I wasn’t alive in the 1800s, but I’ve seen re-enactments on PBS where people dress funny and aren’t allowed Internet access, and it doesn’t look like fun to me. And yet, the folks at Dallas Heritage Village found a way to make kids love that magical time before videogames. How,…
Dots. Raised or flat, they have a multitude of uses. They keep us driving in the correct lane; they end sentences. On old printers, they formed characters. They represent letters and numbers to the blind by way of Braille. In that form, they also inspire artist Christopher French to create…
Viva St. Patrick! Like Halloween, St. Patrick’s Day is a completely self-serving holiday that requires you to do absolutely nothing. There are no presents to buy. No family to visit. Just booze and fun. And what better way to celebrate a self-serving holiday than by learning to serve yourself some…
American Idol, it seems, has opened its mammoth, dried-saliva-encrusted jaws and finally swallowed the last bit of our national culture that had heretofore escaped its cruel mastications. The theatah, people, is sliding down the gullet, Jabba the Hutt-style, of the gorging, TiVo-ed beast. Hmm…perhaps that’s overstating it; but there’s no…
You would think a movie called The Italian would be set in the Bronx, where three generations of veteran character actors would fight for control of a fictional crime family while battling a horde of corrupt NYPD cops and G-men. You would also think such a film might be directed…
We could ruminate about Office Space, Mike Judge’s ode to the weary cubicle worker. We could ponder it as biting social commentary, realist absurdism or as simply an enjoyable, above-average 90-minute comedy. Or we could be completely obnoxious and just belch up a bunch of references and lines of dialogue…
When the editorial cartoonist turned amateur sleuth Robert Graysmith published Zodiac, his sprawling, meticulously researched account of the eponymous San Francisco serial killer, he wrote that the tale was “the most frightening story I know,” and it was easy to understand why. Graysmith was writing in 1985, some 16 years…
In 2003, Mark and Michael Polish made Northfork, though just barely; the brothers, also responsible for art-house fave Twin Falls Idaho about conjoined twins who fall for the same woman, lost funding just before shooting began and had to beg for money to finish their reverie about lost souls wandering…
The Number 23 grips hold of one stupid idea and runs so far with it, in so many directions, to such little purpose, that it nearly won me over from sheer berserkoid effort. In a nutshell, this nutso movie observes what happens to a man (Jim Carrey) under the impression…
Morally irreproachable and flat as a pancake, Michael Apted’s Amazing Grace is set among bickering House of Commoners in late 18th-century London, but the movie belongs squarely in the currently blooming subgenre of Whites Saving Dark-Skinned Victims of Empire. Or at least it would be were Apted able to bring…
When Hair and its hirsute cast of young hippies hit off-Broadway 40 years ago, the American theater establishment reacted with finger-in-light-socket shrieks. Boston banned it. Major critics dismissed it. Patrons paying a top ticket price of $2.50 complained of its “deafening” pop-rock score and deplored its profanity and sexual content…
Shut Up & Sing (Genius) It’s a shame that one of 2006’s best documentaries is being released without extras; it would have been nice, for instance, to hear feisty Natalie Maines talk with directors Barbara Kopple and Cecilia Peck about her reaction to the film, in which the Dixie Chicks…
So you’ve beaten Zelda and can hurl a 90 mph fastball in Wii Sports without shattering your 50-inch plasma. Now what? It’s time to explore the rest of the “channels” — some of them included with your Wii, and most free to download. Like cable TV, Nintendo’s offerings range from…
Apartment Zero (Anchor Bay) Babel (Paramount) The Bros. (Lions Gate) Crooked (Lions Gate) Crossover (Sony) Curious George: Zoo Night and Other Animal Stories (Universal) Dark Castle Horror Collection (Warner Bros.) Flushed Away (Paramount) For Your Consideration (Warner Bros.) Gandhi: 25th Anniversary Collector’s Edition (Sony) A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints…
We Americans complain of Big Brother’s unblinking eye in the post-Patriot Act, corporate e-mail era—as well we should. But, as The Lives of Others makes plain, things could be worse. Set in East Berlin circa 1984, when one in 100 citizens of the German Democratic Republic was a government informant,…
Addison is so cute and innocent, with its Flight Museum and its piano bar and its street signs that exclaim, “Addison!” So, of course, they’re inviting sweet Jim Norton (of Lucky Louie awesomeness—Is HBO seriously dropping that? Stupid, HBO.) to perform at the Improv Comedy Club in Addison this week…
Well, it wouldn’t be the Oscars without a nomination for Judi Dench, but really, all I have to say is Alan Arkin. C’mon, people. Have you seen Little Miss Sunshine? ‘Cause you’re gonna need to. STAT. Don’t give me your Dreamgirls shtick, because frankly, the whole musician biopic thing is…
The famous Pulitzer Prize-winning photo of Ruby shooting Oswald has always fascinated me, being a fan of true crime photography. I always thought it should be more gruesome than it was. I mean, this guy is getting shot at close range. Then I read what photographer Bob Jackson told The…
Even if Eric Clapton’s post-1989 offerings include such lowlights as “My Father’s Eyes” and “Tears in Heaven,” the guitar legend has earned the right to sing all the adult contemporary fare he wants. He could cover Toby Keith’s “Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue,” fuse it into John Lennon’s…
After hearing the tale of Gram Parsons being “laid to rest” in Joshua Tree National Monument (it’s one of the best rock ‘n’ roll stories ever), I had to wonder if I had any friends loyal enough to steal my corpse. It also made me think of how people recuperating…
When I took singing lessons, I could have sworn I saw my teacher wince as I hit my first notes. I knew then my singing career would be limited to the car—where every time I’d be a star. Thus I won’t be at Lone Star Park’s 11th Annual National Anthem…
Twelve Angry Men was originally produced for television, using a single set and good acting to tell a story of race, justice and reasonable doubt. This week the Roundabout Theatre Company brings the courtroom drama to Dallas’ Majestic Theatre. This production boasts a great cast, with George Wendt as the…
