Weekend Event Planner

These are the 10 best things to do in Dallas this weekend

Music will be the order of the weekend in and around Dallas. There will be five great concerts to attend, ranging from country music royalty new and old to a rising blues/rock star. You can also see two fantastic comedians, shop for a good cause, partake in food and wine in a classical music venue, or get one final glimpse at a unique art exhibition.

Below are the best ways to spend your precious free time this weekend.

Thursday, August 26

Marty Stuart in concert
Country music legend Marty Stuart has been releasing albums for over 40 years, but it wasn't until the late 1980s and early '90s that he hit his heights thanks to hits like "Hillbilly Rock," "Little Things," "Tempted," "Burn Me Down," and "This One's Gonna Hurt You." He hasn't been as prolific in the 2000s, but he just released his first new album in nine years, Songs I Sing in the Dark. He'll play at The Kessler on both Thursday and Friday.

Improv Arlington presents Mark Normand
Through his relentlessly punchy writing and expert delivery, Mark Normand is quickly becoming one of the most talked about comedians on the scene. He most recently self-released a one-hour special, Out To Lunch, on YouTube. A veteran of the late night shows, Normand also has his own podcast, Tuesdays with Stories. He'll perform five times through Saturday at Improv Arlington.

Dwell with Dignity presents Thrift Studio
Dallas-based nonprofit Dwell with Dignity will present its annual fundraiser and month-long pop-up store, Thrift Studio. Thrift Studio, taking place through September 25, features donated, high-end furniture, housewares, and accessories sold at significant discounts, with 100 percent of sales benefitting DwD’s mission. Shoppers will find vignettes created by leading designers, showrooms, and retailers, showcasing donated home decor items.

Friday, August 27

The Dallas Symphony Wine & Food Festival
Instead of classical music, the Dallas Symphony will serve up its inaugural Wine & Food Festival this weekend. The event, taking place through Sunday at the Meyerson Symphony Center, will feature wines from around the world, champagnes, craft brews, locally distilled spirits, plus some favorite tastes and small plates from celebrated Dallas chefs and restaurants. For the exact listing of activities, visit the event website.

Jim Gaffigan: The Fun Tour
Comedian Jim Gaffigan is as relatable a celebrity as you'll ever find. His popularity has stemmed from bits involving his struggles as the father of five kids, marriage in general, and his love/hate relationship with Hot Pockets. His latest special, The Pale Tourist, premiered on Amazon Prime Video in December 2020. He'll bring his stand-up tour to The Pavilion at Toyota Music Factory in Irving.

Saturday, August 28

Luke Bryan in concert
The only thing that could keep country singer Luke Bryan away from the Dallas-Fort Worth area was the pandemic. Bryan is as consistent a performer as they come, appearing somewhere in the area every year — except last year — since at least 2012. He'll be back at Dos Equis Pavilion to play in support of his 2020 album, Born Here Live Here Die Here. He'll be joined by opening acts Dylan Scott and Runaway June.

Jonathan Tyler in concert with Jeremy Pinnell
Jonathan Tyler is a Dallas-based musician who has received national attention, opening for major acts like Erykah Badu, Leon Russell, Deep Purple, The Black Crowes, Kool and the Gang, and more. Tyler and his band, the Northern Lights, have released three studio albums in their career, including 2015's Holy Smokes. He'll perform at The Kessler, with Jeremy Pinnell as the opening act.

Sunday, August 29

Dallas Museum of Art presents "Curbed Vanity: A Contemporary Foil by Chris Schanck" closing day
Sunday will be the final day to view "Curbed Vanity: A Contemporary Foil by Chris Schanck" at the Dallas Museum of Art, the Dallas native's first museum commission and solo museum presentation. Schanck created a contemporary work inspired by the late-19th century Martelé dressing table in the DMA’s collection. Made of found objects from the immediate neighborhood of the artist’s Detroit studio, Schanck’s dressing table is coated in resin and aluminum foil, a reference to the Dallas aluminum factory where, along with his father, Schanck worked when he was young. The two dressing tables are presented together to form a conversation about craftsmanship, material, and the vanity that drives them.

Turtle Creek Chorale presents Songs of Strength and Survival
The healing power of live music, and especially choral music, is something that was absent as we made our way through the trials of a global pandemic over this last year. Turtle Creek Chorale will present a small ensemble concert at Cathedral of Hope Dallas designed to remind the audience how powerful, intimate, and up close choral music can be. It will include a selection of songs designed to inspire and spark a flame of strength in all of us.

Gary Clark Jr. in concert
If it weren't for that pesky pandemic, Austin native Gary Clark Jr., who's known for blending blues, rock and soul music with hip hop, would have had a lot to celebrate this past year. His third album, 2019's This Land, was his most successful one yet, earning him four Grammy nominations and three wins for Best Contemporary Blues Album, Best Rock Performance, and Best Rock Song. He'll play nightly through Tuesday, now at House of Blues Dallas after a venue change from The HiFi Dallas.

Luke Bryan will play at Dos Equis Pavilion on August 28.

Photo by Michelle Watson/Catchlight Group

Luke Bryan will play at Dos Equis Pavilion on August 28.

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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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