Two teams of stage performers (the Chaldean Enforcers and Hermatic Pymanders) lock orbits and duke it out for celestial domination of the…
Truth in Translation is a play born out of the struggle for forgiveness and reconciliation that went on following the end of apartheid in South Africa. Apartheid is that thing where blacks were forced to attend separate schools, get crappy jobs and recognize that they could never be a part…
Chef Claud Mann and his TBS show Dinner and a Movie have gotten me through many a Friday night. I enjoy knowing the culinary accompaniment needed for, say, Tomb Raider. Now the show comes to life with winery Castello di Gabbiano joining Mann to present Gabbiano Nights at Lee Park,…
