As a landowner of Devils River property for 75 years, I can assure you, Mr. Gwynne, that the only reason the Devils River is the pure and pristine river it is today is because of those ornery landowners, who were, and still are, trying their best to preserve for future
The state agency that’s supposed to protect you is a captive of the industry you need protection from.
Georgetown
And I will soon be a soldier in Iraq—again. Here’s what’s going through my mind.
They’re obvious to everyone except, apparently, the people we elected to fix Texas. They include some easy solutions and at least one that will probably get me a lot of hate mail (but that doesn’t mean I’m wrong).
At restaurants across Texas, there are any number of things that taste better dipped in egg and milk, dredged in flour, and pan-fried in hot oil. If you think steak is the only chicken-fried, uh, delicacy, wake up and smell the bacon. And the antelope. And the lobster. And…
The fastest-growing church in the world. The biggest congregation this side of the Vatican. The highest ratings of any religious broadcaster. One of the best-selling religious books in years. Can Joel Osteen get an “Amen”?
Is DWB (driving while barefoot) illegal?
I’m in love with you, cherry lime.
John MorthlandWhen writer-at-large John Morthland first started writing about food, in the eighties, he turned to what he liked best: “Barbecue, Cajun, regional American stuff,” he says. “Comfort food.” So cataloging chicken-fried cuisine around the state for “Grease” was easy as pie. “I already had a mental file of
If you were of the first to latch on to Archie Bell and the Drells’ “Tighten Up” back in 1968, you probably bought the 45 on the tiny Ovide label. When the single took off, Atlantic Records stepped in, and thanks in no small part to the sale of Archie
“Dependable” is a good word for DELBERT MCCLINTON’s music. After thirty years and eighteen albums, there aren’t a whole lot of surprises; few artists have stuck so tenaciously to their guns. Here’s why: Mc-Clinton’s seamless splicing of blues, rock and roll, and country, driven by a fixation with roadhouse R&B,
RODNEY CROWELL, the talented Houston-born songwriter who began recording in the late seventies, has followed an uneven road to success. At times he’s sounded adrift or bored, trapped by the “progressive country” parameters he imposed on himself. But starting in 2001, something clicked. First came The Houston Kid, followed by
Rick Perry wins a few rounds.
El Paso’s BENJAMIN ALIRE SAENZ doesn’t do easy. Death, racism, child molestation, and U.S.-Mexico border issues are just a few of the topics he grazes in his dignified but heart-wrenching novel In Perfect Light. Meet Andrés Segovia and Grace Delgado. Segovia is a conundrum, an intelligent and en-gaging man whose
Aspiring writers embarking on their first caper novel will find much to emulate in The Rogues’ Game (St. Martin’s), a rollicking debut by Tyler’s MILTON T. BURTON. It features all the excitement that a 1947 West Texas oil town can muster: a mysterious out-of-towner in a Lincoln convertible, a sassy
The year is 1991, the city is Austin, and a young black girl is killed by a stray bullet meant for her political activist mother, Virginia Key. So opens Body Scissors (Viking), the notable second thriller from MICHAEL SIMON featuring the Capital City’s lone Jewish homicide detective, Dan Reles. The
What high school is really like.
August—People, Places, Events, Attractions08.08.2005To celebrate its twenty-fifth anniversary, the Inprint Brown Reading Series has invited a writer whose penchant for eccentricity, outspokenness, and outlandishness (in print at least) equals that of his host city. John Irving, that master of weirdly irresistible characters and extravagant, tragically comic plots (or is it
A friendship with Curt Schilling, virtually.
At the Cibolo Nature Center, preservation is always on the brain.
Over the years, Texas has had a starring role in moviemaking.
Senior executive editor Paul Burka and writer-at-large Patricia Kilday Hart on politics and the Ten Best and Ten Worst Legislators.
Texas and oil—it all started when bubblin’ crude spewed out of Spindletop on January 10, 1901.
Recipe from executive chef Michael Scholz, Riccardi’s, Dallas
We went to Schlitterbahn and had one of the hottest, coolest times in Texas.
She’s searched through ancient manuscripts, dined at the finest restaurants in cities like Bangkok and Paris, and traveled through mountain villages in the Andes and Himalayas. She’s painted the Capsicum pepper genus, grown as many as 81 varieties of peppers at one time, and published books entitled The Pepper Trail
THE GREENCARDS—so named because they’re two Australians and one Brit—got together in 2002 in Austin, where their organic acoustic pop garnered instant acclaim. Recently they deserted their adopted hometown for Music City with an eye on the big time. A good idea? If you count touring with Bob Dylan and
Dense with smoke and sweating booze from its pores, the music on JEFF KLEIN’s THE HUSTLER (One Little Indian), his third album, completely inhabits New Orleans, the city of its inception. In reaction to his previous singer- songwriter-type efforts, Austin’s Klein has traveled to the Big Easy to make an
Now and then, a young artist arrives with such confidence that you wonder where he or she has been hiding. In Robyn Ludwick’s case, it was in Bandera, where she learned to play, then in the anonymity of Austin’s open-mike scene, where she cut her teeth. Admittedly, she had a
San Antonian RICK RIORDAN returns the Alamo City’s most offbeat private investigator to action in MISSION ROAD (Bantam), the most fully realized of his six Tres Navarre novels to date. The road in question was the scene of multiple unsolved sexual assaults and homicides. When the cases, cold for at
The 1,081 citizens of Terrell County will recognize their desolate swath of Texas-Mexico borderlands as the backdrop of NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN (Knopf), CORMAC MCCARTHY’s first novel since 1998’s Cities of the Plain. It’s in this harsh territory—prime country for illicit trafficking—that retired welder Llewelyn Moss stumbles across the
There is a stylistic no-man’s-land where many an alleged comic novel has crashed with a resounding thud. But Dallasite WILL CLARKE navigates the terrain with reckless abandon in his wry and inventive debut, LORD VISHNU’S LOVE HANDLES: A SPY NOVEL (SORT OF) (Simon & Schuster). Meet Travis Anderson, whose psychic
Catching up with characters from our pages—A new owner for Cornudas.
Freelance writer Jim Lewis on the Somali Bantu refugees in San Antonio and what they think of the United States.
Writer-at-large Jim Atkinson on protecting yourself against skin cancer, checking suspicious-looking moles, and how he researches health topics.
Senior editor Pamela Colloff on the lesbian partners in Bloomburg whose relationship got them fired by the school board.
Editor Evan Smith, who sat down with Lance Armstrong (above) for this month’s cover story, talks about the six-time Tour de France winner and the secret to getting a great interview.
“Old-timers’ Day” [May 2005] is the best thing that’s been in Texas Monthly in years. I’ve always enjoyed both Gary Cartwright and Dan Jenkins, but this was like sitting and listening to them argue and tell stories over a long lunch. Please persuade, cajole, bribe, or threaten both these
When the girls’ basketball coach at the only high school in Bloomburg moved in with another woman, it cost her a job and at least a few friends. But the tumult over a lesbian relationship in this tiny East Texas town wasn’t the end of the story.
Cool QuaffIf any drink is identified with the Fourth of July, it’s lemonade. And the best “lemonade” in Texas comes from famously quirky Houston Mexican restaurant Irma’s. This rustic pink refresher is made from fresh fruit— just about every variety in the universe—and while owner Irma N. Galvan’s exact recipe
It’s the Sistine Chapel wallpaper on the walls and ceiling of the entry that clues you in: “Hip” Riccardi’s is not. The Dallas establishment may be new, but its heart belongs to an earlier time—when restaurants looked like dining rooms, not stage sets; when waiters didn’t try to be
Here comes the sun.
It can be achieved—if you have a surprise wedding.
July—People, Places, Events, Attractions07.02.2005In the summer of 1955 a Hollywood imperial army invaded the small West Texas town of Marfa. For five weeks acclaimed filmmaker George Stevens and a huge Warner Bros. cast and crew labored on nearby drought-stricken ranchland to create Giant, the story of the lordly Benedicts—played by
She shares that curious fact with you for posterior’s— er, posterity’s sake. What you really need to know about the shopgirl turned shoplifter is that her rehabilitation is continuing apace atop Dallas’ social heap. And thanks to a new reality show about her life, there’s no end in sight.
If you were a Somali refugee arriving in San Antonio—and America—for the first time, with a family in tow and no modern life skills to speak of, what would you do? Eat chicken, shop at H-E-B, and figure out how to pay the rent.
A short, illustrated history of my childhood. And Wes’s too.
A few lawmakers in both parties distinguished themselves during one of the worst sessions anyone can remember. As for the rest? Well, in the words of Jon Stewart, that famous observer of Texas politics: not so much.
For starters, even though its self- image is big and brash, it’s the most politically wimpy city in Texas.
