Sorry I’m a little late this morning. Been glued to one of the greatest, longest tennis matches ever. The Fernando Verdasco-Rafael Nadal Australian Open semifinal that started at 2:30 a.m. our time just ended. In other news … Devin Harris is an NBA All-Star. Jason Kidd isn’t. Ouch. For Dallas Mavericks’…
The Nasher Sculpture Center made it official this morning: Its new director is Jeremy Strick, who, for the last nine years, has held the same title at the Museum of Contemporary Art In Los Angeles. But this Christmas Eve announcement concerning his resignation from MOCA explains why some will cheer…
The UK Guardian has an oh-those-crazy-Yanks piece about locals spending $20 on those “Welcome Home, George and Laura” signs. Better still is the accompanying artwork by the great Nan Coulter — a homemade banner from “the Maloufs,” among the eight photos included in the sidebar slideshow (or, as I like…
That billboard pictured at right is currently hovering somewhere over a Philadelphia neighborhood; cities in Arizona and Colorado already have one too. Dallas is next, courtesy the fund-raising efforts of the Metroplex Atheists. Terry McDonald, chairman of the group, tells Unfair Park there are about 200 members of the Metroplex…
Among the Dallas Cowboys’ many problems, let’s address this one this afternoon: Terrell Owens and Greg Ellis are captains. Let that sink in a second while I remind you that any team that annoints me-first guys as locker-room leaders is fatally flawed. We all know T.O.’s agenda. Now, Ellis is…
The novella-like media release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office, which just landed in our in-box, explains the case of Matthew Weigman, also known as the “Li’l Hacker.” He’s a blind 18-year-old “phreak” from East Boston who became infamous last year for his “quick telephone con jobs,” as Wired put it…
Three days after announcing that it was shuttering its EXPO Design Centers, Home Depot just put the whole Dallas Parkway store on sale. The missus sends this photo taken just this morning, as a worker slaps up the everything-must-go sign…
Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: Your Texas Rangers have pitching problems. If you’re scoring at home, that’s two similar season-ending surgeries in one week. After top prospect and rotation candidate Eric Hurley underwent rotator cuff surgery last week, semi-reliable set-up man Joaquin Benoit had the same procedure…
A Friend of Unfair Park and fellow Dallas Independent School District parent directed my attention to the Web site of DISD trustee Lew Blackburn, which isn’t nearly as provocative as Carla Ranger’s — though, of late, she’s been sadly absent from the Internets save for mention of the 10th Anniversary…
Well, look, perhaps that headline’s a little misleading — I have no idea whether she’ll actually show up on February 6, when the council chambers hosts the Texas Big City Mayors Meeting. (I did call; got voice mail.) But according to the schedule posted yesterday by the City Secretary’s Office,…
A few Dallas Cowboys quick hits, apropos on a morning blanketed with a freezing fog. We begin, where else, with MartyB — which is to say, tight (not bright) end Martellus Bennett, who follows his now-vanished rap video (“Romo, homo, etc.”) with the apology below. FOXSports.com is reporting that the…
View Larger MapThis council meeting leftover, which is no small morsel: Mayor Tom Leppert was vehemently against granting Augustine Ekukpe a specific use permit to open a bar called Neighborhood Sports Cafe on South Lamar Street, between Starks Avenue and Haven Street. Said the mayor during the council’s Wednesday meeting,…
“For Whom the Toll Bells,” by Jim Schutze, January 15 Pay Up, Dummy Has intelligence in America come to an all-time low? I will agree with anyone concerned that NTTA should not wait to send out citations when a sizable bill exists, but the cash-taking booth vs. no-cash-taking booth scenario…
“They treated us like we suck,and we’re the ones who’ve supported them through all these losing seasons.” They come bundled in coats, wrapped in hope and stuffed with gullibility. An annual rite of another cold, bleak winter, 5,000 stubborn baseball fans arrive at Rangers Ballpark in Arlington last Saturday for…
“When you analyze and evaluate something, by definition you are also looking at any strengths and any weaknesses.” The recent debate about how evolution should be taught in public schools revealed two things about the Texas State Board of Education. First, it showed that the board will listen to its…
BUZZ Never forget: Give actress and comedienne Lily Tomlin some credit. She’s coming to understand that the best way to reach Dallas’ heart is through its wallet. Tomlin last year took up the cause of Jenny the psychologically scarred elephant at the Dallas Zoo, joining in a communitywide effort to…
In October 2007, Dallas businessman Ross Perot Jr. was featured in a USA Today story about the unlikely rise of urban living in Texas. Photographed on the balcony of the towering Ghostbar, at the apex of the posh W Hotel, Perot looked confident as he discussed why developments such as…
There are still plenty of folks a little puzzled by RE:Vision Dallas, which, as we’ve mentioned before, is an effort to turn a couple of parking lots behind Dallas City Hall into a self-sustaining mixed-income “community.” Though some city officials have done some cheerleading for the effort, it’s really the…
The city council won’t take up Dwaine Caraway’s proposal to outlaw single-cigar sales in the city of Dallas today. But if you think this is the end of it, you’re dead wrong. Caraway vowed today during the council’s meeting to take the issue to “Mr. Obama, to Ms. Hutchison, to…
View Larger MapThe Dallas City Council just voted on an agenda item in Deputy Mayor Pro Tem Dwaine Caraway’s wheelhouse: permanently shuttering a South Dallas motel surrounded by “ladies of the evening at all times of the day and night,” as Caraway put it before begging Carolyn Davis to continue…
Don’t know how I missed it – maybe it’s because I’m from Duncanville – but Monday was the Chinese New Year. And 2009, as if you didn’t know, is the Year of the Ox. In the name of Wang Zhi-Zhi, what could that possibly mean for our Dallas Mavericks? *So…
Speaking of Angela Hunt and how Dallas goes about, um, planning a city (?) — as we were this morning — you might wanna click on over to Hunt’s blog. There, she just posted a very lengthy essay concerning last week’s council confab with four noted urban planners. The same…
