METROPOLITAN SHORTENS SEASON: The Metropolitan Classical Ballet has announced that is is canceling its three Bass Hall shows for this season. That leaves The Nutcracker as the only performance for the Arlington-based group. MCB’s board president Frank Hill tells the Fort Worth Star-Telegram that the cost of performing at Bass was just too high.

CHRISTMAS IN AUGUST: This is about the time of year when we start dreaming of cooler temperatures. Those days are still a ways off, but today you can at least try and fake yourself into thinking they’re almost here. Disney has rolled a train into Union Station in downtown Dallas to promote its A Christmas Carol, which comes out in November. After watching this video, it actually looks kinda cool. If you’re interested, you’d better hurry – the train pulls out for the next depot this afternoon at 4. You can find more details here.

QUOTABLE: “The traditional path was to move to New York City, go to art school and then get in a gallery there. But I didn’t know anybody in New York. And I like painting Texas landscapes. Texas made sense for me.”

– Dallas artist Sally Taylor, whose first solo exhibition, “Cattle, Studies in Silence and Cuba,” opens Friday at the Filter Building on White Rock Lake. Read more about her work in this dallasnews.com profile.