Six journalists representing national Afrocentric publications, among then Sister 2 Sister and Black America Today, are being feted in Dallas this week. (Why, I am not sure: The Black America Today’s Web site doesn’t seem to be particularly up to date, given that its most recent news story is about…
Localish time-travelin’ rockers Midlake get some love on Salon today: From the Audiofile, Thomas Barlett has this to say about the band and its second disc, The Trials of Van Occupanther: “Texas rockers Midlake have dropped their former quirked-out ’60s psych-pop shtick and started on some ’70s revivalism, a project…
This Saturday Lone Star Park’s all-time top trainer Steve Asmussen will run two horses in the Kentucky Derby—Private Vow and Storm Treasure—and hope to erase a pretty dreadful record in classic competition. Asmussen, who’s based in Texas, topped the U.S. trainer standings last year in wins and is ranked No…
It’s an annual rite of spring. On April 15–at precisely 11:59 p.m., if you’re like me–we do our taxes and write off the Texas Rangers. This year seemed no different. Before the season even started, prized pitcher Adam Eaton injured his finger. New leadoff man Brad Wilkerson started striking out…
Dallas Cowboys coach Bill Parcells came out of his and Dick Cheney’s spider hole yesterday to attend the Texas Rangers-Baltimore Orioles game at The Ameriquest Ballpark at Arlington Stadium–but, of course, InvisiBill wasn’t much interested in talking football or the draft…or much of anything. He says that’ll change Friday and…
If nothing else, readers of Unfair Park know the blow-by-blow backstage doings regarding the decision to film the big-screen Dallas in Dallas…or Florida or Louisiana or Uranus. So why stop now? There’s a piece today in The Shreveport Times that reveals Betty Jo Lebrun-Mooring, of the Shreveport-Bossier Film Office, recently…
Video News Releases, TV ads disguised as news reports, have been around for decades. Only in March 2004, however, did debate about the use of VNRs break out of journalism circles. That’s when D.C. publicist Karen Ryan’s wildly successful spot pushing the Bush Administration’s Medicare drug bill aired as news…
So this old couple buys a house. Not just any couple, mind you. They’re not directly related, but you treat them like family. Check on them almost every day. Make every effort to buy what they’re selling, injecting income and enthusiasm to make their ends meet happily ever after. Not…
It’s 8:45 a.m., drive time in talk radio land, and Darrell Ankarlo is just winding down. On the air is a caller who calls himself the Wingman. For a small fee, he says, he drives drunk people home. It’s one of the lighter bits of the morning, and Ankarlo, who…
Aim right: It wasn’t much of a demonstration–those five Baylor University students holding signs on a rainy Friday outside the Abbott Laboratories offices in Irving, demanding cheaper AIDS drugs for poor nations. Still, it’s something. But is it the right thing? The demonstrators are part of the Student Global AIDS…
Out, Damned Blob! Grow up, not out: Jim Schutze’s article on the proposed comprehensive plan for the future of Dallas development (“Why Plan?”, April 27) is a little misguided, if not just straight-up inflammatory. If Dallas is going to continue to grow (which is exactly what the predictions say), it…
It was a stunning triumph. Lupe Valdez, a Latina lesbian who had toiled for decades as an obscure federal agent, won election in 2004 as the sheriff of Dallas County after a series of scandals dogged the incumbent Jim Bowles. Sprung from a family of migrant workers, the diminutive Democratic…
If pedigree is any indication, the Frisco RoughRiders baseball franchise is headed in the right direction. The Texas Rangers Double-A affiliate has promoted Scott Sonju to the prestigious role of president/general manager. If that name rings a wind chime in your vast noggin, it should. Scott’s dad is Norm Sonju,…
Until our corporate overseers pony up the cash for an elaborate, HD-ready, multi-angle camera rig, we’ll have to concede defeat to the handheld camcorders at Texas Gigs. The latest in the site’s ongoing video podcast series highlights this weekend’s Final Friday concert at the Gypsy Tea Room. Once again, the…
On Friday, we told you about how the People’s Republic of Bee County passed a resolution asking their citizens to boycott Exxon/Mobil until gas prices tumbled to $1.30 a gallon. Our take was that this was a futile act of civil disobedience since even a widespread, grassroots movement to shun…
Zoos can be disturbing places. We’ve all seen it: the big cats in their enclosures pacing back and forth, retracing their steps over and over as they slowly go insane from the frustration of captivity. That’s why I was so happy with my first visit to the Dallas World Aquarium…
You can own the only ball ever signed by Monroe and DiMaggio–for about $100,000, give or take a small fortune. Heritage Auction Galleries, the $500-million-a-year company that got rich selling history to anyone who could afford the price tag, is everywhere in the media today, after announcing that on June…
Belo Corporation, the owner of The Dallas Morning News and WFAA-Channel 8, doled out some $7.4 million to end a 12-year-old defamation lawsuit…in Kentucky. Belo bought WHAS-TV, an ABC affiliate, in 1997–three years after a roller-coaster accident at the Kentucky Kingdom amusement park spawned a series of pieces that painted…
Mickey Drexler, the man who made the Gap (and Banana Republic) a household name and resurrected J. Crew from its punch line status, is bringing his newest venture to Dallas before anywhere else: Madewell, which sounds just like…uh…the Gap and Banana Republic and J. Crew and every other store that…
You heard it here first: Charlie Waters just accepted the job to be the analyst on Dallas Cowboys radio broadcasts for next season. Waters, an All-Pro safety with the team in the 1970s, will be Brad Sham’s partner on KTCK 1310 AM The Ticket beginning with this summer’s pre-season schedule…
Dallas County commissioners are irritated with Sheriff Lupe Valdez after she submitted her recent overtime expenses for the first five and a half months of the 2006 fiscal year. Nearly 35 jailors, whose salaries are typically less than $40,000 a year, made more than $15,000 in overtime pay from October…
That chirping Valley Ranch birdie tells me today that Dallas Cowboys defensive end Greg Ellis is unhappy and skipping off-season workouts in an attempt to force his way out of town. Ellis, the team’s first-round pick in the 1998 draft, doesn’t fit the mold of coach Bill Parcells’ 3-4 defensive…
