Random Stuff
SXSW is Complete … Again
ANTHONY MARIANIMore than 800 bands (and counting) from all over the globe have been selected to perform as part of the 2013 South-by-Southwest Music Festival and Conference (March 12-17). The list includes a few regional acts, including three...
Velvet Taco Taking Over Gold Standard
STEVE STEWARDIf you think the West 7th corridor is nothing but a warren of Uptown-aping, high-end mixed retail and over-priced eateries, you’re probably not going to like the news that Velvet Taco, the Dallas-based purveyor of fancified M...
SceneShop’s “A Fifth of Christmas”
JIMMY FOWLERFor certain kinds of people –– single, or childless, or those who’ve lost or are separated from loved ones –– the holiday season can feel like everything from a bad joke to happiness boot camp: You will feel the good ...
Donkey Love: Try It, You’ll Like It
JIMMY FOWLERCan we send the donkeys of Fort Worth a little more love? (Get all the “Tijuana matinee” jokes out of your system now, please). With the third donkey killed by an arrow in the city’s far north rural area in about 18 month...
2012 Gets Run Over By Reindeer Author
Jeff PrinceSongwriter Randy Brooks (The Bad Monkeys) established himself decades ago as an astute and searing Christmas chronologist with his classic hit “Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer.” Being the voice of his generation ...
Home Sweet Home, ‘Phibs-Style
JIMMY FOWLEREven after the mortgage meltdown that helped trigger the Great Recession, home ownership is considered an integral part of the so-called American Dream. But what kind of class divisions, character distinctions, and chance circu...
Powerball Fever: Epidemic of Losers
JIMMY FOWLERLook, I’d like to win $500 million as much as the next working-class shlub, but I seem to be immune from the “Powerball Fever” that North Texas TV news broadcasts have diagnosed in advance of tonight’s drawing. I’m af...
Jenna Bush Hager: From Party Girl To Southern Living Matron
Jeff PrinceSeems like only yesterday that George W. Bush’s cute, blonde daughter Jenna was running wild, drinking while under age in Fort Worth and Austin, and developing a reputation as a coo-coo party girl. I always liked that abo...
Century Media Signs Pinkish Black
ANTHONY MARIANIFort Worth Goth-prog duo Pinkish Black has signed with Century Media, a 24-year-old L.A.-based label that is home to metal giants Andrew WK, Buckcherry, Napalm Death, and Lacuna Coil, plus dozens of other, smaller acts. In a pr...
Turkey Night: To Shop or Not To Shop?
JIMMY FOWLERI’m always leery of recommending consumer boycotts, since they so often seem to backfire: Only the foolhardy dare to stand between Americans and their bred-in-the-bone need to spend, spend, spend. However, for those intereste...