Nowhere is the spirit of Dallas more alive than in its artists. Their cultural brain power and unstoppable ambition bring us new events and festivals, revitalize neighborhoods, reflect on our blunders and offer us things to take pride in. Our artists challenge the status quo of theater, film, visual art…
If you haven’t already started your holiday shopping, you’re going to want to get on that pronto. December 25 will be upon us before you know it, and unless you’ve decided to forgo the exchange of material possessions on the holiday as some kind of anti-capitalist protest, you’d better get…
You’ve been to Super H Mart probably a million times, right? The allure of an exotic Asian market with interesting produce and strange things made out of fish is impossible for the adventurous to pass up. Maybe you’ve also gotten into going to the Korean spa, which inevitably leads one…
Terry Mayo’s tattoo gun slings only large-scale art pieces these days — bio-organic, blackwork, black and gray, or color tattoos. The 25-year ink veteran specializes in illustrative images but prefers to tattoo traditional Japanese art. He has tattooed masterpieces using both styles at Cat Tattoo in Addison. Mayo says he…
When Richard Garcia was a kid constantly drawing his favorite comic book characters, he knew he someday wanted to make a living as an artist. But even in art school, where he spent four years working on photo-realistic drawing with graphite and charcoal, he never considered tattooing a viable option…
Travis Clancy’s studio, located in an off-the-beaten-path warehouse district in Plano, is a stunning combination of recording studio and tattoo shop. It looks nothing like the semi-sketchy shops where most of us got our first piece of art — the barbed wire wrapped around the arm or small butterfly on…
The business model is not, sadly, unique: Come up with a novel idea to sell something, perhaps a rock. Pick an item and sales pitch that a distressing number of people find humorous. Get press (like this story). Pray to the Internet gods that the idea goes viral. Collect cash…
If you make less than $3 million per year, then you are familiar with the rough part of NorthPark Mall. You know, the dark side. The wing where there aren’t gowns you wear to the Academy Awards and the basic white T-shirts don’t run $75. The side without the contraption-pond-thing…
Every tattoo is different. This art form is permanent and personal, especially for the people who create it. On a mission to ink our own skin, we researched and tracked down some of the best tattoo artists in Dallas for an ongoing series. Clint Cummings doesn’t need the title of…
Upon stepping in the front door of J. Hall Gentleman Tattooers, a friendly “butler” (heavily tattooed receptionist in a T-shirt) welcomes you into the institution (tattoo shop), and offers you a bottle of water (Fiji!). If you have ever been to a tattoo shop before, you know this type of…
If you have managed to brave the crowds and cleared away shelves at Carrollton’s new cheap-ass heaven, Daiso Japan, you should be commended for your efforts. Since those lines that wrapped around the building on the scorcher that was opening day, Daiso has stayed busy. Even a few days later,…
Liz Cook is a tattoo artist. But not in the traditional sense. She doesn’t tattoo tribal designs or Old English lettering. A dagger driven through the heart or “Born to Ride” emblazoned on a banner is not the kind of ink she’s slinging at Rebel Muse, a small tattoo studio…
At some point Friday, a Dallas Morning News headline started popping up on my Facebook feed. It contained a magical four-word phrase: “Daiso Japan dollar store.” After further investigation (i.e., reading the article), I discovered (i.e., someone else discovered and I just got super excited when I found out) Daiso…
In the local retail landscape, there’s a lot of same-old, same-old. Even some of the boutique spots tend to stock similar merchandise, which can leave you at a loss when you’re looking for something truly unique. You might have to look off the beaten path just a little bit, but…
We’ve already established that there is a depressing dearth of fashionable plus-size clothing in Dallas, but that doesn’t mean that there are absolutely zero boutiques in this city selling the fashion-forward clothing that plus-size consumers are practically dying to buy. As we mentioned last week, the Marlie Madison Boutique is…
Every tattoo is different. This art form is permanent and personal, especially for the people who create it. On a mission to ink our own skin, we researched and tracked down some of the best tattoo artists in Dallas for an ongoing series. (The first one on the list became…
If you play a lot of video games, you probably consider yourself a nerd, and you’re likely a fan of Star Wars. The Dallas Gaming Expo is a place where a door fee gets you access to bunch of old arcade games, like Cruisin’ USA and Space Invaders, set to…
After months of anticipation my kid brothers’ dreams finally came true on July 17, as the three of us walked into the Embassy Suites Dallas-Frisco/Hotel for the ScrewAttack Gaming Convention. Mikhail and Luka had a pocket full of cash each for the dealer room, a 24-hour arcade with dozens of…
For all the constant prattle about whether or not Dallas is a world-class city, there is at least one respect in which Dallas has most other major cities beat: shopping. We may not have 5th Avenue or Rodeo Drive, but there is just as much fashion in this city as…
Though it may have taken years for Dallas to catch up to other cities’ art and culture scenes, the Big D has always been home to incredible shopping of all kinds. From the ascendancy of Neiman Marcus in in the 1950s to the multitude of strip malls and discount stores…
In this week’s Dallas Observer we profile 20 of the metro area’s most interesting characters, with new portraits of each from local photographer Can Turkyilmaz. On a gloriously warm Saturday in the middle of February, Jonathan Braddick led another bicycle ride, and everyone on the Internet was invited. Around 500…
In this week’s Dallas Observer we profile 20 of the metro area’s most interesting characters, with new portraits of each from local photographer Can Turkyilmaz. “At this point I’ve become about 97 percent authentic,” says Rawlins Gilliland, the master storyteller who turned 70 in April and is coming off what…
