Fort Worth Weekly // September 15-21, 2021

September 15-21, 2021 FREE fwweekly.com

WE PUT THE ART IN PARTY! LIVE MUSIC WITH SPECIAL GUEST

SHAKEY GRAVES

PRESENTING SPONSOR:

60th BIRTHDAY BASH SATURDAY, SEPT. 25, 4–10 p.m.

FREE EVENT cartermuseum.org/BirthdayBash

CELEBRATING 60 YEARS

2

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

SEPTEMBER 15-21, 2021

fwweekly.com

September 15-21, 2021 FREE fwweekly.com

Summer Dean With her clever and earnest writing, the country songstress will have listeners falling in love with Bad Romantic, her debut LP. B Y

P A T R I C K

H I G G I N S

FEATURE Southlake looks to be ruled by a minority of power players.

BY EDWARD BROWN

EATS & DRINK Downtown Grapevine’s Harvest Hall is just a lovely train ride away.

BY CHRISTINA BERGER

STUFF Are we seeing the beginnings of a new Rangers core?

BY BO JACKSBORO

Number 24

S ep tember 1 5-21 , 2021

INSIDE 7

666

That’s how many laws were passed by the Texas lege, quite a few of them controversial.

By Andrew Zhang

11

Bob Niehoff, General Manager Ryan Burger, Art Director Jim Erickson, Circulation Director Edward Brown, Staff Writer Emmy Smith, Proofreader

Boot Scootin’

Michael Newquist, Regional Sales Director

As its second season draws to a close, the joyous Ted Lasso offers great ROI. And Roy.

Jennifer Bovee, Marketing Director Stacey Hammons, Senior Account Executive Julie Strehl, Account Executive Tony Diaz, Account Executive

16

By Kristian Lin

Summer Breeze

Feminist ideas accidentally bloom from this country singer-songwriter’s heartwrenching tales.

By Patrick Higgins

29

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.

Wyatt Newquist, Digital Coordinator Clintastic, Brand Ambassador

6 7 11 Cover photo courtesy Brooks Burris Fort Worth Weekly mailing address:

COPYRIGHT The entire contents of Fort Worth Weekly are Copyright 2020 by Ft. Worth Weekly, LP.

No portion may be reproduced in whole or in

part by any means, including electronic retrieval

systems, without the express written permission of the publisher. Please call the Fort Worth Weekly office for back-issue information.

300 Bailey, Ste 205, Fort Worth TX 76107

Stuff Feature Metro

Static . . . . . . . . .11 Letters . . . . . . .13

14 N&D 16 Screen 22 Eats & Drinks

ADW . . . . . . . . .28

Street address: 300 Bailey, Ste 205, Fort Worth TX 76107

29 Music

For classifieds: 817-321-9725

34 Classifieds

For general information: 817-321-9700 For retail advertising: 817-321-9719

For national advertising: 817-243-2250 website: www.fwweekly.com

email: question@fwweekly.com

HearSay . . . . . .33 Backpage . . . . .36

STOP AND SMELL THE FLOURS BLUEBERRY LEMON WALNUT BREAD $

SAVORY HARVEST PUMPKIN BREAD $

3.99/EA.

4.99/EA. PRICES VALID 9/15/21 - 9/ 21/21

FORT WORTH 4651 WEST FREEWAY | 817-989-4700 SOUTHLAKE 1425 E. SOUTHLAKE BLVD. | 817-310-5600

fwweekly.com

By Edward Brown

Lee Newquist, Publisher

SEPTEMBER 15-21, 2021

A small group of moneyed conservatives are driving the Carroll school district — and the rest of Southlake.

Anthony Mariani, Editor

Cour tesy Apple T V+

Minority Rule?

STAFF

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

Vo lum e 17

5

STUFF

The Rangers’ Bumper Crop The big-league team may be terrible, but a few young players are starting to deliver on their promise.

FO R T WO R T H W E E K LY 6

J A C K S B O R O Cour tesy the U.S. National Archives

B O

While the local sports world is ready to hang a banner at AT&T Stadium that reads, “We only lost by two points!” after the Cowboys bungled their first game of the season, something kind of special is happening just down the road in Arlington. We’re actually starting to see some of the pieces that might compose the Texas Rangers’ next competitive team produce at the big-league level.

I’m not suggesting anyone on the current roster should size their fingers for a championship ring just yet, but promising auditions from young pitchers such as A.J. Alexy, Taylor Hearn, Spencer Howard, Glenn Otto, and others have provided a glimpse into a near-future in which professional baseball is preferable to genital torture.

If you couple those auditions with some of the prospects making noise down in the minors, fans of the Rangers might become downright weepy. If nothing else, the team’s current rebuild appears to be headed in the right direction.

Three Rangers farmhands appear on the most recent Baseball America’s Top 100 Prospects list, tripling the organization’s reps from last year. Texas’ highest ranked player was Jack Leiter, whom the team selected second overall in July’s MLB draft. Son-of-Al is shooting up prospect rankings despite never having toed the rubber professionally. As long as he continues not to pitch, he may very well be a Top-10 prospect.

If Leiter pans out, he’ll represent a rare species in North Texas — a Rangers’ draftee whose career hasn’t cratered.

Most of the kids on the big-league roster who are currently making noise were all acquired via trade or wiped off the

SEPTEMBER 15-21, 2021

fwweekly.com

B Y

Barbara Bush never panned out as a pitching prospect for the Rangers, but the farm has since been rebuilt.

minor league trash pile. The Rangers are basically the raccoons of the scouting world.

The most recent example of a Rangers youngun coming through is Tyler Hearn, whom the front office acquired via a trade with Pittsburgh in the Keone Kela deal. On Sunday, Hearn hurled his third straight quality start, giving up three runs on five hits, with no walks and two strikeouts in six innings of work.

Hearn hasn’t walked any batters over that three-game stretch, which is great.

He also hasn’t struck out many, which is troubling. Three games is an honest-togoodness sample size that suggests he’s got enough stuff to keep himself around.

He’s not a lock for the rotation next year, but he’ll be on the roster.

When the team traded Yu Darvish back in 2017, the headline prospect coming back to Texas was oft-injured outfielder/DH Wille Calhoun. While Wee Willie has shown some pop at the plate, he can’t stay on the field. Most casual observers saw A.J. Alexy as a throw-in lottery ticket coming to Texas. Even in the Rangers’ so-so system, he’s been one of the org’s less heralded young pitchers.

Before being roughed up in Monday’s relief outing, Alexy became the first pitcher in MLB history — since the current mound distance was established in 1893 — to go five shutout innings or longer and allow one hit or fewer in each of his first two career appearances, both starts. Like Hearn, he’s still going to have to earn his spot in the rotation next year.

Of all the prospects the Rangers have acquired via trade in the last couple of years, none have arrived with as much fanfare as Spencer Howard, whom the team pilfered from Philly in the trade that sent veteran hurlers Kyle Gibson and Ian Kennedy, as well as farmhand Hans Crouse. Like Alexy, Howard was nippletwisted by the Astros on Monday evening, and even before then, the results have been mixed. He looked untouchable in his first outing back from the COVID list last week against Arizona and then pretty terrible ever since as the coaching staff tinker with his mechanics.

The stuff is more important than the results right now for Howard, who was the No. 1 or 2 prospect for the Phillies heading into 2020 before several shoulder injuries and a velocity drop caused his

stock to fall. Though he hasn’t recaptured the upper-90s heat that made him a hot name among those who follow prospects, he’s shown enough to make you believe there’s a middle-of-the-rotation dude somewhere in that 6’3” frame.

Few Rangers pitching prospects have impressed in their debut as much as Glenn Otto, who was a part of the Joey Gallo haul at this season’s trade deadline.

Otto has flashed the stuff that’s beginning to turn heads, despite coming off what was unquestionably the worst start of his three-game career at the Major League level against Oakland.

Otto’s peripherals are still a bright spot. Even during his loss against Oakland, he struck out five while walking just one. In 13 career innings, Otto has 16 strikeouts to two walks and has yet to allow a home run — the holy trinity of controlling what he can control.

The high strikeout rate, low walk rate, and nonexistent home run rate led to Otto’s FIP (Fielding Independent Pitching) standing at 1.62, even as his ERA ballooned to 6.92. Those numbers will likely veer somewhere toward the middle, but Otto’s FIP, nonetheless, is tantalizing. He’s another guy I don’t think will leave the big-league squad, even if he’s ultimately banished to the bullpen.

Aside from pitchers, Adolis Garcia has cooled off since his hot start, but he continues to be one of the best stories in baseball. “El Bombi” was salvaged from the Cardinals’ scrap heap last season, and he’s hit 29 home runs and played respectable defense in center and right fields. D.J. Peters, who was cast off by the Dodgers, has shown mutant-like power and a keen eye at the plate. If he ever figures out how to make contact regularly, he could turn into a bona fide star. That’s a huge “if.” Both players will enter camp as incumbents next season, and they’ll be given every opportunity to keep their jobs.

This may traditionally be the time of year North Texans forget about baseball, but at least the Rangers’ current rebuild is giving us a few names to remember.

Those kids may amount to little more than a few empty lockers by this time next year, but at least we can think along with the front office as they sort it all out — which is more than anyone can say about the football team that plays one parking lot over in Arlington. You know, the one ready to throw a parade after a loss. l

hen Jennifer Schutter met her new neighbor two years ago, the mother and physician thought she had met an ally. The neighbor, Hannah Smith, also had a special needs child in the Carroll school district, home to the tony city of Southlake in northeast Tarrant County.

Both mothers shared a desire to improve the quality of education for special needs students in their district.

Smith, Schutter said, “was working on special education issues. Another community member asked me to meet with her at a coffee shop. She was reading court documents. She clearly was doing a lot of research. She had a list of open records requests that she was asking other people to submit to the school district on her behalf. It was information related to special education.”

Schutter thought Smith’s doling out open records requests to other parents was odd, but she assumed Smith had her reasons. The self-described “religious freedom” attorney had twice clerked at the U.S. Supreme Court, once for Clarence Thomas and once for Samuel Alito. A search of the Texas Bar Association’s website found no results for “Hannah Smith,” meaning she is not licensed to practice law in Texas. Smith declined to respond to my media inquiries.

At the time, Southlake was in the national spotlight following two related incidents, one in 2018 and another the following year, that both involved videos depicting white Carroll high schoolers chanting the n-word. Public uproar over the incident was followed by personal accounts on the part of Black and brown Southlake families which described a local culture that openly permits racist language

Last year, efforts by Carroll’s school board to address racism in classrooms were met with resistance from a well-organized and wellfunded group of white, wealthy parents.

and bigoted ideologies. The school board’s seven trustees began exploring policies that would directly address the documented incidents of systemic racism that continue to afflict the suburb.

By the summer of 2020, a tightknit group of mostly white conservative parents and Republican insiders were coordinating an effort to halt progress on the school district’s Cultural Competence Action Plan (CCAP), the school district’s proposed diversity and inclusion roadmap.

Critics of CCAP alleged that the roadmap was a plot to indoctrinate students in so-called leftist ideologies. Debunked conspiracy theories about Critical Race Theory (CRT), the academic framework for understanding racism’s past and present influence in American government and society, further fueled the misinformation campaign against CCAP. Last September and with the financial backing of Southlake Families, a 10-year-old PAC that was first formed by

A 2018 video of several female Carroll high schoolers chanting the n-word brought unwanted national attention to Southlake.

current county commissioner candidate Tim O’Hare, Southlake parent Kristin Garcia filed a lawsuit against Carroll’s school board, alleging that school board members David Almand, Todd Carlton, Danny Gilpin, Sheri Mills, and Michelle Moore broke state open meetings act laws by discussing CCAP outside of board meetings. The lawsuit, currently being appealed by the school board, led to a November restraining order that effectively forbids discussions about race during school board meetings.

On Dec. 1, Smith emailed a member of the District Diversity Council, which was formed in 2018 to address school-related acts of racism, to inform the volunteer that discussions about CCAP were now forbidden among school board groups and committees. The confidential source who provided the email said the document further shows Smith’s direct involvement with the lawsuit.

“I wanted to let you know of a development in the Garcia litigation, which has just come to my attention,” Smith wrote. “The court has just issued a temporary restraining order which forbids any further meetings to do any work on the CCAP.” Smith began campaigning for Carroll’s school board the following month.

The lawsuit was followed by the April indictments of two school board members,

fwweekly.com

W

B R O W N

SEPTEMBER 15-21, 2021

E D W A R D

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

B Y

Cour tesy of Facebook

As a powerful PAC’s influence over Southlake grows, parents are fighting back.

Cour tesy of Facebook

Right-Wing Extremists Taking Over Carroll School District?

7

C o u r t e s y o f Fa c e b o o k

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

SEPTEMBER 15-21, 2021

fwweekly.com

Hannah Smith (right) and Cam Bryan (left) used Southlake Families funds and misinformation about the Carroll school district’s diversity plan to win two school board seats earlier this year.

8

PUT DOWN ROOTS WITH NATIVE PLANTS Keeping our water towers full doesn’t mean you can’t have a beautiful yard. Native and adaptive plants are available in a beautiful array of sizes, colors and types. And they hardly need more than a sip of water to thrive. Find more water saving tips at WaterIsAwesome.com. You can help keep the towers full and still be the envy of your block.

WATERISAWESOME.COM

Bob Todd Carlton and Michelle Moore, for allegedly texting each other about the plan, breaking open meetings law. Here and across the country, official matters must be discussed by elected officials and administrators publicly, not privately.

Multiple longtime sources describe the indictments as a partisan ploy on the part of the Tarrant County district attorney’s office to tarnish the image of a school board that was considering passing a plan to encourage diversity and tolerance.

Open records requests that we’ve submitted reveal that the Tarrant County DA has never prosecuted one Texas Open Meetings Act violation until now.

Smith, who, along with current school board member Cam Bryan, used Southlake Families funds to successfully run for school board in the spring of 2021, described herself as a legal advisor for the team behind the lawsuit that continues to drain resources from the school that she now represents. A Carroll school district spokesperson said Smith did not disclose any conflicts of interest when she assumed her elected position. On numerous occasions, Smith has publicly stated that she is providing legal advice to the same PAC that is suing the school district that she now represents. According to common practice, school board members have a fiduciary responsibility to always act in the best interest of the organizations they are elected to lead, and several Southlake parents who reached out to me see Smith’s active support of Southlake Families as a breach of that trust.

We have requested information about the legal fees that the school district has incurred as the result of the ongoing

litigation but have not heard back.

On a recent episode of Be the People, a far right-wing show on YouTube that’s headed by Carol Swain, a retired Vanderbilt University professor, Smith described the events that led her to run for school board. During the interview, she refers to CRT. The academic theory is frequently misrepresented by right-wing conspiracy theorists who seek to slow or reverse progress on racial equity. CRT is not taught in any elementary or secondary schools anywhere in Texas.

“Right after we moved here, COVID hit,” Smith said. “It was around that time that our school district tried to pass a cultural competency action plan that sought to inject into our district a lot of critical race components, micro-aggression tracking and punishing, audits of our curriculum, metrics for teachers to be evaluated as to how ‘woke’ they are, and a lot of other things that were frightening to a lot of people, so our community banded together. We fought back. The [Southlake Families] PAC was formed so we could raise money and fight back against the CCAP. I was helping out with the legal committee.”

Southlake mother Laura Durant met with Smith and Bryan, who is also supported by Southlake Families, in June to allow Durant to voice her concerns about the mistreatment of LGBTQ+ students at Southlake’s public schools. A student-led group, Southlake Anti-Racism Coalition (SARC), that formed in response to the two racist student videos had brought long-standing frustrations on the part of LGBTQ+ students to the community’s continued on page 9

Feature

continued from page 7

attention. Those testimonials inspired Durant to form the coalition group Love Every Dragon, referencing the high school’s mascot.

Throughout the meeting, Smith allegedly repeatedly pressed Durant to disclose how many Carroll students identified as LGBTQ+. Durant said that she understood that, nationally, around 20% of all students identify as something other than “straight.”

“I don’t think Southlake falls within the national averages,” Smith allegedly responded without providing an explanation. Durant provided me with a copy of her unedited notes from that meeting.

Smith then allegedly suggested that Durant cease working with SARC because the students in that group had called Smith a racist. Durant replied that all oppression is related.

“I have been oppressed for my minority religion” of Mormonism, Smith allegedly replied, seeking to tie her perceived oppression to the higher suicide rates of LGBTQ+ students and toofrequent shootings of unarmed Black men and women by police officers.

“Her disdain for LGBTQ+ students was palpable,” Durant said.

MORE MORE OPTIONS

MORE

FREQUENCY

MORE

SERVICE HOURS

MORE

DIRECT ROUTES

continued on page 10

Supporters of the Cultural Competence Action Plan gathered before a Carroll school board meeting in May.

TODAY RIDETRINITYMETRO.org/A-BETTER-CONNECTION

FOR QUESTIONS, CALL (817) 215-8600.

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

Cour tesy of Altheria Caldera

RIDE

SEPTEMBER 15-21, 2021

fwweekly.com

Schutter, whose husband Ed Hernandez unsuccessfully ran against Smith, said school board meetings have devolved into yelling matches and verbal attacks since the religious freedom lawyer assumed

GIVING YOU

office in May. “I was stunned by the hate and division and horrible things that people were saying” at board meetings, Schutter said. “Cars have been keyed. Personal information about people who support a diversity and inclusion plan has been released publicly by” Smith’s supporters allegedly.

The hardest thing, Schutter added, has been the complete disregard for what students are saying.

A recent poll conducted by K12 Insights describes a large disconnect between Carroll students and adults over racial issues. In response to the prompt “I believe racial tension is not a major problem at my child’s school,” a majority of parents (60%) and staff (69%) agreed or strongly agreed with the statement while only 46% of Carroll’s students did not, meaning that 54% of Southlake’s students see racial tensions as a serious issue at the Carroll school district.

One Southlake mother who asked not to be named to protect her privacy said Southlake Families supporters hold focus groups in churches to see which candidates can best further the PAC’s misinformation campaign against equity and diversity progress.

Carroll school board member Bryan, who took office in May, ran on Smith’s coattails during the campaign, the mother said.

“He pretty much repeats anything [Smith] says,” the source added.

Bryan did not respond to questions that I forwarded to him.

During an Aug. 2 school board

9

First Friday at the Modern

Join us October 1, 5–8 pm An exciting pairing of cinema, culture, and dining all in one spectacular setting!

• Join us for live music from the First Friday House Band, led by local musician Danny Stone with special guests each month.

• The NEW Café Modern and Executive Chef Jett Mora will be serving a light dining menu in the lobby ($9–$15). Specialty drinks along with beer and wine will be available at the cash bar, with happy hour selections.

• Gallery admission is free for everyone on Fridays! A

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

SEPTEMBER 15-21, 2021

fwweekly.com

complimentary docent-led, 20-minute tour is available at 6:30 pm.

10

• The ongoing film series Magnolia at the Modern offers

critically acclaimed films every weekend, including First Fridays at 4 and 8 pm.

Plan to stay for dinner at the NEW Café Modern Seating for dinner every Friday evening from 5 to 8:30 pm.

For dinner reservations and information, call 817.840.2157 or visit OpenTable online.

MODERN ART MUSEUM OF FORT WORTH www.themodern.org Following CDC recommendations, face masks or cloth face coverings are required for entry to the museum for visitors over the age of 2. This includes in the auditorium and in Café Modern when not at your table or consuming food and beverages. Thank you for respecting your fellow visitors and our staff.

Feature

continued from page 9

meeting, Smith advised that the student code of conduct handbook be updated to only allow disciplinary actions when students commit acts that would constitute crimes, meaning that making racist statements could not result in student discipline. Former Fort Worth school board member Ashley Paz told me that Smith’s advice is oddly out of step with other area school board policies, which do not expressly allow students to make racist comments toward minority students.

The original language “is so broad,” Smith argued publicly after citing past rulings by the U.S. Supreme Court.

During the discussion about amending the code of conduct, Smith warned the school board that any actions taken by the board that relate to equity and inclusion could be a violation of the ongoing temporary restraining order that resulted from the Southlake Familiesfunded lawsuit.

“Your recommendation is to remove any reference to cultural competence?” asked board president Moore, addressing Smith. “Your reasoning for that was because of ” the temporary restraining order?

“We would be taking an affirmative action against the restraining order by adopting any language that references cultural competence,” Smith replied.

School board member David Almand resigned in July, and a special election to replace the vacated Place 7 seat will be held Tuesday, Nov. 2. Southlake Familiesbacked board candidate Andrew Yeager has the endorsement of former Tarrant County Republican party chair O’Hare, whose overtly racist press releases caught our attention last month (“Splitting Hares,” Aug. 11) and led to the Weekly’s ongoing investigation into potential district attorney meddling in Southlake school board dealings (“Conservative Cronyism,” Aug. 25).

Former Southlake mayor and prominent Republican party fundraiser Andy Wambsganss has also formerly endorsed Yeager. Support from the Wambsganss family, who are longtime Republican fundraisers, is huge, numerous Southlake sources have told me. One former Southlake elected official who asked not to be named to protect his privacy told me that Andy Wambsganss, a lawyer, maintains close connections with numerous Tarrant County judges, both in the civil and criminal courts.

Andy and wife Leigh Wambsganss hosted an October fundraiser for two Tarrant County judges, Republicans Josh Burgess and Susan McCoy, who

subsequently ruled favorably for the Southlake Families-backed lawsuit that was filed by parent Garcia (“Buying Judicial Influence?” Sep. 1). A campaign report that we recently received from the Texas Ethics Commission lists Leigh Wambsganss as one of three contribution decision-makers (meaning they can legally assign positions like treasurer) for Southlake Families when the PAC was formed.

Southlake parent Sravan Krishna said Smith’s victory has galvanized an active minority of families to push back against Southlake Families. Former teacher and community volunteer Stephanie Williams is campaigning against a PAC that has roughly $130,000 on hand, according to recent campaign finance disclosures we reviewed. We reached out to Williams’ campaign for an update on her fundraising efforts but did not hear back by press time.

Williams is a “non-political candidate,” Krishna said. “She is all about putting the children first.”

The Southlake Families agenda, he continued, is focused on defunding public schools by funding board members who support school voucher programs that allow parents to use public tax dollars to subsidize the tuition of private and religious schools. A statewide voucher program that would pull money from public school districts and transfer them to private schools is frequently proposed during Texas legislative sessions but is yet to pass.

As Krishna and his supporters prepare for November’s school board election, the school district’s appeal of the ongoing restraining order remains stalled.

We called Tarrant County’s Second Court of Appeals, and a clerk said the judges have heard the details of the case but have not issued a ruling.

One friend of school board president Moore who asked not to be named said lawyers with the local DA recently offered Moore a deal that effectively serves the political goals of Southlake Families’ powerful and well-connected donors.

“Michelle Moore and I had a conversation about how the DA is involved with the criminal charges,” the confidential source said, referring to politicized meddling by county prosecutors. Moore allegedly “said she knew because she was told [by a county prosecutor] that [the charges] would all go away if she would just resign.”

The offer allegedly has been made more than once, the source told me.

Moore, perhaps due to the pending litigation, did not return my requests for comment. l

Z H A N G

Six hundred and sixty-six new Texas laws have now gone into effect. Debated,

Static Skirting the State Constitution?

For more than 30 years, most of west and northwest Tarrant County — including White Settlement, the reserve base, and Lake Worth — have known one commissioner, J.D. Johnson. The former Saginaw mayor built his reputation as a strong fiscal conservative who supported law enforcement and donated generously to local charities like the United Way. The 82-year-old Johnson recently announced that he will not seek reelection, and three Republicans, including JD’s son, Constable Jody Johnson, are vying for the open seat. Manny Ramirez, former Fort Worth police sergeant and current president of the Fort Worth Police Officer’s Association (FWPOA), has the backing of Mayor Mattie Parker, who benefited heavily from the endorsement of the FWPOA leading up to her election earlier this year. Larry Dale Carpenter Jr., a political newcomer, announced his candidacy in July.

Precinct 4’s Republican primary is poised to be every bit as contentious as the fight for Tarrant County’s soon-to-be-vacant county judge position (also a seat on the commissioner’s court) which will likely pit former Fort Worth Mayor Betsy Price against an as-ofyet-unannounced Democratic candidate.

If there was ever a political battle royale to be had in Tarrant County, the looming contest between Fort Worth’s well-monied police union and Tarrant County’s good-ol’-boy club is that match. As of July 15, Ramirez’ campaign has $115,000 on hand, according to his campaign’s press release. On July 21, Johnson donated $250,000 of $252,873 from his remaining war chest to son Jody. Former elected officials and political consultants who asked not to be named told us that a third entity, i.e., the Tarrant County Republican Party, should have

been given J.D.’s remaining campaign funds to disburse as seen fit by the party that J.D. long represented.

J.D., Jody said, “transferred funds that he doesn’t think that he will use. I’ve added to [that contribution] through my own fundraisers. If I don’t get elected, I would make a decision from there [as to how to spend the funds].

I don’t plan on losing. I’ll probably use most of that money. I plan on spending whatever it takes.”

Jody said lowering taxes, supporting police officers, and keeping down property taxes are his top priorities. Despite a state law that requires certain elected officials to fully resign while seeking a new office, Jody has chosen to stay on as constable through a “holdover status” that the county has stated is perfectly acceptable.

But the state constitution says otherwise.

When constables and several other named elected positions announce their candidacy for a different public office, that announcement “shall constitute an automatic resignation of the office then held,” according to the Texas Constitution.

Jody, a county spokesperson told us, “resigned when he announced his intention to run for county commissioner. He is in holdover status as constable. Historically, the Commissioners Court has kept elected officials in a holdover status until the election occurs. An example would be when the late Ron Wright resigned as tax assessor-collector to run for the 6th Congressional seat.”

Longtime trial and appellate lawyer Jason Smith, who has won numerous state and federal court battles, said the Texas Constitution is clear on the matter even if Tarrant County isn’t.

“The Texas Supreme Court has consistently held that if you announce for another office, you resign your current position,” Smith said. “The reason behind this is to afford the people a full-time public servant doing the job.

Certainly what [Jody] Johnson is trying to do

Abortion restrictions SB 8 prohibits abortions as early as six weeks into pregnancy. In lieu of government enforcement, private individuals

There appears to be some discrepancy whether Constable Jody Johnson can still retain one elected position while campaigning for another.

is contrary to the intention of the Texas Constitution.”

Jody said he called Tarrant County’s longtime administrator, G.K. Maenius, for advice on how to proceed with the campaign.

“I said, ‘G.K., what do I need to do? Do I need to bring my badge down?’ I was under the impression I had to leave” my job as constable, Jody said.

Jody said he was told that he had a duty to uphold his constable position until the commissioners court either removed him or formally allowed him to stay.

We asked the county if Jody’s holdover status was ever discussed at a commissionerscourt meeting but did not hear back by press time, and Ramirez did not reply to our request for comment. Jody said he called the Tarrant County district attorney’s office, and the county prosecutors told him that staying on as constable was “the way it works.”

Jody mentioned a past attorney general opinion on holdover statuses. Written by thenAG Greg Abbott, the 2007 opinion, which we read in full, describes a situation in which a

Permitless carry House Bill 1927 allows Texans ages 21 and older to carry handguns without training or a license as long as they are not legally prevented from doing so. constable’s precinct was abolished. When advising on whether the precintless constable should resign, Abbott quoted a past state court case: “Under the constitution, an officer cannot arbitrarily divest himself of the obligation and authority to perform the duties of his [constable] office until his successor qualifies.”

Jody said the AG opinion came as welcome news. He loves serving the citizens of Precinct 4 as constable, he said.

“If they tell me tomorrow they want to replace me,” I’m fine with that, he said.

Smith said AG opinions don’t hold as much weight as Jody and some county officials may like.

“AG opinions are not binding authority on litigants or courts,” Smith said. “It is not unheard of that AG opinions are referred to, although they are afforded some weak value by some courts. Jody is just another Republican railing against the government while trying desperately to hold on to a government job.”

Jody said that he will not campaign while in uniform, and he will not use county resources or regular business hours to get the word out on what he is running for.

“We need to get behind our police officers, so we have lower crime rates,” he said.

“I want to address some of the traffic issues.

Cutting property taxes would be a big deal.

We have to support law enforcement and the district attorney’s office. I know we have jail issues, but, all in all, I don’t feel like we need to rebuild Tarrant County. I like Tarrant County the way it is. I think it is one of the most successful counties in the nation. I want Tarrant County to keep that small county image. I want to make it the type of place businesses and families want to move to.”

Tarrant County’s Republican primary is scheduled for Tuesday, March 1, the county’s elections office told us. In the event that no Republican candidate earns more than 50% of the vote, a runoff election will held Tuesday, May 24.

fwweekly.com

A N D R E W

Texas’ 2022-2023 budget SB 1 provides nearly $250 billion for Texas, with notable funds going toward public higher education. Abbott line-item vetoed the part of the budget that funds the Texas Legislature and the people who staff it — but lawmakers may restore funding during this summer’s second special session.

can sue abortion providers or people who assist abortion after an ultrasound can detect what lawmakers defined as a fetal heartbeat. Embryos at this developmental stage don’t possess a heart. Medical and legal experts say the sound Republican lawmakers are referring to is the motion of electrical pulses stimulating muscle cells in a tube that will eventually become part of the heart. Abortion providers are suing to block the law. Additionally, HB 1280 would outlaw abortion in Texas 30 days after any potential U.S. Supreme Court decision overturns Roe v. Wade.

SEPTEMBER 15-21, 2021

B Y

Texans from competing on school sports teams. At least one more special session will be called this fall to address redistricting.

But in the meantime, here’s a list of the new laws you should know:

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

On Sep. 1, 666 new Texas laws went into effect. They will affect abortion access, social studies curriculum, and cities that trim the budgets of law enforcement.

passed, and signed during the 87th Texas Legislature, these laws include changes to public safety, health care, and K-12 education.

Not every bill signed into law during the regular session will go into effect Sep. 1. Some bills went into effect as soon as they were signed. For example, Senate Bill 968, which banned “vaccine passports” in Texas, became law when Gov. Greg Abbott signed it in June. Other bills, like one that revises eminent domain negotiations between landowners and companies, will become law on Jan. 1, 2022.

The legislature is currently in its second special session, which Abbott primarily called to advance the GOP-backed voting restrictions bill. Lawmakers are discussing other topics, including changes to the bail system and limits on transgender

Cour tesy LinkedIn

New State Laws

METROPOLIS

11

S o p h i e P a r k / T h e Te x a s Tr i b u n e

Medical marijuana expansion People with any form of cancer or posttraumatic stress disorder now have access to low-THC cannabis for medical purposes. HB 1535 is an expansion of the Texas Compassionate Use Program, which allows people with conditions such as epilepsy and autism to access medical marijuana.

Funding the “1836 Project” HB 2497 establishes an “1836 Project” committee to produce patriotic Texas history materials, which will be distributed through channels such as when people receive driver’s licenses. The initiative’s name mirrors the “1619 Project,” a New York Times publication examining U.S. Hundreds of laws were passed at the Texas history from the arrival of enslaved peo- Capitol at the end of August. ple.

Criminalizing homeless camping Social studies curriculum changes HB 1925 makes camping in unapproved HB 3979 limits teachers from discussing public places a misdemeanor crime that current events and systemic racism in carries a fine of up to $500. Cities cannot class. The bill also prevents students from opt out of the ban. receiving class credit for participating in civic engagement and bans teaching of the Reducing barriers to SNAP “1619 Project.”

SB 224 simplifies access to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program for “Star Spangled Banner Protection Act” seniors and disabled people on fixed inProfessional sports teams with state fund- comes. Eligible individuals can forgo ening are required to play the national an- rollment interviews and have a shortened them before games under SB 4. application process.

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

SEPTEMBER 15-21, 2021

fwweekly.com

Shielding companies from car crash liability HB 19 requires drivers of commercial vehicles — including Ubers, Lyfts, and delivery trucks — to be found liable in court for causing a car crash resulting in injury or death before a case can be brought against their employer.

12

Active shooter alert system HB 103 creates the Texas Active Shooter Alert System, which will notify Texans in the vicinity of an active shooting scene through their phones. The system can be activated by request of local law enforcement.

Police body cameras HB 929 requires police officers to keep body cameras on during the entirety of active investigations. The law is named after Botham Jean, who was fatally shot in his apartment by a Dallas police officer in 2018.

Punishing cities that cut police budgets If municipalities with a population of more than 250,000 reduce their police budget, HB 1900 allows the state to financially punish the cities by reducing sales tax revenues and preventing increases in property taxes.

Felony punishment for blocking emergency vehicles HB 9 will make blocking access to a hospital or an emergency vehicle with its lights and sirens on a state jail felony. The bill was passed as a response to protesters being arrested for blocking ambulances during Black Lives Matter protests last summer.

Reducing pre-K class sizes Prekindergarten classes are now capped at 22 students — the same maximum class size of other elementary school grades — under SB 2081.

New state employee retirement accounts SB 321 enrolls new state workers hired after Sep. 1, 2022, in a cash-balance plan, which deposits a percentage of a worker’s annual compensation in retirement accounts and is similar to a 401(k) retirement account.

Currently, employees have defined-benefit retirement accounts based on employment position and previous salaries.

Banning unnecessary police chokeholds Police officers are now prohibited from using chokeholds or excessive force during arrests unless necessary to prevent officer or bystander injury under SB 69. Officers who witness violations are required to report the incident.

Online ballot tracking system HB 1382 creates an online tracking system for mail-in ballots and applications for mail-in ballots. The system will be run by the Texas Secretary of State.

Disclosure: Lyft, the Texas Secretary of State, and The New York Times have been financial supporters of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations, and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune’s journalism.

A version of this story originally appeared in The Texas Tribune.

change to the outdated conservative relics currently in charge.

All this reminds me that the Texan independent spirit can be a positive source as well because it really encourages us to stick up for what we are passionate about. Hopefully, that will help to really band us together to vote out Abbott and those like him next year. Until then, we have to remember that we all have the power to keep fighting. We Texans need to connect, march, call, protest, and make our voices heard over the white noise of the patriarchy. Let us finally be proud again and not ashamed of our great state of Texas.

Kimberly McHale, Fort Worth This column reflects the opinions of the author and not necessarily 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.

CELEBRATE

HISPANIC HERITAGE SEPTEMBER 15 – OCTOBER 15 MARIACHI

ENTRE AMIGOS

LA GRAN PLAZA

ROSE MARINE THEATER

HECHO IN FORT WORTH

CLAMATO MICHELADA FESTIVAL

FORT WORTH CONVENTION CENTER

GENERAL WORTH SQUARE

CELEBRAMOS! FORT WORTH BOTANIC GARDEN/BRIT

STOCKYARDS HISPANIC HERITAGE COWTOWN COLISEUM

APHA VAQUERO GATHERING

DIA DE LOS MUERTO CELEBRATIONS

COWTOWN COLISEUM

OCTOBER 25 – NOVEMBER 2

For a full list of events & weekend getaway ideas FORTWORTH.COM/HISPANICHERITAGE

fwweekly.com

I was born in a small town in Texas in the ’80s. I was taught from a young age about Texas pride and our independent spirit. No other state had such great food, Blue Bell ice cream, and acres of land in every direction.

Yet as I grew up, I started to notice the cracks in the facade. In Texas, you were taught that girls were to be seen and not heard, the good ol’ boy system was the only way to get ahead, and that the constant racism and bigotry for many Texans of color was normalized and accepted in families of all generations.

When I moved away from Texas during my preteens, I was finally able to experience different cultures and ideas that opened my eyes to a world

the same ones who believe blue lives matter more than black lives, who get killed by police brutality every day, the citizens who still think that Donald Trump should be our president, despite causing a violent insurrection on our Capitol steps.

When all that backwards thinking feels so overwhelming and it seems like we are becoming a reallife version of The Handmaid’s Tale, I take a moment to recognize people are still fighting. They are planning protests and using social media to spam the abortion watchdog sites that are already popping up on the internet. Texas women who have moved to other states are offering medical access and places to stay for the women who will now need them. Some Texas public schools are suing Abbott to get mask mandates enforced so they can protect their students and teachers.

Many cities are setting up more vaccination sites to encourage people to get vaccinated. Also, many Texans are voting more than ever to get people elected who represent a more liberal

SEPTEMBER 15-21, 2021

Texas Messes with Us

outside our state. Since moving back as an adult, I have had many mixed emotions. I have been encouraged by the progressive shift in politics by many of the major cities. I was proud to participate in marches about protecting our basic rights as citizens.

Also, the fact that Fort Worth almost turned blue after years of oppressive Republican leadership was a big step in the right direction.

Unfortunately, that is when many politicians, including our governor, got really scared. It has made Greg Abbott double down on his mission to follow in Trump’s footsteps and drag Texas back to the Dark Ages. Sadly, he has been mostly successful because there are a lot of Texans who support his draconian vision. Those people who scream “my body, my choice!” about wearing masks also say in the same breath that it’s OK to not allow women to have power over their own bodies. These Texans who also reject science believe in conspiracy theories and would rather take vet meds than get vaccinated against COVID,

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

Letter to the Editor

13

NIGHT &DAY

Meet actor Carlos Santos of Gentefied at Rose Marine Theater Thu.

Cour tesy Facebook

16

In honor of National Hispanic Heritage Month, Artes de la Rosa Thursday proudly presents An Evening with Carlos Santos 6-9pm at Rose Marine Theater (1440 N Main St, Fort Worth, 817-624-8333). Hailing from Puerto Rico, Santos is an actor/comedian best known for playing Chris Morales in the Netflix original series Gentefied.

Along with a screening of an episode, attendees will be a part of a one-on-one conversation with Santos. Attendance is free, but RSVP is required thru Facebook. com/ViveADLR/Events.

17

From 8pm to midnight Wed-Sat, head to Arlington’s newest venue, Friday BlackBox 215 (215 E Front St, @Blackbox215), for the International Pop Overthrow. Each evening, IPO features artists from Arlington and beyond, including this evening’s lineup of John Dufilho of The Deathray Davies with The Hungry Onions, The Instant Losers, The Pengwins, and more. Another stand-out night is Saturday with SpyderPop artists Danny Wilkerson with Lannie Flowers Band, John Stevens, and The Used Electrics. Admission to each show is $5 at the door. For the complete list of artists, see the event page at Facebook. com/DavidBash.IPO4Ever.

YOUR MUSEUM HAS REOPENED! TOP 10 SCIENCE MUSEUM

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

SEPTEMBER 15-21, 2021

fwweekly.com

The results are in for USA Today’s Readers’ Choice awards, and we are proud to announce we’ve been voted the 9th Best Science Museum in America!

USA Today assembled a panel of industry experts to identify the top 20 science museums in the U.S. The publication then opened the list to voting, asking the public to choose their top 10, and YOU helped us receive the #9 spot! Thank you for helping the Museum win this national recognition!

14

INTRODUCING SCIENCE ON A SPHERE!

Guests interact with our brand-new Science on a Sphere, a large sphere hanging from the ceiling in the Current Science Studio that displays space and Earth-based content from NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

NEW MUSEUM HOURS! The museum is open every Friday and Saturday from 10AM to 5PM, and on Sundays from 12PM to 5PM. Monday thru Thursday, we are closed.

(Note: Noble Planetarium is open, but Omni Theatre and WaterWorks are still temporarily closed. Stay tuned for updates!)

Fort Worth Museum of Science & History | 1600 Gendy Street, Fort Worth, TX 76107

18

Every half hour from 10am to 3pm, time slots are available to attend Saturday the Wedgwood Parade of Homes 2021 presented by the Wedgwood Historical Association. Experience the midcentury architecture, automobiles, clothing styles, and furniture of the 1950s and 1960s, plus hear live vintage music while touring four homes in this historic neighborhood in southwest Fort Worth. Interior tickets are $20, while exterior tour tickets are $10.

For more info and to pre-order tickets, visit WedgwoodHistoricalAssociation.org.

19

From 1pm to 5pm, head to Shwe Phone Pwint Dhamma Center (200 Sunday Williams Rd, Fort Worth, 469-321-2992) for the next Myanmar Ethnic Community Food Fair and fundraising event. Food tickets are $5, and raffle tickets are $10 per entry at doors. Along with food and music, there will be a chinlone tournament.

(Also known as “caneball,” chinlone is the national sport of Myanmar/Burma). For more information, visit Facebook.com/ DFWMyanmarEthnicCommunity.

20

From 7pm to 9pm, Funky Picnic Brewery & Cafe (401 Bryan Av, Ste 117, Monday Fort Worth, 817-708-2739) hosts its first Oktoberfest Beer Dinner of the season. Five German-style courses — including kasespatzle, currywurst, hirschruncken met schoko, schnitzel, and schwarzalder kirschtorte — will be paired with five Funky Picnic beers. Tickets are $55-75 at BuyTickets.at/ FunkyPicnicBrewryCafe/564094 thru 5pm Fri. (For more Oktoberfest happenings, flip back to this week’s ATE DAY8 A WEEK column in Eats & Drinks.)

21

If you’re stoked for #PumkinSpiceSeason and would like to learn a bit of Tuesday calligraphy, we have the event for you. From 6:30pm to 8pm, join Sip & Script — a company of calligraphers specializing in calligraphy/lettering classes — at Grand Cru Wine Bar (1257 W Magnolia Av, Fort Worth, 817-923-1717) for Modern Calligraphy & Pumpkin Lettering. Tickets are $65 per person at SipeandScript.com and come with a beginner’s calligraphy kit, practice materials to write on, and a mini pumpkin to decorate. Everything is yours to keep at the end of the night.

22

If you feel a sudden shift in the barometric pressure, Wednesday have no fear. That’s just Best Of 2021 hitting the stands.

Please pick one up. Meanwhile, should you feel the need to promote your business in this keepsake edition, one of our friendly sales folks would love to be in touch. To get the ball rolling, visit FWWeekly.com/Adverise-With-Us and use the form by Fri, Sep 17. #PromotionalPost #AdvertiseWithUs #YouKnowYouWantTo

WE PUT THE ART IN PARTY! LIVE MUSIC WITH SPECIAL GUEST

SHAKEY GRAVES

SATURDAY, SEPT. 25, 4–10 p.m.

60th BIRTHDAY BASH FREE EVENT

CARTERMUSEUM.ORG/ BIRTHDAYBASH CELEBRATING 60 YEARS

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

Join us for our biggest, loudest, boldest summer party yet. We’re celebrating our 60th year with special exhibitions, hands-on art experiences, and live music by Shakey Graves, all ending with a fireworks show.

Spend the night partying with the Carter!

SEPTEMBER 15-21, 2021

fwweekly.com

PRESENTING SPONSOR:

15

American Football Ted Lasso tackles soccer and other issues.

B Y

K R I S T I A N

L I N

continued on page 17

Jason Sudeikis settles into his new job in English soccer in Ted Lasso.

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

SEPTEMBER 15-21, 2021

fwweekly.com

NBC and Jason Sudeikis invented the character of Ted Lasso for a series of TV spots promoting the U.S. network’s coverage of English Premier League soccer, conceiving Ted as an American idiot with zero knowledge and oodles of unearned confidence. To make this character work in a TV comedy series would take some fleshing out, and that’s

Cour tesy Apple T V+

SCREEN

what Ted Lasso has done. As it’s about to wind up its second season on Apple TV+, it’s mostly delightful.

Ted is an indefatigably cheerful NCAA title-winning coach of the American version of football who, despite his complete lack of experience with soccer at any level, is engaged as the manager of AFC Richmond, an EPL team based in West London. Richmond’s new owner, Rebecca Welton (Hannah Waddingham), won the club in a bitter divorce settlement and hired Ted to fail spectacularly as a way of getting back at her cheating ex. During the first season, Ted won some battles getting his players and the press on his side, but he didn’t win enough games, and the team was relegated to the second tier of English soccer, which is called the Championship.

(I remember being confused when I learned that little fact, much like Ted.) In the second season, he failed to move Richmond back up to the top flight, but the team made an improbable run to the FA Cup semifinal.

Ted may not know much about his new sport, but he is a genius at interpersonal skills (or manmanagement, as the British call it).

When Nigerian attacker Sam Obisanya

16

Stylish Eyewear for Fashion - Sun - Sport & Children by Certified Opticians

@PatrickOptical @Patrick_Optical

2255 8th Ave. 817.370.6118 www.patrickoptical.com

coach yells at a player so loud that he dries the player’s hair after he’s come out of the shower.) I couldn’t help thinking of Liverpool’s run in the Champions League in 2019, led by Jürgen Klopp, a manager whose positivity rivals Ted Lasso’s. When Liverpool needed a huge comeback at home to beat Barcelona, Klopp and his coaches noticed that Barcelona’s defenders tended to check out mentally when waiting for their opponents to set up corner kicks and free kicks. He told the ball boys at Liverpool’s home stadium to get the

ball to the players immediately when the home team had a corner. They did, and one quickly taken corner caught Barça’s defenders napping, resulting in the winning goal for Liverpool. The ball boys got to feel like part of this huge victory for the club. This is how you run an organization, by making everyone down to the ball boys feel like they’re valued. Ted Lasso knows this secret, and Ted Lasso is best when it’s showing that play out. l

DATE NIGHT IS BACK!

$15 OFF

TICKETS & COUPON

2-PACK

BUY ONLINE

AND SAVE BIG! USE PROMO CODE

21starCOMBO BIGTEX.COM

Valid on new orders only and cannot be combined with other offers.

SEPT. 24

THRU

OCT. 17

fwweekly.com

(Toheeb Jimoh) is underperforming because he’s missing home, Ted throws a birthday party for him and finds him some snacks from his homeland. Aging, ornery midfield general Roy Kent (Brett Goldstein) seems like the last person who would buy into Ted’s upbeat attitude, and yet it’s convincing when he does.

Ted coaches players from more than 10 different countries, which is standard for a Premier League outfit, and the show doesn’t undersell the challenges of knitting them into a cohesive team.

As a longtime soccer fan, I can say the show’s references to the sport are always on point — I laughed out loud when someone mentioned Harry Redknapp openly campaigning for Ted’s job, because that is exactly what the reallife Redknapp would do. Roy’s brief, obscenity-filled stint as a TV pundit points up the vapidity of British media’s soccer coverage. When Sam finds out that the club’s Emirati corporate sponsor is despoiling the environment in Nigeria, he’s facing issues that reallife soccer players face (and the show is staring straight at Emirati-owned teams like Manchester City and Paris St.-Germain). He launches a protest that results in Richmond losing its sponsor, and I wish the show hadn’t resolved that subplot so easily.

The cast has some crackers in it: Goldstein (who also wrote one of the episodes) is excellent as an undiplomatic guy who’s out of touch with his emotions, and Juno Temple plays an actress/model who realizes she’s too old to keep living a soccer groupie’s life and becomes Richmond’s head of marketing. I’ve been a fan of Temple’s acting from way back, and it’s gratifying to see her be excellent in something that many people see.

It’s hard for a TV show to portray a nice and decent main character without him seeming manic or just dull. The comedy mostly avoids this by showing us Ted in his different moods, including his sadness over a disintegrating marriage in Kansas and his occasional panic attacks when Richmond has success. The show could potentially break new ground in depicting a soccer coach with mental troubles, but I’m disappointed in the revelation near the end of Season 2.

It’s more interesting if Ted is simply a natural optimist than if his attitude is rooted in childhood trauma. People have complained that the show is too nice, and rather than focus on Ted’s backstory, I’d like to see Ted Lasso put him next to a player who’s a genuine malcontent

or a rival coach who tries to bully him or experience a massive outpouring of racism like the one that greeted the Black English players after the Euro 2020 final. (Sudeikis expressed support for those players in real life, so maybe that’s a plotline for Season 3.)

In Britain, the show has been taken as an answer to the too many footie fans who think that coaches aren’t doing anything if they’re not screaming their lungs out on the touchline. (English soccer is home of Sir Alex Ferguson’s “hair dryer treatment,” in which the

SEPTEMBER 15-21, 2021

continued from page 16

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

Screen

17

3 DAY CELEBRATION OF LIVE MUSIC & EVENTS AT 18+ VENUES WITH 65+ CONCERTS

OCTOBER 1-3, 2021

ARLINGTON, TEXAS

Travel the roads to discover Downtown Arlington at this unique festival featuring Americana, Latin country, blues, jazz, gospel, rock, and more.

Plus special events including Urban Artisan Market, Classic Car Show, Youth Voice Competition and a Gospel Brunch.

Presented By

TICKETS ON SALE NOW!

$45/single day, $100/three-day, $250/three-day VIP pass

fwweekly.com

RAMBLINROADSFEST.COM

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

SEPTEMBER 15-21, 2021

BOBBY PULIDO

CHROM EO

WILLIAM CLARK GREEN

This project was proudly underwritten in part by

20 DA_RRMF_Ad_10x11*25.indd 1

9/14/21 2:13 PM

EATS & drinks 9/14 COMEDY OPEN MIC 9/15 WEEKLY FUNKY TRIVIA 9/19 9/18 A BEER YOGA FAMILY BEER YOG 9/20 OKTOBERFEST BEER DINNER

GO PURPLE Friday’s!

NEW HOURS: MON: CLOSED TUE - SAT: 11AM - 10PM SUN: 11AM - 8PM

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

SPICE

“Best Thai Food”

– FW Weekly Critics Thai Kitchen & Bar Choice 2016 – FW Weekly 411 W. Magnolia Ave readers Fort Worth • 817-984-1800 Choice 2017, order online for pickup at Spicedfw.com 2019 & 2020

fwweekly.com

THE BEST THAI IN FORT WORTH

SEPTEMBER 15-21, 2021

APPROVED THAI RESTAURANTS IN FW!

“Best Thai Food”

401 Bryan Ave, Ste 117 - Fort Worth, TX - 817.708.2739 WWW.FUNKYPICNICBREWERY.COM

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

FIRST BLUE ZONES

Wear purple on Friday & get $2 off Riff Ram cocktail

21

This retro train stationthemed food hall offers an array of bites and brews in quaint downtown Grapevine.

Harvest Hall, 815 S Main St, Grapevine. 817251-3050. 11am-9pm Mon-Thu & Sun, 11am11pm Fri-Sat. B Y

C H R I S T I N A

Jon Olansen

Hall Aboard!

B E R G E R

Food halls are just cafeterias for adults.

They’re the bougie, grown-up version of your middle school lunchroom where nostalgia — minus the hunched old ladies in hairnets slopping the day’s gruel onto your grooved plastic tray — mixes with

The salsa verde really enhanced and drew out the flavors of each of the meats that were part of Arepas TX’s “pick three” taco plate.

the notion that your food choices should be both multitudinous and quickly and easily accessible.

At least, that’s what I used to think.

Harvest Hall took a cartoon mallet to the

Handmade, Baked & Delicious!

fwweekly.com

ARGENTINE EMPANADAS

one or two places, we dived into the deep end and sampled one item from almost every vendor. Almost. continued on page 24

GIOVANNI’S new sto r e ho u r s Tuesday - Fri day s atu r day & su nday 4pm to 10pm 1 1 Am to 1 0 p m Clos ed M o nday

MON-SAT 9a-8p

SEPTEMBER 15-21, 2021 FO R T WO R T H W E E K LY

Both Harvest Hall and Hotel Vin unite within Grapevine Main, a grand mixed-use space whose exterior features an adorable brick plaza complete with a light-up dancing fountain.

I TA L I A N K I T C H E N Come Taste what Everyone is Raving About!

SUN 9a-3p

5733 crowley rd • fort worth tx 76134

DelCampoempanaDas.Com 10724 N Beach St | 817-562-5888

22

Jon Olansen

EATS & drinks

judgmental little devil on my shoulder and left it seeing stars.

For the hell of it, my friend and I hopped onto the TEXRail northeast-bound to Harvest Hall. Right off the Main Street Grapevine stop and housed within Hotel Vin, a boutique stay that’s been open for just over a year now, the train station-themed food hall pays homage to vintage rail with a modern twist. Both the hotel and the hall unite within Grapevine Main, a grand mixed-use space. The exterior features an adorable brick plaza complete with a lightup dancing fountain reminiscent of that in downtown Fort Worth’s Sundance Square, and, adjacent to the railroad tracks, a turfed patio with strung lights nearly spans the length of the building.

Modeled after European food halls, Harvest Hall occupies the infinitely tall-ceilinged space with six eateries, a coffee bar, and two actual bars. The chic interior mosaiced with countless subway tiles and boasting retro-style lamps atop mid-century modern furniture harkens to an era when railway stations were the fashionable mode of transportation.

By the time my friend and I deboarded the train and eagerly skipped inside, our eyes had grown to be much larger than our stomachs. After making our initial round to scope out the entire place, instead of doing the sensible thing and buying from

817.551.3713 | GIOVANNISFW.COM RIVER OAKS 5181 River Oaks Blvd 817-404-3244

Serving Tacos, Quesadillas & More!

Family Owned in North Fort Worth Open Tuesdays to Sundays Tue-Thu 10am-9pm | Fri-Sat 10am-10pm | Sun 10am-3pm

7355 N Beach St | 682-707-2902 HangoutTacos.com

Selling Alcohol Soon!

find out why we’re

the best!

VISIT OUR WEBSITE TO FIND OUT WHERE WE’RE PARKED! BOOK US FOR YOUR PLACE TODAY! BigKatBurgers.com 903-363-5723 806-448-8810

Best Foo d Truck?

Find Us:

Tuesdays

To

sundays

Parked @ 4402 E Lancaster FWTX 817-891-3689

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

SEPTEMBER 15-21, 2021

fwweekly.com

OPEN: Tue-Sat 11a-9p Sun 11a-7p

23

Eats

continued from page 22

Right in the Heart of

South Main Village

Dividing and conquering like the culinary crusaders we pretended to be, the two of us covered two venues each. At Spuntino’s, the (better) half of me that’s Italian convinced the lesser half to indulge in some arancini (fried rice balls filled with meat, cheese, and tomato sauce) as well as the meatballs I’d been on assignment to order. Next, I scampered to Chick & Biscuit to grab a “Bee’s Knees.” I’d be lying if I said we didn’t single out this particular fried chicken sandwich because of its name.

Meanwhile, my counterpart dashed toward Easy Slider, where the loaded tots were a no-brainer, and Arepas TX for some street-style tacos. We rendezvoused at a table in the middle of the action and wolfed down bites from each of the four vendors, rotating our platters so as to nibble each nosh, and we washed everything down with cocktails from the Main Line bar.

My “Grapevine Mule” — I mean, I had to, y’know? — puckered my lips with its citrus kick but was enjoyable, nonetheless.

The fare we chose was admittedly all over the map, but there’s something about choosing a little of this and a little of that to complete a potluck-style picnic and allow yourself to dabble a bit.

Where the meatballs from Spuntino’s disappointed on almost all fronts, the arancini tasted *chef ’s kiss* buonissimo, as if crafted abroad. Out of the carne mechada, grilled chicken, and carnitas tacos from Arepas TX, the cilantro-spiced chicken

25 Weekly Rotating Taps & Craft Cocktails Canned & Bottled Beer From Across the Country

Dine In or To Go

Hours: Tues-Thurs 11am-10pm Fri-Sat 11am-12am Sun 11am-10pm

Harvest Hall Chick & Biscuit, the Bee’s Knees ...........................

Spuntino’s, sample of meatballs and arancini ......

Easy Sliders, loaded tots .........................................

Arepas TX, “pick three” tacos .................................

Housemade Dishes with Locally-Sourced Ingredients

was the most savory, and the salsa verde really enhanced and drew out the flavors of each of the meats. Chick & Biscuit’s Bee’s Knees sandwich perfectly blended sweet, heat, and salt with blue cheese, honey, and hot sauce, each ingredient pairing beautifully without any one overwhelming or outshining the others.

If the venues had been competing, Easy Slider’s loaded tots topped with bacon bits and chives would have narrowly beat out the arancini. What set them apart from the competition were the house-made ranch drizzling and melted cheddar cheese throughout. Need I say more?

Post stuffing ourselves with various victuals and liquoring up with our second round of cocktails, his pink-hued Cosmo and my decidedly rum-forward Dark & Stormy, we gravitated toward the sound of music emitting from the Third Rail bar. A self-proclaimed “hootenanny string band,” The Bodarks strummed away onstage as my friend and I relished seeing live music again.

I capped off the evening with an aptly garnished cherry limeade. Maybe it was the ambience of the low-lit lounge or the fact that my beverage tasted like a fancier, spiked version of the Sonic drink of the same name, but the evening certainly ended on a high note. Harvest Hall is on track, so to speak, to becoming a hub of good food, drinks, and entertainment just a train ride away. l

24

Jon Olansen

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

SEPTEMBER 15-21, 2021

fwweekly.com

300 S Main St | 817-349-9832 | Facebook.com/TheBeardedLadyFortWorth

$14 $3.50 $10 $10.50

Spuntino’s arancini tasted *chef’s kiss* buonissimo, as if crafted abroad.

COME back to

SUN 9/19

ByWasonga Brunch with Henry’s Famous Chicken & Waffles on the Menu!

Open Tuesday to Saturday 3:30pm to 10:30pm 1628 Park Place Ave, FORT WORTH WineHausFW.com 817-887-9101

the YUCATAN! COME BACK AND EXPERIENCE OUR GREAT FOOD, DRINKS, & ATMOSPHERE ONCE AGAIN!

OUTDOOR SEATING GAME DAY TV’S OVER 100 TEQUILAS LIVE MUSIC & DJ EVERY WEEKEND

909 W MAGNOLIA AVE • 682-385-9395

fwweekly.com

Live Reading of “Tartuffe” in the Courtyard 7:30pm

SEPTEMBER 15-21, 2021

SAT 9/18

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

EVERY FRI 7PM-10PM Jazz Night

25

THE EAGLE HAS LANDED

817-349-9387

EATS & drinks

WWW.EAGLESPOINTSAGINAW.COM Coming from 820, exit Saginaw- Main exit towards Saginaw.

About 2 miles down we are located in a shopping center on the left.

Advertising Feature

Central Market Offers Virtual Cooking Classes in Celebration of Hispanic Heritage Month

COME ON IN!

In honor of Hispanic Heritage Month, Central Market is offering some special virtual classes. Customers will learn how to make complete meals while learning unique techniques and hearing stories from three experts in Hispanic cuisine.

Fort Worth | 612 University A Full-Service Seafood Restaurant

Classes are offered with cooking kits for pickup or virtual-only tickets, but shopping lists will also be sent prior to class for those who want to shop for themselves.

From 6pm to 7:30pm on Thu, Sep 23, self-proclaimed “Border Girl” Michelle Rodarte will teach about Mexican homestyle cooking. Rodarte has travelled the world, following her love of food, and has studied in France, lived in Mexico, and has worked with Central Market for nearly 20 years.

The menu will include picadillo de res (spiced beef and potatoes), arroz a la Mexicana (Mexican rice with carrots and peas), and salsa de jalapeno (fresh salsa with jalapenos.) Meal kits for this class are $65 and the virtual class access is $20 per household at CentralMarket.com.

A division of H-E-B, Central Market opened its doors in 1994 and now has ten store locations across North Texas.

A bountiful produce department with unmatched quality and variety, an 80foot seafood case, hundreds of cheeses, 2,500 wine labels, and extensive specialty grocery aisles make the Central Market experience unique. #CentralMarket #ReallyIntoFood.

For more information visit our website or follow us on social media (Instagram is @central_market and Twitter is @ centralmarket).

MAKE YOUR DREAM KITCHEN A REALITY WITH SHELFGENIE fwweekly.com

Enjoy up to 50% more space in your kitchen and better access to your most-used items with our custom pull-out shelves installed in your existing cabinets

INSTALLATION* *Limit one offer per household.

Must purchase 5+ Classic/ Designer Shelves. EXP 9/30/21

®

Schedule Your FREE Design Consultation:

(855) 382-5733 Hours: Mon - Fri 9am-9pm, Sat 10am - 4pm EST

26 License #144034

Cour tesy Central Market

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

SEPTEMBER 15-21, 2021

50% OFF

Learn to make Mexican home cooking with Michelle Rodarte.

NEA R SOUTHS IDE

FORT WO RT H, T E X AS

NOW OPEN!

Open Thu-Sat Weekly + 3rd Sun for Brunch

THE Near Southside FW spot for next level, homemade bar food and draft beer… connected to an Urban Hideaway in plain sight, serving Craft Beer, Craft Cocktails and Great Weekly Entertainment!

609 S Jennings Ave • (469) 263-8128 • hightopgrubpub.com

404 Oakland | 682-230-8774 For Hours & Menu, Visit: www.ReBirthOfFood.com

D R I NeK of th Month

ry Tues $2 oFF eve

Happy Hour Mon - Fri

Dollar Off Beers | $8 Drink of the Day

eekniGHT speCials WMonday - Thursday

DANNY DUNCAN SAT 12/4

QUIET RIOT FRI 9/17 SAT 9/18 THU 9/23 FRI 9/24 SAT 9/25 FRI 10/1 SAT 10/2

DIE UNNAMED SHOEGAZE, AUDIOBATON OVERTIME GIRLS NIGHT OUT CHICAGO TRIBUTE DANK, TOWERHIGH, RCX LIVE AC/DC TRIBUTE

FRI 9/17 JEFF ZERO & MORE

SEPTEMBER 15-21, 2021

TUE 11/2

fwweekly.com

117 S Main St • Fort Worth

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

RUM DMC

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

27

Arlington and Fort Worth Business Men and County Officials are Guests.

A large number of Fort Worth business men and county officials were the guests of County Wednesday at Commissioner a barbecue dinner at the convict camp in precinct No. 2. A delegation of Arlington citizens also joined the party at Arlington.

Olin Gibbins

The Fort Worth party included W.G. Turner, J.W. Mitchell, A. L. McCoy, N. H. Lassiter, W.W. Henkel, John Homan, R.R Darrah, George Clayton, S. D. Shannon, M.M. Lydon, H.G. Brickhouse, , County Commissioners Duringer, Snow, Wall and Clerk Logan, County Collector Elliott, County Assessor Prichard, County Auditor Mulholland, John alderman and W. H. Tolbert, deputies in the county clerk’s office: Marvin Scott and Chester Hollis of the assessor’s force, Deputy sheriff Smith and Casey, Jailer Largent, Assistant County Attornery Calloway and all the members of the grand jury of the Seventeenth district.

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

SEPTEMBER 15-21, 2021

fwweekly.com

Gibbins

28

1.) This weekend is just the beginning at Oak Highlands Brewery (10484 Brockwood Rd, Dallas, 469-802-9455).

This year, OHB hosts three Oktoberfest Parties: this Saturday, next Sat, Sep 25, and Fri, Oct 1. Besides beer, food, live music, and the crowning of Miss Oktoberfest, enjoy games like chug runs, hammerschlagen (hammering a nail into a stump), and a stein-holding contest. (The parties are free to attend. Just bring your beer money.)

On Friday, the festivities kick off with the Oktoberfest Four-Course Dinner, featuring German food prepared by OHB partners Cedar Creek Brewhouse & Eatery (@CedarCreekBrewhouseMS). Tickets are $50 per person on Prekindle.com.

2.) From 11am to 9pm Saturday in the taproom, 903 Brewers (1718 S Elm St, Sherman, 214-243-8090) celebrates Oktoberfest with drink specials, collectible steins, live music, stein-holding contests, and a prize for the best costume.

With your Saturday already stacked — see: above and below — you might wait and visit 11am-6pm Sun for brunch. New items are added to the brunch menu every week, and there’s live music from noon to 4pm.

3.) From 3pm to 7pm Saturday, check out a downtown on foot at the Downtown Garland Business Association Wine Walk. First, you need to check in at the Landmark Museum (393 N 6th St, 972-2052996) to pick up your map and collectible wine glass. Then wander — and sip — your way around 12 wine stops on your way to the historic square to hear the Rock-a-Holics playing ’80s cover tunes at 5pm. Tickets are $30 per person at DowntownGarland.org.

Available for quinceañeras, weddings, and private parties!

817-834-1822

4.) At 7:30pm Sat, enjoy an open-air theatrical reading of the comedy Tartuffe on the patio at WineHaus (1628 Park Place Av, Fort Worth, 817-887-9101).

Before and after the show, plus during intermission, the audience will mingle with the Premiere Cru Theatre actors and

Cour tesy Facebook

I need a drink. You? Here are eight upcoming — mostly beer-oriented — boozy events to choose from, in chronological order for those who want to hit them all. Cheers!

Oktoberfest at Dirty Job Brewery has a snack option Sat.

join in the toasts. Each time the play’s title is mentioned, a bell will ring, and everyone takes a sip (#DrinkingGames). There is no cost to attend Theatre in the Haus, but the drinks are on you.

5.) Oktoberfest is happening in Fort Worth 5-11pm Thu-Fri, Sep 23-24, and 11am-midnight Sat, Sep 25, at Panther Island Pavilion (395 Purcey St, 817-6989700), featuring beer, food, games, live music, and a midway. Tickets are $5-15 at OktoberFestFW.com and include a free stein while supplies last.

6.) For a full weekend of family-friendly German-themed fun, head to McKinney Oktoberfest in Historic Downtown McKinney (111 N Tennessee St, 972-5472660). The festival is open 5pm-11pm Fri, Sep 24, 11am-11pm Sat, Sep 25, and noon-5pm Sun, Sep 25. Along with the obligatory glasses of beer for sale — both domestic and imported brands — German food will be available for sale. Enjoy games, live music, the annual Weenie Dog Races, vendors, and more. Admission is free. For more info, go to VisitMcKinney. com/Events.

7.) From noon to 10pm on Sat, Sep 25, Dirty Jobs Brewing (117 N Main St, Mansfield, 682-518-1791) hosts its Oktoberfest event celebrating its 2021 Oktoberfest marzen release. While there is no cover charge to attend, $20 at the door provides you with your own DJB Oktoberfest mug, two mug fills of brew, and your choice of a hot brat or a large, warm salted pretzel.

For entertainment announcements and other info, follow DJB at Facebook.com/ DirtyJobBrewing.

8.) Dallas’ original beer festival is back for 2021. On Fri-Sat, Nov 12-13, The Big Texas Beer Fest is happening at the Fair Park Automobile Building (1010 First Av, 214-670-8400), featuring more than 500 beer selections from 110-plus breweries.

Tickets are $37-60 at BigTexasBeerFest. com. (Note: As this event traditionally sells out in advance, there will be no tickets at the door.)

By Jennifer Bovee

MUSIC Summer Dean

With her clever and earnest writing, the country songstress will have listeners falling in love with Bad Romantic, her debut LP. B Y

P A T R I C K

H I G G I N S

continued on page 32

Dean: “I’m working my butt off, and to know people are listening, and they like it, it makes my guts feel real good.”

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

Brooks Burris

SEPTEMBER 15-21, 2021

fwweekly.com

Throughout its history, country music has been fortunate enough to have several trailblazing women whose work bucked cultural standards of the so-called “woman’s place” in society. Whether

by Loretta Lynn’s “Don’t Come Home A-Drinkin’ ” or Dolly Parton’s “Just Because I’m a Woman,” brilliant women songwriters were able to highlight, and therefore play a role in changing, antiquated and male-dominated ideas of domesticity and gender roles and managed to do it to catchy hooks as well.

Though Fort Worth singersongwriter Summer Dean playfully tackles some of the same kind of subject matter on Bad Romantic, her new debut LP, she stops well short of asserting that she’s intentionally taking up the banner once carried by the likes of Lynn and Parton as a feminist champion.

“I never set out to be political or make some kind of feminist statement with my songwriting,” she explained.

“I’m just writing about what I know and what I think about. I think about the role of a woman often. I’m glad I have many women to look up to that prove that femininity and womanhood has many forms.”

With lyrics like those that make up the chorus to the opening track “Picket Fence” — “Well, that fairytale dream of a family and a ring / Hell, you’d think I’d have one by now / But I’m all alone / Just a woman on her own / Writing songs with no baby and no vow” — she may not necessarily be setting out to be

29

31

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

SEPTEMBER 15-21, 2021

fwweekly.com

Music

continued from page 29

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

SEPTEMBER 15-21, 2021

fwweekly.com

a voice for female empowerment, but the former schoolteacher’s wit and charm likely accomplish doing so all the same.

On Romantic, with her direct and jocular words drawn smoothly in her smoky voice, Dean clearly defines herself as a proud and confident artist, alternating between bouncy up-tempo boot-tappers and wailing pedal steel ballads. Though there’s plenty of earwormy melody, it’s the earnestness of her words that draws the listener into her stories. There’s an unmistakable depth of authenticity, devoid of affectation, which permeates her writing, a talent she’s coy about admitting she possesses.

“I think I’m like many writers, in that I’m just trying to do what feels right and make sure I can connect to what

32

I’m doing,” Dean said. “Maybe it comes from writing for myself in an effort to talk to myself, if you will — tapping into certain versions of myself, whether they be pleasing or not, and writing from that perspective. I’ve learned I like simple, plain-sighted things. Maybe we haven’t seen them, but they’re there in plain sight.”

Though the album has been out less than a month, Dean has seen a sizable jump in her listenership, due in large part to “You’re Lucky She’s Lonely,” a duet she shares with Canadian artist Colton Wall.

“It might afford me about a halfprice chicken meal at the KFC,” she joked about the recent climbing playcount, hinting at a certain streaming service’s infamous meager payout. “I try not to read into [analytics] too much. I

also know that I have Colter to thank for a lot of that. He has a large following, and I’m sure that my name linked with his in a duet/co-write has a lot to do with the numbers. I’ll be forever grateful and proud of our song.”

“You’re Lucky” has over a million listens already, and the bump is rightfully making its way through the rest of Romantic’s tracks, a boon Dean remains characteristically humble about.

“I didn’t know what people would think of my little songs,” she said.

“I know what I like, and we tried to capture that. I had some pretty good help in the studio with great producers and top-notch musicians,” such as Matt Hillyer (Eleven Hundred Springs) and songwriters Brennen Leigh and Simon Flory. “I’m sincerely grateful for every single listen and stream. I’m working

my butt off, and to know people are listening, and they like it, it makes my guts feel real good.”

Now that Dean has formally walked away from her day job and is fully committed to her art, she’s looking forward to what lies in store.

She’s currently on the road touring for Romantic, a situation that due to rising COVID numbers is often still in flux.

“Well, these days things are changing every day,” she said. “Several of my bigger profile shows for this fall have been canceled. That’s a big bummer, but I’ll keep working. My current goal is to work up to full-time touring. I’m writing a lot these days, and I’m hoping to have about 40 new tunes ready by the end of the year to pick from and start the next album at the start of the new year.

Fingers crossed.” l

Drag Comes to Downtown Fort Worth

Drag with me

Every Saturday at 7:30

$22

Includes Show and Brunch Our new show, DIVAS LIVE starts on October 3rd Every Sunday night at 7:00pm

$22

334 West 3rd St. Downtown FW @3rd & Throckmorton 817.885.7999 Room Discounts Available For Tickets call 817-946-2295 or visit myohmytheshow.com

Every Saturday at 3:30

Not this Wednesday but the 22nd, one of the longest-running projects of any musical discipline will be making a fun, rowdy, knotty, rhythmic appearance at Tulips FTW (112 St. Louis Av, 817-367-9798).

Bertha Coolidge has been doing its rockfusion thing forever (21 years, officially) but now only about once a year. Well, Wednesday, the 22nd, will mark a reunion show. Back in the day, a Bertha gig was an event for everyone, straight-ahead lovers, free lovers, bebop lovers, rockers, rappers, punks, the general unwashed, all manner of

Manic Monday

The Near Southside will be the place to be Monday as two formidable shows go down in two different venues.

At 7pm at MASS (1002 S Main St, 682-707-7774), the brilliantly, no-doubt ironically named Church Girls will take the stage as part of a massive tour that started last week and winds through the end of October. COVID? What COVID? Just kidding. I bet these lighthearted rockers are safe and healthy. I bet their openers — locals The Roommates and Cool Jacket — are, too. Tickets at Prekindle.

And at Tulips FTW, it’s another Soul’d Out Monday, this time with old-school Fort Worth crooner/rapper Nuwamba, who was all the rage back in the mid-aughts but kind of went somewhere else or left Fort Worth or something a couple years later.

Anyway, he was doing the Drake sing/rap/ sing thing years before that Torontoian ever thought to. Tickets at Prekindle. — A.M.

MyOhMyTheShow.com presents

$30 EveryBrunch Saturday at Noon

$20

Next Wednesday, It’s Big Bertha at Tulips

person in between. It was an event. Haven’t seen Bertha since the West 7th-Black Dog days but would love to crash this show.

The main selling point is that they will be trotting out “new material.” Vibist/organist Joey Carter, guitarist Paul Metzger, bassist Aden Bubeck, and drummer Rick Stitzel take the stage 7-11:30pm. Tickets at Prekindle. Wear a mask. — A.M.

fwweekly.com

I’m really disappointed in friends and “friends” who went to the Eric Clapton show at Dickies Arena after “Slowhand” has done everything possible to slander the COVID vaccine because he had a bad reaction to the jab. (Can inanimate objects be slandered? They can now!) What is wrong with you? Why are you throwing money at some washed-up milquetoast whose only new song in 100 years is about breaking the lockdown (so brave) and whose blindingly easy guitar noodlings can be heard at any local blues jam on the planet any night of the week? So disappointing.

For the Clapton-going “friends,” a.k.a. people I haven’t talked to in years or don’t even know, you’ve been unfollowed. No precious likes for you! For the friends I know, all I can say is that it must be nice to be “apolitical” or “above politics.” Many of us haven’t been graced with that privilege.

Enjoy it while it lasts.

Am I saying that by going to a concert, a mere gathering of people listening to music and having a good time, you’re working against us crawling out of this mess and being able to return to life as normal? Yes. Yes, I am. Celebrities who don’t believe in science, who have millions of followers, and who are actively working against health and safety not only do not deserve an audience but should be boycotted. Go ahead. Go

political points, you haven’t been paying attention. Our lieutenant governor said old people should go out and fucking die to keep the economy humming to protect the orange stain. Yeah. That happened. By railing against the vaccine, Eric Clapton is rousing his undoubtedly old, undoubtedly wealthy, undoubtedly white, probably racist fan base to avoid the jab but keep going to concerts, keep doing the “Stand and Deliver” (which is also the name of an awesome, earlier, far superior Adam Ant song). And now some of those poor saps are going to die. News flash: Unless old age gets him, our president will be just fine.

If you have enough time to post a pic from a concert, you have enough time to google the facts. Pay attention. I hope we can be friends again soon. — Anthony Mariani

SEPTEMBER 15-21, 2021

It’s in the Way You Misuse It

through our magazine and point out all the advertisers who don’t require masks for entry or merely only recommend them. I’ll go on to say there’s a big difference between 25 people at a bar/restaurant most nights of the week (200 on weekends at best) and 5,000 people stuffed into a hermetically sealed venue. I mean, I’ve been actively disliking all of my favorite Cream songs as they pop up on my Pandora stations. I’ve even actively disliked “Cocaine,” easily one of my Top 10 party songs of all time. (She don’t lie.) And you all are going to a concert by this guy? WTF? There’s one thing to make a mistake or let your dumbassery take over. Lots of celebs make mistakes. Some apologize.

Some double down. Some just back into the shadows for a year or two until we forget about it. This guy, this old, rich, white guy, he’s been making it his mission to discredit a vaccine that’s easily saving millions of lives just because it gave him a bad reaction.

Is he so self-absorbed that he believes he’s above being an anomaly? I guess when your whole life has been one big party with you in the middle of every group selfie, being reminded of your humanness must be a shock. The worst part is that all the smack he’s talking about a life-saving vaccine is fueling the right-wing echo chamber to keep using him to suggest VAX BAD. The whole point is to make Grandpa Joe look like he’s failing. And if you think conservatives aren’t above sacrificing the rabble to gain

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

HearSay

33

SPECTRUM BUSINESS TAKES THE

NONSENSE OUT OF BUSINESS INTERNET. Our competition can’t say the same.

SPECTRUM BUSINESS No Contracts, Ever

X

No Hidden Fees

X

No Added Phone Taxes

X

Our Fastest Speeds Available Everywhere We Serve

X

24/7/365 U.S.-based, Dedicated Customer Support

X

VERIZON

AT&T

CENTURYLINK

FRONTIER X

X

X

Switch to Spectrum Business Internet and Phone Service today and you can get more speed and proven reliability˚ for half the price.^ +

49

$

99 /mo. when bundled for 1 yr*

BUSINESS PHONE

19

$

99

/mo. per line when bundled with Internet for 1 yr**

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

SEPTEMBER 15-21, 2021

fwweekly.com

200 Mbps INTERNET

34

BUSINESS.SPECTRUM.COM | 844.310.2929 Based on info on competitors’ websites and through mystery chats, obtained 08/19/2021. Limited-time offer; subject to change. Qualified new business customers only. Must not have subscribed to applicable services w/ in the last 30 days & have no outstanding obligation to Charter. *$49.99 Internet offer is for 12 mos. when bundled w/ TV or Voice & incl. Spectrum Business Internet starting speeds. Actual speeds may vary. Speed based on wired connection. Wireless Internet speeds may vary. Spectrum Internet modem is req’d & included in price. **$19.99 Voice offer is for 12 mos. when bundled with Internet & incl. one business phone line w/ unlimited local & long distance w/ in the U.S., Puerto Rico, & Canada. Includes phone taxes, charges and fees. Other phone services may have corresponding taxes and rates. Standard pricing applies after promo. period. Installation & other equipment, taxes & fees may apply. +Speed claim based on Internet download speeds of competitors’ current customers vs 200Mbps Internet starting speed from Spectrum Business. ^Based on average savings with Spectrum Business promo rates vs. competitors’ non-promo rates for Internet & 2 phone lines. Actual savings may vary. °99.9% network reliability based on average HFC Availability, Jan 2019 - Jun 2021. Visit business.spectrum.com/network-reliability for details. Services subject to all applicable service terms & conditions, which are subject to change. Services & promo. offers not avail. in all areas. Restrictions apply. Call for details. © 2021 Charter Communications, Inc.

EMPLOYMENT

MUSIC XCHANGE

Mama Angie’s Mexican Cocina is Now Hiring!

New restaurant in Mansfield is seeking Servers, Cooks, and Dishwashers. Apply online today at Jobs.AngMarRetailGroup.com

Music Junkie Studios 1617 Park Place #106, Fort Worth www.MusicJunkieStudios.com We are operating with our same great instructors, same excellent quality, but now serving students online. We offer lessons on voice, piano, guitar, bass, ukulele, violin, viola, drums, recording, and music for littles! We are soon launching a brand new offering- MJS Summer Music Project. Keep an eye out for more details.

Wild Acre Now Hiring All Positions Call 817-353-2074 or apply in person at 6473 Camp Bowie Blvd, FWTX. Yucatan Tequila Bar & Grill Now Hiring!

Experienced server wanted for a fast-paced, casual Mexican eatery. If qualified, please call 682-385-9595 or apply in person at 909 W Magnolia Av #10, FWTX. HEALTH & WELLNESS DENTAL INSURANCE 1-888-361-7095 Physicians Mutual Insurance Company covers 350 plus procedures. Real dental insurance - NOT just a discount plan. Do not wait! Call now! Get your FREE Dental Information Kit with all the details! Call or visit Dental50plus. com/fortworth (#6258).

Inogen One Portable Oxygen Concentrator 866-970-7551 May Be Covered by Medicare!

Reclaim independence and mobility with the compact design and long-lasting battery of Inogen One. Call for free information kit!

Planned Parenthood Available Via Chat!

Along with advice, eligible patients are also able to receive birth control, UTI treatments, and other healthcare appointments via the smartphone app and telehealth appointments. To chat, you can text PPNOW to 774-636.

MIND / BODY / SPIRIT Gateway Church Church time is the BEST time! Join us for online church each weekend.

Online services start at 4 pm on Saturdays and are available to watch any time after at https://gway. ch/GatewayPeople.

PUBLIC NOTICES TDLR Complaints Any Texans who may be concerned that an unlicensed massage business may be in operation near them, or believe nail salon employees may be human trafficking victims, may now report those concerns directly to the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation (TDLR) by emailing ReportHT@TDLR.Texas.gov.

RENTALS / REAL ESTATE Stage With Angela Home Staging & Design Facebook.com/StageWithAngela 817-501-5076 We help transform any property into a space that any potential buyer will love by creating an emotional connection with the space, helping sell the home faster, and increasing your overall ROI. Maximize appeal. Minimize time on the market. Free consultations.

Guaranteed results.

Trojan Commercial Real Estate Services TrojanCRE.com 817-632-6252 Full-service company specializing in consulting, leasing, property management, real estate, and sales. Call today!

SERVICES AT&T Wireless 1-877-384-1025 Two great new offers! Ask how to get the new iPhone 11 or Next Generation Samsung Galaxy S10e ON US with AT&T’s Buy one, Give One offer. While supplies last!

Become A Published Author 1-866-256-0940 DorranceInfo.com/FtWorth Dorrance Publishing - trusted by authors since 1920 - wants to read your book. Manuscript submissions are currently being reviewed.

Comprehensive Services: Consultation, Production, Promotion, and Distribution. Call or go online for your FREE Author’s Guide.

Complete Care Home Warranty 1-866-943-7820 Never pay for covered home repairs again! Complete Care Home Warranty covers all major systems and all appliances. 30 DAY RISKFREE. $200 OFF. 2 FREE Months!

DIRECTV NOW 817-730-9132 No Satellite Needed. $40/month.

65 Channels. Stream Breaking News, Live Events, Sports & On Demand Titles. No Annual Contract. No Commitment.

Earthlink High-Speed Internet 1-866-827-5075 As Low As $49.95/month (for the first 3 months.) Reliable High Speed Fiber Optic Technology.

Stream Videos, Music and More!

Call Earthlink Today.

Eliminate Gutter Cleaning Forever!

1-877-689-1687 LeafFilter, the most advanced debris-blocking gutter protection.

Schedule a FREE LeafFilter estimate today. 15% off Entire Purchase. 10% Senior & Military Discounts. Call today.

GENERAC Standby Generators 1-844-887-3143 Providing backup power during utility power outages, so your home and family stay safe and comfortable.

Prepare now. Free 7-year extended warranty ($695 value!). Request a free quote today! Call for additional terms and conditions.

A Smarter Way to Power Your Home.

Power your home, save money and be prepared for utility power outages with the PWRcell, a solar + battery storage system.

SUBMISSIONS

REQUEST A FREE QUOTE!

We’d Like To Hear From You! Do you have thoughts and feelings, or questions, comments or concerns about something you read in the Weekly? Please email Question@fwweekly.com. Do you have an upcoming event? For potential coverage in Night & Day, Big Ticket, Ate Day8 A Week, or CrosstownSounds, email the details to Jennifer@fwweekly.com.

ACT NOW

To participate, email Stacey@fwweekly.com Find us online at FWWeekly.com/ Classifieds

TO RECEIVE

A $300 SPECIAL OFFER!* (866) 620-7728 $0 DOWN FINANCING OPTIONS!** *Offer value when purchased at retail. **Financing available through authorized Generac partners.

Solar panels sold separately.

fwweekly.com

Hannah in Hurst 817-590-2257 MasseuseToTheStars.com Alternative Health Sessions available immediately by remote with SKYPE, Zoom online or by cell phone. Services include Hypnosis for Health, Reiki, Engergetic Healing Techniques, Guided Medication. Call for a consultation. MT#004747

public notices / services / employment

SEPTEMBER 15-21, 2021

ADVERTISE WITH US

bulletin board

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

CLASSIFIEDS

35

ADVERTISE HERE!

If you need to hire staff or promote your business, let us help you online and/or in print. For more info, call 817-987-7689 or email stacey@fwweekly.com today.

The Lone Star Gun Shows Fort Worth Sept. 18-19 2021 3401 West Lancaster Ave.

BECOME AN ELECTRICAL APPRENTICE TODAY!

Saturday 9am to 5pm. Sunday 10am to 4pm Admission $9 12 and under FREE Cash only at the door Subscribe to our email list for entry discounts www.lonestargunshows.com

www.iecfwtc.org

Score FREE CBD NOW at The Gas Pipe, The GAS PIPE, THE GAS PIPE, your Peace

Looking to join an essential industry but don’t have much experience? Earn while you learn!

To register or for more information visit

EMPLOYMENT: CDL Driver Needed with Tanker and Hazmat. Health Insurance and other benefits. Per diem paid. EOE 830-8334547.

Love & Smoke Headquarters since 4/20/1970!

SCORE a FREE GIFT on YOUR Birthday, FREE Scale Tuning and Lighter Refills on GAS PIPE goods, FREE Layaway, and all the safe, helpful service you expect from a 51 Years Young Joint. Plus, SCORE A FREE TREAT With-A-Buy 10/26 thru 10/31! Be Safe, Party Clean, Keep On Truckin’. More at thegaspipe.net

free cbd with this ad

Better Late Than Never!

CE PEA

S LOVE &

MOKE SINCE 4/2

thegaspipe.net

0/19

70

Fort Worth

Arlington

Garland Plano

Dallas Lewisville

817-763-8622

817-461-7711

The Generac PWRcell

This solar plus battery storage system will SAVE money, reduce your reliance on the grid, prepare you for power outages, and power your home. Full installation services available. $0 Down Financing Option. Request a FREE, no obligation, quote today.

Call 1-866-620-7728

HANNAH IN HURST

For updates and to check out my services, visit me online at MasseuseToTheStars.com today. Be Safe, Be Well. (MT#004747)

817.590.2257

INSPECTION ALMOST DUE? HIT UP COWTOWN ROVER! With our handy pick-up and drop-off services, having your car checked out could not be easier. Call today!

3958 Vickery | 817.731.3223 www.CowtownRover.com

THE RIDGLEA PRESENTS

RIDGLEA THEATER: Tue 11/2 Danny Duncan; Sat 12/4 Quiet Riot, Redline Drive. RIDGLEA ROOM: Fri 9/17 Die Unnamed & Many More; Sat 9/18 Shoegaze, Audiobaton & More; Thu 9/23 OverTime; Fri 9/24 Girls Night Out; Sat 9/25 Chicago Tribute Band; Fri 10/1Dank,Towerhigh, RCX & More; Sat 10/2 Live Voltage AC/DC Tribute. RIDGLEA LOUNGE: Fri 9/10 Magic Misfit Fest; Fri 9/17 Jeff Zero & More. theRidglea.com

WATERFALLS NOW OPEN

Open 9am-9pm 7 days a week Cash and Credit Cards Accepted

$100 Flat Rate

817-831-7266

NOW HIRING! MT120241

Spring Special $60 BEST

SEPTEMBER 15-21, 2021

fwweekly.com

Hot Deals At Cool Prices

Massage for Your Money

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

THERAPEUTIC MASSAGE MT002346 1 hr Swedish $80 Open Mon-Fri 682-301-1115

36

Stock your Kitchen at Mission!

Small wares, pots & pans, and all kitchen essentials available to the public.

Come see our showrooms!

MON-FRI 8am-5:30pm

2524 White Settlement Road Fort Worth • 817-265-3973

Madi Boltwood

Nicole Vaznis

Zach DeLeon

Gordi Redmon

Matt Williams

Talia Guerrero