After being canceled for two years in a row, the Dallas St. Patrick's Day Parade is back on for 2022. The annual event on Greenville Avenue will take place March 12, accompanied by an official concert featuring the Toadies.
Organizers held off on making a decision until late January, when they decided to push forward.
"We came in with the idea that the parade was always going to go on," says parade producer Mauricio Navarro. "When we saw the omicron spike, we had to consider cancellation but we decided to wait it out, and thank God we did, because it's happening."
The parade was first canceled in 2020, just as COVID-19 was starting to surge and local health leaders declared a state of emergency in Dallas. It was canceled again in 2021, due to the pandemic.
The festival runs from 9 am-3 pm. The parade will begin at 11 am at the intersection of Greenville Avenue and Blackwell Street, and end at SMU Boulevard at 2 pm.
The Block Party & Concert starring the Toadies is at Energy Square, at 4925 Greenville Ave., and begins at 10 am. It also features 40 Acre Mule, plus food trucks and four bars.
The parade has been supported since 2012 by Dallas' godfather Mark Cuban, who has donated $50,000 every year to keep it afloat.
The return of the Dallas event is part of a bigger wave of returns, according to Irish Central, which says that St. Patrick's Day parades are set to make a comeback in both Ireland and the United States this March after two consecutive years of cancellations.
Parades in big U.S. cities such as New York, Chicago, and St. Louis, as well as parades in Ireland, are all returning for 2022.
For as closely tied together as Matt Damon and Ben Affleck are, it might come as a surprise how few times they’ve led a movie together. They’ve appeared alongside each other in Good Will Hunting, The Last Duel, and Air, but the only time they were on equal footing in a story was Kevin Smith’s Dogma. So the fact that they are the two true stars of the new Netflix movie The Rip makes it a rare opportunity for the longtime friends to square off against each other.
Damon and Affleck play Lt. Dane Dumars and Detective Sgt. J.D Byrne, respectively, the two highest ranking members of a Miami police department squad that specializes in drug and drug money raids. A tragedy to begin the film already has the team - which includes Detectives Mike Ro (Steven Yeun), Numa Baptiste (Teyana Taylor), and Lolo Salazar (Catalina Sandina Moreno) - on edge, with the FBI and DEA breathing down their neck.
Going off a tip, Dumars gathers the team to raid a house in nearby Hialeah that is supposed to have a stash of a relatively small amount of money. But when they get to the house occupied only by Desiree Molina (Sasha Calle), they soon discover that there’s close to $20 million there instead. The team, required by law to count the money on site, must not only fight the urge to skim a little off the top for themselves, but also worry about the Cartel and other agencies that might want a slice of the pie.
Written and directed by Joe Carnahan, the film is a surprisingly effective crime thriller made even better by its high-quality cast, which also includes Kyle Chandler as a DEA agent. The story is designed for the audience to not know who’s trustworthy until the last possible second, and the various twists and turns it takes are well done, with barely a hint of narrative cheating.
Taking place entirely at night, the mood is set right from the start, with the only surprise being that Carnahan didn’t add in rain for extra effect. He keeps things tense with a number of subtle elements, including having the house located in a seemingly deserted cul-de-sac. This allows for the characters to remain on high alert at all times, with anything out of the ordinary - an unexpected noise, a flashing light, etc. - adding to the stress of the situation.
The only element that could have used a bit more of a punch-up is the characterization. The story is set up to cast suspicion on almost everybody, making it tougher to understand exactly what type of person each of them is. As the two leads, more time is spent with Dumars and Byrne, leaving everyone else with slightly underwhelming arcs. It’s to the credit of the actors that everyone else below Damon and Affleck is still compelling.
Damon and Affleck play their sometimes friendly, sometimes adversarial roles well, showing an ease together that’s a result of their friendship and the acting skills they’ve honed over 30+ years. Taylor, an Oscar hopeful for One Battle After Another, and Oscar nominee/Emmy winner Yeun have a pedigree that elevates their supporting roles. Chandler, Moreno, and Calle each get just enough to demonstrate why they were cast in their respective roles.
Damon and Affleck have had their individual ups and downs throughout their careers, but when they choose to work together, the results are usually good-to-great, as they are in The Rip. It’s a different take on a crime thriller that features a story that will keep viewers guessing until the very end.
