Weekend Event Planner

These are the 8 best things to do in Dallas this weekend

The first weekend in November — yes, November is here already — is the unofficial start to the holiday season, a fact that's being celebrated by two separate events. You can also enjoy two fun concerts, comedy from two of the best in the business, a food and music festival, and a whale of a good time at the opera.

Below are the 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, November 3

Dallas Market Center presents Market Halliday Sale
The Market Halliday Sale, formerly Sample Sale, is Dallas Market Center’s only consumer event, giving you an opportunity to get a jump-start on your holiday shopping. Visitors to the four-day event can shop for gifts, apparel, jewelry, toys, children’s clothing, home accessories, furniture, and manufacturer samples from a wide variety of vendors. Thursday's preview event is $15; admission Friday-Sunday is free.

Mary Chapin Carpenter in concert with Rose Cousins
Like many other country musicians, Mary Chapin Carpenter hit her peak in the 1990s with hits like "Passionate Kisses," "He Thinks He'll Keep Her," "I Take My Chances," and "Shut Up and Kiss Me." But these songs are more than enough to keep her relevant 20 years later. Carpenter plays at Majestic Theatre in support of her 2016 album, The Things That We Are Made Of, with help from opening act Rose Cousins.

Friday, November 4

Dallas Opera presents Moby-Dick
Six-and-a-half years after making its world premiere in Dallas, Jake Heggie and Gene Scheer's Moby-Dick returns to Winspear Opera House for a special six-performance encore. Based on Herman Melville’s epic tale of Captain Ahab’s obsession with the great white whale, it is opera on a grand scale. Even better, you don't need a ticket to enjoy it, as the Dallas Opera is putting on a simulcast at Klyde Warren Park, with special activities for both kids and adults.

The Adam Carolla Show Live Podcast
Comedian Adam Carolla has dipped his toes in almost every aspect of the entertainment industry, co-hosting the Loveline radio show with Dr. Drew Pinsky, co-hosting The Man Show with Jimmy Kimmel, appearing on reality shows like Dancing with the Stars and Celebrity Apprentice, writing books, and even appearing in a few movies. He's best known these days for his hilarious podcast, a live version of which is being held at the Majestic Theatre.

Saturday, November 5

Scott Bradlee's Postmodern Jukebox in concert
Created by Scott Bradlee, the rotating collective of Postmodern Jukebox has spent the past few years amassing more than 450 million YouTube views. The performers, which include some notable names, like former American Idol standout Haley Reinhart, alongside phenomenal "undiscovered" talent, are taking their talents off the computer and onto the stage at Verizon Theatre at Grand Prairie.

Maria Bamford in concert
Comedian Maria Bamford was named by Rolling Stone as one of the 50 Funniest People and won the 2014 American Comedy Award for Best Club Comic. But she didn't truly break out until her Netflix sitcom, Lady Dynamite, premiered in early 2016. She's performing a stand-up comedy set at Majestic Theatre.

Sunday, November 6

Dallas Arboretum presents Holiday at the Arboretum
Holiday at the Arboretum includes the return of the 12 Days of Christmas outdoor exhibit, which features 12 elaborate 25-foot-tall Victorian gazebos with charming costumed characters, whimsical animals, and winter scenes made famous by The Christmas Carol. New this year, the garden is open for evening hours for The 12 Days at Night exhibit, which is on display every weekend through December 30.

Granada Theater presents Texas Chili Festival
The inaugural Texas Chili Festival at Granada Theater features select North Texas chefs, including Graham Dodds, Oliver Sitrin, Troy Gardner, Jason West, and Patton Robertson, cooking their unique version of what Texas chili means to them. The event also has music performances from Charlie Robison, Slobberbone, Mike McClure, Phil Pritchett, The Vandoliers, and The Roomsounds.

Scott Bradlee's Postmodern Jukebox plays at Verizon Theatre at Grand Prairie on November 5.

Photo courtesy of Tobin Center

Scott Bradlee's Postmodern Jukebox plays at Verizon Theatre at Grand Prairie on November 5.

comedy concerts opera event-planner shopping music nature

Movie Review

Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma gives horror a surreal twist

Photo courtesy of MUBI

Hannah Einbinder and Gillian Anderson in Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma.

The horror genre really ramped up in the 1970s and ‘80s, bringing with it a new subgenre - the slasher - that gave audiences new visuals of gore, but also a reliance on sexism and homophobia that would come to define the era. The new film Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma wrestles with that legacy in ways that are funny, thought-provoking, and downright strange.

Kris (Hannah Einbinder) is a queer filmmaker who has been hired to reboot the moldy IP that is the Camp Miasma franchise, one that was fresh in the 1970s but which numerous shlocky sequels have rendered irrelevant. In an attempt to get to know the property better, Kris has scored a meeting with the reclusive Billy (Gillian Anderson), the star of the original film who has shunned the public eye for decades.

Turns out that Billy lives deep in the woods at Camp Rivoli, which served as the location for the first film. As Kris tries to get to know Billy and convince her to be a part of the new film, she starts to fall under Billy’s spell and the lore of the franchise as a whole. That includes believing that the movie’s villain, Little Death - a transgender person who has an air conditioning vent as a head/mask - may not just be a character created for the movies.

Written and directed by Jane Schoenbrun (I Saw the TV Glow), the film at first feels like it’s going to go the straight-up comedy route, with comic explosions of blood, a strange fascination with candy brands, and a production design that does nothing to hide that the two main actors are on a movie set with painted backdrops. This is backed up by Kris’ phone conversations with her girlfriend, Mari (Jasmine Savoy Brown) and her agent (Sarah Sherman), as well as numerous other details.

But the film starts to go down the surreal route the longer Kris stays at the camp with Billy, especially when they sit down to watch the original Camp Miasma. An extended sequence shows a good amount of that film-within-the-film, demonstrating why Kris and Billy have a love/hate relationship with the property. For Kris, though, the lines between the film and the real world start to blur, and Schoenbrun uses a variety of out-there elements to drive the point home.

The final act of the film can barely be described as Kris goes deeper down the rabbit hole, with Schoenbrun using her film to comment on the horror genre as a whole, its treatment of women and LGBT people, the movie industry, and more. All the while the “camp” of Camp Miasma maintains a presence, with candy wrappers showing up everywhere and the tongue-in-cheek references to Little Death (the French term La petite mort, which means “the little death,” is a euphemism for orgasm).

Einbinder, an Emmy winner for Hacks, is the perfect person to inhabit her role. Her established real-life and fictional personas color everything she does in the film, with her enthusiasm and curiosity shining through. Anderson leans heavily into another reference - Norma Desmond from Sunset Boulevard - to create a character that is as mysterious as she is alluring. Supporting actors like Brown, Sherman, Patrick Fischler, Dylan Baker, and Eva Victor keep the movie at the right pitch all the way through.

While other films have made fun of horror movie tropes before, Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma finds a wholly unique way of doing so. It’s a funny and daring trip into the psyches of two women who may be victims of their own obsessions, and of the movies that made them that way.

---

Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma is now playing in select theaters

movies film