Katy Vine

Katy Vine holds bachelor’s degrees in English literature and Classical Humanities from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where she graduated with honors. Her work has appeared in the Best American Sports Writing 2005, the Best American Sports Writing 2006, the Oxford American, the Texas Observer, and on the radio program, “This American Life.”

Features

Bass-O-Matic

How a fish called Ethel (seventeen pounds, ten ounces) caught by a fishing guide named Mark (Stevenson, in 1986, on Lake Fork) revolutionized a once-sleepy sport. (August 2008)

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. (June 2008)

Faith, Hope, and Chastity

Texas receives more federal funding for abstinence education than any other state. But is teaching kids not to have sex the same as sex education? (May 2008)

The Class of 2017

The future according to third-graders. (February 2008)

The Glorie of Defeet

What Samir Patel learned in five years of not winning the national spelling bee (other than the root words of “eremacausis”). (November 2007)

The Music Man

How Dirk Fowler became the state’s latest, greatest poster artist. (June 2007)

“Oh, My God! It’s Our Children!”

On March 18, 1937, the residents of New London, southeast of Tyler, endured the worst small-town tragedy in U.S. history: an explosion at the combined junior-senior high school that killed some three hundred students and teachers. Seventy years later, 47 survivors share their memories of that horrific day. (March 2007)

Check Mates

Fernando Spada and Fernando Mendez are the Karpov and Kasparov of Brownsville: chess champions whose lifelong competition has produced a rivalry every bit as fierce as those of Ali and Frazier, McEnroe and Borg, or Nicklaus and Palmer. Did I mention that they’re in the fourth grade? (February 2007)

Acting Up

At the Giddings State School, violent teenagers come to terms with their horrific crimes—and learn how to avoid committing them again—through role-playing exercises in a jailhouse version of group therapy. This is what your tax dollars are paying for? Well, it works. For a while, at least. (November 2006)

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. (September 2006)

Gone in 15 Minutes

How the fire to end all fires obliterated Ringgold—and how residents of the tiny North Texas town are putting their lives back together. (April 2006)

Girls Gone Wild

Bobbi Jo and Jennifer were young, in love, and on the road, with the wind at their backs and a happy future ahead of them. All that stood in their way was a dead body back in Mineral Wells. (September 2005)

Brooklyn Heights

A one-on-one with Brooklyn Pope reveals her to be— off the court, at least—a fairly typical fifteen-year-old girl. But when the game clock starts, she’s the future of women’s basketball. Maybe basketball, period. (June 2005)

Return to Splendor

From humble Oak Cliff roots did a hip intellectual giant grow. In this oral history, friends and fans remember the late Grover Lewis, one of the great magazine writers of our day. (March 2005)

“She Had Brains, a Body, and the Ability To Make Men Love Her”

Meet the 22-year-old hooker who, with her fellow “massage therapists,” scandalized Odessa (January 2005)

Alive and Kicking

Although some might consider the Kilgore Rangerettes an anachronism, every summer dozens of fresh-faced teens from around the state flock to East Texas to perfect a seemingly effortless hat-brim-touching high kick—and preserve one of the state's great traditions. (September 2004)

McKenzie Mullins Has Cow

Which means she's an expert at reading bovine body language, and that makes her, at the absurdly young age of thirteen—only four years after overcoming her fear of horses—one of the world's best practitioners of the art of cutting. (January 2004)

Little Shop of Horrors

If you've ever thought of donating your body to science, read what happened at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston—and then ask yourself if a good, old-fashioned burial might not be a better idea. (August 2003)

Making Waves

Photographer Kenny Braun has been surfing the Gulf Coast for about thirty years. So naturally, when the water's just right, he grabs his . . . camera. (August 2003)

Top Fifty

(May 2003)

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. (May 2003)

Who's Next?

San Antonio's Marshevet Hooker is not just any old high school sprinter; she's an Olympic gold medalist in the making. Meet her and nine other women we're betting will lead the new Texas—and the world. (February 2003)

Scenes From A Mall

And not just any mall. The Marq*E Entertainment Center is a marvel of marketing: a teen-friendly hangout where kids from all over the city flock to shop, flirt, skateboard, and otherwise act their age. (September 2002)

Family Circus

Children of all ages! Step right up and get to know a South Texas clan whose nomadic way of life is a link to the past. (August 2002)

Wichita Falls to Brownsville on U.S. 281

Rare books, blueberry pie, a faith healer's shrine—and one deep hole. (May 2002)

Screen Gems

Mexican movies were muy caliente in the middle of the past century, and Harlingen's Rogelio Agrasanchez, Jr. has the posters to prove it. (October 2001)

Jay J. Armes

(September 2001)

Dapper Bandit

(September 2001)

On the Water Front

Summer’s blast furnace is firing up. Luckily, Texas is a paradise of spring-fed pools, sparkling beaches, and more. Here are our picks for the best places to chill out, get wet, and go off the deep end. Plus extra web-only information! (June 2001)

T Bone, Well Done

He's produced albums for the likes of Roy Orbison and Elvis Costello for years, but now Fort Worth's T Bone Burnett is writing songs again and composing music for movies and plays. At 53 he's on a creative roll and, as he says, "Never bored." (March 2001)

Love and War in Cyberspace

Brandon and Denise were not like other people. They were smarter, more introverted. They adored computers, playing games online at three in the morning with people in Finland. When they and other hard-core techies moved to Walden, a Houston apartment complex with the fastest residential Internet connection in the world, it seemed like a wired paradise. For a while, it was. (February 2001)

Caldwell Zoo, Tyler

(October 2000)

Musical Marginalia

The places, people and stories behind Texas music. (May 2000)

This Is living.com?

He’s worth tens of millions of dollars at age 28, but money, as they say, can’t buy happiness: Two weeks in the life of Andrew Busey, dot-com hotshot. (February 2000)

Museums

Bronzes by Remington and Russell in Orange, Quanah Parker’s trail bonnet in Canyon: Ten spaces that excel at the art of exhibition. (March 1999)

Columns | Miscellany

Shabby Chic

Will the upscale shoppers of Plano really buy what Wal-Mart is selling? (June 2006)

Richard Linklater

The prison affected me personally. I grew up parking cars at the prison rodeo. I had a stepfather who was a prison guard. (December 2005)

A Lyrical Life

"While I was in Hollywood, I wrote for Eddie Arnold and Ernest Tubb and Roy Rogers and Tex Ritter—everybody you can think of." (April 2004)

Teeny Popper

"I used to think, 'I can't perform in front of these people!' And then last night I did a show for more than 13,000." (April 2004)

Head of the Class

How I got from the Fifth Ward to the Ivy League. (February 2003)

Texas Chain Saw Massacre

(September 2001)

Dew Westbrook

The original Urban Cowboy. (September 2001)

Mary Kay Ash

(September 2001)

Hot Doug

Critics praise him. Woody Allen loves him. And no one does a better Truman Capote. Meet Midland's Douglas McGrath, a writer-director who's ready to take center stage with his role in a new movie. (February 2001)

Chaps Schtick

How Lubbock’s Legendary Stardust Cowboy stays legendary after all these years. (June 2000)

Jandek and Me

Why is he a cult hero to deejays and record collectors— and why is he such a recluse? I wanted to know, so I tried to find him. And I did, in an upscale Houston neighborhood. And we drank beer. (August 1999)

George Lopez

(July 2004)

The Month in Art

(June 2004)

MAINSQUEEZE

(May 2004)

Night Galleries

(May 2004)

05.01.04

(May 2004)

STRAIGHT TALK

(April 2004)

FESTIVALS

(March 2004)

ART

(February 2004)

FASHION

(February 2004)

GOING BATTY

(January 2004)

STRAIGHT TALK

(December 2003)

CHRISTMAS IN SAN ANTONIO

(December 2003)

STRAIGHT TALK

(November 2003)

Tune In

(September 2003)

Straight Talk

(September 2003)

Straight Talk

(August 2003)

Fine Art

(December 2001)

Anniversary

(December 2001)

Straight Talk

(November 2001)

A Great Weekend

(November 2001)

Fine Art

(October 2001)

Straight Talk

(October 2001)

Alexis Bledel

Alexis Bledel fits in as one of the girls. (March 2001)

Nicholas Gonzalez

Nicholas Gonzalez lands a knockout role. (February 2001)

David Gordon Green

David Gordon Greene gets the big picture. (January 2001)

Heidi Grant Murphy

Heidi Grant Murphy hits a high note. (December 2000)

Bruce Rodgers

On the set with Bruce Rodgers. (November 2000)

Juan Miró

Juan Miró builds his legacy in Austin. (October 2000)

Mike and Gibby Cevallos

San Antonio brothers pen a sitcom that's all in the family. (September 2000)

Blood Brothers

Sixteen years ago, rookie filmmakers Joel and Ethan Coen changed Austin with a Simple plan. (August 2000)

Reneé Olstead

A Houston actress launches her career. (August 2000)

Kevin Prigel

The Fort Worth whiz kid taken seriously on Wall Street. (July 2000)

Jessica Simpson

Jessica Simpson wants to love you forever. (May 2000)

Andy Milburn

A Houston native who keeps score. (April 2000)

Lauren Anderson

A ballerina on her toes. (March 2000)

Blake, Tres, and Brandon Davis

One family's racket. (January 2000)

Reporter

Tom “Spanky” Assiter

Auctioneer. (June 2008)

Being an Art Critic

Dave Hickey on being an art critic. (March 2008)

Wendy Warren

High school teacher. (September 2007)

Making Ice Cream

The CEO of Blue Bell gives us the scoop. (July 2007)

Catherine Rohr

A pro at helping cons. (May 2007)

Sixth Street and Lamar Boulevard, Austin

Sixth Street and Lamar Boulevard, Austin. (April 2007)

Barrel Racing

Martha Josey on the basics of barrel racing. (March 2007)

Whose Life Is It Anyway?

Katie Wernecke is many things: a precocious, freckle-faced Bible-drill champ; the valedictorian of her seventh-grade class in Banquete; and—since she was diagnosed with cancer last year—a pawn in the custody battle that pits her parents against the State of Texas. (January 2006)

Hail to the Chief

For going on five years, my admiration has grown for the weekly paper in the tiny Panhandle town of Miami (above). The New York Times it ain’t, but it tells me everything I could ever want to know about local births and deaths, windblown mail, bad potholes, and good yards. And Theo. (November 2005)

Monster Inc.

As mythical creatures go, Bigfoot is right up there with the Loch Ness Monster and the Abominable Snowman. But in Jefferson, the search for the hairy, hulking beast with the, er, big feet is big business—and deadly serious. (October 2005)

Shock Therapy

For several months, TV shrink Dr. Phil McGraw has been picking apart— in full view of his national audience—the life choices made by residents of the Central Texas town of Elgin, who are apparently too fat, too horny, and too domestically violent for their own good. The diagnoses have not been, shall we say, well received. (December 2004)

First in Flight

Brandon Hughey didn't ask to be a celebrity. All the San Angeloborn soldier wanted was to avoid fighting what he considered an unjust war. So he fled to Canada—and now the private's every move is public. (August 2004)

Fertittaville

Restaurant mogul Tilman Fertitta means to redevelop Galveston into what some say will be a Gulf Coast version of Atlantic City. No wonder he's making waves. (July 2004)

Queen High

A poker queen shows her hand. (June 2004)

Home Free

Joe Moore reflects upon truth, justice, and Tulia. (December 2003)

American Idle

They're ready for their close-up; are we? Our writer prejudges the thousands of celebrity wannabes at Austin's American Idol tryouts. (January 2003)