INSIDE
Blowout City
Seems
By Patrick Higgins
Sweet Tunes
On
By Laurie James
Seasonal Impression
Singer-songwriter Court Hoang is ready to release his sumptuous new
By Juan R. Govea
Knights
Terror
Anthony Mariani, Editor
Lee Newquist, Publisher
Bob Niehoff, General Manager
Michael Newquist, Regional Director
Ryan Burger, Art Director
Jennifer Bovee, Marketing Director
Clintastic, Brand Ambassador
Emmy Smith, Proofreader
Julie Strehl, Account Executive
Sarah Niehoff, Account Executive
Stacey Hammons, Senior Account Executive
Tony Diaz, District Manager
Wyatt Newquist, Account Executive
CONTRIBUTORS
Christina Berger, E.R. Bills, Jason Brimmer, Buck D. Elliott, Juan R. Govea, Patrick Higgins, Laurie James, Kristian Lin, Cody Neathery, Wyatt Newquist, Steve Steward, Teri Webster, Ken Wheatcroft-Pardue, Elaine Wilder, Cole Williams
EDITORIAL BOARD
Laurie James, Anthony Mariani, Emmy Smith, Steve Steward
Follow the Leader
There’s only one person to blame for the racial slurs hurled at minority high school cheerleaders at the Arlington Heights football game.
BY ANTHONY MARIANI
When the mostly Hispanic cheerleaders from the mostly Hispanic North Side High School went to shake hands with the Arlington Heights High cheer squad last weekend at Farrington Field before kickoff, Arlington Heights fans attacked.
They called the North Side girls racial slurs and even told them to go back to Mexico, according to eyewitnesses.
At least one Arlington Heights fan was also reportedly waving a flag for Donald Trump, the U.S. presidential candidate who describes Mexicans and other immigrants from south of the border as “murderers,” “rapists,” “vermin,” and “animals” “poisoning the blood of our country.” Along with tax cuts for the 1% and fetuses, racism is a defining characteristic of Trump’s campaign. And it’s spreading. Conservatives’ end game is to see how far they can go in dehumanizing non-white, sometimes non-Christian Others, so when the deportations happen if Trump wins the election, the apolitical among us — i.e., the so-called independents — can just sit back and not feel guilty. The wealthy white male editor of the faux-intellectual magazine the National Review, who supports the twice-impeached adjudicated rapist for the White House, recently used the n-word in an on-air interview with a right-friendly host. She did not even blink. No matter how many times you watch this monster say five-sixths of that vile pejorative before stopping himself, he said it. Clearly. In this country. In the Year 2024. The racism baked into Trump’s presidential run is not an anomaly but a selling point, because intellectually and perhaps physically lazy and most likely overweight
METROPOLIS
At least one Arlington Heights fan was also reportedly waving a flag for Donald Trump, the U.S. presidential candidate who describes Mexicans and other immigrants from south of the border as “murderers,” “rapists,” “vermin,” and “animals” “poisoning the blood of our country.”
white people need someone to blame for all the jobs being taken by non-lazy immigrants. And multiple studies have found that immigrants are less likely to commit crime than U.S.-born Americans
Trump supporters clearly have forgotten that he was who forced Republicans in Congress to kill the bipartisan bill that would have made our southern borders safer and more secure. He needs porous borders to scare his supporters and independents into thinking only he can stop the influx. He can’t. He had his chance during his presidency. He failed. But his supporters ignore it because they need to hold on to their racism. It defines them as much as it defines him. As an infamous political figure on the world stage, Donald Trump legitimizes their hate. “If a U.S. presidential candidate in the Year of Our Lord 2024 can get away with hating on non-whites nonstop,” the average Trumper feels, “then so can I. Here’s my MAGA flag and some racial slurs at a football game.”
The mainstream media is to blame for never pushing back on his bile and for normalizing his toxicity. Just for ratings. And here I am trying to avoid mentioning his name but failing because there are more of his misguided masses here in Tarrant County than us normal folk, and the voiceless normies among us need to know that this publication (with 2.6 million website visits per month and 41.8K followers on Instagram and 36.9K on Facebook) has their back.
“For the Arlington Heights community,” posted community leader Alexander Montalvo, “what are you going to do to hold these people accountable? Why were there no adults on the sidelines or in the stands addressing these racist attacks? For [Fort Worth] ISD, how in the world was this not addressed during the game? Those people should have been removed immediately. The game should have been stopped until they were removed. The [North Side]
students should have been protected. This is a failure of adults in many areas. We need to be united and call for accountability. North Side and Arlington Heights, let’s come together to ensure this is not repeated and not normalized. We must take action together to call out this behavior and protect students.”
Montalvo and other community leaders have begun a letter-writing campaign aimed at garnering action from Fort Worth ISD and other local institutions.
“As of now,” the school district said in statement to the Star-Telegram, “we refer to this as an ‘alleged’ incident because we are still in the process of gathering facts.
Along with tax cuts for the 1% and fetuses, racism is a defining characteristic of Trump’s campaign.
There have been multiple versions of events circulating, and it is important that we fully understand what transpired before making definitive conclusions. Fort Worth ISD does not condone the use of racial slurs or any form of discrimination, and we take these allegations very seriously. In line with our commitment to ensuring a safe and respectful environment for all students, FWISD has initiated a thorough investigation. Our Athletics Department, Safety and Security teams, and both school principals began their inquiry over the weekend.”
The Arlington Heights High School class president, who is Hispanic, also released a statement, saying, “The behavior described during our last football game by several members of the FWISD community does not represent Arlington Heights and is in no way tolerated. The student body and administration involved have made it their priority to ensure that our school events follow the guidelines and expectations outlined by” the rulemaking University Interscholastic League (UIL).
In a comment to Montalvo’s post, sixyear Arlington Heights High School teacher Glenn Tidwell said, “Do I believe a student or a group of students said something awful? It wouldn’t surprise me at all. Kids can say really dumb and hurtful stuff. I’m certainly not going to call the affected kids from NSH liars, because I would never want them to feel ignored or brushed aside. Where there’s smoke, there’s probably fire. So, I won’t defend any knucklehead(s) who said hurtful things to innocent NSH cheerleaders. I hope they are held accountable. But I WOULD like to defend our cheer team, our football team, our coaching staff, and our student population in general. I have either taught or know many of the current cheerleaders and football players from our school. I cannot imagine that any of them would say such hurtful and unconscionable things. I can vouch for them. They are just really great kids, and I’ve grown to really love them.”
The last day to register to vote is Monday, Oct. 7. Check your registration now and make plans to reregister if you’ve been wiped from the rolls by the anti-minority, antidemocracy trolls in Austin. We normal, sane, non-hateful people need all the votes for decency we can muster. And votes for secure borders. The alternative is too unbearable and dangerous — to even consider. l
This column reflects the opinions of the editorial board and not the Fort Worth Weekly To submit a column, please email Editor Anthony Mariani at Anthony@FWWeekly. com. He will gently edit it for clarity and concision.
Draining Here’s how to keep public school teachers from leaving their jobs.
BY EMILY MCGINNIS
There’s never been a more stressful time to be a teacher. I say that as someone who worked in K-12 schools for more than 20 years, first as a teacher and then as a principal.
Educators enter the profession out of a passion for teaching and helping kids, but today, they’re leaving in large numbers. Between 2020 and 2022, about 300,000 public school teachers and staff quit. K-12 teachers have the highest burnout rate of any profession. Nearly a third are considering leaving the profession.
For the sake of the next generation, school districts and local governments need to figure out how to keep teachers in classrooms. Improved salaries would help — teachers are underpaid. But even that wouldn’t entirely solve the problem. We need to turn schools back into places where teachers want to be. Many of these institutions are no longer havens for learning. Pressure on teachers has mounted over the years as society has made them scapegoats in cultural and political battles. They face unprecedented criticism from parents and governmental officials.
Stressors are also increasing inside. Schools are growing more violent. Since the pandemic, 38% of K-12 schools have seen an increase in physical violence between students, 45% have seen an increase in threats, and 37% report an increase in bullying.
The teacher shortage, along with staff cuts, force those who remain to take on more responsibilities, mostly supervising morning drop-off, recess, or afterschool programs. Most teachers can’t afford to spend more time on the job. Already, more than 80% of teachers have worked a second job to help cover living expenses.
Burnout is a downward spiral. It drives teachers away, which increases the workload — and the burnout — of those who stay.
Of course, the elephant in the classroom is money. Local and state governments must allocate more funding to their public schools.
Instead, states like Connecticut and Utah are slashing education budgets.
Tennessee, South Carolina, and Oklahoma are considering rejecting billions in federal education funding — nearly $200 billion in COVID-era federal aid is set to expire soon. In Texas, lawmakers failed to approve teacher pay increases despite a $38.7 billion surplus.
We need to increase school funding to retain teachers and attract more, but how we go about using funds is just as important. Schools should prioritize hiring assistant teachers and tutoring services.
Even schools dealing with budget cuts can make changes to support their teachers. For instance, administrators can show teachers they value their expertise by standing behind their decisions when dealing with quarrelsome parents.
It also makes a difference to respect their time. When I was a teacher, I’d often be up by 5 a.m., at school by 6:30 a.m., and home at 6 p.m., all while juggling family responsibilities — and preparing the next day’s lesson on my own time.
We need to increase school funding to retain teachers and attract more.
It doesn’t cost any money to have administrative staff take turns covering morning drop-off or lunch supervision. As a principal, I provided teachers with meals donated by local restaurants, freeing up time after work so they could enjoy dinner at home with their families.
If we care about children, we have to nurture their teachers. Too many have lost the joy of educating. By respecting their time and improving their workplaces, we can bring that joy back. l
A version of this story originally appeared in the Dallas Morning News.
Emily McGinnis is the K-12 education market manager at KI, a global furniture manufacturer in Wisconsin. She previously spent 21 years as a teacher and principal in North Carolina and holds master’s degrees in teaching and school administration from Wingate University.
This column reflects the opinions and fact-gathering of the author(s) and only the author(s) and not the Fort Worth Weekly. To submit a column, please email Editor Anthony Mariani at Anthony@FWWeekly. com. He will gently edit it for clarity and concision.
D&D Night
The legendary board game is more than just wizards, gnomes, and dice. It’s community in a world of isolation.
STORY AND PHOTOS BY STEVE STEWARD
This happened the other day. Tham, the adventuring party’s blue-skinned, ram’s-horned tiefling rogue, succeeded, against all odds, in two consecutive, improbable feats. Despite his slender build and lack of physical strength, Tham managed to pick up his companion — a halfling rogue named Lord Claxton, nimble and stealthy but about the size and shape of a beer keg — and heave him in the direction of his other companion, a diminutive gnome wizard named Wendell, who was currently plunging from 30 feet above toward the tangle of spiderwebs that spanned the width of the cavern, woven beneath the crumbling stone bridge they’d been crossing.
Moments before, a rubbery, rope-like appendage snaked down from the shadows of the cavern’s ceiling, grabbed Wendell around the waist, and reeled him toward the latest monster trying to eat him. What
frog-like monster known as a “slaad,” conjured and controlled by Barry. But Wendell was beyond the slaad’s reach. The stalactite creature’s tendrils whipped about frantically, and it drew Wendell nearer to stare at him with its single, bulbous, crimson eye. The eye’s pupil narrowed, and the thing drew Wendell toward the gnashing, slathering maw below its eye, a horrible gaping frown full of fleshy, bulging gums and yellow, jagged teeth as big as broadswords.
Wendell uttered an incantation and flailed his hands at the thing’s huge eye, and a pulse of necromantic energy coursed forth from his palms. The thing’s stony skin nictated over its eye, and it roared in rage. But other than making the monster mad, the spell had no effect. Wendell, formerly a cleric, uttered a prayer to Ogma and squeezed his eyes shut, awaiting his fate.
caught him midair, amazed that it all worked out, so amazed that he hardly noticed when he and Wendell swung around the bottom of the bridge and back over the other side. Garrekh, who had used his innate duergar magic to double his size, casually turned and caught them as they roped through the air, and the stalactite creature scuttled away from them across the ceiling.
had previously looked like a large stalactite now bristled with six 50-foot tendrils. It had already caught Garrekh (of a species of underground-dwelling dwarves called duergar, whom Tham, Wendell, Claxton, and their vainglorious warlock comrade Barry “Handsome” Daytona were escorting to the Undermountain town of Skullport), taking a bite out of Garrekh but dropping him when he fought back. Garrekh had been saved from his fall when he was caught in the arms of a
Ride
Claxton, who’d just extricated himself from a glob of webbing blasted on him by a mastiff-sized spider, saw Wendell get yanked up from the bridge, ran within throwing range, and expertly chucked a dagger at the tendril clutching Wendell. The stalactite monster brayed a hideous scream and snatched its tendril back, and Wendell tumbled into empty space. Claxton heard Tham call his name, saw Tham nod at him, and was clueless until he saw that Tham held the end of a rope, the same rope he’d tied around Claxton’s waist in the dungeon chamber that contained a gigantic, room-sized ooze.
“Shit,” Claxton said. Tham grabbed him, spun him, and threw him, grabbed the end of the rope, and dug in his heels as the rope fed out. Claxton sailed up toward Wendell and
If you can imagine the X-Men’s Nightcrawler with horns curving back from his forehead, a couple of gold teeth, and an unhealthy paranoia about shapechangers, this is who Tham is. He’s the creation of my friend Kolin Jardine, who, along with Sam Anderson (Lord Claxton), Jordan Dyer (Wendell Longnose), and Christian Carvajal (Barry “Handsome” Daytona), has been playing in a weekly Dungeons & Dragons campaign with me that’s been going on for over two years. They are the Player Characters, whereas my role is the Dungeon Master, or “DM,” who portrays the monsters and other characters with whom the players interact. I am also a referee, who decides, per the game’s official rules, what the characters get away with. Other players have moved in and out of the group — shoutout to Shannon Wiley and her aquatic bard Kleio, as well as Ross Van Gorder and his half-orc barbarian Roscoe Fockshite — and this week, Garrekh, normally a non-playable character (NPC) the other guys have to keep from getting killed, was played by Jordan Richardson, who had played only one other time and
continued on page 7
STOCKYARDS
A miniature “flail snail” is used in a game played on a gridded battlemap.
wanted an uncomplicated character to learn the rules with.
When not engaged in the game, we are just grown-ass people with jobs and such, fortunate enough that we are all off on the same day during the week to sit around, eat snacks, drink beer, and pretend to cast spells and throw daggers. I don’t want to speak for the other people in our group, but Monday afternoon is pretty much my favorite part of the week. For three to five hours, we get to escape whatever hassles or stressors are crowding our respective mental spaces, filling them instead with the details of a long-running, slaphappy adventure story in which a hero might use a conjured spectral hand to pants a city guard, and powersliding a horse-drawn wagon through an oil fire is possible. Our game’s vibe is like if Adam Sandler or Judd Apatow were the showrunners of Game of Thrones, or if Willow were R-rated and written by Chuck Jones.
D&D is a collaborative effort in storytelling. The DM — me, in this case — narrates the setting, describes encounters, and referees the players’ reactions to and interactions with the world. There’s a jazz-like rhythm in a gaming group that, once uncovered, makes game sessions as memorable as playing a concert to a room full of friends. Like playing an instrument, there are rules and conventions and mechanics (all of which are built atop an underlying foundation of math that you either understand or get by without) and mistakes and flubs that can be just as entertaining as a perfect performance. As a group, you celebrate the triumphs and bemoan the defeats, lauding the fallen while elevating those who survive to level up their skills. It’s an emotional ride, as silly as it sounds, and that’s also a thing that I love about it. The excitement and delight in succeeding is practically electric, as evidenced in Tham’s heroic move.
What made Tham’s Amazing Claxton Toss improbable relates to the basic mechanic of D&D, which involves rolling a 20-sided die, known in game parlance as a d20, and comparing the result to an arbitrary
“difficulty class” number — an easy task is a 5, a challenging task is 15, and something that is nigh impossible is a 30. Each character has various “modifiers,” which are bonus numbers that can increase the likelihood of success. As an example, let’s say Sam wanted Claxton to pick a lock on a treasure chest. The lock, per DM fiat, has a difficulty class (abbreviated as “DC”) of 17 (maybe because it’s made by some ancient elves known for making unpickable locks). When it comes to lock picking and other “sleight of hand” activities, Claxton has a modifier of +5, which he adds to the number Sam rolls on the d20. Sam rolls a 13, which with the addition of the +5 makes 18, which is enough to beat the DC. Claxton picks the lock, opens the chest, and gets sprayed with a magic poison that makes him age into an 80-year-old, and
then he spends the next few sessions acting like Jerry Stiller on King of Queens until he finds a way to fix it.
In the case of Tham’s Improbable Claxton Toss, Kolin articulated what his idea to save Wendell was, and I made a ruling: Because Claxton is stout, and Tham isn’t strong, but Kolin’s idea was funny, I decided there would be two DCs to beat: a DC 13 Strength check to grab Claxton and throw him and a DC 18 Dexterity check to “lead the pass” at catching Wendell. Kolin rolled a 14 on his Strength check. Then came his roll for Dexterity. Kolin jostled the die in his palm, hyped himself up like he was at a roulette table, and dropped it into the top of his dice-rolling tower. It clattered to a stop at the bottom. Kolin looked down, paused, and announced, “Nat 20.”
The table erupted in cheers, because a roll of 20 on the d20 (known as a “natural” or “nat 20”) guarantees automatic success on whatever your character is attempting to do. We ended the session with the characters escaping death and exiting the cavern to whatever fate I come up for them next time.
Sounds fun, right? Unfortunately, all that fun comes with a bit of patience, because D&D is full of rules that the participants all have to be mostly familiar with. To the uninitiated, all those numbers and the seven different polyhedral dice might seem impenetrably complex. And some of it is. I’ve been playing for four years now, and I still have to look up continued on page 8
(From left to right) Sam Anderson, Christian Carvajal, and Shannon Wiley navigate a dungeon. The beer cans represent large, stone columns.
lots of rules. But in my experience, that’s what lends itself to the style of play in my group. I probably should’ve set the DC’s for Tham’s Claxton Toss at 14 and 20, because of how the rules of a characters’ attributes play out, but it was way more fun to invite his success at such a wacky attempt at heroics. For new players and the DMs trying to kill their characters, here’s some advice I’ve stolen: As long as you all agree and are consistent with how you apply them, then use the rules you like, and ignore the ones you don’t.
In fact, that advice is especially relevant now, because D&D’s parent company, Wizards of the Coast (itself owned by toy company Hasbro), just released an updated, revised edition of one of the game’s core rulebooks, the Fifth Edition Player’s Handbook The 2024 version updates various rules and options from the most recent updated edition in 2014, known colloquially as “5e,” and if you go on YouTube, Reddit, X, or any other social media channel you can think of, you can learn about what all those updates are and whether they are cool or not.
I have watched very little of this content because I find the discussion about “old thing versus new thing” exhausting. For new players and DMs, though, a lot of these videos are useful. I was once one of those, and I have seen hours of that stuff. But the best way to learn the game is to play it, and if you can’t find a group, it’s still pretty fun to learn the rules and make a character, and in those two endeavors, I think the new Player’s Handbook is very useful. Primarily, I think it offers enough new ideas and a more streamlined, explicative process for character creation to make it worth the purchase, especially for new players. And if some of the 2024 updates have nerfed a character class or spell or whatever, so what? It’s your game. Un-nerf it to your heart’s content.
Personally, I prefer the physical books to their online counterparts, though D&D’s online presence, DnDBeyond.com, has everything you need to start playing, even without a subscription, and making a character on that site is way easier and faster than doing it the old-fashioned way using pencil and paper. Richardson, along with his wife Mallorie, my partner Hayley, and our friend Jana, recently built characters with me using the 2014 Player’s Handbook. The process ended up taking a couple hours because no one except Hayley had played before, and I got tripped up trying to figure out some of the math behind their various abilities. In hindsight, I would’ve had premade character sheets or had them log on to the website. We still had fun, and Hayley’s character almost died in the short combat encounter we had time for, laughing that her half-orc fighter nearly got felled by a single goblin arrow.
Commiserating over imaginary failures and successes is but one joy to be found in playing D&D. I began playing in an online game during the 2020 COVID lockdown, one of the many neophytes whose introduction to the game came via Zoom windows across various online table-top apps. In March 2021, CNBC said 2020 proved to be Dungeons & Dragons’ biggest year ever, with sales jumping
33%. D&D became mainstream that year, and, suddenly, that old joke about “Jesus saves, everyone else takes damage” made sense to more people than ever before.
Then came the Chris Pine-led Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves, which turned out to be a pretty good theatrical adaptation of the brand and spirit of the game. There is the Dallas-based promoter High Fantasy Events, which throws regular D&Dthemed dance parties throughout Texas, where costumes are highly encouraged. In Denton on the Square sits the d20 Tavern, a growler and boardgame bar with regular D&D events, and The Cicada has recently started a D&D happy hour from 4pm to 7pm on Thursdays. Dungeons & Dragons is pretty much culture canon now.
Though I didn’t start playing until the wizened old age of 41, I was certainly aware of and captivated by the brand as far back as I can remember. First there was the Saturday morning cartoon, launched on CBS in 1983. I was 5, and my parents, newly born-again Christians, were not thrilled about it, so my memories of it are dim. When I got into comic books in the late ’80s, it was the D&D advertisements that filled my brain with wonder, none more than the Larry Elmore cover to the Basic Rules. The look of sadistic rage on that red dragon’s face, talons spread in a gesture of outrage as it loomed over a couple acres of glittering treasure somewhere deep within a ruined temple, is seared into my brain. That fighter in the foreground, for all his glowing sword and scale-mail armor, didn’t stand a chance, I just knew it.
More than anything in the dizzying blocks of text, it was the artwork in the D&D books that fired my imagination. There was this guy in my 10th grade AP European History class who first showed me the fabled Monster Manual. I understood none of the stats and rules, but I drank up the art like a wounded wizard in dire need of a health potion. That Larry Elmore Basic Rules cover, the cover of the Fiend Folio, emblazoned with what looks like a mummified vampire covered in jewels and armed with a huge golden sword — these and the other iconic D&D books from the ’80s and ’90s stared at me for years from the shelves of B. Dalton and Waldenbooks, Barnes & Noble, and the back part of every comic shop I ever set foot in.
Photo by Hugard & Vanoverschelde
A wide variety of monsters can threaten your players — and Lenny, the cat.
Nowadays, the D&D stuff is usually near the front of the comic book shop or at least it is at Y2K Comics in Wedgwood, my usual source for D&D minis, the little plastic monsters and adventurers my group uses on a dry-erasable battlemap gridded in 1-inch squares. I’m sure my mini habit is not as pronounced as others, but — wow — have I acquired a lot of them. Does a D&D session need two dozen skeleton minis? You just never know.
I never thought I’d be interested in the minis and maps that in-person, table-top games often feature, but here I am, crossing my eyes with a thin paintbrush in my hand, trying to paint the eyes on bugbear chieftain, who, after my treatment, ended up looking crosseyed himself.
Going deep into the peripheral parts of D&D — painting minis, buying supplementary books and other material, getting a monthly dice subscription — all of that is fun, but most of it is kind of pricey. Luckily, none of those accouterments are necessary. I’d argue that D&D played within the “theater of the mind” is the best kind because it requires participants to focus their attention on one another. It’s a lot of active listening and spatial abstraction — imagining the distance between your character and the troll stomping over to claw him to death is more mental exercise than staring at a screen (or even a map full of minis) and tapping a “roll dice” icon. Empty beer cans, stacks of poker chips, and squiggles drawn on paper are just as representative of topography as the highly detailed 3D-printed map terrain sold in Etsy stores. All the online and offline pieces that make D&D arguably easier — the website and the virtual table-tops and their endless supply of digital tokens, maps, and other enhancements available for purchase — I am wary of these things because they make you look at a phone or a monitor instead of relying solely on your imagination. For me, the point of playing this game every week is so that I don’t have to glance at those things for a few hours. But I have also had a ton of fun running and playing in online games, even when my overloaded maps crashed or somebody’s internet connection was wonky. D&D is about telling a collaborative story, but more importantly, it’s about hanging out with your friends.
Above all, that’s what I love about this game. More than once have I seen some article in my feed about how difficult it is for adults to make new friends or do things with the ones they have. D&D is probably not a great “game night” kind of game, as character creation and rules-setting usually require a separate “zero session” that takes as long as a normal session might, which, if everyone is having a good time and the dice are hot, might last a few hours. But it’s worth getting together with people and at least trying to figure it out. If nothing else, you had some beers at your friend’s house while trying to play the dice game with the little plastic monster guys and the grid, like the kids on Stranger Things
I don’t think it’s a game for everyone, either. The rules are clear and comprehensible, but the learning curve can seem a little steep — there’s a lot of jargon and a few abstract concepts that might take a while to wrap your head around. Some people might find it boring, which I also totally get. Even when you play regularly, like almost every week for months and months in the same campaign with the same characters, some sessions are less thrilling than others, and sometimes a session can be downright stale. A puzzle might be too abstract or the DM might be under-prepared or it’s hot in your buddy’s dining room where you’re playing and half the group is hungover. These things make D&D a little bit of a drag. Emotions can get a little frayed, too, like when a player gets frustrated with their DM’s rulings or when
the DM gets frustrated with their players’ misunderstanding of the rules. In that regard, the saying that “no D&D is better than bad
D&D” is one to live by. If you’re not feeling up to playing for a few hours — and with the state of the world as it is, pretending to be a wizard or whatever around other people can be a lot harder than you think — do your friends a favor and sit that session out. But for all the potential for burnout, the camaraderie and memories you make from a fun D&D session are worth the occasional slog through another dimly lit passage, getting changed by the same pair of carrion crawlers again. Hanging out for a few hours with your friends is what D&D is for, no matter what you roll on the dice — after all, getting some adults together for a few hours is successfully completing an improbable task on its own, but when one of you rolls a nat 20, that’s something you end up talking about for a long time. l
This is the author’s version of the fictional Sword Coast town of Port Kir.
BUCK U
Sinkhole
TCU blunders a 21-point lead during the Big 12’s first conference matchup of the season.
BY BUCK D. ELLIOTT
I harbor no personal resentment toward the University of Central Florida Knights. Way back before I knew my now-wife in 2012, she was completing her master’s degree from Iowa State and was shopping for doctoral programs. She received advice that changed the course of my life forever: “Go wherever will give you the most money.” She narrowed her list to UCF and TCU. Luckily for me — and our three children — the rest is history because Texas Christian is great at shelling out that sweet cash.
Saturday marked the very first Big 12 matchup of the new-look conference, and both teams are in that “might be good” category. Both the Knights and Frogs fell short of .500 last season, thanks to several close losses. UCF fell in three games by a combined four points. TCU lost as many by nine. Both members have also achieved undefeated seasons in the last 15 years, but despite all their similarities, these teams are constructed for starkly different purposes.
TCU’s passing attack took center stage Saturday night as sophomore quarterback Josh Hoover tossed for 402 yards and four touchdowns. Jack Bech continues to be the unexpected breakout receiver, accumulating 200 yards and a score, and he’s averaging
more than 115 yards per game. Hoover was on fire through the first half, using his talented receivers to threaten the perimeter as a makeshift run game and hitting down-the-field throws as well. The Frogs were incredibly efficient in the first half, scoring touchdowns on three of their four drives to carry a 21-7 lead into the locker room.
UCF fields a big, bullying, bruising rushing attack with a talented offensive line and beefy backfield, including their quarterback. The Knights came into Amon G. Carter as the nation’s top rushing team but were slow out of the gates. Coach Gus Malzahn’s squad punted twice during the first half but managed three long drives: one for a touchdown, the other two ending with blocked field goals. Everything went the Frogs’ way through the first two quarters and even to open the third as a pass interference call against UCF, and a pair of short completions, led to a 50-yard connection to Bech and a 28-7 lead.
I’ll admit it. Things felt comfortable at that point. Words to the wise: Never sleep on Florida. Or Floridians. That’s when they attack, “they” being sinkholes, alligators, or just “a Florida man.” Purple fans began to trickle out to begin their victory celebrations early, and it seems Andy Avalos’ defense might have started to do the same. Despite scoring only seven points, the Knights gained 258 yards in the first half. Staring down a threescore deficit, UCF responded with consecutive 75-yard drives for touchdowns, led by efficient rushing and 20-plus-yard passes.
The Hypnotoad vibes were vacant from then on. TCU cobbled a nice drive in between Knight scores but stalled in the red zone and settled for 3. The Frogs would fail to find the end zone again, kicking another red-zone 3 during the fourth quarter, this time having reached the 1-yard line only to suffer a false start and incomplete pass and resigning themselves to a 6-point lead with the Orlandans seemingly driving the ball at will. UCF took their first lead of the game by 1 point with 36 seconds remaining. Hoover commanded his team 35 yards with the remaining seconds into position for a 58-yard kick attempt by freshman Kyle Lemmermann. It was long enough but wide right.
offensive shortfall, if there really is one, was 62 rushing yards on 16 attempts and only 11 by Cam Cook, who seems to be TCU’s only hope for a prominent back this season. Despite a monstrous first half, the TCU run game was never truly established. Briles called only three runs during the third quarter and five runs in the fourth. Cook successfully carried TCU to the 1-yard line, but the false start penalty that stalled the drive might have proved to be the difference in this razor-thin matchup. The lack of a threatening rushing attack left Hoover tossing three consecutive passes short of the first-down sticks during the drive that could have iced the game. The Knights would have simply flattened their backs and run it down our throats, but we’re not built to do the same.
TCU’s defense was hapless overall against the Knights. UCF avoided negative plays and put themselves ahead of the down marker via their rushing attack. Frog defensive linemen were simply outmuscled by the white-andgold big bodies. Despite being a run-first team, UCF ended up balanced with 289 yards on the ground and 230 through the air, which was really the linchpin of their success. TCU’s secondary was exposed as unimproved from last season, and future opponents have already taken note. Malzahn’s game plan to use the run to open up the pass (which is how non air-raid football has been built for 100 years) worked masterfully. JaTravis Broughton, a transfer from Utah, struggled all night at his cornerback position, but he certainly wasn’t the only one. Avalos’ group surrendered 519 total yards, and without three blocked kicks, the score wouldn’t have seemed as close.
It’s difficult to label an offensive performance of 34 points and 460 yards as poor, and it isn’t — a team with those stats should be winning whichever hypothetical game in question. In my heart, I’d like to blame offensive coordinator Kendal Briles in some convoluted way, but the more times my DVR hums and stat lines I pore over, it just isn’t there. The
Looking for a weekend project? Try replacing some traditional landscaping plants with Texas native plants. They’re beautiful, use less water and thrive in our weather. Your local nursery can help find the perfect plants for you. Have a water-saving weekend! Visit us online to find more water-saving projects.
In the end, UCF was the better team in an entertaining game of wild momentum shifts. Neither team committed a turnover or was heavily penalized. TCU stole 7 points from Central Florida’s kicking phase, but the Frog defense was exposed both in the trenches and especially in the secondary. Dykes and company had chances to close this game, and I think we’ll witness UCF finish in the Top 4 of conference squads this year as their slate appears very manageable save for Iowa State and Utah.
TCU will have a chance to regain swagger as they fight to keep the Iron Skillet when they travel to face SMU this weekend. The Ponies haven’t beaten the Frogs since 2021, and Sonny Dykes is perfect against his former team so far. SMU is fresh off a bye week and are undoubtedly hoping to capitalize on the defensive holes in Fort Worth after failing to score a touchdown in their five-field-goal loss against BYU. Dykes’ emphasis in practice this week will be no different than it’s been all offseason: score touchdowns in the red zone and finish games. Every keyboard Chicken Little will proclaim this season to be over, but undefeated was the pipiest of dreams to begin with. A small part of my lizard brain was furious over the Frog faceplant on Saturday evening, but the mature part of me appreciated what an entertaining game this really was. I didn’t go to bed angry on Saturday because, after all, UCF lost my wife to TCU, but I suppose it’s OK for the rest of you to be pissed off a while longer. l
Jack Bech continued his Herculean season with 200 receiving yards against UCF on Saturday, but it still wasn’t enough.
Sundance Square Car & Culture Show 2024
Celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month with a vibrant showcase of lowriders and culture
Promotional Feature
When: Saturday, September 21, 2024
Time: Noon to 8 pm
Place: Sundance Square Plaza, Downtown Fort Worth
Free: No admission cost / Family Friendly
The public is invited from Noon to 8 pm on Saturday, September 21st, for the second annual Sundance Square Car & Culture Show. The event kicks off Hispanic Heritage Month with a vibrant showcase of lowriders and Latin culture! The event is family friendly and there is no admission cost.
This year’s show is hosted by the legendary Duke’s Car Club and will showcase more than 100 lowriders, motorcycles, and bicycles displayed throughout Sundance
Square Plaza and surrounding streets. Founded in 1962, Duke’s is the oldest continuous operating lowrider club in the world and will be judging for the Best of Show, Best Motorcycle, Best Bicycle, and Top 20 awards.
Complementing the car show activities there will be live music, folklorico and mariachi performances, along with local food and market vendors. Additionally,
attendees can explore local, regional, and international art exhibitions at Caravan of Dreams, Zona 7, and 400h galleries on Houston Street.
Mark your calendar for this festive celebration of Hispanic artistry and community!
Show presenters are Sundance Square, Duke’s Car Club and Sarah Ayala. Community supporter is Visit Fort Worth. Mark your calendar for this festive
STUFF
Here We Go Again … Again
Wild
week-to-week emotional swings can mean only one thing: It’s Cowboys season.
BY PATRICK HIGGINS
It took less than 30 minutes of football-watching to ruin my Sunday … and the rest of my whole damn week. I didn’t make it to the second quarter of that Cowboys/ Saints debacle before I was on the verge of splintering my flatscreen with an expert boomerang remote fling, crying into one of the too-many pillows my wife keeps on the couch, and draining the liquid gold contents of a whiskey bottle all before your Nanna was even home from church. It was a particularly difficult challenge for someone trying (to varying degrees of success) to live that N/A life. To my credit, despite my despair at the catastrophic events transpiring on my television — made all the worse by the robotic head-voice broadcast analysis from an insufferable NFL legend (seems we finally found something football-related that Tom Brady sucks at) — I persevered. Another such effort from the Cowboys, and my liver might not be so lucky.
In the midst of that mayhem, just seven days removed from the euphoria of
a decisive road win over the Browns, an all-too-familiar feeling suddenly crept over me. On the first play of their second drive, Saints quarterback Derek Carr hit a streaking Rashid Shaheed for a 70-yard bomb resulting in their second touchdown in as many drives, and I just knew. Here we go again. New Orleans would eventually score six consecutive touchdowns en route to a 44-19 drumming in Dallas’ first home game of the year. It was a near-exact replay of the Wild Card game against the Packers just eight months ago. Or the Bills game in Week 15 of last year. Or the 49ers game in Week 5. Or the Cardinals game in Week 3 before that. The script is the same: Their opponent runs the ball down their throats, their wide receivers run free into blue whale bite-sized chunk plays/touchdowns, the defense offers no resistance whatsoever, then Dak Prescott makes an error or two in a failed too-late comeback attempt, shoulders all the blame, and further denigrates himself in the eyes of the Cowboys faithful. Rinse and Repeat.
That sudden feeling that came over me? It can best be defined as simply that of being a Cowboys fan. That baseline sense of frustration, hopelessness, and embarrassment that clings to every facet of this organization
like the stench of mildew on your skin after drying with a towel that didn’t make it into the dryer in time.
Can’t say exactly why, but the feeling snuck up on me. Normally, it’s an ever-present drone like the buzz of halogen gas in office lighting or that nagging voice in your head that gives you daily affirmations like, “Put the donut down, fat ass,” “She’s too young for you,” and “All of your creative efforts are banal, childish, and a waste of the world’s time.” But leading up to this season, it had been suspiciously silent. Perhaps my sports bandwidth has been too preoccupied with other area teams’ successes. A Rangers World Series Championship, a Mavs NBA Finals appearance, and the Stars’ second consecutive Western Conference Finals appearance over the last year might have gone a long way toward dulling that din. Maybe it was the lackluster offseason that saw Jerry Jones’ focused-on-anything-but-football front office address exactly zero of the issues that led to Dallas’ doors being blown off time and again. Perhaps I’d just grown numb to it. Like the sound of a passing train when you live near the tracks, you eventually learn to sleep through it.
Whatever the reason, it took me by surprise. It’s here now, and, apparently, it’s
here to stay. Just as every superhero needs a villain for them to exist, I apparently need the constant aggravation of Cowboys fandom to make it through the fall.
As has been the case, it’s not the loss that stings but rather the manner in which it happened. There’s seemingly no such thing as a horseshoes-and-hand grenades game with this club, which is to say, close but no stogie. Jerruh’s boys are masters of the bait and switch. They’ll absolutely laugh one team off the field one week, only to get equally demolished by their opponent the week following. When the Silver and Blue suit up, you can almost guarantee it’ll be a blowout. But which way? That’s the fun, I guess. My sanity, and my blood pressure, would appreciate a good old-fashioned loss on a last-minute field goal. Such is not the Cowboy way. Your emotions must be careened up and down and back and forth with the callous ferocity of a mid-’70s Six Flags roller coaster. Because I am conditioned no other way, I’m always on the ride.
So, come along, Cowboys faithful. The Ravens come to town next week and are followed by a tilt with the hapless Giants. Let’s see just how much whiplash your spinal column can take. l
An all-too-familiar scene. New Orleans running back Alvin Kamara runs free on his way to one of his four touchdowns in the Saints’ 44-19 domination of the Cowboys on Sunday.
Courtesy NewOrleansSaints.com
SHOPPING LOCAL
Helping Nonprofits With Your “New” Fall Wardrobe
Promotional Feature
Fall is the perfect time to shop for a new wardrobe. In Texas, this can mean deals on summer, fall, or winter items — if you don’t like the weather, just wait (right?). With Thrift for Good®, you can give back to your community with your shopping trip, as the company donates 25% of its proceeds to local DFW charities. Who doesn’t love shopping for a good cause?
Shoppers at the Hurst (120 W Bedford Euless Rd, 682-292-8355) and Denton (1131 E McKinney St, 940-373-0182) locations can see which charities benefit from every item right on the tag. Nonprofits can use this as a fundraising opportunity by asking their members to shop at Thrift for Good. Since opening its doors just a few years ago,
Thrift for Good has donated over $240,000 to charities. To find out which organizations they support, go to Thrift4Good.com and click “for charities.”
Thrifting isn’t just good for your wallet; it’s also good for the environment. Twenty percent of clothing purchased never gets worn, meaning many items at Thrift for Good are brand-new, brand-name items! Consumers can reduce their carbon footprint by a whopping 80% just by thrifting.
Thrift for Good knows that the thrifting world can be overwhelming and wants customers to find items they love. Private
styling appointments are free with a $75 purchase. Personal stylists select all sorts of treasures in your size, style, and colors and have them waiting for you at your appointment. They’re not just shopping the store; they’re shopping the warehouse with 10,000+ items, making one appointment as effective as visiting 30 thrift stores. It’s perfect for busy shoppers!
Thrift for Good is revolutionizing thrifting with its bright lighting, helpful staff, and beautiful selection of items arranged in an easy-to-shop department store layout. Items are reasonably priced at $5-$20. For more information, visit Thrift4Good.com.
Join the Name the Sweepers Contest! Submit your creative ideas online by Sept. 30.
This free contest is open to all Fort Worth residents, offering a chance to create fun, unique names for our 12 new sweepers. We’re excited to welcome these sweepers, and we need your help naming them as they help keep our city clean.
• Imagine It: Think of fun, catchy names that you think would be perfect for the new sweepers.
• Submit It: Visit the City of Fort Worth litter webpage, and fill out the Name the Sweepers Contest entry form by Sept. 30.
• Display It: After the contest closes, submissions will be reviewed, and winners will be announced by November.
Who doesn’t love shopping for a good cause?
Who doesn’t love shopping for a good cause?
EATS & drinks
Tasty Licks
The Singing Chef Cafe (and its owner) are a magical blend of sweet and savory.
The Singing Chef Cafe, 8000 Wichita St, Ste 113, Fort Worth. 682-220-9261. 11am-7pm Tue-Fri, noon-4pm Sat.
STORY AND PHOTOS BY
LAURIE JAMES
A quintessential Renaissance dude, Sammy Fox is the singer/musician behind the tiny (maybe 20-seat) Singing Chef Cafe on the Fort Worth side of the Everman line. As executive chef, he draws from influences as varied as his mama and The Frugal Gourmet’s Jeff Smith to Julia Child, Martin Yan, and science geek Alton Brown. You’ll get a sense of Fox’s influences when you enter the
restaurant. Pictures of him with his musical heroes at various venues are pretty much the only décor.
If you are a vegan CrossFitter worried about your cholesterol, this is not the place for you. This is home cooking –– huge portions, lots of fried food generously seasoned. Most plates come with at least one side. Leave your dietary rules at the door, because life is about balance, right?
The restaurant has a local reputation for the plate-sized chicken-fried steak, but my dining companion took one look at the homestyle pork chop on offer, and that was that. This was easily the largest pork chop I’ve ever seen, with an even larger coat of crispy, crunchy, well-seasoned breading. Under the massive chop lay a piece of plain white bread to whisk away any extra grease. In fairness, there wasn’t much oil to spoil the enjoyment of the other white meat. The pork chop comes covered in a salty, peppery cream gravy that begged for mashed potatoes as a side. The potatoes were mostly a vehicle for said yummy gravy. A side of sweet-andsour corn proved to be canned corn with a little vinegary kick. The new menu that dropped this month doesn’t have this item on it, which is just as well.
In retrospect, we could have shared a continued on page 19
The homestyle pork chop plate lived up to its name. Smothered in cream gravy, the chop and potatoes were sublime comfort food.
plate happily, but we had no idea how big one entrée was and the Stevie Nicks Classic hamburger called my name. It’s a full half pound of what must be some of the leanest meat served at any local restaurant because there was no shrinkage to speak of. The burger also covered most of a plate. The chef decides the done-ness. (If you’re more of a blue/rare person, speak up when you order.) When it came out, I was initially dismayed by the heavy outer char. However, that was just testimony to time on a flattop grill, and the burger proved juicy and delicious. American cheese will run you an extra buck. Fries seemed like the obvious choice as a side –– they were average and ironically the one food item where the seasoning mix was wasn’t tastebud-forward. The housemade greens proved to be a much better option as a second side. The greens still had texture (they hadn’t been simmered to death), and the vinegary base was offset by peppers laced through the classic comfort dish.
We also ordered a side of the fried okra, although that proved too much for us with all the food on the table. The chef has a deft hand with the breading, and the ratio of spicy coating to tender okra was perfect.
Banana pudding was on the menu, and because the pork chop, the greens, and the okra were so good, we thought we needed the treat. This was the best choice of our
dining experience. The no-banana pudding was more like a cheesecake, with a subtle flavor augmented by a perfect shortbread cookie under the creamy top. Traditionalists just read that sentence and gasped, but try this dessert before you judge. The surface of the “pudding” is kissed with a little nutmeg, which just upped the deliciousness.
Because the restaurant’s essentially a one-man show, it’s occasionally closed for family needs or just because the chef is exhausted. Be kind, and check the Facebook page before you get your tastebuds up. The one thing I’ve learned over the last 20 years of food writing is that the anticipation of leftovers is a powerful indicator of how good
the food really was. Since we’d over-ordered, we dropped off the leftover okra at my neighbor’s house. Then we went inside, leaving the leftover pork chop and gravy and half my burger in the truck. By the time we realized our terrible mistake, the leftovers weren’t fit for saving. Another trip to The Singing Chef is definitely in order, maybe in time to scoop up some sides for one of my holiday meals. l
The Singing Chef’s Stevie Nicks Classic burger went best with the housemade greens. The fries were fairly average.
Pictures of the Singing Chef’s musical heroes adorn the small (maybe 20-seat) restaurant.
RIDGLEA
THEATER
SAT 10/19 ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW WITH LIVE SHADOW CAST
TUES 11/12 SNATAM KAUR
SAT 11/16 AMERICAN AQUARIUM
RIDGLEA ROOM
SAT 9/21 EMERGING ARTISTS SHOWCASE FEAT. SHIZZYSIX, STILL NY, DEM BOYZ & MANY MORE!
SAT 10/5 MICHAEL JACKSON TRIBUTE CONCERT
FRI 10/11 GLXY / BEN SOUNDSCAPE & COLLETTE WARREN / DEMARKUS LEWIS
RIDGLEA LOUNGE
FRI 9/20 SAINT IVY
FRI 9/27 ASHLEIGH SMITH
FRI 10/11 GLXY / BEN SOUNDSCAPE & COLLETTE WARREN / DEMARKUS LEWIS
MUSIC
Hannah Owens Rises
The sentimental Fort Worth singer-songwriter turns the page to release her first new music in more than three years.
BY PATRICK HIGGINS
Last summer, in the middle of a set, Hannah Owens passed off her guitar to fellow performer Guthrie Kennard, with whom she was sharing the bill, for him to play a few of his songs. As she ceded the stage to him and was walking off, she missed a poorly lit step at the edge of the riser and fell, unabated, nearly 5 feet to the concrete floor. The gruesome fall broke both her elbows, split her lip open, and even caused a brain bleed. The accident put her musical career — and her life in general — suddenly and completely on hold.
“It was rough,” Owens said about the physical and emotional trauma of the situation. “I was inside for so long. I think my mental health took a giant nosedive for a while. Even afterwards, once I was healing and getting back out, my social anxiety was wildly high. Even before I could play again,
HearSay
Court Hoang’s
Triptychs
Introspective indie-rock singer-songwriter Court Hoang will release his latest EP on this year’s fall equinox and continue putting out more music every seasonal solstice. His goal is to combine all the tracks into his third full-length, Triptychs, which will be out in summer 2025. For now, listeners can check out the first single, “Sound the Alarm,” along with his entire discography on streaming platforms dating back to his 2013 debut long-player, Compass Rose. Triptychs, Vol. 1 will begin streaming after his EP release party Sat, Sep 28, at Dr. Jeckyll’s Beer Lab in Pantego (420 W Park Row Dr)
“I sat down and basically wrote all these songs at once,” Hoang said, “and they felt really disconnected until I started putting
I didn’t want to see many people because of the way that I looked and the way that I felt.”
Now a year later and fully healed, Owens is more than ready to move on from the experience. She admits she’s been challenged by some performance anxiety since resuming playing, but it’s gotten much easier for her. Earlier this month, she released a new single, “Kites,” and it’s her first new music in more than three years. It’s the most definitive step so far in turning the page on the ordeal.
“With my songwriting, and with me as a performer, I’m sort of coming back to life,” she said. “I’m focused on giving people something to talk about other than me breaking both my arms,” she added with a laugh.
For Owens, “Kites” has become a fitting musical surrogate describing the changes and growth she’s experienced over the last few years, both as an artist and as a person. She began writing the song toward the end of the COVID lockdown, picking it up and adding to it in pieces over time. The finished product sits now as a tender expression of rising above it all. “I bring myself back down to Earth / Staying high with the kite feels more worth it to me,” she sings over the refrain, reflecting on how high she’s climbed.
them in order to fit the vibes, and from there, it was kind of a natural fit to follow the seasons to get a good flow. I also wanted to make something that had a cyclical feel to it, since I’m the kind of person that listens to an album on repeat.”
At the beginning of the year, Hoang made a kind of New Year’s resolution to get in an hour a day of writing music, and in two weeks, he had written the lyrics to the album. The tracks cover different social interactions from his daily life and also a few political topics that influenced him to write with just his voice and his guitar. As a working family man with children, he said making time for his artistic passion was helpful and meaningful.
Then Hoang’s band got involved. He sent the early mixes to drummer/producer Felipe Rosales and bassist Joseph FisherSchramm to jam on, then the beats and pieces were delivered to keys players and backing vocalists LeeAnn Hamilton and
“I was just taking the time to reflect,” she said of writing the track, “on things both in my control and out of my control. In a time of craziness, it’s so easy to want to dissociate from everything, but you can’t do that. You have to face it, be happy with it, and move on.”
“Kites” was recorded by drummer/producer Clint Kirby (Jacob Furr, Ryan Tharp) at his home studio this past spring. Joining Kirby in backing Owens on the track was bassist Ryan Bradetich and country crooner/ guitar virtuoso Matt Tedder, centering the song with his atmospheric lead lines.
“The recording process was so easy and comfortable,” Owens said. “It was so cozy and natural, and [the players] are such all-stars that I knew I didn’t have to worry about anything. I’m definitely sticking with this collection of musicians for the next few songs because it’s all been so easy, and everything has come out exactly as I wanted.”
Owens said that “Kites” is the first of a series of singles she plans to release over the next several months, and that represents a change of direction for her musically that’s reflective of the evolution she’s gone through as an individual.
“I think this new stuff that I’m putting out moving forward is different and will
Meaux. With a little tweaking and moving things here and there, Hoang and his band The Love Children finished Triptychs, Vol. 1.
“Our music is lyrically driven,” Hoang said. “We like the rocky stuff and put in a lot of soul and electronic elements, too, like soft rock with a bit of spicy seasoning.”
Hoang has released several records spanning more than 10 years. His first single this year, “Bèo Dạt Mây Trôi,” comes from an old Vietnamese folk song and reflects his time in Vietnam in 2013 teaching Vietnamese college students and learning songs to play on acoustic guitar as a cultural ode.
In the meantime, Hoang plans to travel with his family in their house/bus “following the celestial bodies” across the country while working on The Love Children’s next release, the winter solstice EP. There are no tour dates set yet but likely some local winter shows. — Juan R. Govea
show how I’m kind of changing, too,” she said. “Some of it is going to be kind of fun, which is not what people are used to from me when they listen to my songs. I don’t know that I knew how to write a happy song to save my life,” she joked. “I want to make songs that make you want to dance as well as make you cry.”
The next single, a track she describes as “fun and poppy” called “State I’m In” will drop on November 15 with Owens marking the occasion with a rare full band performance at the Rusty Nickel, backed by Bradetich, Kirby, and Tedder. She said she’s looking forward to what’s in store.
“I think my confidence in being creative and being out of the box has grown — getting to make whatever kind of music I want to make,” she said. “I think I’ve just got that confidence in the last couple of years. I love my last record, and it was exactly the music I wanted to make at that time. But I’m looking forward to my music growing along with me.” l
Hoang: “I sat down and basically wrote all these songs at once, and they felt really disconnected until I started putting them in order to fit the vibes, and from there, it was kind of a natural fit to follow the seasons to get a good flow.”
With new single “Kites,” Fort Worth singer-songwriter Hannah Owens is floating above it all.
Owens: “With my songwriting, and with me as a performer, I’m sort of coming back to life.”
Juan R. Govea, Album art by Payton Massey
NIGHT &DAY
Since next week is our annual Best Of edition, full of blurbs about the best of everything our area has to offer and no regular sections, this week is my last chance to tell you about what’s happening the rest of September and some of early October. Shall we begin?
North Texas Giving Day 2024 is today from 6am to midnight, and many area organizations could use your support. In the case of the National Multicultural Western Heritage Museum (2201 Dottie Lynn Pkwy, Ste 115, Fort Worth, 817-534-8801), the Communities Foundation of Texas is covering all program fees, so 100% of every gift goes directly to the museum. Formerly known as the National Cowboys of Color Museum, this nonprofit is devoted to showcasing the history of the Buffalo Soldiers and frontier people and the role of the minority cowboy in our past,
present, and future. For the complete list of great organizations you can help today, visit NorthTexasGivingDay.org.
Texas Ballet Theater will bring all the fairy dust and stepsister hijinks, along with one legendary glass slipper, to Bass Performance Hall (555 Commerce St, Fort Worth, 817-212-4280) at 8pm today, 2pm/8pm Sat, and 2pm Sun. The matinee shows of Ben Stevenson’s Cinderella include a children’s area with activities and photo ops. Tickets start at $25 at TexasBalletTheater.org.
As part of the regular Rock N Roll Rummage Sale, more than 40 local vendors selling antiques, art, books, collectibles, jewelry, oddities, retro items, vintage finds, and more will gather at South Main Micro Park (105 S Main St, Fort
Worth, 817-923-1649) from noon to 6pm. Admission is free, and food will be available for purchase. This event is typically a monthly Sunday thing, but it’s happening today as part of a regular live music series hosted by the neighborhood development group.
The third of its four-part series, the Near Southside’s Lost ’N Sound takes place at 19 venues throughout South Main Village and environs. Thirty-five artists are slated to perform, and shuttles will be running all day. Visit LostNSound.org.
The ninth annual PolaCon, an instant-film convention in downtown Denton, includes a PolaWalk at the State Fair of Texas in Dallas 10am-8pm Fri, a cyanotype workshop in Denton noon1:30pm Sat, live music at Dan’s Silverleaf (103 Industrial St, Denton, 940-808-0008, $15) at 3pm Sun featuring the Baptist Generals, and much more. For more details, visit Facebook.com/InstantFilmSociety. Convention event tickets are $25-100 on Eventbrite.com.
Speaking of the State Fair, today is opening day. Running for 24 consecutive days thru Sun, Oct 20, at Fair Park (3809 Grand Av, Dallas, 214-670-8400), this annual extravaganza has live music, a rodeo, and a car show, plus the latest innovations in fried food. For the full scoop on what’s happening when and this year’s featured fair foods and shows, visit BigTex.com/plan-your-visit. As for the general times to keep in mind, the fair is open Fri-Sat 10am-10pm and 10am9pm Sun-Thu.
While the bulk of the 2024 LBGTQIA+ celebrations happened back in June — so many that we dedicated an entire issue to Pride Month — there are also some happenings in October to coincide with National Coming Out Day and commemorate the first and second marches on Washington for LGBT rights in 1979 and 1987. One local commemorative event is Tarrant County Pride 36th Anniversary: Live Life Bold at the Fort Worth Water Gardens (1502 Commerce St, Fort Worth, 817-921-3318) from 11am to 8pm. Admission to this pet-/family-friendly event is $5 for adults, $1 for kids 5-14, and free for kids 4 and under. In unrelated “out” news, today is National Night Out, when you’re meant to stick your head out your front door and meet your neighbors and some local first responders in a friendly community setting. In Haslet, this means coming out to Haslet Community Park (301 1st St, 817-439-5931) from 6pm to 8pm to chat with the volunteer fire department and the team from the Tarrant County Sheriff’s Office. The free family fun will include music, games, a petting zoo, and a touch-a-truck area where kids can check out fire and police vehicles up close. There is no cost to attend.
Summer has come and passed. The innocent can never last. Wake me up when September ends. Translation: I felt targeted
at the recent Green Day show, given all the work we do in September for Best Of. Sigh. Seeing these guys at Globe Life Field last week meant another bucket-list band checked off my list. Along with performing Dookie in its entirety, the band also played American Idiot from beginning to end. That concept album is quite political, but they kept themselves in check and let the music speak for itself with one exception: They reminded everyone to make sure they’re registered to vote. And then to go vote, of course. The band has partnered with HeadCount, a nonprofit that promotes voter registration and participation in democracy through the power of music and culture. You can check your status at HeadCount.org, but if you use the QR in the image on this page, you might win some Green Day merchandise. The voter registration deadline in Texas is today, so do it now!
By Jennifer Bovee
Cinderella may or may not lose a glass toe shoe this weekend at Bass Hall.
If you’re really into Polaroid photography, check out the instant-film convention next weekend in Denton.
Don’t be an “American Idiot.” Vote. Start by making sure you’re registered by Sun, Oct 7.
Thirty-five musicians will perform at 19 South Main venues Saturday as part of Lost ’N Sound.
NOW HIRING IN CORSICANA, TEXAS MECHANIC
Position Summary: Our Mechanics are responsible for repairing and refurbishing fusion equipment in a distribution plant by performing the following duties:
Diagnose, maintain and repair fusion equipment including; small diesel/gas engines, generators, electrical circuits and hydraulic systems
Perform quality inspections of rental fusion equipment prior to returning to service
Maintain records of service, repairs and scheduled maintenance of rental fusion equipment
Inspect and diagnose customer owned equipment to prepare repair quotes
Communicate with maintenance coordinator and service advisors on status of down equipment and customer repairs
Repair and Service fabrication shop equipment as needed
Prepare equipment for shipping
Ability to utilize local vendors and/or vendor websites to locate required parts as needed
ENTRY LEVEL FABRICATOR
Position summary: Fabricators are responsible for fabricating and assembling polyethylene pipe to create a variety of customized structures such as: fittings, valves, T’s, Y’s, elbows, aqua shields, geothermal vaults, manholes, dual containment units, pumps, gas aeration lines and similar structures that meet customer specifications by performing the following duties:
Read and interpret blueprints, product drawings and pic ticket orders to determine materials, tools and equipment needed to complete work
Follows quality control procedures to ensure that the assembled, fabricated product meets customer specifications
Upholds accurate records of materials used on “ticket”; locates and pulls required materials from inventory
Operates ISCO’s fusion and fast fusion equipment, cranes and forklifts
Utilizes a variety of hand tools, saws and cutting equipment and performs other related duties as assigned
Must be able to lift up to 40lbs on a regular basis and stand for long periods of time
MACHINE OPERATOR
Position Summary: The Machine Operator will fabricate and assemble polyethylene pipe (HDPE) to create a variety of customized structures such as; fittings, valves, T’s, Y’s, elbows, aqua-shields, geothermal vaults, manholes, dual containment units, pumps, gas aeration lines and similar structures that meet customer specifications by performing the following duties:
Read and interpret blueprints, product drawings and pic ticket orders to determine the materials, tools and equipment needed to complete work
Follow quality control procedures when fabricating and assembling products per customer specifications
Maintain accurate records of materials used on “ticket”; locate and pull required materials from inventory
Sustain clean work area and equipment; follow safety procedures concerning use of equipment and materials for safe working conditions
Operate ISCO’s fusion and fast fusion equipment, cranes, and forklifts
Utilize a variety of hand tools, saws and cutting equipment
Perform other related duties as assigned
At ISCO, we put high value on appreciation and respect, and provide you with an opportunity to really make a difference. ISCO is a family owned and operated company born and raised in Louisville, KY that is focused on our team members’ growth. In addition to a standard benefits package of medical/ dental/vision, ISCO offers a 6% match on retirement! ISCO Industries is an end-to-end piping solutions provider that specializes in HDPE, working with leading edge technology that makes us a market leader.
ADVERTISE HERE
Email stacey@fwweekly.com today!
PUBLIC NOTICES / AUCTIONS
NOTICE OF PUBLIC SALE PURSUANT TO CHAPTER 59 OF THE TEXAS PROPERTY CODE: Curio Storage Oak Grove, Fort Worth, located at 9200 Oak Grove Dr, Fort Worth, TX 76140 (phone: 409-203-4147) will hold a public auction of property being sold to satisfy a landlord’s lien. The sale will take place at storageauctions. com beginning on 09/20/2024 at 12:00 AM and ending on 09/27/2024 at 12:00 PM. Property in each space will be sold by the space. Deposit for removal and cleanup may be temporarily required. No cash accepted. Seller reserves the right to not accept any bid and to withdraw property from sale. Property being sold includes appliances, furniture, toys, electronics, personal items, boxes, and other items. Name and unit number of tenants: Shantelle Bailey, unit 46; Dennis Coleman, unit 73; Ray ShawnWebb, unit 88; Scott Braden, unit 100; Kelly Hickman, unit 102; Derrick Bryan, unit 107; NOTICE OF PUBLIC SALE PURSUANT TO CHAPTER 59 OF THE TEXAS PROPERTY CODE: Curio Storage Vega Dr, Fort Worth, located at 6129 Vega Dr, Fort Worth, TX 76133 (phone: 409-203-4147) will hold a public auction of property being sold to satisfy a landlord’s lien. The sale will take place at www.storageauctions.com beginning on 09/20/2024 at 12:00 AM and ending on 09/27/2024 at 12:00 PM. Property in each space will be sold by the space. Deposit for removal and cleanup may be temporarily required. No cash accepted. Seller reserves the right to not accept any bid and to withdraw property from sale. Property being sold includes appliances, furniture, toys, electronics, personal items, boxes, and other items. Name and unit number of tenants: Nicholas Ferreira, unit 205; Alexis Heaton, unit 216; De Vonte Henderson, unit 217; Blanca Sanchez, unit 318; Vicki Jeffrey, unit 319; Roman Saldana, unit 320; Alejandro Pacheco, unit 423; Verna Davis, unit 426; Cedric Sutton, unit 432; Adriena Stegall, unit 504; Shancia Reeves, unit 507; Samantha Munoz, unit 512; Anthony & Bessie Fennell, unit 604; Beverly Hemphill, unit 612; Brandie Taylor, unit 616; Lakendrick Tate, unit 620; Cecilia Cruz, unit 621; Robert Pineda, unit 632; Trey Matthews, unit 633; Jose Barba, unit 706; Jessica Bentura, unit 708; Maria Juarez, unit 713; James Walden, 716; Kevin Urbina, unit 727; Mary Atwood, unit 804; Shancia Reeves, unit 805; Rosana Stirrup, unit 816; Pretay Thompson; unit 821;
PUBLIC NOTICE
The following vehicles have been impounded with fees due to date by Texas Towing Wrecker, 205 S Commercial St, Fort Worth TX 76107, 817-877-0206 (VSF0000964): Fruehauf, 1962, Trailer, VIN 000HABF20MC190001, $2,092.15; Lamar, 2024, Range Rover, 2024, Land Rover, VIN SALZL2FX8RH243688, $408.15; Trailer, VIN 033393, $3,044.51; Shopmade, 1996 Equip Trailer, VIN 1723, $1,781.37; and Wabash, 2000, Van, VIN 1JJV532W61L668614, $26,783.69.
EMPLOYMENT
MP Magnetics LLC seeks Senior Engineering Manager in Fort Worth, TX to lead internally & externally sponsored projects on the electrowinning of rare earth metals & the prod. of Neodymium rare earth magnet alloys. Reqs. Master’s deg. or foreign equiv in Material Sci. & Eng. or rel. field & at least two (2) yrs. of post-bacc. exp. as a Technical Mgr., Quality Mgr., or a rel. position w/ in the rare earth materials field. Exp. must incl. strip casting furnace, rare earth electrolysis cells, hydrogen decrepitation furnace, strip casting NdFeB alloys for perm. magnet, & extractive metallurgy of rare earth metals for perm. magnets. Email resume: lfisher@ mpmaterials.com.
EMPLOYMENT
MP Magnetics LLC seeks Robotics Engineer in Fort Worth, TX to dsgn., implement, & deploy robotic cells, systems, & components. Reqs. Master’s deg. or foreign equiv in Mech. Eng. or rel. field & 2 yrs of post-bacc. exp. as an Automation & Controls Eng., Robotics Eng., or rel. role. Exp. must incl. dsgn. and mfg. of complete automation solns., Python, MATLAB, Simulink, C++, Automation & Controls Dsgn., Cycle Time Studies, Robot Programming, PLC Programming, Mech. Designing, & Creative End-of-arm Tool Dsgns. Must have Unmanned Vehicle Systems cert. Email resume: lfisher@ mpmaterials.com
The Gas Pipe, The GAS PIPE, THE GAS PIPE, your Peace Love & Smoke Headquarters since 4/20/1970! SCORE a FREE GIFT on YOUR Birthday, FREE Scale Tuning and Lighter Refills on GAS PIPE goods, FREE Layaway, and all the safe, helpful service you expect from a 51 Years Young Joint. Plus, SCORE A FREE CBD HOLIDAZE GIFT With-A-Buy thru 12/31! Be Safe, Party Clean, Keep On Truckin’. More at thegaspipe.net
HANNAH in HURST
Get out of the heat & feel better fast! Professional inoffice massage therapy (MT4797). No outcalls. 817-590-2257
HISTORIC RIDGLEA THEATER
THE RIDGLEA is three great venues within one historic Fort Worth landmark. RIDGLEA THEATER has been restored to its authentic allure, recovering unique Spanish-Mediterranean elements. It is ideal for large audiences and special events. RIDGLEA ROOM and RIDGLEA LOUNGE have been making some of their own history, as connected adjuncts to RIDGLEA THEATER, or hosting their own smaller shows and gatherings. More at theRidglea.com
I CAN FIX IT FOR YOU!
Handyman available for projects in Tarrant and Parker Counties. Household repairs, painting, yard work etc, I CAN HELP!
Providing honest, dependable work at a fair price! Call or Text today for a FREE estimate. Chris 817-495-3017
MAXIMUM CAPACITY!
LOCAL SHELTERS AND RESCUE ORGANIZATIONS ARE AT MAXIMUM CAPACITY NOW! If you have room in your heart and home, please consider adoption. If you take a shelter or rescue pet, it makes room for another to be saved. Be a HERO! PLEASE ADOPT. DON’T SHOP!
NEED A FRIEND?
Ronnie D. Long Bail Bonds
Immediate Jail Release 24 Hour Service. City, County, State and Federal Bonds. Located Minutes from Courts. 6004 Airport Freeway. 817-834-9894
RonnieDLongBailBonds.com
ONE BITE & YOU’LL KNOW!
Send 100% guaranteed, delivered-to-the-door Omaha Steaks! This package comes with 8 FREE Burgers! Call or visit online and mention code 76946ATS. Order The Classic Cookout Collection! ONLY $129.99. (mb) OmahaSteaks.com/OneBite2728 1-855-404-9674
Prepared for OUTAGES?
Prepare today for POWER OUTAGES with a Generac Home Standby Generator. Act now to receive a FREE 5-Year warranty with qualifying purchase. Call today to schedule a free quote. It’s not just a generator. It’s a power move. (mb) 1-817-752-9457
STUCK WITH A TIMESHARE?
Wesley Financial Group, the Timeshare Cancellation Experts has over 450 positive reviews and over done over $50 million in successful timeshare debt/fees cancellations. Get free consultation, free info package, and learn how to get rid of your timeshare today. (mb) Call 844-511-2581
THE WILD HARE HOLISTIC FAIR
Every 4th Saturday of the Month
1959 Sandy Lane Fort Worth Next Event This Saturday September 21st ADMISSION IS FREE!!
WHAT’S YOUR STORY?
We work with guest contributors to publish SEO articls and press release purpuses. Email today! Marketing@fwweekly.com
