Comments by LoLoAloha
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Posted on September 9, 2008 at 6:34 a.m.
One of the things about Dallas that make me glad to live here. Bill's Hideaway at night: Great live music, friendly people, reasonable drink prices, never a cover charge (but be good and feed the tip jar on the baby grand), lovely garden patio out back. Denise Lee, Buddy Shanahan (great jazz pianist, along with being able to handle just about any genre), Liz Mikel, Anton Shaw, Amy Stevenson, Mark Mullino, Gary Floyd, Peggy Honea and others (still sadly missing William Blake, who's hopefully knocking folks dead up in New York City)--these are fantastic performers!
Fridays with Denise, and Sunday open mic (especially when hosted by Liz or Denise) are fab, especially when cast members of one of the tours at Fair Park Music Hall drop by, or the Turtle Creek Chorale has a concert and members drop in afterward. Folks drive hundreds of miles to come to Bill's, or arrange flight layovers on the way from coast to coast, and I doubt they'll ever kick out drag queens or trannies. Any city would be lucky to have this place, and we've got it, so thanks, Bill's folks!
Posted on August 4, 2008 at 12:42 a.m.
SMU is, of course, not the fitting place for the George W. Bush presidential library, and especially not for whatever that policy/think tank institutional mess they're planning is.
It's a shame about this ranking, and not really warranted for the institution of SMU, nor for most of the faculty and administration, in my experience. I just hope the Princeton Review makes it very clear that this is referring to attitudes of some (certainly not all, or probably even most) students, and not to the university's policies. It's certainly true that there are plenty of prickola, obnoxious people to be found in the SMU student body (especially if you go looking in places like the Greek system--yes, I know that's a prejudice on my part, and I try to not make assumptions based on frat/sorority involvement, but that involvement does seem to often be a marker for glbtq-haters). But there was much support and affirmation for queer issues and events from the actual institution when I was around there.
Posted on April 3, 2008 at 1:37 a.m.
Is this an April Fool's joke? Scott's Miracle-Gro, that purveyor of poison and imbalance for our earth, as sponsor of "healthy green space?" Oy. In any case, Dallas has certainly had community gardens before this, including one right here in our neighborhood (near Royal and Greenville), that's all grown over with grass now.
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Posted on March 3, 2009 at 6:09 a.m.
I agree--this was a beautiful, richly emotional night of theater. The four central men were all charming, vibrant actors, and HANDSOME--oh, and they sounded marvelous. It was especially nice to see Weston Hurt as Schaunard; he was unforgettable at the Dallas Opera Guild vocal competition in 2005, winning both the audience choice award and the top prize, with his warmly inviting confidence.
Valentine Fracas looked and sounded gorgeous, and acted well (there weren't any examples in the production, of the old fashioned stereotype of bad 'operatic acting,' which, though far less common than used to be, is still not extinct). Maria Kanyova looked suitably frail--or at least hungry--as Mimi, and sounded fine, though I missed a more soaring, full tone.
The orchestra and choruses (adult and children) sounded wonderful, and Pietro Rizzo kept the joyful chaos of act two properly crazy yet coherent. Benoit and the briefly featured soloists in acts two and three were good as well. This Bohème, while not reaching the transcendent thrill of last fall's "Marriage of Figaro," was strong and stirring.
On Opera Review: La Bohème