Colorado Springs

Riding the Beer Trail for a Taste of Shiner, with Stops for BBQ

We're living in the golden age of Texas beer. Seriously, we are -- there are craft breweries popping up all around the state, our major cities are seeing growler-filling shops opening up and giving us the chance to take home brews that aren't available in bottle or cans, and we're being graced by mu ... More >>

Burn It All Down

Buzz looks back on 2012 before the memories go where they belong: up in smoke.

With Jennifer Sprague Gone, Mike Miles Turns Over a New Leaf

On Friday evening, after schools had closed and most everything else was winding down for the holiday, the Morning News reported DISD communications chief Jennifer Sprague is resigning. Sprague's abrupt departure is the surest sign yet that Superintendent Mike Miles' administration is in crisis. Sh ... More >>

Mike Miles is a Dead Boss Walking

OK, business-community school reformers. I believe you mean well. But your guy is toast. You recruited a school superintendent who cannot and will not make it in the big city. You can get all stubborn about it and defend him to the last ditch. If I had to bet, I'd bet that's what you will do, mainl ... More >>

The Observer Has a New Music Editor. You Should Say Hello.

We were, for reasons obvious to readers of this blog, a bit depressed when music editor Audra Schroeder announced recently that she would retire as a music journalist and pursue writing about Things That Aren't Music. Today, though, a little shot of human-resources Prozac: We have a new music editor ... More >>

Scratch That: DISD Teachers Love Superintendent Mike Miles

It wasn't so long ago that it seemed the relationship between DISD teachers and superintendent Mike Miles had gone sour. They bristled at Miles' reformist rhetoric, with its implication that steering the district in the right direction will require the heads of a lot of long-time educators. They did ... More >>

Mike Miles, In First Official Day As DISD Superintendent, Likes Graduation-Rate Trend, Was a Little Embarrassed By Those Billboards

Given his high profile over the past few months and some much-publicized decisions, you'd be forgiven for thinking that Mike Miles has actually been DISD's superintendent. Which he has, of course, but not officially and not full-time until Monday, when he took the reins in earnest. It was a busy da ... More >>

DISD's New Hires Will Make Six Figures. But Did Mike Miles Mention He's Saved The District $1.2 Million?

News has been trickling out as DISD Superintendent Mike Miles has filled out his leadership team. Thursday, it was Seattle Public Schools' Aurora Lora as assistant superintendent. Friday it was Ft. Worth ISD's Sylvia Reyna as school leadership chief and the fifth and penultimate member of Miles' cab ... More >>

The North Dallas Plot to Take Over DISD

Rich, white, North Dallas businessmen are plotting to take over Dallas' schools. Maybe this time it'll work.

Miles: If Jennifer Sprague Were a Fat White Dude, Her $185K Salary Wouldn't Be an Issue

Incoming DISD superintendent Mike Miles called Saturday's sit-down with the board a retreat, but that's probably a misnomer. The meeting was long and took place on a weekend, and there was a platter full of bacon, but Miles didn't give an inch. In a Q&A session with media beforehand, Miles fielded ... More >>

Jennifer Sprague, DISD's New Communications Chief, Will Make $185,000 a Year. Yes, That's Too Much.

Big front-pager in today's Morning News about how Mike Miles, Dallas ISD's new superintendent, will pay his new communications chief, Jennifer Sprague, $185,000 a year. The general consensus among those interviewed for the story: Holy hell that's a lot of money for that job. Which makes sense becaus ... More >>

Mike Miles' DISD House-Cleaning is Under Way

You knew it was coming. Incoming DISD chief Mike Miles laid it out pretty clearly during his first presentation to the DISD school board last week, to say nothing of his reformist track record in Colorado Springs. But a month and a half before Miles' official July 1 start date, details about which h ... More >>

Combat veterans fall prey to gambling addictions at an alarming rate — where's the military when the chips are down?

Five Questions for Mike Miles, DISD Superintendent (and Former Senate) Candidate

Yesterday, Mike Miles, an Army Ranger turned education reformer, was named the lone finalist for Dallas Independent School District's superintendent job. Today begins 21 days of tire-kicking, a mandatory waiting and vetting period before the district and Miles can officially wed. Plenty of people ... More >>

Dallas ISD Names Mike Miles, Reform-Minded Military Vet from Colorado, Lone Finalist for Superintendent Job

Prediction: The next few weeks may not be a ton of fun for Mike Miles. Miles, the superintendent of Harrison School District Two in Colorado Springs, was named the lone finalist for the top job in Dallas ISD at a meeting this afternoon. The board, which voted 8-0 (with Carla Ranger abstaining), now ... More >>

Deuces, D

After almost four years on the job, an outgoing music editor takes one last stab at making sense of it all.

Flying Lotus Shares Some Insights Into His Upcoming Erykah Badu Collaboration

Flying Lotus​ We've known for about a month at this point that Erykah Badu and fellow funk space cadet Flying Lotus were up to something together. And not just a music video, either -- although the two do already have two such shared projects under their collective caps. This one, we've been lead ... More >>

Dr Pepper Tests Diet Drink for Testosterone Impaired

​In what could amount to the grandest bit of reverse psychology ever marshaled to sell a soft drink, Dr Pepper has selected the slogan for its new 10-calorie soda. Dr Pepper Ten will be marketed with the tag line: "Dr Pepper Ten: It's Not for Women." According to a company spokesperson, the ... More >>

Yeah, But What If Baseball Went To The European Football Table?

I know the Texas Rangers swept the previously mighty Boston Red Sox and we're all atwitter about the American League West division race heading into August ... September ... maybe even October? But what if baseball were governed according to, say, European football standards? You know, the top ... More >>

Norman Brinker, Dead at 78

Kristina BowmanThe News is reporting that Norman Brinker died this morning while on vacation in Colorado Springs; he turned 78 last Wednesday. Brinker, of course, is the Colorado-born chairman emeritus of Brinker International -- and the man who, in 1984, took Larry Lavine's Chili's concept public; ... More >>

Is Dallas Boxer Luis Yanez a Future World Champion or Just a Suburban Myth?

He was an Olympic disappointment, but with his first pro fight on Friday, Yanez is out to prove he's the real deal.

Video: MC Lars And Bowling For Soup's Jaret Reddick At The Double Wide

I missed a ton of good shows around town last week--Thanksgiving with the folks in Boston, y'know--but the one I'm probably most disappointed about missing, which probably says a lot about me, is the nerdcore show at the Double Wide on Saturday. MC Lars? MC Frontalot? ytcracker? These guys are t ... More >>

The Dirt Doctor

How radio show host Howard Garrett pushed Dallas to the center of the organic gardening movement through passion, principle and molasses

On the Eve of the Olympics, How Things Have Changed for Luis Yanez

Dousing the Olympic Flame

Notorious 'Texas Seven' Try to Save One of Their Own By Insulting Him

Good Friday: The Memorial Day Long Weekend Edition

Your Last Chance to Spar With Dallas' Boxing Olympic Hopeful

Was the Call That Sparked the Eldorado Raid a Hoax?

It's Too Late for OneRepublic to Apologize

MySpace Stalking Dallas Music

There are things you can learn on MySpace, and there are things you can't

Colorado Sprung

Advice for the New Observer Music Editor

A lot of music editors enter the Thunderdome. None gets out alive.

In Da House

We've Got a New Music Editor

He Just Needs God's Blessings Now

Bible Girl: Three Points and a Lame Joke

Pimpin' Olympians

Ted Haggard: Miracle Man (A Bible Girl Election Day Special)

Lisa Bevere Fights Like a Girl

Sweet Jesus Camp

But Look What Happened to Paris Vendome

Seductress of the Saints

Inside the mind--and suitcase--of Sandra Bridewell, religious charlatan

The Kids Are All Right

Two locals try to help restore junior American basketball to prominence

Pazz and Jop

With Unincorporated, the Earl Harvin Trio is no longer a jazz band. It's whatever it wants to be.

Exorcising demons

A Wedgwood member recounts last year's tragedy to help others--and himself--move on

Hash Over

Deep tapas; Dale Wamstad's revisionist history; Donkey kong

Hash Over

The last roundup

The sad, ironic death of rodeo champion Bob Blackwood

Smut patrol

Cincinnati stamps out sin--and civil rights, besides