Some of you may recall this FrontBurner essay written by Alex Schultz about refereeing kids’ basketball games in Plano. Alex was 17 when he wrote that. Alex went off to USC this year, and his mother, Melissa, wrote an essay on the NYT’s Motherlode blog about how hard it was to drop off her baby in that faraway land. Recommended reading.
If you’re me, you pick college football. If not, and you still need some guidance on who to root for in the NFL, Gawker has provided a very convoluted but somewhat amusing flowchart to help you decide.
The decision process for becoming a Cowboys fan is, um, rather truncated.
If there was ever a perfect time to submit the op-ed piece you wrote sometime in the last century to the New York Times online opinion desk, it’s now. Because whatever diatribe you’ve got stuffed in a desk drawer absolutely cannot get more inane than this. It sounds like it was written by a middle schooler. A middle schooler with a thesaurus fetish.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch. Carve out a moment during your day to stop by the Dallas Center for Architecture’s Context/Contrast exhibit. It’s about examining just how well new buildings do (or do not) attempt to be a part of a city’s larger historical context, and it opened in New York City before landing here. Not only does it feature three of the Manhattan’s historic neighborhoods, but there’s a special section devoted to Dallas. Which makes sense, given the nutty construction going on around here. And this evening, the DCFA will host a panel discussion about the current state of historic preservation with several of our city’s experts on the subject. Veletta Lil, member of the Board of Advisers for the National Trust for Historic Preservation, will moderate.
Something else I find interesting: the Dallas Theater Center has taken half a page from the Dallas Opera’s playbook, presenting the first in a series of movie screenings related to their upcoming season. You can see the The Tempest, the stage version of which will open at the Wyly September 9, tonight at the Studio Movie Grill. It’s the Julie Taymor version, of course, starring her pet project. There will be a Q&A with the DTC cast, as well.
For more to do this evening, hop along over here.
The folks at The New Republic have put together an audio montage to test your cochlea. See if you can distinguish between Will Ferrell, Rick Perry, Josh Brolin, and George W. Bush.
This Thursday FrontRow will close out its latest film series, “Dallas, Outlaws, and the American Dream,” with a screening of Wim Wenders Paris, Texas, a movie that was written by Dallas’ L.M. Kit Carson and stars his son, Hunter Carson. We have just confirmed that both Hunter and Kit will join us for the screening on Thursday, and we’ll chat with the pair in a post-film Q&A.
But that’s not all, as with all of our Kessler Theater screenings this summer, the night will be opened with a performance by Barry Kooda. Then, before the feature, we’ll screen the short film “For Rent” by local director Madison Liane and staring none other than Paris, Texas star Hunter Carson.
Doors open at 6 p.m. You won’t want to miss this. Here’s all the info you need.
God Bless Chuck Morgan. He’s the director in in-stadium entertainment at Rangers Ballpark. He’s not a fan of the wave. So he put a message on the Jumbotron saying, among other things, that any children caught doing the wave would be sold to the circus. The prank has caused quite a stir (sub. req., but you can read more about it here for free; seems the DMN is a bit behind on this one). (PS: The Rangers beat the Red Sox 4-0, and up in Boston, they don’t much care for our heat.)
Fire at Scarborough Renaissance Festival. One person was killed and several buildings went up in flames at the site of the yearly fair outside Waxahachie.
Father Drowns Two Sons. There is one image that I cannot get out of my head from this unthinkably sad story: the grandmother sitting in the car with her two dead grandsons, ages 3 and 5, waiting for paramedics to arrive. Naim Rasool Muhammad, the father of the boys, does not deserve the time he left on this earth.