American Airlines wants to ditch all of its labor contracts. I wonder a couple things about that. But first: I do get what bankruptcy is. It’s pushing back the creditors. I get that. Maybe everybody signed deals that were too generous, back in the fat days. Now somebody doesn’t want…
It’s a relatively quiet Wednesday night at Deep Ellum’s newest watering hole, Swallow Lounge (double entendre or just a hastily chosen name? You be the judge). I take a seat at the empty bar lined with bright red vinyl stools. Above the bar, back-lit swallows — those little birds that…
Just want to make sure you know what you’re getting into if you count on The Dallas Morning News to tell you what’s up. It’s not that they won’t. But you do have to deal with the social local filter. The New York Times this morning carries a story by…
Dear Mexican: I was born in los estados unidos, my father is Tamaulipas and my mother is a third-generation Chicana. Being married to a mexicano, we recently vacationed in his hometown of Apatzingan, Michoacán. It was my first time meeting my in-laws and everyone from his colonia. It seems I…
Things have to fall into place a certain way. The right cards must be dealt. But the 50th anniversary of the JFK assassination in Dallas on November 22, 2013, could become a hallmark event in a long tradition of popular street actions stretching back to the nation’s beginnings. From Occupy…
All right, I’ve got my lanyard whistle around my neck, and I’m set for a session here. Let’s hustle up out there, Lawners. Time for today’s knee-jerk calisthenics. Remember our interim motto: A knee-jerk reaction is better than not being able to feel your feet. (I’m working on shortening that.)…
In 2009 the New York Times ran an article describing a trend taking over the city. Various shops were selling young coconuts, with undeveloped shells, liberated of their tops and served with drinking straws. “I think it’s stylish, it’s pretty,” said a Brooklyn shop owner who was selling cases of…
Welcome to Local Music ‘Mericans, where we get to know the people behind the scenes in Dallas-Fort Worth music. Veronica Navarro is an Internet radio host on Deep Ellum On Air, and her talk show, “Hungover with V,” streams live Sundays at 11 a.m. It can be a pretty uplifting…
Recently I found myself at the register of a Pinkberry with a pretty swirl of coconut frozen yogurt topped off with a load of sticker shock. “It’s just one small,” I said upon seeing the price, gesturing behind me that I was alone and wondering how many swirls she just…
Maybe it’s late in the day for this, but is there any chance the city could rescind its bizarre special ordinance ordering the preservation of the old Crozier Tech high school building at the east end of downtown and just let the poor bastards who bought the place knock it…
Oh, this is going to be painful. I’ve been trying to prepare myself all weekend by eating a diet of prunes and flax seed, riding a stationary bicycle, doing somewhat Yoga-like stretches according to what I’ve seen in the movies and giving myself drill-sergeant pep talks in the mirror, also…
Back in late February, SideDish, the food blog over at D, carried the news that a sandwich shop called Capriotti’s was going to revamp an old gas station downtown and subsequently expand to 50 other locations around DFW. “Has anybody eaten here before? Is it any good?” the post asked…
Cupcakes! Cupcakes, cupcakes, buzzword, cupcakes. Sprinkles is extending its hours, and to celebrate, the cupcake conglomerate is giving away free cupcakes. Or cupcake, singular, to be specific. Tonight only, every pancreas at The Plaza at Preston Center will be given one free cupcake of its choice from 8 to 9…
James Galbraith has a new book out, Inequality and Instability, arguing that … well, you know he’s an economist at the LBJ School at UT Austin, so it’s pretty complicated … I’m trying to boil down what I got out of it … I need to put this into Get-Off-My-Lawn…
On June 13, 2010, Dallas police arrested and jailed Robert Groden, author of best-selling books on the Kennedy assassination and a consultant to the Oliver Stone movie, JFK. The police accused Groden of violating a city law against selling books in Dealey Plaza, where the assassination happened almost a half-century…
Dear Mexican: I work for a major news organization and often have heard the figure of 10 million illegal Mexicans. Unofficially, I have been quoted the number 20 to 25 million illegals, most of them not Mexican. Why the focus on the Mexicans? They are far less alien than the…
Someone with a lot of clout in this town thinks Dallas should clamp down on free speech at Dealey Plaza for the 50th anniversary of the JFK assassination coming up next year. There’s only one right way for free Americans to deal with that kind of thinking. Clamp down on…
Want to give yourself a good case of the climate-change willies? Go to climatecentral.org, click on their report on sea level rise and look for Texas. We could be in for it worse than California, depending on how you measure. When national media talk about sea-level rises, they tend to…
Before I was a food critic I was a recipe tester. I worked with Bonnie Benwick at the Washington Post, who would send out a handful of recipes to her team and demand resultant dishes be brought to the office for sampling and photography. She would yell at us testers…
Like many food writers I’m sure, I’ve been watching Pulitzer-winning Jonathan Gold’s transition from the LA Weekly to the Los Angeles Times closely. The death of the star system at the daily publication has gotten a lot of attention, too, but it’s Gold’s first blog post that has invoked deep…
Welcome to Local Music ‘Mericans, where we get to know the people behind the scenes in Dallas/Fort Worth music. Lisa McDaniel’s interests are an unlikely duo: metal and math. In all fairness, she likes local music of all different kinds. But when it comes to her faves, she’s as down…
I was hoping that eating a Doritos flavored taco would inspire a few grafs of humorous prose, but instead it just spurred sorrow. Now, sitting at my desk after enduring my arterial assault, I feel depressed. I won’t call Taco Bell’s creation good or bad. It tastes exactly like what…
