Pib & Pog, these two bulgy-eyed lumps of dough, first appeared way back in 1994 in a film short directed by Peter Peake — one of the claymation folks at Aardman Animation who brought us the delightful dog-and-gizmo act, Wallace and Gromit. In fact, the short appears on their 2004 British DVD, Aardman Classics.
Pib & Pog are indeed [...]

With the Arts District, and especially with the Performing Arts Center, Dallas has bought into using culture as an urban revitalization tool, as well as a prop for increased national prominence. We have bet on it to the tune of — what? — three-quarters of a billion dollars? A billion? (The announcement this week that the PAC [...]

As AFI Dallas’s Greg Brown mentioned in his guest blog, The Texas Black Film Festival kicks off today.
And love – or lack of it – is in the air with productions of Crimes of the Heart at Garland Civic Theatre and  The Lovers at Addison Theatre Center. Here’s Gini.

The single reader who has followed my book/daddy blog and even the senior citizens who recall my book columns for The Dallas Morning News, will remember that I have argued for the viability of a book show. Commercial broadcast TV and cable TV do not seem eager to  recognize the simple genius of my proposal  (or at least my [...]

A Los Angeles Times story about the crunch that arts educators are facing with No Child Left Behind forcing all of the attention (and money) on raising math and reading scores cites Dallas as one of the few major school districts that is spending money to expand arts education.
The Times story reports that “A Center on [...]

David Mamet’s Edmond is one of his weaker, less-interesting dramas. It’s a very linear and unsurprising Rake’s Progress, a story of masculine self-destruction. The playwright’s best works, in contrast, are often non-linear and surprising dramas of masculine self-destruction.
But the consciously sordid, 80-minute-long Edmond has been given a superlative production by Second Thought Theatre, under the direction of Rene Moreno: somber, chilling, noir-ish. In [...]

Needing your film festival fix this week?  Head up to Addison and check out the Texas Black Film Festival…to be held Thursday through Saturday at the Addison Studio Movie Grill.  Executive Director David Small has tapped into his industry connections and created an interesting line-up of short films, documentaries and features. For complete details, visit [...]

Gini’s got your daily dose of arty goodness.

The proceeds from a live art auction in December will be donated to St. Anthony’s Community Center in Dallas tomorrow, Wednesday, January 30. The local art collective and fundraisers, Art Conspiracy, raised $14,000 in Deep Ellum with live music and works from more than 120 artists. The money will help fund art and music programs at St. [...]

Because we’re all font-savvy word processors these days (Copperplate! Bodoni! Zapf!), it has become a standard feature during an election year, but still fun: A newspaper runs a typographic review of the candidates’ official logos and bumper stickers. Here’s the Boston Globe’s. I disagree about the rising sun in Barrack Obama’s logo; Sam Berlow and [...]