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| photo courtesy of Big Machine Records |
Get to Know Jack
There’s a lot you don’t know about JACK INGRAM. Like the fact that the country music singer-songwriter holds a degree in psychology from SMU. That he lived in Dallas for more than a decade and just moved to Austin. That he’s a father of three. And that he refuses to put on boxers. Or briefs. Or anything underneath.
What you might know is that he spent 10 years post-graduation as the Next Big Thing in country music but never became it, despite his surfer blond hair, his killer lyrics, and a voice as cool and comfy as the blue jeans he wears so well. Then, in 2005, he signed with Toby Keith’s independent label, Big Machine Records, and his first release, “Wherever You Are,” became a No. 1 hit in May. Now he’s touring with Sheryl Crow, hanging out with Brooks & Dunn, and, this fall, releasing his 13th album, tentatively titled Measure of a Man. It’s about getting what you want.
“I know what it takes to have it—and I’m willing to do it,” Ingram says. Sipping a cold beer on his tour bus before a recent Fort Worth show, he says he believes he’s on the brink of accepting music awards and headlining arenas packed with 20,000 fans, just like Willie Nelson and Keith Urban. “I don’t feel that it’s cocky to say that those guys don’t have anything on me.” —LAURIE DENT
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| BUILT: The house that caused all this trouble; Bunting in briefs (below). Photo by Elizabeth Lavin |
Bad Neighbors, But a Fun Lawsuit
Bunting v. Garza is what happens when a $9.6 million HP manse is sold.
If there’s ever a reality show about ugly real estate deals, the first episode should feature the chain of legal events settling over 3428 Beverly Dr., a 16,000-square-foot, Italian-motif mansion in the heart of Highland Park. When computer media celebrity Mark Bunting and wife Kelly sold it to attorney Joe B. Garza and wife Nikki on December 31, 2004, for $9.6 million, it was one of the top home sales in the city for the year.
For the Garzas, it became the buy from hell. The Buntings asked for and received a special lease to stay in the place six months longer. They also demanded the new owners buy $150,000 worth of stuff—from media-room TVs to workout equipment in the home gym. (Bunting is buff enough to pose in his underwear on www.markbunting.com.)
Pretty quickly, Garza found himself all but locked out of his new digs, which he wanted to check out for remodeling. Worse, Garza and his wife said the left-behind items resembled something “from a close-out sale at Pier 1 Imports.” Or so Garza told Bunting in a telephone conversation Bunting taped. “Are you threatening me, Joe?” Bunting asked.
He sued Garza, accusing him of backing out of paying for the garage sale swag. Bunting also said Garza wanted to kick him out of the lease early, to accelerate remodeling. And so on.
Eventually the disputed amount was dropped to $50,000. Garza wrote the check, but Bunting’s Houston lawyer still has it in escrow. Why? Because of volumes of added claims and counterclaims, now thick as a box of typing paper and reading like one bitch slap after another.
Here’s the fun part. While the Garzas settle in, the Buntings await a massive redo of their new place, a 9,388-square-foot fixer-upper, valued at $3.8 million, just a block from the Garzas. —ROD DAVIS
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Snap Judgments
THUMBS UP: David Kunkle has lowered the boom. In the span of two weeks, the Dallas police chief fired 12 cops. One dated a convicted felon now facing federal drug trafficking charges. Another allegedly exposed himself. Two more are accused of driving drunk. “I want to try to send a clear message,” Kunkle said at one of the firing press conferences. “[W]e will get our house in order.” Yeah, the Bolton era is officially over.
THUMBS DOWN: In his June 21 profile in the News, Ross Perot Jr. complained about not being able to ride his bike due to the red and orange ozone alerts. He was quoted thusly: “Our big issue here is going to be air quality. We’re in trouble. I’m shocked that the citizens of North Texas don’t push environmentalism more … .” One paragraph later, the shocked—shocked—Perot hopped in his black Hummer for a journey of 300 yards.
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| DRAFTED: Jason Brown’s new restaurant, like his grandfather’s, is the best in town. Photo by Elizabeth Lavin |
Back in the Family
Richardson’s greatest restaurant is (finally) owned by its rightful heir.
If Richardson had a town restaurant, it was the Golden Eagle, opened by Jack McCarty in 1958 at I-75 and Belt Line Road. Named after the football team at Richardson High, it served as a hangout for the locals who treasured it as a reminder of the small town Richardson once was. After McCarty died in 1972, his family leased it to various operators, who maintained the Golden Eagle name, but in October ’05, the last owner declared bankruptcy and the fixtures were sold in an auction. That’s when Jason Brown, grandson of Jack McCarty, stepped in. He no longer has the Golden Eagle name, but he’s aiming to revive its spirit at the new McCarty’s Restaurant & Tavern. Maybe even doing it one better: the place has a spiffy remodel (hello, green neon), filet mignon with horseradish mashed potatoes on the menu, and a full bar to augment the lunch business with—cross your fingers—a nighttime scene, too. —TERESA GUBBINS
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| photo by Elizabeth Lavin |
The Amazing Auteur Adams Brothers!
Ben and Andrew are young, smart, and, now, award-winners.
Yes, they’re only 16. and yeah, they’re identical twins. But don’t let those details distract you: Ben and Andrew Adams are filmmakers. Their short, Cover’s Story, took first place in the Pixelvision K-12 category at Dallas’ fifth annual 24 Hour Video Race, a competition where teams write, shoot, and edit five-minute movies in—wait for it—24 hours. They had strict guidelines to follow. The theme was “cover story,” and the movie had to incorporate a public work of art, a measuring device, and the line “That’s what I’m talking about.” The brothers shot their first movie at the age of 12, “making and breaking friendships along the way,” Ben says. They now attend different high schools—Andrew at Hillcrest, Ben at the Talented and Gifted Magnet—and they used the race as a chance to work together. They produced an action movie about a kidnapping and shot it at their neighborhood restaurant, Norma’s Cafe in Oak Cliff. Look for their movie at the Dallas Video Festival (August 8-13) and on KERA’s Frame of Mind. —KRISTIANA HEAP
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Chris Ward Goes to Paris
Mercury Grill’s chef sharpens his skills at the most famous restaurant in the world.
Bob McNutt can sell more than fruitcakes. In June 2004, the president of Collin Street Bakery and partner in Mi Cocina, Taco Diner, and Mercury Grill flew to Paris, where he ate at Taillevent—the French restaurant that’s held a three-star Michelin rating for 33 years, the longest streak of any restaurant in the world. McNutt persuaded owner Jean-Claude Vrinat to grant Mercury Grill chef Chris Ward the honor of guest chef.
A few days later, “Bob walked into Mercury and told me to pack my bags,” Ward says. “I was leaving for Taillevent in five days.” He was stationed in the famous kitchen where a staff of 35 turns out lunch for 110 customers. For two weeks, the 48-year-old Ward worked from 8 am to 11 pm. The good news for Dallas? Once a week this month, he’ll present a series of Taillevent-inspired, seven-course dinners at Mercury Grill for up to 10 people, at $150 per person. So thank you, Messr. Vrinat. But, really, thank you, Messr. McNutt. Fruitcakes all around. —NANCY NICHOLS
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| photo courtesy of Campbell Agency |
This Month’s (Very Short) (Yet Informative) Q & A
Jess Biernat, 19 this month, recently signed a modeling contract with the Campbell Agency. His course load at Texas A&M-Corpus Christi has made it difficult to take too many gigs, but he has done runway work for Neiman Marcus. And if his last name sounds familiar, it should. His father is the famous hand-shaking, cheek-kissing owner of Al Biernat’s, where the elite meet to eat and happily violate the smoking ordinance.
Q: Now that you’re a model and you have to watch your figure, what’s your favorite brand of laxative?
A: [laughs] I have no idea. [laughs] I’ve never taken one.
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Beach Reading
Two authors and one artist to tackle in August.
Eddie Barker’s Notebook: Stories That Made the News, and Some Better Ones That Didn’t: If you remember JFK’s assassination, or if you grew up in Texas, odds are you’ve seen footage of television newsman Eddie Barker telling the world that Kennedy was dead. In his memoir, Barker tells his version of that tragic day and offers some juicy stories that never made the evening news. Barker also divulges a few Channel 4 secrets and explains why he threw Dan Rather out of his newsroom. —K.H.
The Next Time You Die: Harry Hunsicker’s second crime novel again follows hard-boiled private eye Lee Henry Oswald through the rough streets of Dallas. The Next Time You Die is a worthy follow-up to Still River, perfect beach reading. Among other things, what makes it so enjoyable is the spot-on descriptions of bars around town. For instance: “Lee Harvey’s was not a redneck bar. It was an urban place. Lee Harvey’s was graphic designers with soul patch beards who wanted to pretend they were living on the edge, drinking a few brewskies in a bad neighborhood. Lee Harvey’s was the NPR crowd slumming.” A few sentences after that, our hero Oswald is going for his Browning and the bartender is throwing a flaming martini on a customer. Like we said, good stuff. —TIM ROGERS
Daredevil: Don’t let the Ben Affleck version of Daredevil keep you from reading the newest incarnation of the comic book. That adaptation, created by Dallas-based artist Michael Lark and writer Ed Brubaker, presents a darker, more sophisticated version of Marvel’s blind superhero. Lark and Brubaker, who worked together on the cult hit Gotham Central, began their tenure earlier this year, and their first six issues have been bound in a trade paperback out this month. Lark and Brubaker, “exceeded what fans expected Daredevil to be,” says their editor at Marvel, Warren Simons. “And now they’ve seized that opportunity.” —K.H.
Photos: Eddie Barker and Next Time You Die: Elizabeth Lavin; Daredevil: Courtesy of Marvel
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We’re No. 1
We’ve long known this is a town of crazy drivers. But now there’s statistical proof. Allstate Insurance recently released a report that ranked how safe it is to drive in 200 cities. Dallas is the most dangerous city in the nation in which to drive.
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| THE BELIEVER: Larry James hopes to have 50 homes available soon. Photo by Kris Hundt |
Homes for the Homeless
This simple yet revolutionary policy is reducing homelessness in other cities. Dallas is next.
Provide permanent housing for the homeless. give them a free apartment and a social worker looking over their shoulder, and a city’s homeless figures will drop. What’s more, it’s cheaper than arresting them every night and taking them to the emergency room. It almost seems too easy an answer, but that’s what’s worked when 20 other cities have tried, over the past five years, to help those sleeping in the streets. Philadelphia has reduced its homelessness by 69 percent after initiating this “housing first” policy. San Francisco decreased the number of homeless by 28 percent in two years. Now Dallas will give it a try.
We’re starting small. The plan is to house 50 homeless people in a vacant building at 511 North Akard Street, a block from the Fairmont Hotel. Central Dallas Ministries will oversee the project. The problem is financing. Central Dallas Ministries CEO Larry James says the nonprofit is waiting on a $12 million tax credit from the Texas Department of Housing. If everything works out, they could begin revamping the building this month. If it doesn’t, well, James is committed to seeing the plan through at some other time. “It’s going to be a cool project,” he says.
His optimism should be tempered, though. Tom Dunning is Dallas’ former homeless czar, the man who wrote the homeless report that convinced James the city needed a housing first policy. “There’s no easy answer to this,” Dunning says. Housing first “is not fool-proof, but it has worked. And there is a need.” This year’s homeless count in Dallas has 5,704 people living on the streets or under bridges.
—SARAH BLASKOVICH
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What Weighs a Ton?
Santiago Calatrava is a man of ambition. We all know about the Spanish architect’s over-budget Trinity River bridges. It remains to be seen when (if?) we’ll ever see them. But the city already has a great Calatrava creation that few people know about. Actually four of them. Sitting in the dining room at the UT Southwestern Medical Center are four massive Calatrava-designed tables. One weighs 800 pounds; the other three weigh a ton each. To put that in perspective, a buffalo also weighs a ton, or 2,000 pounds. That’s also how much Pat Robertson claims he can leg-press. The Calatrava tables were a gift of the Eugene McDermott Foundation. To get them into the 14th-floor cafeteria, workers had to remove a window and use two cranes. —S.B.
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The Hat to Have
Charlie 1 Horse is a Garland-based brand famous for its flamboyant, feathered cowboy hats. Turns out NASCAR great Richard Petty wears them—has worn them for 20 years. Who knew, right? In fact, Petty used to buy new hats for his racing crew every year so they all matched. How cute. And how cheap: you can get your own for $110. —S.B.
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