News

So, the other day I was sipping a Z-Kozmo at Dragonfly, tapping the toes of my new Jimmy Choos against my boyfriend’s Armani slacks under the table. I looked at Geoff as he sipped his Chivas, and I said, “Geoff, sugar, what this town needs is just a little bit…

Last week we confirmed the rumor that the Virgin Megastore in Mockingbird Station was closing on June 18. Now there’s been a replacement named: West Elm, the furniture-etc. store owned by Williams-Sonoma. West Elm’s a national chain with one other location in Texas (Houston) and a few in Cali and…

Seems an odd business decision, opening a store just like Whole Foods down the street from Whole Foods, but there it is: On Friday, Sprouts Farmers Market opened its sliding glass doors at Forest and Marsh lanes, and northwest Dallas couldn’t be happier (or healthier). Two days after its opening,…

Laptop Deathmatch (n.): Laptop artists use one laptop and one external device to create electronic music in a “friendly-single elimination tournament.” A panel of judges rate contestants on creativity, technique and stage presence during three-minute performances. Up to 16 contestants compete in the first round, then eight, and so on…

How’d everyone miss this? On Saturday night, the Crystal Awards were handed out at the Rosewood Center for Family Arts (better known as the Dallas Children’s Theater). So just what are the Crystal Awards? Only the closest thing Dallas has to the Emmys. OK, the TV Guide awards. See, the…

For years, former Observer music editor Zac Crain and I took delight in poking at the Dixie Chicks for pretending the former Dallas street-corner performers didn’t exist until singer Natalie Maines joined the band and for acting as though they hadn’t released an album till 1998’s Wide Open Spaces. (Robert…

If you want to keep track of the impact today’s Day of Action (or Day Without an Immigrant) is having not only in Dallas, but in such cities as Miami Los Angeles, Chicago and Denver, NBC News has its peeps on the ground writing about what they’re seeing…and not seeing…

Magnetic yellow ribbons slapped on the back of your ride not troop-supporting enough for you? Yellow bow tied around a prominent tree in the yard starting to lose its impact? Looking for a new way to prove you’re supporting the troops, damn it? Also, do you need a new $3,800…

Renea Walker is angry at illegal immigrants. TV cameras are happy about that. As protests go on this so-called Day of Action, it was pretty mellow: Beginning at around noon today, fewer than 200 people walked around in a circle in front of Occidental Tower, home of Senator John Cornyn’s…

At moments like this, one is tempted to offer only the facts, yet even those aren’t enough to explain something as heartbreaking as this. Jennifer Dawson, wife of former Observer film critic Matt Zoller Seitz, died suddenly and unexpectedly on Thursday. She was 35 years old and in great health,…

The Dallas Independent School District is getting a new top cop: John Blackburn, who’s been the Houston Independent School District’s police chief since 2000. In fact, HISD was the first and only accredited school district police force in the country, and it became that way during his tenure, which began…

Could this be an indication of what the “Day of Action” holds in store? Driving in to Oak Lawn this morning from my home in southern Dallas, where much of the city’s Latino population lives, I encountered the lightest rush-hour traffic I’ve seen all year. A whole lot of people…

Ever hear the saying “As Bee County goes, so goes America?” No? Me neither. But on Wednesday, the commissioner’s court of Bee County, located around two hours south of Austin, passed a resolution urging their 33,000 residents to boycott ExxonMobil “until gasoline prices have been reducted to at least $1.30…

OK, look, I know you’ve seen the Tah-Dahs, like, a thousand times. But they were good, like, a thousand times, right? Their infections poppy punk (not to be confused with pop-punk) kinda made you bounce a little bit, didn’t it? And you weren’t embarrassed, because everybody else was bouncing too…

Twice a year, my pal Mark Walters and his fellow savvy fanboy Ben Stevens put on the Dallas Comic Con at the Plano Centre–which means it’s Halloween this weekend for all those dudes who don’t know what else to do with their homemade Boba Fett costumes the rest of the…

According to local fact-checker and hellraiser Allen Gwinn, WFAA-Channel 8 will air a piece tonight at 1o that doesn’t make Dallas school board trustee Ron Price too happy. It has to do with Price’s May 2005 speech to the 245 graduates of Woodrow Wilson High School, in which Price claims,…

War is hell. Presidents do some strange things when we’re at war. Sometimes that involves telling Congress to go to hell. And that’s great. Because this is America, and we have three branches of government, and they kinda balance each other out, though maybe not so well at the moment,…

Nothing worth eating could ever be described as “to die for.” Hell, the best food in the world makes you grin-like-a-fool glad to be alive. Why would you want to die for perfectly seared foie gras? The duck/goose has already done that for you. (Which is why my silly hometown…

That’s you, Kyle Rowe, former president of the Dallas-based brokerage Salomon Grey Financial Corp. According to this piece yesterday, the securities industry’s self-regulatory arm known as the National Association of Securities Dealers (or NASD) got nasty and not only expelled Salomon Grey on Thursday, but also permanently barred the 39-year-old…