Pie in the Sky

This is the Motorsports Museum as Derrick Mitchem envisions it on his bare-bones Web site. By now, perhaps, you know the name Derrick Mitchem, the man behind the long-scheduled Motorsports Museum that’s supposed to open in the old Bama Pie Co. building on Pennsylvania Avenue and Fourth Avenue across the…

Don’t Quit Your Day Jobs

No, Drew Bledsoe didn’t mangle an ACL in practice. But for a handful of rabid Dallas sports fans, the dream ended last night just an hour south of Dallas Cowboys training camp here in Oxnard, California. FC Roma, an amateur soccer team from our beloved city, was beaten 2-nil in…

Border Guards

The missus called this morning with word that the Jewish Community Center of Dallas is employing security guards. She saw two this morning parked out front, and one posted yesterday at the front desk of the new workout facility. A JCC employee confirmed to the missus that, yup, they were…

Crossfire

He brought down Robert Tilton, W.V. Grant and Larry Lea, three of Dallas’ high-flying televangelists in the early 1990s. And when he wasn’t diving in dumpsters to pick through preachers’ trash, he was entertaining journalists from around the world at “The Block,” Trinity Foundation’s collection of homes in East Dallas…

The Dish Ran Away With the…

Did you know Spoon was coming? Nope. Now you do. Rare show. Real rare. Like, very and stuff. Blogs always get the skinny, don’t they? In the comment thread on yesterday’s Gorilla vs. Bear photo essay, an anonymous visitor asked, “Is anyone else going to Spoon’s free show on the…

Off the Island

Until Monday, Abdel Jabbar Hamdan, a 46-year-old father of six U.S.-born children who lives in the Los Angeles suburb of Buena Park, had been in jail for two years. He was incarcerated on Terminal Island, a man-made island in Los Angeles where, during World War II, Japanese men were detained…

A Holy Mess

Daystar, a local broadcaster that carries T.D. Jakes, is having trouble getting blessed to air in Los Angeles. Daystar Television Network–the Marcus Lamb-owned powerhouse that bought KDTN-Channel 2 from KERA in 2003 for some $20 mil and has some 50 million viewers worldwide, so it claims–wants to buy a channel…

Your Fantasy Is My Command

If you’re thinking of taking Julius Jones as a Top 10 pick in your fantasy football draft, why are you even bothering? Admit it, fellas, you want it. You crave it. You actually need it. Dude, you’re sick. Instead of a fantasy where you jump into a Jessica sandwich between…

Theater Critics Camp Diary: Last Acts

For two weeks all anyone’s talked about is the imminent arrival of the award-winning New York critic known for his brutal critiques of “critic fellows” here at the Theater Farm. He’s so tough, they say, he’s made professional journalists cry as he ruthlessly dissects their prose syllable by syllable. “Das…

Reheated Meat Loaf

In case you were wondering just what was going to happen with the next Bat Out of Hell album, fret no more. Meat Loaf and songwriter Jim Steinman are portrayed as surprisingly chummy in this not-too-informative post-lawsuit write-up…not that we’re suspicious or nothin’. –Sam Machkovech…

Re: Dead Presidents

Just so you know, Lincoln Kennedy failed his physical today for the Cowboys. He weighed about 380 pounds, or 50 more than when he was an elite player. Also heard that he had some sort of internal thingamajig that will keep him from being football-ready for about a month. And…

Sick, or Sick in the Head?

We would tell you what this is, but you might find it kinda, well, gross. OK, it’s allegedly a Morgellons fiber taken from a kid’s lip. Happy? Two weeks ago we reported on the mysterious skin disease known as Morgellons, which is defined by symptoms that include black sweat and…

Get Your Gore On

Going deep (into your wallet), Al Gore brings his Inconvenient Truths to Grand Prairie next month. Since when did the Nokia Theatre at Grand Prairie turn into a lecture hall? Just look at next month’s schedule for what I thought was supposed to be a concert hall. On September 9,…

Breaking News from the DMN? Not Exactly.

This morning, there’s a piece in The Dallas Morning News concerning some cheating going on at the Dallas Fire Rescue training academy. Specifially, it deals with how Lieutenant James Hunter, an instructor at the academy, helped trainee Desmond Luster prep for the test–by, ya know, giving him the answers. Handwritten…

Dead Presidents

Why is Lincoln Kennedy so danged happy? Maybe it’s because the former Raider’s getting a shot at being a Cowboy during training camp. Two words this morning: Lincoln Kennedy. Been a while since you heard that name, eh? Well, you’ll be hearing it again later today as the Dallas Cowboys…

Brook Mays: Everything Must Go!

A date’s been set for the Brook Mays auction: August 8, a week from today. That’s pretty much when the 105-year-old local musical-instrument company will cease to exist as we’ve known it, only a few weeks after it filed for Chapter 11 following lower-than-expected revenue in the third and fourth…

The Backdating Scene

Wanna know how many Texas lawyers are making their long green these days? Today’s issue of Texas Lawyer has the answer: defending companies being investigated by the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Department of Justice, who’re busy looking into allegations of stock option backdating. And not only that, but…

What’s Wright About That?

Over the weekend, I accompanied the missus to Chicago for her family reunion, which essentially consisted of a Saturday-night dinner at the famous Gibsons steakhouse (Sinatra sang there, way back when). Guess we got placed at the Texas table: Joining us were three distant relatives–a middle-aged husband and wife named…

Fat Fish Fallacy

In his last two stops, Terrell Owens has driven quarterbacks, coaches and fans crazy. After exactly two days of Dallas Cowboys training camp here in Oxnard, California, there’s evidence his presence is already pushing coach Bill Parcells to the brink of insanity. In a fascinating, frustrating 10-minute span on a…

Go Deep

Look, I don’t want to get you all freaked out or anything. I’m not trying to raise hell. I don’t want to pick a fight. But I’m going to say something that may rub you the wrong way: Some of the best shows in town lately have been in Deep…

Biting the Dust

Here’s what Lisa Martin’s nymphomaniac dust bunnies look like. That one in the tie looks like a real perv. As someone whose job is to regularly write about embarrassing herself, I guess things like the American Standard Heating and Air Conditioning dust bunny contest shouldn’t surprise me. But I am,…

Theater Critics Camp Diary, Day 10

OK, if I had it to do over again, I might not have made that crack about Whiney McKnuck (my secret nickname for my Critics Camp nemesis). It’s just that she was fawning all over a certain Big Name Critic from a New York paper. “I just looooove your work,”…