​As blogs go, Unfair Park is a mostly safe, well-lit space, free of the black-hearted cynicism that infects so many other blogs. (Except when Rick Perry parts his lips.) (Oh, and when Schutze shows up.) (And Patrick! Can't forget about Patrick.) (Anna and Brantley have a little darkness in their hearts too, don't they?) (Hmm ... Maybe it's just Wilonsky and Leslie? They're so damn nice.)

Anyhow. The point is, we're not that cynical. But we are a skeptical lot, loathe to heap praise on anything but the occasional T-shirt or German. So it's notable that one of our accomplishments of the last year was creating a mobile app dedicated to praise-heaping. The Best Of app, a joint project with our sister sites across the land, works to gather the Best Of content from alt-weeklies across the country. I'm looking at the Dallas page right now, and it's giving me all the "nearby winners": The Round-Up (Best Gay Bar, 2011), Buzzbrews (Best 24-Hour Kitchen, 2009), The Grapevine (Best Happy Hour, 2011). And that's just the shit within stumbling distance.

The app was just named one of the iTunes store's best apps of the year. Download it should you so desire. And thank you, as always, for your patronage. We now return you to your regularly scheduled programming, which I believe is Anna's latest dispatch from the War on Uteri. Uplifting, I'm sure.

​Got home from the airport last night just in time to see Channel 8's piece on how Dallas PD and the FBI are prepping for the 10th anniversary of September 11. Would have been home a little sooner, but, ya know, I stopped by a Northwest Highway construction site. Oh -- and I was briefly detained by a man with a badge at Dallas-Fort Worth International. Perhaps I should explain.More >>

​Speaking of tomorrow's to-do list ...

It's true -- Sam Merten doesn't live here anymore. He up and split a couple of weeks back, all on his own. He can now be found wandering the countryside playing the role of George Armstrong Custer in Civil War re-enactments; he recently wrote from somewhere outside Crow Agency, Montana, insisting he's having the time of his life. But just before he skedaddled, Sam was invited by the YouPlusDallas crew to sit atop our former HQ on Commerce St. and opine about the four fellers vying to become Your Mayor, a sort of AV companion to his cover story on the subject some weeks back. Jump, but mind the facial hair.More >>

Allow me to introduce you to The Company's Best Of app for the iPhone, which has just launched to great acclaim. Long story short: Need to know best place to get a strong drink? Done. Best convenience store in which to eat a meatball sub? Boom. Best record store? Click. Download from the iTunes store. Right now. It's not even behind a pay wall.

And before you jump into the comments wondering where your Android app is, it's coming -- April, so "they" say. Or, hell, just go here on your desktop or mobile device.

Incidentally, it's not merely an at-the-touch-of-your-finger recap of the Dallas Observer's most recent Best of Dallas issue, but a compilation of 32 cities' best-ofs -- from Atlanta and Austin to Washington, D.C. Says the memo from the boss: more than 10,000 to-dos from which to choose. So it's perfect for you, glamorous traveler. You too, person who never travels outside the 635 loop.

The perfect companion to our calendar app. And happy hour app.

WireImage for CMT

I once stood next to Chrissie Hyde at the Bronco Bowl. I was, like, 13. So I know how you feel, Faith Hill. Exhilarating, isn't it?

​Those two women above, of course, are Faith Hill and Chrissie Hynde, the latter of whom was my first rock-and-roll crush. That was taken yesterday at the Verizon Theater in Grand Prairie, where, tonight at 9 p.m., the former Audrey Perry and the Great Pretender will perform in front of the CMT cameras for a live broadcast of Crossroads -- yet another Pepsi-sponsored Fan Jam event.

I'll probably play some Pretenders tonight on The Ticket -- no Prince, though, more than likely, which is a damned shame, but screw him. Till I heard the promo this morning, I'd almost forgotten: I'm doing a Super Bowl edition of Till 2 tonight -- 11 p.m. till 2 a.m. on KTCK-1310 on your AM dial. Had thought about playing songs from artists in town for the big game and big parties -- but that leaves me with, what, Black Eyed Peas, Kid Rock, Duran Duran, Five for Fighting, Train and The Fray? Um .. no. (This ain't no KXT. I kid, I kid. I swear.)

Instead, expect three hours' worth of bootlegs recorded at Memorial Auditorium downtown between 1967 and 1971. And: other B-sides, obscurities and odds and sods for those parked in front of the fireplace with their whiskey or navigating their way between wingdings. Request away. I'll do my best to get to, and I'll post the playlist in the comments tomorrow.

Jim's on vacation this week. So I'll use that opportunity to highlight a short film starring his boy Will, the Woodrow Wildcat presently residing in Los Angeles, where, between acting jobs, he's busking on Venice Beach, in Santa Monica and in front of Grauman's Chinese Theater on Hollywood Boulevard. I once heard Jim ask Will, "You get busted by the cops today?" Not yet.

Jim, who makes a brief cameo, says his boy draws big crowds, and there's no reason to doubt him -- when my wife and son caught Will's act, accidentally, at the State Fair of Texas two years ago, they raved. My son called immediately afterward, positively giddy: "Did you know Jim's son works with puppets?" Yup, just like his old man.

Bonetangles was made by Alex Wagner, a young local filmmaker honing his craft as a production assistant and assistant director on other crews' shoots. Alex and Will have known each other since they were "tiny wobblers," as Jim puts it. This short was made when Will came home for Christmas. Will told his father that performing in downtown was kind of "like a movie about the day after a nuclear war."

I see Pete's also posted Bonetangles this morning -- we've wrangled over who would have the privilege of posting, but, no lie, that's pure coincidence. Pete has some nice words about the film. I'll let it speak -- or rather, sing and dance -- for itself.

Former News-man-turned-Lodge'r Michael Precker grabbed this last night at the kosher Tom Thumb in Preston Forest, which clearly doesn't want to wind up on Robert Jeffress's Grinch List.

​If you listen to KTCK-AM (1310, The Ticket), perhaps you've heard: Tomorrow night, from 9 till midnight, I'm yet again hosting a Christmas-music show. Which reminds me of this Darlene Love, um, standard? At last, an excuse for collecting far too many Christmas odds and sods lo these last few years -- and, why, yes, you just may hear Steve Martin and Paul Simon's unreleased "Silver Bells," matter of fact, amongst other cuts seldom heard on radio at this most wonderful time of the year.

That said, as I spike the egg nog, spark up the mistletoe and put the finishing touches on the Christmas Eve playlist, I'm more than happy to take your suggestions. Just last night, Noah Bailey slipped me Johnny & Jon's Jewel classic "Christmas in Viet Nam," which I'd somehow forgotten all about. No doubt it's but one among many overlooked gems needing a spot on The Nice List. And so, dear Friends, leave your requests in the comments, and I'll see what I can do.

​I said it was coming, and sure enough, it's here: the new Unfair Park comments courtesy Disqus, which promises "a higher quality of conversations" (we'll see about that). I know, I know -- and just when you'd gotten used to Captcha, which has provided the Friends of Unfair Park with countless seconds of amusement in recent months as we attempted to keep the spam in a can. Alas, to Captcha we bid a fond scure dozney.

On the other side, our web editor, Nick Rallo, has provided a list of just a few of the things Disqus does, though, look, it's fairly self-explanatory -- or should be to anyone who's ever been on the Internet. Long story short: It's intended to turn comments into a "community," which means you can talk directly with each other (in a thoughtful, even-handed and hilarious tone of voice, cough) via threaded comments, create a profile (or not; see Schutze, Jim), like and dislike comments and so forth -- very 2007, in other words, which for us is a giant leap forward. Still no sarcasm font, though. Shame.

Next on the to-do list: new search engine, coming in a few weeks or thereabouts. So, Christmas done come early. I know -- you already hate it.More >>

​Several Friends of Unfair Park wanted to make sure we directed your attention to National Public Radio's piece on Dallas County Commissioner John Wiley Price, which aired on Morning Edition as a way of showcasing the blue city in a red state. A couple of minutes in, a certain Observer columnist makes his appearance.

Not everyone buys Price's "angry black man" act.

"He always acted like a guy, when the cameras were rolling, who was out of control, dangerous, crazy. When those cameras shut off, he was the world's most reasonable, let's make a deal, guy, says Jim Schutze, the political columnist for the Dallas Observer, the city's alternative newspaper.

Schutze has been covering Price since moving to Dallas as a young reporter in 1978. Back then, Schutze says, "Dallas was so backwards that black people would not meet a white person's eye. White people sometimes used the 'N' word in gatherings where there were black people present."

Over the years, Schutze says, he began to understand that Price's angry public persona had subtleties he didn't originally see.

"But he was doing, I always felt, this kind of kabuki theater for the community," Schutze says, "saying, 'This is what it looks like to stand up, and look how I can do this stuff, and I'm still alive -- and they haven't lynched me, and you can do it too.'"

Well, well, well. I just found this interesting clip posted to YouTube this morning: H. Ross Perot giving some Dell Services associates a guided tour of his office -- specifically, the myriad pieces of memorabilia he keeps in the hallway outside his santuary. And on the wall, right next to his suit of armor and crown (!), are the multiple Observer best-ofs he received in the 1980s and '90s -- each one of which he happily ticks off for the assembled (pardon, did he just say "Horrible Dallasite"?). We are, of course, touched, sir.