Queens County

Meet Dallas' New Oak Cliff Streetcars

If you need a reminder that Oak Cliff and downtown will soon be linked by street car, head over to the Houston Street and watch as drivers try to get across the viaduct, which is closed for construction. Another reminder: DART just announced that it's officially sealed a $9.4 million deal with Penn ... More >>

No, the NCAA Won't Be Playing Four Side-by-Side Basketball Games at Cowboys Stadium

Earlier this month, Michigan State University athletic director Mark Hollis floated the idea of playing four NCAA basketball games in Cowboys Stadium. At the same time. The idea may not have been as far-fetched as it sounds, Hollis having previously organized a game on the aircraft carrier that too ... More >>

Firefighters Pull Possible Murder Victim From White Rock Lake

Police are investigating whether a woman found dead in White Rock Lake this afternoon was murdered. Walkers spotted the body on the east side of the lake around Garland Road, a half mile or so south of the Arboretum. The body was recovered by Dallas Fire-Rescue, which turned the investigation over ... More >>

Bucks Burnett: "The Dallas Music Scene Needs To Be More Like a Monarchy. It Needs More Pageantry."

You can't really write a column about behind-the-scenes people in the Dallas music scene and not include Bucks Burnett. We are big fans of Bucks, and he's been featured in the Observer numerous times. Hell, one of the last times we tried to interview him, we kept getting interrupted by calls from th ... More >>

One Night, Four Dive Bars

Recently, I've been thinking a lot about dive bars, that sub-sect of watering hole fiercely guarded by established regulars. The type of place where the bartender and waitress know 90% of their customer's names and take the time to invest in conversation past the precursory friendly pre-drink banter ... More >>

Now That Dallas' Levees Are Safe, the City Wants to Hurry Up and Build the Trinity Lakes

Reading the descriptions of the three lakes included in 2003's master plan for the Trinity River Corridor is a bit like browsing through a travel brochure. The lakes will help with flood control, create wetlands to restore a more natural habitat, provide ample opportunities for canoeing, be adorned ... More >>

Warped Tour - Gexa Energy Pavilion - 7/3/12

Warped Tour Gexa Energy Pavilion Tuesday, July 3 See also: Talking to Evan Weiss of Into It. Over It See also: The fans and bands of Warped Tour Per usual, the gates to Warped Tour opened a few minutes after 11 a.m., and what was available to see was spotty.Though the folky jig of London's Skinny ... More >>

Occupy Dallas Protestor Pushed from Planter and Accused of Assaulting Cop Takes Plea Deal

Stephen Benavides, the Occupy Dallas protester arrested on suspicion of assaulting a police officer during a scuffle at the November Bank of America protest, has signed a plea deal that reduces the felony to a misdemeanor resisting-arrest charge and keeps him out of jail. Benavides pleaded no conte ... More >>

John Leguizamo On Fighting in a Dress, Man PMS, Acting With a Broken Tooth

John Leguizamo is on a roll, and it's only 7:45 a.m. He's in a good mood, which might be attributed to the financial and critical success of his new one-man play, Ghetto Klown, which starts its three-day Dallas run at the Majestic Theatre on February 16. But I think it's more than that. The Bogota ... More >>

Mimi's Pizza is Open in Preston Hollow

As of January 2, the strip mall at Northwest Highway and Hillcrest, on the northern edge of Preston Hollow, has another has another fast-casual food option: Mimi's "New York-style" pizza. The small storefront near El Fenix and Mooyah Burger, a spin-off of the Joe's Pizza and Pasta chain, has been un ... More >>

DPD Chief Brown Suspends Officer Who Shoved Occupy Dallas Protestor For One Day

At the top, that's Hollis giving Benavides a shove off the planter, as seen in this video that led the DPD chief to open his investigation​Seems like forever ago, but it was just last month that Stephen Benavides spent a few days in county lock-up on charges of assaulting a police officer and resi ... More >>

Recession-Proof Drinking: Taste Testing Three Off-Brand Beers

​Never in the dozen-plus years that I've been of legal drinking age have I seen beer as cheap as the $2.99 six-pack of Big Flats 1901 I espied at Walgreen's the other day. Not even the Schlitz, Natty Light or Beast we drank in college was that cheap. There was no way it could be good, but for 50 ... More >>

Dallas ISD Offers Detailed Look at Plans to Improve Its Academically Unacceptable Schools

​Speaking of Dallas ISD public hearings ...A few weeks back, in advance of a series of town halls, we sneak-peaked the district's vague suggestions offered to improve its 33 academically unacceptable campuses. But on the board's meetings-and-agenda website, you'll find the so-called School Improve ... More >>

I Learned to Love Paan, and You Should Too, Starting with This Week's Review

​The first time I encountered the small, triangular-shaped parcel I was in New York. Some friends of mine were stupid enough to take my recommendation that we arrive by train at 6 a.m., order chaat and chai at Lahori Kabab, and continue a 24-hour curry crawl through multiple boroughs before h ... More >>

Mimi's Pizzeria, a "New York-Style" Pizza Shop, Coming to Preston Hollow

​Subs, Mexican, burgers, Slurpees -- the strip mall at Northwest Highway and Hillcrest has most of the major food groups covered. It will get that elusive fifth major food group, cheap pizza, in a couple of months. Mimi Ahmedi's family owns the Joe's Pizza and Pasta chain. He's branching out, ... More >>

Dwaine Caraway Isn't About to Let the City Close Pools, Especially Two In His District

​Mary Suhm was right about one thing: When I asked her Thursday where she saw the council pushing back on her proposed FY2011-12 budget, she said, well, probably pools -- specifically, her suggestion that the city shutter five of its 17 pools in the coming fiscal year. Those pools: Bonnie View, Ex ... More >>

Come Summer, You May Want to Start Avoiding LBJ Freeway. Like You Don't Already.

Several Friends of Unfair Park have asked in recent weeks: When should they begin avoiding LBJ Freeway, which, of course, is about to become the "LBJ Express"? (To which I replied: What, you don't already avoid LBJ Freeway? I know, right? Hilarious!) One Friend asked in particular because he espied ... More >>

Dallas PD on the Kidnapping That Wasn't

​At 10:24 this morning, Dallas Police first sent word that a 6-month-old girl had been kidnapped on Westmoreland Road; a short time after that came that Amber Alert, which turned out to be a false alarm. (Jack E. Jett, take a bow.) Moments ago, Senior Corporal Kevin Janse sent this release detaili ... More >>

Giveaway: Three Pairs of Tickets to See Senses Fail and Bayside at The Prophet Bar Tomorrow

New York based emo-rock act Bayside have been around for a while--since the year 2000 to be exact. But that doesn't mean their new music has lost any of the angst of their earlier records. Its members are just taking a different approach from many of the bands in the emo community, of which they ar ... More >>

After 12-Year Search for Missing Son, Mother Doesn't Buy Ellis County Sheriff's Suicide Story

Jacob Whitt's driver's license photoIn 1997, Jacob Whitt was a 21-year-old anxious to get out of his tiny Central Florida hometown and start a life somewhere new. Truckers passing through told him Dallas was the place to move if he wanted to make some money, so that August he headed west, moving in ... More >>

This Week In Dallas Music History: Club Clearview Launches Cyberium

​It's hard to believe how "cutting edge" Club Clearview (R.I.P.) was striving to be in the early 1990s. Because plopping down $80,000 for a virtual reality machine and a re-model in the middle of a recession? That sure seems like a bold move on the part of then-Clearview owners Jeff Swaney and Je ... More >>

Pho From Home: Houston

​My affair with our I-45 rival can be best described as a love/hate relationship, heavy on the hate. Past trips I've made to Houston consistently involved cursed adventures and unlucky mishaps with scars--yes actual scars--to prove it. From the time a two inch nail left a lifelong mark in my ad ... More >>

Real Estate, M.L. King and The Juniors, Sideshow Tragedy

Saturday, November 28, at City Tavern

First Look: El Tizoncito Taqueria

​How far would you go for a really great taco? Guess it depends on your definition of "great". We're of the opinion that taco perfection comes in many guises, whether tucked in the corner of a Tex-Mex combo plate or served through a walk-up window at a certain area truck stop. Tacos, by nature, ... More >>

Garden Party

The Top 5 Mexican Athletes in the History of Dallas

Numero Uno.Pretty sure I should call in Gustavo for a round of Ask a Mexican on this, but with it being Cinco de Mayo and all I thought I should crack open a Corona and at least give it a go. I was going to - per my usual list - rank the Top 10 but that's extremely difficult considering ... More >>

Q-Tip

The Renaissance (Universal Motown)

Nas

Untitled (Def Jam)

I'm Going to Foodieland!

Eat like a champion at the Meyerson

Birth Defects

Critics blame poisons from the tie plant for severe birth defects

So Close, and Yet So Far

The intimate pleasures and necessary detachments of Toronto 2007

Queens of the Stone Age

Era Vulgaris (Interscope)

Deep Sixed

Reports of Deep Ellum's death are exaggerated, but not by much

The Beatdown

On Friday, take a twisted Z-Trip through the world of hip-hop

Fired Up

A woman's place is at the grill

Crooked As They Come

Criminal swipes its story from a far superior movie

This Week's Day-by-Day Picks

Picks for the week of February 13-19

Various Artists

Soundbombing 3 (Rawkus)

Getting Taken

In Nine Queens, the Argentineans do Mamet, damn it, even better

Local H

March 28

The Who?

Little Grizzly finds itself, and its new album, somewhere along the way

Circus of the Bizarre

Even performance artists want to run away with the circus

The Phantom Menace

In 1946, a serial killer haunted sleepy Texarkana, stalking his victims under the cover of night. Investigators wonder if he died decades later in a Dallas rest home--or simply disappeared.

A Couple Yards Short

The gang's all here in this familiar-but-fresh tale of a bad guy scared straight

Best neighborhood

Little Forest Hills

Public defenders

A surprising number of parents are shunning the 'burbs, pulling their kids out of private schools, and embracing DISD

I can see Clearview now

Getting the "independent" bookings straight

Dallas the Greek

Forward to the Past

Grapevine Lake project takes aim at the automobile