United States of America
Dallas-based freelance writer. Recipient of several accolades, backhanded compliments, and parking tickets.
Reach me at rachel.l.williams at gmail dot com.
Six blazered septuagenarians stood huddled ahead of security at the Tarrant County Federal Courthouse last Friday. "What you looking for, lady?" one asked. I had to take my shoes off anyway, so I summoned him over to a swivel chair and asked where the trial was, as if there was only one.
For all its splendor, the three-story Alexander Mansion is easy to miss. It sits too far back from the road to catch with drivers' peripheral vision. Its neighbors are payday loan shops and long-shuttered shells of used car lots, their perimeters still fenced off by barbed wire and the occasional...
The 3.2-acre lot bracketed by Pacific Avenue and St. Paul and Harwood streets has become an eyesore. To say it's poorly maintained is an understatement. The uneven layer of asphalt is littered with freshly broken glass and shards from an earlier generation of destroyed beer bottles. Walking the perimeter on...
It's a Sunday afternoon and three overlords of the Texas Gay Rodeo Association, which is exactly what it sounds like, have congregated to drink about "A Texas Tradition," their big annual charity rodeo this weekend in Denton. The site of the meetup is Round-Up, Oak Lawn's landmark gay country and...
"How ya doin', Rach? I'm worried about the dogs so I'm throwing rocks at 'coons, trying to disturb the feral cats. But hey, let's try to keep race out of this." It's accepted as gospel: This election is unprecedented, a radical departure from anything we've seen before. But for anyone...
Before City Council killed the Trinity river toll road Aug. 9, the project was like a flailing cockroach on its back: unable to move yet unwilling to die. The council's 13-2 vote marked the end of a 20-year squabble over the long-planned $1.9 billion project that would have built a...
At 8:24 p.m., a DJ gently implores the nearly sold-out American Airlines Center crowd to "make some noise." Janet Jackson's still nowhere to be seen, so exactly who or what is on the receiving end of the request is unclear. Still, the ocean of sequined caps complies, Arsenio-style. At 8:33...
Below the April 3, 1957, Dallas Times Herald headline "Tornado's One-Sided Bite" sits a photo of the intersection of Willomet Avenue and Jefferson Boulevard. Its caption reads, "Rootless homes and scattered debris mark the path of the tornado which moved slowly but destructively through Oak Cliff and West Dallas." Driving...
You're marinating in the pre-Willie lobby of the Granada Theater. It's buzzing with giddy anticipation. Old men, old women, young men and young women beam as they swap autobiographical Willie stories: how many times they've seen him live, how far they drove to get here. It hits you over the...
Jeffrey Liles has packed a lot of living into the past 35 years. The Kessler Theater artistic director's resume - his life story, actually - reads like a fanfic book co-written, somehow, by assorted members of the 27 Club and the characters of Almost Famous. He's resurrected his alter ego,...
"How much do you know?" the teacher asks. We've arrived five minutes late to a Thursday evening meeting of people who think they're psychic. It's held biweekly in a nondescript building in East Dallas. "How much have you studied?" the teacher asks. Mark Twain said, "When in doubt, tell the...
Love it or hate it - there is no gray area - holiday Buc-ee's is like if regular Buc-ee's was injected with large doses of animal steroids: It's louder, more pulsating and a little confused. It sees exponentially more out-of-staters than usual, who, after driving all day, are neither sure...
Laurence Scott had low expectations when he contacted the Kessler Theater artistic director Jeff Liles asking if his alt-country rockabilly band could play a show there. "We said, 'We have a new album coming out, can we play a show for you.'" It was a bold move. After 30 years,...
Last March, over breakfast, Bobby Abtahi learned Mayor Mike Rawlings appointed him to replace Max Wells as president of the Dallas Park and Recreation Board. The position is more political than it sounds, but "I'm not a politician," Abtahi maintains during a recent interview with the Dallas Observer. "I'm a public...
When it comes to pivotal figures in Dallas, Robert Decherd is both iconic and unknown. He served as the president and CEO of A.H. Belo Corporation, owner of The Dallas Morning News, from 1987 to 2013, devoting himself to philanthropic public park projects after he left the company. This has led...
The teen angst was palpable this weekend as 10,000 vessels of raging hormones packed into the Irving Convention Center for the North Texas Teen Book Festival. Without intentionally eavesdropping, we heard no fewer than four variations of: "Hey, after this, want to take a selfie?" Headlining Dallas' Comic Con of...