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Professor Rick Brettell wrote in a Dallas Morning News column that Dallas doesn’t come close to having what Houston has in museums, music or other cultural institutions.
“All the numbers tell us that our great rival city in Texas doesn’t simply rival us, it conclusively beats us as an international cultural and education capital,” Brettell wrote.
So it’s kind of like the Texas vs. Texas A&M rivalry.
Both schools have big names, but Texas has owned them in football (76-36-5).
Brettell said Houston’s culture scene profits on the oil-driven economy that’s created huge fortunes for those institutions, and residents have seen the importance of educational and cultural institutions.
“Houstonians believe enough in their institutions to make then financially independent,” he wrote.
As a result, they have endowments that dwarf those at similar institutions in Dallas, and they are able to do things Dallas could never do.
So in the culture round, Houston wins, but Dallas residents will surely come up with a few more reasons why the Big D is better.
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Obviously everyone knows this except the powers that be for Top Chef Texas, who chose to highlight Dallas but wanted Houston the be paid to be featured. Everyone knows the restaurants and chefs in Houston are 100 times better than the chefs in any other Texas city and rank high in the nation too imo.
Top Chef is no longer about the food, or they would have hit the state's best food city. It's now all about the Texas stereotypes and personal drama. Houston is the least Texan-stereotypical of the cities chosen, plus ALL of the cities were asked to pay to be on. San Antonio admitted they paid $200k, Austin and Dallas won't admit anything but who knows. Houston flat-out refused to pay and used the cash saved to pay for advertisements during the show of its own choice instead... smart move.
Top Chef and other TV shows choose often Dallas because of the ready availibilty of cheaply priced Film/Video/TV production facilities.
Right on, Sherry.
Sherry, I boycotted Top Chef for this very reason. It is an abomination that Houston wasn't featured.
I did the same! I absolutely love cooking shows, but have not watched a second of Top Chef for their not including Houston. It's just typical Hollywood behavior. "Dallas" was a huge TV program, so it must be the most important city in Texas, right?
I usually watch Top Chef too but I also boycotted because of the omission of Houston.
I'm boycotting Top Chef this season. I'm glad Houston didn't pay extortion money, but leaving Houston restaurants out of a show about Texas cooking makes the program a sham!
Tell us something we didn't already know. :)
Dallas has NHL hockey and Victoria Principal.
=)
I've been saying the same for the 28 years I've lived here, thought try to to with tact and diplomacy! I love that "Houston's much more blue collar." Not that that's a bad thing, especially sense apparently they're contributing to the vibrancy of the art, educationl, and social institutions in the area. And the comparison of UT to TAM is so, so appropriate!
Yes, this article is just repeating what those of us in the arts already know. In the state's culture/arts category, it's Houston >>> Dallas/Fort Worth >>>>>>>> Austin & San Antonio.
I also read this article about art and culture in Texas and immediately thought of Top Chef. I thought, "That damn Top Chef!"
I live in Houston.
Good things about Dallas:
*People dress much more stylishly in Dallas. It's embarassing to see how most Houston women dress and I'm not talking about Lynn Wyatt. Men do better.
*Midtown Dallas is the most urban arean in Texas. Houston has no counterpoint.
*As a whole Houston is uglier than Dallas to outsiders.
*A comprehensive regional transit system. Houston's progress is pitiful.
*The Nasher
I agree we have much better cultural attractions. It's why I live here. Thanks to Houston's tradition of generous philanthropy, Dallas cannot compete with our opera, ballet, and art. There is no comparison there.
Dallas doesn't have that laid-back vibe like Houston, and to a much greater extent, Austin. Why is this bad? I see it as a positive.
As far as scenery, Houston is much greener with better/taller trees than Dallas. Dallas is really attractive if you love that sterile midwest sort of look, I guess. Houston does need to remove a lot more billboards and plant more trees though (or rather, stop letting developers cut all the trees down.)
Where as the conlcusion reached in the Brettell is fact based on quantative analysis, your rebuttal is simply a matter of opinion. For example, parts of Houston are actually prettier than anything in Dallas. Metro has a different focus and tack on developing transit/regional mobility. I agree with metros focus on developing tranist from inner city first, then burbs. That's my O!
In Dallas you have Highland Park and Highland Park wannabes...Dallas leads Texas and probably the country in reposessed BMW's...JR Ewing is alive and well in the smoke and mirrors culture of Dallas...In Houston you have Michael Debakey, and in Dallas you have Melvin P. Thorpe...
I realize it’s not high culture but [i]Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy[/i], possibly the best movie of the year, is opening this weekend in limited release. In Texas, it's showing in Dallas and Austin but not in Houston. It’s also showing, of course, in NY, LA and other major cities. Meanwhile, we have hundreds of screens in Houston devoted to nonstop gunplay, martial arts, car chases, sophomoric comedies and remakes of remakes of remakes. What’s that all about?
I don't know, but there are lots of other things that come to Houston and not the other Texas cities. Like the Sundance Cinema and the Tribeca Film Festival...
It's all about marketing and demographics. Screen adaptations of Le Carre novels don't sell the tickets that your average action pic does in the "cultural Mecca" of Houston, so you have to travel to a community where they do in order to see them. Its still not fair though. The knuckle-draggers in Austin don't have to drive to Houston to take in, say, "Battle: Los Angeles" or the latest "Transformers" installment.
And don't forget - Dallas has a Kardashian now!
And that's suppose to be a plus??? AND, we're talking about KIM Kardashian's HUSBAND!!! Don't think for a moment they'll live full time in Dallas. And if they do...again, is that suppose to be a plus??? Uh, let me answering that. Absolutely, freakin' NOT!!!
Uh, and that's suppose to be a plus??? NOT!
I wonder how Khloe and Lamar will handle the difference between Dallas and Las Angeles.
Good article. Stupid comments about fake reality shows. Wake up, folks. Fake reality shows like Top Chef aren't about cooking (or shrimping, or logging, or exterminating). They are ALL about pandering to a certain demographic that finds the staged "interpersonal drama" to be entertaining. I'm not sure if that group is above or below (on the intellectual ladder) those who find professional wrestling entertaining, but I'm sure they're no more than a rung or two apart.
Well said. If the said professor were to read these comments he might change his mind about Houston. ("Dallas has the NHL" in an article about culture?)
People in Dallas "pretend" to well off. It's all a front. We in Houston KNOW we are well off and thriving, and don't need to prove it to ourselves...hence the "laid back" attitude.
Arts? Houston blows every city in Texas out the water.
There's nothing in Dallas that Houston doesn't have in spades.
The funniest thing about the fake Houston vs. Dallas rivalry is the continued effort to create one.
Houstonians couldn't care less what Dallas or New York or Los Angeles thinks. You do your thing and we'll do ours. Take your inflated view of yourselves and stick it where the Sun don't shine.
This is no big shock. Houston could buy and sell Dallas on the front steps. Dallas is a small town by comparison.
Their big claims to fame are J.R.. Ewing and Liquid Paper.
Is Dallas still part of Texas??? I thought we "de-annexed" them when they got too big for their britches? Oh well, every state has to have their "wantabees" and we have Dallas. They are so busy trying to impress themselves, they don't notice the rest of us.
Unfortunately Austin is becoming a wannabe too and no longer a genuine cool town. Trying way too hard to get everyone else to think it's the Shangri-la of the Western Hemisphere where the ground is sacred, the culture/arts/food are better than anywhere else in the state, and free from the Texas heat, traffic problems, petty crime and other things the rest of Texas has. You might think it's funny but I'm completely serious there are many there and elsewhere who have this delusional attitude.
I like that we're laid back. To me, it's like an "either you like us or you don't" attitude. Houston is just Houston & by all means, Dallas, PLEASE keep your Kardashian. We have Sundance to rub in your face anyway.
Dallas used a picture of the Houston skyline for their promotional ads.
technically, now San Antonio is bigger than Dallas....
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