Articles for April 23rd, 2010
After the White Rock Lake Home Tour: Ten Haute Young Authors Honored at SMU
Tim, I fully expect you to be serving Christine extra-duty mojitos in that Ju-Nel spa after tomorrow’s White Rock Lake Home Tour. I would volunteer, but cannot because I’ll be an author Table Host at SMU’s Tables of Content, an event that will honor ten budding young Dallas authors. Our Willard Spiegelman is hosting one, too. And we will have a distinguished screenwriter in our midst. James V. Hart (SMU ‘69) will be receiving SMU Friends of the SMU Libraries/Colophon Literati Award, honoring him for using the written word to advance the ideals of creativity, conviction, innovation and scholarship. The award honors the 40th anniversary of the organization’s founding and celebrates the power of the written word.
Which is kind of ironic because the topic at my table will be:
House Lust: why is real estate the biggest story of the decade and why has it turned me into a blogging addict?
We’re going to talk about how the written word has gone electronic, Web 2.0, moving from desk-top to mobile, and how real estate and writing is all a part of it… all for the sake of the library!
Save My Marriage, Go to the White Rock Home Tour
You know all about the White Rock Home Tour. You know about it because it’s awesome. You know about it because it’s the only all-modern home tour in Dallas, going on its fifth year. You know about it because it goes down this weekend and because I’m telling you about it. And because my wife, who invented the thing, is making me tell you about it. This year, there’s also a cool tie-in with a Ju-Nel exhibit over at the Dallas Center for Architecture.
Look, here’s all I ask: go to the DCA. See the exhibit. Then go take the tour this weekend. Buy 10 tickets. Take nine friends. The money goes to a good cause (Hexter Elementary, in the sunny DISD). I’ll be a docent at one of the houses. Come by and see me. Bring a flask of Knob Creek. Sneak me a drink. I’ll need it.
Skip Hollandsworth Wins National Magazine Award
Yes, yes. It’s true. Skip Hollandsworth won a National Magazine Award last night for his Texas Monthly story Still Life. I just hung up with him. He’s walking around NYC with his family, signing autographs right now. But he’ll get to a computer later this evening, and I’ll have another Q&A with him by Monday. Till then, congrats to Skip and to Sachse-based Brian Sweany, the TexMo editor who, we all know, really deserves the National Mag Award.
Update: PS, with the DMN Pulitzer, this means Dallas folk, in a little over a week, have won two of writing’s most prestigious awards. I hear Black Tooth Grin is up for a Nobel and a Booker.
Two Observations About Dallas Chop House
You’ve been to the new(ish) joint across from Main Street Garden? If not, you need to. For two reasons: 1) The bar-patio area is gorgeous on a day like this. And 2) Mayor Tom Leppert eats here. Or at least he is today, right now.
What To Do In Dallas This Weekend, April 23–25
Comedian Chelsea Handler is going to be performing Saturday night at the newly-renamed Verizon Theatre at Grand Prairie (formerly Nokia). But if you don’t have tickets to that, you can still get some face time with Chelsea at her book signing at Legacy Books at 3 pm. The folks at Legacy say they are expecting a huge turnout, and they recommend getting to the bookstore at least an hour early. The event is free to attend, but here’s the kicker: you have to buy one of Chelsea’s books at Legacy in order for her to sign it.
For something a little different, head to the West Village to Pop Up 310, a temporary art gallery located in the former Gardens space. On Saturday from 2–4 they are hosting the awards ceremony for the Goss-Michael Foundation’s student art contest, Ready, Set, Go! Pop Up co-owner James Cope says everyone is welcome, and they will have drinks, snacks, and tons of free stuff to giveaway. Okay. Sold. Meet you there.
For more ideas, go here. And if you’ve got an event, please email me the information at sarah.eveans@dmagazine.com.
Texas Tribune’s Public Employee Pay Database Taking Some Heat
The Texas Tribune has launched all kinds of databases that make information finding for the average citizen much, much easier. One of those is a database that shows the pay for 480,000 or so public employees in Texas.
Editor-in-Chief Evan Smith writes today that it’s catching some heat. Most people who find themselves in the database are unhappy about their inclusion. They want out. The Tribune is saying no.
And before anyone asks how a Tribune employee would feel about having their salary known by anyone with a basic understanding of Internet searches, Smith points out they released that information already.
Why Is Texas Doing Better Than Everyone Else?
Daniel Gross over at Slate comes up with reasons which I find rather eccentric. I mean, wind power? Really?
Mickey Kaus, the anti-liberal neo-liberal who seems to be having fun running in the California Democratic primary against Barbara Boxer, adds one big reason that I don’t think we appreciate enough:
Texas has a relatively low rate of unionization–about a third of California’s. That means a) fewer rigidities in the labor market, allowing it to adjust to the market more quickly–tiny quick wage cuts for a lot of people, for example, mean employers don’t have to lay people off as quickly b) fewer rigidities in organization structure–they don’t have UAW-style work rules at Dell; and c) the absence of the public sector union “death-grip on state and local government” and politics and finances, which has helped produce near-bankruptcy at the state level (and actual bankruptcy in Vallejo)…
The public-service unions have a stranglehold on New York, New Jersey, California, and several other states where Democratic politicians have depended on them for campaign money and field work. And the teachers’ unions have a stranglehold on local school boards, which is why this week’s news that voters in 58% of New Jersey school districts had rejected their annual school budgets came as such a pleasant surprise. (In many Northeast states, local district budgets are approved — or in this case, disapproved — every year by the citizenry. Wonder what would happen if we did that here?)
Cats of the Internet Protest Ouster of Friends from Bush Presidential Library Site
As Tim mentioned in Wednesday’s Leading Off, a colony of feral cats was displaced to build the Bush presidential library. Thanks to Jimmy Kimmel, we have the response from the cat population.
Leading Off (4/23/10): The “Guess Who’s Doing a Draft Post for One Specific Reason?” Edition
1. So Jerry Jones did not pick Tim Tebow, as expected, in the first round of the NFL draft. He did, however, take Okie State product and DeSoto native Dez Bryant last night. Tim Tebow went to the Broncos, who now have the weirdest depth at QB ever. OU quarterback Sam Bradford went first overall, to St. Louis. TCU defensive end Jerry Hughes got picked up at 31 by Indianapolis. Colt McCoy was still waiting to be asked at the end of the first round. Maybe he’ll go to the Dolphins.
2. Apparently feats of strength are used a lot to attract people to some churchin’. But in Little Elm, things may have gotten a little out of hand, and the head of Power of Life ministries is being accused of pinning a kid down and smacking him around.
3. I will now attempt to summarize Tom Hicks’ decision-making process for the last few months: First, he was all, “Yay! I will sell the Rangers to these baseball hero people!” Then he was all, “Oh, wait, I wants some money!” Then he was like, “Oh noes, Monarch Alternative Capital, I kind of didn’t pick the highest bidder!” And then MAC says, “The hell you say, well, we don’t like this deal!” And then the MLB is like, “Oh, you will like this damned deal, and you will like it hard and long, because this is the deal we like, and we will dangle your body — dipped in chum — over piranha infested waters if you mess this deal up.”
4. The good news is, if you live in Dallas you have a 60% chance of your property tax bill being lower this year. The bad news is you have a 60% chance of your home being worth less this year.
5. I was remiss last Friday, and neglected to provide you with a Friday Ear Worm. Today, I give you this.
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