The killing Saturday of former Navy SEAL Chris Kyle at a gun range near Fort Worth prompted a call to my office phone from a retired Dallas police officer. He was upset by use of the word “sniper” to describe Kyle’s specialty as a soldier, pointing out that “sniper” was…
Are you a musician? Is your group having issues? Ask Fan Landers! Critic Jessica Hopper has played in and managed bands, toured internationally, booked shows, produced records, worked as a publicist, and is the author of The Girls’ Guide to Rocking, a how-to for teen ladies. She is here to…
This whole thing is my fault. I blame only myself, not so much because I really believe it’s entirely my fault, but because I know trying to blame anybody else will not do me any good. I just need to go get my water bill paid. Yesterday City Council members…
Wait a minute. We here in Dallas know all about people who have used cancer research to promote themselves. Nancy, Lance, Rick, for three. But when do we ask questions about the research itself? The Dallas-founded Komen Foundation blew up last year after founder Nancy Brinker allowed it to be…
As you’ve recently read in DC9, Amber Campagna’s family is practically the subject of a new documentary on fallen Dallas musician Frankie Campagna Jr.’s local punk assembly, Spector 45. We got a chance to know Frankie Jr. pretty well here at DC9 over the years, as well as his father,…
Some weekends are just an exercise in multiplicity. When the raining turns to pouring there is really only one decision to make: stay in and away from water or jump right in the puddle? In 2013, if we are to keep Dallas excessive, we might have to jump in more…
Dear Mexican: Grammar question/rant. If Spanglish is a legitimate dialect/language, why do you feel the need to italicize every instance of code switching? I seriously doubt that when you speak you emphasize every puta palabra (emphasis intended here), but that’s what your article reads like. We all know that you…
Democracy in action last night. Never a pretty picture. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which is in charge of flood control in this country, held a meeting at City Hall to update the public on the Trinity River Project, a massive campaign of public works that has dragged on…
Welcome to Alice Column, in which Alice Laussade writes stories about things on the same day of every week, making it a column. Got an idea for a column? Start your own blog and write it up, you lazy shit. Reunion Tower got new lights last year and, like someone…
When I made a call yesterday about John Hargrove, owner of Orr-reed Wrecking who was beaten to death in a Dallas bar over the weekend, I told the person I called I was calling only for personal reasons and not working on a story. I guess I’m going back on…
[Are you a musician? Is your group having issues? Ask Fan Landers! Critic Jessica Hopper has played in and managed bands, toured internationally, booked shows, produced records, worked as a publicist, and is the author of The Girls’ Guide to Rocking, a how-to for teen ladies. She is here to…
There’s a big Associated Press story making the rounds now, based on work at MIT and elsewhere, all about the permanent loss of many high and better paid jobs like meter reader and travel agent, gone forever because those posts have been filled by robots and software. Good jobs are…
So, back to the new fake suspension bridge we’re building at enormous cost over the Trinity River, and, in fact, let’s go back and review the whole Trinity River project. In fact, let’s go back and review everything. Here is my question: Why are huge, obviously stupid projects the best…
The Dallas City Council yesterday voted to spend some $7 million of your money to cover the latest cost overruns for the second Calatrava suspension bridge over the Trinity River. The city already had to cheap down the first Calatrava suspension bridge so much that now it’s not even a…
The walk up to It’ll Do is always a part of the experience. Events like Red Bull Thre3Style Dallas Qualifier fill up quickly; Friday found the club at capacity by 9:45 p.m. Which means the nearby parking is gone, at 11:00 the valets won’t consider a bribe and you are…
Nathan Adamson owns and operates a small recording facility and label: FourReelz Records, and Ferralog Studios in Deep Ellum. What caught our attention was the spotlight feature he does for new artists: “Catch & Release”, where they record a band in one day, on all-analog gear, then have a release…
Dear Mexican: In 1983 or 1984, I was walking home from work down Haight Street in San Francisco and stopped into Watusi Records to look through the dollar cutout bin. I flipped through it for a bit and then stopped dead when I saw the Jonny Chingas Pachuco LP. I…
What will Ron Kirk do when he returns to Dallas after leaving the Obama cabinet next month? If I had to bet, I’d say he won’t return to Dallas, which will be a shame. If he did come home, maybe he could do something about these local Democrats. Former Dallas…
Welcome to Alice Column, in which Alice Laussade writes stories about things on the same day of every week, making it a column. Got an idea for a column? Start your own blog and write it up, you lazy shit. The Greenville Avenue St. Patrick’s Day Parade is now named…
Are you a musician? Is your group having issues? Ask Fan Landers! Critic Jessica Hopper has played in and managed bands, toured internationally, booked shows, produced records, worked as a publicist, and is the author of The Girls’ Guide to Rocking, a how-to for teen ladies. She is here to…
Tons of talk on the interwebs yesterday about the inauguration and what it all meant (racism is undead, Obama won’t have a waltz, presidents can’t change the weather, other unexciting true facts). But, look. It did mean something. This is not 2008. We can debate what road we’re down, but…
The weekend draws mercifully close, and I feel a need to revisit a couple themes touched on here earlier in the week. We started with Lance Armstrong on Monday. I predicted he would fake-confess and then offer a jail-house rationalization to the effect of, “I didn’t do nuthin’.” I admit…
