Did I Miss Something?

With all the huzzahs being handed out over The Dallas Morning News’ breaking-new photography Pulitzer Prize–an award that’s utterly meaningless, says Slate–seems one local media outlet’s been given short shrift concerning its own recent kudos. A few weeks ago, the Radio-Television News Directors Association handed out the regional Edward R…

Pain in the ACL

Wikipedia, of all places, contains a list of bands rumored to be playing the Austin City Limits Music Festival in early fall; among those on the list are Radiohead, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Beck and Bob Dylan. Pollstar also has a few more official confirmations, among them Son Volt,…

Leo the Lion

How come city council member Leo Chaney doesn’t yell at us? Why can’t we be as lucky as Sharon Boyd, who got an earful from Chaney on Monday when all she wanted was a mouthful of food? The man Boyd refers to as “Shakedown Leo” won’t even call us back,…

Trying Not to Be a Butthead

Dan Michalski/Pokerati.com In the “Really, That Did Not Happen” Department, Observer art director Mike Simmons stares down 2004 WSOP champ Greg Raymer. If you happen to see 2004 World Series of Poker main event champ Greg “Fossilman” Raymer around town this week, you’ll probably be tempted to ask him to…

It Ain’t Easy Being Green

But it sure is easy reading in a green space, according to William Sullivan, professor of Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Sullivan’s quoted in this press release touting the Thursday opening of the reading garden at the Salvation Army’s Cedar Crest Community Center. Dallas is…

Feel Free to Nominate Me

I don’t know who these people are or what they want, but apparently there’s some contest going on to find the “Greatest Business Mind in Dallas.” Me, I’d give it to ExxonMobil’s outgoing chairman Lee Raymond, who’s the recipient of “one of the most generous retirement packages in history, nearly…

Oh Shit, That’s Today?

Tarrant County folks planning on filing 11th hour taxes tonight: The post office in downtown Fort Worth will be closed for construction. Instead, go to those at 3701 Altamesa Blvd. or 4600 Mark IV Parkway. Sure, the Fort Worth Startle Gram relates this valuable info to you in a story…

Oh Shit, That’s Today?

Tarrant County folks planning on filing 11th hour taxes tonight: the post office in downtown Fort Worth will be closed for construction. Instead, go to those at 3701 Altamesa Blvd. or 4600 Mark IV Parkway. Sure, the Fort Worth Startle Gram relates this valuable info to you in a story…

Punching His Ticket

Two years ago, when Dale Hansen renegotiated his contract at KTCK-AM (1310, The Ticket), he was shocked by the offer. “In all honesty,” Hansen says now, “it was way too high.” Hansen, the longtime WFAA-Channel 8 sports anchor with the giant ego and the big brain, took a portion of…

Rage Against City Hall

Some enterprising YouTuber, who goes by the moniker Dirk13, has posted this pretty nifty video of last Sunday’s megamarch on City Hall set to Rage Against the Machine’s “Guerilla Radio.” Not gonna lie: It’s kinda awesome. Even looks like a Rage video, especially the Michael Moore-directed promo clip for “Sleep…

Root, Root, Root for the Home Team

The Texas Rangers have played 13 games. It’s the equivalent of the Dallas Cowboys having just gone into overtime in their season opener. So should those of us who care about the local baseball team be as miserable after the 5-8 start, especially before the just-concluded trip to Oakland, as…

No “Bullshit!” Really.

Tonight’s installment of Penn & Teller: Bullshit!, which airs at 9 on Showtime, asks, “Why does our government still support the archaic, primitive, cruel and costly BULLSHIT known as the Death Penalty?” Helping to answer that question will be SMU human rights professor Rick Halperin, one of the country’s most…

Food and Whine

Just got the May issue of Food & Wine, the one that touts the “376 hottest restaurants in the world” on the cover, and guess what? There ain’t one in to be found in Dallas. According to the intro to the mag’s so-called “Go List,” which can go screw itself…

Fed-eral Offense

The Feds blow, and so does their submission for the Dallas Mavericks playoff song contest on TexasGigs.com. Legions of their brainwashed, misled, misguided and/or possibly deaf fans have voted for them, and we must combat it till the end–which is today, the last day of voting. Our only hope of…

I Hope They Shoot It on Uranus

According to this just-posted piece from the Dallas Business Journal, a location scout for the big-screen version of Dallas has extended his/her stay from three days to two weeks, giving the Dallas Film Commission folks the impression the movie might get shot here after all. According to the story, Dallas…

Good Lovin’

When Good Records announced it would close for a week to move from Deep Ellum to its shiny new Lower Greenville location, record nerds like me gasped, frightened at the prospect of not being able to buy our favorite indie releases that Tuesday. When the store re-opened at its new…

Calling All “Spaghetti Arms”

I’m gonna go out on a limb and say this is probably the most outstanding premise for a comedy show ever. Sinus Show , a comedy troupe out of Austin, is tooling on up to Big D for two performances based on the movie Dirty Dancing. If these guys can…

Hot Toddy

Last night, I met a man I have known only in legend. Todd Deatherage, that elusive bard formerly of The Calways and the EDT, played an acoustic set at the All Good Cafe in Deep Ellum to a crowd of riveted admirers. I was surprised to find a low-key but…

Cause for Alarm

The city’s new “verified response” burglar alarm policy was supposed to cut down on the number of false alarms to which the police respond. Turns out, it just allows for a rise in the number of burglaries: “Business burglaries in March 2006 shot up 17.9 percent compared to March of…

Potok It Up

The listener-supported, commercial-free radio station WPKN-FM, based out of Bridgeport, Connecticut, produces a weekly public-affairs show called Between the Lines; it’s lefty of the dial, as it were, and good stuff. This week, the show featured an interview with Mark Potok, director of the Southern Poverty Law Center–and a former…

Saddle Up

Lone Star Park opened its 10th season of racing last night, but judging by the horse racing coverage in The Dallas Morning News, a rat peed on cotton somewhere in Grand Prairie. Ten years, folks—at a time when horse racing is struggling to survive as a spectator sport in various…

Pre-Snub Agreement

It is as if they have locked up a delicious, taunting selection of Peeps behind impenetrable glass doors, and I can do nothing but stand outside, hoping beyond hope to be satisfied by their sugary goodness. Kind of. I mean, I desperately, desperately want to be a part of SnubClub,…