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Towers of Power

So. Ralph Sampson listens to Grover Washington and Akeem Olajuwon craves Chinese food. Now you know.

State Secrets

To oilmen, intangible means untouchable; to UT, untouchable means Fred Akers; a legal courtship sinks; a billboard solution may float.

Texas Monthly Reporter

Law and order in Colorado City; winning and losing with the Dallas Diamonds; bargains and hassles on People Express; broiling and sweating in pursuit of mesquite chic.

Texas Primer: The Sticker Bur

After encountering this small brown barb, the wise Texas child learns to pick and choose his fights with the landscape.

Star Dreck

2010: a space travesty; Dune gets mired in pomp and slime; A Soldier’s Story is a murder mystery with soul; even Streep and De Niro can’t save Falling in Love; The Brother from Another Planet is woozily morose.

Heard Any Good Live Jazz Lately?

A purist’s guide to the night spots of Houston, Dallas, Fort Worth, and Austin.

A Grand Canyon

In 1541 Coronado and his troops stumbled upon a huge canyon in the midst of grassy plains and gazed upon it with awe. Journeying down into Palo Duro Canyon on mules 443 years later, I began to understand why.

1985 Bum Steer Awards

A year of arousing art, bumbling bush, coerced canines, deranged Dallas, eureka! Eureste, freeway fantasy, groping Germans, hurtling helicopters, idiotic Irving, and jocose jelly beans.

Swell Sonatas

Twenty picks for the best classical recording of 1984.

Mexico Refried

A book on Mexico by New York Times correspondent Alan Riding is a little more than a rehash of recent history.

Strident Whimsy

Arquitectonica is trying to sell Texans on gimmicky forms, bright colors, and high-tech materials in the name of avant-garde.

The Great Texas Alligator Hunt

They told me alligators don’t eat people. But when I found myself face to face with one in a dark East Texas swamp, I hoped they’d told him too.

Why They Won

The inside skinny on the elections.

Touts

Trivial Texas

Three Texas Trivia games separate Lone Star zealots from ordinary believers.

State Secrets

A new law takes the driving out of DWI; a new battle brews on the Texas Supreme Court; Exxon gets rid of an old burden; so does Clinton Manges.

Has Success Spoiled Snook?

After winning seven straight state basketball championships, the Snook Bluejays are learning that success has a flip side.

Scrolling Through the Bible

The Word Processor reveals the wisdom of the Good Book with a few keystrokes.

Roar of the Crowd

Texas Monthly Reporter

Kung’s underground hideaway; Dallas’ Cadillac wars; the Panhandle’s art terrorists; Houston’s poet-laureate; Austin’s airport quandary.

Puzzle

Texas Primer: The Texas Brag

It’s not quite a lie and not quite the truth. It’s a patriotic duty.

Double Trouble

Body Double settles for facile thrills; Comfort and Joy offers moments of magical bliss; The Little Drummer Girl is off-pitch.

O Christmas Tree

For a perfectly decorated tree, call Tom Osborn. But only if money is no object.

After Midnight

Holiday clothes go to the Longhorn Ballroom as easily as to charity balls.

So You Walk Into a Honky-Tonk and Some Three-Hundred-Pound Cowboy Says He Doesn’t Like Your Face. Now What?

Honky-tonks: how to get in, how to get out.

Is This All There Is?

Tales of Houston as it faces life after the boom.

Too Cool to Get Married

If marriage means commitment and trust, that’s fine. If it means never dancing in front of a Billy Idol video again, that’s no so fine.

Fishing With Dad

I took my son fishing because I wanted him to love the sport—and me.

Peddling Paranoia

Selling crime self-help devices has become a booming business. But do any of these gadgets really make us safer?

Classical Glass

The Houston premiere of Phillip Glass’ Akhnaten was a grand opera.

Behind the Lines

Clap, clap, clap, clap.

Beyond Kitsch

Frederick Barthelme’s first novel, Second Marriage, is a wondrous tale of love and absurdity set in the Gulf Coast suburbs.

Jambalaya, Crawfish Pie, Filé Gumbo

Son of a gun, they've got great food on the bayou.

How to Buy a Dress Without Going to the Store

Shopping from catalogs can keep you in fashion and out of the malls.

Touts

State Secrets

No joy in Cubville; deregulation is a gas; two airline wars—one cold, one hot; are the politicians back in control at UT?

‘Twas the Night After Christmas

And all through the house, every modem was stirring, and so was the mouse.

Roar of the Crowd

The Sheets of Laredo

Life after the oil bust is fair-to-Midland; bad News, hard Times in Laredo; I hear a timpani; a coach who believes winning is everything.

Puzzle

Texas Primer: The Marfa Lights

What is it that makes them dance across the desert night? A trick of physics—or something stranger?

Lawrence Welk Meets The Doors

Brave Combo’s World Dance Music brings wit and verve to an unlikely mix of sounds; the Sir Douglas Quartet is still recording after all these years.

Downer on the Farm

Country and Places in the Heart both heap on down-home moral uplift; Stop Making Sense is a joyous rockumentary; Amadeus spouts dingdong conceits.

4 BR, 2 BA, Needs Work

Why did I trade in my trouble-free condo for an aging country home with decrepit plumbing? I’m trying to figure that out myself.

Teagarden of Delights

Tribute to Teagarden captures the fullness and humanity of the late Texas trombonist’s art; plus a roundup of recent jazz releases.

Trashy Business

When Houston’s rich and powerful join forces with environmentalists to battle big corporations, they can be fighting over only one thing. Garbage.

Tiptoeing On the Ocean of Storms

What astronaut Alan Bean saw on the moon changed his life. Now, with paint and canvas, he’s trying to let the rest of us see it too.

Howdy, Son. I’m the Law in This County

These fourteen Texas sheriffs are everything you thought a sheriff ought to be. But look quick; the old-time county lawman is riding off into the sunset.

Behind the Lines

The proud and promising Froggies.