Bob Perry Needs a Hug
Houston homebuilder Bob Perry was the nation's largest individual political donor and the man criticized for helping to popularize “Swift boat” as a verb.
April 2007 Issue
Features
The Gang’s All Here
When the rough-and-tumble bikers known as the Bandidos gathered in San Antonio for the funeral of one of their beloved members, they swore a lot, drank a lot, defended themselves against the police and the public’s misperceptions, and—amazingly—let a reporter observe the whole fascinating scene.
Feature
The Punch Line
Anna Nicole Smith died as she lived: as a bit of tabloid ephemera, sandwiched between a love-crazed astronaut and Britney Spears’s new do. And that’s exactly where she belonged.
Feature
He Was A Camera
Russell Lee’s rarely seen Texas photographs reveal an artist at the peak of his powers of observation.
Columns
Michael Ennis
How We Blew It
Remember all that talk of tipping the balance of history on a fulcrum of those “Texas values” everyone was crowing about?
Letter From Dallas
The Damage Done
We stand alone among the fifty states in our refusal to legitimize a proven method of disease prevention: needle exchange for drug users. It’s time to change that.
Reporter
Book Review
The King of Colored Town
In his provocatively titled THE KING OF COLORED TOWN, longtime Austinite DARRYL WIMBERLEY offers an impassioned and eloquent piece of storytelling set in the last days of the Jim Crow South. The tone is somber from the outset: Cilla Handsom, a black musician summoned away from her command performance at
Music Review
Dial T for This
As has proved popular in rock and roll, if you’re going to pretend you don’t really care about your music, the stage is the place to act this out. Bands like the Replacements carried this to extremes; their drunken train wrecks in the eighties convinced a lot of people they
Author Interview
Berkeley Breathed
Having nabbed a 1987 editorial cartooning Pulitzer for his satirical strip Bloom County, the onetime Austinite went on to write and illustrate kids’ books as well as the widely syndicated Sunday funny Opus. His new book, Mars Needs Moms!, is aimed squarely at the OshKosh B’Gosh crowd.Mars Needs Moms! is
Music Review
Life
At 74, DAVID “FATHEAD” NEWMAN may no longer raise the hair on the back of your neck when he tears off a tenor sax solo, but the force of his tone—comfortable, assured, sturdy, Texan—remains undiminished. LIFE (HighNote) is of a piece with the Corsicana-born reedman’s other recent work: It is
Music Review
Diamonds to Dust
Having built a solid career as a sideman’s sideman and an A-list roots-rock producer hasn’t made Austin’s GURF MORLIX any more market- able. Not that that’s an easy task. Morlix is a serious musician with matchless taste, but his name says it all: He’s got a silly side. You wouldn’t
Book Review
The Men’s Guide to the Women’s Bathroom
THE MEN’S GUIDE TO THE WOMEN’S BATHROOM is a spunky debut novel from JO BARRETT that aspires, with mixed results, to break through the glass bookshelf of the chick-lit ghetto. Readers will recognize the likes of Claire St. John, a self-effacing, thirtyish divorcée who flees her New York law career
Artist Interview
Robert Harrison
The former front man of the long-running, traditional Austin pop combo Cotton Mather has brought together a sprawling and ambitious ensemble with a self-titled new project, Future Clouds and Radar (The Star Apple Kingdom).Why this different direction? After Cotton Mather, I was laid up for some time with a spine
Web
Web Exclusive
Bad Boys
Executive editor Skip Hollandsworth talks about intimidation, stereotypes, and the Bandidos, one of the most notorious biker gangs in Texas.
Pat's Pick
N9NE Steakhouse
HOW MANY TIMES HAVE I SAID, “Darn! Why doesn’t Texas have more steakhouses with deejays?” How often have I groused, “Where the hell are the steakhouses with mirrored columns and silver-leafed domes?” And most important, “Where are the steakhouses with $69 margaritas?” I mean, really—if you want to go out
Books That Cook
Books That Cook
Is it true that you aren’t really a Texan if you haven’t had a Lu Ann platter? The folks at Luby’s would like to think so. If you haven’t guessed by now, Luby’s is definitely a Texas thing—the first store opened in San Antonio in 1947. And for generations, Texans
Web Exclusive
Time to Make a Change
Writer-at-large William Martin on investigating a needle program for drug users in Dallas.
Web Exclusive
The Money Guy
Executive editor S. C. Gwynne on writing about political donor Bob Perry.
Web Exclusive
Image Maker
Contributing photographer Wyatt McSpadden on getting the right shot of the Bandidos.
Web Exclusive
The Look
Photography editor Leslie Baldwin on selecting the perfect photo for the cover.
Miscellany
Around the State
Around the State
JORDAN’S PICKMesquite Championship RodeoMesquiteSO YOU MISSED THE BIG-TO-DO rodeos in Fort Worth and Houston this year. It’s okay to admit it. But, lest your Texas citizenship soon be revoked, you’ve still got a chance to hop in the saddle (in a manner of speaking): The Mesquite Championship Rodeo, arguably the
Editor's Letter
The Profanity Defense
MY MOTHER WASN’T A LONGSHOREMAN. My father wasn’t a mob boss. They weren’t church choir directors either, but they certainly didn’t raise me to drop the F-bomb in conversation as liberally as you might sprinkle salt on french fries. Despite their best efforts, I have what can charitably be described
Roar of the Crowd
Motor Mouths
THANK YOU, MICHAEL HALL, for opening your “football-loving soul” to the NASCAR way [“EEEEEEAAAAOOOOWWW!!!,” February 2007]. Most of the time, NASCAR fans get looked down upon, but you came, saw, and felt what millions of others love—one hell of a good time.STEPHEN HUGHESPflugerville AS A LONGTIME MOTOR SPORTS enthusiast who
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