Emily Dowdy’s fate has rested in the hands of an Oklahoma judge chastised for not playing fair. Evidence that Oklahoma County Judge Susan Caswell favors prosecutors is piling up. Yesterday, citing “significant and disturbing evidence of bias” on the part of Caswell, the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals ordered a…
Sports Illustrated They don’t call him The Rocket for nothing. Those hoping the Texas Rangers’ World Series push would be led by Roger Clemens, get a clue. Baseball’s worst-kept secret became official this morning when the seven-time Cy Young Award-winner signed a one-year, $22 million contract with the hated Houston…
The Floyd Dakil Combo made Franny dance, and the rest of Dallas followed in 1964. The Golden Age of Dallas music rolls onward, with lesser-known legends dominating the spotlight as we creep from the ’40s and ’50s onward toward buzz-cut rockers and baby-step punks. –Robert Wilonsky Frankie Lee Sims, “Home…
W stands for “wow.” Or “whoops, we’re not opening June 15.” Or “whatever, the place is still gonna be amazing.” Yesterday afternoon I took a sweat-soaked tour of the W Hotel’s latest digs in Victory Park, and first this actual news item: Kristin Walker, the marketing manager for the hotel,…
Who is this guy, and why is taking pictures of Exxon protestors? Says he’s press. Oh, yeah. Riiiiight. There were probably 60 people standing outside the Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center this morning holding placards, standing in makeshift oil barrels and chanting anti-ExxonMobil mantras such as, “People, not profit! Peace,…
If you want to see the video about good ol’ boys and gals from Texas turnin’ Muslim, the subject of a story in The Dallas Morning News a few days back, here ’tis. I take seriously any documentary narrated by a dude with a British accent…for at least five minutes,…
Dunno if this has anything to do with winning over folks who, for whatever reason, don’t think Joe Barton’s a schmuck–the Congressman known as “Smoky Joe” had a piece in Dallas’ Only Daily recently insisting the airline move from Love Field to Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport–but Southwest Airlines announced late…
Maybe, like me, you were reading the latest issue of Wired, specifically the story headlined “The Rise of Crowdsourcing.” Contained in that piece is a fascinating section about a company called InnoCentive, which was launched in 2001 by pharmaceutical maker Eli Lilly “as a way to connect with brainpower outside…
So yeah, our fine city is most known for one devastating day, the Grassy Knoll, that presidential X-marks-the-spot. While America remains obsessed with our version of the royal family, the name Kennedy has been sadly associated with Dallas since 1963 and probably will be forever. If you search the Internet,…
If you’re a college student looking for some summer cash waiting tables, then we have a deal for you: $8 an hour plus benefits. Sounds great, right? Of course, the commute will be kind of a bitch, since the job’s in New Orleans. Doing our part to help with hurricane…
A law-practicing Friend of Unfair Park who loves good music and hates expensive bridges shoots us this missive in response to this morning’s post about Dallas’ musical legacy and the lack of a museum to honor it: “For a view of how to do [a museum right], see the greatest…
I’m gonna go out on a limb and guess that Alec Lancaster is among the coolest kids in the Plano Independent School District. After all, how many other 14-year-olds do you know with an endorsement deal with a major drum manufacturer? None, unless you know Alec Lancaster. Turns out the…
Blind Lemon Jefferson: Ya know, he’s not just the namesake of a failing club in Deep Ellum. Over the weekend, a friend wondered precisely what good reason this city had for not having a Dallas music museum in, say, Deep Ellum, where Blind Lemon Jefferson and Leadbelly hopped off the…
Roger Staubach thinks Matt Nordgren–the Bishop Lynch stud who went to the University of Texas and found himself killin’ time behind Chris Simms and Vince Young–still has a shot at being an NFL quarterback. (Nordgren’s now with the Philadelphia Eagles, who start rookie mini-camps this week.) Staubach might be the…
Hate to say it, but till this morning, I had never heard of Gary M. Kornman, a Dallas attorney awaiting trial in federal court here after pleading not guilty to criminal charges of securities fraud and lying to the Securities and Exchange Commission. There are also others waiting in line…
The Fab…Six? Trini Lopez joined The Beatles and French singer Sylvie Vartan at the Olympia Theatre in Paris in January 1964. Last week, The Dirty Dozen’s returned on DVD in a double-disc special edition–which wouldn’t mean much to Unfair Park (well, it is one of my dad’s favorite movies) except…
Unfair Park’s spending today reading, swimming, cooking and, of course, memoraling; we’ll return tomorrow. Till then, accept as a token of our appreciation the above interview with Dallas music legend Trini Lopez. It kicks off our weeklong appreciation of Dallas music, its way-back past and its way-out present (seriously, have…
Because they were more interested in playing poker with Phil Hellmuth–who I once told to “shut the fuck up, seriously,” which makes me the 482nd person to do that last year alone–than beating the Mavericks. At least, that’s the impression The Poker Brat gives in this piece appearing today in…
The DISD Board is polarized along racial lines, the black trustees are feuding with administration, and the district’s teachers are disgusted with the entire system. Other than that, last night’s DISD board meeting struck a positive note for public education in Dallas. The meeting began innocuously enough when the newly…
Not to dog on Quick twice in one day, but we’ve a bone to pick with their “Weather” columnist—a blue-green-and-silver bone, with the word “Mavericks” inscribed upon it. See, the column not only offers weather predictions, but suggestions for weather-appropriate attire. For today (and tomorrow, Sunday and Monday), “Weather” shamefully…
It just keeps getting worse for Dallas County Sheriff Lupe Valdez. According to the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement Officer Standards and Education (TCLOSE), Valdez was not even eligible to take the mandatory licensing test she flunked back in April. That’s because Valdez did not show the proctor who administered…
Allison V. Smith Sorta is kinda screwed at the moment: The band has no idea how it’s going to release its new album in time to make the scheduled August 8 release date. Living up to their name, Quick published a music news short yesterday that was all speed, no…
