New Times film critic Peter Rainer was named a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in criticism, the Columbia University School of Journalism in New York announced last week. New Times Inc. is owner of the Dallas Observer and seven other weekly newspapers nationwide. Rainer’s reviews appear in the Observer. He…
For the last decade, the Dallas Symphony Orchestra’s free Easter concert on the greensward of Lee Park in the heart of Oak Lawn traditionally has been a marriage of the ridiculous and the sublime. This year’s concert was no exception. As always, the event began with the Pooch Parade–dogs of…
Awaiting the arrival of Newt Gingrich at his Barnes & Noble book-signing in North Dallas, I figure the place should be silly with conservative Republicans: well-heeled women carrying laminated copies of the Contract with America in their Prada handbags; right-wing Christians who find it morally reprehensible that the president of…
James Fears parked his ancient tow truck, stepped out onto the unfamiliar turf of West Dallas, then adjusted his shades and notched the top button of his white polyester sport coat. The candidate had arrived. Looking about him, he summoned a tentative smile and ambled toward the Mattie Nash-Myrtle Davis…
Who’s a feminist? In Christine Biederman’s article concerning Paula Jones’ recently dismissed suit against the president [“The Jones Boys,” April 2], her Dallas lawyers were described as “the nation’s most unlikely feminist heroes.” I find such a description wholly inaccurate. Ms. Jones’ lawyers are no “heroes” to anyone, much less…
There is some set of facts hovering just over the visible horizon having to do with whether Dallas City Councilman Al Lipscomb, 72, is in serious jeopardy of going to prison in his old age. An FBI extortion probe of his role in a Dallas taxicab war apparently has expanded…
Leaders of the nation’s most influential conservative religious groups didn’t kick up much dust when they arrived in Fort Worth late last month for an unprecedented meeting with executives at American Airlines, including President and Chief Executive Officer Robert Crandall. Some of America’s top moral crusaders were on hand for…
At the heart of Laura Miller’s investigative report “Clueless” on Al Lipscomb in the May 30, 1996, Dallas Observer was Lipscomb Industries, a chemical supply company that Miller said consisted of a “a black guy, a white guy, and an address book filled with the names of every big-shot businessman…
Free at last Someone may have sent the managers of Regis Square Apartments a copy of the Constitution, with its pesky allowances for free speech and assembly. Anyway, something motivated them last week to drop trespassing charges against Texas Tenants Union housing activist Dina Levy. As the Dallas Observer reported…
Throughout his career in Congress, U.S. Rep. Richard Armey has been known for his shoot-from-the-lip style, firing off barbs that often stung the Irving Republican more than his intended targets. Last week, the House majority leader’s tongue again won him–and this time, the Dallas Observer–national attention. In the most direct…
A connection with former Superintendent Yvonne Gonzalez doesn’t seem to carry many advantages these days at Dallas Independent School District. Take, for example, Marshall Smith. Gonzalez appointed him acting head of safety and security at DISD before she was sent to prison for stealing from the district. In return, Smith…
Margie Chestnut doesn’t look like your average felon. With her long, scraggly gray locks smoothed back in a paisley scarf, her soft yellow cotton sweater, and her oversized, owlish glasses, the 63-year-old Chestnut looks more like a grandma than the prototypical grifter. Indeed, as she sits at a plastic-covered table…
The details would kill a mere mortal. Making gefilte fish from scratch, shaping matzo balls with your bare hands, chopping liver, stuffing cabbage, purging your kitchen of every crumb of bread, all to commemorate some ancient fast food eaten at Mount Sinai by the 10 tribes of Israel and carried…
Pretty vacant I’m not quite sure who said it, but whoever stated that “ignorance is bliss” definitely knew what they were talking about, and they must have had Christina Rees in mind when they said it. Anybody who could walk away from a Richard Diebenkorn exhibit [“Empty beach,” March 26]…
Christopher Walken is creepy–at least on screen. Not creepy in some your-grandmother-slipped-you-a-little-tongue kind of creepy. No, no, Walken is much more insidious. It doesn’t matter whether he’s playing an angel, the devil, the hero, the villain, the star of the show or simply a walk-on going for laughs, his characters…
The explosion of gay visibility in contemporary cinema might make some believe that you can’t get a script produced in America unless it has at least one world-weary, big-hearted gay neighbor or a wisecracking lesbian best friend/daughter/sister, both of whom put the central heterosexual romance into perspective by the exotic…
Since January, someone with inside knowledge of the USA Film Festival has regularly trickled anonymous letters, legal correspondence, and inter-office memos to both the Dallas Observer and The Dallas Morning News that suggest some pretty nasty conflicts tearing at the soul of the organization. But nobody in Dallas arts journalism…
Eddie “Junior” Lovejoy’s short life and violent death are the stuff country and western songs are made of. Big dreams, cheating hearts, cold blue steel, long-suffering widows–just the type of material Lovejoy himself liked to sing while strumming his mandolin. With his pretty-boy looks, lush voice, and aim-to-please manner, Lovejoy…
It’s a shame that of all the young Asian-American filmmakers showcased at this year’s Festival, the one to nab the most hype is spotlight-chaser Jon Moritsugu. A shame, but not a surprise. Moritsugu is a hack–hack director, hack screenwriter, hack editor and producer. His films, driven by quasi shock-value and…
The voice on the answering machine was unmistakable: “This is Kevin Massey, aka ‘Cyberstalker.’ “Just to let you know, I won a $75,000 judgment against Maynard yesterday in court…Just to let you know who’s the loudmouth who was right. Have a good day.” The Maynard in question is Robert Maynard,…
The $750,000 Ross Perot-funded survey of what’s good and bad about the Dallas Independent School District has become a giant Rorschach test. Every conceivable group has found something about it that offends them. The PTA governing board and two teachers’ unions voted recently not to support the survey. Then last…
What a difference a week makes. Seven days ago, as the Dallas Observer went to press, Paula Jones’ legal team was worrying about how to pick a sympathetic jury; this week, they’re worrying about whether their client has the stamina for a last-ditch appeal. On April Fools’ Day, federal District…
