1990

Fine Tuning

From the Panhandle to the Bayou City, homegrown classical music ensembles are our best-kept secret.

Two-way Radio

With a sweet leasing deal, Austin sister stations KASE and KVET pack a one-two punch on the FM dial.

Dressed in Peace

When it’s time for that final fashion statement, a Fort Worth clothier has just the thing—complete with Velcro.

Man at Work

Now that Drayton McLane has sold his family company to Wal-Mart, he has no intention of retiring from the daily grind.

Family Ties

Still The Sweetheart Of The Rodeo

Photograph by William Coupon

Mr. March

By running-and-gunning down opponents in the NCAA tournament, Tom Penders has jump-started UT basketball.

Stumping Across Texas

Killer Buzz

The Africanized bees have arrived, and Anita Collins can’t wait to take them on.

Combo Invasion

Nuclear polka blasts Japan! Brave Combo basks in the radioactive afterglow.

State Wide: Lookin’ Back, TX

PR and nostalgia keep the legend alive. But will the town survive?

Growing Pains

My daughter’s first day of kindergarten was hard—on me.

Scene of the Crime

It all looked so different 27 years ago.

Native Nativities

All is clam, all is bright in folk-art manger scenes.

Earley Texas

Dallas painter Sean Earley moves to Italy and learns to paint Texas.

“I Was Mandarin . . .”

Clues left behind by a former Dallas cop convinced his son that he killed President Kennedy—but that’s just the beginning of the mystery.

Boomtown

Don’t give up on oil yet, Texas. Come along to Pearsall, deep in the brush country, and learn how the new oil boom is different from the old.

The New Santa

A Christmas story for all you kids out there.

Rhoads Scholars

Back in the Saddle

Larry McMurtry returns to the mythic West and spins a thoughtful and touching tale.

Golden Oldies

San Antonio’s new ancient-art gallery takes you back a few millennia.

The Island in Winter

Discover the charms of Galveston off-season, when the only visitors are you, the gulls, and the ghosts.

The Lone Ambassador

Henry Catto’s friends knew that one day he would be appointed to the Court of St. James’s. What they didn’t guess is that when the time came, his wife, Jessica, wouldn’t join him.

State Fare: Parigi’s Penne Pasta with Roasted Garlic

A recipe from Parigi, in Dallas.

Downgrading

On the Set of Texasville

Top of the Heap

State Wide: Discount Ashes

Funeral home director Murphy offers a commonsense option.

State Wide: Roky Rocks

Psychedelic pioneer Erickson gets his due.

State Wide: Cowtown Crazies Take Over Paper

Poodle slayer helps “Satan of Journalism” peddle p.m. paper

Silber Lining

Former UT dean John Silber's tough talk is about to make him the next governor of Massachusetts.

Soul Survivors

The dear departed may be gone, but on the Day of the Dead they’re not forgotten.

Venturesome Capital

By taking a cue from smart money, even the small investor can get an angle on modest deals in post-bust Texas.

Ad Men at War

How the battle for the Southwest Airlines account turned into a long-awaited showdown between Texas’s two top agencies.

Vanishing Texas

Searching for tourist courts, fillin’ stations, and other relics of a Texas that is no more.

Pipe Dream

Polybutylene plumbing systems were supposed to be a homeowner’s fantasy; they turned out to be a nightmare.

Empty Seats

Meet the Governor

Revealing profiles of Ann Richards and Clayton Williams raise the question: How about none of the above?

Meet the Governor: Clayton Williams

Onward to the past.

Power Switch

Are customers of the Comanche Peak nuclear plant better off with safety advocate Juanita Ellis on the inside or the outside?

Requiem in Blue

Recollections of guitar great Stevie Ray Vaughan.

Go Fish

See the Gulf Coast from the bottom up at Corpus Christi’s new underwater show.

The Quickest Draw In the West

Not since Remington and Russell has a cowboy artist sold so many works—for so much—as Fredericksburg’s G. Harvey.

To the Brilliant Victor

Southwest Conference trophies, commemorating long-forgotten triumphs, are still winners.

Five-Year Plan

State of the Art

Rich Clarkson brings a new perspective to Texas A&M honor guards “humping it”—Aggies claim the peculiar crouch helps project yells—in game day usa, a survey of college football culture by 22 photographers, just issued by Kodak/Thomasson-Grant.

The Brain Trust

Computers will finally use commmon sense if an Austin high-tech team can make them think like people.

A Crystal Clear Issue

State Wide: Maquiladora Marketing

Nibbe’s Twin Plant News explains border economics to the world.