A real poetry slam No doubt Robert Wilonsky has heard, being as he is music editor for the Observer, the never-ending litanies of Dallas’ popular-music community and how band members and fans alike still feel the media give local music short shrift. But when this staunch supporter of the local…
“I hate bigotry. I hate racism. I hate sexism. I hate classism. When I confront people with those ideas, I am ready for battle.”mmm So says Clarence Glover, the new man at the Dallas Independent School District, hired six months ago to craft a more understanding racial climate for Dallas…
Shyster! is a multimedia computer game that outrageously lampoons the American legal system. The interactive satire casts the player in the role of a shady lawyer as either the defense or prosecution. In playing the game, you select minute details about your alter ego: your gender, race, clothing style, and…
As of this week, Dallas Observer Assistant Editor Julie Lyons takes over as the paper’s editor. She replaces Peter Elkind, who left the Observer in April. Lyons’ writing at the Observer has brought her national recognition. “Journey to hope,” the moving chronicle of her search for faith that ended in…
The Center for Texas Studies at the University of North Texas has been a sort of literary clearinghouse for all things Texan. If you have a story about the evolution of the cowboy boot, or a poem about life, chances are the center has a publication to fit it. For…
The Dallas Observer has won the prestigious Missouri Lifestyle Journalism Award for general excellence. The Missouri School of Journalism studied more than 1,400 entries from papers of all sizes around the country last year in its search for outstanding lifestyle journalism in categories that included arts and entertainment, short features,…
A year ago, Clara Miles lay in her bed in a gray hospital room, a dreaded place filled with bottles that led to tubes that led to needles that led to her arms, where they threaded into tired veins. She had lost everything–her health, her money, and Clara’s Kitchen, the…
Mark Elliott and Keith Foerster named their jazz label Leaning House Records for a very good reason. Their Lower Greenville house-cum-business headquarters sits at a disorienting slant, so much so that if one were to place a marble on the floor at one end of the house, it would seem…
Cassandra Lee Dean says she isn’t looking to bring anyone down or ruin anyone’s life. All she wants to do is make the man who fathered her child acknowledge his daughter. Especially since that man has become a celebrated symbol of paternal responsibility. Dean, 26, received a default judgment in…
Scary school Greenhill School, Dallas’ liberal yet no-less-elitist private academy, has taken a step to preserve its academic purity by banning from campus the Goosebumps series of children’s books because its “graphic” content “doesn’t leave much to the imagination.” Goosebumps, a sort of kiddie pulp fiction featuring ghouls, ghosts, and…
Lancaster’s tempest Please allow me to offer some brighter colors to the dark picture painted of Lancaster in a recent Observer article [“Storm warning,” May 2]. While the city’s unique personality has always kept its politics interesting, there is much to appreciate about our rich history and promising future. Big…
The man at the pulpit with the mass of neatly coiffed silver hair is speaking of sin and redemption, pleading with his flock to forgive him his very human frailties. “No one is free from sin,” he says. His eyes have filled with tears. The camera lens zooms in, and…
E-e-e-e-e-o-o-o,” squeals Kathryn Benton, a brown-haired moppet with vivid blue eyes and a wide smile. With a rigid hand she paws through a book of laminated pictures of family, friends, and teachers created for Kathryn by her special-education teacher, Holly Clemons. It is almost noon on a school day in…
The search for an editorial direction which will offend no one continues to elude the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. Despite its best efforts, the struggling Cowtown daily still has not managed to fully placate the Religious Right. And now, the paper’s Arlington edition managed to hack off liberals as well. Several…
In the fiercely competitive world of youth soccer, no one has more power and influence over children than the coaches. Several weeks ago, a young female soccer player from North Dallas accused a popular coach of two prestigious local soccer clubs and Jesuit College Preparatory School of abusing that power…
Can’t he retake the test? The reign of University of Texas at Arlington president Ryan Amacher is over, but not forgotten. In fact, it’s gone on to become a case history in how not to run a university. The New York-based academic journal Lingua Franca analyzed Amacher’s short, bitter administration…
Nail in metal’s coffin That letter from ASKA’s entertainment lawyer, Paul Webb, was hilarious [“A kick in the ASKA,” Letters, April 25]. Obviously trying to make himself look good by somehow putting a shine on shit, Webb blames writer Michael Corcoran for trying to prejudice the public into hating metal…
The shades are open and rooms empty at the house Jeffrey H. Reynolds III once rented on Blackberry Lane. The 32-year-old check-kiter and soon-to-be federal inmate abruptly moved out about three weeks ago, shortly after pleading guilty to two counts of wire and mail fraud. During the year Reynolds lived…
On April 25, 1994, the weather-radar screen on Bill Gaither’s television was ominous. The Lancaster city manager apprehensively watched the red blips as they moved toward his city. The pulsating pinpoints of light predicted a swift and destructive approaching storm. Pretty soon, barring a miracle, major turbulence would reach the…
Down, Charlie Gibson, down! Adherents of local good-sex guru Ella Patterson probably caught a glimpse of their zaftig Love Goddess on ABC’s Good Morning America this week. The television broadcast kicked off Ella’s month-long national tour to promote her steamy book, Will the Real Women Please Stand Up?, which offers…
Christian Coalition leader’s comments about Hispanics and English-as-a-second-language programs in public schools have enraged parents in the Carrollton-Farmers Branch school district north of Dallas. Doug Hellman, co-chairman of the conservative Dallas County Christian Coalition and a member of the Carrollton-Farmers Branch school board, made the statements during a taped interview…
Barry Annino has seen the future of Deep Ellum, and it is the West End–with the addition of lots and lots of apartments filled with lots and lots of upwardly mobile people with deep pockets. For a year and a half, Annino has acted as the president of the 130-member…
