AFI Dallas: The Joy in Joy Division, and The Monster Among Us

From Allen and Cynthia Mondell’s The Monster Among Us, screening tonight at the AMC NorthPark A couple of AFI Dallas International Film Festival recommendations this morning, after a long opening weekend during which Angus Wynne marched a teen-aged New Orleans street band, the To Be Continued Brass Band, through a…

The Big Caucus, Or: The Smell of Nachos and a Daytime Emmy-Winner

Going on a voting Spree: At bottom, Julie Doyle and Tim DeLaughter stump for Hillary Clinton before Saturday’s senatorial district convention on the SMU campus. I spent Saturday serving as a delegate at the Fightin’ 16th Senatorial District’s Democratic Convention at SMU’s Moody Coliseum, and I’m happy to report the…

Stonewall Jackson’s Out

Housing Secretary Alphonso Jackson, though probably not for long Several way-too-early-rising Friends of Unfair Park have sent word that former Dallas Housing Authority president and CEO Alphonso Jackson’s about to quit his current job as Housing and Urban Development Secretary. And the Friends know why: The Dallas native refuses to…

Meet Dallas’ Latest, Greatest Tourist Attraction: Foreigners

As Unfair Park, and, you know, the U.S. government reported earlier this week, Dallas is living larger than most American metropolises. Some say it’s the unbelievable home prices, but one local group says it’s the job opps that keep ‘em coming. And by ‘em, we mean the DFW’s foreign-born, who…

A Candidate Too Nutty For God’s Sugar Daddy? How’s That Possible?

Mark Graham He will survive? Randall Dunning of Garland, who’s got some especially interesting ideas about gummint. In some circles San Antonio businessman James Leininger is known as God’s Sugar Daddy because of his penchant for supporting Bible-thumping far-right candidates. So it was no surprise, really, that Leininger was backing…

AFI Dallas: Visiting With The Visitor

Richard Jenkins, left, and Haaz Sleiman in The Visitor For those hoping to attend tonight’s sold-out screening of The Visitor, writer-director Tom McCarthy’s follow-up to The Station Agent, tonight at 7:15 p.m. at the Angelika Film Center, fear not: AFI Dallas International Film Festival CEO Michael Cain says some tickets…

Dallas’ “Delusional” 15-Year-Old Author

Till I came across this interview with Evan Brian Doyle, published today on Animation Insider, I had no idea a kid attending the Science and Engineering at the Yvonne A. Ewell Townview Magnet Center was a published author. “It’s weird,” he says. “I’m the only published author in my class.”…

Hicks and Gillett Do Not Appear to Have a “Rational Relationship”

George Gillett, left, and Tom Hicks before their relationship became “unworkable” Been, like, days since our last item about Tom Hicks, George Gillett and the squabbling over Liverpool FC’s ownership. But today comes nasty word that Gillett, with whom the Rangers and Stars owner bought the fabled team one year…

Found Your Beef

Dunno about you, but not a day goes by I don’t hope this is the day my copy of Beef arrives. And, dang, the latest issue isn’t online yet, but forthcoming is the tale of Stoney Point AgriCorp up in Melissa, about which Country World wrote some four years back…

Uh. Oh.

Josh Howard poured in 30 points. Jason Kidd finally had himself a game with 19 points and 15 assists. And the Dallas Mavericks unleashed a 70-point first half on the Denver Nuggets. So, guess what? The Mavs’ margin on 7th place in the Western Conference is all but poof. Nuggets:…

AFI Dallas: Fancy, But Not Too

AFI Dallas co-founder and artistic director Michael Cain Amidst all the small talk beneath the high ceilings of Neiman Marcus’ flagship, where the AFI Dallas International Film Festival once more held its well-oiled and mightily lubricated kick-off jam, there was business to discuss first and foremost. As in: First, the…

Bringing Dallas’ Past Into the Present

How do you acclimate the olds to Facebook and MySpace? The Dallas Historical Society is about to find out. Because for the past decade, the organization has culled written history from Dallasites who remember the city when Central Expressway was still the Houston and Texas Central tracks. Many of these…

Pony Up, Power Down

SMU’s football team (and, really, how cute) is prepping for its annual Red-Blue Scrimmage, which takes place April 5 at 1 p.m. at Gerald J. Ford Stadium. And this is how the Mustangs are trying to get you there. June Jones, you are so fired. –Robert Wilonsky…

Former Dallas Police Detective Says Good Morning America

ABC News Former DPD detective David Rodriguez’s Monday-afternoon heroics were featured on Good Morning America today. The story of David Rodriguez, the former Dallas Police detective who thwarted a robbery at a Jack in the Box on South Hampton Road on Monday, got national attention this morning: ABC’s Good Morning…

That’s One Shell of a Meal

The Tuscon, Arizona-based Center for Biological Diversity wants Texas, along with three other Southern states, to stop commercially harvesting freshwater turtles and sending them overseas, where they’re turned into yummy shellicious snackems. The center even sent the state an “emergency petition” today, in hopes of getting our homegrown turtles off…

Now Everyone Knows Why We Live Here

Right click to expand the U.S. Census Bureau’s population growth chart. So, Dallas-Fort Worth added 162,250 residents between July 2006 and July 2007 — which comes out to about 445 newcomers every day — making the area the nation’s tops when it comes to population growth. And what accounts for…

The Nine Ways Sexually Oriented Businesses Can Lose Their Licences

View Larger Map For those wanting to know precisely why the city cannot and will not shut down Northwest Dallas’ all-nude Diamonds Cabaret, where police discovered 12-year-old and a 17-year-old girls dancing in recent months, here’s a link to the city’s code regulating sexually oriented businesses — not an easy…

An AFI Can’t-Miss: Stuck

A scene from Stuart Gordon’s Stuck, based on that infamous October 2001 hit-and-run in Fort Worth. Several Friends have asked for AFI Dallas International Film Festival recommendations, aside from those found in this week’s paper version preview, in which there just wasn’t enough room to preview some 260 offerings. So,…

Rock Steady

In the documentary The Black List: Volume One, currently pitching its tent on the film-fest circuit before landing on HBO in the fall, Chris Rock announces the precise moment at which racism in the U.S. will be pronounced a thing of the past: It’ll happen when black artists are allowed…