As Good As It Gets

I went to the American Airlines Center Monday night and was reminded why we love sports: because for three heart-stopping, adrenalin-pumping hours, we forgot about the first ex-wife, the second mortgage and the four tires that need rotating. Mavs 123, Spurs 118 had everything. Villains (Tim Duncan) setting traps. Turncoats…

The Wright Way to Mess With American?

Like me, you’re probably burned out on Wright Amendment talk, which will likely last so long we’ll be able to beam to New York City Star Trek-style from the comfort of our own homes. But the contstant noise coming from both Southwest Airlines and American Airlines has produced one totally…

Preservation Haul

Preservation Dallas The Crozier Tech building downtown has to be sold. The out-of-town owners ain’t in a hurry. Shame. Tomorrow, Mayor Laura and the rest of the City Council will stop down and recognize the fact May is Preservation Month in Dallas—and, yeah, it’s a little late in the month,…

Selling Jesus

There’s a piece in the Los Angeles Times this morning about “e-vangelizing,” or the listening to sermons on your iPod (“godcasts,” they’re called) or using Olive Tree Bible Software to read The Good Book on your BlackBerry. Quoted in the story is Richard Reising, president of Artistry Marketing, the 8-year-old…

Test Patterns

Little strapped for cash? Got knee pain? Migranes? Or maybe vaginal atrophy? Or a spastic colon? Meth addiction? Hypoactive sex drive? Well, do I have the solution for you! It’s called Research Across America, a clinical-study biz with offices in Dallas (and El Paso, Manhattan and Reading, Penn.), and if…

Best Headline Ever (In a Mennonite College Newspaper)

The headline of this essay (it’s not really a story) from the Bethel College (in NORTH NEWTON, KANSAS) newspaper tickles me: “It takes three days to walk across Dallas.” It’s essentially just a piece about writer Brad Kohlman’s run-in with a homeless guy, but to save you the time of…

Katrina: Bad for People, Good for Business

According to this story, Hurricane Katrina might have devastated New Orleans and much of Louisiana, but it sure did blow a bunch of money Texas’ way. The Bloomberg piece corresponds with a news release issued last month by the Texas Workforce Commission, which said Texas added 279,400 new jobs during…

Avian Boo-Hoo

No joke: There’s a bird missing, and an 11-year-old girl’s crying…fowl. I hate myself. It looks kind of like a joke–the childlike scrawl, the hastily added phone number, the phone-poll placement along a busy thoroughfare. (It would make a great album cover for some indie-rock band, come to think of…

Uh, I Don’t See Any Violins…

Congratulations are in order for Centro-matic, whose Fort Recovery was deemed hipster-worthy by Pitchfork Media last week with an impressive 8.1 rating. Yeah, yeah, we know–one CD review ain’t the end of the world, but we’ll take whatever steps are necessary make “Calling Thermatico” a theme song for the next…

WWJD, or What Will Jerry Do (Next)?

In case you weren’t too mesmerized by that enthralling Brett Wetterich-Trevor Immelman showdown at the Byron Nelson, you might have caught Mavs-Spurs Game 3 Saturday night. If so, your heart is probably still racing. And your fist is probably still landing air punches aimed at Jerry Stackhouse. In this series…

Embryonic Chicks

A fab four: The Dixie Chicks, circa 1991 A week from tomorrow, the new Dixie Chicks disc Taking the Long Way arrives in stores, and though a review appears in the Observer on Wednesday, lemme say, in short, it’s kinda swell; imagine if Fleetwood Mac made a country record for…

The Gang’s All Here (Well, There, Actually)

So Mayor Laura was right, and she was wrong. Last September, as Hurricane Katrina evacuees were streaming into Dallas by the tens of thousands, the mayor fretted even before their arrival about the crimewave she expected to accompany our new citizens. So too did police chief David Kunkel, who used…

Prison Breaking in Dallas

On Thursday, we teased that the Dallas Film Commission was preparing to make a big announcement about a TV show set to shoot in here. Turns out it was Fox’s Prison Break, which is set to begin filming its second season in and around town beginning June 15, writes Ed…

The Times Tongue-Kisses Southwest

Is this story in The New York Times today: a) a fawning profile of a business under seige by its larger local competitor; b) a case study in mid-1970s retro-feminism; c) a celebration of a job well done and proof that when treated well, employees will last forever; d) a…

Return of the Radle

My story on this will be on newsstands this coming Wednesday, but since the scoop’s already hit the Internet, we may as well be the first local outlet to report it. Late last night, former Weezer bassist-songwriter Matt Sharp announced on his MySpace account and on his side project’s Web…

Grills to Good Use

It’s so cute when girls try to do boy things. Like grilling, for example. In fact, it’s so cute when girls try to grill, that TheOtherWhiteMeat.com has created a super-cute pink and purple section of its Web site, just for girls who like to grill. The pork people are, cutely,…

Mad Rushian

They dispensed little American flags at the door. One woman implanted hers sideways into the hair bun on the back of her head. When WBAP-AM (820) morning talk-show host Mark Davis came out onto the stage to cue flag waving, the woman with the flag in her bun flicked it…

Cuts Like a Knife

Incumbent Dallas school board president Lois Parrott is trying to beat back an inspired campaign from challenger Leigh Ann Ellis in tomorrow’s hotly contested DISD board of trustee elections. This afternoon, Parrott’s campaign will be staffing the corner of Buckner Boulevard and Garland Road trying to lure last-minute voters to…

Re: Fantasyland

We have our first contestant in the Guess What’s Wrong With This Article sweepstakes. A local brand-communicator writes in: Here’s my vote. From the article: “This year work will begin on a $65 million bridge across the Trinity River designed by architect Santiago Calatrava. Future plans, already funded by $1…

Cautious with the Coronation

Yes, Avery Johnson can coach. But let’s not allow the Dallas Mavericks coach to cut in line in front of Red Auerbach just yet. Johnson, the NBA’s Coach of the Year, is getting canonized for his injection of Devin Harris into the starting lineup before Game 2 of Dallas’ Western…

Actionable Jackson

For those obsessed with the Alphonso Jackson embroglio, in which the Housing and Urban Development secretary admitted to killing government contracts with Bush bashers during an April 28 speech in Dallas, let us not forget his behavior 13 years ago. What simpler times those were: He was the head of…

Fantasyland

Read this piece about downtown Dallas development, and see if you can find the one glaring mistake. And you can’t count the line about downtown Dallas being “a hive of activity,” which is just wishful thinking. –Robert Wilonsky…