Use quotes to search for a phrase or name: "toy story", or "brooklyn bridge".

Article

Craig Newmark Speaks at Victim’s Memorial in Wake of Craigslist Killings

In October 2007, Katherine Olson was looking for work. Since graduating summa cum laude from St. Olaf College with a dual degree in theater and Hispanic studies, she'd mostly cobbled together part-time jobs—waitressing, teaching Spanish, coaching high school speech. Olson was looking at nanny listings on Craigslist.org when she came...
Article

Yuletide Fiddlin’

Last year, I finally overcame my grudge against The Light Crust Doughboys for kicking Bob Wills out of the band in the 1930s simply because sometimes he drank a little too much and occasionally missed their gigs and live radio broadcasts as a result. It happened one day at a...
Article

Report on Trinity Levees Shows A Failure of Dallas’ Leadership

The crisis over the Dallas levee system represents a total failure of the traditional leadership class in this city. We can and will argue for years about why this happened, but the important thing now is that it did. The mayor lied. City council members, with the exception of Angela...
Article

Is Mayor Tom Leppert the Second Coming of Joe McCarthy?

With the exception of strolling over to Schutze's office, it's hard to find anyone in the media willing to criticize Mayor Tom, but Advocate publisher Rick Wamre is quickly rising up Leppert's naughty list, and his blog yesterday on Back Talk might vault him up to the top spot. While...
Article

Taylor Reed Wants to Get Cordelane Back Up and Running, But…

Kristina Hunken A few years back, a great little EP of demos by a Denton band called Cordelane came across my desk. Poetic but unpretentious (a little like Liz Phair covering Nick Drake), the five songs were written by Taylor Reed, a Seattle resident who came to our area to...
Article

Appetite For Instruction: Bucatini All’ Amatriciana

Demonstrated by Julian Barsotti of Nonna We here at City of Ate pride ourselves on making things easier...for us. If that means cajoling chefs into a display of finesse that fills blog space, more the better. Fortunately, we are also aware that your hectic schedule (and the fact that it...
Article

How R&B has descended into Rap and Bullshit

As one of contemporary R&B's brightest stars, John Legend possesses Grammys and hits galore. But could he be any blander? His twinkling tunes about love and relationships are, at best, serviceable. And, lyrically, he treads the same ground as a hundred other singers. His status as a genre top dog...
Article

Worst Lyrics of 2008

And now it's time for the "I love you like a fat kid loves cake" memorial Worst Lyrics of 2008, March Madness-style tournament, this year a terrifying mélange of appalling oral-sex requests, bargain-bin philosophies, grammatical atrocities, and cringe-inducing pillow talk. To elevate the drama, I provided a trusted colleague with...
Article

Top 10 Country Albums of 2008

Photo by Michael Alan GoldbergTwo young blondes with toothy smiles and hard-core work ethics, Taylor Swift and Carrie Underwood, helped country expand its fan base in these years of shrinking music sales. Meanwhile, Kenny Chesney, Rascal Flatts, Alan Jackson, Toby Keith, Tim McGraw, Brad Paisley and George Strait kept filling...
Article

How ‘Bout Them Knockers: Panda Delite

Panda Delite1060 W. Frankford, Carrollton972-395-1118Promised delivery time: 35 minutesActual delivery time: 46 minutesThe ScoreNear-promptness: 43Phone patience required: -3Old fashioned boxes: 15Semi-cold food: -6Spending threshold: -9Self-effacing, totally open, honest and unabashed delivery guy: 30Degree of difficulty: 8Total Score: 78Overall StandingsNandina Asian Tapas 93Panda Delite 78Zini's Pizzeria 51See the final 2008 Standings...
Article

No Inspection, No Cry

Over the weekend Janet St. James of WFAA reported on the city of Arlington's intention to slash five of their seven restaurant inspectors. The article cites Deputy City Manager (roughly the equivalent of Rangers' player development scout, status-wise) Trey Yelverton, who blames the lay offs on current economic troubles. By...
Article

Just Because, Texas Watchdog Sifts Though AG’s Open Records Opinions

Just to see what's open and what ain't these days, Texas Watchdog's Jennifer Peebles sifted through a stack of November 12 rulings handed down by Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott's office concerning open records requests. Today, she posts the results.About half of the opinions concern requests generated from the Dallas-Fort...
Article

Penny for Your Transmission? Or, Why Charter’s About to Drop WFAA.

A Friend of Unfair Park points us to this announcement from WFAA-Channel 8 concerning its being dropped from Charter Cable come New Year's Eve, and wonders, "WTF?" So happens, reports Television Broadcast today, that the local brouhaha is part of a larger battle between Belo and Charter, which is likewise...
Article

And Here We Thought Videogames Were Recession-Proof. Guess Not.

Back in August, Grapevine-based GameStop posted big second-quarter gains, but the stock price dropped nonetheless, because, as The Wall Street Journal pointed out at the time, there were "sign the results and outlook may not be good enough for investors." Also, even in August folks were scared the oncoming recession...
Article

Lucinda Williams Keeps Things Sweet

At first, it's the slow and lazy Louisiana drawl that sets the mood. Then, it's the way country legend Lucinda Williams earnestly asks you about your family—y'know, the one she's never met. Talking with Lucinda Williams is like talking with your older sister, except Time magazine never named your older...
Article

The Master Cleanser: Day 3

Status: Green Weight: 165.8 (-5.3) Mood: Sad Stagnant Skeptical Surprised It's weird about cravings. I'm quickly learning on this diet that it's not your body that craves food, it's your mind. With the nutrients from the lemons and syrup, my body - somehow - is fine. Energetic even. I'm sleeping...