Five stories that have North Texas talking: A random performance outside a Kroger goes viral; Pecan Lodge opens in a new location; today marks the 80th anniversary of the deaths of Bonnie and Clyde; and more.
Three musicians who didn’t know each other came together for an impromptu song outside a Dallas grocery store – and the video has been viewed more than 10 million times. Jesse Rya was playing a guitar outside a Kroger when a man, Howard Mullins, approached and started singing “Tell ‘em that I just don’t know.” Then another man, Ron Lashley, arrived – and he sang, too. Texas Monthly reports: “It's a nice moment for a few reasons—the primary one being that the song that the three men make up on the spot is pretty good. But it also has some real magic of improvisation to it, the sort of thing that feels like a clip from a movie, but isn't.” Rya says the performance was not a setup. Here’s the jam session:
On Wednesday night, the guys performed their impromptu song on Jimmy Kimmel Live:
- The Pecan Lodge, which many say is among the best barbecue joints in Texas, reopens Friday as a Deep Ellum restaurant. Diane and Justin Fourton launched Pecan Lodge in a small stall at the Dallas Farmers Market – and the place quickly attracted lots of media buzz – and long, long, long lines. They had to move out because Dallas sold the Farmers Market. D Magazine explores the couple behind one of North Texas’ most popular places to eat. The Fourtons escaped life in the corporate world to pursue a passion for catering and barbecue. But will they be able to transform from a shed to running a successful restaurant? “Fans and skeptics alike are eager to see if the mystique and charm of the old space will travel. ‘We don’t have a crystal ball,’ Justin says. ‘We’re all gonna have to guess as we go along and adjust as it happens.’”
- Friday marks the 80th anniversary of the day when Bonnie and Clyde were killed. The West Dallas crooks met their bloody end on a Louisiana road on May 23, 1934, when they were shot with scores of bullets. Ted Hinton, a Dallas County deputy, was part of the group that ended Bonnie and Clyde’s crime spree. Hinton’s son, Boots, runs a museum in Louisiana. He told The Dallas Morning News there are two reasons people are still obsessed about Bonnie and Clyde. “One, it’s a love story that would put Romeo and Juliet to shame,” he said. “The other is guts and bullets — the blood.” The News reports: “Barrow and Parker went from an early life in the slums of West Dallas to become national icons, folk heroes, villains and hunted criminals. The Dallas-area kids were thieves who lived on the lam. They wore fancy clothes. They grew their myth as common people who robbed the big banks during the Great Depression.”
- Politico Magazine explores the “psychodrama” of George W. Bush and Jeb Bush and the competitive relationship between the two brothers. Things could get pretty interesting if Jeb Bush runs for president, Bill Minutaglio writes. “George W., by marked contrast, has often done little but complicate Jeb’s career. And things may soon grow even more complicated: For the first time in more than 20 years, Jeb is emerging from George W.’s shadow and being seriously talked about as a contender for the Republican nomination for president in 2016. … And if he does run, a thornier issue for Jeb could well be the tense relationship he now has with his older brother’s presidential legacy.”
- Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban has apologized to the family of Trayvon Martin for his choice of words in an interview regarding bigotry and prejudice. Cuban spoke about the sensitive subjects in an interview with Inc. magazine, revealing some of his own prejudices. In the interview, he says he would walk to the other side of a street if he saw "a black kid in a hoodie and it's late at night" or if he encountered a "white guy, bald head, tattoos everywhere." Hooded sweatshirts, or "hoodies," became a rallying emblem of sorts for protesters during the case involving Martin, the black teen from Florida who was shot and killed by neighborhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman in February 2012. On Twitter, Cuban says he should have used different examples. [KERA News/Associated Press]
