I'm glad KERA-FM (90.1) has picked up two new weeknight programs with some promise. I just wish that one of them, Fair Game, wasn't airing at 7 p.m. on Thursdays. Everybody knows that's the hour when Terry Gross does her breathy interviews on Fresh Air, lulling her subjects into submission. It's fine to add some new shows to the mix, radio friends, but pre-empt something else, please.
That said, here's the lowdown on the two new shows:
It appears Jessica Simpson will be shooting a few scenes from Blonde Ambition in my hometown of Minden, La., as reported on the town paper's Web site. The film also stars Luke Wilson. Jessica, if you're reading, be sure to eat early. Unless you want Burger King, ain't nothing open late.
Mavs fans, take note: our black-and-silver archenemy Tony Parker has reportedly popped the question to his special ladyfriend, Evil Longoria. (We found out at the DMN's Mavs blog.)
This unholy alliance could be either good or bad for your heroes. On the plus side, marriage may mellow Parker, making him less assertive on his trademark penetration moves. On the downside, we're going to be forced to see more camera shots of Longoria preening in her courtside seat, pretending to watch the game, every time the Mavs and Spurs play on national television. In any case, the Mavs will have a gift for them come playoff season: An early honeymoon. Enjoy, happy couple!
Nowitzki OK: If you haven't yet heard, our buddy Dirk said he has a bruised retina in his right eye. He was held out of practice Thursday as a precaution. The good news: He's expected to play Friday night against the Kings at home (FSNSW & ESPN at 7:30 p.m.). Funny Dirk quote of the day, courtesy of Eddie Sefko: "I put up two fingers, and he said: two million," coach Avery Johnson said. "So he still knows how to count."
Cuban missing: Mavs owner Mark Cuban wasn't at Wednesday's game against the Raptors because he attended GQ's Man of the Year awards. What's this world coming to?
Rollin', rollin': The Mavericks have won 22 consecutive regular-season home games against Eastern Conference opponents. Makes that NBA Finals loss to the Heat even more sickening, eh?
Kitchen Dog Theater has just announced that tonight's performance of Jesus Hates Me and a panel discussion after the show have been canceled because of bad weather. They say If you have tickets for tonight's performance and would like to reschedule or receive a refund, call the Kitchen Dog Theater box office at 214-953-1055. The show runs through Dec. 16.
Despite her ownership of some warm-looking clothes, gender-bending weirdo musician Peaches has cancelled her Ridglea Theater gig tonight because of the cold snap. The roads could be too scary, it was determined.
If'n youse kids are a'gonna venture out in the "wintery mix" tonight, then go to a show that freakin' matters, m'kay?
FYI - PEACHES SHOW AT THE RIDGLEA IS CANCELED!
Gypsy Tea Room
Circle Jerks / Lower Class Brats / The Applicators / Max Cady
Doors at 8 p.m. - $20 Cover - 17+
The Double Wide
DJ Wanz and his muy bueno Lost Generation
Free
The Cavern
Far Star / Hundred Year Storm / The Hannah Wolff Band / Beauxregard
6 p.m. $6 Cover. 21+ PS - Zoo: the Video DJ Spins up-top starting at 10 p.m. and it's free!
Rubber Gloves
Dressy Bessy / I Love Math / Fishboy
9 p.m. $6 Cover
So, not sure if you saw the Up All Night column today. It was basically about Maxwell’s being a cool place, but super crowded.
Happily, we now have some solutions to curb the annoyance factor. (Not just at Maxwell's, but any packed hip-hop club.) Deanna Hodges — she’s the girl with the fab earrings on the cover of Quick today — emailed me and offered these helpful tips:
1. Roll with a small group. More than three is hard to keep up with and keep everyone happy, and also really hard to get through crowds.
2. Get there early. Unless you plan to spend a lot — parking, cover, drinks, etc. — you can come early get drinks and food (it’s cheaper), and sit, talk and chill with your friends. When the crowd comes, you are ready to party and dance all night.
3. Scope out a spot where you will be dancing and chilling most of the night. (Standing by a stage and/or the DJ booth are best.)
4. "Be" — as me and my friends say — "on it.” Your talk, dress, and style. If people sense you are weak, they will run all over you. It will take a long time to get drinks, people will keep passing you, and even knock over your drink and not pay for it. Just be on it!
5. Use mints, PLEASE!!
Ditto on the mints thing. Halitosis is just so foul.
Local artists shall gather together for a delightful exhibit at the oh-so-fabby And/Or Gallery this Saturday, December 2nd. Vance Wingate, who has been an humungousoid contributor and supporter of the North Texas artistic scene for nearly two decades, curated this exhibit which includes works by C.J. Davis, Garland Fielder, Jessica McCambly, Brian Jones and Noah Simblist.
And/Or opened in January 2006 and is run by Paul Slocum and Lauren Gray. We show emerging artists from around the country who work in all mediums, but our emphasis is on new media. We are one of the few spaces in the country that has the special equipment and expertise to handle the most current new media work.
The space is a store front in a 100-year-old store front one mile northeast of downtown Dallas. Although we like to maintain a comfortable DIY feel, we have put a lot of effort towards creating a clean, neutral space.
The owners are artists Lauren Gray and Paul Slocum, also known as the music/video/hacker group, Tree Wave. Some selected installations, performances, and video screenings are Deitch Projects, Exit Art, Eyebeam, and The New Museum of Contempory Art in New York, the README Software Art Festival in Denmark, Trasitio MX in Mexico City, and in Dallas, Dunn and Brown Contemporary, Barry Whistler, and The Dallas Museum of Art.
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Saturday, December 2nd And/Or Gallery
Group Show Curated by Vance Wingate
7 p.m.ish
I've always wanted to do standup, but Michael Richards has given me yet another reason to put it off for a while. That doesn't mean you have to. Thursdays are open mic nights at Backdoor Comedy. Anyone can sign up for guaranteed stage time. You don't need much material ... maybe 3 to 5 minutes worth. You must sign up in advance at 214-328-4444. A piece of advice: Out-of-control rants ... so not cool right now.
If you missed The Daily Show's recent report on the energy drink known as Cocaine, check it out. It's Jason Jones' finest hour. Don't miss the other-dangerous-products-in-the-works segment, or the fun-loving ending.
I was enjoying Channel 8's coverage of Bitter Blast 2006 -- which anchor Justin Farmer said "is crippling all of us" -- when I saw another one of those insane commercials for Southwest Kia. Have you seen these? Bill Dickason is walking through the dealership, talking about his good deals on Kias, when he's inexplicably interrupted by a short clip of a kitten playing or two deer nuzzling or a baby getting a bath. Then Dickason returns to the screen and doesn't address the interruption at all. The first time I saw one of these, I thought I was losing my mind.
There's something creepy about taking something from the dead, even if that dead person IS Marilyn Monroe.
According to the yarn this eBay seller tells, one of the surviving pallbearers in MM's funeral took the liberty to snatch "one full strand of hair," presumably from her head, as she lie there in eternal slumber.
That three-inch strand of hair is worth a starting price of $262. As of yet, no one's bid. But we're only 8 hours in.
Blabbermouth.net reports that Rock Star Supernova sold less than 17,000 copies of its self-titled debut. That puts them at No. 101 on the charts. These boys should have instead picked a frontwoman. Coulda, shoulda, woulda.
The prices of the online auctions are falling? I don't think so. My Wii auction ended last week and the $250 Wii sold for $350 on eBay. I just looked and the prices appear to be about the same. The Wiis are hot. The gameplay is cool, and the price is awesome. I'll try and find another one. It'll be about $100 cheaper for me.
Apparently, canned meat product Spam is trying to class itself up with new flavors such as "Stinky French Garlic." Mmm. Light the tapers and spread the tablecloth.
Today is the fifth anniversary of the death of George Harrison, who passed away in 2001 from cancer a young 58. I always liked him because he seemed thoughtful and down-to-earth, like the calm little center of the megastorm that was the Beatles in the late 60s. And his songs were so groovy, like Here Comes The Sun, While My Guitar Gently Weeps, I Me Mine, and Something. And let's never forget that he is the man who introduced Americans to the word "grotty" (as in grotesque). Excellent man, fine musician, our loss.
Be it known on this day and forevermore that Dallas band Stellamaris is no longer called Stellamaris. The name had to be changed because of "legal stuff with some bands in other countries," according to a recent MySpace blog post. The new name? The New Frontiers. Hey, whatever. I don't really care what the name is, as long as this band plays live soon and lets me know about it. I've been OD'ing on the song "Mirrors" lately, with its gorgeous chorus and holiday-friendly jingle bells. Check it out here. Oh, and I suspect the "legal stuff" originated with Stella Maris, some Israeli heavy metal band I found on the Internets.
We love Club Monoco and their city-chic clothing for men and women. Now they’ve paired with Verizon Wireless to carry a limited edition phone case that benefits victims of domestic violence. Designed exclusively for the Chocolate by LG phone, the unisex black leather case features a braided phone cord and detachable pouch for earphones. It’s $39, and all proceeds benefit the National Network to End Domestic Violence. Get it starting Dec. 3 at Club Monaco at NorthPark Center, 214-365-0202.
Doode, is it just me or is Danny DeVito totally smashed during his appearance on The View this morning? Babs does not seem happy. Love the stumbling thought process, slurring, and occasional spitting.
A night on the town with George Clooney seems like good times...
I'll most likely get an "I told ya so" email from Greg Fields...but....here at the ol' homestead, I'm busy cleaning and packing. In usual form, every TV in the house is on cuz that's the way I likes it. The "severe winter storm" warnings are coming through about every 5-10 minutes as if we are about to see 6 foot snow drifts and frozen swimming pools in the morning. Heck, the ground has got to be a toasty 80-degrees in light of our ultra-warm Fall temperatures.
I can only imagine the frenzy of 'stocking up for the storm' at Walmart right this minute...oy.
David Lozano is gone as artistic director at Cara Mia Theatre Company. And Claudia Acosta is in ... as artistic associate director. Not sure the difference, but Acosta jumps right into things, making her directorial debut in Nuestra Pastorela, the company's annual holiday story that follows three shepards who happen to be clowns. Our records show Claudia first getting attention in 2001 when, as a college student in Fort Worth, she won a playwriting award for her "Girlie Stories." She's since worked for various companies around town, including Teatro Dallas and Hip Pocket Theatre. Her Cara Mia debut is this weekend. Check out Cara Mia's Web site for show details.
Msnbc.com reports that in addition to his other divorce-worthy behavior, K-Fed was also having a fling with "exotic dancer" and porn star, Kendra Jade. Shocker.
But not to worry. It seems Kev doens't have any plans to have kids with and/or marry Ms. Jade. A "source" says, “They’re just friends who have sex.” Nice.
At a showing of Happy Feet over the weekend, we were treated to a trailer for a Christmas movie. Ho-ho-hum. But the audience did a collective "Huh?" when it turned out the movie isn't coming out until Christmas 2007. And the trailer -- for Fred Claus -- had no scenes from the film itself. It was just Vince Vaughn (who plays Fred, Santa's brother) and Paul Giamatti (Santa) sitting on a sofa and riffing. It was OK funny. (You can see it at http://www.themovieblog.com/archives/2006/11/fred_claus_trailer.html. But it doesn't leave me with an "I-can't-wait-to-see-that" feeling, like the Spider-Man 3 trailer does.
Fort Worth rapper Twisted Black had a promising career in the music industry, but apparently the drug trade was more alluring. A Midland jury has found him guilty of crack possession with intent to distribute. I haven't seen the court documents yet, but Matt Sonzala, a Houston promoter who knows these things, says Black got a life sentence.
Black -- real name Tommy Burns -- has been around the local rap scene since the early '90s, when he was part of the duo One Gud Cide. A three-year stint in prison and a gunshot wound to the face slowed his trajectory, but it looked this year as if he was finally ready for the big time. His single "Fool Wit It" (MP3 link) was blowing up on Southern hip-hop radio stations, and he signed a deal with TVT Records. No word yet from TVT on whether that album will still see release next year as scheduled.
Spree Dallas is hosting its annual Holiday Spree tomorrow night at the Dallas Center for Contemporary Art. For $6, you get to peruse local designers’ wares (purses, clothes, jewelry, baby items), and sip free wine and beer. Plus you get a goodie bag.
Sounds like a perfect time to get some Christmas shopping done. Reserve your tix here. (It’s $10 at the door.)
Speaking of gifts, you better get moving if you've got family out of state... the recommended deadline to mail gifts via USPS is Dec. 13.
More dumb names for babies of the stars. Matt Lauer and wife had their third child yesterday, and named the boy ... Thijs. It's pronounced "Tice." Not a "soft J" as Ron Burgundy might say. A search on babynetwork.com reveals it's a Dutch diminutive of Matthew. What's wrong with Matthew Jr.? The little guy wouldn't have to explain that "J" in his name -- and how to say it -- his entire life.
Now here we have a weekend that makes me proud of Big D. Below is your weekend schedule...more to come...
This little extravaganza is so very very very worthy of your time...
Art Conspiracy Rides Again
Dallas Artists and Musicians Will Once Again Conspire for Charity Using a Groundbreaking Format
November 3, 2006, DALLAS, TX – The Sex Pistols made punk rock history there. Jack Ruby once owned it. Bob Wills yodeled and fiddled on stage there. And the Longhorn Ballroom in Dallas will once again make history when it host the 2nd Annual Art Conspiracy next month.
At 7:00 p.m., Friday, December 1, more than 150 artists will have their work auctioned off in the historic Longhorn Ballroom. The musical lineup will feature five bands including The Happy Bullets, Fishboy, Salim Nourallah and the Polaroids, and Peter Schmidtt and His Gentlemen Scholars.
The Art Conspiracy is unique because all involved artists do their work on-site. The day before the event, artists will come to the Longhorn Ballroom where they will be issued a canvas. The artists will work in shifts to fill in as many canvases as possible in a 24-hour period. Starting bids for all pieces will be $20.
"It's not just an artifact that people are buying when they come to Art Conspiracy and contribute,” says Sarah Jane Semrad, Artist Coordinator, Art Conspiracy. “ They're really buying a piece of process...of a happening."
Last year’s event marked the first time an event of this scope had ever taken place in Dallas. It attracted over 850 attendees ranging from first time art buyers to serious collectors, casual music listeners to diehard fans. This year the Art Conspiracy will continue to spotlight historic, but under-utilized Dallas venues.
"The buildings we use tell their own incredible stories along with the art and music,” explains Jason Roberts, Music Coordinator, Art Conspiracy. “I think all of us have gotten the chills from throwing the cobwebbed lights back on to these old dusty floors and imagining all of the great performances once hosted here."
This year’s Art Conspiracy will benefit La Reunion, a Dallas-based artist residency. The future home of La Reunion will be located on 35 wooded acres in Oak Cliff. When completed, La Reunion will provide housing and studio space to artists and gallery and performance spaces that will be open to the
public.
Art Conspiracy organizers, musicians, and artists are available for interviews. For more information and/or Art Conspiracy artwork, please contact Sarah Jane Semrad or Jason Roberts.
Benefiting:La Reunion, a Dallas artist residency located in Oak Cliff.
"Disquieting Letter" by the Happy Bullets
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Grand Opening Pawn Gallery
2540 Elm Street, Dallas TX 75226
December 1st - 7 p.m.
Music, Wine, Beer and hors de oeuvres
Show Shall Continue through December 31st Gallery hours: Tuesday through Saturday, Noon until 7 p.m.
Pawn Gallery is committed to unfettered artistic freedom, cultural democracy, and trans nationalism. This mission is carried out in the presentation of visual arts exhibitions, guerrilla art installations, gallery education and other public programs, and in partnerships with community organizations.
GOOD CAUSE - A.R.T.S. For People is Pawn Gallery’s non-profit partner. A percentage of the openings’ sales will be donated to this worthy cause. This organization People provides a unique blend of interactive art, dance, music, expressive and recreational therapies to contribute to the physical healing and help restore the emotional, mental and social well-being of individuals in Dallas/Ft. Worth healthcare and community facilities.
Inaugural Show - Interior Landscapes: a joint show featuring Wafaa Bilal and C.Taylor. Featuring works from both artists with multimedia presentation, photography and The Human Condition, a coffee table book produced by Mr. Bilal. Within Interior Landscapes, figures exist in equal balance with the landscapes, the images drawing their complexity from this dramatic polar tension. Within the frame, time and place loses specificity to become transcendent and expressive of a broader human condition.
Who/ What: Members of Sorta and Shibboleth have teamed with other local musicians to celebrate a snapshot of the catalog of Dallas music. They also teamed with Dallas promoter Mike Snider and Dallas homeless advocate Hal Samples to give residents and music lovers a place to celebrate homegrown and inspired tunes and an opportunity to help homeless families with children at Family Gateway during this holiday season.
When/ Where: Reunion Tower Revue will be held Saturday, December 2, 2006 at the historic Sons of Herman Hall, located on the corner of Elm and Exposition in Deep Ellum. Doors are at 8:00.
Why: To remind people of Dallas.. rich musical culture and heritage and provide the community an opportunity to experience the power or serving our homeless neighbors in need at Family Gateway.
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Kettle Art is nearly one-whole-year-old. It's no surprise that owner/artist Frank Campagna is reaching out to help a fellow artist in lieu of a standard birthday bash...cuz that's just the kinda fella Frank be...
Kettle Art will host a benefit for our friend and fellow artist Tony Bones.
You see, legal troubles have plagued him for nearly a year now.
The pressures of Johnny Law are inescapable and crushing to creativity. I know, you know, what I mean.
If you’ve been looking for a way to get involved w/ Kettle or you'd like to assist by donating a piece towards this cause, it’d be appreciated all around.
This is a one night only exhibit,
Saturday, December 2nd
All proceeds will go towards legal defense and imposed fines. Feel free to contact us for more info. Thanks!
I wanted to let you all know that Picnic aka Picnic Tyme who is a member and producer of Idol group PPT, lost his entire house and studio last night when a fire gutted his apartment building in Plano, the fire originated in a neighboring apartment and spread throughout the building. It was a total loss of everything including his studio and recording archives. As most of you know, Picnic has produced tracks for many local and national artists including the new PPT Cd Tres Monos In Love. Picnic is one of the most talented upcoming Hip Hop producers and beat makers in North Texas and this is a devastating loss for him and the local hip hop community.
We would appreciate your help getting the word out and I can be reached at 214-321-8890 or erv@idolrecords.com if anyone is interested in contributing.
I tuned in last night on 105.3 FM (hey, cut me some slack ... it's a 30-mile drive home, plus there wasn't a Ben & Skin Mavs postgame show to listen to since the Mavs were off). Anywho, a couple of highlights, since I know you're craving them by now:
* Dr. Drew, the real "Dr. McDreamy," according to co-host Stryker, told us about how everybody's favorite show, Grey's Anatomy, drives him nuts. He said most of the characters on the show would have been fired or arrested by now for some of their actions. Why does he have to be so mean?
* Guest Paige Hemmis from Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, who was pitching her new home improvement book, and the guys fielded a question from a 14-year-old who was wanting to know how to get past "second base."
* Stryker urged Hemmis to describe what "caulking" is.
Onslaught Reborn No. 1 (of 5): Writer Jeph Loeb and artist Rob Liefeld return to their controversial “Heroes Reborn” story starring Captain America and the Fantastic Four.
Batman/The Spirit: Will Eisner's classic creation meets the Caped Crusader in a one-shot by Loeb and Darwyn Cooke.
A Dummy’s Guide to Danger No. 3 (of 4): A private detective solves crimes accompanied by a talking ventriloquist's dummy. So insane.
Immortal Iron Fist No. 1: The classic kung fu character is revamped, without the capri pants and ballet slippers. Check out our interview with writer Ed Brubaker.
Fans of The Ticket’s BAD Radio program have no doubt heard the insane audio mashups the boys often use as return music. Perhaps you’ve heard an assortment of Norm Hitzges’ maniacal queries and bizarre proclamations over the Beastie Boys’ “Girls.” Or maybe you’ve enjoyed my personal favorite, Bill Parcells’ approach to the Divinyls’ ode to self gratification “I Touch Myself.”
These tunes are the fine of work of the extremely dirty, yet quite strong P1 Furio Fan. You can enjoy his entire catalog by clicking right hurr. It’s a fine diversion from TPS reports.
Nominations for the Spirit Awards -- which honor the best in indie films -- were announced today, with Little Miss Sunshine and Half Nelson leading the best-picture pack. Also notable: A best-director nod to the recently deceased Robert Altman for his suddenly-profound rumination on death, A Prairie Home Companion.
Don't be surprised if Altman gets a slew of posthumous honors for the film, including Oscars (if it's eligible. Is it eligible? Isn't that my job to find out? Whatev). Altman got an honorary golden boy earlier this year, but has never won for one of his films. If the Academy decides to finally give him a normal Oscar, I won't protest -- Prairie Home is a great li'l flick full of both joyous and subtly tender moments. But it's not as if Altman cares -- he's in Heaven, probably making a film about the inner-workings of the angel world.
According to the Associated Press obituary for comic book artist Dave Cockrum, he was wearing Superman pajamas and holding a Batman blanket when he died. The obit also says he'll be cremated wearing a Green Lantern T-shirt.
A few media organizations are reporting that Pam Anderson and Kid Rock’s marriage was pushed over the edge by Pam's appearance in the Borat movie. According to a source for New York's Page Six, the couple went to a screening of Borat in Beverly Hills two weeks ago, and Rock didn’t like the movie, screaming at Pam, "You’re nothing but a whore! You’re a slut! How could you do that movie?" in front of the assembled crowd. We assume that unlike the Tommy Lee video, Kid's definition of "whore" and "slut" is Pam actually keeping her clothes on and running away from a sex-crazed man in a movie.
Well, actually, Smirnoff Source doesn’t taste a whole lot like water. But it’s being marketed that way. I got some a few weekends ago from a lady who was handing them out free at Obar… it looked like an upscale water bottle, tasted kind of like alcohol-infused Sprite.
Anyway, apparently the drink won't be available in Dallas much longer. This is from a story in Brandweek in October:
Smirnoff Source is testing in clear, glass bottles at Dallas nightclubs and c-stores through December. The lightly carbonated drink carries 3.5% ABV and comes in Pure Berry, Pure Citrus and Pure Orange flavors. Smirnoff Source is positioned as a premium beverage at $2.49 a bottle and is aimed at providing refreshment during a night out for moments when the consumer is in the mood for something lighter than beer or a cocktail, said Erik Amalfitano, Diageo’s commercial innovation manager.
A lot of Christmas TV programming is total crap (like, perhaps, Jenny McCarthy in this season's "Santa Baby"). But some is not. In fact, some is fabulous, as is the case with a A Charlie Brown Christmas showing tonight at 7 on ABC. I'm a superfan of the Vince Guaraldi soundtrack and I always find myself oddly moved by the pathetic little tree Charlie Brown brings for the play. Makes me want to do that crazy dance from the show.
Terrell Owens does another book signing for Little T Learns to Share tonight at Grapevine Mills Books-A-Million. Check out Quick's story-as-comic-strip by Hector Cantu and Richard Dominguez from last Tuesday's signing at Preston Oaks Shopping Center.
Once news filtered out that a Plano fire claimed Picnic’s studio, masters, and all of his possessions, the local music community sprang into action. As Crayton posted last week, there is a benefit show this Sunday at the DoubleWide with all proceeds going to Picnic.
Now comes news that the DREAM Fund has stepped up to donate $1000 to Pic and enable others to make a donation with tax benefits. Picnic was eligible for assistance because of his daygig in the digital media/video editing field. Here's the dilly according to our homie Big Ben of the Coffee Nods:
DREAM Fund stands for Dedicating Resources to Employees of Advertising and Media.
DREAM Fund is a nonprofit foundation and the support link serving the advertising, public relations and media communities throughout the Southwest. The mission of the fund is to aid colleagues in Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Arkansas and Louisiana facing an unexpected medical emergency or life crisis and in need of emotional support and financial assistance.
By funneling donations to Picnic through Dreamfund, people who donate will be able to write off their charitable donations come tax time because Dreamfund is a 501(c)(3) charitable organization.
Here is where to send Dreamfund donations to Picnic…
DREAM Fund
P.O. Box 600593
ATTN: Richard “Picnic” Escobedo
Dallas, TX 75360
*Make sure to note on the check memo line (and include a seperate note with your check as well) that your donation is for Richard “Picnic” Escobedo.
Metallica's James Hetfield performed Would onstage with Alice in Chains Sunday in San Francisco. It is great to hear Alice in Chains together again. Hetfield, not so much.
Katt Williams fans, get ready for a Fort Worth trip. The frequently foul (but always funny) comic is riding high from his recent HBO special, and brings his Pimp Chronicles tour to Bass on Friday, Dec. 29.
If you read the Bizarro comic in Quick, you'll enjoy this Vegan.com Podcast with Bizarro creator, vegan and former Dallas dude Dan Piraro (he now lives in NYC). Dan's phone interview starts after about eight minutes of vegan news stuff. Dan reminds us that his new book, Bizarro and Other Strange Manifestations of the Art of Dan Piraro, is out now. Get info on Dan's Web site.
Everybody's favorite quarterback, player No. 9, has landed on the NFL Pro Bowl ballot. Maybe the Cowboys ought to consider naming the new Arlington stadium in his honor if he guides this team to the Super Bowl? No?
The Associated Press is reporting that Pamela Anderson has filed for divorce from Kid Rock after less than four months of marriage. Anderson’s rep said the former Baywatch star filed last week, but would not comment on the reason of the divorce. Allow us a moment ... to compose ... ourselves.
Veteran comic book artist Dave Cockrum is dead at age 63, according to Newsarama.com. Cockrum drew Giant-Size X-Men No. 1, which featured the first appearances of Colossus, Nightcrawler and Storm, as well as only the second full appearance of Wolverine.
One of my first clear memories is the murder of John Lennon in 1980 and I am always pleased to see people commemorating the day and remembering his music.
As Dec. 8 rolls around this year, Yoko Ono has taken out a full-page ad in the New York Times (text is here) sending a message "to the millions of people suffering around the world," urging forgiveness and healing from those who have suffered violence.
As the widow of one who was killed by an act of violence, I don't know if I am ready yet to forgive the one who pulled the trigger. I am sure all victims of violent crime feel as I do. But healing is what is urgently needed now in the world.
Let’s wish strongly that one day we will be able to say that we healed ourselves, and by healing ourselves, we healed the world.
It’s a great message of peace from the widow of someone who advocated that notion much of his adult life.
Music bloggers are buzzin' about the new sanctioned Beatles mashup album, Love. Listen to some tracks and then come back (ya hear?).
...
Hey! Good to see you back. What'd you think? I liked the "Get Back" remix but felt "Glass Onion" was a bit much. It's an interesting idea to jumble up the classics using only original masters. Some albums that might come out soon if Love is a hit:
Led Zeppelin, II.II
Rolling Stones, Sticky Fingaz
Jimi Hendrix, Are You Mixperienced?
Nirvana, Nevermind the Originals
The North Carolina native will be at Spike over in Mockingbird Station tonight as The Neo Soul Café hosts a CD release party for his new disc Somebody To Love. Spike has a chill vibe with a grown crowd and has been the spot for great CD release parties for PPT and Mojoe in the past.
Have you heard the story about why talk-of-the-town Tony Romo wears No. 9? Turns out he's a big Roy Hobbs fan. That's the fictional right fielder played by Robert Redford in 1984's The Natural.
Michael "Kramer" Richards was on the Rev. Jesse Jackson’s nationally syndicated radio show today. Nothing much new. He said he does not consider himself a racist and that he was “shattered” by his N word comments during a tirade at a Los Angeles comedy club. He said he's now looking for some "healing." Thanks, Michael, for reminding us all that racism ... sorry, "out-of-control anger," is indeed ugly. Maybe now you can go away. Please.
My parents were born and raised in the Park Cities. My very own kiddies attended Highland Park schools for a solid 6 years. One thing I miss most about not living in H.P. is the tree lighting ceremonies. There's one tonight in Highland Park Village...
"Highland Park mayor William White, along with members of the Henry S. Miller, Jr. family, will preside over the ceremony which has become known as the 'Night of a Million Lights'. Gospel singers, a holiday performance, Santa and his sleigh − all will play a role in the festival which will culminate with a magnificent illumination of the Village’s holiday lights and enormous Christmas tree in center court. In one magical moment at approximately 6:00 p.m., more than a million lights will blanket the sky in a wondrous canvas of twinkling white. Following the ceremony, the Highland Park Village merchants will host complimentary 15-minute carriage rides around the town of Highland Park to view the extraordinary holiday decorations adorning many area homes. The traditional carriage rides have long been a Highland Park Village hallmark during the holidays. Beginning Saturday, November 25th, rides are available for an hourly rate for tours of the grandly decorated neighborhoods. Rides may be booked through Sunday, December 31st (excluding Christmas day) by visiting www.threejayscarriages.com."
"This song (Christmas Time) will be included as a bonus on our new "I Like U single which also includes two additional tracks ('The Vex" and "Lakes" the acoustic version as recorded live in the KDGE studios for the Adventure Club)."
"Christmas Time" also features the loveable P.P.T. which makes this a splendid CD to add to your collection.
If you don't want to fight the crowds at Northpark, or the throngs at Walmart, then think about heading over to Counter Culture for your holiday gift-giving needs.
You can visit the Mockingbird Station store (take the Dart rail) or the Deep Ellum store. Today, Friday, November 24th, through Sunday, November 26th you'll find discounts from 20-50% off items. Better yet, if you'd prefer to stay home and relax, everything is 25% off online purchases through Sunday.
Also be sure to enter to win free tickets to upcoming shows at the Gypsy Tea Room..
The newly opened House of Dang is another quirky, vintage, delightful place to find rare and unusual gifts. Go over today and make a deal with 'em.
If it's vintage you want, then vintage they gots. Alter Ego Vintage in Denton is holding a one-day only sale 15-25% off everything in the store, today only!
Kettle Art is getting in on the holiday shopping action as well. You can take a clean 20% off any artwork at the 88 Numbers Exhibit. Better hurry though, cuz tonight and tomorrow night (7-10 p.m.) all that's left to get yourself a masterpiece.
So last night I was mindlessly cleaning since the in-laws would be appearing early for the Turkey feast. I always have a television on somewhere in the house, I like the noise. My adoration for the tube isn't exactly a well-kept secret, but last night I think I hit an all-time low...or perhaps not.
Is anyone watching Show Me the Money?Shatner pretty much gets my attention anytime he's on the small screen, so I sat down for a sec to take a look-see at this new game show and found myself glued to the screen for the entire hour. It's campy, entertaining, ridiculous and horridly delightful. So yeah, my mind has turned to mush, at least it's warm 'n fuzzy mush.
Club Dada The Delcos (Frankie Campagna) / Ben Martin Rockabilly the night away with a punk twist all Thanksgiving Eve! Frankie says if you wanna bring the rock to the Dada stage tonight, bring it on turkey! Open mic-ers welcome! "Punk Rock Gospel" by Spector 45 aka Frankie Campagna
9 p.m. $5 Cover
Monkey Bar DJ Rob Viktum Spins "True Skool Hip-Hop Blends, old school flicks on the big screen"
8 p.m.
Standard and Pours Cary Hudson "Cary Hudson first became recognized as a pioneer of a new music movement in the late eighties while joined in songwriting partnership with John Stiratt (WILCO) in The Hilltops, an alt-country band born out of Mississippi. When Stiratt left The Hilltops to play bass in Uncle Tupelo and then Wilco, Cary Hudson formed the widely-popular Blue Mountain that captured critical acclaim and gained cult status among its followers."
8 p.m No Cover "2 is Better Than 1" by Cary Pierce
Hailey's Micah P. Hinson / Chris Flemmons / Toppie Haynes Exceptional show with a folk, country, rock theme and some of the most talented artists around these parts and beyond.
9 p.m. $5 "Diggin' a Grave" by Micah P. Hinson
BONUS BUY: If you can't make the trek to Denton this eve, then swing by Good Records for a freebie in-store with Micah P. at 6 p.m.
Wreck Room Sunward / Open Mic Jam As reported here last week, Sessions Music Store in Fort Worth was burgularized a couple of weeks back and lost nearly all it's inventory. Tonight is a benefit show to help raise funds to help the owner and his family (and his clients) get back on their feet.
8 p.m. "Morning After" by Sunward
To be filed under "because we care, we share": The folks over at USA Today have a Thanksgiving calorie counter here that will help you assess the damage of tomorrow's gluttonous feasting. Slim, the Texas-talking turkey, is kinda scary, but whatever.
Anyway, according to this thing, I'm going to eat 1,729 calories tomorrow at lunch! Awesome! See you next week in my muumuu.
Our friends at Idol Records sent us this sad news. Do one of the Dallas area's top hip-hop producers a favor and turn out to support him.
I wanted to let you all know that Picnic aka Picnic Tyme who is a member and producer of Idol group PPT, lost his entire house and studio last night when a fire gutted his apartment building in Plano, the fire originated in a neighboring apartment and spread throughout the building. It was a total loss of everything including his studio and recording archives. As most of you know, Picnic has produced tracks for many local and national artists including the new PPT Cd Tres Monos In Love. Picnic is one of the most talented upcoming Hip Hop producers and beat makers in North Texas and this is a devastating loss for him and the local hip hop community.
We are in the process of organizing a benefit concert to help him get back on his feet. It will be on Sunday Dec. 3rd at Doublewide. More details will be coming soon.
I'm assuming this is the fire they're referring to.
PPT, featuring great Dallas rappers Pikahsso and Tahiti, won the Quick-sponsored contest last spring to create an official theme song for the Mavericks' playoff run. Tres Monos In Love debuted in September and was still topping the charts last week at CD World.
I have found the perfect thing to wear around the office and down to the public library: Archie McPhee's Illustrated Librarian Temporary Tattoos. With biker styling and phrases like "Literate 4 Life" and "Read Or Die," they've got that certain je ne sais quoi that book dorks everywhere will appreciate.
This morning, I saw this MySpace bulletin posted by “Trees Lives.” (The account owner is Kenny Brattain, who, with his wife Sarah, is leading the charge to reopen the venue.)
Here’s an excerpt:
We were in process of getting all of our permits. We were told that we need a "Special Use Permit". When we applied for the "Special Use Permit" we were told that we would not be approved. That the Deep Ellum Association does not want underagers in Deep Ellum anymore. As a matter of fact we were told to look elsewhere.
Brittain also posted a MySpace petition, where you can pledge: “I will not hang outside Trees and loiter, I also respect Deep Ellum and will not tear it up.” (Become Trees Lives' friend if you wanna check it out.)
I called Gianna Madrini, president of the Deep Ellum Association, to get her side of the story.
I met Hal Samples a couple of years ago when I was hosting live webcasts of performances at Standard and Pours. We immediately hit it off, and when he told me his story, I found myself not only liking the guy, but really respecting him as well.
Hal probably does more to bring attention (and help) to the homeless masses in Dallas than anyone else in the city. Having dug himself out of the homeless state himself, he continues to go back to that place to help others he has met and befriended along the way. Hal is working on a documentary focusing on the homeless community in Dallas. Hal writes:
"Last Friday, I went to my third Dallas Homeless Stand-down held at the Dallas Convention Center. I was blessed with running into many of my friends who I hadn't seen for as long as since my first one, made a few new ones, found out about several who are now gone for one reason or another... and finally came across a man (who I’ve been searching for two years) named Ford. He goes by the nick name "Scrap Iron" due to a life altering experience he had after a man gave him a harmonica three years ago. This would be the first time he had held a harmonica or ever thought about playing one. Today, as you can see, this beautiful man plays like... (fill in your words here)
I’m speechless."
Keep all eyes here to keep up with Hal's doin's, and fergoodnesssake contribute your time and money when and if you wanna. Click here to watch a rough cut of the beginnings of Dreamtown.
Did I mention that Hal Samples is also an extremely gifted photographer? He is. He's also a generous photographer.
November 24th & 25th Space
2814 Main Street
Dallas, Texas 75218 FREE Holiday Portraits!
8"x10" print on the spot
Call Hal at 214.476.9297 or Email him at Hal@HerotoZero.org to reserve a spot.
You gotta go out this weekend. (Which starts tonight.) There’s just too much going on. Did you know that tonight is supposed to be the most social day of the year? AXE has even established a hook-up hotline, for god's sakes.
Anyway, here’s where we’d be going this weekend, if we had all the time in the word… and we weren’t flying to Alabama to hang with the in-laws:
I hear-tell that the 2007 Coachella is adding an all country music weekend, May 5-6, 2007. Rumor has it country music superstars such as Willie Nelson, along with George Strait, Kenny Chesney, Lucinda Williams and Sugarland are among the confirmed.
In case you don't know, Coachella is an annual extravaganza held in Indio, California. Last year's line-up ranged from Kanye West to Madonna to Depeche Mode to Cat Power to Lady Sovereign to the Yeah Yeah Yeahs to our very own Austinites The Octopus Project. An additional day has been added to next year's festivus (April 27, 28, 29, 2007), so it should be a spectacular year.
Lifetime Television, that home to reruns and weepy hours-long docudramas, early next year will give us just what we all need: More "reality" TV.
Each half-hour episode of Gay, Straight or Taken? will apparently feature a single woman meeting three guys -- two straight (one single and one in a relationship) and a gay guy. She tries to figure out which one's the single straight man. If she chooses wisely, they win an "exotic vacation" together; if she doesn't, the guy she picks and his significant other get the trip.
Premieres Jan. 8. Could either go the way of Bravo's Boy Meets Boy (people tuned in) or of Fox's Playing it Straight (a total bomb).
Scott Hinze has quite the double-booking on today's episode of Fanboy Radio: Marvel Comics publisher Dan Buckley and DC Comics publisher Paul Levitz. Tune in to KTCU-FM 88.7 at 1 p.m. or listen online here.
The Fanboy column got pushed back to Friday's paper because of the Thanksgiving publishing schedule. Here are some comics to occupy your time until then:
Punisher War Journal No. 1: Fresh off his appearance in Civil War No. 5, the Punisher gets a new book all about his involvement in the hostilities.
Runaways No. 22: This is the beginning of writer Brian K. Vaughan's final three-issue arc before he hands his creations off to Joss Whedon of Buffy the Vampirer Slayer fame.
Dead@17 No. 2: Arlington's Josh Howard continues his story of hot teenage girls who don't let death slow them down.
Red Menace No. 1: A six-issue series -- from the writers of the old Flash TV series --about superheroes running into McCarthyism.
Wonder Woman No. 3: This seldomly published series makes a rare appearance in stores. Writer Allan Heinberg must be really busy with his other gig: producing Grey's Anatomy.
In case you were wondering, Terrell Owens said Tuesday that he wouldn't be sending Eagles quarterback Donovan McNabb, who has a torn ACL, a get-well text message. "Absolutely not. I'm not even going there, dude," T.O. said.
Speaking of T.O., he's planning to read his children's book, Little T Learns to Share, at 11 a.m. Saturday at Barnes & Noble at 3060 Mockingbird Lane, then at 7 p.m. Tuesday at Books-A-Million at Grapevine Mills. Enjoy.
Hey, the Grey Cup was decided last weekend up in Canada. Can you name the current grumpy Cowboy who had the trophy stolen from him at an Ontario bar in 1997?
This weekend, my husband/consort Steve and I saw a preview for The Pursuit of Happyness, which features Will Smith as a guy with '70s hair trying to be a stockbroker and facing homelessness.
It looks really good. But there is a logical flaw.
As Steve said, "Why doesn't he just go live with his auntie and uncle in Bel Air?"
Today my Beckett Basketball magazine came in. It's a trading card price guide based in Dallas. They talked to a few players about what they collected growing up among other things. Even Mark Cuban chimed in. It's on page 3. Check it out. The cover boys this month are the top rookies to collect in 2006-07.
Sorry kids, I'm runnin' late today. Not much happ'nin' tonight with the exception of Carlin's weekly show at Club Dada. I've yet to see a bad line-up at Carlin's shows, and tonight is no exception.
Who says Ellum is dead? Earlier this week we heard about the possibleresurrection of Trees. Now Deep Ellum Live, the warehouse-size venue down on Canton Street, is ready to put something new on the marquee. (It's been advertising a Halloween party since 2005, if memory serves.)
The revival comes courtesy of Fundamental 1s, a new business that's booking shows at the venue with an emphasis on hip-hop. First up on Dec. 15 is Slick Rick, the rap legend who brought you "La Di Da Di" and "Children's Story." (That is, as long as the British rapper can avoid being deported.)
Mark Cuban was sporting a fresh new goatee at last night's game in Charlotte. Above, I've posted the best screen grab I could manage. What's the verdict, style mavens?
R.I.P., Robert Altman. Truly sad - he was a director who tackled subjects in such a way that viewers of his films got the complete experience -- felt they were there. If you've never heard of Altman before today, get thee to a video store (online or real-life) and rent Nashville, The Player, Gosford Park and the latest masterpiece, A Prairie Home Companion. And to hear the man himself, click here.
Even with our Western culture of celebrity worship, this takes the cake (and the sandwich crust, fruitcake and croissant crumbs...).
The Old Boatstore cafe in a small Cornish village in the U.K. has made an impromptu shrine to the leftovers from celebrity meals there. It's a little wall of glass domes and food bits on display for diners to examine. The BBC says that the star attraction is the cheese, tomato and pesto toastie bites left by Babyshambles vocalist and Kate Moss squeeze Pete Doherty.
I'm waiting for the day some of our local celebrity hot-spots start doing the same. Jessica Simpson's drink garnish from Dragonfly, Dr. Phil's T-bone at Del Frisco's, Owen Wilson's nacho remnants from Primo's...Grody.
You'll most likely find me hanging with the cool kids at Good Records this week for some super-terrific in-stores. Lemme break it down for ya indie-style:
Tonight, Tuesday, Nov. 21 Austinite Red Hunter (Peter and the Wolf) will fill up the hunter green stage at Good Records in celebration of his album, Lightness.
6 p.m. Never a cover.
Later tonight: Club Dada
Peter and the Wolf / Dana Falconberry / Mr. & Mrs. May / Douglas Woodlane
9 p.m. $4 cover.
"Strange Machines" by Peter and the Wolf
I've stood in circles of the hippest, most in-the-know music aficionados more than one time when Micah P. Hinson was praised as one of the best songwriters around. Micah hits Dallas tomorrow night in one of a handful of shows winding down his monthlong U.S. tour in support of his latest album, Micah P. Hinson and The Opera Circuit. You really will hate yourself all day on Thanksgiving if you miss this performance.
6 p.m. Your money gets you great CDs and vinyl. Your experience watching and listening to Micah -- free.
Later that night: Hailey's
Micah P. Hinson / Chris Flemmons / Toppie Haynes
9 p.m. $8 cover. All ages. Purchase Tickets.
"Diggin' a Grave" by Micah P. Hinson
Getcher turkey fill, then head over to Good Records on Thursday, Nov. 23 for the musical stylings of Canadian dwellers, The Hidden Cameras. This band is always highly entertaining, sometimes quite graphic, but loads of indie/pop fun.
Thursday, November 23rd Good Records
6 p.m. Freebie
Is anyone watching The View? Minutes after Rosie O'Donnell called Kelly Ripa a possible homophobe for going off on Clay Aiken, Kelly called in to The View to scold Rosie for being "irresponsible." A silly feud begets another silly feud, and TV viewers get to see it live. Thanks to this and the Michael Richards Letterman appearance, YouTube's gonna be pretty busy today. And yes, I just admitted that I watch The View. God help me.
Jay-Z, Kingdom Come: Today's Quick cover man comes out of retirement, and we're soooo surprised. He's on a massive TV blitz, and even appeared on Monday Night Football last night. (So Jay, since your album drops tomorrow, do you prefer a 4-3 or 3-4 defense?)
What the hell just happened??????? Why did they cancel DJ Shadow and Q-Tip from Letterman tonight? This is an outrage!
Here are the Top 5 boldest choices made during the broadcast:
1. Kramer rolling with the term Afro Americans. 2. The audience nervously laughing at Kramer’s use of the term Afro Americans. 3. Paul deciding to roll with Curtis Mayfield’s “Movin’ On Up” when Jerry came out to introduce his upset racist buddy. 4. Deciding to bounce Shadow and Q-Tip instead of shaving time off of that shockingly unfunny monologue. 5. The Seinfeld people deciding that the best way to hawk their new DVD package was to have Kramer come on and admit that his racism comes spilling out whenever he gets flustered and then showing some lame, half-assed extra of uninspired animation created by a dude that Jerry didn’t seem to remember.
And what is it again that makes Dan Patrick interesting? That show triple sucked suck sucked.
I may have neglected video games since I caught dysentery on the Oregon Trail, but I think I’m going to break down and buy a Nintendo Wii. Why? Because of Trauma Center: A Second Opinion. You get to be play doctor (well hello McDreamy), and your little Wiimote allows you to wield syringes, scalpels, forceps (ahgahd) and other fun bloodletting devices. So now all you Grey’s Anatomy fans can defibrillate to your heart’s content. So far, there have been no reports of operating room sex scenes, but there are always those secret easter-egg-cookie-things, right?
You read all the rumor sites, MacRumors.com and others. The Apple iPhone is on the way. Or so they think. It would be a cool little gizmo. Maybe they'll take mp3 music phones to another level. I definitely will get one, whenever that day is. Wonder if it'll have video?
Michael Richards of Seinfeld will say he said all that stuff -- including the N word -- because hecklers made him lose his cool, not because he's a bigot. Sounds like he's been getting his excuses from George.
Tune into the Late Show With David Letterman tonight if you can. Wire reports say Jerry Seinfeld arranged for Michael Richards to speak about his racist comments via satellite, and Richards reportedly had trouble holding it together during his apology.
Since Matthew McConaughey spends so much time around the UT football team, he ought to be a natural for his coaching role in We Are Marshall, right? The film, based on the true story of life after a 1970 plane crash that killed 75 people, including 37 players and six coaches, opens Dec. 22. McConaughey plays Marshall coach Jack Lengyel, who tries to revive the program at the Huntington, W.Va., school. Matthew Fox -- he of Lost fame -- plays one of the assistant coaches.
Your hometown heroine Kelly Clarkson is working on the follow-up to Breakaway. That 2004 hit album included "Since U Been Gone," a pop song so perfect that it won praise from real live rock critics and had indie songwriters such as Ted Leo covering it (MP3 here).
Looks like Kelly's looking for even more hipster cred this time around. She recruited Mike Watt, the legendary Minutemen bassist and all around kooky guy, to make those new tracks really bounce. Pitchfork has the scoop -- and a goofy photo.
The Balcony Club Colin Boyd Colin is one of the most talented musicians/singer-songwriters in DdFW. Performing both originals and covers, he always leaves you wanting more.
6-8:30 p.m.
The Amsterdam Bar
Bad-Ass Jazz Night I think it's pretty self-explanatory. This is a fun event, so getcherself there by around 8 p.m. for a good seat.
9 p.m.
Dan's Silverleaf Paul Slavens Paul Slavens is a musical genius, and a wondrous entertainer. Don't miss a chance to see him live EVER.
10 p.m.
Ovation Red Young Red Young is a gifted jazz/blues artist and performs every Monday night at Ovation in Fort Worth.
7 p.m. Note: Look for an audio interview and live performance by Red Young in the coming weeks.
Caribbean Grill
Monday Night Fights Rap and dance battles like nuthin' you've seen before.
10 p.m. $5 cover
Just got word from Black Tie Dynasty lead singer Cory Watson that his band has recorded a Christmas single with Idol Records labelmate PPT. Rap meets nu wave -- I can honestly say I have no idea what to expect. It'll be released in early December as part of a Black Tie single or EP, but I might get to hear it on Friday. I'll let you know how it sounds. It should provide the perfect soundtrack as I fight with angry PTA mothers over $2 laptops at a big-box store. See? I'm already in the Christmas spirit!
Coming Wednesday, we have a very important and relevant investigative piece on the eating habits of local musicians. Wait ... scratch that. It's actually a silly roundup of people's Thanksgiving dinner traditions.
Memories both delicious and disgusting have been pouring in from music peeps all over D-FW (and Denton!). To whet your appetite for what's to come, here's a tasty li'l morsel courtesy of DJ Nature (left), who offers dance-tastic sets every week in Denton and not often enough in Dallas:
"My mom -- bless her heart -- was not the greatest cook. ... At my house, the stuffing was Stove Top and the cranberry sauce was the kind that came out of a can. My mom would literally just dump out the can into a bowl and not mash it up. It was on the table, still in the shape of the can ... whoa."
Daz-I-Kue (of UK outfit Bugz in the Attic) tore it up at Minc on Saturday. You should have been there! He played some old-school funk stuff, some new-school funk stuff, and stuff that even made my Ultimate Frisbee-playing friends dance. They're usually strictly pubs-only people.
Here’s a pretty lengthy interview with Daz -- or is it Daze? -- where he mentions how great the Austin dance scene is. (No Dallas mention, but oh well.) Hopefully he'll hit Texas again soon.
Pikahsso Allen Poe calls legendary DJ EZ Eddie D "the Godfather of DFW underground hip-hop." You should always listen to Pikahsso, he know of what he speaketh...
"DJ EZ Eddie D has cultivated a career as a DJ, remixer and producer for more than 24 years. Being the closest thing to a hip-hop historian that Dallas has ever known, he has worked with the early pioneers as well as many of the current up-and-comers. From his early days growing up in Finneytown (a suburb in Cincinnati) to his 23 years in Dallas, it's no surprise to find his influences are all over the musical map. With a collection containing everthing from R&B to classic rock, funk to retro and blues to hip-hop, his studio is the Mecca record collectors dream of."
"His main focus today is fusing all of these genres with hip-hop beats creating a distinctive sound all his own. In 1982, Dallas DJ The Master Mixer taught Eddie how to blend records, and also introduced him to the radio station KNON 89.3 "The Voice of the People." He interned and moved his way up the ranks, working with DJ Cisco Soul & the Party Patrol and Nippy Jones of the "Fresh & Freaky Friday Show" (later KKDA). Nippy helped groom him for his own time slot. In 1987, station manager Craig Taylor gave him that chance with his first show airing Thursday nights from 9 to 11. The show moved a few times before finally landing on Saturdays from 5 to 7 p.m., where you can still tune in weekly for "Knowledge Dropped-Lessons Taught (Vol.2)." It is the only source Dallas has for true underground hip-hop, and a public radio station is a perfect forum for his philosophies on politics, religion, racism and social responsibility."
Reid Robinson and I met up with Eddie D at Gachet Coffee recently and had ourselves a delightful time. Did we catch the whole thing on audio? But of course, darlings.
Kettle Art is nearly one-whole-year-old. It's no surprise that owner/artist Frank Campagna is reaching out to help a fellow artist in lieu of a standard birthday bash...cuz that's just the kinda fella Frank be...
Kettle Art will host a benefit for our friend and fellow artist Tony Bones. You see, legal troubles have plagued him for nearly a year now. The pressures of Johnny Law are inescapable and crushing to creativity. I know, you know, what I mean.
If you’ve been looking for a way to get involved w/ Kettle or you'd like to assist by donating a piece towards this cause, it’d be appreciated all around.
This is a one night only exhibit,
All proceeds will go towards legal defense and imposed fines. Feel free to contact us for more info. Thanks!
Anthony will debut approximatley 20 new pieces for this event and the following artists will also contribute works on his behalf... Mark Nelson, Vanessa Cash, Sergio Garcia, Tania Kaufmann, Richard Ross, Lisa Lindholm, Jeff Stachowski, Kate Mackley, Guy Reynolds, Cathey Miller, Frank Campagna and more...
Read more about Tony Bones. You can view more artwork by Tony by a simple click.
Saturday, December 2nd Kettle Art
7-10 p.m.
Drop off for donated items will be Monday, November 27, 8:00 - 10:00 PM
Andy Samberg-- a.k.a. the Adam Sandler clone and the "Lazy Sunday" guy on Saturday Night LIve -- got some chuckles with his role as the Blizzard Man, a hip-hop cameo artist who apparently raids Color Me Badd's closet.
"Doin' raps and goin to parties, that's basically what we're all about. We're super famous so the ladies let us hug them. And also we drink expensive champagne."
A Nickelbackesque group called Hinder has this song about cheating called "Lips of an Angel." I've heard it so much on the FM dial that it's stuck in my head. As you might imagine, my wife is not crazy about hearing me singing "you make it hard to be faithful" to myself.
So I've been trying to avoid this little ditty by tuning into country stations. Lo and behold, Jack Ingram has already released a country version of "Lips of an Angel." I heard his version and the original rockin' one during the same trip.
You just knew there had to be more to Michael and Dwight's pathetically hilarious homage of SNL's "Lazy Sunday" rap than what was seen in The Office's most recent episode in which Michael tries desperately to impress his newly expanded staff.
And alas, NBC's got more of "Lazy Scranton" right here.
Though I did not see this movie at midnight on Thursday, I did carve out a special 2.5-hour block on Saturday. And I am glad I did.
Interestingly, the most delicious part of Daniel Craig as James Bond is not his hotness, but his complete lack of facial expression. Punch him? His gaze stays steady. Point a gun between his eyes? Not a twitch.
That emotionlessness makes his first real smile of the movie, which grows subtly across his face as he watches a bad guy die a horrible death, a dirty-feeling reward.
Unlike Pierce Brosnan's quippy, suave Bond, this guy is completely fallible, which makes him my kind of action hero -- capable of screwing up, but looking really cute and scowly when he does it. Sort of like a tux-wearing Indiana Jones.
Speaking of tuxedos, the casino scenes are kind of annoying if you know anything about poker. There's all this out-of-place over-explaining parenthetical dialogue.
"My God, he's going all-in!"
("That means he is betting all his chips.")
But that was my only source of dissatisfaction.
In conclusion, this movie rocks and I would like to see it again to watch Craig's face closely for signs of twitching.
The new 30 Seconds to Marsvideo for “From Yesterday” will debut today on MTV2 and MTV. It’s the first American rock video to be shot in the People’s Republic of China. MTV2 will premiere the Unleashed making of the video, followed by the full-length video at 9 a.m. You can also watch it on MTV’s Primetime Premiere at 10 p.m. The band’s last video, “The Kill,” was recognized for its inspiration from the film The Shining. It should be interesting to see what front man Jared Leto has concocted to trump that.
Last week we caught Common's new Gap ad in which he's rockin' his Gap hoodie while spittin' about "peace, love and Gap." We're never surprised anymore when we see our favorite artists hawking generic crap on the tube.
But it did make us cock our head to one side like a dog to hear EZ Eddie D play Common's seminal 1994 cut "I Used To Love H.E.R." on this past Saturday's Knowledge Dropped, Lessons Taught on KNON. Regarded by many as one of the most influential hip-hop cuts ever, Common professes his love for a culture forever tarnished by crass commercialism. We found this particular lament to be the most ironic:
Now I see her in commercials, shes universal
She used to only swing it with the inner-city circle
Not that we care, but we're sayin' though. By the way, our editor Rob Clark has promised bonus Hooded Gap Fleece for anyone who can name of the source of the drum fill used in the ad's music. And don't say Run DMC, they got it from the same place.
According to the Los Angeles Times -- referencing Soundscan -- Sacramento Kings forward Ron Artest's rap CD My World sold 343 copies in the first week. He gets more rebounds than that in a week.
The CD, released on Halloween, includes lyrics such as: "David Stern! Damn, David Stern. I gotta teach you bout the ghetto there’s some things you should learn.”
“Matt Lauer, up on NBC. You look like a girl don’t talk to me.”
I just watched Jay-Z's video Show Me What You Got. I know I'm a little late. But this was the first time I saw it from the start. It has NASCAR's Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Indy Racing League's Danica Patrick. So could Jay-Z help bring auto racing to the masses, or to the hood? Guess we'll have to wait and see.
Ludacris proved to be an excellent host last night on Saturday Night Live. The sketch that featured him as the hype man to Barbra Streisand and Dolly Parton was a laugher.
But note to longtime announcer Don Pardo. It's Ludacris. Not LudAYcris.
On Sundays I'm pretty much useless from 9 a.m. until about 2 p.m. The reason? Food Network.
I'm absolutely mesmerized with cooking shows. Oddly enough, I ain't a cook. I have zero interest in learning to cook. I suppose you could say I like to watch. One of my favorite shows is Paula's Home Cooking, hosted by the incomparable Paula Deen. The woman is certifiable and I just love her.
Just when I thought I'd seen Ms. Deen do it all, with all the butter, lard, sugar, butter, butter, butter, she actually pulled another one outta her hat on today's episode. I give you Turducken
Basically what we are dealing with here is an 18-pound turkey, layered with dressing, then another layer of duck, more dressing, then a final layer of chicken. Turducken, get it?
If you would like to try the 3-birds in one dish, then go here for the recipe.
Terilli's Lauren Gifford / Sara Donaldson What a treat! Two gloriously talented young ladies all on one night! You'll getcher jazz, your blues, your sweet sweet pop.
7:30 p.m. No Cover "Never Look Back" by Lauren Gifford
Tomcat's Anu-Erra Entertainment / Let's Get to the Roots 2:
Hosted by Mr. Kuwn-Dalini. Starring Bruh-N-Law (Kin Fok Kru)
Also performing: J2 / Original Soul / Money Waters / Hollywood Cole / Devotion 420 / Futuristic South / Team Texas / The Hooligans / Thesis / Black Page Honey this is the show of shows. Hip-hop, rap, R&B lovers shall unite tonight at Tomcat's.
10 p.m. "On the Move" by Kin Fok Kru
Good Records Pattern is Music / Demetri Martin It's going to be an indie, nu-jazz, down-tempo, upbeat time, chock full of belly-laughs and hearty guffaws. Demetri Martin will be the first stand-up comedian in-store in the history of Good Records.
4 p.m. No Cover "Demitri Martin Live" on Letterman
Barley House Dave Little will be in da hizzy tellin' jokes and he's bringing friends.
Dave Little / Mark Agee / Paul Varghese / Aaron Aryanpur / Steve Halasz
10 p.m. No Cover Bad Ass" by Dave Little
Rubber Gloves
Judd Pemberton (100 Damned Guns), Chris Welch (Pinebox Serenade), Ryan Thomas Becker (Sunday Drive) They's singers. They's songwriters. They's gonna do it roundtable style this eve. Lots of good country music.
Doors at 9 p.m. No Cover "Streets of Righteousness" by Pinebox Serenade
"Put Me in the Ground" by 100 Damned Guns"
Bits and Bytes: Pilotdrift and Pattern is Movement show at Hailey's is CANCELLED. Also, Jenn Nabb's open mic nights at Club Dada - CANCELLED.
When I was a kid, all I wanted to be was one kick-arse drummer. I think it was about 9th grade when I had finally saved enough chore money to purchase my first drum set. It was red. It sparkled. I loved it. The only little drawback was that I had absolutely no idea how to play the durn-thang.
Little to no talent didn't stop me though, unfortunately. When the 9th grade talent show rolled around, I was approached by some actual talented musicians who invited me to play drums in their band for said talent show. One of the cats had put together an Elton John medley that simply "had to be heard." Why do I bore you good people with tales from the past? Cuz I'm a'gettin' to a point here - point is, I froze. I froze on stage. I froze because I didn't know a lick (no pun) about playing drums. More to the point, the emcee for this horrific talent show was my good friend Jeff Dunham. It was Jeff who slapped me (no, not literally) back into focus and I made it through the set.
Jeff was a talented comedian/ventriloquist back then, which he used for his schtick as emcee those gazillion years ago. Seems that "schtick" done him good...real good.
AllGood Cafe Doug Burr / Crushed Stars / Sarah Jaffe You are going to read a lotta gush comin' off my keyboard when it comes to some of the musicians settled in DdFW. It can't be helped. Some of the talent living next door to us are so gush-worthy. Tonight's show at AllGood Cafe is one in which you'll find yourself delighting in gush for weeks and months to come. Doug Burr is quite possibly the greatest singer/songwriters known to mankind. Sarah Jaffe has the voice of an angel and the talent in her pinky finger compares to all the talent in Cleveland.
9 p.m. $5.00 Cover "Been Touched by God" by Doug Burr
How will it work: 5-6 bands will get set up ahead of time through Callithump to play & will get renditions of 4-6 songs prepared by the hoot night artist of the month. They'll get to play & perhaps switch up with other musicians from other bands. The audience will have the opportunity to vote on the best tribute & prizes will be awarded.
9 p.m. Cover TBA "Red 'n White Valentine" by Tha Bracelets
Granada Theater Radiant (CD Release) / Auto Escape / Hendrick / The Hero Factor You can read all about my Radiant luvin' here. I luvs 'em - I luvs 'em good. I've been following the Auto Escape boys since they was just knee-high to a grasshopper. Superstars in the making they is, they is.
Doors at 7 p.m. Show starts at 8 p.m. $10 Cover "The Kid with a Knife" by Radiant*
Wreck Room Baboon (CD Release) / Dove Hunter / Lions / The Cut*Off This show will rock you to the core. So much greatness on one stage...it should be illegal.
9 p.m. "Breaking Glass" by Baboon
Some miscommunication on the blog today, regarding a previous post about the return of Trees. Go to www.bigdlittled.com for the story about the nightclub reopening.
Adair's Opie Hendrix Although Opie hails from Houston, he's still a regular fixture on the Adair's stage. I've known this boy for years and I've seen him perform a couple-hundred times or so and he never disappoints and always thrills. You'll getcher rockabilly, honky-tonk, southern rock, country music fix for the weekend.
9 p.m. No Cover "Can't Even Yodel" by Opie Hendrix
The Double-Wide Dust Congress / Amanda Leggett / The Angelus Wow. Great show. Emil Rapstine of The Angelus has a voice so powerful, so beautiful, so haunting that it'll make ya wanna change religions. Amanda Leggett rivals with her gorgeous vocals and folksy, alt.country songwriting. Plus, she brings Todd Pertll back to us when she comes up from Austin. "Latin" by The Angelus
Lee Harvey's
DJ Chikki D will start things off around 8 p.m. Sorta Sorta is on my list of top 10 loves when it comes to the local, regional, national and even international music scene. If there's a Sorta song out there that I don't like, I've yet to hear it. Pleasing pop, indie, rock.
10 p.m. No Cover "85 Feet and Falling" by Sorta
The Cavern Faux Fox / Grand Buffet / Gil Mantera's Party Dream It's synth-city tonight at The Cavern. Locals Faux Fox will delight your senses and tickle your ears. More electronica, hip-hoppity, creamy goodness from Gil Mantera's Party Dream, as well as Grand Buffet.
Doors at 9 p.m. $10 Cover. 18+ Weekend Warrior by Faux Fox
Wreck Room Black Tie Dynasty / Hourly Radio / Stock Market Crash / Kingfish Talk about your indie/pop/rock safe haven - that's the Wreck Room tonight! Local shooting stars, Black Tie Dynasty and Hourly Radio have already started making their mark on the world. Go see 'em now before they are selling at the the AAC! "Tender" by Black Tie Dynasty
Five More Bonus Bets: (Oh come on man, it's Friday!) Chipotle in Denton - The Color of May Gypsy Tea Room - Wax Fang / My Morning Jacket Hailey's - Islands / Subtitle / Blueprint Liquid Lounge - Double Happiness / The Couture / The Justin Brown Translation / Eastwood Ridglea Theater - Sound Clash / Woodbelly / Pablo & the Hemphill 7 / Darth Vato / Barber Mack
Of the approximately 1,140 minutes a day that I’m awake, this song is running in my head for about 982 of them. And I’m fine with that. Really. It’s all good. Have a nice weekend.
Check out Skin's latest edition of the Gemini Disco Soul Party PodQast, featuring funk tracks with a Wu-Tang twist from the El Michels Affair and some old-school sounds from Dallasite Timothy McNealy.
Good News:Billy Joe Shaver re-tied the knot on October 14th to the lovely former Mrs. Billy Joe Shaver, Wanda Lynn Canady in Vegas. Presiding over the nuptials was none other than Billy "ZZ Top" Gibbons.
Bad News: Shortly after the I do's had been said, Billy Joe broke his vertebrae wrastlin' with one of the wedding guests. Boys will be boys.
He's healing-up quite nicely though and will hit the stage again in December. This means no show tonight at Sons of Hermann as reported on various other sites 'round town. I'm a pretty hardcore Shaver fan, so I'll let you good folks know when he's going to swing back through DdFW.
If the kiddies are looking for something to do tonight and they are ready to rock, then Plano Centre might be a nice drop-off point.
Third String Productions, run by young hotshot Mike Ziemer, puts together top-notch showcases at safe, kid-friendly venues 'round town.
Here's the scoopage: Friday, November 17th Plano Centre
A Change of Pace / Ivoryline / Quiet Drive / Don't Wake Aislin / Open Fire / Scarlet Affair / Oceans Firing / The Reverie
Doors at 5 p.m. $12 cover.
All ages
An enormous bouquet of 120 red roses was delivered by moped Wednesday morning at 10:15 to the luxury Hassler Hotel, where Tom & Katie are reportedly staying.
Nicole Kidman has sent Tom & Katie a wedding present with a note that "wished them both a lifetime of happiness together," a source close to Kidman tells PEOPLE. No word on what the gift was.
There was one big question for Cruise fans...on Tuesday morning: Is that Suri's [car] seat?
Zzzzz...Sorry. Dozed off there for a second. What will we do once they are married? I guess go on "bump watch" and analyze every centimeter of her waistline as she shops at Barneys or reads her L. Ron Hubbard. I can hardly wait. Really.
I'm kind of the new kid around here. Don't be fooled, "kid" isn't a literal term by any means. Point is, I've been blogging elsewhere for a number of years, and during that time, I always posted a weekly wrap-up of Quick Pop Life when and where it pertained to the local music scene. Old habits are hard to break, so I until Mr. Editor sends a cease and desist order, I'll just lay it out Quick-like for you here.
I cannot tell you how thrilling it is to see Radiant back on the scene. This indie, poppy, shoe-gazey band has pleased many a fan over the years. This week Radiant is finally independently releasing their long-awaited album, We Hope You Win, along with a big-ol' CD release extravaganza. Paul Salfen caught up with Levi Smith, lead singer/songwriter for Radiant, and you can read all about it here.
Saturday, November 18th Good Records
Radiant In-Store
5 p.m. Free Granada Theater
Radiant / Hendrick / Auto Escape / Hero Factor
Doors at 7 p.m. Show starts at 8 p.m. $10 General Admission. $15 Reserved Purchase Tickets
Skin's PodQasts, along with Hunter Hauk's Liner Notes are my two favorite things to anticipate each week. This week Hunter mentioned my favorite word in the English language - Midlake.
We finally have some pictures of TomKat in Italy. Outfits don't usually freak us out, but Katie Holmes' ethereal look-I'm-about-to-get-married-in-a-castle pantsuit thingy was a little too ... other-worldly. It's like Queen Elizabeth meets the Coneheads. The baby's still cute though.
ABC is basking in the glow of its Dancing With the Stars ratings victories this week -- the Tuesday episode and last night's finale were the two most-watched shows of any network all season. And now Zap2it reports that the network is considering bringing it back in the spring (in a timeslot that doesn't compete with American Idol, of course). But maybe instead of avoiding Idol, Dancing producers should learn a lesson from it. We can't handle a reality show of such magnitude twice a year. Can you imagine what it'd be like if two Idols were crowned every year? Many would say that one is bad enough (waka-waka), but seriously -- too much Dancing can make a TV viewer tired. Trust me on this one.
I used to read true crime books as a morbid, lonely pre-teen, which freaked out my mom -- 'OMG do you want to be a mass murderer when you grow up?!' Well, no, there's more money in being a crime writer. That's why I love the new series Murder By the Book on CourtTV. Writers such as Michael Connelly, Jonathan Kellerman, James Ellroy and Lisa Scottoline share the real-life cases that put them on the true crime (writing) path. Check it out Monday at 9 p.m.
Fast Food Nation, the movie based on Eric Schlosser's disturbing-yet-fascinating book, opens tomorrow. It stars Greg Kinnear as a marketing shyster working on a new burger called "The Big One."
You can hear a radio interview with him tonight at 7 p.m. on KERA 90.1 FM. They played it once today already and he talked about his role in this movie as well as Little Miss Sunshine, As Good as It Gets, Sabrina and several other films in which he was fabulous (I have a total celebrity crush on the man, by the way).
Anyway, my crush aside, I sing the interview's praises. He's impressively insightful, especially when talking about his role in Auto Focus as Hogan's Heroes star/sex addict Bob Crane.
Patrick Stewart, a.k.a. Capt. Jean-Luc Picard, is in Ann Arbor, Mich., performing with the Royal Shakespeare Company. On Nov. 4, he conducted the University of Michigan band during its halftime performance of the theme from Star Trek: The Next Generation.
According to StarTrek.com, the public address announcer followed the song with this: "You may heard of our trek to Columbus in two weeks. Captain, what are your orders?" Stewart then told the crowd, "Boldy go and beat the Buckeyes! Make it so, Number One!"
Ohio State doesn't stand a chance Saturday -- unless they can get Shatner on the phone.
Tolbert's Restaurant Victor Andrada The first time I saw Victor Andrada perform, a fly flew right into my mouth. His jaw-dropping voice made the winged-one a tasty treat. That was nearly five years ago and I've fallen in love with his music over and over again. Victor's songwriting ranges from blues to jazz to Tejano, to country. It's all good, know what I'm sayin'.
7:30 p.m. No cover. Between the Lines.mp3 by Victor Andrada
White Elephant Saloon Buddy Huffman (Macon Greyson) Acoustic What can I say about Buddy Huffman and Macon Greyson? Plenty. Buddy's music has been an inspiration to me on many levels. He does alt.country, Texas country, rock real good-like. You'll love him. Go see him perform. You will thank me in the morning.
8 p.m. Cover TBA. Wrong Way Around.mp3 by Macon Greyson
It was a dark day in American history when they pulled Arrested Development off the air last February. OK, maybe just in my history, but it was an atrocity nonetheless. My world crashed around me, leaving me rocking slowly back and forth in the fetal position, whispering Buster's name for months. Thankfully The Office, along with a handful of Prozac, helped me out of my Bluth-induced haze.
I never took A.D. off of my season pass manager, which left me a nice little surprise as of late. The clicker and I did a little happy jig last night when lo and behold, a season's worth of Arrested Development awaited a single click from my Now Playing box. Up until last night, I'd never heard of G4 TV. The station airs Arrested Development every weeknight at 10:30, therefore it is now my favorite station.
It's time again for the Plug Awards, and browsing the list of nominees, several local and regional bands and blogs caught my bloodshot eye. First a little about Plug...
PLUG is about the independent music community coming together to recognize our own. We’re fans from every walk of the music world who gather together each year to celebrate these artists who live and flourish in the margins. PLUG is about the artists who inspire and the music that disrupts the artistic and corporate mediocrity that dominates our culture.
Our very own Gorilla vs Bear, run by local indie-in-the-know Chris Cantalini, is up for two - count 'em two - awards (""Music Blog of the Year" & "Specialty Show of the Year"), and most assuredly needs to take home both crowns. Whenever I pull my nose out of the local music scene, I go directly to GvB for all my worldwide musical needs, as should you.
More nominees local in nature include: Best New Artist Voxtrot (Austin) The Black Angels (Austin)
The rest of the nominees aren't much of a surprise. With the rise of music blogs, most especially noted, award-winning blogs such as GvB, bands like Tapes 'n Tapes, Cat Powers, Jenny Lewis, Band of Horses, Joanna Newsom, Neko Case, etc. have become household names. Well...really cool, hip households.
Go here for a list of the other nominees and if'n you'd like to cast your vote. (*cough* Midlake)
Suing celebrities ain’t what it used to be. The whole fun of over litigiousesnessess is the ridiculous amounts of loot people feel that they should be compensated for after experiencing what is generally a rather benign “misfortune.”
For those of you who head south to Austin each spring for the music/film/people-watching orgy that is SXSW, get your badges by tomorrow to avoid an increase in prices. That $450 music registration jumps to $600 if you wait until March and walk up to register.
Think Cowboys owner Jerry Jones was glued to the set? Here's his take on Emmitt, courtesy of the DMN:
"I think I share the sentiments of Cowboys fans all over the country when I say how proud I am for Emmitt and his family on this outstanding accomplishment. I'd also add that, although we are all thrilled, we should not be surprised. Emmitt Smith is one of the greatest competitors that I have ever been around. ... This is another championship for a true Dallas Cowboys champion."
Yep, I was right. Hey, it wasn't that hard to predict. With a smile and an attitude like the former Cowboys running back displayed all season, how could America not let him have that cheesy-ass trophy? Mario might've been the best technical dancer -- OK, he was -- but that just doesn't stand up to a winning attitude. It also didn't hurt Emmitt that he had last year's champion, Cheryl Burke, by his side. Emmitt's wife, Pat, said it best in a taped interview that aired earlier in the hour: "When I first saw my husband get out there, it blew me away." We're with you, girl, we're with you.
Of course, the biggest winner of all this season was Dancing With the Stars itself. After humble beginnings as summer filler, and a second season which had its highs and lows ratings-wise, Dancing has amazed everyone this season by landing consistently in the Nielsen top five. But considering the drama of Sara Evans and the surprise prowess of both Emmitt and Mario, this could be the peak of the mountain. Guess we'll find out for sure next season.
Can we just get to the announcement already? The recaps at the beginning of tonight's Dancing With the Stars were highly unnecessary -- I mean, it was just last night. But then Emmitt and Mario got to do encore performances, which was a li'l bit more worthy of airtime. Emmitt and Cheryl did last night's samba again, including the part at the end where Em breaks it down something serious. Mario and Karina gave us an encore of the "It Takes Two" freestyle. I gotta say -- if they had done performances like that freestyle all season long, Emmitt might've had a harder time winning the whole thing. I know, I know, I'm jumping the gun. Nothing is announced yet. I just have a feeling. More to come.
The fifth issue of Marvel Comics' seven-part blockbuster came out today. I wouldn't dare spoil anything for my fellow fanboys and fangirls. As for the rest of you, who may have a casual interest in all this, keep reading.
... if I can wait until Friday, when For Your Considerationhits theaters. Just looking at the above photo tumped over my giggle box. But my giggle box is easily tumped. Anyone care to argue about which Christopher Guest flick is best so far? I'm a sucker for Best In Show. I always lose it when Jennifer Coolidge's character is talking about her 95-year-old husband: "We have so much in common! We both love soup ... and the outdoors ... snow peas ... talking and not talking."
Jets rookie running back Leon Washington says he's not using an obscene gesture in his Bowman "Signs of the Future" autographed football card put out by Topps. He says he's simply making an "E" with both hands to honor his hometown (the East side of Jacksonville). Hmm ... wonder why some fingers are hidden? "Maybe I should've taken the picture a different way," he told the Associated Press. Naturally, the card is fetching a nice price on eBay. Topps said it was an oversight.
People, the publication of choice for gay celebrities coming out of the closet, revealed today its latest sexiest man alive. George Clooney now joins his pal Brad Pitt as a two-time title holder.
The mag hasn't been this boring and predictable since Lance Bass was on the cover.
Last night, around 11 p.m., I really wanted a milkshake (not pregnant, just greedy), so the boy and I went to Steak and Shake.
On the way home, he said, "I hear that there are already people camping out at the Best Buy to get a PlayStation 3."
"No one's that weird," I said.
"Can we drive by and see?" he said.
I had just sucked down 20 ounces of eggnog ice cream, and I was feeling agreeable, so we cruised over to the store at 635 and Midway.
Sure enough, there were about a dozen people there, some playing catch in the parking lot, some hunched in their tents, and one actually playing Guitar Hero.
Yes. Someone actually brought a generator to play video games while they camped out in front of an electronics store to buy a video game console. It is the beautiful circle of geekery.
The December issue of Spin has a story about the music that the military blasts at prisoners at Guantanamo Bay. Among the bands played: our own Drowning Pool.
The Pop Shop goes all retro cartoony today. Leading the way is this supercool action figure of the one and only Fat Albert. I loved the show as a kid, and I'll even admit to laughing a few times during the recent live-action movie (Kenan Thompson dancing goofily gets me every time). And I always get a kick out of hearing that classic bass line from the theme song now and then on The Ticket.
Club Dada Sarah Jaffe / Karen Naomi / Travis Hopper / Hardcore Troubadour It's all about the tribute baby! What better dude to pay homage to than the incomparable Ryan Adams? Karen Naomi will be backed by some of the members from Millicent Friendly, Wonderfool, Johnny Lloyd Rollins and Preston Grey. Travis Hopper will be backed by Michael Crowder and some of the members of Airline.
8 p.m. $5.00 Cover. Summer Begs.mp3 by the incredibly talented Sarah Jaffe
Darkside Lounge The Lucky Stiffs Hailing from San Fran, these boys are gonna tear the Darkside stage up tonight with their own brand of rockin' hardcore punk...punk.
9 p.m. Cover TBA. Vacant City.mp3 by The Lucky Stiffs
According to this, it looks like The Magnolia in the West Village was the target for a smash-and-grab style robbery when someone drove a van into the building. Police think they were trying to get an ATM machine inside.
Given how narrow the streets are in that center, how’d they get enough momentum to actually damage anything?
I tried calling over to the theater to see how this would affect independent film lovers. Couldn’t get anyone live on the phone, but the automated system was nice enough to let me know that Shut Up & Sing would be starting in about an hour.
Our Austin homie DJ Chicken George put us up on a lil’ shindig Thursday night to celebrate the launch of something known as CultureLab Creative. CLC appears to be some sort of marketing research thingy that tells you what the kids are feelin’. Not sure what that means for you other than they’re throwing a party with potential good sexytime on the patio at Fuse.
Chicken George and DJ Sober will be holding down the decks and bullet points include free grub and cocktails starting at 7PM. RSVP to get your swerve on – agencyparty@culturelabcreative.com
Not sure if you heard, but Will Smith was in Dallas last night promoting his new movie, The Pursuit of Happyness. (Yes, happiness is spelled wrong on purpose, annoying writers and copy editors around the world.) There was a screening of the movie at AMC Northpark, and afterward, Smith took questions from the audience.
He looked quite trim in a charcoal gray suit, and he was funny and charming and seemed pretty-down to earth. The best question was the last one: Whatever happened to DJ Jazzy Jeff? (He's doing quite well, actually, and spun at Minc last November.)
The movie, by the way, is inspired by the true story of Chris Gardner-- a guy who went homeless for about a year while chasing dream of becoming a stockbroker.
"You got to sell your Coca-Cola, and your Chips Ahoy, and your super-deluxe tampons, and then you figure out how to fit the music in." That's one of Erykah Badu's many insightful-yet-hilarious remarks in Before the Music Dies, a documentary that compiles musicians' interviews and performance clips to tell the story of how big corporations took the heart and soul out of modern music. Also interviewed in the film -- directed by Andrew Shapter -- are Bonnie Raitt, Dave Matthews, Elvis Costello, Kacy Crowley and many more. But the filmmakers obviously have an affinity for Badu, who appears as much or more than any interview subject in the film, probably because she's a master of the witty soundbite (she says that to sell records today, you have to be "butt nekkid with glitter on you and a beeper.") Instead of getting a national release, the film is going on tour, with groups and businesses hosting screenings. There's one at 8 tonight at AllGood Cafe. Here's a trailer.
The Ticket signal has been restored. Host Craig "Junior" Miller apologized 15 minutes ago for the "technical difficulties" and reminded listeners that if the 1310 AM signal ever goes out, The Ticket can still be heard at 104.1 FM. I should have realized that. I guess I just panicked.
This past Sunday morning, owner John Zaskoda arrived at his Fort Worth business, Sessions Music Store, only to find his entire inventory cleaned out. Stolen items included vintage guitars, personal gear, consignment equipment and items in the shop for repair.
John Zaskoda, also a working musician himself, opened Sessions Music Store in October 2005. The store quickly became a hub for the local music community. The store also offers youth lessons, as well as consignment and repair services.
Not only will Zaskoda and his family (he's recently a new father of twins) take a hit from this crime, but numerous local musicians who had equipment in for repair will suffer losses as well.
An estimated $12,000 worth of merchandise was stolen, which does not include equipment in for repair or on consignment. Zaskoda is offering a cash reward for any information about this crime. Click below to view a complete list of the stolen merchandise.
Tonight at the Wreck Room in Fort Worth, join owner Zaskoda for a benefit open jam to help raise money to replace the stolen merchandise.
Maybe it has something to do with today's high winds, but The Ticket (KTCK-AM) went off the air 20 minutes ago. I have no idea how to continue my morning without it. I checked its sister stations -- The Bone, The Wolf and KLIF -- and they're all still broadcasting. So at least we know the Cumulus headquarters on Maple Avenue wasn't bombed.
Deep Ellum Cafe is back and better than ever. Tonight, join the good folks there for complimentary nibbles, mojitos and more.
"In 1987, Deep Ellum Cafe opened as Deep Ellum’s first fine dining restaurant. The idea behind the concept was that good food didn’t have to be pretentious or stuffy. We set the standard for all that would follow. Offering New American cuisine, our atmosphere is as diverse and eclectic as the people who are serving you. And while our menu stays fresh with new creations from the kitchen, our classic dishes which put Deep Ellum on the map are still on the menu today."
Wednesday, November 15th Deep Ellum Cafe
2706 Elm in Deep Ellum
6:30 until 9 p.m.
Complimentary appetizers. Wine and frozen mojitos. Live music by acoustic guitarist Ramoth Gilead.
If you can't make it out tonight, not to worry. Daily happy hour includes $2 wells and domestics, along with $3 wine by the glass from 2 to 7 p.m. Vintage cartoons and movies shown daily will keep you entertained. Or if you've got work to do, there's free Wi-fi.
For those of you who adore it when actors spontaneously break into song and dance on screen, this should be music to your ears: Fox Home Entertainment has just released on DVD four classic Rodgers and Hammerstein musicals, including Oklahoma!, Carousel, The King and I (above) and South Pacific. Universal is on the bandwagon with Flower Drum Song, a campy film totally worth the watch just to see Nancy Kwan belt out "I Enjoy Being a Girl."
The discs promise better sound and color along with some bonus features so you can curl up and dork out with all the extras.
I get there's no such thing as bad publicity. Well, I kind of get it, but O.J. Simpson is going a little too far.
O.J.'s new book, called If I Did It (seriously), goes on sale Nov. 30. If that's not strange enough, Mr. White Bronco will be on Fox on Nov. 27 doing an interview, titled "O.J. Simpson: If I Did It, Here's How It Happened," (seriously).
Here's the thing. O.J. isn't simply speculating on how the murders probably happened given the evidence. He's saying how he would have killed his wife and Ron Goldman ... if he had been the one to kill them, of course. (Clearly O.J. knows nothing of karma.)
Are you as morbidly intrigued as I am? And is it just me or do you think the interview title is a great big hint? It's "Here's How It Happened," not "Here's How It Would Have Happened." Hmmmm.
Yes, there's another game show. Show Me the Money. Hosted by your favorite space pioneer, William Shatner. More pretty girls, and they're dancing. But Shatner is dancing also. Oh my. He's shaking his tailfeather. That's funny.
It was the freestyle round, and lifts were allowed. Let’s do this.
Emmitt and Cheryl: Their lifts were a little shaky, but the fact that they pulled out the Hammer moves proved they were willing to take a risk. I think I’ve seen enough silly bicep bands to last a lifetime, though. Score: 29
Mario and Karina: “It Takes Two” to possibly woo the voters away from Emmitt. Personally, I thought their dance was cheesy enough to appear in an episode of Saved by the Bell. But they did have a lot of fun, and that’s more than I can say for most of their other performances this season. Score: 30
Final prediction: Well, what do you know? The judges’ scores made for another tie. Why am I not surprised? So it's up to the voters, and it's a tough call, but … Emmitt by a bicep band.
The finalists performed encores of their favorite dances from the season:
Emmitt and Cheryl: Once again, his shoes matched his shirt matched her dress — this time red all over. An overall fine performance. The overwhelming support from the judges scare me a little though. What if there’s Emmitt backlash with voters as a result? Naw ... Score: Three more tens!
Mario and Karina: I let out a groan when I heard they were doing the paso doble — that dance just bores me to tears. They sho nuff worked it out, though. But I could still look at Mario’s face and tell that he was going over the steps. Or maybe he was practicing his li'l speech about Karina: “She made me a better man.” Barf. Score: 30!
For the first dance, both couples were given the fantastic Stevie Wonder song “Sir Duke,” and told to do with it what they pleased. Both decided on the samba.
Emmitt and Cheryl: Just when I thought Emmitt’s shiny green shirt was the best part of this performance, he gave the finest finish of the season by doing some sort of indescribable, funked-up sidestep. Score: Three tens!
Mario and Karina: The former A.C. Slater knows what his fans like — he kept that smile plastered on his face, making perfect dimples the entire time. And he even did a little grindin’ at the end. The kid’s learning a little from Emmitt, I do believe. Score: 29
The crowd could barely contain its excitement at the beginning of Dancing With the Stars, even when Tom Bergeron and Samantha Harris were trying to deliver their cheesed-out intro copy. Looks like there'll be three dances from each finalist -- a repeat of a favorite past performance, a dance-off to the same song and -- the part I'm looking forward to most -- a freestyle. I could do with less of (1) the clips from past shows and (2) the footage of Mario and Karina pretending to hide their romance. Yeah, I said pretending. More to come after the first couple of rounds.
Today's WTF moment is brought to you by the New England Patriots, who have signed 43-year-old Vinny Testaverde. Can someone say panic button? Tom Brady has had a couple of bad games, but he by no means belongs on the bench. Maybe coach Bill Belichick is taking a page from Bill Parcells' motivational tools handbook. Let us hope.
What's wrong with you people? No one's even mentioned Emmitt Smith on Dancing With the Stars at 7 tonight on ABC. C'mon, it's the television event of the first half of November! Everyone's saying women inspired by Emmitt's booty-shakin', take-me-in-your-arms he-man sexiness will drag their men to Arthur Murray Dance Studios for lessons. I don't know. I think most people will take the easy way out and we'll just have a spike in baby births in nine months. We'll keep you posted!
The NBA All-Star ballot is out, and Mavericks fans have another reason to loathe the Spurs and Heat: They each got six players on the ballot, while the Mavericks got five. But hey, it's just the All-Star Game. Mavs seeking your votes are Dirk Nowitzki, Josh Howard, Jason Terry, Jerry Stackhouse and Erick Dampier. The game will be played in Las Vegas on Feb. 18. So go vote.
Hunting (haha) for the perfect gift for your crazy cousin? A&R Collectibles has developed a “moose mug” inspired by National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation. The acrylic mugs are $59.95 for a pair at www.arcollectibles.com. No fancy crystal here, folks. So get comfy in your trailer and pour some nog. The strong kind. Dickie not included.
Downtown Dallas gets a new restaurant tonight, a lovely thing since we have lost a few in that area recently. It's Luqa at 1217 Main St., a fancy-pants place with a two-story wine tower, rooftop garden, water feature and the chichi Petrus Lounge.
Dallas native and chef David Gilbert will be serving up the fare, which promises to blend "global aspects and avant-garde innovations," whatever that means. At the very least, it certainly sounds better than the Lean Cuisine I was planning on eating for dinner.
So Fergie is all over the radio these days talking about how all the boys “wanna slice” of what she’s got. And America’s tuning in tonight to see how well Mario Lopez does on Dancing with the Stars. But am I the only one who remembers when these two (along with Jennifer Love Hewitt) were just getting their start on the 1980s children’s program KIDS Incorporated?
Or am I just the only person in America who will admit that I woke up early on Saturday mornings so I could watch it?
Since Skin's on the Zune tip, it's probably worth mentioning that today's the first day Microsoft's music player is on sale. So far, it seems, only a few folks have gotten Zune fever. We'll see if all those marketing dollars eventually help Microsoft challenge the iPod's dominance.
I got a couple of Zunes in the mail yesterday, on loan from Microsoft, and my buddy Victor Godinez and I spent all morning wirelessly sending songs and photos to each other. Because we're dorks.
I'll have a full review in the paper later this week, but here's my early take: No vast improvement over the iPod, but a couple of nice touches -- the bigger screen, the radio tuner -- make it worth your consideration if you're in the market.
There was no one in the Quick newsroom more excited about the Sacha Cohen's Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan than I was.
Then the glorious day came, and I arrived at the Cinemark theater a full hour early, and I saw it, and it was ... OK.
But even though the movie disappointed me, now I have something new to be excited about: a plethora of fallout!
But more is coming every day! Look at this -- an article from ABC News suggests that Borat is making impressionable young people act sexist and anti-Semitic.
Is Borat the new Jackass? Yes. Except with Kazakh accents.
It appears Ashley Judd has decided to bare all for the December cover of Marie Claire. I'm not really sure how her breasts are going to be involved in a "fight to change the world" as the cover teases, but it might make for an titillating tale (sorry, couldn't help myself).
Dallas based hip-hop producer Rob Vik is featured in one of the new ads for the Microsoft Zune MP3 player. We finally caught it on YouTube and it's a really cool spot. Shot in Mr. Dibbs' basement, the gritty look and Latin groove reminds us of one of our favorite flix - Before Night Falls. This makes sense considering the hip-hop community's tendency to embrace gay writers. What?
The West End's got a new nightclub. The Tunnel opens this Thursday in the space next to the now-closed M5. Though the name isn't exactly original (there was a Tunnel in New York City, and one in D.C.), they've booked a big-name DJ for the opening-night bash.
Roger Sanchez, a Grammy-winning DJ and producer, normally spins in places like Ibiza. (As I sidenote, I actually saw him spin in Barcelona in 1998.... it was among the crazier nights out I've had, involving cheap wine, a beach and waffles.)
Anyway, The Tunnel's got lots of other stuff lined up too. If you check 'em out, let me know what you think.
I typically fall for male actors in shirtless roles, but this time a woman has won me over. (Basically because I wish I looked just like her ... yet I don't hate her ... odd). Anyway, I am glad to see that Indira Varma (left, not Stanley Tucci) has a new role as a doctor in 3 Lbs (9 tonight on Channel 11). She was fascinatingly beautiful as the troubled yet spunky Niobe in HBO's Rome (read her profile here). But then she threw herself off of a balcony. I think I remember crying. And usually I only do that during Cheaters.
Nip/Tuck has seemingly done it all: Dead mobsters in the living room. Transexual life coaches. Porn stars turned Scientologists. And the once-innocent Melissa Gilbert taking a dog for a lover.
Tonight the F/X show fast-forwards 20 years to show us how the lives of the most deliciously dysfunctional characters on television wind up. But more importantly, tonight’s episode is quite possibly the last for Joely Richardson. The British actress is leaving the show because her daughter requires medical attention.
Of course, now there’s nothing stopping Christian from acting on those strange thoughts, dreams and Brooke Shields-planted notions he’s been having about Sean all season. But Miami just won’t be the same without Julia around to be the moral anchor. Well, as moral as you can be when you're having an affair with the midget manny.
I've been doing this music thing for more than six years now. There are plenty of excellent local bands that get loads of attention with the growing number of music blogs and sites popping up every 10 minutes or so. Since much of the scene is so heavily covered, and of course Hunter is here to keep up with the bunch, I thought I'd redirect my attention toward new bands, or at least bands that nobody is talking about, but display darn fine sounds.
While working on Tonight's top five, I came across another excellent show produced by Carlin Stultz of Callithump Productions. Carlin throws a weekly (Tuesday nights) shindig at Club Dada and her taste is quite splendid. 'Nuther words, the broad knows good bands. I went in search of one of the local bands on tonight's bill at Dada and was quite pleased with what I heard.
There's not much I can tell you about the band other than its members are Guy "Fritz" Fitz, Ryan "Bryan" Rhodes, Jason Quincy "Mason" Romine, Curtis Tinsley, Jonathan "Geni" Toles, Laura Watkins. I can also tell you that their old-school new wave, new-school electronica sound has me captivated. I'll see what I can find out and get backatcha post haste. Meantime, enjoy another tune.
Check out clips from Ben & Skin's recent show on TXA21, including the postgame press conference. Mavericks Jerry Stackhouse, Devin Harris, Maurice Ager, DeSagana Diop and Austin Croshere play along nicely. And Dirk wears a funny wig.
Mötley Crüe is coming to town on Wednesday. While there is sure to be plenty of swag at the show to stock up on for Christmas gifts, the true Crüe fan in your life would like something that is one-of-a-kind. How about some sweet moon boots worn by Nikki Sixx himself? OK, maybe they aren’t moon boots, but they are sweet. Nikki is auctioning on eBay stage-worn boots and a military shirt to benefit his The Running Wild in the Night Foundation. Get a piece of their action here!
Rob Liefeld was the first “rock star” among comic book artists. His record-breaking sales in the early 1990s on X-Force led to his being featured in a Levi’s jeans commercial directed by Spike Lee.
Missed deadlines and troubling anatomy (his characters’, not his own) caused him to fall out of favor. The problems peaked after Marvel granted him complete editorial control of Captain America and The Avengers beginning in late 1996. The initiative was known as “Heroes Reborn.”
Ten years later, Liefeld’s returning to that storyline with Onslaught Reborn, a five-issue sequel written by Jeph Loeb. The first issue is due in stores Nov. 29. You can watch Marvel’s official serious preview, but we prefer the musical one.
By the by, Liefeld will be picking football games against the Quick staff in Thursday’s paper.
The Cavern Performing:The Lost Generation hosted by DJ Mwanza You'll hear music from bands such as Jesus Lizard, Sonic Youth, My Bloody Valentine, Black Sabbath, New Order and more.
10 p.m. No cover. $2 wells and domestics.
Recently we sat down with Josh Venable, host of the The Adventure Club on 102.1 KDGE. He started out in the biz as an enthusiastic teenager. Twelve years later, he continues to host his award-winning weekly show with that same enthusiasm and passion.
We talked about radio then and now, his favorite music, the local scene and more. Big-ups to Reid Robinson for sitting in with me and asking the really important questions.
Be sure and tune into The Adventure Club with Josh every Sunday night from 6 - 9 p.m.
T.O. just appeared on Live With the Cheeseballs. Reege tried to chest-bump him, but had to jump up to do it. Very awkward man moment. Kelly tried to get him to dance ("Can you bust a move?"). Very awkward woman moment.
Borat's everywhere, and who wouldn't want a piece of that Kazakh cash cow?
Her high hopes riding the hype, this eBay seller shows off her very own balloon sculpture of Sacha Baron Cohen's fictional journalist, not to mention an impressive set of lungs. She gets the goofy grin and the raised index finger down.
Gwen Stefani leads our Roll Call list in Quick today. Her new album, The Sweet Escape, hits stores on Dec. 5.
If you haven't seen the video for "Wind it Up," you should. It's a little odd. Gwen goes all Sound of Music on us, even turning curtains into oh-so-hip outfits for her young army of dancers. Julie Andrews, thankfully, does not make a cameo.
The recent return of the Geico caveman ads remind us of what we consider perhaps the boldest stroke in acting history. We’ve always found it a tad pretentious that “real” actors are above doing television. As if network TV hasn’t provided us with plenty of cinema-worthy programming (Uhh, hello – Eight Is Enough anyone?).
That’s why we applaud the greatness of Val Kilmer, a man we’ve always considered an actor’s actor. Not only has he gone the TV route, but he took it to that next level and rocked a commercial. Kudos to you, sweet fake Lizard King. And cheers to you Geico, for being on some ol' next-level bidness.
Hooray, Quick finally has a blog. Welcome to The Official First Day of Blah Blah Blah, our pop culture and other stuff blog. (We've been playing around on it for several days, as you can see).
Our mission: To provide a not-so-serious daily discussion of local and national entertainment, sports and news absurdities, and any other oddities that make our heads cock to the side like a dog.
As always, we welcome your feedback. You can reply to our posts (keep it clean, if you know what we mean) or e-mail us at quicknews@quickdfw.com.
I fell asleep with the TV on the other night, so I thought this was only a nightmare I was having. Turns out it's true: If you haven't heard, Twisted Sister really has a Christmas album out to celebrate its 30 years of ... uh, twistedness. A Twisted Christmas was released last month and includes rockin' tunes "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas," "Deck the Halls" and "O Come All Ye Faithful."
You gotta love Kim Jong-il. He's a hilarious guy, and he probably doesn't even know it. Well, let's hope he doesn't. (Typo Dong missile.)
The North Korean prez gets five kinds of mocked on this fake blog, a collection of instant messages the tyrant has with several other world leaders, including President Bush. When he's not in spats with Saddam ("How can we be an Axis of Evil if we don't cooperate?"), he's battling Bush ("You shut up or I'll send a tornado over there"). And you can always count on Bush for a well-timed typo.
It's good stuff. The blog's real author is a guy named Rain from New York City. Only wish he updated more often (last entry: July 2006), especially given recent events.
Seagoville’s own LaMarcus Aldridge had his first dalliance with NBA burn last night against the hometown Mavericks. The former Longhorn, who was Portland’s second overall pick in last June’s draft, made his debut after missing the Blazers' first six games with a bad case of sportshurt.
Aldridge left our beloved Horns after his sophomore year, cheating us all out of the potentially devastating one-two punch with freshman Kevin Durant. We can at least take solace in the fact that the kid represented well, going for 10 and 8 despite seeing big doses of Dirk Nowitzness. Kind of makes up for all the suck Kenyon Martin has been doling out since he got stupid paid. Dallas hoops stand up!
I'm all for the downtown renaissance, which is why it pains me to say that I'm not too impressed by Clear Ultra Lounge, the new chic and sassy (or wannabe chic and sassy) club in the Davis Building. It opened on Friday.
The Web site said all this stuff about members-only, a classy experience, etc., but when we walked in late Friday the DJ was bumping "Grillz" (a very sports-bar song for a swanky lounge crowd -- at least give us the new Jay-Z!), and the place smelled like wet paint. Plus there were drink stains on some of the VIP lounge furniture.
Now, this was only opening night, so hopefully it gets better as time goes on.
Which brings me to my question: How many ultra-lounges can this city handle?
News of Jack Palance's death brought up all those City Slickers-one-armed-pushup references. But my lingering memory of him is from Batman, when he clutches Jack Nicholson and says, "You [shhheahhhhh heavy-breathing noise] are my number oneeee [shhheahhhhh heavy-breathing noise] guy."
We've all seen the spectacular rise of Tony Romo's career, but it seems his personal life seeing a big change, as well.
Remember reading Lesley's story, "Huddle up with Tony Romo," in which the newest Cowboy sensation said he's always been a Jessica Simpson fan?
Well, I heard this morning on 99.5 The Wolf that Jessica had her people call Tony's people, and the two have already gone out on a date. I am now taking bets on how long it'll be before MTV moves in with a reality show.
So the much-hyped trailer for The Simpsons Movie finally debuted last night. And it was fairly funny, in a CGI-spoofing kind of way. But the meat of it looked like any other episode. Which leads to several questions:
Will the movie turn out to be the equivalent of three episodes strung together?
Will it be as wildly successful as The Powerpuff Girls Movie?
Will Groundskeeper Willie become the star he deserves to be?
Will Lenny and Carl finally give in to their urges?
I was surfing MySpace the other day. You know, checking out the star's sites. I ran across Young Jeezy's site. I heard a new track on the radio the other day and wanted to check it out. To my surprise, his tracks were free to download. Thanks, Jeezy.
I stood in line for about 10 minutes and became the lucky recipient of a preorder Nintendo Wii. So what should I do? Keep it? Sell it? Camp out at Wal-Mart for the PS3? The PS3 is soooo expensive ($599). The Wii is reasonable ($249). Guess I'll see how much I can get on eBay. Maybe get that sleeping bag ready for Wal-Mart.
Finally got a chance to check out Running with Scissors, the movie based on Augusten Burroughs’ hilarious book. As usual, things don’t always translate well from page to screen. But it’s still a great flick and the soundtrack kicks butt. Oh, and I can totally see what all the Oscar buzz for Annette Bening was about. I’d say she has a shot.
As long as Hilary Swank isn’t in anything for the rest of the year.
Check out this week's Gemini Disco Soul Party, in which Skin gets an exclusive one-on-one with Ben Rogers. We suspect they might have collaborated once or twice before. Anyway, Ben has some hip-hop flavor, too, with the Coffee Nods. Enjoy.
Moving 107.5 is my new guilty radio pleasure. I'm not ashamed to admit that I got a kick out of hearing C+C Music Factory's "Gonna Make You Sweat" and the SNL-head-bobbing "what is love?" song on the same trip. But is this new station already getting off message? The other day they played "Sign Your Name" by Terrence Trent D'arby. Great song, but it doesn't make me want to shake that ass.
If you haven't heard, Nikita (in the West Village) and M5 (in the West End) have shut down. No word yet on whether Nikita will reopen, but M5's DD Johnson says he got bought out. Expect a new club there sometime soon. In the meantime, you'll have to get your Russian vodka and college girls' phone numbers somewhere else....
So Tony is supposedly going on a date with Jessica Simpson tonight. Perhaps our Lesley Tellez helped play matchmaker. Here's her interview with the Cowboys quarterback last month.
Divorce is never fun. Unless it's Britney Spears' and K-Fed's divorce. As soon as Brit filed her court papers, the headlines popped up: "He's now Fed Ex." "K-Fed Up." "K-Fed Exed." Others are nastier. The Calgary Sun in Canada wrote "What took her so long?" MSNBC.com had: "Wannabe rapper can now sell his CDs out of the trunk of his Ferrari." One headline made us feel kinda sorry for the K-ster. MTV.com posted "K-Fed's MTV News Interview Days Ago Revealed No Hint Of Marital Trouble." Awwww. OK, sorry is over. Back to fun.
Like most Americans, I feel that the world has been waiting for me to do a funny, insightful blog that catalogues my footsteps, meals, perceived slights and awkward lovemaking. However, the world will have to keep on waiting because I now have the opportunity to participate in the new Quick blog. This is the place where young writers and community college dropouts from Quick will digitally gather to share analysis and witty observation. Having no facility for analysis or witty observation myself, I offer my lunch.
Half a cod on wheat toast.
Beer
wedge of birthday cake
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Fort Worth rapper Twisted Black had a promising career in the music industry, but apparently the drug trade was more alluring. A Midland jury has found him guilty of crack possession with intent to distribute. I haven't seen the court documents yet, but Matt Sonzala, a Houston promoter who knows these things, 
