Articles for January 23rd, 2013
More on the Dallas Contemporary’s eBay Gaffe
Earlier Peter Simek broke the news that the Dallas Contemporary was selling donated artwork on eBay, much to the artists’ surprise. Now Peter has found that the father of a Contemporary employee owns a gallery where he is reselling work bought at the Contemporary. Artist Vernon Fisher tells Peter: “I’ve been around a long time and nothing much surprises me anymore. They look like clowns, let’s face it.” Read the whole story.
Rick Santorum Will Keynote the Collin County Lincoln Day Dinner
There’s a lot that can be said about this news, most of which might be snarky and ill-tempered. Instead I’ll just say that Rick Santorum has been spending a lot of time in Texas. For more information about the fundraiser head here, and make your own opinion.
NorthPark Launches Canada Appreciation Month Promotion, Question Mark Exclamation Point
This email just hit a few of our desks at 750 N. St. Paul Street, and we thought we’d share:
In recognizing  the economic significance of the Canadian leisure traveler to Texas, NorthPark Center, North Texas’ premier shopping destination, is pleased to present Canada Appreciation Month in February.  NorthPark Center kicks off Canada Appreciation Month with a special event on Friday, February 1 at 10 am with remarks by Frank Carrico, Commercial Consul with the U.S. Consulate General, luxury fashions from NorthPark Center, performances by international disco legend France Joli of Canada, and the raising of the Canadian flag in SouthCourt, located between Neiman Marcus and Dillard’s.
Each year, more than 400,000 Canadian travelers travel to the Dallas / Fort Worth region, and generate almost $350 million in visitor spending. Canadians represent the second most popular International visitor to Texas, and that number has been steadily increasing every year.
Zac, Michael J., and I thought about the last part – $350 million, almost $1 million a day – for a few minutes, and came up with a few ways that number could possibly be true:
1. it counts every flight from Canada into DFW, including layovers
2. Michael J. Fox just spent all that Spin City money here
3. Crown Royal sales are included
4. something about hockey
Survival of the Cutest: Presenting The Most Common Dog Names in Dallas
Charlie Baby of Garland
As our voting in the Sweet 16 round of our Survival of the Cutest tournament remains close, remember to keep voting daily.
This contest has provided us with a sample of what life must be like for Dallas area dog owners, and I’m still mining that data for insight into the latest trends. I’ve already noted the overwhelming number of bulldog entries we received, and I was even more interested in observing the most common names among these pets.
No. 1 on our list – constituting 14 of the 605 entries to our contest – was Charlie (or Charley and other variant spellings). Second in the rankings was Bella (popular because of the Twilight series?) Coco and Cooper were also well-represented.
But I enjoyed reading some of the more unusual names as well. Like these…
The Washington Post Sits Down With Kay Bailey Hutchison, Talks Gender
Kay Bailey Hutchison questions Defense Secretary Leon Panetta during a June 2012 Senate Budget Committee hearing. Source: Leon Panetta’s Flickr page. Really.
Since leaving the Senate, Kay Bailey Hutchison’s spent her time working out of her dining room, with one aide, and, according to the Washington Post, “not miss[ing] a lot about the life she’s just left behind.” The Post caught up with her at the Academy of Medicine, Engineering & Science of Texas’ conference:
Even after she won that race, she noticed that male colleagues in her party “could say things a little different way than I could” and still be taken seriously on the public stage. Her fellow House member, now-husband Ray Hutchison, for instance, “could fluff things off in a way I never could have done.” Like George W. Bush and Rick Perry, too, she’d been a college cheerleader, but she had to live that down in a way they never did, and behave decorously at all moments.
When she ran for state treasurer in 1990 and for the Senate in ’93, her gender was “still an obstacle” to electoral success, in her view, but somewhere around 2000 “it started becoming an asset. I stopped feeling like I had to prove myself all the time, and in Texas, people stopped thinking of me as ‘the woman Senator.’ They stopped mentioning it in introductions, anyway – wasn’t it obvious? – and reporters stopped using phrases like “primping and fretting” – one that still sticks in her craw – to describe the sight of her combing her hair en route to an event.
Things To Do In Dallas Tonight: Jan. 23
These guys are wearing Speedos.
International Pie Day? I’m actually way more offended I didn’t have today off than I was working on Monday.
Tonight, there’s a show worth seeing over here in the Arts District, and it closes this weekend. The Undermain Theatre is temporarily installed in the new Dallas City Performance Hall, putting on a, from all accounts, excellent production of Enda Walsh’s Penelope. Walsh, who recently won a Tony Award for his book for the musical Once, appropriates the story of Homer’s quick-witted lady who tricks various suitors for 20 years while waiting for her husband, Odysseus, to return to her. Max Hartman, Bruce DuBose, R Bruce Elliot, and Gregory Lush play four would-be lovers who are in it for the long haul, battling each other for the beautiful Penelope at the bottom of her drained swimming pool while she slinks about on high. There are all sorts of reasons to recommend this play (the Tony-winning writer, wonderful director Stan Wojewodski, Jr., the fact that even the Undermain’s weakest shows remain some of the better productions in town), but I’m also curious about how they’re using the 750 seat theater. Only slightly bigger digs than what they’re used to underneath Main Street, really.
Also this evening, FrontRow’s Christopher Mosley, he of the discerning musical tastes, spins a set at The Dram at the behest of resident DJ Blake Ward. Ward, in what is clearly an attempt to shirk his duties, has also invited artist Samantha McCurdy to do the same. Whiskey drinks are $5, so there’s that. For the curious, I sent Mosley a message this morning that said, “What are you playing tonight? Just Orange Juice?” He responded: “Possibly some Sky Ferreira, which is my current pop obsession, Trust, questionable covers of Hot Chip songs, some early `00s throwbacks, and of course, Orange Juice.” That’s all I really needed. And since Raya reported that Rio Room is closing, perhaps we’ll dance at The Dram more often.
For more to do tonight, go here.
SMU Coach Larry Brown: ‘The Games Are Tough’
ESPN’s Mike and Mike in the Morning had SMU head basketball coach Larry Brown on this morning to talk Lakers basketball (what else?). Before they got to what they actually wanted to talk about, they asked Brown about his day job. It took up about 30 seconds of the eight-minute segment:
I enjoy practice, I enjoy being around the students and the school. Games are tough…We inherited a team that didn’t have many players, and we lost one of our top recruits to a shoulder injury. We’re kind of having trouble closing out games, but, uh, it’s a great experience and I’m pretty confident we’re gonna get pretty good real quickly.
Tell me. If you were a prospective SMU recruit or, heck, a current player, would that inspire any confidence in you whatsoever?
Can the Twinkie Be Saved by Fan Art?
Nailed the eyebrow. Source: Facebook
No, it can’t. The Irving-based treat can be saved by corporations, that’s it. One woman in Reno, Nev., though wants the Twinkie legacy to live on. From the Associated Press:
Shortly after Hostess Brands Inc. announced plans to go out of business last year, [Nancy] Peppin was among those who joined the rush to stores to fill shopping carts with boxes of the spongy cakes. But unlike others, she didn’t buy 12 boxes with 10 Twinkies each to turn a profit on eBay or Craigslist.
“I needed art supplies,” said Peppin, who uses Twinkies and their packaging to create some of her pieces. She also features renderings of the snack cakes in watercolor paintings, mixed media, prints and artwork. Her works include her “Twinkies in history series,” which portrays how scientists such as John James Audubon, Charles Darwin and Leonardo da Vinci would have sketched and written about Twinkies in journals or books.
Catch the rest of Peppin’s work on her Facebook page.
Bill Callahan Calls Tim Brown’s Allegations ‘Ludicrous and Defamatory’
Yesterday was a busy day for Dallas Cowboys offensive line coach Bill Callahan. He presumably spent the morning wondering what the hell Tim Brown was talking about, and by the afternoon had basically been handed the reins to the Cowboys offense. Then he sent this statement to NFL.com regarding Brown’s allegations that Callahan threw the 2003 Super Bowl:
I am shocked, saddened and outraged by Tim Brown’s allegations and Jerry Rice’s support of those allegations. To leave no doubt, I categorically and unequivocally deny the sum and substance of their allegation. To suggest otherwise, especially at this time when it involves the Super Bowl, is ludicrous and defamatory.
Any suggestion that I would undermine the integrity of the sport that I love and dedicated my life to, or dishonor the commitment I made to our players, coaches and fans, is flat out wrong. I think it would be in the best interests of all including the game America loves that these allegations be retracted immediately.
So, yeah, kind of an up-and-down day.
Richardson Man Sued in ‘Revenge Porn’ Case
A Richardson man is being sued for his role in the website Texxxan.com, a “revenge porn” site that allows users to upload photos and videos of their ex-lovers in an attempt to embarrass and, in some cases, extort. The man, Kris Kronowski, is listed in a class-action lawsuit filed last week in Orange County; he is listed along with GoDaddy.com, the host for the site. The case is filed on behalf of two dozen women whose photos were included on the website, the Beaumont Enterprise reports.
Users can submit photos and videos, and subscribe for content. The women are broken down by region: North Texas, Southeast Texas, West and Central Texas, and South Central Texas. Most photos are accompanied by a first name, a last initial, and the woman’s hometown, making nearly every photo instantly identifiable by community members. It wouldn’t be hard to, say, recognize Serena Q. from Garland, if you knew Serena G. from Garland. (That name is made up.)
John Morgan, the attorney representing the class, is seeking unspecified damages from not just from the site’s owners and host, but the individuals who posted content. (Read the whole suit below.) He is also seeking an injunction to shut down the website; on Tuesday evening the site varied between being a live, active site and one featuring only an error message. When it was live, it featured a strange poll, seen below:
(more…)
Leading Off (1/23/13)
Cowboys Player Arrested for DWI. Nose tackle Jay Ratliff was arrested Tuesday after he crashed into a tractor trailer at 12:30 a.m. No one was hurt.
 Irving Mayor Surprised by City Council. It’s got to be just awful to show up to a city council meeting and find that everyone’s turned on you. That’s basically what happened to Irving mayor Beth Van Duyne. She showed up at the City Council meeting expecting the members to vote on her plan regarding alcohol sales, which would keep a 31-year-old law in place but allow some areas to petition to have alcohol as a higher percentage of sales. Instead, the council voted to raise alcohol sales in Las Colinas restaurants to 70 percent of annual sales and 60 percent for the rest of the city.
Adults Have Inappropriate Relationships with Children. So there’s this story about a 34-year-old Arlington Heights High School teacher charged with fondling and indecency with a child. From the Fox 4 report: “According to affidavits, officers found him in a steamy parked car with a female student. They were outside a fitness club in Westworth Village, on the northwest side of Fort Worth.”
And then there’s this story about 25-year-old James Truman Ackley, a University Park United Methodist Church volunteer who had an inappropriate relationship with a child. She was receiving texts late at night, her dad confronted them about it, and during their conversation, Ackley sent an explicit photo. Talk about bad timing.
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