Articles for June, 2010
Jim Oberwetter Slams Dallas for No-Bid Contract at Love Field
Boy, the Dallas Regional Chamber got itself a real firebrand when it elected as its president Jim Oberwetter. In the June newsletter from the Chamber, he has written a letter that should stir things up at City Hall. It begins:
There once was a New York City mayor named George Washington Plunkitt who ran a political machine known as Tammany Hall. Tammany Hall was so powerful and corrupt that its excesses lead to political reform that swept the country free of such “machines” except in a few remaining cities.
In the 1920s, when Dallas was faced with similar problems, the citizens stepped forward with reforms to rid the city of public officials whose actions stood in the way of progress. Since that time, the city and its officials, for the most part, have remained true to those reforms.
Lately there has been some backsliding — not good for Dallas, its people or its businesses.
Oberwetter is talking about the no-bid contract that city staff wants to give State Rep. Helen Giddings. Jump to read Oberwetter’s entire letter.
This ShopTalk Friday Giveaway is a Good One
We’re giving away a gorgeous pair of Dallas designer Rory Ashton’s earrings and a ring. Win them for you. Win them for your lady friend.
Eric Celeste Starts to Feel His Oats
Those of us in magazineland whom Eric Celeste left in his wake when he sailed off for other career opportunities have watched closely how he has handled his new role as the communications director for the district attorney’s reelection campaign. Today’s paper brought us an indication that Eric just might make it after all. To wit, the following quote from him in response to Republican challenger Danny Clancy’s recent campaign mailer, which asks, “Isn’t it time for a DA who makes headlines for fighting crime, not political scandals?”:
“Saying the district attorney doesn’t fight crime is like saying Kobe Bryant doesn’t make baskets. The conviction rate is so perfect it doesn’t make headlines. If they want to make the campaign about fighting crime, we’re happy to go there.”
The sports reference, the bravado, the willingness to “go there” — these are the hallmarks of a man who is sure of his place in the world. You read a quote like that, and you know you’re dealing with a guy who probably owns an Ed Hardy t-shirt that says “Sinner” across the front. Good luck, Danny Clancy. You’re gonna need it.
WFAA’s Rich Goff Knocks Off D Magazine’s Zac Crain in the Words With Friends Tournament
OK, call off the D Magazine Words With Friends Tournament. We tried to fix this thing so that only our close friends and celebrities had a chance of winning. But here comes some “average joe” — Rich Goff, a promotions manager for television station WFAA — and he goes and spoils our fun. Goff beat D Magazine senior editor Zac Crain by a score of 395 to 383 to be the first to claim a spot in our Finally Four. I mean what’s the point of us carrying on, right?
Anyway, here’s what Goff has to say for himself:
This was a VERY tough game–one where you play your last tiles hoping your opponent has enough left on his rack to put you over the top. Zac played a great game–lead by more than 100 points early on. As anyone can tell you, though–luck plays a big role in this, and while Lady Luck wasn’t smiling on me in the beginning, she wasn’t smiling on Zac down the stretch. It seems I had nothing but vowels through the first third of the game, and he had nothing but consonants in the end. So yes, I give LUCK a lot of credit for this win, as it could’ve gone either way.
In all seriousness, congratulations to Rich, who will play in our live Words With Friends showdown the evening of June 9. You’ll hear more about that next week. Goff will want to spend between now and Wednesday practicing his speed game. Our semifinals and finals will be played in a one-minute-per-turn format.
Zac, what excuses can you offer us?
Remembering David Dillon
Today’s Dallas Morning News brings us the David Dillon obituary. It reads, in part, “He came to Dallas as an assistant professor of English at Southern Methodist University, but his freelance writing on architecture attracted the attention of editors at The News, and he joined the staff in 1981.” Presumably some of that freelance writing included the cover story Dillon wrote for D Magazine in May 1980, titled “Why Is Dallas Architecture So Bad?” It’s a great piece of writing that is still relevant 30 years after we published it. If you’ve got a few moments to spare this weekend, you ought to give it a read.
What To Do This Weekend in Dallas: June 4–6
A Tribute to Pedro Infante is happening tonight at the Meyerson. Infante was one of Mexico’s original screen idols, and his movies will be played while the Dallas Symphony Orchestra performs. Cool. It starts at 7:30. Recommended: Eating at Jorge’s in One Arts Plaza before the show, where you can drink $6 margaritas and listen to violinist Richmond Punch, a Julliard and Yale grad who is truly amazing live. Then take the free Art Cart across the street for the show, of course.
Local farmer’s markets are popping up again around town. On Saturday, check out the West Village and Celebration Restaurant, and Bolsa on Sunday.
The Dog Bowl is happening at Fair Park on Sunday. You know the drill–you bring your pooch, you take them off their leash, they make new best friends and you get a suntan. All of that is still true, but we’ve got some inside scoop. Here are the prizes for 1st, 2nd and 3rd place in the Dog Look-alike contest: 1) Gift Certificate for photo session at Nancy Degenkolb Photography ($250 value) 2) A suite weekend at Pete and Mac’s ($170 value) and $75 gift card to Petco 3) A two-night stay at Benny’s Dog Resort ($60 value) and$25 gift card to Petco. Door prizes will also be given out. Don’t worry–you will still be able to attend and have a Sunday funday. They will be selling beer at Fair Park.
Leading Off (6/4/10)
1. I don’t know any more than anyone else what is going boom over in West Dallas, but I do know that Mystery Booms of West Dallas sounds like a mighty fetching band name. But seriously, Frontburnervians – what is making that noise? Any guesses? Mine? You.
2. The constable/District Attorney Craig Watkins kerfluffle has officially given me tired head and a raging case of the drinks. There’s a new twist to it, apparently. Back to you, Eric Celeste.
3. Apparently, according to this recap, America’s Got Talent, but Dallas? Not so much. But I would like to meet Ms. Donna, who apparently is a half-blind flaming knife thrower. I would like to meet her from afar, say, separated by a very wide swath of nonflammable materials and something that stops knives.
4. Blockbuster is working to fend off a hostile proxy action by a shareholder to attain a seat on the company’s board. They seem serious about it, and have given Gregory Myer a cool band name – Dissident Shareholder. Jokes on them, though, because I’m pretty sure I saw Dissident Shareholder at Trees back in the day. Also, this.
5. Texas A&M and Arkansas will face off for a basketball matchup at the AAC on Dec. 18. I have nothing more to add to that than this.
Luis Ellis Eliminates The Ticket’s Dan McDowell in D Magazine Words With Friends
Luis Ellis certainly seems to have enjoyed his 449 to 339 over Dan McDowell of the Ticket:
It was a historical matchup between current Ticket employee Dan McDowell vs ex-Ticket employee Luis Ellis. In the end, it was proven that Luis indeed likes to party more than Dan. Luis jumped out of the “Box” with a 55 pointer which was a lead that Dan couldn’t overcome. Dan made a bold move by utilizing his Ticket venacular when he played the word “poop” but he still couldn’t overcome Luis’ domination of the TWS.
Dan has ultimate bragging rights, though, since he gets to go back to his gig at America’s favorite radio station while Luis gets to go get slapped around by scrabble champ Chris Cree and return to slavery in corporate America.
We have our Elect Eight.
Frisco’s Dark Magic Does in American Way Editor in D Magazine Words With Friends Tournament
First the Ticket’s Gordon Keith was done in by the Collin County-based witchcraft of Frisco Mayor Pro Tem Jeff Cheney. Now it’s magazine editor Jessica Jones who’s fallen from our Words With Friends tournament. By a score of 364 to 347, Cheney advanced to the Elect Eight to face off tomorrow against Rhett Miller (who, by the way, is playing (music, not WWF) at the Belmont Hotel tonight.)
Here’s what Jessica says about the loss:
What a heartbreaker (well, for me). We were neck and neck pretty much the entire game. It was a *very* tough board, forcing us to take turns playing two letters at a time for the majority of the second half. And technical difficulties — app crashing, slow load times — only made the back and forth that much more tense. But Jeff had an incredible knack for making one letter here and there count big. No triple-digit plays this game, just a steady pace of 20 and 30 pointers. This time, I can’t blame the power letters; I got almost all of them. But I CAN blame the letter gods for being extremely stingy with the vowels. WTF, WWF?
I kid. Great game Jeff.
Tim Rogers Gets Reprieve From the Words With Friends Gods, Still Loses in D Magazine Tournament
And so Zac Crain knows he’ll be facing Rich Goff, a promotions manager for WFAA, in a fight tomorrow for a spot in our Finally Four. That’s because Goff beat Tim Rogers — more than once, apparently. The final score was 403 to 298. Here’s Tim’s account of what happened:
To be honest, Rich beat me twice. A quarter of the way through our game, the Newtoy servers had a hiccup, and we lost our game. Gone. When it vanished, Rich was killing me. So we started another game. You know what happened there. I drew all the big letters yet couldn’t score with them — partly because I’m not that good, but mostly because I think Rich was playing (and bingoing) in a way that was designed to thwart big scores with the Z, Q, and J. The game was never close. Zac is going to have his hands full tomorrow.
Now read what Rich has to say about what transpired. Do you detect the same note of skepticism that I do about that server “hiccup”?
After our first game mysteriously disappeared, (something about a NewToy server update), we re-started at around 1:15 in the afternoon. I was fortunate enough to get some good letters and score a bingo off the top…Tim has warned me that Zac will be a formidable opponent tomorrow, and I believe him. To quote a great movie:
1) We gotta play ‘em one day at a time.
2) I’m just happy to be here. Hope I can help the ballclub.
3) I just want to give it my best shot, and the good Lord willing, things will work out.
As far as I know, Rich: no, Tim didn’t signal his good buddies Paul and David Bettner to turn off the juice when things weren’t going his way. As far as I know.
Rhett Miller of the Old 97s Advances, Believes He Was Playing Mad Men Star at Words With Friends
Musician Rhett Miller has joined the Elect Eight in the D Magazine Words With Friends Tournament. Though a presumed misspelling on Rhett’s official report to the tournament director suggests that he may have played actress Christina Hendricks, we’re prettty sure that he actually took on his assigned opponent for Round 3, Cristen Hixson of UT-Dallas.
In any event, he came out ahead, 426 to 335, after a six-hour match. Here’s what he had to say:
PerkieGirl commanded the game forever. I finally got some luck in the last five or so plays. Back to back 47’s. I was able to seal the victory with a 76 point bingo, feasters.
Jump for the board.
David Dillon, R.I.P.
A note just went around the newsroom at the Dallas Morning News. They’re working on the obit. Meantime, here’s the memo:
We have some sad news. Longtime architecture critic David Dillon has died suddenly of a massive heart attack at his home in Massachusetts. He was 68. Most recently, David did freelance work for us on some of Dallas’ biggest architectures stories, including Cowboys Stadium and the AT&T Performing Arts Center, in addition to writing books, teaching and consulting. He played a key role in the Tipping Points series. Previously, he was our staff critic and had a huge profile here as well as nationally.
Oak Cliff Group Fighting Apartments for Homeless
Live in Dallas long enough, and you get approached by someone for money while you wait for a train, get gas, or idle at a stoplight. Sometimes they even yell at you when you don’t give them money – I had one exclaim, “BUT YOU HAVE IPHONE MONEY!” while I was at a light, and had another individual curse at me when I offered him my all-day DART pass that I was done with, instead of the $5 he wanted to, he claimed, buy a DART pass.
I have my doubts that all those people are homeless, but I also think there’s gotta be an easier way to make money and live.
That being said, we do have a homeless problem in Dallas. We’re not the only city that has one, and we’re not the only one that is trying to tackle it. And it seems like the most logical thing to do would be to get these people housed, employed, and doctored for whatever may ail them. Call me a pinko commie leftist Pollyanna, but that seems like it would work. House the people who don’t actually want to be homeless, help them find jobs and help them overcome addictions or cope with various mental illnesses.
But the Dallas Morning News reports that the Fort Worth Avenue Development Group in Oak Cliff is against using a high rise on the street as housing for the would-be formerly homeless. I do understand that the street is undergoing a revitalization, but I also know that housing assistance, coupled with health and other services, can do much to reduce the homeless population in Dallas.
This isn’t the first time a group has fought plans to integrate the formerly homeless into neighborhoods. There were similar stances taken with the plans for the building on Akard as well. Nobody wants the newly-homed in their neighborhoods, resulting in waves of NIMBY. But if they don’t go in my backyard, where do they go? Do we build a giant compound just outside town, and house them there?
UPDATE: People Newspaper’s Josh Hixson has a pretty interesting exchange over here.
Zac ‘Cheap Bingo’ Crain Scoots Past TWU Grad Student in Words With Friends Tournament
D Magazine’s own Zac Crain advanced to Round 4 of our tournament with a hard-fought 385 to 368 win over Sandra Silva, an MBA student at Texas Woman’s University. From Zac:
It was back and forth pretty much all the way. Never could get ahead by much, especially since I got the cheapest bingo in the history of cheap bingos (PRICERS, for something like 45 points). I thought I was sunk when Sandra played TRIVIAL for 42 with only a couple of tiles left. But I was able to overcome that on my last two turns, winning on my very last play. She was tough. I’d say I did it for Evan Grant, but he’s a no-good turncoat.
Board-jump.
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