Opinion & Commentary

Bobby Abtahi, the guy who ran against Philip Kingston for the District 14 city council seat in East Dallas last time around, had an essay yesterday on the opinion pages of The Dallas Morning News castigating critics of City Hall. He lumped us all together as a new and burgeoning…

School of Rock’s Mollie Reyes is quite the character. She’s animated, never taking life too seriously, but she’s in a new position for the school that can be easily filed under high-pressure: one that wedges her in between the parents of suburbia and the youngsters of the metroplex who are…

Here in the city where Republican swiftboating was invented, we have good reason to wonder what’s really at the heart of it. In 2004 when the character assassins went after John Kerry, I assumed their motivation was straight-up cynicism. Muddy him up so Bush will look better. But this new…

There’s a case to be made that Alternative Country, or Alt-Country as it’s more often called, hasn’t ever really been a legit genre. One will be hard-pressed to get any of the artists lumped in with the moniker to claim it as their sonic home, and even the original journalistic…

I like Mike Rawlings. I think our mayor is a good guy. He strikes me as basically honest, with the best of intentions. But his failure to head off the selection of an insider as the next city manager will be the single most important thing to remember about Rawlings’…

Dear Mexican: I have a question for you about los mexicanos and the TSA, my most hated useless government agency. I heard that TSA does illegal ICE dragnets at airports to catch illegal aliens. My problem with TSA is that I get pulled aside for “special screening” every single time…

Editor’s Note: Shea Serrano is an award-winning music writer and goofball whose recent exploits include Bun B’s Rapper Coloring and Activity Book. In his new column, he writes about his life and times. I am working on a new book. I cannot say too much about it yet, other than:…

Based on the City Council meeting yesterday where they appointed A.C. Gonzalez city manager, I now have a new least favorite word in the whole English language. Transparency. They kept saying it over and over like a weird chant. I’ve got something else for them to work on, way before…

Some people just know how to hook you, right? Say you’re browsing an online dating profile and someone catches your eye. Witty one-liners, cute smirks, maybe something cryptic like a tattoo of Josef Stalin eating a hot dog. Their linked Tumblr page shows they have an active interest in occult…

Are you a musician? Is your group having issues? Ask Fan Landers! Critic Jessica Hopper has played in and managed bands, toured internationally, booked shows, produced records, worked as a publicist and is the author of The Girls’ Guide to Rocking, a how-to for teen ladies. She is here to…

Nevermind turntables. Stephan Gaulon, aka “Tape Mastah Steph” likes to mix with cassettes. Born in France and imported from the San Francisco area in the early 2000’s, we briefly spoke to Tape Mastah Steph in December while gathering a year-end salute to some of our loved lost locals (Tape was…

Today we should learn something more about Yigal Lelah, a real estate developer to whom the city granted $4.5 million five years ago to create a high-end mixed-use development across from the Veterans Affairs Medical Center on Lancaster Road in a poor part of southern Dallas. That development never happened…

Being in a band is hard. Assembling a band is almost impossible. As anyone who’s been through a few bands can tell you, meeting a self-proclaimed “musician” should instill about as much enthusiasm in you as meeting someone who is going to college for a career in law enforcement. You’re…

Put yourself in Robert Pitre’s shoes. He owns 120 acres right next to the new University of North Texas campus in southern Dallas in an area of the city that is more rural than urban. For one thing, it has no city sewer service. Houses and businesses in the area…

Dear Mexican: I work in one of those progressive companies. Most of the gabachos bosses are actually pretty cool … at least when your back isn’t turned. There are a few a-holes, pero there will always be a few; they’ve got gigs lined up in talk radio. Sabes que ……

White Rock’s dog park is getting a $1 million renovation, and I can’t wait to see it. They’re talking about reworking the “dog launch” that goes into the lake, which appears to be just a manufactured shallow end of the lake, but maybe they’re making it into a dog catapult?…

I am still trying to reach Yigal Lelah, the developer on Lancaster Road I wrote about yesterday who seems to have spent $13 a square foot in money the city gave him for a bunch of land the tax appraisal district says is worth $1 to $5 a square foot…

OK, I’d like to fill you in on what I’ve just found out here, but I’m exhausted from the investigative effort. It would help if you were here to fan me. But, no, you’re not, as usual, so I will have to do my best on my own. Last week…

Are you a musician? Is your group having issues? Ask Fan Landers! Critic Jessica Hopper has played in and managed bands, toured internationally, booked shows, produced records, worked as a publicist and is the author of The Girls’ Guide to Rocking, a how-to for teen ladies. She is here to…

Our appointment was at 7 p.m. It was 6:57, and we were at a Mockingbird Lane intersection trying to make out the house number for our destination. We were pretty sure we were outside the right home, and in a flash the lights turned on and the house number was…