I can’t say I told you so, because I wasn’t the one who said it. It was my friend, Village Voice Media video game columnist Luke O’Brien, who told me Eva Alejandro-Pena would soon be chopping down her tree and putting it on eBay. “Give it a week,” he said…
The mayor oughta play Deep Ellum more often. At 10:30 a.m. yesterday, there was quite the line snaking out of the front door of the Gypsy Tea Room, as some 200 folks waited for Mayor Laura Miller and her backup band–Dallas police Chief David Kunkle and council members Pauline Medrano…
Soxxy: Bobby Soxx, back when he was a star. And alive. Whilst trolling the MP3 junkyards for free music this weekend, because I am nothing if not a cheap bastard, I stumbled across this mention of an old Observer fave on the Punk Records blog, along with two outta-print MP3s…
If you haven’t heard, MP3 blogs are the new MTV. Just ask Clap Your Hands Say Yeah. Thanks to word-of-mouth buzz initiated by taste-making music blogs such as Said the Gramophone and Stereogum, the Brooklyn-based band went from toiling in obscurity to selling out shows across the country essentially overnight…
He amassed a 30-2 record, hung 467 yards and 41 points on Southern Cal and led the University of Texas to its first national championship in 35 years. But from this day forward, right or wrong, Vince Young will always be associated with the number six. As in “Act your…
Welcome to American Airlines Center, home to bells, whistles and enough sensory stimuli to obliterate the line between Mavericks game and Mardi Gras. On the court, roving reporter Chris Arnold prods fans, screaming into a microphone. Up in the stands there is a drum line, a section of freaky face-painters,…
Life in Dallas politics can be nasty, brutish and short when ambition, outrageous rumors and bitter rivalries turn a low-key election into primordial combat. But even in this uncivilized context, Karl Smith was shocked to find a police report dropped off at his Oak Cliff home that detailed a charge…
Waving to the crowd, the man with the most-talked-about hair in the world bounds onstage to the music of “Money, Money, Money,” surrounded by the “Fun Girls”–tall, sexy models in short black skirts and white tank tops, who are leading the audience in a chant of “Trump, Trump, Trump…” Confetti…
Laissez les bon temps rouler: Talk radio last week was all over testimony from the Government Accountability Office that emergency aid given to victims of Hurricane Katrina was used in at least one instance to buy goodies from the Condoms to Go store on LBJ Freeway, among several local purchases…
Protection Racket Rent-a-Dallas-cop: For a while, I used to think the Dallas Observer sided with the little people in their daily struggle against local leviathans like City Hall, Laura Miller and The Dallas Morning News. Then we watch as Jim Schutze, like Anakin Skywalker in Star Wars Episode III, vaults…
Truth: Old Texas Rangers General Manager John Hart once appeared in TV ads wearing sunglasses. Myth: On the cover of this year’s media guide, new Rangers GM Jon Daniels will wear a bib. Truth: Daniels was born five years after the Rangers arrived in Arlington. Myth: His name is temporarily…
In late January, University of Oklahoma President David L. Boren crossed the Red River to steal some of the best and brightest students in Dallas from under the noses of college recruiters at the University of Texas and Texas A&M. The method was impressive–and expensive. OU recruiters filled a banquet…
Even before his name showed up in The New York Times Sunday Magazine on October 17, 2004, Bruce Bartlett knew he might be screwed. A few weeks earlier, the former Washington insider–he was a policy analyst for both Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush’s administrations–appeared in The New Republic saying…
A Republican candidate for Dallas County district attorney, Dan Wyde talks on his Web site about his Southeast Texas family that emphasized “faith in God” and “duty to country.” Now a judge, Wyde also boasts about his conviction rate as a former prosecutor and his efforts to convict a major…
Bang, bang: Buzz had a couple of items to blather about this week. One was about Texas game wardens busting North Texas fishmongers and restaurants for illegally selling game fish. Eh, whatever. We had something else about whether that Woodall-Rogers park the city is thinking about will extend to Ray…
Four Horsemen of DTS Beyond the end: I just finished reading Rick Kennedy’s article on dispensationalism (“The End Is Near,” February 9) and its Dallas roots. I am speechless! I am an evangelical Christian dating from 1970 and was brought up theologically in the system. Many years and many changes…
Spit happens. Sometimes saliva mixes with chewing tobacco and is expectorated into the bottom of a Coke can. Sometimes the pungent concoction is left sitting in the can long enough to begin coagulating. Sometimes that almost-empty can gets set down right beside the almost-empty one you are drinking from. Sometimes…
Oh, c’mon: It probably doesn’t bode well for a budding politician when the first question a reporter asks about his plans to run for Dallas mayor is: “Dude, seriously?” To be fair, Buzz had pretty much the same reaction when we heard George W. was running for president, so perhaps…
Room 115 in Stearns Hall on the campus of Dallas Theological Seminary could be a classroom at any American college. The long, pale blue countertops dotted with laptop-friendly outlets are arranged in tiers rising away from the lectern at the front of the room. Most of the 70 padded seats…
At six stories high and with just more than 95,000 square feet, the beige box of a building that houses the Dallas Central Appraisal District on Stemmons Freeway is, at best, uninspiring. You get the impression that what goes on inside isn’t unlike certain scenes in Mike Judge’s film Office…
It was still dark on Tuesday morning when Lawrence Crader got on the bus and settled in for 20-plus hours on the road. He was eager to get started, though the destination wasn’t the one he’d prefer. The two buses leaving from East Dallas, loaded with around 80 Hurricane Katrina…
Money Down the Loo Un-Wizetrade: Thanks for exposing the utter charlatans that hawk this junk to unsuspecting and ignorant investors (“Wize Guys,” by Craig Malisow, February 2). It’s about time someone did it. I’ve personally tried to save at least a dozen people from making this costly and foolish mistake…
