D

Please, Dallas Mavericks, Stop Letting Chris Arnold Help The Other Team

I’ve always thought the Dallas Mavericks do a better than average job when it comes to game presentation. If nothing else, they are always willing to try something, and a lot of that works, in one way or another — whether it’s the (usually) funny bits they show on the big screen during timeouts or the Mavs ManiAACs or whatever. One thing they have always — ALWAYS — failed, though, is knowing when to properly deploy Chris Arnold.

I don’t really know Chris. I’ve met him once or twice. Seems like a nice guy. People who know him much better than I do confirm this. But at Mavs games, he is my kryptonite. I know from reading Glenn Arbery’s piece from a couple of years ago that game presentation is a complicated affair. But I think a little common sense is in order. Because here is what happens every game. The Mavericks go on a run. The fans go crazy. The opposing team — in last night’s case, the Houston Rockets — calls a timeout, specifically to calm themselves down and hopefully cool off the crowd, too. And then, without fail, Chris Arnold comes out and accomplishes that for them, by quieting everything down so a couple of fans can play some ridiculous game no one ever understands or really cares about. Momentum gone.

Look, there will come a time when it makes sense to trot out Chris. Maybe the Mavs have a big lead. Maybe the other team needs some cooling off. It’s not rocket science. You have to veer off the script on occasion. I don’t know why I have to keep bringing this up.

Our Long Local Nightmare Ends: Texas Giant Has Gone Bye-Bye

Yesterday the Texas Giant, once the tallest wooden roller-coaster around, roughly jostled its last group of riders. It was 19. Tip of the hat to the Dallas Morning News for running that story across from the obits page. Clever. (And don’t worry — it’s basically coming back in 2011, in some form at least.)

Are You Hot?

If so, the people who are shooting the TV series The Deep End are looking for you. (After some Googling, I found a synopsis of the show that compares it to Grey’s Anatomy, but set at a law firm.) They’re casting extras daily until Dec. 6. The other qualifications are that you have to be fit, young, and upscale. Check the jump for the details.

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Steve Martin Benefits Central Dallas Ministries

Last night I was at the benefit concert for Central Dallas Ministries at the Meyerson Symphony Center, featuring Steve Martin and bluegrass band the Steep Canyon Rangers. It was fantastic. I bought the tickets without realizing it was a fundraiser–I’m just a big fan of Steve Martin, even when he’s playing banjo–but I left impressed by the story that Central Dallas Ministries told about the surge in demand for their help this year. They said they’ve already had to distribute twice as much food so far in 2009 than they did in the entirety of 2008.

The fundraising goal for the night was $50,000. Steve Martin joked that Central Dallas Ministries could claim to have raised more money this year than in any year in its history, had it not been for paying his appearance fee. Anyway, the show was peppered with nice bits of comedy between the songs, which were themselves great fun. Martin is a master entertainer, and he makes it look effortless. But anyone who’s read his memoir of his early days can attest to the fact that he’s a perfect example of Malcolm Gladwell’s 10,000-hour rule.

One bone to pick with WFAA’s Gary Cogill, who introduced Martin at the start of the show. In running down a portion of his filmography, you mention the execrable Three Amigos, but not what’s probably his best movie, Planes, Trains, and Automobiles?

Kenyan Rides the Bull

While working on putting together the print issue, we’ve come across a rather unexpected photo: a man riding the mechanical bull in traditional African clothing. When I looked up the gentleman’s name, I discovered he’s from Kenya and a member of the Samburu tribe. He and his friend are traveling through America with producers from National Geographic. They’re working on a show titled “Two Kenyan Guys.”

Not only did the gentlemen apparently enjoy a rather interesting evening at Cattle Baron’s, but they also went to an SMU football practice, learned to line dance at Billy Bob’s, and visited a “fainting goat” farm in Bowie. I’m not sure these choices are the best representation of Dallas. I like picturing them at the Cattle Baron’s Ball, but I think a Cowboys game would have been exciting. I also wonder where they went for dinner. Their diet consists of beef, blood, and milk.

Check an upcoming issue of D for the picture of the man. He seems to be having a great time.

New York Times on the Winspear and Otello

Anthony Tommasini adds his opinion this morning to our own Willard Spiegelman’s about the new opera house and its first production. On the Winspear:

Several bigger, more significant American companies are going to envy the Dallas Opera its new home.

On Otello:

At times, especially in Act I, the performance of the orchestra and chorus was insecure and shaky. Jitters on this momentous opening might have been a factor. Also, the set that dominates this production, an intriguing, starkly modern staging by the British director Tim Albery that is filled with militaristic imagery, may have made it harder for the performers to follow the conductor and hear the orchestra.

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Philip Glass and Dracula at the Winspear

“It’s not actually repetitive. That’s an illusion,” composer Philip Glass said in response to a question about whether playing his music on a keyboard causes his hands to suffer from repetitive stress syndrome.

Glass’ music generally leaves me cold. In fact, I find if I listen to it too intently the repetition can get maddening. But to have it played live in accompaniment to the 1931 film Dracula, as it was last night at the Winspear Opera House, was tremendous fun. Together the music and the movie (which only a generous critic would call “good”) were more than the sum of their parts. Glass explained during a post-performance Q&A that it was the film’s star, Bela Lugosi–or more precisely the tragic arc of Lugosi’s life–that drew him to want to write a new score for it.

It was my first time inside the performance hall at the Winspear, and it lived up to the hype. My wife only had one small complaint. The air vents beneath our seats were pumping cold air out with such enthusiasm that her legs felt like icicles by the end of the show. She was looking to let the management know afterward, and I had to argue with her to convince her not to force some poor usher to touch her cold ankles.

Local Talks About Being in First Production at Wyly

Our friends at Oak Cliff People have a wonderful story about Cedric Neal, one of the cast members of  A Midsummer Night’s Dream. It begins tomorrow at the Wyly. The cast is made of locals, who are more than elated to be in the first production at the new theater. Judging from the story, Neal is quite a character. I especially liked his quote about how great the theater is.

“Now here comes the Oak Cliff in me,” Neal said. “It’s the bomb. It is a thing of beauty, and I just don’t know what angels and spirits were so kind to me that I get to be part of this first show in this wonderful new building.”

If you want tickets, go here. But be forewarned: at some point, fairies will be fighting with Nerf balls.

Leading Off (10/23/09)

1. I’ve never heard him conduct a concert. I have heard many people sing his praises. So I can imagine that there’s general excitement among the city’s classical music lovers now that the Dallas Symphony Orchestra music director has committed to staying until 2016.  Me? I don’t want to be a phony — like someone who calls himself a jazz aficionado just because he owns Kind of Blue – by claiming that I join them in their excitement. But I am glad he’ll be sticking around awhile. Because “Jaap van Zweden” is just plain fun to say.

2. I’m under age 55, so I was not watching the Jay Leno Show last night. Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones was on via satellite from inside the belly of his giant robot space turtle. Judging from this clip of the appearance, the segment featured Leno’s standard brand of excruciating comedy. Jay asked about Cowboys players dating celebrities, like Tony Romo’s relationship with Jessica Simpson. “Spice is nice,” Jerry said. Other gustatory terms come to mind, but I’ve never particularly thought of Jessica Simpson as spicy.

3. I don’t even want to imagine the horror that Raul Garza has had to live through since April, when his wife was murdered. The man who killed her was sentenced to 15 years in prison yesterday. What I can imagine, and what I hope brought him some small sense of satisfaction, was standing across from the killer in court and flinging these words at him: “You’re not a man, but a shell of human being not worthy of love because you are incapable of showing that to others. You let evil rip out your spine and your guts.”

Bob Dylan Covers Denton’s Brave Combo

Bob Dylan released a Christmas album yesterday. It includes a cover of an arrangement of “Must Be Santa” by Denton music icons Brave Combo. You can hear their version by clicking on the title on this page. They didn’t write the song, but they improved it.

This takes me back to the middle of the ’90s, jumping up and down in a crowd of people on the floor of Rick’s, on Fry Street. Before it caught fire, or was set on fire. I can’t remember which.

Cool Bike Festival Rides Into Town Today

If you’re the pedaling sort, you need to check out Cyclesomatic, a bicycle festival put on by Bike Friendly Oak Cliff. It goes all weekend and involves beer and bicycles and movies and bicycles and scavenger hunts and bicycles.

Hitchcocktober at Angelika in Dallas and Plano

The Angelika Film Centers in Dallas and Plano are hosting “Hitchcocktober” this month. Plano plays the films of Alfred Hitchcock on Wednesdays, while Dallas will get them outdoors at Mockingbird Station — for free — on Thursdays, beginning tonight at 8 p.m.

We can debate whether one should ever pay to see films on the big screen when you can catch them in one of their many repeats on Turner Classic Movies. What we can’t debate is that Dallas (even with that free price) is getting the short end of the programming stick.

Plano gets Psycho, Strangers on a Train, To Catch a Thief, and Vertigo. Dallas gets The Birds, Rear Window, Psycho, and Dial ‘M’ for Murder.

Plano, I’ll trade you The Birds (way over-rated and a bit cheesy) and Dial ‘M’ for Murder (Other than Grace Kelly, what’s the point?)  for Strangers on a Train (under-rated and delightfully perverted) and Vertigo (Hitchcock’s greatest).

A Red Balloon Over the Nasher

In the current episode of the “print product,” there appear two stories about an experiment we ran to determine whether the forthcoming Museum Tower might possibly interfere with the Nasher Sculpture Center’s wonderful installation Tending, (Blue). You can read Willard Spiegelman’s sober, insightful account of our caper here. Me, I just write jokes. Anyway, I’d forgotten till now that I’d taken this picture. In the final scene of my story, when the DSO’s PR director, Stacie Adams, catches me standing in their backyard, here’s what I was doing:

Newt Gingrich Doesn’t Want to Party With Topless Bar Owner After All

You can read the full release after the jump. In September, Newt Gingrich’s outfit Americans Solutions for Winning the Future gave Dawn Rizos, owner of the Lodge, an “Entrepreneur of the Year” award for all of Texas and invited her to a private dinner in Washington — which was apparently a mistake. Rizos even called to confirm the award, and she paid a requested $5,000 to join Americans Solutions for Winning the Future. Then someone in Gingrich’s camp realized what they’d done. Oops.

Here’s the letter telling her about the award, and here’s another confirming that she ponied up the cash. I know Dawn Rizos. I bet she’s having a good laugh over this.

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GameStop Wants Your Bad Beatles Songs

Grapevine-based GameStop is sponsoring a contest asking for song lyrics of 100 words or less that incorporate at least 10 Beatles’ song titles. The prize is two tickets to see Cirque du Soleil in Las Vegas. Here goes:

All You Need is Love/ And I Love Her/ Any Time at All/ Baby It’s You

Because/ I’ve Got a Feeling/ I’ve Just Seen a Face/ You Know What to Do

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Dark Joke Played on Head of Dallas G.O.P.

Jonathan Neerman is the chairman of the Dallas County Republican Party. He’s also ex CIA. He was a counterterrorism analyst. And guess what? The law firm he works for is in Fountain Place, the building that Hosam Maher Husein Smadi tried to blow up. Which is all the background information you need to know to appreciate this joke. (Too soon?)

Leading Off (09/25/09)

1. I was feeling a bit like Yossarian (”They’re trying to kill me.”) when I saw the news about attempted bombings both here in Dallas and in the city of my birth. I’m grateful that the FBI actively seeks to head off would-be terrorists. But what struck me most in reading about both incidents is that these guys are probably like a lot of self-proclaimed jihadists: they’re just a couple of dumb kids.

2. Maybe I should have made the first item the third. It’s hard to segue into talking about the State Fair of Texas opening today. Except — well, what better way to celebrate the continuing triumph of American freedom over the forces of darkness than by shoveling corny dogs and fried butter down our gullets?

3. For those who plan to avoid the Fair’s opening weekend, Fort Worth is offering some counterprogramming Saturday with its Day in the District. Seven attractions are free. Including the Kimbell Art Museum, which will be unveiling its newest acquisition, “The Torment of Saint Anthony.” That doesn’t get you excited? What if I told you it’s a painting by Michelangelo, the only one to hang in the Western Hemisphere? A little more interested? Oh, who am I kidding? See you at the Fair.

Celebrity Look-Alikes: Mayor’s Office Edition

Everyone in the media business knows Chris Heinbaugh: former Channel 8 reporter, current chief of staff for Dallas Mayor Tom Leppert. But did you know he has a celebrity twin? (more…)

Jerry Jones’ Guide to the Good Life

It comes courtesy of Sports Illustrated. The man is a genius:

He made his fortune finding oil where others thought there was none, has watched his investment in the Cowboys rise 856 percent and has now built an enormous, revenue-generating stadium in the middle of a recession. And despite all that, god bless him, he has yet to appear on Dancing with the Stars.

Party Over the Trinity on Friday

This Friday evening, the Trinity Trust Foundation is throwing what it’s calling a “bridge fair” on the Continental Bridge to celebrate the progress being made on the Marget Hunt Hill Bridge (full release after the jump). Santiago Calatrava will be in attendance. The band Boys Named Sue will play, and the foundation promises other “delectable delights.” Tickets cost $150, a price point established, I believe, to keep Jim Schutze from attending. D Magazine is a media sponsor, so I’ll be there. Look for me wherever the delectable delights are located.

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Cowboys Stadium World’s Greatest Erector Set

Two days after losing the first regular-season game at their new home, the Dallas Cowboys have dismantled the field. Jerry Jones, who skipped yesterday’s presentation with the Super Bowl XLV Host Committee, was the keynote speaker at today’s North Texas Commission membership luncheon at Cowboys Stadium.

As he got under way, he explained the presence of the big crane, as well as the welders who sent sparks flying from catwalks high above what is usually the field. He said there were about 300 workers in the building finishing up the 5% of construction that remains to be completed.

Obviously, Cowboys Stadium is  a complicated project. He reminded us that the much-discussed digital screens above the field cost more to build than the entirety of Texas Stadium.

Faith Hill, Sting to Play Super Bowl Concerts

Roger Staubach, chairman of the Super Bowl XLV Host Committee, broke the news about the talent to the crowd at the North Texas Commission annual membership luncheon at Cowboys Stadium this afternoon. As part of the year-long run-up to the February 2011 game, a three-concert series is being planned.

Faith Hill will kick off the Kick-off Series with a concert at Bass Hall in Fort Worth in March. “I’m picking her up from the airport,” Staubach joked (I think.)

Sting will play the Winspear Opera House in Dallas in May. The third act, for a concert at Cowboys Stadium next September, hasn’t been signed yet, Staubach said.

Better picks than Diana Ross?

Diana Ross Headlines Cowboys Bash

Ross Perot Sr. attended, calling it “just incredible.” And the featured entertainer … sort of a letdown here … was Diana Ross. (Safe, unexciting, available.) The Star-Telegram’s got the scoop on Saturday night’s big grand-opening gala at Cowboys Stadium.

Who Will Be the Big-Deal Entertainer at Gene and Jerry Jones’ Saturday-Night Soiree?

There’s a headliner coming to town to perform at Saturday night’s gala preceding the home opener at the new Cowboys Stadium. No one is talking, but our society sleuth and SweetCharity editor Jeanne Prejean thinks whoever entertains the chichi crowd at Gene and Jerry Jones’ party will also sing the national anthem at the big game against the New York Giants.

Leading Off (09/18/09)

1. It’s that time of year again. The Plano Balloon Festival launches/lifts off/takes to the skies/flies to the heavens/reaches new heights/heads off into the wild blue yonder/fills community newspaper stories with canned Chamber of Commerce quotes beginning today through Sunday. And the executive director of the festival wants you to get excited about how many toilets they’ve got this year: “From children’s activities to [number of] port-a-potties, everything we’ve done for the festival has gotten larger.”

2. Dallas teachers are finding work a less miserable place to be. Absolutely there are signs of progress. But I want to know what I’m betting every reader of that story wants to know: Which Dallas ISD elementary school scored a 1 (on the scale of 1 to 99)? How can they not disclose that even to school board members? Don’t they need to dispatch a team of emergency psychiatrists to that campus? Or maybe just bring in Dr. Phil? (Raise your hand if you already see how I’m setting up the third item.)

3. OPRAH! IS COMING! TO THE STATE FAIR! Maybe she can even bring Dr. Oz along. Together they could heal our hearts. Which will be under attack, figuratively and literally.