All photos by Ed Steele

The Texas Theatre quantum leaped on Saturday night, landing in a time of feathered fans and come-hither dames. It was La Divina Burlesque's annual Nouvelle Burlesque Revue, a showcase of emerging and established talent mostly culled from central and North Texas but reaching as far as Hot Springs Arkansas and Finland. The gals coordinated their shimmy to the sounds of Damon Clark and his jazz ensemble as the audience sat, hypnotized by their glamor. We sent photographer Ed Steele to capture every wink and beckon; he came back with a treasure chest full of 'em. Here's our five favorites.

See also:
The Nouvelle Burlesque Revue Slideshow (NSFW)
The Fashion of Dallas School of Burlesque's Grand Opening

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Flickr

One of the best open mic nights in town is in a Doubletree Hotel.

So you've got some jokes, right? Think you can make people laugh? Then you might find this list we've compiled, of the most prominent comedy open mics in D-FW, particularly useful. We've also got local comedy guru Dean Lewis to share his thoughts on not only the venue but the best escape route from each one.

Head out on the highway and sign up to deliver some of your hilarious truth bombs on a public that simply isn't ready for them. Just bear this in mind -- if you don't know what you're doing, it's going to go badly. Really, really badly. Just keep at it, okay? I believe in you. We all believe in you. Only the other day I was telling someone how great you would be at this.

We all bomb, champ. It's how we take the bombing that matters.

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Henry Moore's "The Dallas Piece," by Flickr user Hanneorla Hanneorla

Today the Nasher reveals the first of ten pieces of public art being commissioned for Nasher Xchange, the sculpture center's city-wide arts initiative. The announcement celebration at the Trinity River Audubon Center (9 a.m. to 4 p.m.) comes with some family-friendly perks like free admission, nature hikes, homing pigeons and face time with an owl. Artist Ruben Ochoa will be there, available to chat about what he's planning for his site-specific installation.

The ten projects won't be unveiled until October, so why not use the summer to learn about Dallas' already existing public art collection? An app by CultureNOW, Museums Without Walls, won the award for Best Culture app in New York in 2011. It's since expanded its mission of turning public art education into a tech-rich scavenger hunt by adding dozens of major cities' collections to its mapping technology, Dallas included.

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Nick Zukin, Flickr

Your dad is a man. He may have been tamed by the structure of society and had his teeth dulled by life's monotony, but he's in there, lion and all. So with father's day approaching, what have you gotten him? A tie? A gift card to Best Buy? Maybe a coffee mug or a kitschy card that took two seconds to read before being selected?

SHAME ON YOU. Throw that shit away right now. Your dad doesn't want another picture frame or book or fishing lure; he wants to spend time with you, assuming neither of you are complete assholes.

So: Have you thrown those boring gifts out the window? Good. May they land next to the plastic heart shaped box full of gross chocolate, and the stale Easter egg candies that have survived two world wars.

Here are some things to do instead. Let's move.

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Photo via TexasPopCulture.blogspot

Hope you're happy. This sugartripped architectural heart attack is gone forever.

Old East Dallas, Old Town, Smash and Grab Headquarters -- whatever you want to call it, I live there and I love it. But last week the dose of visual insulin you see above was dismantled, replaced by a boring brown brick exterior. Then I started noticing the other improvements popping up along Ross, and I started to wonder:

Am I about to get priced out?

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He always kept his promises and never followed through on his threats, and for that reason you'll do something nice for dad on Sunday, right?

A--a-a-a-nd it's the weekend! If you dig boxing, burlesque, art, smarty pants lectures, theater, homing pigeons, juggling, throw-back cinema, naked ladies with literary passions, bucking bulls or resin toys, then we've got the parties for you. Check out the complete list, make a plan with your most adventurous friends and click on the event titles for more information. We'll see you out there. (I'll be the one tying dirty jokes to the homing pigeons.)

St. Marks School Photography Auction for Tornado Relief -- Ready to feel humbled? Check out the absolutely stellar photography being auctioned off by local students. We looked ahead, and the quality of art for sale is phenomenal. Humbling thing number 2: All art auction proceeds go directly to Granbury tornado relief efforts. Yep, these kids have already out-accomplished the rest of us.

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Matt Lawson

From the nebula stage, a potential star can become a relatively small Red Giant, or a brightly burning Supergiant. Though the life cycle of a Red Giant may be lower lit and last longer than a Supergiant, its intrigue cannot compare to the terribly powerful ending of the Supergiant, the Supernova, where the star explodes and then vanishes into the eternal abyss of a black hole.

At The Fort Worth Museum of Science and History, one of our brightest and vividly memorable superstars is examined in his nebular infancy, the short time period before his global explosion: Elvis at 21, a black and white photo essay of The King mere months before he took his crown.

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The courtyard pool of the Lumen Hotel is surrounded by chaise lounges and waterside cabanas, but you'll need a room key if you want to dip a toe. Soon, that changes. The recently renovated hotel, which just picked up a few Brad Oldham sculptures, announced today that it's extending its pool privileges to the public on Sunday afternoons (noon to 6 p.m.) for the summer, beginning June 23.

The $8 swim fee at Lumen's ultra-modern oasis -- only one dollar more than the F.O.E. charges for its picnic-y lodge landscape -- will include lemonade, valet, swimming and hand-passed appetizers. If you don't mind racking up a tab, there's also a cash bar, cocktail service, and a poolside à la carte food menu at your disposal. Fake vacation anyone?

An Indonesian musician sits next to a kenong (one of the instruments of the gamelan).

If you Google the Indonesian term dhalang, Wikipedia will give you a simple definition: a puppeteer from the island of Java. But last night, the capacity crowd that watched a master dhalang perform at the Dallas Museum of Art discovered there is way more to it than that.

Ki Purbo Asmoro performed a traditional Javanese wayang kulit -- a kind of improvised shadow puppetry -- as part of the DMA's week-long celebration of Indonesian art. He was joined on stage in the Horchow Auditorium by a gamelan (an ensemble of musicians playing traditional Javanese instruments). In his role as dhalang, Asmoro was certainly a master puppeteer, but he was also a comedian, conductor, singer, actor, artist, instrumentalist, director, choreographer, poet, martial artist, storyteller, improviser, orator and social commentator.

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On a sun-bathed Saturday morning, as I arrived at Irving's Hackberry Creek Country Club, happy golfers greeted each other as they met for early tee times. But it wasn't until I spotted a pair of long coattails and a top hat saunter past the women's aerobics class on the front lawn that I knew I was in the right place.

I followed those coattails to the ballroom where history buffs, literature aficionados and members of the Jane Austen Society of North Texas had converged to put a many spin on their annual June with Jane Austen seminar. Move over Elizabeth Bennett (Pride & Prejudice? Anyone?); this year, the focus was all about Jane's guys.

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