Dallas

Reunion Arena was an indoor arena, in the Reunion district of downtown Dallas, Texas . It held 18,293 for basketball and 17,001 for ice hockey. It... was demolished in November 2009 and the site was cleared by the end of the year. Reunion Arena was completed in 1980 at a cost of $27 million. It was named for the early mid-19th century commune, La Reunion. In late 2005, the arena and the Dallas Convention Center were used as the primary Dallas shelters for evacuees of Hurricane Katrina. In 1994, President Bill Clinton visited the arena to watch his beloved University of Arkansas basketball team play in the NCAA Tournament. Reunion Arena also hosted the WCT Tennis Tournament in the 1980s, including Virginia Slims Invitational Tournament. Due to scheduling conflicts in 1984, the WCT Tennis Tournament forced the Dallas Mavericks to play Game 5 of their first ever playoff series at Moody Coliseum, against the Seattle SuperSonics.
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The Magnolia Hotel is a 29-story, Beaux-Arts style, upscale hotel in the Main Street District of downtown Dallas, Texas that for many years was the... tallest building in the state of Texas. The structure is a Dallas Landmark and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The building, which opened next door to the Adolphus Hotel in August 1922 at a cost of US$4 million, was originally the headquarters for the Magnolia Petroleum Company. In 1934, the company erected its trademark neon Pegasus on the building's roof to celebrate the American Petroleum Institute's annual meeting, held in Dallas for the first time. The rotating winged horse came to represent the city of Dallas and became one of its most recognizable and endearing landmarks, even after the building became obscured by much larger skyscrapers .
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Thanks-Giving Square is a public-private complex in the City Center District of downtown Dallas, Texas . Originally planned as the first of several... traffic-relieving complexes in downtown Dallas, it was dedicated in 1976; at the time it was the first public-private partnership of its kind in Dallas. The complex consists of three components: a landscaped park, a major section of the underground pedestrian network and the Bullington Truck Terminal. The City of Dallas leases the land and subsurface from the Thanks-Giving Foundation, but owns the underground structures. Thanks-Giving Square generally refers to the visible park, which is operated by the non-profit Thanks-Giving Foundation. The park, designed by architect Philip Johnson, was dedicated in 1976 to promote the concept of giving thanks as a universal, human value. At the main entrance to the park is the Court of All Nations and the Wall of Praise. The Wall of Praise features a portion of the text from Psalms 100 and a mosaic based on Norman Rockwell's "The Golden Rule". From the Wall of Praise, visitors are led to a 50-foot Bell Tower that features three bronze bells designed in the form of the Liberty Bell.
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The Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center is a concert hall located in the Arts District of downtown Dallas, Texas . Ranked one of the world's greatest... orchestra halls, it was designed by architect I.M. Pei and acoustician Russell Johnson's Artec Consultants, Inc. and opened in September 1989. The Center is named for Morton H Meyerson, arts patron and business partner of Ross Perot, who provided $10 million in funds for its construction. It is the permanent home of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra and the Dallas Symphony Chorus, as well as the primary performing venue of the Dallas Wind Symphony as well as several other Dallas based musical organizations. The Meyerson Symphony Center is owned and managed by the City of Dallas Office of Cultural Affairs. The exterior of the large pavilion and lobby is circular and constructed of glass and metal supports to contrast with the solid geometric lines of the actual hall. Architect I. M. Pei has described the structure of the hall's interior as "very conservative". "It is conservative for reasons I no longer accept," he said in 2000. "I feel that the hall doesn't fully represent what I would have liked to do. It was my first one.
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Joseph Michael Straczynski , known professionally as J. Michael Straczynski and informally as Joe Straczynski or JMS, is an American writer and... television producer. He works in films, television series, novels, short stories, comic books, and radio dramas. He is a playwright, a former journalist, and author of The Complete Book of Scriptwriting. He was the creator and showrunner for the science fiction television series Babylon 5, and its spin-off Crusade, and of Jeremiah. Straczynski wrote 92 out of the 110 Babylon 5 episodes, notably including an unbroken 59-episode run through the third and fourth seasons, and all but one episode of the fifth season. He also wrote the four Babylon 5 TV movies produced alongside the series. From 2001 to 2007, he was the writer for the long-running Marvel comic book series The Amazing Spider-Man. In 2009, Straczynski was nominated for the BAFTA Award for his screenplay for Changeling. Straczynski is a long-time participant in Usenet and other early computer networks, interacting with fans through various online forums since 1984.
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Sharon Marie Tate was an American actress. During the 1960s she played small television roles before appearing in several films. After receiving... positive reviews for her comedic performances, she was hailed as one of Hollywood's promising newcomers and was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for her performance in Valley of the Dolls . She also appeared regularly in fashion magazines as a model and cover girl. Married to film director Roman Polanski in 1968, Tate was eight and a half months pregnant when she and her unborn child were murdered in her home, along with four others, by followers of Charles Manson. A decade after the murders, Tate's mother, Doris, in response to the growing cult status of the killers and the possibility that any of them might be granted parole, organized a public campaign against what she considered shortcomings in the state's corrections system. It resulted in amendments to the California criminal law in 1982, which allowed crime victims and their families to make victim impact statements during sentencing and at parole hearings.
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Stephen Arthur Stills is an American guitarist and singer/songwriter best known for his work with Buffalo Springfield and Crosby, Stills & Nash... . He has performed on a professional level in several other bands as well as maintaining a solo career at the same time. Stills was ranked #28 in Rolling Stone Magazine's 2003 list of "The 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time". Stills became the first person to be inducted twice on the same night into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame for his work with CSN and the Buffalo Springfield. Stills was raised in a military family. Moving around as a child, he developed an interest in blues and folk music. He was also influenced by Latin music after spending his youth in Gainesville and Tampa, Florida, Louisiana, Costa Rica, Panama Canal Zone and El Salvador, where he graduated from high school, and was an avid sailor. He also attended Admiral Farragut Academy in St. Petersburg, Florida and Saint Leo College Preparatory School in Saint Leo, Florida. Stills dropped out of the Louisiana State University to pursue a music career in the early 1960s.
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Owen Cunningham Wilson is an American actor and writer, known for his roles in the films The Haunting, The Royal Tenenbaums, Zoolander, Meet the... Parents, Wedding Crashers, You, Me and Dupree, Bottle Rocket, the Cars series, The Darjeeling Limited, Marley & Me, Midnight in Paris, Shanghai Noon, Behind Enemy Lines, and Drillbit Taylor. Wilson was born in Dallas, to photographer Laura Cunningham Wilson and Robert Andrew Wilson, an advertising executive and operator of a public television station. He has an older brother, Andrew, and a younger brother, Luke. Both brothers were also involved in filmmaking. His family, originally from Massachusetts, is Irish American and Catholic. Wilson attended the University of Texas at Austin, where he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in English. Wilson debuted as an actor in the role of "Dignan" in the Wes Anderson film Bottle Rocket, which he co-wrote with Anderson. He also worked with Anderson as a creative collaborator on his next two directorial efforts, Rushmore and The Royal Tenenbaums, for which they were nominated for an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay.
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Lisa Anne Loeb , is an American singer-songwriter and actress. She launched her career in 1994 with the song, "Stay ", which was included in the film... Reality Bites. She was the first artist to have a number one single in the United States while not signed to a recording contract. Loeb's efforts now include music, film, television, voice-over work and children’s recordings. Her five studio CDs include her major label debut, the gold-selling Tails and its follow-up, the Grammy-nominated, gold-selling Firecracker. Loeb has appeared in two television series, Dweezil & Lisa, a weekly culinary adventure for the Food Network and Number 1 Single, a reality show on the E! Network in 2006 focused on her quest for love, success, career, and family. She also creates children's music, such as the Catch the Moon in 2003 and Camp Lisa in 2008. Her first joint children's book and album Lisa Loeb's Silly Sing-Along: The Disappointing Pancake and Other Zany Songs was published in 2011. In 2010 she founded the Lisa Loeb Eyewear Collection, which is based on her own designs. Lisa Loeb was born in Bethesda, Maryland on March 11, 1968.
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Piper Lisa Perabo is a Golden Globe Award-nominated American stage, film and television actress. Perabo was born in Dallas, Texas and grew up in... Toms River, New Jersey, the daughter of Mary Charlotte , a physical therapist, and George William Perabo, a professor of poetry at Ocean County College. Piper is of Portuguese and Norwegian descent. Her parents named her after actress Piper Laurie. She has two brothers: Noah , and Adam , and graduated summa cum laude from Ohio University in Athens, Ohio with a degree in theater. In 2000, Perabo was cast in The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle, as FBI agent Karen Sympathy. Her next film role was in Coyote Ugly as Violet 'Jersey' Sanford, for which she won an MTV Movie Award for Best Music Moment for "One Way or Another". In 2001, Perabo starred in an independent Canadian movie called Lost and Delirious, playing a boarding school student who falls in love with a female classmate. The next year, she starred as a French exchange student in Slap Her She's French, which was shelved in North America for two years, then released under the new title She Gets What She Wants.
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Sharon Marie Tate was an American actress. During the 1960s she played small television roles before appearing in several films. After receiving... positive reviews for her comedic performances, she was hailed as one of Hollywood's promising newcomers and was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for her performance in Valley of the Dolls . She also appeared regularly in fashion magazines as a model and cover girl. Married to film director Roman Polanski in 1968, Tate was eight and a half months pregnant when she and her unborn child were murdered in her home, along with four others, by followers of Charles Manson. A decade after the murders, Tate's mother, Doris, in response to the growing cult status of the killers and the possibility that any of them might be granted parole, organized a public campaign against what she considered shortcomings in the state's corrections system. It resulted in amendments to the California criminal law in 1982, which allowed crime victims and their families to make victim impact statements during sentencing and at parole hearings.
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George Robert Phillips "Spanky" McFarland was an American actor most famous for his appearances as a child in the Our Gang series of short-subject... comedies of the 1930s and 1940s. The Our Gang shorts were later syndicated to television as The Little Rascals. McFarland was born in Dallas, Texas, at Methodist Hospital in 1928 to Robert Emmett and Virginia McFarland. He had three siblings, Thomas , Amanda, and Roderick . Prior to joining the Our Gang comedies, Buddy, as he was called by his family, modeled children's clothing for a Dallas department store and also was seen around the Dallas area on highway billboards and in print advertisements for Wonder Bread. This established "Buddy" early on in the local public's eye as an adorable child model and provided experience before cameras. In January 1931, in response to a trade magazine advertisement from Hal Roach Studios in Culver City, California, requesting photographs of "cute kids," Spanky's Aunt Dottie sent pictures from Buddy's portfolio.
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David W. "Dave" "Stage" Williams was the lead singer for the band Drowning Pool. He grew up in Princeton, Texas living with his parents Charles... Edward and Jo-Ann Williams. During the 1990s he was a fixture in the Dallas music scene, often playing in well-known clubs. In 1999, he joined Drowning Pool. The band released the album Sinner in 2001. A statement from his band mates during his funeral states that he was a gentle man who always made a point to give at least one person "The Gift"; especially to his fans. It is not known what this gift actually was, though it was said to be large enough to "fit into a cigar box". He was a fan of the group Bathory who are regarded as pioneers of both Viking Metal and Black Metal. On August 14, 2002, Williams was found dead while on the band's tour bus in Indianapolis, Indiana. The 30-year-old singer died from cardiomyopathy, a disease of the heart. A public funeral was held in Plano, Texas, on August 18, 2002 at 10:00. A DVD called Sinema chronicling his life has since been released. His lifelong dream was to buy his parents a house. The sales from Sinema fulfilled his dream posthumously.
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Stephen Ray "Stevie" Vaughan was an American guitarist, singer-songwriter, and recording artist. Often referred to by his initials, SRV, he is best... known as the leader of the blues rock band Double Trouble, with whom he recorded four studio albums. Influenced by guitarists of various genres, Vaughan emphasized intensity and emotion in his guitar playing, and favored vintage guitars and amplifiers. He became the leading musician of the blues rock sound, and encompassed multiple styles, including jazz and ballads. Born and raised in Dallas as the younger brother of Jimmie Vaughan, he moved to Austin at the age of 17, and became involved with the Austin live music scene; he formed a band, Triple Threat Revue, that evolved into Double Trouble in 1978. Accompanied by drummer Chris Layton, bassist Tommy Shannon, and later, keyboardist Reese Wynans, Vaughan became an important figure in Texas blues, a loud, swing-driven fusion of blues and rock. Double Trouble's debut Epic album, Texas Flood , was a breakthrough success, though he entered a long period of alcohol and drug addiction.
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Stephen Arthur Stills is an American guitarist and singer/songwriter best known for his work with Buffalo Springfield and Crosby, Stills & Nash... . He has performed on a professional level in several other bands as well as maintaining a solo career at the same time. Stills was ranked #28 in Rolling Stone Magazine's 2003 list of "The 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time". Stills became the first person to be inducted twice on the same night into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame for his work with CSN and the Buffalo Springfield. Stills was raised in a military family. Moving around as a child, he developed an interest in blues and folk music. He was also influenced by Latin music after spending his youth in Gainesville and Tampa, Florida, Louisiana, Costa Rica, Panama Canal Zone and El Salvador, where he graduated from high school, and was an avid sailor. He also attended Admiral Farragut Academy in St. Petersburg, Florida and Saint Leo College Preparatory School in Saint Leo, Florida. Stills dropped out of the Louisiana State University to pursue a music career in the early 1960s.
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Christian Kane is an American actor and singer/songwriter of Native American descent. He currently stars as Eliot Spencer on the TNT series... Leverage. He is best known for his roles in the television shows Angel and Into the West, and the movies Just Married and Secondhand Lions. He is the lead singer of the country-southern rock band Kane. On December 7, 2010 they released The House Rules, their third album and their debut for record label Bigger Picture Group. The album reached #25 on the Billboard Country Albums chart. The first single from the album, also titled "The House Rules", debuted at #54 on the Billboard Country Songs chart. The second single, “Let Me Go”, was released on July 11, 2011. Christian Kane was born in Dallas, Texas. He is of Native American descent and is a cousin of country singer Branden Hart. His parents participated in, and met at, the rodeo. The family moved around the South and Midwest because his father was in the oil business and finally settled in Norman, Oklahoma, when Kane was in 8th grade. While growing up in Texas and Oklahoma, Kane was a wrestler and played American Football .
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