Not that you care about my childhood, but around age 8, I acquired the knack for entertaining Japanese businessmen. Now wait, just let me finish. My dad worked for a Japanese company that, as he explained, “made the parts that connect the parts in a computer.” On occasion, he would…
There’s a YouTube video on Unknown Hinson’s Web site in which the enigmatic pyscho-country guitar badass is being interviewed. Speaking of being onstage, he says, “Just don’t bring none of those drum circle sumbitches–‘scuse me, hippies—up there with me, ’cause I ain’t a-doing none of that jam mess.” It’s reason…
You finally redid the living room. Took forever. New HDTV, awesome couch to replace the hand-me-down from the parents. You even spent a week repainting the walls to bring out the various shades in your West Elm rug. But what to do with the empty space over the couch? That’s…
SPORM! sounds like one of those weird substances kids were supposed to play with in the ’90s. Remember Floam, that beaded foam stuff? And Gak, that gooey green junk that made farting noises when you squeezed it? And Goooze, Smatter, Skweeez and Sqand? But alas, no, SPORM! isn’t a Nickeolodeon…
Usually one goes to a yoga studio to get relaxed, not to get the blues. So, what’s this about blues music in a yoga studio? Bend Studio, known for its unique yoga space by day, performance space by night formula, proves that you don’t have to have the blues to…
We like to eat. Not only do we like to eat, but we like to eat in such a way as to make the body a battleground. We’re talkin’ breakfast tacos and a something-on-a-stick washed down with the first of many large coffees followed with a double-decker sandwich with a…
We’ve yet to see the 2006 Thai film Dynamite Warrior (AKA Kon fai bin), but we think several such warriors might have been active in our neighborhood on the evening of July the 4th, illegal or no. The film, however, follows Jone Bang Fai—a young warrior with a knack for…
Transformers twiddles its big, fat, stupid robotic thumbs for the better part of two hours before jabbing them into your eye sockets and finger-fucking your brain in the last 20 minutes. Yes! It’s torture enough waiting for the iPhone and the second coming of Jesus without wondering when, exactly, this…
Eagle vs. Shark Written and directed by Taika Waititi. Starring Loren Horsley, Jemaine Clement and Craig Hall. Opens Friday. Napoleon Dynamite looks like Cary Grant next to the hero of this Kiwi quirk-a-thon: a hulking, sullen creep named Jarrod (Jemaine Clement, co-star of HBO’s new Flight of the Conchords) whose…
Chancer: Series 1 (Acorn) Available solely in the U.K. for years, this is a small-time release featuring a modestly big-time star at the get-go of his career: Clive Owen, looking all of 12 years old and 73 pounds, is a sacked investment banker who winds up in the employ of…
When Resident Evil 4 was originally released for the Nintendo GameCube in 2005, the game reinvented a lot of what had grown tiresome about the series. Most obvious were the setting and enemies you faced: Instead of the various building-overrun-by-zombies scenarios that played out in past versions, Resident Evil 4…
Baa Baa Black Sheep: Volume 2 (Universal) Baseball’s Most Unbreakable Feats (Shout!) Batfink: The Complete Series (Shout) Disappearances (Universal) Dora the Explorer: Summer Explorer (Paramount) Degrassi: The Next Generation — Season 5 (Funimation) Dream a Little Dream 2 (Echo Bridge) Driving Lessons (Sony) Eureka: Season One (Universal) Filmation’s Ghostbusters: Volume…
The Improv Web site cites comic Sheryl Underwood as a “sexually progressive, God-fearing conservative Republican” but hell, we can forgive anyone a transgression or two if they’re truly funny. Fortunately, Underwood offers a topical and accessible act that any moderately informed and slightly dirty adult can appreciate…which is the exact…
Oh, to be stuck in round after round of Die Hards, Transformers and Nancy Drews for the next few weeks. This is the struggle that people living in Fort Worth have to face in the remaining months of the long but yet not so hot summer. Hollywood cinema, good and…
Judah Friedlander wears many hats. In fact, looking for the various trucker hats his character “Frank” wears on the NBC comedy 30 Rock has become a sport. (Favorites include “ESP Tutor” and “Extra Sausage.”) Offscreen, Friedlander declares himself to be a comedian, national teen idol, international star of the silver…
In its continuing campaign to nourish our cinematic bodies, the AllGood Café’s July 11 Rock ‘N’ Reel Night features a doobie duo that would have David Wooderson dazed and content in the front row: Reefer Madness and Grass. Throw in the café’s menu—mom’s home-cooked goodies made with the freshest ingredients…
We can probably effectively rule out any appearances by Cindy Sheehan at this conference, but nonetheless, there are not many opportunities to rub elbows with three Nobel Peace laureates, and dozens of internationally known peacemakers. Oh, and Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison, who is billed as a member of the host…
Dear Person, Hi, you may remember me, your anus? Yeah, I know we haven’t had a one-on-one chat since the Spoiled Shrimp Incident of ’06, but I’m still down here, doing all your dirty work. It’s all right, I know it’’s a thankless job; I don’t expect a medal or…
Dr. Michael Phillips’ book White Metropolis: Race, Ethnicity and Religion in Dallas, 1841-2001 will do things to you. It’s a history book in a lot of ways, but it also makes you take a look around at the half-million-dollar condos springing up all over Dallas and realize who gets to…
I reached the pinnacle of my acting career in eighth grade, when I was cast as the turtle in Urashima Taro, a Japanese fairy tale. Since this was Kabuki, traditional, stylized Japanese theater, all of us wore thick white makeup and elaborate costumes—my best friend was “the four seasons,” and…
If it’s possible for something good to ever come out of the death of a rock ‘n’ roll icon, it’s never the rehash of greatest hits, the concert DVDs or the random memorabilia. In the case of Texas guitar legend Stevie Ray Vaughan, the best thing that came from, or…
At 8 p.m. this Saturday, Brookhaven College, 3939 Valley View Lane in Farmers Branch (bring your papers), is putting on a stage production of Alan Menken and Howard Ashman’s Little Shop of Horrors in the School of the Arts Performance Hall (Building C), and you should go see it. It’s…
