MO’ BETTER Fifty-two-year-old blues artist Keb’ Mo’ (born Kevin Moore) just released Keep It Simple and will be playing at the One World Theatre, in Austin, March 4. How would you describe your new album? I’d say it’s a labor of love, and it’s a set of songs made
ROOT CAUSE Modern music would likely sound very different if not for song collectors. Consider John A. Lomax. In the early 1900’s, the American granddaddy of field recorders trekked 200,000 miles around the U.S. to document folk music, ignoring the advice of his University of Texas professors who said that
BLUES CLUES Once in a blue moon, a blue-ribbon month like this comes along. And your true-blue friends at this magazine will talk till they’re blue in the face if that’s what it takes for you to notice. Sensing a theme? Yes, March is a blues-filled 31 days, so between
GREEN DAYS Austin is known for its music scene and for its slackers (offset a little by the Internet start-up entrepreneurs in the late nineties), but the state capital is also famous for being green—in more ways than one. And this month—the first break from cedar fever since December—is the
Life, death, and Max Soffar.
A MUSE, ME Fernande Olivier must have been a heck of a girl. At least Picasso seems to have thought so between the spring and fall of 1909, when his imagination was so captured by her that he produced more than sixty heads, busts, and half- and full-length cubist representations
AUSTIN POWER Let me set you a scene, one I’ve participated in often during many a pleasantry-exchanging encounter: “So where are you from?” inquires a new acquaintance. “Austin,” I reply, with a smile on my face. “Oh, you must love it. Austin’s a great city.” Time and time again, I’ve
WHAT, THIS OLD THING? Some women think about killing out of jealousy or love. Others for a Judith Leiber handbag. To fans of Leiber’s work, “handbag” is a dirty word; they prefer “minaudière.” They’ll speak breathlessly of the tiny sparkling jewels or the shapes: the asparagus, the springer spaniel, the
HOT TIME IN THE CITY It takes a lot of planning to get ready for the nation’s biggest party. Just ask Houston city officials, who have been preparing for Super Bowl XXXVIII for the past three years. Those who want to revel in the hoopla can attend any (or all)
Me for governor, continued.
Nellie Connally, now and always.
My Jerry Jeff Walker.
THE DEFENSE NEVER RESTS Harvard law professor and criminal-defense attorney Alan Dershowitz, whose list of clients has included Patty Hearst, Michael Milken, Jim Bakker, Mike Tyson, and O. J. Simpson, will be speaking in Austin on January 15.There seem to be a lot of high-profile cases going on all at
PLAY DATE The last time I went to the theater? Well, that would have been for a production of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest—four years ago. I can hear the collective rolling over of dead playwrights in their graves upon an admission of such neglect. So, in the spirit
POW! Funny that during the winter, when Austin’s famous colony of Mexican free-tailed bats has migrated to Mexico, allusions to the chiropterans take wing. On January 8, the Alamo Drafthouse, in Austin, will screen the original 1966 Batman movie, starring Adam West and Burt Ward. The Alamo hopes to show
WOW TOWN It isn’t often that you find world-famous museums down the street from a high school football stadium. But that’s Fort Worth—it has something for everyone. And from January 22 through 25, the offerings are especially fine, beginning Thursday night with a concert by progressive-country rocker Jerry Jeff Walker
My hair apparent.
YOU DON’T KNOW DIDDLEY Seventy-four-year-old Bo Diddley, whose innovative rhythms have inspired generations of rockers, will be performing December 27 at Gilley’s in Dallas.What are you doing these days?I’m working. Doing my good old clean rock and roll. I’m putting together this song now with one of my granddaughters called
HALLELUJAH It’s too easy to limit your holiday music selection to whatever tune is blaring over the sound system at the mall or another “everyone-join-in” performance of Messiah. We challenge you to expand your repertoire. Excellent Texas choirs affiliated with the Gay and Lesbian Association of Choruses present music celebrating
‘TIS THE SEASON Don your gay apparel and fa-la-la-la-la your way to Dallas December 4-7 for a long weekend sure to make you jolly. On Thursday evening the Dallas Mavericks (yes, good things come in big packages too) take on the superstar-studded Los Angeles Lakers at the American Airlines Center.
DON’T STOP BELIEVING Usually everyone is so busy trying to avoid the crowds during the holidays that we forget to sit back and enjoy the season. This time around, we invite you to embrace the clichés—see the lights, drink eggnog, listen to “Jingle Bells” over and over again. And one
Once upon a time, there was a writer it doesn't matter which writerwith talent to burn. Wanna guess how the story ends?
Long before The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, there was “La Grange,” a blues shuffle that rolled onto radio in brazen celebration of the state’s unofficial rest stop. ZZ Top already boasted a string of minor successes, but “La Grange” recruited an armada of beer drinkers and hell-raisers and launched
Being labeled a pioneer in modern jazz is the musical equivalent of making the cover of Sports Illustrated; you almost never live up to anyone’s expectations. Yet after his third stunning album in a row (and fifth overall), Jason Moran is looking more and more like he’s beaten the curse.
It’s a sad commentary on the state of rock music when an angry young man gets treated as something of a novelty. Steve Earle is one of the few artists willing and—more important—able to translate his passion into great music. Just an American Boy: The Audio Documentary (Artemis), a live
Before the curtain rises on DBC Pierre‘s coal-black comedy Vernon God Little (Canongate), fifteen-year-old Vernon Little is just another potty-mouthed high school loser trapped in the fictional Texas town of Martirio. After his much-abused friend Jesus shoots sixteen classmates and then himself, Vernon is branded a probable psychokiller (or at
The King Is Dead (Knopf), Austinite Jim Lewis‘s sterling novel of politics, race, fidelity, and regret, is a model of literary economy. In an epicworthy tale packed into a brisk 260 pages, Walter Selby, a top aide to Tennessee’s governor, wrestles with the dodgy ethics of political life and the
How much Larry McMurtry is too much? Ready or not, here he comes again with the third installment of his seriocomic Berrybender Narratives a scant six months after book two. By Sorrow’s River (Simon & Schuster) won’t win him another Pulitzer, but the pages blow by like a prairie wind
YOUNG BUCK Satirist Christopher Buckley will be speaking November 3 at the Celebration of Reading in Dallas.First of all, I hear your power is out in Washington. Are all the phones working? We have phones but no electricity, so we’re essentially back to the days before answering machines, which may
XTREME SPORTS Some tough decisions need to be made in Houston, and I’m not talking about the mayor’s race. You’ll want to be there to hear “Ladies and gentlemen, U.S. Open winner Andy Roddick” when the onetime (and soon-to-be-part-time) Austinite is introduced at the Tennis Masters Cup, which takes place
NUMBER ONE FAN Some favor the celebrities of the big screen, others bow at the altars of superstar athletes. We, however, prefer master wordsmiths. Luckily for us, this month offers plenty of reasons to break out the Sharpie. Former first couple George and Barbara Bush host heavyweights Michael Beschloss, Christopher
LIVE LONG AND PROSPER Before the Empire struck back, there was the Federation and the USS Enterprise. Gene Roddenberry’s Star Trek, which first aired on the small screen from 1966 to 1969, ingeniously used science fiction to address real-life issues like race and gender relations, gaining a cultlike following of
DEAR JOHN November 22, 1963—like September 11, 2001—was a watershed date. On one side lay the optimism of John F. Kennedy’s Camelot, on the other the disillusionment and unrest that followed his assassination. The nation is still fixated on that fateful day—the motorcade through downtown Dallas, the blood on Jackie’s
A whole Lottie love.
Jack Ruby: A killer role model.
TAKE IT OUTSIDE There’s almost no substitute for an Austin City Limits taping. For starters, it’s free. Throw in the gratis drinks, the intimate setting, and the impressive acts, and it can’t be beat as a night on the town, even if the show is recorded on a studio set
CRASH COURSE True Renaissance men (or perhaps today we should say “Renaissance people”) spend years mastering their broad-ranging interests. But for us wannabes, the Bayou City offers a shortcut to enlightenment the weekend of September 19-21. Well-roundedness 101 starts on Friday with a lesson in art. The Blaffer Gallery examines
FAIR PLAY A little town to the west of Dallas gets a lot of ink in the national press for its stellar museums—and rightfully so. But Big D has its share of institutions that deserve recognition too. And this month you’ll discover there’s a lot to look at. Begin at
SUPER MODEL Jerry Hall will be performing the role of Mrs. Robinson in The Graduate September 1721 in Austin and September 23October 5 in Houston. Was modeling your first job? Did you ever have to sell shoes or anything like that? Yeah, I worked at the Dairy Queen and Wyatt’s
BACK TO THE FUTURE For those of you mid-thirtysomethings and early-fortysomethings who think you’re still cool, I’ve got news: Not. But this month, you can relive your glory days—the eighties. First, rent a few flicks (Sixteen Candles, Fast Times at Ridgemont High, and Valley Girl) to set the mood. Then,
SHAKE, RATTLE, AND ROLL When summertime playlists begin to sound like good elevator music and Paradise Hotel seems like quality TV programming, you know it’s time for a change. And there’s no better way to get rid of a funk than with some live tunes—rocking or otherwise. Check out the
FOR THE GOOD TIMES Singer-songwriter Kris Kristofferson will be inducted by Willie Nelson into the Texas Country Music Hall of Fame in Carthage on August 16. I’ve always thought that Hawaii has a lot in common with Texas. My old friends always say I’ve gone back home. Oh, yeah?
COWBOY JUNKIESIf you’re anything like the city slicker I am, then the closest you’ve come to experiencing the West is through books and movies —not all of us have that urge to visit a working ranch à la Billy Crystal. But this month we can get even closer to rough-ridin’
The toughest cookies I know.
I'm mental over the Dixie Chicks.
Yes, I am a dip.
