Numerous local and national news sources, including the Associated Press, are reporting that longtime Austin singer-songwriter Steven Fromholz has died of an accidental gunshot wound he suffered while hunting on a ranch near El Dorado, Texas. He was 68.
According to reports, the gun was accidentally discharged when being transferred between two cars. Fromholz was shot and later died in an area hospital.
Fromholz was born in Temple, Texas, and attended North Texas State University. While a student, he belonged to The Folk Music Club along with singer-songwriter Michael Martin Murphey and Eddie Wilson; the latter would go on to found the Armadillo World Headquarters in Austin.
After a stint in the Navy, Fromholz returned to folk music, writing, recording and playing live. He eventually moved to Austin, where he had an integral role in what became known as the Texas Outlaw music movement as well as being a community activist.
For more than 40 years, he saw great international success as a songwriter, recording artist and performer. He also became a river-rafting and riding-trail guide in West Texas, where he owned the ranch that he lived on for the remainder of his life.
Fromholz was inducted into the Texas Music Hall of Fame in 2003 and was named Texas Poet Laureate in 2007.
While the sport of pickleball was invented way back in the 1960s, it has exploded in popularity in the 2020s. It was only a matter of time before someone figured out a way to make a movie about the craze, and a comedy like the new Apple TV+ film The Dink provides the best way to honor and make fun of the divisive sport at the same time.
Dusty Boyd (Jake Johnson), a.k.a. The Hammer, is a former tennis phenom who’s now working as an instructor at a club owned by his dad, Chuck (Ed Harris). While the two don’t always see eye-to-eye, they have a mutual hatred for pickleball, which they have begrudgingly allowed on the property by giving it the worst court.
Dusty is hoping to stop all future pickleball expansion by winning a one-on-one grudge match, but when he injures his wrist, he’s given a prescription of pickleball as a form of rehab. Older women like Candace (Mary Steenburgen) are the only people he can find to play with, and despite his disdain for the sport, he soon falls prey to its low-key charms.
Directed by Josh Greenbaum (Will & Harper) and written by Sean Clements, the film is probably the best advertisement pickleball will ever have. Dusty’s introduction to the sport serves as a lighthearted tutorial for the uninitiated while still getting in some nice digs at its expense. The other players — Candace, Gail (Cleo King), and Judy (Lynn Marie Stewart) — are equally welcoming and critical of Dusty, who initially has trouble adjusting to the game’s different rules.
The film’s approach to the story is silly but never stupid. Dusty is a blowhard, but he’s also able to admit when he’s wrong, especially when Candace introduces him to multiple things he had never considered before. A long-standing feud between Dusty and Andy Roddick provides more than just a goofy cameo for the real-life tennis star. The film also pushes right to the edge of being over-the-top before pulling back, allowing it to keep a semblance of reality to it.
Clements’ story follows a tried-and-true formula, making the film very predictable but enjoyably so. Where it earns its comedy credentials is in its finer details, like Dusty’s love for his 1999 Buick LeSabre with under 200,000 miles on it, his trunk full of old VHS tapes, or his interactions with his assistant PJ (Aaron Chen), who manages to be the comic relief in an already funny film.
Johnson, probably best known for starring in the sitcom New Girl in the 2010s, has the right amount of smarm and niceness to pull off the role, letting viewers laugh at and root for him at the same time. The film is full of comedy all-stars in small roles like Oswalt, Chris Parnell, and Ben Stiller, but Harris steals everyone’s thunder. The line readings by the four-time Oscar nominee give an extra punch to his character’s jokes, especially one that hints at the sordid history of the tennis club.
It’s a shame that The Dink is only playing on a streaming service, as there’s a dearth of good comedies like this in movie theaters. With a solid joke-telling approach, a respect for its subject matter, and a cast who all play off each other well, this is a film that deserves to be seen by more than just those with an Apple TV+ subscription.
