Labor Day weekend was a dark news cycle that included Hurricane Harvey footage and terrible rumors Denton's legendary LGBTQ+ haven Mable Peabody's Beauty Parlor & Chainsaw Repair was suddenly closing. Sunday was the secret finale for this Grand Dame of Denton hangouts, whose quiet passing can only be fully understood if we survey this venue's storied history from back in the day.
Read MoreFREE COMIC BOOK DAY
Free Comic Book Day is one of the most anticipated events of the nerd year, always the first Saturday in May, when fans get a preview of upcoming projects involving their favorite icons or discover new characters. More Fun Comics and Games is celebrating its 15th year in Denton with a very special #FCBD guest, comics legend Scott Williams, who illustrated the Denton Batman #1 exclusive variant cover. After a day of in-store signings on the downtown Denton Square, the award-winning illustrator will be revealing his artistic beginnings, his storied career, and behind-the-panels tales of infamous projects in a very special Nerd Nite Denton event at the Bearded Monk on Saturday May 6 at 8pm.
Read MoreTHE 1897 TEXAS AIRSHIP INVASION
Proving that history can indeed be a heckuva lot stranger than science fiction, today’s installment revisits a wacky wave of “Mystery Airship” reports that flooded Texas newspapers in 1897. Long before the infamous Roswell UFO crash sparked the public imagination and endless alien conspiracy theories in 1947, folks were spying odd “Aerial Travelers” during an outbreak of sightings between 1896 and 1897 that sounded like something straight out of a Jules Verne novel. The earliest autumn sightings were in California, but hundreds of reports quickly spread east into the Midwest and Texas by the following spring. You may have heard about the most famous sighting that occurred in Aurora, TX on April 17, 1897, which has been the subject of several books and numerous TV investigations, because it spectacularly crashed and locals purportedly buried it’s pilot thought to be “a native of the planet Mars” in their cemetery. The Aurora Spaceman’s graveyard even has a State Historical marker! The literally hundreds of other eyewitness encounters with various Mystery Air-Ships across Texas both before and after, however, are even more insanely entertaining and fantastically bizarre. Read on for more craziness!
Read MoreDENTON EVENING ROTARY CHASES A CHARTER
Denton has always been a service-minded town full of civic groups – heck, local “town & gown” education took root in large part due to the combined efforts of social clubs – and there’s likely a club for almost every cause you can think up. Problem is, a lot of civic service organizations are struggling to refresh their aging memberships, despite indications that so-called Millennials possess a strong dedication to public service. One new upstart group is messing with the formula to attract young professionals and entrepreneurs to downtown Denton Evening Rotary.
Read MoreDENTON WOMEN OF DISTINCTION
Women’s History Month may be an annual event, but in Denton it’s a more or less daily occurrence to recognize outstanding ladies who are getting’ stuff done. We’ve profiled many a Denton trailblazer, but there are endless more tales to be told! This month we’ll introduce you to TWU’s Space Doctors, an African-American pioneer, and a couple of beauty queens who were far more than a pretty face.
Read MoreWALKING IN DENTON
It started innocently enough with a Tweet. Jeff Speck, award-winning urban designer and author of Walkable City: How Downtown Can Save America One Step At A Time, tweeted an article about a reading club in the Texas city of Waco that took his book to heart and started a walking club. TWU Education Professor Dan Krutka enthusiastically retweeted with the offer “I am up to do this in #Denton with anyone interested.” Within a matter of hours, Krutka recounts on his blog, it became clear that there was a lot of local interest for the idea. Wednesday March 1st is when Dr. Krutka and his group of merry walking Dentonites are meeting at Jupiter House for their inaugural 5:30pm jaunt around the downtown Denton Square.
Read MoreTHE LEGACY OF DENTON'S FREDERICK DOUGLASS SCHOOL
“The past is never dead,” William Faulkner hauntingly reminds us of the South, “It’s not even past.” Black History Month is an important time for reflecting upon our past and present, dedicating time to explore aspects of Denton history both praiseworthy and shameful as we together strive towards the betterment of our community. Yet remembrance and public memory are never without struggle, which has been true since back in the day.
Read MoreOFFBEAT DENTON ODDITIES ROUND 5
Can Denton get weird and kooky? Oh heck yeah. Just recently, we’ve written about the hit-and-run death of UNT’s lucky albino squirrel, the eco-friendly hippie haven settlement Whitehawk, and a new card game involving Denton and Profanity. We even have four prior volumes of Denton Oddities, but here’s even more proof that there’s still plenty to gander at slackjawed whist urban adventuring around our Denton area.
Read MoreA SHORT HISTORY OF DENTON'S WHITEHAWK COMMUNITY
Some may have heard the rumors of a “hippie commune” somewhere in North Denton County, but longtime Dentonites likely recall stories of the Whitehawk Valley community that’s been experimenting with eco-friendly energy independence for decades. Going Green before it was a thing, the Whitehawk community were ahead of their time even back in the day.
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