The Nov. 8 ballot will be full of B.S. artists trying to turn the clock back to the stone ages — don’t let them.
BY EDWARD BROWNEATS & DRINKS North Texas’ first female head brewer works at Fort Brewery and is crafting some of the tastiest beers in the state.
BY JESSICA WALLERThough tough, Kansas was just a warmup for TCU’s real test this weekend: OSU.
BY BUCK D. ELLIOTT
No matter the genre, it’s still gonna be rocking and rolling Bruce Magnus
BY STEVE STEWARDThe blues jam at Lola’s features special guest Johnny Mack Thursday.
BY JENNIFER BOVEE
a
By Buck D. Elliott
Brewery is home to North Texas’ first female head
and she’s crafting
By Jessica Wallerfright
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Rather than serving Fort Worth’s interests, the city attorney’s office uses its resources to protect contract vendors with ties to a whistleblower lawsuit.
BY STATICWhile last week’s headlines concerned City Manager David Cooke jetting off to who knows where with the billionaire Bass family, there is a more severe legal battle facing the city, and the issue is tied to the 2019 termination of Fort Worth’s former police chief. In his lawsuit against the city, Joel Fitzgerald maintains that he was wrongfully fired for uncovering city corruption.
Fitzgerald’s case is tied to another whistleblower, former head of public events Kirk Slaughter, and both defendants are represented by Kennedy Law. In a recent public statement, a Kennedy spokesperson claimed former “Assistant City Manager Susan Alanis steered a lucrative contract to specific companies, thereby avoiding the competitive bidding process.”
The contract in question allows the Trail Drive Management Corporation to manage the Will Roger Memorial Center parking lot that serves nearby Dickies Arena, Ed Bass’ $500 million project halfpaid for by taxpayers (“Worth Question ing?” Oct. 2014). State law mandates pub lic contracts like this to be publicly bid. In his complaint, Slaughter alleges he was pressured by city power brokers to award the contract to Trail Drive, the nonprofit that heads Dickies Arena. The city inves tigated the allegations but did not release its findings to the public.
Based on Kennedy Law’s public state ments, we requested documents from the city tied to the whistleblower complaint. The city attorney’s office has asked the State Attorney General’s office to be
able to deny our open records requests for copies of emails by Cooke and Alanis containing certain keywords and a list of competitive bids for the parking contract. While we’ve come to expect these types of legal maneuverings to protect special in terests, a letter from one contractor tied to the parking lot management agreement reveals that city attorneys are totally OK with ratting us out to private interests.
In an Oct. 7 letter to the AG, an at torney for ABM, a large facility cleaning service, states that assistant city attorney Jessika Williams alerted him that our mag azine was investigating contracts between the city and any company associated with Trail Drive, like ABM.
Mark Thompson, the ABM attorney, asks the AG to allow his company to re view any documents currently before the
state. “We would appreciate it if those documents could be provided to ABM and that [we] be given the opportunity to re view them and respond with appropriate disclosure objections, if any,” Thompson writes.
It is not without irony that, in a law suit that alleges conflicting loyalties on the part of city staffers, the city attorney’s office appears to be placing the interests of private contractors above those of the public. The last time we checked, city lawyers work for the city, not ABM or any other private interest. If Williams, possi bly under a directive from Cooke, alerted a private company to our media inquiries, those communications would constitute a breach of the public’s trust.
The city attorney’s office routinely blocks requests by area residents and re porters seeking Fort Worth police disci plinary records or anything that would be considered evidence of police misconduct. Before the AG right now is a request by the city to withhold an hour-long audio re cording that details verbal threats made by one police captain to one of our reporters in 2020.
In 2019, Fort Worth City Council voted to gut its own Ethics Review Com mission, meaning there is no independent oversight group to whom locals can file complaints about unethical actions by city leaders and employees (“Ethics Review? What Ethics Review?” Nov. 2019). The lack of any meaningful oversight makes it all the more important that we journal ists be allowed to investigate city dealings without our work being actively under mined by city employees.
Fort Worth taxpayers do not care about protecting the interests of private companies that allegedly use personal connections to profiteer off city contracts. What we do care about is an end to Cooke’s and his legal team’s pandering to private companies at the expense of open and transparent city government dealings. l
This story is part of City in Crisis, an ongo ing series of reports on unethical behavior and worse by local public leaders, featuring original reporting.
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. Submissions will be gen tly edited for factuality, concision, and clarity.
for common sense reforms that would legal ize marijuana, revamp the state’s power grid, and invest in rural counties and small busi nesses. Abbott, rather than make his case for his reelection, is preoccupied with traffick ing immigrants across state lines and flout ing the federal laws that prohibit those acts.
It takes a real loon to stand out as the nuttiest leader in the Lone Star State, but Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick wins that title easily.
Whether obsessing over children’s bath rooms, calling on old fogies like himself to die from COVID to save the economy, or perpetuating lies that CRT is indoctrinating public school students in Marxist ideology, Patrick always takes lead in enshrining Fox Nation’s warped “values” as law.
Democrat Mike Collier came within four points of sparing Texans of the past four years of an unhinged lieutenant gover nor four years ago, and he’s running again. The priorities of the lifelong accountant and auditor include properly funding public schools, ending corporate loopholes and us ing the resulting revenue to lower property taxes, and restoring reproductive rights lost after the overturning of Roe v. Wade
BY STATICWhatbegan as paranoia over Critical Race Theory (CRT) in Southlake has exploded into a full-blown infection engulfing Tarrant County. The disease preys on the gullible and willfully ignorant who worship assault rifles, practice misogyny and rac ism, and hew to perverted interpretations of Christianity. The aim of this far-right move ment is to place followers of Cult 45 in office so this county can be “great” again, a not-sosubtle reference to times when Blacks were lynched for perceived slights toward whites and the right to vote was heavily guarded by powerful white men.
The midterms are now a referendum on basic human rights due to the steady erosion of our freedoms by an alliance of opportu nistic Republicans, brainwashed evangeli cals, and evil white supremacists who now openly flaunt their bigotry. The governor’s race is the most important statewide con test not because of policy, taxes, or spending issues but rather the danger families face when taking their children to schools that are increasingly targeted by mass shooters who can buy assault rifles and large-capac ity ammunition clips on their 18th birthday.
Gov. Greg Abbott’s public statement that the Uvalde massacre “could have been worse” says everything about his concern for the safety of children and his love affair with the NRA, which has spent more than $2 million lobbying the Texas legislature over the past five years alone.
Bodily autonomy is also on Novem ber’s ballot because Abbott supported and signed one of the most restrictive abortion bans in the country. And that was before the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade The combined state and federal effort to gut women’s reproductive rights now makes it a felony for a medical provider to perform an abortion, even in cases of incest or rape.
Former U.S. Rep Beto O’Rourke has mounted a formidable gubernatorial cam paign by crisscrossing the state to advocate
Indicted State Attorney General Ken Paxton misused his office to further base less claims of widespread election fraud in the 2020 presidential election, but the only fraud, as it turns out, is him. Rochelle Gar za, staff attorney with the ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union), lists opening access to health care, protecting civil rights, and legalizing cannabis — a move supported by nearly 70% of Texans — as her top priorities.
Tarrant County elections are every bit as important as national and statewide races. While not comprehensive, the basics on the following candidates should be available to all our readers.
As a voting member of the commissioners court and the county’s top elected official, the judge seat is understandably one of the most closely fought local races. This year’s contest pits Republican Tim O’Hare against Democrat Deborah Peoples.
Pathological liar O’Hare is best known for lighting the match that ignited South lake’s political dumpster fire three years ago when the Carroll school district, which oversees Southlake’s public schools, became the target of a full-on assault by wealthy right-wing asshats.
From mid to late 2020 and early 2021, Carroll’s school board prepared to pass a comprehensive plan aimed at protecting ethnic minority and LGBTQ+ students from the racial slurs and discrimination which are currently being investigated by the federal government. Southlake’s lovers of the one-term, twice-impeached racist rap ist who lost the popular vote by 3 million in 2016 and around 7 million in 2020 reacted by latching on to lies about CRT even as the conspiracy theory’s creator debunked his own deception. Last year, Christopher Rufo told NBC that his goal was to turn CRT into a “national brand that gave American con servatives a new frame for understanding what is happening around them.”
It was a ploy that allowed conservatives to push back on anti-racism programs across the country, and North Texas’ strongest sup
Tim O’Hare touts his law firm credentials even as court documents describe alleged unethical dealings by one of his attorneys that appeared to be “sort of a firm-wide almost policy.”
porter of the conspiracy theory was O’Hare, who said he founded a PAC, Southlake Fam ilies, that played a key role in spreading CRT misinformation. O’Hare showed himself to be willing to repeatedly break the Ninth Commandment throughout his primary bat tle against former Fort Worth Mayor Betsy Price. O’Hare hired Axiom Strategies, which is headed by former Ted “Cancun” Cruz cam paign director Jeff Roe, to falsely portray Price as a Marxist supporter of Antifa. The misinformation campaign worked. Nearly 57% of 120,000 right-wingers chose O’Hare as the Republican candidate over Price. Racist and unethical acts define much of O’Hare’s professional and political careers. The county judge candidate may be hoping that voters don’t delve into his early political work as a city councilmember (2005-2008) then mayor (2008-2011) of Farmers Branch in northwest Dallas County.
Early into his first term as a councilmem ber, O’Hare pushed through an ordinance that, beginning in 2006, required landlords to check the citizen status of tenants even as immigration enforcement then and now re mains the sole purview of the federal govern ment. In a Dallas Observer article at the time, O’Hare was quoted as saying that Hispanics
are “less desirable people” who don’t value education or take care of their properties.
Attorneys working for the City of Farm ers Branch spent more than 5 million tax payer dollars defending the law that was ul timately ruled unconstitutional.
When touting his county judge creden tials, O’Hare often cites his two decades of owning and managing his self-titled Carroll ton-based personal injury law firm. Accord ing to 2018 court documents, Judge Tonya Parker with Dallas County’s 116th district court ordered disciplinary actions against one of O’Hare’s attorneys for tampering with evidence submitted in court (“Tim O’Hare’s Campaign Gains Mo, One Lie at a Time,” Feb. 24). Parker said that in previous cases that she presided over, unnamed court officers said that altering evidence appeared to be not only permissible at O’Hare’s firm but was “sort of a firm-wide almost policy.”
“The notion that our firm had or has a policy of tampering with evidence is ludicrous and defamatory on its face,” O’Hare said in an email reply to our reporting earlier this year.
O’Hare maintains close relations with Mercy Culture Church, the charismatic op eration that grifts off anyone it can while
With early voting underway, we remind our readers which candidates are gunning to install a sexist, racist, xenophobic, gunsucking, book-banning, Christian Nationalist theocracy across the country and right here in Fort Worth.
bashing the LGBTQ+ community and openly violating federal laws that forbid tax-exempt churches from supporting polit ical candidates, and that connection alone should be enough to horrify anyone who cares about this country’s history of reli gious tolerance and the separation of church and state (“Mercy Culture Wars,” May 18).
Peoples brings decades of executive business experience to her campaign that focuses on providing affordable health care and housing, strong public schools, and eco nomic strength for Tarrant County.
Two terms of DA Sharen Wilson’s admin istration have drained the DA’s office of its best prosecutors and the public’s trust. The politicized prosecution of two Carroll school board members in 2021 as a favor to O’Hare, who used that favor to discredit the school board as he pushed his CRT bullshit, emboldened a Christian Nationalism move ment that has since grown considerably.
After Wilson announced she would not run for reelection, Republican Phil Sorrells, a longtime county court judge, and Dem ocrat Tiffany Burks, a former prosecutor, entered and won their respective primaries. Sorrells has been endorsed by the twice-im peached former president and has publicly stated that this country’s drug problems are fueled by Mexicans who have a personal de sire to kill Americans. His campaign materi al makes no mention of the tens of thousands of teens, men, and women in this country who have died overdosing from pharmaceu ticals produced and distributed domestically by multibillion-dollar corporations.
Burks’ motto is People Over Politics, and her grassroots campaign is founded on rebuilding the DA’s office, providing diver sion programs as an alternative to incarcer ation, holding criminals accountable, and seeking justice over convictions.
pulled, TheRealBetsyPrice.com
the transphobia
which permeate Tim O’Hare’s campaign.
Tarrant County’s lone female commission er, Devan Allen, took office in 2018 and has been a rare progressive voice on a court that supported the far-right political aims of Republican Sheriff Bill Waybourn and DA Wilson by maintaining agreements with ICE. Allen recently announced her inten tion to not seek reelection to the precinct that serves southeast Tarrant County.
Republican Andy Nguyen, who served two terms as Precinct 2 commissioner be tween 2010 and 2018, now faces Democrat Alisa Simmons, a former journalist and cur rent business owner.
Nguyen recently held a press confer ence where he alleged that Simmons, who is Black, made overtly racist remarks on social media. Simmons recently told the Star-Tele gram that the comments attributed to her are fake. Nguyen has yet to apologize, and given his close connections to racist liar O’Hare, Nguyen’s allegations reek of Southlake Play book shenanigans.
Tarrant County’s district clerk who shall go nameless here may be best known for sleep ing through weekly commissioners court meetings. The steward of district court re cords and avowed QAckhead who maintains that our magazine is funded by Deep State pedophiles is running against Democrat and former precinct chair Syed Hassan.
The 324th District Court, which oversees family and child custody cases, will be presid ed over by either Democrat Crystal Gayden or 324th Associate Judge Beth Poulos come January. Current district judge Jerome S. Hennigan is retiring. Gayden, a Black wom
David Cooke is barred from any further decisions regarding disputes around the Downtown Public Improvement District and any contracts or city partnership issues that involve Sundance Square after he took a private jet trip to Aspen, Colorado with the Bass. The ramifications of the City Council’s decision to reprimand Cooke.
Cooke video (fwdistrict5.com)
For a city to function to its full potential requires a good Mayor and City Manager and we do not have that. We have over 900,000 citizens in Fort Worth that do not vote in our local elections and that makes it easy for Mayor Mattie Price Parker to take away our priceless first amendment rights that people fought and died for. History repeats itself because we never learn from our mistakes!
an, is a family law attorney whose priorities include diversifying the county’s family court judges and fairly adjudicating the best interests of parents and children. Republi can Poulos lists endorsements by 60 family law attorneys, which should raise questions about how the candidate plans to return the favors. Tarrant County’s family courts are under heavy scrutiny by local parents and parental rights advocates who allege personal relationships between attorneys and judges sway decisions in favor of law firms whose members play golf with judges and cover the tab or bankroll judicial campaigns.
Tarrant County’s 10 county criminal courts oversee Class A and B misdemeanor cases while 11 district courts settle felony charges. In an online interview, DA candi date Sorrells recently said there is a backlog of around 40,000 misdemeanor and felony cases that grows by the day. The majority of them are for nonviolent offenses. The solu tion, according to multiple Republican can didates, is to bring in visiting retired judges who routinely refuse to file their Oath of Office likely because taking the anti-bribery portion would cut into their profiteering. Visiting retired judges stand to earn $500 a day doing work that active judges are paid for, and failing to file their Oath of Office allows the retirees to earn that cool five-spot while also receiving their state or county retirement monies. Pretty sweet deal if you play golf with the right old white men.
Criminal District Court No. 4 will see former prosecutor and police officer Sam Williams, a Democrat, run against Republi can Andy Porters, a board-certified attorney who says on his website that “George Soros and his ilk will do their best to turn Tarrant County blue” without providing evidence, though it sounds good to us.
The Criminal County Court No. 5 race will be between Republican Brad Clark, a longtime attorney and former prosecutor, and Democrat Lisa Pamplin, herself a cur
rent lawyer and former police officer. The race for the county’s sixth criminal court is between Republican Randi Hartin, a former schoolteacher and prosecutor, and Demo crat Ebony Turner, whose 20-year career as an attorney includes work drafting criminal law bills. The bid for County Court 7 will see Democrat MarQ Clayton, who owns and manages The Clayton Law Firm, run against former prosecutor and police officer Eric Starnes, a Republican.
In November, the seat for Place 3 at the Sec ond Court of Appeals, which is based in Fort Worth and oversees 12 counties, will go to ei ther Democrat Delonia Watson, a former pros ecutor and Harvard School of Law graduate, or self-described “courageous conservative” Elizabeth Kerr, who actually brags about her support for the orange stain on humanity.
Last fall, Jason Charbonnet was facing a for midable Democrat opponent, Kelicia Lyons. Charbonnet, the incumbent Republican Jus tice of the Peace for Precinct 6, appears to have resorted to lying, cheating, and stealing as a means of clinging to power.
As the country learned of an expansive investigation by the U.S. Department of Jus tice into voter suppression in Texas, Char bonnet allegedly pressured white, conserva tive county commissioners Gary Fickes, J.D. Johnson, and county head Glen Whitley to work in secret with five white Republican JPs to draft a precinct map that stripped tens of thousands of ethnic minorities of their
due representation and limited the ability of Tarrant County’s three ethnic minority JPs to be reelected in November.
The redrawn map adopted in Novem ber also cut Lyons out of Charbonnet’s Pre cinct 6. The desperate act may have been committed because Tarrant County’s white power base loses political clout by the day if not the hour. Around 95% of Texas’ 4 mil lion new residents are non-white, according to new U.S. Census figures, and are presum ably progressive-minded.
The 2020 Census revealed an 8.6% de crease in white representation across the country over the past decade, while the per centage of Americans who identify as mul tiracial increased by 276% to 33.8 million. Ethnicity remains a strong indicator of par ty affiliation. According to the Pew Research Center, a nonpartisan think tank, only 8% of Blacks vote Republican while 63% of His panics and 72% of Asians vote Democrat.
Lyons has a true servant’s heart, and she did not allow the alleged vile acts of the five Republican JPs and three commissioners stop her from serving her community. In May, she was elected to Seat 7 of the Crowley school district’s board. She remains a powerful force for good in Tarrant County, and she will likely seek higher office, including the JP seat that was stolen from her, when the time is right.
A vote for Democrat JP candidates Jeca Williams (JP Precinct 2), Rodney Lee (JP Precinct 4), and Kenneth Sanders (JP Pre cinct 7) will be a vote against public corrup tion and for human decency.
Early voting for the Nov. 8 election runs from Oct. 24 to Nov. 4. l
This exhibition is organized by the Kimbell Art Museum.
The Kimbell Art Museum is supported in part by Arts Fort Worth, the Texas Commission on the Arts, and the National Endowment for the Arts. This exhibition is supported by an indemnity from the Federal Council on the Arts and the Humanities.
Let me level with y’all for a second. I really like Taylor Swift.
Now, I’m no Swiftie. I can’t rattle off T-Swift trivia instantly. If I’m having a bad day, it’s not one of her albums I pull up on my phone. Excluding the time I saw her open for a band during her country era 15 years ago, I haven’t seen her in concert.
And yet I have absorbed her music through some sort of culture osmosis. I could sing most of the words to at least a dozen of her songs. I think many of them fall into the category of Very Good, masterful even. I don’t know what else to tell you. I like the lady’s music.
But would you believe there’s a certain — let’s say, “hipsterish” — segment of the populace who just don’t get it? My editor, who has heard her music only accidentally and grudgingly, even wondered allowed recently, “How does she keep managing to make people — and the me dia — interested in her every new release?”
My affinity for her puts me in the major ity. The awards don’t lie. She has 68 Billboard Hot 100 chart entries, and her shelves are lined with 11 Grammys. From her very long career, she is now worth $570 million, according to Forbes. On Oct. 21, she will release her latest album, Midnights, which is sure to bring her more acclaim and more money.
So, what’s the big ado over Taylor all about?
Let’s consider the facts. Taylor Swift grew up wealthy. Her dad bought a 3% stake in the record company that signed his teenage daugh ter. She has blonde hair, blue eyes, a winning smile, and a squeaky clean “America’s Sweet heart” kind of image. And by conventional standards, she’s beautiful — like, really beau tiful. She has a penchant for penning catchy lines. A pretty, rich, nice white lady meeting success every step of the way? The masses fa voring mediocrity over nuance? Well, that’s a pretty classic American story.
And there we have it. Mystery solved. But that leaves some stuff out. And though I love to pile on popular things as much as anyone else, nothing makes me want to slam my head through a wall faster than the harebrained idea that “pop ular” and “good” are mutually exclusive.
Taylor Swift is exceedingly ambitious and talented and has made a career out of tapping into the experience of being a young woman with all the messiness and heartache and tri umph and, yes, cringe that go with it. From her teen years in country, she has developed
The author claims she’s not a Swiftie but will download the pop star’s new album next week almost immediately. #swiftielife
a reputation as a solid songwriter with lyrics that hit that sweet spot between personal and evocative. Have I ever been a lovestruck teen in the Deep South slow dancing in the moon light with a “boy in a Chevy truck / That had a tendency of gettin’ stuck / On backroads at night”? Well, no. But listening to her first hit “Tim McGraw” makes me feel like I could have been.
For much of her career, she used that songwriting prowess to pen pop anthems with dangerously catchy lines. Despite not having listened to the song in years, and never really liking it, the chorus to the 2012 hit “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together” still re sides in my soul, where it probably will remain until I take my last breath.
Like them or leave them, 1989 and Lover (both co-produced by longtime collaborator and hit machine Jack Antonoff) are both big, slick albums that have cemented Swift’s reign as a pop giant. The woman can write. Though she focuses almost exclusively on romantic love, she sometimes throws in some songs about family or friendship or growing pains.
In 2020, Swift made a departure from her pop image to collaborate with indie darling Aaron Dessner from The National to make Folklore, a stripped-down set of songs just as catchy as her previous material but with a more rustic, woodsy backbone. On this album, she croons lines like, “All these people think love’s for show / But I would die for you in secret” and “And when I felt like I was an old cardigan / Under someone’s bed / You put me on and said I was your favorite.” Simple stuff but clev er. Saccharine? Maybe, but heartfelt.
Switching genres like she has, going from country to pop to indie, and dominating in each, is an unparalleled achievement. Through out all of her iterations, she has written almost exclusively about her experience as a woman. Her tendency toward personal, confession al-style lyrics makes her mostly female fans feel understood in a pretty personal kind of way.
I can guarantee you when Midnights drops, I will download it on Spotify and have an evening of emotional catharsis too embar rassing to elaborate upon any further.
Now, is her music surface-level? Sure. Is that catchiness, that permanence in our col lective unconscious, annoying? Well, yes. Do I think Taylor Swift herself is possibly a bad per son, based upon her wild amounts of wealth and privilege? Yeah, maybe. And you know what I have to say to that?
So what. Life is short, and if Swift’s brand of simple stories and catchy hooks makes songs that allow me and millions of others to come together and feel something in our jaded little hearts, then the rest is just details. l
What idiot executive told Netflix to title its dramatic series Dahmer — Monster: The Jef frey Dahmer Story? One-third of the words would have told us what the show is about. The 10-part miniseries, which has been the streaming service’s biggest hit ever, has been the subject of controversy for more than a few reasons. It aims to take the focus off the serial killer and put it on his victims, and at its intermittent best, that’s what it achieves. However, showrunners Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan (who previously made a series about the serial killer who murdered Gi anni Versace) are too undisciplined to stay on task, though they manage to expose a few problems with the entire genre of true crime itself.
The first episode of Dahmer, “Bad Meat,” is a nearly perfect piece of televi sion, focusing on Tracy Edwards (Shaun J. Brown), the Black man who meets Jeff (Evan Peters) at a gay club in Milwaukee in 1991, goes home with him, realizes what this bespectacled white man is, escapes, and brings back the police. The director of this
episode, Carl Franklin, has been executing slow-burn thrills ever since he was making movies like One False Move and Devil in a Blue Dress in the 1990s, and he squeezes ev ery last drop of panic out of the situation. The stagey 2002 film Dahmer takes up this same incident and stars a pre-fame Jeremy Renner, yet “Bad Meat” is far more terrifying as it concentrates on Tracy’s panicked efforts to do whatever he needs to do — including a sexy striptease — to placate the killer until a chance to break free presents itself. Jeff lays his head on Tracy’s bare chest and says, “I want to hear your heartbeat. I’m going to eat it,” and Tracy merely strokes Jeff’s hair in response. Even after Tracy manages to flee the building and get to the street, he’s not necessarily safer in the hands of the police, who have a history of killing unarmed Black men. The strength of this self-contained ep isode is likely what made this show such a hit, and it leaves you wondering why it’s the only episode that Franklin directed.
Movies and TV shows about real and fictional serial killers often present us with women being victimized, so Dahmer puts some weight on the other side of the scale by showing us how men can be preyed on, too. Most of Dahmer’s victims were men of col
or, a fact that was largely glossed over when the story broke in the early 1990s. Whether or not the cannibal serial killer was motivat ed by race, his victims being largely Black and gay was a factor in why he was allowed to get away with his murders for so long, and stating as much in a well-crafted TV drama carries more impact than doing so in some criminology study.
There’s much else to recommend the show. Evan Peters is as frightening as you’ve heard, and if you saw him as the wisecrack ing best friend in Kick-Ass, you won’t believe it’s the same actor. Episode 6, “Silenced,” is a moving testament to Tony Hughes (Rodney Burford), Dahmer’s gay and deaf victim who harbored dreams of becoming a fashion mod el. The following episode, “Cassandra,” con centrates on Glenda Cleveland (Niecy Nash), the neighbor who repeatedly alerted the po lice to the strange noises and smells coming from Jeff’s place only to watch the cops hand one of his escaped victims back to him. (This show is red meat for the ACAB crowd.)
The problem is, these are isolated in stances. The show has one outright bit of sensationalism when it shows us John Wayne Gacy (Dominic Burgess) murdering one of his victims in Chicago while wearing
his full clown makeup. That aside, despite Dahmer’s attempts to avoid focusing on Jeff, it can’t look away. Maybe there’s no treat ment that could have avoided glamorizing him, and maybe there’s a flaw in human nature that makes us more fascinated by the monster than by his victims. (I mean, can you name everyone that Freddy Krueger kills in the Nightmare on Elm Street movies?)
What’s sure is this: There’s too much Dahmer in Dahmer. The show concludes that it’s fruitless trying to isolate what made him a monster, so why does it spend so much time on his methods and his relations with his family? Murphy and Brennan have only occasionally been sensitive to their charac ters, particularly to the ones of color, and the plethora of other projects they’re working on can’t have helped them think through some of their work’s issues. (Speaking of sensitivity, consulting with the families of Dahmer’s victims might or might not have improved the final product, but it would have been nice to do.) If the show results in the city of Milwaukee building a memorial to the man’s victims like Glenda Cleveland has wanted, then that’s great. However, the show’s limitations prevent it from being that memorial. l
The focus of the Cowboys’ current winning streak has been the backup quarterback, but it’s the other side of the ball that really deserves the credit.
BY PATRICK HIGGINSThe football gods, in their infinite cruelty, have a singular objective, which is to con stantly out me as an ill-informed, emotion-fu eled fraud of a “journalist” by unfailingly de nying any of my predictions about the Dallas Cowboys from becoming reality. Many fans, erroneously, believe it is the tears of their grief shed at their favorite team losing that drives the Audible Allahs in their viciousness. Alas, their true form of sustenance is the shame and embarrassment I feel when the players in silver and blue vehemently contradict my printed thoughts every week.
So, a month ago, when I wanted to curl into a fetal position and slip into a hyper space travel-like state of suspended anima tion until kickoff of Week 1 2023 — so cer tain I was that our season was surely lost af ter QB1 Dak Prescott left the opening game with a long-term injury — the wiley football deities sprang into action, tummies rum bling and salivating like Pavlovian hounds. With the Cowboys hilariously riding
a current four-game win streak, including victories over both of the teams that partic ipated in last year’s Super Bowl, all with a backup quarterback, at this point, the gods are just playing with their food. Running up the score on making me look the fool. Un like the doom and destruction that usually follow when I occasionally have high expec tations for the team, I’ll gladly take this. Be ing wrong has never felt so right.
Right now, it’s practically silly. When tallying wins and losses at the release of the season schedule over the summer, even the most optimistic silver-and-blue face-painted fan would have likely predicted a 3-2 start at best. More realistically, it would have been more like 2-3, even with a healthy Prescott. Once Prescott went down, however, 0-5 seemed like the most natural expectation. In my defense, no one saw 4-1 under the tute lage of Cooper Rush.
This past Sunday, the latest shovelful of dirt tossed onto the coffin of my credibility was a stunning 22-10 dismantling of the de fending Super Bowl champion Los Angeles Rams “on the road.” The curly quotes around the phrase is an acknowledgment of the fact that though LA’s SoFi Stadium may be the only building in the western hemisphere that elicits in Jerry Jones an unfamiliar tinge of envy — Jurrah’s own pharaonic temple in AT&T Stadium looks like a 20th-century relic by comparison — the futuristic open-air architectural marvel was at least half-full with Cowboy fans, an inevitability so expected by the Rams, they reportedly practiced under “road game” conditions all week, piping in crowd noise to simulate just how much they lack a home field advantage when the Cow boys are in town. Traditional road game envi ronment or no, the Cowboys win was impres sive. Especially considering how unimpres sive it was. At least as far as the passing game was concerned.
Everyone’s current golden child under center completed just 10 passes for a measly 102 yards, leading the team to just five of 15 on third down. The dismal 30% conversion clip is a stat that has followed him through out his four-game win streak — a stat that is good for 29th in the league.
If there’s one bit of my “analysis” (a more exaggerative term has perhaps never been applied to whatever this column is) that so far the football gods have failed to contradict, it’s that the Cowboys are on this win streak despite Rush, not because of him.
Don’t get me wrong. “Super Cooper” has done just about all you could ask of him, but the reason this team is winning is on the other side of the ball.
Through five games, the Dallas defense has not allowed an opponent to score 20 points — or even more than a single touch down for that matter. That’s a feat the team has not accomplished in 50 years. The de fense ranks third in points/game allowed and seventh in yards/game allowed. Led by Defensive Player of the Year lock Micah Parsons’ six, the menacing defensive front leads the league in sacks with 13 while the team’s five interceptions is also good for sec ond. Opponents convert just a third of the time once they reach the red zone on this D, a mark that ranks second in the league for defenses. The strip-sack scoop-and-score by Dorance Armstrong and Demarcus Law rence on the opening drive against the Rams was not only a microcosm of how that partic ular game would play out but could poten tially be one for this season as a whole. They will go however far the defense can carry them. Through five games, I’m ready to say it. This D is elite.
It’s strange, as a Cowboys fan, to witness the team being carried by one side of the ball that’s not the offense, especially considering
the Cowboys devote nearly twice as much of their cap to the offensive side as they do the defenders.
Give it up to DC Dan Quinn (while you can). He’s taken a cast without many stars and turned them into the envy of 85% of the league. He will undoubtedly be the first new head coach hired in the offseason.
The truest test of this elite-level defense so far will be next Sunday night as Dallas travels to Philadelphia to take on the league’s last remaining undefeated team in the Ea gles, who contrastingly boast the second-best offense in the NFL. Always a rivalry worth getting up for, the matchup of strength-onstrength promises can’t-miss TV. With Rush seemingly already unable to lead the team into the 30s in points, coupled with Philadel phia’s own Top-10 defense, it will certainly be up to Quinn to rally his squad to keep Dal las in it. God forbid Dak returns and offers a similar performance to the depressing one managed in his only game of the year. The pitchforks, which are already out, would be sharpened and laid into fires until white hot to come after him then.
I cannot wait to see how it plays out. Until then, I will quietly keep my predic tions to myself on just how it might for fear of the wrath of the gods. l
Anyone else have trouble sleeping on Sat urday? I’ve become excellent at divorcing myself from expectation and emotions as it pertains to TCU over the last several years, but playing against an unbeaten Kansas squad after being featured on ESPN’s Col lege Gameday brought all the joy and misery of being a normal fan screaming back. We’ll start with the obvious: TCU won and rose in the national rankings to No. 13 after playing what might have been their first nationally relevant game since losing a pre-conference spat to Ohio State back in 2018.
It must be addressed: The Jayhawks are for real. I’ll admit being skeptical perusing their scores this season and thought the pur ple offense might hang a hundred on them before the game started, but Kansas looked complete in every phase, especially consid ering they won zero games the year before Coach Lance Leipold arrived. Kansas quar terback Jalon Daniels (#6) was not an enor mous factor in a first half that was purely a defensive battle. Both defenses swarmed, and it seems both coordinators’ scouting was effective.
The turn of the tide for TCU and KU came when Daniels became the second starting passer in the second consecutive game injured during the second quarter by the Horned Frog defense. His replacement, Jason Bean (#17), who is local to Mansfield and played extensively in previous seasons, brought energy to his teammates but inevi tably made sufficient mistakes for TCU to escape Kansas with a win.
Max Duggan (#15) continues to be the driving force of a TCU offense that found itself reeling against an aggressive Hawk defensive front who pressured Duggan much more than he’d experienced to that point in the season. Neither offense really found footing during the first half, but that all ended in the third quarter after Kansas took their first lead. Note to Jayhawk faith ful who are new to this whole “relevant at football thing”: It’s unwise to jingle your keys after your team takes their first lead of the game.
Derius Davis (#11) created instant kar ma for rock-chalk hubris with a quick catch that he turned into an impressive tightrop ing down the left sideline. Davis continues to be a factor without even touching the ball by forcing opposing kickoff and punt teams to avoid him by any means necessary. The Jayhawks flat out refused to kick the ball to Davis whether it be a punt or kick off, the latter regularly awarding TCU bet ter field position notwithstanding anything the receiving team accomplished.
Quentin Johnston (#1) was the flash point of this game, amassing more than 200 yards on a staggering 14 receptions, includ ing a 53-yard catch during a 99-yard touch down drive in addition to hauling in an absolute dime from Duggan for the game’s final touchdown.
What have we learned? TCU’s offense — with only a change in staff — is legit imate and dangerous from anywhere on the field. Kansas is far and away the best defense the Frogs have faced, and the pur ple team managed to score 38 points on the road in front of an extremely hostile crowd.
This team, in general, is also resilient, pos sessing multiple ways to win. Johnston was mostly window dressing until this point in the season, drawing multiple defenders and allowing Duggan to spread the ball to oth er targets like Davis and Taye Barber (#4), who also caught a touchdown on Saturday by snatching the pigskin directly over the head of a Hawk defender during a recep tion the announcer aptly described as “ab solutely insane.”
TCU hadn’t trailed since the first quarter of the Colorado game in Week 1, and when they found themselves behind in the second half last week, it took them four plays to respond, and they never trailed again.
Something that might not be as ob vious for spectators is that the offense lit erally runs through Kendre Miller (#33). Miller became explicitly agitated at how tight this game stayed and started running angrily, steamrolling and breaking tackles like we’ve become accustomed to seeing. The running back who is somehow simul taneously a bruiser and a speedster fell short of a third consecutive game passing
the century mark but still accounted for 88 yards on 18 carries for almost five yards per. Miller collected the tough yards to keep the offense on the field, allowing for big receiv er stat lines and splash plays. Miller is the glue that holds the offense together, and no one had better overlook him.
We also learned some not-so-desirable things about the Frogs as they catapulted to their lucky-13 ranking heading toward a clash with conference-favorite Oklahoma State in Fort Worth on Saturday afternoon. Kansas beat the Frogs in the trenches, on both sides. The offensive line was over whelmed by a talented defensive front more often than they held them. Even when the protection was good, Duggan’s clock re mained short for making decisions with the ball. Defensively, Joe Gillespie’s squad couldn’t pick a lane, and it almost cost TCU the game. TCU’s three down lineman were not providing pressure against KU’s often six-man protection scheme, which is under standable. However, a serviceable receiving group and quarterback will eventually find open grass if given six or more seconds for a play to develop, which occurred regular ly. Gillespie dialed up more pressure from linebackers during the fourth quarter after being burned for 21 points in the third, but the cumbersome adjustment speed was con cerning. If the Jayhawks hadn’t coughed up the ball on the turf four times and Bean hadn’t thrown one bad interception, Satur day could have easily ended differently.
Conversely, TCU’s secondary is talent ed in coverage and hard hitting as fans have become accustomed, but Kansas’ play de sign — which emphasized pre-snap motion and formation disguise — stymied safety and linebacker cues, which left defenders lost in the wash multiple times. The sec ond-half game film will be studied closely by every offensive coordinator remaining on TCU’s schedule and could be the blue print that Oklahoma State or Texas will use to great avail if assignments aren’t better understood.
Like Bean last week, Spencer Sanders (#3), Oklahoma State’s quarterback, is a North Texas local and veteran player with running and throwing ability but capable of head-scratching mistakes. The Cowboys and Frogs are the last two remaining unde feated Big 12 teams, though Kansas State joins them atop the standings as being undefeated during conference play. TCU and OSU have scored an identical quanti ty of points so far this season and are tied for third most prolific behind Kansas and Texas. Statistically, OSU and TCU are mid dle of the conference-pack in defense, with TCU holding a slight edge, though the best defense by points (Iowa State) is sitting dead last in the standings. This coming week, because of what has transpired so far, could very well determine who is best positioned to win the conference. As good as Kansas looked, they are probably the pop quiz before the real test against State this weekend. If TCU can keep winning the turnover battle — like they have so far this season — we could witness a Top 10 Horned Frog squad during a year where ex pectations were absent. l
After the five-star hair and make-up treatment that our Best Of models received at Lemongrass Salon University (1612 S University Dr, Ste 436, 817-332-1155) in University Park Village as part of our cover photoshoot, I was excited to be invited to participate in LGU Spa Night. It was the week after Best Of hit the stands, and, boy, did I need a spa day!
As an Aveda salon, Lemongrass prides itself on keep ing up with the latest techniques and trends for its clients. Stylists attend educational seminars, and to help raise trav el funds, the salon offers LGU Spa Nights, featuring five treatment stations and light bites and wine for $150 per per son, with the proceeds going to the salon’s education fund.
You receive services that include a botanical scalp treat ment, exfoliating back scrub, foot and hand massage, neck and shoulder massage, and a GuaSha facial massage. For the scalp treatment and shoulder massage, I had my choice of scents, a classic Aveda one and peppermint. My basic ass
The GuaSha facial massage was my favorite treatment. According to Allure magazine, it is especially effective at relieving muscular tension and sluggish circulation. As a facial therapy, it helps de-puff, stimulates microcirculation, and promotes collagen production. As a personal choice, it just feels so good and makes me feel pretty.
Each station is relaxing and soothing. Between stations, you hang out in the lounge, enjoy the appetizers and drinks, and socialize with the other attendees. That night, I met a mother-daughter duo celebrating the mom’s recent comple tion of her last round of chemo. That encounter reminds me that it’s now October. In honor of #BreastCancerAware nessMonth, get those breasts checked out, ladies.
As an exclusive event involving a rotation of five sta tions, there are only five attendees on any given evening. The next LGU Spa Night is Wed, Oct 19. Call the salon directly to reserve a spot.
Best Of 2022 is an excellent resource for try ing new places this fall. See all the winners at FWWeekly.com. Readers’ choices in Best Of never include write-ups, so we’re explor ing some of these businesses further in Ate Days this month.
1.) Best Food Truck: Now that Big Kat Burgers (200 Bryan Av, 903-363-5723) is permanently parked, you can get your big burger fix five days a week. The hours are noon-7:40pm Wed-Thu, noon-10:40pm Fri-Sat, and then each #SellOutSunday, Big Kat is open noon to 8pm or until they run out of burgers. Big Kat will even deliver your grub across the way to Tarantula Tiki Lounge (117 S Main St, 817-920-9616).
2.) Best Fried Chicken: With 35 locations in 14 states, Gus’s World Famous Fried Chick en (1067 W Magnolia Av, 817-927-4693) still feels very local. It could be because of their involvement in the community. (Perhaps you tried them at Arts Goggle.) Every loca tion uses the same recipe since the Bonner family opened the first one in 1953. Fami ly-style meals are available for your next foot ball-watching party or any ol’ time.
3.) Best Indian Food: During the pandem ic, Maharaja Indian Restaurant (6308 Hulen Bend Blvd, 817-263-7156) stopped offering its popular lunch buffet, but now it’s back 11am-2pm Fri-Sun. On the other days, there are lunch specials for dine-in or take-out that you can check out at Mahara jaDFW.com. Plus, you can always drop by for dinner.
4.) Best Italian Food: Along with being the Readers’ Choice for best Italian, Tre Mogli Cucina Italiana (401 S Main St, 817-6159844) was also our Critic’s Choice for Fami ly-Style Meal. As the weekend calendar fills up quickly, it’s never too soon to plan your holiday parties or large family dinners. For parties with fewer than 15 guests, call the restaurant directly or use the reservations tab at TreMogli.com. If you have a larg er shindig in mind, email Sales@Triden tRestaurGroup.com for instructions.
5.) Best Japanese Food: The new happy hour menu was just announced at Tokyo Cafe (5121 Pershing Av, 817-737-8568). Choices include egg rolls with a sweet chile sauce, pasta salad with celery and yuzu, or seared
albacore with cucumber, tomato, fried ca pers, and rice pearls. Try all three 3pm-6pm Tue-Fri.
6.) Best Mediterranean Food: Like many restaurants gearing up for the holidays, Nish! Mediterranean Grill (4913 Ohio Garden Rd, 817-615-9292) has some fam ily-style options for your consideration. Family meal ideas include chicken, beef, or beef kafta kabobs, rice or fries, hummus and baba ganoush, fatoush salad, garlic sauce, ta hini sauce, and pita bread.
7.) Best Mexican Food: One of the oldest restaurants in the area, The Original Mexi can Eats Cafe (4713 Camp Bowie Blvd, 817738-6226) opened in 1926 and was frequent ed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who came to Fort Worth to visit his son and ate here many times in the 1930s. In 1936, the “Roosevelt Special” was born. The signa ture combo is one “World-Famous” cheese enchilada with chili, one beef taco, and one bean chalupa for $14.95.
8.) Best New Restaurant: You had me at deviled eggs. As much as I love the standard homemade variety, these elevated eggs look amazing. Made with squash, pepitas, and seven spice, The Beast & Company (1010 W Magnolia Av, 817-945-1461) invites you to enjoy “one of our favorite bites to kick off your meal.” I could share them with the ta ble, but I probably won’t. #mine
By Jennifer Bovee
Start your meal with these deviled eggs at The Beast & Company.
Music Awards are back!
Along with the Black Dog Jam at Scat Jazz Lounge and the jam nights at Lazy Daisy Coffee Bar, McFly’s Pub, and Pinky’s Champagne Room & Velvet Jazz Lounge, the Playtown Blues Jam at Lola’s Fort Worth (2000 W Berry St, @LolasFort Worth) is nominated for best open-mic at FWWeekly.com/music-awards-ballot-2022. Check out Playtown from 8pm to 11pm with special guest Johnny Mack. There is no cost to attend.
The Pink Cactus DFW, the Keller-based charcuterie and upscale picnic experts, will be at Panther Island Brewing (501 N Main St, 817-882-8121) at 6pm, hosting the Charcuterie Workshop Halloween Edition Attendees will learn how to style and arrange a well-balanced board, learn styling techniques, build sala mi roses and a salami river, and add spooky final touches. A screening of Beetlejuice fol lows the workshop. All needed ingredients and materials, an hour of instruction, and your first beer are provided. Tickets are $65 at The-Pink-Cactus-DFW-LLC.Tick etleap.com.
As all Amigo Guitar Shows are buy-sell-trade events, you are encouraged to bring all the music-related items that you can carry to GuitArlington
10am-5pm Sat-Sun at the Esports Stadium & Expo Center (1200 Ballpark Way, 817459-5000). “By getting bids from several exhibitors, you can quickly establish the market value of your item and proceed to sell or trade with confidence.” You may see everything from guitars and amps to re cords and memorabilia from individuals, online companies, retailers, and more, and you may also even get in a bit of celebrity people-watching. Tickets are $20 at Amigo GuitarShows.com/GuitArlington.
Head to Granbury, winner of our Readers’ Choice for best day trip in Best Of 2022, for the final weekend of Little Shop of Horrors at the Granbury Opera House (133 E Pearl St, Granbury, 817-579-0952) as part of the Broadway on the Brazos series. Meek floral assistant Seymour Krelborn stumbles across a new breed of plant he names Audrey II after his co-worker crush. This foul-mouthed, R&B-singing carnivore promises fame
and fortune to the down-and-out Krelborn as long as he keeps feeding it blood. Over time, Seymour discovers Audrey II’s outof-this-world origin and plans for global domination. Tickets start at $30 at Gran buryTheatreCompany.org.
Hosted by Open Worship (@OpenDTX) and Mo saic Worship (@Mosaic FUMC), the October in stallment of the fall Pub Theology series at The Bearded Monk (122 E McKinney St, Denton, 940-999-7238) begins at 8pm. On the third Monday of the month thru Mon, Dec 19, drink beer and contemplate theo logical quandaries with masters-in-divinity scholar Jenny Bates and Pastor Laura Byrd, who both like “asking the hard questions with no Sunday school answers.”
Just in time for Halloween, Cowtown Movie Classics is hosting two screenings of the “ blood-soaked classics that turned Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing into icons.” See The Curse of Frankenstein tonight at 8pm, then the Horror of Dracula on Sun, Oct 23, at 8pm, both at Downtown Cowtown at The Isis Theater (2401 N Main St, 817-8086390). Admission is free with the purchase of a snack and drink. (For more spooky events, check out our Halloween 2022 sec tion starting on pg. 23.)
By Jennifer Boveethe first female
brewer in North Texas,
Fort Brewery maestro
BY JESSICA WALLER
Murphy started making beer simply to show up her husband in friendly compe titions back in 2015.
those days, she was using their mod
home setup
out
rep for Pro-Brewing Supply, Murphy’s hus band brought home the right ingredients for making small batches at home. Soon, the couple began to perfect the ones they liked best while branching out into new recipes every week in a rivalry to see who could do it best. Don’t know about hubby, but Murphy is now the first female brewmaster in North Texas, whipping up award-winning beer at Fort Brewery.
When asked how she felt after being recognized as the first female head brewer in North Texas, she said, “I was honored and surprised. Best of all, I am in a position now where I can help, support, and promote other women, and I take that responsibility seriously.”
One aspect of brewing that Murphy found herself particularly drawn to was infus ing her hops and barley with wild flavors. As friends began noticing how well her experi ments worked, she saw past her kitchen trap pings to a new profession full of possibilities.
Murphy soon mastered the science, or “math at play,” as she calls it, of brewing as well and decided to apply for brewing jobs locally. Her first gig was an apprenticeship at Panther Island Brewing, where she learned precise measurements, chemical reactions, and timing.
After a few years, Murphy was given the chance to create her own concoction to com pete for a place in the thousand-gallon brew ing system at Panther Island. She used Buc-
ee’s famous Beaver Nuggets to make a beer that tasted like “maple caramel corn puffs.”
Not only did her keg of Road Trip Snacks sell out that day, but it also went vi ral. Now Murphy was all over local media and winning contests across North Texas.
Murphy is so one with her brewmastery instincts now, she’s literally crafting in her sleep. “I’ve been having dreams about new recipes that actually work!”
One of them that she’s most proud of involves a whole box of Cinnamon Toast Crunch which comes out tasting just like the cereal that is pretty addictive sans alcohol.
“It’s been incredibly rewarding, apply ing the science to my ideas in a way that cre ates something that brings people joy,” she said.
Murphy is partly driven by grief. She said she threw herself into her craft after the
death of her 10-year-old daughter Amberlyn in 2018.
Murphy is also inspired by making a difference. She is active in several groups supporting women in the industry, includ ing Pink Boots and the Brave Noise Collab orative.
Pink Boots is a nonprofit that promotes women in the brewing and distilling indus tries since, based on a 2019 survey by the Brewers Association, only about 7.5% of brewery employees with the title of “brew er” are women. After experiencing sexism in the industry, Murphy felt galvanized to do something on behalf of burgeoning female brewers.
Brave Noise is a project that works to create a safe and discrimination-free beer industry. Murphy’s team at Fort Brew ery is helping by offering the Brave Noise Hazy Pale Ale, a 4.5% ABV brew double dry hopped with sabro (tropical hops) and mo saic (floral, fruity, tropical, earthy hops). She described it as “a pale, soft haze with notes of pineapple, coconut, mango, guava, and orange.”
All proceeds from the sale of Brave Noise Hazy Pale Ale at Fort Brewery will benefit The Ladder Alliance, a Fort Worthbased nonprofit that empowers female vic tims of domestic violence.
Although Murphy said she is very hap py with where she is now, she is “definite ly” interested in owning her own brewery someday. “That was something I told my daughter I was going to do, and she was al ways my biggest cheerleader.” l
On the Radio Rockers Bruce Magnus have just released their second album this year and don’t plan on stopping anytime soon.
BY STEVE STEWARD
I don’t want you to get the idea that Bruce Magnus sounds anything like Thee Oh Sees or any of John Dwyer’s other proj ects, but they do have a couple things in common. For one thing, both bands write and record a shit-ton of material. To
MUSIC continued on page 21
this point, on Friday, at a show at Caves Lounge in Arlington, Bruce Magnus will release Bruce Magnus on the Radio , the band’s fourth studio album in total and their second studio album this year. And in the way that every LP by Thee Oh Sees (or The Ohsees, The Oh Sees, Oh Sees, Osees, or whatever spelling permutation Dwyer is using at the moment) sounds dis tinctly different from the previous one, so do Bruce Magnus recordings. Yet no mat ter what direction their arrangements go, they are still unmistakably representative of the band’s signature sound.
Of course, when a band’s sound evolves over every album, you might find it hard to identify the sonic watermarks on each of them. Bruce Magnus is a rock ’n’ roll band no matter what genre they piv ot toward or which influence seeps into their riffs. In March, when I wrote about their then-new third album Spare Beans , I settled on the idea that the most applica ble comparison is Ween, given that Ween writes songs that sound like the Beatles, Jimmy Buffett, and Motörhead yet still re mains very obviously Ween. I also got the impression that Bruce Magnus is, perhaps unintentionally, Minutemen-like, in that their anything-goes, punk-is-whateverwe-make-it-to-be ethos is a cornerstone of the songwriting aesthetic.
Yet even before you hear singer-gui tarist Samuel Fatzenberger’s energized rasp, you can always tell a song is a Bruce Magnus joint. There are certain signifiers: the deliciously dusty-sounding, live show energy of Joe Tacke’s production, the tre bly crunch of Fatzenberger’s Telecaster over the gritty, growling low end from bassist Aaron Richter’s bendy, melodic runs, which slither and curl around the thump and snap of drummer Billy Hil dreth’s deep-pocket backbeats like a boa constrictor. As a unit, their powers com bine to form a three-headed classic-rock monster, like one drafted for a hypothet ical ’70s mashup called Sabbath Bloody Songs in the Key of Little Feat — or Lipps, Inc.
In a phone interview, Richter said they started working on the songs that would find their way onto Bruce Magnus on the Radio in March 2021. They had five songs finished and were thinking of re leasing them as an EP, but then they wrote several more.
“We went back this year and finished the rest of them” with Tacke, Richter said. “He’s like our No. 2 fan, after my mom.”
That self-deprecating humor, along with Fatzenberger’s lyrical bent that fa vors a “get over it and get after it” sense of positivity over self-pity, is also part of the Bruce Magnus sound. Yet Richter says that while the new material has the usu al serving of silliness, “This one might be our most topical record.”
continued on page 22
He mentions a song called “Gun on Your Bible” that touches on the hypocrisy inherent in self-righteousness, and anoth er track, “The Fountain,” that examines late-stage capitalism seen through the lens of a person forced to spend the night at Ridgmar Mall.
“That place is so sad,” Richter said, “but that’s about as far as the topical stuff goes. All our song ideas are shoot-fromthe-hip anyway. We usually just start with a riff. … It’s a rock ’n’ roll record, but any time we go into the studio, there’s some thing different about the way we’re re cording, and a lot of time that’s [Tacke’s] idea. And we’re down to experiment. You’ll notice there’s a lot of piano in this
one, a lot of pure piano sound. It’s like a new character introduced into this season of Bruce Magnus .”
Played by Fatzenberger, the piano does indeed pop out like a new charac ter, but, thankfully, it’s more like Pepe the Prawn debuting in the Muppets than Cousin Oliver’s entrance into the Brady Bunch : fun, lively, and complementary to the cast of lovable weirdos. And while Camillo Gri sales left his role as a fulltime member last year, he still makes in-studio ap pearances, shredding leads over the album’s first five tracks. So, overall, while Bruce Magnus still tries new things, they still know what their music “is” — as well as why they make it in the first place.
8pm Fri w/Siamese Hips, Red Admirals, Weathered Eyes at Caves Lounge, 900 W Division St, Arlington. 817-460-5510.
about the music for us. Being in a band, in a local music scene, there’s a lot of other stuff that surrounds the music itself. And it’s not that we don’t like to participate, and it would be cool to be able to tour and that be our job, but there’s a weird social groundwork we kind of orbit around. We don’t really insert ourselves in the scene. There are tons of great people I’ve met over the years doing mu sic, but we are still kind of the sperm on the outside of the egg that can’t quite make it in. But it’s some thing we’ve become OK with. We’re making music because it’s fun. Hopefully people listen to our songs, but, really, we are just playing music because we have fun.”
band, where everyone makes song requests and you hear their songs blasting out of car windows. And Richter said they would love to make some road trips. In August, they played one last show at MASS with a Nashville-based band called Hans Condor.
“We hit it off with them,” he said. “It was a fun show, where we all played to the bands and about four people, but we ended up keeping in touch with them, and we’re interested in boogeying on up to Nashville to play with them again.”
So Bruce Magnus does indeed have some bigger aspirations, but in the mean time, they’ll continue to write and record. Richter said they just started a new joint at Cloudland in Fort Worth. “We have three songs down, and we’re going to do three or four more. … I don’t know what it is. We just love writing music.” l
“I’ve been thinking about ‘the band’ a lot,” Richter said. “And, really, it’s all
Though if you listen to Bruce Mag nus on the Radio ’s title track, they at least imagine a world where they are a huge
Lola’s Fort Worth
(2000 W Berry St, @ LolasFortWorth)
WED 10/19: Rocky Horror-themed painting class by Art:30tx featuring live music by The Matthew Show. (TIX @ PaintingAndMusicLolas.Eventbrite.com)
(3101 Joyce Dr, 817-386-4309)
SAT 10/29: Halloween Party featuring costume contests and live music by Chris Cornell Experience, Man in the Box, and Rokken tributes. (TIX @ Prekindle.com)
Tulips FTW
(112 St Louis Av, 817-367-9798)
SUN 10/30: Metalachi with Mad Mexicans. (TIX @ TulipsFTW.com.)
Lava Cantina (5805 Grandscape Blvd, 214-618-6893)
SAT 10/29: Halloween Bash featuring live music on the roof, a DJ inside, and a screening of the Rocky Horror Picture Show out back. (TIX @ LavaCantina.com.)
Amplified Live (10261 Technology Blvd E, 214-350-1904)
SAT 10/28: Halloween Party featuring Champagne Yacht Club. (TIX @ Amplified-Live.com.)
Three Links
(2704 Elm St, 214-484-6011)
MON 10/31: Psychedelic Halloween featuring Hooveriii and Psychic Love Child. (TIX @ ThreeLinksDeepEllum.com.)
Farina’s Winery & Cafe (420 S Main St, 817-442-9095)
SAT 10/29: Farina’s Halloween Bash featuring a costume contest and live music by Chaz Marie. Call for reservations.
Glass Cactus
(1501 Gaylord Trl, 817-778-2805)
SAT 10/29: Halloween Bash featuring costume contests, DJ Spider, and live music by KISS tribute band, Destroyer. (TIX @ GaylordTexan.com)
Courtesy IMDb
More than one place is revisiting the 1975 film The Rocky Horror Picture Show this Halloween. Let’s do the time warp again!
Harvest Hall (715 S Main St, 817-251-3050)
FRI 10/28: Grapevine Main LIVE! featuring Epic Unplugged: Top 80s Hits Cover Band.
The Haltom Theater (5601 E Belknap St, 817-677-8243)
SUN 10/23: The Haunted Haltom Bash featuring Whitney Peyton, UBI of ces cru, and Stoner. (TIX @ Facebook.com/HaltomTheater.)
Fat Daddy’s (781 W Debbie Ln, 817-453-0188)
SAT 10/29: Halloween Bash featuring costume contests, drink specials, and live music by The Velcro Pygmies with modern acoustic duo Love Is War. (TIX @ FatDaddysLive.com.)
To submit your Halloween Happenings, email Marketing@FWWeekly.com.
See Chaz Marie
Sat, Oct
from October 24thOctober 30th,
Hysen’s Nizza Pizza is Now Hiring!
Nizza is seeking a counter person, delivery drivers, and wait staff. Apply in person at 401 University Drive, FWTX,
817-877-3900. (Open Sun-Thu 11am-10pm and Fri-Sat 10:30am-11pm.) HysensNizzaPizza.com
Work where you are appreciated. 612 University FWTX. Call today! 817-367-9791
Travel Accommodations:
According to the New York Times, the following companies have said they would cover travel expenses for employees who need abortions: Airbnb, DoorDash, JP Morgan Chase, Levi Strauss & Co, Netflix, Patagonia, Reddit,
Starbucks, Tesla, and Yelp. Additionally, NowThis has listed the following companies also offering the same assistance to employees: Amazon, Apple, BuzzFeed, Citigroup, Comcast, Dick’s Sporting Goods, Lyft, Mastercard, Meta, Microsoft, Paramount, Sony, Tesla, Walt Disney Co, Vox Media, and Zillow. (JMB, FWW)
Cardiovascular Disease & Stroke
These are leading causes of death, according to the American Heart Association. Screenings can provide peace of mind or early detection! Contact Life Line Screening to schedule your screening.
Special Offer:
1-888-361-7095
Physicians Mutual Insurance Company covers 350 plus procedures. Real dental insurance - NOT just a discount plan.
not wait! Call now! Get your FREE Dental Information Kit with
the details! Call or visit Dental50plus.com/fortworth
Of Greater Texas
We’re not going anywhere. We know you may be feeling a lot of things right now, but we are here with you and we will not stop fighting for
See 6 ways you can join the
on FB @PPGreaterTX. For more
Church
time is the BEST time!
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Due? Are You Road-Trip Ready? With our handy pick-up and drop-off services, having your car checked out could not be easier. Get ready for the holidays. Call today! 3958 Vickery | 817.731.3223 | CowtownRover.com
all home repairs: painting, texture, fences, tile, doors, windows, decks, patios, shelves 817-881-2408 Adrian
CDL Drivers needed, Hazmat tanker preferred, Laborers and Equipment Operators. Health Insurance and other benefits. Per Diem Paid. EOE 830-833-4547
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
Serving the Mid-Cities for over 25 years. Massage for Better Sleep, Pain Relief, and Deep Relaxation. MasseuseToTheStars.com (MT#4797) Call 817.590.2257
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
Immediate Jail Release 24 Hour Service. City, County, State and Federal Bonds. Located Minutes from Courts. 6004 Airport Freeway. 817-834-9894 RonnieDLongBailBonds.com
Care. No matter what. WeArePlannedParenthood.org
Quiet, peaceful & safe, all furnished with a big private room & personal refrigerator. Huge, walk-in closet & black-out curtains. 2 story home, cul de sac, neighborhood. Queen memory foam bed, w/ Alexa, desk, chair, lamp. Centrally located. 2 mins from 35W. Shared bathroom, kitchen, & laundry.
If you want to live with easy going, friendly, & quiet people, in a peaceful neighborhood, this place is perfect for you. Call me to schedule an appointment. Kim 562-336-3198 | $850/month
