With a handful of underwhelming solo records and the drawn-out demise of Son Volt, Jay Farrar's last half-decade has been awfully uninspired—just song after song cut from the same dreary fabric that has resulted in so much monotonous blue-collar alt-country. Gob Iron, Farrar's venture with Aders Parker, is the first...
What's most amazing about Little Katana, the Travis Street edition, isn't the food, though some of it is astounding. The Asian bouillabaisse for instance, is as orange as a road hazard cone and hot enough to jiggle tonsils (more on this later). No, what's most amazing is the Little Katana...
Park City, UTAH--On the first Saturday of the 2007 Sundance Film Festival, I rolled out of bed and hustled up Main Street for the 8:30 a.m. screening of Tamara Jenkins's The Savages, starring Philip Seymour Hoffman and Laura Linney as adult siblings caring for an irascible elderly parent. Only, I...
This story, as originally conceived, was supposed to be a compilation of the year's best boxed sets and other re-issues. But then it hit us: In today's shuffle-driven iPod world, with the pace of pop culture moving at breakneck speed, it's pointless to make such temporal distinctions. The past is...
It's probably not the best thing to cop to owning all the tracks listed below; we don't wanna end up on the RIAA watch list. So, let's just say these things were all available, at some point or another, on the Web during 2006—most for as long as it took...
It's been 20 years since the first Castlevania bewitched gamers with its gothic horror. Twenty years of vampire hunters going fist to fang with Lord Dracula. With almost two dozen titles in the series, Castlevania is one of the most enduring and beloved game franchises of all time. Castlevania: Portrait...
Hey, Superintendent Michael Hinojosa, that's quite a spokesman you got there. Celso Martinez works as the spokesperson for DISD, where his job is to explain to the public how the school district goes about educating its students. Lately, my job has been to write about DISD, particularly how it goes...
Dear Mexican, I'm a 60-year-old Chicano and proud. Why do young Chicanos keep imitating blacks? They dress like blacks, talk like blacks, listen to black music and hang with blacks. Aren't they proud of their own culture? Why don't they embrace Hispanic ways and learn about Hispanic history? —Say It...
Department of Justice officials have concluded that conditions at the Lew Sterrett Justice Center amount to a house of horrors. It was even worse than anyone expected. Just more than a year after it launched its investigation of the Dallas County jail, the U.S. Department of Justice on Saturday sent...
Think you know who killed J.F.K.? Yup, you were right: super patriots. No, not Captain America, although you never know. We're talking "neo-patriots who thought they were doing something good for the country" by offing Kennedy during his trip to Dallas in November 1963. Actually, we're not talking anything; me,...
Indian cuisine is an unruly knot of temperaments. It's not easy to tame. It's even harder to unravel and understand once it is tamed. Take curry. It's a simple word that has multiple meanings. It's a fragrant leafy herb. It's a paste composed of clarified butter and powerful spices. It's...
The election results are a big smack upside the head to American evangelicals--a firm rebuke. Don't explain them away or blame them on gays, the media and godless liberals. Yes, Ted Haggard had something to do with it. Maybe a lot to do with it. Most of all, he exposed...
On Tuesday, D magazine editor and publisher Wick Allison made invidious comparisons between Los Angeles police chief William Bratton and our own chief, David Kunkle. Based on his belief that L.A. crime rates have been plummeting while ours have not, Allison wrote on FrontBurner: "David Kunkle may be a nice...
Good news for folks who're good with computers and stuff: If you're not working today -- which is to say, you're out of work and not just taking the day off to download current theatrical releases or browse for porn -- just wait till the beginning of 2007. You just...
I know exactly what the election results are going to be: the biggest, most amazing Republican majority ever, bigger than the best majority Jimmy Hoffa ever got in a Teamsters election. I think the Republicans will all win by 100 percent to zero. I also don't think you'll be hearing...
A couple of months ago there was that New York Times story about Bill Parcells, in which the Cowboys' coach was depicted as a guy who was just kinda, well, pathetic -- a man who lives alone in what amounts to an Irving hotel room with little more than a...
Larry James today writes that DHA's president and CEO Ann Lott "has been doing her part without fanfare" and now finds herself in a "battle" because of it. Central Dallas Ministries' president and CEO Larry James posted to his blog today a lengthy essay on Dallas Housing Authority president and...
When talking about Under the Skin, his first solo effort in 14 years, Lindsey Buckingham sounds like a man discussing a memoir. "There is a circular tension involved, an optimistic melancholy," says Buckingham from his home in Los Angeles, a few days before beginning a national tour. "Being in the...
Gourmands make their graves with their teeth. —French proverb Bijoux is for those who hate food—hate to be away from it, hate it when it's irresistibly beautiful, hate the poisons it sends coursing through the veins, hate the scourge of its addiction and, most of all, hate themselves for loving...
In my column this week, I audition for ABC's The Bachelor, joining thousands of women across the country in the quest for true love in prime time. With my love antennae particularly attuned to the plight of the modern mating woman, I noticed that, this year, we're really getting the...
Imagine two game producers rushing down the hall. One wants to pitch a WW2 game, the other a sci-fi shooter. They round a corner, crash into each other, and their papers go flying everywhere -- and in one of those great "You got chocolate in my peanut butter!" moments, Resistance:...
Go ahead: Keep holding that grudge against Natalie Maines for exercising her freedom of speech. We don't care if you miss the finest and most genuinely musical live act in contemporary country music (even if the best stylistic reference for Taking the Long Way, their latest album, is the California...
