The story focuses on Nader and Simin (Peyman Moadi and Leila Hatami), a middle-class married couple living in Tehran, with their 11-year-old daughter, Termeh (Sarina Farhadi, the director’s daughter); and Nader’s father (Ali-Asghar Shahbazi), who suffers from Alzheimer’s Disease. The fact that their marriage is in a tailspin is made evident in the movie’s opening sequence, where Nader and Simin bicker in front of a divorce judge (who is heard but not seen on camera, giving the scene an interview/documentary feel). Simin wants their daughter raised abroad, away from the turmoil engulfing Iran, something to which Nader initially agreed upon; now, he is unwilling to leave his father behind. Compromise seems unlikely.

Unable to break the impasse, Simin moves to her mother’s home and sues for divorce. In need of a caregiver to look after his father, Nader hires young mother Razieh (Sareh Bayat), who keeps the job a secret from her hot-tempered husband, Hodjat (Shahab Hosseini), a strict Muslim who would never allow her to work in a man’s household without the wife present.

The job begins badly and steadily gets worse. On the first day, the elderly man wets himself and the deeply devout Razieh worries that it might be a sin to help him change his clothes. The next day, he slips out of the apartment and she is forced to chase him — a dangerous activity, given that she is four months pregnant. On day three, Nader and Termeh arrive home and find the old man alone and unconscious on the floor with one hand tied to the bed.

Nader is understandably upset, and when Razieh returns he confronts her about her treatment of his father, as well as some missing money. He ejects from his home; under circumstances that aren’t shown, she falls on the stairs and later miscarries. Nader is accused of murder, and in turn charges Razieh with theft and assault. The unfortunate situation is made even uglier by the deceit and selfishness of the people involved and, as is often the case, it’s the children who suffer.

If it had been produced by a major Western studio, the story no doubt would have devolved into high melodrama with a tidy ending. Iranian cinema is simple and to the point, as well as patient and observant, and Farhadi manages to avoid compromising his carefully crafted and very human tale or his deeply flawed and wholly believeable characters.

Unlike many other well-known Iraniam filmmakers, he’s also perfectly willing to confront and openly question the stifling socio-religious bureacracy that Iranians must often wade through. It’s a subtle but bold move, especially at a time with so much tension between Iran and much of the rest of the world, and woth so many other Iranian filmmakers in prison or living in exile.

Religion factors into A Separation a great deal, but Farhadi allows the nature of deeply held beliefs rather than their rhetoric to drive the narrative. The result is a story with a broad reach, one that could take place just about anywhere and involve almost anyone.

© Gary Dowell for Advocate Magazine, 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: drama, farsi, film, foreign, iran, iranian, movie, oscar

The clinic is open to kids in Kindergarten through 8^th grade, and they’ll need to wear comfortable clothes and dance or tennis shoes. Pizza and drinks will be provided for the all-day event (they’ll need their strength to dance from 9am to 3pm), and all participants receive a matching t-shirt. The final 30 minutes will be a Parent Show Off, allowing family and friends to see what the kids have learned.

Registration forms are available online here, and the price is $55 if you sign up by this Friday (you can register after Feb. 10 or at the door, but you’ll pay $65).

Best of all, dancers get to take the stage at the big 50^th Anniversary Highlandette Revue April 20 & 21 in their own special number. Sell-out crowds are expected for the big show as ‘Dette alums gather from all over the country to reminisce and meet the current line, so this will be a special year. Break a leg!

© Carol Toler for Advocate Magazine, 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Dettes, highlandettes

The publicity even resulted a funny stunt by a The Ticket radio team to play a basketball game against the Lake Highlands High School girls team.

A few weeks ago, The Texas Association of Private and Parochial Schools instituted a “mercy rule” for football and basketball that will come into play in the 2012-2013 season.

According to an ESPN.com piece, the Covenant-Dallas Academy game was cited as the main reason for the change.

The new rule requires that any game which reaches a 40-point difference after halftime will be subject to a running clock for the remainder of the game. This includes plays that end out of bounds and play stoppages for fouls in both sports.

As much as I dislike bullying, especially in the form of a coach and parents urging players to humiliate a weaker team, I’m not sure that rules are the answer in cases like this. If someone is employed as a football or basketball coach, especially at a pricey private school, shouldn’t part of the job requirement be good judgment, good leadership skills and sportsmanship? Sure, not all of them will demonstrate these things at all times, but when they don’t, they can be reprimanded as anyone else who fails at a job.

Is putting mercy rules in place tampering with the integrity of the game? Might it backfire and embarrass the losing team more than a blowout? Rob both teams of valuable learning opportunities?

Dallas Lutheran coach John Bronkhorst told ESPN that he has declined so-called mercy or clock rolling in the past.

“It’s not to be cruel to my team because it’s a teaching opportunity. It’s an opportunity for us to learn in life you’re not going to get bailed out. We need to learn how to overcome adversity, and I can tell you right now, we grew from that game.”

I watched one of my kids’ public school basketball teams get beat by more than 40 points a couple weeks ago. The other team never let up on defense (they did let up on scoring, it seemed) and the winning teams’ parents, cheerleaders and coaches continued to root their team on to massive victory — no mercy on their end.

Our losing team walked away feeling OK that they had fought to the end. I heard them commenting about how impressed they were by the talent on the other team. They did not seem devastated or broken by the experience. (If I remember correctly, neither did the Dallas Academy girls).

On the other hand, last night’s game was lost by a single point. Now that was more heartbreaking than any blowout.

© Christina Hughes Babb for Advocate Magazine, 2012. | Permalink | 3 comments | Add to del.icio.us
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Vapiano

Wesley-Rankin serves the diverse West Dallas community, providing a wide variety of programming for children, youth, adults and families. For more than 75 years they’ve offered a loving, supportive alternative to a street-life of crime, poverty and despair.

Vapiano will host live music for the special event, and the offer is good for lunch or dinner from 10am to 10pm. You can dine on the bright, airy restaurant side with big picture windows allowing a view of progress on the Bush Library, or you can lounge in the hip bar area on cushy red couches while watching sports on the big screen. Either way, be sure to mention Wesley-Rankin when you pay.

© Carol Toler for Advocate Magazine, 2012. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: vapiano, wesley rankin

Just like every new Chick-fil-A during the past eight years, the new one in our neighborhood (which opens at 6 a.m. Thursday, by the way) is hosting a “First 100 Event” to promote the location. As the program name suggests, the first 100 people in line to open the store receive the big prize, and while standing, sitting or lying in line, they’ll be entertained by Chick-fil-A with games, activities and meals.

But there’s a bit of a trick to winning, it turns out.

First off, running out to the restaurant right after you finish reading this blog post — even if it turns out you are absolutely, positively, first in line — doesn’t necessarily guarantee you a place in the winner’s circle. Turns out to be a winner, you need to be one of the first 100 people in line at 6 a.m. WEDNESDAY, the day before the store opens.

That’s when the Chick-fil-A people count those present and hand out coupons to the first 100 people there, along with designating an additional 10 or so “alternates” authorized to take over in the event any of the actual first 100 are unable to fulfill the duties of their new-found office, which basically means they somehow can’t wait in line for all of the next 24 hours. (Don’t laugh: It happens, a Chick-fil-A spokesman says.)

But wait, there’s more: If at 6 a.m. Wednesday there are not 100 people in line (which the spokesman says is unlikely but not impossible), those who continue to show up will be given winning numbers until a total of about 110 have been handed out.

And if there are more than 110 people lingering about at 6 a.m. Wednesday (the most likely scenario, the spokesman says), you can still be a winner: If more than 100 people are in line, the “winning 100″ are selected by random drawing, with all of those in attendance — no matter how long they’ve been in line — drawing numbers randomly to determine who can hang around the next 24 hours to be a winner at 6 a.m. Thursday morning.

So if you want to play the odds and have the best chance of winning while spending the least amount of time hanging around outside the store, show up at 5:45 a.m. Wednesday, hope there are more than 110 people there and participate in the random drawing. If you win, you still have to stick around for the next 24 hours. But if you don’t pull one of the lucky 110 numbers, you’ll only have invested about 30 minutes in the whole process, and you can still stop by Whataburger on your way out of the parking lot for breakfast before heading back home or off to work.

So there you have it: A few tips to help you win the 52 combo-meal prize. If you head on down there, let me know how it all turns out; I’m going to wait a couple of days and simply pay for my food there. Complete rules can be found on the restaurant’s website.

If you do head over to the new Chick-fil-A, here’s what you’ll find: 4,040 square feet of restaurant with 105 inside seats and 16 outside patio seats. This store offers two drive-thru-ordering stations that merge into a single pickup window. And just so you know, there wasn’t enough room at this store to include an indoor playground similar to the one found in the Chick-fil-A at Central Expressway and Southwestern.

Both of those restaurants, along with one across from SMU on Hillcrest, are owned by Jeff White, who has long been a big supporter of neighborhood schools with Chick-fil-A products and whose parents live in Lake Highlands.

© Rick Wamre for Advocate Magazine, 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
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With a line out the door and around the corner of the building on their grand opening, I think it is safe to say that the White Rock area and surrounding neighborhoods welcomed Hypnotic Donuts with open arms. And stomachs. After being a weekend pop up at a pizza joint in North Dallas for a year and a half, Hypnotic is now standing alone and in a storefront, as well as dominating the Dallas donut market.

Owner, James St. Peter, joined the donut revolution after visiting Portland’s Voodoo Doughnuts. Although the funky donuts resemble Voodoo’s, they are James’ brain children: individual, creative, and sprinkled with unexpected combinations. The customer favorite is the Evil Elvis: a glazed donut with peanut butter, banana, and honey. So decadent that the great king himself just might return for a bite. Okay probably not..but its really really good. Topping the charts with the kiddos is the infamous Zoo Ropa. This donut is every child’s dream and every parent’s nightmare. A vanilla cake donut with vanilla frosting, sprinkles, and iced animal cookies is what I fancy a syringe full of sugar being injected into my veins would be like. I love

sweets, but even I can’t do that amount of concentrated sugar so early in the morning. However, I think twelve years ago while studying for college finals, it would have come in pretty darn handy. My absolute favorite menu item is the Hypnotic kolache; spicy sausage wrapped in their homemade biscuits. Even an already seasoned grandmother could learn a few things from these biscuits. Thought bubble … I should give James my Nana’s number.

Some of their other ingredients include; bacon, fresh jalapenos, queso, Gatorade powder, Captain Crunch cereal, and yes, these things are atop donuts. Intrigued, aren’t you?
The service and experience is out of this world. After learning that my toddler had a doctor’s visit the day I was there, James insisted I take her a chocolate donut. I also learned that he takes any donuts left over after closing to the local fire station. Seriously. I will be returning again and again to Hypnotic to try their outrageous donut creations, but also because their owner is just super cool. James refers to himself constantly as a “hyppie”, and his shop follows suit. Its a 60s attitude and style that represents freedom for all. He calls Hypnotic a corporate getaway. He’s right.

Hypnotic Donuts is located near White Rock Lake, and is open 7 days a week.

Hypnotic Donuts
9007 Garland Rd.
Dallas, TX 75218

Monday -Friday 6:30 a.m. -noon, Sat 7:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m., Sunday 8:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m.

© Candace Tharp for Advocate Magazine, 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
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White Rock's new bike cafe offers long hours, food, drinks and a locker room.

Good news. The long-awaited Bicycle Cafe at Northwest and Lawther is open.

Well, it was open and it will be open again Tuesday. Looks like Monday might be the closed day. But the rest of the week, they are keeping lengthy hours. According to the website, they are as follows:

Tues.-Thurs.: 6 a.m.-10 p.m., Fri.-Sat.: 6-midnight, Sun.: 6 a.m.-10 p.m.

Not only does the bike cafe offer healthy food, coffee and adult beverages (beer and wine), but they also provide locker rooms for cyclists.

Of course you don’t have to be a cyclist to enjoy this place.

© Christina Hughes Babb for Advocate Magazine, 2012. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
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We told you several weeks ago about 17-year-old Rawlins and his family and friends’ frustrations that the no one was being held accountable for his senseless death.

Yesterday I spoke with Lt. Scott Bratcher in the traffic division at the Dallas Police Department. He said they were very close to making an arrest and, sure enough, police today arrested 18-year-old Soraya Villanueva. They charged her with criminally negligent homicide and are holding her on $125,000 bond.

Bratcher said yesterday that the arrest took so long because they wanted to make sure the proper charges were filed and that everything was in order to do so. That’s good, because no one wants this young woman, who admitted to flying through a yellow light at twice the posted speed limit and driving without a license or insurance, to get off on some technicality.

© Christina Hughes Babb for Advocate Magazine, 2012. | Permalink | 11 comments | Add to del.icio.us
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The film (adapted from the book by Susan Hill) resurrects the cliched gothic haunted house movie and stunt-casts a post-Potter Daniel Radcliffe as Arthur Kipps, a young attorney and single father whose wife died in childbirth. As the story opens, he’s dispatched to a coastal village to tidy the affairs of the recently deceased Alice Drablow and pave the way for the sale of her estate, the charmingly named Eel Marsh House.

It doesn’t take him long to get the feeling that something just isn’t right. The eccentric locals make Kipps feel about as welcome as an Ebola outbreak, their children are never seen outdoors, and there’s so many sidewise glances exchanged that it’s obvious either something unsavory is going on, or half the villagers have a flatulence problem and the other half is just too polite to say anything about it.

The house is even less appealing — a stock haunted manor, it’s dank, overgrown with ivy, shrouded in more fog than a Def Leppard video, remotely located in the middle of the marshes, and only accessed via a treacherous road that is submerged when the tide comes in. Kipps makes the dubious decision to spend the night there in order to complete his work. Of course, things start bumping and screeching in the night (and not in a good way), and Kipps is assailed by visions of dead children and the titular spectre. Kipps’ investigations raise a buried mystery that the movie never bothers to fully explain before it concludes with an unsatisfying twist.

Director James Watkins succeeds in establishing an atmosphere of dread at the outset and manages to generate a couple of good scares, but the goings on are quickly deflated by stilted characters, anemic pacing, and repetitive scenes of Radcliffe wandering the same creepy woods, bounding up and down the same staircase, and wandering in and out of the same rooms. It’s great the Hammer tradition of frugality has been applied towards milking the location for all its worth, but couldn’t they have at least found a bigger house?

As for Radcliffe, he’s challenged with a expressing a range of emotion running from depressed to anxious to really anxious, with occasionally flashes of boredom and drowsiness. The talented young actor has so far proven himself to be more than a one-trick pony with talented turns in acclaimed stage productions of Equus and How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, in the art house drama December Boys, and via a legendary self-parody guest appearance on Extras. Why is his skill being wasted with lifeless dreck like this?

© Gary Dowell for Advocate Magazine, 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: drama, film, ghost, horror, movie, supernatural, thriller

Readers (as did we) noted the whole story was a little wonky.  Police weren’t talking because an investigation was underway, but it turns out said officer, 36-year-old Stormy Mageria, was placed on administrative leave, as police reportedly suspected she filed a false statement.

Earlier this week, Mageria ran into more trouble. According to reports yesterday, she was arrested in Garland on a family violence assault charge and her bond was set at $1500.

A little more background on Sgt. Mageria — and I don’t know what any of this has to do with the carjacking thing, to tell you the truth, but it is fascinating nonetheless — she filed a sexual harassment complaint and a discrimination lawsuit against the city in 2005, five years after she joined the DPD.

Based on this court document, she filed the charge after a fellow officer called her “Darling” and “touched her arm.” Once she filed the suit, she claimed, she was shunned at work and denied certain assignments with the department.

© Christina Hughes Babb for Advocate Magazine, 2012. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
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