“The Quiet Man,” by Matt Pulle, December 11 Roll Them Bones Holy crap, Batman. The leaders at City Hall have done more damage to our fair city than what the Joker, Riddler and King Tut combined caused to Gotham City! Once again I pick up the Dallas Observer and find…
Condom sense: Ignore the two charts that appeared this week on the Metro page of The Dallas Morning News—one showing a sharply sloping line tracking a boom in the number of people living with HIV/AIDS in Dallas County, another a graph tracking a decrease in new cases. The charts accompanied…
State Representative Allen Vaught, an Iraqi war veteran and one of the bright, young stars of the Texas Democratic Party, is a trial attorney. Over the final months of a hard-fought re-election, Vaught’s peers gave generously to his campaign. Baron and Budd, which mastered the lucrative art of asbestos litigation…
Standing in the world’s most famous sports tunnel last Saturday night, the symbolism smacked me like the arctic north wind howling up from Texas Stadium’s frigid field. In a chaotic clash of eras—smack dab in the middle of the Astroturf-lined walkway where championships were celebrated and legends were born—the present…
Is it a sign of the apocalypse? Something in the water? Or is it just the way the wind is blowing?Whatever the case, when our often-contentious quintet of film critics put their heads together about the best movies of 2008, they managed to agree (more or less) on a dozen…
Michael Jacobs, a filmmaker based in San Francisco, is the director of a movie called Audience of One. It’s a documentary about a Pentecostal minister who says he’s gotten the divine green light to make a mega-budget, religious, science-fiction epic. If you attended one of 20-odd regional film festivals in…
As far as Jeffrey Katzenberg is concerned, up to now there have been but two “revolutions” in the movie business: the mass introduction of sound with 1927’s The Jazz Singer (itself, a process 30 years in the making) and, a year later, the debut of The Viking, the first feature…
Dr. Jane Sadler at Baylor University Medical Center at Dallas grabbed Santy’s jingle bells last week and told him to cough in advance of the big man’s big night. Associated Press photographer Scott Hensley captured the Kodak moment that screams so eloquently and accidentally Christmas 2008. We’ll return on Friday…
While speaking with one of Mayor Tom Leppert’s consultants last month, I asked if Leppert was considering running for U.S. Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison’s seat. At that point, I heard he was contemplating the political leap from a few sources, but the response was something along the lines of: “Right…
Dallas’s real estate market in 2008 in a nutshell: OK, then not. Which is more or less the analysis offered by GlobeSt.com today as it sizes up the year that was and sneaks a peek at the year that will be or won’t, depending on folks’ fortunes. Among the prophets…
From KSL-TV, the NBC affiliate in Salt Lake City, comes this piece about former Utah state trooper Brian Smith, accused of the Monday-night shootings on LBJ Freeway that left two dead. So happens Smith had given the station’s crew a highway tour in his cruiser in March 2007, 14 months…
Not going to lie, not on Christmas Eve: This isn’t exactly the most riveting video ever made, even if does feature Mayor Tom Leppert. Still, for those tracking the progress of the Dallas Performing Arts Center — specifically, in this case, the Dee and Charles Wyly Theatre — it’s an…
Barry Annino passed along the news last night: Don Blanton, longtime Deep Ellum property owner, died last weekend of a heart attack at his second home in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. The funeral will take place January 5 at noon at Sparkman/Hillcrest Funeral Home, followed by a graveside service, with military…
How many shopping days left till Christmas, Don Hill? Dang, then we’d best hurry! A couple of housekeeping items this morning, including the disappointing news of a scheduling change. You can cross January 20 off your calendar if you were planning on attending the trial of former Dallas Mayor Pro…
One of the greatest games in the history of football was played in our back yard recently. Consider it the pigskin version of It’s A Wonderful Life. Merry Christmas, sports. – Richie Whitt…
Like it wasn’t already hard enough — which is to say, eff-you impossible — figuring out how the banks are spending their bailout billions. Today comes word that the Treasury Department’s dropped $4.7 billion more in 92 local banks, proving that the TARP can always stretch just a little bit…
Say what you will about Jason Kidd being no Devin Harris, but the point guard’s no Grinch either: Last week his foundation took 40 kids from the Dallas Children’s Advocacy Center on a shopping spree at a local Toys “R” Us. Each child received a $300 gift card — a…
Good news this afternoon for small businesses in the inner-city: The U.S. Small Business Administration has placed Dallas on its burgeoning list of cities tapped to participate in its Emerging 200 initiative, which IDs companies “that show a high potential for growth” and shows ’em how to, ya know, grow…
Know Your Dallas Cowboys, apparently, has an endless supply of videos from the Dallas Cowboys Christmas ’86 album. This one, featuring some old-timers, is particularly appropriate, given Texas Stadium’s tepid adios on Saturday night. And, in other local football news — actual news — in the spirit of Christmas, may…
Dallas Parkway-based Leadsonline.com got an awfully nice plug in today’s New York Times piece about the rise in shoplifting during The Great Depression II: Electric Boogaloo. And what, exactly, does the company do? Helps retailers and law enforcement officials track stolen goods as they surface online and elsewhere; hence the…
According to the Pro Bowl, Peyton Manning and Kurt Warner are the two best NFL quarterbacks of 2008. According to me, nonsense. Warner has the best receivers in the league and throws in the worst division in football. Manning was steady, but hardly spectacular. My rankings, which take into account quarterback…
Danny Bollinger’s the man who documents the moves of your Dallas Mavs; if you’re not following his fantastic photog blog, which goes more behind-the-scenes than the Wizard of Oz, you’re missing out. A week after this festive photo of Dirk Nowitzki snapped at a charity event made the rounds, Danny…
