I spent some time in my closet last night. I’m not ashamed. As Krista noted in Leading Off today, you can text REDCROSS to 90999 to donate $10 to the relief fund for Hood, Johnson, and Ellis counties.
Hopefully tonight will be marked not by a dozen deadly twisters and window-breaking ice balls, but by a flurry of idioms. The public radio program A Way With Words is doing a live show at the Lakewood Theater, benefiting the Aberg Center for Literacy, which helps adults reach English fluency and obtain a GED. That means tickets are a little pricey, but if you’re a big fan, it’s co-hosts Martha Barnette and Grant Barrett’s first visit to Texas. We want to make a good impression. And this may come as a surprise to absolutely no one, but I love A Way With Words. It’s an educational radio show about the nuances and cultural influence of language. It’s also an endless source of amusement, since you get to learn fun new slang terms (such as “gone pecan” and “high lonesome”) and try them out on your friends. KERA’s Krys Boyd moderates the interactive evening of quizzes and questions with participants Mayor Mike Rawlings and Dallas Morning News columnist Jaquielynn Floyd.
Get a burger and onion rings from Lakewood Landing. It’s comforting— a big greasy hug from someone you actually like. Perfect for a rainy, disgustingly humid night. Honestly, I’d recommend this even if you can’t make to the Aberg benefit.
Meanwhile, if you wanna get a little weird, make your way to CentralTrak in Fair Park. Their Next Topic lecture tonight (it’s a bi-weekly series) focuses on the work of Denise Prince, a artist whose work is currently on view in CT’s exhibition That Mortal Coil. There’s a significant gross-out factor. Peter says that “like a John Waters film, the show is, by design, equal parts nauseating and crudely hilarious.” You can read the rest of his review of his show here, but expect sex and death and fingernail clippings. And some other stuff. But back to this evening’s talk. Denise Prince’s work for the exhibit is Photoshopped photos of dead bodies, but instead of just getting up there and discussing process or what-not, she’s invited her Lacanian psychoanalyst, Charles Merward, to do an “experimental live couch session.” Prince will be there, but she’ll be quiet while Merward comments on her work. I don’t know about you guys, but my psychologist and I talk about Stephen Sondheim. This sounds a lot more perilous.
For more to do tonight, go here.
