CALENDAR Denton tattoo artist ready to teach the art of flash sheets at arts center Page 2
STAGE White painting sparks “Art” Page 3
INSIDE
Denton Record Chronicle
t’s as reliable as the tides. Host a festival in Denton and you best brace for the post-fest criticism. The inaugural Denton Comedy Festival was sold out last weekend (which isn’t hard to do in the snug Old Dirty Basement of J&J’s Pizza). Reports were that the basement was hot due to an air conditioning problem — which might be on the menu of things the pizzeria plans to fix when they close the basement for remodeling for the rest of the summer. And not long after clean-up, founder and festival director R.J. Avery clashed online over video recordings of the festival. Avery asked to use comedian Danielle Balda’s footage, which the comedian reported she plans to use for a personal project. When Balda requested payment for the footage, Avery bristled, tagged Balda in a rant and his Facebook post boiled over. In other words, just festival business as usual. ■ Why was the Democratic candidate for district judge of the 393rd Court, Evan Stone, (a post currently held by Doug Robison) asking his Facebook friends if there are any air hockey tables on the University of North Texas campus? Is there going to be a tournament? ■ Eli Young Band, a country band that got its start here in Denton, recently visited the Ramstein Air Force Base in Germany to entertain the airmen and women and support staff on base. “Events like these are a great morale booster. It’s great to be able to come out and just relax and not have to worry about work,” said Tech. Sgt. Timothy Covey, who watched the concert with his family. ■ CoServe just honored four area nonprofits in its “community spotlight” at the Frisco RoughRiders’ baseball game last Sunday. The nonprofits honored were: Serve Denton, an agency that connects local families with agencies that relieve poverty, homelessness and employment insecurity; PediPlace, a Lewisville clinic that serves lowincome children; Fred Moore Day Nursery, a Denton child care agency that serves low-income families and City House, a Plano agency that provides emergency shelter. ■ U.S. senators and Texas governors rarely come to Denton. Occasionally, one of their staffers will drop into town. Michael Flusche, a member of U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz’s staff, showed up last week at the ribbon-cutting ceremony for the new Discover Denton Welcome Center on the Square. This means Cruz is already cranking up his 2018 re-election machine. But wait? A senator's term in office is six years. So, we guess he would abandon Texas for the last four years of his Senate term to pursue his presidential ambitions in 2020 — if it suited him. Expedience is the middle name of Political Ambition. ■ The La Azteca Mexican grocery on Sherman Drive sells Donald Trump pinatas, which became popular in Mexico and the states after the GOP presidential nominee’s not-so-friendly remarks about Mexican immigrants. If any local business is selling Hillary Clinton pinatas, we’d like to know. ■ We are still miffed that not one TWU or UNT regent lives in Denton. Let’s get Terry Widmer’s name to Gov. Greg Abbott, who appoints regents to govern public universities. She and her husband, attorney Bob Widmer, have strong ties to TWU and community organizations that serve the public. If you like the idea of Ms. Widmer filling the next vacancy on the TWU board of regents, get in touch with Kevin Kruser, TWU’s lobbyist in Austin. Kruser is the guy who knows how to navigate back channels
Thursday, August 4, 2016
7th annual Bonnie and Clyde Fest hits Pilot Point Page 6
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Photos by Warner Bros.
Margot Robbie sips her tea and reads a book as Harley Quinn in a scene from “Suicide Squad.”
Will Smith as Deadshot is one of the stronger candidates in an otherwise lackluster film.
Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje sneers as he portrays a killer in the role of Killer Croc.
SELF-SABOTAGE Supervillain Suicide Squad avengers mess up the plot with PG-13, 123 minutes. Opens fun, showy freaks Rated Friday. By Preston Barta Film Critic
Barely a year ago, Warner Bros. unveiled the trailer for Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, the duel of the century that was supposed to kickstart DC Comics’ drive toward
critical and box office success. But as many fans witnessed back in March, the brawl of Bats and Supes backfired and left little hope for a shining DC future. Enter David Ayer’s Suicide
Squad. While it’s not quite the disaster that many critics have led it on to be, this movie is no studio-saving wonder either. It’s somewhere between, featuring some fun characters to admire, stitched together with a lazily assembled story. The titular “squad” is the brainchild of the ruthless Amanda Waller (Viola Davis), a high level agent of a shadowy agency called ARGUS (Advanced Research Group United Support — wait, what?).
With Superman’s absence leaving the world exposed, she has the grand idea of enlisting the world’s craziest and dangerous convicted felons to keep things in check and wipe out any potential threats. After recruiting an ancient witch named Enchantress (the never-blander Cara Delevingne), Waller is looking to expand her roster of colorful misfits: super assassin Deadshot (Will Smith fresh princin’ it See SQUAD on 5
Teeny tiny kitten Olympians good as gold By Leanne Italie Associated Press
NEW YORK — These Olympians are fleet of foot, shockingly flexible and fearless on the high bar. It helps that they’re all teeny tiny cats. As the opening ceremony in Rio nears, about 90 furry pawthletes over at the Hallmark Channel are ready for some ac-
tion of their own in the very first Kitten Summer Games, to coincide with the start of the real Olympics on Friday. They have a “plaza,” a highly scratchable gymnastics stadium and a track-and-field venue outfitted with enough feathers and toys on sticks to keep the action moving. And best of all, these competitors were all shelter kittens pro-
vided by North Shore Animal League America before the event helped find them human families of their very own. The TV special, to air Friday at 7 p.m., was shot in April. Hallmark decided to hold its own “Olympics” on the haunches of its popular Kitten Bowls, staged each year at Super Bowl time. Once again, the fairy godmother on the sidelines is Beth
Stern, crazy cat lady extraordinaire and North Shore goodwill ambassador. Olympics fixture Mary Carillo lent a hand as co-host, despite a cat allergy, along with a pet crossover, David Frei, the longtime voice of the Westminster dog show who retired after this year’s telecast. See KITTENS on 8