Five stories that have North Texas talking: Keeping tabs on Perry's former aides; a new review in the Perot Museum discussion; Irving's One Man, One Vote at the Supreme Court and more.
As Gov. Rick Perry processes options for his political future, where are his famously hard-core campaign cronies? Some, at least, aren't standing by to join team Perry for another governor’s race (or a potential second bid for president) -- at least according to Politico. Longtime Perry adviser Dave Carney says he and other strategists are doing just fine with private-sector gigs in consulting or lobbying after the governor's “spectacularly public disaster” on the national stage in 2012.
Usual suspects close to the 2012 campaign speak vaguely about a “core group” of inner-circle helpers who will ultimately come to his aid(e).
- Prize-winning architect Thom Mayne designed the Perot Museum with a signature look and escalator -- described by Art&Seek's Jerome Weeks as "part-people mover, part-(mild) carnival ride, part-architectural lesson". In general, critics have been awestruck: The New York Times' Edward Rothstein was one. But this week, Christopher Hawthorne of the Los Angeles Times weighed in with a reviewthat skewered the architecture as "tacked on," creating a space “thoroughly cynical” in its promotional quality. And as for the Perot’s contributions to the city around it, Hawthrone sees Mayne and his firm Morphosis as purveyors of “civic aloofness.” UT Arlington’s Kate Holliday, an architecture professor, responds for CultureMap.
- The U.S. Supreme Court will decide today whether to take a "one man, one vote" case from Irving. It could be a significant decision in the national battle over voting rights. One of Irving’s six population-equal City Council districts has only half the number of voters as the others – a lot of its residents aren’t eligible to vote. [LA Times]
- Heads-up, dormant Trekkies! There’s a new Star Trek scratch-off card in the Texas Lottery’s trove. Besides the chance to win $50,000, the occasion affords series fans a chance to sport full Spock, Crusher or Picard costume in public – and be validated by a common mission. Lottery folks are hoping to draw 1,064 decked-out Trekkies to the the Dallas Convention Center Saturday and break a Guinness World Record. [Mixmaster]
- From the vault of pivotal moments in music made possible in Austin: Rodney Crowell and Emmylou Harris became friends after she invited him in the mid-'70s to sit in during her set at Armadillo World Headquarters. Crowell takes us back to their first collaboration, on occasion of their new record Old Yellow Moon:
I, coming from a family, a background, of sharecrop farm - my mother and father were sharecrop farm kids, and in the part of East Houston where I grew up, the culture just thrived on the country music that came, you know, with Hank Williams and Lefty Frizzell. It was the soundtrack of that culture. [Fresh Air]
Watch the pair perform "Chase The Feeling" live on the Public Radio Rocks SXSW day show stage, co-sponsored by KXT.
http://youtu.be/2Ry7tvXCtvc
