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On the Wing

Roy Kendall, self-taught lepidopterist, would want you to add this to the list of reasons for living in Texas: nowhere else in the U.S. are there so many beautiful and unusual butterflies.

Jim Collins and the Armies Of The Faithful

Jim Collins is running for the Senate on the claim that it’s better to be right (wing) than to pass bills. If he wins, it will change Texas politics.

State Secrets

West Texas' Indian motels; dueling fundraisers; a not-so-sweet deal; adventures in the legal trade.

Roar of the Crowd

Sticks and bones.

Texas Monthly Reporter

The harsh truth about Mexican corruption; the twilight zone of Houston journalism; the instant $82 million oil bust; the tastemakers of art-to-eat.

Texas Primer: The Pecan

Plant it, sit in its shade, but most of all, feast on its fruit.

The Blues Of The Gulf

Johnny Copeland had to abandon his Gulf Coast home and head for New York City before he could make hi mark with the blues.

Kangaroo Westerns

He has no manners, polish, or panache. He has stubble, a low brow, and a violent temper. Thanks to filmakers from down under, he's the new Austrailian male.

Cocaine: Its Role In Dallas Cafe Society

To join the toot set at Dallas' flashiest clubs, you need voguish looks, a sturdy constitution, and a fat pocketbook.

Behind the Lines

Memories are made of this, pal.

The Knickknack Cadillac

The footloose scout in Larry McMurtry's Cadillac Jack travels on and off the beaten track in omnivorous pursuit of women and objects d'art. In The Shadow Line, New-Yorker-turned-Texan Laura Furman captures the atmosphere of Inner Loop Houston.

The Inside Skinny on Dallas Designers

Who’s who, and who’s doing what to whom: a brief guide.

The Empress’s New Clothes

What you won’t see from Dallas designers is lots of froufrou. What you will see is a look tailored for the working woman.

The Man Who Killed Judge Wood

The end of the Chagra family’s drug empire, a few words on murderer-for-hire Charles Harrelson, and the most incriminating tapes since Watergate.

The Trouble With UT

The university at one hundred; how good is it, really?

The Gods of Padre Island

Between watching girls and getting a great tan, lifeguards occasionally have to save lives.

The Midas Touch

In the past two years Kjehl Rasmussen has opened two acclaimed Dallas theaters and directed a hit musical. And that’s just for starters.

State Secrets

Taller-than-thou in Houston; Bullock and his feelings; the fate of the Boll Weevils; yellow journalism in Dallas.

Texas Monthly Reporter

Dallas a haven for mystics and misfits? La Raza Unida just a memory? Plus: a real, live train robber reminisces; public TV fades in and out; C.A. Doerge gets all pumped up.

Texas Primer: Mesquite

It looks fragile with its lacy leaves and fragrant flowers. Looks can be deceptive.

Well, Bust My Bodice

With its folksy-talking tarts and rubes, The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas tries to make a virture of vulgarity. Bard-olaters who flock to two Shakespeare-inspired offerings may be disappointed: Woody Allen’s A Midsummer Night’s Sex Comedy is puckish but prosy; Paul Mazursky’s Tempest leaves the viewer at sea.

Art Pepper’s Last Chorus

The late alto saxophonist lived a life marred by heroin addiction and prison time, but his pain was only a counterpoint to the beauty of his music.

Spiciest Africa

Ethiopian food is spiked with pungent spices, served without plates or forks, and eaten by the adventurous—and lucky—few.

Behind the Lines

The phantom building.

The New Dominion

Things are looking good for the Sunbelt, says political prognosticator Kevin P. Phillips. Unfortunately, things are looking bad for America.

Underneath Texas

The real lowdown on the Lone Star State.

State Secrets

Heads-up journalism; expensive mileage; the balkanization of the Sunbelt; wars in the oil patch.

Roar of the Crowd

Texas Monthly Reporter

Austin’s Bourbon Street; San Antonio’s food fight; the governor’s mystery museum; Green Lizards in Concan; truffles in paradise.

Texas Primer: The Tract House

It symbolizes either the American dream or the American nightmare—one or the other of which is enveloping Texas.

Kirk And Spock And Scotty And Bones

Everybody’s favorite starshippers battle a bad guy and the bulge in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. Author! Author! is nothing to write home about. The Thing is barely human. And there’s The World According to Garp, Firefox, and Blade Runner.

The King of the Forest

He’s Arthur Temple, Jr., ruler of a million acres of East Texas and the last of the timber barons.

Ol’ Man Musical

Houston Grand Opera dedicated a lot of its budget and all of its heart to producing not an opera but an American musical—Show Boat.

The Tongue-Lashing

A host of Pentecostals gathered in Dallas to hug, kiss, sing, babble, and get the chewing-out of their lives.

Behind the Lines

The good book.

The Elegiac Image

Photographer George Krause draws the viewer into a twilight world where jocks, saints, and nudes seem almost mystical.

The Comeback Of The Column

They haven’t designed any Parthenons or Colosseums yet, but architects like Robert Venturi and Michael Graves are bringing a touch of ancient Greece and Rome to Texas.

What Texas Means to Me

God created Texas, and then He created people who would love it.

The Man Who Killed Braniff

Harding Lawrence was obsessed with making Braniff great. Maybe too obsessed.

The Store That Made Jonesville Famous

And other great country stores of Texas.

The Texas Edison

A Dallas engineer you’ve probably never heard of has done more to change our daily lives than almost anyone else alive. How? He invented the silicon chip.

Immigrants

From all over the world, people are coming to Houston to find a better life. For a few of them—immigrants from Poland, Nigeria, and El Salvador—this is what it’s like.

A Generous Helping

Houston’s Stages theater gave new writers a push and established writers a pat when it put on a Texans-only playwrights’ festival.

State Secrets

Slums for sale, hardball at the Herald; bye-bye, Nueces Bay; hello, mudslinging.

Roar of the Crowd

Lies and whispers.

Texas Monthly Reporter

A job crunch hits Odessa; an all-business mayor shakes up El Paso; the Rangers fold (again); a Houston homeowner wars with his neighborhood association; grads commemorate an all-black high school.

Texas Primer: The Ghost Town

The lost hopes of places like Belle Plain haunt Texas’ prairies.

Little Alien Lost

No one should pass up a close encounter with E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial. Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid doesn’t wear well. Conan the Barbarian is nothing but muscle: Annie is nothing but bustle.

The Way To A Woman’s Heart

Just say these three little words: “Shall we dance?”

The Kid Is Blowing Them Away

In the footsteps of Louis Armstrong, Miles Davis, and other trumpet greats comes twenty-year-old Wynton Marsalis. Judging by their latest albums, Herbie Hancock, Ron Carter, and fellow veterans are doing all right too.