Throwing shoes at Jordan Peterson
This is why we can't have wonderfully hideous things
How are things?
Well, Stumpy’s Blues Club in Arlington shut down last month, which is another kick in the teeth for the local music scene. The Star-Telegram once called Stumpy’s “wonderfully hideous” — or at least, that’s how they described the lime green facade of the original Stumpy’s at 501 E. Division Street. But to me, “wonderfully hideous” is exactly the energy you want in a weird music club.
I love this anecdote about the old place, captured back in 1999 by former Star-Telegram writer Jeff Prince:
The bar attracts odd souls, says Sharon Oefinger, lead singer of Black Cat Bone.
“There is usually some sort of floor show, which is entertaining for the band,” she says. “Usually a drunk dancing by himself. A girl walked in one night and gave us a shoe. We kept it for a while and displayed it on stage when we played. A couple months later, we saw the girl again and she asked for the shoe back. That’s Stumpy’s.”
But really, who needs little oddball blues joints — or Lola’s or The Post or the Twilite Lounge — when we have a world-class, powerhouse performance venue like Dickies Arena? Honestly, I don’t know why people ever complain about the state of arts and culture in Tarrant County. We’re really so blessed with abundance here.
Let’s take a look at the Dickies calendar, shall we? I’m sure there’s nothing but good things happening —
Okay, well, fuck me I guess.
I doubt anyone who subscribes to this newsletter wants to pay $90 to see Jordan Bernt Peterson, PhD, in concert. But if you’re into that kind of thing, just know that his Twitter feed is free to read and much more entertaining: Peterson is over there yelling things like “I'm trying to reach you: you are in danger in ways you seem not to understand” at Mark Cuban and telling random Dr. Phil viewers that they should be imprisoned.
Not to worry. Fort Worth and Arlington may be slowly degrading from “wonderfully hideous” to “terribly dreadful.” But at least we still have Dallas? I have a free evening tomorrow and was thinking of checking out The Majestic Theatre. I’ve never been but I’ve heard it’s cool. Let’s see what’s playing —
Alright, so I guess live performance is dead.
If none of the names on the poster mean anything to you, then god bless you, sweet summer child. But judging from coverage of the first The Free Press debate — title: Has the Sexual Revolution Failed? — I suspect attending will be about as valuable as a degree from the University of Austin, which funnily enough is also sort of Dallas-based.
I admit I am curious about the framing of the question: Obviously, staging the debate here in Texas is an excuse for the “yes” team to fearmonger about immigration from South America. But the title refers to borders, plural. Will Ann Coulter be endorsing failed Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy’s call to build a wall along the U.S.-Canada border?
To be clear, Lost in Panther City supports free and open debate. Just not at the cost of our sanity.
Speaking of borders, former Star-Telegram immigration reporter Nicole Russell has taken a job mining rage clicks on behalf of Gannett Satellite Information Network, LLC. This technically means she has jumped from being a “local” to a “national” columnist, though I’m not totally sure how this will be different. She was already statistically more likely to write about Ron DeSantis, a Florida resident, than Fort Worth or Tarrant County.
But that’s not my problem anymore! It’s bad news for paying USA Today subscribers, although they’re already lighting perfectly good money on fire so maybe they deserve it. In a great example of the intellectual acumen Gannett expects of its columnists, Nicole used her very first post to speculate that maybe — just maybe — Monday’s eclipse would be accompanied by a rain of blood and fire but who could really say for sure anyway *shrug emoji*:
Almost every generation believes they are living in the end of days. Maybe we are. Maybe we aren’t. Either way, there’s no way to know if we are barreling into Armageddon or just might experience a blackened sky for a moment, although the latter seems 99.9% the most likely scenario.
There’s just no way to know!
Farewell, Nicole. You won’t be missed.