Articles for May 23rd, 2011
Why You Should Probably Vote in City Elections
I know voting can be a giant pain in the butt. OK. No, I don’t. I was trying to sound sympathetic there, but no, voting isn’t a giant pain in the butt. This isn’t Afghanistan or something, where you vote and you might die. Voting in the U.S. is easier than finding an open checkout lane at Walmart, yet the people who will stand in a line 15 people deep to buy one Kit Kat will eschew voting because it’s too hard, even though you can vote early and pretty much walk right up to a voting booth. In the grand scheme of hard work, it’s closer to working an ATM than digging a ditch.
Dallas recently had an election to decide who would be mayor. Mayor of a whole city, a fairly big city, a city looking at a budget shortfall and an aging infrastructure that is home to some pretty awesome stuff but is also home to some pretty bad stuff that should probably get fixed. Someone should really have a plan for that. You know who usually has a plan for that? The mayor. (more…)
Jason Wheelington, R.I.P.
If you aren’t a fan of the band Supercell, then perhaps you recall Jason Wheelington’s name from another of his endeavors. Awhile back, Wheelington caught his wife cheating on him. At the time, he had stage four cancer. But that didn’t stop him from bum-rushing the other guy and trying to deck him — then putting up video of the incident on Facebook (which video has since been taken down).
A friend of Wheelington’s tells us that he lost his battle with cancer on Saturday. Our thoughts are with his family and friends.
Here’s video of Supercell performing in March.
Things To Do in Dallas Tonight: May 23
My pretty good weekend turned a little sour when I went over to my parents house in Irving for dinner on Sunday. Apparently, I forgot to lock my car. Because I am an idiot, or something. Someone stole my aviators (sad, because they were a present from my grandpa, whose own pilot-strength aviators survived a world war) and…my monthly Arts District parking pass. I hope the thief enjoys parking in what has to be one of the inner circles of hell. There’s no other explanation for that garage.
If you’ve been following along on FrontRow, you’d know that Peter has been posting the best of the 24 Hour Video Race in honor of the competition’s 10th anniversary. And tonight, you can catch this year’s finals going down at the Angelika. The filmmakers (organized into divisions by team size and professional level) were given a single day to make a movie that incorporated the theme “a day to remember,” a prop (a ball, which I hear was used very creatively), a garden locale, and the line of dialogue, “We can do that tomorrow.” Of the 63 teams that entered, 58 completed within the 24 hour time limit, and all the films went through the first round of judging last week.
Seriously, these films sound great, and it’s really fascinating to see what can be accomplished in a day. Makes me feel a little bad about extremely my lazy weekend. “Twice we’ve had people shoot film, and had it processed within 24 hours. We’ve had people compose songs, original songs….people have done really crazy incredible things,” Bart Weiss, the artistic director of the Dallas Video Festival, tells me. Need a reason to come out this year? “There’s one team that shot in 3D,” Weiss says. “So we’ll be passing out 3D glasses.”
Needless to say, that’s a first. It also boggles my mind, because when you shoot in 3D, you don’t really know how it’s going to turn out until you screen it. The film could have failed miserably, but instead, it’s a finalist. Look for it in the auteur division. The screenings start at 6 pm with the high school teams, but you can show up any time if there’s a particular film you’re looking for. Plus, it’s only five bucks.
For more things to do tonight, go here.
Parrotheads in Paradise, er, Pizza Hut Park
Sure, you had people outfitted in crazy “Parrothead” costumes–guys in pirate suits or grass skirts
and coconut bras, gals in super-short shorts and cowboy boots and “Fin-Land” hats. And of course there was beer and liquor galore plus long cigars (and other stuff) being smoked, dancing in the parking lot to “Sweet Home Alabama” and skull-and-crossbones flags and Texas flags and American flags, and throngs marching along chanting, “USA! USA! USA!”
But the jam-packed scene at Frisco’s Pizza Hut Park this weekend–where at least 30,000 people gathered in the acres of surrounding parking lot to “tailgate” before Saturday night’s Jimmy Buffett show–was also about the spending of major bucks. Bucks that went way beyond the cost of the concert tickets.
The Parrotheads are mainly professional people out for a weekend lark, so it wasn’t uncommon for them to drop hundreds of dollars renting spaces outside the park for their tricked-out campers and pickup trucks and RVs. The group pictured (photo by Jeanne Prejean) said they coughed up $11,500 for this glorified golf cart, specifically for the weekend. Buffet himself has a lucrative deal pushing products under the Margaritaville brand with the Plano-based Dr Pepper Snapple Group, so corporate types on “official business” were well-represented this weekend as well. It’s booze and wads of cash that lubricate the Parrothead Nation, no doubt.
Daniels, Huckabee Decisions Clear Way for Perry, Writer Says
We all know Gov. Rick Perry has insisted (at least, before the election, anyway) that he had no intention of running for president. But as more and more potential candidates declare their disinterest in running on the GOP ticket (or flounder), does it look better and more likely that Perry will indeed throw his hat in the ring in 2012? If so, isn’t time kind of awastin’, and he should probably say so soon so he can start the fundraising needed to mount such a campaign?
Mark McKinnon thinks the recent announcements by Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee “create a Texas tornado-size draft for Rick Perry.”
McKinnon adds:
“By spurning any interest in presidential politics and committing himself to legislative duty in his own backyard, Perry has, by design or by luck, put himself in the cat bird’s seat. Suddenly, the field has been cleared and Perry could have an open path running among social conservatives and Tea Party types, who find him very appealing.”
Jason Gay on Dirk Nowitzki’s Place in History
It’s probably too soon to debate this, but that hardly matters as Dirk has forced more than a few people to contemplate his ongoing awesomeness. Here, the Wall Street Journal writer does so (and also introduces this phrase into my future lexicon: “Tim Duncan’s House of Inoffensive South Texas Pleasantries”). A taste:
Nowitzki will never be rhapsodized as a silky NBA superstar–his game is too deliberate, methodical, result-driven. When he dribbles, you can practically hear him counting the bounces–1, 2, 3. He doesn’t so much drive the lane as lunge through it, and when he jerks backward for his patented fade-away one-leg jumper, he resembles a camp counselor teetering off a canoe. Though the Dirk shot itself is a beautiful thing–a high, slow crescent that appears to pause and admire itself before plunging through the net–it will never be celebrated like the game’s highflying. Nobody runs a highlight reel of “Tonight’s Most Exciting 16-foot Jumpers.”
I don’t know. I’d watch that show.
The Daily On In-Arena Music at NBA Games
Friend of the show Bethlehem Shoals checks in with this piece in the iPad newspaper The Daily, on the rise of hip-hop DJs at NBA arenas, including the Mavs’ own DJ Whiz.
Just something to keep the fire stoked a bit for tonight. I’m sure we’ll have many more Mavs posts today. Just so you’re forewarned.
Leading Off (5/23/11)
District Has No Policy for Teacher Intervention of Student Attacks: At Boude Storey Middle School a teacher watched as students gagged and bound a special needs student with duct tape and cords. At Seagoville, here’s video of a geometry teacher with his hands in his pockets, watching one of his students get pummeled multiple times in the face by another student. Oh, and in this video a teacher maintains his authoritative position at the podium while two students — one shirtless — move into a ring of desks and box it out. Yeah, I would say the district needs a policy about teacher intervention.
Zoo Finds Birds That Flew Away During Outdoor Demonstration: Bethany told you over the weekend about the two macaws that escaped from the Dallas Zoo. No, they weren’t taken during the Rapture. No, they didn’t escape on a wacky cross-country adventure where they met a talking fox, an armadillo, and a cute squirrel voiced by Chris Rock who cracked well-timed jokes. They were about a dozen blocks away in an Oak Cliff neighborhood.
Man Calls Fire Department, Ends The Night Arrested: An Irving taxi cab driver called the fire department when a small fire broke out in his apartment. After it was extinguished, the firefighters discovered suspicious substances and illegal weapons in the man’s home, so they called the FBI. The man is now in jail.
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