News

So after six months in Texas, last week I officially had my strangest experience yet. Dallas Observer business took me to the Panhandle, where I got to stay in the lovely little highway town of Dumas. Like nearby Sunray, home to the world’s largest grain elevator (holds 7 million bushels,…

Well, if nothing else we found a different pic of Lone Star Funds’ honcho John Grayken. For months, Dallas-based Lone Star Funds has insisted it did nothing wrong when it bought at a low, low price of $1.5 billion the Korean Exchange Bank, which it intended to offload to South…

Is that a light saber in your pocket, or is this your wedding night? Busy this Saturday? I know it’s St. Patrick’s Day and all, but who really wants to go run around on Lower Greenville, downing pints in broad daylight with a bunch of other drunks wearing green? You…

The perfect man. OK, Miss Lonelyhearts, this one’s for you. Men’s Health magazine did all the work for you in your quest to find Mr. Right by analyzing the single-women to single-men ratio of 101 cities across the nation, and your man is out there somewhere. Criteria also included divorce…

I went to the Texas Film Hall of Fame induction ceremonies in Austin on Friday night; turns out they’ve run out of people to put in that thing. (Which is where again? Oh, a Web site. How fancy. Least the rent’s cheap.) Actually, not so much: There’s still Dallas native…

On Monday, a case goes to trial in Denton County that might answer a question brought up last year: Can a crime against a homosexual be successfully prosecuted there? The case involves Christopher McKee, a mental health caseworker who, on December 3, 2005, was badly beaten outside a Denton club…

Pastor Sherman Allen of Shiloh Institutional Church of God in Christ offered advice on proper sex techniques, a source says. In what kind of church atmosphere would a woman submit to the unthinkable — allowing her pastor to paddle her repeatedly in various states of undress, sometimes causing bruises and…

Sandra just doesn’t get Bible Girl. We know the feeling. Seems as if our very own Bible Girl is becoming a celeb’s celeb. Well, maybe that’s overstating it, but she’s on at least one celeb’s radar: None other than queer icon Sandra Bernhard brought Bible Girl up during my recent…

Folk singer/songwriter Tom Brosseau grew up in Grand Forks, North Dakota, a city devastated by the massive Red River (not ours, theirs) flood of 1997. Though it’s taken him a solid decade, Brosseau’s newest album — simply titled Grand Forks — gives a voice to the once struggling residents of…

So, he’ll be on the list, right? Right. In case you’re interested, yesterday’s posting concerning the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s “Definitive 200” list — argh — has turned into a “Definitive Dallas” discussion. So join us, if you’re interested, in determining the most essential albums recorded by local…

The kid’s off on spring break. Wife’s got a four-day weekend. Par. Tee. Right? “Dude,” exclaims the giddy guy watering the adjacent urinal. He’s addressing no one in particular. “I haven’t been in a place in a long time where I was sure I could drag something home with me!”…

I finally talked to Jack Gosnell, the broker handling the Hard Rock Cafe sale on behalf of Brett Landes, and he could not have been more insightful concerning the battle over the fate of the 97-year-old former church on McKinney Avenue. Turns out, our Friend who attended Monday’s Landmark Commission…

Phil Haberman’s lies to his former wife started a legal mess concerning postings on his missus’ blog. Calling her a “cyberstalker” and “a menace,” a judge in Florida has ordered Kristen Rhoad to remove all her postings about ex-husband Phil Haberman from the Internet — including not only her own…

So, we were informed late yesterday that everything is not as hunky or as dory as Angela Hunt led us to believe concerning the fate of the now-former Hard Rock Cafe on McKinney Avenue. (Hunt herself hinted as much in a late-day blog entry on Thursday.) Indeed, from what we…

Alas, we just couldn’t make it to the Shins show Monday night at the Palladium Ballroom. But 18-year-old Caitlin — who goes to Plano West and whose MySpace page features a video in which some dudes are asked, “How much money would it take [for] you to kill a puppy…

On Tuesday, Sunu Gonera was in town promoting his forthcoming debut as feature-film director: Pride, the true-life tale of Philadelphia swim-team coach Jim Ellis, played by Terrence Howard (Crash, Hustle & Flow). It was kinda surprising that the Zimbabwe-born Gonera had never been to Dallas before, considering that his next…

Of all the locals and former locals on the list of the “Definitive 200” albums of all time, Norah Jones’ debut ranks highest. That. Does. Not. Make. Sense. Well, here’s something sure to generate comments — I mean, it sure as hell oughta. And, blessedly, it’s local-ish enough to merit…

Dave Avery, at left, with Max Stalling at the Texas Tavern in Brenham Richie Whitt called last night with some odd news: KHYI-FM (95.3, The Range) morning-show host Dave Avery was dead. Why was it odd? Well, for one, Avery, who joined the station January 1, was a young man:…