RE: Rene Moreno

Tim Rogers was noble enough to apologize to Mr. Moreno on behalf of the magazine, not because any offense was meant — it assuredly was not — but because offense was taken. I wrote the story, so the criticism of its language (in the many comments on his post) rightly falls on me.

The words and phrases in question occur in a story whose whole point is the bearing of Mr. Moreno’s accident on the way he plays the lead role in Richard III — the relation between his life and his art. I hope that his objections to my story, as well as this exchange on FrontBurner, will correct my insensitivities and omissions in that regard and add further understanding to his accomplishment. The play opens tonight. I suggest that you get a ticket soon.

Who Wrote the Facebook of Love

An ever-helpful FrontBurnervian sends along this link to a story by UNT senior Michael Hernandez on CNNU about kids these days and their relationship status being defined by Facebook. The link-sender adds:

I had the same thing happen to me once, but it was on Myspace. I’m old school, I guess.

More Film News That’s Not AFI-Related: USA Film Festival Announces Schedule

 The USA Film Festival has a ton of stuff planned for the upcoming 38th installment; you can read all about it after the jump. But the scheduled salute to Meat Loaf allows me to mention my favorite terrible trailer of all time, which ends like this: Patrick Swayze … Randy Travis … and Meat Loaf … Black Dog. I don’t think that will be involved in the salute, though.

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A Wisteria Story That Has Nothing To Do With Desperate Housewives

OK, Nancy writes a lot about birds, so I’m going to write about something birds sit on. (That’s right: sit.) A beautiful FrontBurnervian advises that wisteria is growing like crazy in Dallas these days (see photo), and that people all over town are probably noticing this and will be clamoring to share their wisteria stories. So, people, how about it: Where is your favorite wisteria growing?!

Horse Players Gear Up, Horse Company Bears Down

As longtime readers of FrontBurner might imagine, I’m pretty stoked that Lone Star Park starts its 2008 season of live racing in less than a week. Thursday night, to be exact. Magna Entertainment Corp., owner and operator of LSP and some of the country’s best tracks (Santa Anita, Pimplico Pimlico, Gulfstream, and more), is probably excited too. More like “hopeful.” MECA has fallen on some hard times of late. The NASDAQ stock is on the brink of being delisted, and confident company owner Frank Stronach’s plan to loan MECA money from another one of his interests faces an uphill battle. Full disclosure: I own a tiny bit of MECA stock, purchased as a means of self-rationalizing when I had a bad night at the track. How tiny? Right now, it’s worth a little more than enough to buy a $2 exacta box of three horses.

Oh. And also on the LSP tip: a belated congratulations to former Lone Star Park media relations rock star Darren Rogers. The immensely helpful and kind Rogers is now the Senior Director of Communications & Media Services at Churchill Downs.

What Mike Shropshire (and Randy Galloway) Were Doing 33 Years Ago Today

The Last Real Season, Mike Shropshire’s wonderfully profane book about the 1975 Major League Baseball season, hits stores on May 14. The conceit is simple: it’s more or less the diary Shropshire kept while following the Texas Rangers as a beat reporter for the Star-T during the last year before free agency changed the game. After the jump is Shrop’s April 4 entry, featuring a cameo by one Randy Galloway.

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An Apology to René Moreno

I learned from Elaine Liner that the subject of a recent D Magazine profile wasn’t happy with how we described him. René Moreno uses a wheelchair, and he’s playing Richard III in Kitchen Dog’s production of the play. Liner writes that we used the words “wheelchair-bound” in our headline, which Moreno apparently took offense to. The headline in the magazine, actually, is “Shattered Mirror.” But we write different headlines for the website, because that medium demands more straightforward headlines. It had read “Wheelchair-Bound René Moreno Returns to the Stage.” We’ve now dropped the words “wheelchair-bound.”

Moreno was similarly offended by this passage from our story, which we used as a boldface pullquote: “Crippled for the past 16 years, the man could complain of bad fortune as bitterly as Richard III. But if a troubling emanation haunts him, he does not show it.” Moreno told Liner: “The ‘crip’ word is like writing ‘the Negro actress.’”

I confess that I didn’t know the two terms were even close to comparable. My sincere apologies to Moreno for the offense.

Texas Rangers 2008 Season Ends As Expected

Some smart science and math guy at the New Jersey Institute of Technology has been running mathematical models for the past seven seasons to predict how many wins each MLB team will get each year. He’s apparently been accurate enough to gain credibility. Sadly, he predicts Your Texas Rangers will say hello to the win column only 70 times this season. [Generic Rangers talk alert] And unless they can tighten up middle relief and play defense worth a lick, I can’t see much reason to disagree.

Re: Leading Off (Shaws’ Death Item)

Eric, that comment from John Wiley Price had me scratching my head, too. Even if he thought that Rufus Shaw didn’t have cancer (which is odd enough), why would he say that to a reporter? Read this post from Schutze. I’m with him. The mayor ought to convene a hearing. Otherwise, you know what? I just might start believing Sandra Crenshaw:

“That was not a voluntary suicide. There is nobody in the African-American community who knows everything that’s going on here knows that Mr. Shaw and his wife did not voluntarily take their lives.”

DaFoWo Show Continues to Work Blue

Every week, the kids over at the Star-T surprise me with what they can get away with on their little webisode thingy. [standing, clapping]

Re: Leading Off

Eric, quit being such a girl. List prices are edging up and and volumes of existing homes for sale haven’t changed much in two years. Sheesh. You’re squealing like the DJ just put on “Safety Dance.”

Whole Foods Readies To Get A Whole Lot Bigger

Let’s see, the Whole Foods store in Preston Forest is 52,000 square feet; the new one going up in Lakewood will be in the 40’s. Park Lane city store will be in excess of 80,000. That’s a lot of green groceries. Now comes word that WF is adding a second store in Tarrant County along the new 121 Tollway at the to-be-built Edwards Ranch Road. They’re talking 2010 for start-up construction which is more than this once bright-and-beautiful project at Victory Park can say.

Friday Fun

A little simple, mindless Friday Fun for you. It’s called Jump ‘N’ Bump. Control the bouncey ball, collect the stars, and advance to the next level. A little game-within-the-game is to see how long you can play without hitting “mute” on your computer. The music and sound effects make it harder than you’d think. Still, have fun.

Marty Cortland Gets Religion

An alert FBvian points us to this blog, whereon it is revealed that Marty’s work for us has been the subject of a Sunday school class. I’m sure he’s flattered.

Looking For A Good Deal on Art And a Good Cause?

I’m sorry to learn that local freelance photographer Juan Pulido, “Johnny” as his friends call him, recently fell while on a shoot and broke his back. To make matters worse, he has no insurance to pay his medical bills. So tomorrow a group of local artists have put together a fundraiser that will include a bitchin’ silent auction of their work. Details: Brokeback Fundraiser, Saturday, April 5 from 2 - 6 PM at the Opening Bell Coffee, located in the basement of the South Side on Lamar Lofts (1409 S. Lamar). For more info or to make phone donations: 469-2333-2534; 214-454-6270. Music by IRas Mali; food by Texas Caribbean Foods. Artists donating work after the jump. (more…)

Oh, You Mean Southwest AIRLINES … Right, That Is True

Should have noted in Leading Off that the FAA acknowledged what Southwest denied weeks ago: that FAA inspectors were stymied in their attempts to ground Southwest planes, and that some unsafe planes were allowed to fly. In related news, I see I just had two Rapid Rewards points taken away from my account.

Leading Off

1. An autopsy showed no visible signs of cancer in the body of Rufus Shaw. The weirdest part of the story is that John Wiley Price says that doesn’t surprise him, and he never believed Shaw had cancer. So confused.

2. The financing for the $510-million, uncomfortably named Glorypark project in Arlington still hasn’t been lined up, according to the Star-Telegram. Tom Hicks is the latest to recommend buying yourself a hat and holding the eff onto it.

3. North Texas new home starts are down 35 percent in the first quarter, which analysts actually say is a good thing, since we’re getting closer to having a reasonable, six-month supply of homes on the market. And I understand that logic, but you’ll forgive me if I fasten the chinstrap I’ve attached to my hat.