Danny Reid is no fan of cockfighting. So when the local marketing executive and animal rights advocate heard that Amazon.com sells cockfighting books, magazines and videos, he decided to do something about it. He wrote an e-mail to Amazon and then he posted his anti-cockfighting rant on every local blog…
Nonissue: Buzz is not a big believer in conspiracy theories. Oswald? He did it. Elvis? Dead. So nearly two years ago (two!) when the feds were wheeling files out of the offices of what seemed like every black politician in town as part of an alleged corruption probe linked to…
Too Cool for Fools Arkansas raider: The real news (“Cool Cotton,” by Jim Schutze, March 8) here is what Jerry Jones is attempting to pull off, and who he has recruited to carry his water for him. In seeking to eliminate the only viable alternative venue to the events you…
It’s not like the war in Iraq has good months, but this one’s looking particularly dim: Rolling Stone’s running the world’s most depressing assessment of Iraq yet, and we’re sending injured troops back to fight. Everyone is suffering losses, with casualty numbers growing by the day. And we shouldn’t forget…
Next Wednesday the Magnolia Theater will screen a new film called Brats: Our Journey Home, a documentary about military brats and the experiences they had growing up all over the world, not to mention coming back to the U.S. of A. at some point. I have to go see it…
I just received a MySpace friend request from Don Hill. Seriously. “Don Hill…wants to be your friend!” the request reads. Then I open up his page (because, naturally, you gotta investigate the profile before you approve or deny the request) and feel slightly less special as it’s not just Don…
A Friend of Unfair Park sends word that a video showing the arrest of Sandra Camille Bridewell in Charlotte, North Carolina, has been posted on YouTube: “This is the lady who got arested in dean and deluca where i work and i m getting this video for all u guys…
Diggers, an AFI entry, stars, from left: Ken Marino, Josh Hamilton, Ron Eldard and Paul Rudd. So, lesse — just got back from the South by Southwest Film Festival in Austin, only to be reminded that the AFI Dallas International Film Festival starts in…oh, sweet Jesus…nine days. Ah, well; beats…
This is what The Dallas Morning News is cooking up for new mommies. Daddies, you already have this. There’s nothing less interesting to newspaper readers than newspaper writers and newspaper editors wringing their sweaty hands over the future of the newspaper business. But here’s something in which you might have…
Former Mr. America, Dallas’ Mike Scarella, died of GHB use four years ago. The 2007 International GHB and Chemical Drug Conference will take place in Arlington next week. But Trinka Porrata, organizer of the event and president of Project GHB, says it appears that attendance by law enforcement and emergency…
This is the van belonging to the band Colour Revolt from Mississippi, which was stolen in Deep Ellum early yesterday morning. If you see it, well, they’d like it and their shit back, pronto. A couple of days ago, a band from Mississippi called Colour Revolt rolled into town to…
Lew Blackburn, at right, doesn’t seem to quite know the meaning of the word “impressive.” If you want to know why the Dallas Independent School District seems to have a spending scandal more often than the Dallas Mavericks lose a game, well, maybe part of the answer lies with trustees…
Used to be it was Garrison Keillor whistlin’ Dixie Chicks (the original, Sweethearts of the Rodeo version) on A Prairie Home Companion; thank God those days are over. On Saturday, National Public Radio’s live-music series will feature Friday Night Lights favorites Explosions in the Sky, with Dallas’ The Paper Chase…
Looks like the AFI Dallas International Film Festival 2007 (and, gosh, that’s not gonna get annoying to type over and over again) is finding an audience for at least one film. This release just arrived in the inbox, which I am checking whilst watching the deluge down here in Austin:…
A place for birds to live, as long as they don’t breath the polluted air. A year ago this month, before the brouhaha surrounding TXU’s coal-fired power plans peaked last month in a buyout of the company, the utility made more environmentally friendly headlines. In one of the stories, an…
A woman should ask a man’s advice about clothes? In what universe? What an easy, breezy digital society we live in. E-mails and e-cards are composed without a second thought, off to their destination before we can say “bare minimum effort required.” Nobody sends real, live letters anymore — nobody…
Just a programming note: Beginning tomorrow, Unfair Park will be the host site for extensive South by Southwest Music Festival coverage, with contributions from many of the estimable writers in the Village Voice Media … uh… empire? As a bonus, it’s also serving as a sneek peak at what Unfair…
It’s not a good morning for TXU, and the opening graf of this subscription-only Wall Street Journal piece says it all: “TXU Corp. may face tougher scrutiny of its proposed $32 billion buyout by private-equity interests including Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. as a result of a finding it has…
So, Sunday, my partner in dining and I were about to tuck into some deliciously bad for us brunch at our neighborhood’s pride, the Gold Rush Cafe. As is the case for most meals at the Gold Rush, we ran into five people we knew, including our own Jim Schutze…
Zac Crain, who apparently used to work here, turned in his paperwork today, which means he’s now (almost) an official candidate for mayor. Our pal Zac Crain just called from the car — on his way back from City Hall, where he dropped off his paperwork to git himself on…
Jamie Beck, first assistant to Denton County District Attorney Paul Johnson, sheds some light on the “hate crime” trial that took place last week in Denton. On Friday, a jury acquitted George Clifton Young of assault under the Texas hate crime statute. “We believed it was a hate crime,” says…
So after six months in Texas, last week I officially had my strangest experience yet. Dallas Observer business took me to the Panhandle, where I got to stay in the lovely little highway town of Dumas. Like nearby Sunray, home to the world’s largest grain elevator (holds 7 million bushels,…
