Twenty-something Hands

Paul Slavens got the ol’ gang back together for last night’s Ten Hands reunion at Club Dada. Three songs into last night’s Ten Hands reunion at Club Dada, lead singer and pianist Paul Slavens (current host of 90.1 at Night on KERA-90.1 FM) launched into “East Coast Jones.” How convenient…

Land Banks

Preservation Dallas is in the middle of its Summer Preservation Institute, described on its Web site as “professional adult education classes that offer various introductions to local preservation issues and history.” Courses are $20 each, except for the two—day professional courses, which run $175 a pop. One course, which takes…

Texas Fold ‘Em?

Straining camp: As goes Drew Bledsoe, so goes Dallas. Unless you think Tony Romo’s the QB of the future. Heh. Dallas Cowboys coach Bill Parcells’ training camp T-shirt reads “Who’s All In?”, a poker reference to risking it all in a do-or-die hand. Terrell Owens is here in Oxnard, California,…

Dallas: Broken. Fixed. Broken. Rinse. Repeat.

In the brand-new issue of Governing magazine, which is published by Congressional Quarterly, there’s a 3,000-word piece that asks, “Can Dallas Govern Itself?” Hard to imagine it takes 3,000 words to say “no,” but we read on anyway and found a few things to share–not the least of which is…

Gapping the Bridge

Santiago Calatrava finally has something to say about his overpriced bridges. And by something, I mean very, very little. Our old co-worker Tom Korosec finally got a response from the Invisible Man Santiago Calatrava, whose $54 million bridge turned into a $113 boondoggle last month. In a story about the…

Rage Against the Machine

It’s only the first day of Dallas Cowboys training camp here in Oxnard, California, but at least one major player is already in mid-season form. Long-time WFAA-Channel 8 sports anchor Dale Hansen got Day 1 off to a rousing start, purposely directing football-specific questions to owner Jerry Jones and away…

Grounded

If you read The Dallas Morning News this morning, you maybe got the impression the state of Texas just gave Dallas County a big old pat on the back for the fine way it has been managing its Homeland Security money. But the actual state audit that just came out…

More Monday for Your Friday

Admit it, Carl Monday is your new hero. Cutthroat investigative journalism at its finest, right? (You know, it’s really too bad we don’t have cameras on us as we’re reporting stories. We are so like that.) Well, Monday went back for more after Mike Cooper, famous for the “mono log”…

Black Friday (Alternate Head: Pretzel Logic)

Earlier in the week, Donald Fagen and Walter Becker–collectively known as Steely Dan, duh–posted to their Web site a missive addressed to Luke Wilson but aimed at bro Owen accusing the latter of being an accessory to plagiarism. Specifically, the Dan’ers insisted Owen, by appearing as the title character in…

When Opportunity Knocks…

I’m not saying the prospect of being on a reality show isn’t a little bit tempting, but there are limits. Wanna be one of seven strangers picked to live in a house? Fine. You’ll probably get all kinds of ass courtesy of MTV for the rest of your life. Wanna…

At Least the Trees Will be Happy

Want to know what your daily newspaper will look like in the future? You’re looking at it, sort of. It’s your computer screen. Well, duh, you say. Haven’t we known that for at least 10 or 15 years? Yes, we have, smartypants, but Belo Corp.’s earnings report for the second…

Show Up, Friday 7/28 and Saturday 7/29

Friday: College kids would be wise to haul ass to Denton tonight, where DJ extraordinaire Diplo and Brazilian electro-popsters Cansei de Ser Sexy touch down at Hailey’s, while jangly, out-of-town indie combo the Minders and the Kingdom play at Rubber Gloves just a few blocks away. Closer to home, this…

FEMA Extends Deadline

As we reported here, people made homeless by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita had faced looming deadlines to return paperwork necessary to keep getting rental assistance from the Federal Emergency Management Agency. We say “had,” because FEMA has now extended the deadlines for tens of thousands of households counting on government…

Theater Critics Camp Diary, Days 3 through 9

I have such fond memories of Girl Scout Camp. S’mores, songs around the campfire, ghost stories told in creaky bunks. Good times. Now I am at Theater Critics Camp in Connecticut, a two-week indoctrination into a cult that worships the three S’s: Shaw, Shakespeare and Sondheim. Did you see that…

Wright Deal Not Right? Maybe. Probably?

Steven Pearlstein, a business columnist at The Washington Post, has an outsiders’ take on the Wright Amendment compromise, which Mayor Laura touts as her legacy and some folks at the Justice Department insist is bad for business. Pearlstein writes that the compromise reached by mayors Laura Miller and Mike Moncrief…

More Dead at the Jail

If, as expected, the iron hand of the U.S. Justice Department forces the beleaguered Dallas County jail to revamp how it administers medical care to its most troubled inmates, it won’t come a moment too soon. In just the last two weeks, three inmates have passed away while wards of…

There’s Something About the Library…

Remember back when Jim Schutze reported on Behrouz Nahidmobarekeh? No? Don’t recall the story of a man that not only dried, grated and sprinkled his own feces on pastries at Fiesta, but smeared the non-dried variety on book spines at the Dallas Library? I’ll wait for your “Oh, riiiight, that…

Reversing His Field

Dallas Cowboys training camp hasn’t officially begun, and starting free safety Keith Davis is already drawing flags. But these aren’t yellow for leaping offside but red for lying. The skepticism you had at initially hearing Davis’ tale of being shot on Interstate 635 in the early morning of July 16…

Hello Cowboys, Goodbye Rangers

The Rangers couldn’t have picked a worse time for their worst flop of the year. Big series against the New York Yankees. Big attendance. Big media attention. Uh-oh. Climaxed by last night’s excruciating 8-7 loss to the Bronx Bombers, the Rangers were swept. And now, thanks to the Cowboys officially…

Re: Pie in the Face

So, I see how this works. First we write about the money pit known as the Bama Pie Co. building in November of last year. Then we do it again in March. Then we do it again last week, after local blogtivist Michael Davis posted something on his site about…

Theater Critics Camp, Day 2

I was always very good about playing well with others. Until I was 35. After that, my give-a-shitter about group dynamics plumb gave out. Here at Theater Critics Camp in New England, I’m reminded of the saying from Sartre: Hell is other people. Amend that: Hell is other people who…

Newy’s Old Scoop

Don’t know how the local media missed this one–perhaps they were too busy blogging about Oxnard’s night life-—but Terrell Owens is guaranteeing a Super Bowl for your Dallas Cowboys. Not this year necessarily, but sometime in the next three years. He said so in a sit-down with KXAS-Channel 5’s Newy…