Articles for February, 2010
The Most Important Vote in Dallas History: Let’s Drink!
Newcomers to Dallas are often confounded by our silly patchwork of dry and wet areas. Me personally, it drives me nuts that I can’t buy wine at the grocery store closest to my house. So it is with a happy heart and a well-conditioned liver that I point you to news that a PAC calling itself Progress Dallas will likely undertake the task of gathering the 68,000 or so signatures required to force a referendum on the November ballot. (No, not Dallas Progress. Though Michael Davis might very well support Progress Dallas.) Please, people. If you see the petition, sign that sucker.
Rod Dreher on His Sister’s Cancer
He hasn’t been gone that long, has he? Rod’s still relevant to our discussion, right? The former DMN editorial boarder left us for Philly not many weeks ago. Readers of the paper will remember his as one of the sharpest voices in those pages. Well, Rod’s sister, Ruthie, is now very sick with cancer, and he’s been writing about it over on Beliefnet. If you’ve got 10 minutes to spare, read this entry about the day Rod said goodbye to his sister and about the “excruciating privilege to share [her] agony.” The writing itself is amazing. And the message is a vital one.
Leading Off (2/23/10)
1. I don’t know if this story about legal products kids are using to get a buzz is actual news. Feels like most people probably are aware. But it’s worth reading for the written statement from Drank creator Peter Bianchi. There is no way you can sound like a serious businessman when saying things like: “The name of the product is a play on the common slang, ‘I’m going to get my ‘drank’ on.’”
2. If you ever get in trouble on the road, pray that Addissu Andabo is nearby: “He pulled over and, ‘without a second thought, proceeded to put his own life at risk to save the driver still trapped inside,’ said Jason Evans, a spokesman for Dallas Fire-Rescue. With his bare hands, Andabo tore away at the broken windshield of the woman’s car until he created an opening large enough to pull her out.” Did I mention the car was on fire? Important detail.
3. Mark Cuban didn’t think Josh Howard was hungover when he missed a January game for the Mavericks. Why? “Years and years of experience.” “Laughs” is in brackets after that, but I think that goes without saying.
Prosecutor in Charles Dean Hood Capital Murder Case Not a Romantic Fellow
Judge Verla Sue Holland had an affair with Collin County prosecutor Thomas S. O’Connell Jr. A few years after it ended, he tried the case against accused murderer Charles Dean Hood in her court. Hood’s lawyers are using the non-disclosure of the sexual relationship between the two as grounds to appeal to the Supreme Court. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals already ruled that it was too late (the trial happened 20 years ago) for Hood to raise the issue.
And yet the saddest part of the whole matter, as the New York Times notes, may be the judge’s description of her relationship with O’Connell:
Mr. O’Connell did not seem especially romantic. Judge Holland testified that he once gave her a picture of a polar bear with a matching cup. Another time he gave her a chafing dish.
Proof That Our Carona Elephant Cover Wasn’t Photoshopped
In the comments to this post, several people said they thought our April cover was a Photoshop job. As promised, here’s a shot of Elizabeth “Spider Monkey” Lavin and Sen. John Carona on the set to prove that the photo was the real deal. And, below that, a cellphone video from the set.
Reason No. 4,238 I Wish Marquis Daniels Was Still a Dallas Maverick
Because I can’t imagine anyone on the team who would commission a jewelry maker (Jason of Beverly Hills) to fashion an iced-out miniature version of his head.
Diamond Head Made by Jason of Beverly Hills from vKofJBH on Vimeo.
The specs: 1,300 grams of 14k gold, white and cognac diamonds, and porcelain eyes like they use at wax museums.
Dallas’ Density Problem
Last week’s awarding of a federal grant to the local streetcar effort was lauded as a coup for the future of Dallas urbanism. Jim Schutze more or less crowned Jason Roberts king of pedestrians and heralded Oak Cliff as the new Copenhagen. In the comments to Schutze’s post, a commenter called “FairsAreForTourists,” who sounds like someone inside city hall, points out that Oak Cliff doesn’t have the density to support a streetcar system without heavy subsidies. In other words, the streetcar thing is being built on spec – if you build it, they will come (and I think they will). But the urban victory reminds us that Dallas’ real urban problem is, was, and will likely remain a lack of density. The difficulty is, as Stewart Brand reminds us in this must read piece entitled “How Slums Can Save the Planet,” density is messy, unorganized, not friendly to regulators, organic, and demands patient residents and city leaders. In other words: a lot of stuff that tends to make Dallas nervous.
Wick Allison Costs D Magazine a Subscriber
Nice work, Wick. Your story about State Sen. John Carona cost us a subscriber. We received the following letter this morning from a Rob in Southlake:
I subscribe to D for lighthearted articles about restaurants and local personalities (a respite from the real world). A one-sided, naïve article about how the GOP are hypocritical and wantonly bad spendthrifts while the Democrats are honest and well-intentioned spendthrifts is NOT what I want from D. If you’re going to take on such topics, have someone capable write the piece. This is high school level the-world-is-black-and-white opinion writing. If you’re going to do it, do it right. Either way, I won’t be reading it because I’m not renewing. Nothing like being told by a lightweight entertainment mag that the party you support is cowardly and hypocritical.
FB Reader Poll: Sickest Winter in Dallas History?
I only have anecdotal evidence, but along with being one of the coldest winters on record, I’m starting to think it is the sickest as well. I’ve been in general foul health since November – nagging cough, the post-nasal congestion, and now the relentless drip. The wife hasn’t stopped coughing or sneezing in a couple of months. The two-year-old went through two rounds of antibiotic treatment, and this morning the four-year-old threw-up three times in about 45 minutes, complaining of her second ear infection in three weeks. So tell me: can we just not take care of ourselves, or are you also battling epic illness?
Bye-Bye, Walking to the Sky
Note written hours after this post went up: The following graph contains bogus information. I made a mistake. While Walking to the Sky is going away, it’ll return. The Nasher owns the sculpture. In case you miss the update to the post (below, in bold), this note is in red. Thank you.
Artist Jonathan Borofsky loaned his sculpture Walking to the Sky to the Nasher in March of 2005. When it was installed, the museum said it would be on display for a year. So I guess the Nasher is like that friend who borrows your DVDs of The Sopranos for a week and then never returns them. We’ve had Walking to the Sky so long that Borofsky probably forgot he owned it. One imagines Borofsky recently making the discovery: “Hey, didn’t I have a 100-foot stainless steel pole with people walking up it? Where the hell is that thing? Oh, I remember! I loaned it to that museum in Dallas.” Two enormous cranes are disassembling the sculpture even as I type.
Update: We hear from the folks at the Nasher that it’s actually just a temporary removal (called a “de-installation”). They’re protecting the thing from wind-induced vibration and attending to other conservation needs. More important, while the sculpture was initially a loaner, Ray Nasher liked it so much that he bought it. It’ll be back in a year’s time. Full release after the jump.
Leading Off (2/22/10)
1. Dallas County Judge Jim Foster wants District Attorney Craig Watkins to remove Constable Jaime Cortes from office using a rarely invocated procedure in the Texas local government code, once again proving that Dallas County truly deserves its own reality TV show. I mean, there’s already a pilot.
2. Every political raise needs a “popcorn factor.” In the Texas governor’s race, that’s usually Kinky Friedman’s role. But with the Kink-ster running for agricultural commissioner, Former Houston Mayor Bill White has stepped up to the plate – calling his Republican opponents “forces of darkness” over the weekend at the Dallas County Democratic Party’s Jefferson-Jackson Dinner. [munch, munch] You know Guvnah Perry won’t be able to leave that one alone. In related news, Terri Hodge attended the dinner. [munch, munch]
3. Dear sky: This is Dallas. It is not supposed to snow here. A Christmas Eve dusting? That’s sweet. The biggest snowfall in local history? It was fun to be part of that. But seriously. It’s time to stop.
How Has The Recession Affected Texas’ Growth?
Apparently it hasn’t. The American — a publication of the American Enterprise Instituate — did calculations based on census data and finds that “Texas is arguably the nation’s most sustained and serious economic success story.”
In good times, that is very good news. With the recession, it is still good news, but the tidings are mitigated in part by the demand these new people place on government services — unemployment, Medicaid, and most especially, the need for new roads — while our state government seems frozen in time.
Chef Vijay Sadhu Out of Samar by Stephan Pyles in Dallas
Samar by Stephan Plyes is a James Beard Award semi-finalist for Best New Restaurant in America. A top chef is out of the kitchen.
Dallas Business Journal Editor Kevin Bumgarner Gets Sacked
I’d heard that Dallas Business Journal editor Kevin Bumgarner was fired today, so I called Lisa Bormaster, the publisher, to ask her about it. The first thing she said: “I find it ironic that the media think we’re news.” Me, I think when the top editorial person gets fired, that’s news. Anyway, Bormaster would not say that Bumgarner was fired. Her exact words: “Kevin is no longer with the company. We appreciate his service, and we wish him well in his future endeavors.” In other words, he was fired. Bumgarner had held the title since November 2007.
(I guess this means when Wick finally gets around to firing me, the Dallas Business Journal won’t even mention it on their website. Dangit.)
Which Cover of D Magazine Would You Have Picked?
It’s the brilliance of our staff photographer, Elizabeth “Spider Monkey” Lavin. For our April issue (on newsstands now), Wick wrote a story about State Sen. John Carona (TexMo editor Jake Silverstein called the story “excellent” and “short”). When Elizabeth was asked to take a portrait of Carona, she asked me if she could photograph him on an elephant. I didn’t think the chances of that happening were high, so I said, “Sure. If you can find an elephant. And if it doesn’t cost too much.” Well, you know from the image below that Elizabeth found her elephant. And if you’ve seen the magazine on the newsstand or gotten it in your mailbox, then you already know which image we chose for the cover. But I thought I’d share with you the two cover designs we considered this month. It’s Elizabeth’s birthday tomorrow, so if you don’t like her cover, keep your mouth shut.
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