Film director Kevin Smith and his producer Scott Mosier are in town for a live recording of their weekly podcast — called “Smodcast” — tonight at the Granada Theater.  I’m sure it’ll be the same kind of good, clean, wholesome fun as Smith’s films Clerks or Zack and Miri Make a Porno. Expect plenty of Star Wars references.

We have a pair of tickets to give away to the show. They will be awarded to the person who sends me the funniest line from any Kevin Smith movie that could still get by this blog’s standards and practices policy. (It’s trickier than it sounds, yes?) You have until 2:30 pm to e-mail entries to me (jason.heid@dmagazine.com). Make “Kevin Smith” the subject line of the e-mail.

In the meanwhile, enjoy this clip from Clerks, if your workplace won’t fire you for doing so:

UPDATE: Sorry for not posting this sooner, but we have a winner. Thanks for all the entries. But the winner is Joe Cucinotti, who surprisingly took the prize with a line from Jersey Girl:

“George Michael is all about the ladies. ‘I want your sex.’ Does that sound like he’s singing to a guy?”

The intermission atmosphere in the ladies room was electric. Up and down the line out the door, there was a cacophony of giggles, gasps, and squeals. I wouldn’t have been surprised if the group had suddenly started drawing lipstick hearts on the mirror and belting “It’s a Woman’s World.” This is the kind of reaction WaterTower Theatre’s production of The Full Monty inspired on opening night, and if that portion is any indication, the audience’s enthusiasm will only continue to ..read more

1. Two Southern Methodist University seniors were inspired by the documentary film Papers, which follows young illegal immigrants turning 18, and so they decided to turn their cameras on their friends at the university, making Boxed In, a film about the life of illegal immigrants in college. The students hope to finish the film by September.

2. If you have Festival of Independent Theaters fever, I suggest spending some time on This Week in the Arts, where Alexandra Bonifield has been interviewing many of the performers, producers, and directors behind the festival, including festival managing director David Meglino, Upstart Productions’ Josh Glover, who stars in Wingspan’s Moonfish, and Randy Pearlman, who stars in the critic’s favorite, Alice in Wonderland.

3. Theater pieces for an audience one – “high-concept and immersive, intimate theater has been cropping up for years,” writes the New York Times, especially in Europe. This month the Battersea Arts Center in London will host the largest ever theater festival for one-person audiences, and one of those plays will be performed in New York tomorrow night. Will the performance trend sweep across the country?

There are two productions at the Festival of Independent Theaters of which you should steer clear: Second Thought’s Once More, With Feeling (A Power Play) and the McClarey Players’ Purgatory, A Bedroom Farce. Both feature young actors, including some with real talent, but the scripts are the real culprits. Christina Cigala’s Once More and Cliff McClelland’s Purgatory are both meandering and jokey. They’re painful to sit through.

At first, Once More is charming. The young cast is one of the most ..read more

The showcase on Monday at the Asian Film Festival of Dallas was Mao’s Last Dancer, whose screening was attended by dozens of people involved in the film. Most of Bruce Beresford’s movie takes place in Houston (and features Kyle MacLachlan attempting a Texan accent), so several Texan investors and producers were in attendance.

Mao’s Last Dancer is a distinctly Western film, and the festival knows it, as does its audience. Apparently the leading contenders for the Audience Award so far are ..read more

As we announced last week, the first installment of our new monthly film series kicks off Thursday, 7:30 p.m. with a screening at The Public Trust of Megumi Sasaki’s wonderful documentary Herb and Dorothy. Each month a different arts leader will choose a film that they believe people in Dallas need to see. For the first screening, Brian Gibb chose the documentary that tells the story of the famed art collectors – a postal worker and a librarian — who managed to put together an important art collection without having the wealth of a Rockefeller. In addition to the film, we’ll have drinks, popcorn, and conversation. There’s more information on the series here. To attend, RSVP to rsvp4@dmagazine.com. We hope to see you there.

1. Like Tim, I’m still scratching my head over the sudden resignation of the AT&T Performing Arts Center CEO Mark Nerenhausen (full release after the jump). Whatever the personal or managerial reasons for the departure, the looming reality is that the brand new PAC is already facing some financial challenges. Expect to hear more in the coming weeks.

2. Keeping contemporary dance companies up and running is no easy task. In Fort Worth, two companies have managed to more than stay afloat for some time. This past weekend, Ewert & Company celebrated its ten year anniversary and Contemporary Dance/Fort Worth closed its 20^th season. Contemporary Dance/Fort Worth’s Kerry Kreiman:

“The reality is I’m just a pretty determined person. It’s not like modern dance has ever been a lucrative career.”

3. In October 2011, Los Angeles will turn its attention on itself, launching a series of exhibitions, performances, and a public art festival that will survey the local art scene from 1945 to 1980. “Pacific Standard Time,” the Los Angeles Times reports, “is easily the biggest collaboration that Southern Californian museums have undertaken.”

“We’ve been called a niche festival,” Asian Film Festival of Dallas co-founder Steve Carlton said before Sunday night’s centerpiece film Ip Man 2. “And, you know, it’s true. But we’re proud of that.” Whether they’re niche or not, AFFD has lasted for an impressive nine years in the festival business, and the first three days of this year’s program proved that they know what they are doing, and they do it well. Here’s a recap:

Friday

Best day of the festival so ..read more

Bible Women (repeats July 29, July 31, August 1)

New York playwright and composer Elizabeth Swados wrote Bible Women as a song cycle, but it’s presented here with text by local playwright Vicki Cheatwood. Her chunks of narration and dialogue are much appreciated, because it’s hard to imagine this not-quite-play without her guidance.

As it is, the piece is still dominated by its songs, which incorporate a broad range of styles, from gospel to pop. It deals, rather quickly, with several Old ..read more

When it was announced that Bob Pollard was getting the band back together for Matador Records’ 21st birthday shindig in Las Vegas, I began waiting for the announcement of a Dallas gig. I’d pretty much given up after the Austin date was revealed, with no other Texas dates mentioned. But on Friday, it happened: Guided By Voices, September 29, the Showroom at Palladium. [Redacted curse word] yes.

The band for this tour — since Pollard has been the only constant for its inception — will be what some are calling the “classic” GBV: Tobin Sprout and Charles Mitchell on guitar, Greg Demos on bass, Kevin Fennel on drums. I’ll write more about it as the show nears, but for now, I leave with you with this, from a GBV profile I wrote for the Dallas Observer in 2001.

“Last time I came to your town, we went to a party after the show,” Pollard says, about 10 seconds into the conversation, referring to Guided by Voices’ infamous show at Trees in 1999 and more notorious after-party at a local musician’s house. “Some guy was f—ing laying — and I don’t do cocaine; I mean, every once in a while — and some guy was laying out cocaine with a $100 bill, and it came up missing, and he f—ing accused me of taking it.” He laughs. “Yeah, that was crazy. I ended up giving the guy, like, $40 out of my pocket — and he took it, too. I go, like, ‘Man, nobody took your money, man, but here’s some f—ing money if you’re gonna cry about it.’ And he took it.”

Tickets are on sale now.