"Ren is from Grand Prairie." This will be the first line in our next novel.

​We knew at the end of the last episode that this week's America's Next Top Model would start off with some nakedness. So it was really no surprise when silver-haired "TV personality" Jay Manuel told the girls to choose one article on the mannequin and be prepared to sell it in a photo -- in the buff. And there were many, many blurred patches on the screen for the 20 minutes.

Our gal Ren Vokes -- who clearly puts the "grand" in Grand Prairie -- knocked that challenge out of the water. She went after the first thing she saw -- a hat -- and nailed her shot. She looked stunningly gorgeous and innocent body-wise -- the latter of which is hard to accomplish nude unless you were just born -- and had the most piercing eyes peering out from under that gold mirrored hat. Well done. She was third called during judges' panel (which, for fashion peeps, now includes Andre Leon-Talley, editor-at-large for Vogue -- delightful).

During the shoot, however, Ren offered some interesting insight: "I tend to get along with the hair and makeup people." She went on to say that she's not making a huge effort to get along with all the other girls because that's not why she's on the show. (Did you know she lists as her occupation as "living"? She's like Wooderson in Dazed and Confused, but with the "g." And vagina.) More >>

​Several Friends of Unfair Park have directed our attention to the WFAA weatherman's latest forecast, sent via his Twitter account less than an hour ago: "snow is back in the forecast!!!! i'm not kidding!!!" Clearly, as evidenced by gratuitous use of exclamation points. Nonetheless, his tweet caused quite the four-lettered ruckus, which resulted in Pete sending this warning moments ago: "you better stop talking to me this way or i'll have basketball size hail rain down on you!" Delkus delivers!

​Los Angeles-based new geographist Joel Kotkin has long been high on Texas -- and Dallas in particular. Maybe you saw, most recently: Back in September, he included Dallas and Houston on his list of World Capitals of the Future. Among the reasons, "these energy-rich cities have actually added jobs, spurring a rapid population growth." Take that, Taxifornia! Or something. Not really good at that whole Us vs. Them thing.

But it's just that kind of optimism about the DFW that has landed Kotkin a speaking gig in Dallas on Wednesday: He'll be at the Fairmount Hotel addressing the Dallas Regional Chamber. Which I only knew about because somehow I stumbled across the chamber blog, where, yesterday, senior veep of Research and Stuff Duane Dankersreiter found plenty of reasons to be optimistic about the DFW's future -- chief among them, that Brookings Institute study released earlier this week that placed Dallas among "the 20 strongest-performing metro areas" in the country. Writes Dankersreiter:

We know we were not as hard hit by the Great Recession as some other parts of the country. And there are many locally who feel that the Dallas/Fort Worth area is well positioned for future growth given the struggles other cities have had. ... In fact, I think that getting an outsider's perspective of our region is so important that I asked Joel to come to Dallas and give a speech about what he sees happening here in relation to the rest of the country. At next week's luncheon he will focus on how unprecedented future population growth will affect Dallas/Fort Worth's place in the emerging global environment.

Here, as a sort of primer, is what he had to say about Houston in 2004 -- and much of it sounds awfully familiar. Especially that part about urban parks.

George Gimarc sent us this photo. Taken in April 1957.

​Got a little e-mail debate going with Frank Librio, the spokesman for the city of Dallas, which I thought I should share with the Friends of Unfair Park. Always good to get a second opinion. Maybe people will agree with Frank that I have been unfair.

I have a column in this week's newspaper about the fact that flood risks in a large swath of the city are many multiples worse than people have been led to believe they are. My number is roughly 700 percent, based on flood insurance premiums.

Last year the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers informed Dallas that the Trinity River flood control levees don't work. They don't work because the city, which is responsible for keeping them up, has done a lousy job - such a lousy job that the Corps of Engineers, which re-inspected the nation's levees after Katrina, had to go through a process last march called "decertification" of the 23-mile-long Dallas levee system.

The decertification triggered a set of legal consequences. The first has to do with flood risk maps, which are maintained by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). The FEMA flood risk maps for Dallas show large areas of the city that have been deemed safe from flooding because they were believed to be protected by the levee system.

But now they are known not to protected by the levee system, because the Corps has ruled that the levees are not safe. The levees don't work. They can't be counted on.

Areas that have been deemed safe because of a levee that no longer works generally get reclassified by FEMA to "high risk," an action that brings its own set of triggers. All of the sudden, anybody in that area who has a federally guaranteed mortgage (everybody who has a mortgage) has to get flood insurance. There are some grandfathering mechanisms written into the law, mainly to soften the blow politically. But the real insurance rates - the actuarial numbers based on a calculation of real risk - go up 7.6 times. The rate to insure a property in a high risk area is more than 700 percent the rate in a safe area, based on the risk calculation. More >>

​At last, the full schedule for the Dallas International Film Festival -- which kicks off three weeks from today, so better late than never. We've already taken sneak peeks at the first 22 titles, which include Oscar-winner Alex Gibney's Jack Abramoff documentary Casino Jack and the United States of Money, South by Southwest fave Thunder Soul, acclaimed Sundancer Winter's Bone and local filmmaker Clay Liford's Earthling. But, after the jump, the whole shootin' match -- all 153 features and shorts spread across 170 screenings.

And, this year, many of them will occur on Opening Night, April 8, when the DIFF takes over all eight screens at the Angelika Film Center in Mockingbird Station. Among the films scheduled to screen that night are Bill Cunningham New York (about the legendary New York Times photographer) the Tim Hutton-Mira Sorvino-starring Multiple Sarcasms, the 1948 Mexican drama Nosotros Los Pobres, the Texas-set Skateland and a block of short films.

The terrific American: The Bill Hicks Story will screen during the Dallas International Film Festival next month.

​The fest also announced the recipients of the DALLAS Star Awards: Guillermo Arriaga (who was here last year debuting The Burning Plain), John Lee Hancock (who directed The Blind Side), Chris Nolan's cinematographer Wally Pfister and the late Pedro Infante.

Of course, in coming days we'll get to the highlights and post trailers and all that good stuff ... and, look, the Bill Hicks documentary's coming to town! But first, this programming note for those wondering if the fest is returning to Victory Park or NorthPark or another park for that matter.

The fest, no longer associated with the American Film Institute after three years, has made some wise decisions this year -- chief among them, moving out of the W Hotel in Victory Park and relocating to the Hotel Palomar at E. Mockingbird Lane and N. Central Expressway, a mere cross-the-street walk from the Angelika. Panels will take place at the Palomar as well, though some will remain at the Nasher Sculpture Center.

Which brings us to another significant change: The NorthPark Center experiment has ended, and screenings will take place, for the most part, at the Angelika and The Magnolia in the West Village -- though, during the final two days of the fest, the Studio Movie Grill at Royal Lane and Central Expressway will also play host to so-called "encore screenings." (In an effort, perhaps, to capture a bit of that drinky, casual vibe of South by Southwest's film fest, where many screenings take place at two Alamo Drafthouse locations.)

That out of the way, let me get out of the way. Jump for the lineup. Screening schedules to follow shortly; so too a list of attending talent (and, just maybe, an additional title or two). Not today, necessarily. Just shortly. More >>

​OK. So, I just spoke with Maura Gast, head of the Irving Convention & Visitors Bureau, and sorry, but there won't be any T-shirts or bumper stickers or posters available bearing "The Last Tailgate Party" logo. "I've got more bubble gum than I can chew," she says, meaning: She's busy enough without having to worry about that added mishegas.

She did cough up another version of the logo -- and the designer: Irving CVB's ad agency of record, Maloney Strategic Communications, which also counts the Dallas Cowboys and Coca-Cola among its clients. But the logo, which made its debut only yesterday, won't be seen by many outside of the digital domain: It'll be used for a Facebook page, at the city's VIP event shortly before blow-up and in an e-mail blast sent this very morning "to people who've been inquiring about the stadium coming down," says Gast.

Still, seems like the city's missing an opportunity here: Gast, referring to the Deadspin item this morning ("Irving To Milk One Last Cash Grab Out Of Texas Stadium"), points out that the $25 being charged to observe the demolition on April 11 from the red lot is going to charity -- "for starters." She says, "We'll have staff out there,  bathrooms, everything necessary to make it comfortable. And the lot's owned by the University of Dallas, so we're working with them. The proceeds will go to the University of Dallas and a group of Irving charities the city council will finalize next week." More >>

​Showed up at Room 5ES in Dallas City Hall this morning at 9 a.m. to cover an officially posted hearing of the Dallas Zoning Ordinance Committee on community gardens. Sat there. Alone.

After a span of time I am not willing to divulge, I snapped to the fact that something wasn't right. City Hall briefing always have other people in them -- not just me. By myself.

Went down the hall to planning. It's called something else now - Green Economic Growth and Prosperity Enablization or something. David Cossum, Assistant Director of All That, told me the meeting had been canceled because the Department of All That is "awaiting guidance from the city council" on community gardens.

O.K. I get that. I am in sort of the same position. More >>

​Yesterday, The Orange County Register reported that a manufacturer of automotive fan clutches and transmission oil coolers is moving from California to Texas -- Grapevine and Lewisville, to be exact -- which will impact close to 100 workers, a majority of whom will be offered an opportunity to move to North Texas. This morning, the O.C. paper follows up with a related story: Real-estater CB Richard Ellis is likewise laying off 11 employees in Newport Beach and moving those jobs to the Dallas office; and, again, workers will be offered the chance to move here rather than be forced to look for work there.

This morning's Register story reminds: In February, the paper reported that out of 1,153 O.C. workers who left the county in '09 via United Van Lines, 131 came to Texas. Which prompted quite the heated discussion in the comments about how affordable Texas really is, how awful it is to live in "Taxifornia" and why oh why would you wanna live in a state without an In-N-Out?

​Impossible to retrace the myriad steps that led me here this morning: to The Official Texas Stadium Implosion Web site, where you'll find a lengthy video shot inside the joint during Tuesday's media show-and-tell. I must say: This is a logo I can get behind: The artwork's playfully retro (like feathered hair or an iron-on), and the title itself ("The Last Tailgate Party") sounds like a Sundance documentary. I'd like a bumper sticker -- no, a poster. You'd think the city of Irving would be selling posters. Seriously. I've left a message for my old pal Maura Gast, head of the Irving CVB. Got some questions.

And, hey, from the looks of the Web site, you'll be able to watch the implosion on April 11 without forking over the $25. That last bit of info, incidentally, merited a mention on Deadspin this morning: "Irving To Milk One Last Cash Grab Out Of Texas Stadium." To which one commenter offers this sports-page tie-together: "Not only will a major piece of Cowboys history disappear that day, but also Ron Washington's dream of someday finding Michael Irvin's secret stash."

Spirit of Shankly

​Well, this is quite the surprise: Turns out Tom Hicks may be out as majority co-owner of Liverpool FC before the deal's done to make Chuck Greenberg and Nolan Ryan the keepers of Your Texas Rangers. Over the last few days, the story's been bending to the point of this morning's breaking news that he's got 20 days to make a deal or else.

First, the back story: New York-based Rhone Group has been offering to take 40 percent of the club for a lousy £100-million investment -- the exact same figure Hicks and co-owner George Gillett owe the Royal Bank of Scotland. And, no, Rhone's principals are hardly soccer fans -- says this account, it's "just another business deal," which has Spirit of Shankly, the supporters union responsible for those billboards, more than a bit worried this is déjà vu all over again.

That £100-million payment would give Rhone 40-percent ownership in the club -- a controlling stake. That's despite the fact it's a far cry from the nearly $800-million offer Dubai International Capital tossed on the table two years ago, which Hicks rejected back when he could afford to reject $800 million.

Which brings us to this morning's news: Rhone has given Hicks and Gillett 20 days to accept the deal; after that, it's off the table. And, reports The Independent, the twosome just might have to take it: Originally, word was Hicks and Gillett had till July to pay down their debt to the Royal Bank of Scotland. Not so: RBS now wants at least some of that money by April 6. And with no other potential investors lined up, Rhone's the closest thing Hicks has to an Easter Bunny at this point.

And whilst we're on the subject of Sports Teams Tom Hicks Owns For Now: The Star-Telegram has uncovered how news of Ron Washington's positive test for cocaine leaked to Sports Illustrated. It was blackmail!