Over at Dd, our boy Sam Machkovech has gotten a scoop on a story (and don't even think about not crediting that guy or he'll totally kick your ass) that will surely shake the core of a Deep Ellum that has been slowly but surely climbing out of a slump. Club Clearview is done. Kaput. Over. It doesn't come as a surprise, frankly -- stories of Clearview's impending demise have been circulating for weeks, if not months. It was exactly one year ago that co-owner Doug Simmons said of the place: "At Clearview, we're just beating our heads against the wall." The owners had been trying to sell off Clearview and its adjoining rooms one at a time.
For us, it doesn't so much shake the core of our social or music plans, because, honestly, we haven't been loyal patrons to that venue in a long while -- since around the time crowd-pleasing manager Greg Watson left. What the closing does do is sort of jar our memory of young adulthood...as Martin Blank's was when he discovered his childhood home was turned into a Ultimart. K, maybe it's not that traumatic, but like Trees, Clearview was a stalwart destination for us early twenty-somethings many years ago. Not to mention, it had one kick-ass neon sign. --Merritt Martin
