I really want to like Ed Young. Don't get me wrong: he stands for virtually everything I find offensive. But still, dude's pro-boning. Yeah, yeah - under his rules you have to be a "married" heterosexual Christian couple in order to get in on the holy foreplay, but I got to give it up for the opportunistic muff hound. Watching this hysterical Youtube video featuring Grapevine Fellowship Church's head stud is the closest I'm going to get to a religious experience this year. So, jimmy hat off to ya, Pastor.

In fact, I love this guy so much, I have a Google alert for whenever his name pops up in the news. (*Not a true statement, though I'm now considering it.) And, pop up again he has, this man of the cloth. That's right - Young has officially launched a fashion blog, pastorfashion.com.

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A recent study suggests that you might want to double wash your hands before exiting the restroom of that chain restaurant in Addison. The city tops AshleyMadison.com's list of philanderers per capita. We can only imagine where they entertain their dalliances.

The controversial website caters exclusively to married individuals who prefer "becoming one flesh" with many other people, and do so by fishing online rather than exploiting their personal ties. By pulling these sex seekers out of other dating websites and penning them in together, AshleyMadison has gotten rich. Boasting a worldwide subscriber base of 13 million -- 200,000 of 'em walking amongst us in Dallas -- it would seem the market is larger than one might predict. Especially in Addison.

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Photo By Leland Carina

Synn Evans, left, with partner Lillith Grey

Think of it this way: it's like Synn Evans just won Miss America, if Miss America contestants wore leather pants as formal wear and were required to describe a detailed sexual fantasy for a panel of judges.

"Oh my god," Evans said the other morning, calling from her Dallas home. She sounded hoarse and exhausted but exhilarated: the previous Saturday in San Francisco, she won the title of International Ms. Leather 2012, the biggest award the leather community can bestow. "For me it's the highest honor that I could receive. To earn that leather is incredible."

This summer, we ran a cover story about Dallas's huge, exuberant, gleefully kinky leather community. The city has a few thriving leather bars, chief among them the Dallas Eagle, at least 5,000 local members on the fetish website Fetlife, and a highly secretive, members-only dungeon, the Sanctuary for the Lifestyle Arts.

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All photos by Jay Barker

​Budweiser teamed up with FC Dallas and debuted their weirdest newest marketing strategy this afternoon at Dallas' beloved American Airlines Center. It's called Poolball and its YouTube video explains the essentials through Budweiser's requisite B's: beers, babes, balls and bros.

Here's what it looks like if you still haven't figured out your flash player: take your basic pool table and then cut the legs off, enlarge the playing surface to an area large enough to fit six or seven full grown (professional soccer playing) men, throw it on the floor, put metal guards around it, turn the billiard balls into tiny, colorful soccer balls and then play pool with your feet. And your head. But not your hands. NEVER YOUR HANDS.

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Ponchaveli Design Group

Man, I still get the same old tired line: Oh, you write for the Culture section? In Dallas? What Culture.

Yes, yes. We know. Dallas is no New York. Or, Paris. Or, hell, even Austin. I was just the same when I left here in back in 2006 with both barrels blazing and two middle fingers waving. But, then I realized something. Cities like Dallas, and you know what I mean, tend to foment rebellion. Her manicured nails and sky-high coif -- reaching gloriously to the heavens like a tribute to Reunion Tower -- inspire folks of a recalcitrant nature, giving us something to buck against. When I was living in Cambridge, Massachusetts, I was just another pinko lefty nerd drowning anonymously in a sea of my own kind. Back here, I'm that obnoxious pinko lefty asshole nerd, and if you're reading the Mixmaster, something tells me you might catch my drift.

But, for those still spitting jokes about the City sans Culture, after Saturday night, I've got to think that maybe you're just not paying attention. Underground 4, a mashup of everything art by 2011 MasterMinds finalist ArtLoveMagic, went down at the Janette Kennedy Gallery at South Side on Lamar, and it was worth every penny of the $15 cover charge. DJs were spinnin', artists were creatin' and patrons were drinkin'. It was loud, busy, bright and alive, and it was Dallas at her finest.

A yearly event, Underground presents emerging and established local artists working live, all to the tune of live bands, musicians and DJs, as well as spoken-word poets, dancers, and performance artists like the always-entertaining Circus Freaks. Our intrepid photog Taryn Walker snagged shots that are worth a thousand words, but if you've got time for about 500, we've got some observations of our own.

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wikipedia.org

A puppetized Victor Considérant, founder of the original La Reunion, will saunter across the Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge this spring.

Artists, educators and craftspeople: there are three upcoming deadlines for opportunities to get involved with local arts events. Once known as a city sans culture, Dallas is booming today with innovative thinkers, and we believe that we're on the ground floor of an arts revolution. But, a real movement requires real people, just like you, to catapult our fair city into the aesthetic stratosphere. Here's where you come in.

First, 2011 MasterMinds winner, La Reunion, has partnered with Bridge-o-Rama to bring you the Parade of Giants, a procession of massive puppets depicting historical figures - such as Bonnie and Clyde and Victor Considérant - significant to the development and culture of West Dallas. You can read Robert Wilonsky's take on it over at Unfair Park. Each puppet is sponsored by a community group, but effectively and creatively constructing a giant puppet is not in just anybody's wheelhouse, and the organizers need roughly twelve artistic team leaders who can attend workshops and spearhead the building of the parade entries before their debut, sauntering across the Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge on March 3rd. Team leaders will be chosen by the La Reunion jury panel and notified by January 6. Want on board? Apply here by January 3.

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Scene 1: Straight-blond-girl-in-charge Ashley kicks off the episode by taking the (too?) lovable cowboy, Levi, on a boot-shopping expedition. But she ain't just looking to score some pink Lucchese's in this scene; she also wants an apology from Levi for lying to her about his love triangle sitch with Twinkerbell Taylor and Chia Chest Chase. I respect the way Ashley effortlessly reigns as the No. 1 dramz queen in a show full of gay camera hogs. But they manage to bury the hatchet, and she's on to her next demand. She needs Leev's assistance in helping Jack-soaked James find an activity that isn't heavy drinking. So they agree to go horseback riding, which works out since Levi's been wanting to get back into competitive rodeo. Childhood dreams never die, and all that shit.

Scene 2: 'Member how I requested some scenes of Taylor's political life last week? The reality gods were apparently listening, because we see our little Tay-Tay all gussied up and power-lunching with the local Log Cabin reps. He dominates the conversation with his theories on keeping politics and dating separate. He also gets in a dig at the local "gay church" for having a "laser show on Easter." The whole scene's a lot of choir-preachin' about how Democrats hold gays and minorities hostage, blah blah blah. And I actually wanted to see this side of Taylor? Let's just go back to butt-waxing and bitchery.

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Brian Gibb

Taro-Kun's Artopia box

You're probably so used to seeing those red Observer boxes that you don't really see them anymore. That's why local artists Taro-Kun, Magnificent Beard, Lunch Buddies, Fur Face Boy & Sleepy Dan, Kyle Confehr & Favio Moreno wrapped some chosen dispensers with their incredible creativity.

All that work (and so much more) is in celebration of Saturday's Artopia event at Dallas Contemporary -- the Dallas Observer's annual shebang that draws together all manner of culture from visual art to fashion to live music to gorgeous and tasty food. And you want to be there, we assure you.

If you've delayed in snagging your Artopia tickets ($20 in advance or $30 at the door), you could actually win them by participating in a scavenger hunt. An artful, Dallas-proud scavenger hunt.

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Elaine Liner

Dancers from SMU perform tribute to Fela.

If the run-through Monday night is any indication of the breadth of talent taking part in the December 6 benefit event called A Gathering, the real thing is going to be quite a show.

In the ninth floor studio at the Wyly Theatre, actors, singers, musicians and dancers rehearsed their pieces of this major collaborative effort involving a dozen arts organizations and more than 100 performers. Everyone is donating their time and talent for the event, which will split all of its proceeds among four local AIDS service organizations: AIDS Arms, AIDS Services of Dallas, AIDS Interfaith Network and Resource Center Dallas.

A Gathering: The Dallas Arts Community Reflects on 30 Years of AIDS, playing one night only at the Winspear Opera House, promises an evening of dance, drama, poetry and song commemorating milestones in the three-decade fight against the disease and the toll it has taken on the arts community. The Turtle Creek Chorale, which will perform in the show, has lost more than 180 members to AIDS and related illnesses.

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Dowdy Studio's cat sandwich

Pamela and Dylan, Dowdy Studio
We are so very thankful for all the great holiday foods we're about to pig out on, and also thankful that the menu won't be including cat sandwiches, because they're really tricky to prepare and would probably taste like fur balls.

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