The Bar Bar

It’s a noble institution, especially if you can master all its subtle skills: not being there, the second call, holding forth, and another thing...

by Jim Atkinson

The 89 Greatest Texas Bars

No Matter where you are, there’s someplace to be nowhere.

by Jim Atkinson

Mark White’s Coming-Out Party

The new governor’s first hundred days were great theater, but now come taxes.

by Paul Burka

The Cow’s in the Corn

Or, my life as a Texas gardener.

by Jan Reid

The Bad Brother

What happened to the old black power radicals in Dallas? Jail, hard times, middle age - and, for Matt Johnson, the losing end of a gun.

by Gary Cartwright

Larger Than Life

Tom Lea, the grand old man of Texas painting, grew up among giants. No wonder he always used a big canvas.

by John Davidson

Texas Primer: The Water Tower

Sure it means water. It also means pride.

by Anne Dingus

Behind the Lines

A day in the country.

by Gregory Curtis

Business

A Monument to Making It

It’s a Xanadu of condos, restaurants, gardens, and gyms, a high-tech haven that can outritz nearby Dallas. It’s Las Colinas, a home for corporations that appreciate the finer things in life.

by Michael Ennis

Movies

Double Jeopardy

What’s Exposed is the worlds of fashion and terrorism and the curves of Nastassia Kinski. Blue Thunder is nothing but noise; Tender Mercies, on the other hand, is practically a silent.

by James Wolcott

Education

Man Over Mortarboard

Some colleges help seniors with placement. Others settle for career counseling. For liberal arts majors, the difference is getting a job.

by John Schwartz

Classical Music

Happy Birthday, Franz and Igor

Both Haydn and Stravinsky marked special anniversaries last year, but music lovers got the presents: a shower of fresh new versions of their works.

by W. L. Taitte

Religion

Jesus and Mead’s Fine Bread

I sang gospel music for God, a bakery, and $6 a week.

by A.C. Greene

Reporter

Texas Monthly Reporter

Taking stock of the Dallas mayoral election; defrocking the Legislature’s worst bills; buying stocks in the Trans-Pecos; unlocking the mysteries of the Arklatex; rocking the boat in Odessa.

by Peter Applebome

Roar of the Crowd

Gun-shy Baptists, isolated inmates, poor doctors.

Touts

Of loaves and fishes.

by Patricia Sharpe

Puzzle

Cell division.

State Secrets

TV’s path to riches for Robert Caro’s The Path to Power; a big Texas howdy to PCBs; Reagan and Castro’s map wars; another prison reform idea turns sour.

Edited by Paul Burka