It’s a tough life being in a rock-and-roll band. Endless days on the road, long nights in smoky clubs, the occasional beating by thugs who don’t like your politics. You’re probably wondering what we mean by that last one. Well, we’re talking about Lillian Berlin, singer for the band Living…
The kid calls it luck, says it with a little laugh and a small smile, as if he´s sharing a secret. Says it casually, his dark eyes flitting from side to side before they land in his lap. It´s the same self-effacing manner he adopts whenever the subject of Niket…
My wife belongs to a book club, a monthly, no-men-allowed assembly at the home of one of her girlfriends where the gossip and red wine flow as freely as the discussion of that month’s book. It’s more of a social gathering than anything else, and the books under consideration are…
When the phone rang, it was early morning, and Pete Hunter didn’t react at first. The sun hadn’t come up, and the sleep crust hadn’t fully formed in the corner of his eyes. He rolled over, fighting through the heavy fog that lingers when you’re barely awake, and he wasn’t…
Give a Hoot Fussbudgets: I read the article about Hooters here in Arlington and just cannot figure out what is all the fuss (“Repressed,” by Paul Kix, June 3). There are everyday people who go there, and the food is great! I saw no lewd activities or anything that was…
When a reporter manages to reach Marine Captain Josh Rushing on his cell phone, it can only be to confirm a few facts or make small talk about, oh, where he grew up or what the weather’s like in Los Angeles or other trivialities. Yes, he can say he was…
Well, so much for that new Dallas Cowboys stadium at Fair Park. Might as well get used to the sound of it: the Arlington Cowboys. Or maybe the Grapevine Cowboys. Mmmm, mmmm. On Tuesday, the Cowboys announced that the team has suspended negotiations with Dallas County regarding its proposed move…
When Jerry Jones walked into the news conference flanked by Vinny Testaverde and Stephen Jones, I knew I’d been duped–along with the rest of the media and probably you, too. For the past few months and ever since Dallas was dumped from the playoffs, the Cowboys did their best to…
Scare Tactics Chicken Littles: I must say I was sadly disappointed by your lame article on amusement rides (“Scream Machines,” by Josh Harkinson, June 3). John Stossel, the famous reporter from ABC’s 20/20, refers to such reporting as “scare stories.” People take rare isolated incidents and make them bigger than…
In the realm of human sorrows, there is no more searing grief than that of parents burying a beloved child, and to lower a son into his grave just as he’s flown from the nest is perhaps even more agonizing. When a child is murdered, a different kind of anguish…
There have been some strange stories in this space–stories that stretched (and often completely ignored) the traditional definition of sports journalism. Columns about wing eating and video games, columns about yoga with Mavs dancers and me watching TV. The fact that my check clears is either an act of charity…
Pretentious? Nous? All that jazz: The Observer shows cultural pretensions in the fact that its writers use the syntax and jargon of highfalutin literary criticism in their reviews of cultural products. However, this rarefied style sounds incongruous when used to evaluate three-chord rock CDs or concerts. Wilonsky and Co. apparently…
Thrill seekers have a word for almost every moment aboard a roller coaster, and if they were to describe Sam Nguyen’s position in the summer of 2001, they would say he was at the top of the lift hill. After all, Sam held a freshly minted season pass to Six…
There are soccer moms at Hooters. There are soccer moms and their soccer kids in their soccer gear at Hooters. There are soccer dads here, too, on this Saturday night in April, but the stereotype goes that men are supposed to be here, so the soccer dads go unnoticed. Because…
Buzz is nothing if not a great Monday-morning quarterback. Example: Last week, KERA radio convened a “state of the local media” powwow. One of the participants was James Moroney III, publisher of The Dallas Morning News. Moroney took exception to the other panelists and callers when they suggested the paper…
They “bug out” to reggae. They wear skater clothes. Some of their grades aren’t good. One of them has dropped out of Southern Methodist University. Two more have yet to graduate. Still, they dream big. They think about “the greatest job in the world.” Like, what exactly would that be?…
Leo Hicks stands at the intersection of Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X boulevards, which lies in the shadow of Fair Park. It’s the only place in the United States where two streets with these names meet, and the imagery weighs heavily upon the shoulders of the man charged…
First the good news, for those of you who like a little choice in your democracy: The Texas Libertarian Party has collected more than enough signatures to place its candidates on the November ballot and is awaiting qualification by the Texas secretary of state’s office. It was touch and go,…
The clubhouse was nearly empty, save a few players who were milling about near their lockers, talking and reading and watching television. The strange thing was the knot of 20 or so reporters standing in the center of the room, gathered tightly together as though they were huddling for warmth…
The Devil Comes to Town Polygamy’s victims: I read your piece on the polygamists in Eldorado, Texas (“The Polygamists Are Coming,” by John MacCormack, May 20). I found it interesting and right on the money. I am one of the apostates from the Fundamentalist Latter Day Saints Church. I left…
It was a high-noon scene straight from a vintage Hollywood Western, complete with a small town in panic, menace on the horizon and a mysterious stranger sounding the alarm. Under a bright March sky, more than 150 West Texas ranchers and townsfolk gathered at midday outside the old limestone courthouse…
Jack Matthews was the only one who saw it, the only one who looked at the deserted buildings on a forgotten street off downtown and pictured a community. But, hey, that’s his job. He’s a real estate developer, a guy who is supposed to see something where everyone else sees…
