This Video of Jimmy Buffett and Glenn Frey Performing “Margaritaville” Has Some Strange Texas Ties
Did you know "Margaritaville" is actually set in north Austin? Er, sort of.
John Nova Lomax has been an oyster shucker in Tennessee, a landscape gardener and British Telecom mail clerk in Lancashire, and a field hand on a kibbutz in the Arava section of the Negev in Israel. He is also the author of Houston's Best Dive Bars: Drinking and Diving in the Bayou City, a guidebook to Houston dive bars, and co-author of Murder & Mayhem in Houston: Historic Bayou City Crime, a compilation of notorious Houston crimes.
Lomax has been a full-time journalist in the Bayou City since 2001. He spent eleven years at the Houston Press as a music editor and staff writer and is proudest of helping discover Hayes Carll, rediscover Lil’ Joe Washington, and winning an ASCAP Deems Taylor Award in 2008. With future Marfa city councilman and justice of the peace David Beebe, Lomax walked a total of more than 200 miles of Houston streets on about a dozen different trips, writing about the adventures as part of the “Sole of Houston” blog series. After leaving the music beat, Lomax covered crime, courts and culture for the Press. His work has also appeared in Spin, the New York Times, the Village Voice, and LA Weekly. He has been a senior editor with Texas Monthly since January 2015.
Articles by John Nova Lomax
Could The San Antonio Raiders Be A Thing?
San Antonio seems poised to support Los Raiders, but what about Jerry Jones?
Should Houston’s Lanier Middle School Lose Its Name Because Of Confederate Ties?
Lanier was in the Confederate Army, but that wasn't his legacy. So why is Sidney Lanier Middle School's name on the chopping block?
The Best Little Hoodoo Pharmacy in Texas
Inside Stanley Drug Company, the last hoodoo shop in Texas.
Will Tom Herman Stick It Out With The Cougars?
The University of Houston has had a helluva football season, but will the program be able to keep its rising star coach?
Music Monday: Uncovering The Mystery Of The King & Carter Jazzing Orchestra
After years of trying to find out about the subject of this photo, clues emerge in an unlikely place.
Crude Keeps Plunging, Threatening To Drag Down Houston’s Residential Real Estate Market With It
As the price of crude keeps plunging and the oil and gas layoffs mount, more and more bad news is coming from Houston’s residential real estate market, even as some developers are building or planning still more luxury condo projects.
Houston’s Day For Night Combines Music, Art, And Twilight Into A Great Debut
“Day for Night wants to be a festival no one has ever seen before” thundered a Houston Press blog headline earlier this month. I don’t know if I would go quite that far, but Houston has not seen an event quite like this since 1986, when Jean-Michel Jarre uplifted…
Mack Brown Left Charlie Strong With Nothing, And Here’s The Proof
A definitive analysis of the last six coaching changes and the talent (or lack thereof) each of them left behind.
Is There An Internal Struggle To Oust Charlie Strong?
Yeah, it sounds pretty tinfoil hat-y, but it isn't without precedent in the UT football program.
Texas A&M and Texas Tech Should Be Playing A Bowl Game
How SEC wargaming and Aggie fears got in the way of a much better postseason matchup.
The Green Anole, Your Resident Backyard Lizard, Is Being Pushed Out By Its Uglier Cousin
The green anole is being displaced by its faster, fiercer relative, the brown anole.
What Is Happening To Texas’s Dance Halls? The Historic Tin Hall Closes Its Doors At The End Of The Year
As Cypress loses one of the oldest dance halls in the state, we look at what's causing the decline in their popularity.
Texas Without Syrian and Lebanese Refugees Would Not Be Texas
More specifically, Houston might be not be a world-class medical center, Austin might not be the Live Music Capital of the World, and the Aggies might not have that recent Heisman Trophy-winning alum.
We’ve Got the Monk (Parakeet)
An (extremely) amateur ornithologist’s examination of the monk parakeet and its time in Texas.
HERO’s Defeat Could Be Bad News For Big Business
Proponents of HERO used reason to get their point across, but they should've used dollar amounts.
Early Voting Turnout Doesn’t Look Good for HERO Supporters
With early voting closing Friday and election day looming on Tuesday, supporters of the Houston Equal Rights Ordinance have good reason to be concerned about its survival.
The 72 Hours That Ruined Another Houston Texans Season
Quarterback woes, public staff bickering, and an injured Arian Foster shredded any hope for the Houston Texans, but those are the least of their worries.
Texas Castles: The Early Years
Although we trail such medieval wonderlands as Spain, Bavaria, and Wales in castles per square mile, Texas is studded with crenellated, turreted strongholds, ranging from the kitschy to the magnificent.
Can You Afford to Live Here?
You know you’ve seen it: condos multiplying, home prices tripling, realtors scrambling, buyers overbidding. Does our state’s fevered real estate craze make us the country’s best housing market—or the most overvalued? I went on a tour of our four largest cities to find out.
Houston Texans Owner Bob McNair Shells Out Major Bucks To GOP Candidates
By the looks of it, McNair is more concerned with political influence than a winning team.
Charlie Strong Put An End To Calls For His Job With UT’s Win Over Oklahoma
What a difference one game can make.
The Texans’ Theory That Good Character Translates To Good Percentages Is Bogus
It's unfortunate, but the numbers don't lie.
Houston’s Real Estate Market Feeling The Effects Of Oil’s Price Drop
Don’t be fooled by claims of economic diversification—the city still runs on oil.
Was The Texas-OSU Game Rigged? Get Your Tin Foil Hat Ready
The UT-OSU game was never going to be a fair fight. Here's why.
The Problem With Mirabeau Lamar
As Confederate names and statues disappear across Texas, we're still honoring a man with a hugely problematic history—just because he wasn't a Confederate.
Blue Bell Is Back, But It Needs A New Plan
The company's wholesome image doesn't match its current reality.
Texas’s Cities: One Big, Dysfunctional Family
Chronicling the rivalries of Houston, Dallas, Fort Worth, San Antonio, and Austin.
Texas Takes On New York: Chili Con Queso Cheesecake
Oh, you think it’s okay to put peas in guacamole, ’New York Times’? Let’s see how you like these Texan takes on classic New York City dishes. (The fourth in a series.)
Texas Takes On New York: Chicken-Fried Reuben Sandwich
Oh, you think it’s okay to put peas in guacamole, ’New York Times’? Let’s see how you like these Texan takes on classic New York City dishes. (The third in a series.)
Texas Takes On New York: Texas Chili With A Matzo Ball
Oh, you think it’s okay to put peas in guacamole, 'New York Times'? Let’s see how you like these Texan takes on classic New York City dishes. (The second in a series.)
Mapping the Popularity of Texas Artists Outside of Texas
Further study of Spotify’s music maps shows Texas artists’ pockets of popularity outside of the state.
From Texas to Cuba: An Epic Road Trip, Castro’s Trip to Houston, and How It’s Changed
As the doors to Cuban travel slowly re-open, the author’s dad recalls his epic road/cruise ship trip to Havana just before Castro’s take-over, and we remember Castro’s hero’s welcome in Houston a few months later.
Texas Takes On New York: Manhattan Clam Chowder Con Gulf Oysters
Oh, you think it’s okay to put peas in guacamole, ’New York Times’? Let’s see how you like these Texan takes on classic New York City dishes. (The first in a series.)
Spotify Charts The Favorite Songs of Texas Cities, & It Isn’t Surprising At All
The music sharing service shows how little Dallas and Houston have in common, how Austin loves critical darlings, and how much Aggies love Aggies.
Jade Helm Is Going Down: San Angelo Man Offers Proof Of Ninja Invasion At Local Sam’s Club
As a San Angelo satirist proves, some people will believe any crazy thing you tell them in Texas drawls.
Mapping the Best Texas Movies
No, Business Insider, you can’t boil Texas down to just one movie, especially when that movie is Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Here are a few dozen more from across the state.
This Week in Texas Confederate Flag News: Rallies, Burnings, and More
Flag-waving rebels roll on Walmarts from Houston to Amarillo, an Odessa songsmith pens an anthem for the movement, and a Houston-area man’s banner is vandalized.
Texas Gator Kills Man in Orange, Ending a 179-Year Streak
Shipyard worker breaks every rule of gator safety and pays the ultimate price.
A Family Fights Off an Angry Alligator, Keeping State Fatality-Free
There are gators aplenty in East and South Texas, yet no Texan has ever been killed since records have been kept, despite close calls like what happened recently with a Chambers County boy.
Now You Don’t Have to Go to Reynosa for Your Donald Trump Piñata
With the sweets-stuffed effigies of the Big Apple mogul now on sale in the Valley, bashing the Donald just got that much easier.
Almost Half of Texas Believes Military Invasion Is Likely Coming; And Finally, the Conspiracy Crowd Finds the Link Between Blue Bell’s Woes and Jade Helm
Everything weird that has happened the last two months happened for a reason, you understand?
Embrace Y’all, Y’all
An increasing number of Texans seem to think it’s sophisticated to call a group of people “you guys.” It’s not.
Contending With Our Confederate Dirty Laundry
Yes, the Confederate flag has to go. But what's after that? And what hopes are we pinning on the destruction of symbols?
As We’re Invaded By Mattress Stores, a UT MBA Plots to Move the Business Online
Mattress Firms are multiplying today as fast as chain pharmacies did twenty years ago, but how long can they stave off the future?
Still Bill
Houston goes a bit nuts over a storm that was nothing like the Memorial Day floods.
Texas City Flags: The Good, the Blah, and the Fugly
Our state flag kicks ass seven ways from Sunday. Maybe that’s why the vast majority of our city flags are terrible.
Houston’s Huge Pride Parade Is Heading Downtown, Leaving Montrose Behind
Proponents says it’s outgrown its small-neighborhood roots and that the move is indicative of the triumph of LGBT rights. Opponents say the event forsaking its soul in the name of dubious progress.
Houston Slighted Once Again As America’s Most Miserable Sports City
According to a New York Times blog, our mid-seventies hockey prowess elevates us to only eleventh among cursed sports towns.