Articles for August, 2011
SMU Wants to Join the Big 12
School officials met with the DMN editorial board this week. It’s part of an all-out effort to get the school back into a big-time football conference. With the Big 12 falling apart, SMU thinks that would make the most sense. They are right, of course, assuming the conference stays together. Oh, how we long for the good ol’ SWC days.
Supreme Court Rules in Favor of “Pole Tax” on Strip Clubs
After four years of legal battles, the state’s high court ruled unanimously today that the so-called “Pole Tax” — a five-dollar per patron tax on strip clubs — is, in fact, constitutional. Club owners have challenged the law, saying it violates their first amendment rights to free expression. In the decision, written by Justice Nathan Hecht, the court says the fee is directed not at the expression of nude dancing, but at the “secondary effects of nude dancing when alcohol is being consumed.” Adult entertainment businesses can “avoid the fee altogether simply by not allowing alcohol to be consumed.” Texas Tribune has the story.
Things To Do In Dallas This Weekend: Aug. 26-28
Lots of talk about natural disaster coming out of the East Coast this week. Is Most Eligible Dallas worse than a (mild) earthquake? Apparently, yes. And then there’s this recent hurricane-prep message from a Texan-turned-Brooklynite: “**** Poland Spring. I’m buying cases of Perrier. I’ve also got some canned tuna.” Just guessing, but it should be a fun weekend for everyone. Most especially me, because not to brag or anything, I’ve got a friend in town from Oxford and there’s Mexican food and cheeseball musicals on my horizon. Oh, and also, the Childrens Hospital Party Down cameo aired last night. You’re so welcome.
Friday
Xanadu, presented by Level Ground Arts, heads into its final days at the KD Studio Theatre. I’m not about to let something so campy close without seeing it. If you know what’s good for you and you’re not entirely unsmiling, you won’t either. Obviously, Xanadu, the 1980 movie musical starring Olivia Newton-Revolting (my dad’s name for her, not mine, after he got sick of me watching Grease over and over), was actually crap on wheels. I can’t even really get behind the big budget Broadway production. However, I do have a fondness for small theater companies making the best of what they’ve got. Read Lance Lusk’s review on FrontRow before you go.
DMN Asks: Who Is Minding the State?
I hate it when a very good question gets answered behind a pay wall, but I guess that’s how you get subscribers. But Colleen McCain Nelson talks about a question that popped up over the dinner table a few days ago – if Rick Perry’s campaigning for president, and David Dewhurst is campaigning for Senate, who is running the state?
McCain Nelson points out that yes, in this day and age it’s easy to work remotely. But she also points out that Perry is known to be an intense campaigner. (more…)
When the Water Runs Out
I am right now editing the Urban Affairs column for the October issue. In it, Patrick Kennedy writes about water — and how much of it we waste on our lawns. The task had me reaching for our 2006 “Parched” issue to track down a fact. In that story, Rod Davis wrote:
Wake-up is going to be a bitch. If, or perhaps when, the spigots cough out nothing more than air and the clatter of slackened flush chains echoes in toilets across exurbia and suburbia, the sounds will reverberate throughout Dallas, Fort Worth, and the rest of the heavily populated hub of commerce that is North Texas. You won’t ever need to watch another disaster movie, because you’ll be living in one. It will hurt. A lot.
The entire story, it occurs to me, as we prepare to smash the record for 100-degree days in a summer, is worth rereading if you have a few minutes.
10 Most Beautiful Women in Dallas: Who Will Be Week 2’s Finalists?
Only you can decide. We know it’s not easy, but you must make a choice. Pick your favorite lovely lady from the Week 2 pack and vote for her. Don’t forget to vote over the weekend. You can vote once a day. Check back at midnight on Sunday, and you’ll find the ladies of Week 3.
Leading Off (8/26/11)
Long on Horn, Short on … well, gettingintopeople’stelevisionsetstuitiveness. The vaunted Longhorn Network finally got its first home, just a few weeks before the start of football season. So yay if you have Verizon Fios. Or maybe not, since Fios is only in about 200,000 homes in Dallas-Fort Worth and you can’t get it at all in Austin, Houston or San Antonio.
Rick Perry Something Something Dead Teachers. This story makes my head hurt. As far as I can tell, it’s saying Rick Perry wanted to somehow make a profit off of how long teachers’ would live, which is silly, because he doesn’t actually think that teachers are all that valuable if you look at the last legislative session. So how could he make any money off that?
Riddle Me This. What costs $3,000 per hour and comes from Garland? Your power during a power emergency. Dear ERCOT: For $500, I will rub balloons on my hair for an hour. Vigorously.
He’s Fine. When asked how this whole FBI probe thing is affecting his work, Dallas County Commissioner John Wiley Price said he was “focused and faithful.” And “fine,” apparently. Maybe he can shift some of that faithful focus feeling over here?
Do You Remember … when it rained that time? What was it like in the olden days, when precipitation fell from the sky even in the summer?
Is a Flawed Experian Algorithm Undermining Texans’ Credit Scores?
When I asked Dormand Long who he was, he said I should google him. Best I can tell, he’s a “independent public policy professional,” whatever that is. Call him a gadfly (in the best sense of the word). Whatever he is, he sent a letter today to the Attorney General Greg Abbott outlining how the credit bureau Experian has systematically screwed Texans by misclassifying real estate loans as installment loans. I have no doubt that someone in the FrontBurner Nation is more qualified than I to evaluate Long’s claims, but they are, at the very least, laid out in forceful manner that to me suggests they deserve attention. Long’s letter follows:
My NBA Lockout Plans
Even though, if there wasn’t a lockout, the NBA would just be in its normal offseason right now, I’m still a bit panicked that there isn’t going to be a 2011-12 season. No one seems to be in any sort of rush to get this resolved. Players are making plans to play overseas; owners are doing, well, I don’t know exactly, but certainly not much to get this thing back on track. So I’m worried. The NBA is it for me. I’ve said this many times. Here are the sports I care about, in order:
NBA
Real World/Road Rules Challenge, or simply The Challenge, these days
Premier League (though the team I follow, Everton, is mediocre at best)
MLB (and I’d admit to be a complete bandwagoner)
NFL, if I’m doing nothing else and I’ve had a few
I’m facing, then, a bit of a bleak future, filled with 1-nil losses to teams theoretically worse and little else. I’ve got a few-part plan to deal.
Former Councilman, State Rep. Fred Blair Dead at 70
Fred Blair, who sat at the Dallas council horseshoe from 1980 to 1984 (including stints as Mayor Pro Tem and Vice Mayor) and then was a state rep from 1986 to 1992, died Wednesday at age 70.
Blair was, according to his obit in the Dallas Morning News, only the third black person ever elected to the Dallas city council. D Magazine’s coverage of him (or at least some of it) can be found here.
Layoffs at Dallas Morning News
The DMN Cuts blog has been reliable in the past. No reason to doubt the cuts it is reporting today. Condolences to all those who have lost their jobs.
Sanger ISD Officials Sing (Hee-Haw Style) To Rick Perry
The theme for this year’s Sanger ISD convocation was “Hee Haw.” In the video found here, you can hear the staff laughing and clapping along to a song dedicated to Rick Perry. According to this video, the performers are superintendent Kent Crutsinger, deputy superintendent Eric Beam, and assistant superintendent Jackie McBroom.
The lyrics are:
Where, Rick Perry, are you tonight?
Why did you leave us here all alone?
You promised us funding for all Texas children,
But then you heard “White House” and – psssst – you were gone.
A Tour Through the Embattled Dublin Dr Pepper Bottling Plant
From my friend Brantley Hargrove over at Unfair Park, this is an instructive look at how the non-corporate Dr Pepper is bottled. (Hint: lots of washing bottles.) Note the prominent $25,000 check on the wall, made out to Dublin Dr Pepper with the memo line filled out: “Legal Defense Fund.”
Things To Do In Dallas Tonight: Aug. 25
Early this morning I heard rain on my window and decided to wear my big giant built-for-the-Scottish-marshland rain boots. Obviously this was a premature decision, since by the time I actually stomped into the office, it was all sticky and sunny without any wet stuff. Many thanks to the guy at Flora and Pearl who pointed that out. And now I have a blister on my ankle and my day is just heading right down the drain.
But all things shall be redeemed, for tonight brings us the final installment of FrontRow’s film series, “Dallas, Outlaws, and the American Dream.” We’ll be drinking (of course), listening to live music from Barry Kooda (who has possibly the best website of all time, not only because he includes a section about his pets, but because he dedicates an entire page to his wife, Laura), and screening Paris, Texas (a great freaking movie, by the way). And if all this wasn’t enough to convince you to come out, we’ll have both Hunter Carson and Paris, Texas screenwriter L.M. Kit Carson in attendance. Hunter Carson, who appeared in Paris, Texas, is also the star of the new short we’ll be screening prior to the film. Mr. Simek will chat with the father-son duo afterward, so stick around.
No movie tonight? The Burning Hotels are headlining a Dallas release party for their eponymous new album at Club Dada ahead of their big blow out at Lola’s in Fort Worth tomorrow. If you like them but don’t feel like burning through a tank of gas, this is your chance. Before you go, check out FrontRow’s Five Questions with Matt Mooty and Chance Morgan, two of Burning Hotels three members. Also on the bill are supporting acts Hoyotoho and Air Review.
For more to do this evening, you can go here. And don’t forget, these beautiful women need your votes.
Will John Tesar Drive Newsstand Sales?
This month we’re doing something a little different at D Magazine. Normally as soon as a new issue hits newsstands, we put (nearly) all of the content online for free. That’s not the way a lot of monthly magazines operate. Your New Yorkers, your GQs, your Texas Monthlys — they don’t just give it away. They put up the beginnings of stories and kindly request that you buy a copy of the magazine if you’d like to read the rest of the story. That’s what we’re doing this month with our cover story about John Tesar, “The Most Hated Chef in Dallas.” There’s only one F-bomb in the lead to that story. If you want to read the rest of em, you’ll have to stop by a Tom Thumb or a Wal-Mart this weekend, and plunk down your $4.99. OR, you can buy a copy on Monday at Tesar’s Commissary and get some free tacos and beer thrown into the deal. He’s throwing a “Haters Party” to celebrate the publication of our profile.
UPDATE (11:58): You can’t buy a copy of the magazine at the Haters Party. You’ll have to bring one with you.
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