Articles for August, 2011
Every A In This Q&A With Larry Hagman Is Pretty Great
Read the entire interview — or at least the parts they published — with the once and future J.R. Ewing right here. A few out-of-context tastes to make you click:
“I just couldn’t resist it. I licked her from her hand up to her elbow.”
“Anything that’s fun gets a bad rap. I don’t know, I’ve never swapped in one of my baths — or anywhere, for that matter — and I’ve had them for like 50 years.”
“But I did want to be spread over a field and have marijuana and wheat planted and harvest it in a couple of years and then have a big marijuana cake, enough for 200 to 300 people.”
“No.”
Things To Do In Dallas Tonight: Aug. 15
This case of the Monday morning blahs is brought to you by Netflix Instant and seasons four and five of the X-Files. Happily, I managed to hit Strangeways, the newish bar on Fitzhugh, before succumbing to a late ’90s TV coma. I recommend checking it out if you have a thing for repurposed spaces, exposed brick, a decent beer selection, and a curious crowd. Of course a Smiths song played while we there. Of course.
Today marks the official beginning of KRLD Restaurant Week. SideDish is looking for reader reviews and comments from preview weekend, and invites you to submit your dining experiences during this time of serious eating. Seven dollars of each $35 prix-fixe menu goes to support either the North Texas Food Bank in Dallas or the Lena Pope Home in Fort Worth, so really, it’s a great deal all around. Hopefully, you’ve already made your reservations. If you haven’t, consider this your wake up call. And should you happen to shop at Central Market and spend $25 (definitely not difficult), you can grab a certificate for a free fourth course at a few of the participating restaurants.
Not feeling gluttinous? Travel back to 2004, when reggae-hip hop-rock artist and Hasidic Jew Matisyahu morphed into everyone’s favorite dude with a scraggly beard. He’s at the House of Blues with Trevor Hall tonight. You can still grab tickets.
For more to do this evening, go here. And whatever you do, don’t forget to vote for the Ten Most Beautiful women in Dallas.
Before You Watch Most Eligible Dallas Premiere Tonight, Read Dick Sullivan’s Take On One of the Show’s “Stars”
Over on FrontRow, Dick Sullivan writes about a chance encounter he had with the father of one of Most Eligible Dallas‘ “stars.” A former presumed bench warmer for Tom Landry’s Cowboys, George Nordgren pushed a finger at Sullivan’s chest and chewed out our writer some years back when he was a little late for a light bulb counting gig at the behest of Nordgren’s light bulb counting company. Unprovoked viciousness, it seems, runs in the family. Sullivan digs up a story about the very eligible Matt Nordgren, touted as a former University of Texas football star on the TV show’s website, who once attacked an unsuspecting UT physics major because the jock was frustrated about not getting playing time during a UT blowout of Rice.
As Dick Sullivan’s tells it, it’s all a warning of sorts. Our single scene is about to get the stereotype-bolstering reality TV treatment, but reality, he writes, is not always what it seems. Go read.
Image: Matt Nordgren (left) on the scene in Dallas in December 2010, pictured here with Willa Ford. (Photo by Jerry McClure for D Magazine)
The 10 Most Beautiful Women in Dallas 2011 Competition Starts Now
Let the games begin. The 10 Most Beautiful Women in Dallas contest is back and voting started at midnight. Up first: Katarina Vargas (super mom and super model), Shannon McAnally (Miss Dallas USA 2011), Samantha Cox (attorney at law and comic book lover), Shusmita Farhad (exotic operations specialist), and Aubree-Anna Stinson (local jazz singer). Vote once a day, every day for these five lovely ladies. Then, check again next week to see five fresh faces. Voting ends Sept. 21.
Leading Off (8/15/11)
Exonerated Man Served 26 Years. Wants Retribution For Wrongful Incarceration: In 1983, when James Perry Sewell was being rushed the hospital after sustaining wounds that would eventually kill him, he repeated a name to paramedics six times: “Billy Wayne Allen, Billy Wayne Allen.” That death-bed accusation would change Billy Frederick Allen’s life, as the man who shared first and last names with the suspected murderer spent 26 years behind bars for the crime. Allen has since been released, but his fight for compensation from the state (sub. req.) for the years of wrongful incarceration is being challenged because the State Comptroller believes Allen is, in fact, guilty.
State Gets Texas Cities Off the Hook for Super Bowl Expenses: I suppose this is a story that won’t play very well in the rest of the state, but a number of North Texas cities are being reimbursed millions of dollars for Super Bowl-related expenses from the “Major Events Trust Fund.” That state-run fund is composed of revenues created by major events. The cities have requested more than $31 million, and in many cases, explanations of the expenses are sparse or non-existent.
HOV Lanes Don’t Promote Carpooling, But They Could Make DART Money: As a way of reducing the number of cars on the road, HOV lanes have proved largely ineffective, according to this article in the Star-Telegram which reports that 90 percent of people still drive to work alone. But they could become big money makers for DART, which manages the lanes, as Dallas and a number of other cities begins to transition HOV lanes into hybrid toll lanes.
Leslie Birkland of Style Network’s Big Rich Texas Speaks Candidly About Pamela Martin Duarte
Leslie Birkland with god-daughter Kalyn
If you just can’t get enough Dallas-based reality television, there’s more behind-the-scenes drama with the cast of Style Network’s Big Rich Texas. Nice girl Leslie Birkland has had enough and she told me how she really feels about “co-star” Pamela Martin Duarte.
Channel 8 Gets Pretty Sh–ty
Uncle Barky brings us two recent clips from Channel 8. Gloria Campos and Cynthia Izaguirre both have trouble with the word “city.” Surely you’re above this sort of humor. No need to follow the link, then.
Things To Do In Dallas This Weekend: Aug. 12-14
Sometimes, I read the New York Times travel section and despair over the pictures of beautiful beaches that I just know I’ll never, ever visit. This is mostly because I turn into a lobster the second I set foot on sand. However, some entrepreneurial spirit at the Times has found and researched my dream vacation. It’s a Hobbit house. In Montana. I quickly emailed it to my friend. “Nerd-city,” was her reply. Which pretty much translates to, “you’re on your own for this.”
Fine. On to things to do in our city.
Friday
Doc Weekend, a series of documentary films pulled from the festival circuit, continues tonight at the Texas Theatre. Peter told us all about Circo, which screened yesterday, but the offerings this evening include Transcendant Man, which chronicles the life and ideas of inventor Ray Kurzweil, Memphis Heat: The True Story of Memphis Wrasslin’, and Echotone, a dissection of Austin’s music scene. I’d be curious to know what Christopher Mosley thinks about the last one.
Local Editor Gives Opinions About Movies on Television
Our own Peter Simek from FrontRow fame was on Good Morning Texas this morning, running down his picks for the worst movies of the summer. Be amazed:
People Magazine’s 5 Things You Should Know About Rick Perry
So I guess you know you’re a big deal when People decides to make a list of things people should know about you. Now that Rick Perry will bring the Perrypalooza to South Carolina this weekend to tell everyone he’s going to run for president, the magazine – which normally provides you things like multiple pictures of sparkly vampire movie sets and stories about people I hear are on MTV instead of music nowadays – provided this list of things people should know about Perry.
Now, I think that five is an awfully small number of things you could know about Rick Perry, especially when you’re contemplating a possible vote for him. So, dear, gentle FrontBurnervians – what would you add to this list?
Bush’s Brain Author Says Rick Perry Will Win White House
James Moore, co-author of Bush’s Brain, has written a piece for CNN saying that America will put Rick Perry in the White House. Moore’s lead:
As a resident of Texas for 36 years, I keep wondering why the rest of the nation pays any attention to our political and cultural absurdities and yet still chooses Texans as presidents. Our most revered historical moment, the Alamo, was arguably a mass suicide. The slaughter in San Antonio was followed by a massacre at Goliad, the fall of the Confederacy to Union forces, and later by the Houston Astros. Texas has a legacy of losing.
None of this apparently matters, though, because America is beginning the process of electing another Texan to be president. Gigantic tax breaks for the wealthy and corporations, a trumped up war and a ruined economy from the last Texan seem incapable of dissuading supporters of Rick Perry.
His Saturday speech in South Carolina will make clear that he is entering the race for the White House and will spawn the ugliest and most expensive presidential race in U.S. history, and he will win. A C and D student, who hates to govern, loves to campaign, and barely has a sixth grader’s understanding of economics, will lead our nation into oblivion.
SMU Worse Than Baylor For Gay-Friendliness
The Dallas Voice breaks down a recent Princeton Review poll that puts SMU lower than Baylor when it comes to LGBT-friendly policies, ranking it the 12th most unfriendly school in the nation. Last year, the school was ranked 16th, meaning the students surveyed felt its policies were worsening, not improving.
But some question the poll. LGBT students and faculty (or at least some) at SMU say their school doesn’t belong in the same category as schools with clearly discriminatory policies. Baylor didn’t even make the list this time, despite its Baptist-heavy tradition.
But SMU has company – University of Dallas was ranked 9th. SMU and University of Dallas join a third Texas school, Texas A&M – which came in at No. 10. With three schools, Texas had the most of any state on the list.
Leading Off (8/12/11)
Plano Boy Saves Toddler, Sees Cowboys. Jesus Lara, 8, saw a baby at the bottom of a pool, and didn’t hesitate to jump in and bring the child to the side of the pool. CPR was performed, and after what had to be a scary length of time, the baby came around in the ambulance on the way to the hospital. As a reward for being a hero, a WFAA viewer called the Laras and invited them to see last night’s Cowboy’s game in his suite.
Gov. Perry Confirms a Bunch of Stuff. Yes, he’s gonna run for president. And yeah, Texas A&M wants to go to the SEC. What he hasn’t confirmed? Anything from this list.
Hensarling Has Another Title. U.S. Rep. Jeb Hensarling was named co-chairman of the deficit reduction super committee this week. SMU political science professor Cal Jillson, everybody’s go-to guy for a political quote, called the addition of Hensarling “unfortunate,” adding that Hensarling is a “committed ideologue” that is “unlikely to be part of the solution.” And then he turned the report card over and gave him an A for penmanship.
The Straight Poop. First it was Alexa Conomos and the Mayfart incident. And now, well, Ed Bark has compiled a new set of excrement-related issues for WFAA, wherein Gloria Campos and Cynthia Izaguirre both have problems saying the word “city.”
Sigh. Get any rain yesterday? Yeah. Me neither. But allegedly, we could get some tomorrow. Seriously. I want it. Really. Really bad, I want it.
NBC Reporter Unveils Relic from Hellish Days Past
Today NBC reporter Omar Villafranca posted something from the last time Dallas experienced a heat wave like the one we screwed up today - a weather map from the coverage in 1980.
Villafranca says it’s an old Harold Taft map. Isn’t it cute?
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