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Behind the Lines

Nirvana in unofficial Dallas

Dancing Up a Cliché

Jamboree, a new Joffrey ballet commissioned by the City of San Antonio, features prancing rhinestone cowboys and just plain silly choreography.

Texas Primer: The Blue Law

On Sunday it is legal to buy beer but not baby bottles, screws but not screwdrivers, disposable diapers but not cloth ones. No place but Texas.

Take This Job and Love It

Sandi Barton works from 8:30 to 5 as a secretary in a downtown Dallas office. She knows a lot of women look down on her job, but it suits her just fine.

Touts

Summertime, summertime, sum-sum-summertime.

State Secrets

Presenting the Big Bend Condos and Solitario Safari; Mexico finds out what it feels like to have an immigrant problem; Oscar Wyatt and Clinton Manges gird for battle; inside report from the special session.

A Byte of Life

The Flight Simulator and Heroism in the Modern Age are realistic new computer games that offer a wonderful mix of fantasy and reality; Free Enterprise is too simplistic to be much fun.

Roar of the Crowd

Austin’s ins and outs. Lamaze’s pros and cons, the sun’s ups and downs.

Texas Monthly Reporter

A meditation on the radioactive peril in Juarez.

Puzzle

The acid syndrome.

Temple of Excess

Indiana Jones bashes us with unthinking cruelty: The Natural is a balk; Sixteen Candlesis lit up with tickling teenage talk.

Getting Mellow

In the sixties the fee-jazz movement produced music that was defiantly experimental, and the same artists are still playing some of the most stimulating jazz around.

Western Art: Cat Dog Man

An interpretation of a classic genre.

The Man in the Black Hat, Part Two

With the help of a friendly banker and some friendlier politicians, Clinton Manges conquered might Mobil Oil and saved his empire. But not for long—it’s in jeopardy again.

The Man Who Dreamed Up Luckenbach

Hondo Crouch went from being a champion athlete to being the sad clown of Texas’s fun-and-games capital.

Behind the Lines

Plugging in and Plugging Along

The Wild Side of Town

You don’t have to go to the country or the zoo to see wild animals; there are lizards in downtown buildings, gators in the creeks, and deer in the parking lots.

Move Over, Southfork

Up for sale in Dallas, the Shanbaum house boasts a whopping 28,000 square feet and what may be Texas’ most comprehensive collection of sixties and seventies kitsch—along with a $2.75 million price tag.

Touts

Amazing technicolor dreamworld.

State Secrets

The leaning Tower of peace, aaagh—at last we learn what the “public” in Republican stands for; how do you spell relief? D-I-S-A-S-T-E-R; parks lose out yet again.

Roar of the Crowd

Getting with the programs, getting to know the Yellow Rose, getting it right in Pharr.

Texas Monthly Reporter

Coming to grips with Al Lipscomb, Dallas critic turned city councilman; remembering the clip joints along Fort Worth’s infamous outlaw alley; flipping for San Angelo, a honey of a West Texas town; taking a bizarre trip through Texas on Gary Hart’s press plane.

Puzzle

All a board.

Texas Primer: The Resistol Hat

Whether it’s made of straw or ermine, this is the cowboy hat.

Top O’ the Pops

The fare offered by the Houston Pops Orchestra may not be highbrow, but conductor Ned Battista thinks it’s American music at its best.

Someday You’ll Thank Me for This

You can lead a child to culture, but can you make him like it?

Give Me a Job

In my village in Oaxaca I had heard about those who made it big in El Norte, and I wanted to become one of them. But I didn’t know how hard life in Houston would be without papers, money, or a job.

Last Respects

The death of Uncle Henry saddened my whole far-flung family, but the gathering at his funeral was an occasion for telling stories and recalling the joys of a small-town upbringing.

On the Links

Golf, glorious golf. A hook here, a slice there. So what if you can’t break a hundred. A cartful of cool, casual summer clothes will keep you looking like a million.

The Man in the Black Hat, Part One

Clinton Manges built his empire on brushland and oil wells, political contributions and lawsuits. His influence extends to the state capitol and oil company boardrooms. To get where he is, he studied under three masters of South Texas.

J is for Jobs

Houston’s career-oriented magnet schools are putting too much emphasis on work and too little on education.

Behind the Lines

The new work ethic.

The Intellectuals’ Dear Abby

A new study of sociologist C. Wright Mills is adequate but uninspired; this year’s Texas Institute of Letters fiction prize has gone to a fine first novel.

Out of Action

He was an aggressive cop with one of the toughest beats in Dallas. But after fourteen years and another killing, the department took him off the street and slapped him behind a desk.

Lenôtre: Shameless Pastries, Mythical Chocolates, Shocking Sorbets

Bearing Gallic sophistication and outrageously delicious desserts, the Lenôtre family has taken Dallas and Houston by storm.

Take Me Across the River

The writer had no papers, but he wanted to get from Mexico to Houston. His best chance was to put his passage into the hands of a coyote, for a fat fee.

Why I Hate Lamaze

New parents, beware! The only thing I got out of my six Lamaze classes was permission to enter the delivery room with my wife.

High Noon at the Circle C

Gary Bradley, a hot young land speculator in Austin, was in the middle of a $50 million deal when he ran into an outraged environmental movement and a lobbyist with some powerful clients. The fight was on.

First Light

Texas’ morning glory by thirteen photographers.

Texas Primer: The Cattle Guard

You may have played on one when you were a kid, but it’s no fun for cows.

Touts

Stick around and we’ll show you some of Texas’ best jam and jelly makers.

Awash in the Limelight

New blood and a commitment to high standards at the Theater Center and the Plaza have helped to make this theatrical season Dallas’ best.

State Secrets

Why Mark White wishes he’d never heard of H. Ross Perot; a new lawsuit threatens to play havoc with local schools; one last word (we promise) about yuppies; seems like politics as usual at UT.

Roar of the Crowd

Texas Monthly Reporter

A nuclear quandary in West Texas; the fine art of political feuding in San Antonio; the redfish ranching business in Monahans; the education of a power broker in training in Houston.

Puzzle

Cheetah! Fetch Tarzan New Script

In Greystoke, neither Tarzan nor the audience gets to have any fun; Moscow on the Hudson takes a wonderful comedy and runs; Racing With the Moon is nostalgic and sure, but the plot comes undone.

Just Friends

The story of Lenell Geter’s release from prison is unfinished without the tale of the conservative engineers who stuck their necks out to help a friend in trouble.

Honk If You Love Elephants

With the Republican convention only three months away, Dallas’ sales forces are frantically gearing up for a merchandising bonanza.

Behind the Lines

I take over Exxon.