"I have to admit, there's a guaranteed future in dirty dishes, which there ain't in blues," Keith Ferguson concedes. "I seem to be the only one who regards himself as a professional musician. Our lead singer's a dishwasher in the back of some restaurant. If he put half the energy...
First came topless dancing. Then came table dancing. (This doesn't mean the tables dance, it means the girls dance on your table or at your table, even though sometimes the table is more attractive than the girl.) Then came couch dancing. And couch dancing begat lap dancing. I think the...
On his birth certificate, Dwight Martinek uses his legal name, the one that reflects his grandparents' Czech roots. But on the streets of the East Texas town of Canton, Martinek--a large, ponytailed, sculptor-turned-theme-park promoter--introduces himself as "Wild Willie." Sure, the handle's hokey. Martinek borrowed it from a now-defunct Western-style department...
Driving west on Highway 67, Victor Morales has the sun at his back and a St. Patrick's Day parade on the horizon. Early this Saturday morning, the grandson of Mexican immigrants stuck a shamrock in his lapel, slipped a toothbrush in his pocket and set out in a 4-year-old Nissan...
Four years ago, Greg Vaughn's 13-year-old daughter, Holley, came to him with an age-old problem: the-night- before-the-term-paper's-due blues. "You've got to help me," a panicked Holley said to her dad, after apologizing for waiting until the last minute. Her assignment was to write about Sam Houston, the colorful, controversial president...
School for scandal As a guest-substitute language-arts and college-prep teacher at Townview Magnet Center ["The truth about Townview," March 14] for an extended assignment shortly after the school opened last September, I got a bird's-eye view of the excitement, concerns, and challenges the students and teachers experienced as they embarked...
Looking at him, standing in front of a roomful of college kids, there is absolutely no question that this is the Pied Piper of local higher education. "Everyone with us?" he says, eyeing his students as he rocks back and forth on his brown loafers, shirt sleeves rolled up in...
In its rush to modernize and colonize, this city destroys more of its musical past every day. The nearly completed Jefferson at Gaston Yards apartments now stand on the old railyards where Blind Lemon Jefferson and Leadbelly once disembarked the trains that led to Deep Ellum. Historic old clubs and...
She had to sin to be saved Signed to a major label before she was even voting age, Maria McKee was always doomed to take a fall. No one wants to hear your voice crack in public. McKee's had a big, beautiful voice since the age of 20: Lone Justice's...
No matter where or when, the meal--a "dining experience," as we in the business call it--is judged according to a combination of three basic standards: the quality of the food, the quality of the service, and the quality of the atmosphere or ambiance. Other things do figure into it, but...
Diabolique, the black-and-white 1955 French classic from director Henri Georges Clouzot, seems like a murder thriller, but it's much closer in tone to a ghost story. The callous headmaster of a boys' school cheats on his prim wife Mia (played by the director's own wife, Vera Clouzot) with the more...
thursday march 28 Soup's On: The media information for "Soup's On," the performance showcase sponsored by The Writer's Garret and Stone Soup Workshop, is titled "BYOA--Bring Your Own Art." That pretty much sums up the collegial attitude of "Soup's On," which is scheduled the last Thursday of every month. The...
The wonderful thing about food is not just how it tastes, but what it evokes; there are, after all, certain foods and drinks that provide their own atmosphere. Orange juice is a wake-up call, even if you drink it at night. A glass of champagne is a party, even if...
Short fuse Columbia Pictures publicists for Dallas' hometown-to-Tinseltown success story, Bottle Rocket, recently ran afoul of People magazine critic Leah Rozen. Rozen called Rocket a movie of "raffish charm," and compared its feel to that of The Brothers McMullen. She added, in print, "There's a note at the bottom of...
It's a hard, hard way to go, the restaurant business. Someone should write a blues song about it. It's so hard that the owners of Billy Blues Barbecue just up and left it, evidently after one particularly bad night. Who knows? Maybe their pot washer quit or their smoker was...
What is this deal with three people in bed? I've reviewed at least 10 movies in the last two years in which people are aardvarking around in weird combinations, making the sign of the triple-snouted octopus with so many arms and legs flopping around on the bed covers that you...
While I sat through a four-hour, Friday-night meeting of the Christian Coalition earlier this month, I searched hard for the sinister folks who have infiltrated Texas' Republican Party. I scanned the fellowship hall of Northwest Bible Church, eyeing the faces in each row of those $20 padded "stacker" chairs that...
Scrappy, self-assured, and quick with a quip, Dallas defense attorney Tom Mills has spent the better part of his 23-year career defending people charged with wire fraud, money laundering, bankruptcy and insurance fraud, and other white-collar federal crimes. Generally, the guy likes the thrill of a good courtroom fight. On...
Bill Palen, a local P.R. executive with Fleishman Hillard, offered this counsel to Southwestern Bell Telephone general manager Tom Morgan, on the date of the Observer's publication of a cover story by Miriam Rozen about "Project X"--a set of billing practices that former company employees allege were racist. Those making...
Dailies brace for Arlington war The Fort Worth Star-Telegram has made its first major move to meet The Dallas Morning News' impending invasion of Arlington. Gary Hardee, the well-regarded deputy executive editor of the Star-Telegram, will replace Mike Blackman, who took over the large Arlington bureau less than a year...
The enigma of John Wiley Price Re: your notice on the Rev. Zan Holmes' appearance at St. Michael and All Angels Episcopal church ["Buzz," March 14]. in which you implied an Anglo fixation with the enigma of John Wiley Price. In fact, the prominent clergyman, who happens to be African-American,...
Try this for an impressive balancing act: Tony Kushner, 39, the most acclaimed American playwright of his generation, can wash dishes, grind coffee beans, and sling blade-sharp observations about Marx, Brecht, and the Christian Coalition with little apparent strain. He does all three at the same time during an hour-long...
