While you were busy with all the holidays, another important reason for drinking heavily probably escaped your attention. This month marks 10 years of deregulation in Texas’s retail electric market. Hey, put down that chair. No need for violence. This is the free market we’re huzzahing here, Bub. Actually, it…
The poor soul who attempted to teach me guitar at age 40 was a jazz man, a fan of the great Django Reinhardt and the Gypsy-infused, swing guitar style he perfected in France in the ’30s and ’40s. Maybe my teacher thought that if Reinhardt could overcome adversity — born…
Actor Hal Holbrook has portrayed Mark Twain longer than Samuel Clemens did — 57 years for Holbrook, who first performed a version of his one-man stage show as Twain in 1954, versus 47 years for Clemens. So it’s not surprising that the white-wigged, mustachioed, sardonic, witty grandfatherly archetype Holbrook has…
“I want to be useful and bring enjoyment to all people, even those I’ve never met. I want to go on living even after my death!” teen diarist Anne Frank wrote during the two years she and seven other Jews spent hiding in an attic in Holland, attempting to avoid…
For 14 years now, Buzz has written a summary of the previous 12 months of news in Dallas. Not to brag, but that’s a pretty impressive stretch, taking into account that it means we’ve persuaded someone to pay us for more than 730 consecutive weeks. Pretty sly, huh? Countless more…
Maybe you’ve given toys to Toys for Tots. Perhaps you spent some time camped out near City Hall on behalf of the downtrodden 99 percent. You’re a good, socially conscientious soul — so don’t stop now. Get behind a cause that’s dear to us and greet 2012 at DFW NORML’s…
Move along: Another new year — time to take stock, clean the slate, roll out the cliches and take advantage of our editor’s holiday cheer to slip by a few words of drivel about Buzz’s New Year’s resolutions. Now Buzz is just shy of turning 50, so the mind is…
Ah, Ebeneezer Scrooge, what a fine symbol of redemption he is. Listen and learn, children: You can spend nearly all your life as the meanest, most miserly SOB on the planet. Just make sure that before the end comes, you get sappy and buy some poor family a goose. All…
Christmas caroling, ornament-making, a Christmas-tree maze, a holiday stage show and a visit from Santa, all wrapped up with a ride on the Grapevine Vintage Railroad: The North Pole Express in Grapevine has everything a train- and Christmas-loving child could desire, minus any creepily not-quite-human Tom Hanks characters straight from…
Tired of the same ol’ Christmas tunes, the fruitcake and ho-ho-hoing? Explore the holiday from a different cultural perspective with the 8th Annual Posada Dallas! Festivities, presented by the Latino Cultural Center, 2600 Live Oak St. Traditionally a re-enactment of the holy family’s search for shelter, the LCC’s version begins…
Listen up: The first thing Buzz noticed when we got our advance copy of Press 2 for English: Fix Immigration, Save America were numbers: “The direct after-tax costs illegal immigrants impost on the public coffers each year,” said press material accompanying the book, is $9.6 billion. The source cited for…
Ah, the holidays, that one time of year when otherwise happy philistines find themselves corralled into attending a ballet — The Nutcracker, the classic story of dancing toys, wicked rodents and a brave nutcracker. Pity the poor fools dragged away from their comfy nests and the warm glow of ESPN…
Look carefully at an old family snapshot. Does the image in your hand match the one held in your memory? Are details and vividness missing from you mind or from the photo? Has the moment the photo captured faded from memory, or does it come flooding back with smells, sounds,…
Merry, merry, merry: OK, Santa, cancel the pony. We’ve already received the bestest present any Dallas newsguy could desire: Betty Culbreath is running against her former mentor, County Commissioner John Wiley Price, in the Democratic primary. Just typing those words made us pee a little. From the happiness, you know?…
Dear Santa, Well, once again I’ve been a fairly rotten boy, but I hope you can overlook that and make with a gift that will help improve my soiled moral character. You see, Nick — Can I call you Nick? — I need a new brain, one never exposed to…
Boom shaka-laka: Occupy Dallas called for a general “strike” by wage earners this week. We’re not sure which day, because, you know, it’s a fluid movement (in more ways than one). Whichever day it was, none of us were supposed to shop or show up at work. Ooh, better lay…
Microcosmic world: Buzz recently received an email from the president of the homeowners association of our condominium, ordering all residents to remove personal property — door wreaths, potted plants, holiday displays, everything — from the building common areas. (There’s actually a point to this anecdote. Stay with us.) Some residents…
Trust them: Jim Schutze took the week off from his Trinity “Oh, shit, here comes the water” beat this week, but our river problems keep rolling, so it’s up to Buzz to fill Schutze’s Wellies. Last week, Schutze got his hands on some internal documents from the local office of…
Love and its assorted baggage get a musical unpacking in It’s Only Life, a musical revue of songs by John Bucchino, creator of the scores for Urban Myths, Lavender Girl and A Catered Affair, among others. Talky, self-critical, urban singles dealing with love’s foibles are the threads running through the…
What if it were possible to pass through a portal in time, travel back to November 22, 1963, and prevent the assassination of President John F. Kennedy? Would you be willing to face the big bouffants, the racism, sexism, homophobia and cheesy fashion sense of the early ’60s to stop…
Just because you’re paranoid: We may never know the real reason Lisa Chambers was canned by Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins after serving just 15 months as the county’s director of homeland security and emergency management. Chambers says her firing last week came because she pointed out “irregularities” in the…
Ah, the big, fancy wedding. At least half the guests (the male half) would rather be somewhere else. The bride is exhausted. The groom is either hung over or just generally looking pole-axed. The lines for food and the bar are long. The clothes are uncomfortable. How is so much…
