What the hell is going on with Ticketmaster right now? Earlier this month, the ticket vending behemoth announced an offer for free concert ticket vouchers, which sounded pretty great. Free shows, right? The motivation for the vouchers was less great, as it stemmed from a 2015 settlement over a class…
When it comes to working venue security, there isn’t much Bryan Meckelborg hasn’t done. He’s coordinated crowd safety at Super Bowls, the Grammys, the Oscars and some of the country’s largest music festivals. But as the devastating shooting that took place in Orlando over the weekend demonstrated — when a…
A few days ago, reports surfaced that Kent Rathbun was walking away from his namesake restaurant group. All the reports claimed that he would remain a part of the company and was really just stepping down from day-to-day management of the restaurants. Now, D Magazine is reporting that things are a…
Detroit is the birthplace of techno, and each Memorial Day weekend fans from around the world flock to Detroit’s Movement Festival, or Detroit Electronic Music Festival. This year, Dallas music was on display. Crowds of well over 100,000 congregated in Hart Plaza in downtown Detroit for six stages of music…
Dear Texas Kid: I was going to address my letter, “Dear Transgender Texas Kid,” but then I thought about it. You don’t think of yourself as a transgender kid. You just think of yourself as a kid. And you’re right. That’s my main message to you. I’m sure you don’t…
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. I love it when people say I have good stories about…
In Dallas, there’s not a lot that hasn’t been artisanal-ed already. We’ve got artisanal dog biscuits, artisanal popcorn, artisanal toast, artisanal vapes and we’ve even got a bunch of artisanal chicks bitching at each other every Monday night. But, we still have a few things in this town that could be way…
Editor’s note: Jim Schutze will be back in action next week. In the meantime, we’re reaching into the archives for some columns of his that deserve another look. Today’s was originally in July 1999, which given this week’s news out of South Carolina, isn’t as long ago as it sounds…
Editor’s note: Jim Schutze is taking some well-earned time off, so we’re digging into the archives to bring you some of his hits. This one, from August 2013 is about Farmers Branch’s ultimately failed effort to outlaw undocumented immigrants and seems particularly ripe for a revisit. Schutze writes: “In the…
What am I supposed to feel here? Grief? Wrath? A strong desire to go fishing? I wish I could remember my Greek mythology better. What was that guy’s name? Sissy Fuss? Last week the Dallas City auditor gave a committee of the City Council a deeply depressing analysis of how…
By now, you’ve heard about the artisanal toast trend that is taking Dallas by toast storm — and by “by storm,” I mean making everyone on Facebook raise their artisanal toast-hating pitchforks. But there’s more: There’s Artisan Vapor. I drove past their store yesterday, and I really feel like the whole “artisanal…
CultureMap recently published a blog post entitled, “Meet the 10 best Dallas chefs defining good taste.” The list is an announcement of their nominees for Dallas Chef of the Year for the Tastemakers Awards, an annual event that intends to “shine a spotlight on the people making the city’s restaurant…
Post Malone’s first mixtape has been a long-time coming. It’s hard to believe, but after everything the Grapevine native has accomplished since his song, “White Iverson”, went viral early in 2015 — working with Kanye West, touring with Fetty Wap and Justin Bieber, and making stops at festivals like Coachella —…
In what may very well be the saddest last-ditch attempt to maintain relevancy in the history of American dining, Applebee’s announced on Monday the “biggest investment in culinary excellence in the company’s history,” part of its efforts to “to take back America’s neighborhoods.” As Americans become more educated about the…
Yesterday, The Dallas Morning News’ GuideLive posted a link to a new Leslie Brenner review of Lucia to their Facebook page with the following words: “Dallas now has just two 5-star restaurants.” In the review, Brenner gushes over and over about how much she adores Lucia, then notes that several dishes were…
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. I met my first rock star — Neal Smith, drummer for…
According to repeated public statements from Dallas oilman Ray Hunt and his son Hunter, the main benefit to me of letting them take over Oncor, the big state-regulated electrical transmission utility, will be, “…to keep control of Oncor here in Texas where it belongs.” Is that where it belongs? I…
When I saw people promoting the De La Terre dinner at CBD Provisions on Facebook, I thought, Awesome. Dinner that benefits a charity, plus tons of fancy chefs: Janice Provost, Misti Norris, Anastacia Quinones — this’ll be great. And then I read the headline of the flyer. “Twelve Dallas female…
This has been a busy week on the Fair Park/State Fair of Texas news front, as the City Council approaches a vote this summer on competing plans for the park. Steve Thompson in The Dallas Morning News told readers how the fair had refused to pony up any straightforward data…
The men of country music have always exuded a distinct brand of masculinity. From Bob Wills to George Strait, these are the Marlboro Men of the music world — rugged, tough and stoic. It’s so ingrained that no one ever questioned the rhinestones that were popular for so much of…
In the weeks since Sturgill Simpson gave his first glimpse of his new album, A Sailor’s Guide to Earth, much has been made about the country star’s change of direction. Ordained by many as the savior of country music after his 2014 breakout, Metamodern Sounds in Country Music, the Kentucky…
There are so many reasons to admire Merle Haggard and so few words to describe them. The country music legend, who passed away Wednesday on his 79th birthday, was the working man’s hero, a scrappy, rough and tumble boy done good. An unmatchable songwriter, Haggard released 71 singles and penned…
