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Shannon Sutlief

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Horse with no name

First person to call it "D2K" is gettin' firebombed

By Shannon Sutlief
Dec 30, 1999

Oh, how this city tries. Dallas, otherwise known as America's biggest small town, is celebrating the countdown to the new century with a street fair-meets-Times Square party. Our New Year's Eve celebration features children's activities and performances by kiddie fave Eddie Coker, Ballet Folklorico, and Earl Harvin's jazz trio --...
Hometown heroes

By Shannon Sutlief
Dec 30, 1999

Good Night, Little Girl of My Dreams Budapest One Self-released Keith Killoren has enough charisma to be labeled a dangerous man. Hell, he even got me to dance with him once, which is like talking a polar bear into vacationing in Death Valley. That charisma, plus obsessions with Rudy Vallee,...
A real Rush

Scoring one for the Tramp

By Shannon Sutlief
Dec 23, 1999

Despite the lovable exterior of his famous character The Tramp, Charlie Chaplin was a consummate control freak. He kept his sets closed (shades of Stanley Kubrick and George Lucas) and did much of the work himself, using only a small group of regular players and whatever actress was his current...
Pink panthers

Is there such a thing as a local supergroup? Ask Pinkston.

By Shannon Sutlief
Dec 16, 1999

Calling Pinkston a new band is a bit of a misnomer, even though it hasn't yet been a year since the quartet's first show. Sure, that was Pinkston's first show together, but it wasn't each member's first ever -- not by a long shot. Pinkston is a band of young...
Honk if it's art!

Life in a review mirror

By Shannon Sutlief
Dec 16, 1999

There I am again, stuck in traffic and staring at the bumper of the orange '80s Datsun idling in front of me. You know the kind of car -- the one with the political bumper sticker that makes you want to do something drastic, violent, something that could raise your...
Woman's work

O'Keeffe lives (sort of)

By Shannon Sutlief
Dec 9, 1999

The Dallas Museum of Art has been enveloping Dallas with flowers and bones for a month now to promote its exhibit Georgia O'Keeffe: The Poetry of Things. There have been lectures, gallery talks, and symposiums discussing every aspect of her art and her life; O'Keeffe's giant red poppies even adorn...
Bunny hop

Otto Preminger is alive and living in The USA Film Festival

By Shannon Sutlief
Dec 2, 1999

Bunny Lake is Missing is missing. The 1965 film by Otto Preminger isn't available on video or DVD; it can't be found at rental stores. The film has practically vanished, and Preminger himself has become fodder for film history books and Turner Classic Movie marathons during which his better-known films...
Holiday jeer

The diary of an elf as as a young man

By Shannon Sutlief
Nov 25, 1999

I heard my first excerpt from David Sedaris' SantaLand Diaries last Christmas break. I was working at the University of North Texas library, hoping to earn enough money to make rent and buy a few presents before the next financial aid check arrived in January. The library was empty: Most...
Sister, I'm a poet

After two albums, Rainer Maria can make the time to take its time

By Shannon Sutlief
Nov 18, 1999

Rainer Maria completes about one new song a month. On the surface, this sounds a bit slow, especially considering that the Madison, Wisconsin, trio has relocated to rural Connecticut where their daily chores include feeding dogs, going to the library, and spending a few hours each day just working on...
What the doctors ordered

By Shannon Sutlief
Nov 18, 1999

Improv is for daredevil comedians. Getting up on stage without pre-written jokes is like walking the tight rope without a safety net -- or a rope. And using audience suggestions to build jokes on the spot is like letting someone else pack your parachute -- someone who has never skydived...
Fool's proof

David Chappelle giddy and on the road

By Shannon Sutlief
Nov 11, 1999

Making movies seems like a dream job. Sure, there's that pesky loss-of-privacy thing, but it's got to be better than database entry or bookkeeping, or, well, anything else. But for David Chappelle, making movies is almost like a nine-to-five job. It simply allows him the funds and the time to...
Deep background

The Artman cometh, and he's got the blues

By Shannon Sutlief
Nov 4, 1999

Dallas artist Arthur James is obsessed. Artman, as he prefers to be known, loves the blues, its history, its legends, and its connections to his hometown. His interest exploded when he moved into the Boyd Hotel building on Elm Street. Almost as though possessed, James began researching the blues history...
Camping out

Let's do the Time Warp on stage again

By Shannon Sutlief
Oct 28, 1999

Most among us don't love or hate The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Rather, it's a matter of how much you love it -- a little, or a-rice-throwing, Windex-bottle-spraying-lot. Maybe you're just a Brad if you don't dig a schlock-and-roll musical that lampoons '50s uptightness and old sci-fi movies, dolled up...
Rock of Ages

Archeology in Rockwall

By Shannon Sutlief
Oct 21, 1999

The skeptics among us might be tempted to dismiss an archaeological find making its premiere at Dallas' suspicious-phenomena clearinghouse The Eclectic Viewpoint; it's just too easy to think of it as the doings of the far-out, the paranoid, or the just plain crazy. But it's too hard to resist a...
Playing the Field

Quasi's Janet Weiss is the hardest-working woman
in show business

By Shannon Sutlief
Oct 21, 1999

Janet Weiss might have been better off if she had just left Quasi when she joined Sleater-Kinney in 1996. She could have said goodbye to her ex-husband and Quasi partner Sam Coomes, his Roxichord, and his honestly caustic lyrics, and run off to be the star drummer in the much...
Matthew Sweet

By Shannon Sutlief
Oct 21, 1999

Matthew Sweet "Girlfriend" was one of those out-of-nowhere singles that could have -- should have -- turned its author, Matthew Sweet, into just another one-hit wonder, especially since he chose to follow the album it appeared on (also called Girlfriend) with Altered Beast, a more experimental, less straightforward disc. Beast...
Dress load

From Russian with art

By Shannon Sutlief
Oct 7, 1999

There are plenty of legends about journeys and locations of historical objects. The History Channel dissects the tales from George Washington's wooden teeth to Marilyn Monroe's dress from The Seven Year Itch. Then there's how the "Cowardly Lion" costume from The Wizard of Oz was found in a studio's trash...
Retro acted

Sinatra used to find pieces of guys like this in his stool

By Shannon Sutlief
Sep 30, 1999

Ken Nelson, a regular at the "Branson-on-the-Brazos" show in Waco, was destined to have a career in music. His mother sang with a big band, his father was a trumpeter, and their home was filled with the music of Frank Sinatra. Nelson's own calling began with his cabaret show of...
Fly joys

The Magic of Flight on the big screen

By Shannon Sutlief
Sep 23, 1999

There's a certain rush of anticipation when entering the TI Founders IMAX Theater at The Science Place and seeing the 79-foot domed screen come into view -- in front, above, and around. It's like waiting in line at the roller coaster. The next train is coming down the tracks, and...
Black Magic

But where's Three Dogs Playing Poker

By Shannon Sutlief
Sep 16, 1999

We've all seen them -- the black velvet canvases with garish paint slathered thickly like margarine on sandwich bread, sold from a beat-up truck on a street corner, banished to the back of thrift stores, or stacked in booths at the many festivals this city spawns during the spring and...
(Bob)cat call

Shakes not stirred

By Shannon Sutlief
Sep 9, 1999

The old vaudeville stripper motto in Gypsy was "you gotta get a gimmick." It works just as well nowadays, and not just for strippers. It's also perfect for comedians. Drew Carey talks about his weight, Jeffrey Ross reads poetry, and Bobcat Goldthwait has that voice -- the trademark multi-octave, avalanche-of-emotions-at-once...
Cop a Look

A boy in blue at a bookstore near you

By Shannon Sutlief
Sep 2, 1999

Police officers don't get much respect from adults. No news flash there. After all, cops stop us and issue speeding tickets when we don't deserve them. (And we never do.) Seriously -- 73 in a 70? State trooper, dude, I'm late to school already; going three miles per hour over...