Maybe it is like watching them make sausage, but at least you have to give them a tip of the hat when they get the sausage right. The mayor and the Dallas City Council put themselves through a bruising debate yesterday on municipal court reform and in the end came…
Dear Mexican: Why do gabachos always feel the need to talk about money or trips they have taken? I always notice this when I am at any restaurant, like they don’t have nada más de que hablar. They make a point to speak loudly for everybody to hear. La Prieta…
Psst. Hey. Wanna see somethin’ dirty? Peep in this little window with me. C’mon! We won’t get in trouble. Look in here. It’s City Hall. Yeah, no kidding. They don’t know we can see them. For the last year, they’ve been going through all kinds of elaborate window-dressing gyrations for…
The secret story behind the story of the Dallas municipal judge fracas is that judges in the city courts don’t run their own courts anyway. Ticket lawyers do. I have been talking about this to lawyers familiar with the municipal courts — lawyers who work there sometimes, not all the…
Michelle Rodriguez spent a few years doing night shifts at 99.5 The Wolf, and a little while working part-time in the promotions department, before moving to KSCS-FM 96.3 for nights. She’s there because DFW radio legend Smokey Rivers saw her natural on-air talent, but she still manages to jump into…
Make us believe you mean it, Mitt. Bring back the draft. For the better part of a week, I have been reading all these thinly veiled suggestions by Mitt Romney that President Obama isn’t enough of an ass-kicker in the Middle East. His aides have been telling reporters that a…
The first whispers of fall blew through Dallas this weekend. There we were, eager to pull on boots and jackets. How quickly we toss the lightness of summer when we make contact with that first dip in temperature. These days are perfect for quiet afternoons of exploring. A trip across…
When I wrote about a small tavern in Oak Cliff, I praised small menus, saying that kitchens tasked with too many dishes often end up with watered-down plates fraught with errors, or that the menus themselves are just a pain in the ass to read through. My last few meals,…
The 911 problem itself is bad enough, but the mayor and the police chief are about to drive me crazy. At our house we record the news and watch it right before going to bed. It’s worse than chips and spicy salsa. Night after night we are subjected to these…
This is a personal letter to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Dear Prime Minister: My name is Jim Schutze. I am a columnist for the Dallas Observer. I write about local things here. My politics are sort of all over the place, but I have always considered myself a great…
Dear Mexican: Is it just me, or has what to call our friends from south of the border become a partisan issue? While taking in both political conventions, I noticed that Republicans invariably use the word “Hispanics” while Democrats are far more likely to say “Latino/a.” Is there some nefarious…
Last year, Dallas City Manager Mary Suhm and Mayor Mike Rawlings locked arms to push through a so-called “flow control” law, now locked up in a lawsuit, forcing commercial trash haulers in Dallas to use the city landfill instead of commercial dumps. Mayor Rawlings was candid about why. He admitted…
Ed Spoto helms Crossroads Audio, which provides many of the mics, PAs, lighting systems and rigs you see at local shows and festivals. Locally, his client list includes acts like Bowling For Soup, Erykah Badu, The Denton Blues Festival and the Dallas Symphony Orchestra. Nationally, Spoto, his wife Ashley (who…
Pretty good time this morning on Get Off My Lawn on KNON Radio (7a.m. every Monday), where I talked about a bunch of stuff but especially this morning’s upcoming Dallas City Council budget briefing where a council member will be introducing the proposed new Cheryl, Tim and Ruth Law. The…
Well, sugars. I hope you took advantage of the karmic energy being passed around town this weekend. Saturday was perhaps the most beautiful day of all time and space and had Dallas in the best mood I have ever seen. The scene was set, whether you found yourself tapping out…
Look, I’m not even the world’s biggest fan of political conventions, because they make me feel like I’m trapped in a cubicle with a car salesman. What’s to believe about an event where they hire a consultant to do the balloon drop? But with these two conventions freshly behind us,…
Korean comedian/musician PSY’s track “Gangnam Style” became a global viral hit over the summer and served as an example of the Hallyu, or Korean wave. This week, Schoolboy Records (the crew behind Justin Bieber and Carly Rae Jepsen) picked PSY up for releases in North America, the most high-profile deal…
Great editorial this morning in The Dallas Morning News, coming about as close as the News is ever going to come to endorsing the will and wishes of a neighborhood over development plans that would violate those wishes. It puts Mayor Mike Rawlings into a most useful kind of focus…
Dear Mexican: I know that most Hispanics in the United States are in favor of the DREAM Act, but what if this is a setup by the feds for a sting operation? It appears that our president will do anything to pander to the Hispanic vote. I’m wondering what could…
I see everything through flood control. The world. Why? You become what you do. If you take a guy like me and make him a flood-control reporter his whole life, he’s going to come out with a flood-control point of view. Or drainage. Take your pick. No wonder nobody ever…
Guilty little secret time. I’m glad the Dallas County Commissioners voted themselves a 4 percent pay raise Tuesday. I would appreciate it if we could keep this just between us here on Unfair Park, because it’s not exactly the best thing for me to be saying out loud in terms…
Lyle Lovett is a modern legend. His laid-back vocal delivery offers a flirtatious wink at the listener and is as identifiable as his wild-ass hair has been, since he began performing in the early ’80s. The 54-year-old troubadour could sing the words to a Panda Express menu and it would…
