Morning Motivation

All you gotta do around here is listen and, just through osmosis, you’ll learn how to win Cy Young Awards, re-write recent history and, come Monday, be absolutely perfect. Roger Clemens stopped in Dallas today to speak at the SMU Athletic Forum. Dallas Cowboys coach Bill Parcells is now chirping…

A Banner Night?

Tonight the Dallas Mavericks take the first step of what they hope is an eight-month journey to the NBA Championship. Dirk Nowitzki will resume his climb to MVP. Avery Johnson will continue to preach “basket-BAWL.” Tim Duncan and the San Antonio Spurs will again provide the major obstacle. And, of…

Delay of Shame

In May we “discovered” (well, not so much) Gary M. Kornman, a Dallas attorney awaiting trial in federal court here after pleading not guilty to criminal charges of securities fraud and lying to the Securities and Exchange Commission. Far as we can tell there’s been no mention of Korny in…

So Very Beck-cellent!

This is either a pic of Beck of Police guitarist Andy Summers. One of them was in town last night. If the last-minute, sold-out “Beck Jam” at Gypsy Tea Room last night proved anything, it’s that Scientologists know how to party. (But only within reason: A female roadie pulled double…

Splitsville

On the hot August morning when it all began, Elizabeth Villafranca was sitting in her spacious North Dallas kitchen reading the newspaper when a headline pulled her to the edge of her seat. “Farmers Branch proposal would target illegal immigrants,” it read. “Illegal immigrants are responsible for much of what…

The Other Immigrants

Sima Cheregosha came to Texas from Iran 14 years ago. She knows what it’s like to leave her country behind and make a new home in a strange place. But she has little sympathy for people who come to the United States illegally, and she was one of several immigrants…

Little Lost Boys…and Girls

Every night in Dallas County, about 2,800 abused or neglected children are sleeping in protective care. Each month, 100 to 150 children are removed from their homes. Woe to the Child Protective Services caseworker who leaves a child in a marginal home only to have him killed by a parent…

Cowboy court

On October 16, the Dallas Cowboys and NFL Properties filed a federal suit in the Northern District of Texas against a Lakeville, Minnesota-based company calling itself America’s Team Properties. C’mon, take one guess what the suit’s about. Just one. Yup: trademark infringement. But it’s more than just your regular infringement…

Puck You

So, you wanna piece of Marty Turco? Have a seat. Down the hall, hang a left into the Dallas Stars players’ lounge. Back there, past the P.F. Chang’s spread and the Super Chexx bubble hockey game. Go ahead, plop down in one of those plush black leather chairs. Kick back…

Sin City

Gezellig is the classy new import beer joint on Lowest Greenville, the strip of the avenue below Belmont. Outside the bar, a girl is standing on the sidewalk in her underwear: a white corset, black panties and thigh-high stockings. While other ladies on the strip are appropriating childhood characters such…

The Candidate of Contempt

Rose Renfro: She wants to be a Dallas county commissioner. Or a Tarrant County jail prisoner. If you’re a candidate for office, there is one place you don’t want to appear four days before election: in court. But on Friday, the eternally bumbling Rose Renfroe, who is hoping to unseat…

Shut Up & Sing & Drink

Who needs an excuse to get hammered? Not the ladies of the Dallas Observer, that’s for sure. But Rock Star Karaoke is a good reason to knock a few back nonetheless. Rivaled only in excellence by Wednesday nights at the Goat, RSK at the Barley House is tip-tops in local…

Tuck It Like You Mean It

We wish Big Tuck luck with, what else, a capital “T.” Big Tuck, Dallas’s answer to the much-hyped Houston hip-hop juggernaut, just might be single-handedly spearheading the surge in Big D’s rap rep. Tuck’s the lead artist on T-Town, which inked a deal earlier this year with Universal for a…

More Calatraversity

Hey, look. It’s Santiago Calatrava again. A Friend of Unfair Park who noticed today’s Santiago Calatrava posting sends word that Wikipedia has some interesting news concerning one of the architect’s other bridges in Holland. Seems a few years back, Calatrava was commissioned to build three bridges in Haarlemmermeer. They opened…

Put Your Head on Will Johnson’s Shoulder

Will Johnson, at right, used to be “a drummer.” Then he became a rock star. Now he’s gonna be a movie star. Will. He’s awesome. Just saw on my boy Sammy Machkovech’s site that someone’s put chocolate in my peanut butter. See, one of my favorite albums of all time…

What Would Darrell Ankarlo Do?

In the election-season ruckus over immigration, an old idea has surfaced yet again: Should cops be able to deport people who are here illegally? A federal program that trains police to determine immigrants’ legal status and initiate their removal from the country has drawn interest from agencies across the country,…

Calatraversial

This is Santiago Calatrava. People love his work–and now they love to make fun of it too. Damn it. Was so gonna post that Calatrava cartoon from The New Yorker that Wick Allison got to earlier on FrontBurner. At last, that New Yorker subscription was gonna pay off; now, not…

Happy on the Hell-Top

Roger Clemens is coming to SMU. So too, probably, is an NCAA soccer championship. But a football bowl bid? To our lil’ SMU? Crazy as it sounds, yep. Well, maybe. OK, possibly. Clemens, the 11-time All-Star and seven-time Cy Young Award-winning pitcher, will be tomorrow’s guest speaker at the SMU/GTE…

Ankarlo Off a KLIF

Darrell Ankarlo’s leaving Dallas. It’s OK to cry. Let it out. Got some good news for local League of United Latin American Citizens president Jesse Diaz (and the rest of the human race) this morning: Darrell Ankarlo, morning-show host on KLIF-AM (570), is leaving our fair town for Phoenix. So…

Good to Be Badu

Erykah Badu performs at a church on Saturday. For free. She’s good like that. We’ve said it before, but we’ll say so again: If you didn’t know any better, you’d swear Erykah Badu was still a hometown comer trying to make it in show business. She lives here, works here,…