When I walked out of a screening of Dead Man Walking last January, I didn't quite know what to think. Here was a movie written and directed by Tim Robbins, and starring Susan Sarandon and Sean Penn--three of the most unabashed liberals Hollywood has to offer--that did not allow easy...
The buzz on Heaven's Prisoners, the screen adaptation of James Lee Burke's novel, has been so miserable for such a long time that its release date has been changed more than Hillary Clinton's hair style. (Not surprisingly, it's been sitting on the shelf since roughly the Bush Administration.) I tend...
thursday may 9 And the Light Shineth in Darkness: Texas-based painter Calvin Davis is up-front about the agenda behind his series of gorgeously detailed paintings. Exhibited as And the Light Shineth in Darkness, the pictures are designed so "people will come away from it with a greater desire to seek...
If you've got a Tolltag, you know where Tupy's is. Along with Horchow Finale--the discount store of catalogue leftovers--Tupinamba (called Tupy's by regulars) anchors a shopping center whose feature attractions are a pet-grooming shop, a nail salon, and the Tolltag store. It's on Inwood Road just off Forest Lane--Dallas' ancient,...
It's often considered the most romantic restaurant in the city, and when I go there, I realize all over again how far I am from understanding romance. In my experience, love means never having to have the munchies again--or, at least, not for the duration of the infatuation. Love makes...
When my sister the chef used to visit New Orleans, the first thing she'd do after checking into a hotel was head for a convenience store and buy a couple of bags of Zapp's potato chips. After all, a trip to New Orleans is a culinary expedition, Zapp's are top-drawer...
Today's lesson is on The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. No matter how many times I've talked about this flick before, you guys still expect me to take time out from serious drive-in reviewing to go rehash all the Saw trivia just because you missed it the first time. So now I'm...
The shades are open and rooms empty at the house Jeffrey H. Reynolds III once rented on Blackberry Lane. The 32-year-old check-kiter and soon-to-be federal inmate abruptly moved out about three weeks ago, shortly after pleading guilty to two counts of wire and mail fraud. During the year Reynolds lived...
On April 25, 1994, the weather-radar screen on Bill Gaither's television was ominous. The Lancaster city manager apprehensively watched the red blips as they moved toward his city. The pulsating pinpoints of light predicted a swift and destructive approaching storm. Pretty soon, barring a miracle, major turbulence would reach the...
Down, Charlie Gibson, down! Adherents of local good-sex guru Ella Patterson probably caught a glimpse of their zaftig Love Goddess on ABC's Good Morning America this week. The television broadcast kicked off Ella's month-long national tour to promote her steamy book, Will the Real Women Please Stand Up?, which offers...
Christian Coalition leader's comments about Hispanics and English-as-a-second-language programs in public schools have enraged parents in the Carrollton-Farmers Branch school district north of Dallas. Doug Hellman, co-chairman of the conservative Dallas County Christian Coalition and a member of the Carrollton-Farmers Branch school board, made the statements during a taped interview...
Selling Luna's soul Dallas City Councilman Chris Luna "sounds" like a very, very cheap prostitute selling not his body but his integrity ["Luna landing," Laura Miller, April 18]. He gives Cinemark secret and confidential city-council information that enables Cinemark to initiate a lawsuit against the city Luna is supposedly serving,...
It was a lovely spring day in lovely University Park, and the sun was shining, the breezes were blowing, and the birds were chirping. Which was a problem. It wasn't a problem for the birds, of course. They were quite carefree--screaming their silly songs, mauling the mulberry trees, doing that...
Short of dropping your pants, there's no better way of exposing yourself than by writing a work of fiction. A novel or a play is just an author's way of lifting the lid on the bait box of his or her brain to reveal the writhing, wriggling worms within. Open...
Glam dancing There's not one damned original thing about Spacehog. The ambisexual clothing is lifted straight from the glam section of the history books, as is most of the music--sort of operatic Mott the Hoople metal with a pogo beat--and the shtick is punk even if the execution is pure...
Clad in a pale green sweater and faded jeans, her red hair cut short and her face barren of any makeup, Ann Magnuson cuts a drab path through the lobby of the Sheraton Park Central. It's a stark contrast to the look she wears best--the more-glamorous-than-thou wardrobe, the style of...
When Richard Hunter announced he was running for the office of mayor in Fort Worth, he expected everyone to figure he was goofing. After all, Hunter isn't a politician. He's a long-haired 25-year-old bass player, for God's sake, best known for his stint in Killbilly and now I, The Jury...
In 1975, Ellen Burstyn--who'd won the Academy Award for best actress the previous year--caused a stir when she publicly decried the lack of good female roles in movies, and encouraged her sisters in cinema to boycott the Oscars by refusing to nominate, vote for, or participate in the actress and...
thursday may 2 26th Annual Big D Charity Horse Show: There are those who bond with horses faster than Elizabeth Taylor could drop a violet tear in National Velvet. But you needn't have much interpersonal equestrian experience to enjoy the 26th Annual Big D Charity Horse Show, which features four...
I was in New York two weeks ago, and I saw an extraordinary work of art, of fanaticism--and, the artist claimed, of love. Liza Lou, a young artist from the West Coast had entirely covered a life-size kitchen in tiny, brilliantly colored beads. Not one inch was left bare. Picture...
First it was scotch (single malts, the more obscure, the better), then it was the martini (in 100 high-end variations), then bourbon (single-barrel, please). The trend is toward connoisseur sipping, not guzzling, and the latest liquor to climb the ladder of taste is tequila and its sister, mescal. These days,...
The scariest thing you'll ever find in a flick is not a goo-faced, bug-eyed monster and it's not Freddy Krueger or Jason or Leatherface and it's not a bunch of skinheads with razor blades. The scariest thing you'll find in a movie is the Psycho Hag. The Psycho Hag is...
