Most Popular
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Pentecostal Preacher Sherman Allen Turns Out to Be Reverend Spanky
The Fort Worth preacher is accused of beating, threatening and assaulting women for more than 20 years
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Obama and Me
It was the year 2000, and I was a young, hungry reporter in Chicago with a young, hungry state legislator on my speed dial
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Texas' Peyote Hunters Struggle to Find a Vanishing, Holy Crop
Harvesting peyote is legal for only three people, and all of them live in Texas
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Why is Hillary Neglecting Delegate-Rich Dallas County?
While Obama has events going on throughout the city, Clinton is nowhere to be found
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Obama and Me (62)
It was the year 2000, and I was a young, hungry reporter in Chicago with a young, hungry state legislator on my speed dial
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Melodica Festival Self-Indulgent, But Still Positive for Dallas (51)
If a festival happens in Exposition Park and only the built-in crowd shows, does it make a sound?
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Ole Oops (58)
Popular prosperity preacher sues ABC and Trinity Foundation
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Pentecostal Preacher Sherman Allen Turns Out to Be Reverend Spanky (21)
The Fort Worth preacher is accused of beating, threatening and assaulting women for more than 20 years
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Why is Hillary Neglecting Delegate-Rich Dallas County? (18)
While Obama has events going on throughout the city, Clinton is nowhere to be found
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Melodica Festival Self-Indulgent, But Still Positive for Dallas
If a festival happens in Exposition Park and only the built-in crowd shows, does it make a sound?
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MySpace Stalking Dallas Music
There are things you can learn on MySpace, and there are things you can't
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Remembering DJ Frantic
The turntablist's friends and collaborators will remember him for his love of the craft
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Dallas Music Finally Getting National Attention
It may not be Austin-level love, but we'll take it
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Erykah Badu Has Returned
The songstress burst through her stuggles with writer's block and created a solid record
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Dallas Man Sells Phony Property But Gets Real Prison Time
11:06AM 03/10/08 -
Did Arlington Roll a Strike or Just Strike Out? Not Sure Yet.
10:08AM 03/10/08 -
Dodging Raindrops at DART
09:25AM 03/10/08 -
Video: South San Gabriel at Granada Theater
08:13AM 03/10/08 -
Over The Weekend: Centro-matic, All-Con, Texas Guitar Competition
01:10AM 03/10/08 -
Good Friday: Centro-matic, Beach House, Pleasant Grove, Sean Kirkpatrick
04:22PM 03/07/08
What we are writing about
- $30,000 millionaires
- Avi Adelman
- basketball
- Bob Dylan
- carcinogens
- Carol Reed
- cheap lunch
- Dallas Cowboys
- DART
- Deep Ellum
- Dirk Nowitzki
- douchebags
- DVD releases
- I'm Not There
- illegal immigration
- levees
- Meryl Streep
- Muslims
- Nintendo Wii
- Oak Cliff
- Philip Seymour Hoffman
- railroad tie plant
- referendum
- Somerville
- The Ticket
- Todd Haynes
- toll road
- Tony Romo
- Trinity River project
- Victory Park
Recent Articles By Ben Westhoff
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The N-Word Still Alive and Well in Hip-Hop
Eight month after the hip-hop community gave the word a funeral, it hasn't died
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Rapper's Caviar Dreams
Are the latest boastful rappers billionaires or boobs?
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Wu-Tang Clan
8 Diagrams (Loud/SRC/Universal)
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Band of Horses
Cease to Begin (Sub Pop)
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Beirut
The Flying Club Cup (Ba Da Bing Records)
National Features
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Houston Press
"It Was Like an Armageddon Movie"
For days after Hurricane Rita, a Texas prison was hell on earth.
By Chris Vogel -
SF Weekly
The Candidate
Our columnist knows Ralph Nader's running mate all too well.
By Matt Smith -
The Pitch
How Not To Be a Rap Star
First of all, lay off the Ecstasy.
By Nadia Pflaum -
Village Voice
Project Runaway
What becomes a gossip columnist most?
By Michael Musto
Subject(s): Mary J. Blige
With hip-hop increasingly a boys-only drug cartel, it's not surprising that the top urban hit makers are increasingly females in the R&B genre. Like Alicia Keys on her recent chart-topper As I Am, Mary J. Blige plays things safe on her own new blockbuster CD, Growing Pains. The album functions mainly as relationship therapy. "You know love is a process," she sings on "Talk to Me," "and it ain't gonna happen overnight. So be patient with my shortcomings." (A reference to her alleged steroids use, perhaps?) "Feel Like a Woman," is an anti-feminist ballad: "If you're on your way home, stop and buy me something. Boy, buy me a bag, or buy me some shoes," she begs. Why she would trust a heterosexual man's taste on these matters is a mystery, but no matter. On this largely tensionless work, one wishes Blige would bring the drama, or at least a dramatic-sounding track on the order of "Be Without You" or "Family Affair." Sadly, the production is exceedingly conservative, with the exception of "Come to Me (Peace)," the album's electronic-accented closer. Produced by Tricky Stewart, it's the only song on the disc that feels epic the way a Mary J. track should.
