DJs Are the New Dallas Rock Stars

The walk up to It’ll Do is always a part of the experience. Events like Red Bull Thre3Style Dallas Qualifier fill up quickly; Friday found the club at capacity by 9:45 p.m. Which means the nearby parking is gone, at 11:00 the valets won’t consider a bribe and you are…

Where Is Jonny Chingas Now?

Dear Mexican: In 1983 or 1984, I was walking home from work down Haight Street in San Francisco and stopped into Watusi Records to look through the dollar cutout bin. I flipped through it for a bit and then stopped dead when I saw the Jonny Chingas Pachuco LP. I…

I’m in a Local Band: How Do We Go National?

Are you a musician? Is your group having issues? Ask Fan Landers! Critic Jessica Hopper has played in and managed bands, toured internationally, booked shows, produced records, worked as a publicist, and is the author of The Girls’ Guide to Rocking, a how-to for teen ladies. She is here to…

Of Lance, Scientologists and Other Liars, Or Why the Truth Hurts

The weekend draws mercifully close, and I feel a need to revisit a couple themes touched on here earlier in the week. We started with Lance Armstrong on Monday. I predicted he would fake-confess and then offer a jail-house rationalization to the effect of, “I didn’t do nuthin’.” I admit…

Score One for Mike Miles

Oh, I do not like nights like this. I just sat through the Dallas school board meeting where they finally got to the bottom of the bad audit on Mike Miles, the new superintendent. Some weeks ago Miles said the audit was a witch hunt. I wrote a column saying…

Don’t Let Anxiety Keep You Out of the Music Scene

Are you a musician? Is your group having issues? Ask Fan Landers! Critic Jessica Hopper has played in and managed bands, toured internationally, booked shows, produced records, worked as a publicist, and is the author of The Girls’ Guide to Rocking, a how-to for teen ladies. She is here to…

Lance Armstrong Will Reveal His But to Oprah

Let me tell you in advance what Lance Armstrong is going to say to Oprah today. And how do I know? Well, obviously, I do not. But it’s just as obvious to me that I do. Everybody knows by now that world cycling mega-star Lance Armstrong of Austin is going…

Why Do Mexican Men Like Classic Cars?

Dear Mexican: What is it about Mexicans and collecting old cars? I have three Mexican neighbors with middle-class incomes but in each case, when the old car or truck wouldn’t run anymore, they would buy a nearly new replacement and then just let the old clunker sit in the driveway…

Closing the School-to-Prison Pipeline

All right, wait, what are we talking about again? The new superintendent of schools and the people he hired and did he follow the right procedures in hiring them and did he pay them too much money and stuff like that. Yeah. That’s what I’ve been talking about, anyway. But…