Deep Ellum has been getting a lot of negative press lately, spawned from the closing of some long-standing music venues like Trees and Dada. The news attention is quite disheartening to a lot of people that have businesses in that area. The recent articles in the Dallas Morning News and the Dallas Observer paint scenes of a boarded up landscape filled with crime, gangs, and lawlessness. What these articles failed to offer was any hope for Deep Ellum, leaving their readers to side with them and write off the area as dying, expecting the public to turn their backs while Deep Ellum releases it’s final breath. Pamela Irwin’s article poses the question, “Why doesn’t anyone seem to care?” Well, there are some who do, and who plan on doing what they can to turn things around.

In June, we are relocating the Art Prostitute Gallery and Boutique to Commerce Street in the heart of Deep Ellum. Already feeling like concerned community members, I recently had the chance to sit for a spell with the Deep Ellum Association president and discuss some of the concerns, and plans for initiating a turn in perspective toward this culturally valuable area of Dallas. As we started making plans to move to Dallas, Art Prostitute deliberated for quite some time as to where we were going to call our new home. With all this recent press on Deep Ellum, we are now more satisfied than ever with our new location. Instead of being fearful and swayed by all the dirt flung about in the media, we view it as the place in Dallas that can benefit the most from what we want to bring to the city. We are looking forward to being a part of a close-knit art, music, and residential community. Already Deep Ellum offers opportunities for businesses and residents to be an active part of events like the upcoming Deep Ellum Arts Festival in April, in addition to other film and music festivals that happen throughout each year. What other part of Dallas offers these kind of culturally diverse community events in one location? Already there are great places to eat, to hang out, and live in the area. Already there is a rich cultural history to build on. Plans are in the works to bring some great things to the area. Talk of free wi-fi across Deep Ellum, building restorations, and making the area just feel cleaner are quickly turning into actual plans. There is some excitement for the future Deep Ellum, it’s just that the buzz at the moment is being made between a few bees. Regardless, where there’s bees, there’s honey.

Of course re-building confidence in Deep Ellum is not going to happen overnight. The whole process of re-building a sense of community starts with actually being a part of the community. Art Prostitute is excited to be a part of it all. With each recent visit to Deep Ellum we’ve made in preparation to our move, we have already been approached by residents, business owners, and the like who greet us with warm smiles and already are making us feel welcome.

If you happen to read this post today, while still at your office / coffee shop / babysitting gig, and have somewhere to drive… anywhere in the Metroplex, watch the hell out. The area’s finest are out en masse today, looking to hand out tickets. I’ve seen speed traps in no less than five suburbs, and at one area in east Fort Worth, there were patrolmen in the middle of the intersection, controlling traffic. If you were driving without your seat belt on, or your tags were out of date, they asked you to pull over.

No, I didn’t get nicked. Thanks for asking. (Knocks on wood. A LOT OF IT.)

If you grew up in the area in the late ’60s - mid ’70s, you were likely glued to the television set in the morning while your parents haplessly tried to get you to eat your oatmeal and get dressed for school. You were watching one of three shows: “Romper Room” on KERA 13, “Slam Bang Theatre” on KTVT 11, or “Mr. Peppermint’s Place” on WFAA 8.

Jerry Haynes put on the red-and-white-striped suit to entertain children through the magic box for 35 years. Along with Muffin the Bear and Mr. Wiggly Worm, Mr. Peppermint was a touchstone for kids nationwide (the show was syndicated to over 100 markets through the mid-90s).

“Mr. Peppermint’s Place” aired its last show in 1996, but Haynes still holds a special place in the hearts of everyone who watched him (and will gear up in the candy-cane outfit every now and then for appearances and whatnot).

Haynes celebrates his 79th birthday this month, and there’s a cool event at the Granada Theatre on Tuesday, January 31 to commemorate the occasion. It’s a concert benefitting the American Diabetes Association, but that’s not why you should go. It has a great line-up of bands — Brave Combo, The Boys Named Sue, DJ Mr. Rid, Merry & the Moodswings, and Reverend Bob — but that’s not why you should go, either. They’ve even got a “Mr. Peppermint’s Place” blooper reel that they’ll screen, but there’s still a better reason.

You should go to tell Haynes that you still remember waking up, wiping the sleep out of your eyes, and having him usher you into the day. You should tell him that you wish kids today had someone like him to get their day started, instead of Spongebob Squarepants and their ilk.

I guarantee you he’ll appreciate it.

Amanda (my fiancee) and I just did the preliminary guest list for the wedding. Just off the tops of our heads, without the people her parents will invite, we’re looking at…

251 names on the list.

Two hundred fifty-one people.

Jesus Palomino.

Granted, a lot of them will not come, or even RSVP. But, my sweet and fluffy lord, this is gonna hurt.

We also took a look around town, trying to find a good site for the wedding / reception. This is proving to be really problematic. Not only do we need to find a place big enough to house everyone, but it also has to accomodate our “vision” for the proceedings. (More on that as we get closer.) And we need to do this without breaking the bank.

Needless to say, the Gaylord Texan is RIGHT THE F**K OUT. (Even though there is a scenario where we could have it there, but it will have to be a real clandestine operation to get it there within budget. If you’ve seen Fandango, you have an idea of how this would go.)

We have a lot of the elements already in place — caterer, DJ, chocolate fountain, officiant — but we need to get the location nailed down soon. The wedding date is Sunday, May 27, 2007. Holiday weekend dates tend to fill up kinda quickly.

Developing…

On the verge of making the decision to relocate to Dallas, I

Greets, everyone. I’m Devin, and I’m a blogging media whore.

[Hi, Devin.]

A little bit of background info, since many of you would likely wonder, “who is this guy, and does he have mysterious eyebrows like Zayn?” The second answer is. “not at all.” The first takes a little more ’splainin.

I’m 36 years old, and did a lot of moving about the country in my teens and 20s. I took jobs in St. Louis and Providence, stayed with family members in Colorado and New Jersey. No matter where I tried to move to, I always came back to Dallas.

I’ll go into this in depth as time goes by, but I kept returning to this area for simple reasons. Nicer people. No state income tax. Better winters (and no, I’m not a fan of an 80-degree New Year’s Day).

After bouncing around so much, I resolved to stay here, put down permanent roots, whatever you wish to call it. I’ve flirted with jobs in New York and Los Angeles in the last few years, but when they fell through, I was a tiny bit relieved that I wouldn’t have to move again.

I love it here. Despite the fact that we have a shrill shrew for a mayor, an educational system that is the laughing stock of the country, and no one in this town knows how to merge into traffic, I will consistently tell anyone that living in Dallas beats just about anywhere else.

Cheers.

why is DALLAS so warm in the middle of winter? could this be a sign of THE END TIMES my brothers and sisters? warm weather is NOT one of the reasons i moved to dallas. money and ease-of-living were the main reasons. why did you move here?

I read a NYTimes article today titled Artists Feel the Squeeze in a Midwest SoHo…it was the title that hooked me. A SOHO in the midwest? Apparently St. Louis is building up their art’s district and it’s getting some buzz. Their methods over there seem grand. Artist/Entrepreneurs are dumping their savings into buildings and lofts, and are deciding to build an art center for themselves.

The art scene here in Dallas is so scattered. There’s been buzz about a couple of different areas in town hoping to be crowned with the label of “the Dallas SOHO.” You’ve got the “design district,” a string of galleries off Dragon Street. Then there’s the South Side, also known as “the cedars.” And of course the museums in the “arts district” off Pearl and Ross. Already the “arts district” is not set up to become the dallas SOHO. There’s no place for artists to reside anywhere near the museums, nor are there any adjacent buildings within blocks of there that could be turned into a gallery or two. The closest buildings to the arts district are down Ross, but they are sparce, most old mechanic shops. The “design district” has the clout of a higher real-estate value that is found throughout the north side of Dallas, but that also cancels out any struggling artists looking to live and work there. Unless the real-estate is cheap, and somewhat livable, then starving artists won’t be able to commune there. This takes us to the South Side. This area is cheap, industrial, and boasts lots of potential for old wharehouses and mills to be turned into galleries and artist living spaces. Already SouthSide on Lamar is doing just that, although it’s a bit pricy to live there under starving artist standards. The only thing about this area is that it’s sketchy. No one would like to walk around there at night for fear of their lives, much less want to park, or leave their house unattended without double-locks and bars on their windows. But it does seem to be that the most sketchy places tend to sometimes harbor good soil for a starving artist community to grow, and potentiallly blossom. The question is whether the risk is woth it in the beginning.

As a person debating on where to move an art gallery in dallas, these questions are becoming more important. Where is the SOHO of Dallas going to be? Maybe instead we should ask a select few with a little pull, where do we want to put the SOHO of Dallas? It’s just a matter of convincing a few, and before we know it, there will be a art commuity worth labeling in Dallas…at least that’s the hope.

do the women in dallas tend to be “southern belles” or are texas women of a different type, tougher? maybe dallas women don’t count as texas women…

NINE REASONS TO BE FULL OF THANKS FOR LIVING IN DALLAS:
1. Laura Miller
2. The Dallas Cowboys
3. Hooters
4. I-35
5. the DMA
6. the Trinity River
7. almost no snow
8. Family Values