THE TIMES WEIGHS IN: Add The New York Times to the list of national publications that has now weighed in on the Arts District’s two new buildings. Nicolai Ouroussoff writes in his review that the buildings “give the area the cultural stature Dallas has long been craving.” But he doesn’t sound overly impressed with either of them. He says that the Wyly, “falls short of much of Mr. Koolhaas’s recent work, most obviously in the detailing.” He calls the Winspear “solid work” but has some nits to pick about its conservative design and cramped entry way. Still, he closes the review by saying the addition of the buildings is a, “welcome contribution to this city’s growing cultural district, helping to fill it out with the kind of strong, serious forms that can begin to give Dallas the cultural presence that it has never had.” It’s interesting to note that nowhere in the review do the words “Lincoln Center” come up. When everyone else is making the comparison, the guy who lives there didn’t find it relevant.

KEEPING BUSY: Putting out two albums in one year is yeoman’s work these days. But Denton’s Daniel Folmer is planning to do just that this weekend, when he releases Dead End, his follow up to January’s The Roaring Twenties. Hunter Hauk caught up with him over e-mail to discuss the differences between the two albums. If you want to hear the new songs live, you’d better catch ’em on Saturday at J&J’s in Denton. After that, he’s heading to Europe to play with the Paper Chase.

ART IMITATES LIFE: It’s a story right out of an opera – the people unite to oust their leader. So it’s interesting to hear that the same thing almost happened to former Dallas Opera head George Steel. The New York Observer reports that a group of former New York City Opera board members tried to form a coup to oust some members of the current board and replace Steel with Joe Volpe, the former head of the Metropolitan Opera. But it appears that Steel survived the (bloodless?) coup and will continue to be endorsed by the current board.