Opinion & Commentary

Editor: Jim Schutze is away from Unfair Park briefly to work on a cover story for us, but we snared this from his Facebook page because we liked the writing and because we didn’t know four-legged coyotes make it down to Swiss Avenue. Beautiful encounter with a coyote on Swiss…

When Alec Jhangiani and Ramtin Nikzad set out to start Fortress Festival in DFW, they knew they needed help. The pair had spent nearly a decade working together with the Lone Star Film Festival and Lone Star Film Society and, as they looked to assemble their own music festival, sought…

The battle for Fair Park is the story of the city right now. It’s a window on what the old leadership doesn’t get, but it also offers us glimpses of a smarter future. And that’s all before we even get started on fixing Fair Park, our sadly decaying 277-acre art…

When Maren Morris walked out onto stage at Austin City Limits Festival last Friday, she did it in perfect fashion: with Janis Joplin’s “Mercedes-Benz” playing as her entrance music. That one song choice brought so many of the right pieces together for the up-and-coming Arlington native: a nod to a…

From rock ‘n’ roll music to country music to virtually every major professional sport, the United States houses a hall of fame for just about everything — even though, for most of the rest of the world, it’s literally a foreign concept. Americans just love picking favorites. Earlier this week,…

Bucks Burnett isn’t a journalist. He’s a namedropper. He may not have met every one of his music idols, but he’s met 90 percent of them. And he’s here to tell you all about it, however he sees fit, in his monthly music column, Namedropper. I was born in Dallas…

Just perusing some of the financial disclosures for the “nonprofit” online news service based in Austin called The Texas Tribune. And this, by the way, is a column about my own craft, journalism, which I will try to make as painless as possible because I know many of you did…

Every time I see another story calling Trump a bully, I duck. I’m always afraid somebody will call me. So this is my declaration. I am not an expert on bullying. I wrote a true-crime book 15 years ago about a bunch of horrible Florida mall rats who killed one…

They could all turn out to be wrong in the end, of course, or maybe just not right enough, but close observers around town are beginning to place bets on strong rumors that the Walt Humann Fair Park deal will fall apart soon. The ostensible reason – the one for…

When does City Hall do anything even vaguely related to your life? Can City Hall help you find you an apartment in a safe neighborhood at a rent you can afford? Can City Hall help you get to work? Can it leave enough money in your pocket at the end…

Settle down. Sit back. Face it. The mayor’s plan to give a private group virtual ownership of Fair Park, a 277-acre exposition park at the heart of the city, is a done deal. He’s got the votes. The count I heard yesterday was 10 in favor. That leaves five dissenters…

Maybe we need to read that loose dog report again. A little more closely this time. It could be read as a pretty good indictment of the entire system of government at City Hall. An outside consultant was brought in to tell us what to do about loose dogs. Our…

Bucks Burnett isn’t a journalist. He’s a namedropper. He may not have met every one of his music idols, but he’s met 90 percent of them. And he’s here to tell you all about it, however he sees fit, in his monthly music column, Namedropper. Never mind the bargain bins…

Sorry, Sturgill, but the Academy got this one right. Earlier this week, self-styled don’t-call-him-country outlaw Sturgill Simpson took to the stump (i.e. social media) to lambast the dreaded country music establishment. Usually, this might be music to the ears of any old-school country believer. But he didn’t figure on one…

The biggest news across my own desk in the last several months — maybe decades — was the recent endorsement of a subway for downtown by The Real Estate Council. And maybe you think that means I live in a world of very small news. Maybe I do. But, look,…

Conspiracy theories are everywhere in Denton. Perceived threats are coming from all directions on the college town’s proud music scene, and suspects include Jason Lee, Buc-ees, LSA Burger, city officials and even Scientologists (OK, that’s just Jason Lee again).    These fears don’t come from nowhere. With venues like Hailey’s Club, Rubber…

We talk here about things that go wrong, do we not? Bad things, frustrating things, things gone haywire. So if something looks as if it might be headed in a right direction for a change, we could mention it just for grins, right? OK, this is something that’s headed in…

Bucks Burnett isn’t a journalist. He’s a namedropper. He may not have met every one of his music idols, but he’s met 90 percent of them. And he’s here to tell you all about it, however he sees fit, in his monthly music column, Namedropper. Personally, this story might begin…