Dallas in the Details

10/05/2015

Whenever Denton musician Joel Cross played shows around North Texas, he often received requests to play Taylor Swift's pop hi

10/05/2015

A little more about current YouTube phenomenon Joel Cross, a biography from Tatiana Ladymay Mayfield's LadyMay in the U.K. Tour in summer, 2013.

10/05/2015

Congratulations to Denton resident Joel Cross, whose cover of Taylor Swift's "Shake It Off" was captured on video at Dallas Arboretum on October 3, 2015, and is now viral on YouTube with mentions in Time, Huffington Post, and mTV News and just about everywhere else. We caught him on video at Tatiana Ladymay Mayfield's release of "A Portrait of LadyMay" at Sandaga 813 at 813 Exposition in Dallas on August 2, 2012. Joel has a solo at 1:40.

Joel Cross on guitar and Brian Ward on upright bass. Arranged by John Guari. This Jobim composition also known as "Look to the Sky".

10/02/2015

A 111 year old piano. A 99 year old house. A seriously endangered Dallas historic district.

More about the Sterling Piano Company of Derby, Connecticut, at http://derbyhistorical.org/sterling_piano_company.htm.

08/23/2015

We may understand the argument (mostly) but we cannot defend the bridges from a public image standpoint because the perception about Dallas they confirm is the one most widespread and the worst, namely that Dallas is all show and no substance, that Dallas is the metropolitan equivalent of a male mid-life crisis (Do women even have mid-life crises? It seems that women achieve the zenith of confidence when men are nearing the nadir . . .).

Dallas builds towering monuments (ahem . . .) that keep observers admiring from a distance, perhaps because Dallas suspects that, at the level of details, the city doesn't hold up. Dallas betrays her (his?) identity crisis in the endless pursuit of an icon to represent the city to the world in one succinct monumental statement. We get it. Who wouldn't want a distinctive signature that is both recognized and admired? More easily dreamed about than realized, and the conceptual failure of an er****on as big as a Calatrava bridge is, well, embarrassing.

Paris would still be Paris without that latecomer to La Ville Lumière, the Eiffel Tower. What seasoned traveler bothers with the tower? The lines are too long, and too full of the people on the fly to the next European destination. What makes Paris Paris is her texture. Paris was the City of Light before her early adoption of gas lighting. The Masonic lodges, coffee houses, and salons concentrated the philosophes who led the Enlightenment. What makes Paris a walker's paradise today is what made her intellectually progressive: an urban fabric that invited interaction among her thinkers. It is true that no city will be experienced the same way by two visitors, but this is particularly true in a city like Paris or Rome, where what makes the city wonderful is intrinsic to every single block, piazza, or boulevard.

Dallas devises a monument to be taken in quickly from the interior of a accelerating car, or on a flat screen during the cut-away or the b-roll. "Aha" to "been there, done that" in fifteen seconds or less. A drive-thru experience.

Installation of the eastbound center piece arch was completed in an overnight lift on the Margaret McDermott Bridge. The 312 ft., 192 ton piece raised by str...

03/18/2015

Recorded by Ron W. Thompson at Opening Bell Coffee on March 17, 2015.

Robert Swann with Tuesday Night Jazz at St. Paul UMC in the Dallas Arts District talks about jazz, his life's purpose, and a disappearing cultural awareness of Dallas' shared heritage. Pour another cup and listen to others below.

01/15/2015

48 Seconds with Victor Cager on December 19, 2014. Catch Victor Cager again at the Eddie & the Rays Reunion Concert and "Sandtown" CD release, January 31, 2015: http://goo.gl/iwajem

01/15/2015

48 Seconds with Victor Cager . . . is not enough. Eddie & the Rays Reunion Concert and "Sandtown" CD release, January 31: http://goo.gl/iwajem

12/23/2014

December 23 At The Kessler Theater in Dallas' Oak Cliff Section, near Bishop Arts District. Doors at 6:30 p.m. 7:30 p.m. Curtain. Limited General Admission and Standing Room still available at http://www.prekindle.com/promo/id/23543011514407337

11/14/2014

Tatiana Mayfield opens this year's Holiday Experience with Metropolitan Opera countertenor John Holiday and his "Big Band"! You can still reserve your ticket for either of the December 23 shows at The Kessler with a pledge of $25 or more, but time runs out at 3 p.m. CST today! Please help us make this the best Holiday Experience ever by making a pledge at http://goo.gl/US2EIX. The Holiday Experience 2014 receives funding only if the project achieves its goal.

11/13/2014

Damon K. Clark tonight at Jazz in the Atrium, Dallas Museum of Art, 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. Last year, Damon sang with Metropolitan Opera countertenor John Holiday at The Holiday Experience 2013. Join us at The Holiday Experience 2014 on December 23. Time runs out at 3 p.m. CST on Friday, November 14, but you can still reserve a ticket for less than the door price when you pledge at $25 and above: http://goo.gl/US2EIX

11/11/2014

Observe Veterans Day in the Dallas Arts District with a soulful celebration of song on November 11 at 7:00 p.m. Please reserve now for this free, family friendly event at tuesdaynitejazz.org.