You Can Call Him Al

If you wanna know what Attorney General Alberto Gonzales’ Thursday looks like, here’s the schedule for his trip to Dallas (according to the Federal News Service). For political junkies only, or people with questions about whether Gonzales’ family settled in Texas legally. 8:30 a.m.: Addresses the National Methamphetamine and Chemicals…

A Fallen Star Is Born

This Friday, filmmakers Mark Birnbaum of Dallas and Jim Schermbeck of Lubbock begin a sojourn they did not believe possible three years ago–or last summer, for that matter. This very week, their movie will open in Dallas and Houston, with screenings to follow this month and next in New York,…

Fore Play

You can get Cialis at the front door. Unlimited alcohol inside. There are girls with low-cut tops, high-rise skirts and flexible morals. Guys prowl in spikes and collars. Everybody has a cell phone, set on vibrate. Balls are getting wet. And everywhere you look: swingers. But this ain’t no party,…

Gravy Train

In the first political tussle since her election, Sheriff Lupe Valdez appeared before a skeptical Dallas County Commissioners Court on Tuesday to talk about skyrocketing overtime costs in her department that brought jailers $15,000 to $35,000 in extra pay over the last six months. For the fiscal year, which ends…

Blathersphere

Blathersphere: Grab that stickin’ fork, cue the fat lady: The Dallas Morning News’ Metro columnists are now bloggers. The blogging fad is just about done. By the time conservative, creaky, daily newspapers jump on a trend, the trend usually has passed its expiration date. Those cavalry troops that charged machine…

The Devil and Doyle Davidson

“SSSSSssssss…” “Stop that!” Carolyn Thomas snapped. Her best friend Dena Schlosser was driving with her eyes closed, hissing like a snake. “SSSSSSssssss…” “Open your eyes and look at the road!” Thomas said. “Put your mind on Jesus.” The weird behavior had started as soon as Schlosser and her three girls…

You Can Run, But You Aren’t Hyde

If you want to see what an Observer writer looks like–brainy with a touch of rugged, in my estimation, or the perfect mixture of jock and intellectual–Jesse Hyde will appear tonight on CNN’s Anderson Cooper 360� talking about a piece he wrote for the Deseret Morning News in July 2004,…

Show Up

I’m gonna resist the urge to focus on the name Metrognome (I’ll just let hope live on that tonight I’ll discover a garden statue in savvy attire serving as the art collective’s mascot), and instead unleash a serious urging to attend the Shoplifting show tonight in Fort Worth. The quartet…

Goodbye, Art. Hello, Commerce.

Take a good look at the MADI Museum. It may not be around much longer. If you were to visit the Web site of Kilgore & Kilgore, PLLC–the 58-year-old law film specializing in, among other things, cases dealing with intellectual property and personal-injury class actions–you will see seven serious-looking attorneys…

And In Other News

For those who have had their fill of strange preachers or who plan to wait to hear directly from God before accepting Doyle Davidson as a latter-day prophet (good plan), the dead-tree edition of the Dallas Observer has a few other tidbits that might interest you. Such as: Jim Schutze…

Nein!!

So how is it exactly that a baseball team can blow a 9-0 lead? Marijuana muffins, you say? Dude, I’ve got one even better. Texas Rangers. Nuff said. Well, actually, let’s say a little more because last night at Yankee Stadium your Rangers made history. Texas led the Yankees 9-0…

Running With the Devil

On newsstands this morning in the Dallas Observer: Glenna Whitley reports on Doyle Davidson’s bizarre world of demons and doom in her cover story on the Dena Schlosser case. Davidson, you might remember, was pastor of the Plano church Schlosser attended before she cut off the arms of her 11-month-old…

Bookstore Wars

A few months before the publication of Laura J. Miller’s new book Reluctant Capitalists: Bookselling and the Culture of Consumption, which deals with the rise of the megabookstore and the demise of the beloved indie book seller, Barnes & Noble opened yet another Dallas location right across the street from…

Naked People Ruehl…

Or at least that’s how it would seem, given the splash image on the site for Ruehl No. 925, the Abercrombie & Fitch-owned clothier with stores in such fashion-forward locations as Schaumburg, Illinois, and Novi, Michigan. A new location will open at the Galleria in November, and according to WWD.com,…

Be Like Dirk

And learn David Hasselhoff’s “Looking For Freedom,” the Knight Rider’s 1989 “hit” credited with, oh, tearing down the Berlin Wall. (Well, that’s what Hasselhoff says.) Now, it’s being touted as the reason Nowitzki’s such a clutch free-throw shooter: The Mav says here that when he’s at the charity stripe, “I…

TV on the Radiant

Just got word from Radiant’s Daniel Hopkins—who’s, like, one of two drummers in Dallas that actually knows how to tune his kit—that the Dallas Observer Music Award-nominated band will be featured bright and early tomorrow mornin’ on WFAA-Channel 8’s Good Morning Texas. And if you miss that broadcast, Radiant will…

Are You Drunk, Like, Right Now?

Those of you out there who religiously listen to Darrell Ankarlo (you know who you are, and, in all likelihood, you hate Mexicans) may have already heard of the Wingman, a Dallas-based superhero who rides a fold-up moped around the city in search of the drunk and wobbly. On the…

Austin City Limits: You Read It Here First

Forget those rumor blogs posting their maybes and could-bes about who’s playing the fifth annual Austin City Limits Music Festival, which takes place September 15-17 at Zilker Park; we have the full list, from A (Alexi Murdoch) to Z (Buckwheat Zydeco). While some of the folks were confirmed long ago–Tom…

Norah Jones Will Rock Your Lame Ass

No, seriously. Turns out the lite-rock-country-jazzer who used to play for tips at Popolos is fronting a new Manhattan punk-rock band called El Madmo. Me, I don’t think the woman singing these songs sounds much like frappucino-set crooner, but it doesn’t sound not like her; she certainly curses more than…

Eva After

Eva’s head on a stick would distract anyone, especially Tony Parker. Richie Whitt makes brief mention of this below, but I wanted to note an important momentum swing in last night’s “holy crap, not another heart attack” down-to-the-wire Mavs victory–when Tony Parker missed two key overtime free throws for the…

As Good As It Gets

I went to the American Airlines Center Monday night and was reminded why we love sports: because for three heart-stopping, adrenalin-pumping hours, we forgot about the first ex-wife, the second mortgage and the four tires that need rotating. Mavs 123, Spurs 118 had everything. Villains (Tim Duncan) setting traps. Turncoats…