Fort Worth Weekly

Danny’s Greek Cafe, 2812 Horne St, Ste 100, Fort Worth. 682-250-4334. 11am-9pm Tue-Sun. On the West Side back in the day (circa the mid-aughts), the only place nearby for a mouthwatering gyro was the Hulen Mall food court. Don’t laugh. That trash ruled. And perhaps still does — I wouldn’t know now because I moved from Arlington Heights to The Wall, a.k.a. North Fort Worth, 20 years ago and my nearest malls are gyro-free Alliance and Presidio.

With four large, different viewing screens in Sundance Square, plus food trucks, vendors, and more, there was a lot of action downtown during the last Texas match of the World Cup. The Spain/France affair was really no different than the other 101 matches that had been streamed in Sundance Square for free over the course of the tournament. “I’m grateful for Sundance Square providing a space for fans to come together and watch the games,” said Fort Worth resident Alex Juarez.

New Horsepowers Album Soon … -ish Horsepowers is wrapping up their debut album with an aim to have it out at the end of summer. The last day of summer is on Sun, Sep 20, so be sure to ask them where the new record is if it hasn’t materialized by then! I kid, mostly, though listener enthusiasm is the fuel additive that keeps a local band’s engine running at peak performance, and I’m sure the band would be stoked about their fans bugging them about it.

Longtime Fort Worth bluesman Johnny Mack died Sunday from heart failure. He was 67. Friendly and outgoing, and seemingly always onstage, Mack is perhaps best known for Gave Myself the Blues, his 2003 album produced by fellow Fort Worth bluesman James Hinkle. Mack is survived by his sister, Donna McWilliams.

On Bastille Day (Tuesday, July 14), nearly 100 North Texas residents, activists, and family members of the victims of systemic abuse and neglect at the Tarrant County Jail showed up to a routine Tarrant County Commissioners Court meeting and brought their grievances right to the political leaders. Bastille Day was when the French stormed the prisons and launched the revolution that led to democracy in that country, so today was highly symbolic.

There I sat with the long-awaited second album from Boss Riot. Here We Go Again was queued and ready to go on the stereo. I lay down on my couch, closed my eyes, and as I listened, I heard my own life being amplified back at me.

There are other epics, but you can argue that Homer’s Odyssey is the epic of epics. Composed centuries before Christ — by a man? a woman? a group of people who gradually added to the poem over decades? — the 12,000-plus-line poem has fantastical creatures, strange lands, huge action set pieces, gods being really petty with one another, and a man trying to get back home to his family.

This past Tuesday, North Texas hosted its final World Cup match, and the likes of Javier Bardem and Timothée Chalamet watched Spain snuff out the mighty French offense and head to the final. By the time this article reaches you, we’ll likely know whether La Roja will be facing either Argentina or England in that last game. Let’s get to our questions. What is the “Mexican wave” that Fox’s British broadcasters keep talking about?

Charley Crockett, Jack White, and our newspaper had quite the busy weekend. The Satanic doo-wop duo Twin Temple got dropped by one superstar and picked up by another due to some relegious/political stances. Editor Anthony Mariani has thoughts as well. Let’s start there, then stick around, and we’ll tell you when/where to see these backsliders.

I stopped paddling. I was content just to glide across along the translucent, aquamarine water. It was a sublime daydream. I caught my breath. My kayak was skimming along a blue-green ribbon of liquid ether, but my momentum had stopped. Though still heading downstream, a gentle breeze had slowed my progress, and I felt like I was falling back. It was a perfect metaphor for contemporary American life: being pulled backward upstream rather than moving with the natural flow.