Water guns When Buzz got its water bill from Dallas Water Utilities, we were surprised to find inside it the informative pamphlet "Licensed to carry a handgun: Please read these reminders." And once again our noses were rubbed in the nitpicking provisos and impediments to those of us who legally...
Choking on cheese I would like to commend Robert Wilonsky for his provocative expose of Paul "Mouse" Millender ("Mouse," April 4). It was ingenious of Wilonsky to refrain from asking one difficult question. "Mouse" Millender benefited from the wonderful public-relations service provided by the Dallas Observer. Why is the attack...
Chris Luna, who is not a morning person, answered the phone with the slur of sleep in his voice. It was 8:30 a.m. Tuesday--the day before the big Cinemark vote last week--and there was, of course, only one question that needed to be posed to Luna on this matter. "So,...
Coffee houses have made a comeback. Could Jean-Paul Sartre be far behind? The Nobel prize-winning author, if not directly responsible for the reflowering of Left Bank cafes in postwar Paris, probably provided their paint-smeared patrons with more conversational grist than any other writer. His varied contributions to philosophy's big "E"--existentialism--have...
On a windy and colder-than-usual Sunday night in April, more than 3,000 people showed up in Deep Ellum to do nothing more than hear local bands. There were no street fairs, no free food, no mimes, no apartment open houses. No, these people piled into Blue Cat Blues when Josh...
Beat surrender Nobody likes a rock-and-roll star, but everybody loves one. Rock-and-roll stars--the singers and guitarists who look bigger than life even when they're half a mile away on an arena stage--are the ultimate figments of the imagination. They only exist when they're performing, hollering, screaming at an audience they...
At first, Kim Deal ignores the constant interruptions caused when someone keeps trying to click in on her call waiting; she says to forget it, that it's probably not important. But soon she can't get a word out without getting cut off. "Hang on for a second," she groans, and...
It's not only humans who have to watch what they eat: My cat Ed was recently diagnosed as obese. The average full-grown male cat weighs 12, maybe 15 lbs. Eddie weighs 22, perfectly dry. Perhaps he lacks that chemical signal that tells his brain when he is "full." Perhaps he...
Film history is strewn with the corpses of underappreciated artists and overappreciated craftsmen. This is not a point over which to become sanguine; rather, it is a simple fact of cinematic life, predictable as the tides. What is less predictable, however, is which directors will fall into which category--and when...
Before the USA Film Festival's arrival last year--its Silver Anniversary--the pre-festival buzz was a mix of hype, anticipation, and dread. Its young, newly anointed artistic director, Alonso Duralde, had held the post for only four months, didn't have a shred of experience, and was forced to start from scratch in...
This year, the USA Film Festival introduces a new series called "Cinema on Film" that peeks at the glistening guts of filmmaking as the medium turns 100. But unfortunately, ticket buyers can't savor the two best documentaries in this series--profiles that scrape away the paunchy, narcissistic hide of two filmmakers...
Nightjohn, the new film by acclaimed director Charles Burnett, recounts the mythical journeys of an escaped slave named John (Carl Lumbly) who returns to bondage after having learned to read. With his intellect freed by literacy, he undertakes a mission--to liberate others from the bondage of ignorance. He envisions that...
The standard definition of "documentary" seems inadequate to describe Mark Rappaport's intriguing new nonfiction film, From the Journals of Jean Seberg. It doesn't subscribe to the usual documentary conventions, coming closer in style and structure to performance art. Although it features clips from Seberg's films, it also has plenty of...
In Rebel Without a Cause, James Dean, when asked by an adult what he's rebelling against, spits back, "Whaddaya got?" And with those words, Dean became a voice for his day's youth culture, an aimless teen looking for some tangible image to which he could cling to justify the emotions...
thursday april 18 The Hunchback of Notre Dame: Get a jump on the sure-to-be-insipid animated Disney version of The Hunchback of Notre Dame, which will be released this June, with a surefire unpredictable evening. This 1923 film version was the first cinematic take on the classic and remains (Charles Laughton's...
Ron Carpenter was looking forward to going home. It was shortly before quitting time on a Thursday in early November and Carpenter, a maintenance man at an apartment complex in far East Dallas, was anticipating being greeted by his daughter, Autumn, a pixyish 3-year-old with silky brown hair. He loved...
All the chat about Eatzi's has had a subtext: What about Marty's? Across the street from Brinker's new phenomenon is the pioneer of Dallas gourmet shops/take-outs, and comparisons between the two are inevitable. The problem is, they're completely misplaced. The two stores actually offer entirely different goods and services, and...
To hell with tradition. Instead of dedicating the annual Dallas Observer Music Awards issue to just the winners, this year we decided to feature all the bands nominated before the ballots are counted. The Music Awards are, after all, voted up by the readers, your chance to prove the critics...
There are certain names on a video box that just cry out: "Rent me! Rent me! Rent me!" I guess for some people it's Mira "Thank You, Daddy" Sorvino, but for me there's nothing like a good Brigitte Nielsen video. Will she have hair? What color will it be? Will...
Wrong time; far right place We were watching Big Sky's unique lifestyles on CNN last week. You know--anti-government freemen, suspected Unabombers...is that Dick J. Reavis? Yep, it sure was. The Dallas-based author of Ashes of Waco and former Observer staff writer was trying his damnedest to get an interview with...
Taking the blame While one has sympathy for the Geffens over the loss of their daughter, it's a bit of a stretch to blame Professor Joe Jaynes for the death of an 18-year-old college student--even one who was physically frail and "somewhat academically and socially immature" ["A tragic trip," March...
Congratulate artistic director Gretchen Swen and her Extra Virgin Performance Cooperative, which turns 3 years old this month. Toast her not only for surviving this long in a local theater scene paralyzed by crushing audience indifference, but also for refusing to trade her integrity in the bargain. Case in point:...
