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A Friend of Unfair Park directs our attention this a.m. to KERA’s Arts + Culture blog, which features a short film from Rob Tranchin, who writes, produces and directs docs for station. The subject of his short film Million Dollar Monarch is, no kidding, a tree — specifically, the familiar…

So, the deadline’s came and went yesterday, without a single soul bidding on Johnny Cash’s signed contract to play the Big “D” Jamboree at the Sportatorium on April 19, 1956 — for the whopping sum of $175. The Austin-based collector trying to part with the contract, which bears the signatures…

Memo to Chris Anderson, “40-year-old Dallas marketing manager”: If you’re going to spend “$1,000 on games like Mattel’s 1977 handheld Electronic Football,” it’s probably not wise to tell Newsweek — especially when the game’s going for just a few bucks. Oh, and when it’s for a short story titled “Forty-Year-Old…

Susan Byrne, making cents Susan Byrne’s the founder, chairman of the board and chief investment officer at Crescent Court-based Westwood Holdings Group, which manages major corporations’ pension funds and big-money players’ mutual funds; she’s also a member of the Dallas Citizens Council, fancy that. And this week, she’s one of…

At last, the perfect Christmas gift for the baseball fan who has everything: two mausoleum crypts at Sparkman/Hillcrest Funeral Home, Mausoleum & Memorial Park on Northwest Highway, right next to where Mickey Mantle’s been resting in peace since 1995. Each crypt will only cost you $50,000 a piece, but, dang,…

Over at OnPoint, a legal issues blog from the Courthouse News Service, Matthew Heller argues that Duncanville’s gonna have a very hard time swallowing The Cherry Pit. As in: Even if Duncanville can defend the scope of its ordinance, it still is unlikely to show that its interest in prohibiting…

Come February, Houston’s launching a new PR hellbent on selling the not spot as a hot spot; among those taking part are George and Barbara Bush, Hilary Duff and George Foreman — wow, impressive. Before that, though, there’s a new photos-and-essays book out called Houston. It’s Worth It, which stems…

USA Today today mourns the death of Christmas carol. Alas, don’t fret, says Michael Hawn, Director of the Master of Sacred Music Program at SMU: “It will take imagination and a willingness to break the ice,” he tells the paper. “Singing is an act that naturally enhances a sense of…

Landon Austin, secretly a Zapp’s fan So, Doritos is putting on a battle of the bands called “Crash the Super Bowl,” the winner of which eats up some 60 seconds’ worth of precious ad time during, d’uh, the Super Bowl XLII broadcast on February 3. And top prize also consists…

CBS Sunday Morning was in town to profile Neiman Marcus, just in time for the holidays — specifically, its 100th Anniversary Christmas Book, which, this year features, among other high-priced items, a private concert (hosted by Regis Philbin) and the Triton 1000 submarine for a $1.44 million. (And, yes –…

There will be blood: Javier Bardem in Dallas-Fort Worth’s crix fave pic of 2007, No Country for Old Men The Dallas-Fort Worth Film Critics Association this morning released its year-end film huzzahs, and topping the best-picture list is … envelope please … No Country for Old Men, followed by a…

Last month, we cruised the Highway to Hell with Pat Robertson — good times, good times. You remember, right? K, then. Anyway, mentioned in that 700 Club report was James Stabile, “a 19-year-old homosexual who’d come by to drink and party” on Cedar Springs and wound up, like, finding God…

I knew it — should’ve just been a Cowboys homer this year. If I’d have mindlessly picked Dallas in every game, I’d be 9-4 against the line. Or even 10-3, if I would’ve believed in Tony Romo’s offense and bet the “over” every game. Of course it could be worse…

“Maggie,” a local contributor to the m-pyre site, today recounts her Christmas-lights trek through the Park Cities, done from the cozy confines of a “a rented luxury bus, where beer and wine flowed freely and pizza boxes were plentiful.” Turns out, the yellow brick roads of the HP were crowded…

Allison V. Smith We live in the land of The Lodge and Candy Barr. There’s no shortage of well known pussy associated with our fair city de one big ball, and our fame grows by the minute, courtesy Allison V. Smith. No, the respected local photojournalist hasn’t ventured into the…

You may have forgotten that, ’bout two years ago, Jim Heath — Rev. Horton Heat, course — released a Christmas collection, We Three Kings. I forgot myself, till I noticed this morning that MP3 blog The Pop View posted to this “Rockabilly Christmas” item the Rev’s version of “What Child…

The Club on Oak Lawn Avenue was one of Citysearch’s best new restaurants of 2007 — and we liked it too, pretty much. A wise man once said, “Everybody loves lists.” So here are four this morning, courtesy Citysearch, which today offers its Best of 2007 round-up, featuring the Top…

Dirk Dundee Just read the article about Dirk in the Outback (“Crocodile Nowitzki,” by Jesse Hyde, November 22). I am a huge Mavs fan and a season ticket holder, and I have to say this is hands down the best Dirk article I have ever read. Kudos to the writer…