Last man standing

Life lessons we can learn from Willie Nelson

Want to know the difference between you, me and Willie Nelson? He can laugh about the future, and most of us can’t.

If you and I are talking about friends dying and our own mortality, we’ll figure out a way to make it depressing. Willie makes it funny, wry, insightful and entertaining all at the same time.

And let’s not forget his ability to add a catchy musical beat to the discussion, too: That’s another difference between you, me and Willie.

My only encounter with Willie happened at Billy Bob’s in Fort Worth years ago. A bunch of us transplants from the North trekked west specifically to hear Willie tell us what Texas was all about. Willie strolled onto the stage and did a song or two, as I recall, then started but couldn’t remember the words to one of his standards, “Whiskey River”.

And that was about it. My recollection is that he didn’t finish the concert because he couldn’t — probably derailed then by the same things that have waylaid him periodically throughout his life (drugs, alcohol or a combo). I was upset at the time since we had made a long drive just to be disappointed. But time has tempered my willingness to be mad about stuff, and perhaps I have Willie to thank for that.

It has been hard not to follow Willie’s career since then because there’s no one more noticeable — he was pulling Kardashian media stunts before most of them were even born.

Willie braided hair. Willie bio-diesel. Willie pot busts. Willie T-shirts. Willie’s Reserve cannabis products. Willie headbands. Willie guitar string jewelry.

And, of course, his songs.

His latest hit, “Last Man Standing,” talks about friends and death:

“I don’t wanna be the last man standing Or wait a minute maybe I do If you don’t mind I’ll start a new line And decide after thinking it through…” I like that song and that sentiment, and then I heard Willie talking about his career, his family, his life and the song on an NPR interview the other day. Doing the talking were Willie, his wife and two of his kids — all of them are together on Willie’s latest tour, with one son sounding eerily like his father on stage.

Part of the discussion revolved around dope-smoking, of course, because that’s what Willie does.

But I guess when you’re 85, famous

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214.635.2121 / danny@advocatemag.com contributing photographers: Mei-Chun Jau, Kathy Tran, Angela Flournoy and contemplating the future, and when you look back on all that you’ve accomplished and screwed up, Willie sounds a lot more like you and me than I thought.

After everything he’s done over the years, he told NPR, he looks back on life in a way that our parents hopefully do and that those of us who are parents hopefully do, too.

“There’s nothing that makes a parent happier,” Willie says, “than having your kids up there doing things with you, especially if they’re good.”

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What Gives

There are so many talented artists in the Dallas area that gallerists frequently have to turn them away

But the best of the rest get their moment to shine in an Oak Cliff Society of Fine Arts fundraiser this month.

The sixth-annual Rising Star events showcase some of the best local artists who are not signed by galleries. Gallery owners nominate the artists, and this is the biggest one yet with 12 artists. Nine are from Dallas and three are from Fort Worth — it’s the first time Fort Worth galleries have participated.

The fundraiser is from 7-9 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 15. Tickets cost $50 for members or $85 otherwise and include a cocktail hour and guest speaker.

Anyone can go see the art during a free open house from 1-5 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 16.

All of the art is for sale. Artists keep 70 percent of the sale price and the remainder goes to Turner House.

“It’s a great way to pick up some art,” says Glen Jones, Oak Cliff Society of Fine Arts board president.

All proceeds from Rising Star go to the restoration of the 100-year-old Turner House.

Visit turnerhouse.org for more info

SEPT. 15

BATGIRL DAY

While other comic-book shops are celebrating Batman Day, Oak Cliff is all about Batgirl. Celebrate Oak Cliff’s own Yvonne Craig, who played Batgirl on the 1960 TV adaptation of “Batman,” at Red Pegasus Comics. The celebration, from 11 a.m.-8 p.m., includes Batgirl stickers and masks as well as a limited-edition Batgirl print by author and artist Sina Grace. Don’t forget to stop by Steve Hunter’s Batgirl mural while you’re there.

Red Pegasus Comics, 319 N. Bishop Ave., redpegasuscomics.com, free

7 things to do in Oak Cliff this September

SEPT. 7

SEPT. 7

DSO ON THE GO

The Dallas Symphony Orchestra performs Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto and Orchestral Suite No. 1 from 7:30-9:30 p.m.

Cliff Temple Baptist Church, 125 Sunset Ave., mydso.com, $9-$19

LUCKY PIERRES

Dallas-based honkytonk band Lucky Pierres perform a free show starting at 7 p.m.

The Foundry, 2303 Pittman St., cs-tf. com, free

SEPT. 8 HAZARDOUS WASTE COLLECTION

City of Dallas Zero Waste will be in the neighborhood from 9 a.m.-3 p.m. to collect hazardous waste that shouldn’t be put in bins, including batteries, oil, paint and antifreeze.

Kidd Springs Park recreation center, 711 W. Canty St., dallascityhall.com, free

SEPT. 8

SOUTH AMERICAN LIT

One of the biggest South American literary festivals comes to Dallas. Hay Festival brings Bogota 39 — a selection of the most promising South American authors under 40 — for an evening of readings, workshops and partying.

T he Wild Detectives, 314 W. Eighth St., thewilddetectives. com, free

SEPT. 14 AND 19-20

‘MANDY’

The Texas Theatre describes Panos Cosmatos’ new film, “Mandy,” as “the most gonzo-full-cagechainsaw-fightingcheddar-goblin-demonbattling-black-metal movie you will see all year.”

The Texas Theatre, 231 W. Jefferson Blvd., thetexastheatre. com, $10

SEPT. 27

THE DANDY WARHOLS

These Oregon-based psychedelic rockers are on tour behind their ninth studio album and a single, “Thick Girls Knock Me Out (Richard Starkey)”, released last year.

The Kessler, 1230 W. Davis, thekessler. org, $28

Fran Gaconnier recently planted flowers in her South Winnetka front yard, and she tries to keep the ever-rotating pack of dogs that live in her house from peeing on them.

This is an improvement from six or seven years ago, when Gaconnier began taking in troubled dogs while simultaneously taking on the City of Dallas’ animal-services department.

It all started with a pack that was roaming the Winnetka Heights area in the summer of 2011. Gaconnier and other neighbors called Dallas Animal Services about this menacing pack, but no one came. In a few weeks the pack grew from six to 15 dogs.

“I couldn’t get out to my driveway to go to work,” she says.

Still, the city did nothing.

So she and her neighbors started trapping loose dogs themselves and taking them to the city shelter.

“That’s when we started to see how broken the system really is,” Gaconnier says.

Eventually she captured the injured female from that front-yard pack, and a vet later found it had been shot with an animal-control dart.

She rehabilitated that dog, Tasha, now a house pet and a muse for Gaconnier’s work.

“I committed that another dog would not be worse off for our intervention,” Gaconnier says. “She was treated inhumanely, and that is completely unacceptable to me, and I pledged not to stop until things change.”

Dallas Animal Services had messed with the wrong dog lady.

Gaconnier and a loose network of neighbors began calling themselves Gypsy Dog Ops. It’s not a rescue, Gaconnier says. It’s a mission to fix Dallas’ animal-control system. They’ve been described as “rogue rescuers,” and they’ve gone toe-to-toe with Dallas Animal Services, whose former director currently is under investigation around dealings with a nonprofit that serves the shelter.

Dallas Animal Services is under new management, and things have improved, but Gypsy Dog Ops is still watching.

“My story is a complicated story,” Gaconnier says. “But in a way, it’s the story of our neighborhood.”

The first step was training their watchdogs. They encouraged neighbors to call 311 when they saw loose dogs. Use the system that’s in place, however broken, and then hold it accountable.

Gaconnier asked neighbors and friends to alert her when they saw certain strays that she was trying to catch — one in-heat breeder equals six new dogs in two months. A neighbor bought Gaconnier a professional catchpole, and she’s made herself an expert at catching and rehabbing street dogs.

Less than a year after that attack, in May 2016, a pack of dogs mauled 52-year-old Antoinette Brown in South Dallas. She was put into a coma with more than 100 dog bites and died a week later.

“We kept saying, ‘Someone is going to be killed,’ and then someone was killed, and it’s heartbreaking,” Gaconnier says. “She died because of a civil rights violation, because the city was not serving the north and south sides equally. And to me, that’s the tragedy.”

The city finally shook up the leadership of animal services. And some big money was given to Dallas’ animal problem.

A $13.45-million private grant, which deploys mobile surgery units to perform free spay and neuter operations in neighborhoods that need them most, fixes 46,000 animals a year.

“It’s an intense amount of money,” Gaconnier says. “The funders know that it’s a public safety issue and it’s around a disparity of service for communities of color.”

But more work is needed.

Catching stray dogs can be difficult, but also, it’s the easy part.

Gypsy Dog Ops started investigating animal services. They found the department had taken 15,000 unanswered calls in one year. They mapped dog-bite data and found that the vast majority of attacks happen in southern Dallas.

Through open records requests, they uncovered a swamp that invited a Dallas Morning News investigation, heat from City Council and eventually, procedural and financial audits.

Change came too late, unfortunately.

In August 2015, a stray dog attacked Winnetka Heights resident Charlie Howell while he and his wife were walking their dogs. He was bitten in his hand, face and groin, and his injuries were so severe that he almost lost his hand.

After that, he sued the city, hired a lawyer and scheduled a deposition before they would release information about what happened to the dog that attacked him.

Ronnie Bell lost an arm and nearly died after a dog attack in South Dallas this past June.

Stopping dog bites means shining a light on problems at the core of Dallas, including poverty and transportation, Gaconnier says. She hopes the city will do more to “elevate pet culture” in southern Dallas.

Meanwhile, Gaconnier took a hiatus from her career in broadcast post-production to tackle Dallas’ dog problem fulltime. She spent money that was meant to renovate her house to instead pay for vet services and open her home to difficult canines.

They’ve ripped up linoleum and destroyed a fridge.

It’s taken over her life.

“I cannot sit down and live in this city and not do anything about it,” she says. “Raising up our community is the most important thing we can do. Who cares what we can accomplish if people are being mauled to death?”

646 Bizerte $349,900

Susan Melnick has been matching discerning sellers and home buyers for more than 30 years.

A longtime Kessler Park resident, she’s not only a really good neighbor, she and her team are thereal estate pros in North Oak Cliff. Call Susan at 214.460.5565. Email SMelnick@ virginiacook.com or visit SusanMelnick.com.

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