Tons of talk on the interwebs yesterday about the inauguration and what it all meant (racism is undead, Obama won’t have a waltz, presidents can’t change the weather, other unexciting true facts). But, look. It did mean something. This is not 2008. We can debate what road we’re down, but…
The weekend draws mercifully close, and I feel a need to revisit a couple themes touched on here earlier in the week. We started with Lance Armstrong on Monday. I predicted he would fake-confess and then offer a jail-house rationalization to the effect of, “I didn’t do nuthin’.” I admit…
We assume Lance Armstrong will confess tonight to some part of a years-long juicing conspiracy while head of the U.S. Postal Service bicycle racing team, so we can anticipate at least a few more days of intense conversation about Armstrong. But what about bicycle racing? What is its future? The…
Oh, I do not like nights like this. I just sat through the Dallas school board meeting where they finally got to the bottom of the bad audit on Mike Miles, the new superintendent. Some weeks ago Miles said the audit was a witch hunt. I wrote a column saying…
Dear Mexican: How do you think it’s fair that all the people that come to our country and stay get treated far better than some of the people who have busted their butt all their lives here? You people take all the white man’s jobs and leave us wondering how…
The Atlantic magazine has stumbled badly on that really hard multiple choice question at the end of the Journalism 101 final exam: “Lying to your readers is: 1) A good thing, or 2) A bad thing.” One pictures them hunched over the bubble sheet, eyes squinted closed and pencil tips…
Jordan Buford has been checking out local bands in DFW for about 8 straight years now, for a group called Rya Entertainment, and for a podcast he hosts called “The Real Music Enthusiast” which airs as part of the Whiskeyboy Radio Network. The great thing about Buford, apart from his…
The invitation said the party would be at The Old Bike Shop off Empire Central, which meant that all the Dallas kids would have to leave their bubble for a night if they wanted to see what Warby Parker and House of Plates had up their sleeves. Warby Parker, a…
To: Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. Dear Mr. Kennedy: You and your sister, Rory, appeared here in Dallas a few days ago as part of the run-up to this city’s observance of the 50th anniversary of the murder of your uncle, President John F. Kennedy, in Dealey Plaza in Dallas on…
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…
Let me tell you in advance what Lance Armstrong is going to say to Oprah today. And how do I know? Well, obviously, I do not. But it’s just as obvious to me that I do. Everybody knows by now that world cycling mega-star Lance Armstrong of Austin is going…
Ahem. All that I offer is food for thought, food for thought. Something to think about. That’s all. A blog published by The Hill, a Washington newspaper, has floated the name of former Texas Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison, whom we here in Texas don’t even have to say is a…
This country is being hoodooed by the oldest magic show trick in the book — misdirection. The fictional crisis of entitlement spending is just a new version of the stain on Monica Lewinsky’s dress, the latest cheap trick by the super-rich to turn our attention away from the truth. For…
Dear Mexican: What is it about Mexicans and collecting old cars? I have three Mexican neighbors with middle-class incomes but in each case, when the old car or truck wouldn’t run anymore, they would buy a nearly new replacement and then just let the old clunker sit in the driveway…
All right, wait, what are we talking about again? The new superintendent of schools and the people he hired and did he follow the right procedures in hiring them and did he pay them too much money and stuff like that. Yeah. That’s what I’ve been talking about, anyway. But…
At 16, Michael Briggs was a Deep Ellum kid hanging with the late-night, all-ages coffee crowd at old favorite Insomnia Café. Briggs has come a long way for the cause since then, running a great local music podcast called The Violitionist Sessions, which has spotlighted over 100 artists from our…
We are old obit writers at our house who scour the obituary pages by habit every morning, and, yes, we did notice the long obituary in The Dallas Morning News last week for Harriet Schoelllkopf Deison, 65, wife of the pastor of Highland Park Presbyterian Church. I think we both…
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…
Sometimes it feels like we grab the gun issue by the tail instead of the head. It’s always about ultimate constitutional rights and last-ditch defense measures. But the real face of the gun question isn’t some kind of semi-reluctant insistence on a necessary evil. It’s sheer joy. The real issue…
My belated New year’s resolution: I absolutely refuse to read, talk about or use my brain to consider social theories based on Batman movies. Said. Done. There we have it. But. This morning’s romp through the newspapers does provoke certain musings about the erosion of a social consensus around the…
Warren Fagadau, a Dallas ophthalmologist who has been involved in health insurance reform efforts in Texas, has a piece on the op-ed page of The Dallas Morning News today about the qualities our public hospital in Dallas should look for in its ongoing search for a new chief executive officer…
I know you are tired of the year-end lists, the resolutions. The time for wishing is over, and the time for doing has begun. By now you have probably been forwarded or seen some of the observant commentary on The Paris Review’s recent piece, “Dallas, Part 1: From Afar,” by…
