“Home Rule” Drive for DISD May Be in for a Brake Job This Week

There is a distinct possibility the mayor or somebody else associated with the public school takeover effort now underway — called “home rule” by its backers — will announce this week that they are “tapping the brakes,” pausing the campaign for now. That will make lots of people happy but…

Six Reasons Employers Should Hire Touring Musicians

In 2014, you should’ve already figured it out by now: Your dumpy, forgettable band with few fans should be touring. The need to turn your local bar band into a mobile poverty-stricken disaster unit is of utmost importance. It’s your chance to see beautiful rolling landscapes, fall in love with…

When Mexicans Give You Limes, Make Limeade

Dear Mexican: Can you help me unravel the citrus dilemma? When I am in Mexico or a Mexican restaurant or market I am unable to find lemons (yellow, egg-sized, tart-tasting fruits). Whenever I ask, I get green-colored fruit, which looks and tastes to me like limes (green, smaller than egg-sized,…

Imagine Fair Park Without the Fair

I got it. I have the big idea for Fair Park. Really. Not kidding. Let me tell you how I got there. Mayor Mike Rawlings called and took me to task recently for suggesting in a blog item that his commission on repurposing Fair Park was a secret. He pointed…

What Made Mayor Mike Rawlings Blow His Top? The Mystery.

The mayor’s pissed-off walk-out last week from a meeting with Latino leaders to discuss his school takeover plan is, if anything, more of a mystery, now that a recording of the meeting is circulating. He said last week he walked out because the meeting was being hijacked and he wanted…

My Kingdom for a Sewer. But What About My Councilman?

The other night after talking all day to people about the no-sewer zone around the new University of North Texas at Dallas campus in Southern Dallas, I got to wondering. If the rest of us in other parts of the city had to give up a single part of the…

Ludacris: An Appreciation

This is a statement that your brain will reflexively disagree with but also one that it will eventually accept as truth: Ludacris is one of rap’s greatest and most unstoppable guest-verse performers of all time, and, despite his millions of album sales and shelf full of awards, remains somehow underrated…

Bare Midriffs Expose Every Woman’s Goddess

Dear Mexican: The current clothing trend is for ladies to wear low-cut jeans and belly shirts that expose their midriffs. That looks great on a hard-bodied woman, so why do so many fat Mexican mujeres insist on dressing like this? Their gut hangs over their pants and pushes their shirt…

DISD Home-rule Supporters Should Step into the Light

UPDATED MAY 1 2014: A Cease-Fire Breaks Out at DISD ORIGINAL POST:Oh, do give me a break. Sure, there are some really compelling arguments for dumping the current system of governance of the public school system, the main one being the public school system. The stealth petition drive that has…

Addison!! WTF?! What’s with the New, Boring Logo?!?!?!

Dearest Addison: It has come to my attention that you have decided to change the logo for your town. This greatly saddens me. I have loved that logo since its inception. Every time I drive down Midway Road and find myself passing through your suburb, I yell, “Yay, I’m in…

Ask Andrew W.K.: Understanding Our Parents

Editor’s note: Every week New York City’s own Andrew W.K. takes your life questions, and sets you safely down the right path to a solution, a purpose or — no surprise here — a party. Need his help? Just ask: AskAWK@villagevoice.com Dear Andrew, I love my parents, but I feel…

Dallas’ 14-1 Council System Is a Little Broken, but not Enough To Fix

Yesterday my item about the no-sewer zone in southern Dallas drew sharp comments complaining about the “14-1” single-member City Council system in Dallas. In that particular case, the council member for the district won’t allow sewers to be built in an entire region of his own district because he’s afraid…

Update on City Hall’s Outhouse Policy for Southern Dallas

Small update here on the part of Dallas to which City Hall refuses to extend sewer service. We have spoken about it here several times. It’s an area abutting the brand-new University of North Texas campus near Interstate 35E and I-20. DART is building a new rail station right there,…

Why Send Newborn Babies to Prison If We Don’t Have To?

Stop me if I told you this already. Oh, hah-hah, it’s print, isn’t it? You can’t stop me. Well then just bear with me. In American schools, kids learn to read from kindergarten through the third grade. From fourth grade on, they read to learn. Kids who can’t read by…

Six Legitimate Reasons to Make Art

A factor in the decline of decent art was recently dragged onto center stage by the New York Times in an article called “Brooklyn Communal Cool: The Brand.” The piece, authored by a person who spells “mic” like “mike,” focuses on a communal-living quarters in Brooklyn called the Clubhouse and…