Austinite Bruce Sterling’s keen eye for global Sturm und Drang has served him well in futuristic novels such as Holy Fire and Distraction, which present darkly comic visions of a new world disorder. In a surprising twist for the science fiction writer, Zeitgeist: A Novel of Metamorphosis is set in
Austin’s Beaver Nelson has never been at a loss for songs, just for albums to put them on. By his mid-twenties he had lost his next-big-thing glow by twice signing record deals that failed to yield records, though the bulk of his fans (critics and fellow musicians) would have gotten
East meets country and western, and a whole lot more, on this Houston pedal-steel guitarist’s debut solo album. As a member of Eugene Chadbourne’s Ernest Tubb Memorial Band, Alcorn plays little that’s recognizable as country or alt-country. The eight improvisational instrumentals on Uma pursue that exploratory spirit without sounding much
A songwriter’s songwriter and a cult figure’s cult figure, Houston’s Mickey Newbury authored pop and country hits in the late sixties and early seventies, among them “Sweet Memories” and the Elvis Presley stalwart “An American Trilogy.” He’s the sort of artist Texas produces as naturally as oil or running backs.
As a female jazz percussionist and bandleader, Susie Ibarra remains a rarity in the male-dominated world of jazz instrumentalists. Raised in Houston’s small Filipino community, Ibarra found the strength to overcome inequities and used that determination to become a fixture in New York’s Downtown jazz scene. The propulsive fury displayed
SRV breaks out of the gate with Little Stevie Vaughan before he was Stevie Ray. A member of Paul Ray and the Cobras, the kid’s doing “Thunderbird”—the upbeat, swinging standard by the Nightcaps, Texas’ first great white-boy blues band—a song that every Dallas kid with an electric guitar and an
Senior editor Anne Dingus lists her ten favorite whodunits.
Which Texas airports and airlines have the best on-time records?
The media lower the boom on Anna Nicole Smith.
Associate editor Pamela Colloff tells the story behind November's cover story, "They Haven't Got a Prayer."
What was the real name of the dog that portrayed Old Yeller?
Cedric Benson of the Midland Lee Rebels has a cause: He may just be the greatest running back in Texas 5A history.
Stephen Clark
The Texas stock to avoid right now.
Think cozy neighborhood restaurants are a thing of the past? Here are four places that will serve you well.
When Senators Phil Gramm and Kay Bailey Hutchison blocked the nomination of El Paso's Enrique Moreno to the powerful Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals they triggered a firestorm of protest fueled by wounded ethnic pride.
For brothers Charlie and Bruce Robison, making country music safe for men again is an intriguing proposition—and a risky one because of their wives.
On the set with Bruce Rodgers.
Janine Turner gets into character.
Strange Peaches.
George W.'s endgame.
Waco is memorialized in Madison Cooper's Sironia, Texas, the longest novel ever published in the U.S.and one of the oddest.
SBC fails to connect with high-speed Internet access.
Three days and two nights in Fort Worth. Plus: Huddling up with Texas football teams; going under the big top with the UniverSoul Circus; keeping time with mariachi music; and sticking to the state's far-flung festivals.
The best presidential candidate for high tech.
Read the first chapter of Edwin "Bud" Shrake's Strange Peaches, this month's Texas Classic.
Two-four-six-eight, who do we appreciate? San Antonio businessman Jack DeVere, whose collection of Texas football memorabilia evokes a simpler, more innocent time.
Test assistant editor Jordan Mackay's knowledge of Texas winehis piece, "Sour Grapes," about the state of the Texas wine industry, ran in this issue.
"Why do zoos keep animals in cages?" Tips on answering this and other questions.
Senior editor Skip Hollandsworth tells the story behind this month's cover story, "Can't Buy Me Love." How he got his sources to talk, what he did when they wouldn't, and other secrets of his reporting.
Want to get up close and personal with kudus and kangaroos, tigers and toucans, okapi and orangutans? We're especially fauna these zoos, the ten best in the state.
“One of my goals in life was to go to one place and stay put,” says Jack Unruh, and for more than forty years the Kansas native has made that one place Dallas. From there the 65-year-old illustrator has worked for such publications as Rolling Stone, Time, and National Geographic.
Take one of the nation's wealthiest men, the enigmatic, Egyptian-born Fayez Sarofim. Add his socialite first wife and her brassy successor. Stir in River Oaks mansions and greedy lawyers, boatloads of money and oceans of booze. Mix it all together and what do you get? A hell of a mess
Close Calls: Jan Reid’s Texas (Texas A&M University Press), a collection of articles by the Austin writer, arrives in stores this month. Reid, a contributing editor of Texas Monthly, has written for the magazine since May 1974.
Compiling the mug shots, last meals, and criminal vitae of 222 inmates executed by the State of Texas is not great literature. As high concept, social commentary, and true crime, though, Austinite Bill Crawford’s Texas Death Row: Executions in the Modern Era (Longstreet Press) is surprisingly fluent. The institutional portraits
Nacogdoches boy Joe R. Lansdale is a veteran purveyor of horror and crime fiction, much of it pulpy at best. Still, all that writing has paid off in his latest novel, The Bottoms, which lands firmly in the mainstream-fiction category. Relax, phobe-o-philes—he still delivers a full dose of fear, East
For nearly 25 years the state's wineries have struggled to mature. Will Texas wines ever go well with anything?
Woodville's Lucas Babin may be this year's model, but when he left for L.A. to make it big, he had no idea that he'd have such a smooth landing on the runway.
The Texas stock to buy right now.
On the record with Chris Strachwitz, whose Arhoolie label has quietly built the world's best collection of indigenous Texas music.
Bush's fat cats hit the bottom line.
Last Forever fuses the talents of Manhattan songwriter, arranger, and keyboardist Dick Connette and singer Sonya Cohen of Austin. She is the daughter of John Cohen of the New Lost City Ramblers and the niece of Pete Seeger. The music, most of it written by Connette, extends American folk traditions
Taking cues from their namesake, Ray Davies of the Kinks, Dallas’ Deathray Davies also pay homage to Roky Erickson, Nuggets-era garage bands, and Guided By Voices. The Davies share Voices’ same Brit-invasion worship for interstitial song snippets, but despite those influences they are no ventriloquist act. Two years ago the
Justice for Medicaid?
The 1962 soul-pop hit “You’ll Lose a Good Thing” and appearances on American Bandstand put Beaumont’s Barbara Lynn on the map as the world’s greatest (though perhaps only) left-handed female blues guitarist. That reputation has carried her ever since, despite just three new albums recorded over the past fifteen years—a
Shallots12 shallots, uniform size 6 tablespoons olive oil kosher salt and cracked black pepper to tastePreheat oven to 350 degrees. Peel shallots, leaving on the top end and barely trimming the root end. Lightly sauté in olive oil in an ovenproof skillet over medium-high heat for 2 to 3 minutes.
Since art is by nature a solo endeavor, it’s the rare musical collaboration that doesn’t end in compromise. Yet Bolsa de Agua, the fifth and best album in the Gourds’ catalog, captures the Austin group locked in on practically every level. Half a decade has made survivors of the new
Hyping Milk Cow Blues as Willie Nelson’s first official blues album is smart marketing, but these days Nelson simply makes Willie Nelson records—his legend and aesthetic transcend genre and concept. Milk Cow Blues is interesting not because it’s blues-oriented but because it so often can’t help but sound like pure
If Waco’s zoo were a book of the Bible, it would be Revelation. The famously Baptist town is home to a large and handsome zoo, one that deserves the full name “zoological park.” Covering 52 acres along the Brazos River, the Cameron Park Zoo was relocated and renovated—transformed, really—in 1993,
Archer City brings up the lights on the Royal theater.
