Articles for June 4th, 2012

R.I.P., Lower Oak Lawn (aka Dallas Design District)

Do you remember where you were the first time someone told you he was going to a restaurant in Lower Oak Lawn?  Did you scratch your heard, wondering in what mysterious corner of the city this new Meddlesome Moth was located? Then someone else mentioned that it’s in the Design District and you thought, “well, then, why didn’t he just say that in the first place?”

No, of course none of that ever actually happened, because you’ve never heard anyone say “Lower Oak Lawn.” And as of today, you likely never will. LOL is no more.

“Lower Oak Lawn” was a branding term devised by real estate company Pegasus Ablon, which manages about a third of the properties in the Design District, according to Kendall Shiffler, who handles social media marketing for the company, until today at LowerOakLawn.com.

They dreamed up the sub-neighborhood (more…)

Enormous 5-Acre Billboard for Dallas Sprouts Up at DFW Airport

Pretty imaginative promotional effort. Check out the pictures of the giant JetBlue/TNT “billboard” that will lie in a field near DFW Airport through July.

The Park Cities ‘Socialite’ Arrested For Child Porn

Question about this story that WFAA broke on Friday about Erika Perdue of University Park, busted for allegedly having so much child porn on her computer that she had trouble keeping track of it all.

Channel 8′s online headline says “University Park socialite allegedly involved in child porn.”  The descriptor  ”socialite” seems to be used solely because the women lives in a $1.4 million house (a “mansion,” according to the report) in the Park Cities.

This story, because of the rarity of women being charged with distributing child pornography, has taken off across the world-wide echo chamber.  And so CBS, Huffington Post, the Daily Mail, the New York Daily News, ABC News, among others, also are repeating the term.

So what’s a “socialite?” Just a synonym for “rich housewife?”

How Victory Park Can Get Its Groove Back

What do we know? Except for Mavericks games and Stars games and touring concerts or events, “nobody” goes to Victory Park. The project is generally seen as a failure for Ross Perot Jr. and his Hillwood development company. Why hasn’t it become Dallas’ version of Times Square (except for during Big D NYE)? There are a lot of theories:

1. A couple years ago, Wick wrote that the project hadn’t been constructed at a human scale:

Consider the activity: there are some 25 restaurants and bars on Henderson and Knox streets; maybe 10 within a block or two of Jake’s on McKinney; at least seven in the West Village. All these places vary in size and look, but they have one thing in common. They are human. They are humble. They want you to come in.

Now consider Victory, all glass and steel, cool and angular. The architects did their best work here. Professionally, they wouldn’t glance at the Jake’s building or at Fireside Pies. Some of them even sneered to me about West Village. I wonder, though, where they go to eat.

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Things To Do In Dallas Tonight: June 4

I adore Fleetwood Mac, but until recently, this little bit of personal trivia never really got me anywhere. But last weekend my friend and I were at a tiny restaurant, and “Dreams” was playing. I mentioned to my friend how much I loved the song. My friend instantly motioned the waiter, claimed that “Dreams” was his favorite song of all time, and asked him to please turn it up. The waiter happily agreed, and later, we found that our drinks had been comped. Moral of this story: you never know when being a Mac fan will come in handy.

I can’t imagine this sort of thing happening with Foster the People some 30 years down the road, but maybe “Pumped Up Kicks” will eventually become a can’t-not-listen classic rather than the song that makes you want to throw yourself down a well. Dallas loves these guys, as evidenced by the fact that all their shows last year sold out, and that this one is pretty darn close even with the bigger venue. The Kooks and Kimbra open, the latter of which you know from this summer’s repetitive jam, “Somebody That I Used to Know.” Have fun getting that out of your head.

Also tonight, Dallas Symphony Orchestra concertmasters Nathan Olson and Alexander Kerr get behind the bar at Komali to help raise money for the symphony’s community outreach fund. All tips and a portion of your drink cost goes back to the DSO. One (or two) of the restaurant’s stellar margaritas should make for a perfect happy hour.

For more to do this evening, go here.

Now Accepting Nominations for 10 Most Beautiful Women in Dallas 2012

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The 10 Most Beautiful Women in Dallas 2011 (photography by Matthew Shelley)

Welcome back to the 10 Most Beautiful Women in Dallas competition. Today is Day 1 of the nomination phase. For those of you who already know the drill, get to nominating here. If you’re new to this annual celebration of beauty, here’s how it works:

You send us all the beautiful women in your life by filling out nomination forms (one per nominee). On Friday, June 29, we’ll stop accepting nominations and narrow the list down to 20 lovely ladies who will be featured online. Voting ensues. A batch of five women will be available each week for your click of approval. The twelve with the most votes will make it to the final round for one last week of voting. The top 10 women will be featured in a gorgeous spread in the December issue of D Magazine. (Check out last year’s feature.) So, go ahead. Nominate your hot mom, beautiful sister, goddess girlfriend, etc. We’ll be waiting for them.

Leading Off (6/4/12)

Prosecutors Don’t Like Municipal Judges: Ethical breaches, favoritism, and failure to follow the law are some of the accusations leveled at Dallas municipal judges by prosecutors (paywall) who submitted evaluations to the City Council. Naturally, municipal judges weren’t pleased with the evaluations, and one lawyer called the prosecutors “babies.” Prosecutors called judges “bullies.” That’s how the city handles a shake-up of the municipal judicial system.

Dallas Oak Cliff Has Its Own Indie Film Scene: The crew at the Texas Theatre, which launches the Oak Cliff Film Festival next weekend, gets the New York Times treatment via Texas Monthly (and the Texas Tribune), with Star-Telegram scribe\ Christopher Kelly (isn’t media complicated these days?) writing about the tight group of local filmmakers who call the Texas Theatre home and how Dallas’ relatively small indie film scene actually helps filmmakers get things done.

Man Cuts Ex-Fiancee With Sword: It all started with a Facebook update, Darryl Daniels, 47, changing his relationship status from “engaged” to “it’s complicated.” Then things got really complicated, as Daniels punched his ex-fiancee repeatedly, slammed her head to a door, and held a sword to her neck before cutting her.