We took the long way to Oak Cliff last weekend, turning off the Houston Street Viaduct on to Greenbriar Lane, which runs parallel to the Trinity River. No particular reason, just in no particular rush. It was at that point we found ourselves amongst a forest of sleek metal-n-wood townhomes,…
A couple of weeks back I got sucked into watching, yet again, Bomb It, Jon Reiss’s extraordinary documentary about graffiti culture from NYC to Tokyo and all spray-painted points in between. Seemed a good time to stop down for the video rewind, what with Oak Cliff attorney John Barr’s having…
Below, in the comments, one Arthur Smythe — who, as everybody knows, hates the Cowboys — was quick to point out that Not Mayor Tom Leppert has raised $1.1 million in his bid for the United States Senate. Arthur’s comment, which I imagine was made in an English accent by…
A couple of days ago, Candy Evans posted a pic of the asbestos remediation taking place inside everybody’s favorite downtown obsession, the Statler Hilton, which is now in the possession of Leobardo Trevino. And just as Trevino promised last month, the place already looks much different than it did when…
Long ago I used to run into Eric Nadel — The Voice of Your Texas Rangers — all the time in the music section of the Borders in Preston Royal, which should tell you how long ago that was. First time I saw him, I’ll never forget, he was schlepping…
Mexican folk artist Jesús “Chucho” Reyes Ferreira died in 1979, leaving behind an estimable collection of works — some of which, over the years, have turned up at auction at places like Sotheby’s and New York’s Swann Galleries. But according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, most landed in the possession…
Dallas has been trying to get a handle on group housing for years, dating back — at least — to the Boarding House Task Force formed in June ’07, which consisted of everything from code compliance to Dallas Fire-Rescue to the City Attorney’s Office. That was but one of myriad…
The question “Why does Dish Network want Blockbuster?” was asked and answered late last week, though one Friend of Unfair Park suggested, “Twizzlers.” Turns out, the Colorado-based Dish wanted it plenty bad — more than Carl Icahn and the lenders who turned up to take the Renaissance Tower-based Blockbuster off…
Keith Loutit achieved quite a bit of renown a few years back for his time-lapsed tilt-shift shorts, in which he made the very big (Sydney Harbor, the Roman Forum, Shanghai’s Nanpu Bridge) appear very, very small. Local filmmaker Fabián Aguirre pays homage to Loutit with this three-minute short, Formicarium |…
U.S. Senate candidate Tom Leppert posted to his website today a piece titled “Serious Leadership,” in which he says he’s just the man to take Kay Bailey’s place in D.C. because, look, “I’m not a career politician and I didn’t expect to be in this position. I’m a businessman.” Of…
I called Heritage Auction Galleries PR man Noah Fleisher about something we’d mentioned long ago when he asked, out of nowhere, “Do you remember JOT the Dot?” Oh, sweet fancy Moses. Barely.”Is that the Presbyterian Period?” George Gimarc just asked. (He called while I was writing this.) No, George, JOT…
A Friend of Unfair Park asks if there’s any news about those federal lawsuits filed following those copious Super Bowl ticket snafus. As a matter of fact, at this very moment, U.S. District Court Judge Barbara Lynn is considering two things — whether to consolidate the two cases, and who’ll…
Close to midnight this morning I got an email from Dallas International Film Festival Artistic Director in which, at last, he revealed the title of the fest’s closing-night film: Burke and Hare, the latest from director John Landis (National Lampoon’s Animal House, The Blues Brothers), starring Simon Pegg and Andy…
Speaking of the Trinity River Corridor Project …When the boy and I visited the Standing Wave — or The Dallas Wave, as it’ll be known — about a month ago, it had been a long while since it had rained. Kayakers said the Trinity was as low as they’d seen…
Sam’s bringing bagels and coffee to this morning’s meeting of the Trinity River Corridor Project Committee; he’s got questions, many questions, specifically about the second Calatrava bridge that was all but dead a month ago till, well, it wasn’t no more. There’s another bridge on the agenda — the Sylvan…
Don’t tell Dallas Morning News bigwigs that the newspaper business is in trouble: The A.H. Belo-owned Providence Journal reports this afternoon that Chairman Robert Decherd, Publisher Jim Moroney, President John McKeon and Chief Financial Officer Alison Engel made out pretty, pretty well during 2010. The paper added up some figures…
Longtime observers of the local political landscape probably hear the name Rob Allyn and think of the Trinity River Corridor Project (Schutze insists it was Allyn who came up with those solar-powered water taxis), myriad mayoral campaigns, those Dubya ads attacking John McCain’s environmental record and the Dallas Cowboys adding…
Below is City Manager Mary Suhm’s memo to the council noting that revenue from red-light cameras is way below last September’s FY2010-11 guesstimates. But at present, that’s the least of her concerns: On Wednesday, the council will hear from Assistant City Attorney Larry Casto, the city’s Director of Legislative Affairs,…
On Friday, Dallas City Manager Mary Suhm sent to the city council the memo you’ll find in full after the jump, in which she presents the latest forecast for this fiscal year. The doc’s of particular interest as we head toward the next round of budgeting, with a new mayor…
The myriad issues with the Dallas Animal Services have been well chronicled, especially in our January cover story on the shelter, which described the conflicting mindsets there thusly: “The old dog catcher mentality of ‘catch, cage, kill,’ which focuses on rounding up strays, keeping them a short time and euthanizing…
The Redistricting Commission, charged with redrawing city council district boundaries, meets tomorrow at 6 p.m. at City Hall, at which time commission members Domingo Garcia, Donna Halstead and Gary Griffith and chair Ruth Morgan will present to the public early-look maps and district updates. But as Steve Thompson writes this…
The Cotton Bowl Classic, of course, is no longer played at the Cotton Bowl — hasn’t been for two years, when the bowl game decamped for Arlington, thus making it a very unhappy New Year ’round Fair Park at kickoff time. Then came along the TicketCity Bowl — Texas Tech…
