Poor Standard & Pours?

For three years Pascale Hall has owned and operated a coffee shop in the basement of an apartment building. The odds should have dictated long ago that she shutter her doors and make room for the next venture (and the next and next). After all, she was down in the…

Gut feelings

Gut feelings: Why would two Plano women decide to spend July Fourth fasting? The likely answers seem obvious enough: swimsuit season, too many mochafatass lattes at Starbucks, an anorexia relapse. But to protest the Iraq war? Looks like we’ve found the progressive contingent in Plano. Their names are Julie Cuniglio…

Handsome Is… | Dim Lights, Small City | Art for Art’s Sake

Handsome Is… Go west, young dandies: Give me an effing break! Gross. These pretentious poseurs (“Girl on Top,” by Andrea Grimes, June 29) are the superficial element that gives Dallas a bad name. Get out of here, losers! Go to L.A. We don’t want to look at your fake breasts,…

The Ugly Truth about the Beautiful Room

I hope you read my column last week about the Beautiful Room, Dallas’ pseudo-elite social club for pretty people who like to pay to hang out with other pretty people who want to pay to hang out with them. The hate mail has been surprisingly light (where are you guys–maybe…

The Fourth of July

This Wright Amendment float was among the few political statements made during my neighborhood’s July 4 parade. Well, Mitchell Rasansky did say hi to me. As I began writing this, at 9 p.m. July 4, I could hear from the backyard the snap-crackle-boom of nearby fireworks (either that, or gunplay–hard…

John Slate is No Slacker

There’s a piece in (or is that on?) Salon today about the 15th anniversary of the most overrated indie movie of the 1990s, Richard Linklater’s Slacker. Now, it’s been years since I’ve seen it, and maybe I’ll soften toward it if you feel like giving me your copy of the…

AT&T Gives Dallas Businesses an “A” for Effort

Here’s some awesome news to greet you the day after a holiday off: AT&T is releasing today a study that says more than a quarter of all U.S. companies aren’t prepared to handle a disaster, whether it’s natural or man-made. The study indicated many of them have flawed or outdated–or…

Of Nelsons Willie and Don

The man will actually sing “Whiskey River” while changing your wiper blade and filling your tank. Willie Nelson and former Dallas Mavericks coach Don Nelson share more than just a thing for Hawaii; seems both are willing to bet a little bank on biodiesel fuel, damned hippies. In The New…

Worst Gift Idea Ever

Why is this man smiling? Maybe because some video company paid Bill Parcells a lot for an instructional video. How much? Dunno. Too much? Yeah, probably. My birthday is Saturday. Since I know you’re wondering, here’s one thing you can cross off your list: a football instructional video hosted by…

Job Safety or James Bond Movie?

I hear the best stuff in the most unlikely places. Last week, I was fighting off a heavy case of the Zs at the back of a room in City Hall, waiting for the item I was interested in to come up. Meanwhile, a bunch of police and fire officials…

Don and Sheila and D’Angelo Makes Three

Word is Dallas Mayor Pro Tem Don Hill and “political consultant” Sheila Farrington tied the knot this weekend at a small wedding. Word is D’Angelo Lee, Hill’s appointee to the City Plan Commission, was the best man. Word is all three are being investigated by the FBI. Word is no…

Get Mowed

Just when you thought we had it all here in Dallas–a W Hotel full of posh turds and some semblance of, um, something happening with that Wright Amendment thing–we get even more. O, karma, how you shine upon us! For now comes DallasForHire.com, a Web site wherein you can bid…

Downtown Gets New Safeguard

In news intended to make you feel safer on downtown Dallas streets–where 11 people were shot a month ago in a single incident–says here that Dallas-based Safeguard Security Holdings will take over the Dallas Central Business District Safety Patrol staff. Apparently, the business owners who pay for the patrol–you know,…

Give Gwinn Extra Credit on DISD Credit Card Scandal

When we sat down over yesterday with The Dallas Morning News’ mammoth front-page “exclusive” in which three reporters “found thousands of suspect purchases on district credit cards–and serious questions about whether anyone is watching how the tax dollars are spent,” well, we thought two things to ourselves: Wow, that sucks…

Life Imitating Fox

Either some dude in Dallas County’s jail was inspired by the Fox show Prison Break, filming around town, or just decided he’d better go elsewhere for medical treatment. Perhaps inspired by the Fox-TV show Prison Break, which is filming around town for the next few months, an inmate at the…

Havana Club

Cuba Gooding Jr. gets paid to do things like Rat Race (above) and show at Ghostbar grand openings. That’s one hell of a way to make a living. Friday night’s part-two opening of Ghostbar atop the W Hotel provided the most interesting Dallas crowd I’ve seen in a long time…

Love Love Field

People love Love Field–the airport, not the movie, which sucked. During the heat of the debate over the Wright Amendment, some of us around the offices where we publish the paper version of Unfair Park were arguing about the merits of Love Field. Some of the old-timers hate the place…

But was There Smokin’ in the Boys Room?

Tommy Lee spun some records Saturday night at Ghostbar, which which we mean he hit “play” on a computer keyboard. This picture is not from Saturday night. I already fear for Ghostbar, the top-o’-the-W-Hotel bar that opened last week. Tommy Lee was there Saturday–yes, he of Motley Crue and failed…

Be a Celebrity!

You can buy cans of Dr Pepper for a few hundy. And ya get some signatures from famous people too. And other stuff. Or, at least, be treated like one. OK, would you settle for just getting hold of the really cool free shit celebs get? For last weekend’s Reebok…

Parade, Meet Rain

Concerning my post this a.m. about the fab opening of the W Hotel last night, Lorlee Bartos sends this missive, which is supposed to make all of us hobbing and nobbing last night feel guilty. Me, I just feel a little tired and queasy. (Note to self: Tequila, white wine…

That Fred Baron, Bud

Fred Baron is very powerful. And influential. And he does not like the Dallas Observer. Says here that attorney Fred Baron, co-founder of local law firm Baron & Budd, has been included on a list of the nation’s 100 most influential attorneys as selected by The National Law Journal. The…

Field of Bittersweet Dreams

Chandler Jackon was killed a year ago during a freak golf-club accident. Tomorrow, his family will officially debut the foundation named for the 12-year-old. A year ago tomorrow Charmane Jackson bid her son Chandler farewell as he left their Frisco home early for the family’s annual July 4th reunion in…