The Fort Worth Cats made sports headlines last week, signing RHP Aaron Crow. Crow was a first-round draft pick for the Washington Nationals, but with the deadline passing Friday he is now eligible to pitch for the hometown Cats. Just in time for the playoffs!

In other Northside news, the Fort Worth Herd also got national press this week, as the AP’s Angela K. Brown wrote a nice feature on the twice-daily, two-block cattle drive in our very own Stockyards. The Longhorns themselves are an awe-inspiring sight to the uninitiated, and I enjoy taking out of town guests to see the beef. I just wish the city would let the drovers take the Herd down to the Trinity river to stretch their legs once in a while. They were built to roam, after all.

Speaking of roaming cowboys, you’ve got to go read about this guy: Matt Replogle tamed a wild mustang, and now he’s riding his new horse, Johnny Landers, from Laughlin, New Mexico to Fort Worth. Yep, that’s 750 miles in the saddle. He’s in Plainview right now, and he says he’s riding in part to bring awareness to the John Wayne Cancer Institute. Seriously, I didn’t even know there was a JWCI, so I guess his plan is working.

Our good friend James Johnston made an appearance on the KERA Art&Seek blog this week, finishing up a two-part series on filmmaking, Fort Worth style. You can read part one here.

Texas Beer reports on some changes to the Rahr & Sons Brewing Saturday beer tasting event. Attendees will now need to pay $5 at the door, which will get you a sweet pint glass. The beer is still free.

Finally, the commenters over at Fort Worthology are not the only ones worried about losing the “Frisbee Lawn” at the Kimbell. Our friends over at Pegausus News are a little worried, too.

Texas Monthly editor Evan Smith calls out Kim Brimer over his never-ending legal challenge to Wendy Davis‘ candidacy:

“There’s a point at which one’s continued attempt to erect procedural roadblocks to a contested election is revealing of, you know, one’s total lack of stones. … if you can’t beat her at the polls and you instead beat her in advance in the courts, we’re gonna know what happened, and your constituents are gonna know it too. Stones, Kim. Stones. Show us you have them. Drop this legal nonsense and get on with the election.”

A Conversation With Jerry Horton - West and Clear from James M. Johnston on Vimeo.

When you knock on Jerry Horton’s front door on Carter Avenue, you’ll notice that there’s a horseshoe above it. It’s obviously been there a long time — it’s painted the same color of white as her 100-year-old house. But any luck that horseshoe brought to the house or the rest of Carter Avenue appears to be running out — Ms. Horton has a court date scheduled for Thursday as Chesapeake Energy’s pipeline subsidiary, Texas Midstream, is moving ahead with its condemnation proceedings. On Monday evening, she and her neighbors will meet with Texas Midstream to try and reach a last-minute compromise. If that fails and Ms. Horton has to go to court, the odds aren’t in her favor. She can’t afford a lawyer and the laws of this state don’t offer much protection for property owners against entities like Texas Midstream that have eminent domain powers.

Above is a short film that West and Clear collaborated on with Fort Worth filmmaker James M. Johnston. Eminent domain abuse is an abstract problem, but Ms. Horton’s plight puts a very human face on this issue. James and I wanted Ms. Horton to be able to tell her story in her own words and show you what it is like to have a pipeline literally coming to your front porch.
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Scat Jazz Lounge | Map
Sheran Keyton - Friday - 9:00 PM
The Texas Gypsies - Saturday - 9:00 PM
Trio Cubano - Sunday - 8:00 PM

Bass Performance Hall | Map
Lyle Lovett and his Large Band - Friday - 7:30 PM
Lyle Lovett and his Large Band - Saturday - 7:30 PM

McDavid Studio | Map
Alpha Rev - Friday - 8:00 PM

Van Cliburn Hall | Map
No performances scheduled.

Click below for more great shows!
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Things were going good for Amy Cabrero, a 2008 graduate of Texas Wesleyan University School of Law. Cabrero ’s husband Mike, a staff sergeant in the U.S. Marine Corps who recently completed a tour of duty in Iraq, arrived back on July 31, in time to meet Amy as she finished the three-day Texas bar exam. They were back together and moving to San Diego … what could possibly go wrong? How about an electrical short in the moving van that resulted in a fire that destroyed almost all of the their belongings, including her newly framed law degree? Here’s hoping things get better out in Cali, y’all. (Tip o’ the hat to Frontburner.)

This email was just forwarded from a friend of Courtney Blevins, Regional Urban Forester with the Texas Forest Service:

Just found out that proposed city budget cuts include measures that will gut the municipal forestry program for Ft. Worth. This is the leading municipal urban forestry program in the state. The actual wording in the budget is, “G) The proposed budget decreases by ($338,197) for the elimination of the community tree planting program. This includes six positions as well as supplies and contractual expenditures.”

Unless they hear from people against this action we can expect it to go through. If you are willing may I suggest contacting the Council members and Mayor to voice your concerns or possibly a letter to the editor of the Star-Telegram. Hopefully we can prevent this action and preserve the oldest forestry program in the State of Texas.

OK, he wasn’t from Fort Worth … he was from Denver, but I’m kind of upset about this. Jack A. Weil, the king of cowboy couture who first to put snaps on Western shirts and most likely the first to produce bolo ties commercially, went to the big Dude Ranch in the Sky on Wednesday. He was 107.

Taken in the Modern. I like the sort of surreal look this one has.

An interesting read in the S-T about the goings-on at City Hall.

From the desk of Julie Wilson:

We thought you’d like to have a heads-up on an exciting event: Chesapeake will be spudding Fort Worth’s first downtown well this Friday, August 15.

Because we anticipate interest in this location will be high – and the location convenient - we’ll offer a series of “rig tour” times for civic leaders, city staff, and council members. Although we don’t know yet exactly what time the drilling will commence on Friday, we will hold a small inaugural tour at 2 pm for those who’d like to be present on the exciting first day. If you would like to participate, please let us know, as space will be limited. Otherwise, we will send you a schedule of other tours so you can select a convenient date and time.

Anyone want to go? Email Julie Wilson now. Tell her West and Clear sent you.