The lovely ladies over at The Monthly Junk are two of the funniest people we know. We last heard from them with their Girl Ghost Getters video last Fall. Well, they're back and they have just reviewed all of the crazy things that happened in Denton during the month of January. They're calling it "We Did It, Denton!" Check out the video below to see how Sarah Adams and Maggie Rieth Austin think Denton did during the month of January.
Read MoreMONTH IN REVIEW: DECEMBER
Veterans day was celebrated all around town too! As always, Frenchy did it up big for the ladies and gents who so graciously protect us.
Whoa. It’s already December?! Have y’all already started Christmas shopping, too? We’re way behind. We didn’t even put lights up on the blog yet. Is that even a thing? Maybe you can do that with HTML5 now. We dunno. Anyway, stuff happened in November. Let’s discuss it.
That whole #Denton2Sriracha thing still got a lot of play. Sadly, lots of people still never really understood the full point and complained about not wanting a chili pepper plant in town. Oh well. Those people might have also though Moby Dick was only about fishing, too (it’s actually a prequel to the X-Files...duh).
Sadly, Johnny Law, the smiling face that you probably associated with Rooster’s Roadhouse in your brain, passed away earlier in November. He was always super friendly and made our experiences at the place a pleasure every single time. He will be dearly missed.
UNT proposed some budget cuts that looked to drastically alter the funding to their libraries and staff. They later went on to say that the budget that was shared and eventually the subject of much negative press was “premature.” Still, Save the UNT Library very quickly became a blog, Twitter feed, Facebook page and event you could attend in real life (what’s that?).
Midlake released their new album, Antiphon, at the beginning of the month. It was met with arguably better press and reviews than their last album. The Denton homeboys even were the stars of a video from Off Main St. in which they showed off their hometown. Although, one of the times we checked out Lone Star Attitude, they were playing Midlake, a kid at the table next to us was wearing a Midlake shirt, and then some of Midlake walked in the actual establishment and it was just WAY too much Midlake for us at the given moment. So much so that we had to go home and listen to the opposite of Midlake for an hour. We’ll let you figure out what that is for yourselves.
Speaking of LSA, Lone Star Attitude finally opened their doors and they’ve been crowded ever since. We had a lot to say about the place a few weeks ago. Have y’all checked it out yet? The constant fifteen minute wait makes us think you probably have.
Our buddies at DIME talked to artist Savannah Teel about lasers and wood.
The Golden Triangle Mall is starting to look different. Not like a whole lot, but somewhat. They have a few new stores inside of it, too. We went there once in November. It was against our own will, but we still did it. We’re not exactly sure what it will take to make us want to go to that mall in the future besides the Bath and Body Works 2 for $22 candle sale on our favorite scents, but whatever it is, it isn’t in place yet. The new entrances somehow already look old to us. And the Christmas trees look oddly out of place. What do you think?
The older building next to East Side Social and Authentic Yoga Life is set to be demolished and turned into a food truck park. It should be torn down any day now (at the time we started writing this it was still up). We hope the food truck park stays open at lunch time and connects that part of McKinney to the square a little better if it indeed does come down.
We got some more info on the forthcoming Hypnotic Donuts to Hickory St. The most exciting aspect was the news that they’d be open for the “post-dinner crowd” from 5pm until the wonderful hour of 2:30am. Is there a better time to eat a habanero donut? The drunk dining scene in Denton just got real, y’all. Forthcoming food truck park one paragraph above this, ya best bring it.
The Coffee Wars started grinding down on us. Our post examining the various ambiances at establishments in town were only the first shots. This thing hasn’t even started yet. Have you picked a side yet? Have you stocked up on beans or filters? Get on it, people! This is not a drill!
MONTH IN REVIEW: AUGUST
Our favorite little house on the square, all empty and ready for a new business.
I’m not sure how you guys accomplished anything in August. It was just too hot. We tried to go outside the other day, but just couldn’t handle it. When does fall start in Denton? January? Somehow, though, a lot of stuff got done in the month of August.
First and foremost, August saw the launch of a project we had been working on for a while. Mentor Denton, an educational partnership with lots of various organizations in Denton, was started with the lofty goal of getting 10,000 mentors in Denton ISD for the 2015 - 2016 school year. In the meantime, they want a paltry 1,000 mentors for this current school year. They aren’t there yet, but hope to be soon. Have you signed up yet? We did - heck, we even went to training. It was awesome.
Aside from new beginnings, August also saw Denton saying goodbye to a couple of things. Boyd Girls, the late, great vintage clothing and furniture store on Oak St. closed it’s doors a few weeks ago. Sadly, it housed one of our favorite vintage sellers in town, Vintedge, as well. Thankfully, they’re still operating through their Etsy store and we hear that a new location may be found soon - so all is not quite lost. It’s sad they couldn’t hold on just a month or two more until East Side Social Club opened it’s doors next door. We’re hopeful that we’ll see much more foot traffic down that portion of Oak in the very near future. So let’s not let that big beautiful house stay empty for very long, Denton! Something cool better open up in there and fast. Our vote is for a pie shop.
While we’re on the subject of Oak St. More Fun Comics and Games has recently opened an extension of their comic book store down by Oak St. Drafthouse. The imaginatively titled, “More Fun Game Center” should be open now for you to stop by and pick out one of the many excellent card or board game selections to play at the bar of your choice. We grabbed a set of Fluxx cards and have been enjoying them ever since. If you’re lucky, they sometimes have Cards Against Humanity in stock.
On the restaurant side, August saw the opening of both Last Drop Tavern and Irish Boozer. Both reside in the newly renovated shopping center anchored by Cafe Galaviz. We’ve checked out both places and we’re fairly pleased. Much to our surprise, we found out that the Irish Boozer is owned by the same person who owns Delaney's Irish Pub in McKinney. He saw lots of potential in opening a Denton space and went ahead and did it. While the name had us very worried about what we’d find inside, the drinks were plentiful and the food was as greasy as it was tasty. We’re excited to check out their brunch menu soon. Last Drop Tavern didn’t disappoint, either. Their brick oven lives up to our expectations. Feel free to get your pizza extra crispy. We can’t wait until the weather drops ten degrees and we can enjoy some carbs and dairy out on their patio.
August also saw us welcoming new faces to town. We tried to help them out by discussing our thoughts on pizza in Denton, sharing a few secrets with ‘em and even giving them a little history lesson on education in Denton. Aside from school-related stuff, we also listened to a few new(ish) Denton songs that had been gaining some national buzz lately, checked out the photography of Thorpe Griner, got super excited that From Tha Heart BBQ is back, busted into secret pools, learned about several crowdfunding projects (including a super cool one about getting a splash pad in Denton), actually found a local comedian funny and checked out what was hot at the DIME store. Oh, and there was that little incident with all the guns, too, that we’d really rather just forget about, if it’s all the same to y’all.
As you can imagine, it’s been a busy month for us. September doesn’t look much better. First on our minds is the upcoming 1st anniversary of The Day We Forgot to Open the Time Capsule. We hope that you’ll meet us on September 12th to celebrate our newest Denton holiday in perfect Denton fashion at midnight outside the Wells Fargo building. More info here.
MONTH IN REVIEW: MAY
Some familiar faces from our election/relaunch party.
photo by Amelia McBride
This May was a perpetually exciting month. Crazy weather, elections and the annual evacuation of the town from the local college students. That’s right, Dentonites. It’s that glorious time of year! You may once again purchase your sleeve of tiny powdered-sugar donuts at 9pm at Kroger without having to wait in line for twenty minutes at the self checkout. While we’re on the topic, can we either put an age restriction on the self-checkout machines or have some classes at the local library on how to use them correctly? The elderly go to the library, right?
Anyway, May was a rather interesting month. While April was full of rather large festivals in town, May saw the first appearance from a couple of smaller fests that we hope pop up again some time in the future. Namely, we’re talking about the art and music festival that Austere Magazine put on (we even nailed an interview with the ladies behind the ‘zine prior to the show) and, of course, the skateboard/music/Mexican food festival that was Taco Fest at the burgeoning Taqueria El Picante.
Of course, the month of May also saw each of our endorsements for city council win their respective elections. We couldn’t help but throw a calm shindig in celebration. In addition to the city council, we also got to rub elbows with the likes of Euline Brock and Chris Flemmons. The former a prior mayor of Denton and the latter, the brains behind The Baptist Generals. The Baptist Generals released a new album in May; their first since 2003’s No Silver/No Gold. The album was released last week to much fanfare and was well worth the wait. You can stream below, if you haven’t already purchased it.
https://soundcloud.com/subpop/sets/the-baptist-generals-jackleg
A few days later, we saw lots of familiar faces at the 2nd Denton Creatives Mixer. Lots of people who have had success in the arts locally talked about their experiences while we listened to them and wondered where our sunglasses were. Hands were shaken, business cards were exchanged and hopefully business ideas were conceived.
Our friends over at Spiderweb Salon also had a show that highlighted the female-gendered of the collective in addition to releasing the “Collaborative Issue” of their much prized zine and sharing the work of April Murphy with us.
Glen Farris got the scuttlebutt on what’s happening in the business world around town. We learned that Lone Star Attitude will soon be serving burgers on a rooftop patio complete with musical stairs and that there is even a bonafide BBQ restaurant moving onto Hickory St. behind Gerhard’s.
Armadillo Ale Works had another launch party. This time it was for their delicious new Greenbelt Farmhouse Ale. You can grab some over at Oak St. Drafthouse. We also highlighted a few Kickstarter’s from local hopefuls. A couple of them even seem to be well on there way to becoming fully-funded. Check ‘em here out if you haven’t already.
Oh yeah! We also got a quick lesson on the history of voting from Shaun Treat of Denton Haunts, took a look into thrifting, gave the more procreative of y’all a quick rundown on summer camps that look fun and interviewed a bunch of people (namely Triple Threat Press, the forthcoming Maker Space, Chet The Daytripper, and Ken Willis of Beth Marie’s fame).
That's it for the month of May. June should see the opening of Rusty Taco, Dog Days of Denton and lots of great shows. Think we missed something important that happened in May? Let us know in the comments!