PRAISES NOT SUNG: Were you like me on Sunday morning, reading your Dallas Morning News and rubbing your eyes after seeing the Dallas Opera taken to task by Scott Cantrell? Cantrell’s beef is that the DO was far too conservative in its programming for the 2010-11 season. Since Scott’s forgotten more about opera than I’ll ever know, I’ll defer to him in his analysis of the next season. But give credit to him on two fronts: He had the guts to call foul when he saw one and he had the decency (and good journalistic instincts) to grab a comment from DO Artistic Director Jonathan Pell before critiquing his selections in print. Part of me feels weird about commending someone for following basic journalistic protocol, but, well, welcome to the age of the Internet and citizen journalism.

MUSIC BITS: (Catching up on a few worthwhile nuggets from last week edition) Preston Jones visits Fort Worth jazz legend Orenette Coleman and learns that his words can be as mentally taxing as his compositions. (dfw.com) … Hunter Hauk talks with Nervous Curtains founder Sean Kirkpatrick about the difference between being a solo artist and working with a band. For a taste of the Nervous Curtains sound, take a listen to this week’s Track by Track with Paul Slavens. (quickdfw.com) … Fort Worth Weekly puts together a handy list of both South by Southwest sanctioned and renegade shows by 817 acts going down in Austin during the festival. Consider this a clip and save if you’re headed down in a few weeks. (fwweekly.com)

FROM ART TO AX: If you enjoyed “From the Private Collections of Texas” at the Kimbell Art Museum, you can thank the museum’s deputy director, Malcolm Warner – it was his idea. Glasstire recently paid him a visit to discuss the exhibition and how it came together. Be sure to read to the end of the interview to find out about Warner’s interests outside of work, including softball and the electric guitar.