Executive Editor Katy Vine joined the editorial staff of Texas Monthly in 1997 and became a staff writer in 2002. She has written dozens of features on a range of topics including rocket scientist Franklin Chang Díaz, hip-hop legend Bun B, barbecue pit masters, cult leader Warren Jeffs, refugees in Amarillo, dirty cops in McAllen, the moon landing, the Kilgore Rangerettes, bass fishing, a three-person family circus, chess prodigies, and an accountant who embezzled $17 million from a fruitcake company. Her stories have been anthologized in Best American Sports Writing and Best Food Writing. Her feature story about a West Texas sting operation was the inspiration for the 2012 television series The Client List.
Articles by Katy Vine
Greatest Hits On June 27 the line to get in the Kimbell Art Museum, in Fort Worth, will probably resemble more closely that of a megaplex theater, and for good reason. It’s the opening day of the summer blockbuster exhibit, “Caravaggio to Dali: One Hundred Masterpieces from the Wadsworth…
You may think you can “just watch” the TEJANO CONJUNTO FESTIVAL from the pavilion at Rosedale Park, but once the music starts up and the audience members begin to pair off and rotate on the floor like a giant whirlpool, you’ll probably feel compelled to do likewise. This year, from…
It was more than a decade ago that merchants and members of the San Antonio Neighborhood Commercial Revitalization Program for the area called Southtown—which encompasses the King William Historic District, the Blue Star Arts Complex, and the 1800’s Lavaca neighborhood—proposed that galleries in the area open their doors to the…
Last December, when the Second City comedy troupe held a 24-hour show in Chicago just before its forty-fourth anniversary, two actors battled head-to-head in a BILL COSBY impersonation contest. And next year comedian Kenan Thompson—who did a killer impersonation of the Cos on Saturday Night Live—will be playing the lead…
COURIER SERVICES Thirty-three-year-old Jim Courier, who was ranked the number one tennis player in the world in 1992, will host the Grand-SlamJam tennis exibition in Austin April 29 and 30. Proceeds from the event will be donated to the Hope Foundation, a cancer research organization. I read that you’re a…
"While I was in Hollywood, I wrote for Eddie Arnold and Ernest Tubb and Roy Rogers and Tex Ritter—everybody you can think of."
"I used to think, 'I can't perform in front of these people!' And then last night I did a show for more than 13,000."
ROOT CAUSE Modern music would likely sound very different if not for song collectors. Consider John A. Lomax. In the early 1900’s, the American granddaddy of field recorders trekked 200,000 miles around the U.S. to document folk music, ignoring the advice of his University of Texas professors who said that…
A MUSE, ME Fernande Olivier must have been a heck of a girl. At least Picasso seems to have thought so between the spring and fall of 1909, when his imagination was so captured by her that he produced more than sixty heads, busts, and half- and full-length cubist representations…
WHAT, THIS OLD THING? Some women think about killing out of jealousy or love. Others for a Judith Leiber handbag. To fans of Leiber’s work, “handbag” is a dirty word; they prefer “minaudière.” They’ll speak breathlessly of the tiny sparkling jewels or the shapes: the asparagus, the springer spaniel, the…
POW! Funny that during the winter, when Austin’s famous colony of Mexican free-tailed bats has migrated to Mexico, allusions to the chiropterans take wing. On January 8, the Alamo Drafthouse, in Austin, will screen the original 1966 Batman movie, starring Adam West and Burt Ward. The Alamo hopes to show…
Which means she's an expert at reading bovine body language, and that makes her, at the absurdly young age of thirteen—only four years after overcoming her fear of horses—one of the world's best practitioners of the art of cutting.
YOU DON’T KNOW DIDDLEY Seventy-four-year-old Bo Diddley, whose innovative rhythms have inspired generations of rockers, will be performing December 27 at Gilley’s in Dallas. What are you doing these days? I’m working. Doing my good old clean rock and roll. I’m putting together this song now with one of my…
DON’T STOP BELIEVING Usually everyone is so busy trying to avoid the crowds during the holidays that we forget to sit back and enjoy the season. This time around, we invite you to embrace the clichés—see the lights, drink eggnog, listen to “Jingle Bells” over and over again. And one…
YOUNG BUCK Satirist Christopher Buckley will be speaking November 3 at the Celebration of Reading in Dallas. First of all, I hear your power is out in Washington. Are all the phones working? We have phones but no electricity, so we’re essentially back to the days before answering machines,…
BRIGHT WEITZ With his brother, Chris, 38-year-old Paul Weitz has co-directed or co-written such Hollywood blockbusters as American Pie, Antz, and About a Boy. The two will be panelists at the Austin Film Festival, which runs October 9-12. You have an extensive filmography for your age. Are you a workaholic…
THINK SMALL Edward Hopper is known for his lonely scenes of the American cityscape, not his Impressionistic images of France. So when “Edward Hopper: The Paris Years” opens on October 16, the location may strike you as fittingly incongruous: the Tyler Museum of Art (it isn’t every day that a…
TAKE IT OUTSIDE There’s almost no substitute for an Austin City Limits taping. For starters, it’s free. Throw in the gratis drinks, the intimate setting, and the impressive acts, and it can’t be beat as a night on the town, even if the show is recorded on a studio set…
SUPER MODEL Jerry Hall will be performing the role of Mrs. Robinson in The Graduate September 1721 in Austin and September 23October 5 in Houston. Was modeling your first job? Did you ever have to sell shoes or anything like that? Yeah, I worked at the Dairy Queen and…
FOR THE GOOD TIMES Singer-songwriter Kris Kristofferson will be inducted by Willie Nelson into the Texas Country Music Hall of Fame in Carthage on August 16. I’ve always thought that Hawaii has a lot in common with Texas. My old friends always say I’ve gone back home.
If you've ever thought of donating your body to science, read what happened at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galvestonand then ask yourself if a good, old-fashioned burial might not be a better idea.
Photographer Kenny Braun has been surfing the Gulf Coast for about thirty years. So naturally, when the water's just right, he grabs his . . . camera.
AQUI ESTAMOS Latino culture flits on and off the general public’s radar screen, but in Texas, it’s a constant, with a highly visible arts scene. This month there are a few noteworthy events that you won’t want to miss. July 15—September 21: San Antonio’s McNay Art Museum opens “Fantastic…
FREE FOR ALL On June 19 Texans will be celebrating the end of slavery in our state. It was on that day, back in 1865, that Union major general Gordon Granger arrived in Galveston and pronounced that the institution of slavery was dead. Ever since, various Juneteenth festivities—from historical to…
REVELATIONS For more than thirty years the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center has stood on a corner of the UT-Austin campus like a colossal intellectual tease. You could go into the center and ask to see a specific item—say, Charles Baudelaire’s original proof sheets of Les Litanies de Satan (with…
Unless otherwise noted, all places take credit cards. ABILENE: Harold’s Pit Bar-B-Q We didn’t catch pitmaster Harold Christian singing gospel songs to his customers, but we’re told that isn’t an unusual occurrence. This cozy little room, packed with nine picnic tables, seven booths, and a congregation of athletic trophies, is…
EASY RIDERS Bulletin: Lance Armstrong’s Ride for the Roses has been moved from April to October (the Sports Illustrated 2002 sportsman of the year wanted more time to train for the Tour de France). But don’t think that means you have a license to lounge around for a little while…
THREE-DAY PASS This month the “most promising weekend” award belongs to Dallas March 21 through 23. On Friday, stop by the sixteenth annual Dallas Video Festival, which, over the course of the weekend, will premiere playwright Octavio Solis’ Prospect Avenue, showcase a juried compilation of short films and videos by…
LADIES ONLY Recently, Ruby Nelda Perez, a locally popular San Antonio performance artist, tried to describe Rosita, the Latina restaurant owner who is the sole character in Perez’s one-woman show, Doña Rosita’s Jalapeño Kitchen. “I think she’s a combination of women I’d like to be, women I am, women I…
PLANE TO SEE Despite claims from folks in East Texas that a Pittsburg preacher named Burrell Cannon created the first operational aircraft in 1902 (see “Two Wings and a Prayer”), Austin’s Centennial of Flight Celebration observes the Wright brothers’ December 1903 takeoff. Even so, the commemorative event, held on January…
They're ready for their close-up; are we? Our writer prejudges the thousands of celebrity wannabes at Austin's American Idol tryouts.
GIMME SHELTER This month, as various towns across the state stage Las Posadas processions, in which actors portraying Mary and Joseph reenact the biblical couple’s search for shelter, directors will be challenged with the question of casting. This year McAllen, which hosts the largest production in the state, marks its…
TELL IT LIKE IT IS Aaron Neville will be the featured performer at the Mayor’s Official Houston Holiday Celebration in the Bayou City December 6. His newest record, Believe, will be released in January. What is the most dramatic change you have seen in music over the years?…
ATTENTION, SHOPPERS No doubt, holiday consumers who turn a sickly green upon hearing the word “mall” will search desperately this month for alternatives to the slew of chain stores. Some people will test their artistic capacities by creating their offerings; some will purchase presents online. Still others—thousands, we are told—will…
THE HARD CELL Beaumont has the Texas Energy Museum and Kingsville has the King Ranch Museum. Likewise, Huntsville promotes its industry—incarceration—with the Texas Prison Museum. Since 1989 museum visitors have surveyed exhibits dedicated to prison art, contraband, and capital punishment, gawking at the decommissioned electric chair Old Sparky along the…