Dear Mexican: I was surprised, on a trip to Mexico earlier this month, that I only ever found the holiday referred to as “Día de Muertos,” whereas in the States, I’ve only ever heard it referred to as “Día de los Muertos.” I’m really curious as to WHY there’s a…
Apparently I have written more about the upcoming 50th anniversary observation of the Kennedy assassination than anybody else in town, or else I have written crazier stuff. One way or another I have become a top phone call for out-of-town journalists, filmmakers and other seekers of something to say about…
Kind of a hilarious war of words going on right now between me, Dallas political activist Rene Martinez and a UT Austin Education School professor named Julian Vasquez Heilig. Heilig has threatened to call the cops if Martinez emails him again. I think Heilig might do better calling his mom…
Editor’s Note: Shea Serrano is an award-winning music writer and goofball who recent exploits include Bun B’s Rapper Coloring and Activity Book. In his new column, he writes about his life and times. On Monday night I watched the movie about TLC, the most important all-girl rap group of all-time…
For nearly three years now, Chris Mueller has hosted a local music show on deepellumradio.com called The Ghost of Blind Lemon. His show nabbed a DOMA nomination this year, and we wish him all the luck. “Ghost” doesn’t seem to draw any boundary lines in the sand: It’s a little…
Mayor Mike Rawlings and the new city attorney Warren Ernst want to hold a secret closed-door City Council session tomorrow on a question that has everything to do with the public interest. Watch closely to see how your council member votes. It’s a big window. Yesterday we talked about some…
[Editor’s note: This article was orginally printed by our sister paper, OC Weekly, where Andrew Youssef is based. Youssef is the author of the Last Shot column that we have been running, which chronicles his struggle against cancer in his own words.] Sneakers squeaking on white tiles, Andrew Youssef roams…
Are you a musician? Is your group having issues? Ask Fan Landers! Critic Jessica Hopper has played in and managed bands, toured internationally, booked shows, produced records, worked as a publicist and is the author of The Girls’ Guide to Rocking, a how-to for teen ladies. She is here to…
Eric tells us this morning we have two southern Dallas clergymen, Stephen C. Nash, pastor of Mount Tabor Baptist Church, and Jerry C. Christian of Kirkwood CME Church, stepping from the pulpit to the street to denounce as racist plotters the company called Uber, which provides an app-based car-ride service…
The papers are crammed these last few days with thoughtful essays about the split in the Republican Party. I read them all with a certain shrug. Yeah, fine, but what about the split in my life? Earlier in the week I ran into a lady I have known for 30…
Editor’s Note: Our nightlife columnist, Deb Doing Dallas, wrote about this year’s State Fair Classic, a longstanding Fair tradition at least as much about the pageantry and the marching bands in particular as it is about the actual football game played between Louisana’s Grambling State University and Texas’ Prairie View…
Louie Steven Witt, are you still out there somewhere, alive? Would you tell me if you were? You know you’re back in The Dallas Morning News this morning, but only as a ghost. I wonder if you really are a ghost yet. I can’t find you with Google, which may…
Dear Mexican: My wife and I are looking to buy our first house. Being young(ish) and hip(ish), we’re looking into buying in Santa Ana. It’s amazing how much house and land you can get for $350K compared with the two-bedroom stacked cracker boxes in South O.C. My question is two-fold:…
A couple weeks back, a retired Dallas businessman named Don Williams published a set of three academic studies he commissioned at his own expense, all claiming to present evidence that Dallas ISD Superintendent Mike Miles is a failure. I was impressed that Williams was able to commission a study by…
The school reform debate has a way of flipping the words liberal and conservative around like pinballs, but somewhere running deep beneath the surface is a new orientation that needs new words. North of the line are people united in the belief that children from the most brutal circumstances are…
Despite it being a a pretty good spell since booking bands for places like Crown and Harp (she also did a stretch working on the non-editorial side of the building here at the Observer), Carlin Stultz is the kind of music supporter that doesn’t seem to fade easily. The recent…
Well, I see that Jerry Patterson, the state land commissioner, has accomplished his goal: The New York Times today is flouncing its long skirts and stamping its high-button shoes over a nutty gun rally Patterson has helped organize for next Saturday at the Alamo. Called “Come and Take It San…
Are you a musician? Is your group having issues? Ask Fan Landers! Critic Jessica Hopper has played in and managed bands, toured internationally, booked shows, produced records, worked as a publicist and is the author of The Girls’ Guide to Rocking, a how-to for teen ladies. She is here to…
The acting city manager who would be king, A.C. Gonzalez, has always been the inside favorite. And if there is an issue in his way, it’s that. Just ahead for City Hall is a decision to make somebody the permanent city manager. But just behind it is a series of…
Kid Congo Powers was fantastic last night. He truly was. A full-blooded romp through a set that drew from his past as an ’80s pioneer of post-punk, as well as just some straight up punk, his was a stage presence far from the snarling beast you might have expected. Instead,…
Former Dallas mayor Laura Miller has a great piece today on the op-ed page of The Dallas Morning News about the absolute insanity of hiring yet another city manager for Dallas from within the inbred, cultic, code-talking clan of apparatchiks usually described politely as “city staff.” She cites the example…
Dear Mexican: A friend says she read that only 20 percent of Mexican men go down on their ladies. Can you “spread” some light on the subject? El Gabacho Guapo Dear Handsome Gabacho: Let me refer her to The International Encyclopedia of Sexuality, a set of studies on the world’s…
