Sample the menus of more than 60 local restaurants at Taste Addison, which kicks off at 6 p.m. Friday at Addison Circle Park. The three-day festival also features live music: Chris Cagle and Luke Bryan on Friday and Train on Saturday.  For the kids, there are carnival rides and midway games. The event runs until midnight Friday, noon-midnight Saturday and noon-5 p.m. Sunday.

Comedian Maz Jobrani will perform all weekend at Addison Improv. He’s one of the founding members of the Axis of Evil Comedy Tour, featuring Middle-Eastern comics. Now, he’s on a solo tour, “Brown and Friendly.” He performs at 8 and 10:30 p.m. Friday, 6:30, 9 and 11:30 p.m. Saturday and 7:30 p.m. Sunday.

Landscape pastel artist Brian Cobble will present his latest exhibit, “The Edge of Town,” at a 6 p.m. reception Friday at the Valley House Gallery and Sculpture Garden. He’ll give a talk at 11 a.m. Saturday. His work ranges from urban New York to rural Nebraska. The show runs through July 3.

06.13.10 & 06.27.10 CONCERT ON THE LAWN FREE

Started in 1916 out of a local barbershop, the Richardson Community Band is one of the neighborhood’s oldest groups. The members would meet at Newt Harris’ shop on McKinney Street regularly for practice and fellowship. With the onset of World War I … more

Imagine my surprise last Friday morning when I went to open our Advocate Facebook page and saw a photo of an Advocate staffer getting a bear hug from Conan O’Brien in my newsfeed.

Yep, that’s right. Last Thursday night, Advocate sales director (and all-around cool chick) Kristy Gaconnier went to see O’Brien’s show at SMU’s McFarlin Auditorium. Conan’s band leader, Jimmy Vivino, is a cousin of Kristy’s husband Steve, and he got them tickets and backstage passes.

The Gaconniers took Vivino and “La Bamba,” the band’s trombone player, to the Metro Diner for pancakes before the show, and Kristy told me that La Bamba “eats his pancakes from the middle out with a puddle of real maple syrup filling up the hole.”

“Conan told me that when he licks Jimmy’s face he can taste maple syrup coming out of his pores,” she adds.

Oh Conan, always joking. You are joking, right?

Anyway, she also noted that the show itself was really good and high energy. “More like a variety show — not so much like a stand-up comedy show.”

And that photo? Here it is. And note that our sales director is very good at getting people to do what she wants them to do. “I told him to act like he loves me, and I got this great shot!”

Did you make it to Conan’s show?

J.J. Pearce’s end-of-the-year choir showcase, Pearceapalooza, happens at 7:30 tonight in the school auditorium. The concert features all of the school’s choirs plus some individual solos and ensembles. There’s also a dessert intermission. 

In other choir news, Pearce’s Acappella choir recently performed the Meyerson earlier this month as part of the band’s annual concert, and ensemble members the school’s show choir, Forte, have been chosen for the next school year.

Also on tap tonight is the Westwood Junior High choir, which will perform a “Back to the 1950s” spring concert at 7:30 tonight in the Richardson High School auditorium.

Sting will perform Saturday night at the Winspear Opera House in what is said to be a somewhat private concert. Tickets are going from $250-$1,000, but Ebby Halliday is giving away five pairs of tickets, which include entry to VIP receptions before and after the show.

 Halliday is the official sponsor of the North Texas Super Bowl XLV Host Committee, and the giveaway celebrates its 65th anniversary. Register here for a chance to receive the free tickets. The offer ends at midnight tonight.

Obzeet continues its weekend music lineup, beginning Friday with The Infidels, a British Invasion rock group. Then come the Midnight Believers who will perform classic rock cover tunes on Saturday. It’s $5 per table each night.

Big Shucks is hosting a crawfish boil Saturday with live music at both of its locations, including the one at 103 S. Coit. The crawfish special — $3.95 a pound — is from 11 a.m. to 11:30 p.m., and the music runs from 1 to 6 p.m.

The Richardson men’s soccer team will have a carwash from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday at the Walgreens at Beltline and Coit.

On alternating Mondays, we’ll be listening to local music. This morning, tracks from Trey Johnson, Polyphonic Spree, Killdares and Boys Named Sue.

Let us know who you want to hear: chughes@advocatemag.com. Music Monday 6.9.

A couple of words of advice for the creators of Fox’s upcoming TV series "Code 58," which will be shot in town and tell the story of two Dallas cops. Robert Wilonsky at the Observer has way more information about "Code 58" than probably even he wanted to know.

Creator Matt Nix, who did the generally well-regarded "Burn Notice," needs to know the following about shooting in Dallas:

• Don’t use shots of Fort Worth and pretend they’re Dallas, which the otherwise great "Walker, Texas Ranger" did regularly.

• Employ as many Dallas actors as possible. We’re in a recession, and they need the work. Besides, I’m tired of always picking up the drink tab.

• Please don’t do the hair thing, as in all the female characters who are from Dallas will have big, blond hair. That’s just so J.R.

And, because one can never have too much Chuck Norris, a little Walker nostalgia after the jump (courtesy of ela63 at You Tube). And yes, that is the Fort Worth stock yards and Dallas-ex Steve Kanaly, who played Ray Krebs, as the guest star.

UPDATE: THE TICKETS HAVE BEEN GIVEN AWAY. THANKS FOR YOUR INTEREST.

It’s Back Talk Freebie time again. Today, we’re giving away two Dallas Stars tickets to Saturday’s 1 p.m. game against the Vancouver Canucks. If you want the tickets, be the first to send me an email at rwamre@advocatemag.com, and they’re yours if you can pick them up today before 5 p.m. And have a safe and happy new year, too!

One thing we nerds learn in journalism school is that everyone has a story. Legendary University of Missouri journalism professor G. Thomas Duffy famously made his students flip to a random page in the Columbia, Mo. phonebook and write a feature story about the first person whose name they saw. That kind of stuff, for community journalists like us, is great fun.

So we hope you’ll indulge us today as we introduce David Lynch’s “Interview Project.” Lynch has been making weird, dream-inspired films since the 70s and is most famous for his 90s TV series, “Twin Peaks.” For “Interview Project,” he sent a film crew on a cross-country road trip to interview people about their lives — same idea as Duffy’s phonebook assigment. Lynch releases a new video every three days, and so far has released 49. My favorite is “Clinton.”

Maybe Dallas is a little conservative, but we have a sense of humor. And KERA, the local PBS member station, is something of a comedy pioneer. In September 1974, KERA was the first station in the United States to air the iconic BBC show "Monty Python’s Flying Circus."

The station is celebrating 35 years of airing British comedy in Dallas with a "Monty Python’s Flying Circus" marathon, begining Saturday at 7 p.m. The marathon also includes the world premiere of "Monty Python Before and After," a documentary about the show, which first aried on the BBC in 1969. The station also is showing "Monty Python’s Personal Best," in which cast members pick their favorite moments from the show, at 10 p.m. tonight and Friday.

The story goes that Ron Devillier, who was in charge of KERA’s programming in 1974, got a box of tapes from the BBC. "He wound up watching all the tapes on a Saturday and he thought it was the funniest thing he’d ever seen," says the station’s current program director, Bill Young. So Devillier bought the show, and then he started worrying about how Dallas audiences would take it.

More after the jump.

"But it turned out to be the highest-rated show the station had ever had," Young says. "Luckily for him, the station president at the time was Bob Wilson, father of Luke and Owen."

That was the start of KERA’s British comedy lineup, which was Sunday at 10 p.m. Now the station has a three-hour lineup on Saturday night, and a four-hour lineup on Sundays. And KERA plays more British comedies than the BBC, Young says. He recently launched a blog called Tellyspotting, all about British comedy. 

If you want some reasons to remember why "Monty Python" is considered a pioneer of comedy, click here, here and here.

Friday night Richardson High School students will present “Buried,” a play that will raise money for Texas Voice Project, a neighborhood non-profit that funds Parkinson’s research.

“Say Anything,” a new art exhibition featuring the work of 15 UTD graduate students opens this Friday. The works range from mixed media to digital video. The opening reception is Friday from 6:30 to 8:30, and it’s free.

If you don’t suffer from stage fright, Improv is offering a free comedy jam session this Saturday night. Everyone’s invited to come try out their standup bit, or come hear others.

There are a couple of J.J. Pearce carwash fundraisers happening this Saturday from 10 a.m to 2 p.m.: First up, the basketball team will have a carwash at the Sonny Bryan’s off Coit and Campbell—and secondly, the Mustang Stampede will also have a carwash over at the Radio Shack off Coit and Arapaho.

Saturday night, UTD will present Trinity of Guitars, a concert that combines western music with traditional Indian instruments. Those tickets are $30, which you can buy online.