Remember when your favorite black recording artists had huge ‘fros, wore funky hats and tuxes with velvet lapels? When groups consisted of three women or five men standing in a line, doing fancy spin dance moves? You do? Damn, man, you are old. We’re tempted to type in all capital…
Home to roost: First off, Buzz apologizes to U.S. Attorney Richard Roper and his cohorts for ever hinting in this space that the feds’ investigation into alleged corruption at City Hall was taking too long. As the release of indictments Monday accusing 16 people of various counts of bribery, extortion,…
Whew. We just spent a couple of hours reading the 166-page indictment from the feds’ investigation into alleged bribery and extortion at City Hall, charges concerning a federal low-income housing program and other tax-supported real-estate doings. Thought we’d try to spare all you people with real jobs the trouble or…
We see all: By the time you read this, the Great Trinity Toll Road Debate of 2007, Leppert vs. Hunt in a tag-team smack-down cage match, will be over. Unfortunately, Dallas Observer deadlines, which oddly coincide with happy hour at neighboring bars, prevent us from reporting on the outcome of…
Dream a little dream: Buzz just needs to stay away from some people. Grown-ups, mostly—guys like Michael Faenza, president and chief executive of the Metro Dallas Homeless Alliance, who is working hard on behalf of the city’s neediest people to make Dallas a better place. You spend a little time…
Huh, how about that? Slappy’s Puppet Playhouse is not another name for the confessional booth during youth services at your local Catholic church, but an actual puppet theater. OK. We knew that, but that Catholic pederast humor just never gets old, does it? You say it does? Well then, let’s…
Ahem. A few weeks ago, an item appeared in this section concerning a screening of the 2005 film version of Pride & Prejudice, in conjunction with the Dallas Theater Center’s ongoing production of a stage version of the Jane Austen novel, adapted by Catherine Sheehy. A certain writer may have…
Sigh…: Man, Buzz is so gonna regret saying this, but here goes: If you believe that the attacks on the Pentagon and World Trade Center were not the feats of terrorists but a government conspiracy, you are—how do we put this diplomatically?—a moron. Or maybe Rosie O’Donnell. Hard to say,…
So imagine that Casablanca was not made in 1942, but today. Drunken dinner party conversation topics: In 2007, would Ilsa get on the plane with Victor or stay in the desert with Rick? How much bare Ilsa flesh would we see? During the slow sex scene between Rick and Ilsa…
We’re not sure why audiences roar when a jalapeño puppet says, in a thick, ersatz Mexican accent that his name is “José…Jalapeño…On a Steek.” That’s so…cruise ship. OK, maybe we laughed aloud when ventriloquist Jeff Dunham played straight man to the irascible old man puppet, Walter. (Walter: “Remember when you…
Witness for the Prosecution is the gripping tale of a Dallas crime victim, who with the aid of local cops, picks her alleged assailant out of a photo lineup in which the chief suspect was circled in red marker, with the words “Pick this guy, stupid!” printed in large, bold…
Forget the Johnny Depp vs. Gene Wilder question about who makes the better Willy Wonka. Call it a toss-up. Lets focus for now on the original movie version of the Roald Dahl creation; if you’re of a certain age and temperament—that is, you have taste and a heart—you remember being…
Excelsior!: Sometimes news comes that puts a spark of optimism even in the cold, bitter lump that is Buzz’s heart, reminding us that yes, indeedy, hope never dies. Sometimes that ray of light comes from the oddest corner—from former Dallas police Chief “Weepin'” Terrell Bolton, for instance. You remember Bolton,…
Quilting, the quintessential American craft. You can just picture them, can’t you? The Mennonite womenfolk gathered in the farmhouse parlor, peacefully stitching and chatting. Yeah…and where the hell you been, stuck in 1911? In small towns in the heart of the nation’s Craft Belt are shops at which one can…
“Listen to your imagination,” says the Web page for the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, which features a photo of a face-lifted Kenny “The Gambler” Rogers, who will perform with the orchestra 7:30 p.m. Wednesday at the Meyerson Symphony Center, 2301 Flora St. Okey-dokey then, let’s tune in and listen…Hmm. How odd,…
Pee-yew: Oh, man, you can almost smell it coming. This is only August, and the scent of what promises to be an ugly local election cycle is wafting on the breeze. That’s the sort of thing that Buzz used to greet clapping, kicking our little legs and chanting oboyoboyoboyo. This…
How best to describe the good souls who are willing to even think about organic gardening when the temperature hits 100 degrees? Environmentally aware, perhaps. Devoted. Earth friendly. Or how about ker-ray-zee? It’s hot. Hothothothot. In August, Mother Nature can go hump herself. Give us Dow Chemical, automatic sprinklers and…
Chicks, man, how they go gaga for that Jane Austen and Pride and Prejudice. They’re all, like, “Oooh Mr. Darcy this and oooh Elizabeth Bennett that.” Not this all-hetero dude. Sure, I’ve read the book twice annually for the past 30 years, but not because of the romance. I’m a…
Taking the bait: Buzz just knows we’re going to regret this. Arguing with captious demagogues is always a losing proposition, but goddamn, The Dallas Morning News really outdid itself this week with its story answering the not-burning question: What did we think we were voting about in the 1998 Trinity…
I was loading up the snark gun, getting ready to wail on all the old folks who might be planning to head out to catch the Rush show this Saturday at Smirnoff Music Centre. (A sample: Who’s the tour sponsor, Ex-Lax?) Then I remembered something, namely, me at 14, huddled…
Tell the truthiness: Is a high-speed toll road along the Trinity River a good idea? Would it help relieve traffic congestion downtown? Is the road the best use of resources? Those are good questions to which Buzz has no answers, but we do know one thing: Some of the favorite…
Yeah, yeah. Let’s skip all the usual Wizard of Oz blather–how the flying monkeys scared you as a kid, whether a munchkin actually died on the set, whether the original book was really a Populist allegory. Whatever. The movie’s been around forever. You’ve seen it before; you might see it…
