Archive for the ‘Museum’ Category

The Red River Rivalry is due to kick off at 11a Saturday at the Cotton Bowl.

University of Texas Longhorns (#5) v. Oklahoma Sooners (#1) battle it out each year during the State Fair of Texas at Fair Park. There will be 92,000 fans squeezed into the revamped Cotton Bowl for the 11a kick-off.

Downtown Dallas was awash with visitors from both teams Friday and will continue through Sunday as they enjoy the festivities at the Fair and the King Tut exhibit at the Dallas Museum of Art.

To celebrate the opening of “Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs” at the Dallas Museum of Art, the museum has announced special fall ticket offers for families, students and early risers. Following the success of the first U.S. tour and its London engagement, which drew nearly 5 million visitors and broke records at each of the five venues it visited from June 2005 through August 2008, the exhibition returns to U.S. for an encore tour that will begin at the DMA on October 3, 2008, where it will remain on view through May 17, 2009.

Special tickets offers include:
• A $10 discount for early morning time slots (8 a.m., 8:30 a.m. and 9 a.m.) Monday through Thursday, during the month of October
• A ticket rate of $15 Monday through Thursday for college students with valid identification
• A family four-pack of tickets for a discounted rate of $66 for weekdays and $86 for weekends during October and November

The Dallas engagement of “Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs” marks the first time these treasures will be seen in the Southwest region. The exhibition includes an extensive array of more than 130 extraordinary artifacts from the tomb of Tutankhamun and other ancient Egyptian sites. The return of the exhibition to the United States will include a selection of artifacts that are new to the exhibit.

The exhibition is organized by National Geographic, Arts and Exhibitions International and AEG Exhibitions, with cooperation from the Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities. Northern Trust, a global financial services firm, is the presenting sponsor of the encore tour, and American Airlines, the world’s largest airline, is the official airline of the exhibition. The Dallas engagement is presented in partnership with the Dallas Convention and Visitors Bureau and is supported locally by Kroger, DART, The Dallas Morning News, D Magazine/People Newspapers, CBS 11 and KERA.

ABOUT THE EXHIBITION
Running October 3, 2008, through May 17, 2009, at the Dallas Museum of Art, “Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs” provides insight into the life of Tutankhamun and other royals of the 18th Dynasty (1555 B.C.-1305 B.C.). The treasures in the exhibition are more than 3,000 years old.

TICKET INFORMATION
Tickets to the exhibition at the Dallas Museum of Art can be purchased now at 1-877-TUT-TKTS or www.ticketmaster.com. Group tickets for 10 or more are available at 214-922-1222 or groupsales@DallasMuseumofArt.org. For additional information about tickets and hotel packages, please visit www.DallasMuseumofArt.org/TUT.

A new Texas Lottery scratch off-game will celebrate the Texas Ranger Hall of Fame and Museum while giving players a chance to win a limited edition Texas Ranger motorcycle.

The scratch off game’s official debut is being timed to coincide with the opening of the State Fair of Texas tomorrow in Dallas, although stores were to begin selling the tickets Monday.

Lottery officials are offering seven of the 100 limited edition motorcycles made for the Ranger museum by LDT Customs of Vanderpool, Texas. The motorcycles, retailing for $60,000 each, are decorated with the museum logo and features such as “Texas Star” wheels, a cowboy-saddle seat, and “Winchester rifle” clutch and brake levers, according to the press release. The museum received a $1,000 royalty for each bike sold.

Each winner of the limited edition motorcycle will receive a certificate from the museum signed by an active or retired Captain of the Texas Rangers. Their names will be engraved on a plaque at the museum, the release said.

Each $5 ticket buys players two chances to win one of the Texas Ranger Limited Edition motorcycles. Four motorcycles can be won through instant-win scratch-offs. The other three will be awarded through a “second chance” drawing of the game tickets sent in by players, the release said.

The 5.5 million game tickets also offer prizes ranging from $5 to $50,000, according to the Texas Lottery Commission.

It’s a well known fact that when the economy gets tight, coupon usage and efforts to save money increase.

So the ever festive Entertainment Book which is crammed full of savings, is now FREE for Dallas 2008 - all the coupons are valid at least through 1 November 2008. They do charge a $4.99 shipping fee but you would have paid that anyway had you bought the book at the original price of $25.

This also gives you access to their website where you can find even more cost savings on everything from food to films to personal services like manicures and dry cleaning.

You will also need to agree to buy the 2009 book at full value ($25). Just use a couple of the 2-for-1 dinner coupons and the book pays for itself.

Note: This fantastic article about the legacy of the Dallas TV show is copyrighted and was written by Jake Batsell of The Dallas Morning News.

He hangs his hat almost 5,000 miles from Southfork, but Colin Hunter has rounded up a huge herd of fans still infatuated with Dallas.

Never mind that the iconic television show has been off the air since 1991. Each day, some 23,000 people visit UltimateDallas.com, the fan site Mr. Hunter produces out of his north London home.

“There are people from everywhere — Romania, Japan, the U.S., Indonesia,” Mr. Hunter, 36, said in a telephone interview. “We’ve got this whole new fan base, some people as young as 12 and 13.”

Three decades after J.R., Sue Ellen and company began bickering on prime-time TV, Dallas remains an unstoppable force in popular culture.

The show that epitomized American grandeur and greed during the Reagan years is still syndicated in dozens of countries. Southfork Ranch in Parker draws more than 300,000 visitors a year. Diehards and new fans devour episodes on DVDs and cable soap channels.

“Dallas is not a phenomenon of 30 years ago, but actually is continuing to bring in new viewers,” said Janet Staiger, curator of Dallas: Power & Passion on Primetime TV, a new exhibit at the Bob Bullock Texas State History Museum in Austin.

The exhibit, which runs through Sept. 14, chronicles how the show’s memorable characters, scandalous storylines and TV firsts — most notably the “Who shot J.R.?” cliffhanger — spawned a global juggernaut that continues to fascinate legions of fans.

Boosters of modern Dallas, meanwhile, often cringe at the show’s over-the-top stereotypes and the lingering perception that the city remains a mecca for big hair, 10-gallon hats and cutthroat capitalism.

“It’s a blessing and a curse,” said Phillip Jones, president and chief executive officer of the Dallas Convention and Visitors Bureau.

The show’s persistent popularity makes it more challenging to promote Dallas as a progressive, ethnically diverse city with plentiful options for culture, dining and commerce, Mr. Jones said.

On the plus side, he said, “everywhere you go in the world, people know Dallas.”

“The curse is, everywhere you go in the world, people know Dallas from 30 years ago,” he said. “People think if they come to Dallas, they’re going to see J.R. Ewing walking down the street.”

First of its kind

When the show first aired on CBS in April 1978, Dallas chiefly was known as the site of the Kennedy assassination. The Dallas Cowboys, fresh off their second Super Bowl victory, weren’t even America’s Team yet.

Then came the TV series, which suddenly recast Dallas as a glitzy universe of shimmering skyscrapers, slick oil barons and gorgeous women clad in fur coats and showy jewelry.

“It was, of course, not a totally accurate image,” said Dr. Staiger, a professor of film and television studies at the University of Texas at Austin. “Not all women dress as beautifully as beautifully as Pamela Barnes and Sue Ellen did when they went to lunch. But it gave Dallas an image of richness.”

By the end of the second season in spring 1980, the show gave America its first prime-time cliffhanger when an unknown assailant gunned down J.R. Ewing in his office.

The scheming, sharp-tongued oilman — played by Fort Worth native Larry Hagman — had a long list of enemies. A prolonged actors strike forced fans to wait eight months before finding out the answer to the now-historic marketing slogan: “Who Shot J.R.?”

In November 1980, roughly 360 million viewers worldwide finally discovered who pulled the trigger. At the time, it was the most heavily watched event in television history.

The success of Dallas also elevated the soap-opera plot formula — serial narratives featuring multiple, intertwined story lines — into prime time.

“Now, you can hardly find a drama on prime-time that doesn’t have this format,” Dr. Staiger said.

The show inspired a crush of merchandise, some of which is on display at the Austin exhibit — puzzles, albums, even J.R. beer in pull-top cans.

Hollywood’s efforts to remake Dallas into a movie have sputtered. Janis Burklund, director of the Dallas Film Commission, said studio executives recently told her that the project is still alive but on hold as writers rework the script.

Actors still pleased

Susan Howard-Chrane accepts that her public persona will always be intertwined with her Dallas character, Donna Krebbs.

George W. Bush, then governor, appointed Ms. Howard-Chrane to the Texas Parks and Wildlife Commission in 1995. During her confirmation hearing, the room went silent when Sen. Jane Nelson, R-Lewisville, accidentally called her Donna.

“It wasn’t any big deal,” said Ms. Howard-Chrane, a Boerne resident who now serves on the Texas Commission on the Arts and is still constantly recognized by Dallas fans.

“I am never offended by someone calling me Donna — ever,” she said.

Ms. Howard-Chrane said viewers kept tuning in to Dallas because they related to the personal stories of each character — a rare occurrence in today’s prime-time lineup of reality shows and crime dramas.

“It was probably the last of its kind,” she said. “It primarily was a show to entertain, and to showcase actors and pretty clothes and attractive people and relationships. It was entertainment. I think we’ve kind of gotten away from that.”

The show’s success surprised actor Steve Kanaly, who played Ray Krebbs, Donna’s husband and the Ewings’ ranch foreman. Mr. Kanaly, who now grows avocados and citrus crops in Ojai, Calif., said he expected a quick exit after filming the first five episodes.

“I never believed the show had a chance to be successful,” he said. “I did five shows with everybody and thought, ‘Well, this is great; it’s been fun working with you, see you later.’.”

In retrospect, Mr. Kanaly said, the show may have caught on because it provided an escape from real-world issues like inflation, unemployment and the Iran hostage crisis.

“There were a lot of negative things going on,” he said. “And then this show pops up that doesn’t have anything to do with anything except a bunch of rich people in Texas and their crazy, mixed-up lives.”

Worldwide reach

Shady deals, boozy carousing and messy family politics may have been off-putting to some, but the program showed the world that America was a land of big dreams, Cadillacs and swimming pools.

Just ask Tomas Spilacek. During a visit to Southfork last month, Mr. Spilacek remembered watching Dallas in communist Czechoslovakia 20 years ago.

“Every person was watching this movie because Dallas is like all life in the U.S.,” he said. “Over there, communism. Over here, Dallas. Every Saturday night watching this movie is beautiful.”

Sally Peavy, the ranch’s tourism sales manager, hears stories like that all the time. Roughly two-thirds of the visitors who show up to tour Southfork are international.

“I would’ve thought that maybe it would have died down by now,” Ms. Peavy said. “But it’s amazing to me that people are still intrigued about the show, want to come see it, want to come experience it.”

Colin Mallon, a Southfork visitor hailing from Kent in the United Kingdom, said he got hooked on Dallas in the 1980s because “the storyline was brilliant, had a good laugh in it. It’s just something that made you watch every week.”

“Some of the things that happened in the show were just kind of bizarre,” added Angie Green of Wapakoneta, Ohio. “You couldn’t wait until the next week to see what was going to happen with J.R. and Cliff and all the characters.”

Still holds up

On UltimateDallas, the Web site Mr. Hunter started with two friends in 1997, fans interview the show’s stars, debate old plot twists and answer poll questions like: “Which forbidden love would you have liked to see?”

Mr. Hunter runs the site and attached fan forum with help from fellow fans in London, Canada and the United States. He said interest in the show has endured because its human storylines held such universal appeal.

Viewers could relate to Bobby and J.R.’s sibling rivalry, Sue Ellen’s alcoholism, Pam’s insecurity about her inability to have children and the family squabbles between the Ewing and Barnes clans.

“It was a character-driven show in a way we don’t tend to get now,” Mr. Hunter said. “It still kind of holds up, even nowadays.”

A group of Hispanic activists that pushed for Industrial Boulevard to be renamed after labor leader César Chávez has a new target: Ross Avenue in downtown Dallas.

The César Chávez Task Force agreed in June to go along with naming Industrial Boulevard something other than “César Chávez,” provided the city name another street for the Latino rights icon.

Ross Avenue is a major street originating in East Dallas and cutting right through the Arts District and into the West End.

The activists fancy that since the Cathedral de Guadalupe is at the corner of Ross & Pearl and that there are about 5 blocks of Hispanic businesses between Washington and Greenville Avenue, that it makes sense to rename Ross for Chavez.

Not so fast dear activists.

There are major office buildings along Ross Avenue so it’s not just a simple case of having the local latin 7-day candle store and immigration photo place redoing their business cards with a new street name. You’re talking about thousands of people being affected and companies based in the high rises having to redo ALL of their marketing materials and letterhead and business cards.

Not to mention the influx of marketing done by everyone from all museums in the Arts District to the West End having to redo and get the word out about the name change on marketing materials and maps.

And further, have they not noticed how developers have been buying up tracts along Ross to demolish the run down Hispanic based businesses and put in business and retailers catering to those buying the $300k + townhomes in the general area of Baylor Hospital?

Changing a street name is not like changing a pair of socks.

It was challenging enough when a certain former mayor shoved Malcom X down our collective throats by having Oakland Avenue running through Deep Ellum named for the radical. Businesses along Oakland were NOT happy about having to endure this change so there is no way that everyone along Ross Avenue is going to go along with this.

The Hispanic community is just missing the boat.

Until such Dallas icons as Stevie Ray Vaughan, who embraced equality and gave amazing music to the world, is properly respected in his own hometown, the population as a whole is not going to support any initiative to have a major street named after an activist that didn’t live or work in Texas let alone Dallas.

In fact, let’s end this on a positive note for those of us that respect our hometown. Sign the Stevie Ray Vaughan petition asking the City of Dallas to honor our Pride & Joy.

Tickets for the King Tut exhibit opening this fall at the Dallas Museum of Art went on sale Tuesday via the Ticketmaster website. You can purchase tickets by clicking on this link.

The exhibit, “Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs,” is making an encore visit to the United States after a two-year tour that drew nearly 4 million visitors ended in September 2007.

The exhibit, currently in London, will open at the Dallas Museum of Art on Oct. 3. It will run there through May 17, 2009, and then travel to two yet-to-be-named cities.

There will be more than 130 artifacts from the tomb of Egypt’s King Tut, including some artifacts that are new to the exhibit and have not been seen before outside of Egypt, the Dallas Museum of Art said in a news release.

In Dallas, a photography exhibit of prints from Harry Burton, the photographer who accompanied Howard Carter on the King Tut expedition, will be on display as well.

For adults, tickets range from $27.50 on weekdays to $32.50 Friday through Sunday and on holidays. For children, tickets are $16.50.