FrontBurner

It’s only Monday and Super Bowl mega-events are already changing. The Morning News is reporting that the Prince concert on Friday at the tented acreage that-once-was-Reunion has been moved to the InterContinental. At last check, tickets were still starting at one mortgage payment. . . or, rather $1,500.

Discount hound Big Bob Wilonsky over at the Observer has discovered that both Pamela Anderson’s Friday Super Bash at the Fashion Industry Gallery and Gene Simmons’s Wednesday Aces & Angels at Fair Park have had their ticket prices reduced.

At the FrontBurner Live gig last week, I accosted people as they came through the door and made them suffer questions for a video that I hereby present for your viewing pleasure. Thanks to our video intern, Robbie Curtis, for making it happen. And thanks to the following, in order of appearance: DTC artistic director Kevin Moriarty, the beloved Adam McGill, nJane McGarry, Gordon Keith (great joke), longtime commenter Harvey Lacey, attorney Bill Holston, novelist Harry Hunsicker, producer David Burrows, traitor Evan Grant, educator and artist Terri Muldoon, and artist and sometime contributor Laray Polk.

According to the latest survey that combines three sort of random figures to come up with another sort of random ranking. And we lost to Hartford! COME ON.

…if there is an NBA lockout. Which there might be. Via Bethlehem Shoals at Business Insider, via Scout.com, via BILD magazine, The Big German says:

“Rather than do nothing at all for a year, I would come to Germany [to play].”

Where?

…those choices center on three teams with ties to Dirk: Bamburg (which is near Dirk’s hometown of Wurzburg), Alba Berlin (which has the biggest arena, best tradition, and whose coach is a close friend of Dirk), and Bayern (which has two players who are close to Dirk, and whose coach is the coach of the German national team).

Worth clicking through for more of Shoals’ thoughts on lockout-based player movement.

Can you believe it’s almost February? Sure you can, because the radio weatherman told me that it’s supposed to start raining “ice pellets” around midnight. Nothing says February in Texas like some sort of ambiguously named, winter-esque precipitation.

On the bright side, I just learned that the obscene amount of time I’ve spent playing Fruit Ninja wasn’t entirely wasted after all. There are life lessons to be learned here, people, like thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s Frenzy Banana. Or, you know, don’t be jealous if you can’t tango like these guys. Brave the pre-Super Bowl weirdness (lots of closed streets, so beware) of downtown Fort Worth and watch the Argentine troupe steam up the stage tonight at Bass Hall.

For those planning on hibernating tomorrow, perhaps a more low-key precursor is in order. Fortify yourself with a good beer and free live jazz at the Amsterdam Bar. It’s my favorite Monday night spot, because it feels like I’m just easing myself out of weekend mode instead of quitting cold turkey.

Browse more options right here, and drive safe tonight.

So you were busy last Thursday, and missed the big party. You’ve read the tweets. Now use your eyes to look at the glorious photographs, taken by a bona fide shooter, and not Tim’s iPhone. Your vicarious attendance is now complete.

At 6:25 p.m. tonight the city fathers and mothers are gonna pull the switch to light up the Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge’s arch in blue and white lights as part of Super Bowl Week. The arch will dim Super Bowl Sunday at 2 a.m.

Just wondering:

1. Will it look like the world’s biggest balloon arch?
2. Would it be cool to see if the blimp could fly its nightsign through the arch?
3. Is the top of Reunion Tower the best spot to view the electrifying moment?
4. Who’s footing the electric bill?

UPDATE: A Vendome-living birdie snapped a shot of the test lighting last night of the MHHB. She claims it’s

“Like looking at one of those tri-colored Popsicles we ate as kids. Pulses red, white, & blue. Well, the Hill’s always have been colorful.”

With the million-fold increase in national attention for the rest of the week, I guess it isn’t all that surprising that the NYT found Bishop Arts and the rest of Oak Cliff:

The group Traffick 911 has targeted the north Texas area as a possible hotbed of sex trafficking, because reportedly Super Bowls and sex trafficking go hand in hand.  Their campaign, which includes PSA’s from people like Dallas Cowboys tackle Jay Ratliff, is called “I’m Not Buying It.”

Right now, the group says, the NFL has not responded to requests to put up their “I’m Not Buying It” posters. The host committee insists whether the posters go up or not is all in the hands of the NFL, not them. Currently, there’s a petition online to ask the NFL and the host committee to consider putting up the material.

This isn’t my usual beat, but go to this National Geographic map to see what surnames are the most common around these parts. It’s right … here.