You really want to avoid the crowds and keep a low profile? Head to the Web. Eventually, the terrorists will hit here, too, but until they do, strap on your gas mask, put on your rubber gloves, and point your browser to: Homebrew Headquarters (www.homebrewhq.com). Want to make your own…
I am single and unencumbered. No children (that I know of). I considered getting myself a dog — something cute and cuddly and useful at street festivals for luring women into range of my masculine charm — but then I realized that a dog needs to be fed and walked…
For dessert, call Dani’s Cakes (972-897-2406). Dani has been a pastry chef for more than 10 years, mainly working for corporate clients and by word of mouth. This year, she began selling to the public. And Dani herself will deliver to your house a cake or pie made to your…
They say it’s the thought that counts. This implies that a fellow should feel confident about giving his paramour an inexpensive gift — so long as he puts some brainpower into his purchase and comes up with something apropos, unique. Something with gravitas. But I’m here to tell you that…
Having friends and family over for a special dinner together is all well and fine, but let’s not forget that it’s our duty as Americans to get out of the house and eat and drink. You know, for the economy. Here are a few of the best places in town…
‘Tis the season of the superhero on television: A pretty-boy Clark Kent, sans “S” and spandex, stumbles his way around the WB’s Smallville to combat the latest freak-of-the-week; Patrick Warburton, Seinfeld’s silly Putty, suits up as the big, blue marble-headed Tick on Fox, after waiting a year to make his…
Lord knows how many times the Deep Ellum folks have tried to “unify” such a disparate “scene” with “events” like the New Music Festival, during which more than 100 local (and regional, and not) bands will play the downtown clubs in hopes of attracting old-timers, newbies and–oh, yeah–a few “A&R…
The last guest has left. How do you thank your wife for pulling it off so flawlessly? As the holidays approach and you’re trying to think of “perfect gifts” for everyone on your list, don’t overlook the gifts that raise a woman’s spirits most of all — those that make…
This year, whatever you do, please spare your guests from having to drink eggnog, that ubiquitous, sickeningly sweet holiday glop. Instead, serve them something deliciously unique. We speak, of course, of glogg, the traditional (strong!) spiced beverage of Scandinavian origins. Not only does a good glass of glogg get the…
If you’ve got out-of-town guests staying at your house, there will come a time in their visit when you will need to suggest, gently, “Why don’t you get the hell out of here and go do something?” Here are holiday events to keep them out of your hair. The IMAX…
The heroine of Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s bold and bracing new comedy, Amlie, is Amélie Poulain, a doe-eyed crusader with the face of a porcelain doll and a sleek helmet of jet-black hair. From her high perch in Montmartre, where she works as a cafe waitress, Amélie secretly resolves to emancipate all…
It is difficult to imagine a more timely film than Focus; certainly, its message about intolerance resonates in a post-September 11 world in ways the filmmakers never anticipated. Adapted from Arthur Miller’s little-known 1945 novel of the same title, Focus looks at what happens to a society when basically decent…
It doesn’t take much probing beneath the thin surface to see Shallow Hal as an apologia of sorts from Bobby and Peter Farrelly. The brothers are known for making movies full of jokes about midgets, retarded people, albinos, the handicapped and so on, but always with the caveat that the…
After venting his spleen in theater and film for a quarter century, it seems like David Mamet would be ready to divulge something human about humanity. Sure, his fervid fans may point to his Pulitzer and leap about singing hosannas to frothing hucksters and sexual miscreants, but after all the…
If there’s one man on the planet who knows how to market rustic charms to the masses, it’s Paddy Maloney. As the mercurial leader of Ireland’s phenomenal traditional ensemble, the Chieftains, he’s outdistanced countless Celtic contemporaries, trotting his group’s unmistakable sound around the globe. Who better, then, to provide the…
Natalie Merchant finished recording her third solo album, Motherland, on September 9, so by no means should anyone listen to the disc’s first song, “This House Is On Fire,” and think it has anything to do with hijacked airplanes, collapsed skyscrapers and the thousands buried beneath the rubble. The song…
Nick Cristano has a problem, and I’m having trouble figuring out why. As the central character in Theatre Three’s box office hit, Over the River and Through the Woods, Nick is put to a choice. Should he take the promotion his advertising company is offering him and move to Seattle?…
Star Trek, as a franchise, soldiers forward on impulse engines: The latest series, UPN’s Enterprise, is less a prequel to the original series than it is one more tepid remake in the image of Rick Berman and Brannon Braga, great birds of the galaxy with clipped wings. Despite its ratings…
Indiana Jones–whether he was searching for the Ark of the Covenant, the Holy Grail or a swell dame–always had exceptional luck, which movies, books and TV programs have made us believe is an essential part of being an archaeologist. The odd thing is they’re not wrong. Dr. Zahi Hawass, the…
As the year winds down, breathlessly and apprehensively, the most anxiously awaited releases left on the schedule offer nothing less than whimsy and reveries. We’ve had enough of the real world for now, so we look forward to leaving it behind and joining the merry company of Harry Potter, Frodo…
Joel and Ethan Coen’s periodic genuflections to classic Hollywood are inevitably accompanied by a knowing wink from one brother and a wry smile from the other. These devoted movie buffs’ versions of vintage gangster pictures (Miller’s Crossing) or the populist comedies of Frank Capra and Preston Sturges (The Hudsucker Proxy)…
In Domestic Disturbance, John Travolta provides a rare recent performance worthy of his fame, and it arrives bereft of laughable facial hair, flaccid special effects and overwrought speechifying that too often renders him paunchy parody. As Frank Morrison, a builder of expensive wooden ships at a time when they’ve been…
