I don’t suffer through 162 games. I go the Ballpark a few times a year — maybe. Like I’ve said before, I really only seriously care about two sports NBA basketball and the Real World/Road Rules Challenge. But I do pay a bit of attention. I know what’s up.
I also know that I am a crazy sports jinx. Example. The 2006 Dallas Mavericks Finals run? You know who has two thumbs and had tickets for Game 6? Well, okay, you can’t see it, but I’m gesturing towards my chest with both thumbs while I say, and now type, “this guy.” I had to watch Antoine Walker celebrate a championship with my own functioning eyes. No one should have had to see that, especially someone who has occasionally carried the nickname Captain Furious. (Although I prefer Doctor Implausible.)
A Rangers example? Sure. Follow along.
For awhile now Energy Future Holdings (formerly TXU) has been successful at “de-leveraging,” or restructuring, its $40 billion in debt. On Monday Moody’s Investors Service downgraded that debt, citing lower prices for power. Two days later Rob Walters, EFH’s executive vice president, was named DFW’s Outstanding General Counsel, in part for the restructuring effort, during a reception at the Adolphus Hotel Dallas.
“Lopping off a couple billion in debt looks like a lot–but it’s not so hard when you start with $40 billion,” Walters said wryly as the big crowd laughed. He was one of 17 in-house lawyers who were honored in this year’s Corporate Counsel Awards program, a new partnership between D CEO and the DFW chapter of the Association of Corporate Counsel. Check out profiles of Walters and the other winners and Q&As with all the honorees here.
Remember back in July, when Pilar Sanders (aka Mrs. Deion Sanders) stopped by our offices for a photo shoot, with her own film crew in tow?
She was among the semifinalists in our annual 10 Most Beautiful Women in Dallas contest. (Read the December issue of D Magazine to see who made the final cut.) Well, VH1 is now ready to promote the reality television show on which Pilar will appear. It’s called Football Wives, and it starts surpassing the standards set by the Real Housewives franchise on Oct. 24.
You should be excited for two reasons. 1) Based on the trailer, the whole show is set in Dallas and its exurbs. and 2) D Magazine’s own Raya Ramsey appears in the trailer — with a speaking role — at right about the 1 minute, 7 second mark. Enjoy:
Too bad they’re launching this sure-to-be-instant-classic series too late to be eligible for our Top Reality Stars of Dallas tournament (remember to vote once an hour through Oct. 29). From the looks of it, they could have had some contenders. Maybe Laura needs to recap the episodes on FrontRow?
Essentially — and yes, I’m quoting from the press release, but they’ve sort of backed me into a corner by coming up with something it’s hard to describe in another way, so blame them not me — it’s “Groupon for golfers.” Intrigued? I hope so, because I’ve cut-and-pasted the full release after the jump. Aren’t you excited! I’m sure Tim will use this and have something to say about it. Right now he’s off getting a new hip.
In Dallas yesterday, Gov. Rick Perry took a stab at explaining why a company owned by his pal David Nance got $4.5 million from the state’s Emerging Technology Fund, after a vetting panel failed to give Nance’s company its OK. And, after a lot of weaseling around, the bottom line is that Perry couldn’t explain it.
That’s disappointing. He’s been a decent governor, and the tech fund is probably a good idea for business development. But this Nance deal–kudos to the DMN for uncovering it–looks like a clear abuse of the process, unless there’s a great explanation we haven’t heard yet. If Eddie Bernice deserves hell for her scholarship shenanigans, shouldn’t the guv get equal hell for this?
If you see some windows being blown out today across Commerce from the Municipal Courts Building, it’s not terrorists. It’s The Good Guys filming. There may even be some propane flares involved in the activity scheduled until 3 p.m.
Later tonight they’ll be moving up Commerce to St. Pete’s Dancing Marlin for filming and “no pyro will be used at this location.”
Readers, I ask you: what have you done to celebrate Idea Week? If the answer is “nothing,” you and I both know you should be deeply ashamed. Thank goodness you have a chance to redeem yourselves tonight with a lecture about the state of the arts in Dallas, led by KERA’s Jeff Whittington and public-art expert Anne Pasternak.
Alternatively, you could drop off your adolescent sons and daughters at the Dallas Contemporary for Teen Night and then support the culinary arts by attending this lovely-sounding wine dinner at Parigi. But if you want to know my top pick for this evening, you’ll jump to the next page.
A walking FrontBurnervian tells us what happened last night at Primo’s:
Derek Holland walked in. We didn’t recognize him. Inside the window, a girl and guy (in a Vlad Guerrero t-shirt) started getting their picture taken with him. Our waitress came out to deliver our drinks and we asked, “Who is that guy?” She said, “Oh, that’s Derek Holland. He just ordered a bottle of champagne for every table.” The rest of my table missed that part somehow, and I kept mum until they started trotting out bottles of Moet two by two and dropping them off at each table, saying, “Courtesy of Derek Holland of the Texas Rangers.” That was pretty much that. No muss, no fuss. Just drinks for strangers.
How cool is that?
Last night, I was lucky enough to be in attendance at the fourth installment of Pecha Kucha Night. At least the fourth here in Dallas. The idea started in Tokyo and similar events happen all over the world. I happen to have some thoughts, so let’s go ahead and jump in case it gets long and I forget to click the button that makes a click-thru and everyone gets mad at me for dominating the page. And jump over here to FrontRow, where Peter Simek has some thoughts, too.
As you are no doubt aware, this Friday is homecoming at my alma mater, the Cistercian School for Wayward Boys. Gimme an H! Gimme an O! Gimme an X! What’s that spell?! (Trust me. It was hysterical back in 1988.) Anyway, in conjunction with the homecoming game, which will pit the Hawks of Cistercian against, um, another team of football players (I follow Cistercian’s athletic endeavors religiously), the school will hold a silent auction. As a distinguished alumnus, I was asked to donate an item on which the faithful might bid. Here’s the official description of the “item” I came up with:
“A year’s subscription to D Magazine — hand delivered to your house by Tim Rogers, the editor of the magazine. Tim will make arrangements to meet you at your door at a time of your and his convenience, whereupon he will give you a quick behind-the-scenes tour of that issue, perhaps explaining how the cover was shot, etc. Caveat: the winner must live within the 635 loop (because Tim ain’t making 12 trips to Prosper in a year’s time). If the subscriber lives farther afield, the subscription will be hand-mailed by the editor, accompanied each month by a personal note written lovingly to the subscriber on a manual Royal Arrow typewriter, just like the one Hemingway once used.”
Now then. When several of my co-workers learned about this, they mocked me. “You’re losing your hair!” they said. “And, besides, no one is going to bid on that stupid item. No one likes you.” It’s a supportive work environment up here at D Magazine. So I set an over-under on the dollar amount that my auction item will sell for. They all took the under. Wagers were waged.
Here’s where you come in. I’m not asking you to bid on the hand-delivered subscription because you like you and want to meet me. Quite the contrary. We all know you hate me as much as my co-workers do. And as much as you don’t want to see me win this bet, you know it’ll be a total pain my ass to drive over a magazine to your house every month for a year. So stick it to me.
Not going to the game? I’m sure they’d accept a bid by phone or e-mail. The school: 469-499-5400. And Robin Springer (RSpringer_at_sagiss.com) is the auction chair.
On Saturday, October 23, the Woodall Rodgers Park people are putting on a pretty cool free event. The first enormous deck park support beam will be installed, so they’re throwing a free picnic, with BBQ from Sammy’s and a bounce house and the whole deal. You’ll even get a chance to sign the beam before it’s dropped into place. After the jump, details on the picnic and what you’ll see when they lower the beam.
1. There was a yellow, sticky substance left all over Azle ISD’s locker room. Some think it was urine. But that’s not confirmed. I bet it was just lemonade. Or mango smoothie. Either one.
2. These twin brothers created a business fixing video games and selling them for cheap. They made $300,000 last year. They think they’ll make $500,000 this year. They live at their parents’ house. They don’t plan on leaving. I don’t get it.
3. There’s good news for young Jack Pittman-Heglund’s family. After falling into a coma last week, he woke up. He still has a long road to recovery, but this is a good start. And it’s obvious that he has strong community and family support.