Articles for September, 2010
What to Do in Dallas This Weekend: Sept. 17-19
The weekend has arrived, praise be. I think it will be a good one.
Tonight
Gentlemen, if you find yourself with a date this evening, take her to the balloon glow at the Plano Balloon Festival. Trust me: she’ll think you’re sweet and sensitive (even though we both know better). Or, dance and make merry at tonight’s ’Til Midnight at the Nasher event featuring music by Havana NRG followed by a screening of West Side Story in the garden.
However, if Friday is girls’ night out, you’ll want to be at the KC and the Sunshine Band concert at House of Blues. Or, if you live north of town, you and your gaggle might consider salsa dancing at Cyclone Anayas.
Saturday
- For the breeders: The Teddy Bear Clinic at Medical City Children’s Hospital may very well save you a lot of anguish the next time little Hunter or Bryce or whatever you’ve named him has a doctor’s appointment. Plus, the “ailments” the kids assign to their teddy bears will provide ample fodder for the compulsive Facebook updaters among you. You know who you are. Later on, grab your four-legged children and go to Garland for Wags and Waves. This pool party benefits Metroplex Animal Coalition, and it features pet tricks and dogs in costumes. Need I say more?
Collin County Lays Off the Innocent, Retains the Indicted Clerks
Want to be safe from being let go from a government job in Collin County? It’s easy: simply get indicted for official corruption.
Responding to budget cuts ordered by the County Commissioners Court, in the wake of the indictments of the incoming District Clerk-elect and five of her deputies, embattled District Clerk Hannah Kunkle handed out pink slips to three mid-level deputy clerks.
None of the three has been charged with any wrongdoing. They were simply expendable, thereby making it easier for Kunkle to protect the jobs of those six charged with felony theft by a public servant.
Art Meets Angst at the Dallas Contemporary
What the heck’s going on this photo (taken by Jeanne Prejean)? Does it show Tim Rogers the morning after another raucous Friday-afternoon party at the D offices? Nope. It’s actually an art piece by Dallasite-turned-Prague-resident Kit Reisch, titled “Dead Me.” The thought-provoking work was on display during a reception for nearly 500 arty types last night at the Dallas Contemporary, where it’s part of a new exhibition called “Here. There. & Beyond.” that opens Saturday and runs through Oct. 31. One of three pieces in the exhibit by Reisch featuring random body parts in packing crates, “Dead Me” (and the two others) reflect the artist’s sense of loneliness, detachment and hibernation in the Czech Republic, Kit said. Hope he’s feeling better soon.
Bill White (and the Houston Chronicle) Come to Lakewood
An alert FrontBurnervian points us to this story in the Houston Chronicle about Dallas’ importance to Bill White. The piece opens in Lakewood. Would you be surprised if I told you SMU political scientist Cal Jillson is quoted?
Sadie Murray, Reanae Seth, Sara Abbott McEown Need Your Votes
Remember Sadie Murray? She’s our blonde, beauty-obsessed cutie. Go give her your vote.
Remember Reanae Seth? Philanthropist/social butterfly? Yep. She needs some love, too. Go vote.
Remember Sara Abbott McEown? Our lovely (and newly married) construction litigation attorney? Love her? Vote for her.
See all 13 women here!
Don’t forget to vote over the weekend. The contest will still be raging, and the votes will keep coming. As our special gift to you, one extra day of voting is being granted. The ballots will close when the clocks strikes 12 Monday night.
Dallas Still Relatively Strong Among Cities
For all the sturm und drang about tax rate increases, budget crises, real estate crashes, etc., it is helpful to remember that we are lucky to be in Dallas (and Texas).
For the full report from the Brookings Institution, go here.
Judge Ferchill and the Tarrant Co. Guardianship Ring
Has guardianship become a racket over in Tarrant County? That is the implication of Jeff Prince’s excellent report in the recent Fort Worth Weekly about the case of a partially senile (and rich) woman who found herself under examination in Judge Pat Ferchill’s court. Ferchill was also the judge who held the secret ex parte hearing in the Cunningham case.
The Tea Party: A New Organizational Model
What makes the Tea Party unique, argues Jonathon Rauch in the National Journal, is not its politics, but its leaderless organizational style. Its model is based not on a political tract but on a business book called The Starfish and the Spider: The Unstoppable Power of Leaderless Organizations. The spider, like almost organizations, has a head; crush the head and you kill the spider. The starfish has no head; its arms have their own minds. Almost all organizations have heads. The Tea Party does not — and in that lies its strength.
Organizers in Dallas are setting up a tea party in every ZIP code. “If the beauty of the tea party is decentralization,” says Ken Emanuelson, a member of the Dallas steering committee, “in large metro areas like Dallas, the decentralization needs to go well below the metro area. It needs to go down into the neighborhoods. We go to our neighborhood groups, and we get our agenda from them.” Asked how many neighborhood tea parties exist in the Dallas area, another citywide coordinator replied, “I don’t even know.”
What makes the Tea Party so befuddling to politicians, lobbyists, and operatives like Karl Rove, Rauch writes, is that there is nobody to negotiate with. So it is hard to figure out how to co-opt it. Moreover, it is a harbinger of things to come — in politics, in business, in social networking.
I think we are just beginning to understand how radically the internet is changing the norms of society. This is going to be fascinating to watch.
Grand Jury Investigates Collin County DA
In June, we called for the U.S. Attorney or a grand jury to look into the questionable investigations of Collin County DA John Roach. Yesterday a Collin County grand jury rose to the challenge, appointing a special prosecutor to examine the DA’s conduct, .
Ironically, the grand jury was impanelled in June by Judge Suzanne Wooten, who has been the subject of a series of probes by the DA. However, Judge Wooten recused herself and reportedly had no knowledge of the grand jury’s action until it was announced.
What goes around comes around, indeed.
Glenn Close Exclusive Interview: I’ve Got Texas In My Blood
Glenn Close has never, ever been to Dallas. But all that changes next week when the award winning actress — she’s been nominated five times for an Oscar, and has won three Tonys, an Obie, three Emmys, two Golden Globes, and a Screen Actors Guild Award – lands in Big D for her first visit. She’s coming to give a part of herself to our theater arts schools and do a little film “bidness.” Glenn is meeting with investors who are interested in financing the very first feature film she has ever produced, a project she and her producer, Dallas native Bonnie Curtis, affectionately call “Nobbs.”
Albert Nobbs is a feature film adaptation of George Moore’s Irish short story of the same name, and Glenn says when she played the role of Albert off Broadway twenty years ago, she felt a connection that never left her. The story, she says, blind-sided her. And it will blind-side everyone who sees it.
Leading Off (9/17/10): The Bethany Forgot It Was Friday Edition
1. Michael Hinojosa is among three finalists for the superintendent’s job in Clark County, Nev. If he’s offered the job, DISD could very well be launching it’s own superintendent search, because trustee Jack Lowe said he’s not sure this board would support paying him more than Clark County would offer, even though they would vote to extend his contract.
2. Running with a gun in his britches and shooting a coyote has paid off for Gov. Rick Perry.
3. Parents in Keller aren’t sure they want the president of the Keller Youth Association, which oversees many of the youth sports activities in the town, to also be the vice president of a group that owns several area gentlemen’s clubs.
4. Some Frisco kids had to pay to pee at Pizza Hut Park because of something I’m really not awake enough to understand.
5. So I woke up today, really refreshed, and then realized it was Friday, and 7 a.m. So you get this, this and this for earworms.
Which Gym Is It?
I have a deep and abiding love for Cake Wrecks, a blog that shows some of the most heinous things ever done to flour, eggs and milk.
It is, in fact, one of my go-to blogs when I’m bored. I end up laughing, and if I’m at work, I have to do it quietly and my coworkers think I’m having a seizure.
But today, while browsing, I see a cake made for a Dallas fitness center (photo after the jump). According to the blog, this center has the tag line, “redefining the fitness experience.” Only, the baker made a few edits…
The Bears Will Beat the Cowboys on Sunday Because Jesse Jackson Says So
Forget about police protests over manpower shortages in Chicago. What the Rev. Jesse Jackson really wanted to talk about yesterday on MSNBC’s The Ed Schultz Show was football. “The Bears will beat Dallas this coming Sunday,” said Jackson, president of the Rainbow/PUSH coalition. “The Bears?” said Schultz. “The Bears barely beat Detroit.” But the rev is staying confident: “We’ll talk about it next week.” Jackson did have a few things to say about the police issue in Chicago, too. “We have sufficient security and stability in Baghdad,” he said, “but not in Chicago.”
Maryland House of Delegates Candidate Claimed He Was a Cowboy
Meet Michael Vaughn, who claimed – during his campaign for a seat on the Maryland House of Delegates – that he spent three years playing for the Dallas Cowboys.
What? He doesn’t look familiar?
That could be because he never played for the Cowboys. Or the Saints. Or the New Jersey Generals. But even the Redskin-loving city of Washington could overlook these claims, and now the incumbent candidate has a place in the general election.
The Washington City Paper has more, including this assessment:
“‘My credibility is all I have,’Vaughn told the Gazette newspapers after the I-Team investigation. Well, your credibility AND your 3-year run with the Dallas Cowboys.”
Is Tony Romo In the Market for a Country Club?
The Racine Post quotes the general manager of the Meadowbrook Country Club as saying it’s just a rumor. But the paper also insists it’s heard from at least three sources that Romo was interested in buying the financially struggling club for his father to run.
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