They say speed kills. But in a fast-paced society, setting time limits has become attractive even in the art world. As KERA’s Jerome Weeks recently reported, 24 hours has emerged as one measuring stick.

Now here comes Pecha Kucha, a 5-year-old concept based on the Japanese term for casual conversation. Spreading around the world, the idea is for artists to present 20 slides of their work for 20 seconds each. Total running time: 6 minutes, 40 seconds. This is social networking on the run.

A North Texas Pecha Kucha group is about to hold its second event next Thursday evening, June 19, at the Frisco Arts Center, and it’s looking for contributors. The group is especially keen to find tattoo, graffiti, web and animation/comic-book artists, fashion and hair/makeup designers, filmmakers, sculptors, architects and students. Another PK night for July is already in the planning stages. Get going.

Here doggie doggie: The best canine in the land may be right in our backyard. Star, a 7-year-old Brittany from Flint, Texas, just south of Tyler, is one of a dozen competitors in CBS’ latest summer reality series, Greatest American Dog, premiering July 10. Star’s owner is Bill (early on, reality shows don’t reveal full names of participants to keep the press hounds at bay), a 60-year-old building-maintenance man and farmer. He’ll live with Star and the other owners and their dogs in a house as if they were vying for the affections of The Bachelorette. Besides the title, 250,000 bones are at stake.

Dog days: And speaking of dogs, a lot of people believe Deep Ellum has gone to them. Despite a fairly vibrant gallery scene, the club scene has been in decline. The powers that be are trying to do something about that. The next high-profile opportunity is a town-hall meeting on June 27, starring Mayor Tom Leppert. Stay tuned.