I just spoke with Museum of the American Railroad president and CEO Bob LaPrelle about the city’s lawsuit that demands the train museum get out of Fair Park by no later than August 1. Despite the museum’s April 2008 announcement that it was moving to Frisco, LaPrelle says the city’s…
No doubt you’ve heard: J.D. Salinger has died, though, as has been pointed out often in the past hour, the author of The Catcher in the Rye and Nine Stories and Franny and Zooey became a ghost long ago. But the news reminded me: A few months back, Unfair Park…
OK, back to Fair Park, but only to ask: Why didn’t the Museum of the American Railroad ever leave Fair Park for Frisco? That’s what the city wants to know almost two years after the museum “entered into a formal letter of agreement with the City of Frisco to relocate…
This morning, The Wall Street Journal takes up the issue of newcomers filling up the Plano Independent School District — specifically, “a flood of poor, minority students” whose entry into the district prompted the contentious fight over redistricting. The district voted on a feeder alignment plan on December 15, which…
I so meant to watch American Idol last night as it aired the Dallas auditions featuring NPH as guest judge. But, um, did not. So I’d like to thank the Friends of Unfair Park who’ve sent along this clip of Irving’s own Erica Rhodes, a former Barney girl, dolled up…
The last time Angela Hunt voiced her concerns about about bond projects and the attendant jump in debt service, she gave us the by-now classic slogan: “We must do [X] to make Dallas a great city. If you oppose [X], you don’t want Dallas to be a great city.” (Now…
More than once I’ve seen Spoon’s seventh album mentioned with some Radiohead reference—a friend even liked it to In Rainbows, insisting Transference likewise takes some getting used to but, boy, does it warm up in a hurry. And, yes, now that you mention it, “Before Destruction” is awful cold to…
When I was a kid, the only artist I knew by name was LeRoy Neiman — musta been those Bicentennial Burger King giveaways, yech. So, I was kind of interested when a Friend of Unfair Park sent word that someone’s auctioing off a Neiman original on eBay: Superbowl VI (Miami…
One can’t tell the story of the old Dallas High School, or Crozier Tech, without talking to Veletta Lill. After all, she was a Dallas city council member when Robert Yu bought the property for $6.1 million from the Dallas Independent School District in 1998; and one year later, it…
The Park from kristin gray on Vimeo.This has been around a long time and so far viewed by a few thousand, but till I accidentally came across it moments ago, I’d never seen this video — a virtual fly-through of the Woodall Rodgers Deck Park currently under construction. Ah, now…
Never heard of a store called Movies and CDs on Bruton Road till this morning. Then again, having someone burn me a bootleg of 27 Dresses for five bucks while I wait isn’t exactly on my to-do list. The FBI, however, took a decided interest in the joint, and in…
And now, Dallas’s next big convention: the 22nd National Conference on LGBT Equality: Creating Change, which is expected to bring “more than 2,000 lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) rights supporters” to the downtown Sheraton February 3 though 7. Gay rights, of course, are on the agenda — so too…
Our pal Justin Terveen sends us this picture postcard view of the downtown buildings being decorated in advance of the NBA All-Star Game. Clearly, a work-in-progress. Still, impressive. Even more impressive when you see the wallpaper-sized photo…
OK, fair warning: This is going to be one in a series of items over the next couple of days dealing with Crozier Tech (or, as long-timers know it, the 103-year-old city-designated landmark Dallas High School or Central High School) on Bryan Street. It’s been cropping up in the comments…
Late last night, after grocery Aldi released its list of local locations and opening dates, a Friend of Unfair Park wondered how oh how we and everyone else missed this interview with H-E-B Chairman and CEO Charles Butt that ran in the San Antonio Express-News last weekend. In it, Butt…
Today, the National Institute of Standards and Technology released its 125-page final report on the collapse of the Dallas Cowboys’ practice facility out at Valley Ranch on May 9, during that surprise spring storm that left special teams coach Joe DeCamillis with crushed vertebrae and scout Rich Behm permanently paralyzed…
Mark your calendars now: Mardi Gras Oak Cliff takes place February 7 in the Bishop Arts District, with a morning 5K run and a nighttime masquerade ball bookending a February 6 pre-game. Which I mention only because I see that Jeff Liles, who’s been recording musicians in the Kessler Theater…
Pardon my interloping, but I’ve asked Pete for his permission to post over here as a friend just forwarded along this trio of tracks from a Haiti benefit in Brooklyn over the weekend. DC9 favorite and Lake Highlands grad Annie Clark, or St. Vincent, performed with the likes of Bon…
Ya know, before Pete came along, I was doing a fine job of writing about St. Vincent all by my lonesome. So, don’t tell, but a Friend of Unfair Park sends along these MP3s featuring Annie Clark and Bon Iver performing at Saturday night’s Haiti benefit concert at Brooklyn’s Music…
From April 1985 till May of ’08, Barbara Nestel was a secretary for the Boy Scouts of America. Among her duties: reconciling financial accounts and processing payments for the National Catholic Committee on Scouting for merchandise and expenses. Which is how she could defraud the Boy Scouts out of $350,000,…
Speaking of financial obligations …Schutze will be along shortly to explain what this means, exactly — after all, he’s the expert when it comes to all things related to Richard Allen, the man behind the Inland Port, and he just got off the phone with Allen. The reason: The breaking…
Perhaps I missed this elsewhere, but in the wake of Saturday night’s announcement concerning Tom Hicks’s having hammered out a deal with Pittsburgh attorney Chuck Greenberg and Nolan Ryan — otherwise known as the Rangers Baseball Express — there’s news that the deal’s anything but done. It comes from the…
