It’s the second race at Lone Star Park, and the trainers are saddling their horses. A jockey dressed in black silks is boosted atop the long shot, a bay filly with a dab of white between her eyes. The horse is fit but looks skinny and fragile: Her ankles are…
Doc Watson, who was raised in the woods of North Carolina and lost his vision before his first birthday, grew up around music. While doing chores, his mother would often sing old-time ballads, and at night, when his father came home from the fields, the family would often read from…
Elizabeth Albanese sat near the front of the massive ballroom, sipping champagne. The 43-year-old loved champagne. In social settings such as this one, it was all she drank. It was part of the image she sought to cultivate, that of a genteel Southern lady. The same could be said of…
Here’s what you need to know about hellogoodbye: Their music has been described as “power pop/synth pop,” they’ve appeared on MTV’s The Real World Austin and in publicity photos they’ve been seen blowing on dandelions, standing in a field with a deer and sitting in a locker room wearing nothing…
The prisoner, dressed in white cotton that’s beginning to fray, ducks into the office and glances around nervously. The man behind the desk asks him to take a seat. The prisoner sits on a metal chair, his knees together, his scuffed work boots placed squarely on the floor. He is…
Late last week, lawmakers in Austin briefly considered seven bills relating to stem cell research, which could result in treatments for diseases such as Parkinson’s or juvenile diabetes—and voted to table all but one of them. The one bill that could still find its way to the House floor this…
What else can we say about the RoughRiders? We’ve already made fun of the minor league team for their overdecorated women’s bathrooms (hyped on their Web site under the “Cool Bathrooms” link), and we’ve already told you that their ballpark in Frisco may be the best place to watch baseball…
The timing couldn’t have been worse. Just days before Bryan’s House—a Dallas care center for kids affected by HIV/AIDS—was set to celebrate its 20th anniversary, state authorities removed 18 foster children from the facility. The children were removed over a two-week period after an X-ray revealed that a 5-month-old boy,…
In 1946, a Brit by the name of Wilbert Awdry wrote a book about trains called Thomas the Tank Engine. The book was set on the fictional Island of Sodor, and every year Awdry wrote another book about Thomas the Tank Engine and his friends, until 1972, when he published…
Guatemala, known for its volcanoes, its coffee and its majority Mayan population, isn’t so good at soccer. In fact, the blue and white have never earned a berth in the World Cup. The United States, on the other hand, regularly qualifies, and in 2002, made it all the way to…
Danny Reid is no fan of cockfighting. So when the local marketing executive and animal rights advocate heard that Amazon.com sells cockfighting books, magazines and videos, he decided to do something about it. He wrote an e-mail to Amazon and then he posted his anti-cockfighting rant on every local blog…
This one’s for all you trivia nerds out there: What do the Columbus Crew and FC Dallas have in common? You’ve never heard of either one? Wrong. They both play soccer? Yes, but that’s not what I’m looking for. They were both owned by Lamar Hunt, the rich (but very…
There is one chair in the room, and they sit him in it. He pulls out his wallet. He’s looking for a number. A phone number, an address. That is why he is here. Fernando the lawyer. Fernando the drug trafficker. He’s got a load of marijuana, and they want…
The knock on Lebron James this year is that he’s coasting, that he seems uninterested, and that he doesn’t seem to have the fire in his belly of a true champion. So maybe he’s not the next Michael Jordan, and maybe he’s just sick of playing in godawful Cleveland. Regardless,…
Charges of corruption have long haunted the Denton County District Attorney’s Office, so when former prosecutor Paul Johnson decided to run against his old boss last year, he made the most of the allegations. During the campaign, Johnson painted himself as a crusader for social reform who, if elected, would…
The Chicken Man?” the woman behind the counter asks. “Just go on up the road about a half-mile, like you’re fixing to go out of town. Take a left, then a right. You’ll see the chickens.” I’m at the Whistlestop General Store, the only business in Blanket, a Central Texas…
The Oceanaire Seafood Room at the Westin Galleria, 13340 Dallas Parkway, has its seafood flown in daily. Not trucked, not driven. Flown. Anyway, in celebration of the restaurant’s four-year anniversary, it is offering a special through the month of January. Between 5 p.m. and 7 p.m., Chef Chad Kelley will…
You’d think with the Great One as their coach, the Phoenix Coyotes would be one of the better teams in the NHL. But you’d be wrong. Gretzky was great as a player, but so far he’s been a bust as a coach and executive. The Coyotes have missed the playoffs…
Fifteen years ago, Larry James was unknown in Dallas political circles. His name didn’t appear regularly in the paper, the mayor didn’t have his phone number, and he certainly didn’t dine with presidential hopefuls, as he one day would. If he was known for anything, it was the AIDS ministry…
James McMurtry, son of author Larry McMurtry, fronts a band called the Heartless Bastards. He also recently won the 2006 Americana Song of the Year and Album of the Year. Described by author Stephen King as “the truest, fiercest songwriter of his generation,” McMurtry is known lately for blasting the…
Black Nativity is the re-telling of the birth of Christ from an African-American perspective. Written by Langston Hughes, who died in 1967 and was known as the “Poet Laureate of the Negro Race,” the play runs at the Jubilee Theatre, 506 Main St. in Fort Worth, through Saturday. Catch performances…
Forever Plaid is the story of four singers—Sparky, Smudge, Frankie and Jinx—who are on their way to a big gig when their cherry-red Corvette is broadsided by a school bus full of Catholic teenagers. As is customary, the God-fearing go unscathed while the rock ‘n’ rollers are doomed to a…
