Why the Dallas Observer Music Awards Won’t Be Starting a Hall of Fame

From rock ‘n’ roll music to country music to virtually every major professional sport, the United States houses a hall of fame for just about everything — even though, for most of the rest of the world, it’s literally a foreign concept. Americans just love picking favorites. Earlier this week,…

UT Admissions Case Goes to High Court, Journalism Goes to Hell

Just perusing some of the financial disclosures for the “nonprofit” online news service based in Austin called The Texas Tribune. And this, by the way, is a column about my own craft, journalism, which I will try to make as painless as possible because I know many of you did…

Trump, Bullies and the People Who Absolutely Worship Bullies

Every time I see another story calling Trump a bully, I duck. I’m always afraid somebody will call me. So this is my declaration. I am not an expert on bullying. I wrote a true-crime book 15 years ago about a bunch of horrible Florida mall rats who killed one…

Denton Won’t Fix Its Music Scene With Panel Discussions

Conspiracy theories are everywhere in Denton. Perceived threats are coming from all directions on the college town’s proud music scene, and suspects include Jason Lee, Buc-ees, LSA Burger, city officials and even Scientologists (OK, that’s just Jason Lee again).    These fears don’t come from nowhere. With venues like Hailey’s Club, Rubber…

Dallas Digs in on Doing a New Downtown Rail Line Right

We talk here about things that go wrong, do we not? Bad things, frustrating things, things gone haywire. So if something looks as if it might be headed in a right direction for a change, we could mention it just for grins, right? OK, this is something that’s headed in…

Stop Demanding All Ethnic Food Be Cheap

After the humble taco stand Trompo was named one of Bon Appetit’s 50 Best New Restaurants in America, a Redditor named Thrill_of_life turned their nose up at the $1.85 cost of Trompo’s tacos: “Too expensive in my opinion, bet they’re also going to raise the price.” Another Redditor, signel, agreed:…

Bucks Burnett’s Namedropper: How I Met Tiny Tim

Bucks Burnett isn’t a journalist. He’s a namedropper. He may not have met every one of his music idols, but he’s met 90 percent of them. And he’s here to tell you all about it, however he sees fit, is his monthly music column, Namedropper. There is no way to…