News

Calhoun (Fort Worth): In February, I wandered into Bass Propulsion Labs in Dallas to visit its house producers; I had time to kill and was trolling for ideas for Unfair Park entries (the blog would launch a few weeks later). Nobody answered the door, so I let myself in, and…

I used to think that Dallas County and City of Dallas had ugly, hard-to-navigate Web sites because they were just pumped about bringing the government tradition of bureaucratic hassles from the real world into cyberspace. Now, I guess they just had bad designers, because both the city and the county…

If you happen to find yourself in Vermont any time soon–and especially the lovely town of Barnard–whatever you do, do not tell the townspeople up there you’re from Dallas. You can thank Herbert Hall McAdams III and his wife Letty for that. According to two stories that have appeared in…

On Tuesday, the City Council voted 13-1 to fund Central Dallas Ministries’ rehab of a downtown building in which it intends to house low-income and homeless residents. Only council member Mitchell Rasansky voted against the project, which was no surprise; the guy was intensely vocal about the subject at a…

Or close to it. It seems the Cleveland-based developer behind the Mercantile Building redo downtown is about to take over about 130 acres of Frisco, after snapping up land in Mansfield and, apparently, Grapevine. The Frisco folks are happy-happy-joy-joy over this; says James Gandy, president of the Frisco Economic Development…

Not every kid down at City Hall dunno why he or she’s there. I just got back from downtown and saw kids from Woodrow Wilson and Bryan Adams high schools being herded, field trip-style, into school buses so they could get hauled back to their respective campuses after today’s immigration…

According to this Associated Press story, coming out of Harlingen (got me), Dallas is among a handful of cities about to receive some $250,000 for a pilot program geared toward bringing the arts into the public school classroom. This money’s coming from the New York-based Ford Foundation, which makes sense:…

OK, so now this is getting ridiculous. About five minutes ago, some 50 kids walked past the Observer offices, at Maple and Oak Lawn avenues, heading south on Maple toward downtown. They were being escorted by Dallas County constables, who surely have better things to do. Turns out they came…

Sadly, this Next Generation weekly series is going to take a turn for the worse–no, worst–once they dig their claws into 3D Realms. The Garland company behind ’90s super-seller Duke Nukem 3D has been developing that game’s sequel, Duke Nukem Forever, for nearly 10 years (in 1997, the game’s title…

It’s no secret that Dallas is a hotbed for video-game creators; we’ve done a number of pieces on the subject, most recently this story on SMU’s gaming program. In recognition of our estimable position amongst the pale and pasty, all this week gamer Web site Next Generation is running profiles…

Don’t think that DISD is allowing its newly politically aware student contingency to get away with protesting immigration legislation again today. In fact, the district isn’t even letting them get away with protesting yesterday. DISD spokeswoman Yvette Weiss tells me that anyone who left class to march on either day…

As we explained earlier this year, the FBI investigation into bribery at City Hall and beyond had everything to do with how affordable housing developers needed to garner political support at all levels before they could receive millions of dollars in tax credits from the state. With elected officials able…

The kids have walked out of DISD classes again. I can look outside my window, at the corner of Oak Lawn and Maple avenues, and see a steady stream of students–probably some 50 or 60–walking south on Maple Avenue, hollering and waving their arms. A couple are carrying Mexican flags;…

The most amazing thing about the Wall of Sound Festival on April 8 and 9 isn’t the quantity of bands, but the quality. There aren’t many stinkers to be found in the crazy eights, but that doesn’t make sifting through the list of good stuff any easier, so Unfair Park…

If news happens, but no one is there to issue a press release, is it still news? There’s a koan for all you tree-hugging hippie stoner types to mull over while we offer up some rather old news to the less easily distracted: The League of Women Voters of Texas…

Here’s an Associated Press story about The Redeemed Christian Church of God, the Lagos-founded church now operating out of an Irving office tower. (Make sense: What else is God gonna do when the Dallas Cowboys leave Texas Stadium and He can no longer watch football games through that hole in…

I’ve already bought my tickets to Wall of Sound. Have you? If you live in Dallas or Fort Worth, prolly not, according to Lance Yocom, owner and head of A&R at Spune Productions, the local force behind the two-day, 88-band festival scheduled for April 8 and 9 at Fort Worth’s…

Josh Garza, drummer for the beloved Dallas-to-NYC band Secret Machines, gave an interview to the U2 fansite Interference.com, during which he talked up the band’s forthcoming album (Ten Silver Drops) and, of course, what it was like to open for U2 in Mexico last month during The Vertigo Tour. During…