D Magazine's Earburner

Ken is the guitarist for the Old 97's, which is about to celebrate its 30th year together. The man himself is about to turn 60. We talk about his plans for outliving his bandmates, why he owns more than 400 board games, why high school kids don't cruise anymore, and whether Peter Billingsley is actually a gun nut. Oh, and one more thing: we talk about how the band came to star in The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special, which begins streaming on Disney+ on November 25. That last thing seems important. Almost forgot to mention it.

Mark is the architecture critic for the Dallas Morning News and a two-time EarBurner guest. We invited him on to talk about a new plan for Dealey Plaza that he has concocted with some of his smart friends. Mark says the space has become tawdry, and we need to prioritize people over their cars. We also talk about whether Dallas is still a "can do" city, why the Mavericks should rethink their branding design, and our favorite movies ever filmed in Dallas. To prepare yourself for this episode, please first watch this trailer for the 1988 action comedy sexploitation thriller It Takes Two. You won't regret it. 

Julie wrote the young adult novel Dumplin' that became the 2018 Jennifer Aniston movie of the same title. Now she's branching out into some spicy romance with her new book, A Merry Little Meet Cute, about a pornstar who is cast in a wholesome Christmas movie. It's funny. It's raunchy. It's perfect for the season. We talk about whether she is the most famous living person from Arlington, why the water tastes bad in Dalworthington Gardens, if Dolly Parton (who wrote the music for Dumplin') might have sleeve tattoos, and her friend who has hypnagogic hallucinations. Also, she attempts to recall as many euphemisms for genitalia as she can in 30 seconds. 

Melissa is the new head of the journalism program at SMU, a job she took without telling Tim, despite their 30-year friendship. So that was the first matter that had to be addressed. Then we talked about kids today and how screens are ruining their lives—and ours. And why Zac frequently got lost in the office when he worked for American Airlines. And the downside to driving a Ford Maverick. And Bob Costas' teeth.

For the October issue of D Magazine, Kathy Wise, our executive editor, wrote a story that's getting national attention. It is titled "The Most Lawless County in Texas." That, friends, would be Collin County. Read the story here, and then listen to how it all came together. We also talk about the time Kathy nearly died in Toledo, and Tim tells a story about his wife that will probably get him in trouble.

Creuzot was elected the Dallas County District Attorney in a landslide in 2018, taking 60 percent of the votes from his opponent, Faith Johnson. The two are squaring off again, with Johnson this time peddling what Creuzot calls bogus QAnon numbers about crime in Dallas County. So this episode is about politics. But it's also about Creuzot growing up in Houston, toiling in the kitchen of his family's restaurant, Frenchy's Chicken, and his memories of his first job out of SMU law school, working for the cigar-chewing Henry Wade. Also, we talk about weed.

Bonus episode not available on dmagazine.com! For subscribers only! James mentioned in the normal episode that he has been in three car chases in his life. He tells the story of each one, with gratuitous F-bombs from Tim.

James is the artistic director for the Dallas International Film Festival. That means he watches about 600 movies every year. It also means that he has a great story about a wild night with Harry Dean Stanton (R.I.P.). We also talked about what happened to him when, as a kid, he saw E.T. fives times in row and the odd interaction he had one time in a hotel room with Joan Jett when they were both working on a episode of Walker, Texas Ranger. Oh, and we talked about some of his favorite films that will screen at DIFF 2022.

In 1994, The Ticket launched in Dallas with a lineup largely assembled by Mike Rhyner, thereby creating a radio format—guy sports talk—that would be copied around the country. Mike ended his 40-year radio career with a retirement in January 2020. Except not quite. The Old Grey Wolf is returning to the airwaves on 97.1, which has been rebranded The Freak. We talk about who convinced him to come out of retirement, how to fix the Cowboys, what made him move out of downtown Dallas after living there for a decade, and why you're never too old to wing it. 

Tim and Zac interview a legend, the man who helped write some of N.W.A and Eazy-E's biggest songs, the man whose solo debut album, 1989's platinum-certified No One Can Do It Better, pretty much says it all. If you're not aware, Doc's voice was permanently changed by the aftermath of a car crash the same year that album came out. The lads discuss the wreck, Doc's quest to end gun violence in Dallas, and a new Snoop Dogg-produced documentary about his life.

Will is the hyperkinetic, mustachioed founder of the publishing house Deep Vellum and its allied bookstore in Deep Ellum. He's responsible for the reissue of Jim Schutze's book "The Accommodation," about the bombing of Black-owned homes in South Dallas in the 1950s and how White leaders in this city did what they could to duck the civil rights movement. When it was first published, in 1986, it wasn't exactly a bestseller. Now, as part of Big D Reads, 30,000 copies of the book are being distributed in Dallas for free. The entire month of September is filled with events that enrich what is essentially the city's biggest book club. So we talked about all that. And we talked about why Will thinks Tim is like an aggressively onanistic baboon he once saw at the Dallas Zoo.

After 33 years on FOX 4 in Dallas, 27 of them doing the morning show, Tim is throwing away all his makeup and retiring. He tells us how the job has nearly killed him, why he doesn't have much use for social media, and the secret to surviving 100-mile bicycle rides. Also, he ranks the local Tims.

David "Schoop" Schechter worked at the Dallas ABC affiliate, WFAA Channel 8, for 16 years. This week he quit his gig to go work as a national environmental reporter for CBS. In this episode, we talk about "cheerful nihilism" and David's amazing calf muscles. At least five stars.

Brian has been a freelance dining critic for the Dallas Observer and Dallas Morning News; now he’s the fulltime food dude for D Magazine. Did you know there might be only 20 people in the country who have such a job? He tells us what goes into a formal dining review, what goes into his mouth when he’s not on the clock, and where you can find a secret sushi place that’s perfect for a date. 

Barak is one of the folks behind the legendary Texas Theatre and a co-founder of the Oak Cliff Film Festival. He breaks down eight of his favorite flicks in this year's shindig, which runs June 23–26. Along the way, he talks about why he won't buy Central Track and what he did to anger the Catholic Church. Also, he and Tim nearly come to blows over "Ready Player One."

JZ is the newly chosen, first ever poet laureate of Dallas. We talk about why he loves the word "donkey," how he won the biggest poetry slam competition in the world, where Dallas sits in the literary firmament, why we should print poems on DART buses, and what the Mavericks need to do to beat Golden State. Oh, and he reads a new poem for us titled "Signs" that is partly about bird sh**. 

Emily is the director of corporate sales for the 25-year-old improv comedy group called Four Day Weekend. It's a boring job title for a funny woman. Emily went through Second City, in Chicago, she worked at The Onion, and she also performs. We talk about people in the SNL cast that she knows and how Four Day has survived the pandemic by doing something quite clever. Oh, and she tells a horrible joke. Six stars.

Carpenter Park, at just under 6 acres, is now downtown Dallas' largest park. It also has downtown's first outdoor public basketball court. Tim and Matt hit the court on the morning of May 3, the park's debut, to play the first official game there. Zac recorded the play by play. WARNING: the sound is terrible, and Tim uses the word "avoirdupois" in the midst of an actual basketball game. You should NOT listen to this. 

Nicole founded the Dallas fashion house KOCH under whose umbrella she and her son, Henry, have launched a new line of sneakers. So we talk about that. But we also talk about her wild upbringing traveling the country with her father, Bill, who was an NBA coach, and how she performed at halftime shows and was babysat by a guy named Boot who was a "Gong Show" contestant with an act that involved a possibly dead canary. Oh, and there is A LOT of swearing in this episode. So tie up your laces, and jump in.

The November issue of D Magazine got tossed out of a Dallas grocery store because its cover bears the word "Negroes." Jean, a Black woman and a journalism professor, describes how the cover came across to her and how she might have done things differently. Also, we talk about how often she gets to party with Bob Schieffer.