It’s the Monday after closing night, and the director is cleaning up the last set pieces from his performance space. There are video-game consoles stacked in the bathroom, disconnected security cameras hanging from the ceiling, and a pair of blank-loaded pistols that, thankfully, he just a moment earlier removed from…
The temperature was hovering somewhere in the mid-90s on Saturday afternoon when Olaniyi Rasheed Akindiya, better know as Akirash, stepped out of CentralTrak. The temperature was significant because Akirash was wearing only Scotch tape and empty water bottles on his feet. As he splashed water around the concrete and onto…
A top-notch cover band is more than a facsimile of the real thing — they can bring out all the love you had for the original band and let you forget the sadder real-life moments, like band break-ups or anything that would have turned up on VH1’s Behind the Music…
This year the Texas legislature approved a measure that requires the Texas Juvenile Justice Department to cut $23 million from its budget and continue paying for five of its six secure facilities by the first day of 2014, meaning that one of those six facilities has to go. To meet…
Bitcoin, the decentralized online virtual currency, just hit a milestone of monetary street cred: It’s allegedly been used in a Ponzi scheme. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission announced today that it has charged Trendon T. Shavers of McKinney for defrauding investors in his Bitcoin company, Bitcoin Savings and Trust…
The Federal Aviation Administration has unveiled its official stance on Americans shooting at drones: You shouldn’t do that. According to the Associated Press, the FAA announced today that anyone discharging a weapon at a drone runs the risk of causing it to crash, thus injuring people or property, thus risking…
Back in June we reported on Cairo, the snotty-nosed tiger at In-Sync Exotics, an animal rescue society in Wylie. When Cairo seized earlier this summer it was the first sign of a canine distemper outbreak at the sanctuary, and since then roughly a third of the 60 lions and tigers…
Since Congress started wrestling with stricter gun control laws early this year, school officials around the country have been on edge about how to handle threats of violence from students. There have been a lot of draconian responses in the last few months. In one case, an eighth-grader in West…
Per the rules of the Texas legislature’s special session, Governor Rick Perry can add any agenda items that he thinks need to be addressed, with abortion taking a pretty comfortable lead over anything else. Otherwise, any bills the legislators file right now are in free-floating purgatory. In a show of…
Amidst the buzz this summer about same-sex marriage and gay pride, it’s easy to lose track of the unsung victims of all these equal rights. So to bring attention to heterosexual Americans and the struggle they face, like having to see gay characters on television and not having VIP federal…
Eating vegan is hard. It takes dedication to strictly adhere to any diet, especially one that cuts out big bricks of the food pyramid. It can be hard to eat vegan and stick to a healthy, balanced diet, and scientists are split on whether or not simply removing animal protein…
Back in February, when the Texas legislature was in session the first time, Representative Lon Burnam, D-Fort Worth, authored a bill aimed to authorize “a marriage between two persons of the same sex in this state and repealing the statutory prohibition against the recognition of a civil union or similar…
“I don’t want my clothes to be noticed,” Tracy Popken says, standing in the cluttered but orderly studio inside her Bishop Arts District home. It’s a surprising credo for a designer and tailor, but Popken sells the idea hard, convincing you that she just wants her work to show off…
In this week’s Dallas Observer we profile 30 of the metro area’s most interesting characters, with new portraits of each from local photographer Stanton Stephens. See the entire Dallas Observer People Issue here. Stephen Lapthisophon’s studio is a mess. It’s not disordered, really; the rooms of the converted apartment and…
The new HBO documentary The Out List was supposed to be a response to California’s Proposition 8. But it turned into something bigger, director Timothy Greenfield-Sanders told Vanity Fair, where he’s a contributing photographer. What it became is a series of interviews with 16 openly gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgender…
There was going to be a rally last night one way or the other. Local activists had scheduled the Dallas Day of Decision Rally for 7 p.m. of whatever day the Supreme Court issued its ruling on Proposition 8 and the Defense of Marriage Act, and depending on how those…
In this week’s Dallas Observer we profile 30 of the metro area’s most interesting characters, with new portraits of each from local photographer Stanton Stephens. See the entire Dallas Observer People Issue here. You know you’ve arrived at Edward Ruiz’s Exposition Park studio when you are greeted by a model…
In this week’s Dallas Observer we profile 30 of the metro area’s most interesting characters, with new portraits of each from local photographer Stanton Stephens. See the entire Dallas Observer People Issue here. Sally Glass loves meeting new people, being exposed to new things. So it isn’t surprising that she…
The probate court of the Old Criminal Court Building was a little disjointed on Friday. The judge, lawyers and witnesses were all dressed in 60s garb — skinny ties, strings of pearls, a pillbox hat or two — while back in the gallery the standing room-only audience was snapping pictures…
There are many words that come to mind when you think of Dallas. “Barbecue,” for one. A lot of traffic-related phrases too, like “road construction,” “highway overpasses” or “valet parking.” But three surprising adjectives connected to Dallas are “young,” “broke” and “single,” at least according to Money Under 30, a…
As the Texas Legislature’s special session drones on, the state’s lawmakers are grappling with what to do with teenagers — specifically with 17-year-olds convicted of murder. Last Thursday the Senate approved mandatory life sentencing with parole for 17-year-olds convicted of capital murder — with the option of parole coming 40…
In his book American Sniper, under the heading “Punching Out Scruff Face,” slain Navy SEAL Chris Kyle claimed that in a 2006 he got into a bar fight with “Scruff Face,” a “celebrity” veteran. Kyle claimed the fight started because Scruff Face was insulting then-President George Bush, and then said…
