My dad teaches theater at Southern University in Baton Rouge now, but we lived in Austin for a while when he worked on his master’s degree at the University of Texas. He directed plays on campus and also wrote children’s plays that were performed there and in Houston. When I
After the latest standoff there�by an armed UFO cultist�you might think so. But on the fifth anniversary of the Branch Davidian siege, the Central Texas community is doing just fine, thank you.
How Texas—and Texas Monthly—has changed.
For music fans in Austin, Dallas, Houston, Round Rock, and San Antonio, these are the fest of times. Plus: An oilman’s artistic vision is realized in San Antonio; a Dallas photography show honors lensmen from Mexico and Houston; Houston Grand Opera stages Arabella; and many of the nation’s swiftest athletes
HUMBLE Mercer Arboretum, 22306 Aldine Westfield (281-443-8731). A staffer says the arboretum’s three-year-old plantings of dozens of old roses have generated a lot of interest because they’re “ten feet tall and bulletproof.” But not deerproof, which is why you’ll find the roses protected behind fences. Open daily 8 to 5
The people in love with old roses are often as interesting as the roses themselves. They can help with identification, propagation, and locating small, specialty nurseries in your area that sell old roses.DALLAS AREA HISTORICAL ROSE GROUP, P. O. Box 38585, Dallas 75238. For $15 a year, you get ten
After Liz and Dick put it on the map, Puerto Vallarta went glitzy. But the old romantic allure is still there—if you know where to find it.
George W. Bush’s plan to teach every child how to read by the third grade is unquestionably the right thing to do. So how come he’s gotten such mixed reviews? (“We’ve had a hard time,” admits a Bush staffer.) The answer, like much of politics these days, is in the
Grading the Marine Military Academy; an affirmative action reaction.
A slam dunk for San Antonio’s economy.
Austin’s major-label bands-of-the-moment
The best Texas CEOs.
Handicapping the Republican primary: Will far-right might carry the day?
After what seemed like a lifetime as the nation’s first daughter, Luci Baines Johnson has finally come of age.
All her life, Joan Crawford raised other people’s eyebrows as often as she reapplied her own. From the time she arrived in Hollywood, the temperamental Texan provoked hostility and gossip, and her wide-eyed flapper persona soon hardened into that of a sleek, steely sophisticate. But the arrogance accompanied a massive talent;
How has Jacksonville native Neal McCoy, a self-described “easy-listenin’ kinda guy,” managed to sell five million country CDs and cassettes? It has little to do with his singing.
Red McCombs, still on the sidelines
Is there a black cloud hanging over Fort Worth’s Toadies? You might think so based on the alt-rock band’s recent history. Their major-label debut for Interscope, 1994’s Rubberneck—a painfully angst-ridden record—went platinum after two years of incessant touring, but some strange stuff happened during all that time on the road:
BEFORE SHE BEGAN putting together finely detailed service pieces for magazines like this one, Suzy Banks was occupied with another kind of construction. “I graduated from college in 1981 with a useless degree in film, but I didn’t want to leave Texas,” says the 39-year-old, who lives in Dripping
Hot CDsSan Antonio’s Monte Montgomery is a guitarist’s guitarist, but he doesn’t let that get in the way of the music on 1st and Repair (Heart Music). He brings taste, precision, economy, and a playful sense of timing to poppish songs with sturdy hooks and sings in a voice that’s
More than a year after his death, he’s still being remembered as the best Texas songwriter of his time. This month’s star-studded Austin City Limits tribute shows why.
A billion-dollar drop in revenue? You bet. How politics ruined the Texas lottery.
With a major retrospective of his work at three Houston museums, Robert Rauschenberg is once again the talk of Texas. What’s he been up to? A portrait of the artist as an old man.
The verdict is in: Oprah loves Texas—and Texas loves Oprah. The queen of daytime talk swept into the Panhandle, turned the tide of public opinion, and had courtroom watchers asking, Where’s the beef?
Texans are rediscovering antique roses, the hardy, neglected beauties that decorate old graveyards and abandoned houses across the state. Whether you buy them from a nursery or rustle cuttings from the wild, here�s the dirt on how to grow your own.
After thieves stole his daughter’s horse, deputy U.S. marshal Parnell McNamara didn’t make a federal case out of it. Instead, he rounded up a group of old-style lawmen and lit out after them.
As a kid, Jensen Ackles used to poke fun at the “mushy” daytime dramas his mother regularly watched, but not anymore. Since last June, the Richardson native has starred on the hit NBC soap opera Days of Our Lives as Eric Brady, a mature-for-his-age teen who keeps his emotions bottled
We moved to Waxahachie in the early forties, when I was about ten years old. I was a seriously dyslexic child, and no one quite knew what dyslexia was in those days. People just thought I wasn’t too swift. And my way out of it was drawing. It was something
To be a truly major player in the ad game, GSD&M needed a car account. When Mazda’s came up for review, the brash Austinites sprang into action.
Why the state’s tobacco settlement has ignited a controversy.
Around the State Gary P. Nunn and other singer-songwriters tour the state in celebration of Texas history. Plus: A collection of powerful photos are on display in Corpus Christi; a top Russian ballerina tiptoes into Houston; Golden Gloves boxers are a hit in Fort Worth; and guitar buffs come together
Lights! Camera! Acknowledgments! Presenting the lensmen and lenswomen who made this issue possible.
Texas Primer Who’s been on our cover the most times? Ross is boss.
In the last quarter century, we have viewed the state with anger, humor, sorrow, and compassion, and these images do the same.
There is one star on Texas’ flag but many in its firmament. The portraits showcase Texans who skyrocketed to celebrity or success.
Why our pictures are worth a thousand words.
A three-museum Robert Rauschenberg retrospective in Houston. Plus: Garth Brooks plays Dallas and Fort Worth; mountain bikers converge on Big Bend; Goya’s prints on display in Dallas; and Ellen Burstyn onstage in Houston. Edited by Quita McMath, Erin Gromen, and Katy Vine THE MAIN EVENT The Rauschenbergs Are Coming! The
The cocaine goes north. The money goes south. And Mexican kingpins like Juan García Abrego laugh all the way to the bank—a Texas bank, that is.
In sleepy Carthage a rich, haughty widow disappears, and nobody seems to notice. When she turns up dead, everybody seems to feel sympathy for the nice young man who killed her.
BUSH VERSUS GORE: Is it the battle for president in 2000? No, it was the Houston mayoral runoff in December. When Vice President Al Gore, with his eye on the Democratic nomination two years hence, came to a fundraiser for eventual winner Lee Brown, Bill Clinton’s first drug czar, the
At his pool hall near White Rock Lake, on bar tables across the country, and at professional tournaments around the world, Carson “CJ” Wiley earns his keep by ramming balls into pockets. It’s that simple.
Race MattersI was captivated by paul Burka’s observation in “What’s Black and White and Red-faced All Over?” [December 1997] that “the only way to open the door to more minority students is to broaden—that means reduce—the standards for admissions.” The real question for society is this: Shall we lower our
A notion for the starving people of the world: let them eat cacti.
Reshooting history in Garfield
The embattled Texas National Guard
The feud between billionaire Harold Simmons and his daughters is worthy of Shakespeare.
HE MAY LOVE the smell of napalm in the morning, but Robert Duvall also has a certain affection for Texas. Over the years, some of his best-known films have been made here, including Tender Mercies (1983) and Lonesome Dove (1989). Now the 67-year-old has returned to the state again for
When you listen to Jim Hightower’s talk radio show, that’s the question you inevitably ask—about him, the medium, and Texas liberalism.
Signs of intelligent life in Dallas.
FOR WILL VAN OVERBEEK, traveling from his home in Austin to Harlingen to shoot the Marine Military Academy (see “A Few Bad Boys,”) wasn’t anything new: Ten years ago he did the same thing (for a proposed photo essay that never got published). In fact, photographing cadets has been
