RE: DMN, PHASE II

Okay, we’re here at this ungodly hour because we’re shipping and Tim doesn’t understand the price of shoes for a shopping story (and if you’ve never heard Tim talk fashion, you’ve missed much of the good life) and art has to re-do a graphic about water buckets because none of us is good at math…and then Paul has a story about a Jackie Floyd column that includes a paragraph with just one word–”Poodles.”–and it’s worth spewing your Diet Coke to hear….and Laura is singing…

And we’re all actually doing what magazines and writers are supposed to do, which is to get lost in the work because you like it despite the hours, and have fun. Often too much fun. And hopefully do something of quality.

Which is yet another difference between us and the DMN. For more, here’s a blistering insight from a media-knowing FBvian:
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RE: DMN, PHASE II

A much-knowing member of the far-flung FB Nation reports that DMN resumes are also making it down to River City:

You didn’t hear it from me (you did not!), but we’re getting DMN resumes down here in Austin, too. And yeah, the DMN was very chief-heavy, and that was before they fired a bunch of the Indians. I have to think the ratio is approaching 1:1.

KEITH DAVIS TO PUT HIS BULLET ON eBAY?

The Associated Press has a good story about the safety, who, you’ll recall, took his third and fourth bullets recently. One of them is still in the man–as he’s playing football. Says cornerback Terrence Newman:

“I’ve been trying to catch him asleep and dig [the bullet] out so I can put it on eBay. But every time I touch his leg, he wakes up.”

RE: DMN

A DMN-working FBvian says still more editors are looking for work:

At least two more high-ranking editors are job hunting, in addition to the Star-Tribune threesome. Factor in the departures the last few months of the business editor and the graphic design editor, and you have about half of the leadership team that was in place to start the year looking to leave or having already left. If these newsroom managers have such little confidence in the future, what should everyone else think?

Indeed. Rod and I wonder if any long-term investigative projects are now put off until, oh, say, mid-September.

GOVERNING IN DALLAS AND DALLAS IN GOVERNING

Followers of Bob (Wilonsky) have already read about the feature story in Governing magazine: “Can Dallas Govern Itself?” Wilonsky notes the article, which can be read here, quotes Observer columnist Jim Schutze three paragraphs in. Our fearless leader gets the role of closer. Here, the article’s final paragraph:

“What we have,” says Wick Allison, publisher of D Magazine, which focuses on the city, “is a governance system constituted such that when everything runs well, it runs well. But when everything goes into the ditch, it can’t get out of the ditch.” The challenge for Dallas, now that it appears to be regaining its footing, is whether it can prove him wrong.

RE: DMN, PHASE II

The resume jam at the fax might get a little clarification from this media-watching FBvian, who thinks the DMN may indeed be a little editor-heavy.
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RE: DMN

Just another anecdote about how bad things are over there: I am told that three high-level editors all applied for the same job at the Star-Tribune. None of them knew the other was applying–and neither, obviously, did the folks in the newsroom. That is, until certain documents coming over a shared fax machine revealed to everyone involved, editors and newsroom alike, how eager at least three senior-level people are to jump ship.

RE: RESTAURANT WEEK

A free-flying FrontBurnervian Foodies advises:

OpenTable.com has broken out the restaurants participating in KRLD’s Restaurant Week. Choice reservation scored just this morning: Wed., Aug. 16 – 7 p.m. for two at Al Biernat’s. You get an e-mail verifying the reservation and you never, ever have to listen to a phone ring even once, thank you very much.

Is this a great idea or what?

DEEP ELLUM DITCHES METERS

I know, I know. Deep Ellum’s free parking at meters during weekdays started two weeks ago and we’re way late in reporting such. But a DE-dining FrontBurnervian shares this:

The manager of the restaurant I went to today went table-to-table telling patrons that Laura Miller finally got off her [keister] and did something to help his business.

RESTAURANT WEEK

A FrontBurnervian Foodie asks about Restaurant Week. Here is what I know:
1. Monday, August 14 - Sunday, August 20; evening dining. Some restaurants will extend the campaign through Sunday, August 27, and a few will extend through September 3. Check the restaurant listings.
2. Go to the KRLD site and click on Restaurant Week for a list of all participating restaurants.
3. The weeklong event features more than 100 Dallas/Fort Worth-area restaurants, each of which will offer a special three-course prix fixe dinner for $35.00 per person, with $7.00 from each meal benefiting the North Texas Food Bank in Dallas and Lena Pope Home in Fort Worth.
4. New this year: a Fourth Course Certificate that entitles participants to a complimentary Fourth Course at restaurants that offer the Fourth Course option. Pick up at any Central Market store.
5. Hurry! Reservations are required and limited. To receive this special price, call the restaurant of your choice and request a KRLD Restaurant Week reservation.

RE: THOSE WILY WYLYS

Does this whole sordid business cast a taint over the soon-to-be-built Dee and Charles Wyly Theater? As the WSJ notes, “The Wyly family’s affairs are now the subject of a federal grand-jury investigation in Dallas.” That investigation centers on possible back-dating of stock options. And then there’s the U.S. Senate panel looking into the off-shore stuff at a hearing tomorrow. So, worst case scenario: the Wylys are indicted. The IRS and the SEC both come calling. Sanctions? Jail time? Theater in the round?

RE: THOSE WILY WYLYS

Ouch. A Bermuda company called Scottish Re is mentioned in that WSJ story about the Wylys tax-shelter strategies. It used to be called Scottish Annuity & Life, and it was set up and run by the Wylys’ lawyer Michael French. Scottish Re is publicly traded, and the trading today–it ain’t so good. The stock is down about 75 percent as the second quarter was a surprising loss and the CEO resigned.

UT’S DARK, DARK DAY

Tomorrow marks the 40th anniversary of the day Charles Whitman climbed to the top of UT’s bell tower and started shooting people. Michael Graczyk’s retelling and profile of the man who brought Whitman down in the DMN is a solid effort. But you have to give credit where credit is due: Texas Monthly’s 10,000-word oral history is engrossing, enlightening, and very well done. Check it out.

CASTING CALL FOR NEW HGTV SHOW

The clunkily named show is called My House Is Worth What? The premise: “[It] tells homeowners across the country what their current home is worth, where they should renovate if they are planning to or just how much equity is available to fulfill a life long dream.” They “urgently” need Dallas folk for the show. If you’re interested.

RE: DMN

One FBvian deep within the paper brings more details of layoffs.

As a follow-up to Rod’s posting, those sequestered editors are scheduled to finish their blueprint for the brand-new Dallas Morning News by this Friday. Then a second group of editors–the publisher, editor, managing editor and editorial page editor–get until the following Wednesday, Aug. 9, to ruminate over it before sending it to Robert Decherd, the Belo chairman.

Apparently, buyout details are included in this planning, and that’s why Jim Moroney told the staff that those details would become known on that week.

You think the staff is neurotic and distracted now? Just wait until after Aug. 9.

If nothing else, this post proves it’s tough to sequester anyone in the news business and expect him/her to remain silent on why he/she is being sequestered.

Update: Another DMN-er says, um, our scoop isn’t a scoop at the paper:

We all got Official E-mails a couple of weeks ago telling us who would be on the committee, what they’d be doing, why they would be sequestered and who they’d report to…Plenty of tension here, but not because we don’t know about the process.

MAG EDITOR PICKS FIGHT WITH ASHLEE’S NEW NOSE

A helpful FrontBurnervian sends this NYT story before we got around to seeing it for ourselves. Ashlee Simpson appeared on the July issue of Marie Claire, “extolling the virtues of appreciating one’s body as it is–then she had a nose job.” The new editor of that women’s mag, Joanna Coles, says they received about 1,000 letter from angry readers, upset at the hypocrisy. Coles decided to expand the letters section to give readers room to vent. And Coles chimed in as well, expressing her disappointment with the younger Simpson.

It is indeed so disillusioning when a pop starlet says one thing yet does another–especially a wholesome, lip-synching, image-shifting, test-group-created, famous-sibling-having, “talented” singer like Ashlee.

ENDANGERED SHUTTLECOCKS

I love the Law of Unexpected Consequences. Bird flu slams badminton. What’s next? Ostrich feathers inhibit strippers? And yes, there is a Dallas badminton club, with links.

CONDO CRASH COMING?

Mur-MUR. For months now, people with eyes wondered where all of the future condo buyers will come from to fill those fancy, high-dollar units downtown, Uptown, and elsewhere. Few were surprised to hear at least one project changed course as Maple Terrace went apartments. But the DBJ has this story that is no doubt indicative of a larger one: HOA lawsuits. The specific story is about the Vendome, but I can speak from personal experience that HOA groups tend to be justifiably bitter toward penny-pinching developers. The former gets hosed as the latter makes huge promises of amenities they fail to deliver and choose to cut bait. As a result, insurance rates for future projects goes way up, financing options go down, and maybe just maybe the condo market slows down to a halt.

PHASE II, (C): ISOLATION

An FBvian with friends in low places, at least at the paper of record, says that the pre-buyout weirdness (again, the talk is of 125 or so redundancies) is chugging right along:

He said that there is a group of 10 people, editors of sections, who have been quarantined from the rest of the paper and no one is supposed to contact them or talk to them b/c those ppl are deciding the fate of the newspaper’s future, i.e. what sections survive, layout, who keeps their jobs, etc.

Please, get back to us when the ankle bracelets are issued.

HOUSTON ON CALATRAVA

Award-winning reporter Thomas Korosec of the Houston Chronicle goes over the Calatrava/Trinity project in yesterday’s edition. Nothing that new for us, but an interesting review of the whole enchilada.

RE: ROSIE + JESSICA

And re: Jessica’s album hitting stores August 29. A wise-cracking FBvian says:

I know it’s wishful thinking, but wouldn’t it be cool if the stores hit back?

Cool, yes. But probably painful.

RE: NOBU

A Nobu-eating FBvian says it may not be so bad if the restaurant were sold.

Overpriced, over-salted, with two-hour waits . . . yes, yes, P.F. Chang’s sounds most suitable.

RE: WILY WYLYS

Here’s my favorite sentence from the WSJ story:

Much of the Wylys’ network [on the Isle of Man] was set up from a medieval village at its southern tip by a British businessman known locally for greeting clients with a macaw perched on his shoulder.

I think anytime your point man is a pirate, that’s a sign you might–just might–be up to something shady.

ROSIE BOOKS HER SOME JESSICA

People reports and Dallas Voice retells how Jessica Simpson feels indebted to Rosie O’Donnell. So she’s agreed to be Rosie’s first guest when Rosie takes the helm at The View September 5.

Jessica would like you to know her new album, “A Public Affair,” hits stores August 29. Dallas Voice would like you to know that FrontBurner–yes, we get a shout-out–is “prolific.”

To which we can only say: indeed.

DENIRO TO SELL NOBU?

That’s what New York wonders. According to one insider, Bobby and Nobuyuki Matsuhisa are looking to grow and need the cash. So they might entertain offers from major investors or–gasp–sell the whole thing to P.F. Chang’s.