Weekend Event Planner

High culture concerts top best weekend events in Dallas

Call it a post-New Year's hangover, but with New Year's Day coming in the middle of the week this year, there are relatively few new events happening this weekend. But if one of your New Year's resolutions was to get more culture, there will be plenty of opportunities for you to start 2014 the right way.

Below are your best options for your precious free time Thursday through Sunday. Don't like what you see? Lucky for you, we have a much longer list of the city's best events.

Thursday, January 2

Shen Yun 2014
This is the second year in a row that Dallas audiences have gotten to start off the new year with performances from the Chinese performing arts troupe Shen Yun. Using dance, drums and singers to illustrate 5,000 years of Chinese history, it's definitely a unique experience. The troupe will put on four performances at Winspear Opera House through Saturday.

Friday, January 3

2014 AT&T Cotton Bowl Classic: Missouri vs. Oklahoma State
The Cotton Bowl Classic has been a staple in the Dallas area since 1937, whether at the actual Cotton Bowl or its new home of AT&T Stadium. Its 78th edition will feature two former Big 12 combatants, Missouri and Oklahoma State, facing off for the first time since Missouri joined the SEC in 2012. There are still a limited number of tickets left, so grab 'em while you can.

Chamber Music International presents Augustin Hadelich and Joyce Yang
You can experience concerts from Chamber Music International all year long in a variety of settings, but they'll start off 2014 with a performance at Dallas City Performance Hall from two of the best young musicians playing today, violinist Augustin Hadelich and pianist Joyce Yang. The recital will feature selections from Beethoven, Rachmaninoff and more.

Saturday, January 4

Dallas Opera Titus Art Song Recital Series: Ian Bostridge
The Dallas Opera starts off 2014 with a new program, the Titus Art Song Recital Series. Taking place at Dallas City Performance Hall, the first iteration will feature English tenor Ian Bostridge, who will perform a program alongside Canadian pianist Wenwen Du with selections from Franz Schubert, Benjamin Britten, Charles Ives, Noel Coward and Cole Porter.

Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra presents Sci-Fi Spectacular
George Takei has captured a whole new generation of fans thanks to his droll Facebook posts, and the audience at Bass Performance Hall will get to experience that humor in person as he narrates this concert by the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra. They'll play selections from a variety of sci-fi movies, including Star Trek, Star Wars, The Day the Earth Stood Still, Close Encounters of the Third Kind and more.

Sunday, January 5

Last chance for holiday shows
The holiday season technically ended on January 1, but you can still enjoy experiences like Holiday Lights at the Chinese Lantern Festival at Fair Park, the Gift of Lights & Snow at Texas Motor Speedway and The Trains at NorthPark through Sunday. After that you'll have to put away your holiday cheer for, oh, 10 months or so.

Holiday Lights at the Chinese Lantern Festival will end its run at Fair Park on January 5, one of many holiday events ending on Sunday.

Holiday Lights at Chinese Lantern Festival

Photo courtesy of Chinese Lantern Festival

Holiday Lights at the Chinese Lantern Festival will end its run at Fair Park on January 5, one of many holiday events ending on Sunday.

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Chain gang

Taylor Sheridan pens 'darkly funny' book about how to survive prison

Yellowstone Season 5 premiere, Taylor Sheridan

Photo by Richard Rodriguez/Getty Images for Paramount

Taylor Sheridan and wife, Nicole, at the Yellowstone Season 5 premiere in Fort Worth.

In the same week that Taylor Sheridan announced he's setting his new series Frisco King in DFW comes news that he's written his first book. The Oscar-nominated screenplay writer and Yellowstone co-creator has written about crime and violence so often that he decided to work on a book about an ordeal he has never endured: life behind bars.

Simon & Schuster announced Sheridan's How to Not Die in Prison, a “darkly funny survival guide” to a maximum-security facility, will come out June 23. Sheridan is a best screenplay nominee for the 2016 crime drama Hell or High Water, and has overseen such TV series as Yellowstone, Tulsa King, and Mayor of Kingstown.

“You might wonder what in the world gives me the knowledge or wisdom to write a survival guide to prison,” Sheridan writes in the book’s introduction, according to Simon & Schuster. “Well, I’ll tell you — absolutely nothing. I’ve never been to prison. But, like every man, I’ve certainly wondered how I would survive if circumstances ever put me there. That morbid curiosity sent me on a journey to understand the politics and dangers of prison.”

Sheridan did receive some firsthand input. His co-author is Tom Nelson, who spent more than a decade in prison.

Taylor Sheridan, How not to die in prison Taylor Sheridan's first book will be released in June 2026.Photo courtesy of Amazon.com

“Hey, one of us has written hit TV shows and Academy Award-nominated movies, and the other has spent much of his adult life behind bars in medium and maximum-security prisons,” Nelson said in a statement. “If that’s what makes for good wisdom and entertainment, I’ll take it.”

Sheridan is an honorary Fort Worthian who attended Pascal High School. He lives on a ranch near Weatherford with his wife, Nicole and often films his shows around Fort Worth - including 1883, and currently Landman, and Lioness.

Bolstered by Sheridan's presence, Fort Worth has made the list of top cities for filmmakers in recent years.

Sheridan's other film credits include writing and directing the Angelina Jolie thriller Those Who Wish Me Dead and the Western thriller Wind River, starring Jeremy Renner and Elizabeth Olsen. Last fall, Paramount Pictures and Activision announced that Sheridan and Hell or High Water collaborator Peter Berg are working on an adaptation of the blockbuster video game franchise Call of Duty.

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Stephanie Allmon Merry contributed to this story.

books crime celebrities taylor sheridan