Money Talks
Wealthy Republican donor James Leininger on why he supports school vouchers and opposes apostates in his party.
June 2006
Features
It’s Hard Out Here For a Pipkin
Have you heard the good news? My career as a bit player in Hollywood continues apace.
He’s Sisyphus, and He Approves This Message
Gubernatorial candidate Chris Bell pushes a rock up a hill.
The Truth Is Out There
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.
Water, Water Everywhere
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.
The Gangstas of Godwin Park
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.
Reporter
The Black Angels
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…
T Bone Burnett
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…
An Interview with Ian McLagan
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…
Telegraph Days
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…
The Vinegaroon Murders
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…
The Flamenco Academy
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…
An interview with Ron White
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…
Betty Flores
“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.”
Miscellany
Seventy-five and Counting
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,…
Around the State
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…
Lights Out?
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…
Web
Texas History 101
At the end of World War II, Texas was “home” to more than 78,000 enemy prisoners living in POW camps.
Feeling Saucy?
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…
Bouquet of Beef on a Stick
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…
Books That Cook
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…
Readers Speak Out
More of your responses to the April cover story, “75 Things We Love About Texas”.
Digital Underground
Executive editor Mimi Swartz talks about Houston’s Bellaire High School and a potent combination: teenagers, drugs, and the Internet.
Let There Be Lights
Senior editor Michael Hall on seeing (and not seeing) the mysterious Marfa lights.
For Whom Bell Tolls
Executive editor S. C. Gwynne on writing about gubernatorial candidate Chris Bell.
Columns
Shoot the Messenger
I thought I’d be teaching middle- schoolers something about Texas history. I didn’t count on what they’d teach me.
