The Checklist
What to read, hear, and watch this month to achieve maximum Texas cultural literacy.
Jeff Salamon is a senior editor at Texas Monthly and previously served as an editor at the Village Voice and the Austin American-Statesman. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Rolling Stone, Spin, Details, and Artforum. He is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania and a native of New York City. He lives in Austin with his wife, two children, two dogs, and one cat.
What to read, hear, and watch this month to achieve maximum Texas cultural literacy.
By Jeff Salamon
Five Texans who would be president.
By Jeff Salamon
The author of Black Water Rising talks about Houston neighborhoods, writing for a hot TV show, and her dad’s run for mayor.
By Jeff Salamon
What to read, hear, and look at to achieve maximum Texas cultural literacy.
By Jeff Salamon
P.J. Proby is still here.
By Jeff Salamon
If you’re new to the state, there’s a good chance that you snickeringly regard the phrase “Texas literature” as a contradiction in terms. Well, wise up, wise guy: Texans have been writing memorable books about their state for a long time. So if you have some questions about the city you’ve
By Texas Monthly and Jeff Salamon
What to hear, read, and watch this month to achieve maximum Texas cultural literacy.
By Jeff Salamon
What to hear, read, watch, and attend this month to achieve maximum Texas cultural literacy.
By Jeff Salamon
Festival managing director Roland Swenson reflects on a difficult year.
By Jeff Salamon
What to hear, read, and watch this month to achieve maximum Texas cultural literacy.
By Jeff Salamon
What to read, see, and watch this month to achieve maximum Texas cultural literacy.
By Jeff Salamon
Austin concert posters.
By Jeff Salamon
Diana Natalicio’s under-the-radar transformation of the University of Texas at El Paso.
By Jeff Salamon
What to hear, read, and watch this month to achieve maximum Texas cultural literacy.
By Jeff Salamon
Fourteen years under one governor.
By Jay Carr and Jeff Salamon
What to hear, read, watch, and look at this month to achieve maximum Texas cultural literacy.
By Jeff Salamon
Why Texas stays red.
By Jay Carr and Jeff Salamon
The perils of writing steamy fan fiction.
By Jeff Salamon
Rick Perry’s legal options.
By Kelsey Davis, Mai Schotz and Jeff Salamon
What to hear, read, watch, and look at this month to achieve maximum Texas cultural literacy.
By Jeff Salamon
The good humor of Dallas comic Cristela Alonzo.
By Jeff Salamon
Inside the mind of Diane Lawson.
By Jeff Salamon
Two takes on our conservative ways.
By Jeff Salamon
What to hear, read, and watch this month to achieve maximum Texas cultural literacy.
By Jeff Salamon
What to hear, read, watch, and look at this month to achieve maximum Texas literacy.
By Jeff Salamon
Luling’s artful pump jacks.
By Jeff Salamon
What to hear, read, and watch this month to achieve maximum Texas literacy.
By Jeff Salamon
A bombastic face-off between Alex Jones and Glenn Beck.
By Jeff Salamon
Artist Trenton Doyle Hancock reflects on his East Texas roots.
By Jeff Salamon
What to hear, read, and watch this month to achieve maximum Texas literacy.
By Jeff Salamon
Click to enlarge.Thanks to the domino effect of Rick Perry’s retirement, an unusual number of high-profile Republican politicians have been vying for statewide office this year. Add to that the intensity that the tea party insurgency has brought to ideological debates within the GOP, and
By Jeff Salamon
Infographic illustration by Luke Shuman. Click to enlarge.When the INRIX company released its annual list of America’s most congested cities, the big news for Texans was that for the second year in a row, Austin was ranked the fourth-most-congested city in America—up from sixth two
By Jeff Salamon
What to hear, read, attend, and look at this month to achieve maximum Texas literacy.
By Jeff Salamon
What to hear, read, and watch this month to achieve maximum Texas cultural literacy.
By Jeff Salamon
Infographic illustration by Luke Shuman. Click to enlarge.April may be the cruelest month, but not for the housing market, which always picks up this time of year, as families try to settle in to new homes before the fall semester. And this year’s real estate season
By Jeff Salamon
In 1997 when demographer Steve H. Murdock published his first book, The Texas Challenge, he was a Cassandra of sorts. He predicted the rise of the Hispanic majority, and he spoke early and often about the implications such a demographic shift would have on Texas’s economy. His devotion to the
By Jeff Salamon
What to hear, read, and watch this month to achieve maximum Texas cultural literacy.
By Jeff Salamon
What to see, hear, read, and watch this month to achieve maximum Texas cultural literacy.
By Jeff Salamon
Former state demographer Steve H. Murdock troves his data to illustrate the average Texan in two every different years—1950 and 2050.
By Jeff Salamon
How budget cuts are affecting the number of open teaching positions in our public schools.
By Texas Monthly and Jeff Salamon
What to see, hear, read, and watch this month to achieve maximum Texas cultural literacy.
By Texas Monthly and Jeff Salamon
Treasured recipes—and the stories behind them—from our staff.
By Texas Monthly, Barbara Rodriguez, David Courtney, Courtney Bond and Jeff Salamon
A pie that never lasts long enough to be stored in the refrigerator.
By Jeff Salamon
1. Romo AgonistesYou remember Danny White, don’t you? He had the misfortune to replace Roger Staubach as the Dallas Cowboys’ quarterback after the beloved number 12 retired with two Super Bowl victories. Though White broke numerous Cowboys records—for passing yards in a season, for touchdown passes in a season, for
By Jeff Salamon
1. NASHVILLE, TEXAS Even if Kacey Musgraves wins none of the six Country Music Association awards she’ll be vying for on November 6, she’ll still be the Nashville story of the year. No female debut artist has ever before topped the CMA nominations list, and Musgraves achieved that honor with
By Jeff Salamon
1. Craig’s ListingIt doesn’t take anything away from Craig Watkins’s accomplishments as district attorney of Dallas County—since he won election in 2006, his office has exonerated 33 prisoners, some of whom had been incarcerated for decades—to say that he has been very lucky. A Democrat, he was swept into office
By Jeff Salamon
1. I’m Gonna Git You, SoccerThe intense rivalry between the two North American powerhouses of men’s soccer, the United States and Mexico, will be renewed September 10 in Columbus, Ohio, in a crucial qualifying match for next summer’s World Cup. After years of struggle against its more established opponent, the
By Jeff Salamon
After years as an in-demand fiddle payer, Amanda Shires is redefining herself as a boundary-breaking singer-songwriter. Emphasis on “writer.”
By Jeff Salamon
1. Abbott FormingThe moment Rick Perry announced that he was not running for a fourth full term as governor, all eyes turned to Attorney General Greg Abbott, who instantly became the most powerful Republican in the state. The 55-year-old Wichita Falls native has long been viewed as a serious candidate
By Jeff Salamon
The premiere of Slaid Cleaves' "Texas Love Song," a track from his newest album, Still Fighting the War, on sale today.
By Jeff Salamon