Five stories that have North Texas talking: the sound of the season on your iPhone, a controversial sculpture is moving to Dallas, Garrison Keillor is in town, and more:
- The controversial Playboy Marfa sculpture is headed to Dallas. Dallas Contemporary confirmed on its Facebook page that the West Texas piece will debut in April. Over the summer, Playboy installed a 40-foot sign with a neon-lit bunny on Highway 90. The state ordered Playboy to remove its sign. The Texas Department of Transportation said it’s considered an advertisement and can’t be placed by a U.S. highway. Artist Richard Phillips told CultureMap Dallas that he sees his Playboy Marfa as “a beacon, a touchstone where all these different aspects of our lives — art, politics, sex — come together without contradiction.” Read more from KERA.
- After 50 years, Nancy Myers is back in the spotlight. In the 1960s, she was known as Tammi True, a prominent burlesque dancer at Jack Ruby’s Carousel Club. But then her boss shot and killed Lee Harvey Oswald. And everything changed. For years, the stripper tried to avoid publicity. But on Nov. 29, Myers will join a local burlesque group onstage at the House of Blues. And now she’s the star of True Tales, a film that takes you into the Carousel Club of 1963 “to witness events that led to one of the most infamous crimes of the 20th century.” Myers was Ruby’s “No. 1 girl,” according to Dallas-based AMS Pictures, which produced the film. Read more about Tammi from KERA.
- Garrison Keillor’s Prairie Home Companion will broadcast a live performance from Dallas on Saturday. The show is at 4:45 p.m. at the Music Hall at Fair Park. Click here for more information on tickets. This weekend’s show features conjunto kings Los Texmaniacs, country trio The Carper Family, singer Aoife O’Donovan, and Dallas Morning News writer Joy Tipping. Plus, the Royal Academy of Radio Actors, Tim Russell, Sue Scott, and Fred Newman, The Moonlighters (Rich Dworsky, Richard Kriehn, Dean Magraw, and Gary Raynor), and the latest News from Lake Wobegon. Prairie Home Companion airs at 5 p.m. Saturdays and 10 a.m. Sundays on KERA 90.1 FM.
- The Salvation Army’s Red Kettle campaign is in full swing in North Texas — and the group’s bell is a familiar sound of the season. But did you know you can now get that sound on your phone? There’s an app for that, KERA’s Courtney Collins reports. The app features an image of the bell — and you can play bell music. The Salvation Army’s website says: “By downloading this simple Bellringer app, you, your friends, and your family can share in the tradition of being a Salvation Army Bellringer volunteer. With 12 musical notes to choose from, you and your friends can ring your bells together and create unique sounds, play your favorite holiday songs, or make up an on-the-spot jingle.” The Salvation Army has more details.
- Motivational speaker criticized after school presentation: The Dallas Morning News reports: “Richardson ISD officials have apologized to students and parents offended by a motivational speaker whose self-empowerment message included gender-specific roles for girls and boys. Girls are nastier to each other than boys are, Justin Lookadoo told two packed auditoriums at Richardson High School. Being a man means protecting the weak — and women. High school boys and girls should be wary of putting too much into a romance that is almost certain to dissolve.” Some criticized him for making generalizations about teenagers. RISD said it approves of broad messages regarding self-empowerment and dating violence, but did not support “some of the terminology used by the speaker to generalize student behaviors.”
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