I just finished reading your “ Where I’m From” issue, and fellas, I’m touched [June 2010]. My kids are hungry, my dog needs a walk, and my Facebook friends are wondering where I went. I have no opinion on the last episode of Lost, because I didn’t watch the
Recipe from BRC, Houston6 large eggs 2 cups heavy cream 2 cups half and half 3/4 cup sugar 6 large artisan challah buns (freshly baked grocery store plain hamburger buns work nicely too) 1/2 pound dark chocolate chips 1/2 pound white chocolate chipsPreheat oven to 300 degrees. In a large
Perhaps in a moment of nostalgia, you once rented the 1946 movie The Harvey Girls, starring Judy Garland, Ray Bolger, and Angela Lansbury. In it, Garland’s character, Susan, is traveling by train through the West on her way to become a mail-order bride. On the way, she meets a crew
Liberty Bar, San Antonio and El Mesón, Austin
Houston
Hill CountryBenini Studio and Sculpture Ranch 377 Shiloh Rd., near Johnson City; 830-868-5244; sculptureranch.comCalamity Jane’s 404 S. Main, in Boerne; 830-249-0081; calamityjanestradingco.comCarousel Antiques and Fickle Pickles 118 S. Main, in Boerne (830-249-9306) 1720 Hunter Rd., in Gruene (830-627-8999); ficklepickles.comComfort Cellars Winery 723 Front, in
Randal Ford, Kinky Friedman, and Patricia Kilday Hart
He’s been here from the very beginning. In February 1973 readers of the first issue of a brand-new magazine called TEXAS MONTHLY were treated to, among other stories, a strange but fascinating piece by a strange but fascinating writer named Gary Cartwright. Gary was already familiar to many Texans
As anyone who has eaten too many heat-lamp hot dogs smothered in pump chili knows, the foodstuff consumed on the way to your destination can be one of the horrors of the trip. To help guide your gastronomic ramblings this summer, we asked our advice columnist for his five snacks.Beef
Dad wanted us to remember our family camping getaways. After so many disasters, how could I forget?
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.
“You have arrived at your destination,” your GPS will chirp as you approach the entrance to the Rough Creek Lodge and Resort, just outside Glen Rose, though your kids will probably point out that you’re still in the middle of nowhere. So pass through the gates and soldier on
You know that Houston is the most diverse city in Texas, yet what do you do every time you visit? You stay in the same hotel downtown, plan your typical pilgrimage to the Galleria, and make reservations at the usual restaurants. This time, stay at a hip Montrose B&B
In Port Aransas, idleness is next to godliness for those on vacation. In this unpretentious village on the northern tip of Mustang Island your most exacting task—picking out the perfect spot on the beach—will also be the most rewarding. Who cares if the sand isn’t pristine (this is Texas,
When it comes to choosing a getaway, the Hill Country doesn’t have to campaign hard for our affections. Its lush expanses of bounding green hills and serpentine rivers stretch over some 25 of the most idyllic counties in the state. And those picturesque towns that cling proudly to their
Tucked away somewhere in the fragmented patchwork of Hanoi sits an unassuming little café, an oasis for chocolate lovers, thanks to one Houston woman’s dream.
Roadside mysteries, state symbols, a daughter’s attire, and the proper display of local feats on water towers.
The 59-year-old Austin musician is a guitarist’s guitarist. His former band, the Fabulous Thunderbirds, put blues back on the pop charts in the mid-eighties with the single “Tuff Enuff.” After recording a duet album with his brother, Stevie Ray, who passed away soon afterward, he struck out on his own.
If you think your knowledge of musical arcana is peerless, spending some time with the compilations from Chicago’s Numero Group label might take you down a notch. To put together LOCAL CUSTOMS: LONE STAR LOWLANDS, obsessed collectors wore face masks to ward off the toxic fumes emanating from the mold-encrusted
Few bands embody the incongruities of the Austin music scene like the Gourds. They sound rootsy, but their lyrics are surreal and their influences are all over the place. Kevin Russell is considered the more straightforward of the band’s two primary songwriters, but even his tunes range from crowd-pleasing name-droppers
Admit it. At their worst, this new wave of young folksingers, with their listless strumming and earnest delivery of high school poetry, can be hard to swallow, especially since not even the best of them—think Joanna Newsom and Devendra Banhart—has produced a classic song. Though not entirely innocent of these
Since publishing his first novel, in 1976, the prolific author has won five Spur Awards in the western genre and four Shamus Awards for his mysteries. His sixty-fifth book zeroes in on the real-life obsession of Judge Roy Bean—one of nineteenth-century Texas’s most colorful jurists—with the British actress Lillie Langtry.
Austinite DOUG DORST follows up his darkly comic 2008 debut novel, Alive in Necropolis, with THE SURF GURU, a freewheeling fiction collection that ranges from a story about the neuroses of an Austin baker to a portrait of Vincent van Gogh’s bitterly jealous physician. Dorst draws inspiration from odd sources.
LET’S TAKE THE LONG WAY HOME, a shimmeringly lovely second memoir from former Boston Globe books editor GAIL CALDWELL, opens with this brutally heartbreaking sentence: “It’s an old, old story: I had a friend and we shared everything, and then she died and we shared that too.” Caldwell, an Amarillo
Galveston Island means much more than crab shacks and sunshine to ex-con Roy Cady, the narrator of NIC PIZZOLATTO’s gritty noir debut, GALVESTON. In the year 2008, Galveston is where the former mob goon—now a hunched-over, patch-eyed, dried-out drunk—takes twelve-step meetings at the local Finest Donuts. Twenty years earlier, it
Update your wardrobe, slurp down oysters, and nab novel curios along the Capital City’s hippest byway.
The Art Guys, also known as Jack Massing and Michael Galbreth, have been creating conceptual art together exclusively since 1983. They have done everything from leasing ad space on Todd Oldham–designed business suits (which they wore for a year) to offering up bronze busts of themselves—for $1 million—to be
When Theodore Roosevelt visited Texas in 1892, he insisted on booking a six-day javelina hunt. He shot two but later opined that the best way to dispatch the animal would be by spear. Teddy was on to something. “Because of their poor eyesight, it’s easy to close in on javelinas,”
Lister, who grew up in Boerne and lives near Welfare, is a third-generation firearm and knife engraver. He makes his designs in steel, gold, silver, and bronze using a hammer and chisel.My dad taught me how to engrave when I was seventeen years old. I started on six-by-twelve practice plates
Vladimir Guerrero on batting DH.
The course of the Neches River Wilderness Canoe Race is the 22 miles of the Neches in Anderson County between Lake Palestine and U.S. 79, where the muddy channel winds through thick forest.
Marc Ambinder, politics editor and blogger for The Atlantic, writes that the Democratic message for the fall elections is shaping up to be, “We may be incompetent but they’re crazy.” Good party messages are organic, and they are not announced. Fortunately for Democrats, theirs just sort of came
They say that true Austinites describe places by what used to be there, not by what’s there now (Liberty Lunch, anyone?). Well, it’s been four years, and I still haven’t forgiven Mojo’s for closing its doors. It was replaced by the Kasbah, which used to make mediocre Moroccan
The outcome of the Arizona immigration lawsuit was inevitable. The Arizona statute is preempted by federal law and by the Supremacy Clause of the U.S. Constitution. From the Court's opinion: "The United States asserts that mandatory determination of immigration status for all arrestees “conflicts with federal law because it necessarily
The Massachusetts Legislature passed a law yesterday that attempts an end run around the Electoral College. The law stipulates that all of the state's electoral votes would be awarded not to the candidate who gets the most votes in Massachusetts, but to the candidate who receives the most votes nationally.
The integrity of the Texas Forensic Science Commission has been compromised ever since Rick Perry reorganized the commission, installed his longtime politically ally, Williamson County D.A. John Bradley, as chairman, and replaced other members of the commission investigating the Cameron Todd Willingham case. Willingham’s three children died in a fire
America could have two governors who favor secession after the November elections. The other would be congressman Zach Wamp of Tennessee, who is trailing Bill Haslam by 36% to 25% in the latest Mason-Dixon poll. The Hotline quotes Wamp as saying that Tennessee and other states “may have
You have to hand it to the far-right faction on the State Board of Education. They never seem to run out of bad ideas. This one is really terrible — a $100 million loan program for facilities for charter schools. The constitution vests in the SBOE the responsibility for managing
Joshua Green, who writes and blogs about politics for the Atlantic and the Boston Globe, proposes that Jeb Bush should run for the Republican nomination: Jeb Bush is the candidate hiding in plain sight. The brother and son of presidents stepped back from elected politics after his
It’s a little ironic that the best part about Me So Hungry, situated in the parking lot of all-vegan Cheer Up Charlie’s, is the meat. The Asian-style barbecue chicken in my Zen Salad was delicious, and it was a great surprise to find heaps of fresh baby romaine,
Gallup describes the Democrats’ 49%-43% edge as “the first statistically significant lead” since Gallup began polling the question in March. Gallup further says that the reason for the Democrats’ resurgence is a shift in independent voters. 39% favor D’s, up from 34%, but still less than 43% of
I don’t get it. White has been criticizing Perry for taking more stimulus funding than any state except California and New York. Is this a bad thing? White is a Democrat. Democrats want to use government to help people. Money helps people. Had White been governor, would he have told
This time of year, when my mother calls me and says, “Honey, I have veggies for you, whenever you’re ready to come pick them up!”, it never just means she has a couple of cukes and maybe one zuke and a handful of figs. Ohhhh no, it means so much
The two Texans who chair the Republican campaign committees in their respective houses — Senator John Cornyn and congressman Pete Sessions — appeared on “Meet the Press” yesterday along with their Democratic counterparts to discuss their party’s strategy for the November elections. [For a full report on the discussion from
This list of Texas House members based on partisanship appeared earlier this week on the Texas Tribune Web site. It was compiled by Rice University political science professor Mark Jones. To link to the list, click HERE. The list ranks all 150 members from the most liberal to
The previous poll was 48-40, so very little change. Curiously, Rasmussen describes Perry’s lead as “modest.” Since the MOE is +/- 4./5%, Perry’s nine-point edge is the largest possible advantage that is still within the margin of error. Perhaps Rasmussen is downplaying Perry’s lead as a reaction to recent criticism
Vegan ice cream? Let me say what you’re thinking: Hmmm. But there’s something special going on at ¡Hola Aloha!, a South Austin snow cone and sweet treat stand. Their vegan ice cream, made with coconut milk, was just that—creamy, cold, milky, and delicious. I tried it in an Aloha
Another defendant in the Mineola child sex ring crimes is found guilty.
My copy of the federal government’s complaint plainly says that the lawsuit is brought in the District Court for the District of Arizona. But will it stay there? Article 3, Section 2 of the U.S. Constitution reads: In all Cases affecting Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls, and those in
Things to watch for: Perry vs. White: The fundraising battle Hutchison: Is she running for reelection in 2012? Her fundraising totals will be a clue to her intentions. Contested legislative races: Who’s ahead? Will Straus raise enough money to fight off a potential challenge? The talk is that he will
