The heroes around us

I’ve had a busy summer so far.

Jamie Foxx, Channing Tatum and I figured out a way to prevent world nuclear annihilation, although the White House and D.C. in general didn’t fare too well.

Johnny Depp, Armie Hammer and I tried to eliminate crime and robber barons from the Old West. We did pretty well, although as I think you know, our efforts to stamp out corporate greed in America really only slowed things down a bit.

Spock, Kirk and I also traveled somewhere light-years away to prevent Earth from being destroyed. That was pretty fun, too.

Superman and I haven’t gotten together yet, although I feel as if I already know the guy and his story. And I haven’t seen any of those touch-feely foreign language films yet. Maybe next month.

What have I learned from my summer adventures? Well, I know they’re only movies, but I was struck by the fact that the heroes weren’t getting shot and stabbed for the love of country, although there was a lot of flag-waving during the action scenes. They weren’t putting their lives on the line because it was their “job” or because their boss told them to get in there and do it or because their shift hadn’t yet ended.

No, a sense of civic duty or corporate responsibility wasn’t the driving force behind their super-human efforts. Instead, they were motivated by something more personal.

Channing Tatum wanted to rescue his daughter from criminals, and he wanted to redeem her view of him as a father.

Armie Hammer wanted to avenge the death of his brother and rescue his brother’s wife and son, while Johnny Depp was motivated by a mistake he made as a child that he needed to rectify.

The Star Trek guys had all messed up in the past, and they were motivated to show everyone they really could do the right thing at the right time.

You could argue they performed their crazy feats of heroism because they believed in the greater good, or they felt as if they owed their neighbor a better life, or they simply were willing to risk their lives so the rest of us could live in peace and freedom.

And you wouldn’t be all wrong. But every hero (real and celluloid) has a back story, as they say in the movies, and every back story begins with some driving personal motivation or ambition, the need to impress someone or prove something to someone else.

The good news is that the movies aren’t the only places for back stories or heroism or honor.

We write about neighborhood heroes breaking free of the daily grind here in our magazine and every day in our online daily news update at advocatemag.com. We can see them all around us every day, if we just pay attention.

And if we look really hard, even without 3D glasses, we can even see a little bit of heroism in ourselves every once in awhile.

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2013 oakcliff What’s online

thingS from our webSite

DART approves Bishop Arts to Downtown tourist shuttle

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Service on a tourist-oriented DART shuttle from Downtown Dallas to the Bishop Arts District will begin Nov. 4, running 11 a.m.10:30 p.m. Monday-Saturday. It will include a stop at Bishop Arts and make a loop from Davis to Edgefield to Jefferson to Zang and back Downtown, where it will hit the convention center, Klyde Warren Park, the Perot Museum and other entertainment destinations. The shuttle is a two-year pilot program that will cost about $2.6 million to operate. Downtown Dallas Inc. is contributing $500,000 a year. The city is paying $800,000 from a federal grant, and DART will fund the rest.

Parkland opens clinic in old Adamson High School

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Parkland clinic

The Parkland North Oak Cliff Youth and Family Center has moved into a renovated part of the old Adamson High School. The clinic, which serves DISD families, had been located in a portable building at Greiner Middle School. The 98-year-old former high school closed at the end of the 2012 school year, and the new $48-million Adamson High School opened across the street in August 2012. DISD had planned to rebuild the old school, but preservationists and alumni fought that plan, which they said would’ve destroyed the character of what was then the oldest school operating in the district.

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Q&A: Lauren Gray

the “safe Room” at the texas theatre is so named for an immovable 1930s safe some 4 feet tall. the 200-square-foot room is accessible by a narrow staircase, and it sits solitary at the front of the building like a crow’s nest. the room has been the site of VIP lounges during the Oak Cliff Film Festival and other events. Over the past few months, Oak Cliff resident Lauren Gray has been using the room as a temporary art gallery. gray already has produced two exhibits there this summer, and she expects a show from artist sally glass to open Aug. 10. the safe Room gallery is open 5:30-9 p.m. thursday-saturday.

What gave you the idea to turn this space into a gallery?

The guys [the theater’s management team, [Aviation Cinemas] just let me use this room. I live in Oak Cliff, and I’d just been hanging out here all the time. I had been thinking about opening a storefront [gallery], and I asked them, and they said “yes,” and they’re letting me do it for free. I have two other day jobs [at All Good Café and a physical therapy clinic], so I’m not really trying to make money, so I just let the artists do what they want, and the guys [Aviation Cin- emas] are down for that, too. Nobody’s really here for the money; it’s just to feed the community. It’s a pretty cool space. Yes, it’s got great light, and it works very well as a gallery. It’s got some weird things on the walls [electrical boxes, for example], and then that safe doesn’t move. But I work around all of that. It’s nice having people that are waiting for a movie to start, and they just wander up here. It doubles the audience, I guess.

Tell us about the two shows you’ve had so far.

The first show was perfect. It was Cassandra Emswiler, and it was all Oak Cliff or Texas Theatre-themed paintings. Her mom and her grandmother grew up in Oak Cliff. The acoustics are really great in this room. So during that show, she played a recording of “Canticles of Praise” because it was a song her mom sang in the choir. The next artist is Sally Glass, and she just told me she’s going to do a sound element, too. [The current] show is really different. It’s a husband and wife [Raychael Stine and Titus O’Brien], and the cheapest painting is, I think, $1,900. Some of Cassandra’s paintings were $60. But [Stine] was an assistant to Richard Patterson, and she just got tenure track at the University of New Mexico, so she’s got cred. I didn’t even know what she was going to put in the show. I hadn’t seen these paintings; she’s just a friend.

What is your background in art?

I had a gallery called And/Or Gallery with my ex-boyfriend Paul Slocum. We had that from January 2006 to September 2009. So I already know a lot of Dallas artists. But I should say, this is not going to be just Dallas artists.

It’s interesting to me that your day job is not in the art world, yet you’re so committed to promoting art. I worked for a gallery after college, and I was just bored. It’s selling the same boring work all the time just because that’s what people want to buy, and that’s not fun. I don’t think that would feed me as much as even waiting tables, which sounds weird. Everyone always says, “Do what you love.” But if you do what you love as a job, it can consume you. And I like to be able to leave my work at work.

Why are you doing this?

Because I can do it [laughs]. It’s just for fun. I don’t think art should be about money. I’ve made art, and I’ve never really made any money from it. It’s freedom to do what you want. And I just want to support [the Texas Theatre] and the young art scene. And I hang out here anyway. I don’t have a family to support or anything, so I can do this.

—Rachel Stone you’ve been waiting for this lifestyle your whole life. it’s time you enjoy the view.

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