1985 Bum Steer Awards

A year of arousing art, bumbling bush, coerced canines, deranged Dallas, eureka! Eureste, freeway fantasy, groping Germans, hurtling helicopters, idiotic Irving, and jocose jelly beans.

Towers of Power

So. Ralph Sampson listens to Grover Washington and Akeem Olajuwon craves Chinese food. Now you know.

by Harry Hurt III

Between Two Worlds

Jay Hamon spent much of his life caught between the Dallas society world of his parents and the world of the black woman with whom he fell in love. He dies without ever resolving his dilemma.

by Peter Applebome

A Grand Canyon

In 1541 Coronado and his troops stumbled upon a huge canyon in the midst of grassy plains and gazed upon it with awe. Journeying down into Palo Duro Canyon on mules 443 years later, I began to understand why.

by Jan Reid

Texas Primer: The Sticker Bur

After encountering this small brown barb, the wise Texas child learns to pick and choose his fights with the landscape.

by Mimi Swartz

"Take Nothing and Make Something"

Working alone at his home in East Texas, Fox Harris is divinely inspired to create towering, fanciful sculptures out of junk.

by Suzanne Winckler

Western Art: Drugstore Cowboy

An interpretation of a classic genre.

by Gary Kelley

Architecture

Strident Whimsy

Arquitectonica is trying to sell Texans on gimmicky forms, bright colors, and high-tech materials in the name of avant-garde.

by Lisa Germany

Behind the Lines

A suburb sees the future and grits its teeth.

by Gregory Curtis

Movies

Star Dreck

2010: a space travesty; Dune gets mired in pomp and slime; A Soldier’s Story is a murder mystery with soul; even Streep and De Niro can’t save Falling in Love; The Brother from Another Planet is woozily morose.

by James Wolcott

Jazz

Heard Any Good Live Jazz Lately?

A purist’s guide to the night spots of Houston, Dallas, Fort Worth, and Austin.

by Doug Ramsey

Books

Mexico Refried

A book on Mexico by New York Times correspondent Alan Riding is a little more than a rehash of recent history.

by Dick J. Reavis

Classical Music

Swell Sonatas

Twenty picks for the best classical recording of 1984.

Reporter

Texas Monthly Reporter

Law and order in Colorado City; winning and losing with the Dallas Diamonds; bargains and hassles on People Express; broiling and sweating in pursuit of mesquite chic.

by Alison Cook

Roar of the Crowd

The men who wear the star, the folks who mail your clothes, the people who save sick children.

Touts

This year we've got to get organized.

Patricia Sharpe

Puzzle

Hot Spots.

State Secrets

To oilmen, intangible means untouchable; to UT, untouchable means Fred Akers; a legal courtship sinks; a billboard solution may float.

Edited by Paul Burka