Fort Worth Weekly // March 2-8, 2022

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Now set to play SXSW after NPR, this Fort Worth R&B duo keeps moving.

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METROPOLIS A watchdog claims a former Tarrant County medical examiner was working illegally, which could cast doubt on thousands of cases.

BY EDWARD BROWN

METROPOLIS The new racial profiling report is out, and police all over the state are still targeting Blacks.

BY EDWARD BROWN

JJ U U AA N N

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G G OO VV EE AA

EATS & DRINKS On Magnolia Ave, Lockwood Distillery strikes a fine balance between chic and comfy.

BY CHRISTINA BERGER

SCREEN The Batman faces an enemy for our post-Jan. 6 times.

BY KRISTIAN LIN

# 1 R AT ED P OP- UP VAC C INE C L INIC IN TA R R A N T C OUN T Y!

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Volum e 17

N umber 48

Mar c h 2-8, 2022

INSIDE Bad Blood

By Edward Brown

Ryan Burger, Art Director Jim Erickson, Circulation Director

It’s official. TCU men are national champions.

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Lockwood-y

This new distillery/ pub on Magnolia Ave is a wonderful, rustic destination.

By Christina Berger

Bob Niehoff, General Manager

Mennis, Anyone?

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By Buck D. Elliott

Cotinga Arrives

Fresh off a Tiny Desk Concert, the Fort Worth R&B duo readies a new single and a South-by showcase.

By Juan R. Govea

CONTRIBUTORS

Edward Brown, Staff Writer

Megan Ables, Christina Berger, E.R. Bills, Jason Brimmer, Sue Chefington, Buck D. Elliott, Juan R. Govea, Patrick Higgins, Bo Jacksboro, Laurie James, Kristian Lin, Vishal Malhotra, Cody Neathery, Wyatt Newquist, Linda Blackwell Simmons, Madison Simmons, Teri Webster, Ken WheatcroftPardue, Cole Williams

Emmy Smith, Proofreader

EDITORIAL

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Michael Newquist, Regional Sales Director Jennifer Bovee, Marketing Director Stacey Hammons, Senior Account Executive Julie Strehl, Account Executive Tony Diaz, Account Executive Wyatt Newquist, Digital Coordinator Clintastic, Brand Ambassador

BOARD

Anthony Mariani, Edward Brown, Emmy Smith

Cover photo courtesy of Conor Dardis DISTRIBUTION Fort Worth Weekly is available free of charge in the Metroplex, limited to one copy per reader. Additional copies of Fort Worth Weekly may be purchased for $1.00 each, payable at the Fort Worth Weekly office in advance. Fort Worth Weekly may be distributed only by Fort Worth Weekly’s authorized independent contractors or Fort Worth Weekly’s authorized distributors. No person may, without prior written permission of Fort Worth Weekly, take more than one copy of any Fort Worth Weekly issue. If you’re interested in being a distribution point for Fort Worth Weekly, please contact Will Turner at 817-321-9788.

Anthony Mariani, Editor Lee Newquist, Publisher

Cour tesy Anthony Brandt

Did a former county medical examiner accidentally or intentionally ruin thousands of cases?

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METROPOLIS

Examining the Evidence

A medical examiner watchdog claims that Tarrant County officials knowingly concealed illegal practices by a former ME.

FO R T WO R T H W E E K LY

MARCH 2-8, 2022

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In December, County Judge Glen Whitley swore in Dr. Kendall Crowns as Tarrant County’s new medical examiner (ME). With an annual salary of $425,000, Crowns oversees an ME office tasked with identifying the cause of death in homicide cases, unattended deaths, and other situations where the reasons for the demise are unknown. MEs often testify on behalf of the state in criminal court cases.

Crowns inherits an office that remains mired in controversy and accusations that the previous ME, Dr. Nizam Peerwani, gave false statements in court and oversaw an office that filed unreliable autopsy reports.

Last year, a group of criminal defense attorneys seeking justice called for an investigation into Peerwani’s “administration as the medical examiner.” Inaccurate reports by the ME’s team led to faulty evidence being admitted to court, the attorneys argued. Around that time, a district judge found that Peerwani had given false testimony in a 2006 murder case that sent one man to death row, where he remains to this day. An internal audit of the county medical examiner’s office in 2020 found 59 errors in 27 cases. Dr. Marc Krouse, the co-medical examiner at the time, was suspended in late 2020, and county leaders fired him not long afterward.

Shortly before retiring from Tarrant County, Peerwani began working for Lubbock County in October as an independent contractor. The ME agreement that

ends Sep. 30, 2022, pays a fee of $350 per case.

As egregious as Peerwani’s team’s mistakes appear, one prominent government watchdog alleges that the true extent of Peerwani’s malfeasance has been hidden from the public by local county officials and members of the Tarrant County District Attorney’s office.

Wherever David Fisher turns his attention, powerful public officials tend to lose their jobs or, at least, their credibility. By his own admission, Fisher has forced the removal of 10 chief medical officers in this state over the past 15 years. A cursory glance of online medical examiner stories shows a recurring theme of Fisher filing complaints or forwarding evidence that leads to terminations, blocked appointments, or investigations.

In 2013, Fisher blocked El Paso’s commissioners court from hiring Dr. Khalid Jaber, a non-U.S. citizen at the time, as chief medical examiner. Since Texas’ Code of Criminal Procedures states that medical examiners are judges who can order judicial inquests “with or without a jury,” Fisher made it known to the commissioners that hiring Jaber for a judicial position would violate state laws that bar noncitizens from acting as judges.

Fisher now spends much of his days focused on Tarrant County, an area of Texas characterized by powerful elected officials accustomed to ruling with impunity and bending — if not outright breaking — laws. In 2009, the Weekly reported on one of Fisher’s allegations against Peerwani, who is now 74 and who retired late last year after 42 years of service.

Fisher argued that Tarrant County leaders were paying Peerwani’s professional association — in this case, an incorporated business partnership — rather than an individual, which violates the Texas Code of Criminal Procedure that mandates all MEs to be an appointed “person.” Fisher has since spent considerable time collecting new evidence to bolster his case and to support a slew of new allegations against the former ME and the county.

In the years following our cover story, Tarrant County leaders continued to work with the professional association rather

than the person until last year. County officials ignored my requests for comment on this and several other stories going back six months and counting.

In December, Fisher said he filed a complaint with the FBI alleging that Tarrant County leaders allowed Peerwani, who held a green card during his tenure as ME, according to the Texas Secretary of State’s office, to conduct county work illegally in return for 60% of the doctor’s profits. The alleged victims of the fraud include taxpayers of the counties that contracted with Tarrant County’s ME office and the defendants who were prosecuted or convicted using evidence from Peerwani over the past 40 years.

It’s a bold accusation and one that Fisher backs with documents, opinions from the State Attorney General’s office, and an almost photographic recall of case law and statutes that relate to judges and medical examiners in the State of Texas.

Peerwani did not return my requests for comment.

In mid-1979, Peerwani told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram that he was a British national but failed to disclose that, according to the Texas Medical Board’s website, he was born in Pakistan. In the story, it was reported that Peerwani would fill the county’s medical examiner position that was vacated when Dr. Feliks Gwozdz died of a heart attack. During the interview, the young Peerwani said he had been an assistant medical examiner for Tarrant County for the past two years, adding that he planned to begin applying for U.S. citizenship in 1981.

According to Peerwani’s curriculum vitae, he began working as deputy ME for the county in December 1976. The Texas Medical Board’s website shows that Peerwani’s Texas Medical License became effective on the first day of 1978, which may be seen as evidence that as an assistant ME the doctor performed autopsies without legally required licensure from late 1976 to the end of 1977. Under Texas’ penal code, practicing medicine without a license is a potential third-degree felony, and every day in violation of the law constitutes a new offense. Fisher believes that had the Texas Medical Board known that Peerwani was allegedly practicing medicine without a license, the governing board never would have given him a continued on page 5

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medical license in the first place.

Fisher believes Peerwani was able to obtain a green card only by falsely stating that he had not broken the terms of his student visa, which would have forbidden him from working in the United States. If Peerwani ever applies for U.S. citizenship, Fisher alleges, the application would again be based on fraudulent information.

The U.S. Supreme Court has consistently ruled that anyone who violates the terms of their visa cannot gain citizenship.

Peerwani and Krouse began contracting as co-medical examiners for the county in September 1979 under a contractor agreement that required the two doctors to pay their own rent and expenses from an initial annual stipend of $170,000 per year to be split between the two doctors.

In the years after, Krouse and Peerwani built a multimillion-dollar business that also served Denton, Johnson, Lubbock, and Parker counties. In return, based on county documents, Tarrant County earned 60% of autopsy fees while Peerwani’s professional association kept 40%. In early 2021, Peerwani’s profession-

al association earned $90,424 (February), $154,542 (March), and $174,713 (April) from Tarrant County. Peerwani’s agreement with Lubbock County, based on county documents, afforded a 60% profit share with the remainder going to Tarrant County. Monthly payments to Peerwani’s professional association from that county range from $40,000 to $50,000, according to Lubbock County documents. Based on the recent figures, Fisher estimates that the ME was netting upwards of $3 million a year through his various county contracts toward the end of his career.

In the 1996 article “Tarrant County’s Mystery Pact; Officials in Dark about Medical Examiner’s Contract,” the StarTelegram noted Peerwani’s $800,000 annual stipend at the time was paid to his professional association, not him as deemed by law. District Attorney staffers told the newspaper that Tarrant County ME salaries were not available for “public inspection.” Fisher alleges that the local DA office, which handles open records requests, worked to conceal a range of Peerwani-related documents because the DA is responsible for approving those very contracts.

In 2009, Peerwani, County Judge Glen Whitley, and a DA representative approved a five-year contract with Peer-

wani under the previously existing terms.

Two months earlier, staffers at the Texas Secretary of State’s office revoked the charter for Peerwani’s professional association, according to documents from the Secretary of State’s office.

“The 2009 contract renewal with Peerwani’s professional association was void since the charter was revoked prior to the approval,” Fisher alleges. “This set off a chain-reaction voiding the next five years’ renewals.”

One year after the state secretary revoked Peerwani’s business partnership, Krouse testified as an expert witness in a Denton court. During the August 2010 proceeding, he stated under oath that he was not employed by Tarrant County but rather by a corporation owned by Peerwani.

When asked if Peerwani’s company was the appointed official, Krouse responded, “Yes.”

Fisher alleges that the reason Tarrant County signed contracts with Peerwani’s professional association and not directly with the doctor as required by law was due to Peerwani’s immigration status. The use of government facilities and resources to

support a private business — i.e., Peerwani’s professional association — is one of several legally precarious issues that Fisher said he described to the FBI. By sending bodies to Peerwani and Krouse, Fisher said, counties and courts expected autopsies by a government entity. For more than 40 years, Fisher continues, they were unaware that they were dealing with a private company that contracted with the county. Peerwani was never hired as a government employee, Fisher believes, and his lack of citizenship status should have barred him from acting as medical examiner for the county.

Where some may see business as usual, Fisher sees a concerted political conspiracy that sent millions of public dollars to a private business owned by a noncitizen at the time who should never have held office. Any conviction that relied on Peerwani’s testimony and autopsy reports should be considered suspect, Fisher alleges, adding that successive DA administrations have known about the allegedly illegal county business dealings and done nothing.

“When you have a district attorney’s office that is as corrupt as yours has been, anyone” can get away with this kind of behavior, Fisher said. l

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E D W A R D

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Static Red Wrong If you were the average, red-blooded, teenaged American boy in the late ’80s, you weren’t sure of too many things, if anything at all, but on one issue there was no tentativeness and no serious debate. The Russians sucked. The Russkies were definitely and unequivocally the bad guys.

Rambo told us so in Rocky IV (1985).

Rocky told us so in Rambo III (1988). Tom Cruise said so in Top Gun (1986). And well before Sylvester Stallone and Cruise told us so, Ponyboy Curtis (C. Thomas Howell in the 1983 film The Outsiders, starring alongside yet to be famous[yet-to-be-famous] Cruise and Platoon cherry Charlie Sheen), Texas boy Patrick Swayze (also in The Outsiders, and Dirty Dancing in 1987,

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MARCH 2-8, 2022

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Two weeks. That’s how long we’ve been waiting for a response from Jody Johnson about emails that may show fellow government employees working on his campaign during business hours. The constable running to assume Precinct 4’s commissioner seat from father J.D. Johnson, according to several emails we obtained from a whistleblower, appears to have blended personal and government business.

At issue are campaign finance reports readily available on Tarrant County’s website. After taking office as Precinct 4 constable in 2016, Jody — who is in a heated battle against fellow Republican Manny Ramirez for one of five county commissioner seats — began using a county employee, administrator Nicole Benoit, to log, compile, notarize, and file his campaign finance reports. The constable followed state law by listing Sarah Hollenstein as his campaign treasurer, but he did not list her business address as required by

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Road House in 1989, and more), and older Texas boy Powers Boothe — and Charlie Sheen — all told us so in the surprise blockbuster of 1984.

One reviewer described Red Dawn as “a self-congratulatory little B-picture, the sort America does so well.” Set in the build-up to WWIII, it is “a loving chronicle of juvenile heroism in Russian-occupied Colorado” — which, yes, sounds absolutely preposterous. But bear with me.

One thing this pre-“woke” action flick gets right is letting schoolboys and schoolgirls take up arms — both Lea Thompson, who later played Marty McFly’s mom and girlfriend in the 1985 mega-blockbuster Back to the Future, and Jennifer Grey, Swayze’s yet-to-befamous tango partner Baby in the megamega-blockbuster Dirty Dancing, perform feisty female combatant roles. All the chilcontinued on page 7

Cour tesy LinkedIn

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Texas Ethics Commission rules. She also is not shown as the person who worked on any of Jody’s campaign finance reports — a majority of them have been signed by Benoit.

My extensive review of Jody’s publicly available reports revealed that Benoit notarized and signed 11 of 16 of them between early 2015 and early 2022. State law forbids public officials like constables from using government employees and resources for personal matters like campaigning.

Jody’s campaign staff did not respond to questions that I forwarded to Hollenstein, whom I was unable to reach directly because she did not disclose her contact information on any of Jody’s reports. Jody did not respond to my requests for comment, and neither did the staff at the Precinct 4 commissioner’s office.

Finally, last week, I received a call from Jody’s campaign.

After describing intimate details of the open records requests I had recently filed, the campaign member tried to intimidate me into not publishing my story.

I’ve described the timbre of the off-therecord conversation because that privilege does not permit individuals to attempt to influence a reporter actively investigating allegations of public misconduct.

I requested digital copies of the whistleblower’s emails from the county through the Texas Public Information

Act to corroborate the printouts of the same emails in my hands. My request for emails between Benoit and Jody between 2017 and 2022 returned 54 pages of communications that did not include any of the whistleblower’s emails. Indeed, several months at a time are missing from the communications compiled for me by the county. The absence of the whistleblower’s emails (originally obtained during an unrelated matter a few months ago) suggests they have either been deleted from county servers or intentionally withheld by the district attorney’s office.

It’s hard to know if Precinct 4’s servers were tampered with or whether Jody used government resources for his personal campaign because the commissioner candidate has so far refused to comment

on this story and no one else is raising any concerns. Given the nature of the accusations, we are electing to delay publishing details of the emails until we hear back from Jody.

We welcome the opportunity to discuss the missing, potentially damning emails with his campaign as long as the conversation refrains from attempts to dissuade me from following a story wherever it leads.

Ramirez told me he is waiting to learn more before he judges his primary political opponent.

“Elected officials are held to high ethical standards,” he said. “We would hope that this isn’t true. Jody is innocent until proven guilty, like anyone else.”

Ramirez’ most recent campaign disclosures show that he has $160,323 on hand. Jody reported $224,064 in his campaign war chest on his most recent filings that were signed and notarized by Benoit.

Last summer, J.D. donated $250,000 of $252,873 from his remaining war chest to his son. — Edward Brown l This column reflects the opinions of the editorial board and not the Fort Worth Weekly. To submit a column, please email Editor Anthony Mariani at Anthony@ FWWeekly.com. Submissions will be edited for factuality and clarity.

E.R. Bills

Takin’ Care of Business

METROPOLIS

Conservatives are split between Putin-loving Trump and the rest of the world, including — most likely — Russia itself.

Or having to forget you were young once?

The headlines out of Ukraine are straight from the Red Dawn plotline, and we’re seeing the movie again, except for real this time — but, instead of aligning himself with the Ukrainian freedom fighters, the MAGA faithful’s Orange Messiah was and is aligned with the bad guys from the ’80s. And now a vast majority of reTrumplicans can’t admit they were wrong.

Dead wrong.

Red wrong. — E.R. Bills

Fort Worth native E.R. Bills is the author of Texas Oblivion: Mysterious Disappearances, Escapes and Cover-Ups (History Press 2021) and Fear and Loathing in the Lone Star State (2021).

This column reflects the opinions of the author and not the Fort Worth Weekly. To submit a column, please email Editor Anthony Mariani at Anthony@FWWeekly. com. Columns will be gently edited for factuality and clarity.

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dren “caught behind enemy lines become crack guerillas overnight,” the critic goes on, and “slaughter nobly” and “die even more so.” At the time Red Dawn was released, it was considered one of the most violent films ever made by the Guinness Book of World Records and the National Coalition on Television Violence, because it featured 134 acts of violence per hour, or 2.23 acts per minute. As Todd Snider, my old college rugby teammate-turnedfolk singer likes to say, “In America, we like our bad guys dead. … It’s called box office, baby.”

That kind of box office revenue (though it made Stallone and Cruise untold millions), however, contributes to a boxed-in or tunnel-visioned view of the world. Red Dawn stretched our red, white, and blue underwear into rabidly patriotic salutes, and this staunch patriotism fortified our political views and remained surprisingly potent in our minds, even as we became less potent in our bedrooms.

Then, Trumpism walked by in a red, white, and blue — but mostly white — bikini, and suddenly (and somewhat insanely) legions of Gen X men and seemingly all of their elders were reminded of those unchallenged, seemingly unassailable red, white, and blue underwear tents of yesteryear. Which was good or bad, depending on your susceptibility or naivete in general.

But now, a real Red Dawn is happening in Ukraine, and the voters, pundits, and politicians who offered standing salutes to Herr Trump’s friendship and admiration for Comrade Putin are soberly decrying the dictator’s actions but remaining silent on their complicity in the entire debacle. Their Orange Messiah is commending Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, but his conservative and Republican supporters are simply compartmentalizing his comments, already separating the myth from the man and thereby self-censoring Critical Russia Theory to avoid contemplating their own culpability or face serious selfexamination.

The same folks who had boners for the original Red Dawn and its gratuitously violent plotline — which followed them into their 50s — have gone conveniently limp in terms of memory, responsibility, and existential honesty, because it calls into question their votes, their worldview, and their fearless leader’s shit-stained, red silk boxers. Back

then, these ’Muricans screamed, “Wolverines!” every time they orgasmed (with or without their girlfriends), but now that the Russians are really invading and slaughtering real Outsiders, real Rambos, real Ponyboys, and real dirty dancing Babys indiscriminately, American conservatives are grudgingly but quietly admitting their mistake or ignoring the whole thing.

How does that feel?

Is the worst thing about being an American conservative or Republican these days having a conscience or being forced to pretend you don’t have one?

MARCH 2-8, 2022

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According to a new report, race remains a leading indicator of whether you’ll be pulled over, searched, or arrested in Fort Worth.

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The annual release of racial profiling reports here and across the state offers a rare glimpse into the inner workings of

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local law enforcement. Due to the 2001 Texas Racial Profiling Law, Fort Worth’s police department is required to compile traffic-related contact data as a means of identifying racial profiling practices. The Texas legislature passed the law to address racial profiling, which remains a lingering problem across the country.

The 72-page 2021 Racial Profiling Report was recently released by Del Carmen Consulting, a company that specializes in crime analysis and training law enforcement. Fort Worth police have long relied on independent groups to compile city data. Opening the report is a letter from Fort Worth police chief Neil Noakes to Mayor Mattie Parker and Fort Worth City Council. Nowhere in the one-page document does Noakes say what he’s doing to end his department’s long track record of disproportionately pulling over, searching, and arresting Blacks and Hispanics in Fort Worth.

In our story about Fort Worth police’s 2020 racial profiling report (“Pub-

Cour tesy of Facebook

Twenty Years of OverPolicing

METROPOLIS Fort Worth police continue to disproportionately pull over and arrest persons of color.

lic Safety or Over-Policing,” Nov. 2020), we said, “In 2019, Black drivers accounted for 38% of vehicle searches. In 2009,

42% of vehicles searched had Black drivers, and numbers from 2002 show that Black residents accounted for nearly 40% of Fort Worth police department vehicle stops, even though the Black community at the time accounted for only 18.5% of drivers in Fort Worth. Black drivers were significantly overrepresented across a wide range of police interactions — without exception — between 2003 and 2019, according to Fort Worth police department records.”

Fort Worth police made 36,043 vehicle stops last year, according to the new report. Black males accounted for 28% of people pulled over, or 6,200 of 22,324 males, though Black males represented only 19% of the city’s population at the time. Male Hispanic representation among individuals pulled over closely tracks with that demographic’s 38% of the Fort Worth population, while white men (6,959) were underrepresented relative to their population (39%). Blacks (male and female) accounted for 34%

Del Carmen said in a recent email that the panel’s work still continues, and a report that broadly examines policing habits and provides recommendations to improve police-community relations is scheduled to be released later this spring. Fort Worthians who believe they have been racially profiled

by Fort Worth police can file complaints via email (FWPD_InternalAffairs@fortworthtexas.gov) or by calling 817-3924270. l

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In 2020, the four-person panel released preliminary findings that said many Fort Worthians were concerned about the frequency of people of color being targeted by police stops.

“We saw quite a bit of calls where officers used foul language,” del Carmen told me at the time. “We understand officers are working with issues that are emotional. We felt that, and science shows, any time officers use foul language, it escalates the response from the other person. For us, it is not only an issue of politeness: It is a potential cause of escalation during police encounters.”

MARCH 2-8, 2022

is to reduce the frequency of interactions between police officers and communities of color as a means of rebuilding trust between the communities and law enforcement.

Alex del Carmen, author of the new report, is part of a Fort Worth police review panel — unrelated to the racial profiling report — that is tasked with reviewing policing policies and practices and providing recommendations to improve and retain public trust. The 2019 killing of Atatiana Jefferson, a Black woman, in her own home by a white male officer prompted the ongoing reform effort.

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of drivers pulled over for traffic violations, while Hispanics represented 39% of those pulled over.

Blacks made up 41% of 616 searches conducted by police. Hispanics were evenly represented, and whites were slightly underrepresented. Of the 244 arrests that resulted from a traffic stop, around half were of Black men or women (117). Hispanics were largely overrepresented in arrests that resulted in bodily harm to the driver (71% or 12 out of every 17).

“Regarding searches and arrests,” the report says, “the data showed that most searches took place among Blacks.

Of the searches that did not produce contraband, most were of Blacks. Most arrests were made on Blacks.”

The numbers are just as stark in other, similarly sized Texas cities. In Dallas, Blacks represented 22% of the population at the time and 40% of 62,380 traffic contacts with police last year. Hispanics accounted for 40% of the population and 37% of car stops that year. Blacks represented 12% of Houston’s population and 36% of 355,312 traffic stops in that city, while Hispanics, who represented 18% of the population, accounted for 14% of police interactions on the road.

City leaders in Austin have set the goal of achieving zero racial disparities in traffic stops and citations and zero deaths at the hands of Austin police by 2023. In 2020, Blacks accounted for 8% of the city’s population and 15% (10,705) of 72,054 traffic stops. Hispanics, who represented 34% of Austin’s population, made up 37% of traffic-related interactions with police.

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) maintains that “the practice of racial profiling by members of law enforcement at the federal, state, and local levels remains a widespread and pervasive problem throughout the United States, impacting the lives of millions of people in African American, Asian, Latino, South Asian, Arab, and Muslim communities.”

The main reason the problem persists, the ACLU says, is due to the failure of national leadership to pass legislation that bans racial profiling by federal, state, or local law enforcement. At least one major American city is being proactive. In January, Philadelphia City Council banned low-level traffic stops.

The Driving Equity Act — the first of its kind for a major city — forbids officers from pulling over drivers for having a single broken taillight or a missing inspection sticker or for any other minor driving infraction. Instead, officers are directed to mail tickets or leave citations on parked cars. The idea behind the law

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SCREEN

An updated villain makes this a Batman movie for our time.

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As comic-book villains go, the Riddler has been particularly hard to take seriously. The guy leaves cryptic clues to his crimes? What’s scary about that?

How do you make him intimidating?

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MARCH 2-8, 2022

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continued on page 11

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Photo by Jonathan Olley and DC Comics

Stuck in the Riddle with You

Robert Pattinson deals with a mendacity-obsessed killer in The Batman.

The Batman Starring Robert Pattinson and Zoë Kravitz. Directed by Matt Reeves.

Written by Matt Reeves and Peter Craig. Rated PG-13.

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Taking him out of that green bodysuit with the question marks is a good start for The Batman. The Riddler here wears a gas mask and dark-colored basic attire, and so he first appears in the living room of Gotham’s mayor (Rupert Penry-Jones), staring out from the shadows unnoticed by the politico, who’s in the midst of a tight race for reelection. This Riddler is a torturer with a wicked sense of humor — he kills the mayor, cuts off his thumb, and attaches it to a USB drive so that Batman can find the “thumb drive.” Even mutilating his victims isn’t enough, so Riddler releases photos of that mayor beating his mistress, destroying the man’s reputation postmortem. Because great villains have a flair for drama, he then crashes the mayor’s funeral by sending a car barreling through the church doors carrying the DA (Peter Sarsgaard) with a bomb strapped to his neck. The movie avoids overusing the bad guy by refusing to put him in the same room with the main characters, instead having him appear on TV and smartphone screens to taunt the authorities. The Riddler is played by Paul Dano, who has been playing creepy killers since his teen years. Now in his late 30s, he still looks like the kid you beat up in high school and who got even with you by ripping the brakes out of your car. Just as Heath Ledger’s Joker made The Dark Knight into a Batman movie for the War on Terror, Dano’s Riddler makes this into a Batman movie for our post-Jan. 6 era of fascists next door.

As we pick up the story, Bruce Wayne (Robert Pattinson) has been the Batman for two years, and crime in Gotham has only risen since he started. We first see him beat up a bunch of subway thugs in clown face paint, and if that’s a jab at Todd Phillips’ Joker, I’ll take it.

When the Riddler starts killing off the city’s most powerful officials, he leaves a trail of clues addressed to the Batman specifically, which is why Lt. Jim Gordon (Jeffrey Wright) lets the Caped Crusader take an active role in the investigation.

Corruption is rife among Gotham’s politicians, cops, and wealthy citizens, and the Riddler airs evidence that Bruce’s

own martyred father ordered the murder of a journalist.

There’s more still in this movie’s 175 minutes, much of it revolving around Selina Kyle (Zoë Kravitz), a nightclub bartender employed by a mob boss (John Turturro), who steals from her workplace but is clearly out for more.

This actress has too seldom found roles that call on her to do more than be hot, but she’s incandescent here as a bisexual cat burglar who deploys her hotness to distract men or win them over. Turturro, meanwhile, makes a chilling kingpin, never more so than when our heroes hear an audio recording of him soothing an employee with his voice before murdering her. Colin Farrell is unrecognizable under prosthetic fat as the Penguin, and he injects some much-needed comedy playing the character as a low-level functionary, especially when he points out a purposeful grammatical error in the Riddler’s Spanish-language threat. “Am I the only one who knows the difference between ‘el’ and ‘la’?”

I wasn’t that big a fan of director/ co-writer Matt Reeves’ Cloverfield or his Planet of the Apes reboots, but he does his finest work to date here, especially in a set piece where Batman and Gordon stake out Penguin’s operation, only for Catwoman’s unexpected intrusion to result in people dying. This leads to a great car chase with the Batmobile going after Penguin the wrong way down the freeway and the bad guy causing a chain-reaction pileup that Batman is lucky to escape. Reeves delivers clearer action sequences than any previous Batman director.

Even better is the way the Riddler is revealed as a mirror image of the superhero who busts Bruce on his privilege: “You’re not an orphan when you’re in a tower overlooking the park.”

His criminal plot causes more death and devastation than any version of the Joker we’ve seen, partly because he’s been helped by his internet-troll followers and partly because he weaponizes information and undermines faith in all of Gotham’s institutions. One of the Riddler’s anonymous minions is captured, and the man repeats the Batman’s catchphrase: “I am vengeance.” Our costumed do-gooder has created his own enemies, and The Batman is the superhero movie that best questions whether having superheroes is a good thing. l

MARCH 2-8, 2022

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With the prices of almost everything going up, it might be time to pursue Thursday your interest in growing your own vegetables. From 2pm to 3pm, Fossil Creek Tree Farm and Nursery (7744 Blue Mound Rd, 817-306-7111) hosts the free class Raised Beds: Spring Vegetable Garden Edition. Master Gardener Max Steincamp will teach you the advantages of using raised beds versus planting directly into the ground, choosing the right plants for our area, and the timing of planting and harvesting. As Steincamp’s classes fill up fast, you should register at Eventbrite.com right away.

4

As you (should) know by now, I heart dinosaurs!

So, of course, I want to Friday tell you about Dinosaur World Live, a new interactive family show, coming to Downtown Cowtown at The Isis (2401 N Main St, 817-8086390) 5:30-6:30pm today and Sat. While many traveling prehistoric shows use animatronic dinos, Dinosaur World Live promises “stunning puppetry to bring remarkably life-like dinosaurs to the stage.” Your host Miranda, whose character is the daughter of South American paleontologists, will introduce the audience to a giraffatitan, microraptor, segnosauras, triceratops, and a Tyrannosaurus rex, of course. Tickets are $35 at OuthouseTickets.com.

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Tonight is UFC 272, featuring Covington vs.

Masvidal in the Saturday World Welterweight Championship and more. Many local watering holes will be broadcasting this pay-per-view event for free for their customers starting at 9pm, including Buffalo Bros (two area locations, BuffaloBrosTexas.com) and World of

7

While Mardi Gras might be wrapping up, Mardi Paw is still going strong.

Monday Thru Wed, Mar 16, folks can bring their doggos to MUTTS Canine Cantina (5317 Clearfork Main St, 817-3770151) to enjoy the off-leash dog parks and $4 Hurricanes during the annual Mardi Paw celebration. (MUTTS suggests you pair those powerful libations with the fried pickles. Sounds good to me!)

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Daily except for Mondays, now thru Sat, Mar 12, at various times at the Tuesday North Texas Fair and Rodeo grounds (2217 N Carroll Blvd, Denton), The Mysterious Circus (@ MysteriousCircus, 469-897-2588) features acrobats, contortionists, and daredevil stunt performers from Armenia, Brazil, Los Angeles, and New York. Tickets start at $15 at TheMysteriousCircus.com.

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Daily thru Sun, Apr 10, the Fort Worth Botanic Wednesday Garden (3220 Botanic Garden Blvd, 817-4634160) hosts Butterflies in the Garden, the largest exhibit of live butterflies in North-Central Texas. All tickets are for timed entries between 10am and 4pm and are $12 at the door or at FWBG.org/ Butterflies. (Note: Inclement weather could delay the opening date. Visit FWBG.org for updates before visiting.)

By Jennifer Bovee

fwweekly.com

3

Famed drug lord Pablo Escobar had a private zoo at his palatial home Sunday in Colombia, and when things went south, his hippos ran wild. To this day, there is a herd of free-roaming hippos in the jungles of Colombia, thanks to Pablo. True story. Fictional story?

Produced by the UNT Department of Dance and Theatre, Escobar’s Hippo is running from Thursday thru today at various times at Studio Theatre (1155 Union Cir, Ste 310607, Denton, 940-3697546). Telling the tale of a hippo arrival at a village near the Magdalena River in Colombia, playwright Franki Gonzalez’ story follows a group of friends solving the mystery of why the villagers are turning into hippos. (You can’t make this stuff up.

Well, I guess you actually can.) Tickets are $8 at UNT.UniversityTickets.com.

MARCH 2-8, 2022

Dinosaur World Live hits Cowtown Fri.

6

FO R T WO R T H W E E K LY

NIGHT &DAY

Cour tesy DinosaurWorldLive.com

Beer (3252 W 7th, Fort Worth, 682708-7021). Certain movie theaters are screening the fights, too, like Movie Tavern (4920 S Hulen, 817-546-7090, SeeUFCLiveintheTheatres.com). Or if you’re looking to watch at home but don’t have ESPN, sign up with any number of providers listed in our Classifieds Bulletin Board.

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ADVERTISING CONTENT PROVIDED AND PAID FOR BY Business, Veterans, “Local Voter Education” & Bob Willoughby Installment #5

“LOCAL VOTER EDUCATION” MARCH 6 PROGRAM (8 PM) MAYOR AND COUNCIL WELCOME

BUCK U

Top Seed

TCU men’s tennis wins their first national title.

B Y

OUR FIRST AMENDMENT GONE FROM CITY HALL! People, you may not realize there are no possessions, that are more valuable than our right to speak.

It is the First Amendment.

How bad do Fort Worth Mayor and city council members have to get before you will wake up to what we are losing?

FO R T WO R T H W E E K LY

MARCH 2-8, 2022

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Mayor Mattie Parker has been in office less than a year and has made more changes to the city (Without Public Approval) than any other Mayor in the last 50 years combined.

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1.

Reduce city council meetings from 4 times a month to 2 times a month for their convenience.

2.

Rearrange the city council meetings time (to meet the mayor’s needs) from 7 pm up to 6 pm, making it harder for the general public to attend.

3.

Pushing the Redistricting through (Without Public Approval) to make their job easer

4.

Remove the Public presentation from the city council meeting agenda. The mayor will not answer “why” she removes the public presentation from the city council meeting agenda?

Call the Mayor and ask why (817) 392 -1234.

And Now the Mayor wants a $70,000 pay raise in salary and the month of July off for vacation

“LOCAL VOTER EDUCATION” MARCH 13 (8 PM) Open Records refuses our request to answer this question.

Where did Kim Neal come from and how much did we pay to move her here?

Local Voter Education March 13 Guest: Police Oversight Department Head Kim Neal. The Mayor is scamming the Public out of Over $609,965.00 for nothing! Learn more fwdistrict5.com for more info on the upcoming programs Or (817) 446-7056 Bob (March 20 Shows TBA) (March 27 TBA)

B U C K

D .

E L L I O T T

Saturday night was quite an event in the Fort.

Not only did TCU men’s basketball knock off the ninth-ranked Red Raiders — almost assuring them an NCAA tournament berth — but TCU Men’s Tennis was honored for winning their first national championship.

David Roditi’s Racquet Frogs are no strangers to success. Now in his 11th year as head coach, the Frog alumnus revived a team that had slumped after years of success since its creation in 1974 under another Former frog player, Tut Bartzen. After establishing his own recruits and knocking the dust off, Roditi has made TCU a consistent contender, finishing six consecutive seasons ranked in the Top 10 at the conclusion of the outdoor season and advancing multiple times to the round of 16 in their NCAA tournament and as far as the Final Four in 2015.

Outdoor season, which is what fans are most familiar with, starts on Wednesday, when the Frogs host the Michigan Wolverines on the purple courts. Those Wolverines will be hoping to pull an upset over the top-ranked team in the country. The Frogs hopped themselves to the ultimate ranking after mowing down their competition to conclude the indoor tennis season at the beginning of last week.

The ITA indoor national championship at the University of Washington featured purple victories over Virginia, Texas, Ohio State, and Tennessee, in that order. Sports superstitions would kill me for saying this, but this squad seems different. They seemed destined for another championship.

Tennis fans are accustomed to notable names from TCU. Cameron Norrie, a South African who graduated in 2017, lost in the championship match of the Mexican Open over the weekend and was the topranked singles player in the country his senior season. Norrie has been ranked as high as 12th in the world during his already successful professional career. Alastair Gray — a British player who went pro after last season — is already vaulting himself into the professional rankings and advanced into the second round of Wimbledon’s doubles draw. The aforementioned are great but have been problematic in a team sense in the past.

A killer at first-line singles is wonderful, but if the lineup isn’t stout all the way through the sixth man, especially in singles — since those matches represent six of seven possible team points — a program won’t claim a team championship. Obviously, based on the

hardware Roditi and company plundered from Seattle, that has changed a bit.

The Frogs are very deserving of their No. 1 ranking. They’ve already unseated two teams from the spot they now possess: Florida, the defending outdoor national champion, when they visited Fort Worth in mid-January, and Ohio State, who the Frogs defeated in the ITA indoor championship semifinals. In fact, these tennis ballers are currently 12-1 and have lost only to Tennessee — by one point — about 36 hours after their emotional win against Florida. TCU avenged that loss, with a vengeance, by beating the Rocky Toppers 4-1 during the national championship match.

Roditi turbocharged his roster, which was already bullish, and made it overpowering. His first move was adding two graduate transfers.

Tim Ruehl, a German former Sun Devil, is a fierce doubles specialist who helped ASU secure their only point against TCU in last year’s tournament at first-line doubles over a talented pair in Alastair Gray and current stud Frog Luc Fomba. Ruehl was also beating Sander Jong, current Big 12 player of the week and recipient of the Indoor Championship MVP, when their Line 3 singles match was left unfinished last year.

Juan Carlos Aguilar, a native Bolivian and consistent first-line player for the Aggies, was also no stranger to the Frogs before matriculating to Fort Worth. Aguilar also helped himself to a first-line doubles victory over Gray and Fomba during the regular season last year and bested Fomba at secondline singles (something that doesn’t happen very often).

The additions of Ruehl and Aguilar are perfectly demonstrative of what an opportunistic recruiter Roditi has become.

Fomba, Aguilar, and Jake Fearnley are all currently ranked in the Top 25 in the nation in singles, but there’s more. Young blood has been injected into Funkytown, and they have driven and volleyed their way to the third-ranked doubles pair in the nation. The freshman duo of Englishman Lui Maxted and Spaniard Pedro Vives have lost only one match this year and are still learning amid the collegiate tennis landscape. The Scottish sophomore Fearnley and his junior French counterpart Fomba aren’t far behind the youngsters and are ranked fifth in doubles.

There’s no shy way to assert this, but it’s championship or bust for this ridiculously stacked roster that spans from young acquisitions and multi-year lettermen all the way to seasoned graduate transfers. The Frogs have already outlasted the past two defending champions in Florida and Texas, and onlookers should eagerly await conference clashes with Baylor — who lost to the Gators in the outdoor finals last season — and a rematch with the Longhorns, as both rosters are likely to be Top-10 ranked throughout the season.

It shouldn’t be hard to attract feisty Frog fans to the Bayard H. Friedman Tennis Center to throw spirited clapping to the top-ranked baseliners in the nation, as admission to their matches is cheaper than anything else you can do on TCU’s campus — it’s zero dollars. l

ART Break!

EATS & drinks

Join us at the Modern for ART Break 2022!

Lockwood and Loaded

Some experiences you’ll remember for the rest of your life. Others, well, you may wish you could remember them. Or not.

When I awoke Saturday morning, by a stroke of good luck or the grace of some celestial being (read: my friend who forcefed me chicken tendies at night’s end), I could almost entirely recollect Friday’s festivities — and what a night it had been!

It all started at Lockwood Distilling Co. on West Magnolia Avenue, its second location aside from the original in Richardson. The husband-wife duo who founded the distillery, Sally and Evan Batts, did so to celebrate community and togetherness. In that respect, they succeeded. A few close comrades from different stages of my life converged at Lockwood that evening, likely drawn by the booze more than my singular company. Point: The Batts.

continued on page 16

Take an ART Break during spring break, March 14–18. Even though you can’t touch the art (!), we have fun, hands-on, creative activities designed for the whole family to enjoy together—every day 11 am–3 pm.

Get your creative energy flowing as you work on your own projects while spending time with the Modern’s collection of paintings, photographs, sculpture, and video.

Free Spring Break Monday and Friday Monday, March 14, and Friday, March 18, it’s FREE for ALL at the Modern.

Admission for kids under 18 is free every day.

The Jive Turkey with Havarti, arugula, and grape chutney on ciabatta was well worth the return trip.

Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth 3200 Darnell Street Fort Worth, Texas 76107 817.738.9215

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S T O R Y A N D P H O T O S B Y C H R I S T I N A B E R G E R

With an impressive array of spirits, all crafted in-house, and delectable options for munching, Lockwood understood the assignment. Whether it was the jalapeño heat flirting with the sweet hibiscus vodka and acid of the lemon in the Mr. Sean or the ginger beer’s residual tang that lingered after the wave of pineapple rum and hint of cinnamon had receded in the Spicy Sparrow, the victualers artfully paired and balanced flavors in each Lock-tail.

My group would know — we ordered as many different refreshments as possible and sampled each other’s picks. Our waiter even brought over two free, untouched drinks belonging to a couple who had to dash to claim dinner reservations just as the elixirs arrived at their table. Their loss was by far our gain.

Having under-eaten earlier in the day, I was doubled over from laughter and dizzy with that intoxicating feeling you get when you realize the whole weekend still lies ahead of you. I had the red cheeks to prove it, too — both sets: one from attempting to catch my breath between guffaws, heightened by the flush I get when even a drop of liquor touches my lips, and the other from resting my derriere too long

MARCH 2-8, 2022

Lockwood Distilling Co., 1411 W Magnolia Av, FW. 682-499-6270. 11am-9pm Mon-Thu, 11am-10pm Fri-Sat.

The ginger beer in the Spicy Sparrow left a residual tang that lingered after the wave of pineapple rum and cinnamon had receded.

FO R T WO R T H W E E K LY

The Magnolia Ave distillery brings people together with a variety of quality hootch crafted in-house.

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Lockwood Distilling Co. Mr. Sean ................................................. $9 Spicy Sparrow ........................................ $10 Funkytown Frosty .................................. $10 Cherry Nice ............................................ $9 Old Fashioned ........................................ $9 Poblano pimento cheese ...................... $7 Jive Turkey ............................................. $12.95

The place’s simple interior walks the line between contemporary industrial and vintage chic.

Eats & Drinks continued from page 15

on an unforgiving metal chair.

Is nothing but neutrals “in”? Lockwood wears the color scheme well. The place’s simple interior walks the line between contemporary industrial and vintage chic. Aptly, the evening’s playlist skewed retro with hits by The Beach Boys, ABBA, and The Beatles. The exposed brick wall behind the bar brings warmth to the other, more darkly hued ones, which

FIRST BLUE ZONES

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MARCH 2-8, 2022

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APPROVED THAI RESTAURANTS IN FW!

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are sparsely adorned with vibrant pop art of icons both real and fictional. Dolly Parton winks at The Notorious B.I.G. from opposite the barroom, while Ace Ventura sports his signature pink tutu and goofy grin by the restrooms. The ambiance is only slightly distorted by the green glow of Vape DZ nearby seeping through Lockwood’s floor-to-ceiling windows.

The waiter regaled our table with a story that only further endeared us to the establishment. Someone had given Lockwood a 5-star review on Google with the accompanying effusive praise: “Not bad.”

What else was to be done but to make cus-

tom merch touting the phrase?

That brand of humor suited our crew, especially as my companions attempted to describe their beverages to me in the most bizarre ways. Thing 1 proclaimed he “vacuumed up” his Funkytown Frosty, calling the frozen concoction of Lockwood vanilla rum and bourbon cream mixed with coffee and chocolate “basically a spiked milkshake.” Too bad it didn’t bring all the boys to the yard, Thing 2 lamented. She summed up her Cherry Nice as “light and sweet with a rich cherry ‘after-breath’ ” — you read that right — and quickly added, “Like Cherry Coke on acid.” Take that as you swill.

Last call snuck up on us all. As I quaffed a scrumptious Old Fashioned and dipped into the last bit of creamy poblano pimento cheese, I flagged down our waiter to request the Jive Turkey. Thing 1 had been ceaselessly goading me to order the sandwich, teasing me for not having looked at the food menu despite my rumblin’ tum. Alas, the kitchen had closed.

No matter. I returned for lunch the following sunny Monday afternoon, and, damn, was the Jive Turkey worth it. The day most of the street’s restaurants are hi-

“Best Thai Food” – FW Weekly Critics Choice 2015, 2017 & 2019 4630 SW Loop 820 | Fort Worth• 817-731-0455 order online for pickup Thaiselectrestaurant.com

Monday, when most of the street’s restaurants are hibernating, was the ideal time to experience Lockwood’s patio.

bernating was the ideal time to experience the patio and nosh on the creation of turkey, Havarti, arugula, and grape chutney on ciabatta. The hoagie once again demonstrated Lockwood’s ability to dance agilely between two disparate elements that, when combined, fashion a whole new jig of their own.

Each visit to Lockwood I’d willingly repeat — and thanks to excellent company, they’re experiences I’ll remember for a long while. Five stars: not bad, indeed. l

SPICE

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store hours Tuesday - Friday saturday & sunday 4pm to 10pm 11Am to 10pm Closed Monday

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I TA L I A N K I T C H E N

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There are many food and booze happenings in North Texas in early March. Here are eight delicious ideas to get you started.

1.) Whiskey Ranch (4250 Mitchell Blvd, 817-840-9140) — home of locally distilled TX Whiskey — is hosting its inaugural TX Whiskey Mardi Gras Jamboree featuring all things Creole 6pm-9pm Fri. A Taste of Louisiana and The Beignet Bus food trucks will be on hand with food for purchase. There will be specials on Mardi Gras cocktails and live jazz by the Andrew Skates Trio. Tickets are $10 at FRDistilling. com and include your first cocktail. You must be 21+ years old to attend.

2.) From 11am to 4pm Sat, don a gray wig — and whatever else makes you feel like a Golden Girl — and head to Cane Rosso in Arlington (200 N East St, 817533-31220) for the Golden Girls Brunch Out/Pub Crawl. There will be specials on bites and $2 mimosas at the pizza joint.

Then the group will venture to Legal Draft Beer (500 E Division St, 817-962-2210), Cartel Taco Bar (506 E Division, Ste 150, 817-200-6364), 4 Kahunas Tiki Lounge (506 E Division St, Ste 160, 682-276-6097),

Tipsy Oak (301 E Front St, 817-962-0304), Hayter’s Bar & Lounge (213 E Front St), and finally Grease Monkey Burger Shop (200 N Mesquite St, Ste 103, 817-761-1656).

The plan is for one drink at each location.

This awesome public event is hosted by a gal named Marissa Soto, and to her, we say, “Thank you for being a friend!” (Great event idea.) There is no cost to attend, and cash is recommended for quick service and an easier time for all involved with your drink purchases.

3.) Taste Project is ready to reveal the spring menu offerings for Taste Community Restaurant (1200 S Main St, 817-759-9045), the pay-what-you-can culinary concept from Chef Jeff Williams. From 6pm to 8pm Thu, Mar 10, sample bites from the new menu, including healthy and hearty options. Tickets are $60-$80 on Eventbrite. com, with proceeds benefiting the nonprofit efforts of the Taste Project.

4.) Crawfish is on the menu 1pm-8pm Sat, Mar 12, at the Second Annual Cowtown Crawfish Boil at Horus Hall (208 NW 24th St, 817-683-2882). All-you-caneat tickets are $40, or you can purchase crawfish by the pound (price TBD on the day of the event). Kids under 5 get in free, and those 6 to 12 are $10. If crawfish isn’t your thing, barbecue will also be available for purchase. Lot parking is $5, but there is also limited free street parking. There will be live music by Hunter Cassell, Trent

Cowie, Jeremiah Herrin, Lacey Ingram, Dustin Massey, and Trey Rose. For tickets and more info, go to EventBrite.com.

5.) When was the last time you went to a dinner theater performance? If “never” is your answer, it may be time to change that.

La Chingona (2800 Bledsoe St, Ste 100, @LaChingonaFW), a new performance venue in the Cultural District, hosts A Taste of Guadalajara dinner show 8pm10pm Fri, Mar 11. “Through mariachi and dance, this dinner show will tell the story of a romantic trip to Guadalajara, the home of mariachi music.” Dinner will consist of three courses, including your choice of pozole rojo or pico de gallo Estilo Jalisco for the first course; your choice of birria tacos, Carne en su Jugo, mole vegetariano, or pollo en mole for the second course; and your choice of churros a la mode or fried ice cream for dessert. Appetizers and tequila flights will be available as optional additional purchases. Tickets are $47.50 per person at GBod.TicketSauce.com.

6.) Along with its monthly Rock N Roll Rummage Sale, Lola’s Trailer Park (2735 W 5th St, 817-759-9100) also hosts a local farmers market upon occasion. The first one of the year is on Sun, Mar 13, from 11am to 4pm. Purchase locally grown/produced food and fresh fruits and vegetables from more than 30 vendors and food trucks while enjoying live music. This family-/petfriendly event is free to attend.

7.) Did you know there’s a Steak Cookoff Association? Not only does it exist, but it’s locally based — 8401 Jacksboro Hwy, Ste 750, 817-438-7474 — and one of its world championship events is happening in Fort Worth soon. For an entry fee of $150, face off against other local home cooks and professional grillers Fri-Sun, Mar 11-13. To check out the rules in the participation packet and to register, go to SteakCookoffs.com.

8.) Magnolia at the Modern — an ongoing series featuring critically acclaimed films screened in the auditorium of the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth (3200 Darnell St, 817-738-9215) — will soon be screening Breaking Bread. The film “follows Arab and Jewish chefs in Haifa, Israel, collaborating in the kitchen. Connected through a shared love of food, the chefs unite to celebrate their cultures and the food of their region free from political and religious boundaries. Welcome to the A-Sham Arabic Food Festival. Founded by Dr. Nof Atamna-Ismaeel, the first Muslim Arab to win Israel’s MasterChef, the festival invites Arab and Jewish chefs to celebrate their shared culinary history as they exchange stories, recipes, and techniques.”

The movie is 86 minutes long. Showtimes are 4pm, 6pm, and 8pm Fri, Mar 18; 5pm Sat, Mar 19; and noon, 2pm, and 4pm Sun, Mar 20. Tickets are $10. Sunday noon tickets are always half price.

By Jennifer Bovee

The Or i gi n a l FT W

Oyster Bar

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MARCH 2-8, 2022

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Going on 50 years. Come see us!

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Fort Worth | 612 University

D R I NeK of th Month

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Happy Hour Mon - Fri

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117 S Main St • Fort Worth

FO R T WO R T H W E E K LY

THE BIKINI BOTTOM

10%Mondays oFF To-G o CoCkTails! and Tuesdays

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Conor Dardis

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MARCH 2-8, 2022

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SAT 3/12

R .

Landon Cabarubio was immediately gobsmacked by Njia Martin’s voice when he came across her music online a couple of years ago. He was just as shocked to learn she’s from Fort Worth. The two had met earlier through a mutual friend and kept bumping into each other at local shows. After a lot of small talk about making music someday together, Martin said it’s now or never. Now, two years and a pandemic later, the R&B duo Cotinga has

RIDGLE A LOUNGE FRI 3/4

J U A N

released its debut single, “Where to Start.”

Martin and Cabarubio said they’re both super-excited about it. They’ve been working on their music for quite some time now, they said, and feel like now’s the perfect time for them to share what they’ve been up to.

“We didn’t want to rush it,” Cabarubio said, “and we wanted to make sure it was right.”

During lockdown, the two musicians — Cabarubio on keybs, guitar, and synth bass and Martin on vocals — had a lot of time to focus on their craft, Martin said.

Instead of writing about the negative effects of the pandemic, Cotinga represented a great way to just have some fun.

“We were able to create more of a positive tone and make beauty out of the situation we were in, in a sense,” Martin said. “The music is all [Cabarubio]. I take what he gives me, and I go with the vibe and write with what coexists with the

Cotinga: “We were able to create more of a positive tone and make beauty out of the situation we were in, in a sense.”

MARCH 2-8, 2022

instrumental parts.”

In addition to the vocal melodies, Martin also handles the lyrics. For the single, she went with one of Cabarubio’s ideas.

“Lyrically,” Martin said, “I couldn’t figure out what to write, and [Cabarubio] simply said, ‘Just think about seeing someone you see is hot for the first time.’

After that, I took it from there and wrote around the idea of seeing someone that immediately catches your attention and how to start a conversation along with the awkwardness of seeing someone who catches your eye.”

The result is a jazzy, synth-based ballad for the new era.

While Cabarubio recorded the tracks for “Where to Start” at his home studio, the vocals were laid down at Alpha Omega Entertainment on Fort Worth’s East Side with producer Ty Macklin, who worked with Grammy winner Erykah Badu on her 1997 debut release, Baduizm. Cotinga’s sound owes a lot to groove-based electronic indie a la Blood Orange, Men I Trust, and MorMor with a soulful ’80s DNA. The two Cotinga folks have been on the scene quite a while. Along with the long-running math-rock outfit Cleanup,

Cabarubio produces hip-hop beats as Lando Sea, and Martin has been singing since the days of The Where House on the Near Southside.

Cotinga has played out a bit, too, and their biggest gig may have been a studio session. Last June, Cotinga performed a Tiny Desk Concert. Filmed on location at Fort Worth’s Trust Print Shop, where Cabarubio works full time, the 3:50-minute performance that was part of the popular NPR series has been viewed a very respectable 612 times.

Cotinga’s next shows are a SXSW showcase in Austin on Wed., March 16, and on Sat., April 23, the duo’s playing at Doc’s Records & Vintage as part of National Record Store Day. Brian Garcia will be joining the group on drums soon, Cabarubio said.

Cotinga is also releasing a second single, “Tiger Balm,” on April 15. Martin said the new track has an “upbeat vibe.”

The band plans to keep releasing singles and maybe an album in the future, all the while continuing to play out to build on their momentum. All Martin and Cabarubio really want is for people to dig what they’re doing.

“It’s something we are both very passionate about and are excited to share,” Martin said, “and we hope people get behind us.” l

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Conor Dardis

Music

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Hearsay Boomer Tunes, Boomer Rules

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i S To c k

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MARCH 2-8, 2022

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In January’s Atlantic, music critic Ted Gioia assesses the alarming reality of the U.S. music market in the wake of a recent analysis performed by MRC Data, a music analytics firm.

Essentially, old music composes 70% of the American market, and if that isn’t dismaying enough, the market for new music is growing increasingly smaller.

“All the growth in the market is coming from old songs,” Gioia writes.

My editor had shared the piece with me and asked if I had any HSOs (Hot Sports Opinions) about it. I don’t. Well, not really. There will never be a time in the perpetuation of human history when “Love the One You’re With” and “Raspberry Beret” are not playing, and I suspect that even after we have succeeded in roasting ourselves off the face of the Earth, somewhere, somehow — perhaps sitting in a tin can high above the world — “All I Want for Christmas Is You” will bounce out of a speaker for six weeks every 12 months until the end of goddamn time.

Why? Because the modern music industry was built by and for the boomer generation, and, like crippling debt, adult diapers, and endless wars, the industry’s structures were designed

to make money and continue on as close to forever as possible. When humans finally, literally have to answer the question, “Who runs Bartertown?,” I hope that our unfortunate descendants will have the good sense to put on “We Don’t Need Another Hero.”

Gioia looks at other metrics about new music, including the declining viewership of the Grammys, an annual tradition that holds very little interest for me. And the more I read, the more I realized that on a macro scale — in a universe where “Bohemian Rhapsody” will never not fill a person’s ears — fretting about the dominance of old music is pointless because I think about who makes music on a micro, local level far more than I wonder what Boz Skaggs is up to, and when I get on those trains of thought, I wonder what drives local musicians to go to the trouble of making music in the first place, without any regard to whether or not someone will give them money in exchange for their effort.

And I think the answers vary, but the one I like best is basically “What else am I going to do with this feeling and this skillset?”

So, who cares if the market for new music is shrinking. It’s not like it was ever that broad in the first place.

And anyway, one day, the Rolling Stones will all be dead, and maybe a new band that sounds like them can slide into their spot. In the meantime, people will still learn how to play “Satisfaction” and be content with just that. — Steve Steward

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