Articles for January 24th, 2012

Things To Do In Dallas Tonight: Jan. 24

Since I was busy getting tortured by my eye doctor this morning, I watched the Academy Award nominations trickle in via Twitter on my phone with about half a dilated eyeball and even less interest. Yawn. Seriously, the only semi-entertaining thing is that Dean Pelton is now officially Oscar nominee Dean Pelton.

Anyway. As it turns out, the Ghost Lab is not a place for poltergeists to conduct science experiments. Rather, it’s a bit of Canadian countryside that belongs to the architect Brian Mackay-Lyons, and serves as a research site for his firm. For more than a decade, he’s hosted conferences of like-minded individuals. The most recent one, Ghost 13, started out as a retrospective and turned into all sorts of philosophizing about how we live our lives. The Dallas Center for Architecture hosts a panel discussion tonight to reflect on Ghost 13 and the “neohumanist” ideas that emerged. Andrew Vernooy, dean of the Texas Tech University College of Architecture, will moderate.

Feel like taking it easy? Jazz group Trio South, fronted by Alan Jay Palmer, sets up shop at Eno’s Pizza Tavern every Tuesday evening. Some music and Eno’s veggie supreme sounds pretty darn great right now.

For more to do tonight, go here.

posted by Liz Johnstone | January 24th, 2012 11:54am | filed under Things to Do in Dallas | (0) Comments »

Cathedral of Hope’s Jo Hudson Responds to Robert Jeffress Article

Jo Hudson is the senior pastor of the Cathedral of Hope, which serves a predominantly LGBT congregation and is generally credited with being the world’s largest such church. Hudson read our profile of First Baptist Dallas’ Robert Jeffress, and, as you might imagine, she wasn’t thrilled. She writes:

Unlike your writer, I don’t want to hate Robert Jeffress. On the contrary, I realize that his arrival at First Baptist Church in Dallas, Texas, has ushered in a revival. A person who leads a church like that can’t be all bad.

The revival of any Christian church is a good thing. It means that people are hearing the Christian message and being transformed by the love of God. Overall, the recent developments at First Baptist Church of Dallas would appear to be great news for the greater body of Christ in the Dallas area.

But then, the writer quotes the words of Dr. Jeffress from the sermon he delivered “Gay is not OK:”

“What they (homosexuals) do is filthy. It is so degrading that it is beyond description. And it is their filthy behavior that explains why they are so much more prone to disease.” Dr. Jeffress went on to suggest that members of the LGBTQ community are destined for hell.

(more…)

posted by Tim Rogers | January 24th, 2012 10:48am | filed under Religion | 38 Comments »

Local Newspaper Awkwardly Stretches For Dallas Angle on Oscar Nominations

I spent a number of years writing for community newspapers. I understand that sometimes you’ve got to try to shoehorn national stories into your coverage by dressing up a lede or writing a headline to suggest an AP-written story has more local significance than it really should. But look what DallasNews.com has done with this morning’s Oscar nominations:

DMN-Oscar-headline

By that headline, you might think that Dallas expat actor Owen Wilson were himself nominated for an Academy Award. Though I think his performance might have been worthy, he’s not. Midnight in Paris really only has that single, tenuous local connection.

So it’s a stretch. Which wouldn’t be so bad except that there’s another film on the list of Best Picture nominees that actually had segments filmed in downtown Dallas: Terrence Malick’s The Tree of Life. The Chapel of Thanksgiving and Reunion Tower can both be prominently seen in the movie.

Plus Art and Seek notes a local nominee in the Best Animated Short category.

But yes, I know, Owen Wilson has got more star power.

posted by Jason Heid | January 24th, 2012 10:38am | filed under Arts, Celebrity, Local News, Media, Movies | 2 Comments »

The Guy Who Discovered the River of Pig Blood

I mentioned in leading off this morning the deal with the Columbia Packing Plant dumping pig blood in the Trinity. Well, here’s a little more about the hobbyist who was flying the camera-equipped drone plane that spotted the blood. Don’t know his name. But he’s a hero.

Also, props to Jim Schutze for revealing that two years ago Dwaine Caraway tipped him to this story, and Schutze missed it.

posted by Tim Rogers | January 24th, 2012 10:38am | filed under Local News | 1 Comment »

Leading Off (1/24/12)

John Wiley Price Continues To Do Whatever the Hell He Pleases. You have to admire the man. He’s not going to let an FBI investigation slow him down. Now he’s nominated a guy named Aaron Michaels to the Homeland Security Advisory Council. Michaels is the founder of the New Black Panther Party for Self Defense, which the Anti-Defamation League calls the “largest organized anti-Semitic and racist black militant group in America.” Nationally, people are freaking out. Here at home, only County Commissioner Maurine Dickey seems concerned.

Slaughterhouse Dumps Pig Blood Into Trinity. If you haven’t been following the story about the slaughterhouse has been dumping pig blood into the Trinity River, then read this editorial in the DMN today. And check out the picture of the tributary flowing red with the blood. The paper argues that the Columbia Packing Co. should immediately remove its secret blood-dumping pipe or be forced to close. I say any company that operates that way ought to be shuttered no matter what.

Mike Rawlings Faces Protest Tonight. Mayor Rawlings is refusing to join mayors from 80 other U.S. cities in their signing of a FreedomToMarry.org pledge promising support for full marriage equality for same-sex couples. Dallas is the largest city whose mayor has refused to sign. And according to this item on the Huffington Post, he’s going to hear from the LGBT community at an event tonight.

posted by Tim Rogers | January 24th, 2012 6:50am | filed under Local News | 5 Comments »