Thursday, May 27, 2010

Paula Abdul is a great and ageless beauty

Because she's so dang loopy, she never really gets credit for how gorgeous she is. So I just wanted to say it. For 45ish, that's beyond amazing.

Also at the Idol finale: Janet Jackson who's gorgeous too but, honestly, reminded me just a tiny bit of Ruby Rhod.

Tuesday, May 25, 2010

I'm worried about A-Rod. (Not really, but in principle.)

Everyone had a little giggle yesterday at the news that, with the Rangers filing for bankruptcy, Alex Rodriguez is their top unsecured creditor.

It's always fun to laugh at A-Rod. He's a true jerk. But I don't think this is funny because no one should lose out on their earnings. Lots of people work freelance. It's never funny when an invoice goes unpaid. So it's $24 million. So A-Rod's already made millions. We all make thousands but if someone stiffed us out of $2400, we'd be upset.

"Kilpatrick’s continued employment was contingent upon Kilpatrick staying out of further trouble"

Former Detroit mayor and current Dallas-area resident Kwame Kilpatrick sentenced to 18 months, maybe more. "The judge’s order also raises questions about whether Kilpatrick will continue to have a job with a Compuware subsidiary in Texas. Compuware chief Peter Karmanos had given Kilpatrick a six-figure sales job with Covisint in an office just outside Dallas after the ex-mayor’s release from jail in February of last year."

According to Judge David Groner, Kilpatrick "lied under oath about his affair with his chief of staff, about the firing of a deputy chief, authorized a secret settlement with $8.4 million in taxpayer money and then violated his probation....Kilpatrick at every turn tried to thwart attempts to figure out how much money he had to pay restitution to the City of Detroit."

This is Kilpatrick's Southlake house. Here's another note from today's court proceedings: "Kilpatrick is shaking his head now as Groner talks about Kilpatrick's million-dollar home and his lavish lifestyle in Texas."

Thursday, May 20, 2010

$613 million worth of paintings, just gone?

Hmm: "A single masked intruder was caught on a video surveillance camera entering the museum by a window" and walking away with five paintings: a Picasso, Matisse, Braque, Modigliani and a Leger. How does one guy carry all that? Why aren't there guards at the Paris Museum of Modern Art?

Wednesday, May 19, 2010

Why can't everything be run as smoothly as Mack Brown's program?

It's hard to square this story about University of Texas budget shortfalls -- there's talk of selling the Brackenridge Tract/Muny golf course and closing the Cactus Cafe -- with this Wall Street Journal profile of UT football mega-boosters.

The Good Guys: I am now a devoted viewer

Just because they kept their word about Stark living "in a trailer in the shadow of the Texas Star." Really. He lives in FairPark, beside the Merry-Go-Round, right where the midway ends.

It's funny how the show's creator Matt Nix talks about Dallas: "'This is a throwback to the classic cop shows, and Dallas has the look of those shows. I kept saying to people, "If we shoot this in the suburbs, it'll look wrong. We need power cables."'"

Funny, because so many Dallas city leaders feel just the opposite. They probably would prefer the Good Guys to be shot exclusively in front of shiny new places. Not brick storefronts. Not the 70-year-old State Fair site that's home to the Cotton Bowl but not the Cotton Bowl game. Maybe Nix can give us a new appreciation for the older, less sparkly parts of town.

Also funny: The Good Guys' Stark is a cop whose greatest career achievement happened in the 80s -- about the time the TV show Dallas was at its height. About the time Robocop made Dallas City Hall look so bold and futuristic.

Anyway, I liked the show well enough. I certainly hope it's not a failure.

"Aliases on Twitter are very common and anonymity makes it fun"

Oh honey. I couldn't agree more. Actually, there's a whole lot to like about this interview with DKNY PR Girl, who is considered to be anonymous on Twitter but whose identity really isn't much of a secret. I think. Is it?

Anyway: "Every day is an adventure and I love sharing it with people who care to hear." People who care to hear -- that's well said.

ADDED: What's interesting about DKNY PR Girl's anonymity is how everyone in the fashion media helps preserve it. Her comments make it clear that 1) the Donna Karan brands use Twitter as a marketing tool, 2) that anonymity was a strategic decision, and 3) "I know a lot of my followers. Many of course are editors or bloggers that we work with." It's fashion, which is its own world, but it's remarkable that everyone so eagerly helps a brand execute part of its marketing plan. Imagine so many bloggers and editors assisting, say, McDonalds or WalMart in such a way.

Friday, May 14, 2010

Mayor Pro Tem Dwaine Caraway "just does not understand or get the concept of the rule of law"

A compelling takedown of both a politician and the Dallas Morning News from Jim Schutze. Of course.

It starts with "Dwaine Caraway pressuring the Dallas Police department to lay off a gambling house where Caraway and his father play poker" -- remember Caraway is the man who gave us the Pull Em Up billboards -- and ends the way all Dallas stories end, with funny legal maneuvers and odd public posturing "against a backdrop of land speculation in the area by the likes of Dallas Very Very Rich Person Mark Cuban." It's always a land deal.

Once upon a time, there was another guy with a big parcel of land. His name was H Ross Perot Jr and he called his pile of dirt Victory Park. Even though old Reunion Arena was a great venue for fans, it had to die so that Perot could get a new arena with a huge developer's deal and sell his newly more-valuable majority stake to Mark Cuban. That turned out so well for the city, huh? And for the men too!

O, our selfless, visionary civic leaders!

I don't believe anyone's actually going to pay to buy Newsweek

Because: "The legacy costs (pensions, health care, etc) are likely under-funded and much larger than one would imagine." Funny how no one talks about that.

Wednesday, May 05, 2010

Budweiser replaces Coors as NFL's official beer

Which is good news if you're tired of those damn Coors-retired coaches-press conference spots. I mean, that campaign will have to stop now, won't it? Please say yes.

Of course, Coors remains the beer at Cowboys stadium. Jerry Jones seems solidly anti-Bud.

A Picasso sells for $106.5 million and I continue to believe we're all screwed

Another art auction record. I'm very afraid. But eager to find out who bought it.

Exciting ad/Texas connection: The painting belonged to the late Frances Brody, daughter of Albert Lasker, the man who grew up in Galveston and moved to Chicago where he headed the agency that would later become Foote, Cone & Belding.

Phil Collins' Alamo collection

Who knew: "The Genesis singer-drummer is a ginormous Alamo fetishist -- so much so that 'he is now believed to own the largest collection of Alamo artifacts in the world,' according to the Dallas Historical Society. He's coming to Texas to finish work on his book about the Alamo due in stores next year -- and so, on May 10 at 6:30 p.m., he'll be at Hall of State to talk about, well, the Alamo."

The Hall of State, y'all!

"Perhaps the four-hour Pilates sessions are not the secret to eternal youth"

This. Wow.