What parent has not used that most despicable of embarrassment methods—singing what he or she believes is “cool” music at top volume in front of their offspring’s friends? In case you just couldn’t get enough of that as a teen, you can experience something quite similar this Friday at the…
Readers of the e-book beware—megabytes and pixels do not a book make. And don’t even get me started on the eyestrain. But don’t worry, there’s still hope for you. The 2nd International Book Fair is here to make you a bibliophile once again. To promote the love of the written…
Compared to other arts, video art is relatively new and is still an open field without a set definition. Defined or not, the Dallas Video Festival has been on top of this medium for 20 years. In recognition of this, and also as a run-up to the 20th anniversary of…
Keith Urban is the musical equivalent of your average big-box Texas suburb—bland, slick and lifeless—which is why soccer moms in Frisco, Plano and Allen love him and want to have his half-Australian babies. It’s almost like he was created in a laboratory (and come to think of it, that’s pretty…
For those in need of a basketball or even a Mavericks fix, SMU may have the answer. Now don’t start grumbling about Dirk and Co. not making it to the finals this year. Patience is a virtue, and we now know that next year is the time for that trophy…
The World Series of Video Games, an annual summer championship for videogame addicts, returns to Dallas this weekend. As well as being a showcase for the latest gaming technology, the WSVG gives people a chance to show off their mad gaming skills. Last year, the highlight was a gaming stage…
Artist Paul Greco uses mixed media–such as old Disney cartoons and Dick and Jane characters juxtaposed with scenes of skyscrapers and nuclear weapons–to illustrate his philosophy that life was just as hard and confusing in past decades as it is now. For instance, one of Greco’s pieces, “All God’s Children…
When I think circus films, Tod Browning’s 1932 horror film Freaks is the first that comes to mind. It’s got everything a good movie about a circus needs: sideshow performers, a beautiful trapeze artist and a sickening eye-for-an-eye ending that would petrify even the most worldly 10-year-old. A true classic…
Dallas-based Lily Hanson is master of what art critic Charissa Terranova has called “the soft uncanny.” Or maybe it’s the “snuggly strange.” A sculptor and textile artist, Hanson creates large abstract squishy objects by meticulous sewing and stitching of fabric and foam. She recently received the Dallas Museum of Art’s…
Sometimes three’s a crowd. You don’t want your boyfriend’s best pal tagging along on a romantic dinner date or a bystander busting in on your annual physical. All Jay and Silent Bob needed was each other, and another Beavis or Butthead would have been one pimply teen too many. Such…
According to the owner, Pawn Gallery decided to give Detroit artist Topher Crowder his first big Dallas show, “so he wouldn’t start hacking people up with a machete,” if that gives you an idea how edgy this guy is. Crowder’s ink-on-paper images are huge on the wall but draw the…
Kiss the Boys is like a hipster game of Clue. A murder plot to avenge two gay men scorned, where the weapon of choice is a poison martini. But the plan is foiled by a born-again Christian, a teetotaler and an alcohol snob. Will the would-be murderers carry out their…
If the gangs that plagued New York in the 1970s looked and acted like the ones in Walter Hill’s 1979 film masterpiece, The Warriors, it’s possible that there wouldn’t be any gangs around today. They were easy to spot with each gang sporting its own “unique” look. The Baseball Furies,…
Anyone can cook, but only the fearless can be great.” So goes the personal mantra of the late celebrity chef Auguste Gusteau, whose disembodied spirit materializes—Jiminy Cricket-style—to guide the rodent hero of Brad Bird’s Ratatouille toward his goal of gastronomic excellence. He also seems to be guiding Bird, who makes…
We’re Americans. We go into other countries when we need to. It’s tricky, but it works.” So declares Michael Moore in the midst of his new documentary, Sicko. Moore may be riffing on the war in Iraq, to name only our most recent intervention, but he’s actually referring to U.S…
Still an all-American bloodhound after all these years, Bruce Willis’ Detective John McClane begins Live Free or Die Hard sniffing around a Rutgers-Camden parking lot and busting the frat boy who’s been trying to cop a feel off his daughter Lucy (Mary Elizabeth Winstead). Oh, Dad! Since much of the…
It takes Bruce Willis awhile to get warmed up. He’s always just a bit below room temperature — a cool brother, dig, dating back to his Moonlighting days as a private dick belting out “Tighten Up” while going undercover as a man of the cloth in Wayfarer shades. He’s been…
Enough with the meta-musicals, where are the meaty musicals? Monty Python’s Spamalot, now at the Music Hall at Fair Park, is the latest light-bite Broadway hit to make comic hash of the Broadway smash. The Producers—like Spamalot, a musical comedy based on a feature film—won a slew of Tonys clawing…
Black Snake Moan (Paramount) The best place to see Craig Brewer’s mash-up of blood-boiling exploitation elements would be a Mississippi drive-in circa 1972. His tale of a black bluesman (Samuel L. Jackson) who chains up a seething, scantily clad cracker nympho (Christina Ricci) would’ve had the lot under martial law…
Everyone’s got a different sense of what makes a killer party. For kids, maybe it’s whacking a piñata and overdosing on cake. For adults, it could be sticking a beer bong down your gullet and declaring yourself Mayor of Schlitz City. But since 1999, the Mario Party series has served…
The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3: The Complete Series (Shout!) Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon (Anchor Bay) Dead Silence (Universal) Echo & the Bunnymen: Dancing Horses (MVD) Film School (Docurama) Frankenstein Conquers the World (Tokyo Shock) Going Under: Unrated Version (Blue Underground) High School Musical: The…
At an age when most people are resting on their laurels, comedian Paul Mooney continues to break new ground with his brand of comedy. Starting in the early ’70s, Mooney began as a writer for Sanford and Son and Good Times. From there, he wrote for The Richard Pryor Show,…
