Dear Steel City Pops, First, I want you to know I love you. On a hot day, one of your fruity pops is the pinnacle of refreshment; I can’t eat it fast enough. An avocado pop, with its creamy tang, would be a treat no matter the weather, and I’m…
Yesterday I said I would eat crow if Dallas Morning News editorial writer Rudy Bush turns out to be right and I turn out to be wrong about the outcome of the HUD racial discrimination complaint against the city of Dallas. Today after much more snooping around, I would offer…
The line that designates what is and is not country music is muddier than most of us are willing to admit. What is abundantly clear, though, is that country music appeals to more people than just rednecks and sappy beer drinkers. Taylor Swift may think she’s reinventing the wheel in…
Oh, man, I shouldn’t even tell you about this. I guess it’s me and Rudy Bush, “High Noon,” “OK Corral,” all those old movies. One of us has got to wind up on his back in the horseshit with his toes in the air. I promise I’ll let you know…
In President Obama’s 1995 autobiography, Dreams from My Father, one passage describes a day when he is still a kid in Indonesia, walking down a road with his Indonesian stepfather. His stepfather asks him how much money he has in his pocket. Then the stepfather asks how many beggars he…
If the editorial in The Dallas Morning News this morning has any credibility, and I am sure it does, HUD has agreed to throw the whistleblowers under the bus in the Lockey/MacKenzie racial segregation complaint against the city of Dallas. It’s not a surprising outcome, because paying off the two…
This is a first. In an editorial this morning The New York Times is defending Rick Perry. Sort of. They offer major caveats, calling him, “one of the least thoughtful and most damaging state leaders in America, having done great harm to immigrants, abortion clinics and people without health insurance…
At some point in the career of a band, the members of the group reach an impasse with their relationship and go their separate ways. Of course, there’s always money to be made, so the parties involved make the decision to hit the road and play their hits anyway. The…
If you haven’t heard the earth-shattering news, Taylor Swift, after the debut of the video for her new single “Shake It Off,” unceremoniously quit country music and announced that her new record was a pop album. Unfortunately for fans of Swift’s particular brand of folksy and boring love ballads, they’ll…
Something in the Ferguson, Missouri, story I keep looking for, waiting. My dad’s family is from St. Louis. Sorta. So anyway today I found an op-ed piece in The New York Times that maybe gets to part of it or somewhere in that general direction. Jeff Smith, a professor of…
The other day, I was talking here and Rudy Bush was talking in The Dallas Morning News and Scott Griggs and Philip Kingston were talking on the city council about the $810,000 the city had to pay back to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). I just…
The cops in Ferguson, Missouri, come across as a bunch of untrained, undisciplined bubbas, but that doesn’t put the two reporters arrested in a McDonald’s restaurant last night in the right. These issues: The cops spoke first with the manager of the restaurant and then began to clear and shut…
Courtesy of the label By Art Tavana Was 1994 the best year for pop music in history? Quite possibly. Sure, some of it was terrible, but overall it was amazing: Nordic black metal, Britpop, pop punk, trip hop, and the best R&B of the ’90s (Boyz II Men were peaking)…
I now take you back inside the strange world of Dallas city councilwoman Vonciel Hill, who spoke yesterday on one of the most important tenets of her belief system — that public information should never be shared with the public. Explaining why she did not want — repeat, did NOT…
It’s not unfair to say that Robin Williams’ tragic passing this week hits home more than most. Generations of kids have grown up with his work, entertained by his wild, manic impersonations and, later, inspired by his deep pathos in films like Dead Poet’s Society, Good Will Hunting, and Patch…
The debate about media sensationalism and moral panic concerning sex offenders is always a tough one for me, mainly because I think most news media chase the public’s interest in stories more than we create it. Our rule usually is that the biggest story is the one the most people…
Michael Morris, the Dallas Forth Worth area’s No. 1 regional transportation planner, guru and playuh, was back in the news over the weekend and today for his decree that knocking down an overhead freeway in Dallas ain’t gonna happen, no matter what the hippie wingdings think (not his precise words)…
Today The New York Times tells me that, while Republicans in the Congress continue to paint the kids at the border as an invading horde of knife-wielding lepers, Republicans with presidential aspirations are maneuvering to win over Latino voters. Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey will journey to Mexico next…
Life is pretty simple, really. Don’t mess with Texas — or Tim McGraw, for that matter. Where’s that bumper sticker, America? Country music fans know McGraw as Faith Hill’s loving husband of 18 years. And hell, he’s even been sober for six years. But sometimes he gets angry. Tonight, Texas…
Déjà vu, that French term meaning “already seen,” the feeling you get that you’ve been here before, it can be creepy, right? You start investigating your memory to find what it is you’re remembering. I got that feeling when I read about Dallas City Manager A.C. Gonzalez’s so-called shakeup of…
In terms of what is classified as country music, the definition seems to be expanding at a faster rate than ever. Southern rock, folk, and even hip hop have all recently cemented with Nashville artists that have historically been resistant to a whole lot of change. Fortunately, scenes cropped up…
Punk rock has been a part of cinema ever since the music was created in places like Los Angeles, New York and London in the mid to late ’70s. Aside from the music, either live or on record, the big screen provided another medium to convey what punk truly stands…
