Oklahoma City

Highway-Closing Dallas-to-McKinney Bike Ride Cancelled in Sketchiest Way Possible

Last month, Gary Lacara was "100 percent" sure that Bike the City, his 30-mile, Dallas-to-McKinney charity bicycle tour scheduled for a Sunday morning in April, was a go. "I wouldn't attempt this if I wasn't," he told Unfair Park at the time. And there was no reason to think he couldn't organize a ... More >>

Native Americans Gathered Downtown Last Night to Protest Broken Treaties and a Tar Sands Pipeline

If you happened to be passing the corner of Akard and San Jacinto Monday night, the huge, blue LED lights spelling out "IDLE NO MORE" might have left you nonplussed. It was no coincidence that the demonstration, known as a light brigade, took place within a stone's throw of the Canadian consulate g ... More >>

TransCanada Can Move Ahead With Texas Portion of Pipeline, But the Fight Isn't Over

Earlier this month, three East Texas hamlets with a collective population of fewer than 2,000 souls filed suit in a federal court in Oklahoma City to halt construction of the southern half of The International Pipeline Formerly Known as Keystone XL. The Keystone was to be a massive piece of infrastr ... More >>

A Clean-Air Program, Texas-Style (Side Effects May Include A Natural Gas Subsidy)

Beleaguered is how you might describe efforts to clean Texas air. Emissions reduction plans -- leaning primarily on cutting vehicle exhaust -- have been gutted by the state Legislature. But one provision, passed in the last legislative session and sponsored by Woodlands Republican Senator Tommy Will ... More >>

Get Ready To Conserve Electricity. ERCOT's Forecast Says This Summer Could Be Rough

Heads up, guys. Remember last summer? It was so damned hot Texans were horse-whipping their thermostats. We came this close to rolling blackouts. So close we're pretty sure Public Utility commish Ken Anderson lost some years off of his life, or at least a little hair. We'd like to tell you this summ ... More >>

Video Explosion: The Blurries' "My Love Is A Fuse That Burns So Slowly"

It's been six months since the release of The Blurries' excellent debut album, Paper Cuts. During that time, drummer Bill Spellman welcomed his second kid (he's the only parent in the band), which cut into the promotional period just after the record's release. Over the phone today, Spellman says th ... More >>

Classixx Provides the Rhythm of the Night at Rio Room

Classixx​Uncle, I'll toss a few things in the "pro" column of the 12:30 A.M. Dallas club arrival time. I knew you weren't going to be out 'til late, so I opted to get a few chores done instead of getting irritated. I got a manicure, I went to the gym, I cooked (COOKED!) dinner, I tidied my abo ... More >>

He is Iron Man

Cannibal Corpse: Why They Tore Down the Whirly Ball And Put in a Sam's (And a Walmart)

In my day, this was also the site of the best Sound Warehouse in town. In my day.​Over the weekend I espied the deconstruction site you see here, across from Bachman Lake at Northwest Highway and Marsh. The new Sam's right there took me by surprise -- so too did the disappearance of the landmark W ... More >>

Matching Easels

35 Conferette Adds More Acts, Including New Sub Pop Supergroup Featuring Michael Cera

If nothing else, Michael Cera is cooler than Danny Masterson, right?​After announcing last week the addition of another 135 bands to its bill, you'd think the folks up at Denton's 35 Conferette might need a breather -- or, I dunno, maybe some time to focus on the actual logistics of the fest, sinc ... More >>

35 Conferette Adds A Whopping 135 More Bands To Bill, Including A Whole Slew of Locals

Big things happening today in the world of 35 Conferette -- bigger news, even, than the fact that the-festival-formerly-known-as-North-by-35 now has an actual website to call its own (!). Bigger, too, than the really awesome web teaser/advertisement that the fest's organizers have created to promote ... More >>

Dallas-FW, Briefly a Top-Five Contender in $1.5-Mil Food Bank Challenge, Is Falling Fast

​Two weeks ago today, Mayors Tom Leppert, Mike Moncrief and Robert Cluck asked locals to "like" Walmart's Fighting Hunger Together campaign, which is doling out $1.5 million to food banks nationwide -- $1 million to the top Facebook vote-getter, and $100,000 each to the next five highest-ranking c ... More >>

Trendsetters: Five Foods and Drinks That Had (Mostly) a Good Year

Man, we are so sick of eating all that kamut.​2010 was supposed to be kamut's year. Industry watchers in 2009 predicted the wheat-like grain associated with King Tut would ride a celiac wave to greatness this year, sharing American pantries with papadum and coconut-milk pancake mix. The big n ... More >>

Way to Go, Frisco, You're the 14th-Safest City In the United States of America!

​We can look at CQ Press's just-released City Crime Rankings 2010-2011 two ways: from safest to most dangerous or vice-versa. But either way -- based upon the FBI's Uniform Crime Reports that include "the violent crimes of murder, rape, robbery, and aggravated assault and the property crimes of bu ... More >>

U.S. Department of Transpo Forks Over $5.6 Mil to Study OKC-to-DFW High-Speed Rail Line

U.S. Department of Transportation​This morning, as expected, U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood passed out $2.4 billion in funding to 54 high-speed rail projects in 23 states. Among the recipients: the Texas Department of Transportation, which'll take home $5.6 million intended to allow a fu ... More >>

Today In Music News: X-Stina, Ben Harper Get Divorced, Lady Gaga Issued Singing Challange And The Flaming Lips Up The Ante

Your daily dose of national music news for Wednesday, October 13, 2010...Looks like Christina Aguilera is supposedly back on the market.  And apparently Ben Harper is too... Unknown Los Angeles singer Alisa Apps has challenged Lady Gaga to a $1 million dollar singing competition.  Um, do ... More >>

From OKC to Fort Worth, Heartland Flyer's Cow Fat Test Run Gets Nod in U.K.

​Meant to point this out last week, when I first saw the story on Salon. But now it's made its way to the U.K. -- this story of the little train that could ... run on cow fat, that is, all the way from Oklahoma City to Fort Worth every single day. (Though "with stops along the way in Norman, Purce ... More >>

The Flaming Lips' Wayne Coyne Has Always Felt Connected To DFW

Extended Q&A (With Audio!): The Flaming Lips' Wayne Coyne Talks NX35, Festivals, Midlake and Deep Ellum.

It's not hard to see how The Flaming Lips earned its repuation as festival kings.​In this week's print edition of the Observer, you'll see some of the fruits that came from a conversation I shared with Flaming Lips frontman Wayne Coyne a little over a week ago as part of a preview for the NX35 Con ... More >>

New Mav Caron Butler: What Did He Dew?

​Well, that certainly was a dud. Not ready to rescind the Josh Howard trade just yet, but newest Maverick Caron Butler opened with a resounding sperplunk in last night's loss in Oklahoma City. Couple of airballs. Had as many turnovers as baskets (4). Generally looked like Michael Finley, incl ... More >>

Good Friday: Jackopierce, Dweezil Zappa, Darktown Strutters, Captured by Robots, Boys Named Sue, Hatebreed, Justin Nozuka, Cartel, Generationals, Norma Jean, Paula Cole

​Alright: Another weekend! No sense in beating around the bush. Let's just jump right in and check out the show-going options on the DFW plate for the next couple of days. First, as always, the shows we've already plenty hyped up.Tonight at The Green Elephant, various hip-hop and DJ acts will grac ... More >>

Why Do We Love Oprah? Because We Also Love McDonald's

​I've spent some effort avoiding this day, hoping it would never, ever come. But all of my valiant, last ditch efforts--a quick search for an apartment in Allen, begging to work from a Starbucks in Oklahoma City for a day or two--fell through.Now I'm trapped. Although I've spent much of my adult l ... More >>

The Other North Pole: A Washington Post Writer's Book About Christmas in Frisco

 This is probably a way-too-early heads-up, but I just opened the afternoon mail to find a copy of Tinsel: A Search for America's Christmas Present, due on bookshelves 'round November 12 -- just in time for all your gift-giving needs. And, trust me, those living up in Collin and Denton counties ... More >>

A Killer F5 Tornado Rips Through Dallas County -- How Ready Are We for this Nightmare Scenario?

Texas Rangers Swear the New FM Broadcast Won't Leave Outlying Areas Without Their Ball

Several Friends of Unfair Park have asked why the Rangers would broadcast a majority of their games on The Fan, when KRLD-AM has such a mammoth signal, especially at night. Which is why I called John Blake, the team's recently returned exec vice president of communications, to discuss the decision b ... More >>

Almost Home-Free

Emily Dowdy gets off the Oklahoma railroad

The Rounders

Thursday, July 12, at the Double Wide

Boomer Spooner

The Solace Bros, Redbud Revival

Friday, July 22, at Gypsy Tea Room

Last Call

The career of Dallas sportswriter Jim Dent was skyrocketing, then booze and bad behavior caused a hard landing

Best New York-Style Italian Family Grocery

Jimmy's Food Store

Fly Cook

Jeff Moschetti joins team ZaZa

Not Quite Famous

Plus: Booty-licious

Best DART Art

Richardson Transit Center

Wayne's World

The Flaming Lips' Wayne Coyne defines "epic but gentle"

Bed & Boast

Hotel ZaZa promises to bring a new feel to the Dallas atmosphere

Prodigal Son

Former superstar Ruben Sierra, exiled in Oklahoma City, is tearing up the minors. As if it matters.

His good name

Former FBI honcho Oliver "Buck" Revell fights against conspiracy buffs who accuse him of mass murder

Paranoia with purpose

Like-minded "Patriots" find their own around the new Branch Davidian Church in Waco

Dropping the bomb

Who is the mysterious J.D. Cash, and has he exposed the year's biggest hoax?

A pox on 1995!

Next year will be better

Fax Commandos

Why the press is chasing after the wrong right-wing cranks

The all-O.J. channel

Events for the week

BeloWatch

Bang for your buck

Crimson Tide and Die Hard With a Vengeance provide summer's action fix

BeloWatch

True believers

After Oklahoma City, angry white men gather at a Dallas motel

Fight the power of hatred

We cannot let evil cowards make us less free