Cleburne

The Red Dirt Community Comes to the Aid of the Tornado Victims

On Wednesday night, 16 tornadoes devastated much of Cleburne and Granbury, south of Fort Worth, leaving six people dead and millions of dollars worth of damage to the two normally sleepy towns. As Wednesday night rolled into Thursday morning, it took but only a few text messages between a couple of ... More >>

Nearly a Dozen Tornadoes Swept Through North Texas Last Night

As day breaks in North Texas, residents are surveying the devastation wreaked by last night's storms. Dallas escaped the worst of it. The tornado sirens by our place just south of White Rock got going around 9 p.m. and kept on for a half hour, but we saw nothing but rain, heard nothing but thunder. ... More >>

Johnson County Sheriff's Deputy Says He Was Fired for Job-Induced PTSD

On a Sunday night in January 2010, Johnson County deputies responded to a domestic disturbance call on a rural road a couple of miles south of Mansfield. The husband, 33-year-old Joshua Adam Lewis, had gotten drunk and begun arguing with his wife and insulting her dead father. The argument escalate ... More >>

If You Spotted Serial Killer Israel Keyes in North Texas Last February, the FBI Would Like to Speak with You

Israel Keyes, an itinerant construction worker and Army vet, spent much of the past decade crisscrossing the United States, carrying out kidnappings, robbing banks, and murdering at least eight people, according to Time. His crime spree came to an end on March 13, when he was pulled over in Lufkin ... More >>

A Cleburne Pastor Made an Unsettling Admission Yesterday that He Used to Do Porn

If there's one thing that pops into your head when you look at Claude Gilliland III, the new pastor at the New Heart Family Worship Center in Cleburne, it's probably something like "It's a shame to waste such a righteous mustache on somebody who would never ever be involved with porn." You'd be wro ... More >>

Connection Between Quakes and Underground Frack-water Disposal Looks Solid

There's a reason State Farm wants to insure Johnson County homes against earthquakes. Injecting millions of barrels of fracking waste water loosens faults the way whiskey loosens tongues. Cliff Frohlich of the Jackson School of Geosciences deployed seismographs throughout a 43-mile grid in the Bar ... More >>

State Farm Wants To Insure Johnson County, Texas, Against Frack-Water Induced Quakes

Like a good neighbor, State Farm wants to insure Johnson County homeowners against fracking-related earthquake damage. Cleburne, aka Lil' San Andreas, has experienced a string of quakes this summer. Which is weird because, before 2008, the area had absolutely zero history of seismic activity. State ... More >>

12 of This Weekend's Top Shows: Tenacious D, Arkansas Bo and More

Tenacious D Friday, July 20, at Palladium Ballroom Lots of frat boys expected to turn out for the D tomorrow night. Lots of mind bullets, too.

Four Fort Worth Bands To Watch

I'm not going to get involved in the stupid "Dallas vs. Fort Worth" pissing contest, although I've lived in the Fort for most of the last 35 years, so that should give you a clue as to my loyalties. Now that development dollars - many of them from Big D - have created our very own bar ghetto here (t ... More >>

Nine DFW Acts To Catch at SXSW

Mixtape: 10 DFW Acts To Catch at SXSW

Ah yes, 35 Denton is coming at us fast and furious, so keep an eye out for our preview and 173 rules for surviving the upcoming "fest season" in next week's issue. However, there's another festival called SXSW that a lot of people seem to be excited about. Bruce Springsteen's set to play an "intima ... More >>

Eccotone, Fungi Girls

Saturday, January 21, at Queen City Hall

Former Rangers Prez Mike Stone Talks About Helping to Save the Fort Worth Cats

You can buy this 1953 Cats-Oilers game program for a mere $38.​Longtime Friends of Unfair Park will recall: In early 2009, United League Baseball co-founders John Bryant (yes, that John Bryant) and Byron Pierce said that come time for first pitch 2010, they would have a minor-league ballclub on th ... More >>

Six Ways to Localize Your Dallas Thanksgiving

Pearl Brand Artisanal Ice Cream​We've already talked turkey. Now, let us not delegate lesser attention to the other elements of a proper Thanksgiving feast, many of which you nary have to travel far to find. There are, in fact, many ways to bring a local farm, wine-maker, cheese crafter, coffe ... More >>

A Fan's Legacy

Music Video Monday: Demi Lovato, Fungi Girls and Gaston Light Each Release New Clips...

It's been about a month since we wrote off Colleyville's Own Demi Lovato, saying that she'd been officially overtaken as Disney's top starlet by her BFF, Grand Prairie's Own Selena Gomez. Last week, though, Lovato struck back. Well, not really. But she did release the music video for her new single ... More >>

The Tragic Accident at the Ballpark Last Night

At 10:02 last night, an email from the Texas Rangers arrived in the in-box bearing the subject heading "Statement From Texas Rangers CEO and President Nolan Ryan." This is what it said: The adult male who during tonight's game fell approximately 20 feet from section 5 in the left field lower reserve ... More >>

Whitt's End: 7.1.11

​Whether you've reached the end of your rope or merely the end of your week, welcome to Whitt's End: *Rangers return from Houston today to start a series in Arlington against the lowly Florida Marlins. Did anyone go to the airport to see the Silver Boot as Nolan Ryan triumphantly raised it? ... More >>

In-N-Out Burger: Worth the Wait, But Not the Fuss

First bite of the first fry by the first customer in Allen. Soon to be followed by two double-doubles.​Stay tuned to the Observer's food blog, City of Ate, for more from the In-n-Out opening.In-N-Out Burger is the best hamburger. Period. The end. When I'm in Oxnard, California for Co ... More >>

Three Shows Worth A Damn in Dallas Tonight

Tonight's top touring shows put a serious emphasis on all things heavy.

Last Night: Happy Birthday, Residual Echoes and Fungi Girls at The Nightmare

Happy Birthday, Residual Echoes, Fungi GirlsThe NightmareAugust 5, 2010Better than: giving in to the heat and staying at home in your air conditioning.Happy Birthday​ No one, it seemed, was in a rush for things to get started last night at The Nightmare, where a powerful triple-bill of the Sub Pop ... More >>

Giveaway: A Pair Of Tickets to See Happy Birthday, Residual Echoes and Fungi Girls Tomorrow Night at The Nightmare. Also: A Free Copy of Happy Birthday's Self-Titled Debut.

Abby BanksVermont's hardest to google band.​We've made no secret of our approval of either Cleburne's Fungi Girls or Vermont's Sub Pop-approved Happy Birthday here at DC9. So, yeah, of course we're looking forward to tomorrow night's show at The Nightmare, which finds the two bands sharing what we ... More >>

Whitt's End: 5.14.10

​Whether you're at the end of your rope or merely the end of your week, welcome to Whitt's End: *This is why I thought Ron Washington should have been fired on the spot last summer when he first told Texas Rangers' management about his cocaine use: He can't be trusted. Twice in the last two w ... More >>

Giveaway: A Pair Of Tickets to Tomorrow Night's Jacuzzi Boys Show at The Cavern with Fergus & Geronimo and Fungi Girls

​In theory, since they're the touring band behind which this bill was built, tomorrow night's Parade of Flesh show at The Cavern is all about its headlining act, Miami-based garage rock act Jacuzzi Boys. And, sure, there's enough going on in the band's tropical band of retro-rock that makes it int ... More >>

Glory Be: Dallas to House a "National Bible Museum"? Sure Sounds Like It.

Scott Carroll​Very strange thing going on right now in New York and Europe about a "National Bible Museum" to be created in Dallas -- strange in that there has been no mention here in the city's only daily newspaper. But people elsewhere seem to know all about it. The National Bible Museum, as it ... More >>

Bonus MP3: Fungi Girls -- "Dream of Oz"

The cover art for Seafaring Pyramids.​I guess now is the time where rubber hits road for upstart Denton-based record label Play Pinball! Records because, on Saturday night, as Cleburne's Fungi Girls' debut album, Seafaring Pyramids, officially hits the streets, it will instantly become the l ... More >>

Bonus MP3: The Kilroys - "The Ballad of John McCree"

​Awhile back, I posted an mp3 from a local act called Three Cities Burning. In that post, I commented that the band's country/rock sound didn't suit its post-punk moniker. Well, lo and behold, it seems that's now been taken care of. In a recent email, drummer Guy Cramer informed me that Three ... More >>

Bonus MP3: Fungi Girls -- "Pacifica Nostalgia"

According to Skyler Salinas of Fungi Girls, the Cleburne band's full-length debut, Seafaring Pyramids, is a wrap. And, just to peak your interest, Salinas sent us an mp3 for "Pacifica Nostalgia," one of two new songs the band just posted on its MySpace page. "We're finally finished with it," Salinas ... More >>

Bonus MP3: Video -- "In Control"

Friday night's show at Rubber Gloves featured one of the best local bills I've caught this year. An album-release show for Teenage Cool Kids' Foreign Lands, the evening also featured Cleburne's Fungi Girls and, more importantly, the phenomenal debut performance by Denton-based Brit-punk/hardcore act ... More >>

Play Pinball! Records Offers A Perfect Snapshot Of Denton Punk

What the Frack?

This morning's Wall Street Journal investigates the cause of the 18 earthquakes that have rattled the Dallas-Fort Worth area since 2008 -- from just east of Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport down to Cleburne most recently -- and concludes, well, ya know, not really sure. Because on the one han ... More >>

Pretty Sure I Saw the Dallas Tornado Play the Cleburne Quake at Cobb Stadium Once

Brian Stump, the Albritton Professor of Geological Sciences in SMU's Dedman College and part of the team set to study the recent Cleburne quakes, wants you to calm the eff down. Seriously. It's all right. Nothing to worry about. It's nature, for God's sakes. Right, Prof. Stump?The recent earthquakes ... More >>

Echoes and Reverberations: Our Radio Heads Are Waxing Nostalgic

The staff of the Zoo, as seen on Liles' bedroom wall poster.I was twelve years old and up way past my bedtime. The headphones were on and I was hiding underneath the blankets. The stereo was tuned to a Dallas radio station called "The Zoo". A DJ named JD was playing a track from The Beatles' W ... More >>

If North Texas Really Wants to Ride the Rail, a Tax Hike's Coming Down the Road

You may wanna spend a few minutes this morning boning up on the Rail North Texas plan, which calls for 215 miles of new commuter rail track that would connect much of North Texas -- from McKinney to Midlothian, Cleburne to Carrollton, Burleson to beyond. Only, who'll pay for it? Because it ain't che ... More >>

Dallas' Only Daily: The Incredible Shrinking Newspaper

Once upon a time, ours was a three sports-page town. There were enough readers - enough advertisers - for the Dallas Morning News, Dallas Times Herald and Fort Worth Star-Telegram to not only survive, but thrive. Shoot, one of my first jobs at the FWS-T in the late '80s was to re-write the hea ... More >>

Bonus MP3: Scott Johnson -- "King Kong Heart"

Scott Johnson

Clutch (Eclectic Soul)

Sonny Burgess

Thursday, February 21, at Glass Cactus, Grapevine

Free at Last

Charges against infamous dildo saleswoman dropped in Johnson County

Sex Toy Story

You can't buy a vibrator in Burleson, but there are plenty of dildos

The Dead Zone

Thanks to TV, crime scene investigating is the new hot profession, but Max Courtney knows it's more science than art

I Got Skillz

The Mavs were scouring Hoop-It-Up for real players. Look no further.

Case Closed

How Dallas police detective Shari Degan solved the grisly murder that rocked Dallas--in 1913

Spirits in the material world

A haunted house with a real ghost of a chance

A horse is a course

in Belgium, anyway. But some West-Coast horse lovers have Texas' meat men--the guys who supply the little-known equine slaughter industry--on the run.

Of mud and mental health

Letters

The Goatslayers

When a herd of wild goats became a nuisance at a posh lakeside resort, their wholesale slaughter by a couple of property owners divided the community

Accidental activists

A fight over Greenwood Cemetery's future wakes the living

'What is that, a muffler?'

Texas is home to an eccentric group of outsider artists celebrated as far away as New York. But if you want to see their work here, you'll have to travel to a renegade art gallery in Waxahachie.