That’s a Wrap

A news conference was scheduled to take place in Victory Plaza Wednesday morning announcing there will be a new film festival in Dallas making its debut next spring. But the declaration that the Deep Ellum Film Festival is becoming the AFI Dallas International Film Festival is already old news. Not…

The Reverend Freak

On judgment day, the bishop’s women have all come together in one exquisitely cold place: the 372nd District Court in Fort Worth, where a jury has just agreed on a sentence for the Reverend Terry Hornbuckle. The 44-year-old pastor has been convicted of drugging and raping three women, two of…

The Fighting Bishop

Sam Gipson is a preacher’s kid. He grew up in church; he knows right from wrong. His wife, Pam, is a sweet woman–soft-spoken, genteel. Their spacious home with its perfectly manicured yard is the largest on their street in the Denton County suburb of Corinth. They’re an upper-middle-class family–friendly, hardworking,…

Mexican Murder Mystery

On the morning of September 3 in Mexico City, a maid was cleaning rooms at the hotel Maria Cristina. After knocking repeatedly on the door of a room occupied by a retired American judge named Christopher Kepler, she called security. When they opened the door, they found Kepler, 57, dead…

Sweet Jesus Camp

This is a little girl named Rachael. She’s 9. She spends much of her free time trying to save non-believers. Here, in a scene from Jesus Camp, she’s protesting abortion in during a trip to Washington, D.C. Filmmakers Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady were in town today trying to rustle…

Oh No, Ne-Yo

This is what happens when you’re between music editors: The Ne-Yo show our dead-tree edition said was happening next week at Smirnoff Centre ain’t happening. Was canceled a while ago, in fact. Please ignore our screw-up, which no doubt has former music editor Sam Machkovech smiling in the wilds of…

What, No Kenny Wayne Shepherd?

We get a lot of, pardon, nutty mail at the paper version of Unfair Park–mostly from prisoners, some from concerned citizens, much of it from people with way too much time on their hands. One of those folks last week sent us a rather impressive collection of clippings, most from…

Goodbye Girls

Bible Girl will not appear today; from now on it will be posted on Thursdays. The other girl–Girl on Top–will appear next week in the Dallas Observer. If you’re wondering what Andrea Grimes is up to this week, read her cover story: “The Reverend Freak.” At a newsstand near you…

Re: Shalom, Jerome

Jerome Weeks sends this comment concerning yesterday’s posting of his farewell address. It’s been posted in the item’s comments sections, but to make sure it’s seen by those who scroll past the day’s news and move onward and upward, I am including it here. “My apologies to Mr. Wilonsky for…

Go Yanks!

Turns out there are some locals who love Yankees–the New York Yankees, that is. Says here that German construction company Hochtief AG (gesundheit) today got the contract to build the Yanks’ new stadium in the Bronx. Actually, its U.S. unit got the bid: Dallas-based Turner Corp., which will build the…

A Short Film Starring Erykah, Edie and Norah

Come January 2008, or thereabouts, this is what the “new” Booker T. Washington School for the Performing and Visual Arts will look like. Artsy. It’s going to cost $47 million to renovate the Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts–or, ya know, Arts Magnet, for those…

Sit ‘Em, Cowboy!

There’s at least one guy in our regular poker game who could probably play Cowboy Poker, and not because he drinks a lot. No, not all. Yep, another cowboys column. But in this week’s paper version of Unfair Park I write not about Cowboys who catch pigskins, but rather cowboys…

No, Thanks, I’ll Take the Bus

This is not a scene from the air traffic control tower at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport. Not yet, anyway. Keep this in mind next time you fly: The Federal Aviation Administration is getting rid of air traffic controllers–by creating salary caps for vets, offering lower pay to rookies, mandating a…

Every Rose Has its Thorns. Maybe. So We Hear.

Rose Renfroe–or “Rosita,” to the ghost of her late husband–has been involved in the same lawsuit since 1995. Rose Renfroe, the oft-maligned Democratic candidate for District 4 County Commissioner’s seat, had a bench warrant out for her arrest earlier this year after she failed to appear in a court on…

Green Back?

“Feed Me, Wine Me” may yet remain the gourmand cry up and down the musty channels of Deep Ellum. Don Cass, president of Decco Services/Urban Lab and owner of healthy chunks of Deep Ellum real estate, says there’s a deal in the works to revive the Green Room, albeit in…

Shalom, Jerome

Since Dallas Morning News management refused to publish book critic Jerome Weeks’ farewell column last week–he was among the 111 who took the paper’s buyout, about which we can find little else to say at this late date–it has been posted today on Critical Mass, billed as “the blog of…

Out of Time, Out of a Job, Out of the Country

If the staff at your neighborhood Cafe Express seems a little lighter than usual, a lawsuit in district court might provide the answer why. In July, Jaime Chavez saw in his mail a letter from Cafe Express, for which he has worked for several years. Chavez, who lives on Maple…

Children’s Museum Gets a Do-Over

We’ve never figured out the point of the water table at the former Science Place. Doesn’t seem very…science-y. I never understood why the missus took the kiddo living in our house to the Dallas Children’s Museum at Valley View Center–see, right there, those are words that should never go together…

Time For Some Mo Hockey? Already?

Mike Modano says he’s seeing Willa Ford “exclusively.” Either that means they’re getting married or about to break up. Seems like it was just yesterday we were burying your punchless, pathetic Dallas Stars after another first-round flameout in the NHL Stanley Cup playoffs. Actually, it was 111 days ago. But…

Cancer Happens (Or: You Could Be Next)

This photo comes from a Sierra Club report. Yeah, I thought it looked fake too. It’s not. While we’re on the subject of reports that proclaim us all doomed, more or less, here’s one released late last week from the UT Southwestern Medical Center that says just breathing Dallas’ air…

Crime Happens (Or: You Could Be Next)

According to the F.B.I., if you live in Dallas you might wanna buy one of these. Might save you and the cops a lot of time down the road. Saw this story in the morning paper about yesterday’s F.B.I. report on the rise in violent crime last year. Lots of…

15 Minutes of Doug Burr

Yer invited to be in Doug Burr’s video tonight. You’re not invited to be in Andrea Grimes’ video. Unless you’re Doug Burr, musically speaking. For those of you who haven’t gotten their daily dose of music news from Fine Line yet, I’ll summarize: If you’re not going to hit up…