Since August, we’ve been writing about local filmmakers Mark Birnbaum and Jim Schermbeck’s The Big Buy, which deals with Travis County District Attorney Ronnie Earle’s investigation into the allegedly dirty doings of DeLay’s Texans for a Republican Majority political action committee (TRMPAC). Last week, we had the item about how…
On Thursday, the Frisco RoughRiders begin their 2006 campaign for the Texas League Championship (that’s Double-A baseball, y’all), hoping to rebound from last year’s disastrous 24-games-under-.500 campaign. Who the hell cares, right? Well, if you are ever up in Frisco (which just so happens to be my neck of the…
Man Factory (Arlington): For my first assignment as the full-time music editor, I drove to Eric “Fishboy” Michener’s house to draw cartoons. It was a good, strange time–we drank punch, brainstormed kooky art ideas and listened to whatever CDs of his I didn’t recognize. Of all the CDs he played…
My old Fort Worth buddy and local music fanatic Jasun Lee (no, not the actor…see the “u”?) wrote me a few weeks ago to promote his new Austin City Limits 2006 Rumors Blog; today, he landed his first big, confirmed scoop. I’d give it away, but then what’s the point?…
Thought I would share with you this quote from Republican Sen. John Cornyn that’s making all the rounds. Seems Cornyn, who beat former Dallas mayor Ron Kirk in the 2002 election, is no fan of…what’s the word?…uh…oh, yeah…democracy. Says so right here, see? “Well, you know, that’s the problem in…
After partaking in last night’s incredibly loud Dinosaur Jr. concert, I hightailed it to Tom Cats on the opposite end of Deep Ellum, where New York’s Percee P was scheduled to headline the Video Killed the Rapper Tour. The venue listed doors at 9 p.m., which meant that when I…
I may spend my days getting hollered at and hung up on by lawyers and politicians, but occasionally I get to spend my evenings drinking free booze at promotional parties. Last night I followed a Scotsman in a kilt into the Sixth Floor Museum and got loaded up on premium…
Wuh-oh. Looks like downtown Dallas-based Lone Star Funds, a powerful international investment firm (to the tune of $13 billion, which I think is a lot), is in some kinda big trouble in South Korea. Something to do with tax evasion, embezzlement and “other allegations,” which cannot be good. Apparently, South…
I guess Raymond “Rain Man” Babbitt would be happy about this development. And my pal Tearlach Hutcheson, that Landmark Theater-lovin’ Aussie who flies to Sydney regularly (which is to say, more than you or I). “Imagine you’re from New York and have to fly to Los Angeles, whch is five…
Apparently, Dallasites really do like to pay their taxes. One more reason why we’re better than Houston. –Robert Wilonsky…
You gotta love the Texas Rangers. No, seriously, you have to. They need your affection, because going on 35 years of misery and misfortune, someone up there in the most exclusive luxury suite has it in for them. Since 1972 we’ve been screaming for the Rangers to get some pitching…
In case you, like, didn’t know already, Kevin “Coattails” Federline will be at the new Club X this weekend–and he might even bring his knocked-up sugar mama. An editor for Life & Style Weekly even called the Observer offices Wednesday, desperately seeking that well-connected someone who could tail Mrs. and…
On Monday, The Dallas Morning News reported how school board candidate Adam Medrano evaded arrest after the Dallas police conducted a sting of homosexual activity in a Dillard’s men’s room…six years ago. Medrano’s estimable political consultant Anna Casey was fuming. She felt that DMN reporter Kent Fischer misled her about…
The foggy haze of nostalgia was in full effect at last night’s Dinosaur Jr. reunion show–especially at the urinals. Seemingly everyone in line had seen the band except me (I was a little young the first time around), and they all had a story about Lollapalooza ’93, that Edgefest where…
Hell hath frozen over. The Red Sox and White Sox won a World Series. The Seahawks played in a Super Bowl. The Clippers will make the NBA Playoffs. George Friggin’ Mason is in the Final Four. And somewhere Wile E. Coyote just nabbed the Roadrunner. Yet there, left standing at…
At about 4 a.m. on March 4, Dallas police responded to a 911 hang-up call at an apartment complex in Lake Highlands. They found the front door ajar and inside, on the floor of the bedroom, the dead body of 43-year-old Gary Hashaway. He had been strangled. Two days later,…
Elected officials, as a rule, should not call a detractor, no matter how vicious, a “jailhouse bitch,” but the typically profane and intermittently profound John Wiley Price had his reasons. The object of his anger, Darryl Blair, had torn the longtime Dallas County commissioner into a million little pieces in…
Last fall, the Dallas Observer ran a cover story (“Money for Nothing,” November 17) about the South Dallas/Fair Park Trust Fund’s sordid history of making lousy loans to business owners who wind up making busy work for folks in the City Attorney’s Office. Since the fund’s inception in 1988, the…
Trifecta: First the FBI comes snooping around City Hall, looking for council members and others sharing wallets and cars with real-estate developers. Then the Department of Justice starts banging cell doors at the Dallas County Jail to find out whether the county’s giving its prisoners proper treatment. Now, it seems,…
Defiling the Star T.O. means B.S.: Magnificent article (“Eyes Wide Shut,” by Richie Whitt, March 23). A friend asked me how I felt about the T.O. signing. I simply said, “Winning has become more important than honor.” Yes, I am still a Cowboys fan, but I will NEVER be a…
For once, Wednesday night is completely and totally loaded with quality concerts. Three great shows were already previewed in last week’s music section: Jenny Lewis and the Watson Twins, Percee P and some old Dinosaurs. Jenny Lewis is sold out (though I just got confirmation that 15 tickets will be…
Courtesy of David Border Alex Magocsi behind the bar at Club Dada, circa 1990 Sorta drummer Trey Carmichael just e-mailed with some sad news: On Friday, former Dallas Observer music editor Alex Magocsi was found dead in New Mexico, where he had lived since leaving Dallas in about 1997. He…
