June 2006

May 31, 2006 — By Evan Smith

Wealthy Republican donor James Leininger on why he supports school vouchers and opposes apostates in his party.

May 31, 2006 — By Turk Pipkin

Have you heard the good news? My career as a bit player in Hollywood continues apace.

May 31, 2006 — By S. C. Gwynne

Gubernatorial candidate Chris Bell pushes a rock up a hill.

May 31, 2006 — By Michael Hall

Spoiler alert: The mythic Marfa lights may not be real. But there’s no way to know for sure, and that’s why they’re cool.

May 31, 2006 — By Brian D. Sweany

From kayaking on Town Lake to mountain biking around Joe Pool Lake, from bass fishing on Lake Fork to horseback riding on the shores of Lake Whitney, here are some of our favorite things to do in, on, and around Texas lakes.

Jan 20, 2013 — By Mimi Swartz

Whatever else you can say about it, the life and death of Bellaire High School junior Jonathan Finkelman is a tragic tale of drugs, money, race, and MySpace.

May 31, 2006 — By Jonathan Moss

I have only a few weeks to go.

May 31, 2006 — By Jeff McCord

The best rock and roll stirs up a maelstrom, a surging wall of sound you can almost reach out and touch. It’s not about craft, chords, equipment, or even how many tickets or albums you sell. It’s underlying motion, propulsion; it’s finding the sweet spot and giving yourself over. Don’t…

May 31, 2006 — By Jeff McCord

It’s years back, in a rowdy Jersey roadhouse, where a lanky performer peeks over his shades to see if anyone is listening. Most aren’t. Abruptly, he strides out the door. The curious follow him to the parking lot, where, perched on a station wagon, he finishes the show. T BONE…

May 31, 2006 — By Jeff McCord

An Interview with Ian McLagan Ian McLagan and Ronnie Lane, the keyboardist and the bassist of the famed UK groups the Small Faces and the Faces, eventually made Austin their home—Lane in the mid-eighties, McLagan about a decade later. Lane passed away in 1997, and McLagan pays tribute to his…

May 31, 2006 — By Amy Prince

Big old buckles for dear old dad.

May 31, 2006 — By Jim Atkinson

Why ozone is indeed a menace.

May 31, 2006 — By Christopher Kelly

Ignore the critics. See The King.

May 31, 2006 — By Mike Shea

Meet Nellie Courtright, the resourceful, charming, and enthusiastically copulating protagonist of LARRY MCMURTRY’s Wild West saga TELEGRAPH DAYS. Her father has just “suicided himself,” leaving the 22-year-old and her teenage brother, Jackson, to fend for themselves in the barren no-man’s-land north of Texas. But Nellie goes one better and acquires…

May 31, 2006 — By Mike Shea

Quirky doesn’t even begin to describe THE VINEGAROON MURDERS, the dust-blown supernatural murder mystery that makes up volume two of JAMES A. MANGUM’s Dos Cruces trilogy. For starters, the narrator is an angel, though decidedly not the stuff of Sunday school: Shyanne, a seraph, drops the F-bomb with alarming frequency…

May 31, 2006 — By Mike Shea

As a novelist, Sarah Bird is not exactly prolific—it’s been five years since the  Texas Monthly writer-at-large gave us the fine The Yokota Officers Club—but at long last she has delivered the stunning and ambitious THE FLAMENCO ACADEMY, a tale of obsession and, yes, gypsies. Against the backdrop of Albuquerque’s…

May 31, 2006 — By Mike Shea

An interview with Ron White The notoriously boisterous—and blue—comic has come a long way, from his oil patch birthplace of Fritch to sold-out standup tours and multimillion-unit DVD sales. His new book, I Had the Right to Remain Silent … But I Didn’t Have the Ability, melds his real-life misadventures…

May 31, 2006 — By Mimi Swartz

Scenes from the Enron reality show.

May 31, 2006 — By Laura Griffin

Clint Dempsey’s World Cup runneth over.

May 31, 2006 — By Brian D. Sweany

Is it okay to hate Exxon Mobil?

May 31, 2006 — By Evan Smith

“We don’t look at color, we don’t look at religion, we don’t look at economic means. Laredo is a real laid-back, accept-everybody kind of place.”

May 31, 2006 — By William Martin

William Martin reviews our places of worship.

May 31, 2006 — By Pamela Colloff

The eclectic artiness of San Antonio’s Southtown.

May 31, 2006 — By Texas Monthly

I ENJOYED EVERY WORD OF “75 Things We Love About Texas” [April 2006]. There are so many you could not include because of a lack of room. A few that occurred to me: the very shape of Texas, the ceaseless arguments over how to make real Texas chili,…

May 31, 2006 — By Texas Monthly

Jordan’s Pick TEXAS Canyon IN JULY 1966 A CULTURAL icon was born—in Canyon, of all places. A few years earlier, some Amarilloans looking to boost interest in their corner of the state got in touch with the Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Paul Green. Would he please whip up one of…

May 31, 2006 — By Evan Smith

I’m going to go out on a limb here—but not too far—and predict that supporters of Chris Bell’s campaign for governor will be angry when they read “He’s Sisyphus, and He Approves This Message”, by executive editor S. C. Gwynne. But misery loves company: Residents of Marfa, the Presidio…

May 31, 2006 — By Megan Adams

At the end of World War II, Texas was “home” to more than 78,000 enemy prisoners living in POW camps.

May 31, 2006 — By Juliana Torres

In Georgetown, people know bees.

May 31, 2006 — By Patricia Sharpe

YOU GOTTA GIVE THE POSSE behind Dallas restaurant Tryst credit for one thing: They’re not afraid to go out on a limb (just pray they’re not blithely sawing it off at the same time). Owner Brittney O’Daniel’s first big risk is taking a chance in a still-rather-marginal part…

May 31, 2006 — By Allison Avery

We’re guessing, but odds are that in Wisconsin or Ohio, salsa is just salsa. Not so in Texas (surprise!), where folks devote plenty of time figuring out where to find the hottest or mildest around town. We’ll even go so far as to say that many Texans have their own…

May 31, 2006 — By Texas Monthly

Skewers 2 ounces skirt steak, thinly sliced 24 bamboo skewers kosher salt to taste black pepper to taste Season meat, place skirt steak on skewers, and grill until done. Vinaigrette 2 tablespoons white-wine vinegar 1/4 cup pomegranate juice 1 teaspoon horseradish, grated 1 teaspoon…

May 31, 2006 — By Allison Avery

It’s no wonder restaurateur Cindy Burch ended up in the food business. She had grandmothers in Texas and Alabama whose love for cooking had a profound influence on her. Not to mention that Burch started experimenting with recipes early in life. She found her match when she added some Southwestern…

May 31, 2006 — By Texas Monthly

More of your responses to the April cover story, “75 Things We Love About Texas”.

May 31, 2006 — By Patricia McConnico

Executive editor Mimi Swartz talks about Houston’s Bellaire High School and a potent combination: teenagers, drugs, and the Internet.

May 31, 2006 — By David Kucinskas

Senior editor Michael Hall on seeing (and not seeing) the mysterious Marfa lights.

May 31, 2006 — By David Kucinskas

Executive editor S. C. Gwynne on writing about gubernatorial candidate Chris Bell.

May 31, 2006 — By David Kucinskas

Articles editor Brian D. Sweany talks about editing this month’s cover story on lakes.

May 31, 2006 — By Virginia Postrel

How—and why—I became an organ donor.

May 31, 2006 — By Katy Vine

Will the upscale shoppers of Plano really buy what Wal-Mart is selling?

May 31, 2006 — By H. Brands

I thought I’d be teaching middle- schoolers something about Texas history. I didn’t count on what they’d teach me.

May 31, 2006 — By Sarah Bird

My dancing feet. And, hopefully, yours.

Jan 20, 2013 — By Paul Burka

Rita, the forgotten hurricane.