Articles for November 8th, 2011
DMA Prepares for Gaultier Exhibit
Caption contest. My entry: “I’d like to motorboat her grassy knoll.”
“Sexycalifragilisticexpialidopeness” Video for Your Eyes
Andrew Meals and his wife Charlie (aka Multi-ID and Lady Multi) are in a group called The Weekend Hustler. You probably already know this. Me, I’m just now learning about them, thanks to Pegasus News. Below, you’ll find the video for their new song “Sexycalifragilisticexpialidopeness,” which, from what I can tell, is about two zombie skeletons that are installing a chain-link fence. Turn this up really loud at work.
The Steven Doyle Debate
In our November issue, Jason Sheeler wrote about a food blogger named Steven Doyle. The story has ignited a good discussion on SideDish about the changing landscape of food criticism and restaurant coverage. Recommended.
Dave Tarrant’s First Weekend Without Sports
As Zac told us last week, DMN writer Dave Tarrant is trying to go a year without watching sports. Well, the good folks over at Grantland heard about the experiment and chronicled the first Sunday through an email exchange between Tarrant and St. Pete Times writer (and Grantland contributor) Michael Kruse. Both men, it sounds like, had interesting weekends. But think of all the field goals they missed.
Outrage Over Rangers Tape is Weird, Misplaced
Why all this outrage (sub. req.) over the Rangers’ “leaked” audiotape? As in the latest hot-mic incident revealing our leaders’ true thoughts about Israel’s prime minister, seems like folks ought to be relishing, not damning, such entertaining glimpses behind the curtain. Especially at a time when phonied up and scripted is the order of the day — in business, government, sports, whatever — what makes an American League baseball club so sacrosanct? As I recall the Rangers circled the wagons after axing Chuck Greenberg, refusing to talk plainly to the press about what really went down. Now Jon Daniels is clamming up again, about the leaker’s identity, and winning praise for it by a media that’s usually pushing transparency and “sunshine.” Weird double standard, anyone?
Sneak Peek at the New Omni Dallas Hotel
The Omni Dallas won’t open till Friday, but yesterday Zac and I got the nickel tour from Ed Netzhammer, the general manager. You’d expect right now that Netzhammer would be pulling out his hair, given that he’s about to open a 1,001-room hotel in a couple days. Not so much. Netzhammer has opened several Omnis (including the one in Fort Worth), and he says this is smoothest opening he’s overseen. He feels so good about how things are going that he even went to the Cowboys game Sunday. And Netzhammer said that right after he finished our tour, he was planning to open a bottle a Scotch and begin work on a 5,000-piece jigsaw puzzle depicting an aerial nighttime view of the Sahara. (Just kidding!)
Jump if you want to see some more pics.
Things To Do In Dallas Tonight: Nov. 8
I’m not unenthusiastic about the imminent opening of Jean Paul Gaultier’s mega exhibit at the DMA. In fact, I will go see it. I like fashion retrospectives. But the handful of well-dressed trees (instead of something so pedestrian as a “yarn bomb,” it’s a “lace bomb” and an “ecru marinière stripe bomb”) I’ve seen on my way down the Street of Weird Smells in no way compares to Montreal’s welcoming parade. I’m just saying.
And while we’re on the subject of retrospectives, Peter alerted everyone yesterday to the USA Film Festival’s week-long look at the films of director Alexander Payne over at the Angelika. You know him: About Schmidt, Sideways (my personal favorite), the first draft of I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry.
Since Sideways doesn’t screen until Thursday, the same evening I was conned into agreed to attend a preview of Happy Feet 2 for FrontRow, I thought I’d go with the next best thing tonight: Election. I’m not Matthew Broderick’s biggest fan, but not only is he the only capable actor in Tower Heist (I know Eddie Murphy can act, okay, he’s just reduced to a cartoon), he manages to project an undercurrent of deep unhappiness into his seemingly happy roles. And as the disgruntled high school civics teacher out to get Reese Witherspoon’s calculating overachiever, well, he’s great. Tickets are cheaper than usual, too, so you might be able to afford popcorn and still get out of there for under $15. Maybe.
Also, Feist, a musician you might know from her former involvement with Broken Social Scene but more likely because you recognize her song “1234″ from the Apple commercial, is playing at the Majestic. Weirdly, the concert hasn’t sold out yet. I still think her appearance on Sesame Street is one of the best. And if you haven’t heard it, check out the Spoon mix of “I Feel It All.”
For more to do this evening, go here. And then head over to FrontRow for a great ticket giveaway– passes to an advance screening of Lars von Trier’s Melancholia. Yes, this guy. But the movie, according to Peter, is good.
Tony Cragg Show in the Wall Street Journal
Sometime D Magazine contributor Willard Spiegelman has a piece in the Wall Street Journal today about the Tony Cragg show at the Nasher. His lead: “If you suggest that artists should create beautiful things, you risk being branded an old fogy. Still, few major artists today make objects as joyously beautiful as the British sculptor Tony Cragg, whose work is having its first U.S. exhibition in two decades at the Nasher Sculpture Center.” Spoiler alert: Willard digs the show.
Texas Rangers Losing World Series in Crushing Fashion Won More Fans Than Would Have Winning
Missed this last week (H/T to The Dish for pointing it out today.) Ross Douthat of the New York Times speaks the truth:
As a rule, it isn’t winning a title that usually cements a fan base’s loyalty to a baseball team. It’s almost winning – having victory within your grasp and then having your heart ripped out at the last moment. World Series titles come and go (just ask a Florida Marlins fan, if you can find one), but devastating near-misses stay with you forever.
The pre-2010s Rangers never inspired much passion from the Texas faithful not because they never won, but because they never broke any hearts. They were just lousy-to-mediocre, year after year and decade after decade, with none of the near-misses and epic disasters that bind suffering sports fans to their star-crossed teams.
Leading Off (11/8/11)
Oklahoma Still Rocking. Last night another earthquake in Oklahoma was strong enough to be felt in Dallas. I’m sure it has nothing at all and whatsoever to do with fracking.
Occupy Dallas Protesters Get Hosed. With two big downtown events coming up (a Veteran’s Day Parade and the grand opening of the Dallas Omni Hotel), the city is reconsidering the permit that allows the Occupy Dallas folks to camp outside City Hall, in light of the fact that eight of the protesters were arrested over the weekend. Two things about this story. Those folks were arrested for improper use of a sidewalk. That’s the most made-up charge I’ve ever heard of. Second, Councilman Tennell Atkins was wondering what the protesters might try to pull during the two big upcoming events. He said: “And my deal is, are we going to have a scrimmage, or whatever?” I’ll take the whatever option and go with skirmish.
Yes on Arts District Signs, No on Greenville Avenue Bowling. Two items of note (sub. req.) out of the Dallas City Council. Craig Hall is going to be able to put commercial signs on the building that will go up over what is now the Arts District parking garage. And that proposed enormous bowling alley isn’t going to happen. Now you know.
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