Articles for April 8th, 2011
Troubled Arts of Collin County Project Seeks a New Name
Nothing like a rebranding to cure what ails you. The public project to build a performing arts center in Collin County has had troubles from the start, when what was supposed to be a four-city project became a three-city project after McKinney voters refused to approve $19 million in bond funding that Allen, Plano, and Frisco had each all signed off on.
It still looked like they’d be able to make it happen, but then the economic doldrums struck the area. They were going to have to work some magic to keep it going. It’s largely been stuck in limbo, and now Frisco might bail.
So what better time to find a new name to signify your project’s bright new future. ACC is conducting a survey.
The new proposed names: Inspiration Arts Park or The Arts Park.
If I may humbly suggest, how about “The Super Terrific Happy Arts Park?”
Subscription-based Electric Car Service Expanding to Dallas-Fort Worth
The provider, AeroVironment, plans to install 70 public charging stations in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. For $89 a month, electric car owners will have access to unlimited charging in Houston and around here.
Now, will Texans be willing to embrace these services, and electric cars in general, if the auto companies continue to give the vehicles weak-willed names like the “Leaf?”
How about, instead, “the Live Wire,” “the Gridiron,” or “Electric Boogaloo?”
What’s Going on in Dealey Plaza?
And how many posts can I put up today with questions as the headline?
A reader writes:
My wife reports there is a old caddy there with the top down and they are measuring something. Is there some kind of JFK recreation going on?
I picked up the telephonic device on my desk and called over to the Sixth Floor Museum to ask if they knew anything about it. The gentleman there said he thinks “the Discovery Channel” or somebody is shooting something down there, but he wasn’t sure. It has nothing to do with the museum.
Then I turned to the Dallas Film Commission, but the woman there informed me that nobody filed for a permit to shoot in Dealey Plaza today. There’s always the chance that someone is filming without having the permit, of course.
So: mystery unsolved. Anybody know?
UPDATE: Thanks to Liza at the Sixth Floor Museum for chiming in the comments that it’s actually a National Geographic production at work in the plaza today. Should someone tell them they’ve apparently not got the proper permit?
Worst Person in the World of the Day?
Police say an accused child molester killed a man to fake his own death so as to avoid the sexual assault charges pending against him.
He allegedly tried to fake his own death in 2002 also, though in that case he had the courtesy not to commit murder, only pretending to have drowned in the Mississippi.
Arlington Has the Best Tap Water in Texas?
Maybe so, according to this contest. Here’s how I’d rank the three waters with which I’m most familiar:
3) San Antonio — I haven’t had a swig of it in almost 11 years, but I still have unpleasant memories.
2) Dallas — I drink it on a regular basis. It’s got its flaws, but I don’t see any reason to buy bottled instead.
1) Denton — The gold standard, as far I’m concerned.
Those of you who prefer your beverages decidedly more alcoholic, keep in mind that water quality affects you too:
“You need good water to make a good beer, so you’re really looking for the same things,” said one of the judges, Fritz Rahr, founder of Fort Worth’s Rahr & Sons Brewery.
UNT Lab Asked to Identify Remains of South Dakota Hiker
Came across this story about unidentified human remains from South Dakota being sent to the University of North Texas’ Center for Human Identification for, appropriately enough, identification. Authorities believe they could be the remains of a 61-year-old who disappeared almost five years ago.
My takeaway from the piece: Never go hiking in the vicinity of anything called “Holy Terror Mine.”
Star-Telegram is Packing for a Move
The Star-Telegram reports it will move to the Commerce Building in downtown Fort Worth by October. The daily paper has to relocate since the sale of its present digs to Bob Simpson’s MorningStar Capital closed today.
Wonder how many U-Hauls it’s gonna need.
North Texas Snow-and-Ice Bowl Has NFL Reassessing Its Disaster Planning
In preparing our special edition on Super Bowl XLV, I spent many months talking to those preparing for the big game in Arlington last February. I heard repeatedly that they were preparing for the “worst-case scenario” in terms of weather.
Silly me, I assumed that meant, you know, the absolutely worst possible weather that might strike North Texas. Because, as you know, that’s essentially what we got leading up to the game. But now we know that when the NFL says “worst-case scenario,” it means “the worst thing that’s still fairly likely to happen.”
All the snow and ice we were blessed with just in time to welcome the Steelers and Packers to town has the NFL’s man in charge of planning its special events rethinking that definition:
“When you plan a contingency, you plan for the most likely worst-case scenario, not any kind of cataclysmic event that might really stop everything,” Frank Supovitz, the NFL’s senior vice president of events, told Daniel Kaplan of Sports Business Journal. “Now, we have to go a little bit further than just what you expect.”
So here we have confirmation, that the next time Jerry and the Boys decide to push for a bid to host the championship game, it’s the freakish precipitation they saw during their last visit that the NFL owners are going to keep at the forefront of their minds.
North Texas would like to join the regular rotation of places to host the game multiple times — along with Miami, Tampa, New Orleans, and Arizona — but is the league ever going to want to risk such bad weather again? Doesn’t seem likely.
Watery Inspiration Results in Festival Pick
Euless-born filmmaker Geoff McGee says he got the idea for NEAL–a new horror-comedy short about a
swimming-pool cleaning machine that attacks a couple during a romantic swim–when he was swimming in a Dallas pool and a vacuum-cleaning device suddenly wrapped itself around his legs. “I thought, ‘That thing could kill you!’ ” says McGee, a film student at UT Arlington.
The result of his brainstorm will have its second local showing tonight at 10:30 at the Angelika Plano as part of the Dallas International Film Festival. The flick was also selected to be shown at the South by Southwest Film Conference and Festival last month.
The 25-year-old McGee (pictured at far left with Neal himself, NEAL’s producer/co-writer Robby Graham and star Teresa Valenza on the DIFF red carpet, in photo by Jeanne Prejean) not only dreamed up but also co-wrote, directed and edited the short, much of which was filmed underwater. Neal, who declined to give interviews, reportedly was really angry that he was asked to do the red carpet at all and smashed a mirror in the honeywagon.
Things to Do in Dallas This Weekend: April 8-10
‘Tis a good weekend for art of all kinds, but particularly the visual variety. If I had wads of cash coming out my ears, I’d go find something ridiculously awesome to hang on my wall. But since that’s obviously not the case, my Lord of the Rings poster will have to do for now.
Friday
The Dallas Art Fair kicks off this morning at the Fashion Industry Gallery and continues through Sunday. A dozen area dealers with be there, but most of the artwork is from out of state. Keep your eyes peeled for continuing FrontRow coverage, but first, read Peter Simek’s interview with founder Chris Byrne about what to expect from this year’s show. And as long as you’re in the artsy zone this evening, catch the free shuttle (or make like a true Dallasite and drive) to the Belmont Hotel to peruse the offerings at the Suite Art Fair, which will act as a kind of satellite fest for anyone looking for something from local spaces like 500x Gallery, Centraltrak, and Plush.
Suite opens an hour earlier than the DAF and doesn’t shut down until 8 pm, just to make things easier on you. From there, you have two choices: stick around BarBelmont for a cocktail and the fantastic downtown view, or head to the Dallas Contemporary for some wine at the opening reception of their fashion-forward photography exhibits: “Man With Banana” by Juergen Teller and “Bold and Beautiful” by Ezra Petronio. Either way, you can’t lose.
A NASCAR Story For You To Read
Big race this weekend. Back in 2005, I rented the largest vehicle allowed by law and took three buddies to a race at TMS. If you’re bored, you can read about what happened. It’s been six years since that outing. I’m still recovering.
T. Boone Pickens YMCA Throws Balloon Litter Into the Sky
Yesterday the downtown T. Boone Pickens YMCA celebrated its new branding (they’ve got a fancy new “Y” logo) by doing a balloon release from atop their building as onlookers in the CitySquare parking lot cheered. I caught a glimpse of the proceedings (and a couple photos) from our 21st-floor offices a block away.
My understanding is that balloon releases are a no-no. Sure, the balloons are pretty as they float away, but what goes up must come down. Critters can eat the latex, producing bad results. Accordingly, some states have outlawed balloon releases. Balloon advocates will say this concern is overblown, that a latex balloon will biograde just as quickly as an oak leaf. Well, sure. But it takes two years for an oak leaf to biodegrade, and you don’t have to worry about animals eating an oak leaf and choking on it. Seems that marine animals are the most likely to mistake balloons for food (because they look like jellyfish), and Dallas isn’t exactly a breeding ground for sea turtles. But still.
Seems to me the YMCA could have saved some money on the balloons and helium and instead celebrated by — I don’t know — slaughtering a fattened goat and burning the thigh pieces so that the black smoke rose to the heavens and pleased the gods. I’m not an event organizer. I’ll leave the details to someone else.
Dallas Must-Do List: Trinity River Audubon Center
TRAC keeps the tours kid-friendly.
After dining at Jimmy’s recently, I’ve done seven out of the Things Every Dallasite Must Do. This past weekend, I took on the task of completing my eighth: Explore the Trinity River Audubon Center.
Because I was babysitting Sunday afternoon, I thought that bringing the kids to TRAC would be the perfect activity for us to do. And I was right. After some initial confusion about where exactly the place is located, we finally drove down a dirt road into the 120-acre reserve and hopped out of the car. (more…)
Bonnie Pitman Resigns From DMA
Bonnie Pitman, the Dallas Museum of Art’s Eugene McDermott Director, announced today that she is stepping down for health reasons. The full release is after the jump. Her interim replacement will be Olivier Meslay, whom Willard Spiegelman profiled in January of last year.
And now a question for your consideration: how lofty must one’s position be to require the disclosure of the nature of a health issue that forces a resignation? If you’re the president of the United States, and you step down, you have to disclose your ailment. Yes? If you’re the CEO of Apple, you disclose it. At some point, though, you get to the bottom of the ladder. Say you’re the editor of a city magazine. No one cares what’s wrong with you. Right? So where’s the cutoff?
(And, please, understand that I’m not implying anything here about Pitman. My thoughts and prayers are with her. I wish her a speedy recovery from whatever has afflicted her.)
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