And so, once more, the googolplex emits the stink of the network rerun, this week offering yet another worthless big-screen take on small-screen detritus. As Hollywood wonders--cries, actually, over spilt spoiled milk--why audiences are staying away from theaters, offering theories ranging from the absence of such phenoms as The Passion...
The first meeting of the Posies' co-frontmen, Jon Auer and Ken Stringfellow, seemed to have gone well enough. Age 13 and 14 respectively, they met in a music store in their hometown of Bellingham, Wash. "I was the annoying kid who would go to the local music store and play...
No sol no más: As of 6 a.m. Thursday morning, Clear Channel says "adios" to 97.1's "Sunny" format and "hola, ¿ que tal?" to "La Preciosa." The station is switching formats for the second time in 16 months, which proves that switching from The Eagle's hard rock format to soft,...
Red Eye may not seem to be your typical Wes Craven movie. It's not really horror, there are no marketable monsters, and unlike Cursed, Scream 3 and other recent Craven offerings, it's actually an enjoyable time at the movies. But heroine Lisa Reisert (Rachel McAdams) is very much in the...
When Quinn Eaker dropped out of a Colleyville high school in the second month of his senior year, his mother was so happy she threw him a huge party. A hundred guests descended on their home to celebrate Quinn's return to the freedom in which he'd been raised: days on...
It's 9 o'clock in the morning when "Ace" begins his regular "wake and bake" routine of brushing his teeth, brewing a pot of coffee and rolling a joint. Today he has a job to do, and he won't have to leave his home to do it. In a spare bedroom...
Stuck in Squalor Landlocked: You make a lot of good points in your article ("This Teardown Town," by Robert Wilonsky, June 9). I have tried in the past to acquire a city-owned unsound structure in South Dallas with unpleasant results. Also, there are some people willing to build in South...
In a blur of frenetic movement, old galleries are shutting down, relocating and cocooning while word of new galleries crackles among cognoscenti and crowd alike. The logic of this shake-up seems more cockeyed than the stuff of 20-20 vision, with all the movement creating a virtual geography of Brownian motion--so...
Once you get past its negligible plot, scant dialogue and almost zero action, Gus Van Sant's elliptical rendering of the final hours in the troubled life of a grunge musician is rarely boring. That may seem like a backhanded compliment, but given the absence of such customary cinematic conventions as...
Thanks, But No Thanks In Dallas, troubled FEMA can't even give away money In the chaotic days after Hurricane Katrina battered New Orleans and 25,000 of the city's residents fled to Dallas County, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) aggravated local leaders by its languid response and lack of clear...
Blame the dude in the blue tutu carrying a pink purse. It was Texas Rangers relief pitcher Frankie Francisco, after all, who got all dolled up and hurled this snowball downhill. With his team in the thick of a surprising September pennant race last season, Francisco donned his rookie initiation...
Drag queens and dancers and drinking--oh my! 7/31 There's blood in the water and the sharks are circling. Sometimes it's too easy. Sometimes the joke writes itself. "So some drag beauty queens and senior tap dancers walk into a bar..." And sometimes even a shameless opportunist has to blink when...
Between songs, Mara Lee Miller receives a signal from the man behind the boards at Sons of Hermann Hall. Her band, Bosque Brown, only has time for one more song, he says. At this point, Miller lowers her wide-eyed look at the crowd, turns to her band members and whispers...
Four days into his short stint at Dallas County's jail at the Lew Sterrett Justice Center, Mark McLeod talked with his public defender about a plea agreement that could set him free the next afternoon. The attorney remembers that her new client talked slowly as his wide, dark eyes offered...
Pity the daily newspaper critic who must review The Aristocrats without using such phrases as "a longshoreman's arm up a little girl's ass," "then my wife goes down on my son while the dog's licking his balls," "my grandmother's covered in my come," and "is it shit before piss, or...
In concert, Jon Mikl Thor wields fake swords and foam war hammers in mock battle with masked opponents. He also bends steel bars between clenched teeth and sings heavy metal songs about how mighty he is. Even stranger is his age--this 51-year-old Vancouver bodybuilder and self-proclaimed "rock warrior" is returning...
Saddle up for sculpture 6/4 A great man once said--while floating in a Titanic life preserver in his sybaritic swimming pool--"Don't dream it; be it." OK, so his version of "being it" involved an aquatic orgy and resulted in death by beam of pure antimatter. To satisfy a slightly safer...
In 2001, local country band The Lucky Pierres was hired to play weekends at the State Fair of Texas. Bassist Bart Chaney kept a diary, which he recently rediscovered and sent excerpts from to the Observer. Somehow, in spite of this tale, the band is still going strong at the...
Let's be frank: If only a few years ago MTV announced a meeting between Stone Temple Pilots singer Scott Weiland and three former Guns N' Roses members, Gideon Yago would probably report live from a methadone clinic to break the story. But Weiland, guitarist Slash, bassist Duff McKagan and drummer...
Mara Lee Miller's voice is a wondrous instrument, combining the breathy beauty of Chan Marshall and Hope Sandoval with the childlike wonder of Joanna Newsom. After receiving her demo at a tour stop in Denton, singer-songwriter Damien Jurado was so impressed that he invited her to a Seattle studio to...
On an October evening, James Winkler works a crowd of some two dozen mostly young, attractive professionals. The group sits in rapt attention as he evangelizes for a substance that is as intimidating and inscrutable as it is coveted: wine. They laugh at his anecdotes, such as the one involving...
One of the fascinating elements of Standard is roadkill. Not on the menu, mind you. Still, if an edible animal is killed by an all-season radial rather than a sharp neck twist, does it really matter? Ultimately, it doesn't, because the roadkill is in the restaurant as a prop, glaring...
