THE DEN10: DECEMBER 4th

Will this weekend bring an actual icemaggedon this time? Whatever happens outside, all eyes should be on Michael Gruber and Pete Delkus to see how the “twitter storm” develops (or doesn’t). We’re busy stocking up on toe-warmers and hot coco to get us through a very chilly Holiday Lighting Festival & Wassail Festival this Friday on the Courthouse Lawn.     

Questions or comments? Email glen@wedentondoit.com

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Wednesday December 4
Toys For Tots Collection & Newton Running Demo at The Wednesday Night Social Run | Oak St. Draft House | 7PM
One of our favorite social runs is now paired with a good cause. Enjoy this last bit of good weather while you can.

A SPUNE Christmas 

Thursday December 5
Tony Ferraro + The Satans Of Soft Rock / Old Warhorse / Daniel Markham | Rubbergloves | 9PM | $5

Krampus Day | The Downtown Square | 12PM - 5PM
This is completely real and totally happening. 

XIII Photo BFA Exhibition | Cora Stafford Gallery | 6PM

Blackstone Rangers / Netherfriends / Power Objects / Ghostshark | Macaroni Island | 9:30PM

No Jerks.

Friday December 6
Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin / The Calmative / Danny Rush & The Defensive Drivers | Rubbergloves | 9PM | $12

Denton Holiday Lighting Festival | The Downtown Square | 5:30PM
Will it or won’t it? It’s too early to tell but we’ve got people on the inside and they will provide you with the latest updates. Really, that just means to Like the Facebook page and keep up with the reports. 

Downtown Main St. Association Wassail Fest | The Downtown Square | 5:00PM

Saturday December 7
The 2013 Annual Christmas Craft Show | Banter | 9AM

A Spune Christmas: Chambers / Robert Gomez / Moonbather / The Days / Savage & The Big Beat / Camp David | Dan’s Silverleaf | 7PM | $8
It’s that time of year again. Free tacos while they last and a nice evening with some good local folks at Dan’s to close out 2013. What an amazing year it’s been, y’all.

BACK IN THE DAY: KRAMPUSTAG IN DENTON

The Old World origins of the “Good Cop, Bad Cop” routine, courtesy of the Klaus and Krampus Traveling Yuletide Horror Show.

Denton is well known as a unique hangout with more than it’s fair share of eccentric local characters, but we wonder how many folks know that once a year we have a bonafide yuletide monster mysteriously walking our downtown Square? Pull up a chair, kids, and I’ll explain why Krampus the Christmas Demon is the real reason you better watch out and better not cry this holiday season! 

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Seeing these characters prowling the Denton Square may make you rethink Christmas.

We weren't sure whether to laugh out loud or run for cover last December 5th when we first encountered the Denton Krampus on the downtown square, as the towering monstrosity was handing out toys to kids in a bit of uncharacteristic generosity. Krampus in 17th century European folklore was the sinister doppelgänger to the kindly Saint Nicholas that we Americans have come to know as Santa Claus. In a dark twist straight out of a Brother’s Grimm tale, St. Nick rewarded the good children with gift-giving around the Winter Solstice, the naughtiness of ill-behaved youngsters was viciously punished by the Krampus, a cloven-hooved Devil in chains with a long lash-like tongue who beat brats with switches before stuffing them in a basket for a late-night snack after his rounds. Krampusnacht, or sometimes Krampustag, was the day of judgment that fell on the eve of December 6th Saint Nicholas Day and used to strike terror into every unruly street urchin. It’s not too surprising that our American version of a jolly old elf slow-sippin’ a Coke doesn’t include his nightmare-inducing Demon companion, but you gotta hand it to the Old World traditions for their sheer inventiveness in creating perfectly legit reasons for kids to wet the bed. Threats from parents that you’ll get a lump of coal from Santa in your stocking truly pales in comparison to the Krampus going medieval on you for bad behavior!   

“Greetings from Krampus!” We can guess what Child Protective Services today would make of old Germanic child-rearing techniques and the years of therapy caused by Krampustag. 

But this whole Krampustag thing gets even nuttier because a visit from Krampus was no idle threat! A lot of Texans today take their kids to the mall for a picture postcard with some rummy dressed as ole Santa to hang on the fridge, but back in the day people straight-up rolled from house to house dressed as St. Nick and his Krampus cohort! While the Christmas Devil was largely exorcised from American holidays, the tradition of Krampusnacht has enjoyed a resurgence in parts of Europe and the Netherlands where drunken mobs of costumed Krampus (Krampii??) roam the nighttime streets during Winter festivals. Just take a look at some of the mid-1800s European postcards, which range from the bizarrely surreal to the suggestively lascivious, and you may have an entirely new perspective on the reason for the season. There’s a lot about the Krampus that reminds me of our Denton Goatman’s Bridge legend, so maybe he ain’t so foreign after all. You also gotta wonder how much of this mythos was lifted by Christian Protestantism for use in the Sunday morning pulpit, since The Devil has clearly taken a few fashion cues from Krampus but, instead of facing eventual judgment in the afterlife from Old Scratch Lucifer, your reckoning came as a horrifying annual evaluation every December 5th.

The Denton Square Krampus is a decidedly fun mix of the old and the new, handing out toys and candy to the kiddies rather than beatings and night-terrors. We gotta admit, it was a giggle-inducing hoot to watch smiling parents trying to coax rightfully-skeptical little ones into approaching this towering monster for free goodies. Yet another reason to not trust adults, kiddos, Henry Rollins ain’t wrong. We were never able to ascertain the identity of the mysterious benefactors behind last year’s Krampustag mystery performance (be sure to drop us a line if you have an inside scoop), but we sure do hope this bit of Old World tradition from back in the day continues.  So keep up the frighteningly awesome work Denton Krampus, whoever you are, and we’ll remind the youngsters why they better watch out and best not cry… ‘Cuz Santa Claus ain’t the only one who’s comin’ to town. 

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Shaun Treat is a former professor at the University of North Texas and founder of the Denton Haunts historical ghost tour. Doc has written about numerous local places and personalities at his Denton Haunts blog, and is forever indebted to the great work of our local keepers of history like Mike Cochran and Laura Douglas at the Emily Fowler Library for their tireless work in helping preserve Denton’s intriguing past. Be sure to check out our local museums curated by the fine folks at the Denton County Office of History & Culture, and follow @Dentonaut on Twitter for local happenings.

More info on Denton's Krampus can be found here. 

MONTH 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.

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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!

WHAT WE DID: DECEMBER 2ND

Thanksgiving has come and gone. We're on to the big holiday rush already, y'all. Once we looked at our calendars we were shocked. The onslaught of holiday parties, gift exchanges and community events that are still left before 2014 gets here is astounding. Luckily it seems we were all able to get a little vacation in over the weekend before the crazy gets truly unleashed. Y'all certainly stayed busy about town!

Remember to tag your pics in your grams and tweets with #wddi to be included each week in possibly our favorite post of the week! 

Colorful carolers marked the last weekend of the Denton Community Market for 2013. Your Saturday mornings just got a lot less fun, y'all. Photo by Bryce Olcon. 

DIME Handmade celebrated Small Business Saturday. 

We went over to our favorite slightly-poisoned park. It's probably one of the best spots in the city for hide and go seek. Especially if the Willis Library closes. 

Readers got down on some home cooked Thanksgiving goodness. Photo from Shaina Sheaff. 

Brunch at the Abbey Inn. Photo by Thorpe Griner. 

Reader Paige got a few strikes (we hope) over at University Lanes. 

WDDI readers just can't get enough of that view from the top of LSA. We aren't tired of it yet either. Photo by Ian Harbor. 

Some of us got our Christmas decor up. 

Jazz at the Abbey Underground from Shaina Sheaff. 

Fabian Campos' took a nice pic of a cute new Dentonite. 

THE DEN10: NOV 27

By now you should have come up with a handful of reasons to explain to your love of Denton to your family. You know this will come up at the dinner table. You know this is going to happen and you’re going to be compared to your little sister who went to New York after graduating from Rice to get a “real job”. Well guess what, shredding papers and sitting by a phone that doesn’t ring for a temp agency isn’t a real job, folks and I’d argue that unless you can get a weekly dose of Royal Bagel’s cinnamon roll and a cup of coffee than you’re aren’t really living. This week's list comes to you as ten more reasons Denton is the finest place you can call home. Get back as safely and as soon as y’all can - but not before snapping photo’s of what you’re thankful for and tagging #WDDI so we can feature them in our What We Did post on Monday.

Questions, comments or snappy one-liner dad-jokes? Email glen@wedentondoit.com.

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Wednesday November 27
Uver | Dan’s Silverleaf | 8PM | $5

Thursday November 28
Be Thankful For What You Have | Internal Dialouge | Always | FREE
Seriously. Take a moment, perhaps as you’re sipping on an Armadillo Greenbelt Farmhouse Ale, and be thankful for what you’ve got, who you are and the good folks that you get to be around. It doesn’t take much of the evening news at your folks house to remind you that we live charmed lives in the best city on Earth. Let’s all be reminded that thankfulness is indeed a virtue.

Thanksgiving Banquet | Calhoun Middle School Cafeteria | 11AM - 2PM
Are you thankful for what you’ve got and want to serve your community this Thanksgiving? Or are you a college student stranded away from your family? Well have we got the Thanksgiving Banquet for you. Click through for volunteer sign up and info.

Thanksgiving: Are You Sick Of Your Family Yet?!!!?!?! | Rubbergloves | 10PM
Got leftovers? Bring ‘em to this no cover cheap drink night in the Dallas Observer proclaimed “Best Bar in Denton”. You’re welcome for the videos, guys - not that you asked. Get ready for our “Best Bar in Dallas” post next week.

Friday November 29
Elevenhundred Springs | Dan’s Silverleaf | 9PM | $15
Best band around. You should quit playing music.

“Book Friday” Weekend Sale | Recycled Books | 9AM through Sunday

Twenty percent off of the entire store and a chance to win one of four $50 gift cards is a really good reason to visit the purple giant on the square. 

Saturday November 30
Stage Fright: Denton Does THE BAND | Dan’s Silverleaf | 9PM | $10
Some of our greatest musicians are banding together to form a tribute to one of the greatest bands ever: The Band. 

Small Business Saturday | Denton, TX
With the Denton Community Market, SCRAP Denton, The DIME Store and everything, there’s way more than enough to check out this Saturday after you’ve Black Friday’d your face off. There’s something sickly poetic about trampling your fellow man the day after being thankful for what you have.

last call. | Panhandle House | 7PM
The Painting and Drawing Association of The University of North Texas hosts the Senior Show this Saturday complete with food, music and libations. DJ Yeahdef has the tunes covered.

Denton Community Market | Denton County Historic Park | 9AM
This is your last chance to go check out some goat soap while sipping on some Coffeewright coffee while nom nom nomming on a Pickled Carrot banh mi so get out there!

RECIPE: BROWN BUTTER APPLE CRUMBLE

We are in the midst of the holiday season, y'all. Potlucks, parties, friends-givings and holiday parties are about to be all around you. For us, that means its time to start filling our flasks and perfecting our favorite festive cocktail recipes in order to get through the family fun and office parties with our sanity intact.  However, before that happens, we want to  give you a recipe for a dessert that you can enjoy with or without friends and family that is winter ready and will make any gathering a little bit brighter, even if it's just you, Macauley Culkin and Home Alone hanging out together. 

Share if you'd like - don't if they didn't make the 'nice' list - because this is one apple dish that deserves an encore and isn't worth sharing with people that you don't just adore. You can of course top this with any ice cream of your choice, and while Blue Bell's Vanilla is always a classic, we personally prefer topping this tasty treat with Beth Marie's Cinnamon ice cream. It's not only a better match, but we love that we can pick it up on the square after hitting up a few shops and grabbing gifts to stash under our tiny tree. So when you're signing up to bring a dish to that upcoming office potluck, think about giving this a go. It's WDDI recommended. 

Brown Butter Apple Crumble

For the topping:

1 c All purpose flour

1 c Old fashioned oats 

1 c Dark brown sugar

1/2 c Chopped pecans

1 stick (1/2 c) Unsalted butter, softened

1 tsp Maldon sea salt 

For the filling: 

1 stick (1/2 c) Unsalted butter

6 Medium granny smith apples, peeled, cored and thinly sliced

1/3 c Dark brown sugar

1 tbsp Cinnamon

1 tbsp Vanilla 

1 tbsp Maldon sea salt 

2 tbsp bourbon 

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Generously grease an 8" skillet. 

To make the topping: combine the flour, oats, brown sugar and pecans in large bowl and mix until the topping becomes crumbly and resembles wet sand. Set aside while making the filling. 

For the filling, place the butter in medium sauce pan on medium heat. Stirring constantly, allow the butter to crackle and foam, and then begin to brow. Allow the butter to cook until it has reached a caramel brown and has a nutty aroma. Remove from the pan immediately after that in order to stop the cooking process. Set aside to let cool for a few minutes. 

While the butter is cooling, place the apples, brown sugar, cinnamon, vanilla, salt and bourbon in a large mixing bowl and toss to combine. Add the brown butter to the apple mixture and make sure to coat evenly. Add in 1/4 c of the topping mixture to the apple mixture, tossing to combine. 

In the prepared skillet, place the apple mixture on bottom and cover with the topping, making sure the topping is as evenly distributed as possible. Bake for 55-60 minutes, or until the topping is golden brown and the filling is bubbling. Remove from the oven and allow to cool for 10 minutes. Serve with a generous scoop of Beth Marie's Cinnamon ice cream. 

WHAT WE DID: NOVEMBER 25TH

Sunday evenings we take a gander at all of the lovely photos y'all took over the past week as you went about town, doing what ya did. We select our faves, throw 'em all together and write some silly captions to accompany them. We call it "What We Did," but it's really more of what "y'all" did than anything else. It's one of our favorite columns and for good reason. This week, y'all were cold, ready to celebrate Christmas and hungry for burgers. We can't blame ya. We had the same feelings. Check out the following photos from We Denton Do It readers and staff to see what Denton has been up to for the past few days. Thanks for sharing your weekend with us, Denton, and, as always make sure to tag your fun photos with #WDDI from week to week for inclusion in this column. 

Dentonites seem to be having a tough time handling the long wait to post Thanksgiving this year. Many, including us, have given in and started decorating for Christmas already. Do you have your tree and/or lights up already? 

Hutch Ice got his tree up and beautified. 

It was definitely cold enough this past week to let us know that winter was coming. Wes McFall and his pregnant crew spent their weekend fireplace hopping and trying to stay warm. 

WDDI-approved musician, Daniel Markham, kept warm in his own way - through plenty of pedals and maybe some tremolo. 

More staying warm. Photo by Grace Cowan. 

Of course, the cold snap means that you can grab the good table at Oak Street Drafthouse if you want. However, it may come with some pneumonia. Photo and joke provided by Nick Stevens. 

It wasn't cold enough to keep Dentonites from doing their thing, though. The Denton comedy scene gets more interesting to us every weekend. Here's a peek from a backyard standup session from Sarah Adams. 

Seryn had a secret warehouse show to get some footage for an upcoming documentary. We were there to check it out. 

Michelle Bradley was on hand to check out the Seryn show, too. This little band has come so far in the past five years. 

Shaina Sheaff made some eggs sunny side up. Chicken embryos keep ya warm. 

Dentonites seemed to take the past week to further explore what Lone Star Attitude (LSA) had to offer. We'll be honest, we went back again, too. We still dig it. We even had to wait a few minutes to get seated -  something Dentonites don't always have to do. We paid tribute to their beautiful Willie Nelson shrine the same day his tour bus had an accident. 

The mural from the folks at Eyecon seems to be one of the most eye-catching aspects of LSA. Here's a photo of it from Jackson Daly. 

Reader Shaina Sheaff loves tacos almost as much as we do. El Taco Rico is one of our faves. What about you? 

Sarah Adams took a break in between comedy acts and the UNT game (that we won't talk about) to hit up LSA, too. 

Sunday Print Shop is one of the more interesting projects going on in Denton right now. We hope to have more about them in the near future. In the meantime, check 'em out here or their Instagram. 

To keep warm and in the holiday spirit, one of our contributors put a spin on an apple crumble, a recipe that we'll be sharing soon enough. 

MR FARRIS GOES TO CITY HALL: NOVEMBER

We've been attending all sorts of meetings for you lately, Denton, and we've got so much info about things that are coming up that we just had to write another column about it. This is that column. Read on to get in the know. 

First and foremost, lovely purveyor of all things donuts and chicken biscuits, Hypnotic Donuts, will open their Denton location in early 2014! They'll be a sort of entry way onto the square with a giant mural going onto the west side of the Radio Building on Hickory (see the image above). They are putting in outdoor seating complete with umbrellas and great big pots to fill the concrete corner with plant life. We know what you're thinking and don't worry - Cultivar Coffee will soon be contributing to the Denton Coffee Wars since they’ll have their own set up within Hypnotic Donuts. Word on the street is that this shop will be employing 20 to 30 strapping young Dentonites, making them both fatter and more caffeinated. These legit gourmet donuts will be available in the morning and for lunch. The shop will be closed during part of the afternoon and then open again to serve the evening crowd. We're looking forward to these tasty donuts making their way to the downtown area, and can't wait to grab a bacon-topped fried chunk of dough after a long night at East Side. 

We hear the African Grocery has opened over on Elm Street. If anyone has bought any African food stuffs from there, please let us know, we are highly curious about this little shop.

New retail is going in on Hickory and Welch, which means that sign with a photo of retail and living spaces is becoming a reality. We hear that they’ve finally broken ground and we speculate that a 7-11 will be going in sooner than you know it. Slurpees for all y’all.

East Hickory is seriously going to happen, for real this time y’all. No take backs, no halvesies, no joke. The city says they will break ground on the project in January. Apparently the CVB is wanting to start a new public art campaign around the construction to promote those businesses most affected by the street being blocked off and torn up. 

Holiday lighting and wassail fest is just around the corner! Get your Santa hats ready and get ready to pony up a little cash for that carriage ride with your significant other.  Twinkling lights, the community band and spiked wassail for all is on its way.

The convention center is supposedly going to be up for election by the city council sooner rather than later. The vote is supposed to happen before the next local election. Catch up on the convention center plans here and see the future of convention centers in Denton. 

That's it for this month, everybody. We're gonna take our coffee mug back into all of those lovely meetings now. Hopefully there won't be a Powerpoint presentation. 

SELECTED TWEETS: LIVE TO LIVE ANOTHER LIFE

Written by Christopher Hughes

Live to live another life. 10/28/12 

Steam rose from a crumpled, metal hood. Yellow fire turned in the bulbs. Sirens echoed in a soft, suburban block.  I could feel the heat in my face and the blood underneath it, blooming.  Then I was alive.  They blotted my wounds with gauze that scratched at the raw, open flesh.  It hurt, but I was glad the blood was no longer leaking into my eye. Ten months later I wrote about it and failed. All I could do was click and click, twirl a pen across the knuckles of my hand, observe the curious resistence to memory.  I was called to the stage and reached into my bag and there was nothing there.  Those bright lights shone and I conjured something violent in my mind.  Sorry y’all, but I forgot it, I said.  A few people laughed like it was some kind of joke, and it probably was. 

            The medics asked for my name, address, phone number, and permission to inject some kind of something into my body.  I agreed and supplied them with information and requested the removal of a bandage from my face. I imagined my mother on the other end of a line, voice cracking, full of questions, suspicious and on the verge of accusation. Then I lay in a gurney in a hallway, staring at a pock-marked ceiling, trying to remember everything and trying not to nod.  A doctor approached, clipboard in hand, and said, You’re lucky to be alive. Living is easy, I said, but she didn’t get my sarcasm. They gave me a Morphine shot. I thought I was dreaming. I rolled over and peed in a plastic bottle with the curtains drawn, wondered how many Facebook notifications I had, wiped some leftover blood onto the bed sheets, tried to curl my hand into a fist, claimed I was still in pain and got another Morphine shot, considered the damage to my face, felt the bridge of my nose with my good hand, and thought about feeding my cat. It took me ten months to write about it.  It was the worst I’ve ever written. 

            I left the stage with my head down low, exited the bar, drove home and saw the pages scattered across the carpet, my cat resting on them in a meditative state.  I pulled them out from underneath and he shot me a bothered glance and I apologized.  When I returned I read what I wrote and the crowd figured it for comedy and laughed, thinking they were being polite.  I folded the pages and made a shopping list that included two apples and a spaghetti squash.  It’s been ten months, I thought, and I still recoil in the presence of headlights.  Then I entered a stall and peed with the door cracked and washed my hands and splashed water on my face.  Between band stickers I could see, in the mirror, the reflection of a scar on the bridge of my nose.  It wasn’t very noticeable, but I noticed.

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 Christopher Hughes is the author of Selected Tweets, a spoken word project and ongoing collection of prose poems based around the idea of giving context to his otherwise vague Twitter feed. He is the singer, guitarist and songwriter for The Calmative, and he produces other artists as well, out of his studio, Miscellaneous Sound. He holds an MFA in creative writing from The New School, has been published in Pax Americana, Omnia Vanitas Review and the Augury Books blog, and lives within spitting distance of Midway Mart.