War on Gang War

Since we’re all degenerate hippies — well, most of us — we’re known to thumb the occasional copy of In These Times, where this week there appears a story headlined “The Counterproductive War on Gangs.” Turns out, most of the info from the piece — which insists increased law enforcement…

Land of Good and Plenty

We just received a reminder that next week, from Tuesday to Friday, Dallas is home to an enormous and enormously influential annual conference devoted to homelessness and urban poverty. Beginning September 4 at the Omni Dallas Hotel Park West, the Texas Homeless Network will host “Face the Homeless: A Call…

Jeremy Wariner Gets Matt Pulle’s Heart Racing Just a Little

Arlington’s Jeremy Wariner, at right, winning the 400 in Athens in 2004 — the dude doesn’t know to lose. Arlington’s own Jeremy Wariner added another trophy to his mantle, dominating the 400-meter dash today at the World Track Championships in Osaka, Japan. Wariner ran a 43.45, more than .51 seconds…

Norah Jones Channels Her Inner Linda Ronstadt

A couple of weeks back, Norah Jones and M. Ward played Les Arènes de Nîmes — or, the complete opposite of Popolo’s in Preston Royal, where I first saw her perform way, way back when. Anyway, someone a couple of days ago posted four songs from their set — including…

Only One More Shopping Day Till Football Season

The Stars re-signed Jussi Jokinen, the Rangers committed to Ron Washington through 2009, and the Mavs still haven’t added anything except this spare part. I know, you don’t give a da-yum. Honestly, me neither. ‘Cuz tomorrow the calendar changes to September, and the season changes to football! The Cowboys slept-walked…

George and Kenny and U.K. Art Envy

The British art world is incredibly envious of Kenny Goss and George Michael’s $200-million collection, which features the work of more than 30 British artists — among them, says here, Grayson Perry, Gavin Turk, Sarah Lucas, Bridget Riley, Gary Hume and others. The couple also owns one of the largest…

T.O. Takes Time to Answer 10 Questions

The September 10 issue of Time — which is not yet online — contains 10 questions for Your Dallas Cowboys’ wide receiver Terrell Owens. And it’s just brilliant, brilliant — if only for the queries posed by Randall L. Dunn of Cincinnati and Patrick Hurley of Buffalo:…

Not How Owen Wilson Wanted to Make the Cover of People

Lest you bump into a newsstand tomorrow without fair warning, at right is the cover of People magazine due to hit stands Friday. And according to this from Time, the story quotes a friend who says, “Owen was very despondent. He slit his wrists. He almost did not make it.”…

Grape Juice

After 35 years of slinging bistro food and popping corks, Kathy McDaniel and Charlotte Parker are taking a permanent breather from The Grape. Enter former The Grape executive chef Brian Luscher. Luscher — who most recently cooked at TPC Craig Ranch golf club and was named Avid Golfer magazine’s Best…

Those DNA Lawsuits Just Keep on Coming

As of today, Greg Wallis is suing everyone he believes responsible for his wrongful imprisonment. For the second time in two weeks, a Dallas County man exonerated with DNA evidence has filed a federal civil rights and malicious prosecution lawsuit. And this one has a couple of twists. Greg Wallis,…

How Lo Can You Go?

Haven’t seen Girl on Top today — sure hope she knows about tryouts today and tomorrow for an unspecified Jennifer Lopez video, which is sure to be fantabulous. They’re over at Minc Lounge on Exposition Avenue — and they’re being sponsored by Secret, which is strong enough for a man…

Scene, Seen

Until Dallas gets a proper local music museum, the most impressive — and dare I say important? — collection of photos I’ve ever seen is right here. Bands, venues, posters and the collected detritus of the 1950s, ’60s and ’70s is available — as well as a NSWF snapshot of…

Poor Mr. Ford

For some reason, Richie does not approve of Mike Modano’s marriage to Willa Ford. Last season Mike Modano had the captain’s “C” ripped off his Dallas Stars sweater. And last week, he apparently had his testicles removed. By his new wife. Watching the newlyweds give a tour of their Dallas…

Still Ain’t No Trip to Cleveland

This week’s news of Owen Wilson’s attempted suicide, and Matt Seitz’s essay about Owen, got me to thinking about the whole reason Owen got famous in the first place: 1996’s Bottle Rocket, which remains — easily — the best film ever made in Dallas. I was wondering specifically why that…

Postage Due

Need a stamp? Because they’re selling ’em at the University of Texas at Dallas tomorrow — specifically, the brand-new Gerald Ford 41-cent’er that makes its bow on Friday with special ceremonies only at UTD, the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and at Ford’s former home in…

Institutional Change

We received word this morning that Timothy Bray, an associate professor of criminology at the University of Texas at Dallas, has been named the new director of the J. McDonald Williams Institute, effective September 1. Bray replaces the institutes’s co-founder, Marcus Martin, who’s going to head up Education is Freedom,…

Wat Up, Dawg?

Hear that? The silence. The eerie nothingness. The unequivocal lack of support. It’s quiet confirmation that Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Vick really, really, really screwed up, evidenced by rare zipped lips from Gene Upshaw, Jesse Jackson, the Reverend Al Sharpton and anyone else with half a brain and a quart…

Excelsior!

Excelsior!: Sometimes news comes that puts a spark of optimism even in the cold, bitter lump that is Buzz’s heart, reminding us that yes, indeedy, hope never dies. Sometimes that ray of light comes from the oddest corner—from former Dallas police Chief “Weepin'” Terrell Bolton, for instance. You remember Bolton,…

Pod People|Cheap Bastard|The Nice T.O.|Fields of Green|Mr. *|Trinity Foundation

Pod People Dim bulbs: Jim, OK, the pod people theory might have worked (“Body Snatchers,” by Jim Schutze, August 23), but we live in Dallas and therefore we don’t have basements. They’re just dimwits, not pods. David Via dallasobserver.com Cheap Bastard Dallas, Vegas, same diff: Alice, I love your cheap…

Land of Opportunity…

As a girl growing up in Mumbai, Niloufer Bustani viewed the United States the way generations of ambitious youngsters always have, as the pinnacle of opportunity for those who want to make their mark on the world. Now, she’s not so sure. After earning a master’s degree at the University…

The Best Little Icehouse in Texas

The line of cars stretches a few hundred feet back from the window where a clerk in a tie-dyed shirt is handing a case of Corona over to a guy in a low-rider pickup truck. Standing somewhere down the line between a Kia and a Ford is Jazmin, who wears…