For 13 years the worst arson-murder in Dallas history went unsolved. Two years ago, police caught a break and have slowly traced the roots of the intentional act of savagery that killed five children ranging in age from 2 to 18. Dallas Observer Editor Julie Lyons reports that the investigation is turning up a lot of unpleasant memories about the strange culture of violence that once terrorized the south Dallas neighborhood.

Even bringing a Spanish flamenco troupe into the United States these days is a monumental hassle, OC Weekly's Jim Washburn learns. The endless War on Terror could starve American artists of the kind of cultural cross-pollination that brought James Brown to Africa's Fela Kuti and the recharged African rhythms back to artists such as Karl Denson (pictured). "Okay, I don’t mind flying without scissors, and I could get to like taking my shoes off at airport checkpoints. ... But it’s a bad, bad thing when we’re also bringing the steel shutters down on our artistic windows to the world."

Jim Crumley thinks about death. The recent losses -- both after prolonged battles with cancer -- of Missoula writer James Welch and musician Warren Zevon, an old Hollywood running buddy, have hit him hard. But if Crumley -- with nearly 64 years of good, hard living behind him -- is feeling his own mortality, he's not letting on. Not even with chronic gout, not with perpetual back problems (exacerbated by a recent car crash), and not with the mysterious malady that nearly killed him last year. Nick Davis talks to the Missoula author, who contemplates a large life, near-death and the company of a few good friends.