Monday’s big announced deal to sell off Dallas-based Rosewood Hotels & Resorts to a Hong Kong outfit does not involve the underlying hotel properties themselves–only their management. What New World Hospitality is picking up for $229 million and change is the 70-person Dallas company–RH&R, a 50/50 joint venture between Rosewood Corp. and Maritz, Wolff & Co.–that operates or “oversees” 19 upscale properties in eight countries, including Dallas’ iconic Rosewood Mansion on Turtle Creek.
Each of those 19 properties–the real estate, the improvements, the “hard assets”–is owned by a separate entity or entities. The Mansion, for example, is owned by the family of oil heiress Caroline Rose Hunt and Maritz, Wolff; the Rosewood Mayakoba in Mexico is owned in part at least by a Spanish company called OHR Group. But RH&R does have long-term contracts to manage or operate the 19 properties–really long-term; we’re talking decades upon decades in some cases–which makes the little Dallas company with 70 employees worth the $229 mil. Insiders say they don’t expect any big changes in RH&R’s activities here for at least a year.
On his Facebook page, the former mayor writes: “Truly grateful for a wonderful birthday celebration with my daughter Catherine and many good friends. Cliff Harris and Roger Staubach joined the party, and Dr. Kenneth Cooper hosted us at his Cooper Aerobics Center.” Have a look at the pics before he takes them down. It’s like Girls Gone Wild meets Temptation Island. Insane.
Writer John Meilemann does the honors.
That Perry, if he runs, would immediately assume the mantle of the most colorful male non-lunatic in the race was evident the other night at the Grand Hyatt, where he addressed a ballroom packed with attendees of the New York County Republican Party’s annual Lincoln Day dinner. Critics in Texas like to call him Governor Good Hair, and indeed, his hair is good—maybe even, perish the thought, as good as Mitt Romney’s. His vocal inflections carry loud echoes of George W. Bush, but his delivery is more animated (and even antic) than Dubya’s ever was. Perry’s ability to chop and serve raw red meat is on a par with Pat La Frieda’s. Speaking of his home state, he allowed, “There’s a few unhappy people there.” A well-timed beat. “Generally, we refer to them as liberals.”
IF he runs?
David Blend is a weird dude. I met him maybe 15 years ago, when he somehow caught on at the now defunct Met. David had just finished law school but, before taking the bar exam, decided he wanted to become a writer. Like I say, weird dude. He wound up becoming the bars correspondent, writing a column created by Joe Capasso called simply “Cocktail Hour.” If I’m misremembering any of these details, David will correct me in the comments.
Anyway, thing is, David could write — can write. And now he’s the executive editor of Thrillist, in NYC. In fact, he was Thrillist’s first employee and is so beloved there that they made a carpet for him with his likeness on it, which, if you know David, sounds like par for the course.
All of which is an introduction to this, which I think you’ll enjoy. David is writing about the 50 things he misses about Dallas. Oh, like Randy White, a guy named Bob who used to hang out at the Amsterdam Bar, swimming pools, and Dickey’s gas station drive thru. His most recent entry is Haunted Lavin Manor, “the Texas State Fair’s Southern-plantation take on the Island of Dr. Moreau.” It’s no longer at the State Fair, so David tracked down the guy who used to run the thing and got the scoop, including this gem:
The fog machine was a Roscoe, refueled by bottles of fluid. One time J.W. [the former operator] picked up a bottle of what appeared to be the right stuff. Ten minutes after filling ‘er up, “it smelled like a boys’ locker room that hadn’t been mopped for a year.” What had happened was that the vampires in the next room hadn’t been given regular bathroom breaks, so they’d just started peeing in an empty Roscoe bottle. Say what you want about unions, but this is where they all start.
I strongly recommend a few minutes of perusal and perhaps even a revisit down the road, as David adds more entries.
Just a few minutes ago, I got a passel of documents from Dallas County Commissioner Maurine Dickey, who has already expressed her extreme displeasure regarding the redistricting maps the commissioner’s court voted on a few weeks ago. Seems Dickey will now seek a review of the map by Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott and the U.S. Justice Department.
“The new map was approved by the Dallas County Commissioners without the benefit of public review or comment as required. I ask that the Attorney General’s office and the Department of Justice rule the new district map invalid and restore the original redrawn district map that was presented to the public for comment,” Dickey says in a press release. “The court failed to give the public proper notice which has resulted in what is, at a minimum, a disenfranchisement of thousands of voters.”
You can read the full press release here, read the letter here, and see the old map and the new map here and here, respectively.
Last weekend, our intrepid perambulator Bill Holston did something. This week he goes in search of Hexalectris Warnockii.
A press release that just landed in my inbox:
We all know that the Dallas Mavericks are one of the most exciting teams in the NBA, but this year, they have taken the sports world by storm! In Tales from the Dallas Mavericks Locker Room, which will be released this month by Sports Publishing, readers and fans will finally get the chance to hear the stories and witness the action that defines the powerhouse that captured the 2011 NBA Title!
Author Jamie Aron brings together stories of some of the best Mavs players to grace the court to create a volume that is an absolute must-have for any die-hard Texas fan! I have pasted a section from the book below for your review. If you’d like to schedule an interview with Aron or feature the book in the near future, please let me know!
I have but one question: what’s up with that penultimate sentence? Why doesn’t “I have pasted a section from the book below for your review” deserve an exclamation point? (I guess that’s actually two questions.)
Are you ready for a giant geek out over last night’s theater roundtable? Oh, good. FrontRow will have a recap for you shortly, but here’s my takeaway: SMU’s Stan Wojewodski, Jr. was entirely correct when he declared that it’s “just like this, all the time.” The questions Dallas faces about audience and support are not unique to us, and producing anything that’s not commercial is always going to be the kind of bloody uphill battle that results in plenty of casualties and no clear-cut winner. In the most simplistic of terms, a good theater company, one that survives, is two parts consistency and one part mad gambling genius. Developing a loyal, educated audience is key, but there’s a difference between pleasing and pandering. On a side note: the job of the critic is not to champion (or denigrate) any one particular play or group or artist. That being said, too much consensus amongst these pleasure-seeking individuals breeds contempt.
And now I present a very foodie Tuesday. If you have a hankering for artery-clogging goodness, make sure to find your way to Norma’s. SideDish’s Sarah Reiss has the details on the restaurant’s 55th anniversary celebration. Spoiler alert: your meal will only cost you $1.79. Which means you can definitely afford dessert.
West Village has the big to-do, however, with their annual tasting event benefiting the North Texas Food Bank. I’m sure I don’t need to tell you how important the food bank is to our community. Instead, I’ll just tell you that each tasting station is a dollar, which is the equivalent of providing four meals to people who’d otherwise go hungry. Grab a drink at Malai Kitchen and park yourself on their patio. Live music is pretty much a given, but this also sounds like an ideal opportunity to check out local photographer Scogin Mayo’s exhibit in the Magnolia’s upstairs gallery.
Finally, lovers of the non-Glee style mash-up should enter this FrontRow giveaway. We’ve got tickets to Thursday’s sold-out-in-seconds Girl Talk concert at the Granada.
For many more things to do in Dallas tonight, go here.
Parkland Looks Scared. A team of federal inspectors will soon descend on Parkland to conduct a very thorough review of the hospital’s operations. The Morning News got its hands on an internal memo (sub. req.) that reveals how the hospital is preparing. “Never leave the surveyor alone,” the memo said. “Do not linger or stray from the selected area and avoid known problems.” And: “Tell the truth … [but] do not offer more information than what the surveyor asks!!!” The hospital has made an enemy of the newspaper by attempting to conceal information from it. Now it is making that same mistake with federal investigators. Not good.
DART Sticks to Its Guns. Speaking of blundering public agencies, DART could use a little crisis communications advice (sub. req.). You’ll recall that on the day of the Mavs parade, a train got stuck under Central Expressway, and about 200 passengers, without communication from the conductor, decided to hike out of the tunnel. A board member earlier said the passengers had broken the law and endangered themselves and others. Given an opportunity to recast the agency’s stance on the ordeal, DART president Gary Thomas again criticized the actions of the riders — and refused to apologize for the mishap. The paper prints a stinging editorial on the matter (free!).
Dirk’s Birthday Party Was Better Than Yours. Marc Stein has the details, if you missed them yesterday. I love the detail about the Nobel laureates.
Dallas Woman Gives Birth to Sextuplets. It’s unclear to me why it happened in Alabama, but here are some cool pics of the births.