The Rich Just Keep Getting Richer

Someone buy Bob Schlegel a drink tonight. Pavestone Company, founded by Schlegel (father of Kim and Kirby), is being sold to Irish building materials group CRH/Oldcastle for $540 million. As part of the deal, Pavestone’s parent company, Schlegel Consolidated LLC will acquire CRH’s manufactured stone veneer business and combine it with their own stone company, Tejas/Veneerstone LP.

Because I’ve Forgotten My Password For DallasDirt

I’ll post here and let Candy link to it. Word just came down that DFW foreclosures are once again down almost 20 percent from one year ago. But for the folks really shuttin’ ‘em down, look northward. The money quote from the DMN story:

“Denton County is on fire for foreclosures,” said Foreclosure Listing Service CEO George Roddy. “There has been a huge amount of development in Denton County. Consequently, there are lots of foreclosures in those new subdivisions.”

Insert Pun Here About HorseTV

Seems “ride again” and getting “back in the saddle” are taken. Point is, local horse guy and World Cup polo player Bernie Uechtritz has raised a bunch of money to resurrect HorseTV, a channel devoted to horsies. He aims to broadcast from Dallas. As a horse fan myself, I wish him — and it — well.

On a side note, we’re about a month away from Opening Night at Lone Star Park. Giddy-up.

Notes From Maastricht

I just received word that The Magic Flame by Jackson Pollock (pictured left) sold for $8 million while an untitled painting by Willem de Kooning went for $5 million. Both to private collectors. Last notes, news, and observations from TEFAF after the jump. (more…)

Clonie Putting Herself in Great Position

Former Dallas-area regular (and Maxim starlet, thus the photo) and current Full Tilt Poker star Clonie Gowen is trying to secure a big victory in the Bay 101 Shooting Star tournament going on right now in San Jose. With fewer than two dozen left (out of the 376 who started), Clonie is 11th in chips. Keep your poker pants happy with live updates here.

Update: She wins $24K, out in 14th place.

“This Mall’s Got Everything.”

A restaurateur at the Shops at Willow Bend has been nabbed with possession and intent to distribute. (Movie quote level of difficulty: 2 for those born before 1976; 6 for those born after.)

Discrimination! Morning News Shuns Our ZIP Code

Time to rag a little on The Dallas Morning News, just because we haven’t in awhile. We live in Lake Highlands, apparently not in one of the primo ZIP codes where subscribers receive the monthly “F!D Luxe” publication delivered with their paper. While a nice lady in the DMN circulation department says they’ll bring a “Luxe” to us if we phone and ask, why don’t those of us in the non-primo ZIP codes get a break on our annual subscription rate, since we’re paying the same as subscribers in the primo codes, but not getting 12 fat “F!D Luxes” delivered with our papers? And another thing: We’ve never received the Lake Highlands “Neighbors Go” insert with our Saturday paper, and neither have our neighbors. Didn’t the DMN get in trouble over this sort of thing a while back? Anyone else with similar experiences?

Beck and Call

A gossip-scanning FrontBurnervian passed along a Perez Hilton item that was basically just a link to David Beckham’s updated blog. Looks like Becks is excited to visit. Why? Because…

Dallas has such a rich sporting history with the Cowboys of the NFL and the Mavericks in the NBA, so it’ll be great to go there and play their soccer team.

Your Timmy Update

Fearless sub-leader/miniWick Tim Rogers is in New Orleans on spring break with his wife, precocious son, and darling toddler daughter. (If you think he wasn’t extremely proud of the photo he sent in of his family in front of “Barely Legal,” you don’t read this blog much, do you?) That doesn’t mean he can’t over-coach from afar, Avery Johnson-style. This morning, he sent an e-mail to yours truly that I should post a picture of the Spitzer hooker, because “a post on same would certainly draw interest.” As I pointed out, well, I think the Internet has already heard of her and seen such pictures, as evidenced by my quick jaunt to the web site pic after the jump. Spoiler alert: It’s a fairly mainstream web site.

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Lacrosse Is Coming to LaDallas

There’s a big Patriot League lacrosse showdown this weekend at Texas Stadium between Navy and Holy Cross. That’s according to the Balitmore Sun blog. And since the byline isn’t “Scott Templeton,” I’m guessing it’s legit. (Sniffle … I miss The Wire already.)

Strong Sales At TEFAF Defy Talk Of Market Downturn

That’s the headline coming out of Maastricht, Holland after one week of sales at TEFAF, the largest art and antiquities sale in the world. I’ll dole out specific significant sales throughout the day, but I just received word that the private preview, which was a fabulous people watching fest, set the tone for this year’s fair with a record 9,435 visitors, an increase of 10% on 2007. This invitation only event was not just a social gathering; a number of exhibitors, particularly in antiquities and the modern art section, reported their busiest ever opening. Trading continued at a brisk pace throughout the opening day (Friday, March 7th ) and the first weekend. The visitors figure for the first three days was 25,000 visitors, an increase of around 7 %. TEFAF continues until Sunday. Perhaps the success is due to the flowers—this year, instead of tulips, the halls were lined with spectacular displays of 175,000 anemones. That has to be as valid a qualifier as anything in the art world, right?

Ms. Navratilova Speaks Out

As many of you already know, Martina Navratilova and I have been friends since 1980. When I met her, she was technically still in the closet. When she was “outed” by her lover, Rita Mae Brown, Martina, who was living in Dallas at the time, hid out at my parent’s house in North Dallas. Besides winning tennis championships, Martina has dealt with tremendous personal controversies on and off the court and has emerged, at 51, as a gentle well-rounded soul. Yesterday when I was flying back from Holland, I flipped open a British newspaper that proclaimed Martina, who defected from Czechoslovakia in 1975, was “ashamed” of the United States and was taking back her Czech citizenship. The British media dug up one of Martina’s anti-Bush comments from last year and paired it with the news that, on January 9^th, Martina was recognized by the Czech government which restored her citizenship. What should have been a real feel-good story—one that Martina never even made light of—has been painted into a political picture. I reached Martina in Tokyo this morning. She says this exclusively, via e-mail, to the FrontBurner Nation: “Of course they are saying that I got the Czech citizenship because of Bush. What a load of crock. As if I was not controversial enough, they need to create controversy where there is none.”

Leading Off

1. Question: When did the focus come off our city’s escort scene? Sidebar: I think I just got a sneak peek at Eric’s story list for the next edit meeting.

2. Mayor Leppert talked about crime, the convention center hotel, and other downtown-related topics at a meeting at Urban Market on Wednesday. But once again, I see no mention of his frighteningly long fingers. Dave Levinthal — step your game up!

3. UNT students will now, apparently, use Facebook to report stolen items. The only problem? As soon as someone logs on to post the serial number of the laptop that just got swiped outside the student union, they’ll just end up SuperPokin’.

SXSW: Night 1

AUSTIN — Just got home, or home for now. Met the girl who does this. Hung out with this guy, who’s awesome. Saw this guy skulking about, looking not great. Saw Rhett Miller getting interviewed by some guy who didn’t do much to support the idea of journalists being suave and handsome (gut impression). Stood in line for an R.E.M. show I didn’t really care about. And didn’t get into. Saw a band curiously called Does It Offend You, Yeah? Did it? Kind of. Finished the night at Centro-matic, a band everyone who knows me knows that I am absolutely in the tank for. They were solid; there were sound problems and it took so long setting up I think someone was building instruments for them out of metal and brawn. So, not a bad start. Now I’m going to write Leading Off (super early version) and get some shut eye.

Terrell Bolton — The Gift That Keeps On Giving

It’s kind of a shame the former mayor had to give Terrell Bolton his walking papers. The good folks over in DeKalb County, Georgia — who hired Bolton as their police chief nine months ago — are getting a free show that proves the gods, too, have a sense of humor.

According to the report, Bolton was living in a pricey RV out in nature (in spite of what nature did to him first) and … man, you have to see for yourself.

Update: Yep, the news report isn’t new, though it was recently posted on the linked blog which is how I found it. But it was new to me, and good comedy holds up over time.