Kevin Buchanan runs a blog called Fort Worthology. If you live in Cowtown and care about urbanism or design, you already know this. Well, Buchanan recently paid a visit to our fair city to attend a talk at the AIA Dallas Center for Architecture. When Buchanan made the short walk from the Center for Architecture to Saint Ann, he discovered just how poorly designed that part of Uptown is. He also found what might be a pretty good joke. Recommended reading. (Also, it appears that Buchanan’s discovery has gone a bit viral.)
The TCU football program has had some well–publicizedproblems lately. But here is some good news. In 1994, there weren’t a lot of openly gay athletes in either the collegiate or professional ranks–not a lot has changed that way on that front. But halfway through the football season that year, TCU linebacker Vincent Pryor decided to tell his teammates he’s gay. Not long after, he tied the school record for sacks in a single game. (You can read his entire story here.) Today Pryor will be given the Atticus Circle Award for, in the words of the Dallas Voice, “his courage to come out to his football team his senior year.”
A rendering of the Arts Center of North Texas. None of this will ever be built. No, I'm not sure why these people are giving a standing ovation to the trees. Maybe, like Mitt Romney, they're great admirers of proper arboreal height.
In another life I was editor of The Allen American, then a semiweekly covering that city north of Plano that some of you probably don’t even realize you’re buzzing through when speeding north up U.S. 75.  Among the first issues I covered during my time there was the planned creation of the Arts of Collin County performance hall, a four-city partnership that quickly became a three-city partnership when McKinney voters opted not to pony up the $19 million membership fee. Which is to say, the project was troubled from the start. Then a weakening economy slowed fundraising.
It’s been moribund for awhile now, but only this week have the the owner cities – Allen, Frisco, and Plano – decided it’s time to divvy up the corpse.
The project had donated land to build upon, and $57 million in bond commitments, plus another $10 million or so of funds raised. Yet the job couldn’t get done. If it didn’t happen after that much of the groundwork was laid, how long will it be before any of these cities will be interested in trying again?
And did they blow their big chance last year, when they decided to rebrand the effort and chose to call it “Arts Center of North Texas?” As one of our commenters suggested, in such a bastion of Republicanism, a name like “Ronald Reagan Center for Free Enterprise American Arts” might have saved the thing.
DeSoto Doctor Accused of Health Care Fraud. Jacques Roy of DeSoto is accused of creating $375 million in fraud in the past five years. A whistle-blower (you could probably figure out who she is based on this footage) came forward a year ago because she was worried about patients. Through the whistle-blower and two other people, the FBI gathered enough evidence and arrested Roy and six employees yesterday.
Snake Bites Snake Man. Jackie Bibby, who appears on Animal Planet’s Rattlesnake Republic, was bit on the hand last night at a hotel in Fort Worth. I think rather than me recapping what happened, it’s best to hear it in Bibby’s words. “I was doing a stunt where I put rattlesnakes in my mouth, which is one of the world records that I hold,” he said in an interview with NBC 5. “I was bundling the snakes together to prepare to put their tails in my mouth, and one of the snakes crawled over the top of one of the other snakes and got leverage and struck me in the hand.” Bundling the snakes together to put their tails in his mouth. Yep. Oh, and this is the 10th time he’s been bit.
55-Year-Old Grandmother Wants To Be Cowboys Cheerleader. Shannon Simmons thinks she looks just like any 20- or 30-year-old, and she’s got moves. So she’s decided to try out for the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders squad. My computer (which is ancient, slow, and unable to process just about anything) didn’t show a picture of Simmons with this article. (UPDATE: The link wasn’t working, so I have a new link and the new link does show a photo.) I googled her and came across this article from two years ago. She looks great and more power to her, but I’m not sure she looks like a 20-year-old.
Dallas Police Are Writing Fewer Tickets. Interestingly, traffic stops are actually up, but cops have written 56,000 fewer traffic tickets in the last two years. This means the city is leaving millions of dollars in uncollected revenue on the streets. Don’t worry. Those downtown parking enforcement weasels are working to make up the difference.
Dating Site Uses Picture of Dead Soldier in Ad.Alan Burks is suing Dallas-based True.com for using a picture of his dead son, Peter Burks, to drum up business. Peter was killed in Baghdad in 2007, but until recently True.com was using a picture of him in ads that read “Soldiers Want You” and “Military Men Searching for Love.” Not quite as sexy when you know the guy was killed by a roadside bomb.
Lamar Odom Still Hasn’t Rejoined Mavs.Odom is still in California, tending to his sick father. Roddy B is back for tonight’s game, though, having missed five games to deal with the death of his father. Family is more important that basketball. Don’t get me wrong. But I wonder what happens when players elect to miss games like this. Do they still get paid?
The Dire Straits’ “Money for Nothing” blasted over the loudspeaker. Channel 8’s Brad Watson interviewed event producer Todd Fiscus of Todd Events. An all-female mariachi band called Mariachi Rosas Divinas performed. And City Manager Mary Suhm was spotted peering over the side (looking for a body, maybe?). It was all part of the scene on Dallas’ newest bridge today when organizers for the upcoming Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge Celebration let people know that this weekend’s really, really big show over the Trinity River will go on, rain or shine (in case of the former, the Friday portion will be moved to Gilley’s).
Think big, as in Lyle Lovett and his Large Band. A street fair, Aztec dancers, special films, a 5K run, fireworks, and much more. (One major caveat: just 6,750 people will be allowed on the bridge at any one time.) The photo shows Gail Thomas, president and CEO of the Trinity Trust, a celebration sponsor, talking about some of what’s planned in front of a giant head depicting Victor Considerant, an explorer who founded the French-speaking La Reunion colony in today’s West Dallas. Victor’s one of the 12-foot-tall puppets that will appear as part of Saturday’s Parade of Giants. The parade’s a highlight of Bridge-o-Rama, a West Dallas Chamber of Commerce bash that will complement the MHHB festivities.
Trinity River Project Backers Find New Ally in Sen. Cornyn: No matter who wins Sen. Kay Bay Hutchison’s senate seat, backers of the Trinity River Corridor Project will have Sen. John Cornyn stepping up to take her place as the project’s champion in Congress. Cornyn, clearly not speaking with Jim Schutze in mind, told the Dallas Regional Chamber Friday that “there is a lot we can do with the Corps of Engineers and with the regulatory part of this to help remove obstacles and help expedite the Trinity River Corridor Project.” I hope those “obstacles” don’t include the corps’ general opinion that building a toll road in the river bed is a really dumb idea.
Will Dallas ISD Teachers Follow Through With Sickout? This Wednesday is supposed to be the day when Dallas teachers bang-in sick en masse to protest the school board’s decision to extend the teachers’ workday. But will the educators keep their nerve? On the blog Teachers for Change, the anonymous organizer writes, “I am disappointed in how many of you are giving in to the fear.” It is illegal in Texas for employees to strike or organize work stoppages against school districts.
Animated Short Doesn’t Get Into USA Film Festival, Goes On To Win Oscar: Last night’s Oscar winners included Deep Ellum-based Reel FX’s co-founder (and Traveling Man co-designer) Brandon Oldenburg’s animated short, “The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore.” Curious fact: the Oscar winning short was rejected from the USA Film Festival.
Tom Gaglardi, who acquired the NHL’s Dallas Stars out of bankruptcy last year, is aiming to revitalize the Stars as a young, super-fast team without legendary names. (Jamie Benn, anyone? Loui Eriksson?) But one big name Gaglardi would like to see throw in with the franchise is Mike Modano, who hung up his skates last year after two standout decades with the Stars. “Mike’s got a standing offer from us” to join the team in the front office, Garglardi said Friday during a get-acquainted visit to D World Headquarters. “Hopefully he acts on that.” So, what’s the holdup? Modano’s still grappling with retirement, Gaglardi explained — and may even be considering playing again.
Gaglardi, a Canadian businessman who owns hotels and restaurants, and Jim Lites, the Stars’ president and CEO, who also visited D, conceded that Dallas is a “tarnished brand” in the wake of former owner Tom Hicks’s tenure. But they see the team turning around in less than three years. Their goals on the business side: putting “18,000 [fans] in the building” every game, and climbing to eighth or ninth place (from 26th currently) in the league in terms of gate revenue. Premier suite sales at American Airlines Center have picked up dramatically in recent months, they added, as the Stars continue to battle for a Western Conference playoff spot. Gaglardi’s spending about a third of his time these days trying to make all this happen, recently snapping up a condo at the W Residences in Victory Park.
When I peeked at my inbox this morning while brushing my teeth, I found that someone (Rod Davis) pointed out something we had missed this week – Frank Hernandez, Dallas County’s first hispanic judge, passed away last Thursday of a heart attack at the age of 73.
Since the obit is behind a Dallas Morning News paywall, I’ll give the Reader’s Digest condensed version. Hernandez was known nationally as a civil rights attorney. As the DMN points out:
“He helped desegregate the Dallas schools, school board and city council. His far-reaching victories included helping persuade Children’s Television Workshop, the producers of PBS’ Seasame Street, to included (sic) Spanish-surnamed Americans on the show. He also founded the Vistas Latin Film Festival in Dallas.”
1976, he was appointed by the commissioner’s court to fill a vacancy at Dallas County Court-at-Law No. 3, and he was sworn in early the next year. He lost his election bid in 1978.
He continued to practice law until the week before he died, his family told the News. The family will receive friends beginning at 6 p.m. tonight at Restland Funeral Home in Dallas, with a rosary being recited at 7:30 p.m. Services will be at 10 a.m. Saturday at Restland.
Picky, Picky. You know what happens when you bring the wrong toothpicks (seriously, there’s a right kind of toothpick?) to your engineering class? Something kind of like this, apparently.
Oh, What a Tangled Web We Weave … when first we practice to deceive the cops by giving them our little brother’s name when pulled over for an alleged DWI and then later he is accused of killing someone.
Fourth Meal, Indeed. Police tracked a pickup truck from the Mexico border to an Arlington Taco Bell (seriously, there’s a run for the border joke happening there somewhere). The truck had much liquid meth ($10 million worth, to be exact) in its fuel tank. I’ve gotta ask, though: Uh, was the truck on a trailer? And also, with all the other crap used to make meth, would you notice fuel residue in your crystal meth?
Poor Timmy. Yeah, this might just be a thing. What will become of this, though?
Moment of Zen. It’s been a long week, and just in time for the weekend comes some stupid weather (or, rather, less perfect weather than we had for the past two days). So apropos of nothing, I give you this moment of Zen. Unless you hate babies. In that case, you should click this instead.
