Things To Do In Dallas Tonight: Mar. 19

Project Row House’s Rick Lowe.

Last week when everyone was all abuzz with the news of a Veronica Mars movie and all the cardinals were running around (okay, sitting around) trying to elect a new pope, I really had a hard time stopping myself from linking to the Monty Python Spanish Inquisition sketch. Maybe it’s because I’ve recently marathoned my way through both seasons of Fawlty Towers for what is now the third time, and it remains brain-meltingly hilarious.

Anyway, I’m no longer going to resist, because Spamalot is here.  The musical rips on the movie Monty Python and the Holy Grail, which in turn is based off the TV series. I know you know this. In Spamalot, we see King Arthur set off in his quest to find that large cup thing, recruiting knights willy-nilly along the way. Their noble adventure is hampered by a flatulent Frenchman, a plague with a 50 percent chance of pestilence and famine, and lots of beautiful dancing ladies. All very distracting. You can see it at the Eisemann Center in Richardson for just two nights. And remember, no one expects the Spanish Inquisition.

If you’re downtown, a great nonprofit called Building Community Workshop, or bcWORKSHOP, as they stylize themselves, is put on the first in a series of conversations and events called bcSHOPFRONT. Again with the all caps. But I’ll overlook it, because this is cool. They’ve invited Houston visual artist Rick Lowe to speak about Project Row House, a nonprofit he founded in Houston’s Northern Third Ward to re-purpose abandoned, dilapidated public housing for artist residencies and affordable housing for low-income families and young single mothers.

If the name sounds familiar, Lowe is involved in Nasher Xchange, the big public art project launched for the Nasher’s ten-year anniversary. He’s also one of the three artists Peter Simek mentioned that he was most excited to see, and I’ll let him tell you why:

The trio of artists I’m most looking forward to, though, are Alfredo Jaar, Vicki Meeks, and Rick Lowe. All three are politically-motivated artists whose work and experience indicate the potential for projects that engage with issues of race, history, community, economic inequality, and various other social realities that are both emphatically pertinent – and perennially under-addressed – in Dallas. And Dallas’ Vicki Meeks and Houston’s Rick Lowe are two artists and community organizers whose work has already made them legends in their own Texas cities. It will be satisfying to see them handed an institutional stage in Dallas.

Hopefully that’s convinced you to hear what Lowe has to say tonight.

For more to do this evening, go here. And don’t forget to vote for your favorite place to, say, get soused on margaritas on a Tuesday night. Kidding. You don’t have to be so specific, just tell us where you like to get your tequila shaken with your lime.