Articles for March, 2011
Morning News Pay Wall Will Have Company Starting March 28
The Morning News pay wall is hardly up and look who else is putting one in place for a March 28 launch.
Big Bob over at UnfairPark is right on two points:
- The March 28 pay-wall arrangement is more user-friendly than the Dallas paper’s plan.
- Pay walls are “the new reality.”
Dos and Don’ts of Skipping Work to Watch the NCAA Tournament
Today kicks off the NCAA men’s college basketball tournament, and it is — traditionally — a day when office workers take really, really long lunches so as to cram in as much men’s college basketball tournament fun as possible (read: drink). So, anyway. A list. Because people love two things: AMERICA. And lists.
Things to Do in Dallas Tonight: March 17
Today, I’m wearing the only green shirt I own. It’s hunter, not kelly. But considering how rarely I wear actual colors outside the #000000-#FFFFFF range, I’m going to consider phase one of Operation Faking Ridiculous Holiday Spirit a rousing success.
Something else that might help with phase two: hundreds of watermelon Jell-O shots. Yikes. Raya, purveyor of all things nightlife, has kindly put together a list of bars and pubs hosting St. Patrick’s day festivities. A few places are going all out with bagpipes and traditional Irish dancing — efforts for which I happily give my seal of approval despite unfortunate college memories of men in kilts. Just be careful. I’ve heard tell of at least one person who managed to break a limb after an unfortunate altercation with a porta-potty during last Saturday’s parade. Apparently those things are extra dangerous now that they’re on wheels.
Also on my radar tonight is a screening of the always-excellent To Kill a Mockingbird, hosted by former WFAA film critic Gary Gogill as part of the Horton Foote Festival. Foote won an Oscar in 1962 for the screenplay he adapted from Harper Lee’s novel. And if this whole thing wasn’t taking place at the Studio Movie Grill, I’d be in film nerd heaven.
For a musical option that (hopefully) doesn’t involve bagpipes, Liz Phair is performing at the Granada. I have an obnoxious habit of not liking the occasional artist until their music is used really well in a movie. Such was the case with Phair. Her song “Why Can’t I” works so perfectly in Thirteen Going on 30 that I couldn’t help jumping on her fan bus. Here’s a secret. That movie is actually one of my all-time favorites. Anyway, there are still quite a few general admission tickets left, but most of the seated sections are sold out save a few areas of the balcony.
For more ways to spend your St. Patty’s Day, click here. May the luck of the Irish be with you.
Bush Institute Event Luring Four Nobel Laureates
With the U.S. struggling to achieve annual GDP growth in the 2/2.5 percent range, the folks at Dallas’ George W. Bush Institute think we should be setting our sights a little higher over the next decade. So, in April, they’re planning to bring in four Nobel Laureates in economics, as well as the likes of Meg Whitman, Arthur Laffer, Lawrence Lindsey and Karl Rove, for a two-day conference kicking off an initiative called the 4% Project. The confab will focus on the sorts of policy changes that could bring about 4 percent real GDP growth in the U.S. on a sustainable basis.
According to James K. Glassman, executive director of the Bush Institute, the April 12-13 conference at SMU will examine why the U.S. historically has outperformed the world in economic growth, why the country’s in jeopardy of losing its leadership now, and whether it can recover to attain steady 4 percent growth by the middle of this decade. Former President George W. Bush will open the conference with remarks before a series of panel discussions and two featured addresses–one by Whitman, the former eBay CEO, and the other by Laffer, the Reagan Administration adviser and supply-side-economics guru.
Where to Have McFun For St. Patrick’s Day in Dallas
BlackFinn Addison
Festivities: Enjoy $2.50 green Miller Lite pints, $3.50 Smithwick’s, Guinnes, and Harp, and $3 Irish Car Bombs. $2 Jell-O shots will be on hand, too.
BlackFriar
Festivities: Live music (including bagpipers from 5 pm to 7 pm) plays and Irish foods (including Shepherd’s Pie and corned beef & cabbed) are added to the menu.
Capitol Pub
Festivities: Corned beef & cabbage is available today only.
Jump for more festive happenings around town.
Leading Off (3/17/11)
Southwest Asks Muslim Women to Get Off Plane. Irum Abassi was talking on the phone before she boarded a Southwest Airlines plane when she said, “Hurry up. I have to go.” An attendant nearby heard, “Hurry up. It’s a go.” Therefore Abassi was pulled off the plane, missed her flight and a meeting, and was embarrassed. Southwest has apologized and is reviewing its policies. Fairly certain that before I boarded a plane last week, I was talking about eating a seagull. There was a lot of detail about how he would have been prepared. I wonder what the attendants thought of me.
Man on Bike Hates Cars. A man attacked customers in the Mockingbird/Abrams shopping center yesterday. He threw rocks and tore up cars and hit a woman during his rant. One victim said he kept saying something about him being on a bike, and mentioning she was in a car. So while your car may be stolen on West Commerce Street, it may be destroyed at Mockingbird/Abrams. I think we should all just go hide in the tunnels.
The Dallas Pilot Will Be Shot in Dallas. That’s really all you need to know. Well, that, and the filming will begin in April. Here’s hoping for more success than some other shows that were recently shot in Dallas.
Amend Bowled Over by Fortune Story
Former First Lady Laura Bush and John Amend at "Bowl Vern."
Dallas business types who read Fortune magazine will see a familiar face in the March 21, 2011, issue: real estate executive John Amend, founder and CEO of The Amend Group. In an article by Peter Elkind—the former Dallas Observer editor who has written several books, including “The Smartest Guys in the Room,” on the rise and fall of Enron—Fortune devotes three pages to Amend and his quest to create “an alternative bowling universe, where the well-heeled will go for a night on the town.”
The real estate executive says his interest in the sport was sparked about 10 years ago, after he went to a bowling alley in Garland with one of his sons. He became so consumed with the sport, he built a $1.5 million, four-lane alley at his estate on White Rock Lake (known as Mount Vernon, the former home to H.L.Hunt). Along with giving Amend a convenient place to practice, “Bowl Vern” has also become a hot networking and charity-event spot, attracting, among other notables, former President George W. Bush and his wife, Laura.
So how did the Fortune story come about? “It was the weirdest thing,” Amend says. “Teresa (Amend’s wife) and I were with Craig and Kathryn Hall on their yacht, south of The Bahamas. I was talking with one of their friends, a guy from New York, and the topic of bowling came up. He happened to be friends with the editor of Fortune, and they gave me a call.”
Amend told Elkind that reinventing the game won’t be easy, but that he has spent a lot of time thinking about it: “I’ve got an MBA—a master’s in bowling administration.”
“Is Justin Martin an Illusion? Is Rawlins Gilliland a Phantom?”
That is what a chicken-raising FrontBurnervian asked when he sent along a link to this essay, theoretically provocatively titled “The PBS-NPR Debate’s Unmentionable Dilemma.” (Well, he sent it to Tim. But Tim is pretending he is in an old Agathe Christie pot-boiler this week. So here we are.) I’ll highlight the relevant passage, the one the FrontBurnervian highlighted in his e-mail, which caused him to ask the questions I put in the title of this post, which caused me to put those questions in the title.
The problem is that not everyone can be a one-man Annie B. Casey Foundation or a Pew Charitable Trust. We live in a mobile society, and that means people transfer with their jobs — lots of people. Dallas, Texas, for example, abolished its PBS stations a few years ago, which meant not only classical music disappeared, but financial TV shows such as “Wall Street Week,” which caters to an audience a bit more sophisticated that the one that listens to Dr. Phil.
So, yeah. Now I have a question: are we living inside of some elaborate charade propagated by Jeff Whittington? PROBABLY.
Is the Texas Rangers’ C.J. Wilson the Most Interesting Man in the World?
We already knew:
1) He’s a pretty solid starting pitcher for your American League champion Texas Rangers
2) He’s a Lost fanatic, and got to play ball with that show’s creators.
3) He’s an accomplished Twitterer
4) The ladies seems to enjoy giving him a look-see.
What we’ve learned from this Forbes Q&A with him:
1) He’s got his own car racing team.
2) He owned so many Porsches that he sold some because he didn’t have enough time to drive them all.
3) He got to drive the pace-car at Texas Motor Speedway.
If there’s a better candidate to be Dallas’ version of the Most Interesting Man in the World, please let me know.
UPDATE: The man himself tweets to point out that I neglected to mention how he dabbles in photography. I apologize profusely for the omission. <swallowing hard to suppress now-raging jealousy>
Comanche Peak Vulnerable Because of … Hurricanes?
With anti-nuclear hysteria kicking in right on schedule–”numerous” Texans are said to be asking Walgreen’s for anti-radiation pills–The Daily Beast is out with a ranking of the vulnerability of all 65 U.S. nuclear plants, including the one at Comanche Peak. Among the factors used to place the Glen Rose facility at No. 35 in the rankings is this criterion: “Expected number of hurricanes in the next century: 20-40.”
Which might come as a surprise to residents of the area south of Fort Worth, where hurricanes are about as commonplace as icebergs in the Gulf. “I’m 46, and we’ve never had a hurricane in Glen Rose,” says city superintendant Ronald Bruce, who grew up there. Bruce said his parents, who grew up in Glen Rose as well, don’t remember any hurricanes in that part of Texas, either.
My Attempt To Prevent A Man From Having To Shave Off Body Hair
I get a lot of e-mails that have nothing to do with my day-to-day job. Most of these e-mails are saying that I’ve been given a crazy amount of money and all they need is my bank info in order for me to get it. But the other day, I got an even stranger e-mail. Instead of summarizing, I thought I’d post it here. And in doing so, I truly hope I am helping the sender (you’ll understand in a minute).
Krista,
First off, this is going to be a strange request, and I’ll admit that on the front end. But, as you will see from the email chain below … [I'm trying to get] a (very brief) article published in local magazine/paper in order for me to meet a prerequisite for entry into an adventure race called the Death Race. The race is held in Pittsfield, Vermont – it is crazy.
Anyway, the racers have been told that if we don’t get an article published about our entry into the race, we will face a “penalty” at the race in June – either shaving all of my body hair off or taking hay bales from the bottom of the mountain to the top of the mountain…neither of which sound too appealing to me.
I’m not sure if you can help me out or if you have any suggestions on where I should turn, but please let me know if you have any thoughts. Thanks in advance for your help.
Hope this helps!
Things to Do in Dallas Tonight: March 16
Last week I drove through a residential neighborhood and past a very normal-looking house with a man standing in the front yard. This man (wearing a cowboy hat, no less) was very casually holding the reigns of SIX different horses, one of which was half off the sidewalk and standing in the street. I almost took out a mailbox trying to do a double-take and immediately Twittered an awesomely bad joke about stumbling onto the set of the highly anticipated sequel to the Horse Whisperer — the Horse Walker. My friend from Connecticut replied that she was even more excited about the third installment: Horse Mime.
Here’s the part where you ask me why I’m telling you this great-yet-seemingly-pointless story. In the immortal words of Buffy, it’s entirely pointy because local artist Melissa Auberty will see Mr. Cowboy Hat’s six horses and raise him another 94. Her exhibit, One Hundred Horses, is open at the Norwood Flynn Gallery. A little off the beaten gallery path, but it’s worth a quick stop after work to see these beautifully rendered animals up close.
Scardello is kicking off the Tour de Fromage tonight at their Oak Lawn shop, which is a great thing for highly competitive cheese lovers and/or people like me who have no idea what to do with this NCAA stuff. This evening pits France (last year’s winner) versus Italy, and you can download a bracket to keep up. Come on, Camembert!
And finally, in a funky economy like this one, far be it me not to alert people to new networking opportunities. The National Association Asian American Professionals is launching its Dallas chapter tonight with a free happy hour mixer at the House of Blues Foundation Room. Anyone is welcome to attend, so drop by for drink specials, door prizes, and complimentary appetizers. Plus, donations will be collected for relief efforts in Japan.
For more things to do tonight, go here.
Still Time to Join the D Magazine NCAA Tournament Bracket Challenge-a-Thon
Again, our group name is Best Waffles, and we’re right here. If you win, you get a $150 gift card to Ozona, AS WELL AS an almost imperceptible head nod from me, a steely eyed fist pump from the distant film/TV father of your choice, one of the pens off my desk, bragging rights for a year, and — just added! — a post on FrontBurner to say whatever you want, so long as you don’t curse and don’t mind me editing it to reflect my own personal views.
Anyway, get to it.
Leading Off (3/16/11)
DeSoto’s Von Miller the Only Rookie to Join Antitrust Lawsuit Against NFL. The Texas A&M linebacker isn’t even technically a rookie yet, as he hasn’t been drafted, and NFL owners seem like just the kind of jerky jerks to collude with each other and not draft Miller just to be jerks. But good luck, Von!
Kidnapping Victim Describes “House of Horrors.” Look, I know we’re not supposed to judge a book by its cover, or use cliches like that this early in the morning, but look at Jeffrey Maxwell. I think those sideburns kidnapped two more people while I was typing.
Mavs Lose to Blazers. They made their first 11 shots, stayed pretty hot all night, Dirk looked dominant, and they still couldn’t pull it out. But remember everyone: chill. It’s going to be okay. They still have the best road record in the league, and they haven’t been soundly beaten in forever. They’re better when people forget about them anyway.
West Commerce Street in Dallas Has Most Car Thefts in the Nation. Missed this the other day, but here’s the relevant (and crazy!) stat: “Nearly one in every four cars in the area gets stolen. The rate for the neighborhood is 223 cars stolen per 1,000. The national average is three per 1,000.” I think the word you’re looking for is “daaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaang.” I only thought of parking there just now and suddenly I can’t find my car keys.
Man Charged With Beating and Poisoning Neighbor’s Dog Claims It Was An Accident. Hard to tell if there is anything to his side of the story as the quotes in this piece just left me with more questions. Everyone sounds like they’re sort of lying.
NFL Lockout: Winners & Losers
As you may have heard, NFL owners formally locked out the players recently, as the two sides attempt to come up with a new collective bargaining agreement. It’s still early, but let’s take a quick look at the winners and losers so far.
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