Fort Worth Weekly // April 3-9, 2024

Owner Autumn Brackeen brings an artist’s touch and a bodyguard’s vigilance to both her Near Southside bars.

BY LAURIE JAMES

FEATURE

Saving a beautiful, unprotected retaining wall took a huge team effort.

BY JULIET GEORGE

ATE DAY8 A WEEK

A ton of fun stuff is on the rise

this eclipse Monday.

BY JENNIFER BOVEE

STAGE

Water by the Spoonful floods Circle Theatre with poignancy.

BY REESE PIERCE

MUSIC

AI scammers are impersonating indie bands, locals included.

BY STEVE STEWARD

Blue Notes

Circle Theatre’s Water by the Spoonful has heart but doesn’t make a splash.

By Reese Pierce

Night in Day

McFly’s, Second Rodeo, Grapevine, and more are celebrating the eclipse Monday.

By Jennifer Bovee

Autumn Stays

With the Boiled Owl and Tarantula Tiki, this owner fights the good fight.

By Laurie James 11

17

Come out to Open Streets on Saturday, April 13 for a day full of walking, biking, dancing, playing, eating, shopping – and absolutely no driving –on the Near Southside’s Magnolia Avenue! Join the car-free celebration now at TRAFFIC-FREE MAGNOLIA 15

Terminated

An AI-wielding scammer almost got the best of one local band.

By Steve Steward

Carrying Away the Stones

A team of mighty preservationists has saved a striking unprotected structure — piece by piece — despite the red tape.

BY JULIET GEORGE

Two nearly 90-year-old stories came together in a polychrome sandstone retaining wall. Wearing a small, forgotten commemorative plaque, it faced the athletic field on the landmarked former W.C. Stripling High School campus in Fort Worth’s Arlington Heights. Wall and plaque were inseparable — from each other and from the life and labor and social history they represented.

In a third story’s ongoing 21st-century narrative, the massive structure got in the way of an architect’s plans. Even its stones were condemned — until their reprieve arrived via a forwarded email received on January 10.

The phrase A SOUND MIND IN A SOUND BODY — inscribed on the cast-stone frieze atop Stripling’s gymnasium entrance in 1927 — conveys a translated phrase from the works of the Roman poet Juvenal (c. 55-127 C.E.). Omitted from the frieze, the final words are: AND A BRAVE HEART.

Health and life proved shockingly ephemeral for a beloved Stripling runner. Just a scratch, and Dale Benjamin Revercomb Jr. was gone within five months. Eleven more months passed, and an engraver created a plaque bearing Dale Jr.’s name and the years of his life for placement on the school’s new sandstone wall, a rustic, field-spanning, beautiful signifier of Great Depression hopes whose fate was determined only recently.

How did Revercomb die? The answer formed a cautionary tale. On the first Thursday in October 1933, track and field star Revercomb, a British immigrant’s son, sustained a minor scratch on his left elbow during football practice. He carried on without telling Coach Roscoe Minton and then fulfilled his halfback duties that evening under the arc lights at La Grave Field. There, the Stripling Yellow Jackets fought and lost to the formidable Mighty Mites (of 12 Mighty Orphans fame) from the Masonic Home of Texas.

The unattended abrasion led to a staph infection and then to pneumonia. Amputation of the left arm was considered. Recently, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram surveyed long-ago wire service coverage of Revercomb’s decline, noting that “people nationwide were pulling for him.”

When recovery looked like a lost cause, the coach, team captain, and quarterback brought a football letter sweater to his bedside at home. Not long after their visit, the athlete descended into a coma and died on February 10, 1934.

Revercomb’s death was not the only significant Stripling-related loss at the time. One day earlier, Wesley Capers Stripling Sr., the department store founder after whom the school was named and who had funded its initial landscaping and plantings, died from arteriosclerosis at the age of 74. Funerals for the two men were scheduled for the same afternoon, with burials to follow in different sections of Greenwood Cemetery.

There was no room for 1,200 students inside First Presbyterian Church, where the elderly merchant had been a prominent member. They assembled for a separate, simultaneous service in their school auditorium at 2 p.m. on February 12.

Next came the Revercomb funeral at 3:30 p.m. at G.H. Connell Memorial Baptist Church. Undertakers at the Arlington Heights branch of Harveson & Cole Funeral Home had followed the 18-year-old’s wish to be buried in that honorary letter sweater. Six Yellow Jacket football squad members served as his pallbearers, and athletes and coaches from other local high schools joined his family and a large Stripling delegation. Pastor Shervert Hughes Frazier Sr. described a youth “clean in body, clean in heart, clean in thought” who “possessed mastery of self.” An account published by The North Adams Transcript — in the Massachusetts city where Dale’s mother and her family had lived after immigrating and before coming to Texas — included more praise from the pulpit: “The minister said he had never witnessed a more courageous fight than young Revercomb had waged during the many weeks of the illness.”

Traumatized, Doris Mae Aspin Revercomb ceased speaking of her firstborn child’s life or death. Although she and husband Dale Sr. established a memorial award for a best all-around Stripling student, no framed photographs, ribbons, or keepsakes were displayed in the family’s bungalow on West 7th Street.

Palo Pinto) had formed between 323.2 and 298.9 million years before, creating part of the Pennsylvanian strata of the Carboniferous Period. (“Ferruginous,” borrowed from Latin, refers to the occurrence of rust coloring from iron oxide.) Nearby and abundant, stones in Palo Pinto and Parker counties had been harvested on a small scale since the late 19th century for building homes, courthouses, and boundary walls.

Those formations would prove equal to an unprecedented and unexpected demand for dimension stone during the Great Depression. “Just around the corner, there’s a rainbow in the sky,” promised Irving Berlin’s 1932 cheery-satirical “Let’s Have Another Cup of Coffee” (“one of the gentler anthems” of those hard times, in historian Lawrence Maslon’s opinion). As it turned out, some rainbows were earthly and earthy.

Another ceremony — a double commemoration — followed one day in January 1935. People who loved Dale Jr. gathered in front of a new wall that stonemasons had completed in 1934. A simple bronze plaque was affixed to one column of the wall’s east stairway. That done, the athletic field was dedicated to the young man.

Dale’s surviving siblings, Edwin Francis and Wilfred “Wilcie” Herbert, followed him into sports. Edwin joined a junior minor league baseball team, Howell’s Hefties, who won the Fort Worth championship in 1935, with Wilcie as its mascot. Both advanced in varsity sports at Stripling, at the new Arlington Heights High School, and at TCU.

Edwin’s lifelong passion for golf would be chronicled in Dan Jenkins’ 2014 book His Ownself: A Semi-Memoir: “I put in the [Fort Worth Press] story that Ed was the coach at Parker Junior High in real life and he won the tournament by stiffing his wedge so close to the cups, his golf ball chewed on the flagsticks.”

When they had sons of their own, the Revercomb brothers shared Dale Jr.’s story with the three nephews who would never know him. Edwin told his elder son, namesake Dale Edwin, that he had never met a finer man than his late older brother. One day, when the time seemed right, Wilcie took his only son, Alan Leslie, along with Edwin’s younger son, Kyle David, to see the plaque and explain its significance.

Something of Dale Jr. also came through in Wilcie’s 1996 Star-Telegram obituary: Wilcie “spent more time just teaching his son golf than many fathers spend with their kids in total. This forged a special bond between them. And the integrity [Alan] learned on the golf course carried over into everyday life.”

The first Revercomb Memorial Award, conferred along with a medal in May of 1935, went to Stripling senior Roy Edwin Snyder, who became a physician and surgeon, living to the age of 93.

West of Where the West Begins, great ribbons of ferruginous sandstone (regionally named

Huge sandstone-extraction orders would soon be placed. New quarries would open near railway tracks. Jobs would replace lost jobs. In Fort Worth, people who valued and needed city parks, public schools, and parklike neighborhood school campuses would number among the beneficiaries of public works programs that made use of those stones.

The FDR administration confronted the economic and humanitarian crisis immediately after the 32nd president’s first inauguration on March 4, 1933, with speed to match desperation. New Deal work programs began and — quickly — evolved.

Under the National Industrial Recovery Act, the Civil Works Administration (CWA) was established in November 1933. Its charge was to provide relief work for unemployed people through the coming winter, and, as the National Archives said, it “functioned simultaneously, and to some extent with the same personnel, with the Federal Emergency Relief Administration” (FERA). At state and local levels, the Texas Relief Administration was created to work with those two federal organizations, and the Fort Worth school board and the district’s landscaping director were also involved.

New Deal dollars activated as-yet-unfunded designs by Hare & Hare Landscape Architects of Kansas City, Missouri. Their vision for enhancement of Fort Worth parks and schoolgrounds would be made real. Stonemasons and unskilled laborers were hired, and Stripling’s campus — covering the entire long block of 2100 Clover Lane — was among the first scheduled for improvements.

Two months after Dale Jr.’s injury on the field, a landscaping team reported to the Stripling campus in December 1933. They came, in part, to level the sloping land just south of the building, and to establish asphalt-coated tennis and basketball courts there. That required a sturdy retaining wall.

Tons of sandstone arrived for the wall project. Stripling students, teachers, staff members, neighbors, and passersby saw the CWA signs and witnessed the facing, setting, and dressing of stone blocks to form the wall between the ball courts and the lower-level athletic field.

A separate and different type of wall was also crafted. At the corner of Thomas Place and El Campo Avenue, framing the southwest extremities of the field, you can still see and touch parts of the low boundary walls made from continued on page 5

Amid the ruins, the Revercomb plaque remained on the wall’s east stairway column until the second day of dismantling.

Bob Lukeman

limestone rubble that laborers excavated at the site. Workers planted trees around the perimeter.

By mid-January 1934, the CWA had employed 4,263,644 people across the country. Although many protested, that agency was liquidated after only five months. The Stripling transformation was completed under FERA oversight before the newly formed Works Progress Administration (WPA) took over such projects in 1935.

In a familiar scenario, someone comes for a significant chunk of the past, wielding an approved hammer. Landmark status fails to protect an element of a community’s built history. Due-diligence communication proves challenging when institutional and business protocols dictate nonresponse and delayed response. Even salvaging stones from a wall becomes a bureaucratic obstacle course.

Mutantur omnia, nos et mutamur in illis. (All things are changed, and we are changed among them.) — Late Latin Proverb

Fast-forwarding through decades: Stripling became a junior high school after completion of the new (second) Arlington Heights High School in 1937. In the post-WWII era, more and more early-adolescent Baby Boomers crowded inside — leading to extensions of the original back wings farther to the west in 1955 and 1958. A portable wooden classroom

“shack” or two sojourned in part of the back courtyard in the 1960s, to be bumped away by a windowless Lego-block of a second gym for what had become a middle school. At some point, Stripling’s multiple-pane, double-hung, sashed wood windows were scrapped, replaced with dual-pane, mostly masked windows.

Stripling’s historical value was asserted twice in 1988’s Tarrant County Historic Resources Survey: North Side, West Side, and Westover Hills, a volume of a series published by the Historic Preservation Council for Tarrant County. In addition to providing an illustrated history of the school, the council recommended formation of historic districts, conservation districts, and thematic groups — with a proposal that Stripling and other local pre-WWII school buildings form the Public Schools National Register Thematic Group. Introducing and narrating the series, archivist, historian, and author Carol Roark observed that “Fort Worth is fortunate to possess an unusually large collection of older school buildings in relatively intact condition.”

Sought-after architects designed many of those structures. Wiley Gulick Clarkson, Sr. chose an eclectic Georgian Revival style for Stripling, and Kindred Henry Muse built it. Among Clarkson’s extant works are the Sinclair Building, Harris Hospital, the former W.I. Cook Memorial Hospital, First (United) Methodist Church, the Masonic Temple, and the Mary Couts Burnett Library at TCU. Contractor Muse also built a gymnasium for TCU, the South Side Masonic Lodge, and Millers Mutual Fire Insurance Building in the 1920s. A registered graduate architect, James Dent Vowell, designed the two 1950s additions

“It should be noted,” she wrote, “that the designation applications for Stripling [Middle School] and Trimble [Technical High School] were prepared by students of those schools.”

The Stripling students’ efforts were rewarded. Both building and campus gained city landmark status — together — in 2002. Addressing adaptation of old buildings, the city planning staff said, “Under the 1999 bond program, historic schools are receiving technological and [Americans with Disabilities] upgrades, proving that they can be adapted to meet modern needs. Some are receiving additions that respect the historic character of the original school. Within the past five years, three former school buildings were adapted to other uses in ways that preserved character-defining features while demonstrating that new uses can be found for surplus schools.”

to the back of the Stripling building. In 2001, the city’s planning department published Eight Decades of School Construction: Historic Resources of the Fort Worth Independent School District, 1892-1961 funded partially by a grant from the National Park Service as administered by the Texas Historical Commission. Its author and consultant, historian Susan Allen Kline, credited students for guarding historical integrity.

School districts tend to value modernity over retrofitting for the sake of historic preservation. A quick Google search using the subject “school district demolishes landmark” brings forth stories from Arkansas, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Oregon, New York, and elsewhere across the country.

Witness demographer Bob Templeton’s recent statement about projected local school closures in response to declining enrollment. “That sometimes will cause a spark of return,” he has said. “When they see the new buildings and they see the improvements, it can create excitement to get back to the neighborhood public school.”

Dale Benjamin Revercomb Jr., sporting a Stripling letter sweater he had earned in track and field, lived with his family in a bungalow on West 7th Street. Courtesy

Templeton, from the housing-market research firm Zonda who has consulted with the Fort Worth school district in the past, sees this as a way for the district to consider building replacement campuses instead of maintaining old buildings.

Mike Naughton, executive director for facility planning and geographic system analysis for the FWISD, expressed appreciation for history in an interview last summer. He has been supportive of the district’s Billy W. Sills Center for Archives, which was recently allotted prominent space in the new administration and service center on Camp Bowie Boulevard.

A needs assessment study of Stripling preceded its inclusion in school bond-funded changes. “The intent was to come up with a concept plan,” Naughton said. Concerns noted in the study included classroom size, location of offices, and mechanical and technological installations. Naughton elaborated on government-mandated standards for classroom size. The Texas Education Agency’s Rules for School Safety and Facilities Standards, which took effect November 1, 2021, require larger classrooms. Earlier, he said, the requirement was 675 square feet, but it has increased to 800900 square feet. “In renovating [to increase space], we generally have to remove walls.”

Explaining a proposed $1.5 billion school bond issue to WFAA in October 2021, former superintendent Kent Scribner said, “We do believe infrastructure is equity. Infrastructure is equal opportunity, and we want all of our students playing on an even playing field across Fort Worth but also when we compare ourselves to our suburban districts. Our students deserve adequate facilities.”

Paradoxically, even as Stripling expands, a Fort Worth Report analysis from last November listed Stripling among local schools with greater capacity than enrollment. Superintendent Angélica Ramsey and her administrative staff are confronting the general decline in enrollment. While awaiting completion of a master plan — and time to study it — she has said that they will not issue any school-closure proposals.

After the bond issue passed, it was Stripling’s turn for a major addition, bringing drastic change to its landscape and to the historic symmetry of the building’s façade. FWISD contracted with Hahnfeld Hoffer Stanford for the design of a new wing, security fencing, and replacement windows. David Stanford, one of the firm’s principals, designed the building, and Janie Garner was named project manager for the addition and renovation project. (In November 2023, Grace Hebert Curtis Architects acquired the firm and renamed it Hahnfeld Hoffer Stanford, a GHC Studio. Garner’s title was elevated to that of senior architect.)

The new wing will be built to the south of the original south wing, slightly set back on the lot, and its front doors will become the school’s new main entrance. Administrative offices will relocate to the new structure’s ground floor. It will feature large classrooms, built-in technological connections, and improved access for persons with disabilities.

Offering the illusion of tradition, the firm also brought window plans to the

Returning to the schoolgrounds on March 21, 2024, Dale Edwin Revercomb met the stone experts; selected several stones for himself, his brother, and their cousin; and paid respect to Dale Jr.’s displaced plaque.

city’s preservation staff and the Historic and Cultural Landmarks Commission (HCLC). They called for installation of historical replication offset fixed windows, manufactured by Manko Window Systems, a Manhattan, Kansas-headquartered company that offers windows that can be opened, but Garner explained that the fixed-window version was chosen for its greater strength.

Since the school had already been stripped of its original wood windows, the substitute materials may be used to meet National Park Service/National Register of Historic Places preservation profiles. This can only be done if the original windows are no longer in place or are beyond repair. Ironically, then, the earlier replacements made possible the later use of pre-finished aluminum surfaces and insulation with polyamide strut thermal separators.

The replication windows will bring three benefits: full light, insulation, and traditional appearance. They, too, will require maintenance — as did the lost historic windows. Similar amends were made at Arlington Heights High School, which had also undergone a round of insensitive window treatments.

Unlike the larger and deeper campus of Arlington Heights, Stripling has a shallow backyard. The space selected for the desired new wing lay to the south. A faculty parking lot occupies much of the land to the north.

The new structure will swallow the tennis and basketball courts. Only the basketball court will be relocated. Self-guided exercise stations installed in one of the court areas are going away. By design, excavation for the new building required a space too wide to permit the 1934 retaining wall to stand.

Asked if a narrower wing could have been designed, Garner said no. Asked if an inscription would appear over the new wing’s Clover Lane entrance — as passages advocating physical and mental health and an educated democracy were selected in 1927 for the gymnasium and auditorium entrances — she said no.

The project architect approached the city’s HCLC, presenting district-approved plans for Stripling in January 2023. The wall was neither mentioned nor deliberated at staff or commission levels “as far as I know,” said Historic Preservation Officer Lorelei Willett.

I learned of the wall’s fate during the commission’s May 2023 meeting. My request to query or comment was declined for legal reasons, as I had registered to speak on another case (representing my employer). A staff member told me that I might engage with the architects outside council chambers after the commission moved on to the next case. During that conversation, I learned that the architects knew nothing of the plaque. They promised to remove it and store it in a safe place.

Returning to City Hall in July, the next time the case was on the HCLC agenda, I was allowed to speak, having registered in advance to comment about Stripling. The brief presentation concluded:

If there is no will on your part to save it, or no way, I ask that you require the careful dismantling of the stones, for re-purposing, and that the architects design and build a structure (selecting the best salvaged stones) on the campus — perhaps in that grassy northeast corner of the field nearest the place where the plaque was placed 88 years ago — with a multi-language narrative about the fallen athlete, the public works programs, and the dedicated field. I ask that all parties involved find a way to keep history and memory at 2100 Clover Lane.

Archivist Lenna Recer of the Billy W. Sills Center for Archives had indicated that, if the plaque was not wanted at the school after the wall’s demolition, it would be welcomed into the school district’s historical collection. Garner wrote that she would design a few small structures so that one might be selected and constructed (as I had suggested) using some of the stones from the wall to provide a new home for the Revercomb plaque. Stripling Principal Amy Chritian stated that she was interested in keeping the plaque at the school. Later last summer, Chritian said she had heard that one design was for a sandstone bench.

Willett confirmed in a July 2023 interview that both the Stripling building and the entire campus are landmarked. Asked why the wall was not protected, given its inclusion in the landmark status, she said, “This happens even with houses in our historic districts. Our focus

was on the school itself and how that addition was attaching to the school.”

Dealing with such issues, she said, “can be hard, because not everything can be preserved as we might like.”

One point made during the interview might lead future applicants for landmark status to seek additional protective designations for public-works elements that are, themselves, historic. Willett explained that “to our knowledge, the wall is not a designated piece.”

In what French engineer Jean Kerisel called the “battle with earth,” builders of retaining walls must anticipate the forces that will act on what they construct: the wall’s own weight, lateral earth pressure (from the soil they retain), loads on top of that soil, water, vibration, and changing humidity. Modern pressure — from institutions’ decisions about a wall like Stripling’s — is another.

After addressing the commissioners, I met for a second time with the architects, outside the council chambers, offering to try and find a stone-reclamation specialist. When and if I found one, I said, I would inform them.

After much searching and many referrals, a veteran stone specialist responded in the fall of 2023. Jason Reinhold of Cincinnati, Ohio, is a stonemason, stone reclaimer, and natural stone consultant who helps clients choose materials for their jobs. During a business trip to Texas, he detoured from Dallas to Fort Worth in November to examine the Stripling wall. He met with Bob Byers, executive vice-president of the Fort Worth Botanic Garden; Brent Rowan Hyder, then chair of the Tarrant County Historical Commission, custodian of the city’s displaced stone Frenchman’s Well, and local preservationist and adaptive restorer; and Bob Lukeman, a photographer who had, in that season, begun visually documenting the wall and a visit by two of Dale B. Revercomb Jr.’s nephews, who had come in October to pay their respects.

Byers also assessed the stones, confirmed their Palo Pinto identity, and indicated that the garden would adopt the majority — provided it could arrange to store them. Learning that the Revercomb family had requested some of the stones, both Reinhold and Byers said that they would work with them and with Garner, setting aside stones she would select for a new, small memorial. Reinhold promised to detach the plaque with care. Byers, soon afterwards, obtained permission from the Park & Recreation Department to place the stones on a city-owned storage lot elsewhere in Fort Worth.

Reinhold, who seeks more Texas clients interested in his salvaged-stone inventory and masonry skills, made an extraordinary offer. Standing near the wall with Byers, Hyder, and Lukeman on the Friday evening before Thanksgiving, he proposed to return with an assistant, professionally dismantle the sandstones, and truck them to the storage lot gratis

My first two messages to Garner about Reinhold’s offer went unanswered. After receiving a third one, she wrote to explain.

I have forwarded your past emails on to the owner’s representative for FWISD. FWISD has changed leadership, and they still have not sent me their final decision as to how best to incorporate the plaque and/or stone. continued on page 7

Jason Reinhold

Bob Lukeman

We have designed several options for them. Additionally, we have called for a certain square footage of the stone to be salvaged.

We do not contract with the demolition contractor. That is the responsibility of the general contractor, and I do not know who they are set to contract with for that work or how much of the demolition cost is due to the wall demolition.

Additionally, I have been instructed by FWISD’s owner’s representative to not communicate regarding this until they make their decision. I am just as anxious as you are to learn what they decide, but it is entirely out of my hands.

Requested basic school-district timeline information was also not forthcoming, but I pieced parts together from other sources. A staff member who answered the main telephone number for the district said she did not know the name of the general contractor or the telephone or fax number for the contractor’s office. I obtained, printed, and hand delivered insurance documentation and professional background information for Reinhold to the administrative offices. Kevin Lynch, the FWISD trustee representing the district encompassing Stripling, did not respond to my twice-sent email asking for his support. A district staff member then forwarded it to him in case the first two had landed in a spam folder, but Lynch did not reply.

In early January 2024, Reinhold heard

CWA stonemasons and assistants crafted the Stripling retaining wall in 1933 while other laborers created the new tennis and basketball courts. Designed by landscape architects Hare & Hare of Kansas City, Missouri, the wall related historically and materially to the Municipal Rose Garden within the Fort Worth Botanic Garden; to the massive terrace along the west side of North Hi-Mount Elementary School; to the stonemasonry at Lily B. Clayton Elementary School; and to other Fort Worth school and park landscape structures and features.

from Nate Moser, an owner’s representative who works with PROCEDEO, the district’s general contractor for the 2021 bond-funded capital improvement program, and with general contractor SEDALCO. It seemed that they might allow Reinhold to remove the stones from the wall. I wrote to the representative but received no answer at that point. On January

9, Moser again contacted Reinhold to confirm permission. Reinhold called and forwarded the news to me on January 10.

It is a long haul from Cincinnati to Cowtown. Reinhold requested assistance with basic lodging for a few days. He also asked for help finding access to a rubber-track skid loader with a set of forks and a bucket since he

could not carry his own Bobcat 979 miles and back without damaging his truck trailer.

Initial efforts to find someone with a vacant, habitable space to host two men and a well-behaved dog and with permission to park the truck and trailer on the street failed. Charles Murphy, active member of the Arlington Heights Neighborhood Association (AHNA), made many inquiries. Christina Patoski, past president of the AHNA, advised me to appeal to nonprofits and foundations. One local nonprofit submitted a grant request — on Reinhold’s behalf — to a grantmaking group that has not announced a decision. The Botanic Garden administrator committed to securing use of the needed machinery.

Moser had to wait for a demolition permit from the city. Reinhold had planned to be available in early February, but Moser could not signal to him to head south until the delayed permit came through. When it did, in March, illness prevented the stonemason from leaving immediately, but he arrived in the late afternoon of March 18.

Reinhold drove first to the campus then found lodging. The next morning, he drove to meet his assistant, José García, also of Cincinnati, at DFW airport. Reinhold rented equipment on his own to expedite matters. The two worked day and night from March 19 through March 21, salvaging 30 tons — about 80% of the historic materials — from the wall, loading them into metal cages and layering most with cardboard. On the last day, they extracted about 100 more

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Courtesy the Billy W. Sills Center for Archives, Fort Worth Independent School District

sandstones from a related section along part of Clover Lane — those not already enclosed within the contractors’ fencing. Reinhold said Moser and the SEDALCO site superintendent, Mike Brown, were very accommodating.

Describing the CWA stonemasons’ workmanship, Reinhold said, “it was true hand-cut/ hammer-dressed ‘snecked rubble’ — a random resisting pattern of squared and rectangular-shaped stones installed in a two-stones-overone-stone pattern, with the sneck stone being the small square stone that breaks the pattern up. The mortar joints were tight and consistent, and all the stones were installed level.”

The Botanic Garden’s Byers arranged for transport of the stones away from the campus, overseen by Darrell Satchell, the garden’s trades and security manager. The workers transferred them onto 13 pallets. That additional assistance freed the volunteers to continue their labor. The city’s earlier permission to use a service center lot was withdrawn, so the stones traveled to a section of land the Botanic Garden has leased from the forestry division.

By the time the work was done, Reinhold had covered fuel, lodging, and machine-rental costs, as well as his assistant’s airfare. He had also subtracted days from his own work in Cincinnati and elsewhere.

During a conversation at the site, on the last day of stone reclamation work, I learned that the plans to build a bench or one of the other small structures that Janie Garner had designed — faced with stones she would select from the wall as the plaque’s new home — might have been scrapped by the district.

As a final blow to history and craftsmanship, the plans call for a replacement retaining wall to be built between the new wing and the athletic field. The possible destination for the plaque, I was told, is the new concrete wall, with cast-stone framing.

It was time to write to the project architect, requesting to see her designs; to an administrator, asking for reconsideration; and, perhaps, it was time to look for a local stonemason willing to create that smaller monument facing the field — with permission from the district and contractor.

On March 26, the project architect wrote that she understood that the idea of such a memorial structure had been rejected by Kellie Spencer, the school district’s deputy superintendent for operations. However, Spencer wrote to me later that day and said, “We are evaluating all options and are open to your suggestions.”

It seemed, then, that the discarded past might yet find a place of honor on that dedicated field.

In the case of the Stripling wall, months were spent on an end-stage scramble to — at least — prevent the crushing and trashing of its historic materials. Bringing together a stone specialist, an enlightened park administrator, and an institution that might or might not allow careful removal of stones finally worked.

Susan Allen Kline, Jerre Tracy, Bob Lukeman, Christina Patoski, Lenna Recer, Pamela Woodson, Peggy Perazzo, and still others helped immeasurably. Libby Willis, Brent Hyder, Ted Gupton, Dale Edwin Revercomb — and still others — enriched the research and the effort.

Nate Moser’s messages carried good news. Still, only the detached stones and the bronze rectangle now remain of something built to last and something making visible the name and years of a person’s life.

Might the district turn to other local campuses and design away their New Deal structures and features? Preservationists already check agendas and address boards, planning administrators, and commissions. Historic Fort Worth, led by Executive Director Jerre Tracy, makes public an annual list of endangered places. Without public discussion of how a wall became expendable, that element nearly escaped notice. Anyone can organize and speak in advance of demolition votes, but the devils in the details can elude public attention.

The Fort Worth Botanic Garden now becomes both refuge and repository for the dismantled Stripling stones. Their use as replacements for damaged garden stones, and for compatible new stonemasonry, will reunite historically and materially related stones. Without Byers and Reinhold, there would have been no way to save them. As Kline wrote, all features within the Municipal Rose Garden “were unified by the use of rough-faced Palo Pinto sandstone. The rustic nature of the stone contrasted with the formality of the rose beds.”

The Stripling wall could not remain intact once three entities had approved plans for an additional building. Had the retaining wall been designated as a special feature within the landmarked campus, it might have been spared. What will the district and city decide if demolition of the essential sandstone terrace at North Hi-Mount Elementary School should be ordered? That school, too, is landmarked, but the Stripling outcome gives cause for concern.

When addressing the Fort Worth school board in late January, I exceeded my three minutes. Dale Revercomb, in attendance and having also registered to speak, graciously devoted his three minutes to delivering the rest of my remarks, concluding, “Next time, please don’t allow a situation in which all the keepers of history can do is ask permission to carry away the stones.” l

One sunny Saturday in October 2023, standing before the wall with brother Kyle, Dale Revercomb considered the possibility that a stone specialist might be allowed to rescue the plaque and the sandstone blocks.

“I would like to have some of those stones,” Dale said.

Later, his brother and their cousin Alan indicated the same desire.

Author, historian, and preservationist Juliet George is a W.C. Stripling Junior High School alumna and lives two blocks from the Stripling campus with her husband.

This column reflects the opinions and fact-gathering of the author(s) and only the author(s) and not the Fort Worth Weekly. To submit a column, please email Editor Anthony Mariani at Anthony@FWWeekly.com. He will

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Advantages of Implementing Solar Panels for Residential Energy Needs

By Fort Worth Weekly Classifieds

In light of the pressing issues of climate change and environmental degradation, the transition to renewable energy sources is more than just a passing trend. It is an absolute necessity. Compared to other options, solar power stands out due to its low cost, high efficiency, and negligible environmental impact.

In addition to helping the environ ment, homeowners who put solar panels on their rooftops also get sustainable electrici ty. Solar panels have the potential to reduce our energy demand and contribute to a sustainable future; this essay will explore the many ways in which they could do so.

The Growth of Solar Power Is Unprecedented

An increasing number of individuals are electing to power their homes with solar en ergy, which demonstrates the shift towards more ecologically conscious and sustainable methods of living. As a society, we are more determined than ever to reduce our reliance on fossil fuels, which is driving technolog ical advancements that make solar panels more efficient and affordable.

One more thing happening right now is that people are starting to care more about the environment. Solar power has the ability to lower electricity prices and carbon emissions, which is attracting more and more home owners. The increasing number of residential communities installing rooftop solar panels is a sign of the rising trend towards energy independence. Solar panels are becoming more popular as a means for households to fulfill their energy needs; this trend shows that individuals are increasingly concerned about environmental impact and taking responsibili ty for their own energy consumption.

generate green power without harming the environment by converting solar energy into something usable. Every person can do their part to combat climate change by taking action at home to reduce their carbon footprint.

A possible increase in a home’s market value is one possible advantage of installing solar panels. Solar homes are becoming increasingly popular as a result of the money saved on energy expenses and the positive impact on the environment.

Unlike traditional power plants, homeowners who switch to solar energy have more say over their energy usage. Power outages, price hikes, and the unpredictability of conventional energy markets are all things that people can try to avoid by producing their own electricity.

Canva

Has all this talk about the eclipse got you thinking about solar power? You are not alone

Solar panel installation is a smart financial move for homeowners who wish to reduce expenses, increase property value, and help the environment.

Solar Panels for Residential Use: The Key Benefits

The many benefits of solar panels over more conventional power sources are quickly making them the go-to option for home energy. Among the many advantages, here are just a few:

An attractive feature of solar panels is its ability to drastically cut down on elec tricity bills. As a result of using less power from the grid, monthly electricity costs for households that generate their own power are lower. Even though solar panel installa tion could be costly, the money you save in the long run will make up for it.

An excellent feature about solar panels is how gentle they are on the environment. They

Possible Deductions and Chances to Save

Numerous federal, state, and local governments have recognized the numerous benefits of solar power and have begun to offer financial incentives to homeowners who opt to install solar panels. These subsidies can assist lower the initial investment in solar panel systems, making them more affordable for more individuals.

Read the rest of this article on FWWeekly.com in Living Local under the Blotch drop-down. To read about events during the solar eclipse or recommendations for employers during Monday’s planetary event, see Night & Day on Page 12, Ate Day8 a Week on Page 15, and Classifieds on Page 22.

Flowers

Saturday, April 13

10–11:30 a.m. | Free Event for families with children of all ages who are on the autism spectrum discovering and making artwork!

Free Event for Neurodivergent Adults

Thursday, April 18 5:30–7:30 p.m. | Free

Neurodivergent adults and their guests are invited to participate in sensory-friendly and social event exploring artwork and engaging in hands-on art activities.

Learn

more about Carter Access events:

STAGE

Room to Breathe

Circle Theatre’s Water by the Spoonful may lack direction but flows easily.

BY REESE PIERCE

While lecturing to her students about John Coltrane’s seminal 1965 album A Love Supreme, Yazmin Ortiz, a 29-year-old Puerta Rican adjunct professor of music, says, “Dissonance is still a gateway to resolution. … The ugliness bore not promise of a happy ending. The ugliness became an end to itself. … It was called ‘free jazz,’ but freedom is a hard thing to express musically without spinning into noise.”

These lines prove to be an excellent metaphor for the broken souls from different backgrounds searching for connection and meaning in an online chat room for addiction recovery, but they also characterize the sometimes-hectic nature of Circle Theatre’s ambitious production of Water by the Spoonful, in which the dissonance proves to be a little too much.

Quiara Alegria Hudes’ Pulitzer Prizewinning drama that premiered in New York City in 2011 follows Elliot Ortiz (Eric Garcia) as he copes with the trauma he experienced as a U.S. solider in Iraq. The play works in two separate lines that eventually merge. One thread follows Elliot and cousin Yazmin (Tamika Sanders) as they help each other process loss and familial issues, while the other thread tracks Elliot’s mother, Odessa Ortiz (Caroline Rivera), as she runs the chat

room for addicts. The two seemingly different threads, much like free jazz, wind along their own paths and then converge as this look at grief, family trauma, and belonging crescendos and resolves.

Circle Theatre’s choice to produce this play is a bold one. The theatre, a quaint, welcoming space in Sundance Square, houses its productions black box-style below street level, and while an excellent venue, it is also small. The size of the stage matters in a production like this, which encapsulates so many characters in several different locations. This is accomplished by populating the perimeter of the stage with the chat room actors and their respective locales. Circle’s Kevin Brown has designed a novel way to allow each character to exist alone and still be part of an online community. Each actor is situated on a riser populated by a desk or couch or some other element that characterizes them. At the bottom of the risers, their chat names appear in large lettering: Haikumom, Orangutan, Chutes&Ladders, and Fountainhead. A design element that works well is that each riser lights up when the character logs in with an accompanying computer chime signaling to the others in the chat room that a new person has arrived. At no point is there confusion about how this complicated chat room device works.

The focal point of the play does not work as well. It’s never clear exactly whose story this is. You could say it’s Elliot’s, because his family drives most of the narrative, but the ensemble is central to the thematic turns. Unfortunately, the thread of this story that follows Elliot and Yazmin does not afford them the same defining setting as their chat room counterparts, and the cousins’ space is severely limited. This makes their story harder to follow and leaves Garcia and Sanders with nothing to work off besides their own character choices. For these two characters, the unfolding story happens in various locations. From Philadelphia to Puerto Rico, the audience is left to imagine the setting as the two actors are stuck in the vacuum created by the well-defined chat room perimeter.

All of the chat room members give strong performances. Odessa/Haikumom balances the troubling dichotomy of her personality well. She is a mother figure and counselor to those in the chat room and an absentee mother to Elliot, and this tension works as a web that ties each part of the story together. Orangutan (Thi Le), a late twentysomething living abroad and trying to get in touch with her Japanese roots, is bright as she works to find belonging both in a foreign country and in the chat room. Chutes&Ladders (J.R. Bradford) turns out one of the strongest performances as the “say it as it is” IRS agent. He electrifies

the chat room discussion, as he calls out each member and derides the newcomer not willing to be honest with himself. This new guy, Fountainhead (Paul T. Taylor), is a stand-in for the audience as he navigates the chat room’s various personalities. His strong performance portraying his current cycle of addiction and pain fuels much of the banter.

Like a complicated jazz piece, there isn’t always a recognizable harmony in Hudes’ script. The show is rather long and complicated as it takes a while for the dissonance to resolve, but once it does, it makes for a satisfying resolution. l

TayStan Photography

Tamika Sanders helps her character’s cousin find some sort of peace in Water by the Spoonful

TayStan Photography

CONNECT WITH ART THROUGH COCKTAILS, CONVERSATIONS, AND CREATIVITY.

Each month you’ll find something different—from performances, artist talks, and unique tours to art making, music, and films.

APRIL 11 | 5-8 P.M. FREE Mysteries & Motives

Discover the riveting tales behind the renowned robberies, perplexing forgeries, and thrilling heists that have punctuated American art history. LEARN

NIGHT&DAY

A four-day celebration seeking to “foster, celebrate, and sustain” Fort Worth’s hospitality community, the Fort Worth Food + Wine Festival is finally here. Events include Tacos + Tequila today; the Main Event on Sat; Rise + Shine and Burgers, Brews & Blues on Sun; and Ring of Fire on Mon. Individual tickets start at $89 at FWFWF.org. For $635, you can also buy the Weekender pass, which includes early entry to all events, or the Kit for $390, which includes discounted general admission to everything.

This weekend, 100 artists from around the country will participate in the 10th annual South Street Art Festival (301 E South St, Arlington, 817797-2424) 4pm-8pm Fri, 11am-8pm Sat, and 11am-5pm Sun. Local and regional artisans will sell original works in just about every medium (ceramic, drawing, fiber, glass, jewelry, leather, metal, mixed media, painting, photography, sculpture, and wood). Blue Bayour, Bnois King Band, Knice 2 Know Band, Jace Bersin Trio, September Moon, and The Vintage Yell will perform, and there’ll be food from Heaven’s Cakes, Big D Kettle Corn, Knights of Columbus, Uptown Waffle Co., JJ’s Concessions, Sterling’s BBQ, Family Cajun By-You, and Sticks-N-Things, or stop in at one of downtown Arlington’s restaurants. There is no cost to attend. For band set times and more info, visit SouthStreetFest.com.

As we mentioned in last week’s Zest 2024, Tarrant Area Food Bank offers a free mobile food pantry in the parking lot of the Potter’s House Church (1270 Woodhaven Blvd, Fort Worth, 817288-9970) 9am-11am on the first Saturday of the month, including today. This event

helps provide healthy food options for the church’s neighborhood, which is considered a food desert, meaning the area has limited access to affordable and nutritious food compared to a food oasis, where there is greater access to supermarkets with fresh foods. Another close option is to visit Town Talk Foods (121 N Beach St, Fort Worth, 817-831-6136), a deep-discount grocery outlet that sells seconds and surplus items for pennies on the dollar.

If you still need to buy a membership to the Fort Worth Botanic Garden (3220 Botanic Garden Blvd, Fort Worth, 817-463-4160), now would be an excellent time. With three events over four days, you may find yourself there all weekend. The first is the annual Spring Plant Sale in the Grove area, accessible via Parking Lot D (3408 W Fwy). Garden members can attend a presale 2pm-6:30pm Thu. Then, the general public is welcome 1pm-6:30pm Fri and 9am-3pm Sat. The fee is $15, but you receive a $15 voucher to use to purchase plants. Registration is required at FWBG.org.

Also at the garden, the Garden Club Council of Fort Worth hosts Flowercade, an annual expo of horticulture exhibits and educational displays about gardening and the environment, noon-5pm Sat and 11am-4pm Sun. This event is inside the garden center, so you’ll need to purchase a $12 general admission ticket at FWBG.org. There will also be a Wandering Roots market earlier in the day, from 9am to 4pm Sat-Sun.

On Monday from 10am to 3pm, you are also invited back to the Botanic Garden (or to partner museum the Fort Worth Museum of Science & History at 1600 Gendy St) to “immerse yourself in nature as the moon dances across the sun, creating a magical

Fort Worth Food + Wine Festival time is here.

Courtesy Fort Worth Food + Wine Foundation

Generous support provided by Art Bridges Foundation’s Access for All program.

N&D

continued from page 10

twilight spectacle never to be forgotten.” There are solar eclipse-related activities at both locations, so you may want a general admission ticket for $12 from FWBG.org or FortWorthMuseum.org. You can also view it for free on the grounds without entering the events. Solar eclipse glasses will be on sale for $3. The time of totality is 1:41pm.

“Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn about this eclipse!” If that’s really how you feel, then maybe go see Gone With the Wind, playing in theaters Sun, Mon, and today in honor of its 85th anniversary. Nearest to our Weekly office, it’s screening at Movie Tavern West 7th in Artisan Circle (2872 Crockett St, Fort Worth, 682-503-8101) for $13.91 per ticket on Fandango.com. For screening times and locations near you, visit FathomEvents.com/Events.

For those who do care about the oncein-a-lifetime planetary event today, along with the garden and museum mentioned above, everybody everywhere will be watching together. For eight great eclipsethemed food and booze happenings, see our ATE DAY8 a Week column in this week’s Eats & Drinks section. A great map of the “path of totality” can be found at NSO.edu/ for-public/eclipse-map-2024/.

An Evening with Planned Parenthood at Bass Performance Hall (525 Commerce St, Fort Worth, 817-212-4280) 6pm-8:30pm will feature an “inspiring, mission-driven program” with craft cocktails and hors d’oeuvres. Organizers say the goal is to “take strides towards a world in which everyone can access quality health care and information to live their lives fully, without judgment.” Amen to that. Tickets start at $100 at WeArePlannedParenthood.org.

By

Enjoy a plant sale, horticulture expo, and vendor market, plus the eclipse, at the Fort Worth Botanic Garden.

Courtesy Fort Worth Botanic Garden

Gone With the Wind is screening in various theaters Sun, Mon, and Wed for its 85th anniversary.

Courtesy ScreenRant.com

Monday 8

Tuesday 9

Jennifer Bovee

restrooms and private food and drink options and will go home with commemorative laminate eclipse glasses. There will also be sampling opportunities from sponsors at the BeatBox Beverages Solar Lounge. For more information, including camping options and itineraries, visit SeeTexasEclipse.com.

5.) You can also head to Bowie and join Reviving Real Foods Farm (359 Lama Rd, Bowie, RevivingRealFoods.com) for its Tipsy Eclipsey Lunch & Wine Spectacular 11:30pm-2:30pm Mon. This four-course lunch includes two glasses of Texas wine, cheese, salad, soup, and dessert, plus a farm tour. ISO-certified glasses are also included for all to view the eclipse. Tickets are $95 per person at DelveExperiences.com.

Don’t let the potentially cloudy weather eclipse your good time (hey-oh!) during the massive planetary event on Monday. Go where there’s good grub and a great time, then hope for the best. Here are eight choices for your consideration. The eclipse begins at 12:23pm, reaches totality at 1:41pm-1:43pm, and then ends at 3:02pm.

1.) Historic Grapevine invites families to gather in the Historic Main Street District to witness this extraordinary event and share the excitement with fellow nature enthusiasts on Monday. Along with themed music, guests can take pictures with costumed galactic characters. Chocolate Moonshine (520 S Main St, Ste 207, Grapevine, 817-5276499) has a special Eclipse Alcohol-Infused Popsicle for sale, Kilwins (338 S Main St, Grapevine, 817-527-7676) is whipping up Eclipse Cookies, and Weinberger’s Deli (601 S Main St, Grapevine, 817-416-5577) will serve the Blackout Sandwich, just to name a few foodie finds. For more info, visit GrapevineTexasUSA.com/Eclipse.

2.) Hotel Vin (215 E Dallas Dr, Grapevine, 817-796-9696) is celebrating the occasion

at its on-site WineYard Bar + Grille with the Flavors of the Eclipse Bourbon Dinner 6pm-9pm this Thu. Enjoy hand-crafted Eclipse Bourbon by Blackland Distillery, a feast with sides, family-style appetizers and salads, and a plated dessert. Tickets are $113.79 on Eventbrite.com.

3.) McFly’s Pub (6104 LTLG Barnett Rd, Fort Worth, 817-744-8272) is opening early for a Solar Eclipse Watch Party at noon Mon. (They normally open at 3pm.) There will be brunch and lunch options, happy hour drink specials, and free eclipse glasses for everyone.

4.) If you’re taking Monday off and are on the hunt for a getaway, local art collective Meow Wolf offers Meow Wolf Presents: Gone Fishing at the Texas Eclipse Festival at Reveille Peak Ranch (105 CR 114, Burnet, 512-755-1177) Fri-Tue. Two-day general admission tickets start at $249, but the VIP package provides much more at $469. Along with the 200 live performances across seven stages, educational class opportunities, and immersive and visual art experiences accessible to all, VIP guests have private

6.) Second Rodeo Brewing (122 E Exchange Av, Ste 340, Fort Worth, 877-517-7548) invites you to enjoy the view of the eclipse from its enclosed patio (with a retractable roof) or in the outdoor seating area. There will be free eclipse glasses while supplies last, live music, and the regular food and drink menu.

7.) There’s a Solar Eclipse Party 11am11:30pm Mon at Truckyard Alliance (3101 Prairie Vista Dr, Fort Worth, 877-221-3936) with free souvenirs, eclipse glasses, and live local music. This is a free event, but you’ll need to download a ticket at Eventbrite.com. Upon checkout, you’ll have the opportunity to add an “I Got Mooned” T-shirt starting at $20 while supplies last. It’s all-ages until 9pm, then it goes 21+. There will be Cosmic Cocktails and other themed drinks, food trucks, and Truckyard cheesesteaks available for purchase.

8.) Visit Irving hosts Total Eclipse in the Park at Levy Plaza (501 E Las Colinas Blvd, Irving, 972-721-2501), a free event from noon to 3pm Mon with the maximum viewing time in Irving at 1:42pm. Enjoy live music, food trucks, selfie opportunities, and complimentary souvenir eclipse glasses when you RSVP on Eventbrite.com. Glasses of Champagne Supernova and cans of Blue Moon will be available for purchase. Save room for free MoonPies and a piece of the World’s Largest Edible MoonPie, which will weigh about 180 pounds and be 5 feet in diameter. Dude!

Partake in the World’s Largest Edible MoonPie in Irving Monday.

Courtesy MoonPie

Enjoy some Texas wine, cheese, salad, soup, and dessert at Reviving Real Foods in Bowie Monday.

Courtesy DelveExperiences.com

EATS & drinks

Flying High

Owner Autumn Brackeen

brings an artist’s touch and a bodyguard’s vigilance to both her Near Southside bars.

BY LAURIE JAMES

While the Boiled Owl Tavern wasn’t the first hangout to appear during West Magnolia Avenue’s boom over the last two decades –– Benito’s, the Chat Room, and King Tut predate almost everything else there –– 12 years of success this past February puts the Owl’s ownership in the position of venerable Near Southside elders, and Autumn Brackeen was one of the first women to own a bar in Fort Worth. Having a male co-owner, Jason Alford, whom she met in school in

HEB, has turned out to be useful. If a little odd. Brackeen is the one with two decades of service-industry experience and knowledge about ordering, inventory, and promotions, but in the beginning, she said that when she and her co-owner met with people about the Owl, the questions were directed at Alford, who had none of her experience — but did have a Y chromosome.

“I am pretty outspoken,” Brackeen told me. “I don’t let myself be ignored or underestimated.”

When I caught up with her, she was visiting New York City, where she lived from 2000 to 2007. She’s also a mixed-media artist, and she’s using her sabbatical “to buckle down away from distractions and create some things. It’s a change of scenery, and I needed that to rev my energy.”

New York was where she got her service industry start, at bars not frequented by celebrities and stockbrokers but by the blue-collar people from the neighborhoods. Brackeen was working in early September 2001 and through the dark days that followed the attacks on the World Trade Center towers.

“That actually brought everyone out to the bars,” Brackeen said.

Her customers were the ones digging people out of the rubble, and they came to the bar to cry, commiserate, and perhaps drink to forget.

“We were the regular bar of one of the fire precincts that got hit hard,” she said.

Brackeen moved back home the year she turned 30 and worked a few “real” jobs. A stint in a local city animal rescue made

up her mind that she’d spent enough time working for other people. Rescuing and rehabbing animals was “rewarding but

emotionally taxing,” she said. “There was lot of compassion fatigue in that. It’s good continued on page 19

Autumn Brackeen, with brother Cody Brackeen, a manager at Tarantula Tiki Lounge: “I have the best staff of any bar or restaurant in Fort Worth.” Courtesy Autumn Brackeen

to be where there’s just regular fatigue.”

Casting around for ideas, Brackeen asked Alford if he was up for a career change. She said they settled on Magnolia for their fledgling bar in part because the Near Southside strip was one of the first examples of relative walkability in Fort Worth. Brackeen missed that about New York City, where you could walk from your house or apartment to a restaurant for dinner, then to another for dessert, coffee, or a nightcap, and then back home.

Eight years after opening The Boiled Owl, Brackeen launched Tarantula Tiki Lounge with four partners, including Alford and three long-term Owl bartenders. The Tarantula is not far from the Owl, in another walkable neighborhood, the Near Southside’s SoMA, or South Main Village.

“Boiled as an owl” is apparently a Victorian-era expression describing someone in their cups, and allegedly Alford landed on that as the name. The owl theme caught on, and so did the Pride flags. Brackeen said the staff left them up past June one year “because why not? That flag says two things: Everyone is accepted, and hateful behaviors are not.”

Over the last decade, Brackeen has hosted events and fundraisers for Planned Parenthood, the Texas Equal Access fund for reproductive health care, and the Trans

Pride Initiative, and her staff has been active in registering people to vote.

Brackeen’s zero-tolerance policy for “nonsense” in her bars, whether that’s overt sexism, racism, or inappropriate or threatening behavior, comes in part from her time in NYC. There’s a special kind of aggro assholery that happens when a guy’s had a few too many and tries to invite himself to sit and stay too long. Even a woman declining a drink from a man can cause the allegedly grown-up dude to scream like a toddler who needs a nap, or a spanking, and her staffers at both places are known for keeping women safe.

“Women should be able to hang out and drink beer and listen to music without

worrying about it,” she said.

The Tarantula opened in March 2020 and promptly closed 10 days in during the early days of the COVID pandemic.

“We reopened in October,” Brackeen said. “It’s a blur and a hard time for me to remember.”

Brackeen and her crew enjoyed 10 days of sales “and then all of the debt that came with opening.”

Fortunately, she said her landlord was willing to work with her in those first uncertain months.

“We were lucky to have a reputable landlord who cares about the neighborhood, not just the building,” she said.

Unlike Brackeen’s experience in New York in the aftermath of September 11, in those early COVID days, people weren’t grieving and mourning together. People became “divisive and combative.”

When I asked Brackeen if the bar scene is as hand-to-mouth as restaurants, she didn’t think too long before answering. “I don’t know of any service industry or retail establishment having a great time right now. Costs for alcohol and supplies have increased by about 30%. None of us are having record-breaking sales right now.”

Brackeen said her employees and co-workers are the difference-makers in an industry where a friendly go-to face can make or break a night’s experience.

“I have the best staff of any bar or restaurant in Fort Worth,” she said. “You don’t see a place have the limited [staff] turnover we’ve had unless people feel they

are appreciated. They care about each other and the customers.”

Dealing with the kind of aggression that comes out of people –– no matter which chromosome pairs they have –– is itself a challenge. Cultivating staffers who can cut off folks on the tipsy side is the key to keeping everyone safe, she said, adding that she’s experimenting with options to keep people going out even if they’re not drinking. With so many non-booze options like CBD seltzers and zero-proof beer, she said, “We’re trying to offer what people want, so they don’t feel like it’s either stay in or party all night. We’re not serving holy water. You have to be diligent. Your customers are more vulnerable than people at a coffeeshop.” l

Courtesy Autumn Brackeen Instagram

Courtesy Autumn Brackeen Instagram

RIDGLEA THEATER

FRI 4/5 ALEXA “SICK OF YOU”

SAT 4/6 FIGHTING WORDS

BOXING, MMA & MUAY THAI

SAT 4/20 TEXAN

TWILIGHT GALA

SAT 4/27 CARVIN JONES

SPECIAL 35TH ANNIVERSARY SHOW

RIDGLEA ROOM

FRI 4/12 MR. TIMBERLAKE

FRI 4/26 DEWAYNE, HORROR1X, BRUCE GEEZUS AND MORE!

SAT 4/27 INTRICACY DFW: WASSU

RIDGLEA LOUNGE

FRI 4/5 MAX HILL BAND KICKING FENCES, METONIC & MORE!

FRI 4/19 DANK, THE P-TOWN SKANKS, JERRY WAYNE AND MORE!

MUSIC

Almost Infamous

Local rockers fight back after they’re impersonated by Spanish scammers with AI tech.

BY STEVE STEWARD

I don’t know how much content you’ve consumed about the growing threat of artificial intelligence, but I am of the mind that we, as a species, are pretty much screwed. What can legislation do to halt a machine’s drive to achieve self-awareness? What can stop the ambitions of programmers and engineers who don’t care that a sentient computer’s goals and needs might be at direct odds with human survival? Probably nothing, and if that’s the case, then I’d prefer to just skip to the part of human history when the Terminators show up, because right now, it seems like AI is still being used for decidedly human, definitely scammy pursuits. Iron Man might be planning his vengeance, but until that comes, Meatbag Man is here to use the robots to rip off his fellow homo sapiens.

Many of the words I’ve read about AI portray the tech as something that is dangerous because it can easily fool a human mind that doesn’t pay a ton of attention to people’s fingers and titillate the imagination of anyone who does. That an AI might replicate a person’s voice or likeness is frightening on its own, but what makes that tech actually offensive is that rather than a machine initiating these kinds of ruses for some unknown, nefarious end, it’s still actually just some scuzzy human grifter pulling the proverbial strings to make a buck.

As a case in point, Dallas rock ’n’ rollers The Infamists recently discovered that new music attributed to them, that they did not record, that was decidedly non-Infamist-sounding, debuted on Spotify under the band’s own name.

Perusing The Infamists’ social media, I got the impression that the baloney songs sounded terrible. In a phone interview, Infamists bassist Spencer Douglas Wharton told me how a couple weeks ago, when he opened his Facebook account, he was treated to a passel of messages and comments from his band’s fans, most of whom were confused about some new music they had allegedly released.

“People we know hit us up and were like, ‘Did you fire some members? That didn’t sound like [frontman] Riley [Rogers] singing. And the recording itself was bad.’ I would be ashamed if my band sounded that way. People were concerned with the drop in song quality. It was like a half-job done on somebody’s laptop in an apartment.”

The fake album, which Wharton described as unmastered, sloppily mixed, rife with autotune, and with lyrics that sounded like they were written by Chat GPT, was called Death Note. What happened is akin to how a cuckoo lays its eggs in another bird’s nest to be reared by the unwitting parents. In this case, rather than an interloping cuckoo chick stealing worms from a baby robin’s mouth or whatever, it’s a shady distribution company stealing plays and royalties from a small, independent band. Wharton declined to disclose the amount of monthly revenue The Infamists earn from streaming royalties, but he estimated they probably get 500 streams per week. Aside from whatever that money is, that level of streaming is important because the streamed songs put the band in the service’s algorithm, thereby exposing it to more listeners. This traction is presumably what put the band on the scammy distro company’s radar.

Then, using an existing artist ID, the distro company puts up some hastily crafted tunes under the existing artist’s name, hoping to siphon streams and revenue from that band’s listeners. Wharton was unsure as to how these rogue distro companies get ahold of the artist IDs, though not for lack of asking. Unfortunately, while his and his bandmates’ investigation provided some answers, it ended up causing a different issue.

“First, we started looking for the copyright,” Wharton said. “They couldn’t use our name for the copyright, so that was a dead end. Then we had to talk to support, told them, ‘Hey, this isn’t us. Can you take this off?’ ”

Spotify complied. After a fashion. The company separated Death Note from The Infamists’ profile, making the album its

own profile. “People would search for us, and that would go to the [imposter] account because it was newer.”

This matters. “For a local band with no money behind it, 500 streams a week adds up. If you do what they did to us to, say, 10 or 12 bands, you can make money from it. … We did online digging, and we found other bands across the world — one was from Switzerland, another from Ghana — that this happened to.”

These other bands identified the company, a distribution racket in Spain. “I don’t want to name names because I don’t want to start any [legal wrangling], but we threatened legal action, consulted four or five different lawyers. Spotify doesn’t really look at the metadata to see if a song is AI generated. They don’t vet it. … Once we figured out who it was, it was easy to take it down. But bands who aren’t famous will face this. Realistically, it would be hard to afford a lawyer. And the company was in Spain, so I don’t even know how to go about legal action.”

Getting Death Note removed from Amazon, Apple Music, Deezer, Spotify, Tidal, YouTube, and all the rest took about two weeks, Wharton said, in part because the Barcelona-based distribution company at first denied any culpability until The Infamists threatened legal action.

“It was a big headache for two weeks,” Wharton said. “Just sitting at home fuming about fighting the robots. … AI is not a thing that is legislated and regulated, and it hurts small artists the most. This is never gonna happen to Taylor Swift or the [Rolling] Stones or Beyonce. It’ll just happen to artists who are generating just enough income. On scale, it’s not hard to steal money. That band in Ghana has over a million followers, and they don’t even have the resources for a lawyer.”

Though the whole episode didn’t cost the band much revenue — Spotify’s payouts are laughably meager when you aren’t Beyonce or the Stones — Wharton and his bandmates learned an ominous lesson. At the end of a Facebook post detailing their ordeal, they wrote this: “Having another artist searchable on the internet with our band name not only hijacks our identity/ royalties on streaming platforms, but it also confuses our audience into thinking we have new music out, and it misinforms potential new fans or talent buyers that might discover us because AI-generated music SUCKS, and we do not want anyone discouraged from becoming an active fan by thinking it was made by us. We have been dealing with the fallout from this scam for two weeks. Sorry that we had to be the ones to pull the fire alarm, but artificial intelligence is most likely going to be the most challenging thing that creatives face in 2024. Not venue merch cuts and not pay-to-play ticket scams it’s AI.”

I guess the only comfort here is that for now, because there are humans still responding to customer complaints at these companies, we can still sort of beat the machine. But if we are going to have to contend with the escalation of electronic cunning, I’d prefer that the machines just wipe us out rather than be used by humans trying to pick our pockets. l

It took The Infamists about two weeks to scrub the impersonators from the web. Courtesy The Infamists/Bandcamp

CLASSIFIEDS

Total Eclipse of Your Work Day: Absenteeism & Traffic Await

By Elaine Wilder

During our quest to find unique content about the upcoming planetary event, we

heard from Jo Trizila, founder of Total Eclipse DFW (TotalEclipseDFW.com), a regional initiative dedicated to preparing North Texas for the Eclipse. They let us know about some issues that local employers will be facing on Mon, Apr 8.

As the once-in-a-lifetime Total Solar Eclipse approaches, local employers are urged to plan ahead to avoid potentially unprecedented levels of employee absenteeism and event-related traffic. With millions of visitors expected to descend upon the region to witness Totality, experts warn that failure to provide employees with time off, on-site

viewing opportunities, or work-from-home options could result in a significant number of workers taking personal time off or simply not showing up to work.

The Total Solar Eclipse is a oncein-a-lifetime event expected to draw record-breaking crowds to the area. The region is anticipating more visitors than ever, surpassing major events like the Super Bowl and the State Fair of Texas. With over 500 Eclipse-related events happening simultaneously, an estimated 1.5 million visitors will be in the area. And since Totality will occur near mid-day for the Metroplex, many

workers will seek lunchtime viewing options during the event.

This influx of people could overwhelm public services, emergency medical services, and facilities. Employers can help mitigate the strain on the region’s resources and infrastructure by reducing the need for employees to travel to work or lunch. Additionally, providing employees with the flexibility to view the Eclipse safely can demonstrate a commitment to their well-being and create a shared sense of community.

“It’s estimated that the 2017 Eclipse cost U.S. employers around $694 million in lost productivity, with some areas experiencing as much as $200 million in losses due to absenteeism,” Trizila. “Employers have a unique opportunity to learn from this experience and proactively plan for the Eclipse to mitigate potential disruptions.” Total Eclipse DFW encourages employers to consider implementing “Totality Time Off” policies or hosting on-site viewing events for their employees. These measures reduce the likelihood of unplanned absences and provide a unique opportunity for team building and boosting employee morale.

Employers can take simple steps to accommodate their employees during the Eclipse, such as encouraging them to bring lunch, supplying Eclipse glasses, and informing them in advance that they will have the opportunity to witness Totality. By planning and accommodating employee needs, employers can minimize the economic impact of the Eclipse on their organizations and contribute to public safety by reducing the number of vehicles on the road.

To find an employer checklist, tips for hosting on-site viewing events, educational materials to share with employees, ISOcompliant and American Astronomical Society-approved Eclipse glasses, merchandise, souvenirs, and keepsakes in its store, including a Total Eclipse Commemorative Silver Coin, please visit TotalEclipseDFW.com.

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