WEEKEND REVIEWS: Jubilee Theatre’s Sam Shade: A Detective Musical is a, “ rollicking, intermittently entertaining mess,” according to Manuel Mendoza (dallasnews.com) … Chris Shull calls Contemporary Dance Fort Worth’s new piece at this weekend’s Modern Dance Festival, “a fascinating kaleidoscope of sound and movement.” (dfw.com) … Art&Seek guest blogger Danielle Georgiou gets props for her, “wonderful and comical choreography” of the Capulet Ball in Dallas Hub Theater’s Romeo and Juliet. (examiner.com). Scott Cantrell takes a look at the Convention Center hotel design and finds a lot to dislike — it already looks dated he says (dallasnews.com). In fact, it looks like “a glorified, ugly Holiday Inn” — no, that’s not Cantrell, that’s councilmember Angela Hunt. Worse than that, says Wick Allison on Frontburner, it’s in the wrong setting with far too much empty, concrete space around it, a favorite Dallas design statement: “If you have to start big, as a convention hotel necessarily has to do, make sure the smaller, more intimate, more human-friendly buildings are there at the start to give your hotel some cover and context. Otherwise, we’re going to end up with another beached Dallas behemoth.”

QUOTABLE: “It’s a finite gift, for sure. I’m about at the end of it. I can write certain things. I don’t think I can write fiction any more. I think I’ve used it up over 30 novels. That’s a lot of novels.”

— Archer City’s Larry McMurtry, whose 30th novel, Rhino Ranch, will be published Aug. 11. The novel is the final chapter in Duane Moore’s story, which began in 1966’s The Last Picture Show. Click here to read the rest of his interview with The Dallas Morning News.

FOR THEIR EYES ONLY?: How far does the copyright for visual art extend? The question has been in the news of late after London’s National Portrait Gallery sued a man for downloading images from its Web site and then uploading them to Wikipedia. The gallery’s argument is that, though the works are in the public domain, it is responsible for the upkeep of the paintings as well as the painstaking process of digitally capturing the images. Eric Felten of The Wall Street Journal feels the gallery’s pain, but he says that copyright laws are in place to protect creators, not institutions. It’s an interesting debate. Discuss.