Welcome to Local Music’Mericans, where we’ll be meeting some people behind the local music scene who aren’t musicians, but more behind-the-scenes folk. Once upon a time, Cindy Chaffin was the mastermind behind Texas Gigs, a blog and database that was eventually acquired by Pegasus News. Later, she launched FineLineLive, a…
You may or may not be familiar with Allen Gwinn — the blogger-provocateur who keeps watch over the public school system and other matters. He has a new website going called taxrollback.org calling for a local version of the California legislation that has helped reduce that state to ruin –…
Whether you’re at the end of your rope or merely the end of your week, welcome to Whitt’s End: *I’m going to be extremely disappointed gutted if the Rangers don’t sign Cliff Lee, hopefully during next week’s Winter Meetings in Florida. Sorry, but a consolation prize of Zack Greinke – or…
Wanna do something to shake up your routine, alter your waist line and even change your life? Run. The. Rock. Probably a little late to get in shape and properly train for Sunday’s MetroPCS Dallas White Rock Marathon, but you can also “participate” by merely being a spectator. Organizers expect 7,000…
I have been keeping my mouth shut for months about this deal between Dallas Mayor Tom Leppert and city council member Angela Hunt concerning committee assignments and Hunt’s ability to care for her new baby. But today there’s a good story about it by Rudy Bush on the Metro front…
Dear Mexican: This güero downloaded the Arizona S.B. 1070 bill, did a search on the document for “Mexicans,” and did not come up with a single hit. What’s up with that? So, since you are such an acknowledged expert at pointing out Mexican-hating here in the American Southwest (your words,…
Made a short canoe trip up White Rock Creek from the lake with my son yesterday evening. He’s visiting for the holiday. Half the leaves are off the trees, so we’re back to the season of the year when you can see all the trash along the banks. But it’s…
Welcome to Local Music’Mericans, where we’ll be meeting some people behind the local music scene who aren’t musicians, but more behind-the-scenes folk. Scott Beggs, once one of the kids in the punk rock crowds back in the day, has been assembling live concerts in DFW since the mid-’90s at various…
The New York Times op-ed page today has a big essay on anonymous blog comments and what to do about them: “Where anonymity breeds contempt,” by Julie Zhuo, a “product design manager” at Facebook. So how do you feel about anonymous comments, fellow Unfair Park Anonymati? Me, my own feelings…
Think it’s been a wacky college football season? Michigan, Florida, Southern Cal and Texas are a combined 26-17 22. And TCU (which is apparently jumping to the Big East in 2012) – at the very worst – is going to the Rose Bowl. Couldn’t believe my eyes early Saturday morning. Despite…
There’s a lot of shape-shifting going on below the media radar at City Hall, a sense that some kind of realignment is in the works. A lot of it has to do with the fraying and maybe dissolution of the traditional Citizens Council/South Dallas Deal. Mayor Tom Leppert has been…
Wasn’t exactly Cortland Finnegan vs. Andre Johnson, but The Prez got into a scuffle last Friday. On the basketball court. With an elbow. Barack Obama received 12 stitches to a cut on his lower lip after an errant elbow during a pick-up game by Rey Decerega, the Director of Programs for…
Whether you’re at the end of your rope or merely the end of your week, welcome to Whitt’s End: *If you’re a TCU fan, it goes down like this: Alabama beats Auburn today at 1:30 on CBS. Arizona beats Oregon tonight at 6 on ESPN. And Nevada beats Boise State…
O.K., I promise not to go on about it, but there’s an interesting little two-step today on Page One of Dallas’s Only Daily Newspaper. I just wanted to call it to your attention. It’s about congressional earmarks and us. For a week or so we have been going on and…
Dear Mexican: I am a mutt. My father’s father was an illegal immigrant from Mexico. My mother’s father was an illegal immigrant from Ireland. My surname is Mexican and is usually mispronounced by gabachos and pendejos alike. I look more Irish than Mexican. And as my father never spoke it…
A hundred years ago, when I was a city desk reporter for the Dallas Times Herald, there was a certain dreaded 4 a.m. phone call I used to get from the late Ernie Makovy, one of the great breaking-news city desk editors of all time, usually having to do with…
Last week Friend of Unfair Park Shaggy predicted that the Tea Party will get over its aversion to congressional earmarks in however long it takes for the Triple R’s (Really Really Rich People) to get Dick Armey to convey the new post-election marching orders down to the tri-cornered-hat persons: “Earmarks…
Welcome to Local Music’Mericans, where we’ll be meeting some people behind the local music scene who aren’t musicians, but more behind-the-scenes folk. If you’ve ever gone to see a rock band in Deep Ellum, he was likely your maitre’ d, of sorts. He’s one of those guys that often finds…
In my narrow and twisted personal universe, everything is about the trinity River Project, even today’s closing arguments in Austin in the money laundering trial of former U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay. Follow me into the labyrinth. People ask me all the time, “Who’s behind this thing?” Dallas’s multi-billion…
TCU is by far the best college football team in Texas. The Horned Frogs could have easily won the Big 12 this season. TCU, in fact, can beat any team in the country. But even with the best defense in the country, TCU is defenseless against the BCS. With another…
Wilonsky sent me an interesting Wall Street Journal article this morning by Jonathan Weisman talking about the shift of power that would be brought about by a Republican-backed ban on congressional earmarks. The great irony is that an earmark ban shifts power and leverage to the Democrat in the White…
Whether you’re at the end of your rope or merely the end of your week, welcome to Whitt’s End: *Next Tuesday Josh Hamilton wins AL MVP. Right? *The good news: Greggo’s “pus pockets” are gone. The bad: He’s been told not to talk for 10 days. Ten! Means a couple…
