In my last exciting entry, I told you about my recent visit to the House of Blues in Dallas, which I rather enjoyed and heartily endorse to you all. When I left you, we were waiting for the band (Tokio Hotel) to come on stage. And waiting. And waiting.
That’s the Tokio Hotel symbol up there on the curtain, by the way.
Tags: Culture · Food · Art · Live Music · Attractions · Events
I spent the evening of August 27, 2008 (last night, as I write this missive) at the Dallas iteration of the House of Blues. HOB is a relatively new addition to the West End; it’s been there, at 2200 N. Lamar, only since 2007. I’ve never been inside before, much less to one of their many concerts, but I have to say this: both are a kick. Especially when you’re rockin’ to a band as young and energetic as Tokio Hotel.
Tags: Food · Culture · Live Music · Attractions · Events
Finally, finally, I’m back. As I mentioned in this entry, I’ve been moving my household, and oh what a pain it’s been. Not only was the move massive — I had to move a whole house full of stuff as well as the leftover stock of my defunct bookstore — the Internet company blundered and turned off my Internet on August 19, A WEEK EARLY. I got it back up a day or so later, but of course all that punched a big hole in my production schedule. I’m still catching up.
Tags: Food · Culture · Shopping · Live Music · Attractions
While tooling around looking for the neighborhood of Lower Greenville recently, I somehow ended up at White Rock Lake and came across the Bath House Cultural Center. Now, anyone who knows Dallas would probably wonder how the hell I managed to end up there when I was supposedly heading for a whole other part of the city, and don’t ask me how it happened; my only excuse is that I was suffering from a combination of too much heat, irritation at a condescending store clerk, an upset stomach, and an annoying bout of moving house. Yes, I really have been living in Dallas for 15 years, and yes, I really did get completely turned around the other day. These things happen to me. Look, shut up.*
Tags: Culture · Parks · Art · Attractions · Area Lakes · Architecture · Theaters
To paraphrase an old Mark Chestnutt song, I’ll sure be glad when these ol’ dog days of summer are gone. There’s just not much brewing here in the middle of August, when it’s omigod hot and the days go on and on — what Southern novelist Babs Deal described as “acres of afternoon.” You want to know what I’ve got planned for the rest of this month? Well, you’ve seen a lot of it already in my recent entries on July Jazz and Symphonic Saturdays, both of which we can thank the civic-minded Town of Addison for. So gracias, Addison, for doing your damnedest to keep culture alive as we slide slowly toward fall.
Tags: Culture · Food · Art · Live Music · Attractions · Events
It’s August in DFW, and you know what that means? Yep, dozens of days in a row with triple-digit temperatures, and not a hell of a lot going on around the metroplex — because hey, it’s too bloody hot. Thank goodness that there’s an oasis in the cultural drought we’ve got around here, and it’s called Addison.
Tags: Parks · Culture · Live Music · Events
There was a time — up until last year, actually — that Garland was well known in the area for its extravagant, multi-day Star Spangled Fourth celebration. It used to be three days of festivities scattered over several venues, including the Old Downtown, and the city went all out to support it. As you may have gathered from my groans in several previous entries, however, those days are past. This year, the SSF was diminished to one location, one day: July 4 itself, at the sprawling shopping center called Firewheel on the north side of town, nearly in the neighboring city of Sachse. While I’ve made no bones about the fact that this annoys me — I used to own a business in that now-ignored Old Downtown — I guess I shouldn’t blame the city too much. They’re probably under a budgetary crunch in these days of $4 gas and mortgage meltdowns, and Firewheel has got to bring in substantially more tax money than the Old Downtown does. Heck, the Barnes and Noble alone probably does that.
Tags: Culture · Live Music · Attractions · Events
I’ve mentioned before that you can usually find something cooking at Trader’s Village in Grand Prairie, generally in the venerable Green Expo — and this past weekend was no exception. On June 21, the day of the wonderful Summer Equinox, the local Filipino-American population celebrated their equivalent of Independence Day: Philippine Republic Day, which by the calendar is actually June 12. Of course, the 21st was an auspicious day for celebration, and so it was chosen for the observance.
Like many events that occur in and around the Green Expo, the PRDC wasn’t huge, but it was interesting and fun. There were a lot of people there, too, mostly enjoying the food.