BurkaBlog »
WATCH OUT FOR MEDINA! (Tue Feb 9 at 2:56 PM)
In the Pink »
Mission Improbable (Tue Feb 9 at 3:49 PM)
Page Break »
"An Unprecedented Tragedy" (Tue Feb 9 at 10:36 AM)
Eat My Words »
Just For Fun--Glad It Was Them, Not Me (Mon Feb 8 at 4:11 PM)
Jim B says: If we start voting Independently, just don’t vote for some schmo they stick out there that hasn’t a snowball’s chance in hell of winning. If enough of the nation starts voting independently, neither the jackasses nor the elephants will have a filibuster-proof 60% majority any longer. You vote for the best choice, and to that, I would like to add...that means don’t vote for someone who CLAIMS to be Independent, but is actually a puppet of the 1 party system we have. (February 9th, 2010 at 10:09am)
Don Graham
Features
Alamo Heights
So much is at stake that we almost—almost—believe the release date of Disney's epic-to-be was delayed from Christmas Day to April for the reasons the studio claims. But given the way historical movies usually turn out, can you blame us for smirking? (December 2003)
The Secret History
Did Richard King cheat his partner's heirs out of a chunk of the King Ranch nearly 120 years ago? He may have—and if the Texas Supreme Court permits Chapman v. King Ranch, Inc., to go to trial, the past could come back to haunt the state's most storied spread. (December 2002)
Mission: Impossible
Rumor has it that director Ron Howard and screenwriter John Sayles are coming to Austin this spring to make a $100 million movie about the Alamo. It may be too much to ask that they get Texas' defining battle right (since no one knows what really happened), but I've got my fingers crossed—and a few friendly words of advice. (February 2002)
Writers Bloc
What did Graham Greene observe about crossing the border into Mexico in 1938? Would you believe Molly Ivins was born in California? Here are my picks for the fifty greatest literary moments in Texas, plus a roster of leading lights who are from here—and some who aren't. (May 2001)
Wayne’s World
A flood, a fire, a car accident, a murder, and of course, a restaging of the battle for Texas’ independence: scenes from the making of The Alamo. (March 2000)
Picture Perfect
Why Peter Bogdanovich filmed in black and white, who discovered Cybill Shepherd, which onetime soap opera diva read for the role of Jacy, and other secrets of the making of The Last Picture Show . (February 1999)
Unreality Bites
As ever, Texas looms large in the movies’ imagination—large and largely inaccurate. (May 1998)
Canon Fever
Our selections for some of the best contemporary Texas books. (March 1996)
Pen Pals
Dobie, Bedichek, and Webb were the leading Texas writers and intellectuals of their age. But as ribald raconteurs, they were ahead of their time. (March 1996)
Columns | Miscellany
Please Go Away
Cormac McCarthy’s ubiquity problem. (July 2008)
Dunces of Confederacy
What to do about those controversial statues on the University of Texas at Austin campus. (July 2007)
You’ve Got Mailer
The famously crotchety writer’s hate-love relationship with Texas. (November 2005)
All the Pretty Corpses
Cormac McCarthy’s latest is bloody good. (August 2005)
Mary, Quite Contrary
The awful truth about The Liars’ Club. (May 2005)
Fallen Heroes
One riot, one Ranger, one much-maligned historian: rereading Walter Prescott Webb. (February 2005)
Accentuate The Negative
To read a Patricia Highsmith novel is to suspend one’s moral judgments. She irresistibly persuades us to side with killers and other amoral characters. (November 2004)
White Like Me
Growing up in segregated Collin County, I was oblivious to the impact of Jim Crow—until I read John Howard Griffin's American classic. (August 2004)
Expatriate Act
While some Texas-born writers had to leave home to do their best work, for John Graves the reverse was true. (May 2004)
Nation State
Does anyone outside of Texas care about Texas history? H. W. Brands hopes so, and he's not the only one. (March 2004)
Not-So-Great Plains
Suzan-Lori Parks gets the culture and cadence of West Texas right, sort of; Annie Proulx doesn't. (October 2003)
Not Moving On
Fifteen years after Larry McMurtry announced he was through writing novels, he shows no sign of letting up. For this we should be thankful. (May 2003)
Master Class
No one took the literature of Texas or the Southwest seriously until J. Frank Dobie put it, and us, on the map. (January 2003)
Giant
Master of the Senate, Robert Caro's third volume on the life of Lyndon Johnson, is an exhaustive study of power, persuasion, and private parts. (May 2002)
Horseman, Pass By
Forty years after its publication, Horseman, Pass By is still one of Larry McMurtry's finest novels—and as groundbreaking as J. D. Salinger's masterpiece. (December 2001)
Donald Barthelme: The Genesis of a Cool Sound
A memoir conjures up Donald Barthelme—and sheds light on his talented siblings. (August 2001)
Knightmare
Aaron Latham's new novel about a cowboy Camelot gets lost in the bull. (April 2001)
The Pits
The problem with Mary Karr's latest confessional memoir, Cherry, is that she won't stop confessing. (October 2000)
Cotton Tale
Long before Lonesome Dove and other cattle-culture classics defined Texas for the world, Hold Autumn in Your Hand—a novel that wasn’t about cowboys or Longhorns—won critical acclaim. With good reason. (May 1999)
Katherine the Great
Indian Creek native Katherine Anne Porter is the finest author ever to come out of Texas. But only recently has her home state stopped writing her off. (May 1997)
Paradise
Larry McMurty's latest. (June 2001)
And The Earth Did Not Devour Him
. . . And the Earth Did Not Devour Him. (March 2001)
The Perfect Sonya
The Perfect Sonya. (February 2001)
Confessions of a Washed-up Sportswriter (Including Various Digressions About Sex, Crime, and Other Hobbies)
Confessions of a Washed-up Sportswriter (Including Various Digressions About Sex, Crime, and Other Hobbies.) (December 2000)
Strange Peaches
Strange Peaches. (November 2000)
Alpaca
Alpaca (October 2000)
The Western Edge
Blood Meridian. (September 2000)
A Soldier's Story
Sam Chamberlain's My Confession. (August 2000)
A Woman of Independent Means
My First Thirty Years. (July 2000)
Acting the Part
Rules for movies about music. (May 2000)
Stream of Consciousness
Rereading John Graves (February 2000)
Reporter
A Prince of a Fellow
A Prince of a Fellow (January 2001)
Rain Man
The Time It Never Rained. (June 2000)
Trailblazer
The Log of a Cowboy. (April 2000)
Mission Impossible
Viva Max! (March 2000)
Border Skirmish
Américo Paredes. (January 2000)
North Dallas Forty
Don Graham on Peter Gent. (December 1999)
O Pioneers!
Don Graham on Sallie Reynolds Matthews. (November 1999)
Mr. Texas
Don Graham doffs his hat to J. Frank Dobie. (October 1999)
Southern Discomfort
Don Graham remembers Willie Morris. (September 1999)
Beyond the Pale
Don Graham corrals Pale Horse, Pale Rider. (August 1999)
The Johnson Treatment
Don Graham rereads The Gay Place. (July 1999)
The First Picture Show
Horseman, Pass By (June 1999)
Web Exclusives
Now That's Comedy
What's so funny about an oilman, a rancher, a golfer, and a carnival hobo? Watch the following top ten funniest Texas movies to find out why these main characters (and others) are so hilarious. (January 2002)
My Library
