Let’s talk about rock ‘n’ roll I am in total agreement with Robert Cox’s letter in the November 25 issue regarding how “out of touch” the Dallas Observer is with the local music scene. Robert Wilonsky should take a little trip up to the north part of Dallas and visit…
Public sentiment in the United States has historically placed public funding for the arts somewhere near the bottom of the list of government priorities, and accordingly, the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) has been a prime target for congressional trims and cuts. It currently operates on half of its…
Holier than thou Religion is one of the great underreported realms of American journalism. Not because it isn’t written about. Every newspaper in America regularly sets aside space for religion stories; almost every sizable paper has its own full-time religion reporter. The problem is that what they write resembles the…
The peach-colored building stands amid plainer houses of entertainment along Restaurant Row like a country club among car dealerships. Its nightclub and adjacent management offices affect an air of aloof respectability, complete with valet parking and handcarved Spanish doors. Inside, a brass chandelier dominates the foyer. An ornate staircase ascends…
To the victor belongs the spoils. Or so the saying goes. But if the victor happens to defeat the city of Dallas, his battle has just begun. Just ask civil rights lawyer Mike Daniel. For the past year, he and fellow lawyer Betsy Julian have been trying to collect their…
Presumed ignorant Excitement is building at Buzz as the O.J. Simpson trial approaches. Forget the 12 jurors in L.A.; we’ll have our eye on the Arlington 10. In one of the more creative Simpson-trial media excesses to date, the Arlington edition of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram has selected a group…
During a political question-and-answer session, a middle-aged, middle-class white woman hesitantly held up her hand and said: “You know, Time magazine said one reason Tom Daschle might have trouble getting elected minority leader is because South Dakota is just so…well…blah. What can we do about that?” The heartbreak of being…
Letter from Coppell: I am not a clod What a bunch of erroneous claptrap! [“The muckraker of Coppell,” December 1]. Arthur Kwast was not a “former engineer” on my last visit to his office nor did an outgoing councilmember present Mr. Moore his “Team Wacko” cap. This cap was designed…
Screenwriter Steven DeSouza, who wrote the scripts for such action opuses as Commando and the Die Hard pictures, summarizes the lasting appeal of blade weapons in movies with the succinctness of a letter opener to the throat. “Not many people have been shot or blown up,” he says, “so when…
There’s a modern cliche that it takes only three or four phone calls to get in touch with anyone in the world. But trying to contact action-film mogul Joel Silver for comment on Jack Crain, the Weatherford knifemaker whose career in action movies he singlehandedly created, repudiates it handily. The…
Lifestyles of the rich and Republican Governor-elect George W. may still be pinching himself, but wife Laura Bush has the makings of a Marie Antoinette stiff upper lip. Remarking on the trials of moving her two children into the Governor’s Mansion, she told the Associated Press: “I heard it was…
Lots of people donate their bodies to science. But most of them wait until after they’re dead. Not Charlie Procter. For five months earlier this year, the 45-year-old petroleum engineer allowed nurses to probe and prick him dozens of times while drilling for blood; underwent several bone-density sonagram tests forcing…
Sorry to begin with an apologia, but one of the things I try not to do as a commentator is put in my two cents’ worth when I don’t have enough knowledge to back it up. When I venture into international affairs or international economic issues–not my native turf, to…
Death of a family After reading Ann Zimmerman’s article on the Krasniqi family [“‘Tell Mama why you cry,'” November 17], I was angered and saddened. Of all our variety of stories of injustice these days, this one really wrenched my heart. After reading Ms. Zimmerman’s article carefully and drawing on…
News craps out At its best, a newspaper editorial page serves as a beacon for a community. Newspaper editorial writers have the opportunity to cut through rhetoric and sloppy thinking–to stake out a clear position on a difficult or complex issue, and make persuasive arguments to support it. It is…
Ticketgate was about to unravel in Coppell. Late one night in early June, Arthur Kwast, the resident gadfly of this shiny suburb northwest of Dallas, was sitting in his house when the phone rang. The caller, talking in furtive tones, detailed how a prominent merchant in town had gotten a…
Back into the tar pit The holiday season is looking bleaker than the Pleistocene Era for the folks who unleashed Barney the Dinosaur. After a $500-million sales year, the smarmy carnivore failed to lumber onto this year’s “Hottest Toys” lists. It’s bad enough to be stomped by the Power Rangers,…
If reports that Dallas is booming again are true, the real test might be a stalled downtown housing scheme. After falling months behind schedule, a city-backed plan offering federal loan and tax incentives to transform office buildings into hip apartment dwellings finally has begun to show promise. In December last…
You don’t expect to uncover any revolutionaries at the D-FW Airport Hilton — especially ones who are plotting against the dysfunctional automobile culture of American suburbia. The Hilton epitomizes the placelessness of modern planning: it sits in the middle of nowhere, accessible only by car or airport shuttle, ready to…
Criticizing the critic Professional chefs and restaurateurs continually balance the flavors of their food, quality of their service, and desired atmosphere each and every day. It is unfortunate that Observer reviewer Mary Brown Malouf does not seek similar balance in her review writing. The staff at Amici and I, as…
Someone in the Dallas city manager’s office is not telling the truth. Fabricating. Covering up. Dissembling. Lying. And almost no one seems to care about it. That’s disturbing–because it’s not a lowly clerk or mid-level stiff who’s bending the truth. It’s city manager John Ware and his top deputies, first…
I listen to Republican rhetoric about how power should be returned to “the states” with some degree of alarm. It sounds so good in the abstract–by George, gummint should be closer to the people, those beanbrains in Washington don’t know anything about our problems here. But then one realizes what…
