Articles for January 25th, 2011
Law Man Walking: Nature Treks With Bill Holston
In our last installment, Bill wrote about a walk through the Cedar Ridge Preserve. Today we find him sauntering along Turtle Creek.
Law Man Walking
By Bill Holston
During the week, if I have time, I try to walk during the lunch hour. I find that getting outside during the work week is a great stress reducer. Not to mention, it burns a few calories, to free up some room for those tasty Good 2 Go tacos that have recently arrived in my neighborhood. Actually, I find I’m more productive at work after I’ve had a walk. It’s good to get away from the phone and computer terminal for about 45 minutes.
I quit walking with an iPod several years ago because I prefer to leave space and quiet for thought. I also enjoy the bird calls and sounds of wind as I walk. Quite often, I find that my mood instantly brightens by getting outside during the day. It also helps me to appreciate the seasons. The one exception is summer. It turns out clients and fellow workers prefer their lawyer not to be sweat drenched. Go figure.
D Magazine Wins FOLIO Award
You will be pleased to know that your humble media servants won silver in the annual FOLIO Eddie Awards in the category for best full issue from a regional consumer magazine. We won the award for our 35th anniversary issue. We had to stand on the podium and watch as Time Inc.’s Sunset Magazine sang its company’s anthem.
(Magazine trivia: there’s a connection between D Magazine and Sunset. Anyone remember former D editor Melissa Houtte? She ran the ship here when I was an intern, back in 1992. She left D to take the helm at Sunset. I recall being rather surprised when I learned that, at the time, she didn’t know the voting age was 18.)
Q&A With Our New Events Editor, Liz Johnstone
We have a new staffer among us. Her name is Elizabeth Johnstone — or, as I call her, “Liz.” She’ll be writing the daily FrontBurner feature “What To Do In Dallas Tonight.” And, of course, her tireless efforts to uncover fun stuff will inform part of our iPhone app and they will bear the tasty fruit that we call our comprehensive online Events database. By way of introducing her to you, dear FrontBurnervians, I thought we’d break off a little Q&A.
Forget Football; It’s All About KISS
Attorney Marty Beyer, shown here at a Hard Rock Cafe, has not outgrown his lifelong obsession with Gene Simmons and KISS.
My younger brother, Marty, played football in college and is crazy about the game. But that’s not what’s compelling him to join tens of thousands of others in flocking to Dallas—um, Arlington—next week. An attorney in Dayton, Ohio, my brother is also a huge KISS fan, and has been since the 1970s. So when he heard about a big bash KISS’ Gene Simmons is throwing on Feb. 2, he immediately began looking into flights.
Simmons’ 2011 Aces and Angels Salute to the Troops will be the first major party of Super Bowl week. The KISS front man and his longtime partner, former Playmate Shannon Tweed, will host 500 Texas soldiers and about 2,500 partiers at Fair Park’s Centennial Hall. Proceeds will benefit the Wounded Warrior Project and the USO.
More than 50 professional athletes are slated to attend, including Jason Witten, Randy White, Jim McMahon, and Bret Saberhagen. Promoters also promise rock stars and television and film celebs. Entertainment will be provided by Five for Fighting (John Ondrasik), Little Texas, Rival Sons, and The Grascals. (What?! No KISS?!) The event also will include the Texas State Poker Championships, with the winner getting a $10,000 seat to represent the state Texas at the World Series of Poker.
The whole thing will be filmed by A&E for its reality series, Gene Simmons’ Family Jewels. Individual tickets and VIP cabanas for 10 remain available.
See you soon, bro!
UPDATE: The City of Dallas will present Simmons and Tweed with a key to the city, for their support of the U.S. military. The presentation will be made at 4 p.m. on Friday, Jan. 28, at the Dallas City Hall flag room on the sixth floor.
Sigh … I Want To Love KXT, I Do
Listen, I really want to love KXT, the NPR-offshoot of local radio here in Dallas. And at first, I really did. I’m even a sticker-on-my-car-bearing member. And for a while there, my commute was joyous, because it was full of local musicians and bands, Texas music, and rarely heard stuff that was consigned to B-sides back in the day.
But then, well, then I turned on the radio one day, and heard Dave Matthews Band – “Crash Into Me,” to be specific. “No, No, Gini,” I said under my breath. But then the next song came on, and all was right with the world.
‘Til the next morning, that is. When I got to the exact same spot in my commute, and heard freaking DMB, “Crash Into Me,” again. It was like “Groundhog Day,” without the animal torture. And then I began noticing even more musical detritus creeping into the lineup. Matchbox 20. Jewel. The Wallflowers. Adam Ant. Soul Asylum.
And then I noticed the Twitter chatter. Go ahead, go search #kxtfail. Or search KXT, period. You’ll see I’m not the only one whose noticed the rather Jack FM-ness of this baby radio station that has suddenly replaced the station who would throw on some Dawes and then some Rickie Lee Jones, and right after that some not-done-to-death Muse.
Word on the street is that they’re looking for a Music Director. For now, I’d think a good list of what not to play might be helpful?
Things to Do in Dallas Tonight: Jan. 25
Krista Nightengale alerted us all to the best job title ever this morning. From now on, please refer to me as Events Master — which automatically makes my job twice as cool as it already is.
Speaking of people who have cool jobs, how about those Mavs? They’re playing the LA Clippers tonight at the American Airlines Center. We’ve already beat them once this season, and there are still a few single seats left for the game in the $35 range.
At the risk of appearing to be a slave to my stomach, Frontburner reported yesterday that Monica Greene’s BEE (Best Enchiladas Ever) “Enchiladeria” opens today at 11 am, and lo and behold, it has! The Oak Cliff restaurant is fast-casual, so it sounds like the perfect place to shake up your lunch routine. Check their Facebook page for more information.
And finally, a movie I’ve really, really been wanting to see. Nothing stays at the Texas Theatre very long (bring back Carlos! Please!), so a lazy Tuesday night is a prime opportunity to catch Dogtooth, a Greek film picking up steam here stateside with an Oscar nod for Best Foreign Language film. So regardless of whether or not you care what the Academy thinks— or what FrontRow’s Peter Simek thinks (he liked it, by the way)— this trailer looks crazy and you should check it out while you still can.
If none of these activities pique your interest, find more things to do in Dallas tonight right here.
Texas Instruments Running on All Cylinders
Not only were 2010 sales up 34 percent, profits were up 120 percent, for a 23 percent margin on $14 billion. The reason? Customers in 2009 allowed inventories to deplete, and last year they started buying again — a lot, apparently.
Ode To Candy Barr: Dallas’ Most Famous Stripper
Playwright Gregg Barrios over at the Texas Observer recounts the life of the woman who dazzled Dallas in the 1950s. He is the author of the play Hard Candy, based on her life.
A Little Seryn Tease for FrontBurner Live Party
Are you joining us Thursday for our FrontBurner Live party at the Granada? Would you like to begin getting in the mood? A law-practicing FrontBurnervian passes along a link to a Seryn download from Paste Magazine.
Dewhurst Will Have Problems in Senate Primary
Evan Van Ness over at the Texas Tribune says the sub-primaries (Tom Leppert vs. Roger Williams, Ted Cruz vs. Michael Williams) could determine the winner.
Dallas Personal Income Fell 5% During Last Decade
It was the fourth worst decline among the 28 top American cities, according to Wendall Cox at New Geography. The five best cities were Baltimore, Pittsburgh, Washington, Philadelphia, and St. Louis. The five worst were San Francisco, Dallas-Fort Worth, Detroit, Atlanta, and — big surprise — San Jose.
There might be several explanations for the decline. One, of course, is immigration, which is generally low-skilled. The second is the aging of the Texas population in general. The population sector 65 and older has risen faster than the state’s general population growth. Both phenomena depress average income figures.
A.H. Belo Stock Is More Expensive Than Facebook
That’s right. The New York Observer did some calculating and found that Facebook, valued at $50 billion, is priced at an astronomical 107 times earnings. (Apple is only priced at 18 times earnings.) But even more astonishing to the Observer, Belo is priced at 215.
Leading Off (1/25/11)
Woman Goes on 80 Dates, Doesn’t Find Love. It’s like a real-life Bachelorette. Lisa Linehan decided a year ago that she wanted to get married February 15. Well, it’s almost a year later. She has everything she needs for the wedding, except the groom. So she’s going to give her wedding away. Insert joke here about Tim cutting in front of deserving brides to get the wedding of his dreams.
Grapevine Brings Us an Awesome Job Title: Lego Master Model Builder. Cal Walsh studied to be an aerospace engineer. And he just landed the dream job and will utilize everything he learned in school. He’s going to be in charge of Lego designs at Grapevine’s Legoland Discovery Center. Basically, he’ll just be playing all day. Aw, it’s like working at D.
The Super Bowl Is in Arlington. Apparently people keep forgetting. And Mayor Cluck is trying to remind them.
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