Articles about Highly Focused Pranks

Is Anyone Going to the Sweet Sixteen, Ctd.

Earlier in the week, I asked if anyone was going to the Sweet Sixteen, out in Arlington. The response, mostly: I wish it was in downtown.

Well, if you listen to KERA, it can be. During BJ Austin’s report this morning on Dallas’s new slogan — “Big Things Happen Here” — she interviewed a gentleman, asking him what BIG things happen in Dallas:

So what big things are happening here?  The first thing that came to James Eitzen’s mind was sports.

“We’ve got the Sweet Sixteen coming this weekend to American Airlines Center,” Eitzen said, also mentioning the Dallas Cowboys.

A boy can dream.

posted by Bradford Pearson | March 28th, 2013 10:52am | filed under boom!, Competence, Highly Focused Pranks | 3 Comments »

DISH, Texas May Once Again Become Clark, Texas

The New York Times today has an interesting postcard of a story about DISH, Texas, the small Denton County community that changed its name to DISH either years ago in exchange for some free satellite service. Thing is, people might want to switch the name back to Clark when the deal expires in 2015.

But the renaming of Dish — its official name became DISH, to match the company’s all-caps style — did not turn the town into a household name, like Truth or Consequences, N.M., which named itself after the radio quiz show in 1950. Some residents have wondered how they have benefited from the 10-year arrangement.

“It’s not a very publicized item,” said Wester Draper, 34, who is one of the town council’s two members. “You tell people you live in Dish, Texas, and they’re like, ‘Where’s Dish, Texas?’ Initially trying to get the service turned on, if you call them up and tell them you live in Dish and you get free TV, they don’t believe you, the customer service agents.”

Others complained that the signs trumpeting free satellite TV need an asterisk: While basic service is free, residents have to pay for HBO and other premium channels, as well as any additional equipment they might want. Joe Ratliff, 83, said his bill is about $36 per month. Mr. Draper pays $25. Some residents have not bothered to sign up, because they were not interested or were customers of DirecTV.

Some town commissioners have already expressed support for changing the name back to Clark, but one resident has another idea. “I wished Jack Daniel’s would have looked us up,” said Buddy Kinney.

posted by Bradford Pearson | March 22nd, 2013 9:58am | filed under Competence, Highly Focused Pranks, Local News | 1 Comment »

Giant Chair Appears in The Colony

Photo: Mary Duggan

Photo: Mary Duggan

Got a Big Ol’ Chair. More details:

- It’s at State Highway 121 and Plano Parkway
- It’s for Nebraska Furniture Mart’s 560,000-square-foot retail showroom and 1.3 million-square-foot distribution center
- Nebraska Furniture Mart will anchor Grandscape, a 3.9 million-square-foot monolith that will probably have the capability to detach from Earth and self-sustain, should the need arise

Last point: the first person to snag a picture of themselves in the chair will win a free year’s subscription to D Magazine. I will pay for it myself, since I can’t imagine our marketing team is too keen on the idea of a contest where I tell folks to trespass. And I don’t mean next to the chair, or one of those photos where your fingers look like they’re smushing the chair. IN IT.

Get to snappin, and send the photo to bradford.pearson@dmagazine.com.

UPDATE: I assumed an email like this would land in my inbox today. From Jeff Lind, chief strategy and development officer for Nebraska Furniture Mart:

“I’m contacting you because safety is a huge priority for Nebraska Furniture Mart and I believe this could put someone at needless risk of injury.  I’m sure it was for fun but I can’t bury my head in the sand when safety is involved.  Any action you could take to cancel the ‘contest’ could potentially help avoid an injury.  I hope you will consider this course of action and I encourage you to do so.  Thank you very much.”

So, contest off. It was fun (?) while it lasted.

posted by Bradford Pearson | March 8th, 2013 8:52am | filed under Abnormal Psychology, Appreciation, Awesome Things, boom!, Business, Disclaimers, gambling, Giveaways, GOOD IDEAS, Highly Focused Pranks | 2 Comments »

Fort Worth Couple Raffling Off Their Unborn Daughter’s Middle Name

This baby's middle name could be all yours.

This baby’s middle name could be all yours.

Fort Worth real estate agent Drew Myers and his wife already have the first name of their daughter picked out. Ily will come into the world in August, with an abbreviation for a name: Ily = I Love You. Problem is, they don’t have a middle name for their daughter. That’s where you come in.

The couple’s had difficulties conceiving in the past, unsure if they’d be able to have another baby to team up with their son Crash. Then Tanya got the good news — pregnant — and they started counting their blessings:

TK and I are thrilled that God blessed us with another child, but we’re also excited that we get an opportunity to use this name, which carries so much significance for us.

So…with our daughter’s first name taken care of – we’ve shifted gears to the middle name.

Go on.

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posted by Bradford Pearson | March 6th, 2013 9:20am | filed under Awesome Things, boom!, Health & Medicine, Highly Focused Pranks, Hold On To Your Effin Hat, Incredible Bravery | 3 Comments »

Oak Cliff Native Dennis Rodman Is Heading to North Korea, Because Why Not

From the Associated Press:

Arriving in Pyongyang, the American athlete and showman known as “The Worm” became an unlikely ambassador for sports diplomacy at a time of heightened tensions between the U.S. and North Korea. Or maybe not so unlikely: Young leader Kim Jong Un is said to have been a fan of the Chicago Bulls in the 1990s, when Rodman won three championships with the club.

Rodman is joining three members of the Harlem Globetrotters basketball team for a Vice Media production to air on HBO in early April, Vice founder Shane Smith told The Associated Press in an exclusive interview before the group’s departure from Beijing.

Smith said the Americans hope to engage in a little “basketball diplomacy” by running a basketball camp for children and playing pickup games with locals, and by competing alongside top athletes of North Korea – formally known as the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

“Is sending the Harlem Globetrotters and Dennis Rodman to the DPRK strange? In a word, yes,” said Smith, who is host of the upcoming series. “But finding common ground on the basketball court is a beautiful thing.”

This is fantastic. I literally can’t think of anything better. Maybe a MS Painted Kim Jong Un wearing Bulls gear? Yes, that will do.

posted by Bradford Pearson | February 26th, 2013 9:15am | filed under Abnormal Psychology, Appreciation, Celebrity, Highly Focused Pranks | (0) Comments »

Tim Tebow Cancels First Baptist Appearance

Had this brother never heard of Google before agreeing to this?

posted by Bradford Pearson | February 21st, 2013 9:23am | filed under boom!, Competence, GOOD IDEAS, Highly Focused Pranks | 3 Comments »

When Fact-checking Goes Wrong: An Intern’s Tale

Seems pretty racy for 1966. Image: Nesster, via Flickr

One of the necessary evils of journalism is fact-checking. It’s dry, tedious, and, thus, inescapable for those of us lowest on the editorial totem pole (i.e., interns). I was never warned, though, that fact-checking could be fraught with peril.

I arrived at the office today, café mocha in hand, resigned to the task of verifying the minutia of our next issue’s event listings. Dull, indeed, but — as a consolation — ostensibly riskless. I tore through Sedaris at Winspear and Bernini at the Kimbell when I arrived at the listing for a Bunny Yeager exhibition at Photographs Do Not Bend Gallery. Bunny Yeager was a ’50s pin-up model and pin-up photographer. This fact was of little import to me, though: her listing was merely another hurdle to clear before I could get back to doing anything but fact-checking.

In responsible intern form, I dutifully opened several links in my browser, each discussing the exhibition and featuring a sampling of Yeager’s works—namely, black-and-white photographs of busty women (e.g., Bettie Page) seductively sprawled/spread-eagled/bent in all (or, at least, most of) their glory.

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posted by Farraz Khan | February 20th, 2013 2:45pm | filed under Disclaimers, GOOD IDEAS, Highly Focused Pranks, sex | 11 Comments »

FreedomWorks Planned to Show a Video of a Fake Panda Having Sex With a Fake Hillary Clinton at a 2012 Event in Dallas, But Someone Thought That Was a Bad Idea

In one of the most bizarre stories you’ll read, ever, FreedomWorks — the conservative group formerly chaired by Dick Armey — apparently created a video of a fake panda fellating a fake Hillary Clinton, and planned to show it at the July 26, 2012 FreePAC event, held at the American Airlines Center in Dallas. Mother Jones has the whole insane story:

The short film hailing FreedomWorks was intended to play on the large video screens inside the arena.

In one segment of the film, according to a former official who saw it, [former FreedomWorks EVP Adam] Brandon is seen waking from a nap at his desk. In what appears to be a dream or a nightmare, he wanders down a hallway and spots a giant panda on its knees with its head in the lap of a seated Hillary Clinton and apparently fellating the then-secretary of state. Two female interns at FreedomWorks were recruited to play the panda and Clinton. One intern wore a Hillary Clinton mask. The other wore a giant panda suit that FreedomWorks had used at protests to denounce progressives as panderers. Placing the panda in the video, a former FreedomWorks staffer says, was “an inside joke.”

Another FreedomWorks staffer who worked there at the time confirms that ”Yes, this video was created.”

Days before the FreePAC event, the video was screened for staff. “My mouth was wide open,” a former official recalls. “‘What the hell is this?’” Several FreedomWorks staffers were outraged and stunned that Brandon, the group’s second-in-command after [president Matt] Kibbe, had overseen the video’s production, appeared in it, and intended to show this film at the conference, which would be attended by many social-conservative activists. They raised objections to the film.

I think those objections were probably relevant. This story came to the surface due to an internal investigation of the conservative advocacy group, after questions were raised about the group’s use of funds. Bet they didn’t think they’d find this.

posted by Bradford Pearson | February 14th, 2013 9:22am | filed under Abnormal Psychology, Competence, controversy, GOOD IDEAS, Highly Focused Pranks | 9 Comments »

Park Cities Kids Do The Harlem Shake

I’m not going to get into the race politics of a group of rich white kids doing the Harlem Shake, because I know this is just a meme. Anyway, it’s fun to see these kids crash into a Tom Thumb and, I think, a Mi Cocina.

posted by Bradford Pearson | February 12th, 2013 8:36am | filed under Abnormal Psychology, Appreciation, Awesome Things, boom!, Highly Focused Pranks | 31 Comments »

Here’s The Mavericks Shake. Let’s Dance.

The whole thing just reads like a failed (successful?) Tim and Eric sketch, which means it’s pretty brilliant. Like the YouTube descriptions says: “Don’t ask why. Just be.”

posted by Bradford Pearson | February 11th, 2013 3:39pm | filed under Abnormal Psychology, Awesome Things, boom!, Highly Focused Pranks, Let's go Mavs! | (0) Comments »

For One Very Specific Katy Trail Tagger, It’s Clear: Antz >A Bug’s Life

Source: Park Cities People

I was always thought it was the other way around, but clearly this tagger enjoys Woody Allen’s neurosis in animated form.

(Via Park Cities People)

posted by Bradford Pearson | February 8th, 2013 9:49am | filed under Awesome Things, Entertainment, Highly Focused Pranks | 1 Comment »

For One Very Specific Katy Trail Tagger, It’s Clear: Antz >A Bug’s Life

Source: Park Cities People

I was always thought it was the other way around, but clearly this tagger enjoys Woody Allen’s neurosis in animated form.

(Via Park Cities People)

posted by Bradford Pearson | February 8th, 2013 9:49am | filed under Awesome Things, Entertainment, Highly Focused Pranks | 1 Comment »

Interview: Corbin Corona (Alternate Title: I Might Have Just Been Punk’d, if That Were Still a Thing)

Corbin Corona.

Last week, I stumbled across a music video by a 24-year-old Dallas resident named Corbin Corona. Intrigued, I watched the video, called him a clown, and had a good laugh. He challenged me on Twitter to an interview, and I accepted.
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posted by Bradford Pearson | February 7th, 2013 10:47am | filed under boom!, Highly Focused Pranks, Hold On To Your Effin Hat | 18 Comments »

Sherman Viewers Got an Eyeful of Will Ferrell During Last Night’s Super Bowl

For the second year in a row, Will Ferrell has produced a Super Bowl ad for Old Milwaukee beer. And for the second year in a row, only a sliver of worldwide viewers saw the ad.

Last year, it was only folks in the North Platte, Neb. TV market. This year it included parts of Oklahoma, Texas, and Montana. Some of those lucky viewers live in the northiest part of North Texas, around Sherman and Denison. Anyone else catch it?

posted by Bradford Pearson | February 4th, 2013 10:30am | filed under Advertising, Appreciation, Drinking, Highly Focused Pranks | (0) Comments »

Dallas’ Corbin Corona Becomes the Latest in a Long Line of Clown Musicians

Dallas now has its own entry into the Rebecca Black/”It’s Thanksgiving” Wall of Honor. His name is Corbin Corona and, as you can tell by the headline, he’s a clown. Back in October he released his video “Oh My,” which (poorly) name-drops Al Biernat’s:

“I’m out here in the streets all day, lifestyle sh*t I’m talking Al Biernat’s”

Undaunted by the need for talent, Corona forged ahead, releasing a video for “SuperStar” in late December. This week it’s found its way to a variety of blogs, through a well-placed link on Reddit’s “Cringe” page. A YouTube comment sums up the video well: “great. now I have to know you exist.”

To save you all the time of watching the video, I look the liberty of live-blogging my first viewing of it:

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posted by Bradford Pearson | February 1st, 2013 11:11am | filed under Abnormal Psychology, Automotive, boom!, Competence, GOOD IDEAS, Highly Focused Pranks | 24 Comments »

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