A treat for the weekend readers of Unfair Park: the latest video from Los Bros Kadane's The New Year. Only, yes, it's for an old New Year song: "The End's Not Near," off 2004's The End is Near -- or, ya know, that song for which an episode of The O.C. was named. It appeared yesterday, because, turns out, the clip got hung up while co-directors Keven McAlester (an old friend and director of the Roky Erickson doc You're Gonna Miss Me) and Lee Daniel (frequent Richard Linklater cinematographer) slogged through some snags. But, finally, here 'tis.

The blog's acting up this a.m., refusing to post comments to some items. So I thought it best not to let this one linger in the ether: It's a response from council member Angela Hunt, who has a few words for Friend of Unfair Park Alfredo. Yesterday, in the comments to Sam's item concerning Hunt's memo calling for a city council briefing on the Dallas County Appraisal District’s new commercial valuations, Alfredo wrote: "The city if they are so concerned about appraisals should certainly support legislation in Austin in the next session to support public disclosure of the price on all real estate sales." To which Hunt replies at length. After the jump, of course. --Robert Wilonsky]]>

The Dallas City Council has lobbied the Texas Legislature to mandate disclosure of sales prices in real property transactions. Last session, council member Koop and others testified in Austin on how critical this issue is to Dallas and other cities across Texas. Unfortunately, there was not the political will in Austin to pass this legislation.

The purpose of the council briefing is to educate the council and mayor on the precise legal impediment at the state level resulting in undervalued commercial properties in Dallas. This inequity has resulted in a shift of the tax burden to homeowners, and that isn't fair. Importantly, we will invite our Dallas legislative delegation to the briefing so that they may hear our concerns and work with us to resolve this issue. We'll also invite representatives from DCAD to explain how their hands are tied on this issue, and to point out some of their recent reassessments.

Ideally, I'd also like to see our city staff highlight some of the apparently undervalued commercial properties in Dallas, as examples.

While the council may have a general understanding that this is a "state issue," I can assure you that we do not have a grasp of the extent of the problem -- how many tens of millions of dollars we are losing from Dallas' city coffers as a result of these undervaluations.

Why wouldn't we want to highlight this issue, and in the process educate not only the council and mayor, but also Dallas residents? How many homeowners do you know that are aware of this inequity? How many homeowners know that some commercial property owners are getting a sweet deal on their taxes because DCAD is undervaluing the property due to a loophole in state law?

We can't fix a problem unless the public cares about it, and the public won't care about it unless they know about it.

If enough homeowners (and voters) learn what's really happening and express their frustration to their elected officials, perhaps that -- coupled with the city's lobbying efforts -- will persuade our legislature to make the necessary changes.

I am posting this at the end of the day because, well, you'll need to clear your weekend to properly enjoy the mounds of photos, fliers, advertisements, magazine covers and other pop-rock memorabilia posted over the last few days by someone with the handle "Trinity River Music." And, see, that's in addition to nearly 3,000 other items that have been finding their way on TRM's Flickr photostream -- items that fall under such headings as "Big D / Clubs, Auditoriums, Concert Halls, etc.," "Big D / Posters, Cards, Ads, Flyers, etc.," and "Big D / 70s - 80s." The latest batch of offerings includes everything from an old ad for Dave's Pawn Shop on Elm Street to 30-year-old pics of the Nervebreakers playing Sound Warehouse to this pic of Tex & the Saddletramps from '81.]]> Turns out Trinity River Music's real handle is William Williams, who's got a street address in San Fran -- and most of his stuff is culled from other Flickr sites, which would make TRM's photostream a sort of visual aggregator. Former Nervrebreaker Mike Haskins tells Unfair Park today that Williams reached out to him earlier this week and asked if he could re-post Haskins' recently uploaded memories to his photostream.

"And I gave him my blessing," Haskins says. (He also notes that, no shit, the Nervebreakers are actually working on a new disc.) Which means, till Dallas gets a proper music museum, this'll do just fine, thanks. --Robert Wilonsky

When we broke the news Wednesday about Angela Hunt’s memo to Mayor Tom Leppert, she was still in the process of gathering signatures -- despite having the five needed to force a council briefing on the Dallas County Appraisal District’s new commercial valuations. She ended up with most of the council members’ signatures, but Mitchell Rasansky, Sheffie Kadane and Dave Neumann did not sign.

Hunt tells Unfair Park that she gave all council members the opportunity to sign the memo, but Hunt wouldn’t comment on why Rasansky, Kadane and Neumann wouldn’t give their support for a briefing. Rasansky would not give a statement on the record regarding the memo, and Dave Neumann refused to return phone calls.

I was able to catch up with Kadane, who claimed there was “no reason” for the absence of his signature on the memo. “I didn’t see it that good,” he said. “It just went by quickly, and I didn’t get to see it that well.” Kadane then added: “I don’t see anything wrong with it. I don’t have a problem with it.” Which, sure, is a little odd, since he just claimed not to have seen the three-paragraph memo “that well.”

He continued: “And I’m trying to think why I didn’t sign it. I really didn’t get to read it good. I think all it is is they want DCAD to look at their appraisals again.” I explained that the memo was actually asking Mayor Leppert for a briefing on DCAD’s appraisals. “I think we should be [briefed on DCAD],” Kadane said.

Of course, he could have simply read the subject line of the memo, which reads “request for full council briefing on Dallas County Appraisal District’s valuation of commercial properties in the City of Dallas.” --Sam Merten

Because, notes the Friend of Unfair Park who sent this along, we've got lots of available land, falling unemployment rates and, dang it, because you're smart and beautiful. And, look, if Forbes said it, it must be true: Dallas-Fort Worth, we're officially "Recession-Proof"! --Robert Wilonsky]]> tag:blogs.dallasobserver.com,2008:/unfairpark//9.99769 2008-05-09 14:03:12 2008-05-09 14:14:00

Yesterday we took a peek at Entertainment Weekly's new issue, featuring Oliver Stone's W -- timely too, considering that just down the road tomorrow, George's lil' Jenna is gettin' hitched with din-din courtesy Eddie Deen and the bridesmaids' gowns by Dallas-born Lela Rose. Well, after we went rollin' with Brolin, news broke last night that Stone's movie found itself a distributor: Lionsgate. And it's got a release date: October 17. Says Ollie: "I'm real pleased that Lionsgate has the independence necessary to bring this provocative story to an American audience." --Robert Wilonsky]]> tag:blogs.dallasobserver.com,2008:/unfairpark//9.99753 2008-05-09 13:11:12 2008-05-09 13:16:00

Courtesy Uncle Sloppy As Pete points out over on DC9, some of us 'round these parts got a classified-ad missive yesterday from one John Freeman -- you know, the Dutch Treat behind the shuttered Sloppyworld. Well, Uncle Sloppy is...

Courtesy Uncle Sloppy

As Pete points out over on DC9, some of us 'round these parts got a classified-ad missive yesterday from one John Freeman -- you know, the Dutch Treat behind the shuttered Sloppyworld. Well, Uncle Sloppy is headed to NYC to work on a rock opera with one Corn Mo, but before he heads out thataway, he's got a rather unwieldy piece of equipment to unload: "I am selling off almost all of the Sloppyworld PA equipment to cover some outstanding fees and help pay for some repairs to the space. ... It is a top-notch PA; possibly one of the loudest in town."

Interested parties can reach him here. And, yes, there's a good reason we mention it: "I know you guys aren't The Thrifty Nickel," notes the sweet-talking Johnny Dooms, and, frankly, I wouldn't be so sure. "But I figured I'd rather sell to people in the scene than strangers on stupid Craigslist." That, Friends, that right there is a tear-stained letter. --Robert Wilonsky

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Last time we saw Dallas boxer Luis Yanez it was a week before Christmas, and Yanez was hardly in the mood for peace on earth. Instead he was dreaming of wreaking havoc on the Chinese, the Cubans -- the entire world. Since then, Yanez has been in Colorado Springs training for the upcoming Olympics and jetting to places like Puerto Rico to tune up for his shot at Olympic gold. Yanez is coming home Monday for the first time since then, and it will be his last time back in his Oak Cliff gym (GTO) before the Olympics. Meaning it’s your last, and probably only chance to see Yanez in the flesh before he comes home with a medal around his neck.

Yanez is currently ranked third in the world, and he is yet to beat the two fighters ranked above him. But Yanez’s trainer, Dennis Rodarte, says the fighter looked sharp in a tune-up last week in Puerto Rico, in which he stopped his opponent in the third round. “He wanted to make a statement, to show how focused he is,” Rodarte tells Unfair Park. “And I think he’ll continue making statements like that right up to the Olympics.” --Jesse Hyde

Update: As the original video's been yanked -- gracias, MLB -- here's the Mariners' take. Which, yup, still has the Laird-Bradley run-in.