On the run, sorry. Hope to get back to a more regular schedule and better topics soon.
Junior's list of the Seven Manmade Wonders of the Metroplex is Exhibit 1 in why DFW is one dreary burg.
Man, now he's on the Natural Wonders. Exhibit 2.
We gots The Ticket, which almost makes living here worthwhile. Now, thanks to SportsDay Talk and iHeart and streaming and downloadable podcasts, everyone gots it.
OK, DFW natives and lovers, let me have it.
There.
Showing posts with label Dallas. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Dallas. Show all posts
Thursday, November 7, 2013
Wednesday, May 25, 2011
Living La Vida Ticket -- PART 2
[You can read Part 1 here.]
In Part 1, I began some rather diffuse musings on the relationship of the P1 to The Ticket. My question was whether those who are not as devoted to the station have a point when they deride the fanatic devotion that many of us feel towards The Little One. I asked how Confessors listened to the station and got a variety of responses, most of which sounded a fair amount like my own listening habits.
Makes sense. The ratings have been stratospheric for a long time, so obviously lots of people are listening, and since the ratings for the shows are tops up and down the broadcast day, they're obviously listening a lot.
So -- are we excessively geeked over The Ticket? Are we the radio equivalent of Star Wars enthusiasts (sorry, Ty, I love Star Wars, too) or people who confuse their video game experience with actual living?
I've lived in major metro areas on both coasts and the Midwest. I have listened to sports radio for as long as it's been around. Some pretty good stations, some interesting hosts. When I married Mrs. Plainsman, we were living elsewhere, but her family is all here and I had no family where we were living. It was inevitable that we would move to the Dallas area, and we did so in 2004.
I was looking forward to living in Dallas. No, not because of the TV show. I believed I would find a progressive modern city that had done what many metro areas had done with their downtowns. I apologize to all DFW natives and other enthusiasts, but I was and remain disappointed. (I wrote an article on my feelings about Dallas here.) Since that article, we've had the debacle of the Super Bowl week. Yeah, unusual ice and snow -- but the fact is that Dallas gets lots of ice storms compared with other cities because its temperature hovers around freezing more than elsewhere. The city's response to this would have been appalling even if it hadn't occurred during the most anticipated sporting event in the country; its torpid reaction to the weather emergency during SB Week was symptomatic of a city that's governed by amateurs.
Enough. So I find myself in this overhyped city thinking I'll probably live out my days here, and not too happy about it. (Other than my relationship with Mrs. Plainsman's family, which is delightful.)
But then one day, weaving down the expressway on my way to work poking at the scan function on my car radio, I cruise into one of The Ticket's in-and-out pockets of signal coverage and fortuitously punch in 1310 Amplitude Modulation and hear Those Oh-So-Gentle Musers trading quips about something or other. I'm not sure if I picked up on whether it was supposed to be a sports-talk situation, but it was clearly some guys who were having a good time and not hollering into the mics or talking over one another.
I eventually figured out that they were on 104.1 Frequency Modulation too, and by adroitly switching back and forth I could usually cobble together a reasonably coherent listening experience.
And from that point on, my Dallas experience got a lot better.
So I think that if I'm honest with myself I have to concede that I do have an emotional attachment to The Ticket. It's more than just passing entertainment for me. As I mentioned in Part 1, running this site gives me a somewhat different relationship with the station -- it's more of a hobby than it would otherwise be -- but even in the pre-MTC days I always looked forward to my daily dose of humor, outrage, bad taste, the occasional nugget of information, fart drops, and almost no unpleasant news of the world. During those hours, I probably am living La Vida Ticket.
But I don't feel geeky. My admiration, while vast, is not unqualified. That's what this site is about: celebrating what's great about the station (most of it) and (I hope fairly) raising concerns where they appear. The Little One cultivates a personal relationship with its audience, and, like any friendship, it has its rocky patches. The P1 may stumble through them from time to time, but the friendship endures.
My conclusion: Factoring out the hours I spend on this site, I think my relationship with Sportsradio 1310 The Ticket is just about perfect, and has not warped my personality to the point of obsession.
Factoring back in those hours . . . maybe, some. (Can one be a little obsessive?)
So I'll leave you with this question: Irrespective of when or for how long you listen, how do you actually feel about your relationship with The Ticket? Not The Ticket itself -- I assume we all like it a lot -- but the extent to which it affects your life? That's a pretty touch-feely question, but it has been on my mind for awhile. Do you sometimes, like I do, feel like you're living The Ticket Life?
In Part 1, I began some rather diffuse musings on the relationship of the P1 to The Ticket. My question was whether those who are not as devoted to the station have a point when they deride the fanatic devotion that many of us feel towards The Little One. I asked how Confessors listened to the station and got a variety of responses, most of which sounded a fair amount like my own listening habits.
Makes sense. The ratings have been stratospheric for a long time, so obviously lots of people are listening, and since the ratings for the shows are tops up and down the broadcast day, they're obviously listening a lot.
So -- are we excessively geeked over The Ticket? Are we the radio equivalent of Star Wars enthusiasts (sorry, Ty, I love Star Wars, too) or people who confuse their video game experience with actual living?
I've lived in major metro areas on both coasts and the Midwest. I have listened to sports radio for as long as it's been around. Some pretty good stations, some interesting hosts. When I married Mrs. Plainsman, we were living elsewhere, but her family is all here and I had no family where we were living. It was inevitable that we would move to the Dallas area, and we did so in 2004.
I was looking forward to living in Dallas. No, not because of the TV show. I believed I would find a progressive modern city that had done what many metro areas had done with their downtowns. I apologize to all DFW natives and other enthusiasts, but I was and remain disappointed. (I wrote an article on my feelings about Dallas here.) Since that article, we've had the debacle of the Super Bowl week. Yeah, unusual ice and snow -- but the fact is that Dallas gets lots of ice storms compared with other cities because its temperature hovers around freezing more than elsewhere. The city's response to this would have been appalling even if it hadn't occurred during the most anticipated sporting event in the country; its torpid reaction to the weather emergency during SB Week was symptomatic of a city that's governed by amateurs.
Enough. So I find myself in this overhyped city thinking I'll probably live out my days here, and not too happy about it. (Other than my relationship with Mrs. Plainsman's family, which is delightful.)
But then one day, weaving down the expressway on my way to work poking at the scan function on my car radio, I cruise into one of The Ticket's in-and-out pockets of signal coverage and fortuitously punch in 1310 Amplitude Modulation and hear Those Oh-So-Gentle Musers trading quips about something or other. I'm not sure if I picked up on whether it was supposed to be a sports-talk situation, but it was clearly some guys who were having a good time and not hollering into the mics or talking over one another.
I eventually figured out that they were on 104.1 Frequency Modulation too, and by adroitly switching back and forth I could usually cobble together a reasonably coherent listening experience.
And from that point on, my Dallas experience got a lot better.
So I think that if I'm honest with myself I have to concede that I do have an emotional attachment to The Ticket. It's more than just passing entertainment for me. As I mentioned in Part 1, running this site gives me a somewhat different relationship with the station -- it's more of a hobby than it would otherwise be -- but even in the pre-MTC days I always looked forward to my daily dose of humor, outrage, bad taste, the occasional nugget of information, fart drops, and almost no unpleasant news of the world. During those hours, I probably am living La Vida Ticket.
But I don't feel geeky. My admiration, while vast, is not unqualified. That's what this site is about: celebrating what's great about the station (most of it) and (I hope fairly) raising concerns where they appear. The Little One cultivates a personal relationship with its audience, and, like any friendship, it has its rocky patches. The P1 may stumble through them from time to time, but the friendship endures.
My conclusion: Factoring out the hours I spend on this site, I think my relationship with Sportsradio 1310 The Ticket is just about perfect, and has not warped my personality to the point of obsession.
Factoring back in those hours . . . maybe, some. (Can one be a little obsessive?)
So I'll leave you with this question: Irrespective of when or for how long you listen, how do you actually feel about your relationship with The Ticket? Not The Ticket itself -- I assume we all like it a lot -- but the extent to which it affects your life? That's a pretty touch-feely question, but it has been on my mind for awhile. Do you sometimes, like I do, feel like you're living The Ticket Life?
Saturday, January 29, 2011
Is Dallas a Drag?
Ooo, I may get in trouble with the Nation for this one.
I was very struck by segments on three different showgrams -- The Musers, The Hardline, and The Orphanage -- that the nation is not going to have a positive reaction to the City of Dallas when it visits for the Super Bowl.
There were various reasons given. One common theme was that downtown Dallas is nothing. It was pointed out that pockets of enjoyable nightlife and retail are few and isolated. In general, I got the impression from almost every host that they didn't think Dallas was much of a city, for all of its apparent belief that it's world class.
I agree.
Even ESPN is making its home in Fort Worth.
I arrived in Dallas in 2004. I moved here because I love Mrs. Plainsman and Mrs. Plainsman's family is here and it's a great family and it was inevitable. So at an appropriate juncture, we found jobs in the area and made the move. We were living in a certifiably great city at the time, but I wasn't feeling too bad to leave it. I'd lived there a long time and had experienced what it had to offer and could always go back to visit. I had a vision of Dallas as vibrant, young, on the move, putting its money -- it has lots of money, doesn't it? I mean Dallas and oil and money, right? -- to good use with exciting urban projects.
When I got here, I was stunned. Compared to the other American cities I'd lived in (East Coast, West Coast, Midwest), Dallas wasn't even close to being in their league. And yes, a lot of it had to do with the wretched downtown, the decaying West End and Deep Ellum, the stark southern border and western borders that fall off instantly into poverty and junk, the incomparably ugly public buildings. As noted, more strip clubs per capita than most anyplace else. The view along many of our expressways is simply appalling. I came to understand that local government dominated by the city council was a joke -- no city so constituted ever gets much done, and it does, it's so corrupted and compromised that it's a disaster in the making. Dallas was a poster child for weak-mayor civic government.
And you know, even in its best parts -- it is really not an extremely attractive city.
Now, if I were a single guy with tons of free time on my hands to zoom from one island of reasonably cool stuff to another, I might feel differently. It's not that there isn't good stuff in Dallas, it's that its almost randomly scattered about the place. A couple of good museums. Dallas is a restaurant capital as well, among the most if not the most restaurants per capita of any city in the US. (In my judgment, many of the finest by reputation are overrated.) But what's good about the city is almost random -- you can find good museums, restaurants, night life, architecture anywhere you go, but Dallas doesn't convey an identifiable singular urban experience. It's entirely generic. What cities do convey that experience? Well, Fort Worth; San Antonio; Austin; and, I would argue, even Houston has a better brand than Dallas.
The city has many, many good people, and some gorgeous women.
Ah . . . but Dallas has The Ticket. It is no surprise that in resident surveys on what is best about DFW, a little light-bulb of a guy-based radio station consistently ranks at or near the top of the charts. This is testimony to The Ticket's greatness, but it must also be counted as a serious rebuke to the city, that so many of its residents can't think of ten things better than a sports-talk station. I am not entirely sure what I would do without The Little One to elevate my Dallas experience.
In discussing Dallas with others, I am always fearful that I would come off like a snob, so I don't talk much about my disappointment with the joint. Which is why I was so startled to hear so many Ticket hosts believing that visitors were going to come away with a bad impression. Yeah, they will, but it amazed me that these long-time Dallas guys believed that.
What do you think, Confessors? Does Dallas have an inferiority complex? Does it deserve to be mentioned alongside the great cities of our country? Tell me what I need to do -- other than listen to The Ticket even more than I do now -- to get into the good things that Dallas has to offer, to learn to appreciate the place.
I can be educated.
* * *
I was very struck by segments on three different showgrams -- The Musers, The Hardline, and The Orphanage -- that the nation is not going to have a positive reaction to the City of Dallas when it visits for the Super Bowl.
There were various reasons given. One common theme was that downtown Dallas is nothing. It was pointed out that pockets of enjoyable nightlife and retail are few and isolated. In general, I got the impression from almost every host that they didn't think Dallas was much of a city, for all of its apparent belief that it's world class.
I agree.
Even ESPN is making its home in Fort Worth.
I arrived in Dallas in 2004. I moved here because I love Mrs. Plainsman and Mrs. Plainsman's family is here and it's a great family and it was inevitable. So at an appropriate juncture, we found jobs in the area and made the move. We were living in a certifiably great city at the time, but I wasn't feeling too bad to leave it. I'd lived there a long time and had experienced what it had to offer and could always go back to visit. I had a vision of Dallas as vibrant, young, on the move, putting its money -- it has lots of money, doesn't it? I mean Dallas and oil and money, right? -- to good use with exciting urban projects.
When I got here, I was stunned. Compared to the other American cities I'd lived in (East Coast, West Coast, Midwest), Dallas wasn't even close to being in their league. And yes, a lot of it had to do with the wretched downtown, the decaying West End and Deep Ellum, the stark southern border and western borders that fall off instantly into poverty and junk, the incomparably ugly public buildings. As noted, more strip clubs per capita than most anyplace else. The view along many of our expressways is simply appalling. I came to understand that local government dominated by the city council was a joke -- no city so constituted ever gets much done, and it does, it's so corrupted and compromised that it's a disaster in the making. Dallas was a poster child for weak-mayor civic government.
And you know, even in its best parts -- it is really not an extremely attractive city.
Now, if I were a single guy with tons of free time on my hands to zoom from one island of reasonably cool stuff to another, I might feel differently. It's not that there isn't good stuff in Dallas, it's that its almost randomly scattered about the place. A couple of good museums. Dallas is a restaurant capital as well, among the most if not the most restaurants per capita of any city in the US. (In my judgment, many of the finest by reputation are overrated.) But what's good about the city is almost random -- you can find good museums, restaurants, night life, architecture anywhere you go, but Dallas doesn't convey an identifiable singular urban experience. It's entirely generic. What cities do convey that experience? Well, Fort Worth; San Antonio; Austin; and, I would argue, even Houston has a better brand than Dallas.
The city has many, many good people, and some gorgeous women.
But, and you must trust me on this, absolutely no more than elsewhere, and, like everything else about the place, and despite the evidence of that photograph, they're so scattered that even the pulchritude in this city is seriously diluted.
Ah . . . but Dallas has The Ticket. It is no surprise that in resident surveys on what is best about DFW, a little light-bulb of a guy-based radio station consistently ranks at or near the top of the charts. This is testimony to The Ticket's greatness, but it must also be counted as a serious rebuke to the city, that so many of its residents can't think of ten things better than a sports-talk station. I am not entirely sure what I would do without The Little One to elevate my Dallas experience.
In discussing Dallas with others, I am always fearful that I would come off like a snob, so I don't talk much about my disappointment with the joint. Which is why I was so startled to hear so many Ticket hosts believing that visitors were going to come away with a bad impression. Yeah, they will, but it amazed me that these long-time Dallas guys believed that.
What do you think, Confessors? Does Dallas have an inferiority complex? Does it deserve to be mentioned alongside the great cities of our country? Tell me what I need to do -- other than listen to The Ticket even more than I do now -- to get into the good things that Dallas has to offer, to learn to appreciate the place.
I can be educated.
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