Flower Mound Online News

If you’re like us, you often wonder what to do on the weekend. There’s always something going on in the DFW area, but sometimes it’s hard to find different things to do on a whim. Of course movies are an easy choice, then there’s dining out and sporting events. Here are a few more suggestions.

This report is updated at the beginning of every weekend with additional updates throughout the weekend so be sure to check in often for the latest.

_____________________________
Shops at Highland Village Opening

With all the new stores nearby, you’ll find a lot to do and to entertain your family this weekend at the new Shops at Highland Village. While the new AMC Movie Theatre won’t make the opening, there will be live entertainment, strolling entertainers, horse-drawn carriages, cowboys and a $5,000 shopping prize drawing.

Click here for a list of the stores.

____________________________________
Dallas Arboretum -
Cool Thursday Concert with Emerald City Band
Thursday, 7:30pm

(Outside if Sunshine, inside if Rain)

This 10-piece band mixes the last 50 years of popular music with the current songs on the radio. They have received multiple awards including DFW Best Cover Band. Check out their website here - www.emeraldcityband.com.

Concerts on the lawn at the Arboretum are a great way to spend an evening. Enjoy the beautiful lawn hillside setting, overlooking the lake, bring your own food and drinks (alcohol is permitted), or purchase it all right there. EatZi’s will offer a nice selection of their wonderful food just for the evening.

Relax, have a picnic and the band cranks it up, get up, dance and sing along! Tickets may be purchased online here or at the Arboretum ticket booth. $16 /adults, $7 /children 3-12, and $6 for members of the Arboretum and their children.

Tickets often sell out quickly, so be sure to purchase your tickets early. And if you purchase an Arboretum member pass, tickets are only $6 each and parking is free! Where else could you hear live music in such as beautiful setting for only $6 and the weather should be perfect too!

____________________________________

Marauder and Jaguar Friday Night Football

Friday Night at 7:30, the Flower Mound Jaguars will celebrate Homecoming by taking on Newman Smith. The Marcus Marauders will take to the road to play R.L. Turner in an away game.

For Flower Mound’s full schedule, click here.
For Marcus Marauder’s schedule, click here.

____________________________________

State Fair of Texas - Sept 28-Oct 21, 2007
Fair Park, South of Downtown Dallas

THE SKY’S THE LIMIT!

Did you know the State Fair of Texas is the largest state fair in the United States based on attendance? Did you also know that it has been held at Fair Park since 1886? And did you know that it has the largest ferris wheel in North America?

This year the fair will re-introduce us to a new ride, the Texas Skyway, a $5 Million sky gondola system that will take you on an aerial tour of Fair Park. There are 34 Art-Deco gondolas each capable of holding 8 passengers, covering 1,800 feet traveling 65 feet above the ground.

Of course the centerpiece of the Fair is the annual football game, shootout, red-river rivalry, Big Red-Crimson Orange match…yep, the Oklahoma-Texas football game played in the Cotton Bowl at Fair Park.

The State Fair of Texas is the only Fair in the country to include a full blown auto show. It includes over 300,000 square feet of new model vehicles, two buildings, a Truck Zone and a Test Drive Track. The State Fair has been the site for several international launches including the 2007 Chevy Tahoe, the 2007 Ford Sporttrac and the 2008 Chevy Silverado.

Fair officials are also offering an online digital edition of their show guide you may access by clicking here.

For more information, show schedules, and to purchase tickets online, click here.

Ticket Prices:

Season Pass $39.95
Adult Advance Purchase $11.95 Regular Price $14
Seniors Advance $8.95 Regular Price $10
Children Advance Purchase $ 8.95 Regular Price $10
(Under 48″ tall)
2 and under - Free

NOTE: DISCOUNT TICKETS are available at all area Kroger stores!

____________________________________
Greek Food Festival of Dallas - Sept 28-30, 2007

Cheaper than a trip to Greece, and the food is every bit as good! The Greek Food Festival of Dallas offers a rich, multi-sensory experience of Greek hospitality and culture. Enjoy savory cuisine, soulful music, lively dancing, imported wines, and shopping in the AGORA marketplace.

For an overview of the entire festival, please download the Festival Flyer. Highlights include:
http://www.greekfestivalofdallas.com/flyer-2007.pdf

• American Idol Finalist and star of The Bold and the Beautiful, Constantine Maroulis on stage Saturday, 9:00 p.m. and Sunday, 2:30 p.m.
• Greek Imports galore in the air-conditioned AGORA marketplace
• A Taste of Greek Dallas from the city’s top Greek restaurants
• On-going entertainment - Greek style!
• The Festival Dancers
• Church Tours and Orthodox Bookstore
• Greek Cooking Demos
• Children’s area with face painting, candle making, sand art, and caricatures
• Special School Group Program
• Hellenic Cultural Exhibit

The Festival is located just north of I-635 at Hillcrest and Alpha.

For more information and ticket pricing, visit www.greekfestivalofdallas.com

____________________________________
RV Show -Dallas Market Hall - Thursday-Sunday

Featuring displays of more than 500 recreational vehicles, the Southwest RV Supershow returns to Dallas Market Hall, Sept. 27 through Sept. 30, 2007.

Check out the latest in RV innovations in indoor comfort. There will be hundreds of Recreational Vehicle units of all shapes and sizes on display, and for sale…from the smallest of pop-up tent campers to the most luxurious of live-aboard Class “A” motor coaches with all the amenities of a modern home! There will be everything there the RV enthusiast could want.

BRING THE WHOLE FAMILY TO CHECK OUT ALL KINDS OF RV’S….AND MAKE YOUR TRAVEL AND CAMPING DREAMS COME TRUE!

Thursday, September 27 - 1PM to 8PM
Friday, September 28 - 1PM to 8PM
Saturday, September 29 - 10AM to 8PM
Sunday, September 30 - 11AM to 6PM

________________________________

Admission is $10.00 Adult or $5.00 for Children 6-12, $25-Family
Seniors $9.00 on Friday, Sept 28th.

Parking is Free

BUT by visiting this link, you can print as many coupons as you want for $2.00 off each Adult, Family or Senior ticket.

http://www.texasrvshows.com/

____________________________________

FM Theatre-The Effects of Gamma Rays on Man-In-The-Moon Marigolds - Sept 20-Sept 30, 2007

Performed by the Flower Mound Performing Arts Theatre in Parker Square, This Pulitzer Prize winning play by Paul Zindel, is the story of Beatrice and her daughters, Ruth and Matilda. A widowed eccentric, Beatrice is looking for her life in the classified ads while all about her is the rubble of an unkempt house. All she needs is the right opportunity, she says puffing on a cigarette. Poorly equipped to survive the vagaries of modern life, she has nonetheless always managed to muddle through. Ruth, epileptic and making her way through the rebellious phase of adolescence, seems doomed to make the same mistakes as her mother. Quiet Matilda, on the other hand, seeks refuge in her animals and her schoolwork. The play’s title is the subject of Matilda’s science project at school and serves as a metaphor for life — how some are able to find opportunity in adversity and thrive and how some succumb when the burden becomes too heavy.

For more information click here to visit the FM Performing Arts Theatre.
_________________________________

MOVIES

The box office winners last weekend were:

1. Resident Evil: Extinction (new)
2. Good Luck Chuck (new)
3. The Brave One (1)
4. 3:10 to Yuma (2)
5. Eastern Promises (new)
________

Resident Evil: Extinction kicked off the Fall movie releases with a better than average box office revenue of $23.6 Million. The weekend brought 3 new movies into the top 5 box office producers. We saw Good Luck Chuck and Eastern Promises and while both were entertaining, both are definitely strong R, bordering on NC-17 Ratings.

_______

NEW THIS WEEKEND

Feast of Love - With Morgan Freeman, Greg Kinnear, and Selma Blair. In a coffee shop in a tight-knit Oregon community, local professor Harry Stevenson witnesses love and attraction whipping up mischief among the town’s residents. From the unlucky in love, die-hard romantic coffee shop owner Bradley who has a serial habit of looking for love in all the wrong places; to the edgy real estate agent Diana who is caught up in an affair with a married man; to the beautiful young newcomer Chloe who defies fate in romancing the troubled Oscar; to Harry himself, whose adoring wife is looking to break through his wall of grief after the wrenching loss of a beloved…they all intertwine into one remarkable story in which no one can escape being bent, broken, befuddled, delighted and ultimately redeemed by love’s inescapable spell.

The Game Plan - The Rock returns to the Theater as a superstar quarterback whose bachelor life is turned upside down when he discovers he has a young daughter.

 

The Kingdom - In this high-impact action movie, Jamie Foxx heads an elite U.S. counter-terrorism team investigating a deadly attack on Americans in Saudi Arabia. The movie also features Jennifer Garner, Chris Cooper, Jason Bateman and Jeremy Piven.

_______

Continuing this Weekend

Good Luck Chuck
A man breaks up with his long-time girlfriend only to see her get engaged to the next guy she dates. The same pattern occurs with his next girlfriend, and continues to repeat. All of a sudden he finds himself becoming a lucky charm for women, who all want to date him…with one goal in mind. This is our pick for weekend box office winner. Strong Sexual Content!

Sydney White
Amanda Bynes stars in a modern retelling of Snow White, as gorgeous freshman Sydney White, goes to college to pledge her late mom’s once-dignified sorority. But while surviving the pledging process wrought by an evil campus witch Rachel, Syd finds out this version of sisterhood isn’t remotely what it’s cracked up to be. Banished to a condemned house on Greek Row, Syd finds her rightful place with a band of seven very socially challenged guys. With the help of one lovestruck frat boy named Tyler, she and the doofs campaign to take over the student government. Fighting for the rights of misfits everywhere, Syd and her “gang” revolutionize the system, once and for all.

Resident Evil: Extinction
In a new installment in the Resident Evil series, Milla Jovovich returns as Alice, now in hiding in the Nevada desert, once again joins forces with Carlos Olivera and L.J., along with new survivors try to eliminate the deadly virus that threatens to m

ake every human being one of the undead. Since being captured by the Umbrella Corporation, Alice has been subjected to biogenic experimentation and becomes genetically altered, now, of course, having much needed super-human strengths, senses and dexterity. These skills, and more, will be needed if anyone is to remain alive.

The Brave One
New York radio host Erica Bain (Jodie Foster) has a life that she loves and a fiancé she adores. All of it is taken from her when a brutal attack leaves Erica badly wounded and her fiancé dead. Unable to move past the tragedy, Erica begins prowling the city streets at night to track down the men she holds responsible, dishing out Vigilante justice as well as any man could.

Our Review: Well Acted, but Jodie Foster can pull off about any role. Violent, which seems consistent with Ms. Foster’s last several movies, and somewhat difficult to watch a few scenes due to the graphic nature of the violence. Even though most of the scenarios weren’t realistic, you could feel her character’s emotions and empathize with her objectives.

_______

Mr. Woodcock

John Farley (Seann William Scott), author of a best-selling self-help book about letting go of the past, violates his own advice when he returns to his small hometown to receive the community’s highest honor. While there, John learns, to his horror, that his widowed mother, Beverly (Susan Sarandon), is engaged to be married to none other than Mr. Woodcock (Billy Bob Thornton), the gym teacher whose sadistic exploits were the bane of John’s youth. While casting is good, critics give this movie an average C++…but what do they know!

Our Review: Funny. Billy Bob Thornton took his character over the top…almost all the time. Susan Sarandon was surprisingly funny and light-hearted as opposed to her usual character. Seann William Scott (American Pie famous), is starting to develop his own acting personality, but is he forever stereotyped as a corny-comedic actor? Their chemistry was well presented.

_______
Eastern Promises

Naomi Watts is a London midwife who looks into the death of a patient, putting her in the sights of a ruthless Russian mobster. Critics give this one a B average, though it’s probably not a high-volume revenue generator.

_______

Across The Universe is a movie that it seems like we’ve been seeing previews for a year or so now. That’s usually a bad sign meaning they’ve run it past a couple of test audiences and had to rework it several times to make people like it.

It’s a flashback to the 60’s psychedelic romantic musical told mainly through numerous Beatles songs performed by the characters. A young man from Liverpool comes to America during the Vietnam War to find his father. He winds up in Greenwich Village, where he falls in love with an American girl who has grown up sheltered in the suburbs. Together they experience the sweeping changes of America in the late 60’s. It’s long at 2hr 13min and the critics give it a B- average. We’ll see! Not sure if we can survive sitting through this one ourselves, but it is the Beatles music. It’s actually in limited release to only a few theaters at present.

_______

Another limited release movie is In The Valley of Elah, with a couple of our favorite actors, Tommy Lee Jones, Charlize Theron and Susan Sarandon. This is the story of a war veteran (Tommy Lee Jones), his wife (Susan Sarandon) and the search for their son, a soldier who recently returned from Iraq but has mysteriously gone missing, and the police detective (Charlize Theron) who helps in the investigation. We like the storyline and the actors, and hope this one is a success.

_______

3:10 to Yuma is yep, just what it sounds like-a Western from the director of Walk the Line. Can a western make a comeback? Well with Christian Bale as a struggling rancher who agrees to help transfer Russell Crowe, a notorious outlaw, into the hands of authorities, it’s got potential.

Our Review: The best western movie we’ve seen this year. LOL. Classic Good vs Bad Guys. Crowe hits it home with his character, the Bad Guy of course, but with several redeeming qualities that don’t quite offset his evil nature. It’s actually kinda odd seeing a modern produced western. So much more visual. Christian Bale, and especially his son, Logan Lerman showed the importance of a Dad in the eyes of his son. We were really impressed with Lerman, only 15, but he’s got a long list of credentials including What Women Want, Jack and Bobby, Hoot and more.

_______
Halloween, yep, the movie studios are thinking of those scary days already! In this rework, director Rob Zombie re-imagines the 1978 horror slasher classic, with Tyler Mane starring as masked serial killer Michael Myers. After being committed for 17 years, Myers, now a grown man and still very dangerous, is mistakenly released from the mental institution (where he was committed as a 10 year old) and he immediately returns to Haddonfield, where he wants to find his baby sister, Laurie. Anyone who crosses his path is in mortal danger. We’re not excited.

 

_________
Shoot’EM Up
In Shoot’Em Up, Clive Owen, as Mr. Smith, a mysterious loner, teams up with an unlikely ally to protect a newborn baby from a determined criminal who hunts them throughout the bowels of the city. You can guess what to expect from the title alone.

 

 

 

________
________

Farmer’s Market

There are still good Farmer’s Markets to go to right now!

Lewisville Farmers Market - Saturday 8am until sell-out. Every Saturday through Oct. 27, The Lewisville Old Town Business Association presents the Old Town Farmers Market for the second year, operating in Wayne Ferguson Plaza in Old Town near the City Hall.

___________________________

If you’ve never been, the Dallas Farmer’s Market is huge. Located in the southeastern corner of the central business district in downtown Dallas at 1010 South Pearl Street, Dallas, Texas 75201, it provides a unique opportunity to shop for fresh fruits, vegetables, flowers, specialty and international products.The Dallas Farmers Market is open Sunday through Saturday 7am to 6pm. There are other Farmers Markets in the area, Grapevine, Coppell, etc. Let us know if we should add others.

_____________________________________________________________

Keep checking. We always add more! There’s a lot going on this weekend, and of course, the Texas State Fair opens next Friday! Then we start slowing down and settling into a routine for the Fall! This is a great time to get out and enjoy the fall weather…take a walk, go bicycling, do things with your kids!