Finally, the art angle I’ve been waiting for to allow the Mavs hysteria to bleed into this arts and culture space: word dropped in my email that Mavs’ center Tyson Chandler is a student at Sofia Khunteyev’s North Dallas painting studio. Love this photo. The good guys keep getting better.

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The Kitchen Dog Theatre has announced its 2011-2012 season lineup, which will feature a world premiere of a new work by a Kitchen Dog company member, the regional premiere of Sarah Ruhl’s  In the Next Room, Or the Vibrator Play, as well as an adaptation of Henry James’ The Turn of the Screw.  Here are the full details:

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Yesterday we honored and remembered the men and women who died while serving in the US Armed Forces. Today we have a giveaway that is both heroic and humbling. The New Texas Symphony Orchestra, which is an all-volunteer non-profit performing arts group, is preforming “Heroes,” an evening of military-inspired music, at the Winspear Opera House this Saturday, and we have a pair of tickets to giveaway. To get your hands on them all you have to is tell us about a hero in your life in the form below. We’ll pick a winner from the submissions after 3pm today.

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Baroque opera is an acquired taste, and Fort Worth Opera’s production of Handel’s Julius Caesar, which opened Saturday at Bass Performance Hall, gives plenty of incentives for opera buffs to learn to love this special corner of the operatic repertoire.

For the modern audience member, the most obvious attribute of Julius Caesar (and virtually all other baroque operas) is its stately pace. Even a drama packed with murder, revenge, war, and love moves patiently, with the events themselves taking up about ..read more

Mad, wonderful, horrible, and sublime things are happening at a little theater on Exposition Avenue, and have been for quite some time. The Ochre House’s most recent, and twelfth original, production is Matthew Posey’s penny opera of the comedic macabre, The Butcher. Posey’s production is extraordinary, ravishing, and frightening, but in a brilliant toe tapping, whistling down a dark alley sort of way.

Posey writes and directs (and just about everything else) this Grand Guignol romp that takes equal parts “Kurt Weill meets Irish folklore,” suspense, backdoor shenanigans, a disemboweled talking pig puppet, and a live band, and mixes it into a horror tale painted as a musical comedy – and then peppers it all with liberal dashes of Sweeney Todd.

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FRIDAY

Tang Lung/Slack Beat/The Angelus/Spelling Bee (1919 Hemphill): Though I received it an embarrassingly long time ago, I finally spent some real time with Slack Beat’s odd little 7 inch release, and I’m glad I did. The most striking thing about it is that you can’t tell when it was made; it has a timelessness to it that is so unattainable in most recordings, especially for local acts. The guitar-focused work is quite different from the previous looseness of their live performances, which have changed dramatically over the years with the addition of new members. It’s dissonant without ever becoming lost. I look forward to seeing them again.

As we told you earlier in the week, The Angelus is somewhere in the closing stages of releasing their new full-length and made this very ambitious medley-based preview for the record. So be on the lookout for a twelve part miniseries when it’s actually out.

I read some online mutterings of this show being under-promoted. But that’s just untrue. Tang Lung even made a very innovative video-flier. Look out, Angelus.

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Do you have a gadget-addicted golf geek in your life? If so, the HP Technology Zone at the HP Byron Nelson Championship will be heaven on Earth. HP’s interactive display will feature state-of-the-art touch technology and much more. A tribute to the late and honorable Byron Nelson will be on display, as well as the latest in high touch, high tech features on the entire Cadillac Collection. Get your swing analyzed and learn about the latest and greatest in cool gadgets and gizmos. For more information, log on to metroplexcadillacdealers.com.

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On June 16, we will kick-off our newest film series at the Kessler Theater, entitled, “Dallas, Outlaws, and the American Dream.” We’ll have more on the series early next week (which will include movies, music, and possibly some special guests), but here’s the lineup: Bonnie and Clyde (June 16), Bottle Rocket (July 28), and Paris, Texas (Aug 25 ) And you can already get your tickets right here.

Speaking of Bottle Rocket, Robert Wilonsky brings word that the motel that features in the film may soon shut down:

The Hillsboro motel where Wes Anderson, Luke and Owen Wilson and Bob Musgrave shot part of the film — known as the Windmill Inn back then, then a Ramada, now a Days Inn — is in danger of being shuttered. Which is why two locals, Andy Carl Valentin and Chris Durbin, are planning a “Save the Bottle Rocket Motel!” wingding at the motel off IH-35 on June 25.

And as a primer, it is definitely worth looking back at Matt Zoller Seitz’s making-of piece which ran in the Observer way back in September 1995.

When we first meet Su Can (Vincent Zhao), the hero of Yuen Woo Ping’s nearly two-hour-long martial-arts epic set near the end of China’s Qing dynasty, he’s the leader of some sort of half-bald badass army attempting to rescue a prince. He succeeds, of course, after the first of many intricately choreographed, overly long fight scenes. The prince offers Su Can a big promotion for his trouble (or really, what seemed like hardly any trouble at all — Vincent Zhao is crazy-eyed, but flawless), but Su Can refuses. He wants to return home and live in peace with his wife, Ying (Zhou Xun), so he tells the prince to give the promotion to his brother, Yuan (Andy On).

It’s a mistake. This is a martial arts movie, and we know our quick-fisted hero won’t be able to enjoy the domesticated life for very long. As it turns out, Yuan is Su Can’s foster brother, rather than his brother by blood, and Su Can’s wife is Yuan’s little sister. He is the creepy, vengeful sort, suffering from the familiar petulance that plagues siblings of over-achievers. And there’s a bit of a back story here too. Su Can’s father killed Yuan’s dad for getting way too good at something called the Five Venom Fists, and he took the two kids in and raised them as his own.

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Last night at The Prophet Bar, it was clear the difference one fan can make. Destry, who was supposed to be headlining, had a car malfunction in Mississippi. And, unfortunately, thanks to social media, all their fans were informed, and few made it out to see Destry’s opening act Communipaw, who had made it all the way from New Jersey.

However, none of that mattered for the first band on stage, Summertime Knives, a group of maybe four sixteen year old boys who shared a laid back attitude and a slight potential. The lead singer seemed to care little about the fact that this was probably his first show with letting phrases like “we’re the…whatever” and “this one is…alright,” slip throughout their set. And even though they didn’t look old enough to even be let into the bar, their dedicated group of five or six “x” stamped fans out in the audience were ecstatic to see them on stage. Each and every one of them was clapping along, and during their song “Her” a bit of synchronized sidestepping broke out between three audience members.

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