Hey, At Least We’re Not as Bad as Guatemala

Sergio Morales, Guatemala’s human rights ombudsman, has a few thoughts about how this country treats immigrants, legal and otherwise. Guatemala’s top human-rights official is in town this week to meet with immigrants from the Central American country and push for an auxiliary consulate in the Dallas-Fort Wortharea, since the nearest…

Bilingual in the Branch? Say It Ain’t So.

Illustration by Craig LaRotonda Days after Farmers Branch passed a series of measures targeting illegal immigrants, including one declaring English the town’s official language, the Farmers Branch Church of Christ offered its first bilingual service. That’s more than a little ironic, since three city council members–including Tim O’Hare, who proposed…

Preston Hollow: Do the White Thing

After ignoring the trial in which a mother of three Preston Hollow Elementary School alleged the principal there was segregating Hispanic and African-American students from the white neighborhood kids, The Dallas Morning News this weekend ran two stories about its outcome. On Thursday, U.S. District Judge Sam Lindsay ruled that…

Gay for Dallas

You know who’s not trying to pray the gay away? The city of Dallas. For weeks there have been little pieces popping up about how “Dallas tourism officials [are] attempting to lure gay and lesbian visitors” (so said The Advocate on November 4) and “dozens of cities that didn’t cater…

Bob’s is Medium Done, To Say the Least

This is the scene outside Bob’s Steak & Chop House, where the insides are on the outside after a fire yesterday. Just drove by Bob’s Steak & Chop House on the way to work, and, yeah, the venerable joint looks a little charred–at least on the inside. There are two…

How Do You Like Your Steakhouse?

You know what’s not up and running this morning? The Web site for Bob’s Steak and Chop House on Lemmon Avenue. Dunno if that’s odd, necessarily. Still, the timing is a little odd: First thing this morning came this e-mail from a Friend of Unfair Park: “The Bob’s at Lemmon…

Yeah, People Still Play Poker–When SWAT Isn’t Arresting Them

Friday night was not a good time to get dealt in at an underground poker game. According to Friend of Unfair Park Dan Michalski–and a bunch of eyewitnesses posting their accounts to Dan’s Web site, Pokerati.com–Dallas SWAT busted three cardrooms on Friday: Jackie’s, JB’s and Ace-High (the latter of which,…

The Other Wright Man (Doug, In This Case)

One of the pleasures in writing this week about Doug Wright’s new Broadway production was seeing for the first time the documentary that inspired it: Grey Gardens by Albert and David Maysles, the brothers who started making docs in 1955. With Richard Leacock and D.A. Pennebaker and Robert Drew, they…

The Wright Man

Lawrence Wright returned last night to his hometown, which he wrote about in 1988’s In the New World. Last night at the J. Erik Jonsson Central Library, writer Lawrence Wright made a return to his hometown to take part in the Friends of the Library’s “Evening at the Library” fundraiser,…

All-Star Balloting

Midlake’s up for three PLUG Independent Music Awards. Ain’t no Grammy, but better than a kick in the stomach. To be honest, we were pretty unfamiliar with the PLUG Independent Music Awards till we noticed two locals on the ballot: our fave soft-rock band Midlake and our fave local music…

Already, a Palladium Update

Just moments ago, a fine feller from AEG Live sent us the following missive concerning a just-booked show at the new Palladium Ballroom on the South Side: “Los Lonely Boys is confirmed for Jan 26th and is more than likely going to be the first show.” Guess they figured it’s…

Adios Gilley’s (Kinda); Say Howdy to the Palladium

Gilley’s is about to be rechristened as the Palladium Ballroom. So far, there’s a Japanese metal show booked there in February. There’s a metal show scheduled for Dallas on February 19 taking place at a heretofore unknown venue called the Palladium Ballroom. The name’s familiar, but only because there were…

Love-Love

Ya know what Richie’s doing tomorrow? Getting tennis lessons from this woman. He calls it “working.” Whatever eases his guilty conscience… We never really need an excuse to run a pic of Anna Kournikova, but today we actually have one. The hottest player to ever pick up a tennis racquet–and…

Wherein the Judge Finds Segregation at Preston Hollow After All

It took a little longer than expected–like, oh, two months longer than expected–but U.S. District Judge Sam Lindsay has finally ruled in the case in which a Preston Hollow Elementary School parent alleged the school’s teachers and its principal, Teresa Parker, were illegally segregating the Hispanic and African-American students from…

Gawking at Josh Alan Friedman and The Old Jew Pornographer

One of these guys is a pornographer. The other one is Josh Alan Friedman. As you know, we always like to follow Bible Girl with a blog posting that includes the word “clit.” Dunno–kinda like somebody dipping chocolate in your peanut butter, isn’t it? Well, we aren’t about to disappoint:…

“Can You Pray the Gay Away?”

Leave it to Jack E. Jett, a Dallas comedian and cable TV talk-show host who has a love/hate relationship with Bible Girl (the love part: he keeps reading it), to cut right to the heart of the matter. “Just to get things clear,” he wrote last week in the wake…

Romano Back in Business…at Eatzi’s

As of this weekend, Phil Romano will once more be in charge of Eatzi’s on Oak Lawn. Just got off the phone with Phil Romano, who says not only is the Oak Lawn Eatzi’s remaining open, but come Saturday, he will be the sole owner of it–just like the good…

The Smith Shuffle

If it’s all the same, this is how we prefer to think of Emmitt Smith. Full disclosure: I didn’t watch one second of ABC’s Dancing with the Stars. Fuller disclosure: It pains me–and every bit of my sportswritin’ DNA–to even write about it. But since the NFL’s all-time leading rusher…

Eatzi’s Closing Everywhere (But Dallas?)

The Oak Lawn Eatzi’s will be the only one left at the end of business today. Yesterday, the local corporate office of Phil Romano’s gourmet take-out chain Eatzi’s Market and Bakery was closed down. At the end of business today, its outlets in Houston, Atlanta and Rockville, Maryland, will shutter…

Big Brown and Better Than Ever

Amidst all the furor over TXU’s plans to to spend $10 billion on 11 new coal-fired power plants in Texas, the Dallas-based energy providers sends word today that it’s going to restart its 575-megawatt Unit 2 at the Big Brown coal-fired power station in Freestone County today. Seems TXU’s fixed…

Ski Mt. Dumb-ass

A couple of days ago, Colorado talk-radio host Peter Boyles (loved him in Young Frankenstein) discussed a June 12 Dallas Morning News article headlined, “Parkland will treat all moms-to-be.” Well, Colorado Media Matters, a state-based project of the nonprofit “progressive” group Media Matters for America, reports on its Web site…

The Last Word on “Vanilla Face”

Swear to God, this is the last time we mention Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan on the blog; swearswearswear. But we could not resist this one. You shall see why. Already twice we’ve told you that “Vanilla Face” is David Davis, the Adolphus…