Final curtain As an old friend and admirer of Jo Ann Miller, I must congratulate Mark Donald on his outstanding article about the way this remarkable woman has been ousted from the Granbury Opera House by an ambitious actress and a shortsighted board of directors ["Suspense! Intrigue! Betrayal!" December 28,...
The Kimberly-Clark News Psssst. BeloWatch has a tip for local businesses that really want the kid-gloves treatment in The Dallas Morning News. Not the standard News kid-gloves treatment. The extra-special, deluxe, we-drool-at-the-mention-of-your-corporation's-name kid-gloves treatment. The tip: Put Belo CEO Robert Decherd on your board. Irving-based Kimberly-Clark did it late last...
Ron Kirk was being uncharacteristically subdued. He was standing up against a wall, a good distance from the political action, arms folded across his perfectly pressed denim workshirt, lizard boots planted firmly on the floor. This was last May, two weeks after he'd surprised the city of Dallas, not to...
There was a time not long ago when Mike Dillon was regarded as a buffoon--a talented musician who hid his prodigious gifts behind bongos, ridiculous antics, and a heroin habit that became the stuff of infamy around Deep Ellum. As frontman for the more-funk-than-metal Billy Goat, Dillon once wasted his...
History lessons The Sons of Hermann Hall in Deep Ellum is fast becoming a Texas-music museum, where the state's best (and the rest, God bless Tommy Alverson and Ed Burleson forever) are on a permanently rotating display that changes every weekend. The best live-music venue in town--a nearly century-old German...
It's just before New Year's Eve, and Roger Morgan is packing up his home, along with boxes of singles and CDs, moving his Unclean Records label from Austin to San Antonio. As career moves go, it's hardly an obvious one, but Morgan has no problem leaving the town that calls...
How many clues do you need? I'm not saying you can always judge a book by its cover or a restaurant by its appearance: I've said many times that the most unassuming little places in the world can turn out world-class cuisine, and the great food writers have turned out...
Tired of turkey? I bet. Jeans getting a little snug? I bet. That post-holiday stuff-and-puff syndrome means a tired palate and a tight wardrobe. To relieve both, I suggest Natura, especially, from its winter menu, the artichoke lasagna, packed with protein (29 grams), but not with fat (15 grams), full...
Jimmy Fowler In alphabetical order: Chicken Hawk. One of the much-lamented Major Theatre's last screenings was this controversial documentary about NAMBLA, the North American Man Boy Love Association. A must-see for anyone who believes he or she understands the boundaries of contemporary American morality. Dead Man Walking. Released selectively in...
I enjoy movies. You might be surprised how often I have to prove the truth of that simple declarative statement. "Critics are too...critical," people often gripe. "We go to the movies for escapism, not for art. You never like anything." Yet nothing could be further from the truth. Oh, most...
thursday january 11 Caroline Aiken: There are musical legends that you see on MTV and Grammy Awards broadcasts, and then there are musical legends you have to be turned on to by friends. Veteran singer-songwriter-instrumentalist Caroline Aiken falls into the latter category. She has performed her brand of smooth, supple,...
Tramontana is the kind of new restaurant I love to find. The owner used to work at The Mansion, and though you have to be crazy to open a restaurant in the first place, he is wise enough (and experienced enough) to start small, with a limited menu, and to...
The gloriously, infuriatingly eclectic Dallas Video festival continues to entertain--and bore The nature of any festival, whether it's centered on food or film, is usually hodgepodge--an eclectic confluence of the sweet and the bitter, the fatty and the lean. It's no surprise that the 9th Annual Dallas Video Festival possesses...
Bark at the goon Ozzy Osbourne's not a man of his word. A couple of years ago, the former Black Sabbath frontman announced his retirement. The world yawned, and it was just as well. His day had come and gone, his demon-metal shtick gone to hell and then some. Whatever...
If you're watchin' a movie and you see a guy droolin' over a porno magazine, you already know the guy's complete character description, right? He's a serial killer who hates beautiful women. Or if you see a guy hangin' out at a topless bar in a movie, he's automatically a...
In mid-November, journalists and editors from across Texas gathered at a downtown Dallas hotel for the annual rite of self-congratulation known as the Katie Awards. Seats cost $50. Valets parked cars. A chocolate pate dessert followed dinner. Free wine flowed as the assemblage settled in for a marathon presentation by...
After the protests, the lawsuits, the scathing editorials, and the state Legislature's disdain when Texas Woman's University was forced to go co-ed last year, the last thing the members of TWU's board need now is to testify before a Denton County grand jury for allegedly destroying public records. But, thanks...
Fresh ink Will Cowtown cotton to another newspaper? Local journalist-cum-entrepreneur Robert Camuto apparently thinks so. Camuto has resigned from the Fort Worth Star-Telegram to launch his own alternative weekly. Camuto has a solid journalistic background as a reporter at the defunct Dallas Times Herald, then covering education, Fort Worth politics,...
The taxidermy issue requires advanced autopsy by the serious political ethicist. Not that the scholars at the Texas Ethics Commission have been derelict--indeed not. Their December decree that Texas lawmakers may henceforth disburse campaign funds in order to stuff animal heads, thereafter to reside upon their office walls, is positively...
Editor's departure opens succession struggle at News As in all closed governmental systems, there is intense speculation among the proletariat about the succession struggle at The Dallas Morning News. The need for a new leader came with the formal announcement late last month of the departure of longtime managing editor...
Furry beasts I would like to take this opportunity to voice my disgust with Kirby Fry and Inger Myhre, the villains of the Permaculture article ["Hugging the tree gently," December 21, 1995]. I am outraged that any people could be so cruel and self-centered as to starve kittens to within...
Is the theater really dead? Not in Big D. In fact, a quickie look at area productions in the past year shows that theater in the Metroplex is a surprisingly lively, diverse, and resilient form of entertainment. Consider the options a curious (but not impecunious) boulevardier had to choose from...
