Which event are we talking about here? Individual Dallas school board members — job-defenders who are sworn enemies of the ongoing school reform program — violate normal process to release an internal school district report highly critical of Dallas Superintendent Mike Miles. Before folks have time to read the thing,…
Ah, Detroit. This morning, saddened by the bleak news of bankruptcy and shame, I pulled from the shelf my worn copy of a book of Detroit legends and re-read my favorite of all, the story of the Loup Garou. French 17th century settlers on the shores of Lake St. Clair…
This week’s Dallas Observer is our Drinking Issue, featuring reviews, columns and 24 hours of drinking in Dallas. For the music section, we asked a few DFW musicians to share their drinking stories. Here’s the first. Many artists are afflicted/blessed with some form of mood/personality disorder. What do people with…
JFK assassination 50th anniversary news: City of Dallas releases video showing Dealey Plaza was occupied by Indians long before JFK assassination. Suburban library presents speech by guy who gave Lee Harvey Oswald ride to work. Boston auction announces it will hawk Oswald’s wedding ring. Mind if I slip something else…
This week’s Dallas Observer is our Drinking Issue, featuring reviews, columns and 24 hours of drinking in Dallas. For the music section, we asked a few DFW musicians to share their drinking stories. Here’s the first. Our band was scheduled to play at a bar in Amarillo. It’s a great…
Welcome to Alice Column, in which Alice Laussade writes stories about things on (roughly) the same day of (roughly) every week, making it (roughly) a column. Got an idea for a column? Start your own blog and write it up, you lazy shit. Me: “Going to the movies is so…
The good thing about growing up in the daily newspaper business back when I did: You were surrounded by a lot of really good drinkers. I don’t use that language facetiously. A good drinker is somebody who really does know how to drink, even drink a lot and still keep…
Hey, if you drop by here every once in a while and read this crap, then you may wonder, “What on earth is wrong with this guy?” I just want you to know, I have the same question. Today I finished reading the big editorial in our city’s only daily…
Lindsey BestAndrew Youssef [Editor’s Note: Longtime concert photographer Andrew Youssef found out almost two years ago that he had Stage IV Colon Cancer. In that time, he has continued to shoot tons of music events for our sister paper OC Weekly on top of other freelance work and working a…
Consider this your advance warning, Dallas. Amplified rock and roll is coming, and it’s not only coming hard, it’s coming at times that are mainly not weeknights, meaning you can combine two pursuits, metal concerts and binge drinking, that go hand in hand like butter on toast or rabbits and…
Recently I was on a search to hire a poster artist for a project of my own, and I happed across Scott Krakowski, and his new poster for a show coming up at The Crown and Harp. I loved his work. I found his prices to be expensive-leaning, but I…
Are you a musician? Is your group having issues? Ask Fan Landers! Critic Jessica Hopper has played in and managed bands, toured internationally, booked shows, produced records, worked as a publicist, and is the author of The Girls’ Guide to Rocking, a how-to for teen ladies. She is here to…
The New York Times has a story on its front page today about the Trayvon Martin verdict reporting not only that Florida’s “Stand Your Ground” law was not invoked by the defense but also quoting a legal expert who calls the law’s exclusion from defense arguments “a brilliant strategic move.”…
OK, a few days ago I used this space to say we need a few good Texas schoolhouse shootouts to settle the question of whether teachers should be armed, and maybe now I should concede that I didn’t exactly make that point in the most mature way possible. Right now…
On today’s Dallas Morning News opinion page, Maxwell L. Anderson, chairman of the Dallas Arts District Foundation, and Catherine Cuellar, executive director of the Dallas Arts District Foundation, writing about a controversy over reflected light from a new condo tower and its affect on the Nasher Sculpture Center next door,…
Count this out with me, will you? Texas Governor Rick “Oops” Perry won’t support increased government regulation of fertilizer makers or sellers like the plant that blew up in West on April 17, killing 15, injuring 200 and inflicting property damage now estimated at $80 million. Don’t need no stinking…
Michael Pyeatt has been watching music go down in Dallas for a long spell. If you rewind far enough into Club DaDa’s history, it was Michael running the door (often wearing an IHOP dress, according to his own recollection). As you’ll read, Pyeatt is also apparently sitting on some golden…
It’s hot outside. And sunny. We call this “summer.” I’m told it’s the time of year we’re all supposed to “Get that beach body!” At first, I was extremely excited about this concept: “Who wouldn’t want to treasure hunt for a body at the beach, right? Maybe it’s a Dexter-ish…
I can’t tell you his name and I can’t give you his phone number but he has 1995 Cadillac limousine, and if you can find him on Greenville Avenue, he will definitely give you a ride. But you have to find him, maybe the way we did, in the dark…
Stories about my old hometown, Detroit, are no longer merely depressing. The word, depressing, just doesn’t get it. Detroit is beginning to be fascinating. Its plight is almost mesmerizing, in a science-fiction post-apocalyptic kind of way. Terrible awful unbelievable story in The New York Times today saying, among other things,…
Sunday night’s episode of Futurama, “Forty Percent Leadbelly,” documented the struggles of everyone’s favorite bending machine, Bender Bending Rodriguez, to become the folk singer he’d always wanted to be. Now, while this may not be the blues singer that Dallas native Leadbelly, referenced in the episode’s title and by a…
Are you a musician? Is your group having issues? Ask Fan Landers! Critic Jessica Hopper has played in and managed bands, toured internationally, booked shows, produced records, worked as a publicist, and is the author of The Girls’ Guide to Rocking, a how-to for teen ladies. She is here to…
