Strong Opinions

5 Storylines for The Real Housewives of Dallas That Would Surprise Us

5 Storylines for The Real Housewives of Dallas That Would Surprise Us

We Tried the Travis Scott Burger at McDonald's and Wish We Hadn't

We Tried the Travis Scott Burger at McDonald's and Wish We Hadn't

The 5 Best and Worst Rapper Names of All Time

By Garrett Gravley
Aug 31, 2020

Hear us out: As much as we engage in good old-fashioned music criticism, we recognize how tough and unforgiving the world of music is. Every musician who isn’t an R. Kelly or Varg Vikernes deserves at least an iota of baseline respect for baring their soul to the public and...
Lady Antebellum Should Change Its Name to 'Lady Antifa'

By Garrett Gravley
Jun 17, 2020

On Thursday, country music outfit Lady Antebellum announced that they would be changing their name to "Lady A." Concerning the word “antebellum” (which means "pre-war" and is usually associated with the pre-Civil War era South), the band said in a lengthy Instagram post that they "did not take into account...
The Gathering of the Juggalos Should Be in North Texas in 2021. Hear Us Out.

By Garrett Gravley
Apr 27, 2020

Every year, 10,000 members of the Juggalo diaspora embark on a mass pilgrimage to Insane Clown Posse’s annual Gathering of the Juggalos festival, and the band's fandom has a zeal that's undeterred by the event’s frequent location change. This year, it was supposed to take place at Nelson Ledges Quarry...
We Are Living in Kylie Jenner’s Year of Realizing Stuff

By Eva Raggio
Apr 14, 2020

Remember when Kylie Jenner called 2016 “The year of realizing stuff”? In a now infamous scene from her solo reality show, Life With Kylie, the youngest Jenner declared that she had shifted her focus to the pursuit of emotional maturity, which she meant to acquire through a meditative reflection, allowing...
Twitter Asks If ‘Karen’ Is the N-Word for White Women, So We Made a Karen-Themed Playlist

By Garrett Gravley
Apr 8, 2020

On Sunday, journalist Julie Bindel took to Twitter to ask a question that generated thousands of polarizing responses: “Does anyone else think the ‘Karen’ slur is woman hating and based on class prejudice?” For those unaware, the term “Karen” is used as a derogatory remark toward women who are perceived...
Ticket Scalpers Are Pushing for a Bailout. They Should Try Justifying Their Existence First.

By Garrett Gravley
Mar 30, 2020

Remember Matt Colvin? That guy from Tennessee who saw an increased demand for hand sanitizer, surgical masks and disinfectant wipes, and decided to stockpile them and flip them for a profit? Remember how he was initially without shame at having taken on such an endeavor, so much that he agreed...
Kanye Never Told Taylor Swift He Would Call Her a Bitch. That Detail Matters. Even Right Now.

By Eva Raggio
Mar 25, 2020

Yes, the world feels like it’s crumbling right now and we’re about to terribly mismanage what’s left of it. But, somehow, Taylor Swift, Kim Kardashian and Kanye West still managed to get their share of headlines. Let’s try to waste as little of your time with the newest Swift-West feud...
The Coronavirus Challenge: Don’t Be Selfish or Stupid. Stay Home.

By Eva Raggio
Mar 23, 2020

It feels like we’ve been training for prolonged periods of social distancing for years: Staring deep into our phones, driving-thru our errands and meals, hoarding online friendships while disposing of our flesh-and-bone ones, morphing into avatars who only exist online. Even phone calls became too intrusive, and we all learned...
Afraid of the Coronavirus? You Should Get Out More.

By Garrett Gravley
Mar 5, 2020

On Sunday, Jan. 19, 2020, my roommate and my brother were sitting on my living room couch as they heard a gurgled scream coming from my room. They immediately ran to my door. “G-Garrett?” said my roommate in a concerned tone as he gently knocked. I couldn't speak, so they...
Sad Boy Icon Morrissey Has a Vegas Residency, and I Have a Problem With It

By Diamond Rodrigue
Feb 28, 2020

“When can you have that Neil Diamond story in?” my editor asks as I begin to leave the office at the end of the day. She sighs after making the tired mistake. “I mean, the Morrissey one ... I think Vegas and I think Neil Diamond.” This pretty much sums...
‘Brave’ Local Singer-Songwriter Comes Out as Genre-Fluid *

By Garrett Gravley
Feb 25, 2020

In a move many critics are referring to as daring and cavalier, local singer-songwriter Connor Overton announced that he is genre-fluid. “I don’t adhere to the genre binary,” he declared Monday night at a Garland Central Library open mic event. “People like to pigeonhole me into either folk or rock,...
The ‘Renegades’? We Have 10 Scarier Names for Dallas’ XFL Team

By Danny Gallagher
Feb 10, 2020

Are you sad that the football season is done? I mean, besides the fact that you’re a Cowboys fan. These days, the words “Cowboys fans” and “lingering sorrow” are virtually synonymous. Let's talk about the XFL or the “Extreme Football League,” a football league so extreme that they ignore vowels...
Green Grass and Blackface: One Southern Methodist University Graduate on Her Experience as a Minority on Campus

By Ashni Pabley
Feb 4, 2020

Southern Methodist University is notorious for its absurdly wealthy students, sports agendas and seemingly conservative values. The school recently publicly rejected the United Methodist Church’s decision to end all support of transgender individuals, putting SMU at arm’s length with an institution they have long been proud to be associated with...
What a Mom in Her 40s Wants You to Know About Mac Miller’s Circles

By Lauren Drewes Daniels
Jan 21, 2020

In 2018, when Mac Miller (born Malcolm McCormick) passed away from an accidental drug overdose, I had been immersed in his fifth studio album, Swimming. I was teaching at the time, chasing around my own kids and, generally, carrying on in a mom-ish way, despite what my playlist might suggest. I...
All Hail The Monks, the Greatest Band That Never Made It

By Simone Carter
Jan 16, 2020

The Monks are the best band you’ve never heard of. These trailblazers were serving up a visionary, singular sound back in the 1960s, but the world wasn’t ready for them yet. Sadly, three-fifths of the group have moved on to rock out in heaven, with this Friday marking the 12th...
Top 10 Worst Songs by Really Great Artists

By Garrett Gravley
Dec 18, 2019

In the spirit of our “Top 10 Best Songs by Really Bad Artists” piece that ran earlier this week, we thought it was only fair to point out that some indubitably fantastic artists also have songs that are rather terrible. Yes, it happens to the best of us, and as...
We Shouldn’t Be Scorning Boomers, We Should be Helping Them Understand

By Rachel Charlton-Dailey
Dec 16, 2019

If you use social media, you’ve probably by now seen one of the most popular memes of the year, “OK boomer." The saying has become a popular response whenever someone of baby boomer age (approximately 55-75 years old) says something that younger people deem stupid or incorrect, in order to...
How to Be a Rock Star: Concert Photographer Mike Brooks’ List of Do’s and Don’t’s

By Mike Brooks
Dec 13, 2019

Mike Brooks is a longtime Observer concert photographer who has shot seemingly every type of artist at every type of local venue. Here he breaks down 10 ways for artists to get better photos. Every year I photograph a couple of hundred bands playing live shows, and every time I...
How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Post Malone

By Tyler Hicks
Dec 11, 2019

A shaky iPhone camera steadies on a glorious sight: 24-year-old Austin Richard Post, cloaked in black and dripping with jewelry, is vibing to the stylings of Canada’s finest, Shania Twain. While Twain serenades the American Music Awards crowd with the boppiest of bops (“Man! I Feel Like a Woman!”) Post...
As Alanis Morissette Prepares to Tour, Let’s Take a Closer Look at Jagged Little Pill

By Darryl Ratcliff
Dec 5, 2019

I had never listened to Jagged Little Pill in its entirety until last Friday, and my thoughts about it already felt like a Reductress headline "Man Discovers Alanis Morissette For the First Time 25 Years Later." I hope I will get some leeway as a black man for being late...

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