Cooper’s Pit Bar-B-Q MasonThe name “Cooper’s” has long been synonymous with Llano, but now the Mason operation of the same name has overtaken its distant cousin. Cooper’s Pit Bar-B-Q was opened in Mason in 1953 by the late George Cooper, whose son Tommy (also deceased) cloned it a decade later
Thomas Austin Preston, Jr.—a.k.a. Amarillo Slim—has cut cards with LBJ and hustled all manner of sharpies at pool and Ping-Pong. But at 74, his greatest success continues to be at the poker table, as my $100 and I found out.
Ten years after eighty Davidians died in a government-led siege, a few surviving members of the sect have returned to the plains east of Waco, looking for something. And, in some cases, waiting for David Koresh to return.
HIGH FIDELITY Daniel Lanois was born in Hull, Quebec, Canada, in 1951 to French-speaking and musical parents. In addition to being an acclaimed solo artist, he is one of the top record producers in the business, working on albums with U2, Peter Gabriel, Bob Dylan, and Willie Nelson, among others.
Legend has it that an East Texas preacher's homemade flying machine took off in late 1902, nearly a year before Kitty Hawk. Are the history books wrong about who was first in flightor are they right, brothers?
‘TIS THE SEASON As the World Cup reminded us, soccer, where you kick the ball up and down the field, is really football. But when Americans talk about football, we mean more than feet. We mean hands, arms, heads; we mean hard-hitting blocks, bubbly cheerleaders, marching bands. We mean spectacle.
He was a ladies’ man who owned a tavern. He kept gators in a pool behind the place, into which he liked to toss small animals. He hired women to wait tables, and some of them disappeared. What happened? With Joe Ball, it was easy to believe the worst.
African Masks, two old steam locomotives, Lady Bird's childhood home-and miniature donkeys.
His cache of unpublished interviews and unreleased recordings is unrivaled—but both collector and collection are showing signs of age. Who will save the legacy of the man who saved Texas music?
Reporter|
February 1, 2002
Michael Hall bids farewell to a true Champ of the Texas music scene.
The life of Roky Erickson—one of the most influential Texas rock and rollers of all time—has been one calamity after another. His family and friends have taken care of him with the best of intentions, but you know what they say about the road to hell.
First Person|
November 1, 2001
Michael Hall riffs about his rock n' roll days.
Picking up the trail of Walker Railey.
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Web Exclusive|
June 30, 2001
The story behind this month's cover story, "Lance Armstrong Has Something to Get Off His Chest."
Andrew Lichtenstein spent six years taking pictures inside Texas' vast prison system. The result is an anthropological study of a brutal culture.
Nine years after the brutal murder of four teenage girls in a yogurt shop rocked the city of Austin, the police say they have finally caught the killers. But they have no evidence and no witnesses—only two confessions that the defendants say were coerced. Which is why, when the case
Web Exclusive|
December 1, 2000
Associate editor Michael Hall tells the story behind this month's cover story, "Viva Fort Hood."
Family values.
So says Don Baylor, the Austin native now managing baseball’s lowly Chicago Cubs. His players hear him loud and clear, but history has a way of repeating itself.
The places, people and stories behind Texas music.
Buddy Holly. Waylon Jennings. Carolyn Hester. The Hancocks. The Flatlanders. An oral history of the state's most storied music scene.
He looks like a cross between Ed Asner and Uncle Charley from My Three Sons, but don’t get Dave Hickey started on the subject of beauty— his own or anyone else’s.
Feature|
September 30, 1999
Half the state hates them and secretly admires them. The other half admires them and secretly hates them. Such is the plight of the decade’s best high school football team.
In-Spur-ational.
How serial killer Rafael Resendez-Ramirez struck fear in the hearts of the men and women of Weimar, a tiny Texas town that will never be the same.
How the war in Kosovo turned an Austin online company into the Lone Star State Department.
Officially, the most famous atheist in the world is still missing. But the feds think she’s dead, and they think they know where her body is. They also think they know who’s responsible. And he says he didn’t do it.
Don’t hang their plaques at Cooperstown just yet, but do applaud the accomplishments of Kerry Wood and Ben Grieve. After all, not everyone is Rookie of the Year.
Folk singer Nanci Griffith thinks the Texas media have been mistreating her. The way she’s fighting back guarantees her trouble with the press isn’t going away.
Grammy came home.
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.
Web Exclusive|
December 31, 1969
An old opera house, Judge Roy Bean’s grave, ancient pictographs—and a drug blimp.
African masks, two old steam locomotives, Lady Bird's childhood home—and miniature donkeys.
Web Exclusive|
December 31, 1969
Who says it ain’t the good life? These sixteen clubs, lounges, and dives (including one Hole in the Wall) are the reason Austin is called the Live Music Capital of the World.