Dallas / Fort Worth and Me

If you head over to West Dallas, off Olive Street, you’ll find an interesting place called Victory Park. It’s only a few years old, but it’s definitely worth visiting when you’re in town. Not only does Channel 8, WFAA-TV, maintain a broadcasting studio there — with glass walls, so you can gawk at the local news personalities as they work — but American Airlines Center, our newest and most expensive sports stadium, anchors the far end. 

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Danger, Will Robinson!

I’m going to warn you about this ahead of time: if you’re a PETA member or just don’t like hunting and fishing, then this entry is not for you. But I figure you’re more or less like me, Devoted Reader, or you wouldn’t return here again and again (all three of you who do). See, I’m from semi-rural East Texas, where hunting and fishing are an integral part of the lifestyle. While I can understand why people might choose not to do either, I don’t really see anything wrong with it, as long as you’re not wiping out an endangered species. Yes, and that’s coming from a political liberal, too.

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Okay! Despite the hammering heat and horrific humidity, June and July are busy times for the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex. Mad dogs and Englishman, folks, but be that as it may, even as the heat sizzles up off the asphalt and sane dogs hunker down for the long summer — which officially begins on the 21st but has actually been here for over a month — the social calendar is purring right along. There’s so much to do, in fact, that the average human will have a heckuva time getting to everything. That should tell you right there that I won’t be able to make it to all the pertinent events. Sad but true. I will, however, do my valiant best.

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Despite the fact that it’s a big, thriving metropolis, Dallas has an excellent Farmer’s Market, and  has for almost 70 years — it was established in 1941. It’s located right next to downtown, so all the local eateries can get wonderfully fresh produce at a moment’s notice.

Canny Dallas residents shop there too, because the prices are good and you can find just about everything that grows, from petunias and peas to potatoes and pineapples to pomegranates and papayas — and even a whole lot of produce that doesn’t start with a P. Plus you get a great view of the downtown skyline.

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This weekend I was fortunate enough to attend this year’s ARTFEST, an institution that returned to Fair Park after several years of being celebrated in Addison.  Thanks to a very nice lady named Susan Friedman, who handled the PR for the event, I even got free tickets (thanks, Susan!).  Of course, I would have attended anyway, but I’m never going to turn down free.

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When last I left you, my party and I had just entered the Green Expo at Trader’s Village in Grand Prairie, and were making our way deeper into this year’s “Tet-in-DFW” festival, which is the annual celebration of Lunar New Year by the local Vietnamese-American community.  We had already encountered that classic Vietnamese cultural icon, Ronald MacDonald, and the food pavilions serving all kinds of scrumptious Asian goodies.

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On February 2, I hied myself over to Trader’s Village, a huge, permanent flea market/craft fair/festival site located between Interstates 20 and 30 in Grand Prairie. The occasion was the Chinese Lunar New Year, which is celebrated by the Vietnamese as Tet. Now, Tet actually fell on February 7 (a Thursday), but for reasons of accessibility and practicality, the Tet-in-DFW Festival was celebrated on February 2-3, the weekend before. Vietnamese-Americans are nothing if not practical.

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The Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex is a happening place, with dozens of events to attend across the course of the year in the various towns and cities that make up this bustling metropolis. I’ll use this page keep track of what’s scheduled every month. I’ll continue to add events as they appear and the dates are firmed up, and it’s my intention to attend and write about these events as they happen, insofar as that’s possible. At the moment, the list is weighted heavily toward large tourist-oriented events like festivals and celebrations, but I’ll soon add big-name concerts and other top draws to the list. I’ll also insert new events as they’re announced or as I find them, so please check back regularly. With rare exceptions (such as the first game of the season), expect local sport events to have their own special page.

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On the northwest side of the DFW metroplex, just a few miles from downtown Fort Worth, you’ll find what’s left of Niles City. Back in the second decade of the Twentieth Century, Niles City was, briefly, one of the richest towns in the world, which was rather remarkable given its size: it covered no more than 1.5 square miles at its largest. Among other things, it included a petroleum refinery and pipeline, a cottonseed oil company, several grain elevators, two meat packing plants — and the Fort Worth Stockyards.

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I’m not exactly DFW’s go-to guy for shopping, but I’ve lived here for almost fifteen years — so I’d have to be completely clueless* not to be aware of where, exactly, the local epicenters of shopping are located. In Dallas, it’s the Galleria out on the Dallas Parkway, the toll-road that cuts north-south through the center of the city.

Our Galleria consists of three main floors and a basement with a central skating rink, several nice restaurants, and a sizable food court (there’s another food court on the third floor). Here’s what it looks like from the top of its three glittering floors, looking east along the long axis:

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