After an afternoon spent talking to people down on Rock Island Street, I drove back for something the next day. As I rolled south on Industrial Boulevard — ground I’ve covered a zillion times over the years — a huge smile broke over my face. Instead of just staring straight…
On the one hand, our former mayor and Republican primary candidate for the U.S. Senate, Tom Leppert, wasn’t afraid to break GOP ranks and tell us that his fellow Republican opponent Ted Cruz is a known communist sympathizer. Amazing. On the other hand, now we also know that Leppert himself…
I have been thinking about you, Dallas. Every week, I am at your parties, eavesdropping on your conversations. And every week, I get to share with you some tidbit, some moment caught between drinks, which reveals a little more about who you are and what you are up to. It’s…
Yesterday we talked about The Dallas Morning News and its editorial campaign against allowing children in poor neighborhoods to have ice cream — more specifically, their call for tough law enforcement measures against ice cream trucks whose low-quality music systems apparently have been causing discomfort to rich people who are…
Becki Howard’s role might be more behind the scenes nowadays, but she’s done her fair share in the spotlight over the years, playing violin on three Paper Chase albums, and performing live with The Crash That Took Me, Sarah Jaffe and, more recently, Bethan. It’s likely her passion for performing,…
This morning an editorial in The Dallas Morning News calls for a crackdown on ice cream vendors: “… the vendor’s presence is rudely announced,” the paper complains, “through loudspeakers blaring cheap electronic music like ‘Turkey in the Straw’ or ‘The Entertainer.'” The editorial calls for tougher law enforcement and points…
The Dallas Morning News owes me at least five bucks for all the business I steer their way — and, believe me, I hate doing it — but once again they have an op-ed piece in the paper today that’s really a must-read for people who care about the city…
Domingo, Domingo, Domingo. You were named after the day of worship. Why do you always wind up using names against other people? Yesterday, state Representative Rafael Anchia jumped on Dallas congressional candidate Domingo Garcia for calling a black opponent an “errand boy.” In a press release, Anchia said, “Calling a…
I usually don’t allow anyone to hijack this columna, but an exception must be made for California State Assembly member Gil Cedillo. He’s been fighting the good fight for decades, recently trying to get driver’s licenses for illegal immigrants and ceaselessly supporting DREAMers. Cedillo was so moved by the undocumented…
Last week’s big battle over a plan to use parkland by White Rock lake as overflow car-parking for the Dallas Arboretum sort of came out of nowhere. I’m sure somebody out there had to be thinking, “What’s an arboretum?” Please. You don’t have to put your hands up. But there…
Welcome to Local Music ‘Mericans, where we get to know the people behind the scenes in Dallas/Fort Worth music. Lima, Peru, native John Nicholson has helped out a lot of DFW musicians over the years. His early gigs included Sound Warehouse, Bill’s Records and label promotion for Polygram, A&M and…
Wow. I wonder how many other ancient mariners of the Dallas public school situation put down their daily newspapers this morning, nodded as I did, and thought to themselves, “So they’re messing with Ison-Newsome.” That’s serious. It could mean somebody’s smart. Or stupid. I’m leaning toward somebody’s smart. I’m leaning…
Yesterday the Huffington Post reported that 7-Eleven is nationally debuting Slurpee Lite. Slurpee Lite will be made with Splenda instead of real sugar and promises to be “50% fewer calories, 100% awesome taste.” Give me a summer-fucking break. Seems to me that if you’re inside a 7-Eleven at all, you’ve…
Tried to get past these two very irritating issues but couldn’t pull it off. Woke up in middle of night last night reaching for the shotgun. Please indulge. Eye and ear protection recommended. First clay pigeon I’d like to try a couple 12-gauge shells on: a throw-away line in an…
If you have a chance to visit Dallas’ most beautiful garden on a rainy night, it’s a rather sublime way to experience the lushness. For the opening of Brazilian artist Ernesto Neto’s new exhibition, “Cuddle on the Tightrope,” our friends at the Nasher threw a soiree with South American roots…
WFAA Channel 8 aired a story last night, reprised in this morning’s Dallas Morning News, about a series of armed robberies on and around the Katy trail — three over the weekend and five more during the previous month. Both stories said Dallas Police had refused to comment on the…
Several of you have asked me to explain a point in my column in this week’s newspaper about the Trinity River toll road and why it may be unstoppable. Sorry. Should have done it in the column. And as it turns out, I had this wrong on two scores, one…
Dallas City Hall. Enough to drive a sane person crazy on any given day. What is it they don’t get — other than everything? In today’s Dallas Morning News, Paul Dyer, the very decent man who is director of the Park Department, gives an absolutely honest and totally infuriating explanation…
BUY TACO USA! Gentle cabrones, my much-promised Taco USA: How Mexican Food Conquered America has finally hit bookstores! Place your order with your favorite local bookstore, your finer online retailers, your craftier piratas! Dear Mexican: I’m getting sick and tired of all these dirty, stupid Mexicans running around. The first…
Three things. The Trinity River toll road doesn’t have to happen. But it can happen. And stopping it will take money. Those are the three big practicalities looming over the debate about building a big highway through what was supposed to be our downtown urban park perched against the Trinity…
At some point during last evening’s North Texas Tollway Authority/Texas Department of Transportation Incredibly Boring Event, I realized I was having almost as much fun seeing all the same old pro-toll road partisans again as I was running into my fellow usual-suspect road-haters. These things have become high school reunions…
Of course I can’t read about the ugly mess at the Dallas Arboretum without remembering Bobby Scott, my weird brilliant friend and enemy who patrolled in front of my house for a year muttering that he wanted to kill me. Then at the very end I visited him in the…
