<![CDATA[Dallas Observer | Complete Issue]]> http://dallasobserver.com en-us Mon, 08 Sep 2008 01:44:29 -0500 Mon, 08 Sep 2008 01:44:29 -0500 http://dallasobserver.com/syndication Village Voice Media XML Feed Generator editor@dallasobserver.com webmaster@dallasobserver.com <![CDATA[Six Pac]]> http://www.dallasobserver.com/2008-09-04/news/six-pac Father murdered. Mother imprisoned. Drugs. Fights. Guns. Lies. Suspensions. Handcuffs. Electronic monitoring devices. Irrepressible urges. Intuitive receivers. Irrational media.

The works.

Adam "Pacman" Jones has bee...]]> Thu, 04 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.dallasobserver.com/2008-09-04/news/six-pac <![CDATA[The Anti-Dittohead]]> http://www.dallasobserver.com/2008-09-04/news/the-anti-dittohead When Jack Jett sits in front of the microphone on September 6 and hits the airwaves for the first time, he'll be trying to succeed in a market that might not be prepared for what he brings to the table. Jett has never done radio before and is trying his hand at liberal talk radio as an openly gay...]]> Thu, 04 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.dallasobserver.com/2008-09-04/news/the-anti-dittohead <![CDATA[A Blatant Diss|Don't Get Fooled Again]]> http://www.dallasobserver.com/2008-09-04/news/you-said-it "César Chávez, Texas," by Jim Schutze, August 28

A Blatant Diss

As a Texan, I must stand up for the principle that César Ch&aacut...]]> Thu, 04 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.dallasobserver.com/2008-09-04/news/you-said-it <![CDATA[In the Cards]]> http://www.dallasobserver.com/2008-09-04/news/buzz In the cards: Only a fool would predict the outcome of a hotly contested election more than two months out. So, all righty then, here goes: The election for Dallas County sheriff will go 52-48. You read it here first.

What, you say you want to know who will win? OK then, Mr....]]> Thu, 04 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.dallasobserver.com/2008-09-04/news/buzz <![CDATA[Toll You So]]> http://www.dallasobserver.com/2008-09-04/news/toll-you-so On November 6, 2007, a referendum to kill the Trinity River toll road failed at the polls. I was for the referendum. The side I was on lost. I think I was fairly open about what my attitude would be from then forward. Sour grapes.

What's wrong with sour grapes? I like sour grapes. They su...]]> Thu, 04 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.dallasobserver.com/2008-09-04/news/toll-you-so <![CDATA[Ask a Mexican]]> http://www.dallasobserver.com/2008-09-04/news/ask-a-mexican Dear Mexican: I'm an illegal alien. Got here on a tourist visa and stayed for a job. My gabacho employer knows about it and doesn't give a crap. I don't apologize about it, as ever since I can remember, the United States of America has meddled around other countries' busin...]]> Thu, 04 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.dallasobserver.com/2008-09-04/news/ask-a-mexican <![CDATA[Dirty Talk]]> http://www.dallasobserver.com/2008-09-04/music/dirty-talk You'd think that, after 20 years of hearing his band described as the quintessential grunge group, Mudhoney frontman Mark Arm might have succumbed to the inherent weight and common associations of the term.

Yet Arm (real name McLaughlin) disputes the word "grunge" as applied to his band, ...]]> Thu, 04 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.dallasobserver.com/2008-09-04/music/dirty-talk <![CDATA[<i>Pet</i> Peeves]]> http://www.dallasobserver.com/2008-09-04/music/pet-peeves Influence is a funny thing.

Unlike inspiration, which can strike at any time, influence seems to follow the trends of what's hot in music. It's rare for an act to dip into the music history archives and pull out an interesting, ear-catching influence without others quickly following suit....]]> Thu, 04 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.dallasobserver.com/2008-09-04/music/pet-peeves <![CDATA[Red Monroe, Baboon, Pikahsso and Tahiti with Glen Reynolds]]> http://www.dallasobserver.com/2008-09-04/music/red-monroe-baboon-pikahsso-and-tahiti-with-glen-reynolds It's quite appropriate that such a diverse lineup would play at the closing party for the Jason Janik exhibition at Kettle Art Gallery. Over the past decade, Janik's photgraphy has captured striking images of musicians ranging from Tripping Daisy and Dimebag Darrell to, um, Vanilla Ice and an ama...]]> Thu, 04 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.dallasobserver.com/2008-09-04/music/red-monroe-baboon-pikahsso-and-tahiti-with-glen-reynolds <![CDATA[The New Year]]> http://www.dallasobserver.com/2008-09-04/music/the-new-year In the 16 years since the "Bedside Table"/"Living Well" 7-inch scored a direct hit, Los Bros Kadane (Matt and Bubba, where you been?) have never disappointed and always delighted—astounded, even, by which I mean usually. Theirs has always been a singular brand of quiet-loud-LOUDER that, upo...]]> Thu, 04 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.dallasobserver.com/2008-09-04/music/the-new-year <![CDATA[Sensory System]]> http://www.dallasobserver.com/2008-09-04/music/sensory-system James Mulhern, guitarist/vocalist of What Laura Says Thinks and Feels, speaks of his first concert experience with pride. It was a Bon Jovi show; Mulhern was in the ninth row, and it was "pretty badass."

The rest of the band, meanwhile, has no qualms about listing the "skin flute" as one ...]]> Thu, 04 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.dallasobserver.com/2008-09-04/music/sensory-system <![CDATA[Janiva Magness]]> http://www.dallasobserver.com/2008-09-04/music/janiva-magness The old adage is that folks who excel at playing the blues are the ones who have lived the blues. Coming from Los Angeles (by way of Detroit), Janiva Magness is a blues/R&B diva that has more than paid her dues over three decades of recording and performing. And, perhaps as a result, Magness' mos...]]> Thu, 04 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.dallasobserver.com/2008-09-04/music/janiva-magness <![CDATA[Faux Fox]]> http://www.dallasobserver.com/2008-09-04/music/faux-fox Faux Fox's latest, All That Remains, will make you want to fashion some sort of bizarre shrine to Gary Numan, Depeche Mode, irony and tight pants using decoupage and fake fur. It'll make you want to fuck around on your SK-1 and record brazenly self-indulgent lyrics in your bedroom while simultane...]]> Thu, 04 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.dallasobserver.com/2008-09-04/music/faux-fox <![CDATA[Something For Nothing]]> http://www.dallasobserver.com/2008-09-04/music/something-for-nothing Earlier this year, Radiohead released its latest album, In Rainbows, on its Web site using a pay-what-you-wish model. A few months later, Nine Inch Nails released Ghosts I-IV employing a similar scheme, only with more business savvy: There was a tiered scale with prices ranging from...]]> Thu, 04 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.dallasobserver.com/2008-09-04/music/something-for-nothing <![CDATA[Why?, Mount Eerie, Fishboy]]> http://www.dallasobserver.com/2008-09-04/music/why-mount-eerie-fishboy Jangle-rap? Pop 'n' roll? Rock-hop? Whatever the label, Oakland's Why?, the delightfully subversive trio led by Yoni Wolf, raises the bar for innovation yet again with Alopecia. The follow-up to 2005's Elephant Eyelash, it finds Wolf and company (joined this time around by Andrew Br...]]> Thu, 04 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.dallasobserver.com/2008-09-04/music/why-mount-eerie-fishboy <![CDATA[Lee "Scratch" Perry]]> http://www.dallasobserver.com/2008-09-04/music/lee-scratch-perry Onstage and in interviews, Lee "Scratch" Perry's persona is a mix of giddy surrealism, folk wisdom, apocalyptic theology and simple crudity (fart jokes, raw sex talk). And while there's fun to be had listening to him ramble, when you unpack his riffs, there are deep worries in there—his lin...]]> Thu, 04 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.dallasobserver.com/2008-09-04/music/lee-scratch-perry <![CDATA[Common, N.E.R.D.]]> http://www.dallasobserver.com/2008-09-04/music/common-n-e-r-d Although Common is eager to discuss the future of his burgeoning acting career—"I want you to be able to say, 'Common's one of the great actors of our time,'" he says, with all earnestness—the two-time Grammy winner (he's been nominated 11 times) is still best known for his socially c...]]> Thu, 04 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.dallasobserver.com/2008-09-04/music/common-n-e-r-d <![CDATA[Stereolab]]> http://www.dallasobserver.com/2008-09-04/music/stereolab In the '90s, Stereolab albums were charming junkshops selling rock history's neglected treasures, mainly '60s French pop and '70s Krautrock. This decade, on one chirpy release after another, the London-based group's extreme stylistic conservatism has been laid bare, its retro-rock demoted from "i...]]> Thu, 04 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.dallasobserver.com/2008-09-04/music/stereolab <![CDATA[Cheap Hookah]]> http://www.dallasobserver.com/2008-09-04/dining/cheap-hookah Upon hearing I had been assigned the duty of reviewing Al Amir, a Lebanese restaurant way up on Belt Line, I decided to study the restaurant's Web site. This, after all, was no casual trek to the corner diner. Nope, it was to be a foray into a foreign land, a journey to a place few people ...]]> Thu, 04 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.dallasobserver.com/2008-09-04/dining/cheap-hookah <![CDATA[Hook Line and Sinker]]> http://www.dallasobserver.com/2008-09-04/dining/cheap-bastard Single-serving bottles of Beringer on the counter count: 8
People in line in front of me count: 4

Hook Line & Sinker is the clogged artery in the heart of Uptown. And I mean that as a good thing. This beaten-down, piece-of-shit, Christmas-light-colored building is a tota...]]> Thu, 04 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.dallasobserver.com/2008-09-04/dining/cheap-bastard <![CDATA[In the Heat of the Knight]]> http://www.dallasobserver.com/2008-09-04/film/in-the-heat-of-the-knight And so another summer movie season comes to an end, not with a bang but a whimper—what else to call four new releases (Babylon A.D., Bangkok Dangerous, College and Disaster Movie) in the past 10 days that weren't prescreened for critics by their distributo...]]> Thu, 04 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.dallasobserver.com/2008-09-04/film/in-the-heat-of-the-knight <![CDATA[Gut Reaction]]> http://www.dallasobserver.com/2008-09-04/calendar/gut-reaction Thu, 04 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.dallasobserver.com/2008-09-04/calendar/gut-reaction <![CDATA[What It Is]]> http://www.dallasobserver.com/2008-09-04/calendar/what-it-is ART is ART, the family-run East Dallas consignment store/local art depot that moved last year from its smaller digs on Oram to a bigger and better home on Henderson Avenue, is now celebrating its first anniversary i...]]> Thu, 04 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.dallasobserver.com/2008-09-04/calendar/what-it-is <![CDATA[Fancy Fiddle]]> http://www.dallasobserver.com/2008-09-04/calendar/fancy-fiddle Thu, 04 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.dallasobserver.com/2008-09-04/calendar/fancy-fiddle <![CDATA[Joe Fashion]]> http://www.dallasobserver.com/2008-09-04/calendar/joe-fashion Project Runway knows, much has been said over the blending of fabric and art in the name of fashion. But what about blending fabric and art in the name of art? Artist Joseph Havel does just that in his exhibition of sculptural constructions based on the drapery and other technic...]]> Thu, 04 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.dallasobserver.com/2008-09-04/calendar/joe-fashion <![CDATA[Abba Zabba]]> http://www.dallasobserver.com/2008-09-04/calendar/abba-zabba Mamma Mia! opened to impressive box-office action, but is it really any surprise? The stage version of Mamma Mia! has been an international hit since its West End debut almost 10 years ago, so ...]]> Thu, 04 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.dallasobserver.com/2008-09-04/calendar/abba-zabba <![CDATA[Laugh Out Proud]]> http://www.dallasobserver.com/2008-09-04/calendar/laugh-out-proud Thu, 04 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.dallasobserver.com/2008-09-04/calendar/laugh-out-proud <![CDATA[Pickin' Circle]]> http://www.dallasobserver.com/2008-09-04/calendar/pickin-circle O Brother, Where Art Thou? I was 9 and riding with my grandpa through the pinewood forests surrounding Hot Springs, Arkansas. Grandpa was running errands. I was tagging along. He slid a cassette into the tape player, and...]]> Thu, 04 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.dallasobserver.com/2008-09-04/calendar/pickin-circle <![CDATA[Iron Eagles]]> http://www.dallasobserver.com/2008-09-04/calendar/iron-eagles Shockwave on The History Channel; and, finally, going to see "Warbirds on Parade," a dis...]]> Thu, 04 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.dallasobserver.com/2008-09-04/calendar/iron-eagles <![CDATA[The Magical Fruit]]> http://www.dallasobserver.com/2008-09-04/calendar/the-magical-fruit Jack and the Beanstalk, telling him not to take beans either. Why'd she get so pissed? Plus, he's not going to eat them; he's going to stick them in the dirt and wa...]]> Thu, 04 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.dallasobserver.com/2008-09-04/calendar/the-magical-fruit <![CDATA[Same Old Song]]> http://www.dallasobserver.com/2008-09-04/calendar/same-old-song America's Funniest Home Videos-style tribute to the antics of the elderly. But Mark Carroll Productions beat us to the punch and used it for an old-timey song-and-dance revue featuring around 150 local senior talent...]]> Thu, 04 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.dallasobserver.com/2008-09-04/calendar/same-old-song <![CDATA[Sitcom Survivor]]> http://www.dallasobserver.com/2008-09-04/calendar/sitcom-survivor Thu, 04 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.dallasobserver.com/2008-09-04/calendar/sitcom-survivor <![CDATA[Hot, Hot, Hot]]> http://www.dallasobserver.com/2008-09-04/calendar/hot-hot-hot Chile Pepper magazine's Zest Fest. A surefire way to spice up the weekend, the event is a celebration of piquant preparations and fiery fare. Billed as "the ultimate party for bold and flavorful food enthusiasts," attendees will be serena...]]> Thu, 04 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.dallasobserver.com/2008-09-04/calendar/hot-hot-hot <![CDATA[Hot Potato]]> http://www.dallasobserver.com/2008-09-04/calendar/hot-potato Shine + Burn through a variation on the exquisite corpse game, passing shapes back and forth until they evolve from tiny models into much larger works. As I can't find pictures, I can only guess how the project looks. They're ...]]> Thu, 04 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.dallasobserver.com/2008-09-04/calendar/hot-potato <![CDATA[Equal Pours]]> http://www.dallasobserver.com/2008-09-04/calendar/equal-pours Thu, 04 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.dallasobserver.com/2008-09-04/calendar/equal-pours <![CDATA[Bend Over Freshman]]> http://www.dallasobserver.com/2008-09-04/calendar/bend-over-freshman Thu, 04 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.dallasobserver.com/2008-09-04/calendar/bend-over-freshman <![CDATA[Penelope Pan]]> http://www.dallasobserver.com/2008-09-04/calendar/penelope-pan Peter Pan always being played by a girl? Mary Martin, Sandy Duncan, then Cathy Rigby--all flying around the theater on wires like a heavenly marionette act. No wonder Peter doesn't want to grow up--he'd have to lose the tights and makeup and get a career job in a monkey...]]> Thu, 04 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.dallasobserver.com/2008-09-04/calendar/penelope-pan <![CDATA[Controversial Bob]]> http://www.dallasobserver.com/2008-09-04/calendar/controversial-bob Zack and Miri Make a Porno, getting smacked with an NC-17. Luckily, when you've got a mad cult following, ba...]]> Thu, 04 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.dallasobserver.com/2008-09-04/calendar/controversial-bob <![CDATA[Helium High]]> http://www.dallasobserver.com/2008-09-04/calendar/helium-high The Red Balloon are woven into a beautiful, modern-day story about art, childhood and family in Hou Hsiao-hsien's Flight of the Red Balloon. When life beg...]]> Thu, 04 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.dallasobserver.com/2008-09-04/calendar/helium-high <![CDATA[Adam And Squeeze]]> http://www.dallasobserver.com/2008-09-04/calendar/adam-and-squeeze Squeeze. You probably picture that awkward and embarrassing scene in Reality Bites where those wacky slackers sing along to "Tempted" on the radio. As if that song wasn't overplayed to death a million times already. The s...]]> Thu, 04 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.dallasobserver.com/2008-09-04/calendar/adam-and-squeeze <![CDATA[Back In Time]]> http://www.dallasobserver.com/2008-09-04/calendar/back-in-time Huey Lewis and the News could dominate pop charts and MTV alongside a balding Phil Collins. Man, things sure have changed. And whether you think they've changed for the better or worst will determine your interest in seeing the News this week. We'r...]]> Thu, 04 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.dallasobserver.com/2008-09-04/calendar/back-in-time <![CDATA[Manimals]]> http://www.dallasobserver.com/2008-09-04/calendar/manimals The Island of Dr. Moreau grew o...]]> Thu, 04 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.dallasobserver.com/2008-09-04/calendar/manimals <![CDATA[A Mean Pinball]]> http://www.dallasobserver.com/2008-09-04/calendar/a-mean-pinball Thu, 04 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.dallasobserver.com/2008-09-04/calendar/a-mean-pinball <![CDATA[Who Knew]]> http://www.dallasobserver.com/2008-09-04/culture/who-knew Maybe the blue-hairs in the audience didn't see it coming. Or, then again, maybe they did—it's not as if The Who's Tommy maintains a reputation as a production tailor-made for the older theatergoing crowd.

So, surely, the seemingly sedate audience attending last...]]> Thu, 04 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.dallasobserver.com/2008-09-04/culture/who-knew