Report from the Fairgrounds

State Fair of Texas 2012: The good, the bad and the sticky

Disko ride on the Midway.

Photo by Elaine Liner
Blue ribbon-winning painting by Lindy Cannell.

Photo by Elaine Liner
Texas Star Ferris wheel.

Photo by Elaine Liner
The Killdares will perform 120 free concerts during the State Fair.

Photo by Elaine Liner
The Tenor, one of the art deco sculptures on the Esplanade at Fair Park.

Photo by Elaine Liner

Go to the fair. Go twice before it ends October 21. The State Fair of Texas, now in its 126th year, is still the biggest state fair in the land — and it gets a little better every year.

This year’s theme is “Big and Bright.” That’s nice. In small print they might have added “Expensive and Greasy,” but there are ways around that. Take advantage of some of the discount schemes for lower admission prices. And to rid your paws of the remnants of fried bacon and cinnamon rolls and deep-fried cactus bites, make liberal use of the hand-washing stations located all over Fair Park.

Big Tex, the giant cowboy who welcomes fairgoers to the midway, delivers a Mr. Clean message this year: “Remember to wash your hands, boys and girls.”

More things to love

The way the sun glints off the gold and silver details on the magnificent art deco buildings and statuary all over Fair Park. It’s still the world’s largest collection of art deco architecture and sculpture. Look up; many of the artworks, including beautifully maintained murals and paintings originally done in 1936, are over the entrances to the exhibit buildings.

Big Tex delivers a Mr. Clean message this year: “Remember to wash your hands, boys and girls.”

Free concerts all over the fairgrounds. Be sure to catch the Celtic rock band The Killdares, performing 120 free shows (several each day) on the revolving Backdoor Stage on the north side of the Cotton Bowl. More concerts happen afternoons and evenings on the Bud Light Stage and the Chevrolet Mainstage. You can also catch performances by troupes of African and Chinese acrobats, the United States Marines Drum and Bugle Corps, local high school marching bands and drill teams, as well as Frisbee-catching dogs, trained buzzards (yes!) and racing pigs.

Art pieces, crafts and food demos in the Food & Fiber Pavilion. Take your time checking out the details of blue ribbon-winning needlework, paintings and photographs, chosen from thousands of entries submitted from all over the country to the State Fair craft and art competitions. Our favorite this year is a wide-eyed painting by artist Lindy Cannell done in the style of Chuck Close.

A walk down the Midway at dusk. More than a million and a half light bulbs give the Midway a magical glow as the sun goes down. A better view is from the top car on the giant Texas Star Ferris wheel, which also offers the best photo ops for shots of the fairground from above, as well as a pretty view of the downtown Dallas skyline.

Chinese Lantern Festival on the lagoon. After dark, this little lake on the south side of the fairground turns into a dreamy world of illuminated dragons, temples and lotus flowers. (Admission price is extra, but the ticket price just dropped to $14 and is worth the splurge for the visual spectacle.)

You will ache for the little boy in tears hugging the goat that didn’t win a prize.

Scenes out of Charlotte’s Web over in the livestock barns. For real, this is where the traditions of the State Fair are the sweetest and most genuinely old-fashioned. Little girls in pigtails blow-drying sheep and goats they’ve raised for contests at the fair. Young boys in overalls tossing footballs out behind the bull barn. A kid in a straw hat playing a game on an iPad next to the pen where the pig he raised from birth is dozing until she gets trotted into the ring for judging. Children hanging off the fence as a cowboy patiently explains how to saddle a nervous mare.

It wouldn’t be at all surprising to look up in a corner to see a spider web spun into the word “humble.” There’s something humble and beautiful about families carrying on decades-long traditions of bringing kids and farm animals together at the State Fair of Texas. And you will ache for the little boy in tears hugging the goat that didn’t win a prize.

Some things we didn’t love

The parking situation is worse than ever. It costs $15 to park inside the gates, and the attendants excel at misdirection and apathy. If you're going to The Addams Family at the Music Hall, your ticket price for the show does not include parking, and you'll have to park about half a mile inside the fairgrounds and walk to the theater. Take DART, if you can. The train stops just steps from the front gate and the Music Hall.

Too much emphasis on food. There are many more vendors frying up weird stuff this year and in places where there didn’t used to be any vendors (like over by the lagoon). One new booth just outside the Midway uses grills that produce so much smoke that walking past is like reliving the opening scene of Apocalypse Now.

Being reminded how out of shape our fellow citizens are. Really, America, you’re too fat. And deep-fried peanut butter and jelly followed by cotton candy and soda puts you on the roller coaster to diabetes, heart attack and stroke. Remember the old “fun house mirror” at the fair that made everyone look like they weigh 400 pounds? Well, now they do.

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Movie Review

Nordic film Fjord challenges cultural and linguistic biases

Photo courtesy of Neon

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In modern society, where fear of “the other” has made many people into insular creatures, it has become easy to get locked into one point of view. The new film Fjord will be a challenging one for many viewers, as it puts forth a situation that confronts narrow-minded thinking and forces even those who think they’re open-minded to re-evaluate their own biases.

Mihai (Sebastian Stan) and Lisbet (Renate Reinsve) are a married couple who have just moved back to Lisbet’s home country of Norway. They have five children, all of whom were born in Romania, Mihai’s home country. The family, which is part of an unspecified Evangelical Christian sect, runs into issues almost right away when their oldest daughter, Elia (Vanessa Ceban), shows up to school with bruises on her body.

A well-intentioned but perhaps overzealous Child Protective Services system gets put into motion, resulting in the children being removed from the home while Mihai and Lisbet are being investigated. The parents, while acknowledging some minor physical punishment, deny doing anything that would cause bruising, and the possible failings of the system mostly get ignored despite a lack of hard evidence.

Written and directed by Cristian Mungiu, the film is an infuriating watch due to its depiction of a system that seems to be oblivious to its own faults. But it’s also illuminating, as the cultural and linguistic divide that exists between the characters in the film could just as easily be applied to those viewing it. Misunderstandings arise as people switch between Norwegian, English, and Romanian, and interpretations of different words or phrases play a crucial role in how people and actions are perceived.

But the film is about much more than just language mix-ups. Mungiu is purposefully vague about Mihai and Lisbet’s religion, but it’s clear that it leans conservative. This puts them at odds with a liberal society in Norway, and more than one character voices their disapproval of the family’s beliefs. The film is framed in such a way, though, that it’s those who are seemingly most progressive who can’t get over their own prejudices, with Mihai and Lisbet rarely being able to object to how they’re being treated.

The cold and forbidding landscape adds to the drama of the film, especially when Mungiu includes side stories from Mihai and Lisbet’s neighbors about, for example, a rebellious neighbor daughter or their ailing father. While those elements don’t impact the plot much, they add complexity to the film as a whole and demonstrate that some characters are more than who they seem to be on the surface.

Stan, who’s had notable roles in recent years in A Different Man and The Apprentice, puts in another solid performance that is less showy. With a bald head and stoic-but-firm demeanor, he brings depth to a potentially unlikable character. Reinsve, coming off the success of Backrooms, is the emotional center of the film and demonstrates chemistry with Stan after co-starring in A Different Man. The supporting cast is all solid, especially the actors portraying lawyers, who bring to life a system that seems much different from that in the U.S.

Fjord does not play out like a typical American film would if it were depicting a similar situation, and by holding back where western storytellers wouldn’t, it allows viewers to make up their own minds on who is right or wrong. Many things go unspoken in the film, and the debate on what should happen with Mihai, Lisbet, and their family continues even after the film ends.

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Fjord is now playing in select theaters.

movies film fjord