Photo by Haylee Hendricks
Audio By Carbonatix
Alec Spicer is the new Arts and Culture editor for the Dallas Observer, and though he’s new to the job, he’s not new to the paper – or Dallas.
Spicer lived all over Texas growing up, but nowhere felt like home as much as North Texas did.
As a kid, his Christmas wishlists always included renewal subscriptions to magazines like Rolling Stone and GQ, so when he found himself rattled by burnout from journalism after writing for his high school newspaper, he landed on a detour. With high school in the rearview, he arrived at college with a major in fashion merchandising, attending Collin College, and later, the University of North Texas in Denton.
“I like fashion, but I really just enjoy trying to understand brands,” he says. “Figuring out a brand’s identity and what gives it its voice … I felt like fashion was a really cool way to play with that.”
But it wasn’t long before Spicer reset his sights toward the Mayborn School of Journalism, where he would eventually become the editor-in-chief of the school’s newspaper, the North Texas Daily. From there, he worked for several Dallas media organizations: as a freelancer for the Observer, a producer for KERA and as editor-in-chief for the now-defunct Central Track.
And though Dallas’ search for identity seems to be an eternal journey, Spicer is at least tapped into the stance that might most yield a worthy destination – believing in this city.
So, now that he’s back to the snark, we caught up in the middle of his first week on the job to see if he lives up to the nickname of “Spicy.”
Welcome to the team! You mentioned that when you were doing the fashion thing in college, it was less about fashion, more about identifying what makes a brand, a brand. What would you say makes the Observer, the Observer?
The Observer has a bite. Nowhere else in Dallas can really throw a punch like this, because papers like the Observer are meant to be a voice of the people – a chaotic-good voice, maybe, but an important one nonetheless.
Is there anything you want to change about the Observer?
I just want to have fun again. Whatever happened to fun? I’ve done something like this before, but this time, I’m coming in less with bright eyes and more with brand-new, well-rested eyes. Or, well-rested for now, anyway. Ask me again in like, a week.
I do think now is a crucial time to explore even more stories about marginalized groups. There’s been this bizarre culture shift in the last six months of blaming marginalized communities for whatever the crisis of the day is.
What do you mean when you say that?
I think it’s… interesting that even just a few years ago, it was very common to see people being so acceptingly outspoken on things like, let’s say LGBTQ+ rights, for example. And now, it feels like the pendulum has swung so hard the other way. It’s weird that it became trendy to cosplay as a puritan. I’m of the belief that this is exactly the purpose of a paper like the Observer – to tell the stories of going against the grain. I want to tell stories about sex, dating and parties, but I also want to tell stories about the drag queens and immigrants who help make Dallas our home, maybe more so now than ever.
Did you feel like you couldn’t do that before now?
It’s been a while since I’ve gotten to be snarky for a place like the Observer, I think I just reached a point where I could no longer neglect that I was suppressing the alt-weekly core of who I am. I was always close by, but I needed to be able to honor the chaos in me again.
I also really respect the craft of journalism and the importance of by-the-book storytelling. But I do think there should be a place for independent cultural commentary. Media literacy has become a precarious blind spot in this country, and I think some people have difficulty separating things like culture coverage from hard news. When you don’t have skillful media literacy, it’s easy for audiences to lose track and blur into thinking that culture and news always have to come from the same arm, but they don’t.
Jobs at the Dallas Observer tend to fall to people who would describe themselves as having an “alt-weekly core.” How do you feel about Dallas’ arts and culture scene?
I have kinda always thought that the Dallas art scene in general, no matter the medium, is pretty underrated. I was born in Austin and grew up to know the whole ‘Keep Austin Weird’ ethos from a young age. It’s the ‘live music capital of the world,’ and Houston is known for its great food and hip-hop legacy. But I’m tired of hearing the dismissal of “Dallas is a city with no culture.” It’s always felt like a puzzle that I haven’t placed as to why Dallas doesn’t get even an iota of the same credit for art and culture.
Although, Dallas definitely does have a little bit of national fashion credibility where the arts are concerned, and Nemian Marcus has a lot to do with that. In fact, just the other day, I was trying to be Dallas’ strongest soldier by defending Neiman’s cultural importance to someone who moved here from out of state.
But otherwise, I think you would be surprised by how many people still assume we all ride horses down the street in a ten-gallon cowboy hat to go to Dealey Plaza. And it’s like, well, no. But I do love big hair – they got my ass on that one.
Any last words?
Oh, fire Nico Harrison.
