Fedoras and $12 Drinks Don’t Make the Bar

It’s a relatively quiet Wednesday night at Deep Ellum’s newest watering hole, Swallow Lounge (double entendre or just a hastily chosen name? You be the judge). I take a seat at the empty bar lined with bright red vinyl stools. Above the bar, back-lit swallows — those little birds that…

The News Buries the Lede in the Komen Story

Just want to make sure you know what you’re getting into if you count on The Dallas Morning News to tell you what’s up. It’s not that they won’t. But you do have to deal with the social local filter. The New York Times this morning carries a story by…

Why Do Mexicans Look Down on Chicanos?

Dear Mexican: I was born in los estados unidos, my father is Tamaulipas and my mother is a third-generation Chicana. Being married to a mexicano, we recently vacationed in his hometown of Apatzingan, Michoacán. It was my first time meeting my in-laws and everyone from his colonia. It seems I…

Coconut Water Tastes Like Bed Bath & Beyond

In 2009 the New York Times ran an article describing a trend taking over the city. Various shops were selling young coconuts, with undeveloped shells, liberated of their tops and served with drinking straws. “I think it’s stylish, it’s pretty,” said a Brooklyn shop owner who was selling cases of…

Crozier Tech: Just Tear it Down Already

Maybe it’s late in the day for this, but is there any chance the city could rescind its bizarre special ordinance ordering the preservation of the old Crozier Tech high school building at the east end of downtown and just let the poor bastards who bought the place knock it…

Sprinkles is Giving Away Cupcakes Tonight

Cupcakes! Cupcakes, cupcakes, buzzword, cupcakes. Sprinkles is extending its hours, and to celebrate, the cupcake conglomerate is giving away free cupcakes. Or cupcake, singular, to be specific. Tonight only, every pancreas at The Plaza at Preston Center will be given one free cupcake of its choice from 8 to 9…

Why the Obsession With Counting Mexicans?

Dear Mexican: I work for a major news organization and often have heard the figure of 10 million illegal Mexicans. Unofficially, I have been quoted the number 20 to 25 million illegals, most of them not Mexican. Why the focus on the Mexicans? They are far less alien than the…

The Sixth Floor’s Message to History: Just Hush Now

Someone with a lot of clout in this town thinks Dallas should clamp down on free speech at Dealey Plaza for the 50th anniversary of the JFK assassination coming up next year. There’s only one right way for free Americans to deal with that kind of thinking. Clamp down on…

The Sad State of the Dallas Doughnut

Like many food writers I’m sure, I’ve been watching Pulitzer-winning Jonathan Gold’s transition from the LA Weekly to the Los Angeles Times closely. The death of the star system at the daily publication has gotten a lot of attention, too, but it’s Gold’s first blog post that has invoked deep…

Lisa McDaniel Balances Deep Ellum’s Books

Welcome to Local Music ‘Mericans, where we get to know the people behind the scenes in Dallas/Fort Worth music. Lisa McDaniel’s interests are an unlikely duo: metal and math. In all fairness, she likes local music of all different kinds. But when it comes to her faves, she’s as down…