Aside from that unsolicited non sequitur intended to illustrate Americans’ lack of faith in the judicial system, Dallas County District Attorney Craig Watkins’s tête-à-tête with Stephen Colbert last night was notable only for how relatively straight it played. Colbert tried to draw Watkins offside early with a comment about his…
There is something oddly familiar about Jason Reitman’s Up in the Air, in which George Clooney plays a commitment-phobic business traveler with no use for meaningful human interaction. Could have sworn we’ve been here before. When was it? Oh, yes, of course: Joel and Ethan Coen’s Intolerable Cruelty, released in…
Remember when David and Shannon Croft sued the state because they didn’t want their kids, then enrolled in the Carrollton-Farmers Branch school district, to recite the Texas Pledge of Allegiance? Yup. Totally forgot about that one. That was two long years ago — back when the Crofts also sued the…
Fair Park’s latest additions — which is to say, sculptor David Newton’s recreations of Lawrence Tenney Stevens’s nine-foot-high Contralto and Countertenor statues perched at the ends of the overhauled-for-$12-million Fair Park Esplanade — make their formal debut Sunday, during Fair Park Holiday. (And, look, I’m going to warn you now:…
CNNMoney.com directs our attention this afternoon to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.’s first-ever report documenting how many Americans are “unbanked.” Says the study, Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington boasts an awfully high percentage of households who don’t use a bank — 10.9 percent, to be precise, which is well over the national average…
While peddling around in search of something unrelated, I came across Third Coast Fixed’s item concerning a two-part short film made by University of Texas at Dallas Emergent Media & Communication grad student Lacy Mahone. It’s a beautifully done, straight-forward summation of some of the issues Kim touched on in…
After we watched the county commissioner’s temper tantrum yesterday (again and again and again), Patrick “Buzz” Willliams declared it awfully “bush league.” We talked about how it was like one of those council meetings you see excerpted on newscasts across the country during which the anchor stares at the Teleprompter…
The Wall Street Journal reports that downtown-HQ’d AT&T dropped its suit today against Verizon concerning those “There’s a Map for That” ads in which Verizon says AT&T’s 3G coverage is, um, lacking. AT&T filed the suit a month ago, claiming in court documents that “the ads mislead consumers into believing…
One week ago today, Shawn Williams at Dallas South News broke the news that council member Vonciel Jones Hill sent Mayor Pro Tem Dwaine Caraway a memo telling him to stay the hell out of her district, which would be District 5. Caraway, chairman of the council’s Public Safety Committee…
View Larger MapAs one door reopens in Deep Ellum, another quietly shuts: Three weeks ago, Daddy Jack’s Elm Street location turned out the lights for good, ending a long run in the former home of the Buffalo Club (anyone? anyone?). The Web site’s dead; the phone’s been disconnected. Which isn’t…
Dennis Gilbert’s emergence as the “surprise favorite” to shag Your Texas Rangers, as Sports Illustrated puts it this morning, is no surprise to the Friends of Unfair Park who took a break from Thanksgiving break and stopped by Friday. Former New York Times baseball writer Murray Chass wrote the very…
Maybe you heard: Texas Ballet Theater debuted its Nutcracker at the Winspear on Friday, much to the displeasure of the Dallas-Fort Worth Professional Musicians Association, since the TBT isn’t using, you know, musicians. It’s a money-saving move necessitated by TBT’s being close to broke, and, truth is, it’s been going…
Maybe there’s a very good reason KTVT-Channel 11 has the top nightly newscast in town — like, oh, I dunno, because it’s the lone network affiliate smart enough to send a cameraman down to the Dallas County Commissioners Court? Today, the CBS affiliate returned with a mighty powerful short film…
Gray Kinney tells Unfair Park he was out shooting the debris formerly known as Reunion Arena a few days ago when he stumbled across this scene, which is obscured to drivers by the small retaining wall where S. Houston Street becomes the Houston Street Viaduct over the railroad tracks between…
In the end, anyone paying the slightest bit of attention to the bankruptcy of Bob’s Steak & Chop House on Lemmon Avenue thought that the eatery would most likely wind up in the hands of Bob Sambol’s former partner, Bill Lenox. He made no secret of his desire to buy…
It’s been almost seven months since Dallas voters agreed to build a convention-center hotel, and almost three months since the groundbreaking. And while the rancorous battle over Mayor Tom’s pet project may be a thing of the past, we’re a long ways off from finding out whether or not it…
In the December 14 issue of ForbesLife, the Dallas Symphony Orchestra’s music director conducts a tour of his Dallas, which may not be your Dallas. Unless, that is, you tend arrive at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport after an 11-hour business-class flight from Amsterdam on KLM, drive to your digs at…
This morning, Lori Conrad at KTVT-Channel 11 sent word: “KTVT is Number One in Late News for the First Time Ever in a Major ‘Sweeps’ Period.” The press release then went on to say that based on Nielsen numbers for November, the CBS affiliate’s 10 p.m. weekday newscast won the…
That’s more or less the question being posed over on Beliefnet, where readers are being asked to vote for “The Most Inspiring Person of 2009.” Capt. Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger and the former Alex P. Keaton are among the nominees, but so too is University of Texas at Arlington grad Tobin…
Stephen Colbert’s people don’t like to talk about why they ask guests to appear on The Colbert Report. Trust me. We asked earlier today, when word came down that Dallas County District Attorney Craig Watkins has been booked for Wednesday’s show (which puts him between Tuesday night’s guests, author Sherman…
View Larger MapSpeaking of Dallas Farmers Market …It was exactly one year ago that the Dallas City Council agreed to give Trammell Crow Residential $2,687,500 out of the Farmers Market TIF to expedite the construction of what was then known as the Alexan Farmers Market Project. The city also agreed…
I hate that I have plans for Thursday. I’d much rather be at Eddie Deen’s, where the Greater Dallas Republicans have a fundraiser scheduled: “Boot Scootin’ With Mayor Tom Leppert.” Or, maybe, “Boot Scootin’ With Mayor Tom Leppert … Through the Holidays.” Hard to say just what the event’s formal…
