Dear Mexican: Lately, I’ve noticed a few bands, como Voodoo Glow Skulls, have embraced ska music both at home and in Mexico. I was curious what the appeal is for Mexicans. Also, if you had to turn people to Mexican ska, what would be your top five recommendations? TOMMY MILAGROS…
Last week I attended a Dallas City Council briefing in which I heard a top staff member tell council members the city needs to spend $12 million in tax money on a “horse park” because it “fills the public purpose that voters have twice said they want.” I’m a voter…
Hey, All-Caps Guy. We need to have a talk. Really. I sometimes poke you with a sharp stick. You poke back. That’s what I want. But sometimes when you poke, I wince. Not for me. For you. You know, I hope, that every single thing you say online lives forever…
The area we call the Park Cities, twin affluent enclave municipalities surrounded by Dallas proper, is riven by a rape case in which the son of a prominent family stands accused. One reason that case is tough to talk about is that nobody knows what happened. The accused, a high…
Tom Urquhart’s Saturday KTCU FM 88.7 radio show, The Good Show, is up for another nomination in this year’s Dallas Observer Music Awards, for Best Radio Show. It’s exactly what Fort Worth needs a little more of: A vehicle to make their local music scene all the more cohesive and…
Conservative columnist Jonah Goldberg has a new column out saying the presidential election was about our desire as a nation to become more European and by sad inference less American. Do you remember voting on that? I’m trying to think what the ballot language might have been. Proposition One (ink…
Saturday began and ended with brave displays from North Texas musicians, kicking off with a band you’ve likely never heard of, The Happening. First to perform at Art Con 8, The Happening was comprised of students from Girls Rock Dallas, one of the evening’s beneficiaries, and they took to the…
OK, I guess we’re all going to pile on departing Dallas school executive Shirley Ison-Newsome, a person accused of serial scandals and of making off with a bunch of loot in the form of a “golden parachute.” Look, Unfair Park Czar Eric Nicholson was quite right to observe a week…
Dear Mexican: When are the racial minorities going to give up la causa? We have a black man for el presidente, and as a white middle-aged male, I couldn’t be happier. I have been hearing all of my life about how oppressed the racial minorities have been and what needs…
Last night, when those final electoral votes rang up on my CNN app, I suddenly thought of Curtis Lockey and Craig Mackenzie, two guys who have been missing from the news for a while. I told you about Lockey and MacKenzie two years ago. They are developers who brought a…
“When you’re not shooting it, you’re thinking about it. Part art, part science, it’s all passion. Being in the moment through the lens, hearing the music, all you’re thinking about is getting that one shot…” Thus begins the homepage of F/stopme Photography. Brian Ullrich scouts new and local music to…
Op-ed piece by Princeton professor Kevin M. Kruse in this morning’s New York Times argues the real loser in this election cycle was the truth. Kruse marshals instances on both sides of the line but comes down clearly in the camp that sees Mitt Romney as the biggest fattest pants-on-fire…
Have you voted? Have you posted a picture of yourself voting? Have you decided where you are going to drink away the election results? I can’t force you to get off your ass and get to your precinct, though I hope you did. I can offer a little help in…
It’s my favorite three-hour tour, no matter which direction I am heading. Leaving Austin late on a Sunday night, Interstate 35 winding behind me as I speed towards bed, always has the same tone. See also: – Fun Fun Fun Fest 7 in review You spend that ride trying to…
Funny how you can drive by a thing a dozen times and never really see it. An early morning errand today took me through the north end of downtown on the Woodall Rodgers Freeway. I looked up from traffic and was stunned by the sheer beauty of the new Museum…
For several weeks I have been wondering if anybody else was hearing the same drumbeat of deep bitter dissatisfaction from Dallas public school teachers that I’ve been getting. So now it turns out somebody else has been hearing the same thing. But guess who! Tod Robberson! Oh, no! Not Tod…
Stunned and disappointed to learn this morning that Dallas felony court Judge John C. Creuzot will leave to go into private practice after two decades on the bench. In terms of the law and courts — hell, in terms of government itself — Creuzot is a great example of what…
Dear Mexican: After a year in Spain, I speak more-than-decent Spanish, and I want to get a job in the nonprofit field where I can put it to use. Thing is, my Spanish is pretty peninsular. I maintained my seseo, thank God, but people have told me I have un…
Wyatt Earp shot from the hip. He was a hero. So do I shoot from the hip sometimes? Bring me the target. Last week on our news blog I took a couple hip shots in the neighborhood of Lance Armstrong. I said I hated him. I’ll still call that shot…
You can’t really write a column about behind-the-scenes people in the Dallas music scene and not include Bucks Burnett. We are big fans of Bucks, and he’s been featured in the Observer numerous times. Hell, one of the last times we tried to interview him, we kept getting interrupted by…
I haven’t always been a festival person. Managing the stages and sets of so many performances, trying to balance the experience with both previously loved artists and the opportunity to experience something new is fulfilling, but can be overwhelming. One great thing about being the bratty cousin to Austin’s big…
So here we are at the door to election day. In the nation it all comes down to Ohio. In Ohio it all comes down to the auto industry. And Mitt Romney is betting his marbles on TV ads that say he’s the one who wanted to save the industry…
