Fort Worth Weekly // December 28 - January 3, 2023

FEATURE

’22 will go down as the beginning of the end of Tarrant County.

BY STATIC

EATS & DRINKS

Gold foods bring prosperity, and what’s more golden than these mac ’n’ cheese options?

BY LAURIE JAMES

GO, FROGS!

Sonny Dykes is Santa, and hopefully he has one more gift to deliver.

BY BUCK D. ELLIOTT

SCREEN

And now for our esteemed critic’s Top 10 movies of 2022.

BY KRISTIAN LIN

MUSIC

The Toadies and Flickerstick will rock Billy Bob’s Friday.

BY STEVE STEWARD

ROCK IN THE NEW YEAR

Fireworks, food trucks, The Unlikely Candidates, and more will help welcome 2023 in Sundance Square Saturday. All this and more on pg. 18.

While

By Buck D. Elliott

STAFF

Anthony Mariani, Editor

Lee Newquist, Publisher

Bob Niehoff, General Manager

Ryan Burger, Art Director

Jim Erickson, Circulation Director

Edward Brown, Staff Writer

Emmy Smith, Proofreader

Michael Newquist, Regional Sales Director

Jennifer Bovee, Marketing Director

Stacey Hammons, Senior Account Executive

Julie Strehl, Account Executive

Tony Diaz, Account Executive

By Static

Top 10 Films

By Kristian Lin

Friday Night Lights

Billy Bob’s will ring with the sounds of two of North Texas’ biggest bands, the Toadies and Flickerstick.

By Steve Steward

METROPOLIS

New Leadership Coming to TRWD?

After decades of mismanagement, reform-minded locals see an opportunity to add transparency to water district dealings.

BY EDWARD BROWN

When Lon Burnam, Doreen Geiger, and several civic-minded locals founded the nonpartisan Water District Accountability Project in early 2021, the short-term goal was to raise public awareness of and monitor dealings at the governmental group tasked with providing water to more than 70 municipalities across 11 North Texas counties.

For decades, the Tarrant Regional Water District (TRWD) had been plagued with accusations of wasteful spending and lavish business expenses that went unreported outside the occasional Weekly story. The 2021 announcement that TRWD’s longtime general manager Jim Oliver planned to retire prompted the accountability project members and Burnam, a

former state representative, to plan for a long-awaited post-Oliver future. The recent death of TRWD board member Jim Lane created yet another opening for accountability project members to support

new water district leaders.

The accountability group recently went public with a demand that Lane’s interim replacement, whom the water district must elect within 60 days of his

late November death, not seek reelection in May when two of five TRWD seats are available.

“In order to continue the commit-

Airport Speedway

I commute to Hurst from Fort Worth and observe that traffic is faster than ever. I suggest five reasons: 1.) Most vehicles are twice as powerful than a decade ago. Electric cars are rockets, and semi-drivers are NASCAR drivers.

2.) Pickup trucks — fueled by powerful premium and

lots of testosterone — refuse to be passed by anyone or anything, even a DFW jet. 3.) The police got COVID lazy. 4.) Folks are making up for the COVID slowdown by speeding up, and 5.) the Dallas drivers are invading Tarrant County with their characteristic lack of manners.

I’m a lawyer who sees death and dismemberment

caused by car wrecks every day and don’t want my next commute to be my last.

Signed, Chuck Noteboom, Fort Worth

Even with more than $400 million in federal funds allocated due to the efforts of Democratic Congressman Mark Veasey, the $1.2 billion Panther Island project remains far from fully funded after nearly two decades.

Courtesy TRWD

ment to transparency and accountability, it is imperative that the board maintain the beginnings of true transparency,” the statement reads, meaning the accountability group doesn’t want the board to handpick a candidate who then has an unfair advantage in May’s election.

TRWD elections have followed the old Fort Worth Way, said Burnam, referring to local elections that have historically been funded by special interests. The former state rep believes breaking historic lines of succession — board appointment, then election — is an important step to reforming business as usual at the water district.

“Jim Lane has been sick for so long,” he continued.

Burnam and company “started talking about [how to replace him] last summer.”

The accountability group recently publicly named six TRWD board candidates: Eva Bonilla, a business owner with vast civic board experience; Robert Griffin, a business owner with executive experience; Lee Henderson, a political strategist and recent Fort Worth city councilmember candidate; Tara Maldonado Wilson, a nurse and former Fort Worth city councilmember candidate; Deborah Peoples, a former business executive and recent county judge candidate; and Blake Woodard, a partner at Woodard Insurance.

Through public statements, TRWD’s board members have committed to voting on Lane’s replacement on Tuesday, Jan. 17, at 800 E. Northside Dr. Longtime board member Marty Leonard has stated that she will not seek reelection in May’s general election. TRWD board members are elected at large, so they are not assigned to specific districts.

Burnam said last year’s electoral ousting of TRWD board president Jack Stevens, whom Burnam characterized as a protector of TRWD’s status quo, was another step toward improved governance at the water district. Stevens was replaced by Mary Kelleher, a reform-minded critic of water district dealings and heavy proponent of transparency.

Burnam and Geiger said they have seen recent incremental progress at the water district. After years of controversy, J.D. Granger departed as head of the $1.2 billion Panther Island project, the longstalled development that falls under the water district’s purview. J.D.’s mother, U.S. Rep. Kay Granger, has long championed the waterfront development.

J.D.’s departure after 16 years of earning $242,216 annually may have been forced by a 2021 investigation, when the Tarrant County District Attorney looked into whether a settlement paid to outgoing Oliver violated state laws. Burnam’s group had long criticized the evidently nepotistic hiring of Kay’s son, which may have ultimately led to J.D.’s ouster.

Beyond complaining about J.D.’s political connections through his mother,

the accountability group forwarded documents to the DA’s office that showed water district employees breaking large contracts into smaller ones as a means of skirting laws that require government projects to go through an open bidding process. The fudged agreements allowed water district officials to selectively award projects to personal friends, Burnam alleges. County prosecutors ultimately declined to press charges.

In January, and due to the work of Democrat Mark Veazey, whose congressional district includes Panther Island, the stalled waterfront development gained $403 million in federal funding from President Joe Biden’s Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. Kay never received political support from Donald Trump for Panther Island, despite her vocal praise of the twice-impeached former president. In her initial press release about the $403 million, Kay did not mention Veazey once.

A U.S. Army Corps of Engineers spokesperson said during a press conference at the time that the development was 50% complete and roughly three years out from completion. Geiger noted that full funding for the project is far from a certainty, and that shortfall may leave local taxpayers liable for the difference.

The Northside area under construction to create new water channels is the historic site of long-shuttered industrial projects that have likely left pollutants in the soil, based on reporting by the Star-Telegram . A water district spokesperson declined to comment on the potentially harmful effects of disturbing contaminated soil. TRWD board president Leah King did not respond to our requests for comment.

In 2020, Woody Frossard, the water district’s environmental director, told a Star-Telegram reporter that TRWD had spent $43 million to clean 137 acres of contaminated soil from the area that was home to a petroleum refinery, two metal refineries, and a metal reclamation facility several decades ago. Among the toxic materials removed were perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances, commonly known as PFAS, that accumulate in human bodies and resist breaking down.

A confidential source who closely monitors TRWD dealings told me that his main concern is current board members appointing personal friends to the board who could then run as incumbents in May’s elections.

Appointing candidates who lost in past elections would be a betrayal of the will of Tarrant County voters, he said.

Burnam said the departure of J.D., Lane, Oliver, and Stevens created a rare opportunity to improve government transparency and accountability at the water district. He said the board has historically failed in its job of governing TRWD business dealings.

“Almost anyone off the street could do a better job than what the incumbents have done” in managing TRWD, he said. l

The Year in Local Politics

Even after Christian Nationalists took over local government, a few bright spots lit up 2022.

BY STATIC

Setting aside the fact that our founding fathers were largely OK with owning humans and barring women from voting, the United States was founded on some pretty reasonable if not radical ideals. Civic life in this country is predicated on the concept that we don’t have to agree on everything to live together peacefully and freely.

And yet we live in a time when the very institution that is supposed to protect our rights and liberties — the government — has become the bludgeon by which religious zealots, homophobic hatemongers, and the majority of Southlakers regularly abuse their wealth and privilege to shit on everyday folks just trying to make it through the day without the luxury of generational wealth.

The future looks grim for Tarrant County following the recent takeover by Southlake Christian Nationalists who think the Golden Rule is to amass as much gold as possible. The movement that started over Critical Race Theory paranoia in the tony suburb recently installed a holier-than-thou Bible thumper as county judge. Tim O’Hare makes his living as a personal injury lawyer, and last we checked, “Blessed be the frivolous lawsuit” wasn’t a Bible verse. There are some great quotes on why a life spent accumulating blood money and wealth in general is anathema to enjoying eternal life, though.

Anyone who has thumbed through our magazine over the past year is well aware of O’Hare’s disdain for those who do not share his conspiracy theories and for Hispanics, whom he calls “less than desirable” people. Unfortunately for thin-skinned Timmy boy, the county seat is in Fort Worth, not Southlake, and locals haven’t forgotten the bullshit he spread about former Mayor Betsy Price leading up to March’s primaries.

Things aren’t looking better at the state level, where Gov. Greg Abbott won another four-year term even after telling Texans that the Uvalde school massacre “could have been worse” and failing to adequately upgrade the state’s electrical grid because somehow our rugged independence as Texans will save us from the next deadly winter storm. (Spoiler alert: It won’t.)

Arguably posing the greatest threat to our increasingly embattled pluralistic way of life is the U.S. Supreme Court. Once a bulwark against affronts by the immoral minority of white conservatives,

it’s been packed with religious fanatics by the twice-impeached, soon-to-be-indicted racist rapist and former occupant of the White House who lost the popular vote in two consecutive presidential elections. Now the Moral Majority’s wet dream is our gross nightmare.

After the country’s alleged highest court overturned Roe v. Wade earlier this year, denying bodily autonomy to half the country, interracial and gay marriage, along with access to contraception, became the next likely targets of the religious right in black robes.

Those fears were not unfounded. Justice Clarence Thomas, in his concurring opinion with Roe’s June overturning, wrote that gay marriage and access to contraception should be reconsidered by the Supreme Court. His comments — plus the reality that constitutional rights could now be unceremoniously plucked by a court previously known for protecting and expanding rights — prompted national leaders to adopt and pass legislation protecting interracial and same-sex marriage. Texas senators John Cornyn and Ted “Cancun” Cruz joined 34 Republican asshats in voting against Respect for Marriage. The act that requires states to recognize legally performed marriages recently passed the Democrat-held House of Representatives and was signed into federal law by President Joe Biden.

This year hasn’t been a total wash. The midterms were a reminder that limp voter fraud conspiracies can’t replace honest campaigning and solid public policy research. The “red wave” that every mainstream media outlet predicted — because they’re vile, stupid, and thrive on the death of democracy was more like a little red spritzy-spritz. Almost all of the former guy’s endorsed can-

didates ended up in the circular file along with many other red-hatted losers as Dems gained a senate seat during an election that historically and strongly favors the party not in the White House. Even though Democrat Deborah Peoples lost her bid for county judge, establishment Republicans like Steve Murrin, a prominent developer and the unofficial mayor of the Stockyards, went against the party line to stand against homophobic, xenophobic, racist Southlakers like O’Hare and his ilk.

Following the county judge-elect’s slanderous primary campaign against Price, Mayor Mattie Parker, who previously worked as Price’s chief of staff, effectively announced her departure from the Big Lie Party. O’Hare’s press releases that falsely portrayed Price as a Marxist baby killer were too offensive even for Parker and supporters of the former mayor who was never perfect but — unlike most Republican politicians — adhered to accepted norms of human decency.

By any measure, 2022 was a victory for Southlake and the broader Christian Nationalism movement that seeks to install a Christian caliphate here and across the country. It’s a growing and well-monied effort that enjoys staunch support from DA Sharen Wilson, Sheriff Bill Waybourn, DAelect Phil Sorrells, and anyone who donated to O’Hare’s grift, er, “campaign.”

Any hope of successfully combating government malfeasance and the well-monied Christian Nationalism takeover of our county requires informed citizens, who understand how we got where we are. While not comprehensive, this mostly chronological look back pulls from our recent original reporting and summarizes the most consequential year yet for our readers.

County Corruption Thrived

Our readers began learning about the inept leadership at Tarrant County College (TCC) early this year. In April, as the college’s board placed Chancellor Eugene Giovannini on leave before eventually terminating him for mishandling the firing of TCC fundraising executive Kristen Bennett, several former employees told us horror stories of retaliation by campus administrators who promoted lackeys while disciplining or outright firing anyone who questioned TCC’s verifiably toxic work environment.

The February trial of former Justice of the Peace Jacquelyn Wright — who was found guilty of failing to properly file her homestead exemption — revealed an extensive effort by county judges to scoot tens and possibly hundreds of thousands of county dollars to greedy, unqualified visiting retired judges. Wright’s judge, we found, was assigned under the false title of senior judge and had no Oath of Office on file as required by Article 16 of the Texas Constitution.

Much of our subsequent research focused on Tarrant County judges who preside over criminal cases while not constitutionally or statutorily qualified to. Visiting retired judges, we found in our reporting, regularly refuse to take their two-part Oath of Office, which includes an anti-bribery statement and Oath of Office, before taking on an assignment. By skirting the law, these judges are able to double-dip by earning around $750 per day of assignment while pulling in retirement.

Judge David Evans, who oversees the Eighth Administrative Judicial Region that includes Tarrant County, falsely assigned at least two retired misdemeanor judges as senior judges, a step that requires notifying Texas Chief Justice Nathan Hecht in accordance with Chapter 75 of the State Government Code. Even though misdemeanor judges, based on our extensive investigations of court documents, routinely request and are given senior judge status, Hecht now maintains that only district judges, who oversee felony cases, can become senior judges.

His 180 may be an attempt to clean up years of botched cases by misdemeanor judges who failed to become a judicial officer yet continued presiding over cases anyway. The original language in our civil statutes that became Chapter 75 is clear that all judges must request an assignment from the chief justice to continue serving as judges following retirement. Hecht’s actions appear to be creating an entire class of judges, retired visiting misdemeanor judges, who rule with absolutely no authority.

Summer ‘Voter Fraud’ Frenzy

The Big Lie came to Cowtown this year, courtesy of Tarrant County Citizens for Election Integrity. In July, around 40 members of the willfully misinformed group began reviewing thousands of ballots from Tarrant County’s March 2020 GOP primary election. The biggest snark hunt in Texas was underway.

The snooping by election fraud swindlers prompted rare national attention on Tarrant County as the hosts of NPR’s popular show This American Life examined accusations against the county’s top elections administrator, Heider Garcia, who allegedly

Mayor Mattie Parker recently joined four city councilmembers in voting down a step to add meager civilian oversight of Fort Worth police department.

*puts on tinfoil hat* participated in voter fraud in Venezuela and the Philippines when he worked for Smartmatic, an election technology company. Those lies promoted by Faux News falsely allege Smartmatic machines switched votes to favor President Biden during the 2020 election despite any evidence. Smartmatic is suing Faux News for nearly $3 billion in damages, which makes the litigation humanity’s best hope for finally ridding us of the misinforming channel of choice for Southlakers and other myopic misanthropic morons.

“In the last few years in Texas, lots of election administrators quit because of accusations of fraud, obscene and racist emails, and threats,” This American Life said, “but there is another path. The official in Tarrant County is this singular, kind of remarkable figure. He is very effective. His name is Heider Garcia. If anyone can convince the elections deniers, it would be this guy.”

Heider’s strategy, the show said, is radical patience.

“His strategy is to go as far as humanly possible to address every suspicion,” NPR said. “He treats everything they say as worthy of an answer.”

Garcia apparently monitors Twitter and this trash portal called Telegram to see what right-wingers are saying about elections. When he hears a conspiracy theory, he dives deep to shovel away the b.s.

As comical as This American Life made

Citizens for Election Integrity appear, the right-wing group with Southlake roots has and will likely continue to use political connections and voter fraud paranoia to churn up baseless criminal charges against Democrats and perceived political enemies.

In the weeks leading to Peoples’ narrow loss to O’Hare, Fort Worth police video footage surfaced of a rambling felon describing — in great (read: scripted) detail — his alleged work several years earlier falsifying mail-in ballots for Democrats. Among the names tied to the alleged voter harvesting fraud was Peoples.

Little of the conversation between felon Charles Jackson and Fort Worth police officer Jentry Cotten could be said to be credible, yet the video that was picked up by right-wing blogs and YouTubers possibly swayed the county election in favor of O’Hare. Based on our recent reporting, the election deniers with Citizens for Election Integrity are behind the stunt (“Voter Fraud Frenzy,” Nov. 16).

Leaked internal emails between Tarrant County assistant district attorney Larry Moore and investigators with the state attorney general’s office reveal a concerted effort

by AG Ken Paxton to compel our local DA to hand over a voter fraud case earlier this year. Although the two emails do not name Peoples, the timing of the emails suggests members of Citizens for Election Integrity were dangling the Charles Jackson video around in hopes of having the case criminally investigated, even as the footage lacked credibility.

Our DA’s office ultimately refused to bring the matter before a grand jury or allow the AG to independently prosecute the case. Paxton, a vocal supporter of the Big Lie, has made voter fraud a central focus of his office even as evidence of election rigging here and across the country remains infinitesimally small. Republicans just can’t stand that people are voting and that most votes are going blue. Instead of coming up with better ideas and becoming less racist and sexist, the GOP cries foul.

A confidential source who asked not to be named showed us a photo of Cotten smiling alongside Sheriff Waybourn, who refused to investigate the authenticity of the video yet failed to disclose to us that he knew Officer Cotten.

Next year may see more bogus Republican-backed voter fraud allegations targeting Dems. O’Hare has pledged to make investigating “voter fraud” a top priority for the county through the creation of an Election Integrity Officer.

“This position would be selected by a committee including the sheriff, the county judge, and a designated county commission-

Tarrant County’s county judge-elect loves attending cultish right-wing churches like Mercy Culture. Courtesy

er,” O’Hare said. “The Election Integrity Officer will seek to find and uncover election fraud. Any election fraud discovered by the Election Integrity Officer would be reported to the sheriff and the district attorney and prosecuted as the DA sees fit.”

Tarrant County residents should be horrified that a pathological liar with a history of misusing political connections and the criminal justice system for self-serving aims will soon be able to unilaterally launch criminal investigations against perceived political enemies.

Last year, based on several conversations with well-connected Southlakers and our award-nominated investigation into Southlake, O’Hare allegedly orchestrated the unprecedented indictments of two Carroll school board members who remain under Class B misdemeanor charges for allegedly breaking the Texas Open Meetings Act. In mid- to late-2020, members Todd Carlton and Michelle Moore texted each other to discuss ways to heal a fractured community coming to terms with rampant and brazen racist acts on the part of students, parents, and school administrators. Rather than address the lingering issues, O’Hare used funds from a wacko PAC, Southlake Families, to peddle vapid Critical Race Theory conspiracies.

The DA’s investigation into the alleged open meetings violations, initiated by ADA

Lloyd Whelchel and investigator Kyle Pisula, was undertaken unilaterally and without support by the Southlake police department (“News Roundup,” Dec. 2021). Months after the alleged favor to O’Hare, DA Wilson, whose eight-year tenure has been marred by allegations of corruption and ineptitude, endorsed O’Hare.

“Tim O’Hare would make an outstanding County Judge for Tarrant County,” Wilson said publicly. “He is honest and respectful.”

Weird way to say “full of shit” and “racist,” but OK.

The summer months saw more than voter fraud antics. Hundreds braved near triple-digit temps in August to protest the Tarrant Appraisal District (TAD). Leading into 2022, few would have guessed that public uproar over TAD would surpass anger at the well-vilified Tarrant Regional Water District (TRWD) and its $1.2 billion waterfront resort, er, “flood control project.”

The Weekly has been steadily documenting attempts to sway lucrative contracts to political donors (“Keeping Tabs on TAD,” Jan. 2021), abuse of taxpayer dollars as a means of hiding whistleblower complaints (“Shining a Light on TAD,” June 2021), and most recently the coordinated attack by TAD staffers against local Realtor Chandler Crouch (“Culture of Deception,” June 16).

Throughout the summer, due to our reporting and public statements by Crouch, the public learned that, the year before, TAD’s director of residential appraisal had complained about Crouch to the Texas Department of Licensing and Registration. Randy Armstrong alleged that Crouch, who volunteers to help property owners protest home valuations, rarely appeared in person to represent his clients and appraised homes at far lower values than the market rate for protest purposes.

Armstrong’s many critics believe he was simply annoyed at the extra workload Crouch’s volunteerism had created. By August, public outrage at Crouch’s mistreatment led hundreds to protest outside TAD headquarters in northeast Tarrant County. TAD’s five-member board voted that month to suspend Chief Appraiser Jeff Law for two weeks without pay for failing to intervene in Armstrong’s attempts to discredit Crouch last fall. To TAD’s critics, the board’s move was a limp attempt to feign concern that a government administrator used his position to retaliate against a private citizen for petty, purely personal reasons.

The only board member who appears to

continued on page 9

grasp the severity of TAD’s missteps is Rich DeOtte, who has publicly called for the DA’s office to look into possible nefarious acts committed by Armstrong and Law, specifically breaking official oppression laws that forbid public servants from using government resources to harm anyone (“Send in the Goons,” Nov. 26).

The Winter of Aaron Dean’s Discontent

Supporters of justice for Atatiana Jefferson waited more than three years for the trial Aaron Dean, the former Fort Worth police officer who fatally shot the Black woman in her Southside home in 2019. The 12-member jury that did not include one Black person convicted Dean of manslaughter, a lesser charge than the murder sentence many hoped for.

The sentence of 11 years, 10 months, and 12 days was a symbolic recognition of the day Jefferson was fatally shot, Oct. 12. The choice of 11 years may have been a reference to the age of Zion Carr, Jefferson’s nephew, or an effort to ensure Dean was not given probation — by state law, defendants charged with manslaughter can be given probation for sentences of 10 years or less.

Over three days, prosecutors made an anemic case that Dean should be found guilty of murder before resting their case and allowing Dean’s defense team to try and convince jurors that Dean shot Jefferson in self-defense. Many were shocked that county prosecutors failed to humanize the young Black woman who aspired to become a physician.

“We waited for three years for the state to rush and rest their case in three days,” said community organizer Patrice Jones in a Facebook post.

Speaking to one of our reporters during the trial, Jones alleged that DA Wilson’s prosecutors and Judge George Gallagher badgered potential Black jurors who were

ultimately cut from the jury.

Until Dean’s verdict, no police officer had ever been found guilty of murdering a Black female. Based on reporting by The Washington Post, police have fatally shot nearly 250 women since 2015, 89 of whom were killed in their homes. DA Wilson used the verdict and sentencing to whitesplain how cases of white police officers killing unarmed Black people has nothing to do with racism, even as research by numerous prominent nonprofits and institutions like Harvard University have consistently found Black people are three times more likely to die in a police encounter than whites.

“This trial wasn’t about politics, and it wasn’t about race,” the disgraced outgoing DA said in a public statement.

In November, four city councilmembers plus Mayor Mattie Parker voted down a proposed civilian oversight board. Council members Elizabeth Beck, Gyna Bivens, Chris Nettles, and Jared Williams voted for the measure that would have created an in-

dependent board to review and advise on police policies and procedures.

“This is the most watered-down police board [ordinance] in America,” Nettles said during the vote, “because we tried to come to some type of consensus, to some type of compromise, and even with a board, a snaggletooth board with no teeth, you still cannot support it?”

Nettles pledged to keep civilian oversight of Fort Worth police a priority for future city council considerations. The mandate for proposing civilian oversight came via recommendations by The Race and Culture Task Force that was formed following the 2016 arrest of Jacqueline Craig, the Black mother tackled and arrested by a Fort Worth cop and later awarded $150,000 by the city for her mistreatment.

Fort Worth’s police union, which is funded indirectly through taxpayers via police union dues, donates heavily in local elections to support public officials like Mayor Parker who toe the Blue Line. Fort

Worth police’s Office of Internal Affairs was ignominiously awarded a Turkey Award for protecting cops who, in any other profession, would be on the receiving end of criminal charges or at least a civil lawsuit (“Turkey Awards 2022,” Nov. 23).

This year ended with at least 10 deaths at the Tarrant County Jail. They all died under the watch of Sheriff Waybourn, who maintains close connections with anti-government militia groups and the right-wing Claremont Institute (“Far-Right Local Sheriff Threatens Democracy,” July 20), where he is a “sheriff fellow.” The Claremont was co-founded by John Eastman, the former Trump advisor recently referred by the January 6 Committee for prosecution by the justice department. Eastman allegedly violated federal laws that make impeding official proceedings of the United States government a crime and is widely considered a lead architect of the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.

Tarrant County Jail has seen more than 40 deaths of largely Black and brown defendants who cannot afford to pay bond and so languish in our shithole jail. To death, apparently.

The one group that could begin putting an end to rampant police violence and political prosecutions — the local media — continues to fail to take their First Amendment mandate seriously. Nowhere outside the Weekly’s reporting will locals find any mention of the growing alliance between Tarrant County Republican officials and Christian Nationalists as they maintain a perverse desire to kill minorities and subjugate women and anyone else who does not conform to their white-supremacist-couched-in-religiosity bigotry.

And because of their dereliction, the third-largest county in Texas is becoming a real-life Gilead. l

This column reflects the opinions of the editorial board and not necessarily the Fort Worth Weekly. To submit a column, please email Editor Anthony Mariani at Anthony@FWWeekly.com. He will gently edit it for factuality and clarity.

TO ALL INTERESTED PERSONS AND PARTIES:

The Sherwin-Williams Manufacturing Company, has applied to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) for:

Amendment of Permit 43655. This application would authorize modification of a Powder Coating Facility located at 710 106th Street, Arlington, Tarrant County, Texas 76011. This application is being processed in an expedited manner, as allowed by the commission’s rules in 30 Texas Administrative Code, Chapter 101, Subchapter J. Additional information concerning this application is contained in the public notice section of this newspaper.

Tarrant County’s shithole jail continues to be managed by megalomaniacal jailers who work for Sheriff Bill Waybourn, who maintains close relationships with anti-government militias.

Edward Brown

Sonny Claus

BY BUCK D. ELLIOTT

I’ve been so focused on forcing Christmas magic down my young children’s throats that I’ve successfully dodged the stress of TCU’s impending playoff matchup in favor of threatening my kids into behaving properly by dramatically crossing items off their Santa wish lists. But. The time is here, and the kings of cardiac arrest have already arrived in Arizona to prepare for their New Year’s Eve spat with the Michigan Wolverines in the College Football Playoff semifinal, hosted by the VRBO Fiesta Bowl.

State Farm Stadium is the perfect venue for the Frogs, who are 7-and-a-half-point underdogs, to upset the cactus cart and send the Blue and Maize back to Ann Arbor with their tails between their legs (assuming Wolverines have tails; I don’t know and I didn’t Google it; who cares). The Frogs have visited the Fiesta Bowl only once before, in 2010, and they were ranked third in the AP poll at the time. The Gary Patterson-led Frogs lost a 17-10 slugfest against the Boise State Broncos back during an affirmative-action version of the game — these two undefeated mid-majors were pitted against each other rather than risk another name-brand casualty on a national stage. The Broncos had already busted up the Sooners in the ’07 Fiesta Bowl during the famed Statue of Liberty two-point conversion, so at least we know crazy shit can happen in the desert without using peyote and vision questing.

I feel dirty saying this, but TCU has already won by qualifying. If that sounds like loser talk, you’re playing the short game, and I forgive your impatience. The college pigskin landscape is shifting faster than a hastily poured concrete foundation in Frisco. Sonny Dykes’ recruiting class is ranked 18th and only one spot behind their next opponent, who is the winningest team in the history of the sport. Dykes’ expedient success was just what Fort Worth needed to propel itself into the next era of NIL money and constant transfers, and no one could have predicted it. Dykes won two national

head coach of the year awards, and TCU offensive coordinator Garrett Riley won national assistant coach of the year. Meanwhile, QB Max Duggan (#15) won both the Johnny Unitas and Davey O’Brien awards in addition to finishing as the runner-up in Heisman voting in one of the closest races in years. Cornerback Tre’Vius Hodges-Tomlinson (#1) hauled in the Jim Thorpe Award for the nation’s best defensive back, and Steve Avila (#79) has been recognized as a consensus All-American at his left guard position. None of these accolades will help the Frogs on Saturday afternoon, but it’s important to approach this contest with the perspective that everything henceforth is just a bonus gift retrieved from Dad’s top shelf on top of the cornucopia left at the foot of the Frog fan’s proverbial football tree.

As for the actual matchup, the Frogs will go as their leader Duggan does. Mad Max has declared for the NFL draft and is going to move forward with his degree as a hero in the mold of a Die Hard (which is definitively a Christmas movie): bloody and bruised but never surrendering. His graduation is for the best. His stock will never be more valuable than it is currently, and we’ll likely watch him on a practice roster or as a role-filling backup in the NFL before he starts his inevitable coaching career.

TCU’s big boys are a deficiency against one of the most efficient rush offenses in

the country. Michigan head coach Jim Harbaugh will play a slow, run-heavy style in the first half to test the Frog defense. Despite a season-ending injury to the Wolverines’ former star running back Blake Corum, backup Donovan Edwards (#7) has been breaking defenses since taking the starting roll, and they’ll lean on him while establishing rhythm. The Frog D line, which has been subpar at generating any pass rush this year, have shown themselves capable of shutting down talented rushers. Dykes will need to stymie the ball-control strategy of the Michiganders and force quarterback J.J. McCarthy (#9) to test the Frog secondary, which is objectively the strength of Joe Gillespie’s 3-3-5 scheme.

Offensively, Frog receiver Quentin Johnston (#1) will need his healthiest game while returning from an ankle injury that has limited his reps across the last five games. Against him, Michigan will use their newest defensive weapon, Will Johnson (#2), who is one of the few corners in the country who can adequately match up by his lonesome both in size and athleticism. Expect Dykes and Riley to manipulate formations in novel ways to find space for Johnston to shine.

The Wolverine defensive front will be the most talented the Frogs have faced, so quick-hitting pass routes, run fakes, and screens should be utilized early and often. I have faith the spiceless, boiled-chick-

en play-calling fans suffered in the Big 12 championship will be abandoned as TCU throws everything but Santa’s sleigh at second-ranked U of M.

Another key for the Frog offense will be simply staying on the field. Duh! Right? But every 3-and-out suffered is probably a third of a possession TCU loses when they might need it at the end of the game. The possibility of forcing Blue-and-Maize punts after three plays is unlikely, so every opportunity will be precious toward trying to equalize time of possession. TCU still has one of the most dynamic big-play units in the country. If these offenses each hold the ball for 30 minutes by the end of the game, it’s much more likely the Frogs could be advancing to a national championship berth.

It’s also strange to consider, but we have no idea how Dykes’ Frogs respond to a loss. To this point, he and his staff have been working from a position of success despite adversity. Witnessing their response to the fall against Kansas State will be demonstrative of what fans can expect moving forward after this honeymoon season concludes, either this week or — God, help us — in California during the title game. No matter how the Fiesta Bowl ends, TCU is the biggest winner of the college football season based on the progress made in a season when no one expected more than maybe a polished lump of coal. l

Everyone in Fort Worth was good this year, so hopefully our Christmas gift will arrive a few days late.

Ho, ho, hold on to your britches. After the terrible play-calling in the Big 12 championship, expect TCU to come out guns blazing in the semifinal.

Artwork by Ryan Burger

SCREEN

Top 10 Movies of ’22

Counting down the best cinematic achievements of the past 10 months or so.

BY KRISTIAN LIN

Remember summer 2020, when we were all locked down and thinking that streaming services were going to replace theaters? Not so fast. Turns out the multiplexes still have their place, and even Netflix has a use for them. My list below has some streaming options anyway. Some of the movies were relegated to the honorable mention list only because they were too similar to other entries in the Top 10 — I tend to want this feature to represent a wide range. Anyway, be sure to check those out as well, and have a happy New Year.

1.) Marcel the Shell With Shoes On My New Year’s resolution: to be more like Marcel. Probably you do, too. Dean Fleischer Camp’s series of YouTube animated shorts was charming, but it was on the big screen that they reached true greatness, as the doughty, ingenious talking seashell with pink footwear experiences bottomless grief and great joy in the Airbnb rental where he lives. If you hang onto Marcel’s capacity for wonder and his thoughtfulness in the face of a crisis, maybe you’ll enjoy his peaceful, easy feeling.

2.) Everything Everywhere All at Once Who knew that a martial-arts movie could be the vehicle for the story of a parent learning to accept her gay child? And who knew you could kill someone with a dildo? The Daniels go overboard with the parallel universes, and somehow everything hangs together, just like the Chinese-American family at its center. To that, we raise a butt plug-shaped trophy.

3.) Tár

There were viewers who thought Lydia Tár was a real person and were outraged that the press and the establishment had let her get away with her predatory behavior. That’s a testament to Cate Blanchett’s performance and the way that writer-director Todd Field integrated his story into the real-life world of classical music. Of all the #MeToo movies, this is the best one largely because it deals with a fictional subject and comes at sexual harassment in an oblique way.

4.) Happening

Annie Ernaux has had herself a year, making her directing debut with her documentary The Super 8 Years and also *checks notes* winning the Nobel Prize for literature. On top of that, her 2000 autobiographical novel became Audrey Diwan’s film, which would have been excellent even if it hadn’t come out the same week that the Dobbs ruling leaked. The story of a French girl seeking an illegal abortion in the 1960s is told with harrowing truth.

5.) Nope

This year saw some terrific movies about how human beings exploit animals, chief among them Jerzy Skolimowski’s donkey drama EO and Andrea Arnold’s documentary Cow. However, Jordan Peele’s alien-invasion movie treats the theme with greater insight, sophistication, imagination, and humor than them and does it in a way that appealed to blockbuster crowds during the summer. This is criticism of Hollywood from one of Hollywood’s finest creators, and it’s awe-inspiring.

6.) The Banshees of Inisherin

Maybe this offers up the comforts of the familiar for those of us who’ve seen Martin McDonagh’s Irish-set stage plays. It sure does feel like the filmmaker is back in his home territory as he recounts the story of a friendship gone stale. McDonagh adds some stunning visuals of the Aran Islands to his customary good writing, and Colin Farrell and Kerry Condon give the performances of their lives conveying the unquiet desperation of rural folk.

7.) Decision to Leave

Has Park Chan-wook finally given up his fixations on torture and S&M sex? That

would be a mixed blessing, but it has resulted in this beautifully mature detective story in which explanations for everything around a rich abuser’s seemingly accidental death remain just tantalizingly out of reach. The Korean filmmaker’s direction is more self-effacing here than in his previous efforts, and his film emerges as a ravishing exercise in uncertainty.

8.

The Innocents

Kids acquire superpowers all the time in the movies, and this unnerving Norwegian horror film is clever enough to suggest that that might be a really bad thing. Rakel Lenora Fløttum is scarily alert as a 9-year-old girl who moves into a new apartment complex and finds herself amid kids with telekinesis and mind control who bring her severely autistic older sister into lucidity. That comes at a steep price as these social outcasts take terrible revenge on abusive parents and school bullies, leading to a life-or-death climax.

9.) The Fallout

Of all the movies that debuted on streaming in 2022, this relatively unheralded film from last January is the best. Megan Park’s school-shooting drama succeeds by going small and focusing on the psychological effects of one incident on a few students. The emotional beats are mapped with granular detail, and Jenna Ortega gives a career performance as a possibly gay girl whose trauma lingers with her through every other school shooting in this great land of ours.

10.) No Bears

Jafar Panahi has been in prison since the summer, along with many other Iranian filmmakers, including Mohammad Rasoulof, who made this list last year, who displeased the country’s theocracy. He was making great films long before he was

classed as a troublemaker, and here he plays a character much like himself who sees art and politics collide while becoming embroiled in a small-town scandal and trying to direct actors remotely on a movie set in Istanbul. His son makes this list, too. (See: below.) #FreeJafarPanahi

Honorable mention: Kogonada’s futuristic meditation on grief, After Yang … Jim Archer’s irresistible found-footage comedy, Brian and Charles … Scott McGehee and David Siegel’s study of family trauma on a remote ranch, Montana Story … John Patton Ford’s ruthless modern noir, Emily the Criminal … David Cronenberg’s adapt-ordie fantasy, Crimes of the Future … Masaaki Yuasa’s genre-busting anime musical, Inu-oh … Carey Williams’ college comedy spiked with adrenaline and racial politics, Emergency … Antoneta Alamat Kusijanović’s sharply perceptive coming-of-age film, Murina Panah Panahi’s secretly troubled Iranian car trip, Hit the Road … Phil Tippett’s demented stop-motion horror film, Mad God … Alli Haapasalo’s raunchy and sweet teen movie, Girl Picture … Colm Bairéad’s delicate portrait of an abandoned and found child, The Quiet Girl … Terence Davies’ devilishly witty Edwardian postwar epic, Benediction Nicholas Stoller’s uproarious gay romantic comedy, Bros … Sarah Polley’s tense examination of mass rape and its aftermath, Women Talking … Ti West’s scarier-than-its predecessor prequel, Pearl … Martika Ramirez Escobar’s Filipino ode to cinema, Leonor Will Never Die … Matt Reeves’ anti-superhero movie, The Batman … Luca Guadagnino’s fragile outlaw teen romance, Bones and All … Steven Spielberg’s look back at his creative childhood, The Fabelmans.

Marcel and his grandmother grab some popcorn and a movie in Marcel the Shell With Shoes On.

Courtesy A24 Films

$19.49

168 pps. Page Street Publishing Company

Ring in the Gold

For New Year’s Eve and Day, go for an authentically nontraditional version of a comfort classic.

BY LAURIE JAMES

At the library not too long ago, I came across Fix Me a Plate, a glorious dip into family recipes by Fort Worthian Scotty Scott from the blog Cook Drank Eat. I wondered why I didn’t notice before that he had compiled some of his blogospheric favorites all in one place. Turns out it made NPR’s Top 10 cookbooks of 2022! Flipping through for some seasonal change-of-pace recipes, I found his mama’s recipe for mac ’n’ cheese. “Almost Mama’s Mac and Cheese” calls for butter, garlic, four cups of shredded Colby jack cheese, and … two cans of cheddar cheese soup, along with a couple eggs. Apparently, in the revision of Mama’s recipe, a time-consuming roux can be subbed with canned soup and eggs.

Macaroni with cheese became popular when Thomas Jefferson allegedly brought home a pasta maker from Europe in the late 18th century. Specifically, the originators

of the American version were the enslaved Africans in Jefferson’s kitchen, and James Hemmings gets credit for improving the recipe. As he accompanied Jefferson on the latter’s travels, Hemmings was trained by a French chef. While Hemmings was a free, wage-earning man in Paris, Jefferson allegedly bargained for Hemmings’ freedom back in the states. By teaching another enslaved man (his brother Peter Hemmings) to make the French recipes that Jefferson

loved, Hemmings became a free U.S. citizen.

We’re talking about this now because in some cultures, especially West African, gold-colored foods are thought to bring prosperity and are enjoyed on New Year’s Eve or Day, and what’s more golden than mac ’n’ cheese? Or decadent?

I don’t remember if my mac ’n’ cheese recipe came from Martha Stewart or my mom’s big red ’60s Betty Crocker cookbook. The stuff I make starts with a roux that

turns into a béchamel sauce with an unholy amount of pre-shredded cheese and pasta so al dente that someone could break a tooth. I bake all that until it bubbles. At this point, I’m not even measuring much because I’ve done it before and I kind of know it by feel. One of my college roommates taught me her New Orleans-style version, which included Cajun spice and easy-melt cheese (because we were in college and poor). Nobody I knew used eggs.

When I have questions about food authenticity, I call Deah Berry Mitchell, contributing writer for the Dallas Morning News, historian, and owner of Soul of DFW Tours and the new multimedia Nostalgia:Black (Facebook.com/NostalgiaBlackApp). Mitchell’s Cornbread & Collard Greens: How West African Cuisine and Slavery Influenced Soul Food confirms the Hemmings story, which doesn’t have a happy ending — he committed suicide after ultimately regaining his freedom here and becoming a professional chef in Baltimore.

“James Hemmings is the founding father of American cuisine,” Mitchell told me. “Foods that we hold near and dear were brought into the Americas and modified by James Hemmings, including ice cream, French fries, and crème brûlée.”

And as far as the eggs go, Mitchell says they’re not an unusual addition. “A lot of us prefer the more traditionally firm, baked texture. Afro-Caribbeans call it ‘macaroni pie.’ ”

The key, according to Mitchell: a super-cheesy, browned crust on top with a gooey consistency in the center.

Macaroni and cheese may have been a treat among the wealthy Anglos in Hemmings’ time, but it also became a dish for continued on page 17

Fix Me a Plate, by Scotty Scott

poor people of all nationalities. Any government food subsidy includes pasta because it’s cheap. The rations also usually included a large block of American or perhaps processed cheese. Ironically, the blue box of Kraft mac ’n’ cheese was a post-Depression era invention and a way to feed a family with just a tablespoon of butter and a tiny bit of milk. A macaroni and cheese that started with a roux was a luxury.

Still hungry for another perspective, I chatted with Katrina Carpenter, possibly the best cook I know. The co-proprietor of Carpenter’s Café (which should re-open in its revamped space in 2023), Carpenter has probably forgotten more about all kinds of soul food-style cooking than I will ever learn. I showed her Scott’s book, and, like me, she was a little puzzled by the inclusion of soup and eggs.

“I think it depends how you enjoy it,” she said. “I don’t like it as a casserole. It has to be creamy.”

Carpenter also starts her version with a roux and says that she uses up to five cheeses. “I switch it up based on who I’m serving.”

While the types of cheese vary, Carpenter also owns up to a little secret starter. She says she uses the sharp Kraft Old English cheese spread as a base, then shreds white sharp cheddar, Havarti, or muenster and definitely parmesan “because I like the bite in my mac ’n’ cheese.”

Carpenter combines the variety of cheeses with real cream and says that she will boil her standard-size elbow noodles (none of that large macaroni for her) in water and chicken stock to up the flavor.

And as far as my raised eyebrows about those cans of cheese soup: Carpenter and Mitchell cautioned me against being snobby. Both women said that my beloved Mexican shredded cheese blend from Costco is coated with an anti-caking ingredient that makes it harder for the cheese to melt. They told me to suck it up and shred my own cheese.

Although the way Carpenter makes her version is fairly spendy, she says it doesn’t have to be that way. “A lot of people use canned soup in recipes to substitute for something else.”

Mitchell says many of us get “overwhelmed” in the kitchen, adding that she actually appreciates Scott’s approachability in using foods and techniques that aren’t intimidating. “His food looks good and tastes great, and he has a range of dishes from top-level, highly experienced to something more approachable.”

And it’s true that Scott’s book offers an enthusiastic tone with limited judgment. While I couldn’t get a hold of him by press time, it’s plain that the self-taught chef has thought this through.

On his blog, his lobster “mac and cheese” involves a roux, truffle butter, regular butter, and raclette and gouda cheeses along with the lobster, so if you’re looking to fancify your prosperity-bringing mac for New Year’s Eve or Day, go to CookDrankEat.com. l

It’s about that time. New Year’s Eve — and New Year’s Eve Eve — are here.

BY JENNIFER BOVEE

One lucky Christmas present has made my New Year’s Eve plans for me. Friday night, I’m getting the party started early at the Toadies/Flickerstick show at Billy Bob’s. As for Saturday evening, a.k.a. New Year’s Eve proper, I’m staying home. How about you? No? Great. Here are a ton of NYE shows to consider around North Texas.

FORT WORTH

Billy Bob’s Texas (2520 Rodeo Plz, 817-6247117) hosts its New Year’s Eve Party featuring the Randy Rogers Band with Todd Stewart. Tickets are $65-85 at BillyBobsTexas.com.

Charlie Bassham and Guthrie Kennard play the New Year’s Eve Party at Lola’s Fort Worth (2000 W Berry St, @LolasFortWorth). Cover is $10 at the door, starting at 8pm.

For New Year’s Eve at The Post at River East (2925 Race St, 817-945-8890), #MAF22 nominees the Squeezebox Bandits and Keegan McInroe are set to play. Tickets are $20-125 on Eventbrite.com and include a complimentary champagne toast and blackeyed peas at midnight.

For its NYE Tribute to the Old School, The Rail Club DFW (3101 Joyce Dr, 817-386-

4309) offers cover tunes from Far Beyond Drunk (Pantera), Kill ’Em All (Metallica), PostMortem (Slayer), and Youthanasia (Megadeth). Doors open at 6pm. Tickets are $35-50 on Eventbrite.com.

The Ridglea Room (3309 Winthrop Av, 817941-0086) has its New Year’s Adam on Friday (because who comes before Eve?) with Relic with Hunter Cox and The Big League Boys Tickets are $15 on Eventbrite.com.

Sundance Square (420 Main St, 817-2221111) hosts a free NYE show on Saturday from 6pm to 2am featuring DJ Danny West and The Unlikely Candidates, plus Mi Son and Fusion Latina, and then a fireworks show at midnight. This event is free to attend.

Recently reunited synth-rockers Black Tie Dynasty will ring in the New Year at Tulips FTW (112 St. Louis Av, 817-367-9798) with Dome Dwellers, FIT, and Phantomelo Doors open at 5pm. Tickets are $22-100 on Prekindle.com.

ARLINGTON

The New Year’s Eve Bash at Diamond Jim’s Saloon (305 N Great Southwest Pkwy, 817633-2838) features Rogue Radio, free blackeyed peas and cornbread, and a complimentary champagne toast at midnight. No cover.

Growl/Division Brewing (509 Abrams St, 682-252-7639) is celebrating its Division Brewing 7th Anniversary Party with music by Freeze Succka and Hotcake Hand Grenade. Doors open at 7pm, and the cover is $10.

THE COLONY

Infinite Journey, the Music of Journey will rock Lava Cantina (5805 Grandscape Blvd, 214-618-6893) after a guest DJ starts things at 9pm. Tickets are $25-120 on Eventbrite. com and include a champagne toast at midnight.

Neo-romantics Black Tie Dynasty are back, and they’re playing Tulips FTW on New Year’s Eve.

DALLAS

Dallas homeboys the Reverend Horton Heat will play inside Amplified Live (10261 Technology Blvd E, 214-350-1904) with Justin Pickard on New Year’s Eve. Doors open at 8pm. Tickets start at $20 at Amplified-Live.com.

The Kessler (1230 W Davis St, 214-2728346) offers a Dancing & Desserts Celebration with Black Powder Vipers and special guests Amy Thornhill and Todd Blalock of the Terraplane Rounders on New Year’s Eve. Doors open at 8pm, but the lobby is open at 7pm. Tickets are $35-600 on Prekindle.com and include dessert and a champagne toast.

On New Year’s Eve, Rosegarden Funeral Party with Happy Phantom and Primo Danger take over Three Links (2704 Elm St, 214-484-6011). Doors open at 8pm. Must be 18. Tickets are $20 at ThreeLinksDeepEllum.com or $25 at the door.

DENTON

In the Midnight Hour NYE Special Event at Andy’s Bar (122 N Locust St, 940-312-8985) stars Doomfall with Final Broadcast, Narcissist, Party Hats, Trembler, and Wooden Earth. Doors open at 6pm. Tickets are $12 in advance at Prekindle.com, or $18 day of.

Dan’s Silverleaf (103 Industrial St, 940-8080008) is doing things early on Saturday at the Greenwich Mean Time New Year’s Eve with Ten Hands and The Brits. Doors are at 3pm, music starts at 4:30pm, and then a countdown and toast happen at 6pm. “We’re done and safe at home by 7:30pm. Leave the local midnight thing to the amateurs!” Tickets are $15 on Prekindle.com.

The Wee-Beasties’ last show of the year is at Rubber Gloves Rehearsal Studio (411 E Sycamore St, 940-594-2207) with Hurts to Be Dead, Nip Slip, and Nygma on Friday. Doors open at 8pm, and cover is $15. Then on Saturday, it’s the RGRS New Year’s Eve with Drakulas, plus BH/BK, Clear Acid,

Laughing Matter, Totally Cherry, Trauma Ray, and Venus Twins. Doors open at 6pm. Must be 18. Tickets are $20 presale at Prekindle.com or $25 at the door.

GRAPEVINE

Disco tribute artists La Freak with Triple Lindy will turn the party out on New Year’s Eve at the Glass Cactus (1501 Gaylord Trl, 817-778-2805) starting at 9pm. The dress code is cocktail (black-tie optional), but ’70s-decade flair is acceptable. Tickets are $100-650 at GaylordTexan.com.

MANSFIELD

Fat Daddy’s (781 W Debbie Ln, 817-4530188) hosts its New Year’s Rockin’ Eve with tribute bands Def Leggend (Def Leppard) and Mid-Night Ranger (Night Ranger). VIP tables can be reserved for $100 for four people or $50 for two folks at Universe.com/ FatDaddysNYE2022. Each table includes a bottle of champagne and party favors. Advance tickets are required.

To submit your event info for our future consideration, email Marketing@FWWeekly.com

The Rev and company are ready to fire up the inside stage at Amplified on New Year’s Eve.

Courtesy Facebook

The Equalizer

celebrate New Year’s Eve at Greenwich Mean

with

Hands at Dan’s Silverleaf.

MUSIC

Toadies, Flickerstick, Billy Bob’s

Town’s biggest local stage welcomes two of Fort Worth’s most legendary rock acts Friday.

BY STEVE STEWARD

For their annual year-end concert, the Toadies will take the stage at Billy Bob’s Texas Friday night. It’s the band’s eighth time to end the year onstage, and it will be their fourth performance in as many days, wrapping up a brief run through Houston, San Antonio, and Austin before coming back home. The opener for all four shows is Flickerstick, a local outfit enjoying a resurgence after a pair of one-off reunion shows in June, and the tour kind of strikes me as something that might have happened 20 years ago in a parallel universe where the career trajectories for both these bands had been different — the Toadies disbanded at the end of 2001 before reforming in 2007, the year that Flickerstick, essentially, called

it quits before the recent reunion. Here in the present, though, wherever you go, there you are. And where we are, the Toadies and Flickerstick are finally booked on the same bill in their hometown.

Being home is actually a bigger deal for the Toadies than it might sound, because it seems like they’re always on the road. In a phone interview last week, frontman Vaden Todd Lewis said they have been enjoying some time off following three months of touring with the Reverend Horton Heat and Nashville Pussy. The tour that celebrated the 25th anniversary of Rubberneck, the Toadies’ smash hit major label debut from 1994, had originally been scheduled for 2020.

“We have always shied away from being stuck in the ’90s niche realm … but playing with the Rev and Nashville Pussy is about as ’90s as you can get,” Lewis said, chuckling. “But I like playing with new bands, too, getting turned on to new music.”

But even when there’s a blank spot in their touring calendar, Lewis is still working. Following these four shows, the Toadies have a break in their tour schedule for a couple months.

“I’ll be doing some more writing,” Lewis said. “Our tentative plan is to do some more pre-production, bring the whole band into town, and bang out these songs. Hopefully, we’ll have a new record out next year.”

He said they’d gotten together earlier this year to work on new material at the Loop, the Eastside rehearsal studio he owns with wife Rachel Lewis. “Our friend, [producer] Frenchie Smith, came up here with a bunch of recording gear. We did a week of pre-production and knocked out 10 ideas.”

Lewis said some of the songs might make it onto their setlist on Friday. “The setlists at Billy Bob’s will be a hodgepodge. We played Rubberneck start to finish on that last tour, and I’m never not gonna play ‘Pos-

Toadies w/Flickerstick 10pm Fri at Billy Bob’s Texas, 2520 Rodeo Plz, FW. tix TK. 817-624-7117.

Playing the end of the year is a Toadies tradition.

Music

continued from page 21

sum Kingdom’ and the songs people know, but that tour, we spent working on new songs, so you might hear them” Friday.

As for Flickerstick, frontman Brandin Lea is psyched to play these shows. “I think [our bands] played together twice before, not like on tour but were booked at the same festivals or whatever, so this is the first time we’ve actually been on a bill together like this, and I can hardly believe it.”

In 1992, he said, the Toadies “were my favorite band in the world.”

Lea said he wishes he could go back in time and tell his brother, bassist Fletcher Lea, and co-songwriter Cory Kreig, “Guess what? Our band is going on tour with the Toadies when y’all are old men! We’re gonna be pushing 50, but we’re going to do it!’ Fletcher would probably say ‘Wow, we’re gonna be 50?’ But that would blow his teenage mind.”

Lea said Flickerstick will forgo his favorite seven minute-long deep cuts from their 2001 major label debut Welcoming Home the Astronauts in favor of their more accessible, Britpop-oriented songs.

“I don’t want to call them ‘the hits,’ ” he said with a laugh, “but we’re definitely gonna play the five songs everybody knows.”

But like the Toadies, Flickerstick has

some new jams in the works. Lea said they’re “definitely gonna play ‘Shine On,’ ” the new single they released in September, tracked with producer Taylor Tatsch at Dallas’ Sunland Sound. As it happens, “Shine On” is apparently the first of a series of singles.

“We’re threatening to put out more new material,” Lea said. “The plan is to do a song every two or three months. We’re gonna try to do another song after this tour, beginning of next year, I think.”

Back in this year, however, Lea is more or less ready to roll. “I’ve been on the stage all my life. I suck at all other jobs except this one. If I’m not singing, I’m working the side stage.”

In fact, Lea used to work at Billy Bob’s as part of the stage crew. He’s never performed there, so this is also a dream-cometrue situation for him.

“It’s funny because I literally grew up at Billy Bob’s,” he said. “My mom was the line dancing teacher there when I was a kid. Fletcher and I would go up there every Thursday. We were like 9, 10 years old, at the bar until midnight, watching the house band, but this’ll be Flickerstick’s first time.”

First rodeo or no, playing a New Year’s Eve’s Eve show is the kind of thing Lea lives for, one more piece of the pleasantly puzzling reality that Flickerstick is hitting local stages once again. “To be honest, this reunion was never supposed to happen, and every day now I wake up, and I’m like, ‘Wait a second. Do I get to play Flickerstick shows again?’ And I do. It’s awesome.” l

Courtesy Flickerstick.com

Flickerstick will open for a band they’ve always loved and admired.

employment public notices / services

Texas Commission on environmenTal QualiTy

NOTICE OF RECEIPT OF APPLICATION AND INTENT TO OBTAIN AIR PERMIT (NORI)

AIR QUALITY PERMIT NUMBER 43655

APPLICATION The Sherwin-Williams Manufacturing Company, has applied to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) for: Amendment of Permit 43655

This application would authorize modification of the Powder Coating Facility located at 710 106th Street, Arlington, Tarrant County, Texas 76011 This application is being processed in an expedited manner, as allowed by the commission’s rules in 30 Texas Administrative Code, Chapter 101, Subchapter J. AVISO DE IDIOMA ALTERNATIVO. El aviso de idioma alternativo en espanol está disponible en https://www.tceq.texas.gov/permitting/air/newsourcereview/airpermits-pendingpermit-apps. This link to an electronic map of the site or facility’s general location is provided as a public courtesy and not part of the application or notice. For exact location, refer to application. http://www.tceq.texas.gov/assets/public/hb610/index.html?lat=32.753611&lng=-97.061388&zoom=13&type=r. The facility will emit the following contaminants: particulate matter including particulate matter with diameters of 10 microns or less and 2.5 microns or less and exempt solvents.

This application was submitted to the TCEQ on November 29, 2022. The application will be available for viewing and copying at the TCEQ central office, the TCEQ Dallas/Fort Worth regional office, and the City of Arlington - City Hall, 101 West. Abrams Street, Arlington, Tarrant County, Texas beginning the first day of publication of this notice. The facility’s compliance file, if any exists, is available for public review in the Dallas/Fort Worth regional office of the TCEQ.

The executive director has determined the application is administratively complete and will conduct a technical review of the application.

PUBLIC COMMENT. You may submit public comments to the Office of the Chief Clerk at the address below. The TCEQ will consider all public comments in developing a final decision on the application and the executive director will prepare a response to those comments.

PUBLIC MEETING. You may request a public meeting to the Office of the Chief Clerk at the address below. The purpose of a public meeting is to provide the opportunity to submit comments or ask questions about the application. A public meeting about the application will be held if requested by an interested person and the executive director determines that there is a significant degree of public interest in the application or if requested by a local legislator. A public meeting is not a contested case hearing.

NOTICE OF APPLICATION AND PRELIMINARY DECISION. In addition to this NORI, 30 Texas Administrative Code (TAC) § 39.419 requires this application to also have a Notice of Application and Preliminary Decision (NAPD) after the application is determined to be technically complete and a draft permit is prepared. Note: The TCEQ may act on this application without issuing a NAPD and without seeking further public comment or providing further opportunity for a contested case hearing if changes to representations in the application make the application no longer subject to the applicability requirements of 30 TAC § 39.402. In such cases, this NORI will be your final notice of this application and you will not have additional opportunities to make comments or request a contested case hearing. If a NAPD is required, it will be published and mailed to those who made comments, submitted hearing requests, or are on the mailing list for this application, and contain the final deadline for submitting public comments.

OPPORTUNITY FOR A CONTESTED CASE HEARING You may request a contested case hearing if you are a person who may be affected by emissions of air contaminants from the facility. If requesting a contested case hearing, you must submit the following: (1) your name (or for a group or association, an official representative), mailing address, and daytime phone number; (2) applicant’s name and permit number; (3) the statement “[I/we] request a contested case hearing”; (4) a specific description of how you would be adversely affected by the application and air emissions from the facility in a way not common to the general public; (5) the location and distance of your property relative to the facility; (6) a description of how you use the property which may be impacted by the facility; and (7) a list of all disputed issues of fact that you submit during the comment period. If the request is made by a group or an association, one or more members who have standing to request a hearing must be identified by name and physical address. The interests the group or association seeks to protect must also be identified. You may also submit your proposed adjustments to the application/permit which would satisfy your concerns.

The deadline to submit a request for a contested case hearing is 30 days after newspaper notice is published. If a request is timely filed, the deadline for requesting a contested case hearing will be extended to 30 days after the mailing of the response to comments.

If a hearing request is timely filed, following the close of all applicable comment and request periods, the Executive Director will forward the application and any requests for contested case hearing to the Commissioners for their consideration at a scheduled Commission meeting. The Commission may only grant a request for a contested case hearing on issues the requestor submitted in their timely comments that were not subsequently withdrawn. If a hearing is granted, the subject of a hearing will be limited to disputed issues of fact or mixed questions of fact and law relating to relevant and material air quality concerns submitted during the comment period. Issues such as property values, noise, traffic safety, and zoning are outside of the Commission’s jurisdiction to address in this proceeding.

MAILING LIST. In addition to submitting public comments, you may ask to be placed on a mailing list to receive future public notices for this specific application by sending a written request to the Office of the Chief Clerk at the address below.

AGENCY CONTACTS AND INFORMATION. Public comments and requests must be submitted either electronically at www14. tceq.texas.gov/epic/eComment/, or in writing to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, Office of the Chief Clerk, MC-105, P.O. Box 13087, Austin, Texas 78711-3087. Please be aware that any contact information you provide, including your name, phone number, email address and physical address will become part of the agency’s public record. For more information about this permit application or the permitting process, please call the Public Education Program toll free at 1-800-687-4040. Si desea información en Español, puede llamar al 1-800-687-4040.

Notice Issuance Date: December 1,

2022

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