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Mr. Dallas: Mr. Dallas is the nightlife guru for the over-30 crowd. March 2010
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Pop Rocks: John Mayer -- Love him or hate him? Sahara Davenport returns to Dallas for weekend shows at the Rose Room Alan Peppard: Jay-Z and Beyonce in Highland Park Village Alan Peppard: Evan Lysacek Hedges on Nastia Liukin Alan Peppard: Gayle King's Clothes Call Alan Peppard: Quiet Side of Mary J. Blige Alan Peppard: Michael Jordan, the Morning After Recent Comments
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March 4, 2010
Guide's Joy Tipping, Bindu Varghese and Ann Pinson put together their own Best in DFW list of Best Spring Festivals, where you can find enormous turkey legs (like the man pictured above at Scarborough Renaissance Festival in Waxahachie), hear music from different cultures and enjoy great works of art. Plus they often feature local celebrities and personalities, and sometimes even a "big name." You can read over their selections here, but don't stop there. Let us know if we missed one you go to every year, share memories or just tell us what you're looking forward to this season. E-mail us at guide@dallasnews.com. And whether or not you go out, follow some of our Guide staffers on Twitter as they meander through the crowds themselves. PHOTO: Courtesy Scarborough Renaissance Festival ![]() ![]() The entry "Best in DFW: Spring Festivals" is tagged: best in dfw , dining , festivals , people watching , social , society March 3, 2010
I can remember going to see John Mayer when he was touring his Room For Squares album at the Smirnoff Center (now Superpages.com Center) in 2003. I'm a sucker for heartbreak music, and his witty lyrics always resonated with me, so I've been a fan from the beginning. However, he's made it harder and harder to like him over the years. At some point, the musician decided that selling out shows wasn't good enough. He didn't want groupies, he wanted Hollywood's hottest. He didn't want to be just a singer/songwriter, he wanted to be a rock star. He wanted to be edgy and controversial. He needed to be talked about, to be part of the national conversation. Simply put: He wanted to be a celebrity. But, Mayer's rise in fame has shown a side of him that isn't pretty. In fact, he's developed a terrible public persona (especially via the pages of Us Weekly, where our highly-connected sources have given insight into Mayer's mind that quite frankly, I wish I didn't have). Which put me in an awkward position when he released his newest album, Battle Studies. 'Cause I love it. I can listen to it on repeat for days, and I never do that. And, amazingly his lyrics in songs like 'Friends, Lovers or Nothing,' 'Who Says' and 'Half of My Heart' made me like him again. So, when he announced his tour dates, I queued up and bought my ticket. Sadly, that was before his latest interview" came out.Mayer, once again, came off as a jerk and caused a scandal. He said racist things and crude things. So, with my admiration at an all-time low, I braved a blizzard to attend his sold out Madison Square Garden show (hey! I paid for the tickets). And it was awesome. He played oldies and all the new good stuff, and yet again proved his musical merit. But, in between songs, Mayer had to take time out to apologize to the crowd (something he's had to do more than once). "I have never in my life intended to come off like" a horrible guy, he said (using much strong vocabulary), and thanked his fans for giving him another chance. He also admitted that loads of horrible people have come before him saying the same things, implying that he intended to prove himself as new and improved. I don't buy it. Sure, I hope he'll keep his promises to stop courting the lime light ... but, if fame is a drug -- and this is a guy who sings an entire song about getting stoned -- I'd say he's hooked. What do you think? Is he truly a changed man? Mayer plays American Airlines Center March 9. Will you be there? Or did his insensitive and ugly words overshadow the music? Can he make people forget? Which other celebs have gone too far? ![]() ![]() The entry "Pop Rocks: John Mayer -- Love him or hate him?" has no entry tags. February 26, 2010
As my coworker Jason Sheeler put it, RuPaul plays the Tim Gunn-like mentor to the competitors as they make outfits for the week's challenge, then plays the part of Tyra Banks as the drag queens show their stuff and "lipsync for their life." One of the second season's contestants actually hails from Dallas. Well, Antoine Ashley's from Maryland, but he birthed his drag persona, Sahara Davenport, here while studying dance at Southern Methodist University. Davenport doesn't like to advertise her still-youthful age, but she last performed at the Rose Room back when Station 4 was called Village Station. She's returning for shows all weekend, and talked to me over the phone beforehand. When we see you sewing on the show, making the outfits, how much of the outfits is all you guys? I saw your story in the New York Times - you're from the D.C. area but say you're from Dallas? ![]() ![]() The entry "Sahara Davenport returns to Dallas for weekend shows at the Rose Room" is tagged: drag queens , lgbt , Rose Room , RuPaul , Sahara Davenport February 25, 2010
When Jay-Z hit town for the NBA All-Star Game and stayed at the Rosewood Mansion on Turtle Creek, he was flying solo without his superstar wife, Beyonce. But this week, his Houston-born spouse joined him when he came to Dallas for a Tuesday show at American Airlines Center. ![]() ![]() The entry "Alan Peppard: Jay-Z and Beyonce in Highland Park Village" is tagged: Beyonce , Cafe Pacific , Jay-Z February 22, 2010
If homegrown gymnast Nastia Liukin sees her reported beau, skater Evan Lyscek, Monday evening on Entertainment Tonight, she might experience a pain familiar to other 20-year-olds, and ask, "What did he just say?" ![]() ![]() The entry "Alan Peppard: Evan Lysacek Hedges on Nastia Liukin" is tagged: Evan Lysacek , Nastia Liukin February 15, 2010
Oprah Winfrey's friend-in-chief Gayle King (editor at large for O magazine) escaped the All-Star madness with a clothes shopping trip to Forty Five Ten on McKinney Avenue with her Stanford grad daughter, Kirby. ![]() ![]() The entry "Alan Peppard: Gayle King's Clothes Call" is tagged: Gayle King , Oprah Winfrey
Mary J. Blige was a quiet guest at the Rosewood Mansion on Turtle Creek, staying in and ordering room service. When she did come down to dine in the Mansion bar, she brought her own food. ![]() ![]() The entry "Alan Peppard: Quiet Side of Mary J. Blige" is tagged: Mary J. Blige , Rosewood Mansion on Turtle Creek
![]() ![]() The entry "Alan Peppard: Michael Jordan, the Morning After" is tagged: Charlie Palmer , Joule , Michael Jordan , Scott Romano , Spike Lee
Jay-Z can always depend on a warm welcome at the Rosewood Mansion on Turtle Creek. The hip-hop mogul (estimated net worth: more than $500 million) stayed at the Mansion for the All-Star festivities. His wife, Beyonce, was not with him. (She's probably too busy counting her net worth. Forbes just reported that she out-earned her husband last year, $87 million to his $35 million.) ![]() ![]() The entry "Alan Peppard: Generous gent Jay-Z" is tagged: Beyonce , Jay-Z February 14, 2010
We're less than an hour away from Monday morning and here is Alicia Keys winding down her NBA All-Star weekend with a late meal at Al Biernat's. ![]() ![]() The entry "Alan Peppard: Alicia Keys Winds Down Her Weekend" is tagged: Alicia Keys , Mario Lopez
Mark Cuban and Jerry Jone just announced the record-setting attendance for tonight's game: 108,713 ![]() ![]() The entry "NBA All-Star Game night: Record-setting attendance" has no entry tags.
Finally, the inevitable courtside celeb onscreen moment: Spike Lee and his NY Yankees ballcap. An appropriate swell of boo's filled the stadium. Then it was Ludacris' turn for an onscreen moment. he was Mr. Sunglasses. ![]() ![]() The entry "NBA All-Star Game night: at long last" is tagged: NBA All-Star Weekend
A flurry of onscreen celebs: a bejeweled Floyd Mayweather, Gov ar old Schwarzenegger sporting a pair of flashy cowboy boots and Shaquille O'Neal. ![]() ![]() The entry "NBA All-Star Game night: courtside celebs round 3" is tagged: NBA All-Star Weekend
P Diddy is the second celeb to get screen time. Not quite as robust a round o applause as for Magic. ![]() ![]() The entry "NBA All-Star Game night: another courtside celeb" is tagged: NBA All-Star Weekend
Earvin "Magic" Johnson is the first celebrity attendee of the night to fill the giant screen. ![]() ![]() The entry "NBA All-Star game night: courtside Magic" is tagged: NBA All-Star Weekend
Michael ("but call me Mike") Stevens, 42, stood at the railing of one the stadium's food court plazas, staring up at the giant high-def screen. "My wife and are in from Phoenix," he says. "She's the basketball fan. I don't really care. But I am a giant TV fan, so when we heard the game was going to be here, I told her 'you don't even have to ask, we're going. "I just had to see it." He doesn't have to e plain what "it" is; while he's been talking his eyes have never left the giant video screen that hangs over and dwarfs the basketball court that has been set up at what is usually mid-field. "I don't even know where our seats are. -- who cares? I told Given a quick rundown of the fantastic figures that make up the "video board" -- 300 million light bulbs, weighing 600 tons, measuring 160 x 72 feet -- he just shakes his head and sighs. "I guess it'll never fit in my living room." ![]() ![]() The entry "NBA All-Star Game Night: a TV as big as Texas" is tagged: NBA All-Star Weekend
Jay-Z had a secret plan to avoid a crush of fans in Dallas: Dine at off hours. On Saturday, midway between the lunch and dinner hours, the hip-hop mogul took over the clubby Café Pacific in Highland Park Village for an afternoon meal with 10 friends. ![]() ![]() The entry "Alan Peppard: Jay-Z in Highland Park Village" is tagged: Cafe Pacific , Jay-Z
Jamie Foxx can do pretty much anything: Comic, actor, singer (you're welcome, Kanye) and bartender. ![]() ![]() The entry "Alan Peppard: Jamie Foxx, Shaken, not Stirred" is tagged: Jamie Foxx , Kanye West
The governor of Khal-if-for-ni-ya was in a gregarious mood when he shopped in the men's department at the Neiman Marcus Northpark at about 4:30 p.m. on Sunday. ![]() ![]() The entry "Alan Peppard: The Governator at Neiman's NorthPark" is tagged: Arnold Schwarzenegger
Absolute panic set in as my busload of media brethren got off and saw the endless line snaking down the walkway around the stadium. "We don't have to stand in line do we?" asked one guy. "There must be a special entrance for media," said another. It's funny, these two guys were the same ones talking loudly and knowingly about "the scam" Jerry jones put over on the hoodwinked Arlington mayor and how he made sure there were no restaurants anywhere near the stadium (I think we passed a McD as they said this). If hey knew so much about the innerworkings of Jerry jones' empire, you'd think they would know that there was a media entrance, just a little bit farther down the walkway. No wonder people hate the media. ![]() ![]() The entry "NBA All-Star Game: entry at last" is tagged: NBA All-Star Weekend |
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I feel the same way.... I have been a f
i love reggie mille
When did Reggie Miller get booted from
Alan, Thanks for telling me about Holly
thank you for the useful information
good show
as a [nin] fan, I hope its Trent Reznor
the chord progression in the third vide
wtf was that? I expected something to p
Can anyone tell me what animal this is