The Man Who Couldn’t Sell The Iron Giant

Brad Ball was in charge of selling The Iron Giant. Couldn’t. Then the Iron Giant squished him and sent him to Dallas’ Moroch ad agency. The best movie of the summer of 1999 was The Iron Giant, which about 328 people saw in theaters. It has rightfully accured a reputation…

Van the Man? Or, Not So Much?

A story in a Waco paper this morning says the RNCC is abandoning Iraq War vet Van Taylor–by not buying ads on a Dallas TV station? Today the Waco Herald-Tribune ran a story about how the Republican National Congressional Committee is all but abandoning Republican Van Taylor, an Iraq War…

Kroger: Take That, Central Market

I started thinking about ranch dip Sunday night. With no sour cream, Hidden Valley dip mix (the only ranch I trust) or chips immediately available in my home, I was able to fend off the craving for a little while with a healthy not-even-close-to-being-a-substitute snack, Kashi. Yesterday around lunchtime, the…

Skin Infection or Rock-Hard Abs? Hmm.

We’re not sure if this will protect you from infectious diseases at the gym, but it will keep people away from you. You needed, like, one more reason not to go to the gym today, right? Good. Because I’ve got one. Turns out–shock of shocks–getting fit in a public workout…

Parcells Gets Strip-ped

Last night’s episode of Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip took a shot at Bill Parcells. It was almost worth the two Sting songs. Almost. Last night, the missus and I sat down to watch what’s fast becoming my least-favorite favorite new TV show, Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip,…

Why Kinky Did Not Play “The Gay Card”

Kinky Friedman got naked for this Observer photo shoot three years ago. No way he regrets it now. There’s a huge cover story about The Jewboy Who Would Be Governor, Kinky Friedman, in the new issue of The Weekly Standard (not even makin’ that up). It wonders of Friedman’s candidacy,…

More Moronic Morons

Maybe it’s like a family feud; after all, Mark Cuban is part of the Forbes list of the 400 richest Americans. Seems, though, the owner of the Dallas Mavericks was a little peeved with the magazine’s trying to compare the sale of his Broadcast.com to Yahoo for $5.7 billion in…

Trick or Treat?

There are some captains we love more than others–like, oh, Captain Kirk. Love him. And Brenden Morrow. Nice captain too. Your Dallas Stars are either setting us up for another punch to the gut come April or laying the foundation for the first 82-0 season in NHL history. In the…

It Is the Wiggles World, After All

The Wiggles are taking over, and their U.S. invasion begins in Frisco. Sounds about right. Yesterday we were pimping for Playboy; today, it’s the Wiggles. Speed bump much? But, yeah, if you have a kid between the ages of, oh, 1 and 3, you might want to just go ahead…

Dear Fellow Employee…

Belo Corp. chairman, president and chief executive officer Robert W. Decherd sent the troops a “Dear Fellow Employees” letter today in which he said, more or less, Hey, baby, everything’s gonna be fine–trust me, baby. More or less. Not really in those terms. You get the idea. Decherd, who was…

Club Blue Seeing Red

BlueVip.com The owners of Blue are suing the city in federal court, claiming they’ve had their constitutional rights violated. And they want a few bucks too. On the very first day we launched Unfair Park, former Dallas Observer music editor Sam Machkovech reported about a confrontation that took place between…

Dastardly Duo

You know two guys who deserve each other more than Bill Parcells and Terrell Owens? C’mon… C’mon… Can’t think of any, can you? Why is it that after yesterday’s Cowboys victory over the Hapless Texans I felt like taking a shower? I mean, 34-6 is sweet. But somehow it felt…

Closing Up the Storehouse

Noticed here yesterday that Storehouse, which has 12 locations in Texas (three of which are in Dallas area), is going outta business. Says nothing else about it on the Web site, save that everything must go for 15 to 30 percent off, which is cheap, but, then, so’s the furniture…

Dallas’ “Bewildering” Group Home Problem

The El Paso Times has been running a series of stories investigating the “living conditions and health care of people with mental illness in Texas, including the El Paso area.” Today comes the paper’s third part in the series, which deals with the rapid increase in the number of group…

Coal-Fired Up Again

This morning, the Associated Press picks up on a story familiar to anyone around here who reads a newspaper: the debate over coal-fired power plants, which has become Mayor Laura Miller’s biggest cause–at least, second only to the half a mil given lobbyist David Dean last week by a city…

No, I Said Mustang

Ladies, if Amber Campisi is your role model–or if your turn-ons merely include someone who’s “confident but not cocky,” as if–well, now’s your chance to play catch-up. We got a press release yesterday from the fine folks at Playboy, who just wanted to let us know they’d be in the…

Everybody’s Narcing on The News

People are not happy with The Dallas Morning News this morning; don’t look at me, mine’s just a little soggy. Let’s start close to home, with Sharon Boyd’s Dallas Arena, where it’s The Dallas Managed News getting Boyd worked up this a.m. Turns out she’s discovered that Ronda Gibbons, the…

Oh, David Dean is Mad at the Mayor

David Dean, the lobbyist pushing the Trans-Texas Corridor on the city’s behalf, ain’t happy with the mayor–something to do with her having said on Wednesday, just before the council voted 7-6 to give him $515,000 plus additional expenses, that “Whatever David Dean dreams, he spends.” Dean, who’s now gotten more…

The Piano Man

Do you like this? If you just jumped out of your chair and said, “Yesohmygodilovejamiecullumohmygodhessocuteohmygod!” (and, Adam McGill, I look in your direction), then it must be Free Ticket Friday. He’s at the Nokia Theatre in Grand Prairie tonight at 8 p.m., and we have a pair of ducats plus…

Rasansky Wants a Do-Over

Mitchell Rasansky wants the city to take back the 500 thou it gave David Dean on Wednesday. Good luck with all that. I just got off the phone with Mitchell Rasansky, and the council member had two things to say about David Dean, the lobbyist who’s gotten about a million…

The Great Greats

Wilco: We’ve said it once, we’ll say it again. Best band in the world. Proved it last night in Fort Worth. Didn’t need to. Did. I have a theory that Wilco is the greatest American rock band, past or present. They’ve been my favorite band for a decade, so honestly…

Extra Crunchy

Rod Dreher recently suggested someone oughta give Bible Girl a book deal. Well, Rod, you have an agent, don’t ya? Rod Dreher is editor of The Dallas Morning News’ Points section as well as author of a recent book called Crunchy Cons, which makes the case for a new kind…