Articles for December, 2009
Big D NYE Wristband Saga Continues
Looking for a wristband for tonight’s Big D NYE blowout? You and 39,999 of your friends can’t get into the extravaganza without one. Here’s an update on the search for those pesky little bracelets.
Wristband Woes For Big D NYE
Big D NYE planners may have missed an opportunity with its addition of wristbands for the New Year’s Eve extravaganza, according to SweetCharity.
Also, if you haven’t got your wristband, we can tell you where to head.
P.S. - John “Cutie Pie” McCaa, just between you and the rest of us — wristband time is over and out at Tom Thumb. Hope you’ve already got yours!
Pete Sessions to Allen Stanford: “I Love You And Believe in You”
Ah, Pete. Once again, our Dallas congressman says just the wrong thing at just the wrong time, in this case hours after the Houston Ponzi-schemer was charged by federal authorities with fleecing hundreds of people. Stanford had lavished money and trips on our beloved Congressman Sessions as he tried to fend off regulation.
But Stanford was bi-partisan in distributing his victims’ money. His bagman, er, lobbyist, was former Democratic Lt. Gov. Ben Barnes.
What’s a D/FW Christmas Without Ken Capps?
Every Christmas for nearly a decade, right about now you could count on high-profile Ken Capps of D/FW Airport serving up info to the media and the public about how busy the airport was for holiday travelers. Not this year, though. A D/FW spokesman says Capps left the airport a few months ago. Anybody know why he exited so quietly–or what he’s up to?
FrontBurner Holiday Schedule Announced
I have already poured myself two fingers of Maker’s Mark at my desk. (Note to all freelancers: the key to getting more assignments is to do as the great John McAlley did. Send Christmas liquor.) We’re wrapping up the February issue of the “print product” right now. Basically, I just need Zac to put his finger right — here — so I can tie the bow. Then we’re off till January 4. Will there be posts betwixt now and hence? The chance is greater than zero. But not by much. So check back in if you’re inclined, but here’s hoping your holiday break and your new year go well enough that this blog is the last thing you’re thinking about.
Cheers.
The Biggest Problem in Downtown? The Sidewalks
At lunch, Tim, Peter, and I took a meandering stroll downtown, eventually arriving at the Press Box Grill. On the way back, we took a similarly circuitous route. Tim pointed out — and we all agreed — that the sidewalks downtown are much (much) smaller than in most big cities. Rarely can you walk three abreast, and sometimes, two is a struggle. It seemed — to us, anyway — that is a hurdle to active street life. (Also: lack of people, but that’s a different discussion, and more easily rectified.) So what is to be done? You can’t really make the streets smaller, and making buildings thinner is more like a job for the CGI technicians behind Dark City. And, I guess beyond that, do you agree?
(If you find this post to be hogwash, please direct your commentary to: Wyeth Consumer Healthcare, Madison, NJ 07940 or visit www.robitussin.com.)
(Also, deeply aware that someone else has already written about this subject. Call me on it, and I’ll update this post with the link.)
Dave Levinthal Rocks NewsHour
The Morning News lost a great reporter when Dave Levinthal left for the Washington D.C. -based Center for Responsive Politics. Dave Levinthal gained a whole lot of profile, judging from his appearance last night on the NewsHour. In terms of local pride, it’s almost like watching St. Vincent rock the socks off Letterman (I could watch Annie’s little hint of a smile after the horns kick in a hundred times).
Hutchison Campaign Vetoes Paul Burka
Texas Monthly is a sponsor of the Hutchison-Perry debate scheduled for Jan 14 on KERA-TV. But the Hutchison team scuttled the magazine’s choice for a panelist, senior editor Paul Burka.
“I didn’t like the idea of it,” says Terry Sullivan, campaign manager for candidate Kay Bailey Hutchison. “He’s got his mind made up on the race.”
Actually, what Burka’s mind tells him is that Hutchison’s team, led by Sullivan, has made a “fundamental strategic error” by “positioning her as a staunch conservative.” Read the whole thing here. Burka and I share the same opinion: read my take on why Kay’s campaign is falling apart here.
So I think we can all understand why Terry Sullivan is, shall we say, sensitive. The bunker mentality, however, has not yet won anybody an election.
Texas Could Gain 4 Congressional Seats in 2012
That’s according to this Bloomberg account of the latest U.S. Census estimates, released today, that say that Texas gained more residents than any other state in the year leading up to July 1. That’s 478,000 more Texans. Our archenemy California was No. 2, with 381,000.
The official 2010 census numbers won’t be out until late next year, and we’ll find out for sure how many more seats our state might have. Then we’ll leave it to the wise men and women of the Texas Legislature to draw districts that represent our best interests and benefit all mankind.
A Helping Hand–And a Question–For DISD
The Merriman Park neighborhood association sent out an SOS: please donate any “retired,” relatively new computers to L.L. Hotchkiss Elementary School, which is trying to replace 30 ancient IBM 386’s Pentium III’s that the teachers are using. We were more than happy to help out, especially in this giving season, but the plea raised a question. With all the taxes paid in to support the Dallas Independent School System–and with DISD’s billon-dollar-plus budget–how come it’s up to homeowners to supply schools with the likes of pencils, toilet paper and computers? Have a feeling that’s exactly the sort of question Bruce Parrott, our new District 3 board member, will begin asking soon.
Need Ideas for New Year’s Eve?
Here are some good ones, courtesy of Sarah Eveans and Kyle Kearbey and our dedicated intern Sam.
Readers Reflect on the 35 Biggest Moments in Dallas History
If you are a fan of D Magazine on Facebook (and you should be), you probably noted that in conjunction with our 35th anniversary — and its accompanying special issue — we gave away 35 free subscriptions to the magazine to the first 35 people who shared with us their own favorite Dallas moments from the past 35 years. (Mine? I was born. You’re welcome, Dallas.) Plenty of people chimed in, and the winners have already won. But on this lazy Christmas Eve eve, we invite you to keep adding comments. We’re not trying to reach a goal; we just want to know. We may even come up with something else to give away. I’m not sure what, so don’t ask.
And stay tuned, because there will be plenty more 35th-anniversary-related high jinks throughout January. Maybe even some tomfoolery. What might that be? I don’t know. I’m not a witch. I can’t see the future. But it will more than likely be well worth your time. If you’re interested, it would help you to click on that link up top and become a fan. Now, I’m going to crawl into a hole with a bottle of Robitussin, so if you don’t see me until then, merry Christmas.
Larry McMurtry Hates Giving Interviews, Dislikes His Own Books
An interview with Texas literary icon Larry McMurtry aired on KERA during Morning Edition today, and it was excruciating—you can listen to it here. Linda Wertheimer tried to praise the author for his career achievements, but he pretty much trashed his famous novels and left Wertheimer hanging. When asked about Lonesome Dove, McMurtry replied, “I don’t hate it or anything.” As for The Last Picture Show: “It wasn’t a very good book. I’ve never liked it much, and I think I’ve written a dozen novels that are better, maybe more.”
Our own Glenn Hunter interviewed McMurtry this summer, and says McMurtry was “terse and not terribly friendly.” I think Wertheimer would agree.
Landmark, Please Let the Inwood Be the Inwood
My wife has a beef with Mark Cuban. She’s never met him, but she doesn’t care for the man. She holds him personally responsible for what’s happened to the Inwood Theatre over the last several years because his company, 2929 Entertainment, owns Landmark Theatres, which owns the Inwood (and the Magnolia).
She can’t stand flat-screen TVs used unnecessarily as menus at the snack bar. She hates that they don’t issue tickets anymore; they hand you part of a paper receipt as your ticket. (She conveniently ignores that even she likes most of the major renovations that have been made, to the auditoriums and the restrooms.) But the biggest problem, of course, is that what was once the premier art-house in town now more frequently features “family-friendly” dreck. She loves the Inwood, so she hates to see how it has changed.
Well, recently she called the box office to ask what would be playing (she doesn’t have an iPhone), and she had the following exchange with an Inwood employee. I present their conversation in its entirety. Keep in mind that this employee has no previous knowledge of my wife’s thoughts about the Inwood or Mark Cuban: (more…)
Leading Off (12/23/09)
1. The latest person to pick up a stick and poke the hornets nest that is the Dallas County constabulary? Why, it’s Danny Defenbaugh. The former FBI conducted a civil investigation into allegations that two constables threatened employees to get them to work for their reelection campaigns. Defenbaugh filed complaints with the U.S. Office of Special Counsel claiming that the men — Precinct 1 Constable Derick Evans and Precinct 5 Constable Jaime Cortes – violated federal campaign laws. I’ll be honest, when we ran a story in October about how the constable system seemed to be out of control, we had no idea how right we were.
2. You know who I like? A guy like Davie Brown. He works for a local outfit that measures how the public feels about celebrities. Surprise! The public isn’t feeling as warm as it once did about Tiger Woods. But that’s not what I’m interested in. I’m interested in what Davie Brown named his celebrity-measuring index. He named it the Davie Brown Index. I like your moxie, Davie Brown.
3. You know why I don’t like to fly? Besides the fact that you get treated like cattle when you do? Because your plane, like American Airlines Flight 331 did last night in Jamaica, might overshoot the runway and nearly wind up in the Caribbean.
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