Waco

A West, Texas Fertilizer Plant Has Exploded, Killing 5 to 15 (Video) [Updated]

Update, 10:24 a.m.: Scroll down for updates, including a statement from the President and information on shelter for the people displaced by the explosion. We'll be adding to this post throughout the day, as new information becomes available. Original post, 11:20 p.m., Wednesday: News outlets acros ... More >>

Yay! Blood Sports!

TX Whiskey in Fort Worth Takes Best American Craft Whiskey at World Spirits Competition

Fort Worth-based Firestone and Robertson Distilling Co. won double gold medals and Best in Class in the category of American Craft Whiskey for their TX blended whiskey at the 13th Annual World Spirits Competition in San Francisco recently, where more than 1,407 spirits were poured from 63 countries ... More >>

Billy Joe Shaver: "I'm More Like Outcast Country"

At 73, Billy Joe Shaver has lived a tough, fascinating life and managed to release nearly 20 albums of stellar hardcore country. We checked in with Shaver from an antique store in Waco, and he told us about his propensity for finding trouble. Catch him tonight at the Kessler Theater with Houston's ... More >>

"Rehearsal Spaces Are Designed For the Kind of Bros Who Apply Band Stickers to Urinals" and Other Wisdom From Indian Jewelry's Tex Kerschen

Some bands just like to be mysterious. Take Houston's Indian Jewelry for example. Although the band has been around for a little over a decade, very little biographical material is available. Various articles on the band list five members, but some list only two, and even then, pseudonyms are used. ... More >>

Jillian Edwards Dives Head First Into Nashville

Judging by Jillian Edwards' recently released sophomore effort, Head First, the Richardson-bred singer-songwriter shouldn't have much trouble making it in Nashville. Tunes such as "No Other Plans" and "Mind Made Up" show Edwards wiser than her 23 years might indicate. Speaking from her parents' ho ... More >>

Liberty Burger is Open and Slammed in North Dallas, and is Already Talking About Expansion

The wife and I were doing some house-hunting on Saturday morning and, after an unsuccessful showing, our realtor asked whether we wanted to try a new burger place. Being that I edit a blog that's more or less devoted to chronicling every sizzle produced by every patty of wet meat from Waco to the Ok ... More >>

A First (If Slightly Hungover) Look at RedFork Tavern's Weekend Brunch

​After a long night of doing shots in honor of the late Betty Ford (yeah, I'm going to hell. Window seat, please), brunch seemed like the best solution. So I picked myself up and went early Saturday morning afternoon to check out a new brunch spot, and get myself some bacon grease and a bit of ... More >>

Truck Thefts from Texas Soda Distributors Make Dallas a Hub for Hot Dr Pepper

Thieves drove off with two fully loaded trucks from this Wichita Falls Dr Pepper bottling plant last month, before abandoning the empty trucks near Dallas -- the third such theft recently.​A trio of truck thefts from Dr Pepper distributors around Texas in the last few months have all ended the sam ... More >>

Watch: Quentin Moore -- "Fat Ho Burgers"

​Lest Waco's semi-controversial new burger joint, Fat Ho Burgers, need even more attention, Dallas-based soul artist Quentin Moore has now penned a jingle for the joint that we're pretty sure no one actually commissioned, wherein he promises that Fat Ho's burgers are as "juicy as they want to be." ... More >>

Breaking News: Fat Ho Sighting in Waco

We'd like to take a moment to personally thank you, Lakita Evans, owner of Fat Ho Burgers in Waco, for exponentially increasing the number of times reporters have to say "ho" in print and on the news right now. This is a glorious time for hos of all kinds. Supa dupa fly hos, the feared-but-famous ... More >>

With a Soggy Picnic, Celebrating the First Pieces of the Woodall Rodgers Deck Park

Photos by Patrick MichelsThat "rain or shine" picnic was all rain, but about a hundred folks showed up to sign the first beam to be laid under the Woodall Rodgers Deck Park. (Click for a better look at the mural by Cat Lafitte.) This weekend they're laying the first of the concrete beams over Wooda ... More >>

Waco's Damned If It'll Be "Texas' Largest Bathroom Break" Anymore

​Portland-based urban planner John Fregonese's name should ring a bell -- he's the guy behind the Forward Dallas comprehensive plan, now in effect four years last June. Saw his name again today in the USA Today: Waco's done hired him too to create a plan "that includes mixed retail and residential ... More >>

Just Remember, There's More to Eddie Bernice Johnson Than the Scholarship Scandal

Eddie Bernice Johnson's Facebook page​This item is a dilation of a comment I posted to yesterday's item about 30th District Congresswoman Eddie Bernice Johnson and the scandal about scholarships and nepotism. It struck me after I posted the comment that maybe I owed the topic a better effort. In t ... More >>

Watch: Kanye West -- "Power"

The above 102-second clip from Kanye West, touting the sometimes-controversial, but generally all-kinds-of-awesome rapper's new Symbolyc One-produced single made its debut on MTV last night--to massive results, blowing up all over the Internet within moments of its airing and spilling over quite nic ... More >>

Devo Is "Offensive To God," Waco? Really?

...OK, one guy in Waco. But, still. "Effective marketing in action," indeed.

Watch: Strange Fruit Project Crashes Into A Post-Apocalyptic Deep Ellum

Tomorrow, via its MySpace page, Waco-based hip-hop collective Strange Fruit Project, which has about a bajillion impressive collaborations to its name, not the least of which includes Erykah Badu and Little Brother, will release a new, free-to-download EP entitled M.A.S.K. (short for Making Art Sou ... More >>

Download: Symbolyc One's Still Underrated, Vol. 1 Mixtape

Waco rapper/producer Symbolyc One of Strange Fruit Project is one of Texas's most under-appreciated hip-hop talents, flying largely under the radar despite working with Erykah Badu, Little Brother and others. Seems he's kinda embracing his place in life right now, though: Yesterday, S1 released a ne ... More >>

Bobby Patterson and Waco's Classie Ballou To Play Ponderosa Stomp

The eighth annual Ponderosa Stomp show, which aims to showcase the "unsung heroes of American music" and showcases, well, pretty much any type of music you could tie to its locale of New Orleans recently announced its lineup, and it's worth noting that two area artists found themselves asked to par ... More >>

Digable Planets, Strange Fruit Project

Tuesday, November 18, at the Granada Theater

Symbolyc One Gets The Baller Status Treatment

The Brilliance and Stupidity of the DISD's New Effort-Based Grading Policy

Symbolyc One

Strange Fruit Project Presents: S1 Music Box (Spilt Milk)

Erykah Badu Lends A Hand To Strange Fruit Project

Yes, They Are Related

A Waco Economist Say Dallas Full of "Good Feelings." And a Touch of Gas.

Miles Per Hour

Quad C goes for a Drive

Smoked Out

Re: Get on the Bus (Now With Free Food!)

Get on the Bus

Parts Per Billion and Other Things You Really Oughta Care About If You Breathe

Re: Van the Man?

Van the Man? Or, Not So Much?

The Coal Kids

Strange Fruit Project

The Healing (OM)

Full House

Michael Kaplan and Brad Reagan show poker's Aces and Kings

Best Trip Back in Time

Dr Pepper Bottling Co.

Death in the Desert

Gary Patterson flew to El Paso for a job interview--and never returned. It took nearly two years for the Texas Rangers and Waco police to unravel the bizarre web of lies and treachery that led to his disappearance.

Let's talk about sects

Why didn't the Morning News' Lee Hancock win a Pulitzer? Because of Jasper, Ronald King, and karma.

Tons of fun

Pachyderm-ing them in at Fair Park

Caught in the crossfire

Denied his day in court, a former Waco TV reporter, falsely accused of setting up federal agents, becomes the last casualty of the Branch Davidian siege

Some Fly, Some Die

How DISD betrays children of color

Defending Darlie

Wealthy Waco businessman Brian Pardo spends his time and money helping death-row inmates he believes are innocent. His efforts on behalf of Darlie Routier have raised suspicions about her husband--and about Pardo's motives.

Events for the week

Buzz

Honky-Tonk Man

He had 78 hits spanning five decades and revolutionized country music. Now, Fort Worth's Hank Thompson gets a new green light.

Mia & Peter & Liza & Mazursky

The USA Film Festival offers an unapologetic orgy of movie delights

Out here

Mr. Retardo

The making of a messiah: David Koresh's twisted road to Waco

Mekons, you Rhett

A rock great lends his support to the Old 97's