When Ron and Regina Godbey in January 1992 bought a used charcoal-gray General Motors Silverado pickup, they fell in love. "It was beautiful," remembers Ron, a skinny 25-year-old insurance salesman. "People used to stop us in the parking lot and ask to look inside." The Godbeys, who live in a...
The perfect word Thank you for your article on the Dallas Opera ["Building to a crescendo," February 2], which was quite good and quite enjoyable. One minor point, however, meant in the spirit of edification and better writing: "Build to a crescendo" is one of those phrases that we are...
Channel 8 stung at Sunset Channel 8 got stung during an undercover investigation at a Dallas high school last week--and the embarrassing result raises serious questions about the use of hidden cameras and undercover cameramen by the city's leading TV news station. It all began last Monday morning, when security...
The unsuspecting members of the Greater Dallas Planning Council had no idea what they were in for. As far as they were concerned, economist Mark Rosentraub was just another distinguished speaker, addressing just another monthly breakfast meeting of the 49-year-old group--one made up of architects, planners, builders, and concerned citizens...
Sometimes I think I made Warren Chisum up for my own amusement. Brother Chisum, the Bible-thumper from Pampa and chairman of the Legislature's conservative caucus, is opposing a bill to require that caucuses report who gives them money and how the money is spent, even though last session, he headed...
There is perhaps no better place to film a Chekhov play, especially a postmodern adaptation of Uncle Vanya, than in an extravagantly distressed Broadway theater. The New Amsterdam theater on 42nd Street, home of the Ziegfeld Follies and an erstwhile porn house, is perfect for the part: dangerous and abandoned,...
It's never a deal, but expense really isn't the problem with caviar. It's availability. Unless you're all dolled up for a night on the town, you're not going to find caviar on the menu. Why should caviar require a coat and tie to eat? Yet nobody serves it except fancy...
To remind you where I'm coming from: I married into a clan whose family reunions are highlighted by a belly dancer's performance. Malouf family ties are strong; hundreds of them gather every two years from all over the world to compare their Siti's--that's grandma to you, gringo--tabouleh recipes. The food's...
Informed that his interviewer saw The Quick and the Dead the night before, Sam Raimi gets excited. "How full was the theater?" he asks. "Did they clap during the exciting parts? Did they go for popcorn during the quiet parts? Did everybody generally seem to like it?" He's told that...
thursday february 16 15th Annual Fort Worth Home and Garden Show: In many ways, the paltry winter experienced by North Texas over the last few months has felt like a spring that won't just come right out and reveal itself. Warm days, cool days, then more warm days--people who are...
A January issue of New York magazine featured two long articles: "Why America Hates New York," and "The Ultimate Mexican Restaurant Guide." The former article was actually a Newt vs. New York piece, and quoted a lot of statistics about how liberal New York is as opposed to how reactionary...
First-time feature filmmaker David Frankel's Miami Rhapsody is so fleet-footed, cheerful, and entertaining it's tempting to dismiss it as just another piece of popcorn entertainment. But there's clearly a certain craft--even art--to creating a motion picture that makes you feel this swoony, giddy, and grateful, and in that light, Frankel's...
Trying to understand Texas, New York style The esteemed New York Times Magazine on January 22 spotlighted a trend revealed by the letters-to-the-editor pages of the Dallas Morning News and Fort Worth Star-Telegram. It seems nearly a dozen readers' letters over the past year--on subjects ranging from women's rights to...
A bigger Belo The top brass at A.H. Belo Corp. cut a low personal profile. In early 1994, the management of WWL-TV in New Orleans brought some visitors through the station's offices. "They were nice looking, well-dressed, pleasant," reported the New Orleans Times-Picayune. In fact, according to a station executive...
I've been trying to recall if, in the distant days of my journalistic training, I ever received any guidance on what to do when the speaker of the U.S. House calls the first lady "a bitch." I know it wasn't covered in Reporting 101, and I don't think we addressed...
Judgment day at UTA As an alumnus of UTA (graduated December '93), it made me angry to read how Ryan Amacher is spending the university's money so carelessly ["Fast Times at UTA," January 12]. If Amacher's goal really is to recruit more students, he is going about it the wrong...
This past Saturday morning, Roland Blumer changed into baggy corduroy pants, a white T-shirt, and an old blue sweater that his wife had bought him at a garage sale a few years back. Then he grabbed an ax and headed out the door to work. Not his work, mind you--the...
Anyone with even a passing interest in the culture of corporate America will enjoy Undermain Theatre's ongoing production of Tiny Dimes. Playwright Peter Mattei, a founding member of Cucaracha Theatre in New York, has created an absurdist comedy that makes complete sense and none at all, a nonnarrative piece that...
Cafe Society has been Dallas' favorite coffee-talk cafe since it opened. It beat the rest of the coffee hustlers here, but the real root of its charm is its attitude. It assumes Dallas reads, talks, converses, and debates. It bases its whole business on that. Its mission statement says that...
Generally speaking, directors who try to make movies in which characters represent political or philosophical beliefs have a difficult time making those people feel authentic to movie audiences. One of two things usually happens: either the filmmaker reduces the characters to strident mouthpieces (David Mamet's adaptation of his own play...
It's rare that an independent film manages to survive and thrive outside the realm of major Hollywood distribution companies. Yet that's exactly what has happened with Sankofa, a bold low-budget slave epic currently making its way across North America, city by city, drawing huge and enthusiastic crowds wherever it plays...
From the fertile mind of University of North Texas film teacher Justin Wyatt (who's also the author of High Concept, a compelling analysis of Hollywood's blockbuster mentality) comes one of the boldest and most provocative film festivals this city has seen in a while. Titled The Cinematic Body: A Film...
