Five stories that have North Texas talking: meet the man who paid $350,000 to hunt a black rhino in Africa; be prepared for lots of construction at Interstate 635 and the Dallas North Tollway; Arts & Letters Live’s 2014 season kicks off tonight; and more.
Live Nation is producing a big two-day music festival in Plano’s Oak Point Park and Nature Preserve in May – and the lineup has been announced. Central Track reports: “Notable performers on the bill include electronic pop hero David Guetta, roots rock favorites Alabama Shakes, hip-hop up-and-comer J. Cole, indie pop darlings Tegan and Sara, livetronica outfit Big Gigantic and jam crowd go-tos Slightly Stoopid.” More bands will be announced in the next few months. The first-ever Suburbia Music Festival runs May 3 and 4. Two-day passes start at $79.50. Tickets will go on sale Jan. 25. (But Live Nation subscribers and those who have Citi cards can start buying tickets Jan. 21.)
- A North Texas man who paid $350,000 for the right to hunt an endangered African black rhino says he fears for his safety. Corey Knowlton of Royse City says that after being revealed as the winner of last weekend's controversial Dallas Safari Club auction, he's received death threats and has hired full-time security. He told KTVT (Channel 11) that some people "are wanting to burn my house down." Knowlton says his goal is to support black rhino conservation efforts.
- Old Interstate 635 lanes will be taken down over the Dallas North Tollway this weekend, which means there will be many closures. Work will be done in five phases, so closures will alternate. Drivers are advised to follow detours for the varying closures along the tollway and its adjacent ramps to and from Interstate 635. The first phase starts tonight at 9. Message boards and signs will be placed along the roadway to advise motorists. Click here for a list of the closures and suggested detours.
- The Dallas Museum of Art kicks off Arts & Letters Live for 2014. Tonight’s event is at 7 and it features “Modern-Day Hitchcock” with Amy Grace Loyd, executive editor of Byliner and a former fiction and literary editor at Playboy magazine. “In her debut novel, The Affairs of Others, she delves into the voyeuristic tendencies of community living in an urban environment—a Rear Window story of sorts described with Hitchcockian detail,” the museum says. Loyd worked on the novel on weekends and on the subway. So that “might be why New York City feels like a flesh-and-blood character in her story. ‘I wanted to inhabit a place where a woman of a certain age could be seen as beautiful for her complexity and sometimes dark desires,’ Loyd says.”
- The April NCAA championship in North Texas is rubbing off on the Dallas Museum of Art. It’s launching an “Art Madness” art tournament in which one lucky piece of art will be named DMA Art Champion. The competition kicks off this morning to determine the art that will make the Sweet Sixteen. Retired Dallas Mavericks player Rolando Blackman is casting the first vote. Those who are DMA Friends will vote for their favorite works of art from the four DMA conferences on Levels 1-4 – that will determine the Sweet Sixteen. Once the Sweet Sixteen has been selected, the public will start voting to determine the Elite Eight, Final Four, and finally the first art champion.
