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Dogs in East Dallas Stage a Daring Daylight Attack

According to Rod Dreher, the victims include a chihuahua, its owner, and one man’s sense of serenity. It’s another reason we need the vicious dog bill to pass. And another reason we need to kneecap bad owners.

Dave Matthews Band Show Still Happening

According to DFW.com’s Twitter feed, the Dave Matthews Band show skedded for Saturday at Starplex, or whatever they call it these days, is still happening, despite all the swine flu hysteria. If you care about this post:

1.We probably never hang out.
2. There is probably a reason for that.

Dallas Dog Headed To Namibia To Save Goats And Sheep From Cheetahs And Save Cheetahs In The Process

Hedi heads to Namibia to save the world. (Turkmen Kangal Dogs photography by Tamara Taylor)

This darling puppy is a Kangal, a breed originally from Turkey known for protecting livestock. He was raised by a breeder in Dallas. Long story short, The Cheetah Conservation Fund is introducing Kangals to farms in Namibia to keep farmers from shooting the wild cheetahs that kill their goats and sheep. Will Taylor, owner of The African Experience, is a Dallas-based wildlife expert, safari designer, and film maker. He once did a show for the Discovery Channel called Cats in Crisis. The documentary followed the life of a pup from birth to darting after cheetah in the wild. (Watch a short clip here.)Will said Hedi (left) has been donated to CCF and is leaving DFW on Monday and heading to Namibia. This is a made-for-TV-news moment if I ever read one. Will’s e-mail with more details of the story and contact info below.

UPDATE: Several people have requested more information on the Turkmen Kangal. Contact: Tamara Taylor, ttaylor7@verizon.net. Also, kangaldogs.blogspot.com; kangaldogs.com.

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Ryan v. Margolin, Ctd.

Here you can find a copy of the lawsuit for your eye-using pleasure.

Mark Your Calendars: Red Headed Stranglers @ All Good Cafe, May 15

Willie Nelson’s Red Headed Stranger has long been one of my favorite albums and, as noted here, it’s “probably the strangest blockbuster country produced,” a minimal gem in the maximalist — especially in 1975 — world of C&W. (You’re probably familiar with “Blue Eyes Cryin’ in the Rain”; I’m partial to his version of Hank Cochran’s “Can I Sleep in Your Arms?”) So I’m particularly excited to hear how the ad hoc group Red Headed Stranglers (Bigloo’s Justin Smith, and Don Cento and Rich Martin of Shibboleth) puts its spin on the record at All Good on May 15, performing it beginning to end. After the jump, the poster for the show.

(A related aside: check out Phosphorescent’s recent album of Willie Nelson covers, To Willie. And Carla Bozulich’s plowing of the same field.)

UPDATE: Somehow, in all of that, I forgot to mention the most important part: today is Willie’s birthday. (Thanks to the alert FBvian.) I promise you, I know better.

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Warriors of the Discotheque Brings Starck Club Back to Life — And So Will Another Documentary

Tonight at the Angelika Film Center, as part of the USA Film Festival, Joe Alexandre and David McDonald premiere their 19-minute documentary-in-progress about the now-defunct Starck Club, Warriors of the Discotheque. Good timing, since the 25th anniversary of the club’s opening is on May 12.

But it’s not all good news for Alexandre and McDonald (a former waiter at the club): Blake Woodall, Starck’s founder and owner, has announced he is teaming up with Michael Cain to produce his own film about the club. Cain, AFI Dallas’ artistic director and the man behind the award-winning doc TV Junkie, is taking a year-long sabbaticala little time off (see update) to make it happen. From this, though, there sounds like enough material to fill at least two films. I guess we’ll see.

UPDATE: From Mr. Cain: “I am only taking off a few months during the summer and then will oversee the film while still serving on the Executive Board of the Dallas Film Society. I will return to my Artistic Director of the festival in late summer.” From me: Thanks a ton, Peppard.

DMN Loses Its Religion

A converted FrontBurnervian points us to news that the Dallas Morning News has redeployed the last two religion writers it had, Jeff Weiss and Sam Hodges. They are now covering suburban schools. Reached at His country retreat, God said of the DMN’s move: “I have two words for them: brim and stone.”

Yeah, I’m going to go pray over that joke. I think it can be better.

Kelly Clarkson Does Something

What? I’m not sure. I think it has to do with this. Maybe. Anyway, I figured Eric at least would want to see it.

Ryan v. Margolin: The Gift That Keeps on Giving

Yesterday, District 13 council candidate Brint Ryan said his opponent, Ann Margolin, had until 5 p.m. to retract/apologize for her comments regarding his tax lien. She said, “Bring it.” He said, “Oh, it’s already been broughten.” (I may be paraphrasing slightly.) This has to be making Dave Levinthal happy.

Suggestion: May 9, parking lot at Preston-Royal, loser-leaves-town Texas Death Match.

Follow or Friend Byron Nelson, Score Cash

The first 100 people to follow the Byron Nelson Twitter feed and the first 100 to friend it (him?) get a $25 gift card. Go!

WSJ Review of Willard Spiegelman’s Seven Pleasures

Readers of the “print product” are familiar with Willard Spiegelman’s name because it has recently begun popping up in our pages. The SMU professor and editor of the Southwest Review has written for us about the ugliness of loud restaurants and the beauty of Plano. In the May issue, he contributed a piece on the Dallas Opera. If you have read and enjoyed these ditties (and even if you haven’t), you might want to pick up his new book, Seven Pleasures: Essays on Ordinary Happiness, about which Wes Davis in the Wall Street Journal today says:

Near the end of “Self Consciousness,” his own set of memoir-essays about a more or less happy life, John Updike wondered whether a contented existence was suitable material for a memoirist. “Happiness,” he asked. “Is it a subject?” The popularity of what might be called casualty lit — books that play on their authors’ damaged lives — answers no. But Updike believed there was value in catching sight of happiness out of the corner of the eye. Looking at his pleasures, Mr. Spiegelman does just that, seven times. The eighth pleasure the book provides is in the intelligence and grace he brings to the job.

Cheers, Willard, on a well-deserved glowing review. It was charming the way you pretended to be nervous in anticipation of it.

Update: If you’d like to meet the man in person and get him to sign a copy of his book, come see him at the Dallas Institute of Humanities and Culture on May 6. (You need to register online if you intend to attend.)

Update to the update: The good professor is very busy. Tonight at 6, you can catch him at the Degolyer Library.

Leading Off (4/30/09)

1. After confirming a 12-year-old student at one of its middle schools has the new strain of swine flu, Fort Worth ISD has shut down the entire district, beginning today and lasting until at least May 11. And all UIL athletic events (in the state, not just Fort Worth) have been postponed until May 11 as well.

2. In 1994, the D.A.’s office sent a letter to the Dallas Police Department saying that Sgt. Randy Sundquist shouldn’t be allowed to testify in court for any reason, because he had a history of lies and misrepresentations, and had been fired because of it. But after he was reinstated, he kept testifying — somewhere between 50 and 100 times — so the D.A.’s office had to send the letter again. I’ll set the over/under on how many cases this kicks in the jeans at 50, and take the over.

3. And finally, there’s a fake cop on the loose.

American Community Newspapers Files for Bankruptcy

An alert FBvian points us to news that the Dallas-based publisher of dozens of newspapers, including the Plano Star Courier, has filed for bankruptcy protection. And the drum beat continues.

Brint Ryan Gives a Giant Double Guns to Ann Margolin

Ann Margolin’s statements about the tax lien placed on fellow District 13 candidate Brint Ryan’s home (which caused at least one overzealous journalist to claim that the tax lien was “Ryan’s Chazz Redd moment”) may end up backfiring on her. In a letter sent from his lawyer to Margolin, Ryan says she has until 5 p.m. today to apologize and issue a retraction — he was actually refunded almost three-quarters of the bill the IRS said he owed — or he’s suing for defamation and seeking an injunction. I wish this election would never end.

Mucho Besame-ing At A Surprise Wedding

Supposedly, the big bash was to celebrate the expansion of Dr. Carlos Laos’ medical-equipment company, Respira. But it soon turned into something else: the surprise wedding of Laos, a Peruvian-born pediatrician, and Dr. Hollon Meaders, a Dallas dentist who hails from Wichita Falls. The pair met in 1992, started dating in 1996, and were engaged in 2005. (Carlos doesn’t believe in rushing into things.) Saturday’s celebration at the Park City Club was an international one, with guests from countries including Peru, Mexico,and Germany dancing it up to the classy strains of the Vicho Vicencio Moondance Orchestra. And the newlyweds’ first-dance choice was a natural: “Besame Mucho.”

Jim Schutze and Rod Dreher, Ctd.

A columnist-reading FBvian says he thinks he knows why they argue so often:

They fight because they are siblings. They’re like two kids squabbling for space in the back seat of the car on a long, long trip. Ideologically, there’s not a nanowidth of distance to separate them. Both are urban pastoralists, yearning for some imagined good old day when values were stable. Both are against big government, big cities, urban planning, technology. Schutze appears liberal and Rod appears conservative. Neither is either. Each is, in his way, a creature of the 1970s. Sit them down together on the front stoop with a beer and they’d be buddies within three minutes, and friends for life.

Another Sad Chapter For Centrum Auctioneer

When’s the fallout from this lousy economy going to end? Consider the case of Sheldon Good & Co., a Chicago-based real estate auctioneer. Two years ago, Good & Co. was generating local headlines for auctioning off 16 pricey condominiums in Oak Lawn’s Centrum Tower building. Now Good & Co.’s filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, citing “improper actions” by Steven Good, its former chairman and CEO. In January, Good killed himself in a Chicago wildlife preserve.

Leading Off (4/29/09)

1. Mavs 106, Spurs 93. If you want actual sports commentary, get you some Sports Sturm on InsideCorner. Me, I’ll just say this: it bugs me when reporters ask leading questions in post-game interviews. Q: “How absolutely crucial to victory were the solid contributions from the role players on the team?” Because the reporter doesn’t really have a question. He just wants the player to say something that fits into the story he’s already written in his head. A: “The contributions from our role players were crucial to victory.” Print it.

2. James Ragland wrote a column about the swine flu. Here’s how you can survive swine flu. Swine flu! SWINE FLU!! Pig flu. Sick pigs!! Someone died! Schools are closed! Fluuuu-EEEE!!

3. The Dallas Central Appraisal District will begin sending its assessments to homeowners on Friday. The good news: of the 374,000 residential notices, more than half will reflect a lowered appraisal. The bad news: Denver is a better team than San Antonio, and large gatherings of people help spread the swine flu.

Ron White Gets His Day

I had never heard of comedian Ron White until a humorous FrontBurnervian pointed me to this video of the man talking about the establishment of Ron White Day, an idea sponsored by Rep. Joe Driver (R-Garland). (Side note: Ron White and TexMo scribe Skip Hollandsworth? Separated at birth?)

Job Posting: Help Fight the Swine Flu

The public information officer for the Dallas County Health Department quit yesterday — smack in the middle of the swine flu panic. I’m sure there’s a story there. Someone working at a fully staffed media outlet is welcome to report it. Speaking of, here’s more info about the job opening.

Pete Delkus v. Dale Hansen, Ctd.

Comments would have been nice today, because then, rather than wait five hours for me to leave work, pick up a kiddo from soccer, cook dinner, make up a bedtime story, write a note to my son’s teacher, tidy up in the kitchen, and sit down to watch the Mavs game with my laptop atop my lap, whereupon I was informed by an offspring of Marty Haag’s that his father, in fact, was dead — my bonehead error could have been corrected almost immediately. (And right now, I’m looking at you, Eric. Thanks a lot for the help today on the Haag thing. If it was an intentional miscue, I will get you back. If, on the other hand, it was an honest mistake, I will get you back.)

James Bland Takes Pretty Pictures

Attentive readers of the April issue of the “print product” know all about James Bland’s recent series of portraits of local artists. The “print product” being the “print product,” we couldn’t print every picture James took. If you’d like to see more of them, head to CADD, where he is mounting a show from today through May 2. (The reception is April 30.)

Pete Delkus v. Dale Hansen

The sportscaster and the weathercaster will be doing something called “The Rumble in the Plaza,” a series of contests to determine quien es mas macho. This is so NOT what television news should be about. Marty Haag is rolling in his grave right now.

But I’ll watch it.

(What? Marty Haag is still alive?)

Julie Lyons’ Holy Roller About to Roll Into Bookstores

I had completely forgotten about former Dallas Observer editor Julie Lyons’ debut book until Wilonsky sort of obliquely brought it up the other day. Turns out it comes out in just over a month, via WaterBrook Press, a division of Random House. So, you know, kind of a big deal.

As for what it’s about: A rogue cop is forced to go undercover in a high-profile super church run by his childhood best friend, who may or may not be the kingpin behind a Mexican-American drug cartel. Except pretty much the opposite of that. I’d read that undercover-church book, though. On a plane ride, or maybe around the pool.

Yelling at the Hispanic Obama

In honor of Eric’s great story on state Rep. Rafael Anchia in our May issue, here’s classic video of Ranch and Rep. Jodie Laubenberg tussling back in 2007 (jump ahead to around the 3:20 mark).