The Iraqi government could learn something from mistakes made in Germany after World War II. In 1944, when the Allies started carving up his country to ward off post-war religious and class disputes, playwright Bertolt Brecht said, “Back off! Let the people who have to live in the house decide…
Folks these days are prone to hyperbole. Everything’s the best, the biggest, whatever. And Robin Williams (documentary filmmaker, not the spastic comic actor) is no exception. His film Biblical Treasures of Turkey goes a little too far with the term “treasure.” The trailer features, um, old buildings, some groves of…
Aloha and pass the shrimp. Chef Roy Yamaguchi will celebrate the fourth anniversary of Roy’s in Plano by preparing a five-course dinner paired with wines from California’s Wente Vineyards. Also at the stove: Kent Rathbun and Brian Sommers of Jasper’s Restaurant in Plano and George Brown of George in Dallas…
Some people are experts in one type of dance, but how many are experts in all dances? Very few! Sometimes that’s what makes it fun. Contemporary Dance/Fort Worth seems to agree, judging by its upcoming dance marathon. Segments like Dance Fanatics—-with Swing, Latin and Ballroom—-are easy to figure out. But…
When I saw the listing for an event called “Hooch and Pooch” by a group called “Kitchen Dog,” I naturally assumed it would en-tail (get it?) eating and drinking with canine companions. What could be better than sharing biscuits and “apple-tinis” with Buster? Imagine my surprise when I found out…
Were I a judge in Saturday’s Ugly Teapot Competition at the British Emporium, 140 N. Main St. in Grapevine, I would do a horrible job. I adore ugly teapots. Give me a globby, blobby, flowered mess in putrescent hues any day. I do, however, draw the line at one particular…
The English have given us so much: the Stamp Act, Newcastle Brown Ale and the genius of Ricky Gervais. They inspire us toward better dental hygiene and force us to re-evaluate the true meaning of fair skin. Their wacky driving habits spice up vacations by keeping pedestrians on their toes,…
The question of “If a lonely tree falls in the woods, does it make a sound?” takes on new life when approached from the angle of “If a movie features stop-motion animation, punk bands and a futuristic story about a messianic Charles Manson, is it automatically ‘cult’?” John Roecker’s “murder…
When I was a girl, I couldn’t decide which was cooler, Dorothy Hamill’s hair or her ice-skating. Sure, she was a World Champion and Olympic gold medalist, but that wedge was awesome, and I cut my own hair to match it; I even had a bottle of the Short &…
Most of what I write is sarcastic and generally lighthearted, but for this one I just couldn’t find it in me—Jewish or not, we all wince when we hear the horror stories of the Holocaust. Remember the acclaimed film, Life is Beautiful, in which a man turned a stay at…
If you bop into Nordstrom this month to try on a new pair of shoes, take a few minutes to look up from your feet in those new strappy heels and take a gander at the walls. In honor of Black History Month, the department store is showcasing an exhibit…
Once again, the Man deals a blow to the homeless population of downtown. While more green spaces would make the area more habitable and inviting, more golf courses downtown would not—no matter how green and, in this case, indoors, scaled-down and air-conditioned they are. It’s like setting up a big…
So how do you live up to the dubious distinction of being called “the black Jerry Lewis”? The only man that can answer that would be comedian Arnez J. According to his Comedy Central bio, his physical humor has also drawn comparisons to Jim Carrey. Poor guy. The real question…
If you told me one day I’d willingly watch a Tim Allen movie, the old me would have kicked you in the face and called you the Devil. But that was before Galaxy Quest came along and altered my universe forever. Not even Allen could spoil this sci-fi comedy, in…
America–and by extension Hollywood–has an obsession with innocence and the loss thereof. Every generation has that Moment When Everything Changed, from Pearl Harbor to JFK’s assassination to September 11. The impact takes a while to settle in, then people forget again and future generations are similarly traumatized. But if you…
Albert Brooks, the once-funny comic-turned-filmmaker, plays a once-funny comic-turned-filmmaker named Albert Brooks in Looking for Comedy in the Muslim World, which he also wrote and directed. It’s the second time Brooks has played himself, more or less; the first was in 1979, when he made Real Life, in which he…
We popcorn-chomping hitchhikers never know who will pick us up on the roadside. In Flirting With Disaster, it was a neurotic Manhattan adoptee on a nationwide search for his biological parents. The desert-parched heroines of Thelma & Louise brought us along as they raised hell en route to their doom…
You’d think that anyone possessed of the notion that “the Jews” are one monolithic whole that thinks and acts alike need only take a look at, say, wrestler Bill Goldberg, Hollywood hottie Natalie Portman, shock jock Howard Stern and nebbishy right-wing scold Michael Medved to have that idea instantly dispelled…
With the release of The White Countess, the much-honored Merchant Ivory canon is complete. The Bombay-born producer Ismail Merchant died in May 2005 at age 68, and whatever direction his longtime collaborator and life-companion, director James Ivory, now chooses, the working partnership that gave us a dozen elegantly furnished period…
Besides being Friday the 13th, the opening night performance of The Women, the Clare Boothe Luce comedy at Contemporary Theatre of Dallas, unfolded under a big, fat full moon. With 19 actresses playing the 42 women’s roles (there are no men in the show), that’s risking the hormonal equivalent of…
Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room (Magnolia) The best two hours you’ll ever spend learning about accounting, Enron is one part civics lesson, one part Greek tragedy, and one part political cartoon. Director Alex Gibney makes no pretense of objectivity; he wants you to hiss and boo at Ken…
Movie-based videogames have a well-deserved reputation for sucking. Ever since Atari’s E.T. — a game so ill-conceived that thousands of unsold cartridges were dumped en masse in the desert, creating the crappiest buried treasure of all time — Hollywood tie-ins have bombed big-time. Peter Jackson’s King Kong: The Official Game…
