2010 – Page 9 of 17

Barramundi Over Tomato and Sweet Pepper Provençal Ragoût

Recipe from Chef John Sheely, Mockingbird Bistro, Houston

Third Coast State of Mind

When the surf’s good, Texas (yes, Texas) surfers drop what they’re doing and head for the water.

We’ll Be Dammed

“Go With the Flow” was interesting and informative, but Charlie Llewellin’s description of the Devils River erred in stating that this is the one river in Texas that’s never been dammed [May 2010]. I am sure that many old-timers and not-so-old-timers in Del Rio and Southwest Texas

Contributors

Rick Bass, Marcus Nilsson, and S. C. Gwynne

Dove Story

A place is lucky if it gives birth to good writers and luckier still if it is able to hold on to them. Most places aren’t, maybe because good writing about home is usually not celebration; it involves ambivalence, love mixed with hate, pride mixed with dismay, hope mixed

New and Noteworthy

Foreign & Domestic, Food & Drink, Austin, and Shockley Market, Corpus Christi

La Gloria Ice House

San Antonio

The Texanist: How Do I Approach My Brother-in-law About the Way He Treats Wait Staff?

Rude diners, fraudulent Texans, anniversary presents, and the problem with mail-order steaks.

Paul Wall

The 29-year-old rapper has had phenomenal success with his own recordings and in collaboration with Chamillionaire, Mike Jones, and others. He has recently become president of the Texas chapter of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences—the people who give out the Grammys—and is releasing his fifth album, Heart

Letters in the Deep

It’s a neat trick, creating something both slavishly retro and distinctly modern. Dan Auerbach manages just that with his blues-based rock duo, the Black Keys. While he stays true to the essence of the music, he’s not hesitant to scoff at tradition. In the producer’s chair for the third album

Ten

Too many jazz pianists have surrendered to the unyielding bulk of the instrument, relying on standards with flourished chording, tranquilly delivered. They fashion themselves heirs to greats like Bill Evans but sometimes end up closer to Liberace. It takes real gumption to push that hunk of wood and wire around.

Street Songs of Love

How do you like your Alejandro Escovedo? One of the reasons this talented Austin rocker has never escaped critical-favorite status is that he’s an encyclopedia of musical genres; it’s hard for fans to reconcile his confessional, string-laden ballads with his riff-heavy punk. Yet those two styles have always been

Welcome to Utopia (Notes from a Small Town)

Entertainment Weekly staffer Karen Valby visited Utopia (population 241) in 2006 for an article about American backwaters relatively untouched by popular culture. Intrigued, she returned to research her first book, Welcome to Utopia (Notes from a Small Town), a deftly executed look at the stereotype of a one-horse

Justin Cronin

The 47-year-old Rice University professor has taken a hard left turn in his writing career, following up his acclaimed literary novel The Summer Guest (2004) with the just-published The Passage, volume one of a near-future sci-fi trilogy populated by violent vampires (not the dreamy romantics we’ve seen of late) and

Historic Downtown McKinney

Snap up vintage finds, fancy footwear, and sweet treats as you stroll around this tree-lined square.

Heloise’s Pantry

Heloise’s Pantry

Poncé Kiah Marchelle Heloise Cruse Evans, the domestic diva better known as Heloise, has dished household advice since taking over her mother’s syndicated newspaper column, Hints From Heloise, in 1977. Millions seek out the 59-year-old hintologist’s tips on everything from removing perspiration stains and making crispy pie crusts (both

How to Windsurf

The Laguna Madre, near Corpus Christi’s Padre Island National Seashore, is known as one of the nation’s best windsurfing sites because of its shallow waters and consistent breeze. It’s also a perfect spot for beginners, says Angela Hurley, an instructor for Worldwinds, a local windsurf shop. “With good instruction, the

Dolph Briscoe, R.I.P.

(This article also appears on the Texas Monthly home page.) Dolph Briscoe, governor of Texas from 1973 to 1979, and the first governor to serve a four-year term, died Sunday at the age of 87. Briscoe was a good and decent man whose years in office brought few accomplishments. He

Behind the walls: a new book on the Texas prison system

The New Republic's online version today carries a review about a book titled Texas Tough: The Rise of America's Prison Empire, by Robert Perkinson. The book covers the history of the Texas prison system going back to 1848. Here are a couple of paragraphs from the review by

Sign Up Quick for a Class With Monica Pope, Texas’s Queen of Local

Years before local was cool, Houston chef Monica Pope was beating the drum for the local and sustainable movement. And now she’s doing a series of cooking classes at Central Market to launch her digital cookbook, “Eat Where Your Food lives.” Her gonzo, five-cities-in-five-days book tour will take

Public Policy Polling: Kay’s not O.K.

From the PPP Web site: Approval/Disapproval (Republicans) Approve 47% Disapprove 37% Unsure 18% Job Performance Approve 37% Disapprove 43% Unsure 20% Should Run for Reelection in 2012 (Republicans) Yes 43% No 41% Not sure 17% Vote for KBH in 2012 (Republicans) Yes 43% No 41% Not sure 17%

The TCEQ-EPA fight: an industry view, a governor’s view

The first article below is from the Oil Price Information Service (OPISnet.com), an industry newsletter. It is an informational publication, not an advocacy publication. A typical article is, "Flattening Ethylene Forwards Curve Reflects Declining Demand, Rising Supply." The second article appeared in the Corpus Christi Caller-Times under Rick Perry's byline.

Behind the Green door

A reader and frequent commenter who calls himself “Cow Droppings” posted these remarks on Burkablog a couple of days ago concerning the Green Party issue, a subject about which I have not yet written. Let’s stipulate as fact for a second that [Mike] Toomey orchestrated Green recruitment. Question: what crime

Trailer Thursday: Bananarchy

Yes, folks, I just had a birthday. And no, I won’t tell you how old I am this year. But I will tell you about the best thing that happened to me on that lovely day: a visit to Bananarchy, in South Austin! Here’s how it works. Order either a

State GOP platform calls for “enforcement” of planks

This is another bad idea from Wayne Christian, who has no shortage of them: Require Republican candidates to support the party platform (which he was in charge of writing) or run the risk of retribution. Here are the provisions that seek to bind candidates to support the platform. The State

Straight shooting

Yesterday I took the all-day course to qualify for a concealed handgun license, or CHL, also known as bypass into the Capitol. The course ran from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. and concluded at a shooting range in the hills northwest of Austin. Our group consisted mostly of lobbyists, who

Reg-gie’s! Reg-gie’s!! Reg-gies!!!

The Food Network Magazine  has taken a page from our own playbook and named Reggie’s Weekend Special the best breakfast in Texas, in their July-August issue featuring the top breakfasts across the country (on newsstands June 29). Here’s their blurb on the button-busting special from Torres Taco Haven in

The case against Public Policy Polling

A Perry supporter points out that in the last PPP poll before the March 2 Republican primary, PPP had the race at Perry 40%, Hutchison 31%, Medina 20%, and said the race was headed for a runoff. Perry, of course, won without a runoff. If you put this

Terry Sullivan loses again

The world little noted nor long remembered Terry Sullivan’s clueless work as lead consultant for the Hutchison campaign before he returned to South Carolina with a suitcase full of her money. A Hutchison supporter sent me a gleeful e-mail noting the defeat of Sullivan’s candidate in the Palmetto State’s gubernatorial

Public Policy Polling sees Hispanic shift in Texas

From the PPP Web site: Our poll of the Texas Governor's race this week is another data point indicating possible backlash for Republican candidates this fall in the wake of the Arizona immigration law. When we polled the race in February Rick Perry led Bill White by 6

Birdwell smokes Sibley in high turnout race

With one box out, Birdwell has 57.25% of the vote to Sibley's 42.57%. Late flash: Sibley has conceded. Today's results represent a reversal from the May vote, when Sibley led Birdwell by around 2,500 votes. Such a reversal doesn't happen by chance, and it is clear that organized Republican groups

Public Policy Polling: White, Perry tied at 43% (Updated)

Here is the writeup by PPP: One of the biggest questions about the 2010 election cycle, which we still don't really know the answer to, is whether it will be solely an anti-Democratic year or more broadly an anti-incumbent year. Our newest Texas poll would seem to suggest voter fatigue

More on the enthusiasm gap

This is from Gallup, yesterday, concerning the question, “Compared to Previous Elections, Are You More Enthusiastic About Voting Than Usual, or Less Enthusiastic?” An average of 59% of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents have said they are more enthusiastic than usual about voting this year compared with past elections, the highest

When Life Hands You Watermelons…

Today marks the official start of summer! We Texans understand, though, that Mother Nature likes to give us a nice hot summer preview (complete with humidity!), which is why today I present to you . . . A juicy, sweet, sumptuous, refreshing, hallmark of the season: the watermelon. You

Talking Points Memo: Barton under more fire from R’s

Linking to a story from The Hill, The Web site TPM.com says that “an increasing number of Republicans” are calling on Joe Barton to resign as ranking member of the committee that oversees energy (among several other critical regulatory responsibilities.) Majority leader Mitch McConnell added, “I couldn’t disagree with Joe

Chet Edwards touts “tsunami of political pressure” as cause for failure of Big 12-PAC 10 merger

Edwards' office is distributing an AP story out of New York. The longtime Waco congressman is facing a tough reelection campaign against Republican Bill Flores, not that politics would have anything to do with Edwards' touting his potential role in "saving" the Big 12. The story follows: Pac-10

Rasmussen: Perry 48%, White 40%

Only 8% are undecided, with 5% preferring some other candidate. As with all Rasmussen polls, this one was an automated-response telephone survey of 500 likely voters conducted on a single day (June 16). The margin of error is is +/- 4.5 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. Readers

Reversal of Misfortune

New trials for two of the Mineola Swinger's Club defendants.

The EPA lawsuit

At my request, Attorney General Abbott's office provided me with a copy of the State's "Petition for Review of the final action of the respondent United States Environmental Protection Agency" in determining that Texas's current State Implementation Plan (SIP) is not approvable" [quoting from the Federal Register]. This is a

Trailer Thursday: Sushi A-Go-Go

I braved a sushi trailer in June and lived to tell about it. Starting today, I’ll be posting a weekly Trailer Thursday edition of our Eat My Words blog to let you know which food trailers are toothsome and which are tasteless. For my initial foray, I picked one that

Washington Post on the Rasmussen controversy

The Washington Post has a story today that focuses on the rise of Scott Rasmussen as a force in American politics, for two reasons. One is that he may be the most prolific pollster in the country. The other is that he is suspected (by Democrats) of being in

“A sensible immigration policy”

Norman Adams, a Houston Republican who is president of an insurance business that his father founded, took on the quixotic task of trying to persuade delegates to the Republican convention last weekend to change the party’s platform concerning immigration. (The new platform is not yet posted on the state party’s

Another BP victim

From the Oil Drum blog: The P&J Oyster Company, the oldest oyster processor and distributor in New Orleans, has stopped shucking oysters because of the oil spill.

The UT press conference on realignment

[My comments appear at the end of the post.] The first statement by the UT folks was, “We are confident of the value of a ten-team conference. We feel very confident this is a viable long-term solution.” Question: Do you have financial guarantees from networks? “Nothing is guaranteed, it’s part

The Little Ten

So much for the Big Twelve. Nebraska and Colorado won. A&M lost. Texas always wins. It got what it wanted: $$$$$$$. What happened is an embarrassment. This conference is no better than the Big East. They might as well let Oklahoma and Texas play a one-game schedule in Dallas every

Why Munisteri’s victory matters

Political parties have not been major players in recent Texas politics. The Democratic party apparatus is essentially a collection of major county chairs, and the Republican party hasn’t been a force since Fred Meyer was ousted as chairman. The election of Steve Munisteri as GOP chairman at the state convention

HOT news

In my never ending effort to keep readers er, abreast, of simmering controversies, I bring you this report from NEWSMAX, a conservative Web site, published after Sarah Palin appeared on Fox News: Sarah Palin shot down rumors Friday night that she had undergone an operation to receive breast implants. “Breast

Generic congressional ballot: D’s +2

This is from a Public Policy Polling survey: For the first time since December PPP finds Democrats leading on the generic Congressional ballot, albeit by the insignificant margin of 43-41. The biggest reason for the shift is that the party is becoming more unified. Democratic voters are planning

Whatever happened to “The buck stops here?”

Politicalwire has this quote from Barack Obama: “Even though I’m president of the United States, my power is not limitless. So I can’t dive down there and plug the hole. I can’t suck it up with a straw.” This is not leadership. It’s not what the American people want to