Welcome to Local Music ‘Mericans, where we get to know the people behind the scenes in Dallas/Fort Worth music. In 2009, KZPS-FM 92.5 fired Derek Walker from their promotions crew. Unfortunately, he was sorely misunderstood by the marketing department’s then-head honcho, and was let go after going shirtless for a…
Two stories in the news just now offer encouragement on the bullying front. In today’s New York Times is an account of a new policy adopted by a big suburban school district north of Minneapolis. Christian conservatives there had been fighting against an effort to protect gay students from beatings…
Yeah, OK, OK, I get that GCB is going to be a send-up of drunk bitchy Christian women in the Park Cities. I’m all for that. I just hope the comedic voice of the TV series doesn’t serve to obscure the fact that it’s true. Alan Peppard had a funny…
Oh, ouch. That was a liberal ouch, by the way. Even as a liberal, I can see this as the Next Bad Idea snouting its way up over the far horizon: telling the suburbs they have to bail out the cities. Ain’t … gonna … happen. David Firestone, a young…
Today on The Dallas Morning News op-ed page we find a piece by Ethnic Tidying Kompaniechef Tod Robberson demanding that the Bulldozers of Compassion take down a car wash in southern Dallas, putting some poor son of a bitch out of business. And that would be why? The business needs…
Here we are, with the biggest Medicare fraud in history going — so we are told — and The New York Times devotes its front page today to a story about Medicare fraud carried out by organized Russian gangs in … oh, guess where! … New York City! What can…
Dear Mexican: Aunqué soy Boricua, mi corazón está al lado del pueblo mejicano, aquí en Arizona. ¿Porqué no hablas contra “La Bruja Mala del Oeste” Gobernadora Jan Brewer, “El Leon Cobarde” Ex-Senador Russell Pearce, “El Hombre Hecho de Lata” Alguacil del Condado Maricopa Joe Arpaio, “El Hombre Hecho de Paja”…
Last Sunday The Dallas Morning News published a special section designed as a program/brochure for all the parties planned next weekend, anchored by a Lyle Lovett concert, to celebrate the opening of the city’s new Santiago Calatrava bridge over the Trinity River. But the bridge won’t open Friday. It isn’t…
If I were a male cowboy-boot-wearing Republican in Texas, I might feel pretty chapped right now by all the attention paid over the last week to the Virginia ultrasound bill. Talk about some limp legislation. Yesterday those wimps in Virginia voted up a pared-down version that will allow women undergoing…
Welcome to Local Music ‘Mericans, where we get to know the people behind the scenes in Dallas/Fort Worth music. Jamie Kinser started booking shows after shaking hands with Ernest Tubb’s nephew, Lucky Tubb. Before long, a handshake turned into a partnership. Next thing you know, Kinser’s original endeavor of booking…
Work has started on the Fort Worth JFK tribute, a memorial plaza to be dominated by a larger-than-life statue of President John F. Kennedy with his hand extended for a friendly shake. What a difference a half-hour drive makes. When complete, the Fort Worth memorial will serve as stark contrast…
Does public housing, including Section 8 vouchers that help poor people pay rent, and other “dispersal” programs, cause crime? A reader commenting on an item posted here at the end of last week cited an article published in The Atlantic magazine in 2008, called “American Murder Mystery,” saying pretty much…
Who’s a liberal these days, and who are the conservatives? I look in the mirror, I don’t even know. I look in The New York Times this morning, I’m even more confused. The Times has a story out of Miami about major cuts in federal housing subsidies. The story calls…
This Texas Republican primary for United States Senate is very compelling in a totally sick twisted way. The opponents are attacking our former mayor Tom Leppert for his few good qualities. Very few. Needles in a haystack of bad. But his opponents have found those rare needles of good in…
Dear Mexican: I’ve tried and failed to learn the Spanish language for the last two years. Last year, I visited a Spanish-speaking church to help immerse myself in the language, but only understood about 10 percent of the message. Also, I tried to watch the available Spanish channels at home,…
How much is 20 million bucks? Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings announced last week he is putting together a $20 million private investment fund to spur economic activity in the city’s beleaguered southern half. So, how much is that? What does 20 million bucks buy for you these days? I have…
Welcome to Local Music ‘Mericans, where we get to know the people behind the scenes in Dallas/Fort Worth music. John Iskander was “at dinner with a priest” when he came up with the name Parade of Flesh, his one-man live music “boutique.” But it would be rather antiseptic to label…
So the city council is actually going to put itself through another ethics reform debate. They do this every year. It keeps coming around again on a regular cycle like some kind of unpleasant bodily function. Ask me. I know why. It keeps coming up again because it’s absolutely lipstick-on-a-pig…
Drug arrests at Texas Christian University certainly have seized everybody’s attention around the country. But surely it’s not because people are shocked, shocked to find drugs on a college campus. Probably has more to do with the close juxtaposition of the words “drug raid” and “Christian.” But who cares why…
Sad Philadelphia story in the morning papers: The company that publishes The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Philadelphia Daily News and Philly.com is negotiating to sell all three entities to a cabal of rich, powerful politicians. In a heart-rending op-ed piece in The New York Times, veteran Philadelphia reporter Buzz Bissinger says…
Dear Mexican: This question was inspired by the recent video you did on the Republicanos and the Latina/o vote. What’s your opinion of Cuban-American and Tea Party cariñito Marco Rubio? All this talk about him being the “Hispanic” savior of the Republican Party by being the vice-presidential nominee is getting…
I need to talk about Kenya, but the larger conversation is about Dallas and especially poor minority Dallas. So I see in advance that some people will think I must be a racist idiot. What kind of racist idiot would draw parallels between Africa and southern Dallas? The short answer,…
