Articles for September, 2011
Things To Do In Dallas This Weekend: Sep 16-18
Oh, hey. You were looking for something fun to do on your lunch break today? Take a wander downtown, where you’ll see all sorts of cool set ups for Dallas’ Park(ing) Day. Between Main Street and Ervay, you’ll see a few familiar faces. D has teamed up with Dirt, Half Price Books, and JD’s Tree Service to create a reading forest. It’s the perfect spot to swap out all the books you read over the summer for new material. Bring the kids around 5:30 pm for story time and other activities. Krista has more details here. Mosey on.
Friday
As I’ve mentioned in prior posts, this is a bank-breaking month for music. Broken Social Scene is here tonight with TV on the Radio at the House of Blues, and weirdly, the show is not yet sold out. One of the nicest things anyone has ever done for me is skip a BSS concert to pick me up at the airport my freshman year of college when I came home on a homesick whim. I’ll never forget that guy’s sacrifice. Anyway, it’s your last chance to catch them in our great state for awhile unless you’re making a pilgrimage to ACL. And if that’s the case, you’re already on the road, and why are you reading this?
Now that the Arts District museums are coordinating their late night activities, they can put together something like this Dallas Arts District Crawl. Basically, they’ve mapped out an itinerary that includes food trucks (expect plenty parked on Flora until 9 PM), the outdoor Explosions in the Sky concert, and stops at the Dallas Museum of Art, the Nasher, and the Crow. Personally, I’d use this as an opportunity to check out the Nasher’s new Tony Cragg exhibit. FrontRow’s Peter Simek has taken a peek, and while his review isn’t up yet, I think it’s safe to say he liked it. (more…)
Julie Schults, Charlene Dizon, Candice Benjamin, and Christina Cewe Need Your Votes
Remember Julie Schults? Momma to twin girls, model on the side, and jewelry designers? She needs your votes. Get to it.
Remember Charlene Dizon? Exotic beauty, software trainer, bacon lover, and UK native? She needs the click of approval. Go.
Don’t forget Candice Benjamin. She’s our good news reporter, girl about town, Dallas diner, and family girl. Vote for her.
Recall Christine Cewe? Adventure addict, momma of two, and former American Idol finalist. She needs your vote. Get going.
Don’t forget to vote over the weekend. Every vote makes a difference. Come back Monday for one final day of voting.
Visit Our Parking Spot Downtown
Today is Park(ing) Day Dallas. A stretch of Main Street is being converted, parking spot by parking spot, into a better place. With some help from the fine folks at Dirt, D Magazine changed its parking spot (pictured) into a book exchange. Swing by on your lunch break. Bring a book you’ve finished. Pick up one you’d like to read. You’re welcome.
The Other Side of Russell Armstrong
Awhile back on this blog, we posted kind comments about Russell Armstrong written by an old friend of his who grew up with him in Carrollton. Armstrong, of course, was the husband of Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star Taylor Armstrong. He hanged himself, the theory went, because of what the show had done to his life.
In Latin, the phrase is nil nisi bonum. Do not speak ill of the dead. Unless, well, the dead did a bunch of bad stuff. An alert FrontBurnervian points us to a lengthy Daily Beast story by Diane Dimond titled “The Real Grifter of Beverly Hills.” Fascinating story. And it looks like Taylor Armstrong herself still has some legal troubles to deal with.
Alternate Jurors Would Have Ruled Against ESD
Ace reporter Claire St. Amant was supposed to join me and some of her other People Newspapers colleagues at the Rangers game last night. But closing arguments in the Episcopal School of Dallas lawsuit extended into the evening, and Claire was too beat by the time they wrapped up to drive to Arlington. Oh, well — at least she got some exclusive interviews with the dismissed alternate jurors out of it.
Dallas Is a Job-Creating Machine
Ryan Avent looks at Perry’s “Texas Miracle” and finds that it is a product of our four major cities. Dallas was second to New York in creating jobs in the last year. Dallas and Houston alone accounted for 10 percent of all new jobs in the U.S. One reason is energy, of course. Another reason is our tight government regulation of home financing (yes, government regulation!). But the third is our availability of housing and our openness to newcomers, wherever they come from:
Yet the big secret to success is Texan cities’ willingness to capitalize on their advantages through an extraordinary openness to growth. Relative friendliness to immigration is one source of strength. Between them, Dallas and Houston welcomed over 600,000 new residents from abroad over the past decade. That welcoming spirit extends to other Americans attracted by low housing costs.
That may explain Dallas, Ryan, but what about New York, which beat even Dallas in job creation? Top cities for job growth after the break.
Leading Off (9/16/11)
Oh, The Places You Shouldn’t Go. Hey, is your inspection sticker out of date? Has your insurance lapsed? Have any outstanding warrants out there, waiting to bite you in the keister? Then you probably don’t want to be driving around until you get all that cleared up, since Dallas police are now randomly setting up checkpoints to look for such things.
Dallas Stars Sell Team. Your Dallas Stars will now be owned by some Canadian dude, pending all that bankruptcy stuff, the courts, and NHL approval.
Crack Is Whack, Part I. Thanks to the drought, the city of Dallas has been forced to close about 20 athletic fields because of ginormous cracks that could injure people if they unwittingly stepped/ran/fell into one. OK, maybe the last one is improbable for people, but…
Crack Is Whack, Part II. This tiny puppy fell into a drought crack and the fire department came and said, “WATER! WATER MAKES MUD!” And then they watered the crack and it fell apart and they rescued the puppy.
Happy Homecoming, Patriots! As I mentioned before, rooting for the winless Thomas Jefferson Patriots is now my new thing. Tonight is homecoming. If you wish to root them on in person, be there tonight at 7:30 p.m. at Couch Stadium. They’ll be playing the Diamond Hill Jarvis Eagles.
DonorBridge: Why You Should Donate Money Today, Ctd.
Good news from the DonorBridge folks. The deadline for giving has been extended:
As of 3 p.m. today, more than 5,400 donations totaling more than $4 million have been donated to DonorBridge nonprofits. The donation deadline is being extended to 12 a.m. midnight tonight to ensure more donations can qualify for matching funds and to handle the large volume of donations. Check www.facebook.com/donorbridge or www.twitter.com/donorbridge for up-to-the-minute updates. Donors may donate online or via phone at 214-346-5500.
Law Man Walking: Nature Treks With Bill Holston
Our friend Bill Holston volunteered to work at the opening of the new Dogwood Canyon Audubon Center, where his faith in humanity was restored. No kidding.
Thursday Afternoon Time Waste: MC Whack
George Spielvogel, aka MC Whack, is a Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts graduate who spent a couple of years playing the Gary Busey role in a stage adaptation of Point Break. I dare you to watch this video and then go the rest of the day without singing his version of “Pease Porridge Hot” at least once.
Get Out Of My Face on Tony Romo
The latest project from The Onion is a weekly video series that spoofs ESPN talking-head shows like Around the Horn and Pardon the Interruption. Here is the first. And now I’ll completely spoil the Romo part. Riffing on the idea that Cowboys receivers are begging Romo to throw the ball harder:
“His handoffs are even worse! It’s like watching a water nymph place a sugar tea cake in the tiny, trembling hand of a meadow fairy.”
Things To Do In Dallas Tonight: Sep. 15
As a short-lived, ill-advised experiment, I tried to stop drinking coffee. My resolve lasted 24 hours, until this morning when the dull withdrawal headache gave way to some sort of hallucinatory cloud that melted my brain and made my eyeballs feel like cotton balls. I am sitting here clutching a doppio. Still fuzzy. But alive to regret the worst idea I’ve had in quite awhile.
But there’s an antidote for my pain (because everything is about me, obviously). Grapefest kicks off today, and continues all weekend long. Of course, the event is in direct competition with Addison Oktoberfest, which I will probably type about tomorrow. Since I’d rather leave the Big Gulp-sized beer steins to the weekend proper, Thursday evening just strikes me as the perfect time to check out the vino fest. The weather is finally cool enough for me to order Malbec and not sound like a total ignoramus.
You could just hang out in the international wine pavilion dreaming of a visit to the place where your bottle originated, but those feeling especially judgmental may want to snag a ticket to the People’s Choice Wine Tasting Classic. Grapefest is also, as I mentioned in the SideDish edition of this blog post on Monday, the only acceptable reason to get a little sloshed in Grapevine that doesn’t involve someone’s house or a boat.
And if there was ever a day to give to a charitable or not-for-profit institution of your choice, this is it. DonorBridge has organized a North Texas “Get Up and Give Day” in which donations over $25 will be matched from a fund of $1 million. Tim Rogers tells you everything I was going to say about this, and more, right here. You can donate to the Dallas Opera (Glenn Hunter reiterated on Tuesday how much they could really use the help), KERA, the Dallas Center for Architecture, the Salvation Army, and a ton of other worthy groups.
For more to do tonight, go here.
Deion Sanders Wants to Teach Your Kids
I’ve always said that my biggest regret about having gone to public school in Texas, is never having Deion Sanders educate me. Well, if his two charter schools (one in Oak Cliff, one if Fort Worth) get approved by the state, future generations may not be so unfortunate. The Sanders education model? A blend of athletics and academics, of course.
Note: Earlier this morning the DMN story was not behind the paywall. That seems to have changed.
Help D Magazine Define Dallas Neighborhoods
Neighborhoods are whatever we — the hive mind, the wisdom of crowds, the Borg Collective, Wikipedia’s editors, etc. — want them to be. But we don’t always agree. Ask 10 random people on the street what neighborhood of Dallas Victory Park sits in, and you’re bound to get 11-15 different answers.
We here at D Magazine confront this reality every day as we add new restaurants to our online restaurant guide, new shops to our online shopping guide, and new bars to our online bars and clubs guide. We assign each listing to a neighborhood, and we’ve not been consistent in how we classify areas of the city of Dallas, as the many different staff members who work on those online guides have differing opinions of what sits where in the city, and we haven’t been working from the same map. We need to reach a consensus.
In addition, some neighborhoods have grown strong enough that it’s time for them to walk on their own, and to be added to our official list. They’ve earned their own classification. For instance, we firmly believe it’s time for an amicable divorce between Knox and Henderson. They’ve been growing apart for years.
And so we’ve drawn the new map you see below. Take the jump to help us make it even better.
View D Magazine’s Dallas Neighborhoods in a larger map
DonorBridge: Why You Should Donate Money Today
Today is the third-annual North Texas Giving Day. What that means is, an outfit called DonorBridge has a $1 million pool that it uses to partially match every donation larger than $25 made to some 700 North Texas nonprofits. Donations have to be made before 7 tonight. And they have to be made through the DonorBridge site, www.donorbridgetx.org. Go there to see if your favorite nonprofit is included (I bet it is). But here’s the thing: you need to be patient. The DonorBridge website is having trouble keeping up with traffic this morning.
Update (1:15): From DonorBridge: “Due to overwhelmingly positive response to DonorBridge’s North Texas Giving Day, donor are experiencing longer-than-anticipated wait times on the website. The website is working, but volunteers and staff are also standing by and ready to process donations via phone. Please call 214-346-5500. Be advised wait times for phone donations fluctuate as well.”
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