NEW TO NORTHPARK

Need another reason to spend some money? Here are four. Come November, the completion of phase one of NorthPark’s expansion will bring new stores worth checking out. Just in time for the holidays, the following will make a debut in Dallas at NorthPark: Juicy Couture, Vilebrequin, and Custo Barcelona. Nordstrom will officially open to the public on November 11.

RE: BEE MAGAZINE: A KNEE-JERK REVIEW

I’d just like our readers to know you’re using “sucks” and “blechy” on the day Wick’s out of the office.

Pitiful.

BEE MAGAZINE: A KNEE-JERK REVIEW

We told you back in July about the new national Dallas-based magazine called Bee (then we told you about their planned launch party and the provenance of their start-up capital). Well, the party was last night. I didn’t go, but I have the premiere issue in my hands. Launching a new magazine is difficult. I’ve been involved with two start-ups, so I know. And I know you’ve got to go easy on that first issue. It’s always produced with too little money and too little time and too little manpower. Or womanpower, as the case may be. That said, here’s my review of Bee, for Those Who Care:
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WHAT RHYMES WITH “BIRKELBACH”?

This story hypes Alan Birkelbach’s visit to the Sherman Public Library. This blog item hypes Plano-resident Alan Birkelbach, the current Poet Laureate of Texas. A belated congratulations, Alan.

FREEBIES AT THE MOVIES

Mark Cuban and Todd Wagner have found a way to get some press for their HDNet films: give ticket-buyers free downloads of the movie’s soundtrack for the movie they just saw. HDNet is also planning to release movies on screens and DVDs on the same day.

“As studios and exhibitors search for ways to retain audiences frustrated with the theater experience, we believe the competitive solution lies in increasing value for customers,” Wagner said in a statement.

Freebies are great, unless Cuban gets The Hoop Troop to slingshot them into the crowd.

WAAAY OVER THE TOP

Seriously, Chris Vognar. How could you possibly counterpoint Seinfeld and Curb Your Enthusiasm? It’s such a false dichotomy, it’s not even funny. And, hey you, Observer guys: thanks but no thanks for hailing Mr. Dallas the “Best Man About Town.” Sure, it’s about time some attention was paid. But you guys totally, totally misread him and his self-confessed need to feel with-it. Der.

INCONCEIVABLE = INSUFFERABLE

A wire-watching FrontBurnervian sends along news that Angie Harmon’s Inconceivable has had its plug pulled in Canada after the very first episode. Yoinks!

RE: DEFENSE OF THE DMN

Jim Schutze defended his conspiracy theory to me:

Yes, it was on their site. Patrick [the D.O.'s managing editor] found it there. But I spent a lot of time with the Nexis people. They looked and found it, but only in synopsis from a Knight-Ridder wire thing on opinion around the country. They were quite baffled by its absence from the Morning News feed and said it should have been there. When I asked if it had been there originally but had been withdrawn, they checked and then started to clam up on me. They would say only that its absence was a “mystery.”

So how would you explain it? They do what we do: a straight daily digital feed of the content of the newspaper on a programmed basis. Nobody sits there every day and says, yes, send this article and, no, don’t send that one. At least not normally. I think there are two possible explanations for the editorial still appearing on the web page but having been expunged from Nexis. 1) Someone at the News was too clever by half. 2) Someone at the News was clever by only half.

Then, minutes later, Jim sent a follow-up:

As we speak, the plot congeals. The editorial in question is now on Nexis. The pub date, as you will note at the top, is September 20. But the LOAD DATE, when it was shipped to Nexis, is September 29, yesterday. So now I would say someone has been clever by one half plus one quarter. And I think they deserve credit for that.

To err is human. To err and cover up is also human. To err and cover up and then get busted for covering up and then make amends, if not divine, at least the right move. Good on ‘em.

ALTERNATIVE FRIDAY FUN

Maybe it’s going to bring on widespread koro downstairs, accompanied by lots of kusukusu, but FrontBurnervians should help cure the latah of our bloggers by composing a few inspired paragraphs about them, using Features : app1″ href=”http://enjoyment.independent.co.uk/books/features/article315207.ece”>this glossary. (Call it rejam if you want to, but I think of it as inspired fucha.)

LURE ME IN OLD-TIMER

Turner Classic Movies wants younger people to watch the network and has dumped $10 million into a new ad campaign to do it, the most the network’s ever spent. The ads appear tonight in Landmark theatres in Dallas.

The spot for North by Northwest is the best: “When you barely miss your plane, that’s frustrating. When your plane barely misses you, that’s classic.”

CONGRATS TO THE DSO. DAMN YOU, iTUNES

I read about the DSO’s huge honor, receiving the Editor’s Choice Award from Gramophone for its Rachmaninoff recording with pianist Stephen Hough. I won’t pretend to know much about classical music, but I figure that’s an album I should listen to and own. So I went to iTunes, figuring I could download it. Sadly, not so. Now, geeze, if I just knew someone in PR at the DSO who might have a copy of the disc. Hmmm …

SHERMAN JUDGE TO TEEN: “NO SEX FOR YOU”

Judge Lauri Blake in the 336th District Court has barred a 17-year-old girl from having sex “as long as she is living with her parents and attending school.” In other words, until Monday, when she ditches class and moves in with the first boy who’ll take her.

DO NOT TIRE OF KATRINA-RELATED STORIES

A couple of weeks ago, Tim saw an item on the local news about a New Orleans’ doctor who rescued cancer cells. We then sent Intern Jessica Jones to find out more of the story for possible inclusion in the November issue of D. Sadly, for reasons unrelated to the story’s merit, Jessica’s article will not find the printed page–unless you check out the jump and print it out yourself. Her story follows:
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RE: FURRY SKIES

The mystery is solved. Thanks to a resourceful FBvian (and Snopes.com), we can now say for certain that the picture of the puppies was taken on a bus. Sadly.

IN DEFENSE OF THE DMN

Jim Schutze has another good column this week about the DMN’s editorial board flip-flopping on an editorial they wrote. First they suggested we cut the Calatrava “pork” to help rebuild New Orleans. Then, the next day, after publisher Jim Moroney went strong mayor all over them, they said, “Oops. Never mind. Forget what we said yesterday.” Schutze reports that it even appears as if the DMN removed the first editorial from the Lexis/Nexis database.

But hang on. If they wanted to pretend it never happened by pulling the editorial from Lexis, wouldn’t they have bothered to remove it from their own site, too? They didn’t. The first editorial remains, for everyone to read. So this is one conspiracy theory that doesn’t hold water.

ALOHA MOCKINGBIRD STATION

Kenneth Hughes, the developer behind Mockingbird Station, is taking on Hawaii. He’s proposed a $64 million hotel as part of Phase II of development in Waikiki.

Sounds like an extensive, 12- to 18-month investigation by D Magazine is in order, doesn’t it?

RE: SLEEPLESS

A news-watching FBvian thinks this is what the cops were up to. The crime spree didn’t exactly happen in Lakewood, but as the cops were searching for these guys, they might have checked out that part of town.

SLEEPLESS IN LAKEWOOD

A Lakewood-dwelling FrontBurnervian reports that she didn’t get much shut-eye last night, as a DPD chopper–or, possibly, choppers–were buzzing the neighborhood, searchlights going, around 2 a.m. She wonders if anyone has scoop.

FRIDAY FUN

It’s the last Friday of the month. I don’t think that’s relevant to today’s Friday Fun, but I figured I’d point that out in case it is. Today’s Friday Fun is called Planet X. As you might have guessed, the setting for the game is in space. Specifically, a space cave. Guide your little spaceship around, picking up good things and avoiding the bad things. Don’t forget to fuel up. And, as always, have fun.

DALLAS RUMORS = STILL GOING

Blah, blah, blah Dallas. Blah, blah, movie version. Blah, blah, big-name actors, like Mel Gibson and Kevin Costner to play J.R. More here.

WHY CARL SEWELL PROBABLY DOESN’T LIKE NEW ORLEANS COPS

An alert FBvian brings us this item from NOLA.com about the 200 cars that were stolen from Carl Sewell’s New Orleans dealership. Looks like they might have been stolen by the cops.

RE: GORDON KEITH

Gordon Keith has released an official statement:

“My face is as red as my column. I have a team of Belo-educated folks that are supposed to catch my foe paws before they belie my resume varnish. In the words of Paul Kix, “[Expletive] Quick! They are sooo sux!”

IT DEPENDS. I SUPPOSE, ON WHO’S DOING THE BANNING

A message from Mitch Muncy, the editor of Dallas-based Spence Publishing, which publishes works of the conservation persuasion:

I’ve been doing radio interviews during the last week on “Banned Books Week,” the annual “celebration” of free speech sponsored by the American Library Association, the Association of American Publishers, and the American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression. You will probably not be surprised to learn that my opinion of BBW is rather low.

Today, thanks to Technorati, the blog search service, I came across the following reaction to my comments. It is without a doubt the most evocative thing anyone has ever said about Spence Publishing.

“…his books s— and no one wants to read them . . . libraries and bookstores avoid them like steaming heaps of tainted dog feces.”

This will be very bad news for those of you who are or will soon be Spence Publishing authors, but you will be consoled to know that Spence has a very strong direct sales program.

PUN WITH ADS

A D-reading FrontBurnervian shares this NOTE with us about an advertisement in our November issue of Best Doctors:

I can’t believe nobody’s written about the neurosurgeon on page 158. One of the most serious of all medical disciplines, the dude’s in a t-shirt with guitar slung over his shoulder. I can see it now. I’ve got a hairline fracture that might leave me paralyzed. His response is, “Don’t FRET, you’re not in TREBLE. I BASS my diagnosis in acCHORDance with your ability to be in TUNE with my payment plan.”

Groan.

RE: DOWN WITH COMCAST

I have a Comcast update. So as not to confuse Tim, I’ll use only simple sentences. So as not to anger Wick, I’ll use, if not the Queen’s English, something better than the proletarian stuff he despises. Here goes.

Two hours late, the Comcast guy knocked on our door yesterday afternoon. After fiddling with some wires for a time, he told my girlfriend he could not install the cable. One of the lines through which the cable flowed did not work. (This may explain why my basic cable was less than basic.) My girlfriend asked if the guy who could fix the problem was in the area. The Comcast guy said we’d need to make another appointment.

We are still waiting to reschedule.