Today I Learned JD Granger Is A Panther Island Prophet With A Shack Fort Worth's Latest Music Venue

This morning Elsie Hotpepper emailed me an email which took hours to get to me. The subject line of that email simply said "I'm gagging".

The email had a link to an article in DFW.com titled Panther Island Pavilion roaring along on the Trinity.

It did not take much reading to come to verbiage that was gag worthy, as in the first sentence....

It’s tempting to call JD Granger a prophet.

Let's just go through this article, bit by bit, commenting as we go. It is tempting to call JD Granger a prophet? From what would such a temptation come? Well, the article tells us....

Last year, Granger, the executive director of the Trinity River Vision Authority, predicted what would happen at Panther Island Pavilion in 2014 with almost uncanny accuracy.

“Festivals are becoming a business unto themselves,” Granger told me in May 2013. “We are set up to do something really crazy with good services. We could do something that could really put Fort Worth on a competitive music footing.”

What an understatement that turned out to be.

Understatement? How about dumb statement? I vaguely recollect having fun making fun of these JD Granger quotes before, likely after a previous Preston Jones bit of propaganda buffoonery. So, JD's uncanny prediction was that festivals are becoming a business unto themselves, whatever that means. And that JD's boondoggle is set up to do something really crazy. With good services. Again, whatever that means. Really putting Fort Worth on a competitive music footing.

Yeah, that really sounds like one impressive uncanny prediction. A competitive music footing? Competitive with whom?

Panther Island Pavilion, perhaps more than any other venue of its size in the city, has become a hub of near-constant activity over the past 12 months, hosting multiple music-related events, including its popular Rockin’ the River concert series (full disclosure: DFW.com is a media sponsor), as well as the return of the Fort Worth Music Festival and Untapped.

Panther Island Pavilion, perhaps more than any other venue of its size in the city, has become a hub of near-constant activity? Perhaps more than any other venue of its size in the city? What other venues are there of whatever size, in Fort Worth, that Panther Island Pavilion perhaps is more busy than?

Full disclosure: DFW. com is a media sponsor? How about going for totally full disclosure and disclose that DFW.com is a Fort Worth Star-Telegram propaganda production designed to compete with Fort Worth Weekly?

“When looking at the demographics we were excited to see that people from all over North Texas are coming to events held at Panther Island Pavilion,” Granger says. “Week in and week out, our summer series had the highest attendance we’ve seen in the history of the venue. It’s a great feeling to know this record-breaking summer was a result of people traveling from all over the Metroplex.”

And how did Granger get this data that let him know that people were coming from all over North Texas to events at Panther Island Pavilion? Did JD and his minions wander around asking people where they were from? The highest attendance in the history of the venue? Uh, how long does that history go back? Three years? Or is it four? It feels great knowing that the record breaking crowds came about from people traveling from all over the Metroplex? I thought they were coming from all over North Texas?

And the outdoor venue, situated just outside downtown Fort Worth on the banks of the Trinity River, is nowhere near finished.

I would hope the outdoor venue is nowhere near finished. Its current state is extremely tacky. Although, I must say the outhouses are unusually elegant for a Fort Worth venue.

Along with this weekend’s Clearfork Music Festival, there are myriad events scheduled throughout September, from the Most Good Music Festival (Sept. 6), a Salvation Army benefit featuring performers such as Stoney LaRue and Jack Ingram, to the seventh annual Dia de Los Toadies (Sept. 12-13), which will feature Fort Worth rock legends the Toadies playing their acclaimed Rubberneck album in its entirety, and the Beer, Bourbon and Brisket Festival (Sept. 20), with Oktoberfest closing out the month of September (Sept. 25-27) at the Shack, Panther Island Pavilion’s newly opened indoor venue.

Okay, what I got out of the above paragraph of blah blah blah about all the famous performers set to perform at Panther Island Pavilion next month is the last part, that being the part about Oktoberfest closing out the month at the Shack, Panther Island Pavilion's newly opened venue.

I had not heard of the Shack. A little Googling brought me to the Shack, on the Panther Island Pavilion Facebook page. Below is a picture of the Shack? What is it? The abandoned building which used to house the Tandy Subway cars?

Also on the Panther Island Pavilion Facebook page I found the below entry about the article on DFW.com which we are currently discussing.

Yeah, they really should be blushing. Blushing from embarrassment. Now, back to the article...

It’s an eclectic flurry of events, designed to appeal to as broad a swath of the public as possible, bringing not only die-hard music fans out to Panther Island, but the city itself.

Does the above sentence make any sense to anyone? Designed not only to bring out die-hard music fans, but the city itself?

“The success of Panther Island Pavilion has exceeded our expectatins,” Granger says. “We have a packed schedule, including seven events over the next month, but most importantly, it’s bringing a new and diverse audience to Panther Island.”

I copied and pasted the above verbatim. The word out of JD Granger's mouth was "expectatins". The success has exceeded *expectatins? What were their expectatins? Limited success? Most importantly it's bringing a new and diverse audience to Panther Island? Why is this important? How does JD measure the diversity? And please the Panther Island nonsense really needs to stop. There is no island. And even if the un-needed flood diversion channel ever flows water under the three bridges over nothing, this really still will not be what anyone who respects the meaning of words could legitimately call an island.

And why does the Executive Director of the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle spend time worrying about music venues and imaginary islands? Was he not hired, after an extensive search to find the most qualified man available, to over see the building of a much needed flood control project, along with some supposedly much needed economic development? I really don't think back when the Boondoggle first started Boondoggling that anyone thought that what was meant by economic development was "festivals becoming a business unto themselves."

And then there is the last sentence in this very bizarre propaganda piece...

In other words, one of the city’s marquee venues is roaring right along.

Marquee venues? One of Fort Worth's marquee venues? What are Fort Worth's other marquee venues? Billy Bob's Over Texas? The Concerts in the Gardens? The Coyote Drive-In Movie Theater? What? Where?

*As expected the Panther Island Pavilion roaring along on the Trinity article has changed JD Granger's colorful "expectatins" to "expectations".