The Return of the Urban Cowboy

Five years ago, Hollywood took some cowboys and cowgirls and portrayed their lives as filled with romance, heartbreak, and country music. Since then, they’ve returned to reality. And their lives have been filled with romance, heartbreak, and country music.

by Aaron Latham

The Hustlers

The genteel practice of law is dead. Nowadays lawyers fight for clients, raid each other’s firms, and bill, bill, bill.

by Peter Elkind

We Wanted a Test Tube Baby

The odds for having a child of our own were slim to none. We took a chance on slim.

by Gary Cleve Wilson

Preacher’s Kids

My father had to have an answer for everything—adultery, spiritual crises, the pigeons defecating in the church gutter. No wonder I didn’t become a preacher. The miracle is that my sister did.

by Skip Hollandsworth

Western Art: Sad Ballad of a Mad Filly in Love With Bad Billy

by Lou Beach

Queen for a Day

Here they are—the Texas homecoming queens. Take a look at the girls the boys liked best.

Photography by Geoff Winningham

The Art-By-The-Truckload School

They’re cheesy, they’re tasteless. But each black velvet painting is a one-of-a-kind work of art.

by Richard Zelade

The Neo Black Velvetists

A new chapter in art history? Five artists dabble in a medium you’ll never see at the Met.

Texas Primer: The Petroleum Club

People who have watched a certain prime-time soap opera think they know what goes on at the Petroleum Club. They don’t.

by Joseph Nocera

Behind the Lines

Winners of Dallas, at ease!

by Gregory Curtis

Art

Have I Got a Collection for You

With one bold acquisition the Dallas Museum of Art could double the value of its holdings. But there were a few strings attached.

by Thomas Hartman

Books

Dense as a Clootie Dumpling

It had to happen. Novelist James Michener has finally trained his macroscope on Texas, and the result is, well, long.

by Stephen Harrigan

Food

Eat and Run

Graze on the street corners of Texas for fast, tasty, and inexpensive meals.

by Joe Nick Patoski

Classical Music

Is It Live Or Is It a CD?

Compact discs: coasters? Frisbees? or the best sound you’ll ever hear?

by W. L. Taitte

Movies

Missing the Pointe

White Nights is too much cold war, not enough Baryshnikov; After Hours is overwrought Scorcese; Mishima is a mishmash.

by James Wolcott

Reporter

Texas Monthly Reporter

A turf battle over shrimp on the coast; a nominee for the meanest man in Houston; a former Cowboy’s reflections on why athletes go broke.

by Gary Cartwright

Roar of the Crowd

State Secrets

Fundamentalists lose ground in textbook war; White maneuvers to keep Hispanic support; round two for Crystal City.

Edited by Paul Burka

Touts

The sincerest form of plattery; imaginative new serving pieces for the holiday season.

by Patricia Sharpe

Puzzle

Back Roads

They said it couldn’t be done, but Larry Brumfield built Texas’ largest indoor bass aquarium.

by Peter Applebome

Downtown

You have to wonder if guys like San Antonio’s C. A. Stubbs aren’t the future of urban politics.

by Jim Atkinson

Post-Modern Times

NorthPark Mall inaugurated an epoch twenty years ago. It’s still the standard for upscale shopping.

by Michael Ennis