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Food & Drink|
February 1, 2007

Where to Eat Now 2007

Well, first and foremost, Dallas, since four of the year’s ten best new restaurants—including the top three—are there. But if you’re hip and hungry in Houston, Austin, or San Antonio, my list won’t disappoint.

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Music|
February 1, 2007

The Phenomenal Ruthie Foster

Those lucky enough to have caught RUTHIE FOSTER live, particularly years back when she sat in with the Austin gospel act the Imperial Golden Crown Harmonizers, know something her albums have never fully betrayed: She’s a stone soul singer who’s been masquerading as a folk act. No longer. THE PHENOMENAL

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Books|
February 1, 2007

Rollergirl: Totally True Tales from the Track

ROLLERGIRL: TOTALLY TRUE TALES FROM THE TRACK, the memoir from Austin roller derby star MELISSA “MELICIOUS” JOULWAN, proves the cliché: You really can’t judge a book by its cover. In this case, a photo of two leggy skaters in the miniest of skirts (and is that a flash of panty?)

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Food & Drink|
January 1, 2007

Cibo

NORMALLY I WOULDN’T DO THIS: mention tripe, tongue, and sweetbreads in the first sentence. No, no, no. The very thought of organ meats makes some people woozy. But here’s my point. A chef who makes a cow’s innards appealing—and Will Packwood emphatically does—can make anything else taste great. At two-month-old

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Music|
January 1, 2007

Andrew Shapter & Joel Rasmussen

The Austin filmmakers traveled the country to explore the state of today’s popular music for their documentary Before the Music Dies, which features interviews with Doyle Bramhall, Elvis Costello, Branford Marsalis, and Eric Clapton, among others.How is today’s hand-wringing different from just another generation’s complaining that music is no good

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Feature|
January 1, 2007

The Permanent Campaign

Elections disappear into the history books, but the buttons and matchbooks and posters that exhorted us to vote for one candidate or another live on in our memories—and in the personal collection of the state’s biggest political junkie.

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Music|
January 1, 2007

Cold, Cold World

Much has been written about BLAZE FOLEY over the yearsmaybe too much. His outsized reputation has overshadowed his recordings, which by comparison seem enigmatic, unfocused, and devoid of ambition. But this could actually describe Foley, who in his short lifetime (he was murdered in 1989 at age 39) never made

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Music|
January 1, 2007

Your Biggest Fan

There may be a wait for Austin’s next big thing. In what has to be one of the longest teases in rock history, VOXTROT has released its third consecutive EP. As in, just a measly three more songs. The group’s previous two EPs met with the kind of acclaim that

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Books|
January 1, 2007

Murder Among the OWLS: A Sheriff Dan Rhodes Mystery

MURDER AMONG THE OWLS, the fourteenth offering in BILL CRIDER’s Sheriff Dan Rhodes Mystery series, has no literary conceits; it is nothing more—nor less—than a pleasant police procedural set in the sleepy burg of Clearview. This time out, Rhodes is faced with the apparent slip-and-fall death of seventyish neighbor Helen

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Books|
January 1, 2007

Sunset Limited

Imagine a stage play with two characters in a ghetto tenement debating the value of life: White is a professor who jumped in front of a train, and Black is the ex-con who rescued him. This is the premise, weighted with all the pretensions of an Intro to Dramaturgy effort,

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Books|
January 1, 2007

Alternadad

Even the most cynical hipsters are terminally charmed by their own offspring, which explains how the birth of NEAL POLLACK’S first child, Elijah, sparked the satirist’s transformation—with the publication of ALTERNADAD and an online column of the same name—into America’s postmodern Erma Bombeck. Pollack writes of moving from Philly to

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Love Story|
August 31, 2006

Main Squeeze Blues

Saying good-bye to my dear Phyllis was the hardest thing I’ve ever done—and losing her so suddenly didn’t make it any easier. But I know I’ll see her again someday.

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Travel & Outdoors|
May 31, 2006

Water, Water Everywhere

From kayaking on Town Lake to mountain biking around Joe Pool Lake, from bass fishing on Lake Fork to horseback riding on the shores of Lake Whitney, here are some of our favorite things to do in, on, and around Texas lakes.

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Gary Cartwright|
April 1, 2006

The Beat Goes On

Coronary artery disease is an old and much-hated enemy of mine. The beast attacked me without warning in 1988 as I strolled with my Airedales along Austin’s Shoal Creek hike-and-bike trail. Last November—sacre bleu!—it got me again.

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Texas History 101|
February 1, 2006

Texas History 101

LBJ’s most important election wasn’t the presidential race he won. It was the Senate campaign he lost.

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Where I'm From|
December 1, 2005

Richard Linklater

The prison affected me personally. I grew up parking cars at the prison rodeo. I had a stepfather who was a prison guard.

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Feature|
December 1, 2005

The Lost City

A few of the streets near what used to be downtown have familiar names, but Arlington has mutated into a disconnected clump of shopping malls, cul-de-sacs, and gated communities, faceless, soulless neighborhoods that give urban sprawl a bad name.

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Gary Cartwright|
November 1, 2005

State of Dysfunction

Three Austin boys + the hatred and intolerance of their Boys State experience = a lesson in today’s democracy.

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Gary Cartwright|
April 30, 2005

Me and Him

Once upon a time I thought it was cool to question God’s existence. Not anymore.

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Music|
February 1, 2005

He’s Daniel Johnston, and He Was Gonna Be Famous

He was, for a while, and look what happened: Today one of the great songwriters in the alternative-rock universe is a 44-year-old manic-depressive living with his parents in Waller. And the worst thing about it is that he’s about to be famous again.

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The Culture|
January 1, 2005

State Secrets

The month in politics.Thousands of Texans descend on the capitol during a legislative session, ranging from lobbyists to tourists (you’ll have no trouble telling which is which). Visit during the 140 days from January 11 to May 30, and by all means take the thirty-minute guided tour. But if you

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Sports|
December 1, 2004

The Shot Not Heard Round the World

Elmo Henderson’s entire life story can be summed up in a single moment: when he stepped into the ring in San Antonio one night in 1972 and knocked out Muhammad Ali. At least that’s the way he tells it. And tells it.

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News & Politics|
December 1, 2004

Cutting Deep

A year after state legislators kicked tens of thousands of children off the taxpayer-funded health insurance rolls, our biggest public-policy problem has reached crisis proportions. And the bleeding shows no signs of letting up.

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Gary Cartwright|
June 30, 2004

One School Left Behind

Austin's Garza High is a rescuer of lost souls. Too bad President Bush's education-reform law considers it a failure.

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Lives + Times|
April 1, 2004

Road Warrior

"There were a lot of wild nights, people taking us in and offering us whatever they had. There were a lot of those 'offerings.'"

As told to

Music|
April 1, 2004

City Girl

"I moved to Austin in 1974, and it was this kind of magical place. The whole alternative culture controlled the town."

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Music|
April 1, 2004

Spoon at a Fork

According to Time, the Austin rock-pop trio Spoon "just might be your next favorite band." But Britt Daniel and the boys have been burned by such pronouncements before, so this time they’re carefully considering their options—and, as always, putting their music first.

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Food & Drink|
March 1, 2004

Happening

For Chow Hounds Whether you’re a native or naturalized Texan, you should be ashamed of starting your day with a latte and a toaster tart. Get in the swing by having a “cowboy breakfast,” a diet-defying spread of scrambled eggs, home fries, biscuits, gravy, sausage, strong coffee, and more. An

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Food & Drink|
February 1, 2004

Where to Eat Now 2004

Now serving: the best new restaurants in Texas, including a glamorous international kitchen in Dallas, a hot sushi spot in Austin, and—the best of them all—a drop-dead room with a globe-trotting menu in Houston.

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Law|
April 1, 2002

I, the Juror

As a "recovering" attorney with a mixed record at picking juries, I always wondered what made them tick. After receiving a summons this year, I'm still deliberating.

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Web Exclusive|
June 30, 2001

Breaking Away

The story behind this month's cover story, "Lance Armstrong Has Something to Get Off His Chest."

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