Video News Releases, TV ads disguised as news reports, have been around for decades. Only in March 2004, however, did debate about the use of VNRs break out of journalism circles. That’s when D.C. publicist Karen Ryan’s wildly successful spot pushing the Bush Administration’s Medicare drug bill aired as news…
So this old couple buys a house. Not just any couple, mind you. They’re not directly related, but you treat them like family. Check on them almost every day. Make every effort to buy what they’re selling, injecting income and enthusiasm to make their ends meet happily ever after. Not…
It’s 8:45 a.m., drive time in talk radio land, and Darrell Ankarlo is just winding down. On the air is a caller who calls himself the Wingman. For a small fee, he says, he drives drunk people home. It’s one of the lighter bits of the morning, and Ankarlo, who…
Aim right: It wasn’t much of a demonstration–those five Baylor University students holding signs on a rainy Friday outside the Abbott Laboratories offices in Irving, demanding cheaper AIDS drugs for poor nations. Still, it’s something. But is it the right thing? The demonstrators are part of the Student Global AIDS…
Out, Damned Blob! Grow up, not out: Jim Schutze’s article on the proposed comprehensive plan for the future of Dallas development (“Why Plan?”, April 27) is a little misguided, if not just straight-up inflammatory. If Dallas is going to continue to grow (which is exactly what the predictions say), it…
It was a stunning triumph. Lupe Valdez, a Latina lesbian who had toiled for decades as an obscure federal agent, won election in 2004 as the sheriff of Dallas County after a series of scandals dogged the incumbent Jim Bowles. Sprung from a family of migrant workers, the diminutive Democratic…
If pedigree is any indication, the Frisco RoughRiders baseball franchise is headed in the right direction. The Texas Rangers Double-A affiliate has promoted Scott Sonju to the prestigious role of president/general manager. If that name rings a wind chime in your vast noggin, it should. Scott’s dad is Norm Sonju,…
Until our corporate overseers pony up the cash for an elaborate, HD-ready, multi-angle camera rig, we’ll have to concede defeat to the handheld camcorders at Texas Gigs. The latest in the site’s ongoing video podcast series highlights this weekend’s Final Friday concert at the Gypsy Tea Room. Once again, the…
On Friday, we told you about how the People’s Republic of Bee County passed a resolution asking their citizens to boycott Exxon/Mobil until gas prices tumbled to $1.30 a gallon. Our take was that this was a futile act of civil disobedience since even a widespread, grassroots movement to shun…
Zoos can be disturbing places. We’ve all seen it: the big cats in their enclosures pacing back and forth, retracing their steps over and over as they slowly go insane from the frustration of captivity. That’s why I was so happy with my first visit to the Dallas World Aquarium…
You can own the only ball ever signed by Monroe and DiMaggio–for about $100,000, give or take a small fortune. Heritage Auction Galleries, the $500-million-a-year company that got rich selling history to anyone who could afford the price tag, is everywhere in the media today, after announcing that on June…
Belo Corporation, the owner of The Dallas Morning News and WFAA-Channel 8, doled out some $7.4 million to end a 12-year-old defamation lawsuit…in Kentucky. Belo bought WHAS-TV, an ABC affiliate, in 1997–three years after a roller-coaster accident at the Kentucky Kingdom amusement park spawned a series of pieces that painted…
Mickey Drexler, the man who made the Gap (and Banana Republic) a household name and resurrected J. Crew from its punch line status, is bringing his newest venture to Dallas before anywhere else: Madewell, which sounds just like…uh…the Gap and Banana Republic and J. Crew and every other store that…
You heard it here first: Charlie Waters just accepted the job to be the analyst on Dallas Cowboys radio broadcasts for next season. Waters, an All-Pro safety with the team in the 1970s, will be Brad Sham’s partner on KTCK 1310 AM The Ticket beginning with this summer’s pre-season schedule…
Dallas County commissioners are irritated with Sheriff Lupe Valdez after she submitted her recent overtime expenses for the first five and a half months of the 2006 fiscal year. Nearly 35 jailors, whose salaries are typically less than $40,000 a year, made more than $15,000 in overtime pay from October…
That chirping Valley Ranch birdie tells me today that Dallas Cowboys defensive end Greg Ellis is unhappy and skipping off-season workouts in an attempt to force his way out of town. Ellis, the team’s first-round pick in the 1998 draft, doesn’t fit the mold of coach Bill Parcells’ 3-4 defensive…
So, the other day I was sipping a Z-Kozmo at Dragonfly, tapping the toes of my new Jimmy Choos against my boyfriend’s Armani slacks under the table. I looked at Geoff as he sipped his Chivas, and I said, “Geoff, sugar, what this town needs is just a little bit…
Last week we confirmed the rumor that the Virgin Megastore in Mockingbird Station was closing on June 18. Now there’s been a replacement named: West Elm, the furniture-etc. store owned by Williams-Sonoma. West Elm’s a national chain with one other location in Texas (Houston) and a few in Cali and…
Seems an odd business decision, opening a store just like Whole Foods down the street from Whole Foods, but there it is: On Friday, Sprouts Farmers Market opened its sliding glass doors at Forest and Marsh lanes, and northwest Dallas couldn’t be happier (or healthier). Two days after its opening,…
Steve “Flat Tax” Forbes weighs in on the Wright Amendment this week. For what it’s worth (a billion dollars?), he’s against it. Then again, I could be reading it wrong when he refers to the Wright Amendment as “a pernicious measure enacted to hobble a then new airline, Southwest.” –Robert…
The mayor of Los Angeles, Antonio Villaraigosa, is in town today, along with some other elected L.A. officials, to meet with 11 NFL team owners who’ve come to Dallas to see just where Cowboys owner Jerry Jones buried coach Bill Parcells. (What? You say he’s still alive? Then just where…
Laptop Deathmatch (n.): Laptop artists use one laptop and one external device to create electronic music in a “friendly-single elimination tournament.” A panel of judges rate contestants on creativity, technique and stage presence during three-minute performances. Up to 16 contestants compete in the first round, then eight, and so on…
