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| photography by Dan Sellers |
Big Talker
Krys Boyd doesn’t want her show compared to The Glenn Mitchell Show. Too bad. The beloved Mitchell anchored the noon-to-2 slot on KERA 90.1 for a decade. When he died last year, it became inevitable that whoever replaced him would draw unfair comparisons. That honor, after a national search, belongs to Boyd. Her show is called Think, and when D Magazine spoke to her, just prior to its November 6 debut, Boyd was still wrestling with the past. “I hesitate to fully compare and contrast, because no one has ever told me to be just like Glenn Mitchell,” she said. Her show, like Mitchell’s, features interviews with authors and newsmakers and pundits. And, like Mitchell’s, her show is tough to categorize. Because it is driven by her own idiosyncratic curiosity about the world around her. It is a world that surprises her. She lost her job at KERA after 9/11 and her husband to a heart attack in 2003. She is now, at 35, not only raising two children by herself, but thanks to her new gig, decorating her own office, the first she’s had. She hopes her show offers the same surprises. “I don’t think you should wrap up everything in a nice little bow at the end of the hour.” —PAUL KIX
Faux Paws
Can you believe Jinxie wore that to the ball?
High-end jeweler deboulle recently hosted a pet-friendly bash benefiting Operation Kindness, and the showroom became something of a fashion show—for the pets. As very dedicated pet owners prattled on about where they shopped for their pet’s clothing (seriously), we couldn’t help but focus on the dog drama.
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| THE NIGHT BITES: Jinxie (above) and Rutherford had a rough go of it. photography courtesy of DeBoulle |
Jinxie, a nervous white toy poodle, was absolutely beside herself. She whined, extending her paw toward a prone Tibetan terrier. The look on her face suggested she wondered if Sweet Baboo had passed out. Then Jinxie caught sight of a French bulldog prancing near the Fred Leighton counter. Jinxie, for reasons that remain mysterious, was not pleased. Her handler/ stylist attempted to calm her down, and even warned Jinxie that if she didn’t, she risked losing the pink beret atop her head and the matching pink coat shrouding her shoulders. But there was no consoling her. Jinxie bared her teeth and growled.
Yorkie-about-town Rutherford was also overheard being a little catty. When Posey, a wire-haired fox terrier, merely rolled her eyes at him, Rutherford had little choice but to scurry into a nearby Burberry carrier.
Bitchy whisperers suggested that Rutherford and Jinxie were tense for a reason—both had knocked back quite a few Barkuccinos. In any case, the rest of the canine celebutants had a marvelous time. Misty yapped incessantly about her new manicure. Gracie, all dolled up in a classic black dress and pearls, hoisted herself onto the Rolex counter and barked orders at the salesman. Bailey, a demure Tibetan terrier with bows in her hair, shocked everyone when she began smelling another female Tibetan terrier’s bottom. Before that night, everyone had assumed she was straight!
By the end of the evening, everyone was more than ready to be leashed. —Laura Kostelny
Paging Dr. Belly Button
Of course a navel sculpting cosmetic surgeon lives here. This town offers Botox injections at the mall. And of course the naval sculpting plastic surgeon, better known as Dr. Raul Rodriguez of the Rejuvenex Medical & Cosmetic Spa, is the only doctor in Texas sculpting navels. Because who wants to pay for a tummy tuck only to emerge, post-op, with that same innie or, worse, that ugly, distended outie? Not the brave women of Dallas. They came to Rodriguez a year ago thinking their navels were Mother Nature’s cruel joke, and he said, “You know, we can fix that.” A year later, he’s done close to 100 surgeries, creating for a many women “the vertical slit”: less an innie or an outie than a middlie. It costs as much as $3,900. —P.K.
SNAP JUDGMENTS
THUMBS UP: After a test shoot in Dallas for an upcoming “Girls of Conference USA” pictorial, a Playboy photographer told the Dallas Morning News, “I’ve got my girl.” He was talking about SMU sophomore Jen Nikoloff. Here’s what Nikoloff says about herself on her Myspace page: “I go to SMU (southern methodist university), and no, I don’t drive a BMW…ok ok, I had one, but I traded it in for a new Acura, lol. I’m kinda spoiled, but not in the bitchy way. … If you know me, you know that I change my hair colour more than my shoes, and if you don’t know me, you wouldn’t be able to recognize me if you ran into me because I take horrible pictures.” We applaud her modesty and look forward to seeing her naked breasts.
THUMBS DOWN: In its October 30 issue, Forbes named Coppell-based Mannatech one of America’s Best 200 Small Companies. In fact, it landed at No. 5 on the list. But here’s the lead of an October 29 story that ran in the Houston Chronicle: “Mannatech, a Dallas-area company that sells sugar pills touted to cure cancer, Down syndrome, and a panoply of other conditions, is under investigation by the Texas Attorney General’s Office for possible deceptive trade practices.” It’s hard to research Mannatech without running into a mountain of similar complaints, going back years. Somehow the Forbes editors did.
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| THE MOONLIGHTER: Beckham uses both sides of his brain. photography by James Bland |
Look What He Did, Indeed
Blake Beckham’s art gets national notice.
Blake beckham, corporate litigator, is more than his job title. He is an artist—capital-A Artist if he keeps this up. Airing this month and early next on HGTV’s do-it-yourself home improvement show Look What I Did! will be segments on two of Beckham’s pieces—a 5-foot-tall aquatic mosaic and a handmade dining room table carved from elm that Beckham found behind the 13th hole at Brookhaven Country Club, where he’s a member. It was the mosaic that first caught the show’s attention. “Stunning” is how executive producer Patrick Jager describes it. More specifically, says Beckham, “It is a coral reef with tropical fish feeding.” While filming, the producers saw Beckham’s table, heard he’d made that, too, and knew they needed to shoot another segment. Not bad for a guy who’s been an artist—capital-A or otherwise—for six years. —Kellie Doss
The New Pub Crawl
This is genius. Pegasus News, the local site founded by Mike Orren and run as a cross between GuideLive and Wikipedia, has launched a database that tracks drink specials in every Dallas neighborhood, and every North Texas city, every day of the week. Simply browse and click for the best deals. Then, go crazy.
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| ON THE PROWL: You, too, can look like this. photography courtesy of Foxy Huntress |
LOOKS THAT KILL
Finally, cute accessories for ladies who want to look smashing while gutting a boar.
Sure, you’re concerned that the orange quilted vest might make your arms look fat. But you’re just as anxious about whether it complements your new Holland & Holland rifle, if it’s appropriate for the upcoming NRA meeting, and if it will look less cute once it’s covered in the blood and entrails of freshly killed prey. What woman wouldn’t be? Shelah Zmigrosky, hunter and founder of the Foxy Huntress clothing line in Frisco, respects that struggle, and she offers her customers the promise of dressing “to kill in more ways than one.” And she delivers: models on her web site accessorize items such as the “think green” capri pants or the “classic black jean pant” with both rifles and high heels. Just in time for the holidays, you, too, can get sassy on your next hunt. And next time you dress a deer or gut a pig, break out the pumps, the Foxy Huntress’ shooting shirt, and the “wild child” cargo pants for attacking those tasks in style.—L.K.
They’re Ripping You Off
Trends in food are more fickle than fashion. But just because it’s new doesn’t make it good—or worth its price.
120 Tequilas
You’re nobody these days without a tequila bar. Furthermore, you’re nobody without 120 tequilas in your bar. That’s how many Trece in Uptown has. So, too, Red’s Patio Grill in Plano. And the cavernous Glass Cactus in Grapevine. All of them, heavy on the Patron, the Jose Cuervo, and the Sauza. “Tequila has become the hip, cool thing,” says Jim Baron of Blue Mesa Grill, whose long-running bar is stocked with a piddling 104 tequilas. “It’s tempting when the liquor people realize they can take something that costs $3 and sell it for $70.” Some of the 100-odd tequilas can be explained by multiple selections under one name: three kinds of El Conde Azul, for example. But as Baron points out, agave is a commodity. Anyone can go to Mexico, throw some in a flashy bottle, and sell it. “No tequila is worth $100 or $50 a shot,” Baron says. “I don’t give a s— what it’s made of. This started out as stuff they didn’t know what to do with, and threw in lime and salt so they wouldn’t die when they drank it.” And you need 120 selections of that stuff? —TERESA GUBBINS
BONE-IN FILET
Cattle have been around for years, but that doesn’t stop steakhouses from seeking new ways to serve them. The latest: the wallet-scorching “bone-in filet mignon.” Take one mignon, ordinarily presented in an elegant, easy-to-slice manner, but this time serve it with the L-shaped bone attached. And instead of the $35 you’d pay for the regular, fork over $55 or more for that bone and the pleasure of sawing and hacking away at it. The bone-in filet runs counter to the very essence of what’s good about filet mignon. And, okay, fine: conventional wisdom is that meat on the bone has more flavor. So says Judd Fruia, operations director at Fireside Pies and a former manager at Pappas Bros. Steakhouse. And lots of people like bones. Look at the success of the cowboy ribeye, another relatively recent “invention” that has us paying extra. But, as even Fruia says, “I’m not sure that bone does a hell of a lot.” —T.G.
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| photography courtesy of Delicate Drops |
What Is This?
A) A high-tech athletic supporter that Daniel Craig wears in the new Bond.
B) The FAA’s most recently banned object from flights.
C) A container in which one can wash bras at the Laundromat.
The correct answer is C. Delicate Drops was developed by Dallasite Lauren Radtke and her fiancé, Michael DeMarco. Expect a national ad campaign in February. Until then, go to www.delicatedrops.com.
By the Numbers
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| photography courtesy of Bentley |
116 The number of Bentleys sold this year in Dallas as of press time. An impressive number when one considers that, five years ago, no Bentleys were sold in town. Three were left on the lot at the Park Place Dealerships that first year.
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| photography courtesy of Aston Martin |
175 That’s the number of Aston Martins sold in Dallas as of press time this year. Again, an impressive number because, six years ago, the dealership on Lemmon Avenue couldn’t sell any. Its first Aston didn’t leave the lot until May 2001.
1 Just a reminder that Dallas has the highest foreclosure rate in the nation.
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| CASHING OUT: Katherine Harper and her fictional Cash McMogulson realized. photography by Elizabeth Lavin |
Cash Is So Money
A MySpace prank leads to a Hollywood development deal.
She had met him many times before; he just went by other names. He was the guy working the Blackberry over lunch at Village Burger Bar, closing deals. Or he was drinking in the corner booth at Sense, his hair gelled, his blazer rockin’. Wherever he appeared—and he seemed, for her, to appear everywhere—his bravado was blatant, his worldview misguided. So Katherine Harper decided to ridicule him. The 27-year-old PR rep gave her Dallas everyman a name, Cash McMogulson III, and a job, real estate broker, and set about chronicling his fictitious life.
“The Life and Times of Cash McMogulson: a Dallas Deal-maker and an Overall Awesome Guy,” first appeared on Harper’s MySpace page in March. “I just thought, What would be a character that would personify everything over the top, and not just real estate, but the whole Dallas scene,” Harper says. (Sample quote: “My buddies and I went to Bob’s for dinner. We do deals. We eat steaks. … I didn’t eat the carrot. That’s gay s—.”) Women across town loved it. In May, Harper wrote the second chapter of the Cash saga. Then, in June, the third. And in August, the fourth. The e-mails kept coming, and soon, “The Life and Times” had received 20,000 hits.
Harper filed paperwork to have Cash copyrighted. She threw a party for him, with elbow-to-elbow traffic, at Mi Cocina in October. And it was around this time that Harper heard from Paradigm, a talent agency in LA. It loved the idea of Cash. Harper is now in development talks for a Cash McMogulson television series. Maybe even a Cash McMogulson movie. “The qualities of Cash—self-entitlement and his general oblivious nature to the world around him—can be found everywhere,” Harper says. “And generally by me, unfortunately.”—Paige Phelps
What’s Wrong With This Picture?
Local publisher BenBella Books just released the first in a series of children’s books “authored” by Terrell Owens. It’s called Little T Learns to Share, and it’s about a little boy, presumably based on a young Owens, who, um, learns to share. See if you can spot the things in this picture from the book that are wrong.Answers:
1. The curtains are open. Owens was raised by his mother and grandmother, but his grandmother owned the house and enforced most of the rules, one of which was that the blinds be drawn. And Owens is carrying a football. He wasn’t allowed to go outside and play with the other kids,
except when his grandmother sometimes drank too much and passed out.
2. Little T’s mom is missing at least one finger. Owen’s mother has all 10.
“Hey, kids. It’s me! Metroplex!* Just wanted to remind you to conserve water this winter. And if you’re reading this, Tony Romo, call my cell.”
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| *Metroplex is a Transformer, the leader of the Giant Planet. But he is not the 12-county region you call home. photography by Kevin Hunter Marple |
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