Weekend Event Planner

Suburbia Music Festival tops best weekend events in Dallas

Music is the theme of the first weekend in May, as there are multiple opportunities to catch big name acts. A certain first time festival in Plano is the headliner, but if you feel like staying inside as the temperatures edge toward 90, we've got you covered as well.

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, May 1

Dallas Museum of Art presents Jellyfish Eyes screening
The Dallas Museum of Art is one of only nine stops for Takashi Murakami's first-ever film, Jellyfish Eyes. The film utilizes Murakami's unique artistic style to tell the story of a boy who loses his father and moves with his mother to a new city, only to discover their new home is inhabited by a pint-sized, gravity-defying creature. Murakami will be in attendance for this free screening.

Alamo Drafthouse presents Dawn of the Dead with George A. Romero in attendance
Zombies may once again be all the rage thanks the popularity of The Walking Dead, but the genre had its coming out party in the 1970s thanks to director George A. Romero. Alamo Drafthouse in Richardson will screen what's considered to be Romero's best film, Dawn of the Dead, with Romero, special effects artist Tom Savini and key cast members in attendance.

Friday, May 2

2014 Dallas International Guitar Festival
Guitar lovers will unite at Fair Park for three days of music and shopping to appreciate one of the most simple and yet complex musical instruments there is. The festival, taking place through Sunday, will take over three different buildings to showcase over 800 booths and 60 performers, including Johnny Winter, George Lynch and Andy Timmons.

Gavin Degraw in concert with Parachute and Nick Gardner
Gavin Degraw broke out in a big way with his 2003 debut album Chariot and its hit single, "Don't Wanna Be." Since then he's maintained a steady profile in the music business, never becoming a superstar but also never fading into the background thanks to songs like "Not Over You." He'll play at the House of Blues Dallas alongside opening acts Parachute and Nick Gardner.

Saturday, May 3

2014 Kentucky Derby Day at Lone Star Park
The 140th annual Kentucky Derby takes place in Louisville on Saturday and there are multiple ways to enjoy the event with other people locally. The most obvious is to go to Lone Star Park to enjoy some live horse racing before watching the Derby on the big screen and perhaps bet a few dollars on your favorite.

On the society side of things, you can also go to events like Polo on the Lawn at Prestonwood Polo & Country Club in Oak Point, Hats & Horses: A Texas Derby Day Soiree at Southfork Ranch in Parker or Lee Park Junior Conservancy presents A Day at the Races at Arlington Hall in Lee Park in Dallas.

2014 Suburbia Music Festival
The city of Plano wanted to make a bang with the inaugural Suburbia Music Festival, and they've certainly succeeded in doing that. The festival, going on Saturday and Sunday, takes over an under-appreciated part of Oak Point Park and Nature Preserve, presenting multiple acts on three separate stages. The headliners are acts like Alabama Shakes, Third Eye Blind, Violent Femmes, Tegan and Sara and David Guetta, but there will be great music all weekend long.

Tom Jones in concert
One of Tom Jones' biggest songs is "It's Not Unusual," but it is unusual to see a legendary singer like him playing in a relatively small venue like the Granada Theater. But then he's always been a bigger star in his native U.K. than here in the States. Jones, who's touring in support of his 2013 album, Spirit in the Room, will surely also delve into his vast catalog of nearly 50 years.

Sunday, May 4

Fair Park presents 2014 Dog Bowl
Dogs and dog lovers of all shapes and sizes will flock to Cotton Bowl Stadium on Sunday as the hallowed field that has hosted innumerable great college football games is once again turned into the world's largest dog park. Dogs are free to run about unleashed as well as participate in activities like the dog/owner look-alike contest, pooch portraits and more.

Itzhak Perlman in concert
There are very few classical musicians whose names are known to even non-aficionados, but Itzhak Perlman is one of those people. The virtuoso violinist has been a brand name since appearing on The Ed Sullivan Show at the tender age of 13 and the intervening years have done nothing to diminish his celebrity. He'll play at Winspear Opera House as part of the AT&T Performing Arts Center's new Winspear Recital Series.

The Wanted in concert with Cassio Monroe and Midnight Red
One Direction may gobble up the lion's share of boy band-related headlines coming out of the U.K., but the members of The Wanted are no slouches. Best known for their hit "Glad You Came," they're in the midst of a North America tour in support of their third album, Word of Mouth. They'll play at the House of Blues Dallas alongside opening acts Cassio Monroe and Midnight Red.

Alabama Shakes is one of the headliners at the inaugural Suburbia Music Festival, taking place May 3-4 at Oak Point Park and Nature Preserve in Plano.

Alabama Shakes/Facebook

Alabama Shakes is one of the headliners at the inaugural Suburbia Music Festival, taking place May 3-4 at Oak Point Park and Nature Preserve in Plano.

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Movie Review

Film sequel Avatar: Fire and Ash is a technical and visual feast

Photo courtesy of 20th Century Studios

Oona Chaplin in Avatar: Fire and Ash.

For a series whose first two films made over $5 billion combined worldwide, Avatar has a curious lack of widespread cultural impact. The films seem to exist in a sort of vacuum, popping up for their run in theaters and then almost as quickly disappearing from the larger movie landscape. The third of five planned movies, Avatar: Fire and Ash, is finally being released three years after its predecessor, Avatar: The Way of Water.

The new film finds the main duo, human-turned-Na’vi Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) and his native Na’vi wife, Neytiri (Zoë Saldaña), still living with the water-loving Metkayina clan led by Ronal (Kate Winslet) and Tonowari (Cliff Curtis). While Jake and Neytiri still play a big part, the focus shifts significantly to their two surviving children, Lo’ak (Britain Dalton) and Tuk (Trinity Jo-Li Bliss), as well as two they’ve essentially adopted, Kiri (Sigourney Weaver) and Spider (Jack Champion).

Miles Quaritch (Stephen Lang), who lives on in a fabricated Na’vi body, is still looking for revenge on Jake, and he finds help in the form of the Mangkwan Clan (aka the Ash People), led by Varang (Oona Chaplin). Quaritch’s access to human weapons and the Mangkwan’s desire for more power on the moon known as Pandora make them a nice match, and they team up to try to dominate the other tribes.

Aside from the story, the main point of making the films for writer/director James Cameron is showing off his considerable technical filmmaking prowess, and that is on full display right from the start. The characters zoom around both the air and sea on various creatures with which they’ve bonded, providing Cameron and his team with plenty of opportunities to put the audience right there with them. Cameron’s preferred viewing method of 3D makes the experience even more immersive, even if the high frame rate he uses makes some scenes look too realistic for their own good.

The story, as it has been in the first two films, is a mixed bag. Cameron and co-writers Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver start off well, having Jake, Neytiri, and their kids continue mourning the death of Neteyam (Jamie Flatters) in the previous film. The struggle for power provides an interesting setup, but Cameron and his team seem to drag out the conflict for much too long. This is the longest Avatar film yet, and you really start to feel it in the back half as the filmmakers add on a bunch of unnecessary elements.

Worse than the elongated story, though, is the hackneyed dialogue that Cameron, Jaffa, and Silver have come up with. Almost every main character is forced to spout lines that diminish the importance of the events around them. The writers seemingly couldn’t resist trying to throw in jokes despite them clashing with the tone of the scenes in which they’re said. Combined with the somewhat goofy nature of the Na’vi themselves (not to mention talking whales), the eye-rolling words detract from any excitement or emotion the story builds up.

A pre-movie behind-the-scenes short film shows how the actors act out every scene in performance capture suits, lending an authenticity to their performances. Still, some performers are better than others, with Saldaña, Worthington, and Lang standing out. It’s more than a little weird having Weaver play a 14-year-old girl, but it works relatively well. Those who actually get to show their real faces are collectively fine, but none of them elevate the film overall.

There are undoubtedly some Avatar superfans for which Fire and Ash will move the larger story forward in significant ways. For anyone else, though, the film is a demonstration of both the good and bad sides of Cameron. As he’s proven for 40 years, his visuals are (almost) beyond reproach, but the lack of a story that sticks with you long after you’ve left the theater keeps the film from being truly memorable.

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Avatar: Fire and Ash opens in theaters on December 19.

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