Back Talk Lakewood/East Dallas

STA Auction - Great Success

The St Thomas auction was held this past weekend at the Belo Mansion. All numbers point to the most successful auction yet. Thanks to the generosity of many of the parents and the donations of the community, in excess of $200,000 was raised (final numbers are still be tallied). The auction's proceeds helps keep the tuition at STA at a very reasonable level and remains one of the best private school values in the area.

One of the more interesting items was dinner for 12 with Fr. John at the new "back room" at Jimmy's. It was split up with a few different parents and went for 30K total. Kudos to all who made it a huge success.

Check out those early voting numbers

Several stories (here and here) have broken down the impressive numbers, which look to be record-setting. Early voting is not only ahead of the 2004 presidential primary, but has already surpassed the totals for 1996 and 2000.

But I wanted to note a couple of local points not covered elsewhere. (All of the early totals are here -- just click on the bottom two links for the party you're interested in.)

Film/TV review: Wuntch's take on the Oscars

It's been less than two hours since I watched the Oscar ceremony, and already I'm having trouble remembering details.

The ceremony was comfortable. The mood was cozy. The awards were predictable. In other words, this was one dull Oscarcast. It wasn't the fault of host Jon Stewart, who started slowly but rebounded with his usual wry wit. Still, a couple of surprises would have been nice, not that I wanted anything as drastic as the "Crash" victory two years ago.

The only borderline surprise among major winners was Marion Cotillard's victory for "La Vie en Rose," the Edith Piaf biopic. Julie Christie, whose provocative walk in 1963's "Billy Liar" brightened my high-school fantasies, was the anticipated winner for her radiant performance as an Alzheimer's patient in "Away From Her." Ms. Cotillard's Edith Piaf was also radiant, but her film was more conventional.

The Cotillard triumph makes sense -- at least from a dollars-and-cents perspective. Ms. Christie is an icon of a bygone era, the "swingin' London" of the '60s. Ms. Cotillard represents the future. She's recently been cast opposite Johnny Depp's John Dillinger in Michael Mann's "Public Enemies," also starring high-profile contemporaries Christian Bale and Channing Tatum. And she'll play one of several women in Javier Bardem's life in the movie verison of "Nine," to be helmed by "Chicago" director Rob Marshall.

Bill Clinton is stopping by Samuell Grand Park at 1:15 p.m. Tuesday

If you've ever wanted to get up-close-and-personal with a former president, here's your chance: Bill Clinton will be visiting Samuell Grand Park, 6200 E. Grand Ave., today at 1:15 p.m. as part of a get-out-the-early-vote event adjacent to the rec center. Like him or not, how often does a former president show up this close to home? Be forewarned, though: He's scheduled to be at an event 20 miles away (Mountain View College) at 11:45, and then he's supposed to be in Grapevine at 2:45 p.m. And given his reputation for being late, and the rather tight schedule, who knows how that's going to play out .

Tuesday 8 a.m. update: A Back Talker reader just called from downtown to report that Clinton's motorcade, with motorcycle cops, lots of police cars and the big, black SUV, was seen on Ross near Tucker's, the restaurant. It's not often, she said, that you get to see a semi-presidential motorcade.

A new twist on resale shopping

I stumbled upon a fun little store on Lovers Lane this past weekend. The sign out front read "Shopaholic!", but when I first opened the door, I thought I had accidentally walked into a beauty salon instead of a clothing shop. Turns out, it was both.

The stylist, who I'm assuming was Ami, explained that the clothes and accessories hanging in two rooms of the house-turned-business were all resale — picks from vintage shops and estate sales and other stores' sale racks (at least, that was my guess when I saw a Marshall's tag still attached to a sequined pink dress). I found lots of adorable stuff, and a quick browse revealed price tags mostly in the $10 to $30 range.

Ami said she and owner Sherry Gilderoy, who some people might know from the morning show on 103.7 lite FM, do all of the shopping for the store themselves, and often use the clothes and accessories in their makeovers. What a fun concept, and a good way to find cute, cheap clothes that aren't being worn by everyone else.

And if it makes you feel even better, a portion of each sale is given to the Alliance for a New Humanity.

Woodrow sign snatchers

Signs encouraging families to "Choose Woodrow" are disappearing out of neighborhood yards, according to Woodrow PTA president Emily Martin. The high school's recruiting committee recently drove around and stuck them in the front lawns of various Woodrow families in an attempt to encourage passersby to eschew private schools and opt for public school. Martin says that she had two in front of her Gaston residence, but now there's only one. Someone came by and "just jumped out of the car, grabbed the sign, jumped back in the car, and sped off." Hers wasn't the only one. Apparently several were ripped off.

Martin wisely said she wouldn't "hazard a guess" as to who exactly is stealing them, but she figures it's "someone who's jealous, no doubt, of Woodrow's prowess. Or someone who just thinks those signs are so darn cool."

The idea for the signs, by the way, came from Bobbi Willhite and the Woodrow recruiting committee. It's a new publicity technique this year. Another big publicity event is tomorrow, the Welcome to Woodrow night from 7-8:30 p.m. on campus.  Prospective students will be able to shadow a current student to see what a typical day at Woodrow is like.

Also, for anyone who has questions about the Woodrow reconstitution, a Q&A with Principal Ruth Vail and Dallas ISD officials begins at 6 p.m.

Pedestrianism (walking around) and Dallas — mutually exclusive?

Councilman Angela Hunt's blog summarizes an almost laughable commentary today from a Brookings Institution/Univerity of Michigan guy saying Dallas is on the cutting edge of urban pedestrianism — that Dallas is becoming a great place to walk around. (The Brookings Institution, fyi, is one of the nation's best-known think tanks.) I had to chuckle when I read that, as Hunt apparently also did, because she then spends a few paragraphs knocking down the guy's thesis and talking about things she's going to work on downtown and elsewhere to try and make his commentary a reality.

Still, at this point, "pedestrianism" and "Dallas" really don't belong in the same sentence. It's not as if people don't like the idea of walking around the city; we just don't seem willing to commit the economic resources and zoning chutzpuh to embrace higher densities, which are really going to be the key to making pedestrianism a reality here.

Hunt cites a number of places she's planning to focus on — Victory, Uptown, Arts District, West End and others — and naturally they're in relatively high-density (for Dallas) locations. Higher gas prices and environmental concerns give us all a good reason to think twice about turning on the car — hybrid or otherwise. And there's nothing more invigorating than a walk through a high-density commercial/retail/residential area. The problem in Dallas today is that you have to go to Europe, New York, Chicago or Boston to do that...

Blogger brags on Babalu

A couple weeks ago we posted a piece about Club Babalu and the Gastonwood Coronado Hills residents' resistance to the nightclub's relocation to Gaston Avenue at Garland Road. Neighbors to the OK Sports Bar (new home to Club Babalu) might be interested in this post I came across from an apparent Babalu fan.

Restaurant patios and pooches — the city can't find the right mix

Interesting story in Sunday's DMN about the continuing struggle the city is having trying to make Dallas restaurant patios pet-friendly while also providing some modicum of regulation governing cleanliness and health conditions. A year ago, the council agreed to allow pets on patios with a couple of caveats, including: provide a separate patio entrance, install "air curtains" to separate the patio from the restaurant's interior, clean the patio every 30 minutes with animal-friendly chamicals whenever a dog is present, don't let food handlers pet animals, and keep dogs off chairs.

Restaurant owners complained that the rules are too complicated, the "air curtains" are too expensive (up to $1,000) and cleaning a patio every 30 minutes is just a hassle, so a year after making dog-on-patio permits available, not one restaurant has applied for one (which apparently doesn't mean that patios don't accept doggy diners, just that they're not worried about the city enforcing the rules).

Next month, the council will consider revising the ordinance, including dropping the "air curtain" requirement and possibly lengthening the time between patio cleanings.

Something else the council might consider: Not worrying about the issue altogether. People who like pets are going to find out about pet-friendly restaurants and frequent them. People who don't want to dine with dogs are going to find somewhere else to eat. The self-selection process gives restaurant owners the power to make their own decisions (and reap the economic rewards or losses), unfettered by city regulations that probably aren't going to be enforced anyway.

Sorting through my Whole Foods column

The comments are already flying over my column in March's magazine, which was delivered over the weekend. Apparently, I'm a pretty nefarious fellow.

A couple of other points:

• Whole Foods is a big-deal company whose goal is to make as much money as possible for its stockholders. I don't object to that. What galls me is when it pretends that it isn't a big-deal company whose goal is to make as much money as possible for its stockholders -- and people buy into that act.

• You can find more about Whole Foods' efforts to build its Brooklyn Park Slope store here and here. One of my favorite facts: The median price of a single-family home in Park Slope is $436,000, almost four times the U.S. median and more than twice the median around here. Think that doesn't have something to do with Whole Foods' persistence in Brooklyn?

• Several readers have asked why I was willing to give Whole Foods the variance. Because, to paraphrase Louis XV's mistress, "After Whole Foods, the deluge." Think about how contentious this debate was; then, think about what happens when a developer comes in and wants to turn the land Whole Foods didn't use into its "highest and best use," the rumored mini-West Village? If compromising on setbacks would have avoided that, then I was willing to compromise on setbacks.