Soup of the evening: the wonderfully therapeutic effects of the tom kha gai in last week's review of Royal Thai made me think of other great soups around town, because it's the season for soup-slurping. So don't forget the smoked chicken and grilled corn chowder at Beau Nash, the canh...
'Tis the season when the food media go nuts trying to offer you diet plans and ways to remedy your supposed holiday excess. Just to do my bit toward alleviating anxiety, I'd like to point out Rodolfo's, the Italian restaurant in Preston Royal that first brought you "Ital-Lite" cuisine and...
Have you noticed how many things can cause fistfights these days? I mean, things that used to be considered normal, and even polite, but now they're grounds for fights, lawsuits and general ugliness. For example, the words "Excuse me." "Excuse me" used to be what you would say if you...
In the middle of the public premiere of Ludwig Van Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, "Ode to Joy," the elderly, decrepit, bitter composer leaves his seat in the audience and wanders onstage as if drawn by a supernatural beacon. He's remembering an incident of childhood abuse at the hands of his drunken...
thursday january 5 Elvis Presley's 60th Birthday: If you really want to rile die-hard Elvis fans, pop the subject of the King's new son-in-law and watch their ears burn. Last October's planned tribute to Elvis at Graceland was supposed to feature Michael Jackson and Lisa Marie Presley performing duet versions...
The decision whether to grant an expansion permit for a controversial Ferris, Texas, landfill has been delayed several weeks--amid allegations that a state hearings examiner has been pressured to change her recommendation. Waste Management, Inc., the Illinois-based garbage giant, is seeking to expand Ferris' Skyline landfill from 73 to 667...
Sometimes, our political debates are just so silly. The vogue du jour is for topping your tax-cut proposal with my tax-cut proposal. Does it take Ross Perot to remind us that we are still not paying for the government we already have? The Clinton administration has cut the deficit from...
Piling on Paula I don't speak for the Dallas Morning News, nor do I presume to answer for everyone else who works here. I have to say I found your attack on Paula LaRocque completely unwarranted [BeloWatch, December 22]. I have worked with Paula for 12 years and have consistently...
Sitting at the bar, slumped over his beer with an unfiltered Camel smoldering between his fingers, Tom Morrell looks more than out of place. He looks out of time. In this Houston's restaurant across the street from Prestonwood Mall, filled with suburbanites returning Christmas gifts, Morrell sticks out something fierce--his...
To be a devoted fan and follower of music is to keep pace with trends (who will be this year's Guided by Voices? tomorrow's Pavement?) while keeping in touch with the music's past (should I buy the Sun boxed set or the Stax boxed set? or maybe the Monkees reissues?);...
Guilty as electrically charged To listen to Ed Hamell perform is to understand the power of the acoustic guitar--not merely as an instrument of sensitivity and frailty, but as a weapon, as a knife used to flay away skin and reveal the bloody pulp underneath. Hamell, a Yankee transplanted to...
To pick up a recurring theme of these reviews, I'd like to remind you once again I'm a snob. This week's example concerns snobbish preconceptions: I expected to hate The Italian Oven. I'm sure most of my high-falutin' foodie friends would hate it, and I'm glad I didn't invite any...
"A good movie can take you out of your dull funk and the hopelessness that so often goes with slipping into a theatre," writes legendary film critic Pauline Kael in an influential 1969 essay entitled, "Trash, Art, and the Movies." "If somewhere in the Hollywood entertainment world someone has managed...
There are several criteria I use when judging a restaurant, but I don't use all of them all the time. Food, setting, service, atmosphere, and wine selection are all important but not necessarily equally important. Sometimes one thing is more important than another. After all, there are different expectations and...
Whenever Berta Obregon hears the sounds of salsa--the hypnotic rhythms of the drums, the rapid-fire punctuation of the horn section, the primal urgings contained within it all--she is compelled to dance. It's a force greater than she, a provocative and sensual sound that sneaks up on her and compels her...
Every October, Trammell Crow, the legendary Dallas real estate developer, hosts a camp-out for rich and powerful men at his East Texas farm. Crow, now 80, invites about 150 businessmen and government leaders. His guests have included former president Gerald Ford, former national security advisor Brent Scowcroft, former Dallas Cowboys...
Need a walker at the charity stripe, Roy? OK, so Roy Tarpley shot a miserable four-for-12 from the floor in the Mavericks' disappointing loss Dec. 8 to the Washington Bullets. Does that make him eligible for handicapped parking? The morning after the game, a spry Tarpley was spotted parking his...
News' sacred Crows One would imagine that a federal grand-jury investigation of an internationally known businessman who lives in Dallas would grab serious attention from the Dallas Morning News. One would imagine wrong. About a year ago, U.S. News & World Report published a 1600-word story about Libyan attempts to...
Let's talk about rock 'n' roll I am in total agreement with Robert Cox's letter in the November 25 issue regarding how "out of touch" the Dallas Observer is with the local music scene. Robert Wilonsky should take a little trip up to the north part of Dallas and visit...
Coming in at 10,000-plus performances, The Fantasticks is the Cats of off-Broadway--and the longest-running musical in the world, according to press materials. Much of its legendary charm is due to its lyrical, sometimes melancholy music, from the legendary "Try to Remember" to "Soon It's Gonna Rain." The work, written by...
The fright before Christmas Two years ago, Jerry Jeff Walker and his Gonzo Zippa-Dee-Doo-Dah Band (or whatever) swung through the now-defunct Lone Star Roadhouse in Manhattan, and in a crowd filled with expatriated Texans with a little Lubbock homesick blues stood one New Jersey man who got the point. Standing...
In the late '60s--before the Grateful Dead had ever recorded a note, just as Jefferson Airplane landed its deal with RCA Records--Richard Goldstein wrote in The Village Voice that the music emanating from San Francisco was "the most potentially vital in the pop world." The Bay Area bands, he insisted,...
