Articles for May 1st, 2012
Why Did Mayor Mike Solicit Feedback From Facebook?
As you may have seen, tomorrow, Mayor Rawlings is going to finally pick a side regarding the Trinity Toll Road, after managing to not do so during his campaign and time so far in office. This, after asking people for their thoughts on the road via his Facebook page last Friday. Go and look at the comments. There are 186 of them, not counting likes, and people liking other comments. I think — and my math may be slightly off — there are a total of two pro-road comments, both made by Rebecca Rasor, director of the Trinity River Corridor Project for the city for more than a decade. So she’s not exactly objective.
Quick question: what was the point of that? Get people more riled up — rightly — when Rawlings ultimately comes out in favor of the road (which is what it’s looking like)? I feel like next he’s going to send LinkedIn invites to his entire mailing list, just to continue his mastery of social media sites.
Curiosities From the Current Issue of FD Luxe
I’m thumbing through the May issue of FD Luxe. No kidding, it looks swell. But something(s) caught my eye.
PAGE 16: Full-page advertisement for Museum Tower. Headline: “The Consummate Expression of Artful Living.” Ad copy: “Destined for international recognition, Museum Tower offers a selections of elegant residences each with floor-to-ceiling windows and panoramic city views. Lavish designer appointments and state-of-the-art appliances add character to each gracious living area …”
PAGE 20: Full-page story by Christopher Wynn about the three interior designers at work in Museum Tower. Subhead: “What are Dallas designers doing inside the city’s most buzzed-about residential building? See for yourself.” Accompanied by pictures of interiors. Copy notes that residences start at $1.4 million.
PAGE 40: Two-page story by Scott Cantrell laying out the problem with the light and heat reflecting off Museum Tower and how it’s “frying its neighbor” the Nasher. Excerpt: “Frankly, Museum Tower is just what the Dallas Arts District didn’t need: a giant, walled-off tower for the rich, reinforcing notions of the district as a playground for the elite.”
One wonders if Museum Tower got what it bargained for in the pages of the May FD Luxe.
D Magazine Intern Runs for Miss Texas, Needs Your Help
Karley has promised to wear her crown to the office on her last day. I'm betting you'll soon see photos of Tim and Zac wearing it. Photo by Zac Grimadlo
I’m in the middle of reviewing intern applications for our summer semester, and this makes me very sad. I have had such a great group. I don’t want them to go. But I understand they have bigger and better things to do. For example, intern Karley Osborn is running for Miss Texas. I’ll let her explain why. But please read to the end and click on the link. She needs some votes to make it onto the cover of the Miss America magazine.
It’s time to come clean–I’m an undercover beauty queen.
For the first few weeks of my internship, I kept the whole “I want to be Miss Texas” thing to myself. I had good reason. For starters, I’m blond, which is already a lot to overcome in the “I want to be taken seriously” department. Second, when you drop the beauty pageant bomb, people tend to respond in one of two ways:
1. They (pageant fans, moms, young children) congratulate you.
2. They (everyone else) twist their faces into a question mark, grimacing as they ask, “Why?”
For some reason, I just had this feeling that the D Mag office might go with a collective sigh and a unanimous Option No. 2 (*Side note: as it turns out, I was almost right. More on that later.), and I wasn’t ready to play defense. Even scarier, I didn’t have an answer yet. (more…)
SMU Athletics Is Running Up Quite a Deficit
SMU is trying to get back into the Big Time: big-name football coach, big-name basketball coach, a new athletic conference that doesn’t include any high schools. But that isn’t cheap. Over the last seven years, the athletic department has lost more than $113 million. (It apparently has something to do with a lack of TV money and with people not going to football games.) Since Steve Orsini took over as athletic director in 2006, the athletic department has lost an average of $18.6 million per year, nearly double the median deficit run up by all the other FBS schools, according to this excellent piece of student journalism. It’s even more impressive work considering how not-transparent the school has been with the budget figures.
Dallas Morning News Paywall Attracts 49,000 Paying Subscribers
Me, I don’t think that’s anything to sneeze at. Also, 91,000 of their 225,000 daily print subscribers have signed up in one form or another.
Is it an economic model that works? No, of course it isn’t. But it may be a transition toward an economic model that works. That model certainly won’t pay the costs of a 300+ person newsroom, but it may over time allow the newspaper to transform into a leaner, smarter local reporting service.
Things To Do In Dallas Tonight: May 1
The Florence and the Machine show tonight at Palladium is all sold out. You know what’s not sold out? Next week’s hilarious double bill featuring Marilyn Manson and a scantily-clad Cindy Lou Who The Pretty Reckless, fronted by the erstwhile actress Taylor Momsen. They’re both profoundly guilty of eyeliner abuse, so it’s a match made in someone’s heaven. If that speaks to you, feel free to buy a ticket or two. But speaking of hilarious, here’s a video of Ellen Degeneres “reading” 50 Shades of Grey. I bet I don’t even have to tell you how I feel about that book.
The best possible thing you could do tonight, besides proudly attend your mom’s award ceremony where she’ll be recognized for 20 years of teaching, babysitting, building up the world’s strongest immune system, and generally being a hero to elementary school children and their parents, is go see Manhattan at the Magnolia Theatre, part of the FrontRow sponsored Big Movie series. It plays twice, once at 7:30 and then again at 10, just to make your life extra easy. Woody Allen’s black-and-white opus holds an interesting place in my heart, for reasons that involve the amazing Film Forum and of course that magical city. You shouldn’t miss seeing this on a nice big screen. And now if you’ll excuse me, I need to go search for flights. But you should enter FrontRow’s giveaway, because you could win tickets to the movie tonight plus popcorn, which is a great deal because the last time I was at the Angelika, I was dismayed to find that popcorn costs as much as an Italian sub from Jimmy’s.
Let’s say you are a crafty person who enjoys stamps. Lest you think that you, crafty person, are doomed to pre-cut stamps forever, graphic designer Alison Vieger is here to rescue you. Tonight’s class at Oil & Cotton will instruct folks in the art of potato stamps as well as rubber carving, so those who are so inclined can go around putting his or her unique brand on everything. Much like those odd Plano graffiti artists Tim mentioned this morning.
For more to do tonight, go here.
Kerry Max Cook’s Lawyers Allege Prosecutor Kept Murder Weapon As a Souvenir
The Observer has written about the saga of Kerry Max Cook numerous times over the years, including former editor Mark Donald’s two-parter back in 1999. So you are probably, or should be, familiar with his story. If not: Cook was found guilty of killing Linda Jo Edwards in 1977, but that verdict was overturned. He was tried again; that ended in a mistrial. He was tried a third time, found guilty and sentenced to death, but that verdict was also overturned on appeal owing to “egregious prosecutorial misconduct.” Finally, to avoid going back to jail, he took a plea before a fourth trial — though he’s always maintained his innocence. He’s back in court now, free but trying to clear his name, and his lawyer is trying to get the case moved to a different jurisdiction. Besides for the three other trials that more or less proved he would not get a fair shake in Smith County, there is this: the former prosecutor allegedly keeps the “blood-soaked knife” used in the crime, and a slide with a sample of Cook’s hair, at home as a sort of souvenir. More germane:
What’s more, Cook’s lawyers argue, former Smith County prosecutors illegally destroyed much of the remaining evidence in the case that may have contained DNA that could have been tested to help prove Cook’s innocence. And, they said, the current district attorney lied about facts of the case during a court hearing last month.
Read the rest.
Two Quick Questions About the Kern Wildenthal Exposé, Ctd.
I asked two questions yesterday morning about the DMN‘s epic Kern Wildenthal story. Yesterday afternoon, Jim Schutze answered them. Schutze was actually answering a third question: why did it take the paper seven months to publish its story, once it was finished? The answer he came up with: Robert Decherd, chairman of the board, president, and chief executive officer of A.H. Belo Corporation. He is why the story overlooks an important detail about Wildenthal. He is why, the day after the story published, it didn’t appear on the paper’s homepage. He is why it took seven months to get the thing into print.
Robert Decherd and Kern Wildenthal are bosom buddies. Decherd did everything he could to protect to his friend. The News editors and reporters went above and beyond to get the story into print. The reason that story is 6,300 words long? I think it’s a middle finger to Decherd.
“Oh, you want more detail about the trip to New Zealand? We’ll give you more detail. And you want us to make sure we square away our facts on that trip to Nice? We’ll give you facts.”
Like that. Pow!
Leading Off (5/1/12)
Mavs Lose to Thunder. Your Dallas Mavericks lost another close, winnable game. As my good friend Zac Crain said on Twitter, it’s going to suck when the Mavs lose this series by a total of 10 points.
Woman Severs Mans Penis. In a Pleasant Grove Motel 6, Cristal Richardson murdered Cedric Owens (sub. req.). Richardson’s attorney says she acted in self defense. According to the Dallas County medical examiner’s office, Owens suffered “multiple stab wounds to his upper body, his throat was cut, and there was traumatic amputation of the penis and scrotum.” And that’s the last time I hope I hear that phrase.
Odd Graffiti Found in Plano. Police don’t know what to make of the 30 or so red and green hearts painted along Hedgcoxe Road, between Custer and Preston. I think I’ve figured it out, though. Some punk is going around spray painting hearts on stuff.
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