Articles for February, 2010
A Postcard From Rod Dreher
Rod Dreher, you’ll remember, was formerly of the DMN. He left Dallas for Philadelphia a few weeks ago and is now suffering withdrawals from certain of Big D’s pleasures. He explains, after the jump:
Win a $175 Gift Card to WoodFire Kirby’s
Here’s how. Enter the sweepstakes. While you’re doing that, you might as well pick up a subscription to D Magazine (one year for $18). Hurry up, because this offer is only good through February 14.
Promoting A Female Goddess
St. Vincent pokes fun at the endless gushing over her indie-chick rock guitar-goddess status in her latest video for the song “Laughing With a Mouth Full of Blood.” Well, to be exact, St. Vincent just performs in the video. Saturday Night Live’s Fred Armisen and former Sleater-Kinney guitarist/vocalist Carrie Brownstein take care of the funny bit, playing two jealous employees at the fictional “Women and Women First” used bookstore. The video is after the jump, as well as a little Sleater-Kinney throwback to spice-up your Friday morning.
Biggest Poker Game in Texas?
Pokerati brings us news of a poker tournament going down this Sunday at Gilley’s. More than 1,000 people are expected, and the grand prize is a $10,000 entry to the World Series of Poker. Not sure how they’re staying on the right side of the law with this, but shuffle up and deal.
Crush of the Week: Hassie Harrison
While perusing SweetCharity, I was introduced to the young woman you see here, Hassie Harrison, granddaughter of Caroline Rose Hunt. I see from her Facebook page that she’ll graduate from SMU this year. Also, she’s female.
Leading Off (2/5/10)
1. Tim complained that today’s Dallas Cowboys just don’t know how to get in trouble like the players of yesteryear. Then Deon Anderson gets himself arrested for pulling a gun on a man. Now Michael Irvin has been slapped with a lawsuit alleging he raped a woman in Florida. Since many journalists are comfortable defining two instances as a trend, I’m ready to call it: Tim Rogers has cursed America’s Team.
UPDATE: Irvin was fired by ESPN radio.
2. Downtown Dallas doesn’t have enough problems, what with being strangled to death by the highway ring, and all those self-important jaywalkers? Some genius has to drop a water jug off a building for kicks?
3. Calm down, Zac. The Morning News didn’t say “everything’s bigger in Texas.” They said “everything will be bigger.”
New Name Revealed in Geis Murder-Suicide
More than a year later, the Dallas Police Department has released a few detailed reports from the scene of Jeanmarie Geis’ murder-suicide. Included in these reports are interesting aspects of the case that were withheld while I was researching the May 2009 story chronicling the events leading to Geis’ death. While police still have not closed the case or released the results of DNA tests taken from evidence found at the scene, one piece of information really jumped out at me. On the day Jeanmarie and her two children were found shot to death in their North Dallas home, someone scratched the word “Justice” and the name “Spence” into the family’s kitchen cabinets.
Jump to read the reports (more…)
Choice Cuts: A Dallas Art Fair Preview
The second Dallas Art Fair opens tomorrow at F.I.G., and they let us media types in today to check it out. I’ll share some thoughts and images if you jump with me.
(Photo: The window looking into The Public Trust’s space at the Dallas Art Fair.)
Neil Sperry Given Heave-ho by KRLD
The gardening guru has been broadcasting on KRLD for 30 years. No longer. Here’s a note on his site about his program coming to an end.
Zac, you’re the gardening guy on staff. Tell me how sad I should be.
UPDATE: As someone pointed out to me and as Sperry’s letter makes clear, he was not an employee of KRLD. He bought the airtime. So it stands to reason that the station might have upped Sperry’s rate, and he didn’t want to pay. He’ll be on the air through July.
Source: Hutchison Campaign a “Sinking Ship”
Experts have been scratching their heads for awhile over Kay Bailey Hutchison’s lackluster run for the GOP gubernatorial nomination. But according to one Dallas political consultant who’s acquainted with the situation–and has no dog in the fight–the senator’s primary campaign has been “a sinking ship” for six months, with once-enthusiastic advisers exiting. The reason, this consultant says: Hutchison is “increasingly difficult to work for” and, more importantly, refuses to listen to advice.
North Texas Super Bowl XLV Logo Revealed
Just minutes ago, in South Florida, the official logo for Super Bowl XLV was unveiled. It was designed by the NFL, rather than our local host committee. If there were any doubts that it was Cowboys Stadium itself that convinced NFL owners to bring the game to North Texas, those may be put to rest by seeing how prominently the $1 billion ball field is featured in the logo. The use of the Lombardi trophy also evokes the winning tradition of the Cowboys nicely.
As logos go, it beats the pants off XLIV, XLIII, XLII, or Houston’s Super Bowl. Sure, its metallic sheen exudes a somewhat cold exterior. But I think that fits the image that the Cowboys themselves like to project. They don’t try to be your cuddly local team. They just want to be un-apologetically awesome.
Since we’re going to have to see this thing all over the place for the next year, let’s be thankful for how well it’s been done.
UPDATE: Well, now it appears that North Texas isn’t that special. As our man in Miami (Art Stricklin) explains, after the jump, the NFL has apparently tired of designing a whole new logo for each Super Bowl. Our local game is the first to use a generic logo that will simply be tailored slightly to each city each year. So Super Bowl XLV’s logo will have an outline of Cowboys Stadium, while Super Bowl XLVI will use essentially the same logo design but with some element from Indianapolis in place of our stadium.
Dallas Cowboys Sue Everyone!
Yesterday I told you about the Cowboys suing the Dallas Center for Cosmetic Dentistry for backing out of a suite lease valued at $42 million. The Cowboys aren’t just suing the dentists. All of the following suits were filed on February 2. In each one, the Cowboys are looking to recover the full amount of the lease that the customer backed out of.
CRBE Inc. for $7.5 million
Sports Nutz of Texas, $4 million
Halek Energy, $3.5 million
Reel Entertainment Group, $4 million
BWC Properties; BWC Capital Interests, $4 million
Clearview Systems, $6.5 million
Copper Oaks Properties, $3 million
Just Da Boyz, $3 million
Architel Holdings, $4.8 million owed under the lease.
You know the saying: a million here, a million there. Pretty soon, you’re talking about real money. Just from the lawsuits I’ve seen from that one day, February 2, the Cowboys are out $82.3 million. I’m sure there are other people who are trying to back out of their suite leases, too.
How the Jerry Jones Family Rolls in South Florida
Our woman in Miami provides a shot of this bus, which was parked in the heart of South Beach this morning. The driver told her it’s for Jerry Jones and his clan, in Florida for Super Bowl XLIV on Sunday.
She also notes: “Lots of tanned men with bad shirts around here, among other things”
A Soldier’s Last 24 Hours in Iraq
A friend of mine named Marc Tinaz has 24 hours left in his deployment in Iraq. He wrote a letter to his family and friends stateside trying to sum up his tour (on which he was awarded a Bronze Star for his actions in combat). He also included a letter he received from a mother of one of the soldiers in his command. I’m posting the dispatch only because I don’t want to be the only person crying at work.
Leading Off (2/4/10): The Happy Endings Edition
1. Hey, Tim, ask and you shall receive. Yesterday, you were complaining about the lame actions taken by a Cowboy to be arrested. Is Deon Anderson allegedly pulling a loaded gun on someone in a parking lot more along the lines of the behavior you’d expect? See, this is a happy ending because Tim got what he wanted.
2. This family hates the rain. Why? Because every time it rains, their house begins to slip. Not only have trees and their backyard disappeared, but so has their desk. The happy ending here is that they get to live in a hotel for a little bit! And they get to buy a new desk! (I don’t really understand why the desk was in the backyard. But I don’t have a backyard, so I guess I don’t really know what goes in one.) Oh, but wait, their insurance company refuses to cover the losses. The happy ending here may be a bit forced.
3. And finally here’s a heartwarming story with a less-contrived happy ending. Andre Kelly was laid off from his job as a college instructor. When he couldn’t make payments on his loan, his car was repossessed. Inside his car was his mother’s ashes. Truck driver Nick Lyons found the ashes, contacted Fort Worth police department, which then tracked down Kelly. He’ll get the ashes back today. And they all lived happily ever after. Well. You know what I mean.
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