January 2001 Issue

On the Cover

The 2001 Bum Steer Awards

A year of alarming art, befuddled bus drivers, crustacean confiscators, demanding donors, entomological eats, feckless felons, garbled George W., hideous headgear, inspirational ice cream, juiced journalists, KKK kiss-offs, Lubbock lampooners, mucho manure, nada nudity, oafish officials, P.O.'d policemen, quirky queens, raunchy Republicans, shapely sideburns, thanatological toys, used uniforms, vampire vanquishers, witless waiters, x-pert x-terminators, yeoman Yankees, and zany zealots.

Features


Unsentimental Journey

Ornette Coleman's radical theory of harmolodics helped redefine jazz. His relationship with the music business has always been troubled, however, and today the Fort Worth native suffers from benign neglect. But his tenor sax still packs an emotional wallop.

Under the Gun

Nine years after the brutal murder of four teenage girls in a yogurt shop rocked the city of Austin, the police say they have finally caught the killers. But they have no evidence and no witnesses—only two confessions that the defendants say were coerced. Which is why, when the case

Return to Padre

For years my relatives have claimed that they were robbed of oil and gas royalties on Padre Island. Last May a Brownsville jury agreed, vindicating—for now—the family’s proud heritage and proving that, sometimes, the little guy does win.

Hall of Justice

Although Texans from Scott Joplin to Jack Teagarden have made noteworthy contributions to the history of jazz, a music form that may be our country's greatest artistic achievement, they are all but forgotten now. It's high time Texas did something about that.

Biz


Columns


Poster Boy

Artist Frank Kozik has been called a "rock-poster genius," creating jarring, macabre images for bands like the Butthole Surfers and Sonic Youth. So why did he leave Austin for San Francisco seven years ago? He had his designs.

Profile

Taste for Trouble

When San Antonio restaurateur Mario Cantú died last November, he left behind a legacy of political activism along with fine Mexican fare.

Reporter


Music Review

Barbara K

Austin’s Barbara K is something of a late bloomer. Now 43, she’s just getting her singer-songwriter card punched. Since the early eighties, she allowed the songwriting half of the equation to take a backseat to marriage, motherhood, and the unenviable task of holding together Timbuk3, her quirky combo with husband

Music Review

Johnnie Taylor

A bible thumper, a blues belter, an R&B shouter, a smooth lounge-lizard crooner, Johnnie Taylor played his many roles with gusto. He served up his sanctified soul from his mid-fifties gospel beginnings all the way through 1976’s “Disco Lady,” yet his long career was rife with contradictions. Idolizing singers Sam

Music Review

Rodney Crowell

It’s easy to forget that Rodney Crowell is a Texas singer-songwriter and solo artist. He lives in Nashville and doesn’t trip over himself to write about bluebonnets or Huntsville. He has made nine albums but is particularly famous as a tunesmith (hits for everyone from Bob Seger to Lee Ann

Music Review

Kissinger

Kissinger’s Music is like Pop Rocks candy: sugary, crunchy, and slightly explosive. It shouts Austin Powers: all exaggerated moves, gadgets, sleek cars, mod clothes, and girls, girls, girls. It’s the soundtrack to a mall-kid’s life, an episode of Dawson’s Creek, and a John Hughes film all rolled into one. These

Music Review

Erykah Badu

Nine months after her triumphant 1997 debut, Baduizm, Erykah Badu released a live album containing only two new songs. Since then, she has focused on raising the son she had with her then-boyfriend, OutKast rapper Andre “Dre” Benjamin, turned in a strong performance in Cider House Rules, moved from New

Book Review

Robert Justin Goldstein

When Gregory Lee Johnson burned an American flag while demonstrating outside the 1984 Republican National Convention in Dallas, the police hauled him in for violating a 1973 flag protection law. Big surprise. But no one anticipated that Johnson’s insurgency would lead to the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1989 ruling that torching

Book Review

Jon Kalb

This is a genre-buster if ever there was one. Austin paleontologist Jon Kalb set out to chronicle his seven years of fossil hunting in Africa in the seventies, but the final product is far more than “science adventurism” (his term). The subtitle, though a bit daunting—The Race to Discover Human

Web


Recipe

Savory Shrimp and Plantains With Spinach Bread Pudding

Spinach Bread Pudding1/2 cup diced yellow onion 1/2 cup diced red bell pepper 4 tablespoons butter 2 cups fresh spinach, torn in pieces 1 ounce (1/4 cup) crumbled or grated cotija or Parmesan cheese 1 cup milk 1/2 cup heavy cream 1 large egg, beaten 1/4 teaspoon salt 1/4 teaspoon

Books That Cook

Books That Cook

Experience fine food done Texas style with Caroline Stuart's The Food of Texas: Authentic Recipes From the Lonestar State.

Book Excerpt

The Hearon Rises

Read the first chapter of Shelby Hearon's A Prince of a Fellow, the subject of Don Graham's Texas Classics .

Weekly


Basketball Diary

The Basketball Diary

Thursday, January 18, 2001After enduring a three-game losing streak—with two of the three coming at home—the Mavs bounced back Wednesday night with a big win at Charlotte. Notching the win took a three-pointer from Howard Eisley, a name we have not heard as much as we expected to this year,

Miscellany


Around the State

Around the State

Dallas rolls out the red carpet for dance, theater, sports, and opera. Plus: San Antonio puts photographer Kathy Vargas on display; Beaumont gushes about the one hundredth anniversary of Spindletop; Mission juices up its Texas Citrus Fiesta; and East Texas shines under the lights of Broadway.

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