A long-awaited ruling from the Court of Criminal Appeals in Oklahoma was released last week, crushing the hopes of Nancy and Charlie Jackson that their daughter Emily Dowdy would receive a new trial. Dowdy was convicted of first-degree manslaughter resulting from a 1999 auto accident that killed Ryan Brewer, the…
Queen of folkabilly. That’s what Rolling Stone has called singer Nanci Griffith, the woman I would want to be in my next life if I believed in reincarnation—I covet her high, clear voice; the steeped-in-Texas songwriting; and the sense of humor, plus she’s darn cute in cowboy boots. If Griffith…
An even dozen: That’s how many innocent people in Dallas County have been sent to prison in the last two or three decades, at least based on DNA tests. That’s more than any other county in the country. Last week, James Waller was the latest convicted sex offender in Dallas…
You have to say the timing is superb. Mr. Energizer Bunny of the ice-skating world, Scott Hamilton, sweeps into frigid Dallas with some of the world’s best skaters for an extravaganza called Double Exposure: The Many Lives of Figure Skaters. The show promises to give lots of insight into the…
It takes a British playwright to tackle an American icon. Ron Hutchison’s farce, Moonlight and Magnolias, locks movie mogul David O. Selznick, rewrite man Ben Hecht and director Victor Fleming in one room to rework the script for Gone With the Wind. But Hecht hasn’t read the book, and Fleming,…
Will wonders never cease: On Tuesday, Buzz was a part of a miracle. Or at least a new world order. We had a question for new District Attorney Craig Watkins and spoke to his friendly spokeswoman, Trista Allen. She didn’t know the answer to our query but quickly found out…
Imagine that sneezing, coughing, fever and just plain achy allover feeling. You know it’s the flu coming on. You want to take some medication and crawl into bed until you feel better. Now imagine that you have no medication nor money to buy it. You don’t have a bed nor…
What happens when, instead of a glass slipper, Cinderella leaves one of her smelly tennis shoes behind when she flees the ball? Well, the prince better have a clothespin for his nose as he visits the other fair maids while looking for his beloved. Inanimate objects come to life in…
Librettists must have been slapping their foreheads and muttering “Why didn’t I think of that?” when Altar Boyz debuted off-Broadway. Take the boy-band phenomenon and the Christian pop movement, mash it around with double-entendres and create a musical comedy! Five young men—Matthew, Mark, Luke, Juan and Abraham (the Jewish guy,…
It’s a cliché: A picture is worth a thousand words. As a writer, I don’t believe that—until I see a powerful picture or work of art. Then I realize that visual art is storytelling in its purest form. Check out two artists who pursue their work in very different ways…
What Vogue editor Diana Vreeland was to fashion in the mid-20th century, Dorothy Draper was to interior design: an advocate of rich color, sumptuous fabrics and a touch of eccentricity. Born to wealth, former debutante Draper created a signature style that usually included black-and-white checkerboard floors, baroque mirrors, brightly painted…
Consider the Trans-Siberian Orchestra one of the oddest concepts in rock opera if you must. But there’s something about progressive power-metal guitarists teaming up with classically trained musicians to create a multimedia Christmas show that might just warm your heart. Or at least steam it up. What’s a TSO show…
Holiday music for children doesn’t have to stop at “I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus.” This season the Elan Circle of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra League presents its 18th annual concert called Deck the Hall: A Celebration of Music for Children, featuring Rebecca Frezza and her eight-member Big Truck Band,…
The true crime buff on your gift list doesn’t have to take a holiday from her gruesome hobby when she unwraps The Christmas Day Murders, by Smith County Sheriff J.B. Smith and Dr. Dana Adams. Sheriff Smith signs copies of his book—about a Tyler teenager who killed her parents on…
The true crime buff on your gift list doesn’t have to take a holiday from her gruesome hobby when she unwraps The Christmas Day Murders, by Smith County Sheriff J.B. Smith and Dr. Dana Adams. Sheriff Smith signs copies of his book—about a Tyler teenager who killed her parents on…
Since publishing photographs in D magazine documenting the heroin epidemic among Plano teens in the late ’90s, Misty Keasler has developed a reputation as a photographer with a singular eye for the strange places people live. Her pictures of the people who live in cardboard huts on the fringes of…
The melancholy central to the tradition of Irish music comes through high and clear when the Irish Tenors take the stage. These talented singers are anything but old-fashioned, however. Since first teaming up in 1998, the Irish Tenors’ performances on PBS and onstage have featured everything from favorites such as…
How many ways can the Cinderella story be told? I bet you’ve never seen it panto. First introduced in England in 1717, a traditional British pantomime isn’t silent. It’s an interactive form of theater with songs, jokes and lots of slapstick as the audience cheers for the hero and hisses…
At some moment in childhood I pitched over the line of wanting dolls and guns and games for Christmas to being thrilled by unwrapping a book. Mark Twain, O. Henry, Nancy Drew. OK, I was a weird kid. But I give books at Christmas now because, well, how many sweaters…
When his teacher asked the class to draw pictures for parents’ day, little Doug Wright went to work with relish. His mom often pulled out an easel and paints on the weekends, asking her three children to draw pictures and make up stories about them. She read to them from…
Watching crazed couples and bickering brothers navigate their way around the world to reach their destination first is one of the true pleasures of reality television. Had a honeymoon from hell? Couldn’t be worse than getting spit on by camels in the Sahara Desert. Endured a family vacation with three…
Every night in Dallas County, about 2,800 abused or neglected children are sleeping in protective care. Each month, 100 to 150 children are removed from their homes. Woe to the Child Protective Services caseworker who leaves a child in a marginal home only to have him killed by a parent…
