John Spong
Senior Editor John Spong holds a bachelor's degree in history and a J.D. from the University of Texas at Austin. In 1997, after a brief yet dramatically unfulfilling stint as a civil litigator in Austin, he joined Texas Monthly as a fact-checker. He became a staff writer in 2002.
Spong was nominated for a National Magazine Award in 2010 for his story celebrating Texas dance halls, "Step Right Up" (December 2009), and has twice won the Texas Institute of Letters' O. Henry Award for Magazine Journalism—for "The Good Book and the Bad Book" (September 2006), about a censorship battle at a private school in Austin, and for "Holding Garmsir" (January 2009), about a month he spent with a platoon of US Marines fighting in Afghanistan. He is the author of A Book on the Making of Lonesome Dove (UT Press, 2012), and his stories have been collected in Best Food Writing 2012 (Da Capo Press, 2012), The Best American Sports Writing 2009 (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2009), Literary Austin (TCU Press, 2007), and Rio Grande (UT Press, 2004). In 2005, the City and Regional Magazines Association named Spong its national writer of the year.
He has served on the board of the Texas Book Festival since 2008 and lived in Austin since 1971.
Features
All Grown Up
Austin is booming with jobs, condos, festivals, traffic, hipsters, joggers, and high-concept dive bars (anyone for Lone Star and seared foie gras?). Does that mean it’s no longer Austin?
Confessions of a Seventh-Grade Texas History Teacher
Bobby Jackson has taught students in the Aransas County school district about the Plains Indians, the Battle of San Jacinto, and Spindletop since the state celebrated its sesquicentennial. How he does it bears no resemblance to the class I took when I was stuck in middle school.
That 70’s Show
Forty years ago, Willie, Waylon, Jerry Jeff, and a whole host of Texas misfits grew their hair long, snubbed Nashville, and brought the hippies and rednecks together. The birth of outlaw country changed country music forever.
Sketchy Characters
Before cameras were allowed in courtrooms, artist Gary Myrick and his assortment of colored pencils provided Texas television audiences with a vivid look at the state’s high-profile legal proceedings against figures like T. Cullen Davis, Henry Lee Lucas, and Charles Harrelson.
Come and Take a Look at Me Now
Against all odds, Phil Collins has turned himself into a world-class Alamo buff who will happily talk your ear off about Santa Anna and Davy Crockett. Can you feel it coming in the Bexar tonight?
Karen Wagner’s Life
She lived outside the spotlight, quietly serving her country as most members of the military do, until one terrible day.
Do I Dare to Eat a Peach?
As a kid I was the pickiest eater you have ever seen, and family meals gave new meaning to the words “food fight.” But I gritted my teeth and overcame it—one disgusting tomato at a time.
How Not to Cook Like a Texan
The Great Terquasquicentennial Road Trip
Some people call it a quartoseptcentennial, or a septaquintaquinquecentennial (seriously), but you’d better save your breath. You’ll need it on this wide-ranging 6,000-mile voyage commemorating Texas’s 175th birthday. It starts in Glen Rose, ends in Austin, and stops along the way at 175 places that tell the story of the state, from the grassy field in La Porte where independence was won to the parking garage in Dallas where the Super Bowl was dreamed up; from the Austin dorm room where Dell Inc. was born to the college hall in Houston where Barbara Jordan learned to debate; from the hotel in San Antonio where Lydia Mendoza recorded “Mal Hombre” to the—well, you get the idea. And you’d better get started. The road awaits . . .
Big State, Small Screen
Is Friday Night Lights the best TV show ever made about Texas? Or just the first one (sorry, J.R.! Sorry, Hank!) that’s tried so hard to get the details right?
On the Road—Westbound and Down
Most vacations in Texas mean filling up the gas tank and logging long hours on the highway. Yet whether it’s a classic buddy trip or a full-blown family vacation, the charms of the open road remain. May it always be so.
True West
Twenty-five years ago, Larry McMurtry published a novel called Lonesome Dove—and Texas hasn’t looked the same since. Listen in as more than thirty writers, critics, producers, and actors, from Peter Bogdonavich and Dave Hickey to Tommy Lee Jones, Robert Duvall, and Anjelica Huston, tell the stories behind the book (and the miniseries) that changed the way we see the West.
Hook’d
The Longhorns may have lost the BCS National Championship on the hallowed field of the Rose Bowl, but they gained something almost as important: a long-lost fan.
The Bucket List
Driving the River Road, in far West Texas; having a drink at the Mansion on Turtle Creek, in Dallas; fishing for bass in Caddo Lake; eating a chicken-fried steak in Strawn; searching for a lightning whelk along the coast; and 58 other things that all Texans must do before they die.
Step Right Up
Press your jeans, pull on your boots, shine up your buckle, and come along on this two-stepping tour of classic country dance halls, from Tom Sefcik Hall, in Seaton, to Club Westerner, in Victoria.
Famous Texans on Their Favorite Burgers
Pitch Perfect
What’s the secret to writing a great country song? Which comes first, music or lyrics? Looking to answer these and other questions, we gathered a group of singer-songwriters—Guy Clark, Robert Earl Keen, Sonny Throckmorton, Patty Griffin, and Jack Ingram—set out a couple guitars, and let the tape roll.
The 50 Greatest Hamburgers In Texas
On our first-ever quest for the state’s best burgers, we covered more than 12,000 miles, ate at more than 250 restaurants, and gained, collectively, more than 40 pounds. Our dauntless determination (and fearless fat intake) was rewarded with a list of 50 transcendent burgers—and you’ll never guess which one ended up on top. Check out our Best Burger section.
Ted or Alive
In the late seventies, Ted Nugent (a.k.a. “the Nuge” or “Uncle Ted”) had the country’s biggest hard-rock touring act—a wild-ass blend of in-your-face energy, obscene language, and a well-placed loincloth. Now he’s the country’s biggest gun rights advocate—and all that’s changed is the loincloth.
Making The Scene
Location: Austin What You’ll Need: Ironic T-shirt, bed head
Styles and Styles of Texas
The thirty Texans with the most iconic, unforgettable, eye-popping looks, from Davy Crockett to Beyoncé.
Holding Garmsir
Fighting the Taliban, the 130-degree heat, the boredom, the homesickness, and the weight of history with the Marines of Mustang Platoon in Afghanistan.
Dude!
Yes, yes, new baby and new movie— but what Matthew McConaughey really wants to talk about is the cushion of the flip-flop, the skooching of hoodie sleeves, the proper thickness of koozies, and his coming career as the arbiter of redneck-Buddha chic.
You’re Rick Noriega. Do You Approve This Message?
Since the Republicans took over Texas, every plausible Democratic candidate for high statewide office has been the subject of an obligatory profile in Texas Monthly. Here’s yours—only it’s a bit different. It’s a memo containing loads of free advice—the kind you can afford—on how you can beat John Cornyn.
BBQ08
Eighteen hungry reviewers. 14,773 miles driven/flown. 341 joints visited. Countless bites of brisket, sausage, chicken, pork, white bread, potato salad, and slaw—and vats of sauce—ingested. There are only fifty slots on our quinquennial list of the best places to eat barbecue in Texas. Only five of those got high honors. And only one (you’ll never guess which one in a million years) is the best of the best.
Untitled Mike Flynt Project
A veteran Hollywood screenwriter couldn’t have come up with a better narrative arc: Seeking redemption, 59-year-old reenrolls at university he was once asked to leave, tries out for football team, makes it, becomes one of oldest-ever players in NCAA history. Or at least that’s how the hero wants it to be told. The full story may not be quite so neat and tidy, but . . . aw, hell, roll cameras anyway!
The Last Resort
After telecommunications tycoon Steve Smith bought the Big Bend town of Lajitas on a whim for $4.25 million, he spent perhaps $100 million more developing what was going to be a five-star, world-class getaway. The desert, however, had other ideas.
Number One With a Bullet
Miranda Lambert likes guns, but there’s more to her than that, just as the sultry pouts on her album covers don’t tell the whole story of an East Texas girl who always wanted to be Merle Haggard.
Carlos Brown Is a Hero (No Matter What He Says)
My best friend from high school is no longer the uncool, baseball-card-collecting goofball he once was. He’s a Navy surgeon and commander, and for two horrific weeks I got to watch him calmly and bravely save lives in wartime—not just Americans’ and not just soldiers’—in one of the most dangerous cities in Iraq.
Ron White Gets the Last Laugh
Thanks to the Blue Collar Comedy Tour, he’s richer than all get-out, and you’re not.
The Good Book and the Bad Book
When parents at St. Andrew’s Episcopal School, in Austin—where the Capital City’s moneyed elite have educated their kids for more than fifty years—rebelled against the teaching of Brokeback Mountain, it was, you might say, a learning experience for everyone involved.
Thank God It’s Friday
And Saturday. And Sunday. The arrival of fall means weekends spent watching football, up close and on-screen, and yet another opportunity to love the greatest game on earth for all the usual reasons. Forty-nine of them, in fact.
Light in the Darkness
The title of James Evans’s new series of Big Bend photographs is “The Camera Never Sleeps.” It doesn’t matter, apparently, that the photographer does.
My Life As an Illegal
You’ve heard enough from the politicians and the activists, the demagogues and the bleeding hearts. Here’s my story. I only wish I could put my name on it. By Immigrant X
Water, Water Everywhere
From kayaking on Town Lake to mountain biking around Joe Pool Lake, from bass fishing on Lake Fork to horseback riding on the shores of Lake Whitney, here are some of our favorite things to do in, on, and around Texas lakes.
Would You Buy What This Man Is Selling?
With the military stretched thinner than ever, Staff Sergeant Christopher Schwope’s skill as an Army recruiter is undeniably important. And it’s a thing to behold.
Embarrassment of Riches
At Westlake, even if your parents wouldn’t spring for Ralph Lauren, you could still work your way into the in crowd.
Dome Away From Home
Inside the Eighth Wonder of the World—the largest shelter ever organized by the American Red Cross—faith, hope, and charity helped the survivors of Hurricane Katrina begin the process of rebuilding their lives.
Six Brothers
The tragedy of the Von Erichs—the state’s first family of pro wrestling—is well known not just to fans of the sport but to the many groupies who oohed and aahed at the matinee-idol athletes over the years. Still, you haven’t really heard the story until it’s told by the sole surviving sibling, whose eldest son may be the next one to step into the ring.
Pug
He asked me if I was going to be white my whole life. I was, of course. But because of our friendship, I’m no longer the clueless upper-middle-class kid I once was.
L. on Wheels
Eight days in a rental car with Larry L. King, the crotchety West Texan who has written some of the greatest magazine stories of all time, would be enough to drive anyone crazy. Except his biggest fan.
The Shot Not Heard Round the World
Elmo Henderson’s entire life story can be summed up in a single moment: when he stepped into the ring in San Antonio one night in 1972 and knocked out Muhammad Ali. At least that’s the way he tells it. And tells it.
Wheels of Fortune
For automakers in the U.S. and overseas, Texas is the very best market for the pickup truck. And for Texans, the pickup truck is the very best vehicle—if only for what it says about who we are. Or who we'd like to be.
The Rehabilitation of Charlie Wilson
It happened in twelve steps, which is not surprising, given the legendary Lufkin lawmaker’s history with booze, broads, and bad behavior. For now, at least, it's taking.
Spoon at a Fork
According to Time, the Austin rock-pop trio Spoon "just might be your next favorite band." But Britt Daniel and the boys have been burned by such pronouncements before, so this time they’re carefully considering their options—and, as always, putting their music first.
King's Ransom
At UT's Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center, extraordinary cultural treasures are available for your inspection—if you know the magic word.
The Spirit of '76
How Matthew McConaughey got discovered, why Renée Zellweger's part is so small, why some of the actresses can't eat ketchup to this day, and everything else you didn't know about the making of the classic high school flick Dazed and Confused.
State Bar
If Texas politics is your thing and you live in Austin, sometimes you want to go where every lobbyist knows your name. And they're always glad you came.
The Story of O
Never mind that he got kicked out of St. Mark’s and dropped out of UT, or that his line readings seem a little . . . off. Somehow, Owen Wilson is the kind of guy who gets movies made. And he gets $10 million a pop, dude.
Top Fifty
Pit Stops
Where are the best places to eat barbecue in Texas? Six years ago we published a highly subjective—and hotly debated— list of our fifty favorite joints, and now we’ve gone back for seconds. Ten intrepid souls drove more than 21,000 miles in search of 2003’s worthiest ‘cue. Here’s what they came back with: the top 5 and the next 45, plus honorable mentions, great chains, and meat by mail.
Chasing Shadows
Why is James Evans so good at photographing the mavericks and renegades who make Big Bend one of the most interesting places on earth? Because he is one himself.
My Short, Unhappy Life as a Rodeo Clown
Once upon a time I thought I wanted to be a bullfighter (and not the kind that wears sequined tights). A legendary cowboy named Leon Coffee—and an animal named Pretty Boy—changed my mind.
Old-Fashioned Texas
Texas is changing before our eyes, but fried pies, drive-in movie theaters, and other vestiges of earlier days are all around. To find these treasures, we risked life, limb, and cholesterol count-and had a blast from the past.
History in the Making
Austin's new Bob Bullock museum sports six bas-reliefs that tell the story of Texas. Here's how a sculptor and a team of artisans made them, like the museum's namesake, larger than life.
Musical Marginalia
The places, people and stories behind Texas music.
Tomorrow People
Meet the senior class of what might be called Texas Music U. — four up-and-coming acts that should graduate to the big time.
Television • Stone Cold Steve Austin
Lord of the ring.
The Best Worst Legislators 1997
From Bush’s good try on property taxes to Bullock’s grand finale, from savvy Sadler to weaselly Wohlgemuth, from Duncan’s beginning to Howard’s end: Our sorting of the session’s standouts—best, worst, and in between.
Columns | Miscellany
Schoolhouse Rocked
How an angry parent’s e-mail turned an elite Houston private school into a political battleground.
The End of The Affair
Everyone was shocked when San Angelo’s hugely popular mayor suddenly left town with his gay lover. Everyone, that is, except the citizens of San Angelo.
Road Warrior
"There were a lot of wild nights, people taking us in and offering us whatever they had. There were a lot of those 'offerings.'"
I, the Juror
As a "recovering" attorney with a mixed record at picking juries, I always wondered what made them tick. After receiving a summons this year, I'm still deliberating.
"Cheap! Cheap!"
To change the way recording contracts are created, the Dixie Chicks are taking their act to the courtroom.
Dreade Locke
Russell Erxleben and Brian Russell Stearns were first-rate frauds who cheated scores of unsuspecting investors. So how did the prominent law firm of Locke, Liddell, and Sapp get stuck footing a $30 million bill?
Billy "White Shoes" Johnson
Randall "Tex" Cobb
The Judge, Judged
Corpus Christi's Manuel Bañales believes that some sex offenders should post warning signs in their yards. He says it's about good law; his critics say it's about good publicity.
The Supremes
Judging the three Texan candidates for the nation's highest court.
The Hate Debate
The question about the James Byrd, Jr., Hate Crimes Act isn't whether it will pass. The question is, Is it good law?
Almost Famous
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.
Mayor May Not
The campaign against the mayor of Wichita Falls.
A Star Is Sworn
The media lower the boom on Anna Nicole Smith.
Reporter
Tejano Monument, Austin
Giving a Tour of the Capitol
Richard Poland on giving tours of the Capitol.
Chris Treviño, 41
Chris Treviño, tattoo artist.
Captain Michelle Racicot
Army trauma nurse.
Second Street District, Austin.
Second Street District, Austin.
Working on a Presidential Campaign
Kenny Thompson on planning Obama’s campaign events.
Doing Political Impressions
Rodney Schott
Taxidermist.
It Ain’t No Picnic
Willie’s picnic goes AWOL.
Photographing A War
Lucian Read on photographing a war.
Passing Grades
Grading the quarterbacks.
The Man In the White Hat
To hear John Poindexter tell it, he’s one of the good guys—a faithful steward of his West Texas land and therefore a worthy bidder for 46,000 acres of Big Bend Ranch State Park. But sometimes having your heart in the right place simply isn’t enough.
“Friedman’s Just Another Word for Nothing Left to Lose”
The Kinky-for-governor circus pulls into Galveston.
A Sell of a Town
Catching up with characters from our pages—A new owner for Cornudas.
Strangers on a Train
There was something irresistibly romantic about the gutter punk’s description of stowing away in freight cars. No wonder I wanted to try it—even if, at 38, I probably should have thought to myself, “You’re too old for this.”
Off the Wall
Call it "Glove Story": Being the president of the international Michael Jackson Fan Club means never having to say you're sorry—even now.
Dream for Sale
Who wants to own a West Texas town? At least two eBay bidders have offered the asking price—but it could still be yours.
Oh, the Horror!
Another installment in the Texas Chainsaw Massacre franchise?
Hooked
Why have Americans fallen for Longhorns hoof, line, and sinker?
Sand Trap
John Spong surveys the remaking—or is it the unmaking?—of Lajitas.
Extra! Extra!
Sizing up Chuck Norris.
Transcendental Blues
Web Exclusives
A Q&A With Jan Reid
Senior editor John Spong talked with Jan Reid about his new Ann Richards biography, Let the People In.
Just Dance
As we mourn the passing of Club 21, one of the state's most beloved dance halls, remember to scoot across one of the many other historic, century-old two-stepping floors.
From the Hip
Fun Fun Fun Fest and its post-punk indie sound.
Charlie Wilson’s War Plan
The legendary congressman talks about Afghanistan, Pakistan, and the future of the Middle East.
Waiting for Matty Pickles to Come Out
Spoon front man Britt Daniel, taking his sweet time on a new album.
My Friend Willie
Writer Larry L. King talks about his new book, In Search of Willie Morris.
Talk To Me
Associate editor John Spong talks about Hollywood types, drinking beer, and a typical high school scene.
Spong, Texas Writer
My fifteen minutes of fame.
Best of Austin: Nightlife
Who says it ain’t the good life? These sixteen clubs, lounges, and dives (including one Hole in the Wall) are the reason Austin is called the Live Music Capital of the World.
Multimedia
Number One With a Bullet: Podcast
Listen to John Spong read his feature story on Miranda Lambert.
FACEBOOK
RSS
TUMBLR
TM
Read Later