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By Sunday, Texans will know whether the hemp-derived THC products that have been legal in the state since 2019 will be banned as of September 1. During the Eighty-Ninth Legislature, lawmakers passed Senate Bill 3, which would end a $5.5 billion industry and which now sits on Governor Greg Abbott’s desk. Sunday is the deadline for him to either veto the bill—breaking with Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick, who made SB 3 a priority during the session and pushed it through both chambers with zeal—or allow it to become law. Lukas Gilkey, an Austin-based U.S. Coast Guard veteran, cofounded the cannabis company Hometown Hero, which has been producing hemp-derived THC products since 2019, and has emerged as one of the most outspoken opponents of the ban. The…The post “What in the World Would Justify Doing This?”: A Texas Vet and Hemp-Business Owner on the Looming THC Ban appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Many Texans pay only passing attention to what happens at the Texas Legislature. But occasionally a story escapes the bubble around the Capitol, and burrows into the frontal cortex—and social media feeds—of normies. Suddenly, millions of Texans are made to wonder, Who are these people and what are they thinking? During the Eighty-ninth Legislature, which wrapped up its work on June 2, lawmakers passed monumental bills: another round of property tax relief, a private school voucher program that could permanently hobble public schools, and a $20 billion investment in water infrastructure. But it is their total ban on THC products that seems to have caught fire with the public.Governor Greg Abbott now faces an unusual political dilemma. By June 22, he will have to decide…The post With THC Ban, Greg Abbott Has a Choice: Personal Freedom or Nanny State appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Theodore Francis knew when he walked into his African American History class on a Thursday in early April that things could go sideways. The Abilene Christian University associate professor presents as warm and engaging, not confrontational. But he was aware he’d taken a risk with his prepared lesson.That morning, surrounded by blank whiteboards, Francis asked students to read and discuss an executive order issued by President Donald Trump’s administration days earlier, one purporting to restore “Truth and Sanity to American History.” The order—which targets the Smithsonian Institution and other federal museums for featuring exhibits that refer to race as a social construct and promote gender inclusivity—prohibits programs that “degrade shared American values” or “divide Americans based on race.”The order struck at the core of Francis’s…The post As Diversity Programs Come Under Fire, a West Texas Christian University Stays Faithful appeared first on Texas Monthly.
After 65 football seasons, two television shows, and two movies, the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders are finally getting paid.In the seventh episode of the latest season of Netflix’s hugely popular America’s Sweethearts: Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders, multiple team members revealed that they’d recently received a 400 percent pay raise—a change that DCC director Kelli Finglass called “long overdue.” While the new hourly wage wasn’t disclosed during the episode, a 2017 federal lawsuit the cheerleaders brought against the Cowboys revealed that they were allegedly paid only $8 an hour. That salary was well below the roughly $23-per-hour rate currently considered a “living wage” in the Dallas area, and three times less than the $25-per-hour wage of the Cowboys’ male mascot, Rowdy. Due to the meager rate, the first season…The post Why Did It Take 65 Seasons to Pay the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders a Living Wage? appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Tickets go on sale June 24 at 11 a.m. CDT on https://www.texasmonthly.com/event/2025-texas-monthly-bbq-fest-in-lockhart/ To access early-bird tickets, you must be logged into your account. Make sure you can log in ahead of time! Each BBQ Club member may purchase up to 4 tickets. Early bird tickets will sell out FAST. Make sure you’re ready to purchase at 11 a.m. sharp! Your access code will be emailed to you the morning of June 24. You can also check back here to find it. Don’t forget to set a reminder, because we do expect tickets—especially VIP—to sell out quickly! All remaining tickets will become available on July 1 at 11 a.m. CDT.Questions? Email us at tmbbqclub@texasmonthly.com.The post TM BBQ Fest 2025: Early Bird Ticket Information appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Texas barbecue has drawn many cultural collaborations from around the world over the past few years. Joints have paired their smoked meats with Ethiopian, Vietnamese, Egyptian, and Japanese cuisines. At Parish Barbecue, in Austin, owner and pitmaster Holden Fulco is looking just across the eastern border, to his home state of Louisiana, for menu inspiration at his new food truck. He’s parked outside craft brewery Batch and has been serving on a regular schedule since March.When Fulco was attending Louisiana Tech, in northern Louisiana, his parents hoped he would stick with his prelaw path. He switched majors several times, even dabbling in sportswriting, but eventually got a business degree. Instead of seeking internships after college, he went to Houston to work at Pinkerton’s Barbecue. “Sometimes…The post Austin’s Got Another Hot New BBQ Joint. This One’s Taking Inspiration From Louisiana. appeared first on Texas Monthly.
James McMurtry took the stage at promptly ten o’clock, dressed in a loose white guayabera and a matching wide-brimmed fedora reminiscent of the one Bob Dylan wore during the Rolling Thunder Revue tour. When he’s not on the road, the singer plays a residency at the Continental Club, on Austin’s South Congress, twice a week—one night with his full band, one night solo. On a recent Tuesday, the small venue was full, standing room only. The crowd members trended older and looked comfortable, like regulars who were committed to their routine. McMurtry began with few strums on the guitar before the band chugged in behind him, breaking into “Childish Things,” a song narrated by an aging, disillusioned man who “[doesn’t] believe in heaven but . . . still believe[s] in ghosts.”Like…The post James McMurtry Won’t Play His Famous Populist Anthem Anymore appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Texas picked up several medals last night at the thirty-fifth annual James Beard Foundation Restaurant and Chef Awards, held in Chicago. Arjav Ezekiel of the counter-service prix fixe restaurant Birdie’s, in Austin, won Outstanding Professional in Beverage Service, a national award. Best Chef: Texas went to Thomas Bille, of the Mexican-influenced restaurant Belly of the Beast, in Spring, outside Houston. Previously announced honorees included Chad Houser, who won Humanitarian of the Year for his work with Dallas youth at Cafe Momentum, and editor and author Toni Tipton-Martin, winner of the Lifetime Achievement Award. Gaido’s, the beloved shrine to Gulf seafood in Galveston, was recognized with an America’s Classics Award.It was a night that highlighted the many contributions immigrants have made to the restaurant industry. Both…The post There Was One Great Surprise Among the Texas Winners of the 2025 James Beard Awards appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Texas Monthly is excited to announce two new members of the editorial team: Emma Balter, who comes to us from Houstonia, and Jack Sullivan, who previously worked at Air Mail.Originally from France, Balter got her start in journalism at Wine Spectator, where she edited travel stories, wine reviews, and restaurant news. Eager to escape the New York cold and drawn to Texas’s promise of great opportunity and quality of life, she moved to Houston in 2020. She worked at the Houston Chronicle as a features reporter covering food, travel, and culture and then as the editor of the food section at Chron.com. In 2023, Balter became the editor in chief of Houstonia, where she oversaw the magazine’s award-winning package analyzing the Bayou City’s massive growth…The post Emma Balter and Jack Sullivan Join Texas Monthly appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Before I visited the Brooks County Safety Rest Area, an hour and a half southwest of Corpus Christi, I looked it up on a bird tracking app. Although it’s a destination on the Great Texas Coastal Birding Trail, I was suspicious, chiefly because I couldn’t imagine a rest area being a destination for anything. But the popular app eBird confirmed that birders frequently visit the stop: Isidro spotted two golden-fronted woodpeckers; Pam saw two hooded orioles and a plague of grackles; Steve identified a Baltimore oriole.As you might expect at a rest area, many of the sightings were described on eBird as “incidental,” occurring when visitors were doing something besides birding (i.e., scampering to and from the restrooms or buying snacks). But then there were…The post How a Small Architecture Firm Designs Texas’s Prettiest Rest Areas appeared first on Texas Monthly.
The town hall was proving to be yet another disaster for the Las Vegas Sands Corporation. The Irving Convention Center was jammed with several hundred angry North Texans. They held signs that read “Don’t Vegas My Irving” and circulated flyers warning that “predatory gambling” breeds crime, failed marriages, and addiction. Three days later, on March 17, a city commission was set to consider a contentious zoning change. It would permit Sands to someday build a “destination resort” complex on land adjacent to the site of the demolished Texas Stadium, the home of the Dallas Cowboys until 2008. The proposal also conspicuously allowed for a casino as part of the resort. It was a peculiar concept. Other than two Native American–owned properties in far-flung parts of the…The post How a Vegas Billionaire’s Plan to Bring Casinos to Texas Went Bust appeared first on Texas Monthly.
As President Trump’s multimillion-dollar military parade and festival commenced in Washington, D.C., on Saturday, “No Kings” marches—billed by organizers as a rejection of authoritarianism—filled the streets of cities nationwide. In Texas, protesters marched in dozens of cities, from El Paso to Beaumont, Brownsville to Wichita Falls, waving flags and signs objecting to the administration’s policies. Following a series of actions protesting Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids in cities including Austin and San Antonio, Saturday’s events made up the largest protest to take place so far during Trump’s second term.Before the protests, Governor Greg Abbott deployed five thousand Texas Army National Guard members and at least two thousand Department of Public Safety troopers to cities across the state, warning protesters on X that they would be…The post Scenes From “No Kings” Day Protests Across Texas appeared first on Texas Monthly.
This week, the Recording Academy announced a big change to the way it honors country music at the Grammys. From 1995 through this year, it presented the Best Country Album trophy to the best release in the genre during the preceding year. Starting in 2026, however, the single award will become two separate ones: Best Contemporary Country Album and Best Traditional Country Album. It’s a much-anticipated change that comes at an auspicious time. The final honoree in the original category was, of course, Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter—a win back in February that shocked most of the industry (and Bey herself), given the star’s dearth of support in Nashville, country music’s center of power. She became the first Black artist to claim the award. Now, on the heels…The post Beyoncé Won Best Country Album. Now the Award Doesn’t Exist. appeared first on Texas Monthly.
This has been a hell of a week in MAGA land. The movement’s leader is, once more, president-elect of the United States. Former Florida Congressman Matt Gaetz has been announced as Donald Trump’s pick to lead the Department of Justice, the very agency that recently investigated Gaetz on allegations of sex trafficking. Democratic congresswoman turned MAGA loyalist Tulsi Gabbard has been nominated to be the new director of national intelligence; a Fox News host is a Senate confirmation away from leading the world’s most powerful military, while anti-vaccine crusader and former brain-worm haver Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is Trump’s pick to lead the Department of Health and Human Services. Elon Musk is just kinda hanging out at Mar-a-Lago, sitting in on phone calls Trump is…The post Area Man’s Website Purchased by Satirical Newspaper appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Growing up in Cypress, about 25 miles northwest of Houston, EJ and AK Odjighoro felt like any other boys in Texas. They went to Whataburger, drove into the city when their parents would permit it, and spent Friday nights at high school football games. It was only after the duo—who record music under the name Kairo—began college at the University of Houston that their experience as twins and immigrants from Nigeria was contextualized in a new way.As soon as the brothers, who are now 23 years old, arrived on campus, they realized just how homogeneous their suburban community had been, despite the fact that they’d run with what they call a “diverse” friend group. It was this eye-opening realization that informed Kairo’s origin. Blending pop, R&B,…The post Twins Born in Nigeria and Raised in Texas Tell Their Unique Story With Music appeared first on Texas Monthly.
A WNBA team may come to Austin, thanks to a multimillion-dollar bid led by former Texas Longhorns basketball champion Fran Harris. The women’s pro hoops league has already formalized plans to add franchises in Portland, San Francisco, and Toronto over the next two seasons, with room for one more city to join the league and bring the WNBA’s total number of teams to sixteen by 2028. Harris, a Dallas native who led UT women’s basketball to a national championship in 1986 and played for the WNBA-champion Houston Comets during the league’s inaugural season, told Texas Monthly she’d been dreaming about an opportunity like this for more than twenty years. “My first thought about ownership was the first day of the WNBA, in 1997, walking on that…The post A Longhorn Legend Is Leading Austin’s Bid for a WNBA Expansion Team appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Each month, we get to know one of the state’s many wonderful and quirky critters. Latin name: Falco sparveriusSize: 8 to 12 inches long; wingspan is 20 to 24 inchesTexas habitat: Statewide North America’s smallest and most numerous falcon flocks to Texas throughout fall and winter, hunting our grasslands and even our suburbs. With their acrobatic flying maneuvers and tawny and blue-gray plumage, American kestrels are a joy to watch. “They have that feisty attitude,” says Jim Bednarz, a professor and avian ecologist at the University of North Texas, in Denton, who studies kestrel migration patterns. “I like to call them badasses.” But kestrels are also experiencing a perplexing population decline. Badasses? Tell me more.These flashy fliers put on a show, defending their territory from much larger raptors,…The post Welcome to Prime Kestrel-Watching Time in Texas appeared first on Texas Monthly.
In 2017, Gustavo De Los Rios had a brush with death. The Monterrey, Mexico, native had recently spent close to twenty years working in the hospitality industry, doing everything from being a partner in a restaurant near Mesquite to DJing and booking music acts.Unfortunately, the money De Los Rios made from his various jobs hadn’t been sufficient to support his family. When his wife had become pregnant with their daughter and couldn’t work, the family began falling behind on the bills. De Los Rios had struggled to balance his time between work and family, and he’d hardly seen his daughter for the first month after she was born.In an effort to be around more frequently, he had sold his share of the restaurant and taken…The post A Dallas Taqueria Settles Into Life After Viral Fame appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Moo Deng this, Moo Deng that. Texas has its own celebrity pygmy hippo now, not to mention many live video streams of animals that aren’t asleep when we’re all awake. I write this as I stare into the night vision Moo Deng live stream, where a spider has taken up residence on the camera lens at two in the morning Thai time. Someone has written in the chat, “WHERE THE HIPPO.” Where the hippo indeed!Regardless of your feelings on last week’s election, it’s likely you’re looking for a way to decompress and get away from the news cycle for a bit. That’s why we’ve compiled these Texas-based critter cams, set up in zoos and backyards and sanctuaries and more. So pause your doomscrolling and take…The post Nine Texas Animal Webcams to Alleviate Your Existential Dread appeared first on Texas Monthly.
I am standing atop an eighty-foot-tall synthetic lung made of metal and plastic. In its scale and ambition, it’s unlike anything else in Texas, or the Western Hemisphere, for that matter. Its existence leads me to feel something rare in the world of energy and climate: optimism.The machine is a key component of Occidental Petroleum’s nearly complete $1.3 billion direct air capture facility called Stratos. When it’s turned on, in mid-2025, it will suck in industrial mouthfuls of air and strip out the carbon dioxide. That gas, a driving force behind climate change, will get diverted into pipelines and then pumped some five thousand feet into the earth to be buried within porous rocks. The transformed air it exhales into the atmosphere will have as…The post New Hope to Combat Climate Change—From an Oil Giant? appeared first on Texas Monthly.
There are always indicators when a small Texas town is destined for something great. Duck confit pops up on a restaurant menu. A technology start-up moves in. And, at least in the case of Luling, the largest convenience store on the planet opens its doors. Sitting at the confluence of Interstate 10, U.S. 183, U.S. 90, and Texas Highway 80, this farming-and-ranching community celebrated its 150th anniversary this year, and its nickname—the Crossroads to Everywhere—feels particularly apt. Most tourists venture to Luling in pursuit of classic Central Texas barbecue or world-class watermelons, which, born of a fortuitous combination of loamy soil and unrelenting sunshine, grow here in motley abundance and have been celebrated for more than seventy years by townspeople—and now around 30,000 visitors—on the last…The post Luling Isn’t as Quaint as It Seems appeared first on Texas Monthly.
The name David Zychek is likely not a familiar one to the world at large. For denizens of the Central Texas music scene, however—especially those who were around from the seventies to the nineties and even beyond—Zychek is synonymous with raucous electric guitar. And though the rock and roll hero died a mostly unsung legend of the genre eight years ago at the age of 64, a new documentary film by two fellow Wacoans aims to ensure that his legacy will live on.Z: The Story of Zychek, by Anna and Troy Shaw, offers a celebration of Zychek’s life by shining a deserving spotlight on the virtuosic talents he possessed with the guitar, but also by giving a nod to his lasting impact on the local…The post Meet David Zychek, the Greatest Guitar Player You’ve Never Heard Of appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Senator John Cornyn lost his election Wednesday to become the next Senate majority leader to Senator John Thune, of South Dakota, ending a years-long effort to lead his party conference.Senator Mitch McConnell, of Kentucky, announced earlier this year that he would not seek another term leading the party, ending his seventeen-year tenure. He is the longest-serving party leader in the history of the U.S. Senate. The opening led to the first competitive, open campaign for GOP leader in decades, the stakes of which were raised after Republicans won control of the upper chamber last week.Cornyn had spent decades climbing the ranks of the Senate GOP, building relationships and raising money that would be crucial in the vote. But those proved insufficient in wooing a majority…The post John Cornyn Loses Senate Leadership Race to South Dakota’s John Thune appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Ronnie Dunn’s name doesn’t always get to shine on its own. It’s usually trailing that of his longtime bandmate Kix Brooks. As Brooks & Dunn, the two men make up one of country music’s most iconic duos. They’ve sold tens of millions of records, released twenty number one singles, and racked up dozens of Grammy, Country Music Association, and Academy of Country Music awards since they joined forces in the early nineties. Their 1992 single “Neon Moon,” which Dunn penned on his own, is often cited as one of the best country songs of all time. Dunn was born in Coleman, a small town about an hour southeast of Abilene, and moved around frequently as a kid before graduating from high school in Port Isabel.…The post Ronnie Dunn Never Had a Plan B appeared first on Texas Monthly.
If experts are to be believed, San Antonio is finally closing in on its moment. Henry Cisneros, who has written not one but two books about his hometown’s potential, told me so, celebrating the immense changes he has seen since he left the mayor’s office in 1989. “The city is booming,” he said, in the silky pitchman’s tone that he honed during decades as a public servant. “It’s a fundamentally different place.” Fundamentally different, that is, from the San Antonio where I grew up, with its chasmic social, racial, and economic divisions. A city where people would allude to the local “mañana mentality,” a nod to the town’s leisurely pace as well as a euphemism some use to implicitly blame Latinos for its failure to thrive.…The post San Antonio Is Booming. Why Is It Still So Poor? appeared first on Texas Monthly.
In the seventeenth century, the government of New Spain established a network of trails based on Indigenous trade routes that it called El Camino Real de los Tejanos, in part to prevent the French from moving beyond Louisiana’s western border. But the French have finally succeeded in invading Texas, and they’ve brought with them their opinions on our dining scene.On July 16 Michelin, the French tire company whose restaurant guides are vaunted the world over, announced it was coming to the Lone Star State. At that point, its anonymous inspectors were already on the ground eating in Austin, Dallas, Fort Worth, Houston, and San Antonio, and, as Michelin’s press release stated, they were as interested in evaluating barbecue, seafood, and Tex-Mex restaurants as they were…The post We’ve Gotta Ask Michelin: Where’s the Love for Tex-Mex? appeared first on Texas Monthly.
In a ceremony in Houston on Monday night attended by the crème de la crème of the Texas restaurant world, France’s Michelin company bestowed single stars on fifteen Texas dining places. The awards are widely regarded as the most prestigious in the culinary world, and it was the first time the French tire company had been successfully coaxed to evaluate the Lone Star State. In an astonishing display of the power of Texan cuisine, four barbecue joints—three in Austin and one in Spring—were among the fifteen. Michelin did not designate any two- or three-star Texas restaurants.Before the ceremony started at Houston’s 713 Music Hall, anticipation was pumped up to a fever pitch by pulsing music, flashing lights, and videos of luscious-looking food and bustling Texas…The post Stars, Surprises, and Snubs at the Ceremony for Texas’s First Michelin Guide appeared first on Texas Monthly.
The only American-style barbecue joints in the world with a Michelin star are in Texas. CorkScrew BBQ, in Spring, and Interstellar BBQ, La Barbecue, and LeRoy and Lewis Barbecue, all in Austin, each received a star during the Michelin Guide’s inaugural Texas awards ceremony held at the 713 Music Hall in Houston last night. In addition to these four joints, 24 barbecue restaurants were recognized in other categories, including Michelin recommended and Bib Gourmand.The Michelin organizers sprinkled in some drama during their onstage announcements. Emcees Java Ingram and Gwendal Poullennec, international director of the Michelin Guides, called the restaurant names alphabetically as they were awarded, causing some pitmasters in the crowd to think they were being skipped over. “I thought I was going home without anything,”…The post Four Texas Barbecue Joints Now Have Michelin Stars appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Latin music’s massive popularity made headlines earlier this year as the group of genres became the fastest-growing category in the U.S. On Tuesday, Texas Monthly launched a new podcast about Texas’s contribution to that movement through a genre that has influenced some of Latin music’s biggest artists today: tejano music.On Viva Tejano, a ten-episode series hosted by J.B. Sauceda, listeners will get a chance to hear from legendary tejano artists and fans who share how the genre has shaped their lives. Guests include Grammy-nominated artist El Dusty; the “Queen of the Accordion,” Eva Ybarra; Los Texmaniacs founder Max Baca; the “Queen of Conjunto,” Linda Escobar; tejano music star Bobby Pulido; and more.The series will also feature exclusive recordings from The Johnny Canales Show, the beloved eighties…The post ‘Viva Tejano,’ a New Texas Monthly Podcast, Launches Today appeared first on Texas Monthly.
TM Audio subscribers have access to this episode one week early. Visit our FAQ page to learn how to link your subscription to your podcast app. On the latest episode of Viva Tejano, host J. B. Sauceda talks with Phanie Diaz and Jenn Alva, founders of the indie trio Girl in a Coma and the punk band Fea, about their childhood memories of hearing tejano music without understanding the lyrics, and about leaving room to grow as artists while getting the band back together. “I think we’re just going to always look at ourselves as outsiders and geeks, and not cool enough to be with this crowd.”—Phanie Diaz (Read a transcript of this episode below.)Viva Tejano is produced by Ella Kopeikin and Patrick Michels, and produced and engineered by…The post TM Audio Exclusive: Girl in a Coma Is Still Representing “Nerdy Cool” San Antonio appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Bobby Pulido is the definition of tejano royalty—he grew up in the golden age of nineties tejano, and he’s been one of its biggest stars ever since, including a three-year reign as the Tejano Music Awards’ Male Entertainer of the Year from 1998 to 2000.On the first episode of Viva Tejano, Pulido talks about the influences that shaped his musical sensibilities—his grandfather, Mario Montes, played in the norteño band Los Donneños, and his father, Roberto Pulido, basically created the progressive conjunto movement in the seventies by adding saxophones to his band. After starting out as a saxophonist/roadie for his father’s band in the early nineties, Pulido launched his own career in the immediate aftermath of Selena’s death, a tragic moment that changed the genre forever.…The post Bobby Pulido on the Evolution of Tejano Music After Selena appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Murry Kimball never wanted to be a shrimper. The 64-year-old spent much of his childhood learning the ways of the ten-legged crustacean; anytime school wasn’t in session, he and his younger brother would be dragged out to work on their father’s boat in the Gulf waters of southeast Texas. “I stayed seasick,” Kimball remembers. “I hated shrimping so much, I wanted to become a game warden and shut my daddy down.” Instead, after high school Kimball went to work in Port Arthur’s shipyards and refineries and stayed there, until declining health forced him to retire seven years ago. Now he plies the trade he once rejected, because it’s the only other job he knows. Most days, he gets up at sunrise to cruise the inland…The post Gulf Coast Shrimpers Are Going Out of Business With Alarming Speed appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Sleek and white, the machine looks like a cross between a refrigerator and a phone booth. It’s about seven feet tall and four and a half feet wide—so large that movers broke the doorway squeezing it into this nondescript room at Crescent Regional Hospital, in suburban Lancaster, just south of Dallas. The damage was worth it, hospital CEO Raji Kumar told me, because this device will revolutionize health care.Kumar invites me to take a seat, while she stands alongside. Soon a holographic image appears on the machine’s face, a screen with 4K resolution. At nearly life-size, Dr. Olayinka Adepitan appears to be sitting on a stool and is wearing black scrubs. I can see the three dimensions of the anesthesiologist’s head, legs, and torso in…The post Can Holographic Doctors Save Struggling Hospitals? appeared first on Texas Monthly.
As dusk settled over a Fort Worth city park in June 2022, Manuel de Oyarzabal Barba joined a rotating crew of collaborators for a ritual the group would repeat multiple times a week until September. The team set up its equipment: two large thermal cameras and a microphone connected to a field-recording system. That summer and the following spring, de Oyarzabal Barba, then a master’s student in environmental science at Texas Christian University, and his colleagues made repeat visits to thirty sites across two Tarrant County parks, where passersby often mistook their high-tech gear for telescopes.“People thought we were looking at the moon,” de Oyarzabal Barba said, adding that parkgoers usually reacted with fear when he explained that the team was recording bats in flight. “Since the…The post Why Texas Bats Need a Better Commute appeared first on Texas Monthly.
When I walk into Willow Park Baptist Church fifteen minutes early, I know I’m late. The assembly room is filled with mostly older men sitting at round tables covered in red, white, and blue tablecloths. On their heads are caps embroidered with letters that designate which branches of the military they joined, which ships they served on, which wars they fought in.The participants at Roll Call, a Fort Worth veterans group, look forward to their monthly meetings, and the parking lot is full well in advance of the event’s scheduled 11:30 a.m. start. Many visitors arrive in vans from retirement communities and assisted living facilities, while others carpool with friends.The nonprofit’s luncheon started with fifteen World War II veterans getting together in a restaurant in…The post Stories of Sacrifice Take Center Stage at This Texas Veterans Meeting appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Working Life is a monthly column in which Texans talk about their jobs. Chrystabell, who is 46, is a recording artist and co-owner of a green-burial cemetery near San Antonio that uses only biodegradable materials.My dad incorporated Countryside Memorial Park in 1982. About three years before he died in 2009, he said to me, “Honey, I think I want the cemetery to be exclusively green burial.” He was the first to be buried naturally. But it wasn’t until COVID-19 that I moved home from California and started running the cemetery with my mom, Sunny Markham. My singer-songwriter career was suddenly on hold, and there was a high need for burials. The neat thing is, the most coverage that the cemetery has received has been a result of…The post At This Green-Burial Cemetery, “Dust to Dust” Are Words to Live By appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Nobody believes me when I say I’ve decided to retire. “What?!” they exclaim. “You have the best job in Texas!” Yes, I know. My job is fantastic. For the better part of fifty years I have been Texas Monthly’s designated eater, exploring and writing about this state’s rowdy, brilliant, perennially shape-shifting food scene. The pace has been relentless. On a typical day I might roll out of bed in the morning thinking about the lamb kebabs I’d eaten in Houston the night before. Sixteen hours later I would shut my laptop with images floating in my head of the fried seafood platter I’d devoured in Galveston. I’d be having filet in peppercorn sauce in Dallas while scrolling through a list of new restaurants in Fort…The post Texas Monthly’s Restaurant Critic Closes Her Tab appeared first on Texas Monthly.
The oldest woman in Texas, Elizabeth Francis, died at age 115 in Houston on October 24. She was one of the final people in the state who was alive the last time Webb County, home to Laredo, voted for a Republican for president—that is, until the country voted for Donald Trump, nearly two weeks after Francis died.On Tuesday, Trump became the first GOP presidential candidate since William Howard Taft in 1912 to win Webb. It’s perhaps the most impressive jewel Trump has collected in his stunning crusade through what was once deep blue South Texas. Webb’s population is more than 95 percent Latino, and, like other Mexican American counties across the region, it shifted hard right in the 2020 election. Trump almost quadrupled his turnout…The post Republicans Have Won South Texas Latinos. Does the Democratic Party Have a Path Back? appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Diego Miró-Rivera has always been drawn to objects and spaces that others overlook. Cigarette butts, chunks of melting snow, and Texas mountain laurel seeds are among the materials the Austin artist has used. Miró-Rivera, 24, draws on the natural world to create works that are often massive in scale. For one piece, he simply stood in different places in a dry lake bed in rural Utah, using his feet to leave hundreds of precisely aligned footprints on the sand. To create another huge piece of land art, he trudged for more than five miles across three snow-covered soccer fields in Brooklyn; his looping path became a huge drawing that he then photographed from a helicopter. His latest work may be his most ambitious yet. “Cicada Paintings,” on…The post Collecting 100,000 Cicada Shells Ain’t Easy appeared first on Texas Monthly.
For more than a year, President-elect Donald Trump has pledged a vast immigration crackdown that includes ending birthright citizenship, reviving border policies from his first time in office, and deporting millions of people through raids and detainment camps.Perhaps no state is in a better position to help him than Texas. And no state might feel the impacts of such initiatives as much as Texas.About 11 percent of immigrants in the United States, five million, live in Texas. The state is home to an estimated 1.6 million undocumented people—the second-most in the country after California. It is also led by Republican elected officials who are politically in lockstep with Trump.When Trump left office in 2021, Governor Greg Abbott surged resources to the state’s 1,254-mile border with…The post How Trump’s Anti-Immigration Plans Could Take Center Stage in Texas appeared first on Texas Monthly.
WHO: The cutest adult pygmy hippo you ever did see. WHAT: A new arrival at the Houston Zoo. WHY IT’S SO GREAT: One of the more wholesome global phenomena we’ve enjoyed over the past few months has been the emergence of Moo Deng, baby pygmy hippo and viral sensation. The playful, charismatic li’l beast is a native of eastern Thailand, where she lives at the Khao Kheow Open Zoo. She has a warm, friendly-looking face and adorable rolls along her neck, and she has helped introduce the very existence of the pygmy hippo—a species with only about 2,500 individuals left in the wild—to the wider world. She is a pure and good thing in these unusual times. And she can go straight to heck, because Texas has…The post Perhaps You Need the Houston Zoo’s New Pygmy Hippo in Your Life Right Now appeared first on Texas Monthly.
In 2017, shortly after getting a thousand-gallon smoker from BBQ Pits by Klose, Dee Dee and Troy Mulligan put the device to good use. Hurricane Harvey had hit the Gulf Coast, and the Mulligans fed hot barbecue and sides to four hundred people who were affected. It was the most barbecue Troy had ever smoked at once, and Dee Dee said it was during this time that the couple’s vision for 3rd Coast BBQ “became a tiny thought on down the line.”The smoker, dubbed the 3C Beast, is now a fixture at the couple’s joint, in Spring, about half an hour north of Houston. The business began in 2018 as a pop-up out of a small bakery in Montgomery, north of Spring. In 2019 the…The post Louisiana Meets Texas at This Community-Minded BBQ Joint appeared first on Texas Monthly.
In 1952 Church’s Fried Chicken-to-Go opened on Alamo Street in downtown San Antonio, selling only two-piece orders of fried chicken along with a roll for 49 cents. Founder George William Church Sr. placed the fryers right next to the pickup window, a shrewd act of marketing that meant that not only could customers watch their chicken being freshly fried, but they could also smell the intoxicating aroma that escaped the small building and permeated the area. No growling stomach stood a chance.It’s been a while since that particular scent lured hungry office workers, families, and tourists to line up at the original Church’s across from the Alamo. (The building is no longer standing, but a historical marker was installed in 2022 to note its location.)…The post Can Church’s Win the Fried Chicken War by Going Back to Its Texas Roots? appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Don’t pack the tent or backpack just yet, but Texas park lovers could get 7,637 acres of additional parkland to roam in the coming years. The Texas Parks and Wildlife Commission will consider four land acquisitions to create new or expand existing parks at its meeting on Thursday. If the acquisitions are approved, parks officials will continue negotiating potential deals.The parcels include 823 acres adjacent to Government Canyon State Natural Area, in northwest San Antonio, and an eye-popping 3,073 acres abutting Enchanted Rock State Natural Area, north of Fredericksburg, which would be used to expand those parks. The Enchanted Rock acquisition would more than triple the size of the state natural area. Two other tracts—1,721 acres in Uvalde County and 2,020 acres across the river…The post Texans Are (Probably) About to Get 7,637 More Acres of State Parks appeared first on Texas Monthly.
When he was campaigning against Ted Cruz in 2018, Beto O’Rourke barnstormed across Texas in his Toyota Tundra, visiting all 254 counties and inspiring near-messianic fervor among Democrats. Spurning the advice of national political consultants, the El Paso congressman relied on small-dollar donations to power a proudly independent campaign. He maintained an unapologetically progressive platform while striking an upbeat, centrist tone, at one point embarking on a road trip with Republican Congressman Will Hurd. On Election Day, O’Rourke fell less than three points shy of beating Cruz—the closest any Democrat had come to winning a statewide race in two decades. A star was born. Six years later, Cruz had supported an attempted insurrection and fled to Cancún while his constituents shivered in the dark. He looked…The post What Happened to Colin Allred? appeared first on Texas Monthly.
WHO: Jason Osborne, of Odessa, who scuba dives across the country looking for ancient marine life. WHAT: A newly discovered genus and species of parasitic marine isopod, known as Calverteca osbornei, that lived 18 million years ago.WHY IT’S SO GREAT: It will shock no one that few explorers volunteer to scuba dive in mucky water. In near darkness, divers may suddenly encounter alligators, catfish with mouths as wide as your shoulders, or water snakes as big around as a forearm. They may find they’re surrounded by a large fishing net or a fallen tree. They may try to rise to the surface and realize (whoops) they’re in a cave. “I’ve been bumped by a bull shark in a river system in Virginia,” said Jason Osborne, a…The post Dive in a Murky River, and You Might Just Discover a New Species appeared first on Texas Monthly.
The guacamole at Corima, a Mexican restaurant on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, is made without any avocados—just edamame and pistachios. A seaweed tuile tops Corima’s chocoflan dessert. And then there’s the house-made flour tortilla with recado negro butter, which is served as part of a $110 seven-course tasting menu, though you can also get it for $9 à la carte.What sounds like the stuff of viral New York Times stories is entirely a product of Mexico and Texas. Corima chef and co-owner Fidel Caballero grew up on both sides of the border, first in Chihuahua City, Mexico, and then around Ciudad Juárez and El Paso. “As they like to say, neither aquí nor allí,” says Caballero. “I’m a little too Mexican to be…The post There’s a Lot More to Corima Than Its $9 Flour Tortilla appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Editors’ note: We’ve made this article free to access as a service to our readers. To support our ongoing coverage of this election cycle, consider becoming a paying subscriber. That’s All, Folks Ben Rowen, 11:15 p.m. Thanks for following along with our live blog. While the presidential race has yet to be called nationally, we have a pretty good handle on the major Texas results. Donald Trump won Texas handily, as expected. Ted Cruz sailed to victory over Democratic Congressman Colin Allred, who Democrats had grown convinced would run a tight race. With an estimated 84 percent of the vote in, it has proven to be anything but: Cruz leads by a million votes and ten percentage points. Republicans improved their vote shares significantly in South…The post 2024 Texas Election Results and Analysis appeared first on Texas Monthly.
When I spoke to Dayatra Myers-Hurt in September of last year about her restaurant, Fish Company Taco, in Galveston, I didn’t expect it to close a month later. In our interview, she did mention that her small taqueria wasn’t even making enough money to install air-conditioning, but the excellent food—especially the rotating catch of the day and nixtamalized tortillas—was worth the uncomfortable perspiration. When I dined there, a large family came in to celebrate someone’s graduation from Texas A&M University at Galveston, and no one complained about the heat. But, sadly, the operating costs were too much to handle. The small shack selling fresh fish in exquisite tortillas of heirloom corn was gone. I was saddened to see a small business close. I was also disappointed…The post This Galveston Taqueria Reopened With a New Owner and Chefs but Hasn’t Captured the Magic of the Original appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Leon Bridges has never had a hit song. That’s not to say he’s not successful, or that there isn’t an audience for his brand of soulful pop. His debut album was certified platinum, while its follow-up went gold. He was nominated for four Grammys between 2016 and 2019, winning one (Best Traditional R&B Performance, for his “Bet Ain’t Worth the Hand”). Texas Sun and Texas Moon, his two widely adored collaborative EPs with Houston’s Khruangbin, have been dorm-room staples since they were released in 2020 and 2022, respectively. One of the most sought-after voices in music, Bridges has been tapped for collaborations by everyone from Bun B and Gunna to Miranda Lambert and Kacey Musgraves.Still, he’s just not the kind of artist who gets a whole…The post Texas Takes a Starring Role in Leon Bridges’s Most Memorable Album Yet appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Professional wrestling has often been a family business. In Texas, the sport’s history is synonymous with clans like the Funks, the Von Erichs, and the Guerreros. But few surnames in wrestling history come with a legacy as Texas-sized as Rhodes. To fans across the globe, Austin native Dusty Rhodes was the American Dream, the blue-collar son of a plumber with the slickest tongue in the state, if not the entire wrestling world. Behind the scenes, he wielded tremendous influence as a booker and promoter, responsible for planning the narrative and competitive arcs other wrestlers would perform throughout their careers. In that role, Rhodes was regarded for his creativity, constantly scheming up new stipulations to spice up matches and new ways to tell stories in the…The post Why Dustin Rhodes Still Bleeds For Professional Wrestling appeared first on Texas Monthly.
The Kamala Harris campaign hasn’t spent money campaigning in Texas this election season. It hasn’t spent much time here, either. Outside of a quick rally in San Antonio with second gentleman Doug Emhoff in late September before a fundraiser, there’ve been no further public campaign events. The reason for her absence is obvious: History suggests that she hasn’t got much chance of winning here. The last Democrat to claim Texas’s electoral votes was Jimmy Carter, nearly fifty years ago. The idea of a blue—or at least purple—Texas has tantalized national Democrats for at least a decade, but the real measure of how competitive they see the state is in where they’re spending their time and money. Progressive politicians appear to see it a little differently. This week,…The post Why Are National Progressives Campaigning in Texas? appeared first on Texas Monthly.
The year is 2004. Myspace has more than one million users, and “Yeah!,” by Usher, is blasting on repeat on the radio. The Frost Bank Tower was just completed, making it the tallest building in Austin. You might not have a cellphone, and if you do, it takes the blurriest pictures you’ve ever seen. Life is good—so good, in fact, that you might even throw a tank top on over your bathing suit and head down to Zilker Park to catch Sheryl Crow at the third-ever Austin City Limits Music Festival. Don’t forget your chunky sunglasses! It’s hard to believe that in the olden days of yore, festival outfits were rarely a priority for concert attendees. (With the number of “festival fashion” press releases we journalists…The post How to Party—and, More Importantly, Dress—Like It’s ACL 2004 appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Fall means football in the state of Texas. But in other circles, far from the gridiron, cooler temperatures also indicate a changing of the fashion guard. With a new season come new trends, and lately, the two disparate autumnal interests are intersecting in the most kitsch of accessories: the homecoming mum. In July, Brooklyn-based fashion forecaster Mandy Lee posted a video to TikTok and Instagram Reels predicting that prize ribbons, also called cockades, would be a niche trend this fall. Texans viewing the video immediately clocked what Lee, a native New Englander, could not. “If you’re from Texas it’s just a homecoming mum IYKYK,” wrote TikTok user @lhxmax52. “It’s giving homecoming mums,” said @lupezzet. “Thinking about how it’s time to find my homecoming mum,” agreed @sestrera.mp4. …The post Uh-Oh, Brooklyn Has Found Out About Homecoming Mums appeared first on Texas Monthly.
By sunrise on an August morning, the landscaping crew at the Marathon Grasslands Preserve in Brewster County is hard at work. Plump, sandy brown bodies scamper across the gently sloping ground at this 2,700-acre preserve about ten miles northeast of Marathon, pausing where a piece of too-tall grass needs to be chewed down. Dirt flies as a digger cleans out a burrow, her black-tipped tail bouncing as she works. It’s a social bunch that touch noses as they pass one another and keep up a steady chatter of birdlike chirps. Meanwhile, a sentry keeps watch for predators from her perch on top of a mound. She stands alert, her stumpy little T. Rex arms resting on her white belly, and scans the landscape.This industrious bunch…The post Texas Ranchers Used to Hate Prairie Dogs. Now Some Are Fans. appeared first on Texas Monthly.
The organizers of the Austin City Limits Festival work hard to balance the ticket with headliners, not-quite headliners, and a big smattering of up-and-comers to fill out the program and make sure fans have almost ten full hours of music each day. While the big names who close out each night are incredibly famous, the odds are that even the most voracious music lover hasn’t heard of every act booked at noon on Saturday. Most of those artists are local Austin- or Texas-based musicians who are at the very start of their careers; many of them don’t even have a full album out yet. But sifting through the dozens of unfamiliar names is a lot of work for even the most dedicated fan, especially because…The post If You’re Excited About the ACL Fest Headliners, Arrive Early to See These Texas Acts appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Keshi stays vigilant at his local H-E-B. Is anyone following him through the produce section? Did that shopper’s gaze linger as he waited in line to check out? “I’m always surprised where I’ll get caught,” he told me in August. He isn’t concerned with watchful store clerks—he’s not juggling tomatoes or pocketing Juicy Fruit. He’s bracing for the passersby who recognize him and whip out their iPhones, the ones whose faces register, “omigod it’s Keshi squeeeee!!!”In the years since Keshi’s first SoundCloud post in 2017, the 29-year-old prince of lo-fi pop R&B has been finding it increasingly difficult to maintain anonymity in public, whether he’s strolling the New York City streets, dining after a show in Shanghai, or running errands around Houston. And with a…The post Keshi Braces for Superstardom appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Daisy Farrar loves swimming, watching Bluey, and collecting stuffed animals. Some days the four-year-old pretends to be a princess, wearing sparkly shoes and a pink dress with a tulle skirt while she roams her family’s wooded three-acre property in rural North Carolina. Other days she’s more into robots, playing with Optimus Prime figurines with her dad. “To me, she is perfect,” says her mom, Brandi Starling Farrar. It’s a sentiment any loving parent might express—but in Daisy’s case, the fact that she is a happy, healthy kid is nothing short of incredible.Daisy made history before she was born—she was the first person to receive nipocalimab, an experimental drug that helped her survive a rare fetal disease. Daisy and Brandi were among thirteen pairs of expectant…The post A Rare Disease Causes a Mother’s Body to Attack Her Unborn Child. Now a Texas Doctor Has Found a Drug to Stop It. appeared first on Texas Monthly.
The old joke goes that if you listen to a country song backward, you get your girl back, then your truck back, and, finally, your dog back. The joke works, in part, because country music often expresses abstract ideas—take grief, for instance—by focusing on concrete objects. It’s a genre that likes to show first and tell second.Thanks also to a persistent pressure to perform authenticity, country lyrics tend to be populated with the lifestyle’s—occasionally repetitive—objects and brands. Stetson hats, Ford trucks, and JBL speakers have been name-checked by the likes of Lyle Lovett, Tim McGraw, and John Morgan. Lil Nas X and Miranda Lambert are lyrically united in their love of Wrangler jeans. Recently, Texas boot companies have appeared in popular country songs by artists…The post Why Country Artists Can’t Stop Singing About Their Luccheses appeared first on Texas Monthly.
David Ovalle—also known by his DJ handle, D-Rock—has been spinning records for most of his life. He’s played at baseball games, clubs, house parties, and South by Southwest. He even owned his own radio station at one point. On the night before my visit to his Laredo restaurant, Livi’s Mexicue, Ovalle played a gig at a nightclub that was broadcasting a Canelo boxing match. But the 35-year-old, with a trim, light brown beard and a rigid part near the top of his closely cut hair, has recently spent more time remixing other things: barbecue and tacos.DJing came more naturally to Ovalle at first. “It just called to me,” he says. “I love seeing the way that one person can control a whole audience, their emotions.”…The post A Laredo DJ and Taquero Remixes Tacos and Barbecue appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Spend enough time in our state capital—say, an afternoon—and you’re almost certain to hear a version of “the Austin jeremiad.” It’s a parable of declension, with the narrator wailing that the Austin of today isn’t nearly as appealing as the city of yesteryear. Early iterations of this tale stretch back at least to the dawn of the eighties, prompted by the closure and then the razing of the Armadillo World Headquarters, the legendary music hall that played host to the likes of Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, and Stevie Ray Vaughan. Given the city’s billing as the Live Music Capital of the World, it’s no surprise that subsequent generations have pegged Austin’s fall to the disappearance of other venues, like the Electric Lounge and Liberty Lunch,…The post Was Austin All That Great to Begin With? appeared first on Texas Monthly.
In The New York Times in 1917, a year in which it was forecast that “the civilized world of women will wear more fur than ever before,” a reporter asked a pelt importer what his furs were made of. “Rats and snails and puppy dogs’ tails,” he joked. “It is called by dignified and pleasing names, but as for its ingredients—I think the nursery couplet explains them.” The favored pelt of the moment, the reporter wrote, was “nutria.”Nutria are often mistaken for beavers—both have prehistoric-looking orange teeth—but nutria are typically one-third the size of beavers and one-third as adorable. Beavers have chubby cheeks and paddle tails, and there is a startled quality to the way they hold their little hands in front of them, like…The post Your Next Cowboy Hat Might Be Made of Swamp Rat appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Four years ago, Rosa Jimenez, 38, sat in a Texas prison, convicted of murdering an Austin toddler back in 2003 by stuffing paper towels down his throat. The truth is, she hadn’t killed him; the boy had likely done it to himself, something numerous experts and lawyers recognized. In fact, over the next 17 years, five different judges had advocated for Jimenez’s innocence and release, but she remained behind bars. Worse, Rosa—five foot two, with long, black hair and a girlish face—was dying from stage-four kidney disease, and a pandemic was raging through Texas prisons, killing inmates like her with weakened immune systems. Even with everything stacked against her, Jimenez—a warm, humble person—remained hopeful. “I’m not going to give up,” she wrote me in September…The post “I Don’t Have Words”: A Texas Exoneree Receives a Lifesaving Kidney Donation appeared first on Texas Monthly.
In May, a House Oversight Committee hearing took a turn into reality TV territory when Georgia Republican Marjorie Taylor Greene made a personal jab at Dallas Democrat Jasmine Crockett. “I think your fake eyelashes are messing up what you’re reading,” Greene said. It looked as though the committee was about to devolve into fisticuffs. Then, moments later, Crockett, under the guise of asking a question, fought back at Greene. “If someone in this committee then starts talking about somebody’s bleach blonde, bad built, butch body,” she asked, “that would not be engaging in personalities, correct?”Overnight, quite literally, a political star was born. A clip of their exchange—which also featured Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, of New York, reprimanding Greene with a “baby girl, don’t even play”—quickly made…The post Jasmine Crockett Didn’t Plan to Go Viral appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Texas is home to some of the creepiest, crawliest, and otherwise oddest animals on the planet. We introduce you to them in What in Tarnation?!, an occasional series. I have a confession to make. From June 2021 until the spring of 2023, I murdered dozens of innocent victims. I didn’t even bother to learn their names. As soon as one appeared, the closest shoe or magazine became a fatal weapon. All I knew was that these enemies were terrifying, mud-colored creatures, and they were everywhere: the garage, the porch, the grass, the shed. My MO was to eradicate them by any means necessary, because unless you are an arachnophile, spiders look scary, and therefore they must be squished. Cut to 2024, and I would not harm a wolf…The post Texas Is Crawling With Wolf Spiders. Please Don’t Squish Them! appeared first on Texas Monthly.
When Miranda Lambert penned “Hello Shitty Day” with Jesse Frasure, Jessie Jo Dillon, and George Strait hit machine Dean Dillon, she knew just who she wanted to record the song: Jake Worthington, a rising honky-tonker who shares her reverence for traditional Texas music and barroom weepers.“Jake was the first person I thought of to sing it,” Lambert says of the new tune, released September 27. “We’re both Texans who grew up on the same traditional country music, and I love watching his star rise. I was really proud to hear that he wanted to cut this song for his project, and I was thrilled to sing on it with him.”The La Porte–raised Worthington, however, never expected to receive a call from the Grammy winner about a song she wrote…The post Miranda Lambert and Jake Worthington Turned a Bad Day Into a Perfect Honky-Tonk Tune appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Step inside the co-op at University of Texas at Austin these days, and you can feel the buzz of a winning season. The jerseys of quarterbacks Quinn Ewers and Arch Manning hang from wall racks, too in demand to dangle there for long. The members of the bald mannequin family by the front door show off their excitement about joining the Southeastern Conference. They sport SEC T-shirts and other burnt orange gear—even their plastic dog wears a Longhorns-branded harness. Beside them, a sign advertises a new “Celebrate the Win” T-shirt, a tribute to UT’s recent triumph over the University of Michigan—a souvenir to ensure the sweetness of victory lasts a little longer.As the world of Texas college football spins this fall, the collegiate shops across…The post Inside the High-Stress World of Selling College Football Merch appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Taylor Nichols is no small gherkin on the pickleball court. During a recent weekday match at Chicken N Pickle, a new sports and entertainment complex in the blink-and-you’d-miss-it town of Webster, halfway between Houston and Galveston, the 33-year-old Fort Worth native zipped around the court, dinking and lobbing and backhanding the ball in a furious nine-hit rally with his opponent.Pickleball is Nichols’s bread and butter, and he dominates most matches he plays. Although this contest unfolded as most do in the booming recreational sport—including all of those earsplitting cracks, thwacks, and pops—there was one key difference: Nichols played from a sports wheelchair, a souped-up ride with intimidatingly angled wheels and Evel Knievel–red spokes.Before becoming enamored with all things pickleball, Nichols was an able-bodied professional motocross…The post Adaptive Pickleball Nights Bring Together Texans of All Ability Levels appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Smoked brisket and ribs weren’t featured at family barbecues when Sebastien Quintanilla was growing up in Corpus Christi. Family members would grill fajitas and chicken quarters while Quintanilla’s grandmother Rosa made beans, rice, salsas, and tortillas by hand. She cooked every day, not just for family gatherings, and a young Quintanilla was there to help. “She passed before I could get a lot of her recipes,” he said. But he watched; now he tries to make those dishes from memory while cooking for his BBQ Fiends food truck, just outside Hutto, about thirty minutes northeast of Austin. Since April, he’s been serving four days a week in front of Rockabilly Brewing.The barbecue business has matured along with Rockabilly over the past few years. Quintanilla began…The post Hand-Rolled Tortillas and Salsa Verde Like Grandma’s Elevate This Hutto Barbecue Truck appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Kacey Musgraves’s third taping for Austin City Limits, which took place in June for an episode that will be the show’s fiftieth-season premiere when it airs Saturday, was a looser affair than most, despite the Golden, Texas, native complaining about the difficulty of sitting down in her restrictive, sequined minidress. Though her episode is one of the few to feature a single artist for the show’s full hour, Musgraves and her band took more than two hours to get through their set, retaking songs, retuning guitars, and generally revealing, as the singer put it at one point, “how the sausage gets made.”From another artist, the process might have come off as sloppy. But from Musgraves, especially at this point in her career, it played less…The post Kacey Musgraves Is Still Following Her Arrow appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Only a few key races in Texas have the potential to flip congressional or state House seats from red to blue—or blue to red. In the latest episode of Answer Me This, senior editor Alex Samuels discusses which districts are ripe for upsets.The post Answer Me This: Which Texas Races Might Flip Seats in 2024? appeared first on Texas Monthly.
In Austin, just north of our imposing pink granite seat of government, inlaid on the new Texas Capitol Mall, is a large map of the state. Visitors to the promenade can walk across seven geographical regions, strolling from the Panhandle Plains, in the north; to Prairies and Lakes, in the north-central area; to the Piney Woods, in the east; to the Gulf Coast and the South Texas Plains; and from Big Bend Country, out west, to the Hill Country, in the middle-ish part of the state. Travel Texas, the state’s tourism office, uses the same seven regions in the way it divides the state. And Texas Parks and Wildlife seems to follow suit, though it spells “Piney Woods” as one word. But this particular convention, despite…The post We’re Making the Ultimate Map of Texas’s Regions—and We Want Your Input appeared first on Texas Monthly.
In the fall of 2016, the daughter of a founding member of the B-52s and the son of a founding member of Belle and Sebastian met at the University of Texas. She was a guitar virtuoso with a rhythm problem. He played drums and didn’t know much about the guitar. After they were both kicked out of the UT marching band for acts of churlish insubordination, they went on a surf vacation together to French Polynesia, taught each other their respective instruments, and formed their experimental rock and roll band. Their names were Falcon Bitch and Shmoofy.I made all that up, but it’s as plausible an origin story as you’re likely to hear from the members of Being Dead, one of the most unique bands…The post The Truth About Being Dead appeared first on Texas Monthly.
From the hillside villas of Acapulco to the beach clubs of Barcelona to, now, a potholed stretch of Industrial Boulevard south of downtown Austin, the ritzy, sweaty, buzzy sport of padel has arrived in Central Texas.Last weekend’s grand opening of Padel Club Austin showcased the facility’s nine gleaming, glass-walled courts, lined with pristine artificial turf for this fast-paced racket sport that looks like a mix between doubles tennis and squash. The club also features a pro shop, a cantina, and, last Friday night, thumping, clubby beats from a live DJ.Visitors in workout gear and patio-bar attire mingled as the orange-and-violet sunset dimmed against the bright court lights. A man in a printed shirt and flip-flops walked by with his goldendoodle as partiers posed for photos…The post Faster Than Pickleball. Slower Than Tennis. Is This the “Just-Right” Racket Sport? appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Placing an order with the Interrupted Baker is a bit like trying to get tickets for a Beyoncé concert. Within minutes of baker Stacy Kiley sending out her Thursday-evening text message with an ordering link, all the pastries on offer that week—confections like Dirty Boba Soufflé Cake, Biscoff brioche buns, and ube cookie choux—are in online carts and dozens of people sit on the virtual wait list. When the lucky few show up to claim their treats on Saturday morning, they go to the parking lot of a brewery in North Austin, where Kiley hands out the coveted boxes of pastries from either the Con Todo taco truck or the trunk of her car. Kiley is one of a growing number of home bakers who run their…The post The Best Place to Buy Baked Goods in Texas Is Instagram appeared first on Texas Monthly.
If you’ve ever wanted to sip on an old-fashioned set afire by a master mixologist in the renovated venue of the 1992 NAFTA initialing ceremony, have I got a spot for you. A plaque commemorating the North American Free Trade Agreement, which was initialed by President George H.W. Bush, Mexican President Carlos Salinas de Gortari, and Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney, is an unobtrusive centerpiece in the courtyard at the brand-new Kimpton Santo, in downtown San Antonio. The live oak–ensconced plaza is situated directly between the hotel’s steakhouse and its vibe-y, high-concept speakeasy, the Study at Dean’s.The Kimpton Santo, the third Kimpton location in Texas (adding to the Pittman, in Dallas and the Harper, in Fort Worth), has been open for less than a month,…The post A New San Antonio Hotel Manages to Combine a Rooftop Hot Spot and an 1800s-Era History Lesson appeared first on Texas Monthly.
At one point in Giant, the epic 1956 film about the wealthy Benedict ranching dynasty in far West Texas, the family’s youngest daughter, Luz Benedict II, vows to fly to Dallas and go to Neiman Marcus to buy a “starlight-white evening dress” that’s “very plain and simple and deadly.”So when Vicki Chapman chaired Dallas’s Cattle Baron’s Ball—a lavish annual fundraiser for the American Cancer Society—on the occasion of the movie’s fortieth anniversary, she thought it only fitting that Neiman’s agreed to cohost the world premiere of a newly restored version of the film as the kickoff to the Western-themed event.On the Friday night before Saturday’s hoedown at a ranch in Kaufman County, Giant cast members, including Jane Withers (who played Vashti Snythe) and Earl Holliman…The post Can Neiman Marcus Remain True to Dallas if It’s Run From New York? appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Back when blogging was fun, and before I worked for Texas Monthly, I had a blog called Full Custom Gospel BBQ. A group of guys in Austin ran another blog that was similarly dedicated to Texas barbecue, called Man Up Texas BBQ. One of the founders, Drew Thornley, was just as passionate about iced tea as he was about smoked meat, and he shared his reviews via a Twitter account called @IcedTeaSnob. His last review was posted nine years ago, but I thought of him recently when sipping from a Styrofoam cup full of beige water. A Texas barbecue joint called it iced tea, but it tasted more like the former than the latter. I wondered if Thornley, now an associate professor of legal studies…The post Dump Your Weak Iced Tea appeared first on Texas Monthly.
The anticipation was building. For four months, Houston Public Media had been working on an eagerly awaited podcast about the state’s takeover of the Houston Independent School District and its controversial installation of Mike Miles as superintendent. Called The Takeover, the four-part series would be hosted by Dominic Walsh, an award-winning public-education reporter who had spent the past year covering Miles’s ambitious overhaul of the state’s largest school district. He’d broken stories and won awards for his coverage of the intervention. Now he would bring it all together for a national audience. “We’re super-excited,” wrote the podcast editor in an internal email obtained by Texas Monthly. “I don’t think a lot of people understand the significance of what’s happening” in Houston, wrote another employee. “Can’t…The post Behind Houston Public Media’s “Head-Scratching” Decision to Kill a Much-Hyped Podcast appeared first on Texas Monthly.
WHO: The Texas Tech club hockey teamWHAT: The squad’s new flour tortilla–themed jerseysWHY IT’S SO GREAT: The tortillas were flying early and often Saturday in Lubbock after Texas Tech took a 14–0 lead against Arizona State in its—wait for it—Big 12 football season opener. But the top tortilla story in Red Raiders sports last week was, believe it or not, hockey. On Thursday, the school’s club team unveiled an alternate jersey that splits the difference between quirky novelty and Red Raiders tradition. Behold, the tortilla jersey! View this post on Instagram A post shared by The Hockey House (@hockeyhousepod) As Lubbock sports radio host Rob Breux wrote, it’s “a sports uniform that honor[s] the greatest thing a human can make with flour.”The jersey was the…The post The Story Behind Texas Tech’s Incredible Tortilla-Themed Hockey Jerseys appeared first on Texas Monthly.
The air conditioner struggled to cool the crowd crammed into Billy Bob’s Texas to see Midland, one of country music’s unlikely success stories, play a sold-out summer show. But a rapid trade in Shiner and Dos Equis kept the fans chilled until the members of the Dripping Springs–based trio, generally considered too traditional for country radio stations and a little too slick for their Americana counterparts, swaggered onstage in their signature retro-rhinestone, cowboy-chic attire. After admitting to partying until 5 a.m. following a performance the night before, Mark Wystrach, Jess Carson, and Cameron Duddy forged ahead with a slew of classic-sounding, dance floor–ready honky-tonk tunes.One song, though, stood out from the rest: a now-iconic arpeggio was all it took to get the crowd to scream,…The post How Midland’s “Drinkin’ Problem” Became a Texas Standard in English and Spanish appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Driving through the Hill Country’s back roads, you want to keep your eyes peeled. Maybe you’ll spot a flash of bright wildflowers, or a coyote slinking into the brush. But one day a few months ago, something entirely different caught the eyes of park staff at Enchanted Rock State Natural Area, about twenty minutes north of Fredericksburg. A For Sale sign had been posted outside a neighboring ranch. Some 630 acres dotted with colossal live oaks, granite ridges, and trickling springs were on the market. The natural area—home to a massive pink granite dome for which it’s named—draws hundreds of thousands of visitors each year, and it frequently reaches capacity by 9 or 10 a.m. on the weekends, forcing staff to turn away droves of unhappy…The post First Look: Enchanted Rock’s 630-Acre Expansion appeared first on Texas Monthly.
The Pacific Crest Trail winds for 2,650 miles through deserts, mountain passes, and canyons on the West Coast. The Appalachian Trail, its counterpart to the east, traverses dappled forests and river gorges for 2,200 miles. Somewhere in the middle, the Continental Divide Trail follows the spine of the Rocky Mountains for 3,100 miles.Along those three trails, dubbed the Triple Crown of Hiking, long-distance hikers blister their toes, wear clothing to a frazzle, whip their bodies into shape, and learn all about themselves. As anyone who’s read the books Wild or A Walk in the Woods, or seen their movie adaptations, can attest, finding yourself and pushing your limits on a through hike has become a time-honored American tradition. And now, trail advocates say, it’s time…The post Want to Hike 1,500 Miles Across Texas? A New Trail Might Make It Possible appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Back in the day, grizzled cowboys showed off their prowess by wrestling steers, roping calves, and clinging, for as long as possible, to the backs of snot-slinging bulls while their peers watched from the rails of an outdoor corral.There were no pyrotechnics as the riders walked to the ring, no thumping jock jams. No tiny, prize-filled parachutes dropped from the rafters during intermission, sending fans crawling over each other in pursuit. And not even a single audience member watched the proceedings from inside a metal cage on the arena floor. Also, bull riding was an individual sport back then, not a team game.That, my friends, has changed.With the inception of Professional Bull Riders Camping World Team Series in 2022, the league created what now feels like…The post Inside Professional Bull Riders’ Plan to Upgrade the “Original Extreme Sport” appeared first on Texas Monthly.
In our series Stuff Texans Love, our state’s most stylish celebrities share their shopping lists. “No matter what I do, meat is involved,” says five-foot-three meatheart Jess Pryles, in a drawl from latitudes far more southern than Texas. Eight years after founding her babe-who-barbecues lifestyle brand, in 2016, the Aussie turned Texan is starring in a television series exploring the glory of meat, from hunting to carving to grilling. Hardcore Carnivore—the show’s title comes from the name of Pryles’s barbecue seasonings–and–gear line—premiered on Outdoor Channel this week.Pryles’s love for meat led her to leave her hometown of Melbourne in 2015 for a new address in Austin. She had already become a “barbecue missionary” to Australia, cofounding the Australian Barbecue Alliance after repeated vacations to Texas for…The post Jess Pryles Isn’t Afraid to Tell the Boys How to Eat Meat appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Rashid Assad, owner of Roy’s Taco Hut, on San Antonio’s West Side, likes to talk about the variety of flour tortillas. A former tortilleria owner and Monterrey, Mexico, native, he waxes poetic about their brown spots, as unique as a tiger’s stripes; their distinctive, flaky layers; and the merits of different sizes and thicknesses. Roy’s excels at its flour tortillas—a smidge thinner than the typical mattress-thick San Antonio–style ones—which are the perfect vehicles for the taqueria’s traditional and offbeat tacos. Despite the fact that Roy’s is on its third owner (Roy Avila, who opened the shop in 1978, retired in 2010), the menu and decor haven’t changed much over the last forty-some years. Classic rock and folk tunes by the Beatles, Bob Dylan, and Jimi Hendrix…The post This San Antonio Taqueria Has Had a Tough Year, but Its Quirky Tacos Have Sustained It for Four Decades appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Southwest Airlines will host a blockbuster event in Dallas this week, to unveil a service most other carriers began offering decades ago. At its annual Investor Day, Southwest will showcase its first-ever plan for assigning passengers to specific airplane seats, including premium-priced larger ones that will require altering the layouts of the company’s previously egalitarian cabins.Selling a variety of seating options at different price points has long been the practice at Fort Worth–based American Airlines—and at Delta, and United, and most other major carriers around the world. Yet some insiders think Southwest will treat the announcement with the sort of fanfare that accompanied Apple’s introduction of the first iPhone—framing it as a this-changes-everything moment for the company.Even if Southwest CEO Bob Jordan doesn’t don Steve…The post Southwest Airlines Won’t Ever Be the Same After This Week’s Decisive Showdown appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Bill Bennett is no run-of-the-mill baseball fan. The Richardson resident had Texas Rangers season tickets for years, he’s a member of the Dallas–Fort Worth chapter of the Society for American Baseball Research, and he even attended Adrian Beltré’s Hall of Fame induction ceremony last July, in Cooperstown, New York.The 1971 TCU grad holds a PhD in biochemistry, so he’s also a problem solver. Yet when he switched cable providers a few years ago, he just about gave up trying to watch local broadcasts of Rangers games, because the switch left him without Bally Sports Southwest, the regional sports network (RSN) that holds the team’s TV rights. “It kind of snuck up on me,” Bennett said. “All of a sudden, the games weren’t there. And once…The post How Dallas Sports Fans Became Collateral Damage in the Streaming Wars appeared first on Texas Monthly.
On the final evening of the San Lorenzo Catholic Church kermés, families fill the church grounds as the golden hour casts its light on a vinyl sign hanging above the busiest booth at the bazaar.The sign reads: “Gorditas—Heavenly Made.”The line in front of the booth, which more than tripled in length that past hour, suggests visitors are willing to wait for a taste of heaven—deep fried patties made from corn masa, filled with seasoned ground beef plus shredded lettuce and diced tomato.It’s kermés season in El Paso, a marathon of church bazaars from late July through mid-October, hosted mostly by the Catholic parishes.Kermeses serve as the biggest fundraiser of the year for many churches, setting up carnival games, cake walks, and raffles. Larger kermeses, such as…The post Gorditas Are the Hottest Ticket at El Paso’s Church Fundraisers appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Christopher Brown has urged me to take a long and meandering walk. Or, at least, his new book, A Natural History of Empty Lots, has inspired one. Sadly, the empty lots I find in my East Austin neighborhood, unlike his, seem not to have been empty for long. One, where it appears a house used to be and will again be soon, contains evidence of humans but hasn’t yet been taken over by plants and animals, as have many of the places Brown describes. There is a toy figure of a man in samurai garb, now one-eyed and one-handed, atop a cinder block. A loose fork. Long and coiled green sacks of sand that have no apparent use except to corral piles of gravel and…The post Christopher Brown’s Abandoned Lots Are Anything but Empty appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Yellowstone’s Rip Wheeler has branded human flesh with a cattle iron, thrown a rattlesnake into a man’s face, and beat the daylights out of a gang of bikers, to name just a few of his escapades. Inspiring a fine bunch of North Texans to line up outside a Walmart before 6 a.m. on a Tuesday is far from the most brutal thing he’s ever done, but it’s pretty rough.It’s okay, though, because there’s coffee! So much coffee. Cole Hauser, the actor who brings Rip to vivid life, is here in Fort Worth to promote his new coffee brand. With three partners from Midland, he bought San Angelo’s Long*Horn Coffee Company, a small local roaster, in 2022. They renamed it Free Rein Coffee Company last year…The post A Cup o’ Joe in the Walmart Parking Lot With ‘Yellowstone’ Star Cole Hauser appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Listen to this episode on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Read the transcript below. Subscribe Apple Podcasts — Spotify After the verdict in the Erik Maund murder-for-hire trial, this bizarre story finally seemed to have reached an end: Maund and his codefendants all faced mandatory life in prison. But this week, some surprising news came from the federal court in Nashville: Erik Maund may be getting a new trial. Transcript Katy Vine (voice-over): Hi, it’s Katy Vine. I wanted to check back in with you to share a development in the case at the heart of our show, The Problem With Erik. In the show’s last episode, I told you about the weeks Ana and I spent in court, at the trial for the murders of Holly Williams and Bill…The post ‘The Problem With Erik’ Update: Judge Orders a New Trial for Erik Maund appeared first on Texas Monthly.
When former President Donald Trump told the national audience in his first, and likely only, debate against Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris that abortion rights are “the vote of the people now,” he was partly right. Since the U.S. Supreme Court reversed Roe v. Wade, in June 2022, voters in seven states (California, Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan, Montana, Ohio, and Vermont) have weighed in on abortion policy via ballot referenda. Abortion-rights proponents won in all seven—some by approving state constitutional amendments ensuring abortion rights and others by preventing more-stringent restrictions from going into effect. In November, voters in ten states—Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Maryland, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New York, and South Dakota—will vote on ballot measures that seek to include forms of abortion-rights protection in the state…The post Abortion Is on the Ballot in Ten States. Here’s Why It Won’t Be in Texas. appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Back in 2017, the barbecue competition special BBQ Rig Race aired on Food Network. At the end of it, the Tu Bones BBQ team, led by pitmaster Michael Prince and his friend Kirk Boudreaux, took home the $10,000 prize. Rather than using the money to get out of the food truck he’d been operating from, Prince gave it to Boudreaux, who desperately needed a car. The business thrived anyway, thanks to the recognition, and a few years later, Price traded his food truck for a stall at Frisco Fresh Market, where he still serves every Saturday and Sunday.After early success at the market, Prince sought to grow into a new restaurant space, but the COVID-19 pandemic changed those plans. “This may be the right spot to…The post In Frisco, Folks Line Up Early at This Market Stall for Smoked Oxtails and Rib Tips appeared first on Texas Monthly.
The WNBA might be the American sports league with the most potential for growth. It’s hard to imagine the NFL or NBA getting that much bigger than they already are, and although Major League Baseball seems to have mostly leveled its decline, the sport isn’t winning new converts by the millions. Soccer, meanwhile, has been five years away from dominating the nation’s sports landscape for several decades now. But women’s basketball is a different story. The game is steadily minting new superstars at the college level. Last spring, for the first time ever, the women’s NCAA championship game drew more viewers than the men’s final. In the pros, one of the major challenges the WNBA has faced is that there simply aren’t enough teams to ensure…The post Why Put Another Sports Franchise in Houston? appeared first on Texas Monthly.
You can be forgiven if you’ve never heard of the most powerful unelected man in Texas politics. Steve McCraw, the longtime director of the Texas Department of Public Safety, is not exactly a household name. And even his legions of fans and critics at the Capitol routinely botch his name, calling him Steve McGraw. Yet McCraw, who abruptly announced last week that he would retire by the end of the year, has changed Texas government and politics far more than most of the elected officials he theoretically answers to. He is the J. Edgar Hoover of Texas—a lawman-politician whose power grew alongside his longevity and usefulness to the Republican Party. And like Hoover, he seems preternaturally gifted at escaping accountability. Over time, he became too…The post Goodbye to the Most Powerful Man in Texas Government You’ve Never Heard Of appeared first on Texas Monthly.
This month in London, two men from Texas will look across the room towards one another. The distance between them will only be a few feet, but it will also span generations.The first man, an aging rancher whose face is shadowed by a cowboy hat, looks behind him, uncertainty in his eyes. The second man, unclothed and youthful, wears a mournful expression as he crouches on the floor, held by his male lover, who’s also naked and perched on a bed. Taken together, they’re a portrait of change—in a family, in types of manhood, and in Texas itself. The first a creature of the old ways, the second a symbol of the new, uncertain whether his forefathers have room in their land and in their hearts for…The post A Painter Uses the Techniques of an Old Master to Depict Texas in a New Light appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Bruce Springsteen wrote sadder songs than “Glory Days,” one of the final tracks from his 1984 masterpiece Born in the U.S.A., but perhaps none of the Boss’s songs more effectively examines the feeling of being someone who used to be. It might be the most tragic song ever written in a major key, built around a honky-tonk piano and garage band guitar sounds, and meant to be sung with a smile on your face. The pathos of the song—that whether you were a great athlete, great beauty, or world famous rock star in your youth, obsolescence awaits us all—is both undeniably true and incredibly grim. Which, we suppose, makes it a fitting inspiration for the title of Johnny Manziel’s forthcoming interview show, Glory Daze, the…The post Johnny Manziel’s New Show Sounds Painful, But Maybe That’s Your Thing appeared first on Texas Monthly.
It took just one lap around the event billed as “America’s biggest quince expo” for me to question whether I had ever really known what a quinceañera was.When I arrived at Houston’s NRG Arena on an August Sunday, I could hear the faint sound of Latin pop trickling out of the building and into the parking lot. Inside, I made my way through pink-and-white floral archways and was met with the booming voice of expo emcee DJ Hershey welcoming a teenage dance crew, High Class Productions, to a faraway stage on the other side of the hall. Beckoned like a sailor to a siren, I followed his voice.To my right, excited teenage girls and their parents were standing in front of sequined backdrops, testing out…The post I Went to the Biggest Quinceañera Expo in the Country. Here’s How 15-Year-Olds Will Be Celebrating This Year. appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Couples walk the hallways at Carroll Senior like they do at any other high school: holding hands, kissing goodbye before parting for seventh period. But only the straight ones, according to Emma. An outspoken senior who loves reading and launched a “banned book” club last year, she says she never publicly displays affection with her girlfriend at school and avoids attracting unwanted attention to her sexual orientation at all cost. She’s overheard homophobic slurs in casual conversations and has seen her friends get called them too. If Emma—who is using a pseudonym because she is not out to her parents—is assigned a personal essay in English class and writes about a relationship, she changes pronouns to male to obscure her orientation. She explained to me…The post “Just Easier When You’re Not Openly Queer”: Students Respond to Texas School District’s Fight Against LGBTQ Protections appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Is it just us, or does this late summer feel more autumn-y than normal? The temperatures are mercifully below triple digits, and there have been spots of rain in the forecast. It may be an unfamiliar feeling for most Texans, but it’s perfect for the start of college football season (or Labor Day weekend, if sports aren’t your thing).The surprisingly not-that-hot weather is even better for indulging in some cold-weather favorites, whether you’re watching the game at home or dragging a smoker out to the stadium parking lot. Speaking of smokers, throwing some turkey legs on one will make you feel like a king for a day. Or maybe you’re a guest who wants to bring something more low-effort: bean dip is for you. And…The post It’s Officially College Football Season. Here Are 9 Essential Texas Tailgating Recipes. appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Colin Allred was running late, but it didn’t matter—nobody was waiting for him. Only staff and a single journalist occupied the cavernous International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Union Hall in Houston at 2:30 on a recent Tuesday afternoon, the time Allred’s campaign had provided for what it was touting as a “roundtable on Texas energy jobs.” Three conference tables were arranged in a U shape beneath the IBEW Local 716 flag, but neither the congressman nor the roundtable participants had shown up. Journalists had been informed of the event just the previous day; the invitation did not extend to the public.Nearly half an hour passed before the nine invited union representatives—mostly electrical workers and city bus drivers—finally shuffled into the hall and took their seats…The post In His Bid to Unseat Ted Cruz, Colin Allred Is Hardly Visible. Looks Like It’s Working. appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Sometimes you’re working, trying to endure a long week, when you come across a piece of online content that synthesizes your interests and personal values so perfectly that you are given a new lease on life. That was me a couple hours ago, when Architectural Digest posted a video tour of Yolanda Hadid’s Texas ranch house. Hadid, mother to models Gigi and Bella; ex-wife of Katharine McPhee’s current husband, David Foster; onetime cast member of the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills; OG “almond mom”; and no fan of former boy bander Zayn Malik, is apparently now a resident. As she explains during the best ten minutes I’ve spent in recent memory, she fell in love with Cowtown when her fiancé, Joseph Jingoli, first took her…The post The Wildest Details at Yolanda Hadid’s Fort Worth Ranch appeared first on Texas Monthly.
“I’m very excited for football season,” said Jessa Bell, a senior cheerleader at Canadian High School. “We’ve been doing a lot to get ready.”Bell’s sentiment is shared by many CHS Wildcats fans from the Texas Panhandle town, with the team playing its first game Thursday in Elk City. In fact, the enthusiasm for high school football in Canadian this year likely exceeds that at many other Texas schools—only in Canadian, it has almost nothing to do with returning starters or a chance to make the playoffs.The Bells were among the more than fifty families in and around Canadian who lost their homes to the Smokehouse Creek wildfire six months ago. The fire, considered the largest in Texas history, raged over slightly more than one million…The post A Wildfire-Ravaged Panhandle Town Rallies Around High School Football appeared first on Texas Monthly.
On Friday, the United States Department of Justice—along with the attorneys general of eight states—announced a civil antitrust lawsuit against the Richardson-based company RealPage. The firm’s software allows the owners of rental properties to anonymously share the details of their rates, lease terms, vacancies, and other information previously regarded as trade secrets, and to receive suggested rent prices based on an algorithm that aggregates that data. The lawsuit alleges that this violates the Sherman Act, the famous antitrust law, that has been in place since the late 1800s. The implications of the case could be significant. Rent prices nationally have increased an average of 33 percent over their prepandemic rates. The problem is particularly acute in Texas: according to research from Harvard’s Joint Center for Housing…The post What to Know About the Federal Lawsuit Against the Texas Company Your Landlord Might Use to Set Your Rent appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Wander through the labyrinthine tunnels twenty feet beneath downtown Houston, and the past practically oozes from the walls. Office workers walk over pink-and-green speckled tiles. Steve Winwood’s eighties banger “Valerie” plays over a sound system. But next to the Smoothie King and across from a restaurant called Pastabilities that reeks of marinara, a door to a well-lit space displays a potential glimpse of the future.Bart Womack, a former nightclub owner and music event entrepreneur, is the founder and CEO of Eden Grow Systems. Inside his showroom, a gardener tends to three carts, each about the size of an office desk, from which a couple of dozen golden and purple flowers grow out of trays connected to the sides of the cart. Rather than extend into…The post Is Vertical Farming the Future of Texas Agriculture? appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Earlier this week, tech giant Meta—the parent company of Facebook and Instagram—unveiled plans to buy a lot of electricity from an innovative power plant to be built by geothermal energy start-up Sage Geosystems. The location of the new-fangled facility remains sketchy. Somewhere east of the Rockies was all the companies said.But there’s another, even more important, location worth noting: Sage Geosystems is based in northern Houston, not far from Greenspoint Mall. Hop on Interstate 45 and head about fifteen miles south, to the downtown skyscrapers, and you’ll find the headquarters of Fervo Energy, another geothermal start-up, which recently announced an even larger power deal with Southern California’s largest utility.Arguably the two most promising companies in what is arguably the most promising new source of energy…The post Houston’s Geothermal Energy Sector Is Hot—and Steamy appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Texas is home to some of the creepiest, crawliest, and otherwise oddest animals on the planet. We introduce you to them in What in Tarnation?!, an occasional series. If most of us were to stumble upon six inches of spiked, segmented worm flesh during a leisurely walk along the beach, we’d react, at best, with “eww.” But when Jace Tunnell was beachcombing just north of Mustang Island State Park, in mid-August, and found a marine polychaete—also known as a bristle worm or fireworm—on a barnacle-covered log that had washed ashore, he was as excited to see that bad boy as that bad boy had once been excited to see the barnacles on that log. (Fireworms feed on barnacles.)Tunnell serves as the director of community engagement…The post We Regret to Inform You of Another Texas Nightmare Worm appeared first on Texas Monthly.
One of the many hazards of being a politics reporter in Texas is that when I’m talking to potential dates, I am usually asked my party affiliation or what “type” of outlet I write for. (Do I lean left or right? Does my outlet have a slant?) When I was an active Hinge user, I never shied away from the fact of my job. That said, the political discussions I’ve been roped into have typically centered around events that happened after 1963. Until now. At my editor’s behest, I reluctantly descended back into Hinge’s sordid world. On the app, in addition to required photos, users are asked to showcase their personalities through their answers to three written prompts. My experience on dating apps suggests that most…The post Bachelors Have Embraced a New Conspiracy Theory: JFK Wasn’t Assassinated appeared first on Texas Monthly.
On Saturday morning, eleven members of the Northwood Manor Civic Club boarded a city bus for the half-hour drive to the Metropolitan Multi-Service Center at West Gray, in Houston’s Montrose neighborhood. They came to meet CenterPoint Energy CEO Jason Wells, who, in the wake of widespread power outages following Hurricane Beryl last month, has become the face of the city’s dysfunctional electrical grid. Four days after Beryl made landfall, with more than a million Houstonians still in the dark, Wells was photographed by the Houston Chronicle in the utility company’s downtown office building next to a thermostat set to 70 degrees. On his wrist was a watch identified by online horologists as a Rolex Daytona. (Wells made more than $7 million last year as CenterPoint’s…The post CenterPoint CEO Jason Wells Is Very Sorry About All That appeared first on Texas Monthly.
As a key member of the editorial team that puts together Texas Monthly’s quadrennial Top 50 BBQ list, Daniel Vaughn has spent the last decade traveling to thousands of restaurants across Texas. Now, with Texas barbecue culture spreading across social media and influencing pitmasters nationwide, our BBQ editor has embarked on a new challenge: creating a national list of the best Texas-style BBQ joints outside of the Lone Star State. Today, Vaughn released the United States of Texas Barbecue, his first-ever list of 53 national barbecue joints that excel in the time-honored craft of slow-cooked meats smoked with the full flavors of hardwoods like hickory and oak. It’s a craft in which the meat, especially beef, shines and brisket is king. To compile the list, Vaughn…The post Texas Monthly Releases List of Top Texas-Style BBQ Joints Outside the Lone Star State appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Barbecue is our country’s greatest contribution to the food world. What began as whole animals being basted with flavorful sauce while slowly roasting over coals outdoors eventually became known as Southern barbecue. From there, regional styles developed, and they became more rigid as restaurants gained popularity in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Then barbecue came indoors with help from offset smokers and enclosed rotisseries. The last decade has seen a surge of barbecue joints opening across the United States. Some places serve Carolina whole hogs, Kansas City burnt ends, or Memphis dry-rub ribs, but the majority don’t bother to open without Texas smoked brisket. What’s more, we’re also seeing trays full of beef ribs, sausages, spareribs, and pinto beans. It’s clear that Texas…The post The United States of Texas Barbecue appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Narrowing down my list of best Texas-style barbecue joints in the United States outside of Texas has been no easy task. Even though there are a hefty 53 impressive options (it was hard to get the number to an even 50!), I felt there were a handful of other places around the country that deserved shout-outs as well—thus my additional lineup of 25 honorable mentions.I also wanted to acknowledge some joints that aren’t doing Texas-style barbecue per se but have menus worth celebrating across a variety of styles: Sonoran style, at Papalo, in La Mesa, California; Florida style, at Tropical Smokehouse, in West Palm Beach, Florida; Miami style, at Smoke & Dough, in Miami, Florida; Cleveland style, at Mabel’s BBQ, in Cleveland, Ohio (and Las…The post The United States of Texas Barbecue: Honorable Mentions appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Texans delivered at the 2024 Paris Olympic Games. From Simone Biles conquering gymnastic skills named after her, to competitors from the Lone Star State claiming more medals than many countries, sports fans from the Rio Grande Valley up to the Panhandle had plenty of cause for cheer. But Texan athletes aren’t done with Paris just yet. As the 2024 Paralympic Games begin in the French capital, here are eight athletes hoping to bring more glory back to the state. With stars ranging from discus champion Jeremy Campbell to Jordan White, the youngest American archer to qualify for the Games, these athletes are sure to add some hardware to Texas’s already packed trophy case. Jeremy Campbell Campbell is one of the best discus throwers in the world.…The post Watch These Texans Run, Shoot, and Throw for Glory at the Paralympic Games appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Last week, Razavi, who asked to be identified by his last name only, went to the Houston DPS office to change the name and sex on his Texas driver’s license. After transitioning to female a few years ago—and changing all legal documents accordingly—he said he’d realized he “would always be viewed as a second-class citizen.” So he detransitioned, and in March he obtained a court order from a district court in Travis County to change his license back. But after a new policy was quietly rolled out last week via an internal email, prompted by the office of the Attorney General Ken Paxton, the Texas Department of Public Safety will no longer accept a court order as a basis to change a person’s sex on…The post He Was Born Male. He Identifies as Male. Ken Paxton Is Ensuring His Driver’s License Says He’s Female. appeared first on Texas Monthly.
In my house, there are two kinds of salads. The first is a slapdash affair of whatever type of greens I have on hand topped with various bits and bobs: yesterday’s leftover chicken; salsa or pesto thinned into salad dressing; leftover bread turned into croutons; the tail end of a bag of nuts. These salads are not very good, but they serve their purpose (cleaning out the fridge and staving off hanger).The other kind of salad is very thoughtful—composed. Put together on purpose, often using ingredients that were bought specifically for the meal. I like to spend the too-hot-to-cook days of summer riffing on the classics. Caesar salad, but make it spicy. Nicoise, but trade the eggs for tofu and the anchovies for nori strips…The post We’ve Made the Cobb Salad Texan. Take That, California. appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Texans You Should Know is a series highlighting overlooked figures and events from Texas history. My distant cousin Doug Michels, a brash and enthusiastic futurist who, as a member of Ant Farm, helped create Amarillo’s iconic Cadillac Ranch fifty years ago, once wrote about the night that changed his life. Like his best tales, it was captivating, self-mythologizing, and hard to verify.His story went like this: Doug came to Texas from San Francisco in the spring of 1969 at the age of 25 to teach a seminar at the University of Houston architecture school. He led students on a wild journey of experiential learning, fueled by acid and pot, exploding conventions around the shapes and materials that make a building. They spent a night in the Astrodome…The post The Unbelievably True Story of One of the Artists Behind Cadillac Ranch appeared first on Texas Monthly.
There is no sadder story than Old Yeller. That’s true of both the 1956 novel, written by Fred Gipson—a Hill Country native who was born in 1908 on a farm in an unincorporated part of the area about a hundred miles northwest of San Antonio—and of the Disney film adaptation released a year after the book, which has been a cultural touchstone for many baby boomers since their childhoods.Today, only 24 percent of dog owners are baby boomers; millennials, on the other hand, make up 33 percent, the largest share among any generation—and they probably didn’t have Old Yeller on their fourth grade syllabus. This isn’t just a shame for a piece of enduring fiction—as we’ve learned in a few ways in recent years, it…The post If You’re Worried About Vaccinating Your Dog, Please Reread ‘Old Yeller’ appeared first on Texas Monthly.
If you turn to TikTok for fashion advice, chances are you’ll probably have to sift through some unintelligible internetspeak in order to find helpful tips. One of the biggest shifts in modern fashion terminology has been the rise of “aesthetics” and “cores,” sartorial genres that attempt to categorize your wardrobe into searchable—and marketable—themes. Wear a lot of hot pink? That’s probably “Barbiecore,” a nod to last summer’s blockbuster. Are you into vintage blazers and relaxed J.Crew vibes? You might be an “old money girl.” But whether it’s “mermaidcore,” “eclectic grandpa,” or “coastal cowgirl,” these niche fashion trends often rise and fall in a matter of weeks, making them difficult for average consumers to keep up with. This summer, a hot new bombshell has entered the villa:…The post A Desert-Dwelling Stylist Breaks Down the “Chic Desert Aunt” Trend appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Sheep Meadow is quiet on this Wednesday morning in June. The guitar-strummers and sunbathers who lounged on its lawn yesterday are gone, and now its only occupants are the elms and sycamores that cluster along its edge, where I now stand with the Central Park Conservancy’s historian of the past forty years, Sara Cedar Miller. I have come to the leafy center of Manhattan on a quest to find traces, however faint, of parkmaker Frederick Law Olmsted’s 1854 horseback ride across Texas. I may be 1,800 miles from the heart of Texas, but I’m drawn to the alluring, if unprovable, theory that this famous green sward—borrowing the word Olmsted and his partner Calvert Vaux used when they designed this park in 1858—could be inspired by…The post How the Designer of Central Park Was Inspired by Texas appeared first on Texas Monthly.
During the early days of Kamala Harris’s candidacy for president of the United States, Tim Walz—then the governor of Minnesota, and not yet her running mate—dropped a casual, offhand remark that had a sudden and dramatic impact on the American political landscape. You probably heard it: During a brief appearance on the MSNBC’s Morning Joe, when discussing Donald Trump and his VP selection JD Vance, Walz declared that “these guys are just weird.” A full suite of politicians, activists, columnists, podcasters, pundits, and more reacted as though a spell had been broken. After decades of allowing Republicans to own the lane of representing the mainstream, middle America that’s into tractor pulls and Applebee’s, Walz’s five-word manifesto gave Democrats a rallying cry they could use to…The post What Happens When Tim Walz’s Weird Runs Into “Keep Austin Weird”? appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Hundreds of mini Polaroids are strung along the white hallways at the Eterneva lab in Kerrville, each one clipped to a long string by a clothespin. There’s Hassan, Luis Manuel, and Millie. Jojo, Angie, and Big Al. They’re fathers and sisters, children, mothers, astronauts, teachers, fisherman, and pilots. Their backgrounds and life experiences may have been vastly different, but their images all hang here for the same reason: a loved one didn’t want their stories to disappear, so their ashes have been turned into diamonds. Scattered among the photos, you’ll also find Camembert the dog and Scooter the cat.“It’s about sixty/forty pets to people,” says Eterneva co-CEO and cofounder Adelle Archer. She’s riding in the front passenger seat of the company Tesla that is taking…The post A Kerrville-Based Company Turns Ashes Into Diamonds. And Why Shouldn’t Grief Be a Little More Sparkly? appeared first on Texas Monthly.
MUSICPostcards From Texas, Miranda LambertSeptember 13For her eleventh studio release, the Lindale-raised star has assembled fourteen songs that she says are each “a letter from home.” The result is an album, which she recorded in Austin, that’s Texan from hat to spurs. She wrote or cowrote ten of the tracks, many with the help of songwriters from the Lone Star State, including Shane McAnally and her collaborators on 2021’s The Marfa Tapes, Jack Ingram and Jon Randall. Conroe’s Parker McCollum lends his pipes to one tune, and the chorus of another delivers what may be the best divorce gag since Mark Chesnutt was “goin’ through the Big D and don’t mean Dallas.” On “Alimony,” Lambert croons, “If you’re gonna leave me in San Antone, remember…The post Miranda Lambert, George Jones, and More Make It a Legendary Month in Texas Culture appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Word on the street—or in the kitchens—over the last week is that restaurants in at least two Texas cities have been asked confidentially to provide certain materials and information to the Michelin Guide. That suggests Michelin’s anonymous inspectors are finishing up their last few bites—and may, in fact, already be through.On July 16, the famous French restaurant guidebook announced it would be adding Texas to its roster of (now) eleven locations covered in the United States, including parts of California, Colorado, and Florida, plus Atlanta, New York City, and Washington, D.C. While Michelin noted that the Texas restaurants that made the guide would be released “later this year,” no date was specified.The cities selected for scrutiny are Austin, Dallas, Fort Worth, Houston, and San Antonio…The post Which Texas Restaurants Will Get Michelin Stars? appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Before she pictured the dress, the ring, or even the groom, singer-songwriter Sara Woody could see the boots. “I had a little-girl dream of designing cowboy boots for my wedding,” says Woody, who married John Fitch at a treehouse resort near Austin in a “cosmic rodeo”–themed four-day affair. “The boots led the whole way.”Her vision: an intricate leather mosaic of symbols meaningful to the couple, including monarch butterflies, the planet Saturn, San Pedro cacti, mushrooms, rainbows, doves, and a lacelike pattern mimicking Mexican paper cutouts on peachy ombré leather. The wedding’s invitations, color palette, decor, and even the design of the dress—which unzipped dramatically at the hem for a splashy reveal—would follow.Nevena Christi, owner and designer at El Paso–based Rocketbuster Handmade Custom Boots, never batted…The post Here Comes the Bride, All Dressed in $15,000 Custom Cowboy Boots appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Party SwitchI read the interview with Dallas mayor Eric Johnson [TM Talks, July 2024], and oh, Mayor Johnson, white liberals do not have a problem with a “strong-willed, competent, self-assured, highly educated Black man.” One was twice elected president of the United States. Johnson’s perception problems are of his own making, and his switch to the Republican Party has, in my opinion, put him in a camp with more criminals, not a better class of them.Nancy Parham, Plano The Band Plays OnWhat a beautiful oral history of the Livestrong bracelet that Emily McCullar recollected for us in “Making the Band” [July 2024]. In 2008 our 23-year-old son was diagnosed with an incurable form of cancer, and we all wore our yellow silicone in solidarity, feeling somehow…The post Roar of the Crowd: September 2024 appeared first on Texas Monthly.
When the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles recommended that Governor Greg Abbott grant clemency to Daniel Perry, the former Army sergeant who murdered a Black Lives Matter protester in Austin in 2020, its seven members were aware of another violent incident in Perry’s past. Police records and court documents obtained by Texas Monthly detail that in 2005, Perry was arrested on a charge that he violently assaulted his younger sister. Travis County district attorney José Garza presented a summary of the class A misdemeanor charge, whose full contents have not been previously reported, to the board in April 2024, six weeks before that entity unanimously advised Abbott to issue a pardon. According to the arrest warrant affidavit, Perry, then eighteen, and his sister, sixteen, were…The post Before Daniel Perry Murdered a Man at a Black Lives Matter Protest, He Was Arrested on a Charge He Assaulted His Sister appeared first on Texas Monthly.
When he’s asked about Texas history, Steve Harrigan often starts his reply with a caveat: “I’m not a professional historian.” Nonetheless, he’s one of the most astute researchers, thinkers, and writers about our state’s eventful past. His 2019 book, Big Wonderful Thing, was widely praised as his generation’s most thoughtful and engaging chronicle of the Lone Star State. I refer to it often and always enjoy Steve’s surfacing of fascinating and previously overlooked figures, including women and Texans of color. I also appreciate his adoption of what one of my favorite history professors called “moral humility”—the discipline of studying the attitudes and standards of the time about which you’re writing, rather than assuming that we today are somehow of superior conscience. Without in any way…The post Stephen Harrigan’s Many Talents appeared first on Texas Monthly.
In the Wild West of ecocapitalism, where billions of dollars are invested yearly into companies that invoke some measure of sustainability, the ideas spawned by start-ups can feel like elements of the sort of dystopian future dreamed up in a sci-fi movie from the sixties: vodka made from carbon captured out of the atmosphere; sneakers made out of recycled chewing gum; a solar geoengineering project that would’ve sent sunlight-reflecting particles into the atmosphere to cool the planet. That’s why Katy-based start-up NanoTech Materials stood out, said Matthew Peña, director of the Rice Alliance Clean Energy Accelerator, which supports innovative start-ups—its idea was comparatively simple. The company produces a particle that, it claims, is extremely effective at rejecting heat. The “Insulative Ceramic Particle,” when blended into common…The post A Katy Start-up Wants to Save Buildings From Heat Waves (and Huge HVAC Bills) appeared first on Texas Monthly.
For more than four decades, the Pinata Party Palace, located on Cesar Chavez Street in East Austin, has remained steadfastly anchored to the past while the world around it has changed. Glassy office buildings and trendy, upscale eateries have flooded the neighborhood, but the beat-up looking, one-story warehouse—bright yellow and covered in sun-bleached advertisements for party supplies—has continued to delight its loyal customers. That sort of proud history might be a cause for preservation. But in East Austin, which remains the throes of a dramatic transformation fueled by gentrification, legacy can often feel like a liability. The shop’s owner, Jorge Salazar, a 50-year-old veteran who served during the Gulf War, grew up in a Victorian-style home a few blocks away from his store. Salazar is warm,…The post He Ran One of East Austin’s Last Piñata Shops. Now It’s Being Demolished. appeared first on Texas Monthly.
As the first summer heat wave set in during early May, Lizzeth Martinez, co-owner of the Naco Mexican food truck, in San Antonio, saw business dip by double-digit percentages. As the season rolled on, the heat continued to negatively impact the business. “The news says it’s going to be hot, and people stay in,” Martinez explains with a nervous laughter that trails into an uncomfortable silence. By mid-August, Martinez says Naco’s sales had decreased by 30 percent. She shows me a text from a customer she describes as “a very good client.” The message reads: “haha, my restaurant spending has also been down because it’s so hot. I just want to do one trip to the grocery store instead of a few trips to various…The post Summer Weather’s Been Hell for Taco Truck Owners. Here’s How They Deal With It. appeared first on Texas Monthly.
The heroines of Dominico Lee’s design sketches look as though they escaped the pages of a storybook. The intentionally frayed hems of the gowns, in silk and tulle, suggest a chase or struggle. The exposed boning of the corsets hints at a lingering sorrow, a heartbreak beneath the glamour, emphasized even more by dark accessories—cowboy hats and boots, all in black. The allusions are purposeful. Twenty-six-year-old Lee, who grew up in Aransas Pass, near Corpus Christi, says he built his most recent couture collection, “La Doña de la Casa,” around one main idea: “What if there were a Texas version of the Cinderella moment?” Lee’s rise from self-taught designer to couturier in the national spotlight represents a fairy tale of its own. His first atelier…The post Meet the Star of Tejano Couture appeared first on Texas Monthly.
The book was called Cannibal Coast. It was written by Ed Kilman and published in 1959 by the Naylor Company, in San Antonio, which specialized in books about Texas and the Southwest. For kids like me living along the Gulf and just discovering its gruesome historical secrets, the book’s title alone was titillating. So was its cover, which depicted a trio of stereotypical russet-skinned Indians crouching in the dune grass with their lances and bows, eyeing the approach of a Spanish sailing ship. Kilman’s book presented itself as a history of the Karankawa, the people who inhabited the coastal plains and barrier islands of Texas, from Corpus Christi to Galveston, long before Europeans first arrived. But the book was more an indictment than a history. “They…The post The Karankawa Want You to Know They’re Not Extinct appeared first on Texas Monthly.
When asked to define the two-word mantra that guides professional rodeo, cowboys generally issue a stream of synonymous directives. Be tough. Don’t quit. You ride hurt. You ride sick. If you’re not confined to bed, then you’re not really hurt. Toughen up. Don’t be a sissy. Don’t complain about it. Do your job. Get back out there. They all add up to the same thing: Cowboy up.But right now, a cowboy is down. For eight seconds—the time a bull rider must remain mounted to receive a score—a 29-year-old Brazilian named Kaique Pacheco managed to stay perched atop one ton of bovine muscle, a bull named Flashbang. But then, the ride complete, Flashbang launched Pacheco off his back and into the air. The rider landed headfirst. He…The post A Rodeo Doctor Fixes Much More Than Broken Bones appeared first on Texas Monthly.
You could be forgiven for thinking that the last thing Tiffany Derry needed was another restaurant. The chef had her hands full with Roots Southern Table, the Farmers Branch venue she opened to considerable acclaim in 2021. On top of that, she was busy babying along the two locations of her fast-food joint, Roots Chicken Shak, which she knew could go national. But Derry and her business partner, Tom Foley, hungered for a new concept. At a meeting, she mentioned how much she loved Italy. After graduating from culinary school at the Art Institute of Houston, she’d embarked on a tour of the country, eating regional specialties, wheedling recipes from cooks, and soaking up the culture. As it turned out, Foley was just as passionate. “My…The post Tiffany Derry Takes On Italy appeared first on Texas Monthly.
There are two types of people in the world: those who love Jefferson and those who’ve never been. It’s nearly impossible to resist the charm of this small East Texas town, whose walkable streets are filled with antiques shops, restaurants serving up cornbread sandwiches and chicken-fried steak, and historic Greek Revival–style houses now operating as bed-and-breakfasts. In its mid-nineteenth-century heyday, this inland riverport town on Big Cypress Bayou, in Marion County about a thirty-minute drive from the Louisiana border, was the commercial center of northeast Texas. Back then, the place bustled with horse-drawn carriages and New Orleans–bound steamboats loaded high with cotton. During the peak of the river trade, in 1872, Jefferson’s population was just shy of 7,300, while today it hovers at around 1,800.The steamboat…The post Where to Eat, Shop, and Stay in Historic Jefferson appeared first on Texas Monthly.
In the latest episode of Answer Me This, senior editor Alex Samuels examines which races have the potential to be swayed by the Harris campaign’s success with key voting blocks—and whether that sway is likely to change the direction of the race.The post Answer Me This: Can Kamala Harris Change the Outlook for Texas Democrats? appeared first on Texas Monthly.
The wacko outdoor rooms of the Orange Show Monument usually dare a visitor not to grin from ear to ear, so I was dismayed this week to see its stucco walls crumbling in some places, with ceramic tiles missing, paint peeling, and a door splintered and disintegrating. Weeds poked up through cracks in the base.Jack Massing was pointing out how subsidence and a few years of extreme weather have done a number on the exuberant structure, which is Texas’s most iconic visionary environment. Still, he lost himself in a mosh pit of happy memories. His head was back in the freewheeling 1980s, when the city’s art happenings could make wildcatting sound like prim business. No stage was better suited for shenanigans than the multilevel Orange…The post Exclusive: Houston’s Orange Show Gets a $30 Million Expansion and an “Art Guy” Executive Director appeared first on Texas Monthly.
At the end of the day, this Texas historian just wants a cold, affordable beer and the truth. Lone Star Brewing Company has long been making the first part easy. The second part? Not so much. For the better part of a decade, it has been stamping its products with “Since 1884.” But this year, the company got aggressive about it, presumably for a nice, round-numbered anniversary, by putting a giant “140” on billboards, cans, hats, koozies, stickers, T-shirts, and tap handles. It’s true that a Lone Star Brewing Co. was established in 1884. The San Antonio–based company brewed, among other brands, Alamo Beer. But it never soled a beer named “Lone Star.” It went out of business in 1919. A second and separate Lone Star…The post The “National Beer of Texas” Isn’t as Old as It Claims appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Each month, we get to know one of the state’s many wonderful and quirky critters. Latin name: Ursus americanusSize: 125 to 500 pounds (adult males)Texas habitat: West and southwestCelebrating the end of our hike up the South Rim Trail, in Big Bend National Park, my friends and I tucked into steaming bowls of jambalaya before making camp. Dinner smelled wonderful—and we weren’t the only ones who thought so. A black bear popped its head up over the canyon rim, about forty feet away, sniffing with its velvety snout while ambling toward us. I felt both awe and terror before our uninvited guest lumbered off. Encounters like mine are increasing in West Texas, where black bears are making a comeback. How many live here?Likely “north of a hundred,”…The post Texans, Get Ready: Black Bears Are Back, Baby appeared first on Texas Monthly.
More than thirty dogs (and one miniature horse in a lifeguard costume) hit the waves in Galveston for a dog surfing competition to raise money for a local animal shelter.After technical problems rendered CenterPoint Energy’s power-outage map useless in the aftermath of Hurricane Beryl, a 55-year-old Tomball resident discovered that the store-locator feature on the Whataburger app displaying whether restaurants were open or closed worked as a reasonably good substitute.Two million dollars’ worth of rare baseball cards were stolen from a dealer at the Dallas Card Show, in Allen.A couple of Houston natives won the most recent season of the reality dating series Love Island USA.A volunteer firefighter from Alpine was charged with arson after allegedly starting multiple brush fires in Jeff Davis and Brewster…The post Meanwhile, in Texas: Thirty Pups (and a Miniature Horse) Hit the Waves for Charity appeared first on Texas Monthly.
On a recent rainy evening in Manhattan, five Texans gathered for a talk at the Museum of Modern Art. The discussion touched on the topics you’d expect: Technique. Composition. Cultural context. Thematic intent. And then there were more unusual questions raised. Like, when Leatherface drops Pam onto the meat hook, do you really see the moment of impalement?“People on YouTube will write, ‘I saw the hook go through her chest!’ ” said actress Teri McMinn. “They’re adamant about it.”We were assembled for a fiftieth anniversary screening of Tobe Hooper’s 1974 horror film The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, which first screened at MoMA less than year after its theatrical release. Just like Degas, de Kooning, or Abramovic, Chainsaw is in the museum’s permanent collection. It has been…The post ‘The Texas Chain Saw Massacre’ at Fifty Is Not as Horrifying as You Remember appeared first on Texas Monthly.
When Post Malone announced his intention to cross over to country earlier this year, he took everyone by surprise, as a guy who began his career as a rapper. But the shift didn’t come entirely out of the blue. The Grapevine artist, whose driver’s license reads “Austin Richard Post,” has long been interested in genre bending and has incorporated country elements into his work as far back as “Go Flex” from his 2016 debut, Stoney. That album also teased Post’s superpower: his ability to work with a wide array of artists from across the spectrum of popular music. Stoney featured appearances from Justin Bieber, Kehlani, Quavo, and 2 Chainz; on his official country debut, F-1 Trillion (out August 16), fifteen of the eighteen tracks involve guest artists, ranging from current megastars such as Chris Stapleton and…The post A Taxonomy of Post Malone’s Collaborators, From Justin Bieber to Dolly Parton appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Q: My lovely wife tells me that proper etiquette requires me to wear my straw hat from Easter until Labor Day and then switch back to my felt hats. But early September seems way too early for felt since it stays hot until much later. Does this rule apply to Texans?Randy Hroch, New BraunfelsA: The Texanist is quite familiar with the traditional guidelines associated with seasonal cowboy-hat donnery. And yes, it is customary to wear straw hats, which are lighter and breathe better than felt hats, between Easter and Labor Day (the first Monday in September). Felt hats, which keep the noggin warm, are customarily worn the rest of the year. The observance of these dates is, the Texanist will note, a fairly modern convention. As…The post The Texanist: Do I Have to Swap Out My Straw Hat for a Felt Hat on Labor Day? appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Long before he became one of the most powerful judges in the country, James Ho sat down with one of his heroes, Edwin Meese III, in Washington, D.C. Ho was 26, fresh out of the University of Chicago Law School, and had come to interview Meese for a law journal article. Sixty-seven-year-old Meese had been a conservative star since the eighties, when he ranked among President Ronald Reagan’s most trusted aides, serving as counselor and attorney general. He had endeared himself to Christian leaders by declaring in a speech that out of all the laws written by mankind, “we haven’t improved one iota on the Ten Commandments.” Meese had resigned in 1988, after an independent counsel investigated possible ethics violations, then drifted into Washington’s small…The post Is James Ho Too Brash for Even Trump to Make Him a Supreme Court Justice? appeared first on Texas Monthly.
I got an amusing mix of responses when I told friends and family I was visiting Muenster, which sits about 15 miles south of the Red River, 65 miles north of Fort Worth, and 5,000 miles west of its namesake, in Germany. “I thought Muenster was a cheese.” “Is that where Eddie Munster lives?” And my favorite: “That’s near Rednecks With Paychecks!” from an enthusiastic cousin. (RWP, I would soon learn, is a biannual off-roading festival held outside the neighboring hamlet of Saint Jo.) This tiny town of about 1,600 may not be on every Texan’s radar, but it’s a hidden gem for those in the know. And there are a lot of them: Metroplexers looking for a weekend escape; oenophiles eager to sample North…The post Meet Muenster, the Fredericksburg of North Texas appeared first on Texas Monthly.
When I was a teenager, I spent a lot of time driving around El Paso in my friend Bianca’s Nissan. We were in her car because I didn’t have one, and she was driving because I didn’t yet know how. We did standard Texas teenager things, like spending a weird amount of time in the Sonic parking lot. On the weekends, Bianca drove us outside the city, where the streets gave way to desert, and we’d park and wait for friends with cars more terrain-friendly than hers to pick us up and drive us over the dunes until we found the bonfire everyone was gathered around. I remember how at night the sand looked almost like water, and I remember how distinctly young I felt…The post With a New Reissue, Spoon Reminds Everyone It’s Been Doing This (and Well) for a Long Time appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Texans You Should Know is a series highlighting overlooked figures and events from Texas history. As a just-out-of-college reporter for the Dallas Morning News in 1979, I watched a landmark event in Texas history unfold, though it would be years before I understood its significance. That November, a former sixth grade teacher from Dallas named Don Baker filed a class action federal lawsuit (Baker v. Wade) challenging Texas’s notorious “Homosexual Conduct” law, known throughout the state’s gay communities simply by its state statute number, 21.06.Gay activists across the country had made strides in the seventies, as twenty states repealed their sodomy laws during that decade. But Texas went the other direction by passing the homosexual conduct law in 1973, making “deviate sexual intercourse” a crime punishable by…The post The Dallas Teacher, Navy Vet, and Devout Christian Who Fought to Overturn Texas’s Sodomy Law appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Cedric Dark believes violence is a disease. Sometimes it manifests in quiet, private ways; other times, it’s public and deafening. As a mosquito transports malaria, a gun delivers violence, Dark says—making death an all too likely prognosis.For Dark, a bookish and unflappable 45-year-old, this isn’t just a matter of semantics. Like millions of Americans, he’s lost a loved one to gun violence. But it’s his job, as an emergency medicine physician in Houston, at one of the state’s top level I trauma centers, that gives him a close-up view of what a bullet does to the human body. Nearly every day, he and his colleagues dig their hands into the wounds of gunshot victims to try to stop the bleeding and prevent vital organs from…The post A Good Guy With a Gun vs. the National Rifle Association appeared first on Texas Monthly.
The smoked chicken at Mimsy’s Craft Barbecue, in Crockett, about two hours north of Houston, needed an overhaul. For two years after the 2020 opening of their restaurant, owners Kathy and Wade Elkins heard complaints from a few customers that their marinated and smoked half chicken seemed undercooked or that the skin wasn’t crispy enough. The couple had a hunch that a deep fryer might solve both issues. Proof that their theory was correct lies in the juice that collects on your plate once you break through the new-and-improved chicken’s crackling skin.“It really revitalizes the product,” Wade says of the bird’s hot-oil bath. The preparation begins long before that step. Forty-eight hours before the poultry goes into the smoker, the cooks submerge it in a…The post Brisket Prices Getting You Down? Jerked-and-Fried Chicken Comes to the Rescue. appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Anjna O’Connor first visited Big Bend National Park five years ago, on the back of a motorcycle driven by her boyfriend, who worked there at the time. They rode to Boquillas Canyon, where they hiked along the Rio Grande and into the rocky gorge, in scorching heat. She learned a couple of things that day: One, she loved the region, where hillsides bristle with ocotillo and prickly pear and a sky island of mountains rises from the desert floor. Two, she underestimated the heat, which left her dehydrated and exhausted—and armed with the knowledge of how quickly visitors can get in trouble if they’re not prepared for the park’s rugged conditions. Despite (or perhaps because of) the challenges, Big Bend beckoned her back, just as…The post Big Bend’s New Superintendent on the Park’s Big Revamp, Extreme Heat, and the Christy Perry Rescue appeared first on Texas Monthly.
For all the recent “The Longhorns Are Back!” talk, the revitalization of the University of Texas’s football program might be the second most intriguing comeback story of Steve Sarkisian’s time in Austin. Just a decade ago, Sark, as friends and fans call him, was regarded as a wunderkind, having energized a dormant University of Washington team and then taken the reins at the University of Southern California, in 2014. But at USC he flamed out spectacularly, showing up drunk to athletic department events before being fired in the middle of his second season.Sarkisian got sober, and University of Alabama coach Nick Saban offered him a lifeline: a $30,000-a-year job as an offensive analyst. From there, Sarkisian rebuilt his reputation and, as Saban’s offensive coordinator in…The post Steve Sarkisian Says the Longhorns Are Ready for the SEC—And the Aggies appeared first on Texas Monthly.
The Detours series celebrates lesser-known locales worth visiting across the state. The crusted peaks of the Christmas Mountains have stood for about 42 million years, the Terlingua Ranch Lodge for about 50. You’ll find them both at the end of a winding sixteen-mile road that cuts through some of the 190,000 acres of the Terlingua Ranch, with its hundreds of cinder block houses, rustic adobes, shacks, sheds, tents, and trailers. This is where the desert rats live, escaping civilization. The lodge, which offers 32 guest rooms across eight cabins, boasts the only pool for miles around—a sparkling blue rectangle surrounded by ocotillo, yucca, boulders, and mountains. After a swim in the cool water, lie on a plastic deck chair and stare at the surrounding slopes and crags…The post The Terlingua Ranch Lodge Pool Is Not a Mirage appeared first on Texas Monthly.
A yellow door in East Austin leads into the minuscule space of Comadre Panadería. A glimpse through the Dutch door on the right shows staff in the kitchen sliding pastry trays into tall racks. To the left is the small glass case that displays the day’s pan dulce. There might be crumbly, powdered sugar–dusted polvorones (what some call Mexican wedding cookies), made with pecans and mesquite flour; tacos de piña, rectangular puff pastries with pineapple jam; mole croissants; or candy corn conchas. The spongy pastries—a fall specialty—convert even the most stalwart candy corn hater. I watched it happen as a friend and I were eating them off the hood of his car: one moment, he was spouting hateful words; the next, he didn’t want to…The post Comadre Panadería’s Riding the Wave of Popularity, One Concha at a Time appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Texas is home to some of the creepiest, crawliest, and otherwise oddest animals on the planet. We introduce you to them in What in Tarnation?!, an occasional series. Every true Texan has a scorpion story. My first one happened 25 years ago, when I was a naive new Austinite, having recently moved from the West Coast. I saw one climbing the wall in our bedroom, panicked, and sprayed it with an entire can of lemon-scented Pledge. I then bravely vacuumed up the arthropod, now shiny and smelling like the world’s worst limoncello, threw the vacuum cleaner outside with the creature still wriggling inside, and told my husband we were moving. He didn’t agree, which is why I have a second scorpion story. More on that later.There’s just…The post It’s Scorpion Season in Texas. Here’s What to Do if You See One. appeared first on Texas Monthly.
The invention of sliced bread, for all the acclaim it occasioned, offered little more than an ergonomic advantage. It spared mothers’ fingertips and accelerated the proliferation of the PB&J, but the ingredients in the humble loaf remained the same: flour, water, salt, and yeast. The big disruption in dough—the one we will litigate in the culture wars in perpetuity—has been less celebrated. As World War II concluded, 14,000-odd years after humans started eating bread, the industrial-agriculture giants changed the recipe, adding azodicarbonamide, potassium bromate, soy lecithin, and other additives whose names are hard to read and to pronounce. The flavor remained the same, more or less, but loaves became quicker to mass-produce and more resistant to mold. If certain thinkers on the right are to…The post A Lab at Texas A&M is Part of a Program Studying Insects as Food. Cue Rightwing Conspiracists. appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Why would a self-proclaimed “nervous mom,” whose daughter leaves for college this fall, write a novel that involves a parent’s worst nightmare? “What are you talking about?” Attica Locke recalled telling her therapist, who’d raised a similar question. “That’s just the story.”The story is Guide Me Home (Mulholland Books, September 3), the final volume in Locke’s acclaimed Highway 59 crime trilogy. Its plot centers on Sera (which sounds a lot like Locke’s daughter’s name, Clara), the only Black member of an otherwise all-white sorority, who goes missing from her East Texas university campus.The fifty-year-old Houston native admitted that when she writes, “there’s a lot of stuff that’s looking me right in the face that strangely I won’t see until it’s over.” But “over” can be…The post Why Attica Locke Writes About East Texas While Living in L.A. appeared first on Texas Monthly.
WHO: Texas’s 2024 poet laureate, Amanda Johnston.WHAT: The Academy of American Poets Laureate Fellowship for Johnston’s project, Praisesong for the People: Poems Celebrating the Heart and Soul of Texas.WHY IT’S SO GREAT: Poetry is often confined to the hallowed halls of academia, and Johnston, our state’s newest poet laureate, wants to expand its reach to the halls where most Texans experience life. Though her designation as a Texas State Artist provides exposure for her work, the position doesn’t involve funding. So she turned to the Academy of American Poets, which every year gives $50,000 fellowships to poets laureate of cities and states in the U.S.She now has the backing to fully pursue her proposed project, Praisesong for the People: Poems Celebrating the Heart and Soul…The post Praise Be! Texas Poetry Just Got Funded appeared first on Texas Monthly.
This is a bonus episode available to TM Audio subscribers only. Connect access to your TM Audio feed to the podcast player of your choice here. To troubleshoot any issues, access the FAQ here. Read the transcript below.“A lot of this is a psychological problem. It’s people with a certain psychology that get involved in it, and the money’s something extra.”—Ray JahnThe Erik Maund case is probably the best-known murder for hire involving Texans in the past forty years. Before that, though, there was the killing of federal judge John Wood, in San Antonio, and the trial of Charles Harrelson. In this bonus episode of The Problem With Erik, host Katy Vine speaks with two men who were in the middle of it all: Ron Iden, who investigated the murder for the…The post ‘The Problem With Erik’ Bonus: “Catching a Hit Man—The Charles Harrelson Case” appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Being an election precinct chair is not glamorous. The neighborhood-level position comes with no salary or official duties. It’s a job typically filled by the most committed political activists, the ones willing to spend hours going door to door to get out the vote before each election. Chosen every two years in the Democratic and Republican primaries, precinct chairs are responsible for microdistricts ranging between 100 and 5,000 registered voters. On Saturday, though, the Democratic precinct chairs of Texas’s Eighteenth Congressional District were given the pro athlete treatment before a packed auditorium at the Young Women’s College Preparatory Academy, in Houston’s Midtown neighborhood. As Beyonce’s “Formation” hyped up the audience, an emcee introduced each precinct chair by name. One by one, the dazed-looking organizers walked down…The post Who Will Replace Sheila Jackson Lee in Congress? appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Two women have filed federal complaints against Texas hospitals they say refused to treat their ectopic pregnancies, leading both women to lose their fallopian tubes and endanger their future fertility.Texas law allows doctors to terminate ectopic pregnancies, a condition in which the fertilized egg implants in the fallopian tubes instead of the uterus. Ectopic pregnancies are always nonviable and can quickly become life-threatening if left untreated.Despite these protections, these women say they were turned away from two separate hospitals that refused to treat them. The complaints allege that the doctors and hospitals are so fearful of the state’s abortion laws, which carry penalties of up to life in prison when violated, that they are hesitating to perform even protected abortions.The complaints were filed with the…The post Doctors Delayed Care for Their Ectopic Pregnancies. Now Their Future Fertility Is Uncertain. appeared first on Texas Monthly.
On a hot June afternoon, Mazhar Zaidi is sitting at one of the dining tables on the ground floor of Dickey’s Barbecue Pit in Lahore, Pakistan. The top floor has a few families and groups of friends occupying the tables, enjoying some of Dickey’s specialties, such as the brisket and the short ribs. Zaidi offers barbecue platters to the candidates he is interviewing to help market the Dallas-based franchise he brought to the food capital of Pakistan three years ago.“I wanted to bring the original Texas-style barbecue to Lahore, the home of Pakistani barbecue,” he said. “I wanted to give the locals a taste of the slow-smoked version, which is quite different to our Pakistani barbecue.”Texas’ trademark pit-smoked barbecue is in stark contrast to the…The post The Dickey’s Barbecue Pit in Lahore Is Just the Latest Example of Pakistanis Embracing Texan Culture appeared first on Texas Monthly.
A few months into last year’s legislative session, Democratic state representative Erin Zwiener, whose district is just south of Austin, pulled her colleague Jared Patterson aside to inform him that a bill he authored was unconstitutional. The legislation written by Patterson, a Republican representing a district north of Dallas, would have required vendors that sell books to schools to rate each one based on its depictions of or references to sex—and to recall already-delivered works that they had rated “explicit.” The bill enjoyed broad support: more than half of Republicans in the Texas House cosigned it, as did one Democrat. But Zwiener warned Patterson—both publicly and privately—that his bill considers “obscene” a far more expansive category of books than courts have found acceptable under the…The post Why Republicans in Texas Are Enacting More Laws They Know Might Be Unconstitutional appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Working Life is a monthly column in which Texans talk about their jobs. Sandra Larson, who is 72, is an animal whisperer in Anna, 45 miles north of Dallas; she helps pet owners understand what ails their furry friends.I was raised in Wisconsin. Whenever my father saw animals, he always took time to talk with them. At the breakfast table, he would see birds outside and ask them questions and then tell us what they were saying. I just thought it was humorous until I took classes on animal communication.I am a former second grade teacher and real estate agent. I got my master’s in counseling when I was fifty, and someone who knew I loved animals suggested I become an animal communicator. I took a couple…The post The Doctor Dolittle of North Texas Has a Special Feeling for Fauna appeared first on Texas Monthly.
The fourth grade classroom at Rucker Elementary in Houston looks like one in any Texas city. The young teacher, dressed casually in slacks and a long-sleeved shirt, stands next to a whiteboard and gazes out at the nine- and ten-year-old students huddled around clusters of desks. A girl wearing a colorful headband dons a sweatshirt to protect herself from the chill of the air conditioner groaning in the background, while the boy next to her taps his foot to the beat of a tune in his head. On the front wall, next to the whiteboard, sits a conspicuous red timer, slightly smaller than a tissue box. Bold black numbers appear on its face. The clock is ticking down on a four-minute lesson segment—1:59, 1:58, 1:57—and the…The post The Education of Mike Miles appeared first on Texas Monthly.
The Paris Olympics have provided an opportunity for Americans to come together and root for our most gifted athletes against the world’s best. It’s been inspiring to watch talented young competitors for the first time and to witness all-time greats such as Simone Biles or Katie Ledecky add to their caches of Olympic gold. Or, if you’re Ted Cruz, these Olympics have provided an occasion to opine about the gender identity of a previously little-known Algerian boxer named Imane Khelif. You’ve probably heard of Khelif by now. The fighter, a 25-year-old welterweight, forced Italian opponent Angela Carini to concede in their round-of-sixteen match on Thursday of last week, within just 46 seconds. (Khelif won the gold medal on Friday.) After the bout, Carini refused to shake…The post Why Is Ted Cruz Suddenly So Passionate About Women’s Olympic Boxing? appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Twisters is a box office smash, featuring A-lister Glen Powell, a high-octane soundtrack, and the best visual effects a budget of $155 million can buy. The Twisters, meanwhile, is a product of a studio called the Asylum, which for two decades has been pumping out “mockbusters,” films with similar titles and concepts to current theatrical hits—but shot with minuscule budgets, starring unknown actors, and dropped onto streaming services. Ever hear of Snakes on a Train, Transmorphers, or Top Gunner: Danger Zone? Probably not, but if you’re up late and not paying close attention, you might have clicked to watch one anyway. If so, you may have seen Kayla Fields—a product of the tiny Texas town of Sonora (about midway between Fort Stockton and San Antonio)—in her…The post What’s It Like to Star in a Knock-off Blockbuster? Just Ask the Lead of ‘The Twisters.’ appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Wee Fong Ehlers calmly plops a preportioned container of mushrooms, chopped carrots, and cabbage into her sizzling wok, unaware of the iPad screen glowing red behind her or the customer waiting at the register outside. “Mama!” exclaims Alex Ehlers from his post as cashier, skidding past a table stocked with Justin’s peanut butter cups, roast beef sandwiches, and $12 fruit juices to enter Ehlers’s universe: the kitchen at Royal Blue Grocery, an upscale corner store, on Congress Avenue in downtown Austin. “There’s an order from yesterday morning. Are you gonna talk to him?” It’s the mid-lunch rush. Ehlers nods to her 21-year-old son and quickly prepares a to-go container with stewed beef, coconut rice, and cucumbers, adding a complimentary Thai green tea to the order as a…The post When Wee Got Big: How a Restaurateur Handles Overnight Success appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Texas Monthly, owned by Texas Monthly LLC, and the City of Grand Prairie have formed a multiyear partnership to curate special events that celebrate Texans and Texas culture. Those events will include the official Texas Country Reporter Festival, a much-anticipated Texas Monthly taco festival, and a new event for barbecue lovers. The collaboration not only brings Texas Monthly’s premier events to North Texas, but it also highlights Grand Prairie as a top destination in the state. The official TCR Festival, previously held in Waxahachie, will relocate to downtown Grand Prairie in the spring of 2025 with an array of vendors, food, music, and headliner entertainment. “We are excited to join forces with such a great organization and designate Grand Prairie as the new home for one of…The post Texas Country Reporter Festival Has a New Home: The City of Grand Prairie appeared first on Texas Monthly.
For twelve days in 2018, someone was killing sex workers in Laredo. The victims were shot at close range, their bodies were left on the sides of rural roads not far from town. In all, four women were slain: Melissa Ramirez, who was 29; Claudine Anne Luera, 42; Guiselda Alicia Cantu, 35; and Janelle Ortiz, 28. But perhaps even more shocking than the murders was that a U.S. Border Patrol agent committed them.The story of Juan David Ortiz’s deadly spree and authorities’ hunt to find a killer who was hiding in plain sight was well covered by the media, including with a comprehensive story by Texas Monthly’s Skip Hollandsworth. The remaining mystery in this case—as in many others involving serial murders—is how the killer was made.In The Devil Behind the…The post A New Book Chips Away at the Lingering Mystery of Laredo’s Border Patrol Serial Killer appeared first on Texas Monthly.
In the long history of the Olympics (this year marks the Games of the XXXIII Olympiad), hundreds of athletes with Texas ties have vied for the glory that comes with triumph on the global stage. For an individual competitor or the member of a team, just qualifying for a chance to represent one’s nation is the accomplishment of a lifetime for many athletes; succeeding at the world level is an achievement nonpareil.This summer, Texans and Texas-affiliated athletes such as gymnast Simone Biles, shot-putter Ryan Crouser, golfer Scottie Scheffler, and sprinter Julien Alfred have, because of their remarkable successes, become household names. Former Texas Longhorn Kevin Durant has long been among the most famous athletes in the world, but this summer he became USA Basketball’s all-time…The post Meet the Other GOATs (Greatest Olympic Athletes From Texas) appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Grass has grown wild and tall around what was once St. Mark’s Medical Center. A blue tarp covers a hanging entrance sign, and a piece of plywood on the front door carries an announcement that the hospital is closed. Its hallways are littered with empty beds, medicine carts, and wheelchairs.The shuttering of St. Mark’s last October left a hole in access to trauma care in La Grange, a small town between Austin and Houston. Roughly 40,000 Texans in the surrounding rural communities had counted on the hospital’s services, and the majority of patients were older adults with low incomes. While the area has a handful of urgent care clinics and physician offices, ambulances must now transport patients with more serious conditions to hospitals elsewhere.St. Mark’s…The post La Grange’s Only Hospital Closed Last Year. Now an Auction Will Decide Its Fate. appeared first on Texas Monthly.
This is a bonus episode available to TM Audio subscribers only. Connect access to your TM Audio feed to the podcast player of your choice here. To troubleshoot any issues, access the FAQ here. Read the transcript below.“Watching all of these decisions come to this point where two people are murdered in a parking lot . . . That’s what we decided, ultimately, the story is: it’s these characters who all have their different motivations, and they just collide in this fateful way.”—Katy VineIn this bonus episode for Texas Monthly audio subscribers, we’re taking you behind the scenes of our production with a Q&A among host Katy Vine, lead producer Ana Worrel, coproducer Brian Standefer—who wrote the show’s original score—and coproducer and story editor Patrick Michels.This episode was produced by Patrick Michels…The post ‘The Problem With Erik’ Bonus: “Behind the Scenes” appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Texans You Should Know is a series highlighting overlooked figures and events from Texas history. Ice water splashed over the sizzling gun barrel as the woman tried to cool her shotgun down. She’d been shooting for more than two hours. On this cool November day in Montgomery, Alabama, she was sweating. Her arms ached from holding the seven-and-a-half-pound Winchester. But the clay pigeons kept coming, whirling out of the trap machine like flying saucers from hell. Crack. Crack. Crack. One by one she pulverized them, the shards joining the layer of remains from the 950-odd pigeons she’d already dispatched.The spectators at the gun club that day in 1916 couldn’t take their eyes off her. Thirty-four-year-old Elizabeth “Plinky” Toepperwein was America’s only female professional trapshooter (one who…The post The Forgotten Female Sharpshooter Who Surpassed Annie Oakley appeared first on Texas Monthly.
The final image of the 2024 Olympic women’s gymnastics competition captured an iconic moment: Simone Biles and her U.S. teammate Jordan Chiles—both of whom train at Biles’s World Champions Centre in Spring—kneeling on the silver and bronze steps on the medal podium, pointing toward Brazil’s Rebeca Andrade on the gold level with her arms raised and her smile stretched ear to ear. In the final event, floor exercise, the Brazilian gymnast managed to edge Biles for the title, winning the gold medal that had eluded her throughout these Olympics. This is the first time that Biles has ever lost the floor gold in world-championship or Olympic competition. But judging from the display of admiration on the medal podium, Biles didn’t seem too upset about it.…The post In Paris, Simone Biles Finally Found a True Rival appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Few foods bring upon a tinge of nostalgia like a hot dog on a summer’s day. While it may be the star of a backyard barbecue, the fully dressed frank’s popularity as a year-round meal has diminished over the past several decades. For long-standing Houston restaurant James Coney Island, this is evidenced by the company’s downsizing from 21 locations at its peak in 2013 to just 6 today. But, with its rich history and reliable menu, the brand is tapping into the allure of being one of the state’s great nostalgic destinations.James Coney Island is among the oldest food establishments in Texas, dating to 1923, when Greek immigrant brothers James and Tom Papadakis opened the first location at Walker and Main Street, in downtown Houston.The…The post In a New Era, Century-Old James Coney Island Leans Into Its Nostalgic Roots appeared first on Texas Monthly.
When Mercedes and Jonathan Sandhu found out they were pregnant with quadruplets, joy quickly gave way to anxiety. “We were terrified parents,” Jonathan, who, like his wife, is an engineer, said. “If anyone ever looks up things about higher order multiples, everything is daunting.”The Sandhus had a 1 in 15 million pregnancy. Those are the odds of monochorionic quadruplets, four kids with identical DNA sharing the same placenta. Only about seventy-some-odd cases of monochorionic quads have been recorded in the world. Many quadruplets, sadly, do not survive to birth (one study found a 30 percent neonatal mortality rate). Texas has been home to some of the most recent successful cases —Dallas’s Jenny and Chris Marr welcomed four identical boys on March 15, 2020—but this was…The post Welcome Home to the Sandhu Quadruplets, Who Had a 1 in 15 Million Chance appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Did a relationship that began a decade ago between a chief executive of a Fortune 500 company and a recent college graduate lead to a controversial $818 million deal that Houston-area residents could be paying off for years? That’s a question elected officials and energy regulators may grapple with as new revelations arise about the contract that Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick recently described as “potential fraud.”The deal under scrutiny was struck in 2021 between CenterPoint, the electric utility to which state officials granted a monopoly to serve Greater Houston, and Life Cycle Power, a small start-up based in the northwest Houston suburb of Jersey Village. CenterPoint told regulators it needed to lease twenty tractor-trailer–mounted mobile power generators from Life Cycle to help keep the lights…The post CenterPoint’s Puzzling Deal for Generators Faces New Scrutiny appeared first on Texas Monthly.
He anxiously picked at a bowl of chips and salsa while watching two friends lose their elections. Art Pronin, a longtime activist and president of the Meyerland Area Democrats Club in southwest Houston, who sports well-kempt sideburns and a faintly nervous smile, had only reluctantly attended a watch party for the 2024 Texas primary. He had developed what he calls a “phobia” of such events in 2016, when he stayed up late with a group of activists only to be poleaxed by Hillary Clinton’s surprise loss to Donald Trump. This March, he had braved the trip to a Day of the Dead-themed bar in Houston at the invitation of Friend One, Todd Litton, an attorney seeking the Democratic nomination for a seat in the state…The post Houston Democrats Clawed Their Way to Power. Now They’re Clawing at Each Other. appeared first on Texas Monthly.
If you’ve been lucky enough to catch the Paris Olympics live streams, you’ve had a fun week. The women’s gymnastics all-around competition kicked off around lunchtime on Thursday, and as expected, Spring’s own Simone Biles walked away with the gold. In doing so, she became the most decorated American gymnast in Olympics history and the first two-time all-around winner since 1968. (Biles won gold at the 2016 Rio Olympics, though she bowed out of the competition in Tokyo in 2021.) It was a can’t-miss event, as evidenced by the number of celebrities in attendance at Paris’s Bercy Arena that day. NBC couldn’t keep the cameras off them, constantly panning to reactions from the likes of Steph Curry and Seth Rogen. As I watched, I wondered, as I…The post In Case You Missed It: See Beyoncé’s Chills-Inducing Tribute to Simone Biles appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Under a soaring canopy of old pecan trees, Anthony Medrano gave the signal, igniting the mariachi ensemble to perform a searing rendition of a song that many recognize by its first few notes.Violins led the way, though their warm tones were quickly echoed by the brassy hum from a set of trumpets, the steady plunk of guitarróns, and crisp guitar strums. It was June 2022, and an audience of mourners had gathered in Uvalde’s town square. Medrano, a longtime violinist, had traveled there from San Antonio with nearly fifty fellow mariachis who had answered the call to console the shattered community with music after the shooting at Robb Elementary that ended the lives of nineteen students and two teachers. “Amor Eterno,” a heartbreaking ballad and perhaps the most famous song by Mexican icon…The post How a Mariachi Ballad Became a Soothing Touchstone for Texans Grieving After Gun Violence appeared first on Texas Monthly.
As far back as I can remember, Pecos cantaloupe was a family affair.Growing up, my siblings and I spent part of the summer with our grandparents in El Paso. The halcyon desert days would end when we piled in the car for the ten-hour drive home to Fort Worth. As we made our way eastward, we’d detour off the interstate in Pecos, my grandfather’s hometown. After driving around streets as bare as the surrounding Permian Basin, we’d manage to find a grower selling cantaloupe out of the bed of his truck. For a few minutes, my grandfather would get out of the car, talk to the grower, and deposit a box of the region’s fruit in the trunk. When we got home, my siblings and…The post One of the Last Growers of Pecos Cantaloupe Presses On appeared first on Texas Monthly.
In Talking Texan, we explore the diverse dialects, interesting idioms, and unique linguistics of the Lone Star State. One aspect of life in the Lone Star State that Texans tend to talk about a lot—’til our tongues are plumb tuckered, you might even say—is the weather. If matters of a meteorological nature were removed as a possible topic of conversation here, the silence would likely be deafening. Small-town hardware stores would suddenly run eerily silent. Hayseeds and old-timers hanging around the feed and seed would be left just standing there scratching their chins, slack-jawed. Crickets! Because whether it happens to be excessively wet, excessively dry, excessively cold, or just really, really hot, Texans will, as sure as sunup, have something to say about it. Read…The post Ten Colorful Ways to Say It’s Hotter Than Hades in Texas appeared first on Texas Monthly.
TM BBQ Club “Pit Perks” are exclusive perks and discounts that Texas Monthly’s network of barbecue joints generously offer to members like you each month. Proof of membership is required to redeem. AUGUST PERKS BrisketU | Get $15 off any BrisketU Class with code TXMNEWS24scTW Juan and Allie’s BBQ | 20% discount on order; Address: 114 Texas Spur 511 Sunset Texas 76270 Eaker Barbecue | 10% off all merch and free sticker Smokey John’s Bar-B-Que & Home Cooking | See Calendar for specials! We are celebrating 48 years of business this August. The week of August 26th we will feature discounted specials as a small “thank you” for the continued support from our loyal customers. In addition to the daily specials, we will offer a chance to win Smokey John’s for…The post August 2024 Pit Perks appeared first on Texas Monthly.
When Thomas Walkup’s European teammates find out he’s from Texas, they have one of two reactions. If they speak English well, they barrage him with questions: Did you grow up on a farm? Did you ride a horse to school? Do people really wear cowboy boots?If they don’t speak much English, they simply shape their hands into finger guns and fire. “I disappoint them when I tell them it’s actually pretty normal in Texas,” Walkup said. “Everyone is really nice. People are super welcoming. It’s not the Wild West anymore.”Walkup understands what it’s like to have a skewed perception of other places. Before he began his basketball career in Europe, he’d left the United States only once—to visit an all-inclusive resort in the Dominican Republic.…The post How a Texas College Hoops Legend Landed on the Greek Olympic Team appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Vincent Hancock was twelve years old when he first stepped foot on an Olympic shooting range. He’d grown up watching his brother and dad compete locally and started hitting targets himself when he was ten. Still, the Georgia native didn’t know skeet shooting was an Olympic sport until someone invited them to the range where the shooting competition was held at the 1996 Atlanta Games and said the Olympics happened there five years before.Hancock wasn’t even old enough to participate in 4-H competitions, but he could practice in the place built specifically for the Olympics. He pointed a shotgun toward the sky in front of him, pulled the trigger, and hit a flying piece of clay. The next day, he returned to shoot again, but…The post Team USA’s Olympic Hopes in Skeet Shooting Run Through Texas appeared first on Texas Monthly.
This week, in one of the most anticipated moments of the 2024 Paris Olympics, Simone Biles proved yet again why she’s not just the greatest gymnast of all time but is, like, maybe the greatest human being who’s ever done anything a human being can do. That statement has the ring of hyperbole, but let’s consider: Biles, the 27-year-old gymnastics champion from Spring, just outside of Houston, hasn’t been considered an underdog in the gym since she was a young teenager. She has reached heights that were previously considered impossible in her sport. She took two years off from competition after her decision to withdraw from part of the competition at the Tokyo Olympics and then went on to become the oldest female gymnast to…The post A Partial Inventory of Items Simone Biles Could Jump Over in Her Floor Routine appeared first on Texas Monthly.
A year ago, Flor and Fletcher Sheridan looked down at a historic building for sale in downtown Alliance, Nebraska, from atop the Ferris wheel set up for the community’s annual Heritage Days. The small town in the picturesque Sand Hill region of western Nebraska is Flor’s hometown. The couple lived in Houston at the time, and hadn’t seriously considered leaving until they saw how little it would cost to buy their own barbecue joint in Alliance. The deal on the 110-year-old building was too good to pass up, so they sold their house in Houston, became Nebraskans again last September, and opened the doors to Golden Hour Barbecue in March.Coincidentally, I visited Alliance during this year’s Heritage Days, but I was there for barbecue rather…The post Two Former Texans Introduce Nebraskans to Top-notch Brisket appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Country singer Crystal Gayle is twirling around on her cowboy boot–clad feet when the two young sisters spot her. She’s a flurry of sparkles and kicked-up dust at the Houston Rodeo, and the starry-eyed sisters can’t look away. “That’s when it imprinted on us,” said Sarah Caruth, who owns Fraulein Boot Company with her sister, Margaret Walker. “We thought, ‘Oh my gosh, what is this Western wonderment?’ ”Legacy cowboy boot companies such as Tony Lama and Justin Boots have always catered to both men and women, but women-owned boot companies such as Fraulein are prioritizing unapologetically feminine styles. With daring bright colors and girly patterns, a rising class of female boot designers is shaping soles for the cowgirls of the future. The elder stateswoman of the group…The post Meet the Next Generation of Female Cowboy Boot Designers appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Trundling down Farm-to-Market Road 32 between San Marcos and Wimberley, a sign shaped like an inverted triangle may grab your attention. In the center, a stylized blue eye surrounds an orb ringed by a disco ball–like band. The image falls somewhere between space age and Masonic. The name on top, “Senza Maeso,” also offers little clue as to what you’ll find inside. Look more closely, and you’ll see the information you are seeking: a single word—“bar”—nestled deep in the center of the design.As you approach the building with an emerald exterior, you’ll start to get the full sense of Ryan and Jay Gitman’s “space deco” fantasy—a sumptuous Bondian aesthetic that feels like it’s been beamed in from another time, or another planet. Behind the triangular…The post A Cosmic Roadhouse in Wimberley Spotlights a New Texas-Made Liqueur appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Growing up on the South Side of Laredo, the Lozano kids were taught that the path to a better life was through education. So when Jessica Lozano saw her younger sister Jennifer singularly focused on the sport of boxing, insisting over and over that she was going to fight in the Olympics one day, Jessica tried to be supportive—but also acted as a voice of reason.“We told her, ‘That’s great. As your family, we believe in you—but maybe take a few college courses on the side,’ ” Jessica recalled. “We were like, ‘Jenny, we just want you to have a plan B.’ And I remember vividly when she said, ‘You know I love you. But there’s no plan B for me.’ ”Last October in Santiago, Chile, Jennifer…The post Laredo’s First-Ever Olympian Is Ready to Make Trouble in Paris appeared first on Texas Monthly.
It had been two years since Barbara Bradley Hagerty, the award-winning religion journalist and writer, retired from her nineteen-year tenure with NPR. Working as a freelancer now, she was looking for her next project and called up her old friend Jim McCloskey in New Jersey. She’d used McCloskey as a source several times for stories on wrongful convictions. Through his work with Centurion Ministries, McCloskey was an expert on the subject; over the previous 35 years he had helped free 63 wrongly convicted men and women from prison. What was the one case, Hagerty asked McCloskey, that still haunted him after all these years?“Oh, that’s easy,” he replied. “Ben Spencer’s case. There’s probably not a day that goes by that I don’t think of Ben.”In…The post Benjamine Spencer’s Long Road Home appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Framed in his office, Eric Olson displays what he calls a “unique piece of history.” It’s a letter informing him of a $44 million settlement in a class action lawsuit involving Theranos, the infamous company based in Palo Alto, California, that claimed it could run hundreds of diagnostic medical tests with just a few drops of a patient’s blood. Below the letter is a check for $46.65—Olson’s cut as a former customer.The lawsuit, filed in 2016, took long enough to conclude that the check was sent this spring to the New York home Olson sold when he moved to Austin seven years ago. The timing of the settlement’s arrival felt serendipitous because he had since built a company that promises to do something Theranos never…The post Blood Tests From a Finger Prick—For Real This Time? appeared first on Texas Monthly.
As Texans, we can claim a lot of our foods as the best in the country. After all, you wouldn’t rush off to Idaho to indulge in tacos and you’d be hard-pressed to buy a plane ticket to Florida to try some brisket. Pizza—another one of America’s favorite foods—has never had strong associations with the Lone Star State, but a couple of recent “best of” lists are proving that is changing. This June, 50 Top Pizza, an Italian organization committed to promoting the excellence of artisan pizza around the world, listed Partenope Ristorante, in Dallas and Richardson, in the number twelve slot on its annual U.S. pizza ranking. Owner Dino Santonicola was invited to both the national award ceremony held in New York City on June 25,…The post Experts Agree: Texas’s Pizza Is Getting Better and Better appeared first on Texas Monthly.
This is a bonus episode available to TM Audio subscribers only. Connect access to your TM Audio feed to the podcast player of your choice here. To troubleshoot any issues, access the FAQ here. Read the transcript below.“I love helping out people, man. Because everybody gets in a shitty situation, and I want to be there to help them whenever they need it.”—Bryon BrockwayFor our first bonus episode for Texas Monthly audio subscribers, we’re sharing an extended cut of the undercover audio Red recorded for the FBI, as he tried to get Adam Carey and Bryon Brockway to talk about the murders of Bill Lanway and Holly Williams. Red, you’ll recall, is the alias we used in the show for one of the security operatives hired by Erik Maund, who left Nashville before…The post ‘The Problem With Erik,’ Bonus: “The Undercover Tapes” appeared first on Texas Monthly.
It’s been almost a decade since the Austin elementary school my kids attended, the school formerly known as Robert E. Lee Elementary, was the site of an early skirmish in the latest round of American culture wars. From 2015 to 2016, I was in the center of it all, along with my wife and a small group of similarly liberal and left-wing parents who organized to change the school’s name to something less awful.I’ve been thinking about that experience lately, in part because we’re at a potential inflection point in the broader arc of the culture wars. The more extreme manifestations of the “woke” movement have passed their peak, while the right-wing backlash is at full force, leaving us with something like the inverse of…The post The Renaming of Robert E. Lee Elementary Started a Civil War in My Neighborhood appeared first on Texas Monthly.
“Hot Glen Summer” this. “The Glenaissance” that. For everyone who’s joining Glen Powell’s online fandom—welcome. Although it’s been six years since he appeared in the romantic comedy Set It Up, capturing hearts and minds with a role that showed off his undeniable charm and introduced him as a legit Hollywood hunk, it seems the former child star is suddenly getting his flowers.Glen’s variety of celebrity isn’t new to Texans. We’ve seen it in Taylor Kitsch’s portrayal of Tim Riggins in Friday Night Lights, a young Patrick Swayze in, well, anything, Twister star Bill Paxton, Jensen Ackles in Supernatural, and notably, Matthew McConaughey, a guy Glen is often compared to. It’s the quintessential frat boy (Sigma Phi Epsilon) type, who grew up in West Texas (almost true: Glen graduated from Austin’s Westwood High) and has…The post It’s a Glenomenon: Why the Internet Is Crushing on Glen Powell appeared first on Texas Monthly.
The bright side of summer in Texas is that we don’t have to look up the weather to know what to wear. We know each new day from June to September will be another scorcher, and last year’s inferno, the second-hottest Texas summer on record, is still emblazoned in our memories. Sky-high temperatures loom around every corner, and it’s not just your imagination that the humidity is rising. You might prefer to look like naked Oppenheimer at home all summer, but sometimes it’s necessary to leave the house in clothes. Shorts and tank tops are popular go-tos, but considering long-sleeved construction workers or the robes and turbans worn by many desert-dwelling folks, what exactly is the best type of clothing to wear in high temps? Is…The post How to Dress When It’s Really Freaking Hot Out appeared first on Texas Monthly.
In my opinion, salsas are defined by the chile that lends them heat. Jalapeños are nice and mild; serranos give the perfect amount of kick; and dried chiles or chipotle en adobo bring a roasty earthiness.So what about habaneros? They—rightfully—have a reputation for sky-high heat. But if you only consider their Scoville units, you’re missing what these little orange chiles have to offer. You might be surprised to hear habaneros also have a lovely sweetness to them, somewhat reminiscent of a carrot, and an amazing floral scent (just don’t take too big a whiff). These flavors come out nicely in fermented hot sauces, but you can also play them up by emphasizing their natural sweetness. Thus, fruit is a common pairing for habaneros, and this combination is…The post It’s Sweet. It’s Hot. It’s Your New Favorite Salsa Recipe. appeared first on Texas Monthly.
One hundred years ago, hotels in Texas advertised 75-cent to $1 daily rooms (with special rates for families), cool breezes in summer months, proximity to streetcar lines, and, if you were flush with cash, perhaps even your own private bathroom. While their amenities have been upgraded significantly in the intervening years, many historic hotels still endure in Texas, with their creaky floors and old pipes, stately lobbies, and breezy, rocking chair–lined verandas—plus maybe a ghostly spirit or two that checked in and never checked out. At least thirty hundred-year-old hotels are still operating across the state, enduring among their more cookie-cutter chain peers. Among these treasures are the oldest continuously operating hotel—the Excelsior House Hotel, in Jefferson—and four that celebrated their centennials just this year, including…The post These Historic Texas Hotels Hold a Century’s Worth of Stories appeared first on Texas Monthly.
All of Uma Gunasekaran’s patients have diabetes, and most are uninsured. The most severe cases might end up with amputated limbs or on dialysis. Gunasekaran, an endocrinologist who runs Parkland Health’s Global Diabetes Program, in Dallas, relies on the benevolence of multibillion-dollar pharmaceutical companies to supply her patients with medicines at no cost.Among the array of diabetes treatments, those in greatest demand are part of a relatively new class of drugs. These are sometimes referred to broadly as Ozempic, after the brand name of the best-known drug of its kind on the market. They work by mimicking the effects of a hormone produced in the gut, glucagon-like peptide-1, or GLP-1, which regulates blood sugar, slows the stomach’s emptying process, and fosters a sensation of fullness…The post Could Texas Save Money by Giving Free Ozempic to Diabetes Patients? appeared first on Texas Monthly.
He first exhausted all other possible options, but President Joe Biden ultimately did the right thing for his party. I recently noted that his statements since the debate had been much too focused on his needs and self-conception, instead of on the country’s best interest. But in his televised address to the country Wednesday, he finally broadened the “I” to “we” and “you.” It had been an honor to serve, he said, but “the choice is up to you, the American people.” It surely is.Democrats finally have a presumptive nominee in what they believe, correctly, is the most important election of their lifetimes, vice president Kamala Harris, and the speed with which they consolidated around her left Republicans agog. Last month, Harris was the moderately…The post With Kamala Harris as Its New Rival, the GOP, Including in Texas, Is Flailing appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Matthew McConaughey, like pretty much every star in Hollywood, has long been linked to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. He was reportedly in talks to play Doctor Strange in the 2016 film of the same name, before the role ultimately went to Benedict Cumberbatch. (Cumberbatch ended up leaning into the “Doctor” part of the character; we can only assume that McConaughey would have gone hard on the “Strange.”) He turned down the role of the villainous Ego, the “Living Planet,” in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, which led to Kurt Russell making his MCU debut instead. He’s professed a desire to play the Incredible Hulk, one of Marvel’s most frequently recast heroes—though Mark Ruffalo, who took over the role from Edward Norton (who himself took…The post Don’t Blink During ‘Deadpool & Wolverine,’ or You’ll Miss Matthew McConaughey’s Marvel Debut appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Media veteran Joe Weir has joined Texas Monthly as our new chief revenue officer, overseeing the company’s sales operations. Through the rest of the year, he’ll work alongside our CRO emeritus, Jalaane Levi-Garza, as part of the transition. Weir hails from the Panhandle city of Childress and received his liberal arts degree from Hardin-Simmons University in Abilene. He began his media career as a sales executive in Dallas at Belo Corporation, where Broadcast & Cable magazine recognized him as a digital all-star. During his 20 years at the company, which would eventually become Dallas News Corporation, he learned all aspects of the business—from publishing to broadcast to sales and digital marketing. He would go on to oversee product launches that resulted in more than $25 million…The post Texas Monthly Welcomes New Chief Revenue Officer Joe Weir appeared first on Texas Monthly.
The first time I saw Simone Biles in competition, she didn’t win. This, it would turn out, was an exceedingly rare experience, because winning has become synonymous with the Texan—it’s something she’s done more of than any other gymnast who ever tiptoed across a balance beam. Many gymnastics fans were introduced to Biles when she was already in the middle of her first gold medal run, at the 2013 world championships in Antwerp, Belgium. Others might have heard of her after she hoisted gold at the 2015 worlds in Glasgow. That competition wrapped up less than a year before the 2016 Olympics were set to begin. By the time the Rio Games began, even casual fans understood that Biles’s eventual win in the all-around was considered…The post I Remember the Last Time Simone Biles Was an Underdog—More Than a Decade Ago appeared first on Texas Monthly.
When the members of Team USA float down the Seine at the opening ceremony of the 2024 Paris Olympics, only California and Florida will have more athletes representing the red, white, and blue than Texas, which is sending more than forty Olympians and Paralympians to compete this summer. From global superstars like Simone Biles, the most decorated gymnast in the history of her sport, and Sha’Carri Richardson, the reigning fastest woman in the world, to a skeet shooter and a speed climber who are the very best in the world at what they do, this batch of Texan Olympians is as close as it gets to a sure bet to make fans in Texas and across the nation proud. Hailing from major metros such as…The post Simone Biles, Sha’Carri Richardson, and 11 Other Texans to Watch at the Paris Olympics appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Bret Anthony Johnston wanted to go skateboarding, something he was once paid to do but that I haven’t done since the George W. Bush administration. I was willing to give it a try, but the best time for us to meet was late on a June afternoon, when the scorching sun still shone over a heat-soaked Austin. Instead, we decided to meet indoors at the Michener Center for Writers on the UT campus, where Johnston has been the director since 2017, to discuss his new novel, We Burn Daylight.When Johnston opened a creaking door to welcome me, it was clear he regards the place as a sanctuary and was eager to be my tour guide. At the Michener Center, Johnston oversees one of the most respected writing…The post ‘Romeo and Juliet’ Meets the Waco Siege: Bret Anthony Johnston’s New Novel Can Only Be Set in Texas appeared first on Texas Monthly.
When British singer Charli XCX released her sixth album, the hyperpop Brat, fans declared it to be a “brat summer,” indulging in lime green (the eye-catching color of the album art) and dancing through emotional crises to catchy club music.But the term reached a new stratosphere when Charli XCX posted “kamala IS brat” on social media platform X shortly after President Joe Biden endorsed Kamala Harris for the Democratic presidential nomination. Harris’s campaign page even changed its header image on X to reference the album cover.But brat summer is much more than presidential preferences, and being a brat isn’t about tantrums and toddlers. “You’re just, like, that girl who is a little messy, and likes to party, and maybe says some dumb things sometimes—who feels…The post 8 Essential Texas Recipes for Tapping Into Your “Brat Summer” appeared first on Texas Monthly.
The bats are wooden, the beer is cold, and the merch is a home run. Sandlot baseball clubs in Texas run on an “everyone’s welcome, just grab a bat” ethos—once you score a coveted spot on a team, that is. Choose your playing level: most of the clubs include a handful of teams that offer everything from local pickup games to competitive travel opportunities, known as barnstorms. Texas teams can end up playing one another even if they’re based in opposite corners of the state. The sandlot spirit is one of Texas nostalgia—from the makeshift dugouts to the new communities made inside them.Even with friends and neighbors on the diamond, it’s the vintage-inspired team gear that truly caught our eye. Sandlot teams get creative with…The post Sandlot Baseball Teams Are a Treasure Trove of Merch. Here’s What We’d Buy. appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Hailed by some as egalitarian but decried by others as a cattle call, the open boarding process at Southwest Airlines is on the way out. The Dallas-based carrier on Thursday said that it will soon offer assigned seats for the first time systemwide in its 53-year history.In a barrage of corporate jargon, Southwest called the change a “product evolution,” one of many “transformational commercial initiatives” aimed at “driving shareholder value” and improving “operational efficiency.” The bottom line? The airline decided it can make more money with assigned seats than without.For many customers, open seating was the last notable difference between Southwest and its competitors, including crosstown rival American Airlines and longtime competitor United Airlines. Southwest has come to resemble those competitors by flying bigger planes,…The post Will Assigned Seats Clip Southwest Airlines’ Wings? appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Last weekend, Twisters posted the third-biggest opening weekend of 2024, a monster hit for Universal Studios. The film turns an unlikely nineties blockbuster into a bona fide franchise in an age when any movie that shows some box office juice inevitably gets a slew of sequels greenlit. It may have finally created an honest-to-gosh movie star out of Austin native Glen Powell. The question of whether there will be a Twisters 2 was likely answered as soon as studio execs saw the opening weekend numbers. The question now is simply where the series will go, to which we would like to offer a modest proposal—a crossover with the Fast and Furious franchise. This may seem like a silly idea, but we live in a world of…The post The Only Thing That Can Heal America Is a ‘Twisters’ Crossover With the ‘Fast and Furious’ Franchise appeared first on Texas Monthly.
The first thing you notice when you walk into Women & Their Work, an East Austin contemporary art gallery and nonprofit, is the butt of a missile. The six-foot-high shape is suspended in a fragment of wall, decorated with white and gray brick-patterned wallpaper. Illuminated by the gallery’s front windows, the light bouncing off the harsh contours of the missile’s Mylar surface draws your eye away from the pile of rubble beneath it, the glowing outline almost disappearing into the wall itself. This sculpture, The Strike, is part of “Bending Light” (on view through August 22), a group exhibition designed to explore “the intricacies of Black femininity and queer identity.” Its four Texas-based artists depict adversity and strength in pieces that employ disparate materials from…The post In an Austin Exhibit, Four Artists Bend Light to Their Will appeared first on Texas Monthly.
When President Joe Biden on Sunday announced that he would step aside as the Democratic presidential nominee and endorsed vice president Kamala Harris as his successor, the historic move opened several floodgates. Among Democrats, one could almost hear an audible sigh of relief; they were finally freed from trying to defend the octogenarian president’s age and mental acuity. Meanwhile, some Republican officials and activists in Texas pounced on the news of a Black woman running for president as an opportunity to engage in thinly veiled racism.In a Sunday social media post, Texas lieutenant governor Dan Patrick, who declined an interview request, wrote that the elevation of Harris represented an effort to secure a “fourth term” for former president Barack Obama. (Patrick also alleged, without evidence,…The post To Compete Against a New Presidential Candidate, Some Texas Republicans Are Dusting Off an Old Playbook appeared first on Texas Monthly.
My hands trembled a little as I locked my car in the parking lot of a small, blue, windowless building off Burnet Road with an image of John Wayne spray-painted on a boarded-up side door. There was nothing to be anxious about, I tried to remind myself. Still, my voice came out a pitch higher than I was aiming for. “Hey! I’m here to see about the beertender job,” I squeaked. Duane Johnson was behind the bar at Buddy’s Place. His blond hair was thinning but hanging in there, framing his round cheeks as he flashed me a welcoming smile. His face was flushed pink, undoubtedly because he was fixing something between taking care of customers. Duane was always fixing things at the 65-year-old bar. He…The post How a Historic Honky-tonk Gave Me Something to Fight For appeared first on Texas Monthly.
For four years in the thirties, the U.S. government invested in theater to an extent that seems impossible, even shocking, today. The Federal Theatre Project, one of a slew of New Deal programs designed to alleviate poverty during the Great Depression, created about 12,000 jobs and launched the careers of such greats as Arthur Miller, Orson Welles, and Paul Green (author of the Texas outdoor musical, performed to this day in Palo Duro Canyon). Some 30 million Americans watched the project’s free or very affordable plays—more than a thousand productions across 29 states. The majority of those in attendance had never been to the theater before, including immigrants who enjoyed shows staged in their native languages, such as Spanish and Yiddish. In Texas, Federal Theatre…The post A Texas Congressman Wrote the Culture War Playbook When He Killed a 1930s Theater Program appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Sporting work boots, cargo pants, a camo tee, and a bottom lip packed with dip, Jason Wilson looks like the sort of guy who wouldn’t be caught dead in a Prius. And yet that’s what he pulls up in when he meets me at a ranch gate off Interstate 10 more than a hundred miles south of Midland. Beyond the fence line, a handful of cattle graze. As we pass through one gate, then another and another, there’s no hint that this land is used for anything other than ranching. Then, about six miles down the road, the industrial scaffolding of an electrical substation appears in the distance, surrounded by a chain-link fence. Wilson, my personal tour guide, parks his Prius outside a prefab building that…The post Power-Thirsty Bitcoin Miners Are Flooding the Energy Center of Texas appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Sometimes, when I was watching various artificial heart experiments in the basement of the Texas Heart Institute, I wondered if I was experiencing something akin to Thomas Edison’s housekeeper. That is, someone with only a tenuous reason to be in a place where history was being made—or was made today, when it was announced by the Texas Heart Institute that a new, total artificial heart, the BiVacor TAH, had kept a Houston man alive for several days. It is, as one of its developers likes to say, the cardiac equivalent of a successful moon landing, a medical breakthrough that could change the way the millions currently suffering from heart failure are treated. If the device is proven to go the distance, it could spell freedom for…The post A New Artificial Heart in Houston Might Save Millions appeared first on Texas Monthly.
He grew up in a working-class neighborhood of Brownsville, in a home with few books. But Oscar Cásares was surrounded by avid storytellers, including his parents and the aunts, uncles, and neighbors who would drop by almost daily. His three older siblings had moved out of the house by the time he was ten. “I was,” he said, “basically raised as an only child.” So he spent lots of time in the presence of adults, hearing them gossip about friends and relatives, recount family legends, and tell amusing stories from their jobs—as a cattle inspector, say, or a pastor, or a union organizer. Oscar studied the way they crafted their spoken stories. “I had these uncles who would tell the same stories over and over but…The post Oscar Cásares Is an Author Reared on Oral Storytelling appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Wasting Away Again, Texas Monthly?What a disappointment to see a cover with the title “Beyond the Beach,” only to be subjected to an article about the Margaritaville Beach Resort [“Where It’s Always Five O’Clock,” June 2024]. I can’t think of a more plastic and inauthentic beach setting on South Padre Island. I’ve travelled there for more than thirty years and could give you dozens of authentic places to stay and eat. I can even give you a review of Margaritaville. Last fall, when my family made our annual trip, we gave it a try. The food was canned and tasteless, the drinks were overpriced, and I felt like I was being conned to feed Jimmy Buffett’s legacy of success. It is truly wasting away in…The post Roar of the Crowd: August 2024 appeared first on Texas Monthly.
The University of Texas’s appeal as a destination for world-class swimmers was enhanced in the final push to the Paris Olympics. It was early June, 53 days before the start of the Summer Games, and lanes two, three, and four at the outdoor pool at the Lee and Joe Jamail Texas Swimming Center were occupied, respectively, by reigning Olympic champion Chase Kalisz, from outside Baltimore; world champion Hubert Kós, of Hungary; and Frenchman Leon Marchand, who eclipsed the last of Michael Phelps’s world records in 2023.In the outside lanes were Regan Smith, weeks away from reclaiming a world record in the 100-meter backstroke at the U.S. trials, and two others who would qualify for Paris. Erik Posegay, the new associate head coach of the UT men’s swim…The post Looking for Longhorns This Summer? Try the Pool at the Paris Olympics. appeared first on Texas Monthly.
On the twentieth floor of Hôtel Swexan, a few steps from an infinity pool overlooking downtown Dallas, stands a hand-hewn wood door. Behind it is a powder room that’s barely bigger than a broom closet but brimming with style. Tiny, multicolor tiles cover the walls and a Moorish mirror hangs above the real showstopper: an engraved antique brass pedestal sink imported from Morocco. This pool bathroom is the smallest of 24 restrooms (not counting the in-room bathrooms) that visitors can experience at Hôtel Swexan. The 134-room boutique property opened last summer and belongs to Harwood International, a family-operated, Dallas-based development group that owns the 19-block Hardwood District. The family favored one-of-a-kind designs, resulting in more than a hundred different marbles, a hundred different stones, and a…The post The Best Bathrooms in Texas Are Hidden Inside This Dallas Hotel appeared first on Texas Monthly.
As a high school student in the mid-1980s, I became fascinated with the Vietnam War. Perhaps this was because at the time I was not much younger than many of the troops had been when they were drafted. Or maybe I was beguiled by movies like Apocalypse Now, the Deer Hunter, Full Metal Jacket, and Platoon, which had kept the war roiling in the public consciousness. I read books by Michael Herr, Tim O’Brien, and Neil Sheehan, and even had a map of Southeast Asia taped to my closet door.But until picking up William Sturkey’s The Ballad of Roy Benavidez: The Life and Times of America’s Most Famous Hispanic War Hero (Basic Books), I had never heard of the book’s subject, which I found surprising…The post Roy Benavidez Nearly Died Saving Eight Men. Why Did the Army Refuse to Properly Honor Him? appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Late last month, Abrams announced it would be publishing a new cookbook entitled New School Barbecue by Evan LeRoy of Austin’s LeRoy and Lewis Barbecue in early 2026. LeRoy and Lewis was named the No. 5 barbecue joint in the latest Texas Monthly Top 50 list. It got me thinking about a conversation I had two years ago about a cookbook in the works for Goldee’s Barbecue (our No. 1 spot), for which I hadn’t heard a recent update. Well, great news! Goldee’s cookbook will be published by University of Texas Press late next year, meaning we’ll have new books sharing the secrets from two of our top five barbecue joints coming out within about six months of each other.Both LeRoy and the Goldee’s crew…The post Goldee’s Barbecue and LeRoy and Lewis Get Ready to Spill Secrets in New Cookbooks appeared first on Texas Monthly.
FILMIt Ends With UsIn theaters August 9Sulphur Springs native Colleen Hoover, whom Texas Monthly profiled in the June issue, is one of the best-selling novelists of the twenty-first century. Her sixteenth book, It Ends With Us, is a huge part of that success, helping the former social worker outsell Dr. Seuss and John Grisham in 2022. Now comes the movie adaptation, which Hoover cowrote, starring Gossip Girl alum Blake Lively as a florist named Lily who grew up in an abusive home but hopes to build a better life in Boston. When she falls for mercurial neurosurgeon Ryle Kincaid (Justin Baldoni, of Jane the Virgin fame, who also directs the film), her happily-ever-after darkens as his behavior begins to echo that of her late father. Overcoming childhood…The post Colleen Hoover’s Love Story, Leatherface, and More Make It a Great Month in Texas Culture appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Two years after a Central Texas school district abruptly scotched plans to set up an unprecedented voucher program, another public school system in North Texas is considering the same scheme. In August 2022, despite an aggressive push by Republican operatives and the apparent tacit backing of Texas Education Agency commissioner Mike Morath, a majority on the Wimberley school board decided the academic, financial, and legal risks of a proposal to divert public dollars to fund private school educations were too great. They heeded the recommendation of their new superintendent, who complained to the trustees about an “overt and covert” intimidation campaign and warned that the funding stream would mostly flow to the middlemen.But the backers of the plan—a politically connected charter chain called Responsive Education…The post Right-wing Activists Haven’t Gotten a Statewide Voucher Program. They’re Pushing for One in a North Texas School District. appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Since its introduction in 1972, the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders’ look has been iconic: short shorts, fringed vest, knotted top. Equally iconic: the cheerleaders’ hair. The squad’s dance routines, including Thunderstruck, which has gone viral in the wake of the Netflix docuseries America’s Sweethearts, involve hair flips and shoulder shimmies that send the sweethearts’ curls bouncing. Hair is so imperative to the cheerleaders’ overall aesthetic that salon makeovers are a required part of the squad audition process. As featured in the Netflix series, hairstylist Kevin Ozowski, of North Texas’s Tangerine Salon, oversees DCC hopefuls as they have their locks transformed to “better suit” their skin tones and face shapes. On the show, he and his colleagues notably deepen the sole redhead’s scarlet locks and take New Jersey blonde…The post The Man Behind the Hair: How the Cowboys Cheerleaders’ Stylist Gets Those Perfect Curls appeared first on Texas Monthly.
When football great Abner Haynes died last Thursday, at age 86 (his cause of death has not been reported), the news prompted loving reflections on the Texas Sports Hall of Fame inductee’s storied athletic career. Haynes was the most valuable player of the American Football League as a rookie in 1960, when he suited up for his hometown Dallas Texans. He helped Dallas win the 1962 AFL championship, before the franchise up and left to become the Kansas City Chiefs.Before beginning his eight-season pro career, Haynes helped break the football color barrier for Texas’s four-year colleges in 1956, when he joined the team at North Texas State College (now the University of North Texas), in Denton. That was eight years before Warren McVea signed with…The post Abner Haynes Wasn’t Alone in Breaking Texas College Football’s Color Line appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Lloyd Doggett has had a storied career. The Democratic congressman has served in the House of Representatives since 1995, holding on to a seat that’s represented, through various redistricting processes across three decades, Austin, San Antonio, and portions of the Rio Grande Valley. Before serving in Congress, where he’s a member of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, he spent eleven years in the Texas Senate, where he was a member of the famed “Killer Bee” quorum breakers, then served on the Texas Supreme Court from 1989 to 1994. But he became the answer to a trivia question a little less than three weeks ago, when he became the first Democrat in Congress to call on President Joe Biden to end his 2024 campaign, expressing concern over Biden’s…The post Lloyd Doggett Takes No Joy in Being Right appeared first on Texas Monthly.
The Tex-Mexplainer series explores the ingredients, techniques, history, and culture of Mexican food in Texas. Leo Davila, the chef-owner of Stixs & Stone taqueria, in San Antonio, had never heard of taco rice until his Korean girlfriend, Kendra Billinghurst, who was raised on the southern Japanese island of Okinawa, mentioned the dish topped with ground beef, lettuce, tomato, and cheese. “It kind of reminds me of taco night at one of my white friend’s houses growing up,” Davila says, “except it’s on steamed rice.” I hadn’t gotten a chance to taste it until I was invited to Cafe Hana, in Irving, by co-owner Sara Nam. Her version, cooked by Okinawa-born employee Aya Ibuka, is a bowl of short-grain white rice topped with saucy ground beef seasoned with garlic,…The post Not a Taco Salad and Not a Taco Bowl, Taco Rice Is Its Own Delicacy appeared first on Texas Monthly.
As Texas’s population booms and the state grows hotter and drier, it’s more important than ever to understand: Who’s wasting our water? Without water, there’s no fracking. Without fracking, there’s no twenty-first-century Texas oil boom. Water’s role is evident in the full name of the process—hydraulic fracturing.Drillers pump water, laced with sand and chemicals, deep into the ground to crack open the ancient rocks of the Permian Basin, releasing trapped fossil fuels from their primordial prison. About half of that water—three million barrels a day—is drawn from the region’s fast-dwindling aquifers. That’s enough to feed the faucets of more than 600,000 Texas households, enough for the city of Dallas.Water helped turn the Permian Basin into one of the world’s largest oil fields. Each day, more than…The post Why Are Permian Basin Frackers Using as Much Fresh Water as Dallas? appeared first on Texas Monthly.
As Texas’s population booms and the state grows hotter and drier, it’s more important than ever to understand: Who’s wasting our water? As climate change continues to shift eastward the dividing line between our nation’s arid plains and wetter climes, more of Texas will likely resemble the state’s desert regions in the coming decades. Cities will be forced to adapt to this new reality as they manage water resources. With only 9 inches of annual rainfall—compared with the statewide average of 27 inches—El Paso offers them a glimpse of the future.Until the late eighties, El Paso relied heavily on groundwater extracted from the Hueco Bolson aquifer. But after decades of overpumping caused water levels to plummet, municipal leaders changed course. Since the city implemented an aggressive…The post El Paso Reuses Every Drop of Water It Can. The Rest of Texas Could Heed the Lesson. appeared first on Texas Monthly.
As Texas’s population booms and the state grows hotter and drier, it’s more important than ever to understand: Who’s wasting our water? Longhorns used to graze across the street from the house where Ozzy Tirmizi settled with his family in Katy, a western exurb of Houston. He grew up in southern Pakistan, but his dad’s job in oil and gas brought them to Texas in 2011, when Tirmizi was eighteen. Over the following decade, he watched as pastureland was paved over. Strip malls replaced the grass, and the bovine neighbors disappeared.In 2019, Tirmizi entered a doctoral program in geology at the University of Houston. He learned to measure changes in ground elevation by using data from orbiting satellites and started working with a professor who…The post Thirsty New Subdivisions Have Made the Texas Groundwater Crisis Plain to See appeared first on Texas Monthly.
As Texas’s population booms and the state grows hotter and drier, it’s more important than ever to understand: Who’s wasting our water? The rains don’t come like they used to, and Glenn Schur can’t rely on the once bountiful water beneath the clay loam soil of the South Plains—the largest cotton-producing area in the world. In the past, his pumps pulled up as much as he needed to irrigate his crops. But recent years have brought drier weather to Schur’s 2,500 acres near Plainview, a town of 20,000 between Lubbock and Amarillo. The Ogallala Aquifer yields less and less. “My granddad dug the well. My dad pumped the well,” said the 65-year-old farmer. “And I’m going to be the generation that capped the well.”The Ogallala,…The post As the Ogallala Aquifer Dwindles, West Texas Farmers Face a Future Without Irrigated Crops appeared first on Texas Monthly.
As Texas’s population booms and the state grows hotter and drier, it’s more important than ever to understand: Who’s wasting our water? Thanks to a blind salamander, San Antonio became a national leader in water conservation. The eyeless, five-inch-long mass of virtually unpigmented flesh lives in the watery caverns of the Edwards Aquifer. It’s a pathetic-looking critter but no doubt a source of terror for the tiny snails and shrimp it feasts upon in its lightless subterranean home. The salamander and seven other species found nowhere else on earth depend on the health of the aquifer’s ecosystem.After the unregulated pumping of water threatened the salamander’s survival, federal authorities listed the amphibian as endangered in 1967. That act set in motion four decades of high-stakes lawsuits and…The post How San Antonio Became a National Water Conservation Model appeared first on Texas Monthly.
As Texas’s population booms and the state grows hotter and drier, it’s more important than ever to understand: Who’s wasting our water? Every day buried pipes across Texas spill water into the soil, through breaks large and small. Roadwork and digging to lay fiber-optic cable often damage water mains. Extreme temperatures can shift the ground, creating fractures in decades-old lines. Some crack simply because they’ve met the end of their useful life—typically 50 to 75 years.Enough water seeps from these broken pipes each year to meet the needs of Austin, El Paso, Fort Worth, Laredo, and Lubbock combined. It’s more than enough—186 billion gallons—to put Dallas County under a foot of H₂O.Texas should invest in repairing leaky pipes and replacing aging ones before paying for new…The post Leaky Pipes Are Wasting Billions Upon Billions of Gallons of Texas Water appeared first on Texas Monthly.
As Texas’s population booms and the state grows hotter and drier, it’s more important than ever to understand: Who’s wasting our water? To reduce waste, common sense suggests rescinding water’s current exception from the law of supply and demand. Typically in a market economy, if there’s not enough of a resource, its price goes up, encouraging conservation. Yet while water grows increasingly scarce, it remains relatively cheap.In Texas, unlike in most other states, we treat water both as a public good and as private property, depending on where it comes from and who’s pumping it. Landowners drawing water from their own wells pay almost nothing beyond the price of a permit and a pump. There’s little financial incentive to cut back on water use.The Legislature would…The post Why Don’t Water Wasters Pay Much More Per Gallon? appeared first on Texas Monthly.
This is an early access episode, available to TM Audio subscribers only. Connect access to your TM Audio feed to the podcast player of your choice here. To troubleshoot any issues, access the FAQ here. Read the transcript below.“Oh, I think he feels remorse that he got caught. All criminals feel remorse, but I don’t think many of them feel remorse if they don’t get caught.”—Wallace LundgrenExecutive producer is Megan Creydt. The show is reported and written by Katy Vine, and written, produced, and reported by Ana Worrel. It was produced and engineered by Brian Standefer, who also wrote the music. Story editing and production by Patrick Michels. Additional production is by Aisling Ayers. Additional editing by Karen Olsson. Fact-checking by Jaclyn Colletti. Studio musicians were Jon Sanchez, Glenn Fukunaga and Pat…The post ‘The Problem With Erik,’ Episode 6: “The Fall” (TM Audio Exclusive) appeared first on Texas Monthly.
The Italian digestifs known as amari date back to the thirteenth century, when monks began making them for medicinal purposes. These bracing after-dinner liqueurs—“amaro,” the singular of “amari,” means “bitter”—are at once ubiquitous and highly localized in Italy, with towns creating proprietary mixes of macerated herbs that are then fermented in neutral liquor. Consumption of amari, whether it’s mixed into drinks or served neat, gained traction in the United States during the craft-cocktail boom of the early aughts, with brands such as Aperol, Campari, and Fernet-Brancabecoming especially popular. Eventually, distillers in the U.S.—and Texas—began to make their own versions. “Amari give the distiller free rein,” says Brian Meola, the chief executive officer of Revolution Spirits Distilling Co., which debuted the first Texas amaro, Amico Amaro, in…The post How Texas Amari Makers Are Embracing the Bitter Trend appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Q: What (and where) are the biggest swimming pools in the Lone Star State?A: While everything is, of course, not really bigger in Texas, Texas is indeed full of many very big things. Were the Texanist to lose focus with regard to the question at hand, he might well digress with a long list of big things found across the state, including but not limited to pecan statues (Seguin), rattlesnake statues (Freer), ranches (Kingsville), masonry shafts (the San Jacinto Monument), urban bat colonies (Austin), gas stations (multiple beaver-infested locations), and egos (howdy, y’all!). Alas, the Texanist will exercise restraint. As for swimming pools, we are very fortunately blessed with a bounty of big, beautiful watery spots. Ranking the very biggest among these by size, however, is…The post The Texanist: Where Are the Biggest Swimming Pools in Texas? appeared first on Texas Monthly.
WHO: Community activists in Marfa, who are celebrating a win after nearly two decades of advocacy to preserve the historic Blackwell School—and all Texans, who now have a new National Park Service site to enjoy.WHAT: The designation of the Blackwell School as a National Historic Site.WHY IT’S SO GREAT: Ringed by mountains, with pronghorn gliding through tall grass on the edge of town, Marfa is not an entirely surprising setting for the National Park Service’s newest installment. But it wasn’t the high desert ecosystem that drew the federal agency’s attention to the far West Texas community. The country’s new national park site landed in Marfa because a group of alumni of a long-closed school for Mexican American children didn’t want to see their campus demolished…The post Texas Has a New National Park Site: Marfa’s Blackwell School appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Laredoans Silvia del Carmen Castaños and Estefania “Beba” Contreras Solis were slacker, queerdo, artist types with a complicated relationship to the border (to put it mildly), and little film experience, when the cameras began to roll on their film Hummingbirds in 2019. “When we got the Sundance grant to help make the film, I didn’t even know what the f— Sundance was,” Castaños says as Solis laughs on our three-way phone call. “Like, I seriously thought, ¿que es eso? You know what I mean?” I do. As a Laredo native son who has since fled the border to New York City, I’m sure I didn’t know what Sundance was until my college years, when I was living in North Texas. With all respect and admiration to…The post ‘Hummingbirds’ Is a Radical Border Documentary—One That’s Fun to Watch appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Chelsea Burnett started chasing storms while she was still learning to talk. When she was just two years old, the slightest hint of thunder would send her running across her childhood home in Shawnee, Oklahoma, where she’d glue herself to the nearest window and wait for lightning to strike. By the time she had learned to read, she was saving newspaper clippings of extreme weather events. Then, in 1996, when she was ten years old, Twister tore through movie theaters, introducing audiences to a ragtag team of storm chasers and Burnett to her dream career. “It was just one of those moments in life where you realize exactly what you want to do,” she says. Today, Burnett is a real-life storm chaser who’s logged 65 tornadoes…The post A Real Storm Chaser Fact-checks ‘Twisters’ appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Each month, we get to know one of the state’s many wonderful and quirky critters. Latin name: Micrurus tenerSize: Usually less than three feet longTexas habitat: The state’s southeastern half“Red touch yellow, kill a fellow. Red touch black, friend of Jack.” This mnemonic aims to distinguish the coral snake, one of fifteen venomous snakes in Texas, from harmless lookalikes. But use this mostly accurate phrase at your own risk, warns Spencer Greene, director of toxicology at HCA Houston Healthcare Kingwood. Greene once treated a Boy Scout whose troop leader thought the saying went “Red touch yellow, friend of a fellow.” Of all venomous Texas critters, Greene says, only the black widow spider boasts a more agonizing bite. Now I’m terrified.You shouldn’t be! “This is a shy snake,”…The post The Texas Coral Snake Just Wants to Be Left Alone appeared first on Texas Monthly.
After Hurricane Beryl swept across the Houston area last Monday, 2.2 million residents were without power. Restoration has been slow. CenterPoint Energy, which serves most of Houston, was the butt of jokes last week when Whataburger’s online map of closed locations provided more detailed information about power outages than what the electric utility provider could offer at the time. CenterPoint says it expects 10 percent of customers to still be without power a week later, and a newly released outage map estimates some will not have power restored until July 19.The middle of summer is a terrible time to be without power in Houston. Area hospitals have seen a spike in heat-related emergency room visits, as well as visits for carbon monoxide poisoning from improper…The post This BBQ Joint Is Just One Example of How Gulf Coast Restaurants Suffer in Extreme Weather appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Allison Brocato last saw her sister alive on the afternoon of January 13, 1995. It was a Friday, and Catherine Edwards, Allison’s 31-year-old identical twin, had just gotten off work at Price Elementary School, in Beaumont. On her way home, Edwards stopped to pick up her beagle, whom Brocato had been dogsitting. She lingered a few minutes to chat and to play with Brocato’s infant daughter. “She seemed kind of sad that day,” Brocato would later recall. “I think she had had a fight with an ex-boyfriend the night before.”Brocato and Edwards considered themselves best friends. After graduating from Lamar University, they both got jobs as public school teachers and moved into a modest town house in west Beaumont, where they lived together until Brocato…The post Inside the Texas Crime Lab That’s Cracked Hundreds of Cold Cases appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Earlier this year, a decayed utility pole toppled amid high winds in the Panhandle, dropping power lines into dry brush and sparking the largest wildfire in state history. The Smokehouse Creek fire burned more than one million acres and killed two Texans.Then, earlier this month, Hurricane Beryl brought relatively weak hurricane-force winds to the Houston area, wreaking havoc with trees and utility poles. More than two million households lost power. In the aftermath, at least three deaths have been attributed to heat exposure, amid soupy humidity and temperatures in the upper 90s. A week later, a quarter million Texans were still in the dark and without air-conditioning. As the unrelenting heat became a health hazard, emergency officials opened a temporary hospital in the parking lot…The post Our Electrical Lines and Poles Couldn’t Withstand Beryl. So What’s Going to Happen When We’re Hit by a Bigger Storm? appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Post Malone kicked off “A Night in Nashville” with his song “Rockstar,” but it quickly became clear at Tuesday night’s event that he’s bound for country stardom. To open his set at Marathon Music Works, the Grapevine-raised artist infused his 2017 trap hit with the soaring fiddle of legendary session musician and fellow Texan Larry Franklin, who’s appeared on records by Vince Gill, Alan Jackson, Miranda Lambert, Ray Price, and Lee Ann Womack, to name just a few.Malone, 29, teamed up with Bud Light for his Music City country coronation, stopping to greet the crowd with a “Cheers, motherf—ers” throughout the show as he sipped his beverage of choice. The crowd, decked out in boots, Bud Light merch, and even some homemade “I [heart] Post…The post Inside Post Malone’s Country Coronation in Nashville appeared first on Texas Monthly.
WHO: Taquito the baby bird.WHAT: A lost Mississippi kite hatchling is wrapped in a flour tortilla and saved.WHY IT’S SO GREAT: We here at Texas Monthly are smitten with animals. Our regular chronicles of critters, from cute to creepy, fascinate us as much as they do our readers. So our hearts melted when we read that on July 13, according to the Wild West Wilderness Rehabilitation Center in Amarillo, a family in the Panhandle city rescued a Mississippi kite chick in uniquely Lone Star fashion. The story was first reported by KENS5 in San Antonio. The bird, initially thought to be a barn owl, was discovered alone on the ground during a backyard barbecue at the family’s home. It was cold to the touch, so the…The post A Family Saved a Baby Bird by Wrapping It in a Tortilla. Its Name? Taquito. appeared first on Texas Monthly.
When he’s asked to compare Scottie Scheffler to another outstanding player in the history of golf, University of Texas golf coach John Fields typically mentions Seve Ballesteros, the Spanish champion with the ingenuity and dexterity of a sculptor shaping a lump of clay. Just as the late Ballesteros did throughout his decorated career, Scheffler uses his hands as an extension of a supple imagination occupied only by the shot that needs to be struck in a particular circumstance. “I’d only seen that one other place,” Fields says. “I still believe today that somewhere in [Scottie’s] body is some remnant of Seve.”Fields speaks from experience. After graduating from the University of New Mexico, he played professional golf in Europe in the early 1980s, when Ballesteros was…The post What the World’s Top Golfer Can Learn From a Fellow Longhorn’s 1997 Win at the British Open appeared first on Texas Monthly.
This time of year, shoppers who set foot inside Lowe’s Market in downtown Canyon Lake, are usually looking for two things: swimming gear and beer. The cramped and busy grocery store, which is located about an hour north of San Antonio and whose wide selection of disparate items gives it the feel of a mini-Walmart, is often the last stop for supplies before locals and tourists float down the nearby Guadalupe River, a Texas summer tradition. But for the last two weeks, something else has lured an endless stream of outdoor enthusiasts, ranchers, gun lovers, and tourists into the store, often with looks of excitement and curiosity splashed across their faces. It’s not the fresh produce, the sunscreen, or even the generous selection of wine and…The post A New Vending Machine Sells Bullets Next Door to a Middle School appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Q: I work as a park ranger in the Hill Country, and because of the Waylon Jennings song “Luckenbach, Texas (Back to the Basics of Love)” I am often asked about Luckenbach. I did some research so that I could offer tourists some interesting tidbits, but all I found was that the songwriters had never been there. Why, then, did they write a song about it?! Heidi Dietze, Marble FallsA: Here’s what the Texanist knows: Luckenbach is a teeny-tiny Hill Country hamlet located in southeast Gillespie County, about ten miles outside of Fredericksburg. It was originally settled by industrious immigrant farmers in the OG (Old German) era of the 1840s. By the late nineteenth century, there was a blacksmith shop, a cotton gin, a post office,…The post The Texanist: Is Luckenbach Worthy of the Famous Song It Inspired? appeared first on Texas Monthly.
As the evening’s first customers stroll into Wink Wine Bar on a Saturday, my friend and I notice that they head straight for the leather-backed seats at the bar. The bartender warmly greets one with a “Well, there you are!” as if she’s been waiting for him all night. It’s not even five o’clock.Every Tuesday through Saturday, loyal locals come here for one of the best happy hour deals in Austin: almost the entire bar-food menu is half off from 4:30 to 6 p.m. For less than $12 per dish, diners can indulge in macaroni and cheese with black truffles, mussels steamed in a harissa-seasoned fumet,or grilled flatbread topped with white anchovies and Parmesan. They can choose the $8 Wink burger with Brie and caramelized…The post In the Trend-Driven Austin Restaurant Scene, Wink Maintains Its Cool appeared first on Texas Monthly.
The Detours series celebrates lesser-known locales worth visiting across the state. A Dallas resort’s sculpture garden serves as the final resting place for a bit of history: a propeller from the RMS Lusitania, the British passenger ship torpedoed by a German U-boat off the coast of Ireland during World War I. It belongs to real estate billionaire Harlan Crow, whose mother, incidentally, survived the sinking of the SS Athenia, the first British ship to be torpedoed by Germany in World War II. The propeller is one of more than a thousand artworks and artifacts—including pieces of the Berlin Wall—at the Crow-owned Hilton Anatole, which boasts one of the largest such collections of any hotel in the country. Of the remaining Lusitania propellers, one rests on…The post A Piece of WWI History Rests By a Resort Pool in Dallas appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Inspectors for France’s world-famous Michelin Guide have been secretly eating their way across Texas for months in preparation for the publication, which is released at the end of the year.The guide’s expansion to Texas will include Austin, Dallas, Fort Worth, Houston, and San Antonio. The announcement was made on July 16 jointly by Michelin and Travel Texas, the state’s tourism agency, following yearslong efforts by the Texas restaurant and travel industry to entice the finicky French guide to cover the state.Texas will be its eleventh destination in North America. Other U.S. cities with Michelin coverage include Chicago, Los Angeles, New York City, Orlando, and San Francisco.The most-anticipated part of the coverage will be seeing which fancy restaurants receive Michelin’s coveted one-, two-, or three-star designations…The post Oui, Oui, the Michelin Guide Is Coming to Texas appeared first on Texas Monthly.
WHO: A Texas Tech professor and an organization of Dallas-area hunters.WHAT: An FDA-approved medicated feed for wild quails that eradicates parasitic worms.WHY IT’S SO GREAT: The northern bobwhite quail, a game bird once ubiquitous across much of Texas, is struggling. Its population in the Rolling Plains region, which stretches from just east of Lubbock to slightly north of Abilene, is significantly below historic levels. “We expect only scattered pockets of good hunting this year,” notes Texas Parks and Wildlife’s forecast for quail season in the region.There are many reasons for the long-term, nationwide decline of the grassland bird, notably habitat loss and fragmentation. In Texas, another factor appears to be partly responsible: parasitic worms. Quail in the Rolling Plains are rife with these tiny invaders…The post Parasites Were Killing Bobwhite Quail. Texas Hunters Helped Create a Drug to Save Them. appeared first on Texas Monthly.
In those backyard ball games in North Texas years ago, Bobby Witt Jr. and his buddies growing up in Colleyville imagined they were playing for the Texas Rangers. Now in his third season with the Kansas City Royals, the 24-year-old Bobby Jr. will play a big league home game in Arlington for the first time on Tuesday night as a member of the American League All-Star team, in the ninety-fourth edition of MLB’s Midsummer Classic, at Globe Life Field.“Just being an All-Star is an honor,” Bobby Jr. said. “First one being in the hometown is just incredible. I grew up going to the stadium across the street, grew up being a Rangers fan. It kind of gives me goose bumps just talking about it. My…The post Bobby Witt Jr.’s Home Run Homecoming appeared first on Texas Monthly.
In 2019, the Texas House of Representatives included Orange Holloway Sr. in Resolution 706. It was written to honor Norma Frances “Tootsie” Tomanetz of Snow’s BBQ in Lexington, who had just been inducted into the American Royal Association’s Barbecue Hall of Fame. The text reads, “she was tutored by legendary pit master Orange Holloway.” A legend, certainly, for having taught one of the most famous pitmasters Texas has ever celebrated, but Orange was more of a mystery, having died decades ago. His mentions were always as a footnote to Tomanetz’s story, which is why Orange’s distant cousin Seth Dockery III recently organized a family reunion to share a fuller picture of Owens “Orange” Lee Holloway Sr.We met in June in Giddings, 55 miles east of Austin,…The post Meet the City Meat Market Pitmaster Who Brought His Community Together appeared first on Texas Monthly.
There’s a story my folks used to tell when they wanted to get across what it was like to be older parents, in their fifties and sixties, with a young boy in the house. A boy, they understood, who was bored and restless with no siblings still living at home, who spent most of his days alone. A boy who seemed to live inside his own head and often lost track of time and of where he was and wished he were growing up anywhere other than Brownsville, isolated at the southern tip of the state, alongside the border and not far from the sea.Years later, my parents and I would kid one another about what happened that day when we all went to the…The post The Lost Boy of Boca Chica appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Dr. Mary Claire Haver was finishing her obstetrics and gynecology residency at the University of Texas Medical Branch, in Galveston, when she overheard some professors whispering about a new study that appeared to link hormone replacement therapy (HRT) with an increased risk of adverse outcomes, including breast cancer. She remembers that day in 2002 vividly. Almost overnight, most doctors stopped prescribing HRT, blocking millions of women from access to one of the few medical treatments for menopause. “I had no idea that this memorable and momentous occasion would, years later, give me a new passion and purpose in my career,” Haver writes in her recent best-seller, The New Menopause.From her home in Galveston and her menopause clinic in nearby Friendswood, the ob-gyn, who turns 56…The post Mary Claire Haver Wants to Change How We Think About Menopause appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Dr. Mary Claire Haver, the noted Galveston ob-gyn who’s become a leading national voice for women’s health, wants everyone to know this about menopause: the change is inevitable, but suffering is not.Haver, who turns 56 in August, became a social media star, first on Facebook and then with her off-the-cuff videos on TikTok and Instagram, where she’s found an audience of millions of women hungry for information about menopause—the life stage when menstrual cycles end. Even though it affects every woman, it’s woefully underresearched—accounting for just about 1 percent of what the National Institutes of Health spends on women’s research—and not well understood by the medical field as a whole. (A recent study found that only about 31 percent of OB-GYN residencies featured a formal…The post Mary Claire Haver on How to Handle Hot Flashes in Texas appeared first on Texas Monthly.
This is an early access episode, available to TM Audio subscribers only. Connect access to your TM Audio feed to the podcast player of your choice here. To troubleshoot any issues, access the FAQ here. Read the transcript below.“I’ll never go to prison. Ever. I’ll go in the ground, but I ain’t going to f—ing prison.”—Bryon BrockwayExecutive producer is Megan Creydt. The show is reported and written by Katy Vine, and written, produced, and reported by Ana Worrel. It was produced and engineered by Brian Standefer, who also wrote the music. Story editing and production by Patrick Michels. Additional production is by Aisling Ayers. Additional editing by Karen Olsson. Fact-checking by Jaclyn Colletti. Studio musicians were Jon Sanchez, Glenn Fukunaga and Pat Mansky. Artwork is by Emily Kimbro and Victoria Millner. Theme…The post ‘The Problem With Erik,’ Episode 5: “How to Perform a Hit” (TM Audio Exclusive) appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Working Life is a monthly column in which Texans talk about their jobs. Natalynn Masters, who is 27, leads Camp Founder Girls, a weeklong summer retreat devoted to making nature activities more inclusive.I’m from Arizona. My dad is a wildlife biologist, and we spent a lot of our family time camping, fishing, doing all sorts of things on boats. So I’ve always had a deep love and appreciation for nature and the outdoors. I moved to San Antonio in 2019 and met our executive director, Alex Bailey, who told me about the camp. I was like, “Oh, that’s perfect.”We got our start on the East Side of San Antonio. In 1924 a trailblazer named Mattie Landry became aware of a group of Black girls who were…The post This Summer Camp Helps Black Girls Love the Great Outdoors appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Mango margaritas were a summertime staple at Teala’s in Houston, a Mexican restaurant with a Thai twist. When Texas Monthly originally published a version of this recipe, in the August 1994 issue, Patricia Sharpe reported that Bangkok-born owner Teal Anomaiprasert got the idea while on a culinary reconnaissance trip to the Yucatán. Anomaiprasert discovered there that Mexican and Thai cooking had more than a little in common: “Both countries use lots of fresh lime, onions, tomatoes, cilantro, and hot, hot peppers,” he said. And, of course, mangoes.You can no longer enjoy generously portioned mango margaritas on the Teala’s patio (the restaurant closed in 2015) but you can enjoy this slightly modified version of its nineties-era recipe at home. Three types of fresh juice, plus orange…The post Mango Margarita appeared first on Texas Monthly.
While a frozen margarita with salt on the rim and a combination plate is perhaps the most vaunted pairing in the Tex-Mexosphere, there are so many other ways for tequila to complement your favorite dish.Tequila is a major part of Mexican culture—not only does it have a strict denomination of origin, but there is also an oversight organization accredited by the Mexican government, the Tequila Regulatory Council, that must certify a tequila before exportation.And the spirit has many applications beyond being mixed with lime: it can be subbed for whiskey in an old-fashioned, or made savory with avocado, cilantro, and peppers. No matter what you make with tequila, pick a good one and your meal will be instantly elevated. Alba Huerta, owner of James Beard…The post Here Are the Tequila Cocktails You Need to Pair with Your Favorite Tex-Mex Dishes appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Although tequila can only be made in the five Mexican regions (Jalisco, Guanajuato, Michoacán, Nayarit, and Tamaulipas) that are home to the blue agave plant, many enterprising Texans have launched their own tequila brands, embracing the Lone Star State’s appetite for agave while farming and distilling in Mexico.For expert opinions, we asked Texas bartenders and bar and restaurant owners to share their favorite brands. Aerodrome Agave TequilanaCorpus Christi’s Aerodrome Distilling specializes in high-end, small-batch spirits, such génépi, amaro, and Tokaji-finished bourbon. Its Tequilana comes in the three main expressions (blanco, reposado, and añejo), all aged, bottled, and labeled in-house.“[Aerodrome Tequilana blanco] is pure unaltered agave distillate. That means it’s at full strength, without additives, which really shines when using it for classic tequila cocktails,” says…The post The Best Texas Tequila Brands, According to Bartenders appeared first on Texas Monthly.
The Lord works in mysterious ways—mysterious, at least, to those who are not certain of their own hopeful interpretations of world events as divine providence. Most of us are doomed to stumble blindly through the morass of modern life, stringing our feeble human narratives together for some measure of comfort. But in the world of politics, it pays to know the mind of God.On Saturday, at a rally in Pennsylvania, a gunman on a rooftop shot at former president Donald Trump, grazing his right ear. He killed one spectator in the crowd and critically injured two others. Shortly thereafter, the Secret Service, in the words of one witness, “blew his head off.” Trump raised a defiant fist in the air, blood running down the side…The post Why Many Leaders Are Suggesting Trump Is Ordained by God After the Assassination Attempt appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Texas leaders in both political parties expressed outrage and support for former President Donald Trump after a shooting at during a campaign event in Pennsylvania on Saturday.U.S. Secret Service rushed Trump off the stage at the campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. Blood appeared to be streaked across the former president’s ear. Trump was taken to safety.Sid Miller, the Texas agriculture commissioner and a long time Trump ally, was at the rally, standing about 30 feet away from the former president.“It looked like the first maybe three shots missed him and he was turned looking towards me. And then the one grazed his ear and then he got down,” Miller recounted in a brief interview with The Texas Tribune.Miller said Trump would be fine and expressed confidence…The post Texas Politicians React After Shooting at Trump Rally in Pennsylvania appeared first on Texas Monthly.
When Hurricane Beryl made direct contact with Houston as a category one storm on Monday morning, more than 2.2 million residents were left without electricity. Days after the storm, CenterPoint Energy, the utility monopoly responsible for delivering that electricity, remains under fire from Houstonians who’ve been frustrated with the company’s response time and lack of communication. CenterPoint’s own public communications have stayed relentlessly positive, however, providing details of the customers they’ve restored power to by this point—roughly 60 percent of them at press time—and touting the company’s charitable giving to local organizations in affected areas. None of those things, of course, give the 860,000 Houstonians without power access to, say, an outage tracker built for the mobile devices that they rely on for information, or updates…The post CenterPoint Energy Executive Is “Very Proud Of and Impressed By” the Company’s Beryl Response appeared first on Texas Monthly.
This post contains spoilers. MaXXXine, the final installment (for now) in Ti West’s horror trilogy starring Mia Goth, opens with a cutting quote from Hollywood legend Bette Davis: “Until you’re known in my profession as a monster, you’re not a STAR.” The maxim feels like a succinct description of Maxine Minx and her former adversary Pearl, the antiheroines of West’s first two films, X and Pearl, both played with sinister perfection by Goth. Davis had more to say on the tricky matter of finding celestial fame: “Don’t smile at this, it’s a very serious point; I’ve never been a monster, I’ve never fought for anything in a treacherous way. I’ve never fought for anything except for the good of the film and not always for just what I was doing…The post ‘MaXXXine’ Considers What Happens When a Final Girl Leaves Texas appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Terrance Smith was good enough with a grill to make some spending money while attending Texas A&M-Commerce. He sold chicken and links from the parking lot of his dorm, and when he went back home to visit his parents he’d normally grill them some steaks. One day he decided to level up and try to smoke a brisket. “I got too big for my britches. The brisket was so tough, I couldn’t cut it,” Smith recalled with a laugh. Even worse, his mother, Odell, called him out. “You’ll be a real barbecue man when you learn how to cook brisket,” she told him, and he took on the challenge.Smith didn’t smoke a brisket he was happy with until after getting his degree in psychology. He…The post This DFW Joint Is Truly Original, Down to the Lawry’s Sprinkled on the Wood appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Lila had been working late again. Her ballet flats pattered on the terrazzo floors of the Texas Capitol as she walked through the bowels of the building, up the stairs, and out its heavy, carved oak doors. Across the expansive south lawn, a few blocks away, she joined some fellow Senate interns who were enjoying the evening at a bustling rooftop bar. She looked forward to relaxing with Moscow mules and tacos under the glow of the string lights overhead. It was a beautiful March evening—until it wasn’t. A 21-year-old college senior, Lila worked for state senator José Menéndez, a San Antonio Democrat. Soon after sitting down with her friends, she started venting about the months of touching, after-hours texts, and questions about her dating life…The post “Gods in the Building”: How the Texas Senate Buries Sexual Harassment Complaints and Enables Bad Actors appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Shelley Duvall, the actress who starred in classic films ranging from Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining to Robert Altman’s live-action version of Popeye, died Thursday at her home in Blanco. She was 75.“My dear, sweet, wonderful life partner and friend left us,” her longtime partner, Dan Gilroy, said in a statement to the Hollywood Reporter. “Too much suffering lately, now she’s free. Fly away, beautiful Shelley.”Duvall died in her sleep due to complications from diabetes, Gilroy said.The actress recently celebrated a birthday on July 7 with Sarah Lukowski, an Austin woman who was an avid fan and became her friend over peach cobbler at a restaurant in the Texas Hill Country, where Duvall lived away from the spotlight after a 32-year career in Hollywood.“She said it…The post Shelley Duvall Found Fame in Hollywood and Peace in Texas appeared first on Texas Monthly.
The first piece about national politics in the first edition of Texas Monthly, dated February 1973, related the story of a civil rights summit that had convened two months earlier at the Lyndon Baines Johnson presidential library, in Austin—a gathering much like the one President Joe Biden will address this coming Monday. The story described one of Johnson’s last public appearances, to commemorate the opening of the administration’s papers on civil rights. In his remarks, he grappled with the unfinished and possibly fragile nature of what he had done to advance equality under the law. He was physically fading, unsteady onstage, and mindful that the nation had entrusted itself, for four years, to Richard Milhous Nixon. The story was short and understated. It was also…The post Biden, Defiant, Will Speak at the Johnson Library on Monday. Fifty Years Ago, LBJ Appeared There to Bid the Nation Farewell. appeared first on Texas Monthly.
It had been three days since the children had eaten more than a few mouthfuls of beans from the last can she had salvaged out of the mini-mart. She knew she’d need to find more but this was not a time of abundance. The highways were choked with men like the ones who had taken the parents of the small brood she’d acquired. She was left to amble down country roads, three children whom she guessed now were hers following behind like ducklings. In the three days since she opened the final can of beans she had seen the vast expanses of prairie yield to what had once been the manicured lawns of the suburbs before the Collapse. She worried about the children’s hunger, about the…The post A Postapocalyptic Guide to the 2024 State Fair’s Big Tex Choice Awards Semifinalists appeared first on Texas Monthly.
So many cities; so many rivalries. Houstonians seem to view Dallas with contempt, while Dallasites claim not to think about Houston at all. Most San Antonians could happily live the rest of their lives without hearing anything else about Austin. West Texans would like folks along the Interstate 35 corridor to remember that they exist. But when it comes to driving, many Texans express their rivalries in a curious way: rather than insist that motorists in the cities we most despise are terrible, we tend to insist our own cities breed the worst drivers. Actual data related to driving quality often employs dubious methods and arbitrary criteria to draw sweeping conclusions. So to explore the question of which part of Texas actually has the worst drivers,…The post Which City in Texas Has the Worst Drivers? appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Barbecue has become one of Texas’s most popular exports, but an important aspect of meat market–style barbecue is too often lost in translation. I support the brisket evangelists who choose to set up shop from San Diego to Portland, Maine. Most of them understand the value of sausage-making, cooking with all wood, and serving barbecue sauce on the side. Those who take their cues from Central Texas sell smoked meats by the pound like the meat markets of Luling, Lockhart, and Taylor. Some of them, though, need to familiarize themselves with the power of their scales.When eating barbecue alone, which is often when I’m on the road, I ask for a couple ribs, a single slice of smoked turkey, and maybe a slice each of…The post Why Can’t I Order Just One Rib? appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Sitting in her San Antonio living room, I was flooded by the fixtures of a “happy home.” I was surrounded by seasonal Halloween decor, dogs were licking my feet, and a kindergartner in a tutu was offering me juice. Kendra Joseph was doing the hostess thing, preparing to tell me her story, but I could already see the suffering in her husband Eric’s face. Polite, but intense, he kept a wary eye on Kendra, possibly wondering if talking with a journalist was indeed a good idea.Texas had recently passed a law prohibiting almost all abortions. The lobbying, marching, press-releasing voices had gotten a lot of play in the run-up to the new law, resulting in two narratives: “bans off our bodies” versus “life begins at…The post Built for Suffering: The Roots of Texas’s Approach to Reproductive Health appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Texans You Should Know is a series highlighting overlooked figures and events from Texas history. September 4, 1906, was a joyful day in Fredericksburg. On that date, many of the town’s 1,600 or so residents came out to celebrate the blessing and dedication of the new Church of the Immaculate Conception. The church was, and remains, an architectural gem. Designed in a modern, German Gothic style, its rough white limestone walls frame high-arched entryways and tall, elegant stained-glass windows. The spire atop its right-side tower reaches about 130 feet in the air and could be seen for miles from every direction of the Hill Country. A reporter from the Southern Messenger, a Catholic newspaper in San Antonio, noted the “very large attendance of the faithful at…The post The Architect Behind Texas’s Painted Churches Was So Good, His Peers Had “Steeple Envy” appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Katydids prefer to be heard rather than seen. The insect’s name, an onomatopoeic transcription of the male mating call, first appeared in print in 1784, in Scottish American physician J.F.D. Smyth’s travelogue A Tour in the United States of America. “Their noise is loud and incessant,” Smyth wrote, “one perpetually and regularly answering the other in notes exactly similar to the words Katy did, or Katy Katy did, repeated by one, and another immediately bawls out Katy didn’t, or Katy Katy didn’t.”Scientists have now identified more than eight thousand species of katydids around the world, including around seventy in Texas. But the variety keeping you awake this summer is most likely the Central Texas leaf katydid, a.k.a. the truncated true katydid (Paracyrtophyllus robustus). Although most…The post Welcome to Hot Katydid Summer appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Jong Kim doesn’t like to stop working. He’s either reorganizing the beverage fridges or running to and from the back with boxes of products to restock. The thin, seventy-year-old man wearing a loose cap, a striped polo tucked into his pants, and sensible black sneakers takes a break to wipe his brow with his forearm and drink water. There’s always something to do, and Kim is going to do it. This was the scene during my visit to Chas Market and Kitchen, an 88-year-old business housed in a concrete-block building. It’s easily missed when seen from Interstate 35 in San Antonio’s Government Hill neighborhood. Even a white sign bearing the words “Taco. Hamburger. Fish Plate,” as fetching as it is in its stark design, is hard…The post This Historic San Antonio Spot Serves Breakfast Tacos and Bibimbap appeared first on Texas Monthly.
This is an early-access episode, available only to TM Audio subscribers. Connect access to your TM Audio feed to the podcast player of your choice here. To troubleshoot any issues, visit the TM Audio FAQ.Read the transcript below.“Well, they thought they got away with it. What else you going to do? That’s why you paid all that money, to silence everything.”—Salem Joseph Sr.Executive producer is Megan Creydt. The show is reported and written by Katy Vine and written, produced, and reported by Ana Worrel. It was produced and engineered by Brian Standefer, who also wrote the music. Story editing and production by Patrick Michels. Additional production by Aisling Ayers. Additional editing by Karen Olsson. Fact-checking by Jaclyn Colletti. Studio musicians were Jon Sanchez, Glenn Fukunaga, and Pat…The post ‘The Problem With Erik,’ Episode 4: “The $60K Option” (TM Audio Exclusive) appeared first on Texas Monthly.
The rain has been reduced to a drizzle, and the winds have abated, but for many Houston-area residents, Hurricane Beryl’s impact is far from over. In addition to downed trees, impassable roads, and widespread flooding, millions of Texas are now contending with an increasingly hazardous threat: the dangerous combination of summer heat and power outages. Hurricane Beryl, which left at least 11 in the Caribbean islands dead—plus at least 3 Texans—has also left more than 2.1 million electric customers (the highest number in the provider’s history) without power across a wide swath of Houston, according to a statement released by CenterPoint Energy on X. By comparison, Hurricane Ike, a strong category 2 storm, left nearly the same number of customers without power after it made landfall in…The post Hurricane Beryl Reveals a Growing Threat for Texans: Summer Heat Without Power. appeared first on Texas Monthly.
With a mere three ingredients, this fizzy highball with fuzzy origins (both Austin and West Texas lay claim to it) couldn’t be simpler. An explosion in popularity in recent years has inspired a glut of canned versions, but none compare to a homemade ranch water. Evoking a stripped-down, bubbly margarita, it’s dry, bracing, and the perfect refresher for our hot summers. Print Ranch Water This mix of lime, tequila, and Topo Chico couldn’t be simpler. Keyword PartyType CocktailMain Ingredient Tequila Servings 1 Ingredients1 lime2 ounces blanco tequila½ cup Topo Chico InstructionsCut a wedge out of the lime. Squeeze the rest of the lime juice into a tall glass filled with ice.Add the tequila. Top with the Topo Chico and garnish with the lime wedge. NotesIf…The post Beat the Heat With a Simple-to-Make Ranch Water appeared first on Texas Monthly.
On Nov. 6, 2021, Jason Hogg watched both of his sons play football. Carter was on the field in front of him in a Texas high school state final with the Episcopal School of Dallas. Jason cheered him on from the stands in while streaming his other son FJ’s game on an iPad. FJ, a junior linebacker at Washington and Lee University, was playing in the Old Dominion Athletic Conference championship.In the second quarter of FJ’s game, he and a teammate were going for a tackle and collided. On the screen, it looked like a routine tackle. FJ was hit on the top right portion of his helmet, but he got up, finished the game, and took a picture with his team while celebrating their…The post A Concussion Ended His Brother’s Football Career, So a Dallas Teen Invented a Mask to Reduce the Risk appeared first on Texas Monthly.
He’s on the road again.Nearly two weeks after bowing out of his Outlaw Music Festival Tour with an undisclosed illness for what turned out to be eight missed shows, Willie Nelson was back on stage making music with his friends (and Family), just in time for his annual Fourth of July Picnic.“How’s it going?” the singer, who celebrated his ninety-first birthday in April, said over a joyous din of high-pitched cheers from fans at the Freedom Mortgage Pavilion in Camden, New Jersey, Thursday night. With Trigger hanging from the familiar red, white, and blue guitar strap, Willie sat down on a padded stool and got down to business: Whiskey River, take my mind. His voice was a bit rough-hewn at the start, his phrasing more deliberate and talky, but the guitar fingers were firing on…The post Willie Nelson Returns to the Stage at Fourth of July Picnic: “It’s Good to Be Back” appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Shark attacks are vanishingly rare. The chance that any given American swimmer will be bitten is just 1 in 11.5 million, according to the University of Florida’s International Shark Attack File, which tracks shark-bite statistics. The odds are even lower in Texas, where only 48 people have been bitten in the past 113 years. “Over the last ten years, if anything, there’s been a slight drop in the number of unprovoked bites,” said Gavin Naylor, director of the Florida Program for Shark Research, noting that about 60 to 80 people are bitten worldwide each year. Still, the seemingly random nature of attacks and pop-culture portrayals of horror beneath the waves instill a persistent fear—which Texans may be feeling more strongly than usual this summer.On July…The post Four People Have Been Bitten by Sharks in Texas in the Past Six Weeks. What’s Going On? appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Driving in Texas has always been stressful. In the rural parts of the state, the distances between destinations can be vast, while in the cities and suburbs, highways are often choked with traffic. But since the pandemic started in 2020, you may have experienced even more stress on the road than usual. Maybe drivers seem more aggressive and distracted, and casual disregard for rules such as speed limits, stop signs, and traffic signals seems more flagrant than ever before.If all of that feels true to you, we can tell you this: You’re not imagining things. According to several studies, Texas drivers really have gotten worse over the past five years. But just how bad? That’s a bit of a complicated question. We’re worse than we’ve…The post How Bad Are Texas Drivers, Really? appeared first on Texas Monthly.
After graduating with a degree in journalism, Sarah Lukowski moved to Austin in 2022 and started working in the marketing department of an engineering firm. During her downtime, Lukowski, 24, enjoys shopping at the Capital City’s thrift stores, reading books, and going to see the latest movies at Alamo Drafthouse. She also spends her free time doing research and conducting interviews on a subject that has fascinated her since 2016: actress Shelley Duvall.Lukowski is behind the internet’s Shelley Duvall Archives, a collection of social media accounts dedicated to celebrating the reclusive film star. Whether she’s addressing (speculative) lore about Duvall’s role in the horror movie classic The Shining, revealing previously unseen images of the stylish Hollywood it girl with the spidery seventies lashes, or sharing video of…The post Meet the Fan Who Befriended Shelley Duvall Over Peach Cobbler in Johnson City appeared first on Texas Monthly.
The first time I entered an eating contest, I made a little girl cry. She was standing off to the side of the small deck attached to a Taco Joint in Dallas’s tony Lakewood neighborhood, and I was waving the wooden winner’s plaque over my head like an idiot, smears of beans and cheese caked across my face. This was back in 2013, and I’d just won the second annual Fourth of July “Big Kahuna” Taco Eating Contest, at which a handful of us had stood in the midday sun and eaten as many bean-and-cheese tacos as possible in eight minutes. As my friends screamed and laughed, the guy who’d come in second—the defending champ and middle-aged dad who looked more like he’d stepped off…The post I Spent Three Years Inhaling Tacos and Corn Dogs in Eating Contests. Here’s Why I Stopped. appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Representative Lloyd Doggett, of Austin, on Tuesday became the first sitting member of Congress to call for President Joe Biden to step down as his party’s nominee. In his statement, he referenced Biden’s lackluster performance in last week’s debate against Donald Trump, somehow finding a delicate way to acknowledge the disconcerting frailty displayed. “President Biden has continued to run substantially behind Democratic senators in key states and in most polls has trailed Donald Trump,” Doggett said. “I had hoped that the debate would provide some momentum to change that. It did not. Instead of reassuring voters, the President failed to effectively defend his many accomplishments and expose Trump’s many lies.”Doggett also, in imploring Biden to follow the example of former president Lyndon Baines Johnson, who…The post Lloyd Doggett Is One of Few Texas Democrats to Call for Biden’s Withdrawal appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Wearing bright red trajes with white embroidery and the traditional Mexican sombrero, the Mariachi De Los Texas Rangers fills the air at Globe Life Field with warm guitar strumming. Except the group isn’t playing traditional classics like “Cielito Lindo”; it’s treating fans to its own riff on Creed’s “Higher.” The streaming feed of the Mets game just cut to a mariachi band playing “Higher” by Creed during the commercial.The vibes are wild right now 🤣 pic.twitter.com/20F6Ziu2sU— Just Mets (@just_mets) June 18, 2024 The video caught fire online during a game against the New York Mets on June 17, when a Mets fan account shared a thirty-second clip of the Creed cover on social media. Last season, Rangers players shared that they played Creed before each…The post The Mariachi de los Texas Rangers Takes Creed’s “Higher” to New Heights appeared first on Texas Monthly.
We had good intentions for our landscaping this past spring, like we do every year. Spring is a time of rebirth, after all. A time to cut down what died in the freeze and plant new things that’ll die in the heat a few months later. It’s the circle of $300-garden-center-purchases life.As soon as the weather warmed, my husband and I spent weeks working to shape up our lawn at our home in Bee Cave, just southwest of Austin. I raked leaves and picked up stray rocks and hummed. Chris inspected sprinkler heads and replaced mulch and cussed. We signed up for one service that does nontoxic weed control, another that aerates the lawn, and a third that mows it. We then tried to not…The post My HOA Wants My Lawn to Be Green and Lush. The City Says I Can Only Water Once a Week. appeared first on Texas Monthly.
I was grilling some chicken a while back with the help of some newly purchased barbecue gear. I’d just picked up a new knife, a basting brush, and a handheld blowtorch for a little fun. It got me thinking about what other tools I could use to make grilling and smoking feel even less like work, so I spent a few weeks searching for new and interesting items. After trying them out, I wanted to share some of my old favorites along with a few that may be new to you for your own backyard cooking.XL Drip EZ BBQ Prep Tub ($50)Prepping raw meat can be a messy task with the dirty cutting boards and rub debris all over the counter. Then, if you want…The post Everything You Need For Easy-Peasy Summer Barbecues appeared first on Texas Monthly.
My boyfriend’s mother, a Boston chemist whose early career involved visiting oil refineries across the globe, has a saying about Texas: “There’s no place colder than Houston in the summer.” Of course, it’s not the outside temperatures she’s referring to, which regularly top 100 degrees in the summertime, but the aggressively air-conditioned indoor climate. As she is wont to note, the cold is intended for the comfort of those who wear suits—the sleeveless among us be damned.I was reminded of her adage in 2022, when I attended a Houston carbon capture expo amid a mid-June heat wave. Enviro-capitalists milled around a huge convention center that showcased the latest in technology that removes CO2 from the atmosphere or prevents it from being released, and promised to…The post Air-Conditioning Has Made Texas Livable—And It’s Also Made Many of Us Big Wimps appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Sixty years ago today, President Lyndon Baines Johnson signed into law the Civil Rights Act, a high point in one of the greatest runs of policymaking of any president in American history. The Johnson administration was sprinting for most of the president’s years in office, and as he approached the end of his first full term a few years later, he was exhausted and unhappy. In 1967, when Johnson was just 58 years old, he commissioned a secret actuarial study to try to determine how much longer he should expect to live. His father died at just 60, and Lyndon had had a heart attack in 1955. The study suggested he should expect to expire at 64. “I figured that with my history of heart…The post Lyndon Johnson Knew That Part of Wielding Power Is Knowing When to Let It Go appeared first on Texas Monthly.
An El Paso judge on Tuesday denied Attorney General Ken Paxton’s attempt to shut down Annunciation House, a Catholic migrant shelter. Paxton had targeted the 45-year-old nonprofit in February, when he accused its staff, without evidence, of “operating a stash house” and “harboring aliens,” and requested a host of records from the shelter in an attempt to prove it. But in granting Annunciation House relief from Paxton’s requests, District Court Judge Francisco X. Dominguez wrote that Paxton didn’t establish what laws the shelter was violating, and that he used the records request to harass its guests and operators. The judge, in his ruling, called this breach “outrageous and intolerable.”Dominguez reasoned that closing the shelter, as Paxton intended, would violate the Texas Religious Freedom Restoration Act,…The post A Texas Judge Has Shot Down Paxton’s Attempts to Close a Catholic Migrant Shelter appeared first on Texas Monthly.
WHO: Richardson eighth grader Antonietta Perozo Gamero.WHAT: The National Spanish Spelling Bee, in El Paso, where fourth through eighth graders compete entirely in Spanish.WHY IT’S SO GREAT: Antonietta Perozo Gamero was confident she knew how to spell the word she’d just been assigned, but she still took her time. First she wrote the word down. Then she asked for the definition and mouthed the word silently to herself. Finally, she heard the word repeated and wrote it down again. “I was so motivated to win in that moment,” Perozo said. “I was really listening and trying to get every piece of information that I could get to help me spell the word correctly.” She spelled “jovialidad,” or “joviality” in English, quickly and smoothly, and with…The post Texans Swept the National Spanish Spelling Bee appeared first on Texas Monthly.
When Kinky Friedman launched his independent bid for the Governor’s Mansion in the 2006 campaign, it initially sounded like the legendary Texan wit doing what he did best: having fun by playing a prank on the rest of us, the cigar clenched between his teeth as he tried to keep a straight face. The campaign utilized slogans that did nothing to persuade Texans to take Friedman seriously: they included “He Ain’t Kinky, He’s My Governor,” “How Hard Could It Be?,” and “Why the Hell Not?”Texans took him seriously anyway. His campaign became a legitimate factor in the race; for two quarters in 2006, Friedman’s fund-raising totals surpassed those of Democratic nominee Chris Bell, whom he also polled ahead of at several points in the summer.…The post What If Kinky Friedman Had Become Governor of Texas? appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Tortilla chips and margaritas. Chocolate and red wine. Caviar and champagne. They’re all excellent food and beverage matchups, but a less talked-about pairing that deserves more attention is tacos and beer.While it’s hard to go wrong with a Mexican lager (Modelo alongside a suadero taco is difficult to beat), there are a myriad of other options to try if you want to expand your palate. I visited some of my favorite craft breweries that have on-site taquerias to ask what they recommend to their customers.Molly Reynolds, co-owner of Celestial Beerworks and its in-house truck, Cosmic Cantina, in Dallas, prefers washing down Cosmic’s chipotle and tomato–stewed chicken tinga taco with Celestial’s Satellite, an American light lager. On Reynolds’ recommendation, I ordered the Single Star hazy IPA…The post Get Your Summer On With These Taco and Beer Pairings appeared first on Texas Monthly.
It was something I always had wanted to do—go under my own power down a river to the sea. At its core was both the idea and the sensation of freedom. Living in a world so thoroughly carved up and sold off, there were only two ways I had discovered to really experience freedom in nature the way it once must have been everywhere. One way was hiking through a national forest. The other was traveling on a river, which, although usually flanked by private property, nevertheless was itself considered public, and by Texas law one was allowed to camp along its banks when en route. I had thought first of a canoe trip, perhaps floating down the Colorado from Austin to the Gulf of…The post A Stroke Didn’t Stop Me From Paddling 86 Miles Down the Nueces River appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Listen to this episode on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Read the transcript below.“Maund was freaking out. Everything is at a fever pitch, and that’s when Gilad Peled says, ‘The guys on the ground have offered to take him out.’ ”—Rob McGuireFacing the blackmail threat, Erik Maund decides not to pay up or go to the police. Instead, he turns to Gil Peled, a security guy at the Maund family car dealership who seems qualified to solve sensitive problems. Built like a bodybuilder, Peled claims to have experience in the Israeli special forces, and he spent years in Hollywood protecting Charlie Sheen. But Gil Peled isn’t quite the success story he pretends to be.Executive producer is Megan Creydt. The show is reported and written by Katy Vine and written, produced, and…The post ‘The Problem With Erik,’ Episode 3: “The Fixer” (TM Audio Exclusive) appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Listen to this episode on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Read the transcript below. Subscribe Apple Podcasts — Spotify “I got this emotion inside of me, and I could feel what they were feeling. And I knew that this was the morning of these two people’s deaths.”—Matt GarrettBill Lanway met Holly Williams through mutual friends in the Nashville EDM scene. Soon after they started dating, he moved into her apartment. It was only then, after snooping around on her phone, that he discovered Holly was an escort. Bill reacted with jealousy and violence against Holly, but the scheme he hatched next put them both in peril.Executive producer is Megan Creydt. The show is reported and written by Katy Vine, and written, produced, and reported by Ana Worrel. It was produced…The post ‘The Problem With Erik,’ Episode 2: “Bill” appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Listen to this episode on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Read the transcript below. Subscribe Apple Podcasts — Spotify “He’s the most simple rich person you’ve ever met in your life. Wouldn’t hurt a fly. He was as happy as he could be just being what he was.”—Joe JosephIn early 2020, Erik Maund—an executive at one of the top Toyota dealerships in the country, founded by his grandfather—had a problem. A stranger was blackmailing him for having an extramarital affair. Erik’s response to the threat set off a series of fateful decisions that left two people dead.One of those victims was Holly Williams, a Nashville woman who’d trained as an aesthetician, loved to party in the local EDM scene, and worked as an escort. After months in an abusive relationship,…The post ‘The Problem With Erik,’ Episode 1: “Car Talk” appeared first on Texas Monthly.
The middle-aged man, seated near the front of the room for a training on when he could use deadly force, expressed displeasure upon being told that doing so often was not legally advisable. He had driven to a suburban Fort Worth church to attend a seminar hosted by the True Texas Project, a prominent right-wing group. He asked what he could do if he returned to his home to find a squatter there—a “common problem” around the state, as he put it. Former police officer John Arenz, who volunteered to help lead the seminar, advised him there could very well be legal consequences for shooting someone who did not pose an immediate threat. “It doesn’t matter how indigent the person is, and it doesn’t matter…The post When Can Texans Use Deadly Force? The Far Right Is Holding Training Sessions. appeared first on Texas Monthly.
TM BBQ Club “Pit Perks” are exclusive perks and discounts that Texas Monthly’s network of barbecue joints generously offer to members like you each month. Proof of membership is required to redeem. JULY PERKS BrisketU | Get $15 off any BrisketU Class with code TXMNEWS24scTW Juan and Allie’s BBQ | 20% discount on order*; Address: 114 Texas Spur 511 Sunset Texas 76270 La Barbecue | Our Austin Monthly Burger Bash winning Brisket Sliders are available every Wednesday and Thursday for our happy hour from 3:00-6:00 pm with drink and sandwich specials. We are doing Sounds Of Summer with local DJ William every 3rd Saturday of the Summer Months starting at 12:00 pm and going to 4:00 pm. KG BBQ | 4th of July Honky Tonk & BBQ Pool Party at Rancho…The post July 2024 Pit Perks appeared first on Texas Monthly.
It’s quiet hour at the Colorado Chautauqua, that almost eerie, old-fashioned, two-hour step back through the decades between 1 and 3 p.m. when every summer resident at the vacation community returns to their cabin for a siesta. Some sleep; others play cards or read. The sounds of the mountain meld into a sonorous silence: a combination of faraway chatter, the purr of cars on the curves up Flagstaff Mountain, and the symphony’s tuneful cacophony as it warms up in the historic auditorium for the night’s performance. A tradition at this mountain playground in Boulder for most of Chautauqua’s 126 years—or at least as long as anyone can remember—quiet hour is honored as a sacred practice. “Don’t you dare scream during quiet hour,” says 78-year-old Mary…The post The Hidden Texas Roots of a Historic Colorado Retreat appeared first on Texas Monthly.
It’s pitch black when I arrive at 5:30 a.m. at the Lewisville Lake Environmental Learning Area, a sprawling, 2,600-acre nature preserve about twenty miles north of Dallas. After I make contact with my party, the seven of us caravan in our vehicles, bumping a mile or so down a gated gravel road that twists deep into the woods, where we park by a meadow. Doused head to toe with bug spray, I put on a borrowed headlamp and fall in line behind my companions, stalking silently through fields of waist-high grass and wildflowers and trying to avoid low-hanging branches, fallen logs, and armadillo holes in the predawn darkness.The secret mission I’ve joined on this May morning has one goal: to capture and study painted buntings—the brilliantly…The post Gorgeous and Elusive, Painted Buntings Are Flitting Across Texas appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Jared Brinkley had never been more anxious on a plane. Not typically a nervous flier, the California video game production manager stowed his valuable cargo as he prepared for takeoff on a recent flight from Seattle to Dallas. Wrapped in a cocoon of foam, cardboard, and packing tape and tucked into the first-class cabin coat closet was a hundred-year-old painting that could be worth six figures.“I carried it around the airport terrified,” Brinkley, 49, said. “The whole trip was stressful.”The artwork, an original Julian Onderdonk oil painting from 1921 titled A Field of Bluebonnets, San Antonio, is representative of the work of the Texas impressionist, who is beloved for his pastoral scenes that showcase the iconic indigo flowers.“If you’ve ever seen a painting of bluebonnets in…The post This Rare Painting Up for Auction in Dallas Was Almost Sent to Goodwill appeared first on Texas Monthly.
A Uvalde County grand jury has indicted former school district police chief Pete Arredondo and another former district officer on charges of child endangerment, the first criminal charges brought against law enforcement for the botched response to the deadliest school shooting in Texas history, the San Antonio Express-News first reported.Arredondo and Adrian Gonzales face felony charges of abandoning or endangering a child, the newspaper reported.The charges come more than two years after the May 24, 2022 shooting, in which a lone gunman killed nineteen fourth graders and two teachers.Uvalde County district attorney Christina Mitchell convened a grand jury in January to investigate law enforcement’s delayed response and to determine whether to bring criminal charges against any of the nearly four hundred federal, state, and local…The post Uvalde’s Former Schools Police Chief Has Been Indicted for His Role in Robb Elementary Shooting Response appeared first on Texas Monthly.
After what was generally judged to be a disastrous performance by President Joe Biden in his first televised debate with Donald Trump in the 2024 cycle, national Democrats went into panic mode on Thursday night as only Democrats can do. Democratic strategist after Democratic strategist told reporters that America’s last hope was a brokered Democratic National Convention or, as one put it, for Biden to die. Texas Democrats, meanwhile, were pretty quiet, at least in public, where they mostly stuck to tweeting preapproved memes. With one exception: former San Antonio mayor and secretary of housing and urban development Julián Castro. “Tonight was completely predictable,” Castro said. He argued that it was a man-made disaster, rather than an act of God. “Biden had a very low bar…The post Julián Castro Derailed His Career Questioning Joe Biden’s Fitness. He Was Just Ahead of the Game. appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Kinky Friedman died on June 27, 2024, leaving behind an impression on everything from Texas music and politics to the very halls of Texas Monthly itself. Michael Hall recalls how Kinky, although controversial and not afraid to offend, held a genuine interest in having an impact on the world and starting important conversations.The post Remembering Texas Satirist Kinky Friedman appeared first on Texas Monthly.
A colorful food trailer parked on the patio of Zoé Tong, on Barton Springs Road, houses a new barbecue joint. Sí Baby-Q opened in early May, serving barbecue dishes as unconventional as the modern Chinese menu inside its sister (mother?) restaurant. While the name seems like a bilingual play on “Yes, baby,” it’s actually the nickname owner Matthew Hyland uses for his wife, Simone Tong, the restaurant’s chef. They opened Zoé Tong together last year after moving to Austin from New York, where Tong founded Silver Apricot and from where Hyland launched the Emmy Squared pizza empire.The couple spent a year searching for the building that now houses Zoé Tong, and they landed on the former location of Uncle Billy’s Brew & Que. They kept…The post This New Austin Barbecue Truck Infuses Eastern Flair Into Its Dishes appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Before landing the contract to write the songs for The Outsiders, a hit new Broadway musical that—thanks to its twelve Tony nominations and four wins—just became a bigger hit, Jonathan Clay had, by his own admission, read only five books. Luckily for the Americana artist and his songwriting partner and Jamestown Revival bandmate Zach Chance, S.E. Hinton’s beloved novel of trod-upon teenagers in Tulsa was one of them. Two rival gangs, a poetry-loving protagonist, literal train tracks to live on the wrong side of—it’s a wonder it took this long for the middle school reading list favorite to become a stage show. As Jamestown Revival, Chance and Clay have been making music together since they were fourteen, about the same age as the novel’s characters. Over…The post Thank These Broadway Outsiders for the Tony-Winning Show Tunes of ‘The Outsiders’ appeared first on Texas Monthly.
A small army of rebels camped out for days near the Alamo, giving bellicose speeches and promising to topple tyrants. This was back in May, when the Texas GOP faithful had flocked to the Henry B. González Convention Center in San Antonio for the party’s annual convention. The proximity to the state’s most sacred site gave the gathered Republicans ample opportunity to compare their cause to that of the Texians. (Less was said about González, a Democratic champion of civil rights from San Antonio.) “Here we stand near the same hallowed land where our brave ancestors took a stand,” declared a video drenched in revolutionary imagery. “We owe them the same courage to defend Texas and save America . . . We will not surrender!”William B. Travis…The post The Texas Far Right Is Winning Elections. But It’s Increasingly Suspicious of Democracy. appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Kinky Friedman always had a way with words—something we at Texas Monthly spotted early on. Beyond his stint as a columnist for the magazine from 2001 to 2005, he also moonlighted as a satirist, novelist, songwriter, tequila pitchman, and gubernatorial candidate. The multihyphenate died on June 27, at the age of 79. We tried our damnedest to tell his story, but Friedman never needed any help explaining himself. We scrounged through the archives to find the best of Friedman’s many, many quotables. Here are just a few of the Jewish Cowboy’s colorful anecdotes and one-in-a-million life philosophies, in his own words.Kinky on his friendship with Willie Nelson: “Okay, well, I signed copies of Steppin’ on a Rainbow and Kinky Friedman’s Guide to Texas Etiquette, which…The post “Texas Is My Family”: Kinky Friedman in His Own Words appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Jimmie Dale Gilmore is a Texan who spent a few formative years in California. Dave Alvin is a Californian who has spent alot of time in Texas. So of course, when the Blaster and the Flatlander began performing together after nearly thirty years of friendship, they leaned into the overlap. The duo’s first album, 2018’s Downey to Lubbock, was named for their respective childhood homes. Now they’re back with Texicali, out June 21 from Yep Roc Records.Texas and California may be rivals in the realms of business, politics, and tacos, but when it comes to music, the two states share kind of a psychic border. “We come from different places, but we come from the same place musically in a lot of ways,” says Alvin,…The post On ‘Texicali,’ Dave Alvin and Jimmie Dale Gilmore Enter a State of Collaboration appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Richard “Kinky” Friedman, a Texas icon who infused his songs, fiction, and campaign speeches with a unique and crass humor, died early Thursday, June 27. He was 79. Friedman “stepped on a rainbow” while surrounded by family and friends at his longtime home in the Hill Country’s Echo Hill Ranch, according to a statement released on his X account Thursday morning. He had, in recent years, lived with Parkinson’s disease.Friedman was many things: a musician, a novelist, a satirist, a Texas Monthly columnist, a gubernatorial candidate, a summer camp cofounder, a Peace Corps volunteer, and—of course—a Jewish cowboy. Born in Chicago in 1944 to a World War II airman, Friedman relocated to Houston with his family the following year. He earned the nickname “Kinky” because…The post Kinky Friedman’s Wit Turned the Jewish Cowboy Into a Texas Icon appeared first on Texas Monthly.
“Catch flights, not feelings” is just one of the cheeky sayings emblazoned on Talking Out Of Turn’s colorful, retro-inspired travel accessories. The boutique in Dallas’s Bishop Arts neighborhood got its start with stationery but has since expanded with patterned duffel bags and color-blocked hip bags made from recycled water bottles. Their packing cube sets are great for practical reasons but also pack a punch with “flower power” ripstop nylon fabric that feels straight out of the seventies (in the best way). But the thing that really caught our eye? The skate bag. It’s the perfect excuse to bring along the roller skates and pretend like you’re still a teenager living it up on summer break.Below eight more homegrown brands to shop as you plan your…The post Shop Small, Travel Wide: Nine Texas Brands for Summer Vacations appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Like Serena Williams with older sister Venus, like Pedro Martinez with older brother Ramon, Jesse “Bam” Rodriguez started out as the younger sibling who tagged along.It was his brother Joshua Franco, older by four years and three months, who first wandered into the San Fernando Boxing Club in downtown San Antonio, and Rodriguez—full name: Jesse James Rodriguez Franco—all of nine years old at the time, went along with him.“If my brother didn’t try it and like it, I would never even have watched a boxing fight to this day,” Rodriguez, now 24 and a champion in two weight divisions, said last week during a break in training. Rodriguez’s main interests at age nine were school and skateboarding. But after watching his big brother do his…The post San Antonio’s Number Two Sports Franchise is a 115-Pound Champion Boxer appeared first on Texas Monthly.
On a recent evening at Ezov, a Mediterranean-inspired restaurant on Austin’s East Side, I found myself scanning the wine list while my friends perused the menu. A rich red blend from Chateau Musar in Lebanon, a golden Moschofilero from Greece’s Nemea region, or a Nerello Mascalese rosé from Southern Italy were all intriguing selections.As if reading my mind, the sommelier approached and asked if I’d like a suggestion. I showed her the three I was considering, which she approved of before saying, “All these are fantastic, but we’ve got this little gem right here that’s a steal,” she said, pointing to the 2009 Goumenissa from Domaine Tatsis in Greece. “Definitely not something you’ll find anywhere else.” The red wine was relatively low in alcohol, spicy, light-bodied,…The post These Bars and Restaurants Are the Best Places to Drink Wine in Austin appeared first on Texas Monthly.
As a New Year’s resolution and in an attempt to embrace being a cowgirl, I decided to learn to two-step. Donning my black Ariats, I jumped into studio classes and eventually tested what I learned on weekly visits to Dallas–Fort Worth’s Western dance clubs, such as Guitars and Cadillacs and Cowboys Red River. The deejays at these spots play the usual bro-country and two-steppin’ songs but also sprinkle in a few line dances set to pop. And for anyone willing to mix their boot-scooting with smooth West Coast swing, the venues throw in a hip-hop song or two. I picked up this formula pretty quickly. Line dances to “Shivers” by Ed Sheeran or “Wobble” by V.I.C. transition easily into the safety of a Bruno Mars…The post Megan Thee Stallion’s Self-reflective Era Arrives With an Album She Named After Herself appeared first on Texas Monthly.
If you’ve ever wondered what happens to some formerly lauded chairs of the Texas GOP, look no further than Florida man Allen West. A mere four years ago, the former congressman from the Sunshine State was on a stunning upward trajectory in Texas politics. He came to Texas searching for a cause and early in the pandemic found it: effectively wielding a megaphone to bully party leaders into adopting his brand of far-right conservatism. There was the time, for instance, when he and a handful of far-right Republican officials protested outside of the Governor’s Mansion in October 2020, openly criticizing Governor Greg Abbott for taking too many COVID precautions. (Abbott would, ultimately, make Texas one of the first states to reopen the economy and drop…The post What Ever Happened to Allen West? appeared first on Texas Monthly.
At the end of the nineteenth century, St. Louis, Missouri, garnered the nickname Fourth City. Its population trailed only New York City, Chicago, and Philadelphia, making it the fourth largest city in the country. While other cities have since surpassed it in population, St. Louis is better known now as the Gateway to the West thanks to the Gateway Arch, completed in 1965. But married couple Greg Mueller and Erica McKinley are bringing the old moniker back with their restaurant, Fourth City Barbecue.“It was going to be Mueller Barbecue, but we just couldn’t do that,” Mueller said, referring to the iconic status of Louie Mueller Barbecue in Taylor. He’s a student of Texas barbecue, calling Franklin Barbecue: A Meat-Smoking Manifesto an inspiration. Mueller read it…The post In the St. Louis Barbecue Scene, Sweet and Saucy Meets Smoked and Savory appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Filmmakers have long been drawn to “the Texan” as a character type. Our series Playing Texan revisits some of the most notable of these portrayals, from the legendary to the ludicrous, to determine what they say about how the world sees Texas—and how we see ourselves. Another Texas summer has sprung and—to butcher Alfred, Lord Tennyson—a young person’s fancy lightly turns to thoughts of getting the hell out of here. Or maybe it’s not just the young. Come next May, I will have been out of high school for thirty years, yet every June I feel the same stirring to light out for the hills and start truly living, something I doubt would go over too well with my wife and kids. There are several explanations…The post Why Are So Many Texas Movies About the Desire to Leave It? appeared first on Texas Monthly.
As he prepares to take the stage at beloved Dallas listening room the Kessler, country artist Joshua Ray Walker is feeling terrible. Sipping a Topo Chico in the green room of his hometown’s venue, he’s sweaty and a little shaky—the side effects of a chemotherapy treatment completed just five days earlier. But, dressed in all black save for a pair of purple Lisa Frank Crocs, the 33-year-old Walker is getting ready to get onstage, nausea be damned. This Monday night show in June is Walker’s fifth consecutive monthly performance at the Kessler, all of which have sold out within days. Many audience members—childhood friends of Walker’s; fans who’ve been watching him play since he was performing for tiny crowds in Deep Ellum clubs—come back every single…The post Country Artist Joshua Ray Walker Has Cancer. He’s Performing Anyway. appeared first on Texas Monthly.
The first thing I notice on entering the store is the smell. It is an earthy sandalwood mixed with some type of citrus, perhaps sour lemon. It tells me I am in the right place, because I am here to buy cannabis. On my left sits a smoking lounge with four booths facing large windows that look out on an upscale South Austin shopping center. To my right, behind a glass window, is a demonstration grow room—more for show than large-scale cultivation. Straight ahead, on the back wall, a large lacquered-wood cabinet looks like something out of an old-fashioned drugstore. Its shelves hold a cannabinoid cornucopia: cookies, gummies, tinctures, machine-rolled joints, and glass containers half-filled with tightly clumped plant buds.Another customer enters and makes a…The post Texas Has Basically Legalized Marijuana. We Have the Proof. appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Caddo Lake State Park is home to towering cypresses and dangling Spanish moss—just the type of moody swamp celebrated in Ghostlight, Keith Carter’s latest photography book. In the latest dispatch from Texas Country Reporter, Carter explores the park from his canoe, camera in hand, reflecting on the allure of the Southern spaces he calls “otherworldly.”The post Paddling Caddo Lake with Texas Photographer Keith Carter appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Out-of-state billionaires have dramatically increased their contributions to Texas politics over the past two election cycles. In the third installment of Answer Me This, senior editor Alex Samuels reviews reports from the state’s ethics commission to identify the five top donors and which campaigns their money helps influence.The post Answer Me This: Why Is So Much Out-of-State Money Driving Texas Politics? appeared first on Texas Monthly.
“I’m a high-adrenaline pitcher.”That was an unnecessary admission coming from someone whose demeanor throughout a Hall of Fame career has earned him the nickname “Mad Max.” But Max Scherzer’s intent last Saturday was to explain why his fastball velocity had been in the low nineties during rehab outings after averaging a tick faster last season.Scherzer’s heater reached a game-high 94.3 mph on the second batter last Sunday afternoon, in the ace’s long-awaited season debut for the Texas Rangers. He threw the pitch on a 0–2 count, and even though it crossed the plate well above the strike zone, Kansas City Royals phenom Bobby Witt Jr. (son of former Rangers pitcher Bobby Witt) chased it for the game’s first strikeout.The game was Scherzer’s first official appearance…The post Don’t Give Up on the Texas Rangers’ Title Defense Just Yet appeared first on Texas Monthly.
From the Texas Monthly team behind the podcasts Tom Brown’s Body, Stephenville, and Shane and Sally comes another true story of crime and justice in the Lone Star State.When Erik Maund was blackmailed about a secret affair, he didn’t go to the cops. He took matters into his own hands—but it didn’t go according to plan. In The Problem With Erik, host Katy Vine and producer Ana Worrel explore what came next: a perfect storm of secrets, mistaken identities, and tragic miscommunications that left two people dead.Look for The Problem With Erik on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen.The post Preview: ‘The Problem With Erik’ True Crime Podcast appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Texas can lay claim to a truly iconic state flag, one we plaster on pickups and T-shirts and even pledge allegiance to in grade school. But did you know that dozens and dozens of Texas cities and counties also have flags? Neither did we until recently. But as soon as we found a website cataloging the flags, we fell into a rabbit hole of wonderment. The flags of Texas’s cities and counties run the gamut from good to bad to downright weird. The art of vexillology, the study of flags, is a passion for some and a chore for others, but it’s an important part of fostering a collective identity as a community. Who would Texans be, after all, without the iconic lone star? The best…The post The Best, Worst, and So-Bad-They’re-Good Texas City and County Flags appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Silvia Hernandez, with her hair pulled back into a long ponytail, is visible from the kitchen only when she comes to the metal-framed pass, where the server grabs plated dishes to run to customers. Her glasses are precariously balanced on the lower bridge of her nose, but she snaps them back into place as she turns to attend to the cooking at her restaurant, Taqueria Gael, in Andrews.Crossing north five years ago was the easy part of her life’s journey, Hernandez says. Growing up in El Salto, a small, quiet town in the northern Mexican state of Durango, she worked long hours hawking street food and cooking in her parents’ restaurant. She opened her own business, a hot dog cart, as a teenager, and got…The post This West Texas Taqueria Is Serving Some of the Best Mexican Food in Texas appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Erik Maund had it all. A wife and kids, a mansion by the Austin Country Club golf course, and an executive position in his family’s car-dealership business. But in March 2020, a message from a stranger put everything at risk. Someone knew Erik had had an affair with an escort, and they wanted money to keep quiet.But Erik didn’t pay the money, and he didn’t go to the cops. Instead, he paid Charlie Sheen’s former bodyguard and a couple of special ops–trained security contractors to confront the blackmailer. Things didn’t go according to plan.In The Problem With Erik, host Katy Vine and producer Ana Worrel tell the twisted story of what came next: a perfect storm of secrets, mistaken identities, and tragic miscommunications that left two…The post Announcing Our New Podcast, ‘The Problem With Erik’ appeared first on Texas Monthly.
In his beloved Chronicles of Narnia series, novelist and Christian apologist C. S. Lewis writes of the Dark Island at the end of the world, a place where dreams can come true. To readers and the novel’s voyagers alike, this sounds like paradise, until a man who has been trapped there explains to them, in terror, that this is a place where any dreams might come true—including nightmares. For the past few years, Texas has in some ways resembled that Dark Island, where architects of dreams and nightmares alike are bringing outsized consequences to life. When Texas attorney Jonathan Mitchell filed an amicus brief on behalf of Texas Right to Life in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, few knew he was enshrining a vision of…The post The Overturning of Abortion Rights Is a Religion Story Set in Texas appeared first on Texas Monthly.
The flu pandemic that hit from 1918 to 1920 ranked as one of the most miserable events in the history of the United States, but it left very little cultural impact: no novel that is still read today, no great movie. Unlike with the other calamities of the early twentieth century, artists had little meaning to plumb in the suffering. Americans could grasp the lessons easily: life is arbitrary and often cruel; the human body is very frail, and there are some things from which it cannot be protected.So it is with COVID-19, which may end up ranking as the fifth-deadliest pandemic in history. Apart from occasional reminiscing about how strange the spring of 2020 was, many of us would like to not talk about…The post Many Have Moved on From COVID. Not the Creators of ‘Plandemic: The Musical.’ appeared first on Texas Monthly.
I’m a firm believer that most Texans always have extra stomach space for banana pudding, no matter how much barbecue they’ve eaten. A good banana pudding is a perfect balance of cool and creamy, and achieving it is about getting the ratios of the ingredients right. But why should bananas get to have all the fun? What if we traded them out for that ultra-Texan stone fruit, the peach? This summer, consider using your U-Pick haul for a cool, creamy peach pudding.Swapping the fruit provided an opportunity to exchange another ingredient: the cookies. I tried traditional Nilla wafers, gingersnaps, and Biscoff cookies. The Nilla wafers had the best texture, so they’re an option here, but the gingersnaps gave the pudding a fun spice and brought out…The post Peach Pudding Is Summer’s Version of This Famed BBQ Dessert appeared first on Texas Monthly.
As Texas critters go, the brown tarantula—Aphonopelma hentzi, if you’re feeling fancy—is not a widely beloved creature. Spiders suffer from public relations issues at the best of times, and larger species tend to be cast in film and fiction as fantasy monsters (Lord Of The Rings) or horror-movie fodder (Tarantula, Arachnophobia). The animal itself, however, has much to recommend it, says Jackie Billotte, a doctoral student at Colorado State University who studies the species. Despite their fearsome, furry appearance, Texas brown tarantulas tend to be docile and shy. Members of this widespread, adaptable species are happiest when they have nothing to do with humans—or much else outside their burrows—and yet, once a year, male tarantulas risk it all for love. “Personally, I think they’re adorable,” Billotte says.…The post Tarantulas Are Crawling Across Texas and Looking for Love appeared first on Texas Monthly.
A few weeks ago, I was working outside my Austin home on a rainwater-catchment system—I’m one of those incorrigible weekend warrior DIYers who keeps Home Depot in business—when I noticed I was completely drenched in sweat. It was midmorning in May, in the shade, still hours away from the peak heat of the day. I was just tinkering with little irrigation parts, not doing anything as laborious as the ditchdigging and stonemasonry that had occupied my winter and spring. Yet the air felt as if it could be wrung out, a soupy, hot mess you might expect in Dubai—or Houston. Not that I was surprised. The sticky heat now seems inescapable for long stretches of the year. Biking around town, picking tomatoes in the garden,…The post You’re Not Imagining It: Texas Is Getting More Humid appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Texas Country Reporter visits the pool at Balmorhea State Park, a crystal-blue oasis in the Chihuahuan Desert. Megan Bean, a native-fish conservation coordinator for the region, explains how proximity to endangered wildlife is one of the many reasons this park is so special.The post Swim With Rare Wildlife in Ancient Waters at Balmorhea State Park appeared first on Texas Monthly.
The Texas Medical Board on Friday adopted guidance for how doctors should interpret the state’s new abortion laws, reducing paperwork requirements some saw as overly burdensome but declining to provide a list of cases in which an abortion would be legal.The board unanimously approved the new guidelines after making revisions in response to concerns raised by doctors, lawyers, and people who say they were denied medically necessary abortions. The changes included removing a controversial provision that appeared to encourage doctors to transfer patients who might need an abortion.Board chair Dr. Sherif Zaafran acknowledged Friday that, even with these edits, this guidance doesn’t address all the concerns the board heard during this process.“There are certain things that we can address and there are certain things that…The post Two Years After Dobbs, the Texas Medical Board Adopted Rules Clarifying Abortion Ban Exceptions appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Houston’s role in hip-hop history stretches back more than forty years, to the day in 1981 when a student named Lester “Sir” Pace defied the bosses at Texas Southern University’s KTSU during a shift on the teen-friendly Kidz Jamm broadcast by playing hip-hop records on a program previously known for pop and R&B. From there, the ties between the city and the culture only grew: the founding of Rap-A-Lot Records, in 1986; DJ Screw’s pioneering of the slowed-down “chopped and screwed” mixes, in the early 1990s; and the Geto Boys selling a million copies of the record with “Mind Playing Tricks on Me” by 1992, were early milestones in the city that became a tentpole in the world of hip-hop. Now, in 2024, the idea…The post Artifacts From Hip-hop History Are on Display in Houston appeared first on Texas Monthly.
WHO: Paul Ling, a professor at Baylor College of Medicine, along with the veterinary and elephant care teams at the Houston Zoo. WHAT: A new vaccine for elephant endotheliotropic herpes virus (EEHV), a devastating viral disease that can swiftly kill young elephants, often just one to five days after symptoms start showing.WHY IT’S SO GREAT: It’s been fifteen years since Baylor professor Paul Ling, a virologist who specializes in the human herpes virus, got involved in the project to treat and prevent EEHV. It all started with Mac, a two-year-old Asian elephant who died from the condition at the Houston Zoo in 2008. The disease, which can result in severe hemorrhaging and is fatal as often as 80 percent of the time, is the leading cause of…The post A Deadly Virus Was Killing Elephants, So Texas Scientists Created a Vaccine appeared first on Texas Monthly.
When my wife and I rented a beach house in Galveston’s affluent West End on a recent weekend, we weren’t sure what to expect. News emanating from the island bore a whiff of chaos. We’d been disconcerted to learn, for example, that nineteen-year-old Damiana Humphrey, visiting from Oklahoma, had fended off a shark in nearby waters with a punch to the face the previous week, but we decided to proceed—with caution.To reach our destination we had to fight apocalyptic traffic. Leaving on a Friday afternoon from Houston, we drove sixty miles in three hours—around triple the normal time. We finally crossed the causeway only to find the streets gridlocked with cars and the coast congested with beer-sozzled sun worshippers. Even the typically more sedate West…The post Galveston Gone Wild appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Ramiro Gonzales was not a good person 23 years ago—even the lawyers fighting for his life acknowledge that. On January 15, 2001, Gonzales, who was 18, kidnapped, raped, and murdered Bridget Townsend in rural Medina County, outside San Antonio. He also kidnapped and raped another woman—a crime for which he pleaded guilty. Life had been unkind to him, though life is unkind to many who don’t commit heinous acts. His mother was a drug addict; he didn’t know his father; he had been sexually abused. He grew accustomed to a life of violence. At Gonzales’s 2006 trial, forensic psychiatrist Edward Gripon testified that the inmate was a future danger to society, and he was sentenced to death.By then, Gonzales had met an insistent “country boy…The post Religious Leaders Are Pleading for the Life of a Death Row Inmate. In Texas, Mercy Is in Short Supply. appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Every reality show promises some reward. Often these are explicit—a million dollars, a proposal, a recurring role on hit teen drama Glee—but even those without a formal prize offer a steady paycheck, and attention, which can be even more valuable to the aspiring star. For sixteen seasons, the CMT show Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders: Making the Team did both. Though it was canceled in 2022, a new Netflix docuseries, America’s Sweethearts, picks up the megaphone on June 20 and promises an even bigger audience for the women vying for pairs of blue and silver pom-poms.The show certainly checks two of the most important reality TV boxes: it’s got attractive people and cutthroat competition. “You need to look like a supermodel but perform like an athlete,” a woman says in a promo.But…The post From ‘Making the Team’ to ‘America’s Sweethearts’: How Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders Become Reality Stars appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Believe it or not, Jeff Nichols is tired of critics comparing his latest movie to Goodfellas. There are surface similarities between the Austin-based filmmaker’s sixth feature, The Bikeriders, and the Martin Scorsese Mafia epic that regularly places high on lists of the greatest films ever made. Both movies are sprawling character studies whose stories span years. The films both indicate the passage of time through era-specific music cues, use voice-over narration and freeze-frames, and ultimately accomplish the trick of glamorizing—then exposing the dark underside of—a subculture that’s long been romanticized in the popular consciousness. Nichols’s film spent the latter half of 2023 on the film-festival circuit, building buzz for its eventual wide release on June 21. At those festival screenings, critics largely took to the…The post How ‘Bikeriders’ Director Jeff Nichols Turned Motorcycle-Gang Violence Into Art appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Austin writer Jessica Goudeau’s second book, We Were Illegal: Uncovering a Texas Family’s Mythmaking and Migration, which was published this week by Viking, is a deeply researched examination of the lives—and lies—of Goudeau’s extended clan, who first came to Texas in the 1820s. When my classmates asked me, as a new fourth grader in Memphis, Tennessee, recently transplanted from San Antonio, if I knew any Texas Rangers, they were probably thinking of the baseball team. But the famed law enforcement agency that goes by the same name was the most Texas-y thing I had going for me. My great-uncle Frank Probst had been a Ranger, and I could tell them about the visits we’d made when I was growing up to his ranch, not far…The post The Texas Ranger Who Helped a Serial Killer Go Free appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Every Wednesday for the last eight years, Kerry Max Cook has gone to the website of the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals at 9 a.m. to scan the list of rulings officially published that day. He was looking to see if the court—the highest criminal tribunal in the state—had issued a final judgment on his case, which was one of the longest and most harrowing in Texas history. The mild-mannered Cook had been tried for the murder of Linda Jo Edwards in Tyler three times since 1978: he was found guilty that year, appealed the verdict and had a mistrial in 1992, and was found guilty again in 1994. Constantly proclaiming his innocence, Cook spent almost two decades on death row, where he was stabbed…The post “This Was All or Nothing”: Kerry Max Cook, Who Spent 19 Years on Death Row, Has Been Declared Innocent appeared first on Texas Monthly.
As a child, I looked forward to the regular trips with my mom to our local post office in the Hill Country town of Boerne. I can still smell the cardboard boxes and recall the excitement of buying stamps to send letters to my international pen pals and shipping Christmas presents to my uncle in faraway Nebraska.Starting in the early 1900s, U.S. post offices served as a community hub. Texans would catch up with neighbors, pay taxes at the teller window, pick up food stamps, and check out the “Most Wanted” posters (just in case). Post offices no longer play a role in most Americans’ routines. Although my hometown post office is still open, thousands have closed across the country. But these buildings, from the…The post These Old Texas Post Offices Sat Empty. Now They’re Thriving Cafes, Stores, and Museums. appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Back in the early days of the pandemic, Netflix provided a certain comfort to a nation unable to safely leave home. We gasped at the real-life exploits of Joe Exotic in Tiger King, savored the pluck of Anya Taylor-Joy’s self-destructive chess prodigy in The Queen’s Gambit, and thrilled to the conflict between the Kooks and the Pogues on Outer Banks. We whiled away the hours with Warrior Nuns and Teenage Bounty Hunters, Sneakerheads and Baby-Sitters Clubs. We accompanied Emily to Paris, the Bridgertons to the social season, and—so bored were we—occupied ourselves with something called Floor is Lava. But all of that was years ago, and the outside world has resumed, with the specific dynamics of 2020 largely buried in whatever deep hole most of…The post Netflix House Is Coming to the Dallas Galleria. Here’s What We Want From It. appeared first on Texas Monthly.
This month’s cover story, an oral history, explores the enduring impact of the Livestrong movement, once promoted by professional cyclist and cancer survivor Lance Armstrong to lend encouragement and support to others suffering from the dread disease. For the writer of our story, the topic hit close to home. Senior editor Emily McCullar was ten years old when she lost her mother to breast cancer, in 1996, eight years before Livestrong was born. Emily says, “My mother’s illness has very much informed my work on this story.”That work began late last year, when Emily noticed that 2024 would mark the twentieth anniversary of the Livestrong bracelet. She began talking with contributing editor Leah Prinzivalli about a possible pop culture–focused story, perhaps illustrated by photos of…The post Of Wristbands and Writing appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Wade Elkins likes to mess around with the many ingredients in the Mimsy’s Craft Barbecue kitchen in Crockett. He opened the place with his wife, Kathy, in 2020. One day Elkins wanted a burger and a chicken strip for lunch, so Mimsy’s ended up with the Ranch House sandwich on the menu, which combines both on a bun with pimento cheese and ranch dressing.The couple had served a basic mayo-dressed coleslaw since opening, but Elkins wanted to make it more memorable. “I saw the fried onions on the line and had the Carolina sauce on the block for the pulled pork,” he said. He threw it all together and liked it, and made another bowl for Kathy. “She tasted it, and said, ‘That’s our new…The post Here’s How to Make the Best Coleslaw I’ve Ever Eaten at a Texas Barbecue Joint appeared first on Texas Monthly.
No BuenoWhile I enjoyed the article on Velvet Taco and Torchy’s and their respective aspirations for craft-taco dominance [“Big Taco,” May 2024], I was disappointed by the passing mention of Abilene-born-and-bred Taco Bueno. While its offerings may not be as elevated or quirky as those chains, I dare you to find anyone who grew up in the Big Country, like me, or in suburban Dallas–Fort Worth who doesn’t prefer a Bueno Chilada platter or a Beef Muchaco to anything offered at comparable taco joints. Mark Doty, Inglewood, California Dug It I was thrilled to see an article about Mason County topaz in the May 2024 issue [“The Last Blue Topaz Hunters?”]. I remember going with my parents and a gem and mineral group from Bexar County on a…The post Roar of the Crowd: July 2024 appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Connor Wood started his first-ever hometown show with a suitcase next to the mic stand. In an unfortunate series of events, he explains to the crowd of over three hundred at Austin’s Cap City Comedy Club, his planned one-hour flight from Dallas to Austin had taken at least six. Due to a different flight delay the day before, Wood drove from Houston to Addison, about 255 miles, to make his 7:30 p.m. show that night. The 27-year-old comedian, more popularly known by his handle @fibulaa on TikTok, where he has almost 830,000 followers, continued complaining about his past few days of travel. “We should be kissing on the mouth when the plane lands,” he said to the audience. Though he’s a fresh Gen Z babyface on…The post Connor Wood Is the Voice of a TikTok-Addled Generation appeared first on Texas Monthly.
On a sunny day in Corpus Christi, dozens of volunteers stand knee-deep in the Gulf, forming an assembly line. It’s all part a coastal restoration effort from Harte Research Institute at Texas A&M–Corpus Christi that involves recycling oyster shells from local restaurants. Texas Country Reporter visited with Danielle Downey, a research specialist at the Harte Research Institute, to learn more about how Sink Your Shucks became the first initiative in Texas to reclaim oyster shells and return them to our local waters.The post Recycled Oyster Shells Are Given New Life to Restore Wildlife appeared first on Texas Monthly.
The shootings at the elementary schools in Newtown, Connecticut, and Uvalde, Texas, have outsized purchase in the minds of Americans and Texans—and for good reason. The victims were mostly little kids. Even if you aren’t a parent, you were a child once, and with that experience in hand, it’s not too hard to imagine the terror of being hunted by a gunman and realizing the adults around you can’t do anything about it.But the mass shooting in October 2017 in Las Vegas is perhaps a better expression of the dull, banal horror of spree violence in the United States. School shootings can only happen to those who go to school or work there. In Las Vegas, a deranged real estate investor and gambler took up…The post Want to Understand the Gun Debate? Look No Further Than Bump Stocks. appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Alia Gunnell used to get away with sleeping in until 8 a.m. before heading to properties across Marfa, where she runs a landscaping company. But last June, when average daily temperatures were some of the hottest on record across Texas, Gunnell started to feel especially irritable after days of spent fertilizing and watering plants in the heat. Now she starts her workday at 6 a.m. so she and her employees can get indoors by mid-afternoon when temperatures spike. She says she and her husband, Jason, come home and lie together, in silence, on their home’s cool concrete floor. “Otherwise it just feels like your brain is cooking all day,” Gunnell told me recently. This year, the heat dome—a high-pressure system that traps warmth in the atmosphere—arrived…The post Summer Officially Hasn’t Started Yet, but It Arrived Weeks Ago in Texas appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Over the last couple of months, Texas Monthly has been fortunate to welcome three new members to the ever-growing editorial staff. In April, we welcomed Andrea Ordonez in a dual role as a copy editor and web producer. Andrea was born in New Rochelle, New York, but moved with her family to Keller, in Tarrant County, in elementary school. She later returned to New York to attend Hofstra University.Most recently, Andrea has spent several years as deputy copy chief at BuzzFeed, where she managed the team that edited content from the company’s acquired brands, including HuffPost, Complex Networks, and First We Feast’s show Hot Ones. As part of that job, she maintained the BuzzFeed Style Guide, a resource many of us consult, especially for its takes…The post Texas Monthly Welcomes a Copy Editor and Web Producer, an Arts and Entertainment Editor, and a Designer appeared first on Texas Monthly.
FilmTwistersIn theaters July 19In a whirlwind two years, Glen Powell—who was born and raised in Austin—has appeared in Top Gun: Maverick, the rom-com Anyone But You, and Hit Man, a Netflix film directed by fellow Texan Richard Linklater that’s loosely based on a Texas Monthly story. Now he’s at the swirling center of what may be this summer’s biggest blockbuster, a stand-alone sequel to the 1996 megahit Twister, which starred Helen Hunt and the late, great Fort Worthian Bill Paxton. In Twisters, Powell plays Tyler Owens, a blowhard social media personality who chases storms (and clout) while sporting a cowboy hat as the self-described “Tornado Wrangler.” While filming his atmospheric adventures, Owens crosses paths with Big Apple–based meteorologist Kate Cooper, played by Daisy Edgar-Jones, who…The post Glen Powell’s Next Star Turn, Plus Two More Can’t-Miss Releases From Texans This July appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Four years ago, two young entrepreneurs from France began scouring the Texas Hill Country, looking to buy land and hotels for a new venture. A few months into their search, business partners Franklin Dusserre and Dylan Petrich had talked to dozens of real estate agents and toured more than 120 properties in Blanco, Johnson City, Wimberley, and other small towns with growing tourist presences. Word was getting out that a couple of guys definitely not from Texas were in the market. “They were a bit confused by us,” Petrich says. “We didn’t dress like we were from Texas. We didn’t have boots yet. And we spoke French.”During a tour of a ranch on the Pedernales River near Johnson City, a broker—a Texan wearing Wranglers and boots,…The post Meet the “French Cowboys” Buying Up Hill Country Hotels appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Indolfo Martinez came to Texas with luggage full of dreams. The native of the Mexican state of Michoacán was 17 when he arrived in Dallas on April 15, 2000. The next day he got a job at a Saltgrass Steak House and he stayed with the company for 22 years, rising through positions from bus boy to regional manager of eleven restaurants across Colorado, Las Vegas, and West Texas.In 2011 Landry’s, Saltgrass Steak House’s parent company, relocated the Martinez family to Amarillo. In 2022, after a pandemic-related pay cut and general instability in the job, Indolfo quit to open a food truck. It was better than the status quo. “I felt like a sponge full of water, where they squish you and squish you until…The post In a City Saturated With Taco Trucks, a Father-and-Son Rig Manages to Stand Out appeared first on Texas Monthly.
The record for the largest attendance at a ticketed concert in the United States stood for nearly fifty years, when a 1977 Grateful Dead performance attracted 107,019 fans to Raceway Park in Englishtown, New Jersey. That record was shattered on Saturday when George Strait—who previously held the record for the largest indoor concert attendance for the final night of his 2014 The Cowboy Rides Away Tour at AT&T Stadium in Arlington—blew past the milestone held for the past 47 years by Jerry Garcia and friends.At Texas A&M’s Kyle Field in College Station, Strait bested both his indoor and the outdoor record by drawing 110,905 fans to what was billed as his only show in Texas this year. The attendance record for the stadium itself—including at…The post Hear George Strait and 110,905 Fans Sing “Amarillo by Morning” at Record-Breaking Show appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Q: I was blessed with a mother from Central Texas whose speech was enriched with phantom diphthongs (“Let’s go out to the raynch”), stony rhotics (“and rahde harrsses”), and funny sayings. Recently, while shopping with a girlfriend, a Yankee from New Jersey, I lamented that my bank account was down to “chips and whetstones.” My friend had never heard the expression and asked if it was a Texas saying. I had to think about it for a while, to no avail. Is it?Molly Dare, San Marcos, CaliforniaA: The Texanist, as a native speaker of Texan, is quite familiar with the crazy colloquialisms, disparate dialects, idiotic idioms, and funny phraseologies used across the Lone Star State. Indeed, he’s heard them all. Or so he thought. The Texanist…The post The Texanist: Have You Ever Heard Of This Obscure Texas Saying? appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Chef Ara Malekian takes a puff from his cigar, the smoke swirling around his black flat-brimmed cowboy hat. He wears silver bracelets on his wrists and a turquoise ring on his right hand. The ends of his gray mustache are twisted and dangle on either side of his mouth as he describes how he aged the bourbon we’re about to taste. The bottle (not for purchase) is branded with a sticker (available for purchase) that features a line drawing of his face. Sitting in the back room of his restaurant, Harlem Road Texas BBQ, in the Houston suburb of Richmond, we alternate sips of the liquor with freshly brewed Armenian coffee, a nod to his ancestral homeland, though he was born in Iran. Malekian doesn’t…The post This Stylish Pitmaster Goes Way Beyond Salt and Pepper For His Smoked Meat appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Erik Maund had always lived the high life, as you might expect of a man whose surname had been blasted on TV ads for decades. By the time he was in his forties, he was an executive at Maund Automotive Group, a car sales business whose first dealership was opened by his grandfather Charles Maund. “If you say the Maund name in Austin in a 7-Eleven, two people say, ‘I bought a car from him,’ ” said Wallace Lundgren, a retired Chevrolet dealer. Austinites could probably recognize the major names in the car business better than they could identify any local politician. And members of the city’s old power circles would recognize Erik—a six-foot-three white guy with short brown hair, a boxy head, and heavy-lidded eyes…The post The Problem With Erik: Privilege, Blackmail, and Murder-for-Hire in Austin appeared first on Texas Monthly.
An Austin gun shop owner succeeded Friday on a years-long quest to overturn a federal ban on bump stocks, winning a 6–3 victory from the U.S. Supreme Court.Bump stocks are devices that allow semiautomatic rifles to fire hundreds of rounds in a minute. The court ruled the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives cannot include bump stocks under legislation banning machine guns. The overturned ATF rule required owners of bump stocks to either destroy them or surrender them to the ATF to avoid criminal prosecution.The case was filed by Michael Cargill, the owner of Central Texas Gun Works and an outspoken proponent of gun rights in Texas, after he surrendered two bump stocks to the ATF. He argued that the ATF incorrectly identified…The post An Austin Gun Dealer Won a Suit to Overturn the Bump Stock Ban appeared first on Texas Monthly.
As kids, Jake Allyn and his brother Conor ran around their Preston Hollow neighborhood in Dallas, shooting movies with their father’s camcorder. Conor, who is older by four years, usually directed his sibling in what must have been action-packed thrillers. “I always say I started in stunts,” Jake says. “I was usually getting blown up or knifed or shot or thrown out of a tree or something very dangerous that you would only have your little brother do.”The Allyn brothers have turned their childhood antics into Hollywood ambitions with Margate House Films, a production company they run with their dad, Rob, that’s named after the street where they grew up.The younger Allyn, now 33, is still willing to put his body on the line for…The post Jake Allyn’s New Movie, ‘Ride,’ Is the ‘Friday Night Lights’ of Rodeo appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Fast-food mascots come in every shape and size, but personally, I like to see ’em with a little girth. Big Boy’s belly isn’t just his body type—it is proof to road-weary travelers that the burger he hawks is worth eating in large quantities. Ronald McDonald is unfortunately quite ectomorphic, but by his side is Grimace, whose portly pear shape signals to all that at least one guy on the team gets high on his own supply. For more than forty years, Texas’s most famous fast-food mascot, Buc-ee the beaver, was a beefy guy. He welcomed us into his fabulous restrooms with a beaming, buck-toothed grin, and a midsection you just wanted to wrap your arms around. He seemed soft, even as the bronze statue out front…The post Buc-ee the Beaver Appears to Be Having a Midlife Crisis appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Animal-protection officers who captured two emus found running loose in Austin’s Zilker Park said they were “just as confused as everybody else” about how the flightless birds ended up there.A Houston man was charged with orchestrating a scheme to steal more than $1 million worth of vehicles after he persuaded individuals on Instagram to reserve rental cars for him that he then had picked up and driven to Mexico.A 58-year-old Bedford woman was sentenced to nine years in federal prison for paying $10,000 in Bitcoin to a man she hired on the dark web to kill her boyfriend’s lover.The Harlingen school district awarded a range of prizes to students who had perfect attendance records, including a brand-new car to a high school junior who doesn’t…The post Meanwhile, in Texas: Emus Get the Bum’s Rush, and a Kilt-Clad Shopper Gets, Well . . . appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Each month, we get to know one of the state’s many wonderful and quirky critters. Latin name: Antilocapra americanaSize: 3–5 feet long and 90–150 pounds (males)Texas habitat: The Panhandle, far West Texas, and San AngeloWhen they hit their top speeds of nearly 60 miles per hour, pronghorn kick up clouds of dust that swirl in their wake. Only cheetahs can sprint faster. With their curved black horns, white patches along the neck, and dramatic eyelashes, these ungulates (hooved mammals) exude intensity. Otherworldly, ancient creatures, they seem to have time traveled from another era. In fact, they pretty much did!What do you mean by time travel?Pronghorn are essentially the last of their kind, having evolved at least 12,000 years ago, when a dazzling array of megafauna roamed…The post The Pronghorn, America’s Fastest Land Mammal, Rules the Texas Desert and Plains appeared first on Texas Monthly.
After a couple of visits to Mexta, two things became clear: The restaurant, which opened in March in downtown Austin’s historic Littlefield Building, has all its bases covered, from perennial Mexican favorites (guacamole, ceviche) to exciting, lesser-seen regional specialties (pork belly encacahuatado, tikin xic salmon with xnipec salsa). Second, it intends to be the boldest Mexican restaurant in the city.Peering in from the foyer, distracted by happy-hour chatter and the whir of blenders, I looked around for half a minute before I saw my friends waving their cocktail glasses. I made my way across a room utterly transformed from the breezy white-on-white palette of the short-lived previous occupant, Simi Estiatorio. Room dividers lined with diminutive terra-cotta bricks are offset by massive copper-clad columns, huge straw…The post Mexta Intends to Be the Boldest Mexican Restaurant in Austin appeared first on Texas Monthly.
When I first visited Brendyn’s BBQ, in Nacogdoches, six years back, owner Brendyn Todd offered a sample of a coffee-rubbed brisket alongside a conventionally seasoned one. I liked the coffee flavor so much, I urged him to ditch the other. He did, but it took me far too long to return to see just how far he’d come since those food truck days. Todd opened a permanent spot in 2020 in a building he now owns, and his barbecue joint has become locally beloved.“We had an overflow of daily loyal customers,” Todd said of his motivation for expanding. His timing gave him reason for pause when the COVID-19 pandemic set in just after he made the move. Todd worried about his business, but the locals…The post Follow the Smell of Oak and Coffee to This East Texas Barbecue Joint appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Sometimes, even big-time lawyers have trouble getting paid. Consider Jonathan Mitchell, who says his regular hourly rate is $1,200. The baby-faced, Austin-based savant graduated from the University of Chicago Law School with high honors in 2001 and clerked for right-wing U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia. Mitchell has since earned a reputation as the canniest champion of the movement against abortion rights. He’s the architect of Texas Senate Bill 8, the law that allows anyone to sue, and collect civil damages from, anyone who has “aided or abetted” an abortion after about six weeks of gestation. He’s also crafted a host of other ingenious attempts to eradicate abortion rights in Texas. But though Mitchell was the winning lawyer last year in a defamation case that…The post Who’s Bankrolling These Prominent Abortion Rights Opponents? appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Johnny Canales’s death was announced on June 13, 2024. He was 77 years old. His long-running television show was a launching pad for musicians (notably Selena) and had a familiar presence in the homes of many Tejanos, including Sauceda’s. He sat down in the studio to reflect on Canales’s lasting impact.The post Remembering Tejano Legend Johnny Canales appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Mifepristone, a common abortion inducing medication, will remain on the market without additional restrictions after the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously rejected an anti-abortion group’s challenge to the drug’s approval.In the high court’s first abortion-related ruling since it overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, the nine justices ruled to change nothing about the drug’s legal status. The ruling is a rebuke to the Fifth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk of Amarillo. The opinion was written by Justice Brett Kavanaugh, with a concurring opinion by Justice Clarence Thomas.Medication abortion, typically performed with a combination of mifepristone and misoprostol, is the most common abortion method in the United States. In the nearly 25 years since it was first approved by the U.S. Food…The post The Supreme Court Has Ruled Against Abortion Pill Restrictions appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Thank you for your interest in TM BBQ Fest 2024! We are looking forward to celebrating with you down in Lockhart for the fifteenth annual event during the first weekend in November. Below, we’ve included all of the information you will need to access early bird tickets beginning June 14 at 11 a.m. CDT. Please read through the below information carefully. To get access to early bird tickets on Friday, follow the instructions below: Head to our main event page: texasmonthly.com/BBQFest Click the “Get Tickets” button Select the type of ticket you’d like to purchase Click on “Click to unlock hidden ticket” Enter code “15THANNUAL” Select your ticket quantity and proceed to checkout. NOTE: Tickets will not be available until 11 a.m. CDT on June 14,…The post TM BBQ Fest 2024: Early Bird Ticket Information appeared first on Texas Monthly.
In 2004 the yellow Livestrong bracelet went viral, selling five million units in a matter of months. For some it was a fad, others a symbol of hope. And as Lance Armstrong’s doping scandal unraveled, it was caught up in controversy. Staff writer Emily McCullar discusses how the bracelet’s impact is much deeper than many understand, and why she wanted to write the July 2024 cover feature: “Making the Band: An Oral History of the Livestrong Bracelet.”The post The Story: Why the Livestrong Bracelet Matters appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Designer Martha Hudson was touring the country, sewing custom-made swimsuits in her converted school bus, when she stopped in San Marcos. Originally from Sacramento, she visited a childhood friend who had relocated to the town—with its spring-fed, year-round 72-degree river—and Hudson parked her bus in her friend’s driveway for long-term stays. “I had a long list of things I wanted in a home, but daily access to fresh water for swimming was one of them,” she told me over coffee in South Austin. “Living on the road, there were a ton of places I loved, but San Marcos hit so many marks. That river is what really sold me on moving to Texas.” The goal of Luv Martha, Hudson’s one-woman “bikini-slinging business,” founded in Sacramento in…The post How One San Marcos Designer Is Changing How We Think About “Bikini Bodies” appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Growing up along the Gulf Coast in La Porte, east of Houston, I could predictably rely on Johnny Canales’s presence in my childhood home. After mass on Sunday mornings, while my mom made chorizo or prepared barbacoa, my siblings and I changed out of our church clothes and turned on the TV in time for The Johnny Canales Show. We ate and watched together while the charismatic host, dressed in one of his flashy fringe jackets, introduced a new episode of a musical variety show that changed the lives of both the performers on stage and the members of its vast audience in studio and at home.To many non-Hispanic Texans, the name Johnny Canales may not ring a bell. But to Tejanos, it evokes the music of…The post How Johnny Canales Created an Enduring Culture Around Tejano Music appeared first on Texas Monthly.
A day after her release from prison after serving nearly thirty years of a life sentence for aggravated robbery, Jamie Diaz headed to a Dallas salon to have her makeup done. She sat in a chair, her cane within reach, waiting for her appointment. She wore a pink long-sleeved sweater and thin black sweatpants. Her large hands were folded in her lap, left over right, the latter swollen and clenched in a fist since her stroke earlier this year. With gray hair that fell to her shoulders, a furrowed brow, and thin lips that formed a slight smile, Diaz wore an expression both warm and quizzical. She attempted to say something, but her speech was severely impeded.It was the first time I’d seen Diaz. She…The post A Houston Artist’s Career Took Off While She Was Imprisoned. Now Free, She’s Learning to Paint Again. appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Leo Tolstoy’s famous line about all happy families being alike has a fatal flaw: there are no happy families. Happy moments, happy days, maybe even happy years—sure. But look closely enough, and you’ll find the trauma.One way that ambitious authors explore these ordeals is by writing multigenerational epics that draw on historical events to illuminate the past and the present. Given how much Texans love a big story, it’s a little surprising that so few novelists have written books that stretch across the centuries to take advantage of our violent and event-filled history. Philipp Meyer’s The Son is a rare exception, though James Carlos Blake, Rolando Hinojosa-Smith, and Larry McMurtry have all told era-spanning stories over the course of series of novels. (Oddly, two of…The post The Next Great Texas Literary Epic appeared first on Texas Monthly.
What: The current Broadway production of Stephen Sondheim and George Furth’s 1981 musical Merrily We Roll Along.When: The 77th Annual Tony Awards on June 16. The show received seven nominations, including nods for director Maria Friedman and stars Jonathan Groff, Daniel Radcliffe, and Lindsay Mendez, who will perform live at the Tonys.But Is It Texan?: If it’s not yet, it will be soon. Consider the performance an indirect sneak preview of Richard Linklater’s film adaptation, which the Austin director is shooting over a period of 20 years. Based on the 1934 play of the same name by George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart, Merrily We Roll Along was an infamous and unexpected Broadway flop. It was Sondheim and director Hal Prince’s first show after 1979’s…The post Everything We Know About Richard Linklater’s Adaptation of ‘Merrily We Roll Along’ appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Texans You Should Know is a series highlighting overlooked figures and events from Texas history. Clad in a sharp Western jacket, necktie, and skirt, the 26-year-old rising country star is magnetic as she takes the stage for a December 1955 broadcast of a TV variety show called Ozark Jubilee. As soon as the camera is on her, she sways, steeling herself for the opening notes of “Burn That Candle,” in which she makes a plea to her mother to keep a candle burning and the door open wide until she strolls back home with her “sugar pie” by her side. Her brassy vocals seem better suited for a neon-lit Texas honky-tonk than the Jubilee set, whose backdrop was a quaint suburban home. But as audiences across…The post How Rockabilly Trailblazer Charline Arthur Shocked Nashville and Almost Became a Superstar appeared first on Texas Monthly.
When the movie Saltburn was released, in 2023, viewers of a certain age quickly clocked a familiar yellow bracelet on the main character. The particular shade of yellow—let’s call it Homer Simpson meets caution tape—and the half-inch width were all anybody needed to identify the Livestrong wristband, a $1 piece of silicone that first debuted in 2004. The costuming choice was logical. The movie was, after all, set in 2006, and the accessory had been as ubiquitous in that decade’s fashion as the Von Dutch trucker hat and dresses over jeans. The film’s director, Emerald Fennell, called the Livestrong band a “crucial period detail,” as if the character, a well-meaning if malleable young man, could not be fully conveyed without it. As anyone who remembers the…The post Making the Band: An Oral History of the Livestrong Bracelet appeared first on Texas Monthly.
On a scorching May afternoon, Dell Dickinson was wearing creased jeans, a faded button-down, and a cowboy hat and boots. He kept a nine-millimeter Beretta in a holster on his hip. “I’m not trying to impress anyone with that,” he said, adding that he hasn’t hunted in nearly sixty years. “I don’t get any thrill out of killing something.” But sheep ranchers such as Dickinson sometimes have to deal with predators—black bears, bobcats, and coyotes. Right now he’s more concerned about another kind of interloper: river enthusiasts.Dickinson’s property, Skyline Ranch, sits on the Devils River, a turquoise ribbon of water that begins with a trickle from a spring dozens of miles north, in Sutton County, about 200 miles west of Austin, and flows 94 miles…The post Will Outdoor Enthusiasts Love the Devils River to Death? appeared first on Texas Monthly.
After suffering through chicken tenders by the bucket and mac and cheese topped with coleslaw at TD Garden, the Mavericks faithful who traveled to Boston are in for a treat when they return to Dallas. The American Airlines Center will host the first Mavericks home game of the NBA Finals on Wednesday evening, and Zavala’s Barbecue will be ready with smoked meat and caviar at the booth they’ve run all season in section 121.When I sat down with pitmaster and caviar connoisseur Joe Zavala at the barbecue joint he co-owns with his wife, Christan, in Grand Prairie, he asked, “What goes better with barbecue than caviar?” He popped open a tin of Petrossian Royal Ossetra caviar as a tray of barbecue arrived from the kitchen.…The post Cheer on the Mavs With Beef Ribs and Caviar-Topped Tacos appeared first on Texas Monthly.
The stack of letters is about an inch high. Most are handwritten in black ink on lined, three-holed notebook paper, with A-plus penmanship. Curlicues, stars, and graffiti-style lettering are reserved for signatures, although the writers typically sign off with something other than their given name: Boo, Mr. 18, Yishai, Mr. Palmer, Your Boy L.A., Dan D Man.For the past decade or so, inmates at the James Lynaugh Unit, a state prison outside Fort Stockton and some eighty miles from Marfa, have written letters to David Beebe, a man they’ve neither met nor seen. They know his raspy voice and his drawl, y’all, as the deejay on the Night Train Express, a radio show that airs Tuesday nights, from nine until midnight, on Marfa Public Radio.…The post This Late-Night “Grown-Folks” Soul Music Broadcast Serves as a Lifeline for Inmates at a Fort Stockton Prison appeared first on Texas Monthly.
The first sound you hear at the beginning of All That We Love, the new film directed by Austin-based filmmaker Yen Tan, is wind chimes tinkling in the breeze. The gentle stillness of this opening scene immediately reminded me of the hush that envelops the world when someone you love dies. In this case, that someone isn’t a parent, sibling, or a spouse. It’s a pet.“My dog Tanner died ten years ago, and I was looking for films to see if there was something I could watch to help me go through what I was going through,” Tan says. “But I wasn’t able to find anything.”When he lost his Chinese Shar-Pei, Tan watched the classic tearjerker Marley and Me, which ends (spoiler alert!) with a…The post Filmmaker Yen Tan Couldn’t Find a Movie About Pet Grief. So He Made One. appeared first on Texas Monthly.
By the time Lydia Jacoby dove into a pool at the Tokyo Aquatics Centre in the summer of 2021, the first-time Olympian had long known who had her back. In Seward, Alaska, where the seventeen-year-old had lived her whole life, everybody knows everybody. And everybody supported Jacoby’s dreams.So the fact that hundreds of her friends and supporters gathered at a railroad terminal in Seward (population: roughly 2,700) to watch the hundred-meter breaststroke final wasn’t out of the ordinary. What was unusual was her surprise win in a shade under 1 minute and 5 seconds (1:04.95, to be exact), which sent the crowd jumping up and down and up and down, higher and faster once she tapped the wall. Some of those following from the forty-ninth…The post Can This Alaskan Bring Olympic Gold Back to Texas? appeared first on Texas Monthly.
After years of lawsuits from several of the families of the children murdered at Sandy Hook Elementary School, two high-profile defamation trials, and a bankruptcy process that’s stretched for nearly two years, something of a resolution has finally emerged in the saga of Alex Jones and Infowars. As a reminder, Jones was found liable in court for defamation in 2022 because of his repeated, absurd on-air claims that the Sandy Hook parents were actually actors hired by someone—the New World Order or the deep state—as part of a plot to seize Americans’ guns. The result was that two juries, one in Austin and one in Waterbury, Connecticut (about twenty miles northeast of Newtown, where the Sandy Hook shooting occurred), ordered him to pay damages totaling…The post Who Will Buy Infowars? appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Shortly after this article was published, “Espresso” was removed from Apple Music. However, the song remains on YouTube. Maren Morris has been something of a chameleon since emerging in 2016 with the R&B-tinged country of her major-label debut, Hero. The Arlington-born star veered into full-on dance-pop in 2018 with the single “The Middle,” a collaboration with producer Zedd and electronic music duo Grey, then brought that sound back with her to Nashville by inflecting her sophomore album, Girl, with a pop-country vibe in 2019. Later that year, she went rootsy, teaming up with Brandi Carlile, Natalie Hemby, and Amanda Shires for the Americana supergroup the Highwomen. As most of the world was emerging from the COVID-19 pandemic in 2021, she filtered a strong country aesthetic through a nineties…The post What’s Up With “Espresso,” a Mysterious New Song Shared by Maren Morris? appeared first on Texas Monthly.
The first time she met the woman who would become her state representative, they were both serving as greeters at a polling location in Round Rock. Throughout early and Election Day voting, Jennie Birkholz, a Democrat and public health care consultant, answered voters’ queries about a school board election in the Austin suburbs in November 2022. She recalls Caroline Harris Davila, a Republican running for a seat in the state House of Representatives, shaking hands with would-be constituents and bringing her adorable golden retriever for voters to pet. In between conversations with those about to cast ballots, Birkholz, who has two school-aged children, asked Harris Davila what Birkholz considered to be softball questions related to public schools and how they are funded. Birkholz says the…The post Is Greg Abbott Celebrating Victory on School Vouchers Too Early? appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Here was Mark Melton, one of Dallas’s most decorated lawyers, stepping out of his milky white Cadillac Escalade as two dozen code-compliance officers swarmed one of the most crime-plagued spots in the city. Melton, who’s in his mid-forties, didn’t look the part of someone who steers billions of dollars’ worth of private equity deals each year. A sweat-stained purple Patagonia cap shaded his scruffy salt-and-pepper beard; an untucked T-shirt dangled loosely over his jeans. Melton has the throaty rasp of a chain smoker, and as he surveyed the spectacle, he deadpanned, “This is pretty normal.”The Rosemont at Meadow Lane apartments, just a few miles southeast of downtown, could easily pass for typical middle-class dwellings. Many of the roughly two hundred units are two-story townhomes, their…The post A Hotshot Corporate Lawyer Got Angry About Illegal Evictions—And Then Did Something About It appeared first on Texas Monthly.
On the way to rehearsal at South Austin’s Space ATX, Jesse Daniel stops to check out a billboard advertising his new album, Countin’ the Miles. His look, both in the larger-than-life photo looming above and now, on the street below, is vintage seventies country—Levi’s, serious sideburns, and a pearl-snap shirt. Later, while he and his band practice playing in preparation for his album-release show at the long-standing downtown venue Antone’s the next night, Daniel channels that old-school vibe into his music. It’s stripped down and propulsive and feels authentic. In that small rehearsal room, guitar slung over his shoulder, he gets ready to face the crowd at a pivotal performance in his career.Before Daniel and Jodi Lyford, his fiancée and bandmate, moved to San Marcos, in 2019, they…The post Jesse Daniel Found Salvation in Country Music and a Home in Texas appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Five days before the first performance of Open Dance Project’s Red Landscape: Georgia O’Keeffe in Texas 1912-1918, the theater at Rice University’s Moody Center for the Arts is being transformed into a movable dreamscape of rooms.Designer Ryan McGettigan is building the biggest parts of his set in place. A foray into one of O’Keeffe’s meditative pastel flowers this is not: doorframes and windows on casters help to define multiple rooms and enable the spaces to morph like memories. Huge canvases based on the artist’s early paintings and a monumental photograph of Palo Duro Canyon consume the walls, creating a sense of slightly claustrophobic interiority. A bare tree stands in one corner. A bookcase full of small objects consumes another, and there’s a large dollhouse with…The post Georgia O’Keeffe’s Texas Years Have Been Transformed Into Dance—With Audience Participation appeared first on Texas Monthly.
The phrase “Texas tech” either brings to mind the Lubbock university, clunky Cybertrucks, or those cute yet worrying little delivery robots. As of 2022, Texas’s tech scene was the second biggest in the country and accounted for 6.2 percent of the state’s workforce. But the state’s technology industry isn’t new. As longtime residents—and fans of the television show Halt & Catch Fire—know, the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex was dubbed Silicon Prairie in the 1980s, when the region was home to major technology companies such as Texas Instruments and Tandy Corporation, which owned Radio Shack and Computer City. Halt, set in that world, premiered ten years ago at South by Southwest. In a full Texas circle, the show’s creators, producers, and crew gathered to celebrate that anniversary…The post Ten Years On, ‘Halt and Catch Fire’ Is More Urgent Than Ever appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Someone once called Wade Phillips a lousy head coach. That someone was Wade Phillips. He said this back in 2015, during a press conference at which he was introduced as the Denver Broncos’ new defensive coordinator. The now 76-year-old son of legendary Stetson-clad Houston Oilers coach Bum Phillips had worked for the Broncos before, both as a coordinator and then, for two inglorious seasons in 1993 and 1994, as head coach. Phillips went 16–16 and was fired. More head-coaching opportunities would come in the following decades, and Phillips was fired from those too. The Buffalo Bills canned Phillips in 2000 after three seasons. Jerry Jones and the Dallas Cowboys axed him midway through the 2010 season—his fourth in Dallas. Phillips figured a less-than-stellar reputation had preceded…The post In Spring Football, Wade Phillips Has Been Anything but a “Lousy” Head Coach appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Shelby Miller has been playing professional baseball for fifteen years, since he was a first-round MLB draft pick out of central Texas’s Brownwood High School in 2009.The 6-foot-3 right-hander was pitching in the major league playoffs at age 21, even before he nearly won Rookie of the Year. At 24, he was an All-Star. He was also a key figure in two high-profile trades early in his career, sending him from the St. Louis Cardinals to the Atlanta Braves to the Arizona Diamondbacks. It was in Arizona, when he injured his throwing arm in 2017 and needed Tommy John surgery to reconstruct his elbow, that Miller’s career took a drastic turn for the worse.Miller went 15–9 as a rookie and collected 37 total wins before…The post Shelby Miller’s Incredible MLB Comeback Has Deep Texas Roots appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Good Looks frontman Tyler Jordan stood beneath exposed pipes on a creaking plywood stage in a basement of student housing co-op on the University of Texas campus in Austin. Across a room decorated with decades of graffiti an undergrad sold Lone Star, Modelo Especial, hard seltzer, and earplugs from behind a worn wooden bar. “I thought we were past playing co-ops,” Jordan told the small crowd, before realizing how that might sound. “But we’re really happy to be here!” His band then ripped into the jangling guitar intro of a new single from their then unreleased sophomore album.That Sunday evening in March, Good Looks played a tight set of mostly new songs from Lived Here for a While, the album that’s out Friday, but sprinkled in tracks…The post Hard Luck Won’t Stop Good Looks appeared first on Texas Monthly.
TM BBQ Club “Pit Perks” are exclusive perks and discounts that Texas Monthly’s network of barbecue joints generously offer to members like you each month. Proof of membership is required to redeem. JUNE PERKS BrisketU | Get $15 off any BrisketU Class with code TXMNEWS24scTW Juan and Allie’s BBQ | 20% discount on order; Address: 114 Texas Spur 511 Sunset Texas 76270 Bar-A-BBQ | Looking for the Perfect Father’s Day gift? We’ve got you covered! Book a private BBQ class! Email: info@barabbq.com and pick any day between Tuesday-Sunday between 12:30 and 4 pm. Smoke’N Ash BBQ | See calendar for specials!; 10% off on a Tex-Ethiopian platter for 2 or a Tex-Ethiopian Platter for 4 (dine-in only). Happy hour cocktail all day Tuesday – Thursday;…The post June 2024 Pit Perks appeared first on Texas Monthly.
When she was a freshman in college, Juliana Hoffpauir caught a screening of Richard Linklater’s pivotal Slacker at a small arthouse theater in Kansas. While for many, the cult film shone a light on a deeply thoughtful but otherwise unmotivated subculture of young adults idling across Austin, Hoffpauir felt simply homesick. “There was the Drag, and I went to St. Austin [Catholic Church] on the Drag,” Hoffpauir said. “It was like my life flashing before my eyes.” When she looks back on the memory now, Hoffpauir considers the screening the start of a true full circle story. She recently led the costume and design work on Linklater’s newest film, Hit Man, which the director cowrote with starring actor and fellow Texan Glen Powell. The film, which…The post The Woman Behind the ‘Hit Man’: How Juliana Hoffpauir Disguised Glen Powell appeared first on Texas Monthly.
“Whatever your outdoor passion, you can pursue it here.” So declares Texas Parks and Wildlife’s enticing web page for Lake Somerville State Park & Trailway. Encircling an almost 12,000-acre man-made lake, the park sits smack-dab between Austin and Houston. This vast hub of open-air amusement comprises two units (Birch Creek at 2,365 acres and Nails Creek at 3,155 acres), the 13-mile Lake Somerville Trailway, and the 350-acre Flag Pond, a habitat for migrating birds.Other parks are more showy, like Big Bend Ranch, with its desert vistas, and Colorado Bend, with its transporting waterfalls. I anticipated something more straightforward with Lake Somerville, but I should have known: it is often the unassuming parks that offer the biggest surprises.Lake Somerville is one of only 22 of Texas’s…The post Lake Somerville Is the Disneyland of Texas State Parks appeared first on Texas Monthly.
WHO: The Weslaco High School Lady Panthers softball team.WHAT: A state championship win in a league of its own.WHY IT’S SO GREAT: For most of Saturday’s state championship softball contest in Austin, it looked like it just wasn’t Weslaco’s game. The Rio Grande Valley school’s opponents, from Waco’s Midway High School, jumped out to an early lead, which they extended to a daunting 9–3 advantage with a pair of home runs at the top of the seventh and final inning. Weslaco’s run to the state title game seemed destined to end in another second-place finish. But the Rio Grande Valley girls still had one more half inning to play—three outs to save their championship hopes. Surely and steadily, Weslaco cut the lead to two runs after…The post An Instant Classic in the Texas Softball State Championship appeared first on Texas Monthly.
In our series Stuff Texans Love, our state’s most stylish celebrities share their shopping lists. Tiffany Masterson is a pro in the art of simplification. Her skin care company, Drunk Elephant, which she launched in 2013 while a stay-at-home mother of four, was built on a philosophy of knowing what to keep and what to leave out—in this case, unnecessary ingredients such as dyes, essential oils, and fragrances. Soon, her small Houston-based business rocketed to top of sales at Sephora, and, six years after founding it, she sold Drunk Elephant for $845 million to Shiseido, where she continues in her role as chief creative officer. “It still feels exciting every day,” she says. “I know what I don’t know and can’t do, and I know what…The post How Drunk Elephant’s Founder Packs Her Summer Travel Bag appeared first on Texas Monthly.
WHO: Dr PepperWHAT: A new report from the trade publication Beverage Digest about the Texas-born soft drink’s statureWHY IT’S SO GREAT: There are few brands more iconically Texan than Dr Pepper. Why, we here at Texas Monthly have been covering the beverage since our very inception: in the magazine’s first issue, published in February 1973, we ran a 2,500-word essay, “Understanding Dr Pepper,” by former LBJ speechwriter Leo Janos. In the five decades hence, the drink has rarely been far from our hearts. We love Dr Pepper. You love Dr Pepper. We are Texans, and this sweet, sticky, slightly spicy soda runs, if not in our veins, then readily down our throats on a hot day. But does the rest of the country understand? In a…The post The Rest of America Has Realized the Greatness of Dr Pepper appeared first on Texas Monthly.
The elusive Texas tortoise is slow, brown, and shaped like a rock—all traits that make this small, rare reptile tough to spot as it scoots through the dense Tamaulipan thornscrub of the Rio Grande Valley. Jackie Tleimat, a PhD candidate in biology at Texas A&M University–Corpus Christi, knows this better than anyone. She’s spent a lot of time trying to find Texas tortoises, which live only in South Texas and parts of Mexico.In 2022, Tleimat placed about 45 game cameras across Cactus Creek Ranch, a four hundred-acre expanse outside the small town of Rio Hondo. Then she waited . . . and waited. While the camera captured plenty of deer, fiddler crabs, and nilgai, it was exceedingly rare for a tortoise to stroll in front of the…The post Don’t Mess With the Texas Tortoise Task Force appeared first on Texas Monthly.
They know you think they’re members of a personality cult and that their $100,000 truck looks like it was designed by a drunk toddler. They’ve seen the stories about their vehicles getting coal-rolled or their stainless steel bodies targeted by vandals. They also know that somehow—during a period in American history so polarized that elected leaders are calling for a “national divorce”—the very sight of their futuristic-looking truck is enough to unite some progressive-leaning Americans and staunch conservatives in an unlikely coalition of mutual contempt. Over the last few months, Cybertruck owners have been on the receiving end of so much hate—typically in the form of middle fingers from their fellow motorists—that they say they understand your anger better than you do. The truth, they claim,…The post At the World’s First Cybertruck Rodeo, Flamethrowers Are Toys and Winning Is a Way of Life appeared first on Texas Monthly.
When they learned that Elon Musk had purchased 280 acres of land a short drive from their organic farm, it seemed like a miracle. For more than a decade, husband and wife Skip Connett and Erin Flynn had worked to turn Wilbarger Bend, a rural agricultural area located in a lush floodplain along the Colorado River about a half-hour drive southeast of downtown Austin, into a community-based farming hub like others around the country. Though they’d enjoyed some success over their five years of working the land, it had become apparent that their vision would require more money and more property. For years, Flynn had joked that what the couple needed was for a benevolent billionaire to drop out of the sky—someone who was willing…The post Their Dream Was to Build an Organic Farm. Then Elon Musk Moved Into the Neighborhood. appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Sergio Quijano ended up in Texas by following a girl. The Mexico City native was fourteen. She was sixteen. The young lady, who is now his wife, gave him a directive. “ ‘If you really love me, you’ll come to Texas.’ And I did,” he recalls. “I was in the [best] shape of my life,” he jokes as we sit across a metal table from each other. “I was very handsome. I was a knockout. I used to practice boxing, and I had a six-pack.” Age, he claims, has gotten the better of him, but his humor remains intact. “I’ve lost my hair. I got fat,” he laughs. But from the years of working as a dishwasher through serving as wine director at Julian Barsotti’s restaurants,…The post A New Dallas Taqueria Has a Lot of Potential in Showcasing Mexico City’s Famed Tacos appeared first on Texas Monthly.
The Nokona Ballglove Factory, located about ten miles south of the Red River in Montague County, has been manufacturing baseball gloves for ninety years. The small facility is the last domestic producer of baseball gloves in the United States, with an average output of about one hundred gloves per day and 42 workers on the factory floor. Nokona can’t match the sales or major league endorsements of glove makers like Rawlings or Wilson. But those industry giants might not be able to boast of employees as devoted to their jobs as Nokona’s Malinda Reynolds.Reynolds cites her first day working at the plant without hesitation: “June twenty-fourth, 1977.” That was soon after she graduated from nearby Gold-Burg High School. Reynolds began back then as a glove…The post Inside America’s Last Domestic Manufacturer of Baseball Gloves appeared first on Texas Monthly.
As Art Holbrook walked across ten pastoral acres in Argyle, thirty miles northwest of Dallas, he knew he’d found his dream home. The rolling countryside was shaded by enormous post oak trees, some of them as old as three hundred years, and aside from some light cattle grazing, the property had been virtually untouched by humans for at least sixty years. Holbrook, 71, was enamored with a GMC flatbed truck that had broken down under a tree in 1953, one year after he was born, and never moved again. “That’s some of the most pristine property on the face of the earth,” he says. The chairman and CEO of a Dallas-based fabrication company had been looking for a peaceful place to live out his golden…The post Beekeeping Is Booming in Texas (Thanks to a Sweet Tax Break) appeared first on Texas Monthly.
We all know that Republican politics now is largely a matter of keeping your friends close and your enemies out of office at whatever cost. In Texas, even the pretense of having principles is wearing thin. But the way some elected officials have responded to Donald Trump’s conviction on 34 felony counts—resulting from a bungled cover-up of his extramarital affair with an adult film star—is nothing short of remarkable. Nearly every prominent GOP official in the state has come to the defense of Stormy Daniels’ (alleged) paramour. More than that, some are vowing vengeance.Eight years ago, virtually the entire Republican establishment here—save for a few supporters of Rick Perry and Jeb Bush—were in lockstep behind Senator Ted Cruz. As right wing as they come, Cruz…The post The Texas GOP Has Made Its Bed With Trump—Conviction Be Damned appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Finding the newest barbecue joint in Fort Worth can be a challenge. Fort Worth BBQ Company took over what had been the second oldest spot in town when Bailey’s Bar-B-Que sold after 93 years in business. Chris Magallanes and Ernest Morales, owners of our current tenth best barbecue joint in the state, Panther City BBQ, bought the place. They quickly reopened March 1, but they’re still waiting on a sign to make the arrival more official. The first sign fabricator fell through, so the drawn-out permitting process with the city had to begin anew. For now, the old Bailey’s sign remains, but walk through the door and you’ll see that plenty has changed inside.The last time I wrote in detail about Bailey’s Bar-B-Que, Brenda Phifer…The post The Panther City BBQ Team Hath Wrought Change on Downtown Fort Worth appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Sisters Shaz Rajashekar and Kiku Chaudhuri spent their school vacations traveling from Memorial in Houston to visit family in the lush Himalayan foothills of West Bengal, India. The two recall idyllic summers where they would indulge in the Ayurvedic practice of hair oiling, a centuries-old tradition, during which their grandmother would firmly massage handmade hair oils into their scalps. Crafting the oil was a practice in and of itself. Their grandmother would pick amla berries, hibiscus flowers, holy basil, and moringa leaves from her garden, mix them with fenugreek seeds, and steep the plants in bhringraj, coconut, or sesame oil. The sisters grew up with a love of these ingredients and rituals, and in 2020, they founded hair care brand Shaz & Kiks to share…The post How Two Texan Sisters Are Bringing Ancient Beauty Tips to the Western World appeared first on Texas Monthly.
In high school, my town’s Bennigan’s was where my friends and I filled up on Cokes, burgers, and Monte Cristos; we flirted, were friend zoned, and convinced the servers it was someone’s birthday when it wasn’t. The chain, which was started by Steak and Ale founder and Pillsbury executive vice president Norman E. Brinker in 1976, was where my parents often took my sisters and me for post-Mass lunches. Those were nervous outings. I didn’t want to get the Monte Cristo’s jelly or powdered sugar on my suit and tie. But overall, Bennigan’s was a series of memories, fuzzy from a halo made of smiles. Those years fell into the seventies-to-nineties halcyon days of the casual-dining chains that revolutionized popular American dining. Brinker and Chili’s founder…The post News of This Beloved Chain Restaurant’s Death Is (Somewhat) Exaggerated appeared first on Texas Monthly.
From afar, the new exhibition at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth looks like a collection of colorful leaves piled on the museum’s ground floor. But once viewers step into the concrete ellipse at its center, they are quickly immersed in a barbecue universe. Rebecca Manson, whose Barbecue installation opened last week, estimates she crafted and composed 50,000 individual ceramic pieces (though the official description credits a mere 45,000).Manson grew up in New York, where she still lives and works. Her father has always been the cook of the household in the summer. “The Weber grill is his stove,” Manson told me when we met at the museum. Lamb chops and beef steaks have always been his specialties. “As he gets older, the meat…The post 50,000 Reasons to Go See ‘Barbecue,’ a New Artwork at Fort Worth’s Modern appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Stop me if you’ve heard this before. After a hard-fought election in which a candidate supported by the far right lost, right-wing legislators took to social media to proclaim that the race was “stolen” and that it was the Democrats’ fault. Last night, after Speaker of the Texas House Dade Phelan narrowly escaped defeat in a runoff in a district anchored in Beaumont, his nemesis, Attorney General Ken Paxton, cried foul. “Dade Phelan, in a desperate attempt to secure his political future, orchestrated a strategy that relied on Democrats voting for him in the Republican runoff,” Paxton wrote in a statement. “He knew he couldn’t win on his own merit, so he sought to bolster his chances by courting Democrat support in his district.” Paxton…The post Democrats Finally Won a Big Texas Election (Maybe. It’s Complicated.) appeared first on Texas Monthly.
In Talking Texan, we explore the diverse dialects, interesting idioms, and unique linguistics of the Lone Star State. Texans like to think of themselves as being somewhat apart from the rest of the country—or even the world. We dress differently, we cook differently, we politick differently, we live differently. And we most definitely talk differently. A big part of what makes the Texas tongue stand out, on top of our sharp West Texas twangs and molasseslike East Texas drawls, is the fact that our speech is accentuated with numerous—a buttload of, one might even say—colorful adages, axioms, idioms, and sayings. If it’s excessively hot out, for instance, a Texan might declare it “hotter than Hades.” If, on the other hand, it’s excessively cold, you might describe…The post Ten Folksy Ways to Insult Your Fellow Texan (or Any Other Deserving Soul) appeared first on Texas Monthly.
With the possible exception of U.S. congressman Vicente Gonzalez, no local celebrity turns heads in the Rio Grande Valley as much as cook and YouTuber Arnie Segovia. It’s a Sunday in March, and Segovia and his wife, Terry, are taking having lunch at Dirty Al’s Bayou Grill, in McAllen. As they skim the menu, a young husband and wife with children in tow approach their table with a familiarity that suggests they may be relatives or neighbors. “I’m sorry, can we get a picture with you?” the woman asks Segovia, 62, who eagerly gets up and poses with the couple.“You’ve really upped my carne game,” the husband adds. These are just a few of the many fans of Segovia, who publishes videos on Instagram and YouTube on…The post YouTube’s “Tío” Will Teach You How to Make Your Favorite South Texas Dishes appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Down near the bottom of the track list of Willie Nelson’s latest album, his 152nd, is a new song that should join what I think of as his personal canon. These songs are not necessarily his biggest hits nor his best-sellers, though entries like “Angel Flying Too Close to the Ground,” which he wrote, and “Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain,” which he did not, certainly qualify as such. Rather, these are the songs that have come to matter most to his fans. They’re the ones that get played widely at weddings and funerals, in the quiet moments when life becomes too much to bear, when a body needs to hear just the right song—one that will express something they can’t find words for or will…The post On His 152nd Album, Willie’s Still Dropping Once-in-a-Generation Songs appeared first on Texas Monthly.
One of the peculiar and unfortunate artifacts of the Texas election calendar is the primary runoffs. Few states use this system to pick Democratic and Republican nominees who don’t win an outright majority of votes during the primary. And for good reason. Runoffs are a relic of efforts to protect white political power in the South. Few voters bother to participate in them—even fewer than the primaries, which are themselves low-turnout elections. As a result, a small partisan cohort has outsized influence on who governs Texas. If the primaries are a rock concert in an arena where only a fifth of the seats are filled, runoffs are a house show where only the most hardcore fans bother to show up. Or, to keep with the…The post Texas House Speaker Dade Phelan Won His Runoff, But the Establishment Is Losing the War appeared first on Texas Monthly.
The official Texas GOP Convention schedule did not make note of the event, but on Friday afternoon, the Log Cabin Republicans held a cocktail reception at the state party’s annual meetup. In a small room on the second floor of the Henry B. González Convention Center, in San Antonio, the pro-LGBTQ Republican group drew a modest crowd of around thirty attendees. One thirtysomething man, in business casual attire with slicked-back black hair, had flown in from Huntington Beach, California, and distributed rainbow wristbands displaying the group’s name. Matt Gaetz, the right-wing U.S. representative from Florida and the keynote speaker at a gala that night, fraternized with attendees and picked at pastries the group was serving. Though they had come to discuss GOP politics, the Log…The post The Republican Party of Texas Doesn’t Want Converts, Only True Believers appeared first on Texas Monthly.
The Tex-Mexplainer series explores the ingredients, techniques, history, and culture of Mexican food in Texas. On May 13, an Indiana judge ruled that a taco is a “Mexican-style sandwich.” The contentious statement created a kerfuffle, with media outlets chiming in with their own opinions. Allen County Superior Court Judge Craig J. Bobay probably didn’t expect the national blowback when he sided with the Famous Taco owner Martin Quintana, who argued that tacos are sandwiches and therefore didn’t breach the agreement he signed with the Allen County Plan Commission restricting Quintana to open only a sandwich shop on the Fort Wayne property. If Bobay had looked for precedent, he would’ve learned that the matter had been decided eighteen years ago in Worcester, Massachusetts. In 2006, in a similar…The post A Taco Is Not a Sandwich. A Torta, on the Other Hand, Is. appeared first on Texas Monthly.
As the 2024 primary elections ramped up in Texas, Governor Greg Abbott warned his fans about an invasion of outsiders buying influence over Texas politics and policies. It was mid-January, and billionaire hedge fund manager and frequent target of the right wing George Soros had just given $100,000 to a Democratic group in the state after launching a political action committee devoted to turning Texas blue. Abbott struck a scandalized tone in a January 17 fund-raising appeal. “With elections right around the corner, liberal out-of-state money will be POURING into races up and down the ballot in Texas,” he texted supporters. “Can Governor Abbott count on your help to protect Texas’ values?” He added, “Let’s not let Soros set the agenda.” What Abbott didn’t address was…The post Meet the Out-of-State Political Donors Messing With Texas appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Living with severe ADHD can feel like driving a race car mind equipped with bicycle brakes, says clinical psychologist Lance Kelley. His team has recently witnessed too many crashes. During the last year, many kids who’d been able to manage their condition under his care have lost their Medicaid coverage and can no longer afford their medication. Quite a number of them subsequently skipped follow-up appointments, and for a while he didn’t know what had happened to them.Then Kelley began to notice a disturbing pattern: some of these children and teens finally returned to his Waco clinic, no longer able to stay away. Some now required a higher level of care. Some had stopped going to school or ended up in handcuffs. “It’s the crash…The post As Texas Drops Millions Off Medicaid, Safety Net Clinics Face a Crisis appeared first on Texas Monthly.
The murder victim’s mother was desperate for answers on Wednesday, May 15, when she logged on to a Zoom meeting with the prosecutor whose office convinced a jury to convict her son’s killer. Travis County district attorney José Garza had promised Sheila Foster an update on the clemency request for Daniel Perry, the former Army sergeant and Uber driver who shot her son Garrett Foster. In 2020, Perry had run a red light and driven into a crowd of Black Lives Matter protesters, when Foster, an Air Force veteran who was in legal possession of a rifle, approached his car. Perry then shot him five times. No witnesses testified that Foster raised his gun at Perry, and, when questioned by the authorities following the shooting,…The post Inside the Texas Pardons Board’s Unusual Role in Freeing Racist Murderer Daniel Perry appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Big fan of college golf? Good news! The University of Texas at Austin is hosting the NCAA men’s and women’s tournaments. Just don’t try driving out to UT’s golf club in Steiner Ranch to catch it. Or to the Colonial Country Club in Fort Worth. Or TPC San Antonio. Or any other famous course in Texas.Instead, you’ll have to fly to San Diego, then head 30 miles north to the Omni La Costa Resort and Spa in Carlsbad. Yup! Just when you thought the tech bros were returning to Pacific Time, the University of Texas system’s flagship school is planting a literal flag—18 of them!—in Southern California. Why is there a Texas Longhorn logo on the NCAA Women's Golf Championship flags? #ncaa #womensgolf— John Jay…The post The University of Texas at . . . California? appeared first on Texas Monthly.
When introducing Pantone’s 2024 color of the year, executive director of the institute Leatrice Eiseman said that Peach Fuzz is a shade that “resonates with compassion, offers a tactile embrace, and effortlessly bridges the youthful with the timeless.” The pale hue was plucked in searching for one that “echoes our innate yearning for closeness and connection.” It’s fitting, then, that the color—and various complementary pigments—can be seen dotting the landscape at the newly opened Camp Landa, a retro, luxuryish RV resort in New Braunfels, about thirty minutes north of San Antonio. That yearning for closeness, in part, is what prompted me to shove my family of five into a borrowed RV for a night in the creeping-close-to-summer Texas temperatures on a recent weekend in May.The…The post A New RV Resort Is That Mythical Place: A Fun Vacation Spot for Adults and Kids Alike appeared first on Texas Monthly.
University of Texas softball coach Mike White is fairly certain his New Zealand accent has softened after six years in Central Texas. Not that he’ll ever be mistaken for anyone from Hallettsville, which he most definitely isn’t.“That’s true,” White told me. “But I’ve lost a little bit of it, you know.”That faraway accent was the most distinctive thing about White when University of Texas at Austin athletics director Chris Del Conte lured him away from Oregon in 2018, after White had taken the Ducks to the Women’s College World Series (WCWS) five times in a nine-season stretch.The coach’s mandate from Del Conte was to put Texas softball on the national stage alongside Oklahoma, UCLA, and other traditional powerhouses. That he did, and fairly quickly, leading…The post Meet the Kiwi Softball Guru Behind Texas’s NCAA Title Hopes appeared first on Texas Monthly.
It was a drizzly Saturday two Januarys ago when, just after noon, when I felt a cramp in my lower abdomen. I was standing in line outside a popular food truck and tried to ignore it the best I could. I made my way up to the widow and ordered a bountiful tray of barbecue for a friend and me to share. It was our second stop of the day. After a few bites, I had lost my appetite. Something from our earlier meal was disagreeing with me, and it had caught up to me fast. The porta-potties outside the food truck weren’t going to cut it. We packed up the food, and a wave of intense pain persuaded me to let my friend drive.…The post How to Win Friends and Not Poison Them With Barbecue appeared first on Texas Monthly.
When Anna Albright entered a basketball gym in suburban Austin with her ten-year-old son during a tournament in early 2023, she walked past the man who, decades earlier, had been her coach. The encounter nearly stopped Albright in her tracks. “It was shocking,” she said. “I never thought I’d see him again. My body went into fight-or-flight mode. I looked at him and he was with a team of girls, laughing and joking, and I immediately recognized his demeanor.” Albright kept moving toward the bleachers, and when she sat down, she did a quick internet search on her phone to confirm that the coach was the man she remembered. The first link she found, a February 2023 story from the Killeen Daily Herald, confirmed it. The…The post A Coach Pleaded Guilty to Charges Related to Sexually Harassing Athletes—Yet He’s Still Working With Young Girls appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Think you have a crummy job? Consider the 47 employees of Harris County Public Health’s Mosquito and Vector Control Division. After each major Houston-area weather event, these hardy public health workers fan out to 21 spots around Harris County. They work in teams of two. One staffer stands in place, bare-limbed, without bug spray, while the other counts how many mosquitoes land on them in a minute. If the number is greater than thirty, the county dispatches a pesticide truck. “That is how far our staff is willing to go to protect the county from the risk of mosquito-borne viruses,” said Max Vigilant, the division’s appropriately named director. “They definitely take some bites.” In the wake of the deadly windstorm that swept through southeast Texas last…The post The Texas Mosquito Apocalypse Is Upon Us appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Imagine you’re a famous child actor turned hip-hop artist who spent the first part of the month getting annihilated in a battle with the only rapper to ever win the Pulitzer Prize, and you need somewhere to disappear and lick your wounds. You could do worse, in a place to hunker down, than a $15 million resort turned private estate out by Brenham. Who would think to look for one of the defining pop stars of the twenty-first century there? That might not have been something Drake factored in when he finalized the purchase of the former Inn at Dos Brisas, in Washington County, last fall, but now that he’s been publicly revealed as the owner, we can assume it’s a handy side benefit. Situated roughly…The post The Wildest Amenities at Drake’s New Texas Estate appeared first on Texas Monthly.
The state motto of Texas is “Friendship,” so never let it be said that Texans don’t appreciate irony. It was derived from “tejas,” which is how Spanish settlers pronounced the Caddo Indian word for “friend”—right before the early Texans wiped most of them out. Our credo is thus a mordant joke that’s rivaled by those “Drive Friendly – the Texas Way” signs along the highway. Maybe you’ve noticed one after being forced onto the shoulder by a speeding F-150 that refused to let you merge.There have been other unofficial mottos proposed over the years, each circling closer to a more honest depiction of the Texas ethos: “Remember the Alamo” (resilient, grudgeful). “Don’t Mess With Texas” (proud, slightly combative). “F— You, I’m From Texas” (proud, openly hostile).…The post ‘Blood Simple,’ the Coen Brothers’ Texas Noir Debut, Offered a Dark Motto for the Friendship State appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Owens & Hull at Grand Champion combines the best of Atlanta’s barbecue tradition with Texas attitude. Robert Owens and Bryan Hull came up through two different schools of barbecue. Owens cut his teeth in the kitchen of foundational joint Sam & Dave’s BBQ, in Marietta, Georgia, starting in 2007. He left the restaurant in 2011 to open Grand Champion BBQ. Hull debuted his pop-up, Secret Pint, in Atlanta in 2021 after taking a couple courses at Goldee’s Barbecue, in Fort Worth. “I wouldn’t be where I am without those guys,” Hull said. He’d watch instructional videos while working as an audio engineer recording audiobooks. Hull decided last year that he was ready to dedicate his life to barbecue, and Owens wanted an infusion of energy,…The post The Grand Champion of the Atlanta BBQ Scene Has an Infusion of Texas Flavor appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Colin Allred announced that he planned on seeking the Democratic nomination for Senate last May, joining a long list of Texas Democratic hopefuls who shared the goal of flipping a statewide seat for the first time in three decades. The comparisons to Beto O’Rourke, who ran against Ted Cruz in 2018 and set a new high-water mark in this century for Democrats in Texas, soon followed: both were relatively green U.S. congressmen when they announced bids, both defeated entrenched incumbents to get to Washington, D.C., and they were running against the same man for Senate. But Allred isn’t here for the comparisons. In his mind, he’s a different candidate running in a more dire time for Texas’s 30 million residents. Mainly, he thinks he’s distinct…The post Twenty-Four Minutes With Colin Allred, Annotated appeared first on Texas Monthly.
At first I was charmed by the friendly white microflowers popping up in my backyard. And front yard. And sprouting along the sides of my house. If spotted only in passing, the delicate blooms could easily be mistaken for baby’s breath or maybe Queen Anne’s lace. But I’ve bought enough grocery store bouquets to know that it was neither of those. Through my free plant identification app I learned the news: I was being infiltrated. Torilis arvensis, known as hedge parsley, sometimes helpfully “spreading hedge parsley,” and other times jokingly “burn it,” has reedy stalks with tops that explode in tiny white flowers come springtime. It grows quickly and can be found in most regions of Texas, but it’s not native to the state or even…The post That’s Not Baby’s Breath: The Cute and Highly Invasive Weeds Taking Over Texas Yards appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Gary Johnson was a seemingly mild-mannered part-time college professor. But outside of class, he would moonlight as a professional hit man—or so the clients thought. Because it was all an act. Originally published in the October 2001 issue of Texas Monthly, Skip Hollandsworth’s story about Johnson has been adapted into a film directed by Richard Linklater and starring Glen Powell, which hits theaters May 24. In this installment of the Story, Hollandsworth describes what initially drew him to Johnson’s tale and why it’s so resonant all these years later.The post The Story: A Houston Man’s Double Life That Became the Film ‘Hit Man’ appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Robert Turner’s journey into gem collecting began innocently enough. As an Austinite in the early 1980s, he hunted for the mica, quartz, and other sparkly rocks a kid might find in a museum gift shop. But the more he learned about their chemistry and geology, the more his fascination grew. By the early 2000s, he had moved on to the finer stuff—diamonds, rubies, sapphires—and eventually amassed a collection of 90,000 carats in gems and minerals that defied explanation. Yet an explanation was exactly what his wife, Jill, wanted the day in 2017 when, in the midst of a spousal spat, she stormed into his garage studio in Austin. “She said, ‘What the f— are you going to do with all this s—?’ ” Turner recalls. Thinking on…The post The Diamond (and Sapphire and Tanzanite) of the Season appeared first on Texas Monthly.
She was stuck in a drive-through line, of all places, when she got the call she had hoped would finally allow her to move forward with her life.It was late March and Crystal Mason had just placed her lunch order when her phone lit up. On the other end, her lawyer asked her to wait while he convened the legal team behind her appeal of a 2018 conviction. Mason recognized this meant there had been a significant development in the saga that’s run for nearly a decade. It had been six years since a Tarrant County judge had convicted her of voting illegally, handing down a five-year sentence for submitting a provisional ballot even though she wasn’t eligible to vote. Her ballot had never even…The post Crystal Mason Became a Public Example When Convicted of Illegal Voting. Six Years Later, She’s Still Waiting for Relief. appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Western wear has never been a style defined by nuance and subtlety. It may have been derived from necessity, but in the intervening years—from gilded boots custom-made by a master craftsman to decked-out hats donned by Dripping Springs bachelorettes—even its most authentic forms have acquired an air of ostentation. Consider the details of the genre: dyed leather, fringe, dyed leather, Nudie suit–type embroidery, rhinestones, tassels. No matter how much we love Western wear, it has the general aura of costume, even on the most genuine cowboy or -girl. The style’s centerpiece, the cowboy boot, is no exception to this rule. Even heritage brands often incorporate dyed leather, exaggerated toe shapes, and any number of exotic animals’ skins into their wares. As Western wear has increasingly entered…The post “Western” Shoes Have Gone Too Far appeared first on Texas Monthly.
musicThe Border, Willie NelsonMay 31 By our count, this is the 91-year-old’s 152nd album. (You can see the full list, “Willie Nelson Albums, Ranked,” on our website.) But with Willie, age doesn’t mean a thing. The title track, sung from the perspective of a border patrol officer, is a Rodney Crowell song from the Houston native’s 2019 album, Texas. But Willie doesn’t stick around the Rio Grande; the album is much more interested in the borders of the heart. Willie walks, and sometimes straddles, the line between lust and love before arriving at “Nobody Knows Me Like You.” It was written by legendary Nashville songwriter Mike Reid, and Willie repurposes it as a tender tribute to his wife of 33 years, Annie D’Angelo. filmKinds of KindnessIn theaters…The post Four Reasons June Is a Great Month in Texas Culture appeared first on Texas Monthly.
On Monday, the winners of the National City and Regional Magazine Awards were announced at the annual conference in Cleveland, Ohio. Texas Monthly won a dominant nine awards—more than any other publication—including General Excellence. TM won in half the categories it was nominated in. This is the fourth year in a row that TM has won more National City and Regional Magazine Awards than any other publication.According to the press release announcing the winners, judges for the General Excellence award praised TM for its “delightful blend of top-notch writing, first-rate design, and actionable service packaged in engaging and innovative ways.” Texas Monthly also won Excellence in Design, for its October 2023 issue; judges said the submission delivered “only the highest quality photography, illustration, and typography…The post Texas Monthly Brings Home Nine City and Regional Magazine Awards appeared first on Texas Monthly.
RebukedAs a Texas Monthly fan and an Orthodox Christian, I was doubly disappointed by “Rise of the ‘Ortho Bros’ ” [April 2024]. The article portrays Reverend John Whiteford as some kind of protofascist, in part because he doesn’t agree that all Confederate statues should be ripped down and destroyed. To parlay this idea into part of the article’s subtitle, that his followers are “interested in the Confederacy,” is deeply misleading. The article also treats transplanted conservatives like incoming artillery rounds. There is nothing interesting about this type of journalism, which, rather than engaging political and religious issues on their merits, simply relies on Pavlovian responses from the readers. Christina Helms, Milan, ItalyLet’s make sure I have this straight. The Reverend John Whiteford, hiding behind an impressive cross…The post Roar of the Crowd: June 2024 appeared first on Texas Monthly.
She was an avid reader from an early age, and though she grew up in Seattle and Baltimore, Lauren Larson especially loved the New Yorker magazine and all the fascinating subcultures its writers would explore, from orchid thieves in Florida to students at fancy prep schools along one stretch of Madison Avenue in Manhattan. When it came time to attend college, Lauren considered majoring in anthropology. But she learned that the discipline would require her to focus on one community for years at a time. She instead chose journalism. “This way I can immerse myself in a subject for maybe one fiscal quarter,” she says, “and then move on to the next thing that seizes my attention.”I first encountered Lauren’s writing about five years ago,…The post Why You’re Seeing Lauren Larson’s Name So Much appeared first on Texas Monthly.
From a replica of a horse-and-buggy on the roof to the papier-mâché cowboy “customers” playing cards at a table inside, the quirky splendor of Country Kitchen is a lot to take in. “It is unique,” says 71-year-old owner Scott McLean, who took over the 61-year-old Lampasas restaurant when his late father, C. D. McLean, retired in 1992. “Sometimes I walk in in the morning and think, ‘Oh my gosh.’ ” C. D. was an avowed treasure hunter who bought the restaurant in 1976 and filled almost every inch of its wood-paneled walls with tchotchkes and oddities. Scott, who began working at the restaurant in 1983—in part to hold down the fort while C. D. was off antiquing—doesn’t share his father’s passion for picking but admits he can’t bring himself…The post Line Up for Freshly Fried Chicken and Scratch-Made Pies at This Quirky Hill Country Cafeteria appeared first on Texas Monthly.
“I didn’t know there were Black cowboys.”I was standing in a darkroom, and my friend, the new lab monitor, was hovering over my shoulder. He had just caught sight of the faint tracings of a ghostly image of a bronc rider emerging from the print I was swishing through a bath of photo-developing solution.He could perhaps have been forgiven for his ignorance. This was 1978, back in the day when the general public believed that the job description for cowboys began with “Must wear big hat and boots” and ended with “Only whites need apply.”It was exhilarating to have the photographic proof that this impression was deeply mistaken. Unfortunately for me, an impoverished recent journalism graduate from the University of Texas at Austin, that proof…The post The Lost World of 1970s Black Rodeo appeared first on Texas Monthly.
A powerful windstorm known as a derecho ripped through southeast Texas on Thursday evening, killing eight Houstonians and knocking out power for close to a million customers in Harris County. (As of Monday afternoon, around 200,000 were still without electricity.) With winds gusting up to 75 miles per hour in places, the storm shattered skyscraper windows, toppled trees and fences, and left a trail of destruction in its wake. Not since the 2021 winter storm has Houston seen such devastation. But unlike Harvey, which made landfall near Rockport, nearly two hundred miles south, the derecho struck almost without warning. Few meteorologists recognized the warning signs until right before the storm hit, giving residents little time to seek shelter. To understand why the derecho took Houston by…The post What the Heck Is a Derecho? And Why Didn’t Houston See It Coming? appeared first on Texas Monthly.
On April 13, 2019, a tornado touched down directly on Caddo Mounds State Historic Site, in Alto, about thirty miles west of Nacogdoches. The storm chewed up cars, trees, and most of the modern, human-made structures on the site. The titular mounds—three large, sloping ceremonial earthworks at least a thousand years old—were unscathed, but the human toll was another story. One passerby died, one survivor became paraplegic, and several others were seriously injured. After the tornado came, everything changed. To some, it seemed like nature had demanded it.That day in 2019 had been the annual planned observance of Caddo Culture Day, when dozens of Caddo members traveled from Arkansas, Louisiana, and Oklahoma to East Texas to celebrate with traditional song and dance on the sacred…The post Five Years After a Devastating Tornado, Caddo Mounds Reopens With a New Mission appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Not an hour outside of Texarkana, Jerry starts to sputter. The 1965 Volkswagen Type 2, colloquially known as a microbus, has long been the workhorse among Gary Alexander’s Volkswagens, which currently number 21. Jerry is the vehicle Alexander chooses for annual camping excursions to Big Bend National Park and for road trips from Arkansas to New Mexico. But Jerry, at 59 years old, is also something of a Frankenstein’s monster, patinaed sage and patched together from whatever parts Alexander can source. And today, at the start of a group trek that will extend hundreds of miles across Texas, one of those parts is going haywire. “We’ve got a generator light on up here. Smelling rubber,” Alexander crackles over his CB radio to the caravan of roughly twenty…The post At 55 Miles Per Hour in a Vintage Volkswagen, Texas Looks Just Right appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Across the state, on storefronts and in bodegas and convenience stores, Texans are increasingly spotting products—vape juice, gummies, and even beverages—purporting to contain THC. These are not to be confused with the also-proliferating number of edibles and drinks containing CBD—the quaint cannabinoid meant to engender feelings of relaxation. These THC product labels tout true, mind-altering effects. The robust selection can leave the average Texas shopper to ask: Did grass suddenly become legal in this state, leaving a great big chunk of us unaware? No, “marijuana,” as defined by recent legislation, is illegal for recreational use in the state of Texas, even though medical use was legalized in 2015. Still, Texans are consuming legal cannabinoid products, including THC, and getting kinda high in the process. In fact, cannabis…The post Weed Is Illegal In Texas. So Why Are THC Products Everywhere? appeared first on Texas Monthly.
When you’re ordering at Tacos Frontera, the bursts of flame from the grill behind the cashier are distracting. But, at the same time, the fire sparks anticipation for the Tijuana-style tacos served by husband and wife Erik Leal and Maribel Rangel at their small operation in far west Houston.Tacos Frontera is easy to miss in its beige shopping center, but keep an eye out for the black and white sign with the taqueria’s name and specialty. Once inside, the aforementioned fire welcomes you, as does the red-and-white color scheme. There is also colorful hand-painted signage, much of it done by the owners, but they did shell out for a professional to create the large corrugated-metal “Bienvenidos” sign that wraps around the kitchen.This DIY mom-and-pop ethos…The post A Houston Taco Shop Stands Out in the New Wave of Tijuana-Style Joints appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Some two thousand members of the North Texas business elite once gathered for a black-tie gala to celebrate the grand opening of a banking giant’s new headquarters. InterFirst Corporation was moving to the newly built InterFirst Plaza, a seventy-two–story skyscraper that remains the tallest building in Dallas nearly forty years later. As partygoers feasted on shrimp high above downtown, a city councilwoman flipped on a set of lights that bathed the outline of the building in neon green.That September 1985 event demonstrated the heights that the city’s finance industry had scaled over the previous few decades. Area bankers had grown prosperous by lending to the oil and gas and real estate industries, and Dallas was home to three of the country’s twenty-five largest financial institutions.…The post Does Dallas’s Banking Boom Portend Another Eighties-Style Crash? appeared first on Texas Monthly.
At Harvest Green, a master-planned community forty minutes west of downtown Houston, homebuyers can pose as farmers, sticking their faces through holes cut into a peep board painted with a cartoonish agricultural scene. The display sits outside the community center, adorned with dried wheat, galvanized milk jugs, and a chalkboard that welcomes you to “The Farmhouse.” Beyond are rustic windmills, decorative silos, and a sculpture of a carrot that, if real, would smash records at the county fair. Even the street signs read like ingredients on a farm-to-table menu: Bright Butternut, Rich Radish, Saucy Sage.But agrarian life isn’t just a cutesy theme. Harvest Green is home to the Village Farm, where four full-time workers produced 30,000 pounds of USDA-certified organic produce last year. That makes…The post Can Agrihoods Save Us From Isolating, Cookie-cutter Suburbs? appeared first on Texas Monthly.
DeWayne Burns remembers the time Governor Greg Abbott came to visit in 2015. Burns, the Republican representative of a district encompassing several small towns south of Fort Worth, had gathered dozens of clergymen at the Heights Church, in Cleburne, for a summit on the Pastor Protection Act, which allowed faith leaders to refuse to perform same-sex marriages, to hear from Abbott and pray for him. That was the only time Burns can remember Abbott visiting his district before this year. But this year, Abbott has dropped in twice (with another visit planned this week), to campaign for Burns’s primary challenger, Helen Kerwin.Kerwin, a self-proclaimed “Proud Mom,” “Prouder Gramma,” and “Freedom Lover,” has also gained the support of former president Donald Trump, Senator Ted Cruz, Lieutenant…The post They Voted Against Greg Abbott’s Controversial School-Voucher Plan. He Attacked Them as Weak on “the Border.” appeared first on Texas Monthly.
WHO: Dallas Mavericks forward P.J. WashingtonWHAT: A clutch performance in the NBA’s Western Conference SemifinalsWHY IT’S SO GREAT: In February, the Mavs made what fans worried was a desperation move: trading a top-two protected first-round draft pick and two players to the Charlotte Hornets for Washington and a pair of second-round picks. ESPN, grading the trade, gave the Mavs a D on their decision-making, with NBA analyst Kevin Pelton offering a brutal assessment: “The question here is what problem Washington is solving. Five years into his career, I’m still not sure what Washington is as an NBA player.” (The Hornets, meanwhile, got an A for getting a valuable return for Washington, who wasn’t even a full-time starter in Charlotte.) Dallas fans were even more upset. A…The post The Mavericks’ Frisco Kid Propels Dallas to the NBA Western Conference Finals appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Netflix hosted the premiere of Glen Powell and Richard Linklater’s Hit Man, a new action-comedy film based on a Texas Monthly story by Skip Hollandsworth. The May 15 premiere was held at the Paramount Theatre in Austin. Powell, an Austin native, was the star of the night. Fellow Texan and award-winning filmmaker Linklater inducted the actor into the Texas Film Hall of Fame on behalf of the Austin Film Society. The pair wrote and produced Hit Man together, with Powell starring in the leading role as a fake hit man named Gary. After accepting the honor, Powell told the audience he was standing on the stage where he once performed in The Sound of Music as a teenager. The star-studded cast includes Adria Arjona, Austin…The post ‘Hit Man’ Premieres to Austin Audience appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Quick: ask someone who they think of when they hear the term “Texas music.” We bet you get “George Strait” or “Willie.”Country music may be the first genre that comes to mind for many, but historically, Texas is as much a blues state as it is anything else. The genre’s early greats Blind Lemon Jefferson, Lightnin’ Hopkins, and T-Bone Walker were all born here. Lead Belly and Robert Johnson may not have been native Texans, but they got here as fast as they could; Johnson’s only two recording sessions took place in San Antonio (1936) and Dallas (1937), before his death in 1938. Blues music has helped define Texas music ever since—from Albert Collins to Edgar Winter to Stevie Ray Vaughan.The appearance of ZZ Top’s Billy…The post Is Slash an Honorary Texan Now? appeared first on Texas Monthly.
According to legend, the cowboy cookie originated as a kind of midcentury breakfast bar: a mash-up so packed with high-calorie, energy-generating goodies like pecans and coconut flakes that it could sustain even the most grizzled of cattle ropers on a long day’s ride. And while the origins of this cookie are difficult to pinpoint, it is perhaps most closely associated with Texas, in large part thanks to Laura Bush.Bush submitted her recipe to the election-year First Lady Bake-Off contest put on by Family Circle magazine when her husband, George W. Bush, was running for president in 2000. Her competition was a recipe for ginger snaps submitted by Al Gore’s wife, Tipper. Magazine readers baked the recipes and voted; Bush won in a landslide, with Marian…The post Cowboy Cookies appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Dirty Al’sSouth Padre IslandIt’s hard to decide what’s most charming about this restaurant near the southernmost tip of South Padre Island—the friendly service, the marina setting, or the delightfully crude murals of mahi-mahi and mermaids and, above the entrance, Alfonso “Dirty Al” Salazar himself, astride a bucking marlin, schooner of beer in hand. Far from the touristy spots that seduce the sun-addled hordes with neon-colored cocktails and fresh-from-the-freezer fare, Dirty Al’s, which opened as a bait shop in 1986, serves locally caught seafood, grilled, blackened, or fried. Families, in-the-know tourists, and local teenagers gather around plastic tables on the porch or inside a dining room festooned with nautical oil paintings, rods and reels, taxidermied fish, and all the other flotsam and jetsam a joint like…The post The Ultimate Gulf Coast Seafood Crawl appeared first on Texas Monthly.
My impressions of resort life have been informed chiefly by HBO’s dark comedy The White Lotus, filmed at luxury resorts around the world. Unfortunately, our HBOverlords have not yet given us the White Lotus season we deserve: one set at the Margaritaville on South Padre Island. The romances and tensions would grow around the crystalline turquoise waters of the hotel’s pool, with its swim-up bar, and unspool beneath the thirteen-foot-high yellow flip-flop sculpture in the lobby. The characters would be extraordinary.The season would begin much like my visit in mid-March does, with Daniel Haughan, the general manager, watching guests pass through the lobby with coolers and occasionally canines in tow. (The hotel allows pets for a $200 fee per visit.) “Compression season,” his fabulously militaristic…The post It’s Always Five O’Clock at South Padre’s Margaritaville appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Are there hammerheads? Blacktips? How big do they get? Do you ever catch them? My son, George, is ten years old. Neither of us has ever fished off the Texas coast, so he can’t stop asking questions as our boat makes its way out via the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway from Goose Island State Park, in Rockport, into Aransas Bay and its various extensions for a daylong angling adventure. Our guide, Johan Coombs, navigates his 24-foot Haynie bay boat toward our first stop, off the tip of Rattlesnake Island, a marshy strip of land between the Aransas National Wildlife Refuge and Matagorda Island. Brown pelicans doing some fishing of their own tip Coombs off that this will be a good place to start. George and I have…The post A Father and Son’s First Fishing Trip, in Rockport, Becomes Something to Brag About appeared first on Texas Monthly.
One of the biggest street parties in South Texas started winding down an hour ago, at 10 p.m., but the crowd gathered on this balmy March night in Corpus Christi, at the intersection of North Chaparral and Peoples streets, is still singing along with the metal cover band. Lights bounce from the stage off the old brick buildings and oak trees that line this swath of downtown, just blocks from where a statue of hometown hero Selena stands sentinel by Corpus Christi Bay. The lion-maned lead singer of the band, Metal Shop, gyrates in his tight leather pants while belting out Mötley Crüe’s 1987 anthem, “Girls, Girls, Girls.” No one appears ready to leave. Not the white-bearded old-timer pumping his arms while his grandkids eat kettle…The post A Monthly Block Party Marks a Proud New Era for Corpus Christi appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Outside of an incoming hurricane, few threats discourage Texans from plunging into the Gulf of Mexico more than the dangerous fecal contamination frequently reported along our coastline. Last year a widely publicized study from Environment America, an advocacy group that focuses on pollution, revealed that 90 percent of Texas beaches exposed swimmers to at least one day of potentially unsafe fecal contamination—well above the national average of 55 percent. Does that mean you should burn your swim trunks and cancel vacation plans? Thankfully, no. Outdated testing methods, for starters, can yield unreliable results. They may fail to detect when unsafe levels of pollution are present, but they may also create an outsized sense of danger. The waters consistently deemed potentially unsafe are still a relatively small…The post Are Texas Waters Clean Enough for Swimming? (Short Answer: Yes) appeared first on Texas Monthly.
I walk into Robert’s Lafitte just after 8 p.m. on a Thursday in March. Early, I know, but now that I’m in my thirties, “nightlife” is no longer synonymous with “late nights.” Just a few other customers, mostly men, sit under the rainbow-colored string lights inside Galveston’s oldest continuously running gay bar (and reportedly the oldest in the state), two blocks from the island’s Historic Pleasure Pier. It’s so quiet that I pull out the novel I’ve brought with me and begin to read as the bartender makes my gin and tonic. It won’t stay that way. I’m returning to Galveston for the first time as an openly queer woman. I recently moved back to my hometown of Houston after a few years of living in New…The post Feeling at Home at One of the Oldest Gay Bars in the State appeared first on Texas Monthly.
As I peer through binoculars from my kayak, watching a great blue heron promenade through a tangle of mangroves along the Aransas Channel, I hear a ripple of water and a puff of air. A bottlenose dolphin has surfaced no more than six feet from my boat, its shiny dorsal fin catching the morning light. The creature dives, then reappears even closer, again exhaling with a loud, declarative huff, before taking another breath and returning to the depths. Then it swims toward its pod of maybe eight or ten others in the distance. I turn back to the heron in time to see it snag a silver minnow in its beak, toss back its head, and swallow the fish in a single bite.So plentiful are…The post To the Lighthouse, on a Kayak appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Dabney Coleman may have left the Lone Star State for Hollywood (by way of New York) early in his career. But his Texas twang was a part of almost every role.The Austin-born actor who played the “sexist, egotistical, lying, hypocritical bigot” boss in 1980’s 9 to 5, died at his home in California on May 16 at the age of 92. With a career that spanned six decades and included almost two hundred movie and television appearances, Coleman often brought an authentic Texas twang to his mostly comedic roles—even if it was overshadowed in the iconic office caper 9 to 5 by the thick drawl of Dolly Parton’s secretary character, Doralee Rhodes, as she and her colleagues, played by Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin, sought…The post Dabney Coleman, Hollywood’s Funniest Mean Boss, Never Lost His Texas Drawl appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Runoffs are not as sexy as general elections, but that doesn’t mean they’re not consequential. Who will control the state House? Who is steering legislative priorities? In the second episode of Answer Me This, senior editor Alex Samuels explains how the 2024 primary runoffs can have a lasting impact.The post Answer Me This: Why Are This Year’s Runoffs So Important? appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Before we get to the substance of what happened on Thursday, when Governor Greg Abbott pardoned Daniel Perry for murder, it’s important to be specific and clear about what happened to Perry on the night of July 25, 2020. The state leaders celebrating the pardon—most prominently Attorney General Ken Paxton—are effectively telling us the specifics of the case are not important. When someone in power tells us that, it’s a good idea to look more closely.In the summer of 2020, protests against police violence erupted across the United States. Most of these protests were peaceful, and some, like the one I witnessed in Vidor, a former “sundown town,” were downright wholesome. Others, though, turned violent, and rioters destroyed property in cities such as Minneapolis and…The post Why Did Greg Abbott Pardon a Racist Murderer? appeared first on Texas Monthly.
The Fort Worth Zoo welcomed the first baby mandrill—a female named Ruby—born there in more than three decades. A mother and daughter from Conroe were arrested during an undercover sting operation after allegedly giving illegal butt-enhancing injections to clients for $6,000 a pop. The story of Cinder, a porcupine recovering from burns sustained in the Panhandle wildfires, inspired a fundraiser that collected more than $24,000 to help other afflicted animals. Three boys ages eleven to sixteen were accused of robbing a bank in Harris County and referred to as the “little rascals” on an FBI social media account. A Dallas man legally changed his name to Literally Anybody Else and announced his intent to run in the 2024 presidential election. A Houston man pleaded guilty…The post Meanwhile, in Texas: What’s With All This Monkey Business at the Fort Worth Zoo? appeared first on Texas Monthly.
The first time Joey Victorian really noticed anything about Mart, it was a “for sale” sign on one of its historic downtown buildings. He was driving from his home in northwest Houston into Waco to visit the Magnolia Market, aka the Silos, and drove through the tiny town of fewer than two thousand residents. (One of its native sons is actor Jesse Plemons.) Victorian called the number on the sign, but the building had just sold. Three months later, in early 2022, the sellers reached out after the original deal fell through. Victorian bought it and another empty building the next block over, and he finally had a home for his barbecue joint.I first tried Victorian’s barbecue when he set up a food truck in…The post A BBQ Reality Show Contestant Sets Up Shop Just Outside Waco appeared first on Texas Monthly.
More than a year after a Travis County jury convicted Daniel Perry of murdering a protester in Austin, Governor Greg Abbott pardoned the former U.S. Army sergeant on Thursday shortly after the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles recommended a full pardon.A Texas state district court judge sentenced Perry in May 2023 to 25 years in prison for shooting and killing U.S. Air Force veteran Garrett Foster during a 2020 demonstration protesting police brutality against people of color.One day after a jury convicted Perry, Abbott directed the parole board to review the former U.S. Army sergeant’s case.“Among the voluminous files reviewed by the Board, they considered information provided by the Travis County District Attorney, the full investigative report on Daniel Perry, plus a review of all the testimony…The post Greg Abbott Pardoned Daniel Perry, Who Killed a Man During a Black Lives Matter Protest appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Russell Bonner Bentley III intended to devote the afternoon of April 8 to the banal task of picking up some new health insurance documents. The 63-year-old Texan and his wife, Lyudmila, had driven to the shabby, four-story Soviet-era municipal building flanked by spruce trees in the Petrovsky District on the western outskirts of Donetsk, a city in the eastern Ukrainian region of Donbas that has been a war zone for the past ten years. At the top of the building’s façade hung a black, blue, and red flag and the white double-headed eagle of the Donetsk People’s Republic, an unrecognized breakaway statelet of Ukraine that was formally annexed by Russia in 2022. Bentley had moved to the Donbas from Round Rock, just north of Austin, nine…The post How a Texan Trolling for Putin Met His End appeared first on Texas Monthly.
For most of the past half century, avid readers in San Antonio have been able to find Bob Kellel somewhere in the brightly colored warren of slightly tilted shelves in Antiquarian Book Mart, on Broadway next to Brackenridge Park. The used bookstore closed this month, five months after Kellel announced the sale of his property, as well as the next-door building formerly occupied by Half Price Books, to developer Harper/Huddleston. The father-son team has bought up at least 21 properties along this stretch of Broadway over the past two decades and has been an advocate of charming-yet-profitable development: boutique retailers, cafes with sidewalk seating, shops with easy parking (but not too much of it). An urban fabric that’s more merino wool and less polyester.The months…The post Two Beloved San Antonio Bookstores Have Closed. Who’s to Blame? appeared first on Texas Monthly.
When Jeffrey Louis heard that breakdancing—or breaking, as it is often called by its practitioners—was making its debut at the 2018 Youth Olympic Games in Buenos Aires, Argentina, he emailed the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to ask about getting involved.The Houston native wasn’t hoping to compete. In fact, he was too old to participate in the Youth Games, which are open only to athletes fifteen to eighteen years old. He was just looking for a way to participate in the process that would bring the art form to the Olympic stage. At the time, he was on the cusp of graduating from the University of Houston and was trying to figure out how he might apply his degree in sports administration to breaking. Louis never…The post A Houston Breakdancer Shoots for Olympic Glory appeared first on Texas Monthly.
With its rusted metal roof and mismatched wood exterior, the cabin that houses the Blade Bar, a knife shop in Ben Wheeler, in northeast Texas’s Van Zandt County, looks like an exhibit you might encounter at a living history museum. It once belonged to the late Dan Harrison, an internationally renowned knife-maker who created custom knives for Lyndon B. Johnson and Queen Elizabeth II. On the February day I visited, two children, who turned out to belong to owners Johnathan and Rhiannon Sibley, ran around the front-porch swing, sucking on rock candy lollipops. Across the street, diners were enjoying burgers and beers at the Forge Bar and Grill, a restaurant in an old blacksmith shop that now hosts live music in its sprawling outdoor area. My…The post Don’t Overlook This Magical Trio of Tiny Towns in Northeast Texas appeared first on Texas Monthly.
As a child growing up in the small town of Tomball, about 35 miles northwest of Houston, Trey Kistler loved fishing so much that he would illicitly cast for bass in private ponds in his suburban neighborhood. “If they didn’t shoot at me, then I would sneak in,” he recalls with a laugh. Even back then he favored high-end equipment, no doubt because his father, Billy Kistler, was a cofounder of Houston’s All Star Rods, known for its off-the-shelf graphite bass poles. Trey eventually enlisted in the Army and served in the Middle East during the Gulf War. By the time he came home, in 1991, his dad had cofounded another off-the-shelf rod maker, CastAway. He taught Trey the craft. By 1999, Trey had started his…The post How a Tomball Native Created a Line of Popular Bespoke Fishing Rods appeared first on Texas Monthly.
It’s surprising how quickly dinnertime rolls around when you know pulled pork sandwiches are on the menu. I was in charge of cooking for my family of three and decided it was the perfect opportunity to test out the Smart Indoor Smoker GE Appliances lent me. I was confident the five-pound bone-in shoulder I had put into the device seven hours ago had sufficiently liquefied collagen and a crusty bark, but I was worried that my family would pick up on the faint but pleasing smoke smell.Then the front door’s knob jiggled to life. My wife asked about the mail and our teenage daughter said lacrosse practice was “fine.” They both saw the smoker on the kitchen island, yet no one did a double sniff.…The post This Magic Countertop Box Effortlessly Smokes Meat. But Is It Barbecue? appeared first on Texas Monthly.
One should never attempt to guess what kind of film Richard Linklater is going to make next. Since 1985, the indie maverick has written and directed movies about everyone from eccentric Austin misfits (Slacker) to Texas high schoolers on the last day of classes (Dazed and Confused) to a young couple who meet on a train in Europe (Before Sunrise). He has tackled genres as varied as the western (The Newton Boys), political satire (Fast Food Nation), and science fiction (A Scanner Darkly). He released a coming-of-age movie (Boyhood) that he filmed over the course of twelve years, using the same cast of actors as they aged in real time, and a black comedy, Bernie, that was based on a Texas Monthly article I wrote…The post Richard Linklater Wants You to See ‘Hit Man’ in a Theater appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Gloria Perez, who owns 102-year-old Rutledge Hamburgers, in Brownsville, serves the platonic ideal of the hamburguesa mexicana in the U.S. The beef patty (seared on a flattop here as opposed to grilled over the more traditional mesquite coals) is dressed with American cheese, a slice of salty ham, crisp lettuce, and sweet tomatoes and served on a buttery bun. It’s the addition of the processed pork product (and, usually, the mesquite grilling) that makes the result a Mexican burger. It’s not clear when borderland chefs first put their spin on the hamburger, but a 1948 edition of the Brownsville Herald mentioned that Mexican burgers were being sold at a market in Matamoros. The following year a column in the Abilene Reporter-News noted them in a…The post What Makes Mexican Hamburgers So Great? appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Q: The Texanist’s monthly column is my favorite feature in the print edition of Texas Monthly, but I always wait until I’ve read the rest of the magazine to savor it, kind of like dessert. Speaking of which: What are the best desserts in the Lone Star State?Grant Betz, Sugar LandA: Well, thank you very much—for the sweet compliment as well as this sweet query, which the Texanist finds to be very on-brand for a letter writer who hails from Sugar Land.Speaking of which, Sugar Land, as you are likely aware, Mr. Betz, happens to be situated in an area known as the sugar bowl of Texas. And your city of residence is named partly in honor of the famed Imperial Sugar company, Texas’s oldest brand, which was founded way…The post The Texanist: What Are the Best Desserts in Texas? appeared first on Texas Monthly.
When you’re a puppet, the simplest act can get complicated quickly. For Gus, the titular star of the children’s show Gus Plus Us, looking at a road map requires his creator, Nick Caster, who controls Gus’s left arm and mouth, to coordinate with another puppeteer who’s working Gus’s right hand. As the two men iron out their choreography, lying shoulder to shoulder atop a wheeled cart parked below the camera frame, the director notes another problem: the map bears the unmistakable curve of the Texas shoreline, a detail that would seem to place Gus—an imaginary blue-tufted creature of an unspecified forest—squarely in our neck of the woods. As the crew debates the potential ramifications of this reveal, I turn to Christina Caster, Nick’s wife—she also…The post ‘Gus Plus Us’ Offers a Glimpse of Texas Filmmaking’s Conservative Future appeared first on Texas Monthly.
The Reverend William Lawson, a beloved preacher and community leader known as “Houston’s pastor” who led efforts to desegregate the city, died Tuesday at the age of 95. Lawson was judicious in the fight for social justice, his prudent approach evident from the start. One spring evening in 1960, on the Texas Southern University campus, Lawson—then a lanky 31-year-old who’d arrived in Texas just five years earlier—invited a handful of students from the Progressive Youth Association, which was dedicated to advancing desegregation in Houston, into the den of the Baptist Student Union, where he was director. The group’s leader, a dynamic TSU law student and Army vet named Eldrewey Stearns, had gained some notoriety around campus after telling city council about a police beating he’d recently endured.…The post Remembering the Reverend William Lawson, Civil Rights Icon and “Houston’s Pastor” appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Born and raised in the Texas capital, multihyphenate actor-artist-skateboarder Austin Amelio has been lucky enough to see his television and film career blossom in his hometown. “I’ve barely stepped foot in L.A.,” says the 36-year-old, which is fortunate, seeing as his “favorite place to create in the world is Texas.”Amelio was a professional skateboarder and visual artist living in Austin when he booked his first big acting gig with fellow Texan Richard Linklater in the 2016 film Everybody Wants Some!!, a follow-up of sorts to the director’s beloved standout Dazed and Confused. Thanks in part to his role in the film, where he appeared alongside fellow Austinite Glen Powell for the first time, Amelio followed that success with a prime spot in the zombie thriller series…The post How ‘Hit Man’ Star Austin Amelio Brings Texas Swagger to Film Sets Around the Globe appeared first on Texas Monthly.
May Pit Perks Brisket U | Get $15 off any Brisket U Class with code TXMNEWS24scTW Eaker Barbecue | 10% off merch and free sticker. LaVaca BBQ | 10% food and merch Tejas Chocolate & BBQ | 20% off merchandise, rubs, and sauce bottles.* HOT LUCK Live Food & Music Festival | Use code TMBBQCLUB24 for 20% off tickets!The post May 2024 Pit Perks appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Not too long ago, Ted Cruz carefully guarded against any talk that he might collaborate with Democrats. Consider the time, in December 2022, when Texas’s junior senator traveled to Georgia to campaign for Herschel Walker, the Republican senatorial candidate, in a runoff that would ultimately firm up Democrats’ control of the upper chamber. Walker’s opponent, Senator Raphael Warnock, a Democrat, released an ad touting his partnership with Cruz on an amendment to the omnibus infrastructure bill that expanded Interstate 14, to show voters, in a state that had voted deep red for decades, his ability to work across the aisle. Cruz, who ultimately voted against the bill, fired back at Warnock on the Texan’s podcast, accusing the Georgian politician of trying to distract voters from…The post Thirty-Eight Minutes With Ted Cruz, Annotated appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Taqueria 10 de 10 is cool. It’s got the allure of a speakeasy, tucked behind alleyway bar ReyRey in downtown Austin. Its decor sparkles with the romance of taquerias of yore, with its red-and-white color palette. All around are pithy phrases and illustrations. The trompo, of course, is the focus of the kitchen, the vertical spit slowly spinning and roasting meat behind the high white-tiled counter. The taqueria’s hipness extends to its name. The owners want you to know their taco shop is the best of the best. If Taqueria 10 de 10 were any cooler, it would require a bouncer guarding a red velvet rope.The joint’s Tijuana-style tacos—presented rolled in paper cones with fillings obscured by guacamole—are new to Austin. The tacos de adobada…The post Taqueria 10 de 10 Is a Feast for the Eyes, but Will It Make Your Stomach Happy Too? appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Q: When I was a child, my grandfather, a farmer in Ranger, instructed me on how to tell if a watermelon was ripe. He would hit the fruit with the side of his thumb and determine which ones had the deepest “thump.” Are there other techniques? My granddaughter can’t seem to master this skill because of her small hands.Marvin Cowden, Grand PrairieA: Given that Texas summers are barely bearable without watermelons, the ability to pick out a good one from the patch or the produce aisle is a useful skill for a granddaughter to have. The Texanist has often deployed the tried-and-true method of examining the color of the rind’s field spot, a.k.a. the place where the melon rested on the soil. A deep yellow…The post The Texanist: What’s the Best Way to Tell if a Watermelon Is Ripe? appeared first on Texas Monthly.
GENERATIONS OF LONGHORNS have found solace at an improbable oasis in the middle of their Austin campus, just north of the University of Texas Tower. Constructed in 1939, two years after the iconic tower was completed, Turtle Pond is a haven for both its namesake inhabitants and their admirers. The partially shaded sanctuary beckons students and visitors to take a breather and to gaze—perhaps with a tinge of jealousy—at the colorful red-eared sliders, Texas river cooters, snapping turtles, and other species sunning their carapaces. Like the beefy squirrels at Rice University, the turtles have become an unofficial school mascot. An Instagram account, @turtlesofut, pays playful homage to the critters. “Hope your finals aren’t a turtle disaster hahaha,” reads one caption. Managed by the College of…The post The UT Turtle Pond Offers Quiet Reflection in the Middle of Campus appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Daniel Kozmetsky wades through a sea of lemon-yellow wildflowers growing along a ridge and looks over a wide valley that stretches in front of him, part of the sprawling RGK Ranch his grandparents founded half a century ago. “This is the spot,” he says, sweeping out his arm as though introducing a star on a stage. “This is where developers stood and said, ‘We could put a lot of houses on that hill over there.’ ”Instead of a sea of rooftops, though, this former cattle ranch between Hamilton Pool Road and Highway 71 in western Travis County, about thirty minutes west of downtown Austin, will become a park where hikers can take in Hill Country vistas and explore a tributary of Bee Creek that spills over…The post Developers Offered a Texas Family Millions for Their Land. They Chose to Make It a Park Instead. appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Yolanda Carmona’s job is to market Van Horn to the rest of the world. It comes naturally to her. She grew up visiting family in the small West Texas town, a stop on Interstate 10 between Fort Stockton and El Paso that most travelers know, if they know it at all, as a place to fill your car with gas and your stomach with good Mexican food. She takes pride in—and feels protective of—the hamlet and the surrounding stretch of desert where her family has been raising cattle for a century.As the events and tourism director at the local convention center and visitors bureau, Carmona is plugged into the goings-on in the town of fewer than two thousand inhabitants. So when she learned last summer…The post When Is a Pipeline in the Public Interest? appeared first on Texas Monthly.
A pair of code compliance officers from the City of Dallas approached Jamie Sosa on a Sunday afternoon in February. A line of customers looked on as the officers told him to shut down his barbecue trailer for the day. He was operating without a permit, and received a $250 ticket. Sosa took the ticket and kept serving. “I have hundreds of dollars’ worth of barbecue in my smoker, and I have a crowd that I need to feed,” he told the officers. They promised another ticket for every two additional people he served. He got five more tickets before they left. “I’m not mad at them,” Sosa said. “They’re just doing their job.” Such is the life of an underground barbecue slinger. Sosa has…The post An Underground Joint in Dallas Goes Legit, and Its Barbecue Has Never Been Better appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Henry Cuellar has never been shy with the D.C. Capitol press. The ten-term congressman from Laredo is known to be a great source to reporters, both on the record and off. That is, until he was indicted last week on fourteen charges alleging political corruption involving the Azerbaijani government and a bank in Mexico. Cuellar skipped votes at the Capitol on Monday, returning Tuesday, when he slipped past the TV news crews waiting for him in and around the U.S. House of Representatives. The glad-handing centrist Democrat typically walks to votes alone, often holding court or taking phone calls in the Speaker’s Lobby just loud enough for reporters to hear. Not anymore. On Wednesday, Cuellar walked to the Capitol from his office in the Rayburn House…The post Henry Cuellar Wouldn’t Answer Questions About His Indictment. He Offered Us a Playlist Instead. appeared first on Texas Monthly.
If you do an image search for Wink, Texas, you’ll find pictures of a wee Roy Orbison Museum, aerial photos of two massive sinkholes, and not much else. The small West Texas hamlet, about eight miles south of Kermit, is the setting for part of fifth-generation Texan Kimberly King Parsons’s debut novel, We Were the Universe. Kit, the main character and narrator, grew up in Wink and is living in a fictional Dallas suburb named Pivot. She’s a young stay-at-home mom reeling from the loss of her sister Julie to alcoholism, searching for a way to process her emotions. Her old comforts of casual sex and psychedelics don’t mesh with her desire to be a dependable, loving mom to her daughter, Gilda, so Kit starts…The post Horny Moms and Lost Souls: How Kimberly King Parsons Crafted a Modern, Hallucinatory Texas Novel appeared first on Texas Monthly.
It’s Ken Paxton versus Catholics, round two. Back in February, the Texas attorney general targeted the migrant shelter Annunciation House, in El Paso, on his stated suspicions of “alien harboring” and “operating a stash house.” He cited no evidence for the latter claim, but demanded that Annunciation House turn over a host of records, including its clients’ names and medical records. Annunciation House, which receives migrants from the Border Patrol, Immigration and Customs Enforcement and other government agencies and feeds and houses them, refused to turn over all the documents. It argued that Paxton was violating several constitutional protections, including the Catholic organization’s right to free exercise of religion. Instead of waiting for a final ruling on the document request, the attorney general filed for…The post Ken Paxton Mistakes Catholic Teachings for “Bohemian Commandments” appeared first on Texas Monthly.
With all the earnestness of a love letter, country singer William Beckmann sings classic country tales of pining—for the one that got away, for the red-dressed women from the bar. Over the sounds of his staple bluesy harmonica, he swings from raucous boot-stomping music to ballads with the relaxed feel of a sunlit drive through the Texas towns he sings about. The common denominator is honest storytelling, and an undeniable energy that’s propelled him from his home in Del Rio to venues such as the Corona Club in Acuña, Mexico, which hadn’t seen a country act in almost two decades before Beckmann walked in.Inspired by the likes of Elvis, Frank Sinatra, and Johnny Cash, the 28-year-old sings in a deep bass, with a smooth cadence…The post Del Rio’s William Beckmann Proves That Even Twentysomethings Can Be Cowboy Crooners appeared first on Texas Monthly.
It’s harder to be a moderate in Washington, D.C., than ever before. Nobody knows that better than the veteran centrist Democrat Henry Cuellar, who faces prosecution from the federal government for his work on one of the few remaining bipartisan causes in Texas politics: the glorious nation of Azerbaijan. On Friday, the Department of Justice indicted Congressman Cuellar, who represents Laredo, on fourteen counts, including bribery, conspiracy, failure to register as a foreign agent, and money laundering. Cuellar and his wife, Imelda, are alleged to have used a network of shell companies to hide $600,000 in payoffs from a Mexican bank and an Azerbaijani oil company. For those payments, the feds allege, Cuellar offered concrete deliverables, the “quid” for the “quo.” Cuellar is supposed to have…The post What Azerbaijan Wants From Texas Politicians appeared first on Texas Monthly.
“Texas is the motherland of barbecue, and if somebody says it’s not, they’re just an idiot,” Bobby Monsted III told me. Monsted is co-owner of LA23 BBQ in Belle Chasse, Louisiana. It’s a small place with covered picnic tables for seating along State Highway 23 in Plaquemines Parish. He was raised just upriver in New Orleans, but often sampled barbecue while visiting family in Fort Worth and Texarkana as a kid. When he opened a barbecue shack in 2012, he knew Texas-style was the way to smoke.After graduating from Mississippi College with a business degree in 2002, Monsted didn’t return to New Orleans, where his father ran a successful insurance company. He instead took the unusual step of opening a fishing charter service on the…The post LA23 BBQ Is Doing Texas Right in Plaquemines Parish appeared first on Texas Monthly.
“No more than ten minutes!” I yelled after my eleven-year-old daughter as she darted out the back door. It was late on an August evening, and the temperature in Houston continued to hover over 100 degrees, refusing to offer even a brief reprieve. Last summer was less of a breaking point and more of a languishing, as persistent triple digits kept our family of four increasingly confined to our home. The sun was so relentless that I often drew the curtains by noon. Right outside our door was a huge yard with a tree swing, a neighborhood park, and miles of bayou trails. Inside was a lethargic mom trying to console two kids with more screen time that none of us wanted.During my own adolescence…The post Texas Parents Are Terrified for Another Triple-Digit Summer appeared first on Texas Monthly.
With less than ten seconds left in the game and the score tied at 76, Dallas Wings guard Arike Ogunbowale, dribbled past half-court. She dribbled between her legs a couple times and then nudged forward beyond the three-point line, just enough to put her Indiana Fever defender, Lexie Hull, on her heels. Ogungowale’s juke created just enough space for her to release a step-back three-pointer, which toilet-bowled around the rim before dropping through the net with 4.5 seconds remaining. NOT HER FIRST TIME. WON'T BE HER LAST. https://t.co/SINX2gAt6x pic.twitter.com/D9WCDCIyMi— Dallas Wings (@DallasWings) May 4, 2024 The 6,251 spectators who gathered for the Wings’ preseason opener erupted. And they erupted again seconds later, after Indiana guard Caitlin Clark—the college hoops phenomenon and top overall pick…The post Texas Might Be Ready to Fall Back in Love With the WNBA appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Early in Ethan Hawke’s new film, Wildcat, a young Flannery O’Connor (Maya Hawke, Hawke’s daughter) tells a skeptical editor that she’s “amenable to criticism—but only within the sphere of what [she’s] trying to do.” That editor doesn’t end up publishing the work in question, perhaps illustrating that the gulf between what a piece of art attempts and what it achieves can be hard to bridge, no matter the affection the artist might have for the material.As O’Connor once admitted herself, a biopic about the author is a tall order. An epigraph of one biography quotes her: “There won’t be any biographies of me because, for only one reason, lives spent between the house and the chicken yard do not make exciting copy.” Indeed, she spent…The post Ethan Hawke’s ‘Wildcat’ Proves a Good Film Is Hard to Find appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Culinary purists and many Mexicans have long denigrated Tex-Mex as a bastardization of regional Mexican cooking (which is one reason why I started my Tex-Mexplainer series). At the late Urban Taco in Dallas, owner Markus Pineyro, a Mexico City native, had a cheeky doormat at the taqueria’s entrance that read, “Friends Don’t Let Friends Eat Tex-Mex.” Now Pineyro, who also cofounded ghost kitchen Oomi, says he’s come around to it. “I have an appreciation for everyday Tex-Mex,” he says.That attitude has recently taken hold in Mexico City as well, especially at Coyota, a casual restaurant from chefs Cristina Rubio and Juan Escalona, who’ve come to understand Tex-Mex as a chapter in the greater narrative of Mexican food. Their friendships—such as one with Monterrey, Mexico–born, McAllen–raised…The post Mexico City Is Finally Embracing Tex-Mex appeared first on Texas Monthly.
WHO: The students of the Sam Houston State University Department of Theatre & Musical Theatre, led by assistant professor and coordinator of theater studies Patrick Pearson.WHAT: In conjunction with a musical performance of The Prom this spring, the Sam Houston State theater department hosted an actual prom the evening after the musical’s closing night and invited the whole school.WHY IT’S SO GREAT: Students who were seniors in high school four years ago, when COVID-19 shut down the world, got a chance to enjoy the prom they never had. Plus, the organizers of the event turned it into a fundraiser for LGBTQ students in Houston who might not feel welcome at their own high schools.In February 2020, Leah Bernal purchased her dream dress for prom. It…The post Four Years After COVID Canceled Prom, College Kids at Sam Houston State Got a Second Chance appeared first on Texas Monthly.
In 1843, Sam Houston toiled away at a desk in a sixteen-by-sixteen-foot log cabin not far from the muddy banks of the Brazos River. From that makeshift office in Washington-on-the-Brazos, about halfway between Austin and Houston, the then-president of the new Republic of Texas penned letters inviting the chiefs of several Native American tribes to join him for a council meeting. Many of the chiefs came, among them leaders from the Caddo, Delaware, and Shawnee tribes. They spent nearly two weeks in the rough-around-the-edges little town, meeting with officials, demonstrating skills, dancing and playing music, and signing a treaty.Today, there’s not much to indicate the significance of the spot where Houston’s cabin once stood, at one end of the long-vanished town of Washington-on-the-Brazos. This place…The post Archaeologists Dug Up a Vanished Texas Town and Found 10,000 Artifacts appeared first on Texas Monthly.
The Sweetwater Cemetery welcomed its first permanent resident, an infant, in 1880. That was four years before the incorporation of the city, about forty miles west of Abilene, where the short-grass prairie that sweeps down from Canada peters out. Today the graveyard houses the final resting spots of many pioneers, immigrants, and Civil War veterans, according to a historical plaque on its gate.Across the street sits another graveyard, of sorts. It opened in 2017 and has become a long-term home for thousands of discarded wind turbine blades. Each has been cut into thirds that remain as long as modest ranch houses. They are not buried in the earth but stacked haphazardly in rows of undulating off-white fiberglass.This blade boneyard was built by Global Fiberglass Solutions,…The post Iowa Is Cleaning Up Its Massive Pile of Wind Turbine Blades. Why Can’t Texas? appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Tim Hood is standing inside a building he calls the Vault, giving me a tour on a warm spring day in Houston, when there’s a knock at the door. He isn’t expecting anyone, and as a man and woman step inside, they’re also taken by surprise.“Is this the embroidery shop?” the man asks. Clearly it’s not, but the pair are not really sure what they’re looking at.That’s because the Vault is filled with pinball machines in various states of assembly. There are several dozen here, some set up and ready to play but many still wrapped in shipping plastic, their back boxes separated from the cabinets or opened to reveal their electronic and mechanical guts.There are valuable rarities alongside popular titles you’d see in many…The post Meet the Houston Power Couple Spurring a Pinball Renaissance appeared first on Texas Monthly.
On April 30, the James Beard Foundation announced its 2024 Media Award nominees. For the third year in a row, taco editor José R. Ralat and Texas Monthly have been nominated in the Columns and Newsletters category for José’s Tex-Mexplainer series. According to the organization’s website, “This award recognizes the work of an individual or team/group that demonstrates thought-provoking opinion and a compelling style on food- or drink-related topics.” José’s pieces “Defining ‘Guisado’ Is Just as Messy as the Dish Itself,” “A Head Above: How Barbacoa Paved the Way for Barbecue,” and “Red, White, and Covered in Salsa: How Two Colors Came to Dominate Taquerias” were specifically cited in the nomination. Winners of the 2024 James Beard Media Awards will be announced live in Chicago…The post Recognition for Four Texas Monthly Editors appeared first on Texas Monthly.
U.S. representative Henry Cuellar (D-Laredo) was indicted with his wife, Imelda, on Friday on charges of accepting almost $600,000 in bribes from an Azerbaijani energy company and a Mexican bank, the Justice Department announced.Cuellar allegedly accepted the payments after they had been laundered through fake consulting contracts to shell companies owned by Imelda Cuellar, according to the DOJ. In exchange, Henry Cuellar allegedly pursued policy in favor of Azerbaijan, the department said. Cuellar also allegedly took money from a Mexican bank and influenced members of the executive branch to make policy favorable for the bank, according to the department.Cuellar asserted his innocence in a statement Friday after NBC News reported federal prosecutors’ plans for an indictment. The Cuellars appeared in a federal courthouse in Houston…The post Henry Cuellar Has Been Indicted on Charges of Bribery and Money Laundering appeared first on Texas Monthly.
At a symposium organized by the newly formed Alliance for Texas History in Fort Worth last weekend, University of Houston doctoral student Shine Trabucco, who is of Taos Pueblo and Quecha descent, began her talk by “acknowledging that we are on the ancestral lands of the Caddo, the Comanche, and the Kickapoo. We are just visitors and guests on Indigenous people’s land.” Later in the day, University of New Orleans professor Max Krochmal declared that “we are meeting on stolen land in a city built by enslaved Black people and exploited migrant labor.” Not to be outdone, University of North Texas professor Michael Phillips pointed out that the state of Texas was built by “exploiting the labor of enslaved people, Indigenous people, and poor whites.” Such…The post Meet the Rebel Alliance Taking On the Texas History Establishment appeared first on Texas Monthly.
For an American sports fan, following a rugby match can be disorienting. The constant action is a remedy against boredom, but the experience is like watching every other sport you might be familiar with happening all at once. “It has a combination of basketball, football, hockey, soccer, and even some elements of track,” said Rodd Newhouse, COO and part owner of the Dallas Jackals. The pace of play drew him to the game, and he’s hoping it will draw new fans to a professional league that most Texans have never heard of, Major League Rugby.MLR was founded seven years ago in Dallas, though North Texas has only had a team since the Jackals debuted in 2022. The Houston SaberCats have played since the inaugural 2018…The post Inside Major League Rugby’s Texas-Size Growth Plan appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Country singer Parker McCollum epitomizes cowboy swagger. His usual white tee, gold chain, and heavily starched jeans are as much of a uniform as Orville Peck’s mask of fringe. Heck, he even has a whole album, Gold Chain Cowboy, dedicated to the classic look. It’s the cowboy version of effortless chic. McCollum says his fashion sense is a tribute to MTV Cribs and Pure Country, the shows he spent his youth watching in Conroe, north of Houston. “I grew up cowboying a lot from my granddad but also, I wanted to be a country singer and have a big ranch, have a bunch of cars, and maybe some jewelry and some fly stuff like that,” McCollum says. The “weird hybrid mix of the two” has worked…The post Country Singer Parker McCollum Doesn’t Believe in Forcing It appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Dan Rather was perhaps the most famous journalist in America back when being a news anchor at one of the big three network television channels—ABC, CBS, and NBC—mattered. The Texas native’s long career, including 24 years as the face of CBS’s Evening News, is one of the most storied in the history of American journalism—even when considering his sudden, ignominious fall from his CBS perch—and is the subject of Rather, a new documentary streaming on Netflix. The film, directed by longtime Hollywood producer Frank Marshall and featuring Rather, who is a sprightly 92, is snappy and well-crafted, but it’s mostly interested in defending and celebrating the newsman. In its more transcendent moments, it touches on larger questions about journalism, how it should be done, and…The post How Dan Rather Helped Turn “TV Journalism” Into an Oxymoron appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Last week, it was announced that Texas Monthly was recognized by two prestigious entities: the Religion News Association and the Webby Awards. The RNA awards ceremony took place in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on April 20. According to the organization’s website, “The Religion News Association has been the premier professional association for people who report on religion in the news media. Our mission is to equip journalists throughout the world with the tools and resources they need to cover religion with balance, accuracy and insight.” At the awards, Texas Monthly‘s deputy editor of digital, Sandi Villarreal, won first place in the RNA’s Multimedia: Analysis category, for “The Biblical Womanhood of Angela Paxton,” which was published online in September 2023.On April 23, Texas Monthly Studio‘s The Official Love…The post Texas Monthly Wins Two Awards appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Mauro “Max” Chiefari was in the Nile Delta, about a hundred miles north of New Cairo, when he felt his stomach rumble. He had just eaten some raw-milk cheese shared with him while on a search for hardwood to fill the smokers at Longhorn Texas BBQ. It was late 2020, and the restaurant was to open soon. Wood is scarce in Egypt, so Chiefari had answered a Facebook ad promising something better than the old furniture scraps he was sometimes offered. “The drive took six hours,” he recalled, and was mostly off-road, but the person who put out the ad had good acacia and oak. As he loaded the wood, he saw a motorcycle carrying four people being pulled by a donkey. “It was just…The post Meet Max Chiefari, Globe-trotting Barbecue Consultant appeared first on Texas Monthly.
On a sunny Wednesday morning, a cyclist pedals furiously down the shoulder of Interstate 20, just south of Dallas. He’s no more than ten feet from dozens of cars zooming by at seventy miles per hour. One tiny mishap—say, a passing driver distracted by changing the radio station and swerving at the worst possible moment—could kill the cyclist. And he has no idea that approaching rapidly behind him is an eighteen-wheeler without a driver in control.Fortunately for the cyclist, pods mounted on the truck’s sides are equipped with cameras, lasers, and radar that give the vehicle a 360-degree picture of its surroundings and help it gauge distances. The sensors identify the cyclist as a moving object that needs to be avoided and send data about…The post Robo Truckers Will Soon Roam Free on Texas Highways appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Kendrick Lamar surprise-released a new single on Monday, and Drake had a bad day. The track, a six-and-a-half minute instant classic, was a howl of rage and mockery at the Canadian megastar, escalating a war of words that had recently tipped from cold to hot in a way that effectively salts the earth beneath poor Drake’s feet. Neither of those fellas are Texans, though, so why are we writing about it? You won’t believe this, but it’s because of Houston megachurch pastor Joel Osteen.Nearly five-and-a-half minutes into the track, Lamar drops yet another brutal simile in a song full of devastating insults. “Am I battling ghost or AI?” he asks, referencing both a song Drake released in April that featured an AI-generated verse mimicking Tupac…The post How to Tell Joel Osteen and Haley Joel Osment Apart: A Guide for Kendrick Lamar appeared first on Texas Monthly.
The statue of Sam Houston in Huntsville, Texas, stands a mighty 67 feet tall. It’s one of the tallest in the United States, just six inches shorter than the giraffe sculpture at the Dallas Zoo and a foot shorter than the Iwo Jima Memorial in Washington, D.C. (Ol’ Sam is, alas, less than half the height of the Statue of Liberty.) The Huntsville monument is named “A Tribute To Courage,” and it has towered over motorists heading north on Interstate 45 for the past thirty years. Normally, the graven image of the first president of the Republic of Texas is dressed formally, in a cravat, waistcoat, and jacket, gazing over the state whose independence he helped secure while resting his right hand on a cane. In…The post Would Sam Houston Be a Texans Fan? A Texas Monthly Investigation appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Even if you’re not BOI and you have no idea what a feeder road is, the Texanist is here to help.Q: I’m about to move from California to Galveston. In lieu of “shaka, bruh,” “surf’s up,” or “hella cool,” what are some words and phrases I should learn to use in conversation?Dianne White, Santa BarbaraA: Howdy, and welcome to Texas! Moving to a new state can be an exhausting and life-altering experience. And pulling up stakes on the West Coast—pretty Santa Barbara, no less—and putting down new ones on Galveston Island, off the Third Coast, presents an extra layer of cultural disruption on top of the logistical challenges that come with transplanting oneself. That’s because we Texans take our state culture and identity more seriously than…The post The Texanist: I’m Moving From California to Galveston. What Words Should I Learn? appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Historians believe that Spanish missionaries built the first sugar mill in Texas in the 1780s at Mission San José y San Miguel de Aguayo, in present-day San Antonio. Four decades later, Stephen F. Austin’s colonists planted cane in southeast Texas, and over the course of the nineteenth century, sugar grew into one of the state’s most lucrative exports. The sprawling cane plantations along the Brazos River—worked by thousands of slaves toiling in pestilential conditions—became known as the Sugar Bowl of Texas. After mosaic disease decimated the state’s sugar crop in the 1920s, cane production was largely abandoned for nearly half a century. But the 1962 U.S. economic embargo against Cuba, which restricted sugar imports, helped resurrect the industry. In 1970, a cooperative of one hundred South…The post Farmers Blame Mexico for the Closure of a Sugar Mill. But Is the Crop Right for Drought-Ridden Texas? appeared first on Texas Monthly.
His job done in Texas—crime defeated, corruption accusations beaten, wrongdoing righted—Attorney General Ken Paxton traveled from Austin yesterday to a much deeper den of iniquity: Manhattan. “With President Trump in NYC to sit through this sham of a trial,” he posted this morning. “This trial is a travesty of justice. I stand with Trump.”The Texan made his appearance midafternoon, presumably white-hatted, with six-shooters in hand. According to the pool report from a dogged reporter covering the trial of the century, or at least the trial of the month, “Trump entered at 2:12. He pumped a fist and did not speak. He was accompanied by his son Eric, Texas AG Ken Paxton, campaign advisers Susie Wiles and Jason Miller, and lawyers.”Setting the trial lawyers and Susie…The post Ken Paxton Takes Manhattan appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Imagine perfect patio weather, a chilled glass of white wine (or your beverage of choice) and a table surrounded by good friends — add in the fresh and fun flavors of Black and Blue Beef Steak Pizza, and you’ve got yourself a Texas treat that inspires a spirit of camaraderie and joy.Created by Chef Robert Hale in the Beef Loving Texans kitchen, the recipe was inspired by Chef’s love of Italian food and expertise in beef. With the deep umami notes of blue cheese and steak, this recipe takes your typical pie to new heights.For those eager to bring a slice of Texas home, BeefLovingTexans.com is your go-to for mouthwatering recipes designed to add some sizzle to your kitchen with flavors as big as Texas…The post Black and Blue Beef Steak Pizza appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Fizzy drinks are at an inflection point. While traditional and diet sodas have been roundly demonized due to the adverse health effects of truly jaw-dropping amounts of sugar and artificial sweeteners such as aspartame, the flavor-light sparkling waters on the market haven’t quite been scratching that itch. Enter Poppi, an Austin-based company that’s making soda for the health-conscious-but-still-want-to-have-fun consumers, largely made up of millennials and Gen Z.With cheerful neon packaging and flavors ranging from classic cola and grape to watermelon and strawberry lemonade, Poppi sodas are jarringly good—even more so when you realize they have just 25 calories a can with five grams or less of sugar. With its claim of its products being good for the digestive system due to their inclusion of apple…The post Poppi Is Making Soda Cool Again appeared first on Texas Monthly.
“What we believe first and foremost with a cowboy boot is that it [must] follow the traditional standards for construction,” Will Ormes tells me, with an accent so strong he has to be a born-and-bred Texan. A few minutes ago, he tipped his black Stetson in greeting and sat down across from me at the hat-room bar at Allens Boots in Austin. The first sign that you’re in a solid boot-shopping establishment: chivalry is alive and well.Ormes, a manager at Allens, has agreed to give me a history lesson on a cowboy or cowgirl’s most prized possession: a pair of trusty, worn-in leather boots. He explains how stacked leather and a stainless steel shank, a thin bar most often found in work boots that adds…The post How to Shop for Vintage Cowboy Boots appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Before Murphy Bailey ever set foot in Henry’s Hideout, an 87-year-old honky-tonk just up the road from his hometown of Magnolia, 45 miles northwest of Houston, he had heard stories about it and Henry Phillips, who founded the joint and ran it until he died, in 1992.“I heard he had a pet bear, Henry did,” Bailey, who is 38 and the proprietor of the newly renovated Hideout, said. “And you could go in there, pay a fee, and wrestle it. If you beat it, you won the pot that had accumulated from past losers. I’ve heard that one so many times, I mean, it’s got to have some truth.” The veracity of such tall tales was ultimately, for Bailey and the townsfolk, of little import.…The post The Horniest Bar in Texas Is on the Rebound appeared first on Texas Monthly.
The social media site formerly known as Twitter, and currently known as X, has long been a cesspool of social ills. But ever since Elon Musk took the reins in 2022, two years after he officially moved to Texas, it has gotten a lot of attention for tolerating a surge in antisemitism, racism, misogyny, all manner of hate speech, and misinformation. So perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised that on Monday morning, our very magazine got dragged into Musk’s gutter, via a bizarre, doctored image of Texas Monthly’s October 2013 cover. The real cover featured a portrait Texas Monthly commissioned of Greg Abbott sitting in his wheelchair in a clearing, a gun propped over his shoulder, under the headline “The Gov,” with an asterisk next to…The post No, a Magazine Called ‘Israel Monthly’ Did Not Put Greg Abbott on Its Cover appeared first on Texas Monthly.
If you’re a native Texan, or if you’ve lived here awhile, you’ve probably had it drilled into your head: don’t waste water. And you’ve likely noticed how our ever-hotter, ever-drier summers are wreaking havoc on our aquifers, reservoirs, rivers, trees, and landscapes. Thanks to our old pal climate change, we are now even contending with a new type of drought! For those who didn’t get the message, however, water utilities across much of the state have been increasing rates for heavy users, cracking down on rule breakers, and imposing stringent measures such as once-a-week watering rules. Changing consciousness, and conservation-focused policy tools, have made a difference. Cities have cut their per-capita consumption—the average amount of water used per resident—by more than 20 percent in the…The post Texas Developers Love Big Thirsty Lawns. That’s a Huge Problem for the State’s Water Supply. appeared first on Texas Monthly.
After finishing a construction job in Jarrell, Abel Palacios was looking for a different way to make money. His older brother, Josh Palacios, co-owner of El Remedio Mariscos y Taqueria in San Antonio, told him he needed to go into the family business built on their Sinaloan grandfather’s seafood recipes. “You need to sell ceviche, bro,” Josh recalls telling Abel in 2019. But the younger Palacios didn’t have any professional food experience, so he was hesitant. It took more encouragement, repeated visits to his grandfather’s house in Los Angeles, and a pandemic to spur Abel into action. He relocated to his hometown of El Paso and started delivering aguachile and ceviche from the trunk of his 2014 Toyota Camry in January 2020. He sold forty to…The post El Botanero Mariscos Is a Seafood Oasis Along the Texas Border appeared first on Texas Monthly.
The hand-painted face of a sheep peeks out of an assortment of colorful glass fragments on a wooden worktable at Stanton Studios, in Waco. The weathered visage, its details hard to decipher against the scuffed, unlit pane, is the only indication of what this stained-glass window will portray once it is fully assembled. Even the man responsible for the job can’t bear to tally up the exact number of glass pieces it entails. “Thousands,” studio founder Bryant Stanton tells me. Even in an uncountable number of pieces, the window is gorgeous, its deeply hued fragments reflecting light to catch the eye like so many two-dimensional jewels.Waiting to be soldered together in the Waco workshop, the glass shards are 240 miles from their home church, in…The post How One Waco Family Resurrected the Oldest Known Tiffany Stained-glass Window in Texas appeared first on Texas Monthly.
When a celebrity’s name starts trending on social media, there’s a question fans have to ask: Is this for a good reason, or a bad one? When that celebrity is elderly, the fear that folks might be talking about them because there’s bad news is heightened. So we are here to tell you, if you’ve seen Willie Nelson trending today, April 29, everything is fine. It’s just his birthday! Happy birthday, Willie!Today is Willie’s ninety-first birthday, putting him in the ranks of the estimated 2.8 million Americans who have entered their tenth decade of experiencing life on this planet of ours. Last year, the Red Headed Stranger celebrated his ninetieth in high-profile fashion, performing as part of a star-studded tribute concert at the Hollywood Bowl…The post Willie Nelson Is Fine! He’s Trending Because It’s His Birthday. appeared first on Texas Monthly.
An apocryphal quirk of Texas history claims that we have the right to subdivide into five distinct states, and reading the headlines in Texas Monthly may have you thinking that we’re on the verge of such a pentamerous shattering. Troops are at the border. An internal civil war wages among state leadership. The GOP has even put a fatwa on H-E-B.But whatever lines may divide us, there is one core fact about Texas that should be able to heal any political schism, bridge any cultural divide, and unite us all under a single banner from El Paso to Texarkana: Texas has the absolute best official state flora and fauna.I presume your mind’s eye is already fluttering with visions of roadside bluebonnets (the state flower) or…The post Cut the Crape Myrtle! Texas Deserves a Better State Shrub appeared first on Texas Monthly.
The shiny copper top of a bottle of Tito’s Handmade Vodka is instantly recognizable at any bar across the country. The brand may have humble roots as the oldest legal distillery in Texas, but these days, imbibers from Los Angeles to New York City commonly order the vodka by name, advancing it into the echelon of Jack, Crown, and Grey Goose. But Tito’s was not an overnight success, says Taylor Berry, the vice president of brand marketing, but rather a “25-year overnight success.”When Tito’s celebrated its 25th anniversary in 2022, the Austin-based company considered it the right time to document its history alongside dozens of cocktail recipes. The brand’s debut book, Spirit in a Bottle: Tales and Drinks from Tito’s Handmade Vodka, out May 7…The post Tito’s Handmade Vodka’s Debut Book Is a Love Letter to Texas, Lake Life, and Dogs appeared first on Texas Monthly.
“Imagine you’re five years old, you’ve just had five margaritas, and your parents send you off to school,” says Alice McConnell, sipping hot tea at her kitchen table in northwest Austin. She isn’t setting up a joke, but explaining what it feels like for someone to have succinic semialdehyde dehydrogenase deficiency, a debilitating genetic disorder that is estimated to affect 1 in 460,000 people worldwide. That would suggest there are more than 17,000 active cases today, yet only 450 patients have ever been diagnosed. Two of those are McConnell’s own children.“If I only had one [kid with it], I might not have answered the call,” she says. “But I got two. The universe hit me upside the head and said, ‘Hey, pay attention.’ ”“The call” led…The post An Austin Mother’s Decade-Long Search for a Cure appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Back in the halcyon days of 2020, a year we all remember fondly, a new flash point opened in the enduring war between Texas and California. Technologists started picking up sticks in Taxifornia and moving to the Lone Star State in greater numbers. The enemy’s chief newspaper, the Los Angeles Times, worried that Silicon Valley’s “monopoly” was over and wondered if Austin was “the future.” Governor Greg Abbott declared Texas was “truly the land of business, jobs, and opportunity.”In the wave of stories about Austin’s ascension in 2020, there were always two pieces of evidence given top billing. That year the tech goliath Oracle relocated its HQ to Austin, where it had already built a massive campus on the south shore of Town Lake, and…The post Texas Attracted California Techies. Now It’s Losing Thousands of Them. appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Mohammed, a 21-year-old economics major at the University of Texas at Austin, has only sporadic communication with his extended family in Gaza. He might hear from them a couple times a week—usually in a text, sometimes in a video, or maybe in a phone call if he’s lucky. Whatever the medium, he said, the news is never good. “You don’t even feel happy about that ‘I’m alive’ text,” he said, “because you know, at that same time, they might only have two minutes left.” His family, whose home is in the center of the Gaza Strip, was trying to make it down to Rafah, in the territory’s southernmost region, a couple weeks after Israel began its ground invasion. Subjected to an embargo on food and water,…The post “This Would Have Been a Peaceful Gathering”: Behind the Scenes of the UT Protest appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Revamped from fifty shipping containers and an old city vehicle–maintenance warehouse and repainted black, Waco’s Hotel Herringbone still appears utilitarian from the street. Striking portraiture murals by Hawaii-based muralist Kamea Hadar and a red neon “Lobby” sign flashing to the street are the only hints of what lies beyond the corrugated walls. But past the iron gates is a steel menagerie of animal prints, comestibles, greenery, and time periods.Guests might start feeling the spirit of Greta Garbo or Jay Gatsby somewhere between checking in at the Persian carpet–covered reception desk and entering an art deco hotel room with an ostrich-feather floor lamp, a rotary phone, and a rolling not-so-mini bar cart. To provide visual relief from bold color blocking in the bedrooms, the bathrooms’ monochromatic…The post Hotel Herringbone Is Bringing a Bit of the Vegas Strip to Waco appeared first on Texas Monthly.
State representative Brian Harrison had spent only a day and a half at the Capitol when he experienced his first “betrayal,” as he puts it. It was early January, and the representative from Midlothian, 25 miles south of Dallas, was standing near his desk on the House floor as the chamber discussed rote procedural matters. One of Harrison’s allies, representative Bryan Slaton—who, later in the session, would be ejected from the Legislature after he plied a nineteen-year-old staffer with alcohol and had sex with her—had enlivened the usually dreary discussion, proposing two amendments to end what Harrison called the “insane practice” of granting some committee chairmanships to Democrats. Harrison watched as, without much debate, both measures were shot down through points of order, or POOs—the unfortunate…The post The Far Right Has Proposed a Twelve-Point Plan to Make the Texas House More Extreme appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Ah, springtime in Texas. Perfect weather for margaritas on the patio, pollen-induced allergy attacks, and, in many backyard gardens, sidewalks, and roads across the state, an invasion of fuzzy black caterpillars.Often called woolly bear or salt marsh caterpillars, these bristly critters often crawl out of their winter hiding spots this time of year. With many flowers and plants in full bloom across the state, spring is an ideal time for caterpillars to gorge themselves on food, gathering the energy they’ll need to weave a cocoon and undergo their transformation into moths later in the season. Rather than a single species, these caterpillars are a large group belonging to the subfamily Arctiinae, which includes more than six thousand species. “When people see a fuzzy caterpillar like…The post Why So Many Fuzzy Black Caterpillars Are Crawling Across Texas appeared first on Texas Monthly.
The dance steps come in on the lyric, “Did your boots stop workin’?”: Right heel, left heel, right heel, lift and tap the right foot forward then back, pivot turn, and swirl an arm overhead like a lasso. Some online guides will tell you the lasso move is optional, but you will need to do it if you want to perform the line dance just as pop-country star Dasha does on TikTok.“I really wanted to get people dancing at my shows,” says the 24-year-old singer, who also created the choreography. “I’ve gone out line dancing so many times in Nashville and I see how the culture isn’t as big in my generation. I wanted to bring it back.”This February, Dasha dropped a TikTok line dance…The post How TikTok Made Line Dancing Cool Again appeared first on Texas Monthly.
At InterStellar BBQ, outside Cedar Park, owner John Bates has just begun a year-long exploration into the roots of Texas barbecue sausages. He first chose to survey the origins of Polish sausage in Texas, and he is now serving the first in a series of kielbasas through the end of April. When I asked Bates to describe it, he said, “I hope this represents what a Polish immigrant might have been trying to make when he got to Texas.”“Kiełbasa” in Polish simply means “sausage.” There are many different varieties of kielbasa that vary in protein, seasoning, coarseness, casing type, and preparation. Bates developed InterStellar’s version based on kiełbasa wędzona, an all-pork Polish smoked sausage. He studied historical recipes to find a classic style with simple…The post An Austin Pitmaster Takes a Deep Dive Into Sausage History appeared first on Texas Monthly.
In 2020, Netflix released a show about a ragtag team of competitive cheerleaders from a small-town Texas junior college under the direction of a tough but loving coach. Cheer became an instant cultural sensation. But as quickly as the cast’s popularity soared, scandals began to mount. In this episode of the Story, Sarah Hepola recounts the challenges of covering the roller-coaster reputation of Navarro cheer for Texas Monthly‘s May 2024 cover feature: “What ‘Cheer’ Led to: How Viral Fame Upended Monica Aldama’s Life.”The post The Story: Reporting on the Rise and Fall of Netflix’s ‘Cheer’ appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Dunn DealI have subscribed to Texas Monthly for going on forty years. While the magazine has always had more of an Austin perspective, there was enough honest reporting and humor that one could still enjoy reading. But your “Billionaire Bully” article about Tim Dunn [“The Billionaire Who Runs Texas,” March 2024] was the final straw. Even if you disagreed with Dunn’s faith, politics, and methods, you still could have presented a fair and objective story. But this article reminded me of the way Tucker Carlson would smugly treat his guests—a scorched-earth attack, justified because your author, of course, thinks his position is correct.Dave Odom, CrockettI am deeply dismayed by Texas Monthly’s increasingly blatant attacks on religious conservatives. I am not a Dunn supporter, and I…The post Roar of the Crowd: May 2024 appeared first on Texas Monthly.
No matter how enterprising its reporting may be, or how lyrical its writing, a magazine hasn’t earned a spot on your coffee table unless its stories are enlivened with handsome photography and illustrations and design. That’s what our art department strives to accomplish in every print issue and on our other storytelling platforms. And I’m proud to report that its work is earning recognition from our peers.When the National Magazine Awards were presented in New York City in April, Texas Monthly was a finalist in three categories, including Best News and Entertainment Photograph, for a cover image that I’ll bet you remember—of a mischievous-looking feral hog. In the City and Regional Magazine Association awards, to be presented in May, we’ve been short-listed in all seven…The post Bringing Stories to Life appeared first on Texas Monthly.
My wife and I recently decided to buy our first home together. For the past two years, we’ve been living in a two-bedroom townhouse in Houston’s Montrose neighborhood that I purchased in 2021, when I was still single. It was the perfect bachelor pad, but less than ideal for a couple with two young dogs. After a few weeks of house-hunting, we fell in love with a Craftsman-style bungalow on a quiet street in the Heights, northwest of downtown, with a large kitchen, an old-fashioned front porch, and a fenced-in yard where our dogs could play. We knew we’d have a high mortgage rate and pay high property taxes. What we didn’t anticipate, when the sellers accepted our bid, was a home insurance market that…The post What the Bleep Is Going On With Texas Home Insurance? appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Walking through San Antonio’s new 40,000-square-foot specialty grocer and eatery, Pullman Market, I couldn’t help but draw parallels to my first time visiting Eataly in New York’s Flatiron District. Swap the aisles of fresh mozz (though Pullman has that too) and Italian wine bar with fresh-off-the-press tortillas and a mezcal bar, and you have Pearl’s latest addition. I toured the massive market from Austin’s Emmer & Rye Hospitality Group in early April with an animating question on my mind: Does Pearl need another food court? In addition to several restaurants—including Ladino, another Emmer & Rye spot—at the endlessly growing development north of downtown, Pearl’s Food Hall at Bottling Department houses a collection of fine grab-and-go restaurants where shoppers can pick up barbecue, fried chicken, pizza, tacos,…The post It Doesn’t Get More Texas Than This New Food Hall and Market appeared first on Texas Monthly.
The smiling, geriatric face, plastered upon a twenty-foot-tall billboard, looms above a four-lane roadway on the edge of Sweetwater, Texas, a dusty 10,000-person town an hour west of Abilene. To the right of the cheerful visage, a desperate message—part personal ad and part hostage-negotiation note—beckons drivers down a romantic rabbit hole in large block letters: LONELY MALECAN RELOCATESWEETWATERSEEKS FEMALE MARRIAGE MINDED. ENJOY KARAOKE. Like the mysterious monolith that appeared in the Utah desert some years back, this visual mating call has manifested in the most unlikely of locations. Sweetwater, a religious, family oriented community surrounded by prairie, is better known for its annual rattlesnake roundup than its robust singles scene. In fact, according to Karen Hunt, executive director of the Sweetwater chamber of commerce, many…The post A Lonely Man, a Bizarre Billboard, and a Quest for Everlasting Love appeared first on Texas Monthly.
“Here’s your Chicken 65,” announced our server. We stared at the bowl, steam rising from the heap of golden brown nibbles of fried meat. You’d expect to find the southern Indian snack in a casual setting (of the many theories regarding the name, one posits that it was created at a hotel in Chennai in 1965). But what was it doing at a smart-looking restaurant in a fancy new Houston development? I popped a toasty bite in my mouth. Oh. “Chicken nuggets of the gods” might be going too far, but these tender morsels had a lot going on: expert frying, complex spice (curry leaf, ginger, mustard seed), a glaze of glossy chile-butter sauce. My friends and I devoured piece after piece. Our server confirmed that…The post Auden Hits the Ball Out of Autry Park appeared first on Texas Monthly.
FilmHit ManIn select theaters May 24 Loosely based on Skip Hollandsworth’s 2001 Texas Monthly story of the same name, this romantic comedy/thriller stars Austin native Glen Powell as an amiable professor who leads a double life working for the police as a pretend murderer for hire. But then he falls in love with one of his prospective clients, played by Adria Arjona, who is desperate to escape her abusive husband. The tangle of deception and romance leads to a comedy of errors and a descent into a violent underworld. Powell cowrote the script with fellow Texan Richard Linklater, who knows a thing or two about making a noir screwball from a Hollandsworth true-crime feature (see 2011’s Bernie, starring Jack Black and Matthew McConaughey). If you can’t…The post The Checklist: Three Reasons This Is a Great Month in Texas Culture appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Sprawled across the shag carpet in his San Antonio living room in 1979, six-year-old Dario Robleto was convinced that extraterrestrials had made contact with humankind. Robleto, home with a mild fever and possessed of an active imagination, mixed up something he saw on a news broadcast concerning the Golden Record, a time capsule–like phonograph album that had been launched into space four years earlier by NASA’s Voyager program. The newscasters announced an 800 number that viewers could call to listen to the record’s audio track, which was full of sounds—ranging from a Bach concerto to surf pounding the sand—for an extraterrestrial civilization to someday decipher. “I thought they were announcing that we had made contact with aliens, and this was the record they were sending to…The post The Artist Who Wonders What Creatures on Other Planets Will Think of Chuck Berry appeared first on Texas Monthly.
The lunch hour at Harlandale Middle School, on San Antonio’s South Side, is one of the only times during the school day students are allowed to use their phones. Between the streams of incoming notifications and the rumble of preteen socializing, the short period slips by quickly, and loudly—which makes the Bible-study session at the back corner table all the more notable.Since the beginning of the winter semester, ten 13- and 14-year-old boys have met weekly with Jaime Carmona, a 23-year-old part-time campus minister who seems to vibrate with excitement when he talks about Jesus. The teens bring their Bibles, move through the lunch line to retrieve their food on styrene trays, and huddle around Carmona as he emphasizes core Christian beliefs regarding sin, Jesus’s…The post When It Comes to Texas Public Schools, Jesus Is Already in the Building appeared first on Texas Monthly.
On a late February evening in 2023, the winds off the Gulf of Mexico turned the temperature in Corpus Christi from mild to teeth-chattering. Nevertheless, a friend and I were determined to cross Birrieria y Mariscos El General off our day’s itinerary of seven stops. I wasn’t jaded or tired from the previous six meals of serviceable tacos in commodity tortillas, but I was hopeful Birrieria y Mariscos El General would change my mind about cheesy beef birria. (I’m not a fan of the tacos that were once a trend but are now a taqueria staple.) The promise of fresh seafood dishes, such as fiery aguachiles and bright ceviche, though, was the real hook for me. And so, underdressed for the weather in lightweight hoodies, we walked…The post Dine on Birria and Ceviche by the Sea at This Coastal Taco Truck appeared first on Texas Monthly.
The final episode of Shane and Sally ties up whatever loose ends are capable of being tied. But as Karen and Rob discuss in this closing interview, not all the questions have been answered. They return to the podcast studio one last time to discuss their investigation’s four main conclusions.The post Inside the Episode: Bonus Video for ‘Shane and Sally’ Episode 7 appeared first on Texas Monthly.
On a damp March morning, I strapped bags full of camping gear to the frame of my gravel bike and joined about 250 cyclists for the fourth annual East Texas Showdown, one of the state’s biggest and longest bikepacking events. The starting line was in Point Blank, about twenty miles east of Huntsville. For the first hour or so, the pack rode east together, swarming the two-mile stretch of U.S. 190 spanning the massive breadth of Lake Livingston. Those first ten miles were deceptively smooth as we fell into pace and familiarized ourselves with the faces we’d get to know for the next 165 (or 280 or 400) miles. We said goodbye to the smooth highway as we turned onto our first gravel road. Then…The post I Biked 165 Miles Behind the Pine Curtain of East Texas appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Like so many of Dr. Irene Stafford’s impoverished and unhoused patients, the twentysomething woman showed up, in labor, at the Houston hospital having received no formal prenatal care. Stafford, a maternal and fetal medicine specialist, leaped into action and safely delivered the baby.As required by Texas law, the young woman was tested for syphilis, a sexually transmitted disease that can prove deadly to the mother and can spread to the fetus in the womb if untreated. The test results were positive, but by the time the doctors received them—many hours later—the new mother and her infant had been discharged.Stafford called the phone number provided by the patient, whom she refers to as Miss Jones to maintain her privacy. The woman who answered introduced herself as…The post Fighting a Syphilis Surge in Houston appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Bridgett vonHoldt was grabbing lunch at Viet Cajun, a restaurant on the Galveston Island Seawall, when a chatty local approached her. The man had pegged her and her group, correctly, as out-of-towners. Birders, he figured, if the binoculars they carried were any clue. “You know what you should do,” he told vonHoldt, “is go look at these wolves.” VonHoldt was thrilled at the suggestion—not because it was the kind of locally sourced hot tip that travelers crave, but because she is one of the preeminent experts on the “ghost wolves” of Galveston, coyotes that carry unusually high levels of DNA from red wolves, the world’s most endangered wolf. VonHoldt, an associate professor of evolutionary genomics at Princeton University, and Kristin Brzeski, a conservation geneticist now at…The post The Ghost Wolves of Galveston vs. Margaritaville appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Listen to this episode on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Read the transcript below.Learn more about the case with original videos, archival photos, and documents from our reporting in our episode guide. Subscribe Apple Podcasts — Spotify “You want to love your kid forever. But once they pass on, the only thing you can take forward from them is the love that you had for ’em and the good times that you shared.”—Marshall StewartIn the final episode of Shane and Sally, victims in a series of unsolved attacks at the lakes surrounding San Angelo wonder if their assailants were also the ones who killed Shane Stewart and Sally McNelly. Investigators discuss the possibility that someone in law enforcement could know more about the murders than they’ve let…The post ‘Shane and Sally,’ Episode 7: “The Cold Case” appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Earlier this month, the Texas Monthly art department was named a finalist in seven categories by the Society of Publication Designers—one of them being brand of the year. TM is in prestigious company in that category, nominated alongside Garden & Gun, The Guardian, National Geographic, and The New York Times Magazine. Texas Monthly was recognized as a finalist in the below categories:Brand of the YearTexas MonthlyDesign: Cover, News/Documentary/EssayMarch 2023, “The Campaign to Sabotage Public Schools“Design: Feature, Lifestyle/Travel/Food/Shelter; StoryNovember 2023, “The Good Place“Photography: Feature, Lifestyle/Travel/Food/Shelter; Single/SpreadMarch 2023, “Where to Eat Now“Photography: Feature, Lifestyle/Travel/Food/Shelter; StoryNovember 2023, “The Good Place“Illustration: StorySeptember 2023, “We’re #1“Social: Entire Channel@TexasMonthly Instagram The winners will be announced during the 59th Annual SPD Awards Presentation in June. For a full list of finalists, click here. Congratulations to Emily Kimbro, Victoria…The post Texas Monthly Art Department Recognized in the Society of Publication Designers’ Annual Competition appeared first on Texas Monthly.
The University of Texas at El Paso’s unlikely relationship with the small Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan dates to 1917, when the institution—then the Texas State School of Mines and Metallurgy—moved to the foothills of the Franklin Mountains. Inspired by National Geographic photos of the remote country’s mountain fortresses, the dean’s wife pushed for campus buildings to be designed in the Bhutanese architectural style. Visitors today can admire their thick, sloping walls, high inset windows, overhanging roofs, and brick-mosaic borders. They can also see an authentic Bhutanese structure. Originally constructed for a festival in Washington, D.C., the Lhakhang (which roughly translates to “temple”) was given to the school in 2008 to honor a special friendship—Bhutanese students have attended UTEP for decades. Built without nails by artisans…The post How a Bhutanese Temple Found a Home on the Border appeared first on Texas Monthly.
The mistress’s testimony that wasn’t, Rusty Hardin’s snafu, a dismissed motion to drop all the charges, and more.
Shouldn’t Paxton be present for the proceedings? Best guesses on the outcome? We posed these questions and more.
Starting in this issue, you’ll find visual delight from the first page to the last—and a whole new section.
Mr. D’s BBQ in Texarkana is located across the street from a truck stop, and offers up chicken and ribs to those who don’t have many options on the road.
Countless right wingers could do the attorney general's job more effectively, but none would so reliably serve the interests of one faction in the Texas GOP's civil war.
The young personal injury lawyer testified on an investigation allegedly launched for the benefit of Nate Paul.
The Como Motel, where Candy Montgomery famously met up with Allan Gore, has recently been sold. Locals are organizing to ensure it doesn’t end up as a parking lot.
With a vibrant festival scene, a funky downtown, and great birding, it offers more than just sand and surf.
Photographer Keith Carter explores the otherworldly wetlands of East Texas in a stunning new book.
His victory in the 1994 governor’s race wasn’t the election that really transformed the state.
Rick Perry rides a gunboat. Ted Cruz goes militiaman. Ron DeSantis and George P. Bush try their best.
A New York man wants to know the best place to live in Texas, weather-wise, and an Austin man asks for some cold-treat recommendations.
This Hill Country bar and honky-tonk—the first in the state to obtain a liquor license after Prohibition—still fosters community after nine decades.
The attorney general’s affair finally took center stage. Plus, testimony on a meeting at Galaxy Cafe, a red car, and a Bible verse.
Delays in dispatching the alert system mean that some children fall between the cracks.
With a win over Alabama and quarterback Quinn Ewers playing like the five-star talent he was recruited to be, UT is riding high.
Exclusive: Auberge Resorts plans a posh new hotel in Houston, one of five properties it will operate around the state.
Prolific Fort Worth restaurateur Felipe Armenta and celebrity chef Graham Elliot have opened Le Margot, a French restaurant as exuberant as they are.
The explosion of color found at the Chihuahuan Desert Research Institute is not a mirage.
Decades after the Nashville establishment turned its back on Tanya Tucker, the spitfire from Seminole is finally getting the recognition she deserves. But maybe Music Row needs her more than she needs Music Row.
When my son joined a middle school team, I researched heat safety. What I found was troubling.
On Saturday, state representative Carl Sherman announced the long-awaited start of his U.S. Senate campaign against Ted Cruz, the conservative firebrand whom liberals love to hate. Sherman, a 57-year-old Church of Christ pastor from the Dallas County city of DeSoto, is the third prominent Democrat to throw his hat in the ring, following Dallas-area congressman Colin Allred and state senator Roland Gutierrez, of San Antonio. All of the Democrats in the race are hoping that one of them can finish what former U.S. congressman Beto O’Rourke started in 2018, when he electrified the Democratic grass roots and came within 3 percentage points of ousting Cruz. But that’s no easy feat: at its core, Texas is still a Republican-leaning state that will require a strong Democratic…The post Who Is Carl Sherman, the Latest Democrat Trying to Unseat Ted Cruz? appeared first on Texas Monthly.
After the deadly statewide power outage in 2021, academics, experts, and politicians floated a lot of blue-sky ideas about how to keep the Texas power grid running in all kinds of weather. Some were practical, such as increasing transmission capacity to use all of the solar and wind energy the state is capable of producing, while others were downright fanciful: what if, Ted Cruz posited, we relied on Bitcoin miners to help save the grid?Texas is, of course, a fanciful place, and while we’ve yet to substantially scale up transmission, that Bitcoin idea won the support of Governor Greg Abbott—and the Texas Legislature, which passed two mining-friendly bills in the last session—and has gone from a bizarre idea to, essentially, plan A for preventing blackouts.…The post Texas Paid a Bitcoin Miner $31.7 Million to Use Less Electricity During the State’s Hottest Month appeared first on Texas Monthly.
You probably won’t get promoted based on your ability to make a fuzzy stool. And a crocheted lemon serves no real purpose. So, why does Trade Oak Cliff offer classes on both? The better question is: Why not?Long-time public school educators Corrie Pocta and Brooke Chaney founded the artists’ co-op and workshop space in Dallas’s Tyler Station with adults in mind.“One of the most popular statements in adult art classes is, ‘Well, I’m not very creative,’ ” says Chaney, who goes by the artist moniker MOM. “Once you get to a certain age, you’ve been stifled and beaten down by life and you don’t think that you could experience or learn something new.”Courses are curated by Trade Oak Cliff’s six in-house artists—as individuals, they decide on…The post Back to (Art) School: Try One of These Crafty Adults-Only Classes Across Texas appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Latin name: Apalone spiniferaSize: As long as 21 inches (female) or 9 inches (male)Habitat: Anywhere wet, especially riversThe creature paddling leisurely in the gin-clear water at Balmorhea State Park, in far West Texas, was the approximate size, shape, and color of a buttermilk flapjack. When I crouched along the grassy banks of a small ciénaga, or desert wetland, near the park’s lodge, the turtle raised its long, wrinkly neck and stared at me. I couldn’t help but smile. Spiny softshell turtles are delightfully strange. Their snorkel-like snout, pinprick eyes, and fat feet appear to be borrowed from a fantastical anime character. The Texas spiny softshell (illustrated above) that resides in the Pecos and Rio Grande river systems is one of four subspecies in the state. I’ve…The post Meet Texas’s Strangest Turtle appeared first on Texas Monthly.
A snake dropped from the sky, coiled itself around the arm of a Silsbee woman, and was then attacked by a hawk that bloodied the woman, who later concluded, “This probably is never going to happen again.”Border Patrol agents in Brownsville arrested a juvenile who was allegedly trying to smuggle seven critically endangered baby spider monkeys into the country in a backpack.A Houston woman went to Ukraine to support the war effort by working as an “emotional support stripper.”A Texas man who was riding a pair of horses from Austin to Seattle ended his trip in Spokane, just shy of his goal, after he was charged with a misdemeanor for having allowed his horses’ paperwork to expire. A female influencer from Harris County known as…The post Meanwhile, in Texas: A Snake, a Hawk, and a Woman Had an Unlikely Encounter . . . appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Since the colonial era, Mexican cooks have adopted immigrant cuisines to create hybrid dishes. The taco al pastor, for example, uses pork from Spanish pigs cooked on a Lebanese vertical roasting spit. Mexican sushi was born of the same pragmatism and flair for innovation. In the late nineteenth century, Japanese laborers emigrated to Mexico to work on coffee plantations, farms, and railroads. Eventually, Japanese restaurants opened in Mexico City to serve the growing community. ICHI Restaurante has been operating since 1959, and Sushi Dai has been open for more than thirty years. As more Mexicans patronized the restaurants, owners began adapting dishes to their tastes. In the decades since, Mexican sushi has spread across Mexican border states and into the U.S., particularly via chains such as…The post Mexican Sushi Is Rolling Across the Border appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Do you support Ken Paxton, the embattled and impeached Texas attorney general? Would you champion him online for, say, $50? That’s not just a theoretical question. Before the start of his impeachment trial this week, pro-Paxton political forces were paying for influencers to post on social media in support of the state’s top legal authority, who faces sixteen counts ranging from dereliction of official duty to bribery and conspiracy.How do I know this? Because I signed up to be a social media influencer, and to my great surprise, I earned $50 for each of two posts. I received an email confirming payment on Tuesday morning, mere minutes after the state senators placed their hands on the “Sam Houston Bible” (which likely didn’t actually belong to…The post My Brief Career as a Paid Pro-Paxton Propagandist appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Rangers versus Astros. Three roaring crowds, first place on the line, September baseball the way it has never been in the Lone Star State. On Labor Day afternoon, in front of a packed house at Arlington’s Globe Life Field, arguably the most important regular-season series ever played in Texas got off to a fabulous start with a back-and-forth game that was tied 5–5 entering the seventh inning.Pretty much nothing in sports is as much fun as pennant-race baseball, in which entire seasons seemingly ride on every pitch. We’ve watched it for years in other places and times, like those seasons when the Boston Red Sox and the New York Yankees unleash a century of spite on each other. It’s beautiful, exhausting, and finally ours.This has been…The post The Houston Astros Still Run Texas Baseball appeared first on Texas Monthly.
The origins of barbecue are murky. Both the transformation from the word “barbacoa” and the development of the cooking process are widely accepted as having come from the Taíno people Christoper Columbus first encountered in present-day Haiti. In an article updated earlier this year, Smithsonian magazine succinctly described barbecue’s journey, saying that, “[as] the Spanish explorers who followed Columbus turned their expeditions north, they brought the cooking technique with them . . . Eventually, the technique made its way to the colonies, traveling as far north as Virginia.” I made a similar account in one of my own articles a decade ago. After much research, author Joseph R. Haynes explains why we’ve got it all wrong in his new book, From Barbycu to Barbecue: The Untold History of an…The post Is Everything We Know About the Origins of Barbecue Wrong? appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Here you can sleep in a yellow caboose, swim in one of the many nearby watering holes, and eat a steak in the ‘Texas Chain Saw Massacre’ house.
Recent research out of Dallas and Houston highlights the “science-fictionlike” power of your body’s microbiome—and a high-fiber diet.
Texas Sage Forge founder Sergio Menchaca makes custom pieces out of reclaimed metal and wood.
The booming North Texas city has an eclectic food scene, an indie bookstore, and a vintage railroad—all within downtown.
In her new memoir, ‘Up Home,’ Ruth J. Simmons details how she defied the constraints of her segregated childhood and turned her humble origins into the key to her success.
The Texas attorney general has been absent from the chamber as former aides testify about his affair and alleged corruption.
As United Methodist congregations across the U.S. leave over LGBTQ inclusion and the interpretation of Scripture, one East Texas community is rent asunder.
WHO: Tally, a Kemp’s ridley sea turtle; a Welsh Good Samaritan; and a host of government, university, and nonprofit organizations. WHAT: The end of a saga that took one of the world’s rarest sea turtles from her home in the Gulf of Mexico all the way to the coast of Wales—and back. WHY IT’S SO GREAT: Generally, if an animal gets swept up in a strong Gulf current and deposited somewhere many thousands of miles from home, it’s not a story that has a happy ending. And when the animal in question is among the most endangered species in the world, the stakes are heightened—but it’s all good news in the two-year, four-thousand-mile odyssey of Tally. Tally was found back in November 2021 on the shore of North…The post Tallyho to Tally the Texas Sea Turtle, Whose 4,000-Mile Journey Has a Happy Ending appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Wyatt Fields grew up surfing in El Granada, California, just south of San Francisco. In his mid-twenties, he first attempted the infamous and punishing waves of Mavericks, which he has since surfed dozens of times. When the winter swells begin off the coast, you can see them from the top floor of the building that houses Breakwater Barbecue, which Fields opened in his hometown in 2020. Way over on the other side of the bay, in an industrial West Oakland neighborhood, Matt Horn opened his highly acclaimed Horn Barbecue the same year. The two are friends, having commiserated during drawn-out permitting processes and then during the process of opening a restaurant in the first year of a pandemic. Despite the contrast between their settings, the…The post Texas-Style Brisket Continues Its Worldwide Domination With the Bay Area appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Sonny Lamb, the hero of Lawrence Wright’s new novel, Mr. Texas (Knopf, September 19), is a good-natured young rancher from the Big Bend region of West Texas. Sonny played football at Sul Ross State University in Alpine, fought in the Iraq War, and then had a brief career as a country singer. He was good enough, almost, to get a recording contract.Sonny is not exactly the smartest rancher in Texas. As the novel opens, he puts a bull up for sale at a livestock auction, suddenly changes his mind, and buys it back for $10,000. But a few days later, when he becomes a minor celebrity after saving a ten-year-old girl from a barn fire, a political consultant persuades him to run for a seat…The post What a Pulitzer Prize Winner Learned While Researching a Novel About Texas Politics appeared first on Texas Monthly.
While many expected a crowd to form outside the Capitol grounds’ black wrought-iron fences on the first morning of Ken Paxton’s impeachment trial, those who arrived first had to have been disappointed by the sparse predawn numbers. Perhaps they hadn’t needed to arrive at 2:45 a.m. after all.By 6 a.m., when the lawn sprinklers announced daybreak and spread extra mist into the humid air, a crowd of about a dozen reporters and cameramen started to gather at the south entrance. One reporter wiped his laptop and muttered that his screen was getting wet. Another asked, “What word should we use to describe this humidity? Suffocating?”Anxious to get the first spot in the security line, a Paxton supporter near the east-side gate hopped over a spot…The post Waiting in Line for Ken Paxton appeared first on Texas Monthly.
You don’t need to belong to a country club, or even have especially deep pockets, to enjoy high-quality golf. Here we are blessed with plentiful daily-fee and municipal courses. According to recent National Golf Foundation statistics, Texas ranks fifth in the U.S.—behind only California, Florida, Michigan, and New York—in number of public courses, with some six hundred tracks across the state. That’s roughly the same as our number of Dairy Queens. For this guide, seven staffers and freelancers, including one who is new to the game, collectively traveled thousands of miles to all corners of the state, putting in the hard work to come up with our list of eighteen (seemed like a good number) of Texas’s greatest public golf courses. Note that the result…The post A Guide to Texas’s Best Public Golf Courses appeared first on Texas Monthly.
From a young age, San Antonio photographer Al Rendón felt a compulsion to photograph events. In 1969, as he watched the moon landing, the twelve-year-old took a photo of his television set. That same year, when he heard the film Viva Max! was shooting in downtown San Antonio, he snapped pictures of the actors (before security shooed him away). By the time he was sixteen years old, he was confident enough to take his high school’s photography equipment to a Led Zeppelin concert, rushing the stage to get close shots.From September 2 through January 7, San Antonio’s Witte Museum will run a fifty-year retrospective of Rendón’s work: “Mi Cultura—Bringing Shadows Into the Light: The Photography of Al Rendón.” The show includes the 66-year-old’s early rock photographs…The post A New Photo Exhibit Celebrates the “Cultura” of South Texas, From Sandra Cisneros to Selena appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Tony Buzbee’s Grilling of Jeff Mateer Is Mimi Swartz, 12:55 p.m. The cross examination of Jeff Mateer by Paxton’s lawyer Tony Buzbee is starting to look, for the pro-impeachment side, like what my son would call a s***show. My lawyer friend has a different word: “catastrophe.” The main problems for the prosecution are that 1) Mateer doesn’t seem well prepped to answer specific lines of leading questioning and 2) the attorneys for the prosecution aren’t objecting when Buzbee brings up matters not directly relevant to the trial. For example, Buzbee asked if Mateer had ever received a text from Dick Trabulsi, who is a big deal with Texans for Lawsuit reform, the influential political action committee that heavily backed a primary opponent of Paxton’s. This…The post Live Updates From the Ken Paxton Impeachment Trial’s Second Day appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Victor Wembanyama is not the only thing that will be blocking out the sun in San Antonio this fall. That’s because the Alamo City is one of the best places to be for the eclipse. The other eclipse, that is. Texas is the only state in the U.S. that is smack-dab in the middle of the path of both the eagerly anticipated April 8, 2024, total solar eclipse and the annular solar eclipse on October 14 of this year. One San Antonio–based eclipse glasses manufacturer has somewhat awkwardly dubbed this convergence “the Texas 2’Clipse™.”While spring’s total eclipse will only be at 100 percent in parts of San Antonio, you can experience the full October show anywhere in the city, along with portions of the nearby Hill…The post Where to Watch the October 14 Solar Eclipse in Texas appeared first on Texas Monthly.
“Death always leaves one singer to mourn.” –Katherine Ann Porter Ben Kweller quietly strums an acoustic guitar backstage as hundreds of fans crowd into Austin’s Historic Scoot Inn on a 102-degree night. It’s the final show of a summer tour that included stops in Denver, Oklahoma City, San Antonio, Dallas, and Houston. Many in the audience have followed the musician for more than twenty years, back when Ben, then a talented kid from Greenville, Texas, became one of the most sought-after singer-songwriters in the country. While the audience waits in the heat, napkins transform into makeshift fans and backs become drenched in sweat. This summer tour was intended to be a first for Ben—his sixteen-year-old son, Dorian, on the brink of launching his own musical…The post Ben Kweller Is Playing Through the Pain appeared first on Texas Monthly.
This episode is part of a sponsored content series with the Perini Ranch Steakhouse. Hear more stories here. Subscribe APPLE – SPOTIFY Over the last 40 years, Perini Ranch Steakhouse has catered numerous events, but few more memorable than that of September 11th, 2001. In this special episode, Tom and Lisa Perini share their unique perspective from the historic day as they prepared to cater the Congressional Picnic at the White House.The post Meet Me At The Wagon – Episode 5: The Congressional Picnic appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Something has always gone awry during my recent trips to central and southern Mexico. Two hours into a June trip to Oaxaca, my wife sliced her head open. After a couple hours, she was stitched up and ready for the remainder of our five-day adventure. By the end of my first night in Puebla in late August, my big toe was bleeding for unknown reasons. My hotel came through with bandages, iodine solution, and cotton. While I limped during most of my nearly week-long trip, I was free to soak up the knowledge of the city and the surrounding area. I traveled with the two friends I usually travel with when visiting Mexico. The first is cook and author Nick Zukin, who has been visiting…The post Six Must-Try Taquerias and Restaurants in Puebla, Mexico appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Tre Johnson’s three seasons of varsity basketball at Lake Highlands High School, in Dallas, were bookended by standout performances. Johnson debuted in December 2020 by scoring a team-high 30 points in a double-digit win. Last March, the six-foot-five junior shooting guard was named the most valuable player of the 55–44 victory over Beaumont United in the class 6A state championship game in San Antonio’s Alamodome.“Tre’s just incredibly skilled,” Lake Highlands coach Joe Duffield said recently. “He’s got great size and length for a perimeter player. He shoots the ball incredibly well. He can do it all.”Johnson is one of the nation’s most coveted collegiate recruits. Texas and Baylor are on the list of schools he’s considering, along with Alabama, Arkansas, Kansas, and Kentucky. But it…The post How Texas’s NIL Law Drives Top High School Athletes Out of State appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Stanley McMahan, who is 62, lives in Blossom, near the North Texas town of Paris. He earned his watchmaking credentials in Switzerland and has taught horology at Paris Junior College since 2018.About five weeks after I got my first job changing batteries and selling watches on the retail side of a watch shop in Colorado, in 1983, one of the watchmakers had a heart attack and the other watchmaker left. That left me and the owner and two other employees. I sat down one evening and looked at the watches on the bench and realized we had to put them all back together and get them to the customers. So I assembled my first watch. Once I had it running, I realized that’s what God…The post When This Watchmaking Instructor Is in the Classroom, the Hours Pass Like Minutes appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Under overcast skies, a four-seat propeller plane took off from an airstrip south of Houston for a routine patrol of the area’s waterways. Its crew, two volunteers with the U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary, flew low along Buffalo Bayou until they neared downtown. After executing a tight U-turn in their Cessna Skylane, they cut back east, passing north of Baytown, headed for Trinity Bay.There they spotted a rainbow sheen—about thirty feet wide and a couple of hundred feet long—stretching across the murky water, a telltale sign of a leaking oil well. They had seen and reported it before. Now the well appeared to be releasing petroleum into the bay at a faster rate.So the Coast Guard again notified the state’s General Land Office, which contacted the…The post Hundreds of Abandoned Oil Wells Are Rotting Away in Texas Bays appeared first on Texas Monthly.
The MAGA Elephants Never Forget Alexandra Samuels, 7:14 a.m. Ken Paxton couldn’t overturn the 2020 election in favor of Donald Trump. But he got something from his efforts to do so: a who’s who of the far-right have taken up Paxton’s defense to help him beat the allegations ahead of today’s impeachment proceedings—beginning with his most important friend, the former president. “Dade Phelan, who is barely a Republican at all and failed the test on voter integrity, wants to impeach one of the most hard working and effective Attorney Generals in the United States, Ken Paxton, who just won re-election with a large number of American Patriots strongly voting for him,” Trump wrote in May on Truth Social, his social media platform, when the Texas…The post Ken Paxton’s Impeachment Trial Starts Today. Follow Along Live. appeared first on Texas Monthly.
This week it was announced that Texas Monthly‘s September 2022 cover story, about the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders, by writer-at-large Sarah Hepola, will be featured in The Year’s Best Sports Writing 2023. Edited by Richard Deitsch and published by Triumph Books, The Year’s Best Sports Writing 2023 is a curated anthology of exemplary sportswriting published during the past year in newspapers, magazines, and digital publications. Hepola’s essay, which originally appeared in print with the headline “A Half Century of High Kicks and Hot Pants,” was the capstone of a year-long project for her. Hepola was the writer and host of America’s Girls, a limited-series podcast delving into the history and cultural influence of the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders; she also wrote additional digital articles that further explored…The post A TM Story by Sarah Hepola Is Selected for ‘The Year’s Best Sports Writing 2023’ appeared first on Texas Monthly.
The resident wino is unbothered by the audience gathered around him. He is lying in the grass, pressed up to a fence. His name is Blake, and he is a four-year-old white rhinoceros who lives in a large enclosure on the grounds of Rhinory, a winery near Fredericksburg that opened in 2019. Blake is a soldier in the battle for rhinoceros conservation; Rhinory’s owners became committed to the cause while on a visit to South Africa prior to opening the winery and subsequently partnered with the International Rhino Foundation to host him here in Texas. But he is also a spectacle, as I suspect rhinos are even to other wild animals. Several visitors hover a few feet from him, watching as his minder contentedly pets…The post Don’t Napa My 290 appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Texas Monthly has had a big year in film and television. After the success of Max’s Love & Death, which debuted May 2023, the magazine will see another of its stories brought to life onscreen: the feature film Hit Man. Co-written and produced by director Richard Linklater and actor Glen Powell and based off the 2001 Texas Monthly story by Skip Hollandsworth, the film will premiere at the eightieth annual Venice International Film Festival on Tuesday, September 5, with the North American premiere to follow at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 11, and a stateside premiere at the New York Film Festival on October 3.Courtesy of AGC StudiosThe film centers around the story of Gary Johnson, Houston’s deadliest assassin. The twist? He’s working…The post ‘Hit Man’ to Premiere Worldwide at Venice Film Festival appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Galling as it may be to Houstonians who recall fondly the “Luv Ya Blue” era of the Houston Oilers, the Texans don’t have the right to wear the iconic light-blue, white, and red-striped uniforms of the city’s predecessor NFL franchise. That privilege rests solely with the Tennessee Titans, which maintained the Oilers’ franchise history, records, and trademarks when the organization relocated to the Volunteer State back in 1997. For years, that has meant that no one has worn the Oilers’ uniforms—despite a great deal of interest from Texans fans and players to slap an oil rig on the side of a helmet with a red face guard and strut onto the field in baby blue and white.This year, though, the Titans decided to revive the…The post The Oilers’ Iconic Baby Blue Is Back in Houston—At Least for the Cougars appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Like the apex salesman he is, Brad Parscale is pitching me his new company—which is really his old company, but more on that in a moment. He’s explaining how he intends to use artificial intelligence to supercharge advertising. All kinds of advertising. Parscale, who became a well-known national figure as the digital director for Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign, says he’s done with the bright glare of presidential politics, but even here, discussing the nuts and bolts of his business, he can’t help himself—there’s a deep political undercurrent.“I think there’s a lot of patriot companies who want an agency that’s a non-woke, Christian-based agency that wants to help grow their businesses,” he says. “I think AiAdvertising could be a leading company, delivering that service.”A decade ago,…The post Trump’s Digital Guru Is Back, This Time With a Powerful New Texas Ally appeared first on Texas Monthly.
SEPTEMBER PERKS Brisket U | Get $10 off any Brisket U Class with code TXMNEWS23 Juan & Allie’s BBQ | Location: 114 Tx Spur 511 Sunset Tx 76270 Eaker Barbecue | 10% off all merch and free sticker; See calendar for specials. New Daily Menu Items: Sloppy Joe Sliders 2 for $8; Chef Salad $8/$12 with turkey or turkey salad; Turkey Salad Sandwich $8 LeRoy and Lewis | Hosting their sixth iteration of their comprehensive New School BBQ University. Spend the weekend with the L&L crew cooking their whole meat menu on their pits. All meals are provided from Friday evening – Sunday afternoon. Up your BBQ game and make lasting connections in the industry! Email sawyer@leroyandlewis.com to sign up! Tuition is $2000 for the…The post September 2023 Pit Perks appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Plano is a Texas success story. The affluent suburb of 300,000 residents northeast of Dallas is widely recognized as one of the most family-friendly towns in the country. Just this year, it was ranked among the top five safest cities in America, the ten best cities to find a job, and the 25 best small- to mid-size cities. The city’s quality of life and business-friendly policies have attracted some of the world’s largest corporations, including Frito-Lay, Keurig Dr Pepper, and Toyota. Perhaps no city offers a better example of the so-called “Texas Miracle”—the system of low taxes, light regulation, and small government that Republicans credit for making the state an economic dynamo. But Plano mayor John Muns, a lifelong Republican, says the city’s success is now…The post Republican and Democratic Cities Band Together to Blow Up the Death Star Bill appeared first on Texas Monthly.
The Patriotic Pig was started as a barbecue catering company, mostly for weddings, by Marc and Gina Smith in 2016. A year in, business was so good Marc quit his job in IT, and Gina quit her job a year later to manage the operation. Eventually, they opened their restaurant in North Richland Hills on July 4th weekend in 2019. They were going nowhere but up before the pandemic arrived in 2020. The restaurant closed its dining room, and all the brides and grooms canceled their weddings, asking for refunds of the catering deposits they’d made. It almost broke the Smiths. They sold their home in Grapevine and moved into an apartment near the restaurant. A PPP loan helped keep the business afloat, and so…The post Attending a Fall Wedding? You’ll Likely Be Eating Brisket From the Patriotic Pig. appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Beer has been a surprisingly significant part of our politics in 2023. First, Bud Light was transformed from a blue-collar brew with working-class connotations to a symbol of the liberal elite, all for reasons that are frankly too complicated to get into right now. Now, as the summer months wane, beer’s back on the political menu—this time, because of a ginned-up controversy involving George Koob, director of the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. Cruz: If they want us to drink two beers a week, they can kiss my ass… pic.twitter.com/cu17K9yMmx— Acyn (@Acyn) August 31, 2023 Last week, the British tabloid the Daily Mail asked Koob what changes to its drinking level guidelines might be made in 2025, when the Institute is due to…The post Cruz Watch: The Senator Enjoys Beer appeared first on Texas Monthly.
On Wednesday—as on Tuesday, Monday, Sunday, Saturday, Friday, Thursday, and the Wednesday before it—the Electric Reliability Council of Texas urged Texans to conserve power. ERCOT, as it’s known when uttering curses, warned that demand could outstrip supply and requested that you—yes, you, the person reading this, three months into the most interminable Texas summer in living memory—should do your part by raising your thermostat a few degrees, forgoing the load of laundry in your dryer, and would it kill you to turn off a few lights? Were our leaders sweating it out alongside us? Who knows. Texans did not see, say, a TikTok video of workers at the ERCOT offices or the Governor’s Mansion cheerfully doing their part by turning the thermostats in those buildings to…The post A Guide to ERCOT Conservation Fatigue appeared first on Texas Monthly.
The Case in Brief: In May, the Texas House voted 121–23, with all but one Democrat present in the chamber joined by sixty Republicans, to impeach Attorney General Kenneth Paxton Jr. on twenty counts. Paxton, the state’s chief law enforcement officer, is alleged to have taken bribes and abused his office to help a pal and campaign donor, a flashy Austin real estate mogul named Nate Paul. Since then, Paxton has been suspended from office. If two thirds of the voting members of the Texas Senate find him guilty of any of the charges—they will consider sixteen of the twenty the House brought—he will be permanently removed from office.What are the stakes? They’re sky high, not just for Paxton but also for other powerful Texans. A…The post Your Cheat Sheet for Ken Paxton’s Impeachment Trial appeared first on Texas Monthly.
When two soon-to-be founders were brainstorming ideas for a female-oriented home improvement service, Lacey Soslow suggested something like “OnlyFans but for home improvement,” a reference to the online service that allows women porn actors to sell their videos directly to consumers, without going through the male-dominated adult-film industry. Her counterpart, Gabriella Ainslie, pointed out that a comparison to telehealth would work just as well to get their point across. “I was like ‘yes, Gabriella, that’s a better way to describe it,’ ” Soslow recalled with laughter. “Like telehealth.”Soslow had spent a decade flipping houses in Philadelphia with her mother, but almost never encountered female tradespeople in the field. Ainslie was trying to get the pipes fixed in her Austin home after the infamous 2021 freeze, and…The post A New Texas Start-up Wants to Save Us From Mansplaining Contractors appeared first on Texas Monthly.
When I visit a taqueria, I prefer to drink Mexican Coke or mineral water with my meal. However, when outside temperatures and humidity lead to anguish—as they have this summer—only the sweet and colorful drinks known as aguas frescas (literally, “fresh waters”) can help cure the seasonal depression. To prepare the drinks, vendors muddle, blend, steep, and/or compress fruits such as watermelon or cucumber, or other ingredients like hibiscus flowers or rice. Then they mix the ingredients with water or another liquid and sugar to produce a cooling beverage.The aforementioned ingredients produce aguas frescas flavors sandía, pepino, jamaica (pronounced “ha-mai-kah”), and horchata, respectively. These drinks come in vibrant hues of pink, green, crimson, and cream, and those are just the standard colors. I’ve stopped in…The post Aguas Frescas Will Get You Through a Brutal Summer appeared first on Texas Monthly.
The film by right-wing activist Michael Quinn Sullivan is a warning to Republicans who might vote for Ken Paxton's impeachment.
Apple, Cartier, Tiffany, and other tastemakers in art and fashion bask in the glow created by Lucifer Lighting.
Luis Gonzales of Luchi’s Smokehouse, in Stanton, balances firing the smoker for his brisket and pork ribs all night with a full-time job at an electric utility.
Sark bangs Tupac, the Baylor and TCU coaches pump themselves up with Dave Matthews Band, and guess who loves Post Malone?
With its sprawling branches and red blooms, the desert plant is certainly beautiful. But that doesn’t explain its presence on every piece of merch in Texas.
Congrats to new parents Raani, Snaggle, and Big Boy—and the zookeepers who worked for years to help bring their toothy babies into being.
The state has the most South Asian-owned breweries in the country, and those owners hope interest in beer and brewing will only grow in the diaspora.
In far West Texas, where loneliness abounds, one man is on a quest to redefine the meaning of love and companionship.
She won’t take your measurements, and she won’t give you your size (don’t ask), but TikTok legend has it that this hawkeyed vintage maven can find your ideal pant.
Over half a century in professional wrestling, Terry Funk built a legacy that stretches from Amarillo to Tokyo.
The home of Old Yeller, this scenic Hill Country getaway also has a beautifully restored courthouse.
For the second year in a row, the iconic spring-fed swimming hole has stopped flowing, the consequence of drought and overpumping.
Unpacking the bromance between the 36-year-old nightclub owner and the 60-year-old evangelical Christian and career politician.
Growing up in Georgia, I wanted nothing more than to be a Texan. When I finally moved here, I learned what that really meant.
Diners in North Texas likely did a double take when the Original Roy Hutchins Barbeque opened this summer. But the restaurant isn’t an offshoot of popular Hutchins Barbeque—as is made clear by some harsh words and a dropped lawsuit.
The Nashville superproducer on “Time of the Preacher” and the one thing artists like Brandi Carlile and Jason Isbell all say about Willie.
H-E-B’s snazzy new nature docuseries highlights the conservationists who protect bats, bears, ocelots, and redfish.
Will tequila and trucks get more expensive? Will exports of chemicals and plastics to Mexico boom? What will happen to immigration?
The baffling ranking published by a real estate company has dubious data-gathering methods and eyebrow-raising results, with Austin as number one.
The author spends her days envisioning the U.S. as a modern monarchy. Here are the tools that help her do it.
Officials in Sweetwater say an out-of-state company has made their town a dump for the seldom-seen trash created by renewal energy.
After badly behaved tourists made headlines in Italy this summer, one Texpat offers a few pointers on local etiquette.
Until recently, a new Sonic restaurant was the small Texas city’s big news of 2023. Now it’s Needville in the Little League World Series.
The governor attracted strong support from small-dollar donors, but a large chunk of his haul came from multimillionaires and billionaires who quietly cut six-figure checks.
Wicker’s Food Products in Missouri and Big Wick’s in Weatherford battle over their similar names.
Offering aguas frescas, picadas, full plates, and conchas, Veracruz Fonda, in Austin, is what the brand should’ve been all along.
Fantasy football rosters don’t reflect real NFL rosters. But what if they did? A die-hard Texas football fan decided to find out.
Ever wish the barbecue main and side would get together? In this dish, you get meaty, smoky goodness and a hefty dose of greens all in one bite.
From his alleged dealings with Nate Paul to the attorney general’s frequent trips for fast food, here’s what we learned from documents released late Thursday night.
The two states have three new Texas-style joints that range from faithful to fusion, implementing traditional Carolina barbecue elements.
Batman, Superman, and the Flash live in fictional cities. The first Latino superhero needed his own.
Shorty’s Place, a coastal dive that has been around since the 1940s, cleans up and moves on while maintaining its signature charm as a community hangout.
An oil executive wants to block the South Llano River for private recreational purposes. Hill Country residents are outraged.
Though this year, the Longhorns have so much talent and experience that their number-eleven ranking feels appropriate (unless you’re in Fort Worth).
When the go-go Houston corporation collapsed in spectacular fashion, it became a punch line across the nation. But some of the bad guys had the last laugh.
National party leaders are stoutly backing the centrist U.S. representative from Laredo, hoping to avoid a primary from a progressive.
You’ve likely seen videos of the Big Mac–taco hybrid on social media, but the dish isn’t a newfangled fad—it has roots going back to the early 1900s.
The California parent of a UT freshman wonders about Bevo’s ultimate fate when the final whistle blows.
After a night of hilarious and emotional speeches, Becky Hammon, Dirk Nowitzki, Tony Parker, and Gregg Popovich are all Hall of Famers.
We roam the state looking for the best food Texas has to offer. Here’s a peek at what’s new.
The leading candidates for Houston mayor are two septuagenarians: state senator John Whitmire and U.S. congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee. What happened to the city of the future?
Elon Musk is just one of the big-deal CEOs moving to the Lone Star State. But some are reluctant to join him.
. . . When it comes to producing renewable energy, winning golf tournaments, banning books, and closing rural hospitals. Why is Texas so darn great . . . and so darn awful?
More than one in six Texans lack health insurance, the highest rate in the country. Behind the statistics are countless human beings experiencing unnecessary suffering.
Wounding as it may be to our deeply ingrained sense of Texas exceptionalism, there are a number of seemingly Texas-y categories in which we don’t take the top spot. Here are a few.
Dallas Area Rapid Transit brought regional transportation to North Texans in 1983 and hasn’t stopped innovating since.
The architect of the Aggies’ 2011 NCAA title and one of the greatest coaches in women’s basketball history enters the Hall of Fame on Saturday.
Plus, an aggressive hawk kept postal employees from their appointed rounds and a cross-dressing bank robber brought new meaning to word “stickup.”
As the NFL (and CFL, and AAF) washout prepares a College Station comeback, a new film tells Johnny Football's story.
The small city of Sherman, which lies far from the coast, is a fossil hunter’s paradise.
Zavala’s Barbecue Distribution is an online shop that helps smoked meat diehards cook like their favorite pitmasters.
Order the gaonera (ribeye) taco or the cochinita pibil taco—just don’t linger too long at busy McAllen restaurant Tacos El Andaluz.
Trendsetters, bargain hunters, and folks who just love to dig through piles of clothes, we’ve got the list for you.
Tinkering in his backyard, Dan Marsh aims to devise an efficient source of electricity for suburban rooftops and beachside barbecues.
Kelsey McKinney grew up hearing ‘bless her heart’ stories. Now she shares anonymous hearsay with an audience of thousands.
A state district court judge narrowed Texas’s abortion ban, but the state’s appeal complicates access to the procedure.
The Dallas braider, whose loyal customers include Erykah Badu, examines her hard-fought legacy as the CROWN Act, which bans discrimination against Black hairstyles at work and school, goes into effect September 1.
Luna, a new variety of avocado that can withstand higher temperatures, may soon find a home in South Texas.
Declared a fake by many experts, the James Ossuary is coming to Texas for its first American exhibit.
A new biography makes clear that the acclaimed writer had an intense love-hate relationship with his home state. Which may have been the secret to his success.
The Grapevine-raised pop star and collectibles enthusiast has taken his fandom to a whole new level.
It was kill or be killed between the Big 12 and the Pac-12. Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark struck first, and the rest is history.
After months of chart-topping singles, the Edinburg group has released ‘El Comienzo,’ a debut album filled with nods to the past—and an eye toward the future.
Texas quadrupled its annual film incentives. Hollywood’s favorite Texas small town, Smithville, shows the opportunities—and hazards—ahead.
Threats from the AG’s supporters loom over the Republican state senators who will serve as the jurors in the impeachment trial.
A deep dive into the song “Nudista Mundial ’89,” from Palomo’s new album, ‘World of Hassle,’ out September 15.
When I first arrived in Texas, I didn’t get the fawning over Whataburger. I tried to understand by eating 21 straight meals there.
Texas Biomedical Research Institute helped subdue the coronavirus and has big plans for combating future disease threats—with controversial help from its thousands of research primates.
Behind a rim of freeze-dried giant bamboo and scraggly trees, in a Houston Heights neighborhood caught between old apartments and new townhomes, lies the compound that has been artist Nestor Topchy’s laboratory for twenty-odd years. His place is a natural habitat […]
While Brix Barbecue isn’t exactly “new,” its myriad upgrades—including a brick-and-mortar—have made it worth revisiting.
After topping the field in her return to competition, the gymnastics GOAT appears to have her sights set on next summer’s Olympics.
Just as scientists begin to understand the Rice’s whale, environmentalists contend in a lawsuit that it may be threatened by a proposed offshore oil terminal.
A Dallas billionaire says his new luxury resort in a near-pristine parcel west of Austin is a model of sustainability. The caretaker of the nature reserve next door isn’t buying it.
For a while it looked as if big-city barbecue would hog the spotlight forevermore. We should have known better.
While negotiating his Major League Baseball rookie deal in 2007, the Texas Rangers' newest ace started his career with the independent-league Fort Worth Cats.
We analyzed the Texas lieutenant governor’s argument about why he was right to have A&M investigate a professor who’d allegedly made critical comments about him.
Eloteros trawl the north end of the island in converted vans and buses slinging variations of elotes in this (sometimes) fruitless, fun job.
Gardening brings us together, even as culture wars divide us over almost everything else.
After a two-year layoff, the gymnastics GOAT returns to elite competition at Saturday's U.S. Classic. Watch out, 2024 Olympics.
Laura Preston, of San Marcos–based Vacilando Studios, has helped turn quilts into fashion, with modern made-to-order wares for your bed, walls, and closet.
The state Senate’s vote on Paxton’s impeachment will proceed independently from his criminal case. But the outcomes are interlinked.
For decades, offset smokers were the tool of choice for pitmasters, but rotisseries are coming back in style.
The seaside town is also a great place to catch redfish, watch dolphins, and stay in a snazzy new bungalow.
Neza York Con Todo, near south Oak Cliff, offers many Mexico City specialties, such as suadero cooked in a choricera and steamed cow head.
One writer—who was served by Velma and ate from a salad bar in a Roadster—finds the eatery, with locations in San Antonio and Addison, equally unnerving and enticing.
It’s the hottest summer in Texas history. Thanks to these expert tips, it doesn’t have to be the rash-iest.
The disorder is commonly associated with the colder months, but studies show that excessive heat also impacts our mental health
“There’s no basement at the Alamo!” and other lessons on the state from the late Paul Reubens.
A blockbuster deal for Max Scherzer is intended to shore up the Rangers' pitching rotation and keep the team atop the American League West standings.
Wineries, cozy bed-and-breakfasts, and a beautifully restored old train depot make this North Texas town a great weekend getaway.
Jesse Lott, the influential cofounder of Project Row Houses who died last week at age eighty, was a genius in his own right.
While Muslim Uyghurs face persecution in China, the proprietors of Turan Uyghur Kitchen, in Plano, focus on bringing awareness through freshly made hand-pulled noodles and more.
A new era of climate change–fueled heat waves is pushing the high priests of Texas barbecue to their limit.
It was October 1992 and the Irish singer, who died earlier this week, was being excoriated in the press following her appearance on ‘Saturday Night Live.’
A roster with only thirteen players? Three-sport athletes who refuse to specialize? It’s all part of the plan at Magnolia West.
Policy changes aimed at reducing the number of children who end up in foster care—many championed by progressives in blue states—are being passed by Republicans in Texas.
The early blues singer helped define the genre and achieved major success—until a story of murder tainted his legacy.
Kimberly Mata-Rubio says after the tragedy, Uvalde remains a divided community—she wants to change that.
It’s small-town Texas’s go-to convenience store snack. Texas Monthly’s taco editor finally gives it a go.
With a blend of four types of peppers and sweet strawberries, this recipe is sure to become an instant classic.
Between the golden salmon and the garden bounty, we can’t decide which is the star of this summer-inspired main dish.
Blackberries, basil, and bulb onions make for a subtle and surprising combination of flavors in this summertime sipper.
Three ingredients and two easy steps make this ice cream recipe one you’ll want to try again and again.
Native ingredients and an artful arrangement make this easy side salad a total showstopper.
I like to think I am Texas Tough when it comes to the heat. But lately, my fortitude has been tested.
Confronted with human suffering and death, as well as disruption of their small town, some former supporters of Operation Lone Star have started to sour on the program.
The li’l guy went missing a week ago. Whoever finds him is going to be rich (in barbecue, gift cards, and pie).
It was 1979, a stifling hot day on a Texas construction site. A worker was consuming a cold one when he noticed that the nearby tubing installation material fit perfectly around his can. The makeshift sleeve helped to keep his […]
The Texas GOP, which once advocated for a more humane immigration policy, is wedded to Operation Lone Star despite its exorbitant costs and failures.
Now that right-wingers have forced out a top-notch journalist at my alma mater, I worry that future students won't enjoy the same opportunities I did.
The former U.S. congressman from Texas on his bid to beat Trump, artificial intelligence, his zodiac sign, and more.
As the invasive beetle carves a path through Texas, state and federal officials are searching for solutions.
After watching ‘Oppenheimer,’ cozy up to this West Texas underground bunker turned boutique hotel room.
In the American Ultimate Disc League, players don’t make millions, they don’t argue with referees, and they never, ever say “Frisbee.”
The Florida governor is still popular with many grassroots Republicans here, but most of the likely primary voters seem unready to abandon the former president.
I swear I feel refreshed after looking at a house in Oregon or Virginia. And according to my research, other Texans do too.
Pokey, who died in June at age 48, was a founding member of the Screwed Up Click—and Houston’s distinct rap sound.
The second teen has pleaded to criminal mischief charges. Both face two years of probation.
After Governor Greg Abbott signed a law blocking gender-affirming care for minors, some have fled the state. Others have no choice but to stay.
Once a symbol of ultimate luxury, fish eggs are now topping everything from mozzarella sticks to sorbet, making them more accessible—and fun—than ever.
In the half-century since a troop of Japanese macaques arrived in Texas, a truly wild tale has played out.
The woman-owned joint has had a lot of effusive press—even before officially opening. Luckily it’s living up to its early reputation.
Austin's signature green space is at the center of a long-running debate over how much the city should cling to its past as it prepares for the future.
As of July 19, SAG-AFTRA has granted waivers allowing 45 projects to keep rolling, many of them in Texas.
The singer-songwriter talks about growing up as country royalty and Willie’s cover of Joni Mitchell’s “Both Sides Now”
. . . and Allison Orr, the founder of Forklift Danceworks, helps them turn their everyday movements into choreography with a mission.
From her West Texas home, veteran film producer Carolyn Pfeiffer reflects on her coming of age in the world of celebrity and discusses her memoir.
Only thirty theaters capable of project 70mm IMAX exist in the world. Two of them are in Texas. You'll probably have to settle for "Croppenheimer."
J.P. Bryan, the embattled executive director of the TSHA, faces criticism for his approach to history—including recent history. He’s still not sure the former president is a Christian.
Ruben Carrasco Jr. serves Indian- and Korean-inspired tacos at his popular Midland spot Pachuco's, which he credits to an old PBS show and his little brother's adventurous nature.
Fort Worth–based Harvest Returns offers new investment avenues into agricultural projects.
Cindy Walker Days pays tribute to one of the greatest country songwriters ever while raising funds to save her Mexia house—and all the treasures it holds.
Is the misspelling on the billboard promoting the Temple store a typo, a stunt intended to go viral, or a secret third thing?
Glossy recruiting classes, promising quarterbacks, unmatched spending power—enjoy it now before they start underachieving.
Shotgun Willie's BBQ started out as a mid-life crisis-inspired venture and went on to be named the best brisket in Tennessee's capital.
Practicality is an imperative, even more so during Texas summers, which don’t really faze her (unless a restaurant’s air conditioning stops working).
He’s surfed in Waco, skied in College Station, and braved a karaoke bar where Texas lawmakers serenaded one another.
How South Asian business leaders are turning Texas into the next global hot spot for the world’s second-biggest sport.
Since 2004, non-Hispanic white residents have been outnumbered in Texas. And to the apparent surprise of many, that hasn’t worked out all that well for the Democratic Party.
On the episode finale, a killer builds his new life on borrowed time, and people in Stephenville must confront a difficult truth.
A native of the Lone Star State, he has served as a high-ranking editor, supervising both writers and other editors, for such publications as Esquire, GQ, and Men’s Health.
Harlan Crow and Jerry Jones have bought access to the Supreme Court justice through carefully curated gifts. What do Michael Dell, Tilman Fertitta, Elon Musk, and others have to offer?
We roam the state looking for the best food Texas has to offer. Here’s a peek at what’s new.
Last week, the thirty-six Big Tex Choice Award semi-finalists were announced, and we take a closer look at some of the mostly fried and sometimes alarming selections.
Some of the best waves in the world are found at the Waco Surf water park, far away from any ocean.
No Democrat has won a statewide election in Texas since 1994, but Colin Allred and Roland Gutierrez have something working in their favor that Beto O’Rourke didn’t.
For the latest iteration of the art empire’s otherworldly brand, Meow Wolf has chosen an exotic locale: a suburban Texas mall.
TM has partnered with Peabody- and Critics’ Choice Award–winning filmmaker Deborah Esquenazi on the project.
Plus, a woman sank her teeth into a Lufkin security guard, and a family of ducks sank without a trace.
Dallas Wings forward and WNBA All-Star Satou Sabally is having the best year of her career—and starting to give us Dirk Nowitzki flashbacks.
The Foos’ lead guitarist and ‘Shred With Shifty’ podcast host discusses an outlaw anthem and the technical specs of a great Willie guitar solo.
The San Antonio museum is delighting Texans (and finding new fans nationwide) on the new social media platform.
Blake Stoker's joint—Blake's at Southern Milling—in Martin, Tennessee, has converted many a customer to loving brisket.
Self-trained muralist Roberto Marquez creates public art after mass shootings and other tragedies. Unfortunately for everyone, he’s been very busy.
Malin’s ubiquitous aerial images of beaches, versions of which you can purchase on puzzles, rugs, towels, and more, are a hallmark of our era.
Celeste and Adrian Quesada’s inventive weekend escape is full of estate-sale finds and gifts from around the world.
Extreme temperatures are hazardous to our health, so projects in San Antonio and Dallas are seeking new ways to cool down our cities.
Gregg Popovich, the oldest head coach in NBA history, just signed a contract extension with the San Antonio Spurs. Wembanyama is why.
Guests-only libraries and themed bars beckon lovers of the written word to these three Texas hotels.
The craft of whole-hog barbecue in the Lockhart of West Tennessee has been dwindling, but Zach Parker resurrected a historic joint in order to save it.
For forty years, Allie Beth Allman has ruled the glittering world of luxury real estate in Dallas. Then came a flood of coastal money, a technological revolution, a rift with a longtime partner, and the inexorable toll of time.
Though the South Dallas–born queen of neo-soul hasn’t dropped an album in over a decade, she’s currently on her biggest tour yet.
Shawn Warner was at an empty book signing for ‘Leigh Howard and the Ghosts of Simmons-Pierce Manor’ when a Fort Worth TikToker took notice. The rest is history.
A fancy Spanish-made stove fuels an inspired menu of steaks and seafood, along with some glorious masa dishes.
Many millennial and Gen Z workers have turned away from careers in fossil fuels—making Midland-based Permian Resources an anomaly.
The Legislature took a big step Monday, but further efforts could come with great costs: a sky-high sales tax, decimated public schools, and defunding the police.
In his own words, the man who killed Susan Woods looks back on the choices he says led him to become a "monster."
During Anne Rapp’s Hollywood career, she worked with the biggest names in movies. Now, at 72, she’s ready to tell her own stories about her Panhandle upbringing.
New homeowners are skirting city codes to close themselves off from their neighbors with sky-high, opaque barricades.
Many border residents no longer visit their home country, which may help explain the region’s rightward political shift.
Noted for having the "best burger in America," this joint hosts Space City royalty, with affable, determined co-owner and rapper Bun B holding court.
The state senator was little known until last year, when the massacre in Uvalde, in his district, thrust him into the spotlight.
The injury-depleted Astros should be having a nightmare season. But surprise performances from little-known players have kept Houston winning.
The multiplatinum artist, who has released a new deluxe version of the 2012 record, reflects on the dark (and fun) L.A. summer when it was written.
The XXL Ranch and Steak House might be hard to find, but once you get there and try the ribeye, baked potato, and sopapilla cheesecake, you're sure to be back again.
The governor has long suffered from the reputation that he’s a policy lightweight. He’s turning it around this year in five easy steps.
On the latest single from ‘Texas Wild,’ a forthcoming tribute album stacked with state classics, you can hear the joy in Bingham’s weathered voice.
It’s named for frontier naturalist Gabriel Marnoch, who led a life of crime while discovering new species.
“You don’t even need Disney or Universal. Texas itself is its own brand,” says Lizzy McGee, who is working to bring a Lone Star–centric amusement park to Houston.
Hill Barbecue in Lubbock has had some issues with thievery and arson, but it perseveres because, to its owners, barbecue is “damn near religion.”
Here’s how to get a peek inside the glitziest, most charming homes in the state, all while helping raise money for preservation efforts.
The far–East Austin bar is an elephant graveyard for restaurant signs of decades past, but we’re still trying to figure out who it’s really for.
On property taxes, school funding, and more, “Democrats are not even in the conversation,” Dallas representative John Bryant says.
A 16-year-old assault survivor tells investigators of her attacker's chilling confession.
These small-town churches, built in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, commissioned artists to re-create the grandeur of European cathedrals in the Lone Star State.
Frankfurter season is here and what better way to indulge than with Mexican regional variations on the dish, which are often wrapped in bacon and topped with carne asada.
Joe Jones has amassed millions of followers on social media, but the only thing he’s keeping track of is laughs.
El Sancho Tex Mex BBQ, in Mission, innovates with ten different tacos filled with combos like brisket and chilaquiles and chicharrón and pork belly.
The Grammy-winning founder of Asleep at the Wheel on fifty years of friendship with Willie, with cameos by George Gershwin, Floyd Tillman, and Robert Duvall.
In his new book, ‘The Heat Will Kill You First,’ Austin-based journalist Jeff Goodell examines climate change in its most essential form: temperature rise.
Archaeology and architecture groups banded together to bring a mudhif, a town hall for the Marsh Arab tribe of Iraq, to Rice University.
Inspired by Taylor Sheridan, celebrity tattoo artist Dillon Forte has brought his penchant for sacred geometry and all-black aesthetics to his exclusive ranch in the Hill Country.
The conservation victory at Honey Creek relied on “the goodness of those people’s hearts,” says one environmentalist.
Luis Lara of Proyecto Humo in Laredo has often felt like his ideas were too big for the border town, but they’re exactly what the city needs.
Founded by a pair of former Navy SEALs, Terradepth has ambitious plans to deploy a fully autonomous fleet of submersibles to continually map the seafloor.
Austin nurses walked out of Ascension Seton Medical Center to protest staffing and retention issues, saying their patients are not safe.
The seven-time Olympic medalist will return to competition this summer, according to USA Gymnastics.
The Austin-based hotel group Bunkhouse has brought Edificio San Fernando, a 1940s jewel box of a building, into the modern era.
Wild weather in Slaton forced the owners of Pitforks and Smokerings BBQ to face the past—and move their restaurant into the future.
Richard Linklater didn’t set out to make a Texas film, but Matthew McConaughey’s iconic character feels like somebody every Texan knows.
Texans have never been afraid of summer temperatures. This year’s record-breaking heat wave should make us think twice.
Remembering John Goodenough, who was well into his fifties when he developed a battery that changed the world.
H-Town is the cartoon character’s alleged hometown, but she seems more like a Conroe gal to me.
Shady days soaking in the Guadalupe River and a weekly rodeo followed by dancing: this Hill Country hamlet is the perfect summer getaway.
A Buc-ee’s representative tells Texas Monthly cleaning crews were promptly dispatched to the remote location.
The Texas Country Jamboree doesn't exist, and Garth Brooks wasn't booed off its stage. That didn't deter Greg Abbott.
Long an under-the-radar destination, the Alpine museum is transformed by its graceful new addition and the West Texas artworks inside.
Armed with new forensic technology, Don Miller takes up the case and gets a break — one that raises even more questions about what happened to Susan Woods.
You’ve had all month to read the latest issue of Texas Monthly. Take this monthly quiz and we’ll tell you how you stack up at the end.And if you got this quiz from a friend: Hello! We hope you enjoy it. …
Before Pete Delkus was known for joshin’ it up on the news, he was a sidearm pitcher who nearly made it to the major leagues.
Recent tragedies in Big Bend and Palo Duro Canyon are a reminder to “respect the desert,” says one ranger.
Andrew Braunberg, author of ‘Fires, Floods, Explosions, and Bloodshed: A History of Texas Whiskey,’ shares some fascinating details from his book.
The 1950s-set comedy is being hailed as the director’s best work in years, and I can’t figure out why.
It’s the most awards TM has received in one year from the organization in recent memory.
As the flood waters rose in typically dry Amarillo, folks raced to fill up sandbags to protect Tyler's Barbeque from destruction.
The singer-songwriter and virtuoso fiddle player talks faith, family bands, and her new album of duets with Willie Nelson’s late sister.
The Texas Education Association took over Houston ISD, the state’s largest school district. Parents and teachers are furious.
The Lege approved the highest film incentives budget the state has ever seen. Here's what that massive check means for productions and the biz overall.
“There’s a tremendous disconnect between the expectations of the American public . . . and the National Park Service’s ability to do those things,” says Bob Krumenaker.
Two high-profile workplace complaints made headlines at the Capitol this year, but insiders say others against Houston representative Shawn Thierry have been ignored.
They've won the NBA draft lottery three times. The first two landed David Robinson and Tim Duncan—now it's Victor Wembanyama's turn.
Meow Wolf finally opens! Jamie Foxx returns to Netflix! Erykah Badu is on tour! Vampires are at war?
Texas Monthly reporter Dan Solomon just published his first work of young adult fiction, ‘The Fight for Midnight.’ These are the books that inspired him.
The Austin neoclassical group’s new album, ‘Pendant World,’ evokes the natural wonder of the Lone Star State.
Current and former staff members, along with her subjects, share memories of working with the revered “wild card” shutterbug.
'TV Montrose,' the lightning-in-a-bottle production that aired from 1998–1999, is being digitized by the University of Houston Special Collections Library.
As celebrity lawyers feud in the press, Republican groups have launched an influence campaign in the Texas Senate.
Six years ago, the mother of all storms arrived and brought home a lesson too many of us have refused to learn: our penchant for bravely adapting to circumstances has its limits.
Hallelujah! BBQ, a part of Rescue Mission of El Paso, helps staff develop vocational skills to propel them to new lives while serving good barbecue along the way.
That left the real culprit free to prey on others, including one victim who was ignored for two decades.
In the first episode of the Texas Monthly true crime podcast, a father makes a tragic discovery, and an investigator gets to work.
Texas Monthly staffer Dan Solomon discusses his first book, ‘The Fight for Midnight,’ which comes out as we approach the ten-year anniversary of a dramatic day (and night) at the Legislature.
The Brackeens sued after their initial petition to adopt a Navajo and Cherokee boy was denied. A 7–2 Supreme Court ruling represents a major win for tribal sovereignty.
Plus, a Houston bakery added a family-size croissant to its menu and a man fleeing from the police decided he was really, really hungry.
The treasured banner was discovered in a Texas gun store, sparking questions about the repatriation of artifacts.
She led the movement to gain federal recognition of the holiday. This June 19, she’ll again walk 2.5 miles, marking the 2.5 years it took for news of the Emancipation Proclamation to reach Texas.
Lawmakers just authorized lots of money to acquire new parkland. We asked advocates and conservationists to dream big.
On this special Father’s Day episode, Micah Nelson describes his dad’s “face-melting” guitar playing, plus his favorite sixties-era Willie song that most fans have forgotten.
Along with opening la Barbecue, the first woman- and-lesbian-owned barbecue restaurant in Texas, she had a keen photographic eye and an irreverent sense of humor.
Sarah Bird, Fernando A. Flores, Mary Helen Specht, Sergio Troncoso, and six more Texas writers reflect on what McCarthy meant to them and to the state.
The Central Texas town has a lively arts scene with a picturesque creek running through it.
The Horned Frogs have won 19 of their last 21 games and are undefeated in the postseason as they head to Omaha.
Can medical science truly explain the mystical, mysterious experience triggered by a simple malfunction in my inner ear?
A longtime Houston outdoor-sports writer looks back on sixty years of surfing the Gulf Coast.
From a small bookstore in Central Texas, the best-selling author rules over the booming Stoicism self-help movement. Why now? Why here?
Kyle St. Clair went through an arduous inspection process to get his smokehouse USDA certified to sell packaged brisket and chicken.
The superstar has a collection of memorabilia on display in North Texas. But for die-hard Taylor Swift fans, is it worth the trip?
Taco editor José R. Ralat won a second James Beard Media Award, and executive editor Patricia Sharpe was inducted into the Wine & Food Week Hall of Fame.
Anna Simmers unwinds from long days at MD Anderson Cancer Center by bringing cityscapes, flowers, and art masterpieces to life.
The Dallas country-cooking chain started in 1975, and it’s down to just one location in Arlington. One writer makes a pilgrimage to learn about the folks keeping this place open and to stock up on rolls, fried okra, and squash casserole.
Thousands of Mexicans routinely cross into Texas to sell their vital bodily fluids for cash. Is that arrangement symbiotic—or exploitative?
‘Mad Men.’ ‘Homeland.’ ‘Love & Death.’ The current golden age of television wouldn’t be the same without the work of Dallas native Lesli Linka Glatter.
While the term is most commonly translated as ”stew,” it's not wholly accurate. Guisados are more of a feeling of warmth and family.
Our scorecard of the Eighty-eighth Texas Legislature’s noisy scoundrels and quiet heroes.
Brothers Emil, Axel, and Alec Oliva have opened one of the Alamo City’s most compelling new restaurants.
The rising Alabama alt-pop artist and the Arlington country star aim for a classic Texas breakup song. Do they hit the mark?
A deep dive into a track from the guitarist’s latest album, ‘The Happiest Times I Ever Ignored.’
Weeks after the Biden Administration ended the Trump-Imposed Title 42 regulations, the border near El Paso remains unexpectedly quiet.
Joe Martinez has finally found a hobby that pays off with his truck, Smokin’ Joe’s Pit BBQ, which features chile relleno sausage and chili with beans.
The revered researcher, author, and TED Talker discusses faith, grace, acceptance, and the world’s favorite gospel hymn.
The Texan superstars paired up on “If You Were Mine,” Lambert’s first single since leaving her record label.
Michael Uspenski bought the Russian Banya of Dallas—and moved to Texas—sight unseen. Now he’s created a community for expats and Texans alike.
Sew Bonita owner Elena Flores curates her store with makers from across Texas and beyond.
Protocol Farms near Bowie takes inspiration from Japanese methods of feeding Wagyu, which includes jazz playing through the speakers and cool pens.
The inventor of the world’s first cosmetic penile implant says a group of Houston doctors is trying to steal his ideas. Inside the multimillion-dollar feud.
You’ve had all month to read the latest issue of Texas Monthly. Take this monthly quiz and we’ll tell you how you stack up at the end.And if you got this quiz from a friend: Hello! We hope you enjoy it. …
Even without the team’s $185 million ace pitcher, the Texas Rangers are off to the best start in franchise history.
A Weatherford man says we need to channel our penchant for lying into something productive—or at least entertaining.
It’s rare to see a conservative American politician use language such as “horrific and wrong” and “human rights abuse” to describe a law that targets gay people.
The Alabama football coach warned that wealthy programs could dominate through NIL spending. But money can't buy what UT and A&M need most.
The highlight of the event was Benchawan Jabthong Painter, of Houston Thai restaurant Street to Kitchen, winning Best Chef: Texas, but no other Texas finalists made it to the podium.
It was on a late morning in 1996, in Texas Monthly’s conference room, that I experienced the rather pungent persona of George W. Bush for the first time. Editor in chief Gregory Curtis had arranged for an hour-long discussion between Bush—then a first-term governor—and the magazine’s editorial staff. Less than two years into his administration, the son of President George H. W. Bush was already regarded as a rising star and likely presidential candidate.Bush sprawled in a seat at the head of the table, flanked by his advisers Karen Hughes and Karl Rove. Assured by Curtis that our conversation would be off the record, Bush waved off the privilege, saying with a smirk, “Nothing’s off the record.” The topics we raised ranged from the state lottery…The post The George W. Bush I Knew appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Since Uniquka Christian was eight, she’s had an immeasurable love for fashion and sewing. When she became an adult, she wanted to pass the useful skill on to young aspiring fashion designers. She started a nonprofit youth fashion organization called Student Innovators and Creators of New Style (Student ICONS), which aims to give students firsthand experience in bringing their fashion designs to life, from paper to the runway. See more in this dispatch from Texas Country Reporter.The post A North Texas Fashion Designer and Seamstress Helps Little Hands Stitch Together Big Ideas appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Texas doesn’t have a mile-high city, but Fort Davis comes close at 4,892 feet. The tiny unincorporated town is nestled in the foothills of the Davis Mountains, where bears and mountain lions and elk stalk among pine-forested sky islands. Fort Davis is the seat of Jeff Davis County, whose population of 1,900 is spread among 2,265 square miles, 50 percent bigger than Rhode Island. The sparsely populated desert country of Mongolia has nearly seven times the population density of Jeff Davis County. Odessa, the nearest city to Fort Davis, is two and a half hours away. The state Capitol is six and a half.For Graydon Hicks III, the far-flunged-ness of Fort Davis is part of its appeal. He likes the high and lonesome feel of…The post Rural School Districts Are Facing Financial Ruin. Some State Officials Prefer It That Way. appeared first on Texas Monthly.
It’s no secret I moved from Brooklyn to Texas. I married a Tejana, we had a child, and then we hightailed it here pretty much as fast as we could. Since then, we’ve built a life we could’ve only dreamed of back in New York. Before and after our move, though, several Texans insisted New York only had bad tacos. That wasn’t true then, and, thankfully, it continues to be a falsehood. The folks who made such claims simply weren’t looking hard enough. These days a taco lover doesn’t have to comb the city for excellent tacos. Taquerias and taco trucks generally group in neighborhoods such as Bushwick or—surprisingly—along the streets of touristy Midtown. No matter what borough you happen to be in, you’re almost guaranteed…The post The Texan’s Guide to New York Tacos appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Shortly before the Texas House convened on Saturday to vote on a list of twenty articles of impeachment for Attorney General Ken Paxton, Donald Trump posted a missive to his followers on Truth Social. “Hopefully Republicans in the Texas House will agree that this is a very unfair process that should not be allowed to happen or proceed—I will fight you if it does,” the former president and current 2024 GOP front-runner warned. Who did Trump blame for Paxton’s woes? “Radical Left Democrats,” “Criminals,” and, critically in the GOP-led House, “RINOS,” or Republicans In Name Only. Trump has an uncanny ability to bend Republicans to his will. The few exceptions are infamous among the GOP for their resistance—among them former Wyoming congresswoman Liz Cheney, the late…The post Paxton’s Impeachment Is Not a Referendum on Trump appeared first on Texas Monthly.
It could have been their year.After missing the playoffs entirely two years previous, and then getting bounced in the first round a year ago, the Dallas Stars had a genuine chance to win the Stanley Cup. Sure, they’d likely have to get past the defending champion, as well as another imposing Western Conference power, but with a deep, balanced roster; a seasoned head coach; and an elite goal differential, Dallas finished the regular season as a trendy—and entirely credible—pick.The same Dallas Stars who just lost in the Western Conference Final to Las Vegas? That’s right.But also the 1997–98 Stars, who lost in that same round to the Detroit Red Wings.Neither loss was a significant upset. The Stars finished well ahead of Detroit in the standings…The post The Dallas Stars Will Win the Stanley Cup. Just Not This Year. appeared first on Texas Monthly.
When four NASA technicians decided to swap large-scale missions to space for small-batch experimental beers, they wanted a brewery taproom that reflected their shared history of working in the space industry. The result, True Anomaly Brewing, in Houston’s East Downtown, is a “launchpad for fermented exploration” where beer is served straight out of rocket-shaped stainless steel fermenters that double as decoration, matching the interplanetary artwork. The alcohol-meets-astral interior was designed by Method Architecture, whose women-led brewery design team is as forward-looking as True Anomaly’s beers.Both architecture and craft beer are historically male-dominated fields, which means Jackie Rye, Katherine Rorie, and Ashley Johnston have cracked not one but two glass ceilings as three of the most experienced brewery architects in the state in their respective roles…The post These Women Are Breaking Texas’s Craft Brewery Glass Ceiling appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Sam Palomarez has two birthdays. “One in August and October,” he told me as we sat outside Dozier’s BBQ, in Fulshear, just west of Houston. His son, Sammy, explained that the family had always celebrated Sam’s birthday on October 10, but when Sam tried to get his Social Security a decade ago, the state records indicated his birthday was two months earlier. But perhaps a more significant milestone is the day in 1965 when—at around fifteen years old—Sam left home to work at Ed Dozier Jr.’s meat market. He’s been making the sausage there ever since.Dozier was born in 1917 in Terlingua, where his dad manned a store in the tiny West Texas border town. After Dozier graduated from high school in Alpine, the family…The post Meet the Man Responsible for Six Decades of Sausage at This Old-school Barbecue Joint appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Daniel Lanois is one of the most successful and singular producers in the history of recorded music, the collaborative genius behind U2’s The Joshua Tree and Achtung Baby, Bob Dylan’s Oh Mercy and Time Out of Mind, and Emmylou Harris’s Wrecking Ball. On this episode of One by Willie, he talks about the landmark record he made with Willie, 1998’s Teatro. Subscribe Apple Podcasts — Google Podcasts — Spotify — Stitcher (Read a transcript of this episode below.)Recorded essentially live over four days in an abandoned movie theater in Oxnard, California, a small farming community outside Los Angeles, Teatro sounds like no other album in Willie’s massive catalog. The soundscape is moody and mystical, laid under a collection of vintage Willie compositions plus five new…The post Daniel Lanois on Recording Willie Nelson’s Landmark Album ‘Teatro’ appeared first on Texas Monthly.
No other school in the state—not UT, not A&M, not Texas Tech—has made the last nine NCAA tournaments in a row.
Last year, after nineteen elementary school students and two teachers were killed in a mass shooting at Robb Elementary School, so many Texans needed to do something. Rosa Ruiz and her family drove to Uvalde and set up their taco truck and fed hundreds. Beto O’Rourke crashed a press conference. I took my wife and three-year-old daughter to a vigil at the state capitol. Mateo Clarke, a member of Austin FC supporter group Los Verdes and a trumpet player in La Murga de Austin (the soccer club’s supporter band), needed to draw. “I’m from the San Antonio area and played soccer and basketball in middle school and high school. We would go play games against Uvalde, which really wasn’t that far from Boerne, where I grew…The post The Haunting Cross-country Journey of Austin FC Fans’ Uvalde Memorial Banners appeared first on Texas Monthly.
In 1989, only five years before his sudden death, renowned artist Donald Judd sketched designs for a series of tableware items at his studio in Marfa. The various dining vessels—consisting of cups, plates, and bowls—were made up of cylindrical forms intersected by sharp, ninety-degree angles. The pared-down shapes, reminiscent of his sculptures and furniture, were simple and elegant on paper, yet complicated to fabricate. He had prototypes made in both ceramic and stainless steel, but they lacked the exacting edges he envisioned in his drawings. So he tucked them away, never to be reattempted in another material. Now, almost three decades after his death, thanks to a partnership between luxury silver studio Puiforcat and the Judd Foundation, the vessels have been realized—this time in solid sterling…The post You Can Now Buy Donald Judd’s Long-lost Tableware Designs appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Jorge “Monstro” Ortiz, owner of El Tiger Taqueria, in El Paso, was born for the restaurant industry. He began his kitchen training at three years old, when his grandmother taught him to peel potatoes and carrots and slice squash for soup at her Juárez restaurant, La Cabaña. At five years old, he was tagging along to local mercados to shop for produce and meat with his father, who helped operate the dining establishment. When Ortiz was nine, he began running deliveries. In middle school, he was cooking on the line and washing dishes, mostly on weekends so as to not interfere with his schoolwork. In high school, he helped an uncle selling Juárez-style hot dogs in El Paso. After graduation Ortiz enrolled at the University…The post Inspired by His Luchador Father, This Taquero Serves Dishes That Pack a Punch appeared first on Texas Monthly.
As a TM BBQ Club member, you get early access to TM BBQ Fest tickets (at the lowest price possible!) before they go on sale to the public July 7. Tickets will become available to TM BBQ Club members Thursday, June 1, at 12 p.m. CDT. To get access to early bird tickets, follow the instructions below: Head to our main event page texasmonthly.com/TMBBQFest Click the “Get Tickets” button Select the type of ticket you’d like to purchase Click “Click to unlock hidden ticket” Enter code “lockhart1423” Select your ticket quantity and proceed to checkout. NOTE: Tickets will not be available until 12 p.m. CDT on June 1, 2023. Attempting this process before then will result in an inability to complete your order. Please also…The post TM BBQ Fest: Early Bird Ticket Information appeared first on Texas Monthly.
The American Bar Association announced on May 24 that a Texas Monthly story by Michael Hall was among nine winners of the 2023 Silver Gavel Awards for Media and the Arts. The award is meant to recognize outstanding work that fosters the American public’s understanding of law and the legal system. This is the ABA’s highest honor in recognition of this purpose.Michael Hall’s article “The Rogue Court That Paved the Way for Roe’s Demise,” which ran in the September 2022 issue, was nominated in March of this year alongside 29 other finalists across all categories. The article, edited by features director J. K. Nickell, profiles four judges on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit who are spearheading a partisan movement to redefine constitutional precedent,…The post American Bar Association Honors Texas Monthly With Silver Gavel Award appeared first on Texas Monthly.
As recently as a few years ago, most city council meetings in Laredo were less exciting than Lotería Night at the retirement home two blocks from city hall. At least the Lotería cards had risqué cartoons like the topless Sirena. At City Hall, the agenda items were announced in a bureaucratic monotone full of passive language: “Discussion with possible action to enact a resolution and create a Census 2020 Complete Census Committee . . . and any items incident thereto.” Local border politics remained calm even during the COVID-19 pandemic and after the 2020 election, largely steering clear of the recent culture wars that have caused meetings at many school boards and city councils across the state to descend into chaos. But that relative peace was disturbed in early 2023, as the…The post Voter Fraud Is Rare. But 15 Illegal Votes in Laredo Have Thrown the City Council Into Turmoil. appeared first on Texas Monthly.
When Kirk Kirkland was a teenager in East Texas in the 1980s, alligator gar were trash fish. Anglers used the dismissive term to refer to species that ate the fish they were interested in catching. But in the mid-1990s, Kirkland, who was by then working with his dad selling fish, started getting calls from Dutch anglers who wanted to come to Texas in search of alligator gar. To the Dutch, the ferocious-looking gar with their gnarly teeth were an exotic trophy fish. One of the biggest fish in North America, the species can reach more than two hundred pounds and eight feet in length. It was bigger than anything the Dutch could catch at home.Kirkland and his dad sold mostly catfish, but they caught alligator…The post All Hail the Alligator Gar, a Giant and Primordial River Monster appeared first on Texas Monthly.
As an Austinite in the food and wine industry, people often ask about my favorite restaurants in town. My standard answer has long started, “Other than Uchi . . .” Considering the perpetually booked reservation list and the nightly stream of walk-ins who willingly wait an hour or so for a table, I’m pretty sure I’m not the only one who responds this way.This month, the Japanese-inspired sushi restaurant celebrated twenty years, which, considering how hard it is to keep a restaurant in business, is quite a feat. But Uchi did much more than keep its doors open—it revolutionized the dining scene in Austin. It all began with a restaurant dishwasher named Tyson Cole. Raised in the Woodlands, Cole had been looking for a post-college career path and…The post Twenty Years of Uchi: How One Restaurant Changed Austin’s Dining Scene Forever appeared first on Texas Monthly.
When an injury forced Josh Eilers to retire from the military, he knew exactly what we wanted to do next. With full force, he dove into cattle raising and the genetic rigor that defines high-quality Wagyu. The result is Ranger Cattle. Texas Country Reporter visits the 3,000 acre ranch, which also hosts events, in the latest dispatch.The post Ranger Cattle’s Story Goes ‘From the Battlefield to the Cattle Field’ appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Perhaps nowhere in Texas do the past and present touch as in Big Bend National Park. Sometimes called “Texas’s Gift to the Nation,” the 800,000-acre West Texas wonderland might also be called Texas’s gift to paleontology. From the mighty walls of Santa Elena Canyon to the desert bluffs of the Aguja Formation, the rocks of the park teem with more than 135 million years’ worth of fossils. Lizards run across limestone beds and posture on seashells from what was once a warm, shallow ocean. Mountain lions stalk deer in arroyos of banded Cretaceous stone. And in the Chisos Mountains, the bones of massive condors lie in caves below the perches of black vultures.Scientists have been studying this prehistoric wealth for more than a century. In…The post Meet the Hell Pig, the Texas Titanosaur, and Seven Other Outlandish Beasts That Roamed Big Bend appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Earlier this month, Wichita Falls officials announced that they were doing battle with a familiar foe: the cattle egret. You’ve probably seen one before, even if you didn’t know its name—it’s a tall, white bird with a proclivity for perching on the backs of cattle, dining on the swarm of insects stirred up by a herd. The migratory bird lives in Mexico and Central America year-round and uses Texas as a breeding ground each spring before the state’s simmer turns to swelter. Wichita Falls, a city of 103,000 located on the Red River that blessedly separates Texas from Oklahoma, has been a popular egret hangout for years. The birds are persona non grata for city officials and the top brass at Sheppard Air Force Base, which…The post In Wichita Falls, Airport Officials Are Waging War on Egrets appeared first on Texas Monthly.
I grew up an Air Force brat raised on G.I. Joe at the tail end of Reagan’s America. By age four, I could look up into the sky and identify airplanes by their silhouettes. I was surrounded by the rites and rituals of patriotism and nation and performed the catechisms of duty, obligation, and service daily. The pledges of allegiance to the flag—not prayers for daily bread or forgiveness—echoed in chorus. I could see the discipline required for national discipleship in the way my father stood at attention, saluted, and listened to the anthem.I learned my first Latin not in the church but from the Air Force. Not the “e pluribus unum” found on our coins, but the “mors ab alto” from the patch on…The post As the Son of a Soldier, I’m Proud. As a Latino, My Feelings Are More Complex. appeared first on Texas Monthly.
On the eve of America’s entry into World War II, the Berry Amendment required that all equipment for the American armed forces be made from American materials. That duty landed upon the shoulders of Carroll and Wylie McDonald of Menard, who founded what would become Anodyne Wool. Now based in San Angelo, the company remains the sole provider of raw material for every dress uniform for all branches of the U.S. military. Terry Martin married into the McDonald family and is helping the fifth generation carry on the tradition. See more in this video from Texas Country Reporter.The post The Texas Company That Supplies Wool for All U.S. Military Uniforms appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Susannah Cronin is the third-generation owner of a farm covered in pecan trees on the northwest side of Beaumont. When she realized how quickly the city was moving into the country, she decided she needed to make some moves so she wouldn’t have to surrender her family’s land to the city. Thus Amelia Farm & Market was born. What started as a restaurant has evolved into an event venue, and it’s the type of space where you can look out your window and see exactly where your food came from. See more in the latest dispatch from Texas Country Reporter.The post A Commercial Kitchen Saved the Farm appeared first on Texas Monthly.
In a history-making late-afternoon vote, a divided Texas House chose Saturday to impeach Attorney General Ken Paxton, temporarily removing him from office over allegations of misconduct that included bribery and abuse of office.The vote to adopt the twenty articles of impeachment was 121-23.Attention next shifts to the Texas Senate, which will conduct a trial with senators acting as jurors and designated House members presenting their case as impeachment managers.Permanently removing Paxton from office and barring him from holding future elected office in Texas would require the support of two-thirds of senators. Read Next The Texas Legislature Finally Comes for Ken Paxton By Christopher Hooks The move to impeach came less than a week after the House General Investigating Committee revealed that it was investigating Paxton…The post The Texas House Has Voted to Impeach Attorney General Ken Paxton appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Miguel Martin began making papier-mâché sculptures for his home to celebrate Dia de los Muertos. His creations turned into a passion, which evolved into Colección Mexicana, a store that he runs with Ray Hernandez. Together, they curate a colorful collection of handmade goods from Mexican artisans and Martin himself. See more in this video from Texas Country Reporter.The post Colección Mexicana Is a Fort Worth Shop Teeming With Color appeared first on Texas Monthly.
At the start of this week, the Texas Legislature was sliding toward the conclusion of yet another underwhelming, but basically normal, session. Lawmakers had wasted a lot of time and effort, and soon they would go home. But the calm was illusory. By the end of the week, everything was in flames: blood was sloshing down the Capitol’s marble halls like the building was the Overlook Hotel. Attorney General Ken Paxton called House Speaker Dade Phelan a drunk, urging him to resign and “get the help he needs”; later that afternoon, a House committee announced it had been investigating Paxton for months. The Texas House met Saturday, and after about four hours of debate, voted to impeach Paxton. To paraphrase Mao: everything under the dome…The post The Texas Legislature Finally Comes for Ken Paxton appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Every Sunday afternoon, David Kolar’s voice reaches across the airwaves of KHBR 1560 AM. Fluent in Czech, Kolar queues up traditional polka music from a sound studio in Hillsboro on The American Czech Hour, a weekly program on KHBR. The niche show started in 1970 and continues to reach the many Czech Texans who live near the area. See more in the latest dispatch from Texas Country Reporter.The post The Niche Czech Radio Show That Still Reaches Listeners After Fifty Years appeared first on Texas Monthly.
When Paul Haddad unfolded his laptop to start working after dinner on a Thursday evening in mid-January, he didn’t realize his life was about to be turned upside down. Haddad, the brainy cofounder of Tapbots, an award-winning software company that develops apps for the iPhone, iPad, and Mac, clacked away writing lines of code in the living room of his home in Flower Mound. A text message interrupted him. “I’m having problems logging in,” wrote Mark Jardine, Haddad’s mild-mannered business partner, referring to Tapbots’ flagship product, Tweetbot. As a third-party Twitter app, Tweetbot provided a more personalized and curated experience by allowing users to customize their timelines with robust filters and view their feeds in reverse chronological order. Users were getting an error message when they…The post Two Texas Indie Developers Made It Big on Twitter a Decade Ago. Now They’re Fighting It. appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Wes and Dede Price run a small honey operation out of their Allen backyard. They started Bare Naked Bee Company about a decade ago with a couple of queen bees, and today they’ve got a hundred hives, each humming with 50,000 to 60,000 bees. They jar about 2,500 pounds of Texas wildflower honey annually to sell at farmers markets and retailers. Because their operation is 100 percent Texan, they won’t face penalties if House Bill 590 passes. The bill, authored by Texas representative Ernest Bailes, who represents District 18, in the southeastern part of the state, proposes that products labeled as “Texas honey” must consist “exclusively” of honey produced from Texas apiaries. If codified, the bill would become part of chapter 131 of the Texas Agriculture…The post If a Texas Bee Summers in California, Is Its Honey Still Texan? appeared first on Texas Monthly.
As the man who wrote “Up Against the Wall, Redneck Mother,” Ray Wylie Hubbard—one of the founding fathers of Americana music—knows a little bit about anthems. On this episode of One by Willie, Hubbard focuses on a Willie song that rose to that lofty status long ago, Nelson’s erstwhile show opener “Whiskey River.” It’s one of those songs that even casual fans recognize the instant they hear its opening guitar lick, and Hubbard describes how Willie took it from the original, hard-core country shuffle released in 1972 by its composer, Johnny Bush; filtered it through what Hubbard calls Willie’s “jazz, jam-band mind”; and turned it into what many consider the national anthem of Texas. Subscribe Apple Podcasts — Google Podcasts — Spotify — Stitcher (Read…The post Ray Wylie Hubbard on “Whiskey River,” Strong Weed, and Willie Nelson’s Smile appeared first on Texas Monthly.
On a breezy Sunday in late May, I walk into a boutique on Dallas’s Henderson Avenue called Favor the Kind to crack the case on the fashion world’s latest trend: the coastal cowgirl. “You’re speaking my love language,” says manager Haley Diaz, age 26, placing two representative pieces on a clothes hook. The top is a tropical-print halter that ties at the rib cage, and the bottom is a white prairie skirt that comes to the ankles. Together, the outfit says, I’m down to party, but not till I pick these wildflowers.“My mom might say those two things don’t go together,” I tell her, because it’s easier to throw my 78-year-old mother under the bus than admit this criticism is mine. “Exactly!” Diaz says. She likes…The post Yeehaw, Beach! How the “Coastal Cowgirl” Aesthetic Took Over Texas appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Around 5 p.m. on a spring Friday, cars and freight trucks motor through downtown El Paso on Interstate 10. You can hear the hum of vehicles buzzing across pavement from the pedestrian bridges that span the interstate. The scene looks like a success story for a state whose transportation policy prioritizes moving vehicles quickly. But the Texas Department of Transportation doesn’t see it that way. The state agency cited congestion as a key reason for its support of a highway-widening project, still years away from completion, in the 5.6-mile stretch of downtown El Paso from Executive Center Boulevard to Copia Street. TxDOT’s models, which some of the plan’s opponents dispute, predict the number of vehicles moving through the area per day will increase from the 200,000…The post TxDOT Wants to Widen I-10 in El Paso. Many Residents Say “No Thanks.” appeared first on Texas Monthly.
The Texas Rangers have been a tiny speck in the rearview mirror of the Houston Astros for so long that some fans might struggle to grasp what has happened in the opening two months of this MLB season. So far, that other team in the Lone Star State has spent most of the season atop the American League West division standings. For now, it’s the Astros who are chasing the Rangers. If you’re inclined to dream of a baseball summer in which the two Texas teams duel for first place, play tense games in front of rowdy crowds, and possibly square off in a playoff series, this is for you. “We’re tied of losing,” Rangers general manager Chris Young said after a 68–94 season in which…The post Could It Be? A Playoff Race Brewing Between Texas MLB Teams? appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Host Nancy Miller sits down with Elizabeth Olsen in the final episode of the series to take a deeper look at who Candy Montgomery was in the aftermath of her trial and the shocking verdict. Miller speaks with director and executive producer Lesli Linka Glatter about the emotions and logistics of shooting the most central scene of the series. Texas Monthly executive editor Michael Hall joins the podcast again to give insight into how pseudoscience is used in not only this trial, but the entire Texas criminal justice system.The post Episode 7: “Sssshh” with Elizabeth Olsen, Lesli Linka Glatter & Michael Hall appeared first on Texas Monthly.
In the finale of the Max Original limited series Love & Death (on which Texas Monthly is an executive producer), viewers finally see the bloody axe killing at the heart of the Candy Montgomery case. While everybody watching knew the scene was coming (it had been teased for six episodes), it was still absolutely terrifying—the ferociousness of Candy’s attack was shocking, her savagery beyond doubt.So (spoiler alert) how in the world did the jury find her not guilty of murder? To understand the acquittal, you have to go back a couple of episodes, to a scene in a dark doctor’s office. Candy, played by Elizabeth Olsen, sits in the office of psychiatrist Fred Fason (Brian d’Arcy James), and closes her eyes. She’d agreed to be…The post Did Junk Science Help Candy Montgomery Get Away With Murder? appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Think of a cozy fire burning inside a brick fireplace. As the flames lick the wood, hot coals fall down through the thick metal rack that supports the logs. That rack is called an andiron, after which Michael Sambrooks named his latest Houston restaurant. Sambrooks describes Andiron, which opened just five weeks ago, as “a modern, progressive version of a steakhouse.” It’s swanky—both in design and menu—but the kitchen runs on the rustic fuel of post oak logs and hardwood lump charcoal. “Where there’s smoke,” reads the sign on the corner of the building pointing to the entrance. You first see smoke on the walls and ceilings, which are made of wood planks with burnt surfaces, a Japanese process of shou sugi ban. Bronze accents,…The post This Smoke-Centric Steakhouse Serves a Fancy Beef Rib That Melds French Cooking With Texas Barbecue appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Ken Paxton has been under indictment for most of his tenure as Texas attorney general. This hasn’t stopped voters from reelecting him—twice—to serve as the state’s top law enforcement official. That’s not purely a matter of Texas voters favoring Republicans over Democrats, either. In 2020, near the midpoint of his second term, seven of Paxton’s top aides sent a whistleblower letter accusing the attorney general of corruption, including abuse of office, bribery, and improper influence, relating to Austin real estate developer Nate Paul. Then, in 2022, Paxton faced not one but three well-funded primary challengers; he came within 8 points of escaping that primary without so much as facing a runoff, and in the second round, he trounced his opponent (George P. Bush, the last…The post Is Ken Paxton Finally in Real Trouble? appeared first on Texas Monthly.
To understand the Kyle Fair and the Gathering of the Kyles, you must first understand the drywall-punching stand.It was just a simple gray canopy tent, adorned with a hastily spray-painted “KYLES WANTED” sign, offering drywall punches at $5 a pop. Sitting under the tent were a few young men, all named Kyle and wearing matching white-and-blue “My Name Is Kyle” T-shirts. A couple of them were sipping on Monster energy drinks, as Kyles are wont to do, according to countless memes. Every few minutes, a roar of cheers rang out following each successful attempt at splitting a hunk of drywall. As participants and casual viewers watched thin boards split in half with clouds of white dust, they shared stories of what had driven them to make…The post Punching Drywall and Hanging Out With 1,500 Guys Who Share My Name at the “Gathering of the Kyles” appeared first on Texas Monthly.
A Texas House committee revealed Tuesday it was investigating the office of Attorney General Ken Paxton over his push for $3.3 million in taxpayer dollars to settle a whistleblower lawsuit from former deputies who had accused Paxton of misconduct.The news came hours after Paxton called on the House Speaker Dade Phelan to resign over alleged drunkenness while leading the House, a remarkable moment of acrimony between two of Texas’s top Republicans.Phelan’s office fired back, noting the investigation has been going on since March.“The motives for and timing behind Paxton’s statement today couldn’t be more evident,” Phelan spokesperson Cait Wittman said in a statement. “Mr. Paxton’s statement today amounts to little more than a last-ditch effort to save face.”The series of events underscored the new legal…The post Hours Before an Investigating Committee Hearing Into AG Ken Paxton’s Office, Paxton Calls on Speaker Dade Phelan to Resign appeared first on Texas Monthly.
“I started messing up meat in 1995,” Leonard Guillory told me when I asked about his start as a barbecue entrepreneur. The native of China, Texas, moved about fourteen miles east to Beaumont for high school and loved the locally made beef links. Later, in Houston, he drove trucks for years while saving up to open a barbecue joint of his own. In 2017, Guillory’s Bar-B-Que opened in a food trailer parked in a shopping center in the Alief neighborhood of Houston. Two years ago, Guillory moved across the street into a brick-and-mortar location, with the goal of focusing on the Beaumont-style links from his youth.The food trailer was too cramped for sausage-making, so Guillory had been hauling links from joints like Gerard’s Bar-B-Que, in…The post This Houston Joint Broke Our Brains by Loading Boudin Like a Barbecue Baked Potato appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Like a lot of people, I prefer to remember the John Nova Lomax of the past, instead of more recent times, when he fell victim to the terrible disease that had plagued him for years and killed him on May 22 at 53. His work here at Texas Monthly encompassed the period from 2015 to 2019, but from the time he first started as a journalist in Houston in 2001, he was unstoppable, writing authoritatively for the Houston Press, Houstonia, and Texas Highways, as well as Spin, the New York Times, the Village Voice, and LA Weekly. There were two books, one on Houston dive bars and another on murder and mayhem in the same city. And this doesn’t count his myriad musings in his…The post Goodbye to a Writer appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Danna Ghafir doesn’t want to leave Texas. The 27-year-old was born and raised here, part of a tightly connected Arab American community spread throughout sunny, sprawling Houston. She grew up speaking three languages, crisscrossing the massive city to meet up with friends in neighborhoods that, to Ghafir, felt teeming with life—mosaics of homes and restaurants and schools and museums all on top of one another. They’re one of the reasons she loves Houston: she’s comfortable in the diverse city, where she is never the only woman of color in the room. So, when she decided she wanted to become a doctor, Ghafir picked a medical school in her hometown, with the goal of bringing access and openness around women’s health to her community.Ghafir grew up not talking…The post OB-GYN Residents Are Required to Receive Clinical Abortion Training. They Can’t Do That in Texas. appeared first on Texas Monthly.
For more than thirty years, three of the country’s ten largest cities have been in Texas. New York, L.A., and Chicago have held the top three spots for generations. In 1990, Houston ascended to number four, where it has remained ever since. That same year, San Antonio first cracked the top ten, and Dallas held firm at number eight. Back then, Austin was all the way back at number 25, with a population of just less than a half million, behind Milwaukee (currently number 31), New Orleans (number 53), and Cleveland (number 54). In the decades since, the population of Austin has doubled to more than 974,000. According to the 2022 census update, that astonishing growth was enough to finally tip the city into the top ten,…The post Move Over, Austin: Fort Worth Is the New Texas Boomtown appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Unlike biking or scrapbooking, Dianne Kuykendall’s hobby is not suitable for polite conversation. She regularly checks the Tarrant County medical examiner’s web site, for example, looking for newly discovered bodies that got dumped long ago. “That’s one of the fun things I like to do,” she says. She also reads old newspaper articles about missing persons. She checks Facebook pages dedicated to unsolved Fort Worth mysteries, like the “Missing Trio,” three girls ages nine, fourteen, and seventeen who went Christmas shopping in 1974 and haven’t been seen since. While Kuykendall’s friends are taking Australian cruises or camper trips to Wyoming, she scrolls through cold case posts, commenting “Where was the body found?,” “Where did she hang out?,” “Would this have been near the old Bluebird…The post Got an Unsolved Murder? Call the Cold Case Club appeared first on Texas Monthly.
The interior of the small, deep-fried disc of dough is cavernous with air pockets. The exterior is tawny brown, even though there isn’t even a whiff of frying oil. It’s got a sweet flavor, which pairs as well with savory options as it does indulgent desserts. This is fry bread—specifically the fry bread at Warrior Taco in Pittsburg. The story of the East Texas trailer is as complex as that of the Native American dish.Warrior Taco cofounder and co-owner Jennifer Scharen was born in the Dallas–Fort Worth suburb of Bedford. When she was nine, her family moved to the rural butte-top town of Culver, Oregon. Scharen expressed love through food from a young age, says her mother, Paula Myers. “There was a big ministry [in…The post Despite Immense Pain, the Folks Behind Warrior Taco Serve Joyful Fry Bread appeared first on Texas Monthly.
“Welcome to Eagle Lake, Goose Hunting Capital of the World,” a sun-bleached sign reads as I pull onto Highway 3013. On this April morning, I’ve come for a different kind of avian sport: a bird count at the Attwater Prairie Chicken National Wildlife Refuge, about sixty miles west of Houston. One of the rarest and strangest birds in the nation, the Attwater’s prairie chicken once ranged across coastal Texas and Louisiana and numbered close to one million. But the environment it requires has been paved over and plowed up, and today less than 1 percent of its habitat remains. Fewer than two hundred of the birds are left in the wild, and this 10,000-acre patch of southeast Texas is the only place where the public…The post In Pursuit of Texas’s Rarest Bird, the Attwater’s Prairie Chicken appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Okay, just how do you create a fake sex scandal? More particularly, how do you create a fake child sex scandal? Well, it’s a lot easier than you might think. All you need is one manipulative foster mother, a handful of impressionable young kids, some gullible law enforcement officials, and several juries of good country people determined to protect innocent children at all costs—even at the cost of common sense.Voilà!The documentary How to Create a Sex Scandal, a three-part series on Max debuting today, shows not only how easy it is to fabricate a sex scandal, but also how easy it is to get away with it. In this case, the mad genius behind the whole thing is alive and well and living in California.…The post ‘How to Create a Sex Scandal’: What You Need to Know About the New Docuseries appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Sunny days are upon us, and it’s time to grab a water bottle, car keys, and sunglasses and take advantage of the outdoor playground that is Texas. Whether you’re lounging in a tube on the Guadalupe River, navigating a golf cart through Port Aransas, or hiking in Caprock Canyons State Park, these three Texas-based brands have a pair of sunglasses that will block the rays and match your style. One was started with athletes in mind, another protects the retinas of the likes of Steven Tyler, and the third has been seen everywhere from the silver screen to the battlefield. Each style, no matter the brand, comes with a carrying case and pairs well with a patio margarita.1. Roka (Austin)“Not everyone wanted the armored-up look…The post Three Texas Sunglasses Strong Enough for the Lone Star Sun appeared first on Texas Monthly.
In an auditorium in Allen on Sunday evening, Greg Abbott closed his eyes for a moment of silence. The governor had traveled to the North Texas city to attend a vigil for the eight victims shot to death by a Dallas man wielding a semiautomatic assault rifle in a mall on Saturday afternoon. Shortly after the vigil commenced, one of Abbott’s Twitter accounts sent out a photo of the governor bowing his head. “As this community heals, Texas will be with you every step of the way,” the tweet read. Just twelve hours later, Abbott spoke at a microphone set up in front of two massive C-130 military cargo planes on the tarmac at Austin-Bergstrom airport. The governor tweeted out a photo of the sunrise-lit podium.…The post Whenever Texans Die in Mass Shootings, Greg Abbott Likes to Talk About Immigration appeared first on Texas Monthly.
The English describe warm humidity by saying that the weather is “close.” If you think about it, it’s a perfect term to articulate the feeling of suffocation that accompanies dew-point levels in the 90th percentile, especially when the temperatures are equally high, a phenomenon with which Texans in the central and eastern parts of the state are well familiar. All of this to say that that the British Consulate’s May 6 celebration of the coronation of King Charles III at the Houston Arboretum would have looked and felt exactly like a quaint, happy traditional English garden party had the weather not been so unbearably f—ing close. The event, which took place under a tent outside the arboretum’s nature center, was a sea of Union Jack flags…The post The Coronation of King Charles III Drew a Huge Crowd . . . to Houston appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Greg Roach doesn’t much care for the blinking red lights atop the ninety wind turbines just outside of town. They distract from the nightly blanket of stars that’s among the benefits of life in Olney, an agricultural crossroads about a two-hour drive northwest of Fort Worth. But, says the 67-year-old superintendent of the local school district, that’s a minor quibble.Tax payments from the Trinity Hills wind farm have allowed Olney ISD to remodel the junior high and the high school and to build a vocational building for classes in welding and agriculture, all without raising the tax rate. It’s been “an absolute home run fiscally,” Roach says.And those benefits have recently gotten a whole lot bigger. Trinity Hills enjoyed an enormous tax break when it…The post The Texas GOP’s War on Renewable Energy appeared first on Texas Monthly.
If you’ve ever road-tripped to West Texas, then you’ll know that getting there is half the fun. There’s nothing quite like driving for hours on lonesome highways, watching hills rise into mountains and trees transform into spider-like ocotillos that crawl toward the expansive sky. Beyond the dramatic clouds, vast sense of space, and spectacular desert sunsets, there is one more constant I always noticed but could never comprehend: The grills planted right on the side of the road. There are highways all over the area where you can spot them. From Marfa to Alpine, from Valentine to Van Horn, you’ll find grills of the exact same dimensions. The 75-mile Davis Mountains Scenic Loop (also the state’s highest public highway, at 6,700 feet) holds the most grills…The post An Ode to Roadside Grilling in West Texas appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Pecans are synonymous with cooler months in Texas, as they’re harvested in fall and then baked into pies and added to cocktails throughout the winter. But that doesn’t mean Texans can’t enjoy this nut year-round. If you have access to a grocery store or the internet, then every season can be pecan season.Tiff’s Treats cofounder Tiffany Chen’s adoration for this nut shines in her recipe for pecan pie bars, a gooey hybrid between a pecan pie and her signature cookies. In 1999, Tiffany and Leon Chen (who are now married), started the beloved Texas cookie-delivery company in Leon’s Austin apartment. Tiff’s Treats has since grown to 86 stores.“I’ve always loved pecans,” Tiffany Chen says. “I’ve lived in Texas my whole life, and I just think…The post Pecan Pie Bars appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Eight people are dead after a car ran into pedestrians waiting at a bus stop outside a shelter for migrants in Brownsville, authorities say.The crash happened on Sunday at 8:30 a.m. across the street from the Bishop Enrique San Pedro Ozanam Center, Brownsville Police Department Lt. Martin Sandoval told KRGV.Ten people injured at the scene were taken to a local hospital to treat injuries ranging from minor to serious. One of them later died, Sandoval told CNN, increasing the death toll from seven to eight late Sunday.Police have detained the driver, a Brownsville resident, who is facing at least one charge of reckless driving and also is being treated for injuries. It is unclear what led to the crash. Local police are investigating if it was intentional or accidental,…The post A Driver Crashed Into Pedestrians Outside a Brownsville Migrant Shelter. Eight People Were Killed. appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Kendra Scott, the jewelry tycoon and mother to six kids and several boisterous dogs, knows what she wants for Mother’s Day, and it has four legs and tiny horns. “You’re going to laugh at me, but we bought a ranch, and I have become such a farm girl,” she says, with the easy warmth of someone who may be spending more time on her tractor than running her billion-dollar company. (Scott stepped down as CEO of Kendra Scott LLC in 2021, but is still the company’s executive chairwoman.) “I have two goats right now, Fred and Ethel, and now I want two little Nigerian Dwarf goats. I keep sending pictures of baby goats to my family as a hint—I love them. They follow me around…The post What Kendra Scott Wants For Mother’s Day appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Kimberly Mata-Rubio pulls her thick black hair into a ponytail, laces up her purple-and-black Brooks running shoes, and sets off on a three-mile loop through her hometown of Uvalde, at the edge of the Texas Hill Country, eighty miles west of San Antonio.From her house, she heads west, then she makes a left and runs alongside the magnificent oak trees lining North Getty, one of Uvalde’s main streets. She runs past the softball fields where her ten-year-old daughter Alexandria “Lexi” Aniyah Rubio used to practice her hitting, past the two-story homes that Lexi used to dream of living in, past Julien’s, where Kim chose her dress for Lexi’s funeral. A few blocks away is First Baptist Church, where the funeral was held.Just before she reaches…The post Amor Eterno appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Let’s assume Jacob deGrom’s $185 million right elbow has been examined recently by Keith Meister, one of the Texas Rangers’ team physicians and the one entrusted with treating such joints; Meister, in his twentieth season with the ball club, declines to discuss specific patients, citing HIPAA regulations.When deGrom went on the injured list with elbow inflammation last weekend, the franchise could rest assured that its ace pitcher would be in good hands—maybe the best in baseball. Meister, along with the Los Angeles–based Neal ElAttrache, is among the most sought-after orthopedic surgeons in pro sports, especially when it comes to elbow reconstruction, better known in baseball as Tommy John surgery. Meister reviewed deGrom’s injury history, which included a 2010 Tommy John operation not done by Meister,…The post Meet the North Texas Maestro of Tommy John Surgery appeared first on Texas Monthly.
The phrase “family values” is familiar to anyone within earshot of Texas’s Republican leaders such as Governor Greg Abbott or Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick—the politicians connect the popular conservative idea to many of their agenda items, showcasing its malleability to match the hot-button issues of the day. Most recently, in Texas, “family values” have been called into service in battles over library books, attempts to restrict gender-affirming care for transgender children, and one of the country’s strictest abortion bans. But some faith-based organizations and women’s health advocates are pushing for a new version of family values, one that is less about state enforcement of a specific religious ideal and more about tangible support for families—what personal financial advisers call “values-based budgeting.”“Texas is really cocky when…The post Does a “Family Values” Agenda Include Keeping New Moms Healthy? appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Host Nancy Miller brings back show creators David E. Kelley and Lesli Linka Glatter to discuss this pivotal episode and how they carefully handled shifting from a period drama to a crime thriller. Texas Monthly executive editor Skip Hollandsworth also returns to describe how one reports a stranger-than-fiction murder such as this one. The post Episode 4: “Do No Evil” with David E. Kelley, Lesli Linka Glatter, & Skip Hollandsworth appeared first on Texas Monthly.
What makes the Texas woman unique? What makes her distinct from the demure Southern belle or the rugged, rifle-toting frontierswoman of the American West? As the novelist and Texas Monthly contributor Sarah Bird suggests in her 2016 essay collection, A Love Letter to Texas Women, maybe it’s that she combines the most potent qualities of both. Texas, Bird writes, is the province of tough, glamorous gals who “could give birth during a Comanche attack, help out when it came time to turn the bulls into steers, and still end up producing more Miss USAs than any other state in the nation.” Texas Monthly writer Mimi Swartz echoes this in her own essay “Why We Need Strong Texas Women,” discussing the misperception that the “smart, flinty,…The post How Elizabeth Olsen and Holly Hunter Captured the Not-So-Quiet Desperation of Texas Women appeared first on Texas Monthly.
There’s a level of reverence given to the original location of Bodacious Bar-B-Q by the Lindsey family. The late Roland Lindsey founded the East Texas chain there on Mobberly Avenue in Longview in 1968, and his wife, Nancy, still runs the company. The chain has fourteen other locations, but this one is special, and not any cook can serve at the helm. Nancy closed the doors of the restaurant three times in the last decade waiting for the right pitmaster. Last year, the hiatus was only a couple of months. Spencer Halling, who is married to Nancy’s granddaughter Madilynne Lindsey-Halling, reopened the joint in June 2022. He’s helped make it a gem once again.Halling had an unlikely start for a Texas pitmaster. He grew up…The post The Original Bodacious Bar-B-Q Is a Gem Once Again appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Shopping for yourself? Planning something special for your two-step partner or Mamá? Surprising your grandmother, a friend on her first Mother’s Day, or another wonderful woman in your life? We’ve rounded up special ways to celebrate Mother’s Day this year, the best way we know how: with gifts and experiences straight from the heart of Texas.A(nother) Cast Iron SkilletThis tough-as-nails piece of cookware lasts lifetimes and is often passed down from generation to generation, so there’s a good chance any Texas mother you’re shopping for already has one. But if she frequently cooks for a crowd, she could probably use another. (You can only feed about four with a single iteration of pan de campo.) Enter Fredericksburg Cast Iron Co., whose handmade skillets ($160) are…The post 16 Exceptional Mother’s Day Gifts for the Texas Matriarch appeared first on Texas Monthly.
The second season of Friday Night Lights is not very good television. In fact, it’s downright awful. Whatever your favorite memories of the show—the fatherly tone of Kyle Chandler’s Coach Taylor, the cool-mom approachability of Connie Britton’s Tami Taylor, the smoldering bad-boy gaze of Taylor Kitsch’s Tim Riggins, the awkward affability of Jesse Plemons’s Landry, or the wounded masculinity of Michael B. Jordan’s Vince Howard—they probably don’t involve the plot points of season two. That season of television was uniquely bad for a few reasons, but chief among them was the fact that it was cut short by the strike action taken by the Writers Guild of America, which participated in total work stoppage from November 2007 to February 2008. For the first time in fifteen…The post Last Time Hollywood Writers Went on Strike, Landry Killed a Guy on ‘Friday Night Lights’ appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Near the southern tip of South Padre Island, a little more than five miles from the launchpad, the cheers from the SpaceX employees started as soon as the tip of the rocket cleared the plume of dust. The Starship spacecraft and its Super Heavy booster were making their first flight together last month.The launchpad’s concrete, on Boca Chica Beach, shattered during the lift-off, damaging the engines and causing the rocket to take off with a drunken, lateral slide. Its hellish exhaust scorched tens of thousands of dollars’ worth of photographers’ remote cameras before the booster built enough strength to stagger into the sky.The SpaceX team and the rest of the thousands of spectators who were gathered at Isla Blanca Park reacted gleefully to the spectacle…The post It’s No Surprise SpaceX Blows Up Rockets in Texas. That’s Why It Came Here. appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Hans Nagel, sweaty and dirty from the dust rising off the arena floor, clutched his whip and pitchfork and waited as his next act loaded into the tunnel. The crowd surrounding the Houston zoo’s arena leaned in closer, eager for drama and blood. Soon a young leopard named Odiva emerged with her father. The older cat ran through a seamless routine of tricks, but when Nagel tried to get the snarling Odiva to perform, she leapt. He parried with his miniature pitchfork. Back on all fours, Odiva slowly inched closer, and then “a long, lithe, beautiful spotted streak flashed from the ground toward Nagel’s throat,” a reporter later wrote. A cloud of tear gas puffed into Odiva’s face from a small gun hidden in the…The post Marrying an Elephant, Adopting a Chimp: Tales From the Life of Houston’s Wildest Zookeeper appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Something strange happened when the smoke shop MaryJae, in Austin, posted a pink marijuana leaf in their storefront: longtime users and curious newbies reflexively walked toward it from down the block and across the street. “It’s like a Bat-Signal,” says Jae Graham, who co-owns the shop with her wife, Francisca Anciso. The new customer’s typical reaction upon entry to the shop, which looks like a high-end jewelry store designed by rainbow- pony-and-flower priestess Lisa Frank, is to scream. The second most popular reaction? “Oh my god oh my god oh my god is that glitter?”Anyone who has driven past Texas strip malls the past few years has probably noticed “CBD” and “Hemp” signs blooming like spring bluebonnets. But while the stores are evolving to keep…The post Shattering the Glass Bong: Women Take On the Male-Dominated Weed Space appeared first on Texas Monthly.
WHO: Dallas Cowboys assistant director of college scouting Chris Vaughn and the Dallas Cowboys sixth-round draft pick, running back Deuce Vaughn.WHAT: A rare opportunity for a scout to call his own kid to inform the athlete he’s been drafted by the team his dad works for. WHY IT’S SO GREAT: The Dallas Cowboys’ 2023 draft class was a mixed bag. Did the team reach a bit by drafting defensive tackle Mazi Smith and tight end Luke Schoonmaker with their first- and second-round picks? Perhaps! But they also own the NFL Draft’s best story—when Chris Vaughn, a scout who’s been with the ’Boys since 2017, got on the phone to share the news with the second of the team’s sixth-round draft picks. It’s unusual for a scouting…The post A Dallas Cowboys Scout Got to Draft His Own Son appeared first on Texas Monthly.
This episode is part of a sponsored content series with the Perini Ranch Steakhouse. Hear more stories here. Subscribe Apple – Spotify Before Buffalo Gap was host to Perini Ranch Steakhouse, thousands of buffalo would make their way through as part of the Great Western Trail. After a long day’s ride, chuckwagons were an essential part to those driving the herds. Historian Jay Moore, author of Abilene A to Z and producer of the Abilene history documentary series History in Plain Sight, sheds some light on an age-old feud between Abilene and Buffalo Gap. Entertainer Red Steagall, the “Official Cowboy Poet of Texas,” joins Tom Perini to discuss life on the trail and chuckwagon culture. The post Meet Me At The Wagon – Episode 1: A Sense of Place appeared first on Texas Monthly.
This episode is part of a sponsored content series with the Perini Ranch Steakhouse. Hear more stories here. Subscribe Apple – Spotify When Tom Perini took over the family land, he would soon learn that ranching isn’t for everyone. Jon Means, a Fourth generation rancher and past president of the Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raiser’s Association visits the ranch, along with fellow rancher and former director of the National Cattleman’s Association, John Dudley. Settle in as these longtime friends talk about the importance of cattle ranching in Texas and in the country as a whole.The post Meet Me At The Wagon – Episode 2: The Early Years appeared first on Texas Monthly.
This episode is part of a sponsored content series with the Perini Ranch Steakhouse. Hear more stories here. Subscribe Apple – Spotify An offer to cater at the James Beard House launched Perini Ranch Steakhouse on a series of events that would bring their recognition to an international level. Tom and Lisa Perini recount core moments in the steakhouse’s history that would put them on a trajectory that would add a whole new facet to the business; mail order beef. Special guest Marian Burros, former Food Editor at the New York Times, shares her discovery of a mixup that would lead to a prize-winning tenderloin.The post Meet Me At The Wagon – Episode 3: The Turning Point appeared first on Texas Monthly.
This episode is part of a sponsored content series with the Perini Ranch Steakhouse. Hear more stories here. Subscribe Apple – Spotify The flavors of southwestern cuisine may vary, but the chefs behind it share a passion for the community it brings. Friends, and the fathers of Southwestern Cuisine, Chef Dean Fearing (author of The Texas Food Bible) and Acclaimed Chef Stephn Pyles (12 time Outstanding Chef In America nominee by the Beard Foundation), call in to share their experiences in the food industry. The post Meet Me At The Wagon – Episode 4: Food Brings People Together appeared first on Texas Monthly.
U.S. representative Colin Allred, of Dallas, is planning to announce that he’ll be taking on Ted Cruz for the Senate seat next November, according to a Monday afternoon Politico report. Allred, who’s represented Texas’s Thirty-second Congressional District since 2019, almost immediately started attracting national headlines. That’s got little to do with the former NFL player himself and more to do with the opponent he’ll be taking on. Cruz is, of course, one of the highest-profile members of the Senate, at least as disliked by Democrats as he is tolerated by Republicans. In 2018, during Cruz’s first reelection bid, that broad antipathy from Democrats boosted his then-little-known challenger Beto O’Rourke during the early campaign months, before the viral moments and media attention helped Beto become a…The post Who Is Colin Allred, the U.S. Rep Planning to Take on Ted Cruz? appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Even before Alfonso Hernandez moved from the Mexican state of Zacatecas to Abilene in 1997 at the age of eleven, he knew he wanted to be his own boss. Doing what or where, he hadn’t decided. He later moved to Bryan with his mother, who relocated to be closer to family after his parents divorced. Then, in 2015, Hernandez’s father asked for his son’s help running his bakery and burrito joint, the eponymous Alfonso Hernandez Bakery, in Abilene. The elder Hernandez opened the bakery in 2007, after working as a baker at local stalwarts like La Popular. But, 8 years in, the business was faltering and needed a fresh approach. The younger Hernandez was 26. To the menu, he immediately added northern Mexican guisados like asado rojo,…The post West Texas and South Texas Meet at This New Burrito Joint appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Do you know what you’ll be doing on April 8, 2024? Perhaps a border jaunt to Piedras Negras and Eagle Pass? A long weekend in Waco that doesn’t involve Baylor sports or Chip and Jo? Or maybe it’s finally time to take the kids to Dealey Plaza.These are all places in Texas where you can experience North America’s first total solar eclipse in seven years. Prior to 2017, there hadn’t been a solar eclipse visible in the continental United States since 1979, and the next time won’t be until 2044. This rare and fantastical phenomenon will darken the skies in parts of fifteen states, as well as swaths of Mexico and Canada. And yes, even the eclipse is bigger in Texas. You’ll be able to see…The post Where to Watch the 2024 Solar Eclipse in Texas appeared first on Texas Monthly.
On the heels of the new Max Originals limited series Love & Death, which premiered last week, The Official Love & Death Podcast has begun to release companion episodes. The podcast series, hosted by Nancy Miller (HBO’s I’ll Be Gone in the Dark Podcast and HBO Max’s The Staircase Podcast), takes an episode-by-episode deep dive into the highly anticipated true crime drama. Each episode, Miller interviews cast and creatives—including writer and creator David E. Kelley, executive producer and director Lesli Linka Glatter, and actors Elizabeth Olsen and Jesse Plemons—to go behind the scenes of one of the biggest, most brutal murders in modern Texas history. The Official Love & Death Podcast is produced by HBO Max in partnership with Texas Monthly Studio, the in-house agency for Texas…The post Texas Monthly Studio Produces ‘Love & Death’ Companion Podcast in Partnership With HBO Max appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Larry McMurtry was one of the definitive storytellers of twentieth-century Texas. If you read Texas Monthly, it’s likely he needs no introduction, but we’ll offer a brief one anyway: he wrote Lonesome Dove, The Last Picture Show, Terms of Endearment, The Evening Star, and Horseman, Pass By (which was made into the film Hud, starring Paul Newman), among dozens of others, during his five-decade career. He won the Pulitzer Prize for Lonesome Dove and an Academy Award for the Brokeback Mountain screenplay (which he shared with frequent collaborator Diana Ossana). Despite the wide acclaim that made him welcome in any corner of the world, his 84 years ended in 2021 in the same place they began—Archer City, Texas, a small town of fewer than two…The post Exclusive: View the Full Larry McMurtry Estate Auction Catalog appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Somewhere along a narrow street flanked by skyscrapers on the edge of downtown Austin, hidden among a swirling crowd of tech bros, bachelorettes in pink cowboy hats, and pulsing dance music, a nefarious assassin has allegedly been hard at work in recent months. Some obsessives on message boards believe that this individual is a lone wolf who carefully studies his victims before approaching them at a bar and drugging them at just the right moment. Others are convinced “he” is actually a she, the seductive point person for a larger team that has for years, perhaps decades, been targeting the kind of healthy, handsome young men in their twenties and thirties that you’d expect to find milling around bustling nightlife areas in cities across America. Whether…The post Reality Check: There’s Almost Certainly No Serial Killer in Austin appeared first on Texas Monthly.
By the time Willie Nelson finally strode onstage a few minutes past 10 p.m. this Saturday, a full house at California’s legendary Hollywood Bowl already had witnessed three hours of unforgettable music. Dozens of Nelson’s friends and fellow performers gathered in Los Angeles for Long Story Short: Willie Nelson 90, A Star-Studded Concert Celebrating Willie’s 90th Birthday, a two-night celebration that must have been one of the biggest nonagenarian birthday bashes the planet has ever seen.We’d already heard fellow Texans such as Leon Bridges, Gary Clark Jr., the Chicks, Norah Jones, and Lyle Lovett, playing the songs that helped make Willie an iconic twentieth-century American songwriter. The lineup underscored how Nelson’s impact bridges generations (more on that in our podcast, One by Willie) from thirtysomethings Billy…The post Willie Nelson Threw a Ninetieth Birthday Party, and Everyone Came appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Baker Abby Love says she’s had chronic depression for “most of her life,” including a suicidal episode when she was twelve years old. She met with a therapist at that time, but it wasn’t until she was 26 and in graduate school that she was able to find one who was truly helpful. During her initial session, the therapist assured Love what she previously viewed as personality flaws were “normal” and a result of biological and psychological factors. A couple of years later, Love decided to try antidepressants. They’ve given her the boost she needs to bathe, leave the house, be creative, and run a business.“It’s okay for me to think, ‘My brain is just a little off and has trouble doing that serotonin thing,’ ”…The post “I’m Starting to Become Numb to This”: Texas Restaurant Workers Speak Up About Mental Health in Their Industry appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Something about the swampy, almost spooky vibe of Martin Dies Jr. State Park, in moss-draped East Texas, makes me want to tromp through the woods, looking for yetis. I didn’t find any—at least not the hairy kind that trundle through forests—on this, my third trip to the park. But I padded through the trees on springy soft pine needles, listened to owls hoot, and watched an armadillo scuttle through the underbrush. The park hugs the edge of the 10,000-acre B. A. Steinhagen Lake, at the junction of the Angelina and Neches Rivers in the Piney Woods of East Texas. It’s a perfect place to go canoeing or kayaking, although I didn’t get to do that this time. A veil of fog sometimes swirls around the cypress…The post Get Lost in the Fog at This Swampy, Spooky East Texas Park appeared first on Texas Monthly.
More than 250 law enforcement officers are on a manhunt for the gunman who killed five of his neighbors late Friday night. The gunman went on a rampage with his AR-15-style rifle when his neighbors asked him to stop firing shots in his yard so their baby could sleep.Authorities have identified the gunman as 38-year-old Francisco Oropesa. He is believed to be armed and dangerous. Officials have recovered the gun used in the shooting but say the suspect could be carrying a smaller weapon.The manhunt currently has “zero leads,” James Smith, special agent in charge of the FBI Houston office, said at a news conference Sunday afternoon. Law enforcement officers have been going door to door to get information about the suspect. Authorities are also…The post The Search Continues for the Texas Gunman Who Killed 5 Neighbors in San Jacinto County appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Bill Lyons is the grandson of Alfred Beyer, an enterprising San Antonian who opened Casa Rio along the city’s famous River Walk, long before it was the tourist destination that it is today. The Tex-Mex restaurant is the oldest continually operating restaurant in San Antonio, and Texas Country Reporter pays a visit in the latest dispatch.The post The Beginnings of Casa Rio: A Piece of San Antonio Tex-Mex History appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Host Nancy Miller turns the beat around in Episode 3 with composer Jeff Russo to better understand the task of creating the musical backdrop for a compelling drama. Miller also speaks with Kyrsten Ritter, who attributes her Aunt Sharon to the inspiration behind her character, Sherry Cleckler. Texas Monthly executive editor Mimi Swartz comes on the podcast to discuss the Texas woman, then and now.The post Episode 3: “Stepping Stone” with Jeff Russo, Krysten Ritter & Mimi Swartz appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Dale Johnson is a filmmaker who has traveled the world documenting a wide range of people, places, and wildlife. He’s been hired by Nat Geo and NASA, and his takeaway from over the years is how precious and fragile our natural world has increasingly become. See more in the latest dispatch from Texas Country Reporter.The post Confessions of a Nature-Documentary Filmmaker appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Director Lesli Linka Glatter and actors Elizabeth Olsen, Jesse Plemons, and Patrick Fugit sit down to talk about the making of Love & Death. Shot throughout Central Texas in 2021 and 2022, the series explores the relationships around the affair that led to the 1980 killing of Betty Gore and is based on Texas Monthly‘s original coverage in 1984.The post Making ‘Love & Death’: Lesli Linka Glatter, Elizabeth Olsen, Jesse Plemons, and Patrick Fugit appeared first on Texas Monthly.
It all happened so quickly—the Houston Texans drafting Ohio State quarterback C. J. Stroud with the second overall pick in Thursday’s NFL draft, then moments later pulling off a bombshell trade to get Alabama linebacker Will Anderson Jr. All of a sudden, an organization awash in losing and apathy felt transformed by the arrival of two potential superstars.The Texans doing something so gutsy and risky and potentially brilliant was completely out of character for a franchise that has lost 31 of its last 39 games, and Houston fans may need a day or two to wrap their heads around it. After years of little more than dismal football and dreadful controversies, there’s hope. The team’s offseason moves have brought a level of optimism not seen since…The post A Blockbuster Draft-Day Trade Gives the Houston Texans a Rare Feeling: Hope appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Host Nancy Miller sits down with Jesse Plemons and Lily Rabe to unpack Betty and Allan Gore’s emotional relationship. Miller travels back in time with production designer Suzuki Ingerslev to understand what it takes to bring late 1970s Texas to life. Texas Monthly editor-at-large Sean O’Neal joins the podcast to talk about what it was like to have his Austin home transformed into a television set.The post Episode 2: “Encounters” with Lily Rabe, Jesse Plemons, Suzuki Ingerslev & Sean O’ Neal appeared first on Texas Monthly.
A gloved hand reaches into a vat of hot, stringy meat. The strands of pork are collected and compressed into the shape of a snowball—one of a size that could cause serious injury. The pale, naked pork ball sits on the tray, envious of the glistening turkey, ribs, and brisket nearby. The pitmaster—armed with a squeeze bottle—cloaks it in a drizzle of sauce (seemingly out of pity) that drips down the sides and only accentuates the shape that doesn’t exist inside any animal. This sad performance could happen at just about any barbecue joint in Texas, because, unfortunately, “Texas-style” pulled pork is bullshit.I write this not to denigrate the cut of meat used for pulled pork. Trips around the areas of North Carolina west of…The post “Texas-Style” Pulled Pork Is Embarrassing appeared first on Texas Monthly.
In 2012, Willie Nelson released a song that could well have been his epitaph: “Roll Me Up and Smoke Me When I Die,” a honky-tonk jam that partnered him up with a group of fellow marijuana enthusiasts—Snoop Dogg, Jamey Johnson, Kris Kristofferson. As stoner jams go, it’s one of the greats, a tune written by Willie himself (with an assist from some of his longtime collaborators) that recognizes a fundamental truth about the man from Abbott, Texas: after decades as one of the world’s most prominent marijuana enthusiasts, Willie Nelson’s body is probably like 90 percent weed at this point. That makes him the perfect duet partner for anyone’s pot-smoking anthem, and the improbably successful Michigan-bred bluegrass star Billy Strings managed to land one with the…The post Willie Nelson Is Helping Billy Strings Stay “California Sober” on a New Duet appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Elizabeth Olsen pulls into my carport driving a wood-trimmed Oldsmobile Vista Cruiser. She lets it idle a moment, the wagon’s engine rattling like rusty chains inside a paint can, before she finally puts it out of its misery. When she steps out of the car, she is stained with blood. Olsen looks down at her crimson blouse. Whatever emotions may be playing across her face right now, they’re difficult to read from behind the phalanx of crew members crowding my patio. My line of sight is further obscured by the camera dolly running across the spot where my fence once stood. The subtle nuances of Olsen’s performance will surely enthrall the viewers of HBO Max’s Love & Death when the show premieres on April 27,…The post HBO Max’s ‘Love & Death’ Needed a Home for an Axe Killer. They Chose Mine. appeared first on Texas Monthly.
The thrill of the hunt, the glory of the find: antiquing is a rite of passage for any small-town tourist. In Texas, antique shops are as ubiquitous as the tchotchkes they hawk—and their wares are just as varied. Some spots specialize in quaint, rusted signage, while others contain high-priced quality furniture from another era. Certain stores have a high ratio of junk to treasure, while others carefully curate their wares. We’ve done the latter in the list below, which includes fifteen antique stores that are well worth your time and your road trip mileage. But first, a pro tip from someone who spends her Sundays combing dusty aisles: draft a plan of action. Antique shops have a way of propagating within a town, so leave enough…The post 15 Treasure-Filled Spots to Antique in Small-town Texas appeared first on Texas Monthly.
On Wednesday, Texas Monthly was named as a finalist for two James Beard Foundation Media Awards. After taking home the top prize in the category last year, taco editor José R. Ralat was once again nominated in Columns and Newsletters for his Tex-Mexplainer series. In the Beverage category, B. E. Mintz was nominated for “Who’s Allowed to Make Sotol?” The 2023 winners will be announced at the James Beard Awards ceremony in Chicago on Saturday, June 3.These are Texas Monthly’s sixth and seventh nominations in JBF Media Awards history, following Ralat’s Tex-Mexplainer win in 2022, Patricia Sharpe’s 2006 feature-writing win for “Confessions of a ‘Skinny Bitch’,” and additional nods in 2009, 2018, and 2022. TM is also the only Texas publication nominated this year in any Journalism Awards category. The full…The post Texas Monthly Is Nominated for Two 2023 Media Awards by the James Beard Foundation appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Host Nancy Miller talks with show writer and creator David E. Kelley and executive producer and director Lesli Linka Glatter on how they adapted the Texas Monthly articles and book to tell the real-life story of Candy Montgomery and Betty Gore. Miller speaks with Elizabeth Olsen, who plays Candy Montgomery, about her approach to such a complicated figure. The episode also features a conversation with Texas Monthly executive editor Skip Hollandsworth on why this strange suburban murder saga could only happen in Texas.The post Episode 1:“The Huntress” with David E. Kelley, Lesli Linka Glatter, Elizabeth Olsen, & Skip Hollandsworth appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Phyllis Bridges remembers LeTourneau Heights, where she grew up, as a “sweet little neighborhood.” Her mother planted daylilies and irises in the front yard and hung green drapes to match the shag carpet in the living room. The boxy design of the family’s concrete house was unusually plain, almost primitive-looking, compared to most other homes in Longview, but it was all Phyllis had ever known, and so it seemed normal to her. Sure, it was tricky to hammer nails into the walls to hang pictures, and if the family turned off the heat before going out of town in the winter, the place never fully warmed back up. But her mother loved living there and vowed to remain even after Phyllis’s father died in 1973.…The post Why These Ugly, Abandoned Longview Homes May Be Worth Saving appeared first on Texas Monthly.
As my husband and I headed to our doctor for an anatomy scan of our baby on a Monday morning in February, we weren’t concerned. We had spent a few years trying for a baby: eighteen months of fertility treatment and three embryo transfers. We had learned to temper our optimism with caution. But this time five ultrasounds hadn’t revealed any complications. So on the day of the seventeen-week anatomy scan, we spent the ride to the clinic discussing our eighth-anniversary dinner, set for later that night, and excitedly considered posting a pregnancy announcement, along with pictures we had taken after a hike a few days earlier. We never ended up having that dinner or posting those photos. After that visit to the doctor, our…The post One Aspiring Mother’s Nightmare in Post-Roe Texas appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Marty Bryan is building a restaurant empire in the northern stretches of the Metroplex. His steakhouse and barbecue restaurant Marty B’s opened in Bartonville in 2017, and since then he’s added a coffee shop next door and Rustico Wood Fired Grill in Flower Mound—and a Tex-Mex restaurant is coming to Argyle next year. His restaurant 1845 Taste Texas, in Flower Mound, will celebrate three years in June. Bryan said the concept was to celebrate all things Texas, like the music you hear in the background—the artists featured are exclusively Texan. The restaurant’s name includes the year Texas became part of the United States, or, as Bryan puts it, “the year that Texas allowed the other part of the country to join us.”The restaurant’s tagline is…The post Step Aside, Perry’s: This 30-Ounce Smoked Pork Chop Is Ready to Take the Crown appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Lindale is a small town in East Texas, known for two things: the high school band and blackberries. We have a church on every street, and for every church a bank to match. We are the hometown of country singer Miranda Lambert and her store, the Pink Pistol. Every October, we throw a big festival called Countryfest, where businesses from the surrounding area set up booths showcasing their products and local dance studios perform. A few years ago we did something that will be the pride of the town for many years to come: our high school football team made the Class 4A Division I state championship game. In many ways, Lindale is just like every other small town in the South. And similarly, every…The post Opinion: Texas Needs Leadership on Its Student Mental Health Crisis appeared first on Texas Monthly.
With Willie’s ninetieth birthday coming this weekend, we celebrate with his son, acclaimed singer-songwriter Lukas Nelson, who discusses a song that devoted Willie lovers consider one of his all-time finest deep cuts: “I Never Cared for You.”Written in the early sixties, it may be the clearest example you’ll ever hear of just how far ahead of his time Willie was. Though the song failed to make the charts when originally released as a single in 1964, it quickly became a staple of Willie’s live shows—a favorite of such discerning listeners as Tulsa legend Leon Russell—and ultimately one of Willie’s favorite compositions to revisit in the studio. Subscribe Apple Podcasts — Google Podcasts — Spotify — Stitcher (Read a transcript of this episode below.)For this special…The post Willie Nelson’s Son Lukas on Ancient Texts, Pearl Jam, and “I Never Cared for You” appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Just when it seemed the clock might have finally struck midnight on the Houston Astros—after all the postseason success and wild dugout celebrations and championship banners raised at Minute Maid Park—their season may have been saved by a utility infielder named Mauricio Dubón.The Astros acquired Dubón from the San Francisco Giants early last season, at a time when Houston’s roster lacked depth and some of the franchise’s veterans were attempting to play through injuries. The Astros were thrilled to get Dubón, who can fill positions all over the diamond. He began this season with a .244 career batting average and a reputation as a good teammate who would accept any role.Houston envisioned Dubón as a capable fill-in who could step up when other players went…The post Can the Houston Astros Stretch Their Dynasty for One More Year? appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Roasty Buds was born to be experimental. Last year, co-owners Louis Montemayor, Daniel Stone, and George Ellis solved the world’s deficiency of spicy coffee when they launched their Austin-based brand with a trio of brews. Kinda Spicy, Xtra Spicy, and XXXtra Insane Spicy beans—flavored with Hatch green chiles, ghost peppers, and Carolina Reaper peppers, respectively—brought a new way to wake up with your morning coffee. This month, they launched a pair of smoked coffee varieties, Texas BBQ and Cherry Glaze Smoked BBQ.All Roasty Buds coffees are made with Arabica beans roasted in Spicewood, a town just outside Austin, by Mike McKim of Cuvée Coffee. Twelve-ounce bags of any flavor are $17 and available online. For the barbecue coffee varieties, McKim uses a process whereby wood…The post These Smoked Coffee Beans Have Plenty of Flavor, Just Not the Barbecue Kind appeared first on Texas Monthly.
I’ve always wanted to ride my bike to San Antonio from Austin. The cities are separated by about eighty miles—a nice distance for an adventurous cyclist—and the trip can make for a very pretty ride, if you take quiet back roads that wend through the Hill Country. That was not the case for the route I took last Saturday. I chose to travel a much stupider way, one I’m calling the Hell Route. It’s one of many such rides I plan to do, a collection called Hell Routes. As the name implies, these are rides made miserable by traffic, weather, or lack of amenities. Some might consider my three-thousand-mile-ride around the perimeter of Texas or my ride from Brownsville to Austin Hell Routes, but those were…The post I Biked the I-35 “Hell Route” From Austin to San Antonio So You Don’t Have To appeared first on Texas Monthly.
JANUARY PERKS Brisket U | Get $10 off any Brisket U Class with code TXMNEWS22 Snow’s BBQ | 15% off your online order with code TOOTSIE JW’s Barbecue | 10% off entire order Riverport BBQ | Free sticker with purchase Kona’s TX BBQ | 10% off entire order Smokin’ Joe’s Pit BBQ | 10% off entire order and free sticker; Location: 10150 Montana Ave El Paso, TX 79925 For the full calendar view, check out the live Pit Perks Calendar.*Proof of membership is required to claim TM BBQ Club “Pit Perks.” TM BBQ Club members must show their physical membership card, proof of membership to the TM BBQ Club Facebook group, or the TM BBQ Club badge in the BBQ Finder app.The post January 2023 Pit Perks appeared first on Texas Monthly.
FEBRUARY PERKS Riverport BBQ | Free sticker with purchase Kona’s TX BBQ | 10% off entire order Brisket U | Get $10 off any Brisket U Class with code TXMNEWS22 Smokin’ Joe’s Pit BBQ | 10% off entire order and free sticker; Location: 10150 Montana Ave El Paso, TX 79925 Snow’s BBQ | 15% off your online order with code TOOTSIE (offer expires 2/28) Mimsy’s Craft Barbecue | Free sticker with purchase; Tickets on sale for March 11th Mimsy’s brisket, ribs and chicken class For the full calendar view, check out the live Pit Perks Calendar.*Proof of membership is required to claim TM BBQ Club “Pit Perks.” TM BBQ Club members must show their physical membership card, proof of membership to the TM BBQ Club Facebook…The post February 2023 Pit Perks appeared first on Texas Monthly.
MARCH PERKS Riverport BBQ | Free sticker with purchase Brisket U | Get $10 off any Brisket U Class with code TXMNEWS22 Smokin’ Joe’s Pit BBQ | 10% off entire order and free sticker; Location: 10150 Montana Ave El Paso, TX 79925 Reveille | Specials Friday-Monday; 10% off all merch Mimsy’s Craft Barbecue | Free sticker with purchase MARCH EVENTS + SPECIALS InterStellar BBQ | Specials Friday-Sunday, see calendar InterStellar BBQ | Austin Rodeo on 3/5; Spaced Cowboy on 3/26 Mimsy’s Craft Barbecue | Catfish features all through Lent For the full calendar view, check out the live Pit Perks Calendar.Proof of membership is required to claim TM BBQ Club “Pit Perks.” TM BBQ Club members must show their physical membership card, proof of membership to…The post March 2023 Pit Perks appeared first on Texas Monthly.
APRIL PERKS Brisket U | Get $10 off any Brisket U Class with code TXMNEWS22 Blood Bros BBQ | 10% discount on merch Eaker Barbecue | Free Sticker and drink with purchase Riverport BBQ | 10% off any food purchase APRIL EVENTS Blood Bros BBQ | See calendar for events Franklin Barbecue | You Grill Girl! event with Les Dames d’Escoffier; Where: Franklin’s; When: April 27 at 7pm Eaker Barbecue | See calendar for daily specials For the full calendar view, check out the live Pit Perks Calendar. *Proof of membership is required to claim TM BBQ Club “Pit Perks.” TM BBQ Club members must show their physical membership card, proof of membership to the TM BBQ Club Facebook group, or the TM BBQ Club…The post April 2023 Pit Perks appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Under the reflection of three giant disco balls, the world-famous DJ Diplo is transitioning from playing European club music to his own EDM-style Top 40 remixes while machines shoot out smoke to the beat. Chris Cates, creator of the Austin-famous Instagram account When Where What Austin, is keeping an eye on the champagne bottles topped with sparklers that the bottle girls are bouncing up and down. We’re at Superstition nightclub in East Riverside, where Cates and five of his colleagues have just piled through the back entrance to get to a reserved table, ready to make good on the “play hard” aspect of their very modern business.I post Cates on my Instagram story and tag his account, fully knowing that everyone I met in undergrad…The post Fifteen Hours and Thirty Drinks With the Minds Behind When Where What Austin appeared first on Texas Monthly.
On Texas Independence Day (March 2) in 2014, Matthew McConaughey stood onstage at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, California, and announced he was his own hero. If you recall, he was accepting the Oscar for Best Actor for his performance in Dallas Buyers Club, and after thanking his team, his collaborators on the film, and his family, he told the audience that since he was 15 years old, he has considered his hero to be himself 10 years in the future. At 15 he was inspired by all that he might have at 25, at 25 he was moved by Matthew the thirtysomething, and in March 2014—the height of the McConaissance—he was chasing the accomplishments of himself 10 years in the future.One can only imagine,…The post Matthew McConaughey Is Monetizing His Whole Vibe appeared first on Texas Monthly.
“We are the architects of our own lives, but God tests and supports us,” says Rosa Ruiz, co-owner of Rosa’s Kitchen, a taco truck in San Antonio’s Southtown neighborhood. Her words on free will and faith ring true for many, but they are essential to understanding the trials and strength of Ruiz and her family. Since emigrating to Texas from Monclova—in the Mexican state of Coahuila—Ruiz, her husband Raymundo Arellano, and their four daughters have struggled similarly to other immigrants. In 2004, Ruiz noted that cartel activity in northern Mexican states like Coahuila was worsening. The couple decided it was in the best interest of their family to put down roots in San Antonio, leaving behind a few fruterias and a carniceria.Raymundo took construction jobs, and…The post Faith and Perseverance Drive This San Antonio Taco Truck appeared first on Texas Monthly.
A Whataburger cup is not a Greek urn or a Roman vase or any other sort of vessel you’d expect to find in a fine-art museum collection. Yet turn a corner in “Day Jobs,” an exhibit at the Blanton Museum of Art in Austin, and there one appears in all its orange-and-white glory, enshrined in a six-foot-tall portrait by the late photographer Chuck Ramirez. “Whatacup.” The sheer size of the thing stops you in your tracks so that you read the small blue text on the packaging: “When I am empty please dispose of me properly,” it says. Suddenly what’s on tap becomes a surprising meditation on mortality—one that grows all the more poignant when you learn the facts of Ramirez’s life and death. Born in San…The post In a New Exhibit, Artists Find the Sublime at Whataburger and the Supreme Court appeared first on Texas Monthly.
I took my first standardized test thirty years ago. I was in third grade at Seele Elementary in New Braunfels, and it was the Texas Assessment of Academic Skills, or TAAS, test. Our teacher, Bunny Hollis—she and her cardigans were straight out of a heartwarming midcentury children’s novel—called for our attention one afternoon and briefed us on the upcoming exam with not a hair of her perfectly stationary coiffure askew. I don’t remember exactly what she said, but I do remember the nonchalance. It was something to this effect: “There’s going to be a test tomorrow. Don’t worry about it; I’m your teacher, and I’m confident you know far more than you’ll need to know to pass. Please eat a big breakfast and don’t be…The post How Texas’s STAAR Test Took Over Public School Culture appeared first on Texas Monthly.
No one likes an “I told you so,” whether on an elementary school playground or in arguments over reproductive rights. Still, in the wake of the passage of Texas’s Senate Bill 8 in May 2021, which effectively outlawed abortions after six weeks of pregnancy, and the overturning of Roe v. Wade by the U.S. Supreme Court last June, which triggered Texas’s law barring any abortion with limited and vague life and health exceptions, the dire warnings of pro–abortion rights Cassandras have come to pass. Now that an individual’s right to terminate a pregnancy is solely up to the state of Texas, chaos has ensued. This is not just because abortion has been outlawed, but because of the resulting chilling effect—a concept once used to describe…The post For Texas’s Antiabortion Movement, the Chilling Effect Is Working appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Last week at the Capitol, a battle between the Texas House and the Senate over competing plans to cut Texans’ property taxes grew more contentious. Specifically, the men who run each legislative chamber went from giving each other the silent treatment—the tactic they appear to have favored throughout the majority of the session—to bickering in public, taking potshots at each other and their preferred bills on TV and social media. It came to a head on Tuesday, when Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick, who controls the Senate, unveiled a new nickname for House Speaker and Beaumont native Dade Phelan: “California Dade.” The lieutenant governor prefers a plan that would raise the homestead exemption—the amount of a property’s value not subject to school property tax—from $40,000 to $70,000.…The post Dan Patrick Tries Out a Trumpy Nickname for Texas Speaker Dade Phelan appeared first on Texas Monthly.
On a Greek mountainside, the adders are courting. Two red-brown male snakes, their noses tipped with tiny horns, wave their heads at a female in sinuous attempts at seduction. Through the glass and across the hall, in a Florida mangrove forest, green anoles strut on branches over basking terrapins and the sleeping bulk of eastern diamondback rattlesnakes. Other massive exhibits fill the dark hallways of Reptilandia, a new reptile zoo just outside of Johnson City. Each enclosure is a portal to a different world: a Madagascan lowland jungle, an Arizona mountainside, a thicket on the Edwards plateau, all with their own cold-blooded cohorts.The zoo, which opened in December 2022 and operates (for now) only on weekends, has a lot to live up to. The hills…The post Move Over, Snake Farm: Reptilandia Is the Hill Country’s Classy New Reptile Zoo appeared first on Texas Monthly.
As spring kicks into high gear, Texas wine lovers hit the road once again to explore the plentiful wineries that dot the Hill Country to enjoy a glass of tempranillo alongside swaths of wildflowers.Regulars will notice a few new vintners in the area. But what might not be obvious from a quick glance while driving is that these businesses hightailed it from other states to be a part of Texas’s growing wine scene.In 2022, WineAmerica conducted an economic impact study—taking sales, tourist expenditures, and taxes into consideration—to determine how wine affects every state in the country. It found that the economic impact of the wine industry in Texas was $20.3 billion, which represents a 55 percent increase over the past five years. The state’s 443…The post Out-of-State Wineries Are Moving to Texas for Cheaper Land and Friendlier Competition appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Since taking office in a special election last May, Democratic state representative Jolanda Jones, of Houston, has established a reputation as one of the Texas Legislature’s most liberal members. As the first openly gay Black state lawmaker in the Lege, Jones has helped lead Democratic opposition to the Republican slate of anti-trans and anti-drag bills. She has been one of the most vocal proponents of criminal justice reform and an advocate for taking a public health approach to drug addiction. She has fought Republican efforts to ban diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives in state institutions and the teaching of critical race theory. (CRT is a college-level framework for examining systemic racism that is not actually taught in Texas public schools.) “Just because it’s hard doesn’t…The post Sex, Threats, and Late-Night Phone Calls: Inside Jolanda Jones’s Legislative Office appeared first on Texas Monthly.
“Virtually every resident of Texas lives near a pipeline,” says the Texas Pipeline Awareness Alliance, which represents the industry that transports the oil and natural gas that we all use. In director Daniel Goldhaber’s sensational new heist film, How to Blow Up a Pipeline, now in theaters, that proximity leads one of those Texans to create a whole new kind of oil boom.The film builds a narrative around an argument posed in the 2021 nonfiction polemic by Andreas Malm, a Swedish activist, author, and ecology professor. In a world threatened by climate change caused by the burning of fossil fuels, Malm believes that sabotaging an oil pipeline is justifiable self-defense.Once the opening credits have rolled, How to Blow Up a Pipeline gets right to the…The post A Radical New Eco-Thriller Film Asks: Does the Climate Crisis Justify Blowing Up an Oil Pipeline? appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Justin Pearson had enough of tying sausage rings. Through high school and into college, the Luling native worked for his grandfather Floyd Wilhelm’s restaurant, Chisholm Trail BBQ in Lockhart. During the majority of his time there, he would tie the strings together at the end of the links to make the ring-shaped sausages found in most Lockhart barbecue joints. “To get that snug little tie on that sausage, you have to give it a yank,” he said. In his normal twelve-hour shift, during which the sausage crew would tie a thousand pounds’ worth, the moisture would soften his hands to the point where the strings could break his skin. “I remember having duct tape on the ends of three fingers and I was down to…The post Lockhart Barbecue Royalty Sets Up His Own Legacy in San Marcos appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Paul Davis began his speech at the Rally Against Censorship in late January with a joke. Surveying the crowd in Conroe, the boyish 41-year-old Frisco lawyer asked if anyone had “not been censored on social media.” When one audience member raised a hand, Davis deployed his punch line. “Are you a fed?” he asked. That set the tone for a fifteen-minute speech that followed in which he discussed his own bans from and censorship on social media for contesting the 2020 election results and saying the COVID-19 vaccine was killing people. Davis made clear that his life’s cause was opposing the suppression of free speech on social media. “If you’re not getting censored on social media,” he said, “you’re not speaking truth.”Three months later, Davis…The post Texas Secessionists Rail Against Censorship. Now One Is Suing a Republican Lawmaker for Calling Her Treasonous. appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Christopher Krinsky would have you believe he is no ramen nerd. He says as much before plowing into a meticulous explanation of the traditional Japanese noodle dish. “Tare is where all of the seasonings come in, and then you have your aromatic oil,” he says as part of his spiel. “The aromatic oil will carry any aromas that you want to get while slurping your ramen right as you’re inhaling.”Perhaps the chef-owner of Ramen Del Barrio, a two-month-old stall in Austin Asian grocer Hana World Market, is trying to manage expectations and mitigate criticism. He is, after all, an American-born male blending Japanese and Mexican culinary traditions, and he’s weary of accusations of cultural appropriation. The Japanese chefs he’s worked for have prepared him for…The post Ramen Del Barrio Is a Chef’s Love Letter to His Mexican Upbringing appeared first on Texas Monthly.
With emotional testimony about their own experiences, parents of children who were killed in the Uvalde school shooting urged a Texas House committee late Tuesday to pass onto the full chamber a bill that would raise the minimum age to purchase certain semiautomatic rifles.Families waited more than twelve hours after the House Select Committee on Community Safety first convened at about 9 a.m. to testify about their final memories with some of the nineteen children and two teachers who were killed in the May 24 mass shooting at Robb Elementary and how their lives have changed since.At one point crying, Javier Cazares testified that his daughter Jacklyn Cazares, age nine, never learned to ride a bike, never made it to the fifth grade, and could…The post “Our Resolve Has Never Been Stronger”: The Relatives of Uvalde Victims Advocate for Gun Control in the Lege appeared first on Texas Monthly.
It all started with a pit repossession a few years back. A smoker from Franklin Barbecue, in Austin, was on loan to a museum in New Orleans. Aaron Franklin became unhappy after learning that a nearby establishment was using the smoker for its restaurant dishes. “It was never lent to be used for someone to make money on,” Franklin said, so he hauled a trailer from Austin to New Orleans to retrieve it. While in town, Franklin met up with Sandy Whann, owner of Leidenheimer Baking Company—which first opened in 1896—to talk about a restaurant concept Franklin was planning back in Austin. He wanted to make New Orleans–style po’ boys, and he needed Leidenheimer’s French bread, which wasn’t yet available in Texas. The crusty, airy…The post Aaron Franklin Brings a Taste of New Orleans to Austin appeared first on Texas Monthly.
My family and I are only eighteen state parks in to our goal of visiting all 88. No matter what weather, adventures, or misadventures await, we always find something to enjoy. At some parks, this requires patience and creativity. This was not the case on the April morning when we arrived at Meridian State Park, fifty miles northwest of Waco. Like any good host, Meridian greeted us with fresh flowers—an almost immoderate bounty of bluebonnets. My family was intoxicated by their fragrance and charm, snapping photos and gleefully pointing them out to each other. Spring in Texas is notoriously fickle, but we lucked into a gorgeous weekend, serendipitously timed with the arrival of the endangered golden-cheeked warbler. With its easily accessible location, Meridian is a…The post Meridian State Park Offers Delights for Every Age appeared first on Texas Monthly.
The relationship between the Texas Rangers and the city of Dallas is surprisingly complicated. To put it plainly, it matters to the organization, the public, and the municipality where the team plays that fans know the Rangers are based in Arlington—which made participating in the Nike City Connect project, in which each team gets a new special uniform to reflect its hometown, a bit of a challenge. How do you encapsulate Arlington, a Tarrant County city a fraction of the size of Dallas or Fort Worth? The easy solution would be to just honor Dallas, of course. Dallas is the third-largest city in Texas (number nine nationally), and Globe Life Field is a mere eighteen miles from Dallas City Hall. For most pro sports teams, a…The post What the Heck Is a Peagle? appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Raúl Gonzalez, better known to young readers by his pen name, Raúl the Third, grew up between his hometown of El Paso and neighboring Ciudad Juárez, where his mother’s family lived. Whenever his father, Raúl the Second, would leave town on door-to-door sales trips, the young Raúl’s mother would take the children across the Rio Grande to visit the Mercado Cuauhtémoc, a sprawling market where various maternal aunts, uncles, and grandparents all worked. Each relative ran a different market booth, selling everything from tacos and piñatas to candy, good-luck candles, and velvet paintings.For young Raúl, crossing the border was an early experience of stepping into a half-familiar world full of vibrant possibility. “As you walk into Juárez, you immediately know you’re in a completely different…The post An El Paso–Bred Children’s Author Illustrates Border Life for the Next Generation appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Where one man sees a pile of downed trees destined for the dump, Ivan Benavides sees a work of art waiting to be unveiled. “It could have been just thrown away, burned and forgotten,” says Benavides. “But when I cut into it, it exposes this beautiful grain and it’s like something that could have possibly never been seen before.”Benavides is the owner of Seaside Wood Co., the moniker under which he makes wood sculptures and one-of-a-kind home goods—think bowls, candle holders, and incense burners—in his hometown of Los Fresnos. When he first got into woodworking, he experimented with driftwood, found at the beach near his house, but the material proved difficult thanks to extended exposure to the salt and sun. Now, he scavenges the roadside…The post These Texas Makers Turn Salvaged Wood into Sustainable Showpieces appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Growing up, Michael Dudek was obsessed with the Alamo.“I grew up in Baltimore, Maryland, and as a kid, it was one of my favorite stories,” Dudek says. “I don’t know why. I think maybe because of the John Wayne version of it. I watched it with my dad, and it really impacted me.”Now, Dudek lives and works in the Alamo City as the food and beverage director at Hotel Contessa, located along the River Walk.“Never in a million years did I think that I would end up moving to San Antonio,” Dudek says. “My first job in San Antonio was with the San Antonio Marriott Rivercenter on the River Walk. And when I came for my interview in 2008, my room overlooked the Alamo, which just totally blew me…The post Battle of the Alamo Cocktail appeared first on Texas Monthly.
The elusive creature weighs only a pound or two and looks like a mix of a domestic cat (although the two aren’t related), a fox, a ferret, and a raccoon. Padding silently in the night on tiny pink paws, with wide eyes, a pointed snout, and rounded ears, it’s cute in a strange and wild way. The signature ringed tail sets it apart, coasting fluffily behind its furry body in a long cascade of black and white stripes. This is the ringtail, the cutest little mammal you might never have heard of (or seen).Ringtails are common in Central and West Texas, in part because they love rocky, semiarid conditions. Though the species is less prevalent in East Texas, it does enjoy woody regions, especially those…The post The Ringtail Is Texas’s Nighttime Ninja appeared first on Texas Monthly.
When I asked the cemetery receptionist if I could spread my brother’s ashes on the adjacent Dickinson Bayou, she looked horrified and covered her ears. Chris had asked that his ashes be deposited “in the bayou behind our old house.” He meant our family home in Dickinson, about a half-hour drive northwest of Galveston. Along with our two younger sisters, we’d grown up in a rambling ranch house on a heavily wooded tract directly across the bayou from the Catholic cemetery. No one had answered when I knocked on the door of our old place to ask permission of the current owners, so I thought the cemetery’s waterfront might serve as a substitute for our former backyard, with its canopy of oak trees and Spanish…The post My Brother’s Ashes, the Bayou, and an Enigmatic Life appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Lobo, Texas, has gone through more transformations than Madonna. In the 1850s this lonely patch of West Texas, roughly halfway between Van Horn and Valentine on U.S. 90, was just some land on top of the recently discovered Van Horn Wells, the only water source in a hundred-mile radius. In the 1860s it was little more than a stop on the San Antonio–San Diego mail route, and in the 1880s it was a place where steam locomotives could refill their water tanks on their journey out to far West Texas. Lobo finally got a post office in 1907, and for decades in the mid-twentieth century it was a hub for the region’s thriving cotton farming community, though Lobo’s population never surpassed one hundred. In the…The post Want to Buy a West Texas Ghost Town? Now’s Your Chance. appeared first on Texas Monthly.
With each pull of the paddle, my board glides quietly, leaving ripples at its tail. As I move just past Morgan’s Point, at Belton Lake in Central Texas, the only sounds are the gentle plunk of each stroke and the subtle swish that moves me ahead. I approach a flock of American coots floating along the banks, looking apprehensive with their plump, round gray bodies and white beaks. As my board breaches their congregation, they run alongside me, slapping their feet at the surface of the water before lifting off in unison to land several hundred yards ahead. We do this dance a couple times, but then they settle with some safe distance along the sides of my board, allowing me to move ahead.For me,…The post Five Great Texas Paddleboarding Trails appeared first on Texas Monthly.
When the Rams of Huston-Tillotson University take the field Saturday in East Austin, the baseball team members will be wearing uniforms resembling those worn by the Negro leagues’ Austin Black Senators. The tribute jerseys will coincide with MLB’s Jackie Robinson Day, which the league celebrates every year to commemorate the day Robinson broke professional baseball’s color line in 1947. Huston-Tillotson has more reason than most historically Black colleges and universities to feel a connection to Robinson. Only months before the Hall of Famer began his professional baseball career, he served as the head basketball coach at one of HT’s forerunner institutions in Austin, Samuel Huston College, during the 1944–45 season. (Named for the benefactor who had donated campus land years earlier, Samuel Huston College merged…The post The Undertold Story of Jackie Robinson’s College Hoops Coaching Days appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Imagine someone interviews you, your siblings, and your parents about a family trip—you’d all have different versions. But now let’s say your dad’s version—the sunniest of all—prompts a movement. Printed in his hometown newspaper in Oldenburg, part of the German Confederation, in 1832, Friedrich Ernst’s adulatory letter about moving to Texas was widely read at the time and credited for propelling the German immigration wave to prerevolution Texas, settling the “German Belt” from the Coastal Plain to the Hill Country. Some ten thousand Germans immigrated to the region from 1840 to 1850, and by 1860 that number had more than doubled.The Texas climate, Ernst wrote in his letter, resembles that of lower Italy! Wild game are everywhere—deer, bears, turkeys! Vegetables and flowers grow in abundance. Cattle…The post The Glowing Letter That Brought Thousands of German Immigrants to Texas Was a Lie appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Raysall Robertson feels drained when she reflects on her ordeal of the last couple of years. “I’ve had plenty of days that I’ve wanted to break down, and I have cried,” she says. “It’s a lot. I’m just trying to really, truly keep the faith in the system and everything.”It was 2021 when the single mother of two boys, who has rented a house in northwest Houston’s Acres Home neighborhood for nearly a decade, decided it was time she became a homeowner. After getting preapproved for a $250,000 mortgage, she and her real estate agent, Vachael Starks, set out to find a house with three bedrooms and two baths. They’re still looking.To date, they’ve put in full-price bids on between twenty and thirty properties, in…The post Buying a Home in Texas Often Requires Outbidding Big-Money Investors appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Along U.S. 377, a few minutes north of the traffic and minutes-old strip malls and residential developments along the northern edge of the Metroplex—Frisco, Little Elm, Denton—all that falls away and the little city of Pilot Point, population less than five thousand, comes into view. For visitors who drive up from Dallas–Fort Worth, it’s a pleasure to be plunged into a stretch of small-town quiet with a real sense of spaciousness. Pilot Point is surrounded by premium North Texas horse country, the world of ranchers, breeders, and trainers. The property names fly by before you reach town: Simons Show Horses, Tommy Manion Ranch, Wolfcamp Equine Center. Paddocks and arenas are visible from the main road; a small yard sign advertises for a ranch hand, full-time. For…The post Pilot Point Is a Quaint North Texas Getaway (and an Animal Lover’s Paradise) appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Black Board Bar-B-Q in Sisterdale, north of San Antonio, has not gone without accolades from Texas Monthly. We named them one of the best new barbecue joints in 2019. Owner Jake Gandolfo had given the building new life after the departure of Maywald’s Sisterdale Smokehouse. It also got an honorable mention in the 2021 Top 50 list, but Gandolfo sought a homesteader’s life in rural Idaho and put the place up for sale last year. Joe Rodriguez and Melissa Garza took over in September. This time, the name, the decor, and even the menu stayed the same, but the barbecue has never been better.Rodriguez and Garza had settled into a life in the remote West Texas town of Marathon. He ran the kitchen at the…The post A Backsliding Joint Got New Owners and a Whole New Level of Barbecue appeared first on Texas Monthly.
When longtime Fort Worth resident Juan Velazquez first decided to pursue his dream of being an artist—only three years ago—he had some modest goals in mind. The 34-year-old originally planned to produce enough oil paintings to submit to a few gallery shows and sell the rest at ArtsGoggle, the local art festival that takes place in Near Southside Fort Worth every fall. The COVID-19 pandemic canceled those opportunities, but what Velazquez couldn’t have imagined was that the perceived setbacks would actually be the beginning of something bigger. In a few years’ time, he’d become a prolific artist with over one hundred murals painted.It started with a tribute to slain U.S. soldier Vanessa Guillen. Guillen was reported missing by Fort Hood officials in April 2020, and her…The post Meet the Social Justice–Fueled Muralist Painting Across Fort Worth appeared first on Texas Monthly.
You can take the cow out of Texas, but you can’t take the Texas out of the cow. Since Spanish settlers first introduced bovines to the region we now call Texas back in the seventeenth century, cattle have been the state’s most vital agricultural commodity. And they’re so much more—an archetype as embedded in the vocational identity of the state as roughnecking is. The longhorn is the state animal and the team mascot, its logo as recognizable as a couple of fingers thrown into the “Hook ’em, Horns” sign. Of course, there would be no such thing as a Texas cowboy if not for the cows. Today, the Texas cattle industry is the country’s largest, representing 14 percent of the nationwide inventory of cattle and…The post Texas Cattlemen Have Taken Their Beef With Cell-Cultured Meat to the Lege appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Mark Jiménez didn’t think he’d ever get back into the family business. The Jiménez name has carried weight in Lubbock since 1969, when Mark’s immigrant grandfather, Lucio Jiménez, established a panadería there. By 1994, Mark’s mother opened her own spot, Jiménez Burrito Express and Bakery, across from the Texas Tech University football stadium. The restaurant was bought out in April 2003, and Mark wasn’t interested in relocating. He had other priorities. “Being that I had a newborn, I went the safe route,” he said. “I went with a job that had a career and had financial security and all the good stuff that comes with that so I could provide for my child.”With one child grown, another about to graduate from high school, and a divorce…The post These Hearty West Texas Tacos Will Take the Edge off a Hangover appeared first on Texas Monthly.
WHO: The Texas Southern University cheerleading teamWHAT: The HBCU brought some serious championship hardware home to Houston.WHY IT’S SO GREAT: The National Cheerleaders Association, founded in 1948, hosts an annual competition to crown the country’s top cheer team. This year, Texas Southern became the first Historically Black College or University to win the title in the event’s 75-year history.The athletes were graded on two grounds: the crowd-leading segment (how well they appeal and respond to the audience with visuals, vocals, showmanship) and the fight song or band chant segment (which was judged partly on how well they mimicked game day realism). Out of one hundred possible points—ten points for each of the ten categories—the Tigers earned a near-perfect performance score of 96.1, more than 10…The post The First HBCU to Win the D1 Cheerleading Nationals Is From Houston appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Sam Bennett’s emotions finally got the best of him in the fading light of a spectacularly beautiful Sunday afternoon at the Masters. The kid from Madisonville, a fifth-year senior at Texas A&M, had held it together for four days, but as the ovations grew louder and louder as he neared the end of his final round of play, the magnitude of his accomplishment appeared to dawn on him.There were no tears until the very end. Only when he walked from Augusta National’s eighteenth hole—sacred ground for golfers—for the final time, when he saw his mom and brother waiting for him, when memories of hours spent on courses with his late father came flooding back, was he unable to hold back. “From growing up as a…The post Texas A&M’s Sam Bennett Was the Talk of the Masters appeared first on Texas Monthly.
The May election in San Antonio would have been quiet—there are no major challenges to Mayor Ron Nirenberg at the top of the ticket—if it weren’t for Proposition A, the Justice Charter. Just getting the measure on the ballot has been contested by antiabortion groups, attorney general Ken Paxton, and, somewhat surprisingly, three members of San Antonio’s city council who walked off the dais rather than vote to hold a charter election at all.The Justice Charter is a police reform omnibus of sorts; it bans choke holds and no-knock warrants, ends criminal enforcement for small amounts of marijuana, and addresses nonviolent misdemeanors such as theft under $750 and graffiti damage under $2,500 through “cite & release,” a practice that gives the offender a citation and…The post San Antonio’s ‘Justice Charter’ Vote Is Another Fight Between State Power and Home Rule appeared first on Texas Monthly.
One of the many pleasures of my job is fielding phone calls and emails and letters from readers who enjoy Texas Monthly’s beautifully designed features on travel and the outdoors. Many of them say, “Please pass along my compliments to your art department!” And I gladly do that. But I also spread the love to executive editor Kathy Blackwell, who, in partnership with our photo editors and designers, directs our coverage of all there is to see and do across the Lone Star State, from the best towns for antiquing to the most scenic parks for hiking and camping.Kathy is the editor responsible for our lively new hotel package, “Where to Stay Now.” It focuses on what she describes as “the return to an emphasis…The post Behind the Scenes of Our Lively New Hotel Package appeared first on Texas Monthly.
“Live-fire cooking next to a gas station: who would have thought?” Brisket & Rice co-owner Hong Tran asked. “Only in Texas,” he added with a laugh. It’s in this unlikely location in northwest Houston that he; his wife, Michelle; and his brother Phong opened their barbecue joint just over a year ago. The space inside the Phillips 66 had been a Church’s Chicken and a Chinese restaurant. Tran, who got a cup of coffee at the gas station every morning on the way to work, realized it was the perfect place to park his pair of five-hundred-gallon smokers mounted on a trailer. “It was sitting in front of my face the whole time,” he said. Even better, the location was just outside the city of…The post Brisket & Rice Is Twice as Nice appeared first on Texas Monthly.
How Readers Graded Our March Cover Story The obvious thing missing from the cover of Texas Monthly’s March 2023 issue: a child in the desk. In the article [“Public Schools at a Breaking Point”], we are led through tales of crazed debates, activists making “the public afraid of their public school,” and wealthy donors as “de facto owners of many Republican members of the Texas Legislature.” All this proves the “sabotage” of schools?Current school-choice proposals may need to be revised and carefully crafted for specific school districts, but all this needs to be measured against one goal: providing the child in the desk with a quality education.Sandra Boone, AustinI serve as a trustee for the Grapevine-Colleyville ISD, and Mimi Swartz nailed it with “Public Schools at…The post Roar of the Crowd: May 2023 appeared first on Texas Monthly.
No Texas city seems to openly embrace its vices as readily as Houston. In a town known for its lack of portion control, you can find a 24-hour restaurant serving forty varieties of pies and more fast food restaurants than any other city in the nation. If adult entertainment is your indulgence of choice, the city’s famous strip clubs—housed in multilevel warehouses that take up entire city blocks, with numerous stages and cafeteria-style buffets—are a world unto themselves. Perhaps, then, it’s not surprising that the city has leaned into another pastime regarded as transgressive in most other cities: the firing of high-powered guns better suited to military operations than to hunting or target shooting. While driving on Loop 610 just outside the Galleria, tens of…The post In Texas, You Can Rent a Machine Gun for the Price of Dinner appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Texas reveres its heroes, but it relishes its bastards. Outlaws, card cheats, bank robbers, barroom brawlers: these are the grist for some of our most beloved stories and nearly all of our country songs. Perhaps it’s no surprise that we get such a kick out of slippery, scheming characters who are driven purely by their own self-interest and who don’t give a damn what anyone else thinks. Our state was founded by mavericks and malcontents. The Texas motto may be “Friendship,” but our ethos was built on Davy Crockett’s parting words to his fellow Tennesseans: “You may all go to hell, and I will go to Texas.”Out of all the great Texas bastards, Hud Bannon may be our most beloved. Certainly he ranks among our…The post How ‘Hud’ Began Texas’s Love Affair With the Bastard appeared first on Texas Monthly.
To Texans who have come of age during the current fracking boom, the delirious and then devastating years of the late seventies and early eighties should be instructive. The good times—well, for Texas producers—began with the OPEC oil embargo of 1973 and the Iranian Revolution of 1979, which tied up the supply of imported oil in the U.S. Drivers were forced to line up for hours at the gas pump, and home heating prices skyrocketed, spurring President Jimmy Carter to deregulate the price of American oil. The result: drillers now had big incentives to, literally, go back to the well. Demand was high, which meant that, for a time at least, prices followed. Between 1979 and 1981, the number of rigs in production in the…The post The Oil Boom That Went Bust appeared first on Texas Monthly.
We are pleased to announce that Lone Stars Rising—our third book in collaboration with Harper Wave—is available for preorder now and will be available anywhere books are sold on June 6. PreORDER NOW With a population of more than 29 million, Texas has birthed some of America’s most innovative, culture-altering politicians, entertainers, athletes, and activists of the past five decades. In Lone Stars Rising, the editors of Texas Monthly select fifty of the most trailblazing Texans who have shaped the Lone Star State and America today.Organized by decade and featuring essays from the magazine’s legendary roster of contributors, accompanied by drawings and fifty photographs throughout, this collection includes incisive commentary on the stars whose rise from Texas to the world stage has been meteoric, as well as the…The post Announcing Our Newest Book, ‘Lone Stars Rising’ appeared first on Texas Monthly.
On Friday, federal judge Matthew J. Kacsmaryk granted a preliminary injunction that could remove mifepristone, better known as the abortion pill, from the market. It was a seismic ruling; it marks the first time a drug approval by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has been blocked by a federal judge. But this is hardly Kacsmaryk’s first controversial decision; the federal judge has issued a head-spinning series of radical rulings in the short time since Donald Trump appointed him to the bench in a once-obscure judicial outpost of the Northern District of Texas in 2019. From his courtroom in Amarillo, Kacsmaryk vacated the Biden administration’s protections for transgender workers. He became the first federal judge to challenge the right to contraception, requiring parental consent for teenagers to…The post Now That He’s Ruled on the Abortion Pill, What Will Judge Kacsmaryk Do Next? appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Q: A dear friend was born in West Texas in the 1920s, and it’s my understanding that it was then customary to name firstborn children after their fathers, regardless of gender. So a girl could be given a name such as Jimmie Gail Smith or Randy Robin Jones. My friend had such a name and even had a friend named Elmo Joy. How did this tradition arise? Is it still followed in West Texas or any other part of the state?Barbara G. Stephenson, AlbuquerqueA: Texas is chock-full of mysterious customs. We wave to strangers while driving in rural areas. We’re vehemently opposed to putting beans in our chili. We clog the shoulders of roadways to take photos of ourselves in fields of bluebonnets while getting…The post The Texanist: Why Do So Many Texas Women Have Men’s Names? appeared first on Texas Monthly.
My first Fiesta medal didn’t fit the usual mold. A coworker made it by hand, using craft supplies—a bottle cap, foam, hot glue, some ribbon. It was an homage to our team’s unofficial mascot, a bust of an eagle we called Bonnie, and it was nothing fancy. The best part was that it only made sense to us. I’ve since added several medals to my collection, but that one will always hold a special place in my heart—and on my sash.A Fiesta medal looks like the hardware you’d find on the uniform of a well-decorated soldier, which is fitting given that Fiesta, a ten-day celebration held in San Antonio each spring, started in 1891 as a way to honor Texas Revolution heroes. But unlike a…The post An Ode to the Fiesta Medal, That Fabulous Piece of San Antonio Flair appeared first on Texas Monthly.
After seventeen hours of deliberation spanning Thursday and much of Friday, a jury of Daniel Perry’s peers unanimously convicted him of murder in the 2020 killing of Garrett Foster at a Black Lives Matter protest. Over the weekend, roughly eighteen hours after a segment on Tucker Carlson’s prime-time Fox show complaining about the verdict, Governor Greg Abbott promised to overturn the ruling by pardoning Perry as soon as possible. The details of the crime are almost immaterial to Abbott, who’s motivated purely by political considerations. The Texas governor has been rooting around for issues to make his congenitally dull brand more appealing to national conservatives, and this is a good one. Foster was attending a protest against police violence in Austin when he was shot, the…The post One Angry Man appeared first on Texas Monthly.
“Two Burials,” published in the March 2010 issue, is an excerpt from Texas Monthly writer-at-large John Phillip Santos’s 2010 book The Farthest Home Is an Empire of Fire: A Tejano Elegy, which followed his 1999 memoir and National Book Award finalist Places Left Unfinished at the Time of Creation. “Two Burials” mines the sandy South Texas soil—mainly a strip linking San Antonio and Cotulla and Laredo—through which Santos’s roots run and offers a captivating peek into the author’s rich biography.Amid a story that mostly revolves around his twice-interred grandfather (the handsome Leonides Lopez, “with his dark features, wavy black hair, handlebar mustache, and penetrating eyes he looks almost like a Tejano Emiliano Zapata”) and a posthumous revelation of marital infidelity that resulted in the secret…The post A Writer Revisits His Search for His Grandfather’s Darkest Secrets appeared first on Texas Monthly.
In Boban Marjanović’s tour of Texas, courtesy of the San Antonio Spurs, the Dallas Mavericks, and the Houston Rockets, the seven-foot-four Serbian big man has noticed a thing or two about the state and those of us who call it home.“I land in Texas and say, ‘Hey, everything’s bigger in Texas,’ ” he tells me, letting out a booming laugh. I’m guessing he picked this line up from one of those tourism campaigns. “What I like is that all the people, they’re so kind,” he says. “I’ve had great experiences here. Really, it’s how you treat people. That’s how people will treat you.”It’s a few days before the end of a dreadful rebuilding season for the Rockets, and I’m in downtown Houston, sitting across from this…The post Boban Marjanović Completes the NBA’s Texas Triangle appeared first on Texas Monthly.
What: 367 acres of rolling Hill Country ranch land that will be permanently preserved.Who: Landowner Scott Shannon and the Hill Country Conservancy.Why it’s so great: More than 96 percent of the state’s land is privately owned. That means landowners hold a lot of power to preserve—or destroy—Texas’s clean water, vibrant wildlife, and scenic vistas. Scott Shannon has done the former with his spread of rolling hills, clustered oaks, and native grasses, located about fifty miles west of Austin. The land, which is between Johnson City and Fredericksburg, has been in his family for generations.Shannon’s great-grandfather Charles Klett bought the original ranch a few miles west of Johnson City in the late 1800s. The family ran cattle on about 3,000 acres and left a relatively light…The post The Hill Country Is Getting a 367-Acre Nature Preserve, Thanks to a Generous Landowner appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Even in our carefully ordered world, there remain avenues for chaos to thrive in its purest form: the wild pig. Groups of them, called sounders, cavort across golf courses at night like drunken teenagers. Security cameras catch them careering through suburban neighborhoods, where they dig up gardens and lawns. They create shambolic crop circles in fields—Texas’s agriculture industry alone suffers $118.8 million in damages annually. The most recent estimates suggest that tens of thousands of them are involved in car accidents each year. They affront us even in death, vandalizing graves as they barrel through cemeteries.Like giant, pungent bedbugs, wild pigs provide little value to the ecosystem. Though they have been in North America since the sixteenth century, the population began compounding itself in recent…The post Apocalypse Sow: Can Anything Stop the Feral Hog Invasion? appeared first on Texas Monthly.
When it comes to style, Texas-born country star Miranda Lambert got it from her grandmother, Wanda June. “I think I got my love of glitter from Nonny,” she writes in her brand-new cookbook, Y’all Eat Yet? Welcome to the Pretty B*tchin’ Kitchen, out April 25. “She knew how to put it all together.” Describing her Nonny as “a little bit Elizabeth Taylor and a little bit Sophia Loren,” she writes of a woman who knew how to present herself and style a home in ways that seemed effortless yet were full of care: “You might get a devilled egg on a crystal plate, something that seems a little out-of-the-way-fancy.” These flourishes, Lambert says, were more about showing love than anything else. As fans know, Lambert has…The post Miranda Lambert’s Five Must-have Home Goods appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Miranda Lambert was not high on the list of country stars I expected to write a cookbook. Venturing into lifestyle and culinary publications is almost a rite of passage for the female musicians of Nashville: Martina McBride has two, Dolly Parton is working on her third, and Loretta Lynn’s You’re Cooking it Country is legendary. Trisha Yearwood, with four books and a Food Network show, is almost as famous for her cooking at this point as she is for her music. But the singer of hits like “Gunpowder & Lead,” “Mama’s Broken Heart,” and “If I Was a Cowboy” always struck me as a bit more sequins and bourbon than aprons and biscuits. Fitting, then, that Y’all Eat Yet? Welcome to the Pretty B*tchin’ Kitchen,…The post Miranda Lambert’s Cookbook Is an Homage to the Strong Women in Her Life appeared first on Texas Monthly.
On Friday morning, Matthew J. Kacsmaryk, a federal judge in the Northern District of Texas, issued an unprecedented ruling: he granted an injunction staying the Food and Drug Administration’s two-decade-old approval of mifepristone, one of the two drugs that patients across the country use in combination to terminate early-stage pregnancies at home. Access to the pill, which was already banned in Texas, may now be restricted across the country. Mifepristone was first approved by the FDA in 2000. Those bringing the lawsuit Kacsmaryk ruled on, a collection of anti-abortion organizations, acknowledged that the drug has been administered for decades. However, plaintiffs argued that the FDA exceeded its authority when it approved the drug in 2000 because “pregnancy is not an illness,” and claimed the agency ignored…The post A Federal Judge in Amarillo Just Suspended Approval of a Key Drug Used in Medication Abortions. But the Situation Is Complicated. appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Our resident advice columnist offers up ten questions on everything from our distinctive culinary traditions to Wille Nelson’s salad days.The post The Texanist’s Quiz of Texcentric Trivialities appeared first on Texas Monthly.
After winning his first-ever postseason game as an NCAA Division I head coach, then-43-year-old Texas native Billy Gillispie took his seat in the interview room at the Western Athletic Conference basketball tournament in Tulsa. It was March 2003, and Gillispie’s UTEP Miners, who’d won five games all season and finished last in the league, had no business pulling off an upset that day—especially since the coach had benched junior point guard Chris Craig for arriving late to the team’s pregame shootaround.But the Miners did win, and Gillispie afterward began to explain his tough love. “This is at a critical time in our season and we are not only working for the moment, we are also working for the future,” he said. Then, suddenly overcome with…The post Another, Quieter Comeback for Billy Gillispie appeared first on Texas Monthly.
The Guinness World Record for a backward basketball shot (84 feet) was broken by a man at San Antonio’s AT&T Center who sank one from 85.5 feet.A woman who allegedly slapped an H-E-B employee after being called out for violating the “Ten Items or Fewer” self-checkout lane policy was arrested and banned from shopping at any of the grocer’s Harris County stores. A one-bedroom, one-bath house shaped like a pyramid was put up for sale in Fort Davis for $80,000. An SUV crashed into a crowded Houston cafe, injuring nobody. A striped skunk captured in Carson County was the state’s first confirmed case of highly pathogenic avian influenza in a mammal. The Austin owner of a large box elder tree that fell victim to February’s…The post Meanwhile, in Texas: A Man Broke a Basketball Record You Didn’t Know Existed appeared first on Texas Monthly.
A humid breeze blew through Jimmy Hutcheson’s hair as he drove with the window rolled down on his way out of Springtown, Texas. His car rolled past the chamber of commerce and the Eureka Masonic Lodge, familiar places filled with the locals who knew Jimmy the way he wanted to be seen in the early 1980s—as a straight man. That summer night in 1983, though, he was dropping the act and going to a gay bar in Fort Worth, thirty minutes southeast, called the Other Place. He pressed his foot harder on the gas pedal and turned up the radio as he left his hometown behind. As soon as Hutcheson saw the cars pulled up in front of the nondescript warehouse building for the first time,…The post As Lawmakers Turn Their Sights on Drag Shows, LGBTQ Spaces Have Been Disappearing Across Texas for Decades appeared first on Texas Monthly.
When Jake Worthington played the Old Coupland Inn and Dancehall this February, he sounded like he’d stepped in from the past. He sang about drinking whiskey and going to jail, and his voice seemed made for the 119-year-old honky-tonk, located thirty miles northeast of Austin. Sliding from a baritone to a high drawl, the 27-year-old from La Porte, just southeast of Houston, gave off the air of a country star from the nineties, or the seventies, or even before. While he tilted his hat and moved through the smoke and neon, the signed picture of Ray Price on the wall smiled in recognition.Compared to Worthington, who has played rooms like Coupland since he was fourteen, the music video production around him looked out of place.…The post Jake Worthington to Nashville: Real Country or Bust appeared first on Texas Monthly.
I used to have a brother-in-law who was Texan in all the ways people who have never met men from Texas imagine them to be. The word “strapping,” which I don’t normally use, comes to mind. He dressed Texan, he talked Texan, he walked Texan. He favored Wranglers or, if it was a dress-up affair, khakis, worn above the hips and with razor-sharp creases. He had the lumbering gait of a man who had spent considerable time on a horse. For the eight years he was married to my sister, they lived southwest of Houston in a rural subdivision that backed up to a creek, which led to them occasionally finding rattlesnakes or cottonmouths near the house, something that chapped my brother-in-law. He once told…The post Why ‘Lonesome Dove’ Gives Me the Creeps appeared first on Texas Monthly.
The path to serving barbecue in the tiny town of New Berlin seemed clear to Garrett Rabel. He grew up ten minutes down the road in La Vernia, east of San Antonio, where his father, Greg, sold firewood to a few barbecue joints and pizza operations in the area. Father-son deer-hunting trips would culminate in sausage-making marathons at home that involved the whole family. Greg built a steel smoker to cook the sausage, and he served it with pickled cucumbers he’d grown in his garden. When Rabel opened a barbecue truck in La Vernia in 2018, he knew those pickles would be a highlight. To run the truck, he enlisted the help of his family, including his wife, Sarah, and his mother, Denise. A restaurant…The post A Pitmaster Continues the Sausage-Making Legacy of This Small Town appeared first on Texas Monthly.
The day that the state budget is debated is one of the longest events in the months-long legislative session. This year, the budget bill itself, House Bill 1, is nearly a thousand pages long, and the debate process that began on Thursday tends to stretch for many hours, often well into the morning. Lawmakers will introduce hundreds of amendments—some consequential, some frivolous, a handful downright nonsensical—in a process that’s useful both to serious representatives looking to advance their policy agenda or deliver on services for constituents, and to legislative trolls who know that the amendment process is a great way to nab some extra attention for themselves. On Thursday, however, state representative Bryan Slaton, a Republican who represents Royse City in North Texas—and who is one…The post What Does a Legislative Troll Look Like, and What Happens When He’s Absent? appeared first on Texas Monthly.
When Jay Mallinckrodt, head of machining manufacturer Heartland Enterprises, brought home a prototype for a cast-iron skillet two years ago, his wife and business partner, Heather, put it to the ultimate test: a family blueberry cake recipe going back six generations. It passed. The smooth surface prized by many cast-iron enthusiasts had done its job. The couple had found another use for their shop, which had grown quiet during the pandemic, and launched Fredericksburg Cast Iron around the $160 ten-and-a-half-inch skillet, which is made using a ten-step process. Texas Monthly: What was the process like after you decided to make cast-iron skillets? Jay Mallinckrodt: We formed Fredericksburg Cast Iron Co. as a separate business: it contracts with Heartland to machine-make the product. We had the…The post A Fredericksburg Couple Forges a New Path With Their Cast-Iron Pans appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Earlie Hudnall Jr. started taking photographs while serving in the Marines during Vietnam. Upon returning home, he moved to Houston to study art at Texas Southern University. One of his first assignments was documenting everyday life in the Third, Fourth, and Fifth Wards of Houston. That assignment evolved into an expansive career with an intimate focus on Houston’s Black communities. Hudnall’s photographs have been included in many international exhibitions and notable American collections. Today he still walks the neighborhoods—camera in hand—capturing life around him.The post Renowned Houston Photographer Earlie Hudnall Jr. Always Has His Camera In Hand appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Nine months ago, on June 27, 2022, an abandoned box truck was discovered by the side of the road in southeast San Antonio containing the bodies of more than fifty dead and dying migrants. The victims, including nationals of Mexico, El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras, were killed by extreme heat and by the neglect of their driver, who fled the scene. Grotesquely, many of the dead had been sprinkled with steak seasoning before they died, perhaps to misdirect K-9 units at the border. The tragedy was the deadliest ever in our era of policed borders, which make successful clandestine border crossings as dangerous and inadvisable as possible.This spring, San Antonians are encouraged to contemplate this carnage in an incongruously serene environment by sitting inside The…The post A San Antonio Artwork Is a Sauna Modeled on a Box Truck Where 53 Migrants Died appeared first on Texas Monthly.
In 1990, wildlife biologist Jim Ray was attending South Dakota State University to complete his master’s degree when he saw the bird that would shape the rest of his life. Ray was visiting a college buddy who had installed a martin house: a birdhouse that’s mounted on a pole and sometimes resembles a gourd or miniaturized apartment building. The backyard structure was inhabited by purple martins, a flashy and personable member of the swallow family known for gathering in large numbers and performing extreme aerial acrobatics. “I couldn’t take my eyes off them,” Ray remembers. “The purple martin feeds high up in the air, way higher than other swallows. Then they will fold their wings, and in one swoop, they drop into their cavity. When…The post Purple Martins Are on the Wing in Texas appeared first on Texas Monthly.
The sexual liberation of the sixties finally crashed country music’s gates in the early seventies, in the form of two young Texans: Sabinal’s Johnny Rodriguez, whose luxuriant black hair and Merle Haggard timbre made him country’s first “youth sex symbol,” per historian Bill C. Malone; and Seminole’s Tanya Tucker, with her skintight, midriff-baring outfits and husky alto—a mature voice for a very underage teen. The two often toured together during their early stardom, and they’ve reunited on Rodriguez’s first studio album in more than a decade. (Tucker made her own return to the studio after a ten-year absence with 2019’s While I’m Livin’, which won the Grammy for Best Country Album.) “A Game That I Can’t Win,” written by fellow Texan Dennis Quaid, is a…The post Johnny Rodriguez Reunites With Tanya Tucker in “A Game That I Can’t Win” appeared first on Texas Monthly.
In photos from many events I attended last year as Texas Monthly’sbarbecue editor, I’m wearing the same shirt. It’s a snazzy blue short-sleeve number with pearl-snap buttons and lightning bolts stitched on the breast pockets. From Austin-based outdoors brand Howler Brothers, it’s my go-to when I want to step up what you might call (and you probably won’t) my fashion game. But seeing myself wearing the same shirt over and over was embarrassing. I needed to expand my wardrobe. I needed some new fits. There was just one problem: finding a reliably comfortable shirt for my body type—one that doesn’t look like a tent—is like finding great whole-hog barbecue joints in Texas. They’re out there, but you have to go on a journey. When I…The post Smokin’ Hot Shirts for Guys Who Wear a Size “Barbecue Large” appeared first on Texas Monthly.
As a barbecue fan, I couldn’t wait to get to the highly touted Bar-A-BBQ in Montgomery. As a food writer, I probably should have given it more than a week to settle into its new building. While the location is new, this isn’t the joint’s first rodeo. Cooper Abercrombie and his wife, Shelby, have been serving barbecue since 2019 at pop-ups around their hometown of Montgomery, an hour northwest of downtown Houston. Last year, they picked up a retired ice cream truck in Amarillo and outfitted it for barbecue. Just a few weeks ago, they moved the business into a refinished house on the main drag in Montgomery. “We haven’t cooked a protein the same two days in a row since we got into this…The post This Joint Proves Greater Houston Is Producing Some of the Best Barbecue Around appeared first on Texas Monthly.
In the age of Airbnb, have we forgotten how enthralling vacationing can be? Yes, house rentals can be economical, especially for groups, and they can help you pretend you’re a local. But sometimes we travelers just want to—and hold on to your bucket hat, because this is going to sound out there—feel like we’re traveling. We long to be welcomed by name, to order a paloma poolside, to walk through the lobby to one of the best restaurants in town. These ten Texas hotels, which have either opened or undergone an extensive renovation since we published our last “Where to Stay Now,” in 2019, all offer such experiences. More than half are housed in historic buildings, lending a certain timelessness. Several boast art collections that…The post Welcome to the Return of Glam at the Best New Hotels in Texas appeared first on Texas Monthly.
On a mild Saturday morning in March, I wound my way west from Austin through the Hill Country along Texas Highway 29, took a left through downtown Llano, the barbecue haven and “Deer Capital of Texas,” and clambered down to the banks of the Llano River into another world.In the shadow of the county courthouse and the historic Roy B. Inks Bridge, every corner of the hillside revealed another bit of improbably arranged nature: rock cairns stacked three or four or a dozen high, a stone beehive hut fit for a flock of porgs, and a dozen smooth river rocks balanced in a neat line on the ridge of a chunk of gray granite, like petrified travelers in an airport security line.This idyllic little ripple…The post Granite and Grace at Llano’s World Championship of Rock Stacking appeared first on Texas Monthly.
In 2018, like many Latino comic book and sci-fi/fantasy fans, I was thrilled when DC Studios announced a Blue Beetle movie featuring Mexican American teenager Jaime Reyes’s iteration of the character. The flick, which comes to theaters August 18, would be the first movie to feature a live-action Latino superhero. In a world where, for more than ten years, Marvel released up to three movies and streaming TV shows annually featuring wealthy playboys, demigods, mutants, and celestial beings, finally fans would see a non-animated motion picture focused on a Latino superhero.My hope was that the filmmakers would provide moviegoers and comic book readers with a worthy successor to the greatest superhero movie ever made—the animated Spider-Man: Into the Spiderverse, featuring the popular Afro-Rican teenager Miles…The post ‘Blue Beetle’ Belongs in El Paso, No Matter What DC Brass Thinks appeared first on Texas Monthly.
You’d be forgiven for not paying attention when the poor, pitiful Texas Rangers told us that the 2023 baseball season would be different. Of course—what else would they selling? A ski resort in Arlington? Six straight losing seasons told a different story.In that time, the Rangers finished an average of twenty games behind the Houston Astros, their downstate rivals in the American League West. On the other hand, spending $800 million opens even skeptical eyes, and that’s a big part of what the Rangers were selling when they said their rebuilding days were done.Every MLB franchise fills notebooks with spring training bravado, and all of it is about as meaningful as a bucket of cold nacho cheese, if that. But the Rangers are off to…The post Is the Rangers’ $800 Million Rebuild Starting to Pay Off? appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Every town wants to be known for something. In Texas it’s often a popular farm crop: Poteet has strawberries. Mission has citrus. Luling has watermelons. You get the idea. Longview’s railroad and oil patch history, which is similar to that of many other East Texas towns, doesn’t exactly lend itself to striking imagery fit for a T-shirt. So the city of about 82,000 owes a lot to a local dentist named Bill Bussey, who became interested in hot-air balloons in the 1970s. He began competing in races across the country, and then in 1978 he started the annual Great Texas Balloon Race, which now draws 15,000 to 20,000 visitors. You’ll see the hot-air balloon as a symbol of Longview pride on shirts and murals and…The post Hip Bars and Culinary Surprises Take Longview to a New Level appeared first on Texas Monthly.
First-time visitors to the Perini Ranch Steakhouse are easy to spot. They’re the ones standing beside their cars in a gravel lot filled with giant pickups, peering around and muttering under their breath, “Where’s the steakhouse? Is it really that little wood building with the weathered screen door and a Mrs Baird’s bread sign?” Yep. The low-slung structure is in fact the best-known country steakhouse in Texas, and owners Tom and Lisa Perini like it just the way it is. Located right outside the tiny West Texas town of Buffalo Gap, the steakhouse is turning forty this year, a run that would be impressive for a restaurant in a major city, never mind a small place off a two-lane blacktop in the middle of nowhere…The post The Best Little Steakhouse in Texas Turns Forty appeared first on Texas Monthly.
There are many ways to celebrate spring in Texas: do a photo shoot in the bluebonnets, dodge tech bros and CIA agents at SXSW, and, this year, watch Matthew McConaughey fight crime as an animated Elvis. (It’s a banner season for Texas Monthly–adjacent culture, including two books from TM writers and one HBO rendition of a classic TM true-crime yarn.) No matter your taste or preferred medium of entertainment, there’s no reason to be bored with this roster of happenings around the state. BooksBiography of a Phantom: A Robert Johnson Blues Odyssey, by Robert “Mack” McCormick (April 4)When blues musician Robert Johnson’s recordings reached a wide audience in the 1960s, so little was known about the man that a myth developed to account for his…The post The Best Books, Films, TV, Art, and More Coming to Texas This Spring appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Two hours north of Mexico City, in the state of Hidalgo, is Actopan, commonly considered the epicenter of Mexican barbacoa. The city is known for its barbacoa de borrego (lamb barbacoa) and gastronomy festivals preserving Indigenous regional food traditions. Barbacoa is prepared in hoyos (literally, “holes”) a meter or more deep and made with brick. In them, maguey-covered meat is placed on racks and then covered and sealed with a layer of metal or wood and dirt until the earth oven is airtight. The barbacoa cooks there for an extended period of time, usually overnight. Underneath the meat, pots collect the juices for consommé, a rich broth typically containing rice, garbanzos, and hardy vegetables that makes a great hangover cure for Sunday mornings, the traditional…The post A Head Above: How Barbacoa Paved the Way for Barbecue appeared first on Texas Monthly.
In high school, Kate Fowler started having terrible nightmares. Her younger sister would be chased by monsters, or assaulted by strange men, or trapped in a burning house. Sometimes Kate saved her sister. Most of the time she couldn’t. At night, Kate was afraid to fall asleep; during the day, she felt anxious and depressed. Kate’s parents, Nancy and Loren, took her to therapists and psychiatrists, who prescribed medication used to treat PTSD. Nothing seemed to work. “We had a whole mental health team around her, but this poor child couldn’t sleep,” Nancy Fowler told me.Last fall, Kate matriculated at Texas Lutheran University, in Seguin, where she planned to major in biology. She hoped to become a doctor—perhaps an oncologist, like her uncle. After finishing…The post Texas Has Declared War on Fentanyl. Drug Experts Say It’s Making the Same Old Mistakes. appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Nearly everything we thought we knew about Robert Johnson was wrong. The biographical information that historians had gathered about the King of the Delta Blues Singers, the Grandfather of Rock and Roll, an inspiration to Muddy Waters, Bob Dylan, and the Rolling Stones? The guy from Mississippi whose face was on a postage stamp? Almost all of it was wrong. And I had the evidence in my hands: a secret manuscript about Johnson’s life found in the archive of Houston folklorist and record producer Robert “Mack” McCormick. This wasn’t just any archive. At the time, it was one of the most sought-after collections in the country—the Library of Congress wanted it, and so did the Smithsonian and the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. Rock star Jack…The post Hellhounds on His Trail: Mack McCormick’s Long, Tortured Quest to Find the Real Robert Johnson appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Across the Hill Country, feeders filled with sugar water are likely to attract lots of black-chinned and ruby-throated hummingbirds. You may even be lucky enough to spot one of our rarer migrants, such as a rufous or calliope hummingbird. Whichever species of hummer I encounter, it is usually the hum of their rapid flight that first catches my attention.That sound never fails to bring a smile to my face, as I recall the joy I’ve experienced watching and listening to hummers from the shade of our front porch.Our only regular nesting summer hummer is the black-chinned hummingbird, which is abundant locally. The birds arrive in our area in early to mid-March, and most of the adults have flown south by late summer, although the young…The post It’s Hummingbird Season in Texas. Here’s How to Bring Them to Your Yard. appeared first on Texas Monthly.
The Saint Louis Zoo recently announced it will transfer Ben, a four-year-old Andean bear who twice escaped his enclosure, to the Gladys Porter Zoo, in Brownsville. A steel mesh fence and cargo clips designed to withstand 450 pounds of stress were no match for Ben, who repeatedly “meddled” with the fence and was soon strolling the zoo grounds. According to a tactfully worded news release, Ben’s “specific and unique personality” is better suited to the habitat at the Brownsville zoo, which has a moat and an electric wire, and whose zookeepers have extensive experience caring for ornery Andean bears (also known, adorably, as spectacled bears).To get a better understanding of the whole situation, Texas Monthly reached out to Ben for comment. His emailed reply is…The post All the Ways Ben the Bear Is Plotting to Bust Out of the Brownsville Zoo appeared first on Texas Monthly.
I’ve heard of shabby chic and heroin chic, but Magnolia Pearl, a wildly expensive clothing line that has recently blown the internet’s mind, seems to have cornered the market on “consumption chic.” If you have thousands of dollars to spare but want to cosplay as though you’ve got nary a sixpence to your name, then Magnolia Pearl is the brand for you. The Fredericksburg-based line sells dresses, hats, jackets, pants, and shoes, all perfect for accessorizing with a dainty white handkerchief in which to ominously cough secret little droplets of blood. Magnolia Pearl was started in 2002, the year after Mugatu’s failed attempt to launch the fashion line Derelicte and around when the Olsen Twins were popularizing the whole “boho” thing. The brand has held…The post It’s Magnolia Pearl: The Internet Can’t Believe This Consumption-Chic Brand Is Real appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Julie Coppage discovered she had ovarian cancer the way many women do—by accident. At age 45 and with one child already grown, the Houstonian had decided to try birth control for the first time. She opted for an IUD, a T-shaped device that releases copper into the uterus as a means of preventing pregnancy. “My sister literally thought I’d lost my mind,” Coppage said of making this decision at an age when women are naturally less likely to get pregnant. “Now she thinks it probably saved my life.”During a routine checkup after the IUD’s insertion, Coppage’s gynecologist noticed that her ovaries looked abnormal on an ultrasound. Nine tissue samples from her abdomen came back positive for cancer. Soon after, in November 2020, Coppage underwent surgery…The post These Tiny Beads May Offer Big Hope to Ovarian Cancer Patients appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Four years ago, El Patio was on the brink of disappearing for good. The modest Austin restaurant opened just north of the University of Texas campus in 1954 and stayed in the family after founder Paul Joseph died in 1995, with three of his children continuing to run the business. When they announced plans to close the Tex-Mex institution in summer 2019, citing the need for a break, there was an outpouring of community support. A team of extended relatives helped reopen the restaurant that fall.The new generation of owners is upping the ante. Concertgoers who attended the Austin City Limits Music Festival in October might have noticed an El Patio trailer on-site, serving up chips and salsa for a fest-bargain price of $5. Within…The post Jarred Salsa Helps Revive a Nearly 70-Year-Old Tex-Mex Institution appeared first on Texas Monthly.
I’ve celebrated life on Westheimer Road. For my birthday in March, the Persian New Year on the spring equinox, or any of the unceremonious days of the year, my mom, dad, brother, and grandma would drive four miles west of our home near the Galleria for the best Iranian food in Houston at Kasra. The place is nestled in a corner of a strip mall, past a Benihana and for years next to Yao Ming’s old restaurant. We’d enter past the kind host, whose name I never knew but whose warm presence I always felt in the Farsi courtesies he spoke. We’d take our seats in a room decorated by the iconographic ruins of Persepolis, which rile ancient blood in any Persian, enough to make…The post What Westheimer Means to Me appeared first on Texas Monthly.
For the first time in its 56-year history, the CMT Music Awards is bucking tradition. Historically broadcast from downtown Nashville, the award show set up shop in the “Live Music Capital of the World,” at Austin’s Moody Center this year. Two-time hosts Kelsea Ballerini and Kane Brown got their bearings a few days early, filming an award show countdown with the University of Texas at Austin’s Longhorn Band, and hitting up some of the city’s famous landmarks. “Heart Like a Truck” singer Lainey Wilson leads the night with four nominations, while East Texas native Cody Johnson isn’t far behind with three, including one for the biggest award of the night: Video of the Year. Other Texas nominees include Miranda Lambert and Maren Morris (both up for…The post First Look: Backstage At Texas’s First-Ever CMT Music Awards appeared first on Texas Monthly.
On Thursday evening, the bombshell news broke that Donald Trump would be indicted in New York on 34 counts related to allegations of misappropriated campaign funds. It was the first time in history that criminal charges had been filed against a former president, and the reactions ranged from gleeful and celebratory among Trump’s foes to, uh, however you would characterize the response from Trump’s former White House physician (and current Panhandle congressman) Ronny Jackson. This is a dark day in American history. President Trump’s only “crime” was MAKING AMERICA GREAT AGAIN! These cowardly Democrats HATE Trump and HATE his voters even more. When Trump wins, THESE PEOPLE WILL PAY!!— Ronny Jackson (@RonnyJacksonTX) March 30, 2023 For several of the highest-profile Republican officials in Texas, however, the reaction was a…The post Greg Abbott, Ted Cruz, and Ken Paxton All Invoked George Soros in Denouncing Trump’s Indictment. Here’s Why That’s a Problem. appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Dallas’s Longhorn Ballroom opened in 1950 as Bob Wills’ Ranch House, a showcase for the king of western swing. For the next six decades, the Old West–themed dance hall presented the biggest stars of blues and country, and steadily widened its embrace to take in giants of jazz, rock, R&B, punk, and Tejano, earning a reputation as one of Texas’s most storied music venues.The Longhorn’s quaint ranch aesthetic belies a reputation dotted with illicit activity. Jack Ruby, who owned the place for a while before he went on to shoot Lee Harvey Oswald, may have been mobbed up. A classic 1978 photo depicts a moment when the Sex Pistols and Merle Haggard shared the roadside marquee, foreshadowing the infamous night when Sid Vicious bled onstage.Notoriety,…The post The Longhorn Ballroom, Texas’s Most Historic Music Venue, Swings Back to Life appeared first on Texas Monthly.
When Gary Pinkerton realized his family’s farmland was paved with Texas history, he dove in head first. Trammel’s Trace is an early road that connected north and south, and it’s become Pinkerton’s mission to share its story. In this video from Texas Country Reporter, beneath a canopy of tall trees, he walks viewers down a path of history.The post An East Texas Local Wants You to Remember Trammel’s Trace appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Lyne Raff is a fine-art photographer in Beaumont whose interest has turned from dramatic portraits of models to dramatic portraits of bugs. Inspired by nature’s awesome and overlooked beauty, her work invites viewers to see the world with new eyes. See more in the latest from Texas Country Reporter.The post A Fine-Art Photographer in Beaumont Focuses on the Beauty of Bugs appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Flo Stevenson and Ether Blaylock are members of the Pleasant Hill Quilters, a volunteer group passionate about the historical preservation of its East Texas community. The group travels to perform old spirituals—songs that seemed like nothing more than hymns to the untrained ear, but actually contained coded messages for people fleeing slavery. Between songs, the group explains another secret messaging device: quilts. Hear more from the Pleasant Hill Quilters in this video from Texas Country Reporter.The post A Group of Singing Quilters Shares the History of the Underground Railroad appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Taking family photos in a field of bluebonnets is required by law in Texas, or so I gathered after moving here from Pennsylvania for college in 2006. Texans’ affinity for bluebonnets, like all things emblematic of the Lone Star State, puzzled me at first. But in 2014, having recently added a golden retriever puppy to our family, my husband, Chris, and I were eager to snap some bluebonnet pictures for the first time. The photo we took of Trudy surrounded by flowers at St. Edward’s University, with the Austin skyline behind her fluffy ears, still hangs on our living room wall (and, Chris was proud to report, briefly shot to number one on the r/Austin subreddit). We continued the annual springtime tradition over the next…The post Texas First: Taking Bluebonnet Photos of My Kid appeared first on Texas Monthly.
For anyone who hasn’t been paying attention to women’s college basketball, this year’s NCAA Tournament has been a wake-up call. UConn isn’t a lock to win it all (in fact, they haven’t won the title since 2016, and just got knocked out in the Sweet 16), the tournament isn’t totally chalk, and the level of play is nothing like what the sexists would have you believe.In place of all of those tired tropes, there are a slew of new characters and stories to highlight as the women’s Final Four kicks off in Dallas this weekend. Instead of UConn, this Final Four’s powerhouse is South Carolina. The defending national champions are looking to win a second-straight title (and third since 2017) and cement their position as…The post The Caitlin Clark Show Comes to Dallas for the Women’s Final Four appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Linda Mason, of Lubbock, was one of many Texans who made a career change during the pandemic. She left her job in the hospitality industry, and with some extra time on her hands (she was also a recent empty-nester), she set out to sate a craving for the perfect slice of cheesecake. Mason’s newfound hobby brought about surprising connection to her sons, and it soon flourished into a successful business, Gateau de Jil. See more in the latest from Texas Country Reporter.The post An Empty-Nester’s Cheesecake Business Brings Back Fond Memories appeared first on Texas Monthly.
This week, the Texas Senate Committee on State Affairs advanced two bills that would criminalize many drag performances. The bills, both filed by Republican Bryan Hughes of Mineola, take aim at men or women who use “clothing, makeup, or other similar physical markers” to “exhibit” as the other gender—and would penalize certain venues where they either perform or read stories to children. Senate Bill 12 would criminalize a drag performance that “appeals to the prurient interest in sex” and occurs on public property or with a minor present. It would also impose a $10,000 fine on anyone who hosts such a performance. Senate Bill 1601, meanwhile, targets libraries that host “drag queen story hour” events, revoking state funding if they allow a performer to exhibit as a…The post How Texas Drag Queen Brigitte Bandit Exposed the Absurdity of Proposals to Criminalize Drag Performers and Shows appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Ten years ago, the eighty-third Texas Legislature had a chance to prove it wasn’t hopelessly corrupted by even the sleaziest of industries. That year, lawmakers considered modest reforms to the payday loan industry, which uses a loophole in state law to avoid a constitutional prohibition on usury in order to charge small-dollar borrowers interest rates often greater than 500 percent. For years, religious charities, faith leaders, and working-class Texans had been complaining about how predatory lending was trapping borrowers in a cycle of debt. During long and emotional hearings, they begged lawmakers for relief. Legislators were treated to a litany of small tragedies—grandma taking out a $500 auto-title loan to pay for medicine only to find, months later, that her balance had somehow ballooned to…The post Attack of the Loan Sharks, Texas Lege Edition appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Uniforms, short on fabric and tight on fit, worn by attractive young women, are one of the reasons why brands such as Southwest Airlines and Twin Peaks feel so Texan. America’s sweethearts made crop tops and hot pants as much a part of the state’s identity as cowboy hats and boots. And if you were a woman wearing one of those uniforms to cheer for four hours, or wait tables for eight, wouldn’t you want it to be as comfortable as a broken-in pair of boots, as sturdy as Carhartts or Dickies?Designer—and Dallas Cowboys Cheerleader from 1995–2000—Terra Saunders wants that cheerleader or server to be able to bend, jump, reach, stretch, and twist without having to constantly readjust her outfit (or her body parts) to…The post Terra Saunders, Skimpy-Clothes Magnate, Dresses All the Biggest Names in Boobs appeared first on Texas Monthly.
The first time I tried Brandon Hurtado’s barbecue, three years ago, he was serving from folding tables outside the restaurant he was building in Arlington. He had neither the time nor the money to erect pop-up tents, so it was funny to see a retractable roof over his latest location in Globe Life Field. The new Hurtado Barbecue counter behind section 101 means the Texas Rangers will finally be able to offer some respectable smoked meat to baseball fans this season. At the old home of the Rangers across the street (now Choctaw Stadium), I remember eating a sad plate of beef ribs some twenty years back. Hot dogs and nachos were a safe haven. In 2012, the ballpark introduced a two-pound hot dog called…The post Finally, Some Good Barbecue for Texas Rangers Fans appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Ted Matthews couldn’t have imagined a few months ago that today he’d be using an empty patient room at Anson General Hospital as his bedroom. He and his wife were enjoying a quiet retirement in Waco when he got a call last summer about the hospital’s grim prognosis. Its CEO was taking a position elsewhere as it faced rising operating costs and declining patient numbers. It might soon be forced to close.In the nineties and early aughts, Matthews and his wife had raised their son in Anson, home to 2,300 residents about 25 miles north of Abilene. He’d worked then as an administrator at Anson General, and even after he’d moved on to running Eastland Memorial, eighty miles to the east, he continued to feel…The post A Lifeline for Rural Texas Hospitals Comes With Strings Attached appeared first on Texas Monthly.
As rain fell in Matamoros on a gray March morning, around a hundred asylum seekers huddled around a small storefront within view of an international bridge into Texas. Amid the din of cross-border traffic, anxious murmurs spread through the crowd just a few minutes before 10 a.m. In a sort of tired ritual, dozens of asylum seekers pulled out their smartphones—some even held multiple phones for other family members—to open the CBP One app and try to book an appointment for the hearing that they are entitled to under U.S. law. As of early January, the app has been the only way to request such a hearing in the United States. A few dozen slots for appointments with immigration agents in Brownsville, right across the border,…The post Biden’s Buggy Asylum App Doesn’t Work for Refugees—but It Serves His Political Interests appeared first on Texas Monthly.
WHAT: A Texas-sized induction ceremony for the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.WHO: Dirk Nowitzki, Pau Gasol, Becky Hammon, Tony Parker, and Gregg Popovich WHY IT’S SO GREAT: A handful of the giants of Texas basketball are still waiting to be enshrined in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, but that number is shrinking by five. According to an ESPN report, we know six of the (usually ten) names that will be added to the institution, and most of them are familiar to Texans—especially San Antonians. But first, headlining the list is Dirk Nowitzki, the iconic Dallas Mavericks forward who retired in 2019. Nowitzki is among the most beloved and transformational players in recent NBA history, and his induction has been inevitable since at least 2011,…The post Let’s Just Move This Year’s Basketball Hall of Fame Induction to Texas appeared first on Texas Monthly.
You’ve had all month to read the latest issue of Texas Monthly. Take this monthly quiz and we’ll tell you how you stack up at the end.And if you got this quiz from a friend: Hello! We hope you enjoy it. If you do: become a subscriber today, and we’ll send next month’s quiz directly to your inbox.The post March 2023 Reader Quiz: What Did You Learn? appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Two limestone rock walls narrow to a tiny crevice near the Red Waterfront Trail at Lake Mineral Wells State Park and Trailway. Lichens and moss cover the rock face, and a few thorny bushes grow by the dark entrance. Shagbark hickories reach up to the skies and provide perches for musical canyon wrens. “You never know who’s going to make it through ‘the Squeeze,’ ” says David Owens, the assistant park supervisor, who’s leading our hike. Undeterred, my eleven-year-old daughter, Amelia, runs right in and races 75 feet to the other side in no time. “I’m done!” she shouts, her words bouncing off the rocks and cliffs surrounding us. “It was dark. Rocky. But you could see the light from the other side.”The “Wild Walk” we’d…The post Lake Mineral Wells State Park Offers Adventurous Hiking, Fishing, and Some of the Best Rock Climbing in Texas appeared first on Texas Monthly.
A crowd of dueling cultural leaders packed the Bexar County Commissioners Court meeting in San Antonio one Tuesday last October. Classically trained violinists and horn players were there, along with their supporters, to comment on a $300,000 funding request that didn’t scream for attention on the agenda, tucked as it was among about two dozen other routine business matters from all the county departments that needed rubber-stamping. Item 44 was just the first installment of a $580,000 ask that would enable a small organization called the Classical Music Institute to provide a 45-piece orchestra for Opera San Antonio and Ballet San Antonio performances at the Tobin Center. Problem was, that gig had gone for years to the unionized musicians of the San Antonio Symphony, which…The post San Antonio Almost Lost Its 80-Year-Old Orchestra. The Musicians Didn’t Go Quietly. appeared first on Texas Monthly.
On Tuesday and Thursday mornings, Krishnaveni Gundu stands outside of the Harris County Jail (HCJ) and waits to talk to folks who are being released. She and her colleagues at the Texas Jail Project, a local nonprofit that advocates for incarcerated individuals, have been doing so for six months. More than 80 percent of inmates at the jail are unable to make bail and are awaiting their day in court; members of the Texas Jail Project team originally started canvassing to collect personal stories from those who did make bail and were leaving, so they could demonstrate the positive effects that a more generous approach to pretrial release could have in Texas’s most populous county. The project, though, quickly took a turn last year when…The post “It Smells of Despair”: What’s Going On Inside the Harris County Jail? appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Can two guys make a living selling barbecue two days a week from a trailer parked next to a highway gas station? “Absolutely not,” Jordan Rosemeyer said of Rosemeyer Bar-B-Q, which he runs with his business partner and best friend since kindergarten, Ben Maxwell. “We lose money most weeks,” Rosemeyer told me candidly. They’ve saved enough from catering jobs they’ve been lucky enough to land to fund their less-than-profitable Fridays and Saturdays along Grand Parkway in Spring. “We were hoping that the following would find us before the money ran out,” Rosemeyer said. Fortunately for them, when that following arrives, they’ll find some damn fine barbecue.Rosemeyer’s and Maxwell’s interest in barbecue caught fire during competitions they’d enter in the Huntsville area while attending Sam Houston…The post This Pitmaster Hopes His Barbecue Joint Finds a Following So He Doesn’t Have to Go Back to a “Real Job” appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Most every woman has, in her lifetime, suffered the indignity of getting her period in the wrong place at the wrong time. When Democratic state representative Donna Howard was a seventh grader in Austin in the early 1960s, hers started one day in the middle of class. “Back then, we wore dresses all the time,” she told me, “unless it was a snow day, and then we got to wear pants.” When she stood up, the bloodstain showed through the back of her skirt. Her classmate—a boy, whom she noted was a platonic friend (“We were buddies”)—noticed and pulled her aside to quietly let her know. He then escorted her to the nurse’s office, positioning his body to shield her from being seen by others.…The post Texas’s Tampon Tax Has Contributed to Widespread Period Poverty. Is the Lege Finally Ready to Repeal It? appeared first on Texas Monthly.
On Friday, the City and Regional Magazine Association announced its finalist selections for the 2023 National City and Regional Magazine Awards, and Texas Monthly received 22 finalist selections this year—more than any other publication—including Excellence in Writing, Excellence in Design, Excellence Online, and General Excellence. Notably, Russell Gold received three finalist nods in civic journalism, reporting, and writer of the year. TM also received two nominations in the multiplatform storytelling category—a testament to the magazine’s ability to create compelling storytelling across podcast, video, print, and other platforms. One was for the “America’s Girls” podcast, hosted by Sarah Hepola, and “A Half Century of High Kicks and Hot Pants,” TM‘s September 2022 cover story that Hepola wrote; both dive into the history and cultural influence of the Dallas Cowboys cheerleaders. The other nomination…The post 2023 National City and Regional Magazine Awards Finalists Announced appeared first on Texas Monthly.
EL PASO — At least 39 migrants died in a fire Monday night after flames engulfed a migrant facility in Ciudad Juárez, near the Rio Grande.The National Immigration Institute, Mexico’s immigration regulatory office, said the fire started at about 10 p.m. in one of its facilities in Juárez, near a bridge that connects the Mexican city to El Paso.There were a total of 68 men in the facility, 29 of whom were injured and transported to four local hospitals in “delicate-serious conditions,” the institute said in a statement.The men are from Central and South America, and Mexican officials are working with consulates to help identify the victims, the institute said.During his daily morning news conference, Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said the fire started…The post A Fire in Juárez Killed Dozens of Migrants, Some Fleeing Danger en Route to Texas appeared first on Texas Monthly.
It started with Clubhouse. The social audio app attracted millions across the globe, including me. I joined to work on my stutter for radio guest spots. It helped. More importantly, it connected me with people across the globe who came to be great friends. One of those new folks was Michael Heiden from Berlin. Heiden, it turned out, was in the process of opening Taqueria El Oso in the Markthalle Pfefferberg food hall. The taqueria would be a partnership between himself and business partners Pablo Vasquez, a Mexican German, and Jesús García, a Mexican immigrant. Both had experience creating Mexican food in Berlin. Vasquez owned a food truck, Sabor a mí, with his father, and García owns Cintli Berlin Tortilleria. The group invited me to…The post A German Taqueria Is Leading Europe’s New Taco Revolution appeared first on Texas Monthly.
This is a huge week for the paleontology and gas station mascot communities, because researchers at the University of Texas’s Jackson School Museum of Earth History announced they have identified a new ancient species of beaver—and they’re naming it in honor of our state’s beloved bucktoothed, red-capped nugget salesman, Buc-ee (yes, I know his name is technically Bucky, but I think that’s dumb and it’s something I’m trying to forget). On Monday, research associate Steve May and Vertebrate Paleontology Collections director Matthew Brown released a paper about a Miocene-era rodent fossil of a species they have christened Anchitheriomys buceei, or A. buceei for short, proving that those billboards are right: Texas is beaver country, and has been for at least 15 million years. Further sweetening the…The post UT Scientists Discovered a Beaver Fossil and Named It After Buc-ee’s appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Almost forty years ago, in June 1983, James Harry Reyos walked into the Seventieth District Court in Odessa to be put on trial for the brutal murder of a Catholic priest in a seedy motel room just a mile away. Reyos, a gay Native American with a couple of court-appointed lawyers, didn’t stand a chance. Though there wasn’t a shred of physical evidence connecting him to the bloody crime scene—and even though he had a paper trail proving his alibi that, at the time of the murder, he was 215 miles away in Roswell, New Mexico—he was found guilty and sent to prison.Friday, March 24, Reyos walked into the same courtroom for an evidentiary hearing on whether or not he should be found legally “actually…The post Forty Years Later, Wrongfully Convicted James Reyos Has Another Day in Court appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Some contests are incredibly dramatic. Super Bowl LI, where Tom Brady and the Patriots stunned a Houston crowd with a shocking fourth-quarter comeback to beat the Atlanta Falcons in historic fashion. The 1993 NFL playoff game between the Buffalo Bills and the Houston Oilers, when the Bills overcame a 35–3 deficit to beat the Oilers in overtime. The July 1994 game between the Houston Astros and the St. Louis Cardinals from which the Astros emerged victorious despite trailing 11–0 in the fourth inning.And then there are those in which victory seems almost predestined. Secretariat winning the Belmont by 31 lengths, George Foreman knocking Joe Frazier down six times in two rounds to win his first heavyweight championship, Georgia’s 65–7 victory over TCU in January’s national…The post The Ultimate Texas Brand Bracket Crowns Its Champion appeared first on Texas Monthly.
The American Bar Association on Wednesday named Texas Monthly a finalist for its 2023 Silver Gavel Awards for Media and the Arts, for “The Rogue Court That Paved the Way for Roe’s Demise,” by executive editor Michael Hall. The article, which was edited by features director J. K. Nickell, profiles four judges on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit who are spearheading a partisan movement to redefine constitutional precedent, all of whom have roots in Texas Republican politics.The Silver Gavel Awards recognize works in radio, television, literature, and journalism that have been exemplary in fostering the American public’s understanding of law and the legal system. Thirty finalists were selected this year from 165 entries; only one other entry in the Magazines category was…The post Texas Monthly Receives a Nod From the American Bar Association appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Artist Beki Morris turns castaway corks into detailed three-dimensional designs in her Austin studio, meticulously gluing down corks of various colors at different angles and directions. Her pieces hang in offices, restaurants, and homes all over the world. See more in the latest dispatch from Texas Country Reporter.The post An Austin Artist With That Corky Charm appeared first on Texas Monthly.
The first goat crash was unintentional, the goats’ caretakers tell me. Jester King, the oft-Instagrammed Hill Country brewery, farm, and event space thirty minutes west of Austin, maintains a herd of Nigerian dwarf goats that is now 75 strong. On a sunny Thursday afternoon in March, several kids (baby goats) born in the last five weeks are playing on a platform near the entrance to Jester King’s large goat pen. They are constantly in motion, butting heads with and mounting one another. The former is play, and the latter is meant to establish dominance, explains head goat shepherd Lissa Rowe. She’s wearing a tie-dyed shirt and bike shorts and has thin, gold-framed glasses. Rowe has a gentle confidence that I imagine comes from handling livestock…The post Did Your Wedding Even Count if There Were No Goats? appeared first on Texas Monthly.
After a week of frenzied voting, we’ve reached the final round of the Ultimate Texas Brand Bracket. We’ve seen many fine brands fall by the wayside during the first four rounds of voting; much-loved names such as Dr Pepper and Whataburger have been eliminated, joining first-round eliminations such as Chuck E. Cheese and Thomas J. Henry in the great bracket in the sky. We’ve seen a handful of themes emerge during the tournament, and they’ve carried us through to this point: on the one hand, the dominance of the heavy favorites; on the other, the forgiving nature of Texans even in the face of genuine scandal. And now, it comes down to two. The first of those two is no surprise. H-E-B entered the contest as…The post The Ultimate Texas Brand Bracket Championship Is Here appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Unlike the various members of Congress who gave perfunctory speeches at former president Donald J. Trump’s rally in Waco on Saturday, Texas lieutenant governor Dan Patrick seemed genuinely happy to be there, dancing onstage to his intro music. At Trump’s first official rally of his 2024 campaign, Patrick came out punching. “Let me dispel some fake news right now,” he told the audience, some 10,000 strong. “You see all these stories that the president chose this town because of the anniversary of an event that happened thirty years ago.”That would be, of course, the bad bit of business that happened in Waco in the spring of 1993, when a 51-day standoff between federal law enforcement agencies and a religious cult ended in a catastrophic fire…The post In Waco, Donald Trump Parties Like It’s 1993 appeared first on Texas Monthly.
The first barbecue-flavored potato chips were developed by Herr’s in its Nottingham, Pennsylvania, factory in 1958. (Lay’s didn’t add the flavor until 1965.) Since then, various combinations of powdered ingredients have made barbecue a flagship flavor for most potato chip companies. While unique interpretations like Bourbon BBQ and Korean Barbeque from Kettle Brand and East African Barbecue Chili from Green Sahara have expanded the genre, there hasn’t been any real innovation in barbecue potato chips since the first one was introduced. That’s what Low and Slow cofounder Jared Drinkwater was looking to change when he threw some corn chips into his backyard smoker in 2019.Barbecue chips made from potato, corn, and tortillas are the current focus of the snack company, but the barbecue flavor doesn’t…The post Unlike Lay’s, This Snack Brand Actually Smokes Its Barbecue Chips appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Since the beginning of this millennium, the third week of March has meant one thing for me: recovering from the ten-day marathon of panels, parties, and general excess known as South by Southwest. This year’s iteration, which ended Saturday, was my twenty-first in-person SXSW (factoring in the COVID-19 pandemic), meaning that yes, my badge is old enough to drink legally, ha ha ha, but also—and this hit me on the fest’s first day as I ascended above the excited throngs on the Austin Convention Center escalator—that more than half of the attendees below me were probably in diapers or kindergarten when I made out my first South by Southwest schedule (on paper) in 2001.I quickly brushed off the thought and looked down at the “My…The post Fifty, Flirty, and Attending All the SXSW Panels About Aging I Could Find appeared first on Texas Monthly.
If you’re reading this, chances are, you’re wearing something cozy. As we all well know, the COVID-19 pandemic brought on a shift in fashion. Yoga pants instead of pencil skirts. Bralettes in place of underwire. Three years on, we’ve emerged from our homes, but remote work (and the desire for comfort it instills) remains. But you don’t have to resort to old T-shirts and flannel pajama pants. We’ve found three sleepwear brands that hail from Texas and showcase the diverse personalities of the Lone Star State: one has fringe; another has a bit of Austin weirdness; a third gives voice to the Latina community in the RGV. These options feel good to wear, but they don’t scrimp on style. 1. Far WestHotel robes are often…The post They’re Not Pajamas. They’re Sleepwear, and These Texas Brands Are Doing Them Right appeared first on Texas Monthly.
On Saturday evening, Donald Trump will hold his first official rally of the 2024 campaign cycle. He won’t be doing so in his home state of Florida, however. Nor will he address a crowd of potential swing voters in Michigan, Pennsylvania, or Wisconsin. No, the twice-impeached former president will formally launch his third bid for the office at Waco Regional Airport—less than ten miles northwest of the heart of the city, along a remote stretch of land broken up mostly by a smattering of McLennan County’s finest gas stations, oil-change shops, and self-storage facilities. As presidential campaign kickoff events go, it’s an unlikely spot. One particular detail about the event, however, has attracted some extra attention since the rally was announced: it’ll happen in the midst…The post Why Is Donald Trump Kicking Off His 2024 Campaign in Waco? appeared first on Texas Monthly.
As if the city of Houston hosting the Final Four in April didn’t already have enough Texas flavor, there’s now the tantalizing possibility that an Elite Eight matchup between the University of Houston and University of Texas could decide one of the berths. Both the Cougars and Longhorns will have to win their Sweet 16 games on Friday for it to happen, which means that both teams’ coaches have so far swatted away as premature any questions suggesting either UH coach Kelvin Sampson or UT interim head coach Ronald Terry might be looking ahead to an in-state grudge match. Players, too, know not to bite. There it is, though, on Sunday’s NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament schedule, still officially listed as TBD vs. TBD.If the Cougars…The post The Team Might Deny It, but Houston Wants Texas in the Elite Eight appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Sarah Wilson visited Big Bend National Park for the first time in the 1980s, when she was fourteen. There, on a school field trip, she and her classmates pitched tents at the Cottonwood Campground—a quiet, shady oasis tucked away in the park’s western corner—and stayed up late to stargaze. “I remember walking down towards the Rio Grande with some friends one night, laying down near the banks, and looking up at the sky,” Wilson says. “I had never seen stars like that. I was in awe.”Inspired by the photography of longtime Marathon resident and Big Bend denizen James Evans, Wilson returned a few years later during a summer break from college, at NYU. The following year she returned yet again, this time to work as…The post Her Grandfather Dug For Fossils in Big Bend. Now Her Photos Celebrate His Spirit of Adventure. appeared first on Texas Monthly.
The Ultimate Texas Brand Bracket is drawing to its close. From our initial array of 64 beloved restaurants, stores, products, and none-of-the-above wild cards, four rounds of intense voting have winnowed down the field to our Final Four. The last restaurant standing? Whataburger. The lone surviving store? H-E-B. The most beloved product? Blue Bell ice cream. And rounding out the lineup to rep the wild cards, Southwest Airlines. None of these brands had an easy path to victory, and we must now take a moment to remember those that, despite close challenges, were vanquished along the way. Austin City Limits, the tournament’s last Cinderella story, which fell to Schlitterbahn by just sixteen votes. Rudy’s Country Store and Bar-B-Q, whose second-round rally came too late to swing…The post Presenting the Ultimate Texas Brand Bracket Final Four appeared first on Texas Monthly.
HBO Max has released the official trailer for Love & Death—the Max Original limited series written by David E. Kelley based on parts one and two of the 1984 Texas Monthly article “Love and Death in Silicon Prairie,” as well as the book Evidence of Love: A True Story of Passion and Death in the Suburbs, by Jim Atkinson and John Bloom. Watch the full trailer above.Though the Love & Death official premiere is set for April 27 on HBO Max, the show’s star-studded cast gathered in Austin earlier this month for its world premiere at the SXSW Film & TV Festival. Elizabeth Olsen, Jesse Plemons, Lily Rabe, and Patrick Fugit walked the red carpet on Saturday, March 11, and participated in a post-screening Q&A alongside…The post HBO Max Releases Official Trailer for ‘Love & Death’ appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Handling a .50-caliber machine gun atop a Stryker armored fighting vehicle in Iraq and Afghanistan, Josephine became an expert at scanning her surroundings for potential threats. The Army taught her how to absorb a flood of information in a moment. On patrol, she would count the number of passengers inside an approaching vehicle, identify places where she could quickly seek cover if necessary, or commit a patch on someone’s jacket to memory. Since she returned to civilian life nearly a decade ago in Killeen, the Central Texas town adjacent to the Fort Hood Army base, those skills have mostly lain dormant. Recently, however, Josephine, who began identifying as a transgender woman after leaving the military, has begun to feel that she’s back on the battlefield. Like many…The post Fearing That State Leaders Want Them “Eradicated,” Some Transgender Texans Embrace Firearms appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Dustin Martin tried an impressive variety of career paths before opening a barbecue joint. The Granbury native raced dirt bikes and was a competitive wakeboarder before an accident on the water threatened to take his leg in 2007. Doctors saved the leg, and Martin moved on to mechanical engineering, running heavy equipment in the North Dakota oil fields before settling in as an estimator for a North Texas construction company. In the oil fields, he caught the barbecue bug cooking almost daily for his crew of fifteen workers. Back to Texas, he eventually turned his passion into a catering business. In 2021, he found a building to house his future restaurant in tiny Tolar, a town of less than seven hundred people between Fort Worth…The post Can This Barbecue Joint Survive in a Town of Less Than 700 Residents? appeared first on Texas Monthly.
In Christine, Stephen King’s 1983 novel about a demonically possessed car, he drops a surprisingly poignant statement about the human experience. “If being a kid is about learning how to live,” he writes, “then being a grown-up is about learning how to die.” I have no idea what the quote has to do with the car, because I found the sentence by googling “famous death quotes,” but I do think King’s on to something. The longer you live, the more accustomed you become to the act of saying goodbye to friends, pets, relatives, and, for the sake of this article, brands. Go ahead and press play on that one Sarah McLachlan song because we’re ’bout to get to mourning. We couldn’t celebrate Texas’s iconic pickup truck…The post An Elegy for Ten Late Great Texas Brands appeared first on Texas Monthly.
On a cold night in late December, Café Radical was buzzing. A few chatty customers in the new Laredo establishment were warming themselves on lattes. Others had come to taste natural wines. Near the bar, Laredo City councilwoman Alyssa Cigarroa blended in with the millennial-heavy crowd and dispersed Santa hats to a group of runners ahead of the city’s second annual Santa Run. It wasn’t something the 34-year-old had expected to be doing when she moved back to Laredo four years earlier from Israel, where she was studying painting. For one, Cigarroa never thought she’d patronize a natural-wine bar in the land of Bud Light and Buchanas. She also never expected crowds to be venue-hopping just blocks from the Rio Grande River, near the warehouses and…The post The New Streets of Laredo appeared first on Texas Monthly.
The Ultimate Texas Brand Bracket is hurtling toward its conclusion. As voters have narrowed down the initial 64 brands to our Elite Eight, the top seeds have largely proven their strength. We’ve still got three one-seeds and three two-seeds alive, along with a four (Blue Bell) and a five (Schlitterbahn). Let’s get right into the matchups that will determine our Final Four. Voting for this round will close at 4:30 p.m. CDT.RestaurantsA Homegrown Texas Brand Versus One We’ve Proudly ClaimedTechnically speaking, neither Whataburger nor Dairy Queen is, at this point, purely Texan. Since 2019, Whataburger has been owned by Chicago-based BDT Capital. DQ, meanwhile, started in Illinois and is headquartered in Minnesota—although the history behind the Texas Dairy Queen Operators Council gives us a unique claim…The post The Ultimate Texas Brand Bracket Is Down to Its Elite Eight appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Across from a Home Depot and eight miles from the nearest Hooters, the first musical about the history of breast implants held a staged reading at the Dallas Children’s Theater, because why not? cleaVage: the front story is an ambitious, homegrown labor of love in a city that has rarely been accused of supporting local artists (ask St. Vincent), but the black-box theater was packed that breezy Sunday at 7 p.m., March 19, with an audience of about 175 dotted with jean jackets and Warby Parkers and small plastic cups of red wine. “This is not a kid’s show,” producer-director Rebecca Lowrey explained to the crowd, hoping to ease any confusion about the unconventional venue. Lowrey is an effervescent presence, a Dallas theater fixture and minor…The post “ ‘Hamilton’ With Breasts” Is a Very Dallas Musical Experience appeared first on Texas Monthly.
WHO: Mr. and Mrs. Pickles, two radiated tortoises at the Houston Zoo.WHAT: They are the proud parents of three new hatchlings: Dill, Gherkin, and Jalepeño Pickles.WHY IT’S SO GREAT: Well, first of all, tiny babies are always great, especially when they have itsy-bitsy tortoise shells and wee little beaks, with teeny feet that are all pigeon-toed and whatnot. But these bundles of joy are even more miraculous, as the radiated tortoise, native to the forests and scrublands of Madagascar, is a critically endangered species. And Mr. and Mrs. Pickles are in many ways the Abraham and Sarah of the tortoise world, becoming parents at 90 and 53 years of age. The Pickleses first met in 1996, when Mrs. Pickles (née unknown) arrived at the Houston Zoo.…The post Congratulations to Mr. Pickles, the Houston Zoo’s Elderly Tortoise, on Becoming a Dad appeared first on Texas Monthly.
State representative Jared Patterson has never claimed, through campaign literature or any other medium, to be a reader. If he had, he might not have walked into the trap set for him last night during a House Public Education Committee hearing on his inaptly named READER Act. That proposal would add several new bureaucratic controls on the kinds of books that could be kept in or borrowed from public-school libraries. When Democratic state representative James Talarico, of Round Rock, prodded the Frisco Republican during debate, Patterson took the bait. “There should be no sexually explicit books” in a high school library, he said.Talarico replied that there’s content that could be viewed as sexually explicit in many very good books. (Though he didn’t mention it, the…The post Loathsome Dud: Jared Patterson’s School-Library Bill Would Ban Larry McMurtry’s Novel appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Fred Harris was booked into the Harris County Jail on October 10, 2021. The intellectually disabled eighteen-year-old, who had an IQ of 62 and suffered from mental illness, had been arrested earlier that day after witnesses reported him walking down a busy street in Houston’s Montrose neighborhood and threatening someone with a knife. A magistrate set bail at $20,000—lower than the $75,000 requested by the prosecutor—because Harris had no criminal convictions and no known history of violence. But even the lower amount was too expensive for Harris’s family; with them unable to post bond, the young man would have to stay in jail until his case went to trial. On October 29, after spending nearly three weeks in the mental health wing of the jail, the…The post Texas Jails Are Crowded, Understaffed, and Dangerous. The Legislature Is Poised to Send Them More Inmates. appeared first on Texas Monthly.
They’re big. They’re pesky. And this year, they’re everywhere.At least in some Texas backyards, this spring seems to be a big year for crane flies, or mosquito hawks, or skeeter eaters, or gollywhoppers, or whatever it is you call them. It seems like every time I open the door to my home in Arlington these days, four or five fly inside. They’ve given my house cat plenty of entertainment, but they sure can be annoying when all the other lights in the house are off and they flock to my bedside reading lamp at night. And don’t get me started on an unfortunate recent incident of an open water bottle turned fly trap that I grabbed to drink without properly inspecting.You know it’s springtime in Texas…The post Mosquito Hawks Are Flitting All Over Texas appeared first on Texas Monthly.
After two days of frenzied voting, the shape of the Ultimate Texas Brand Bracket is becoming clear. Some obvious favorites are coasting to victory—three of our four top seeds have shrugged off challengers—while a handful of low seeds have proved surprisingly potent. Before we break down the results, let’s take a moment to remember the brands that ran into stiff competition in the early rounds. The biggest upset was, perhaps, the second-round elimination of Chip and Joanna Gaines’s top-seeded Magnolia empire. The Fixer Upper couple is among the most iconic faces of twenty-first-century Texas: recognized around the world, owners of their own cable network, influential in home design trends all across the nation, creators of product lines that get their own sections in Target stores, capable…The post The Ultimate Texas Brand Bracket: Bring on the Sweet Sixteen! appeared first on Texas Monthly.
John and Andrea Havard are parents to two small children, and—as any parent can attest—they have seen more than their fair share of noisy cartoons or wacky cartoon-like actors in the shows their kids watch. After a while, they wanted a change of pace. With Captain Kangaroo and Mr. Rogers as inspiration, videos on the Cowboy Jack channel provide a dose of wholesome nostalgia along with practical education.The post Two Texas Parents Became the Change They Wanted to See in Their Kid’s YouTube appeared first on Texas Monthly.
One of the most ardent culture warriors in the state legislature is calling on Texas couples to breed—and breed, and breed some more. State representative Bryan Slaton, a Republican from Royse City, northeast of Dallas, has filed a bill that would offer property tax breaks to married couples who have four or more biological or adopted children. The tax credit would increase with each additional child, from 40 percent for four to 100 percent for ten or more. In a press release touting his idea, Slaton cited falling birth rates—which have nose-dived in Texas since 2007, particularly among Hispanics, following a nationwide trend—as the policy rationale for his proposal. The former minister added a biblical admonition: “With this bill,” he said, “Texas will start saying to couples: ‘Get…The post A Republican Lawmaker Wants (Certain) Texans to Have a Lot More Babies appeared first on Texas Monthly.
The great jazz and blues singer Jewel Brown made her Eldorado Ballroom debut in 1949, at the age of twelve. The Eldorado was then one of the country’s premier Black music venues, playing host to Duke Ellington, Count Basie, B. B. King, and a murderers’ row of other musical giants. But to Brown, who grew up in Houston’s predominantly Black Third Ward neighborhood, the “Rado” was just the local nightclub—the place where her older sisters would go dancing on Saturday nights.“You couldn’t keep them out of there on the weekend,” Brown recently recalled with a chuckle. “They would clean up the house real good on Saturday so that when Daddy came home in the afternoon he would give them the okay to go. They just had…The post Eighty Years Later, Houston’s Eldorado Ballroom Swings Back to Life appeared first on Texas Monthly.
The first round of the Texas Brand Bracket is in the books, and—as happens with all such elimination tournaments—there are some hard losses to accept. How did Purdue feel after they fell to the Fairleigh Dickinson University Knights last week? Bad, clearly, but those of us who have a deep emotional connection to Half Price Books or Taco Palenque can relate. We’ve also seen a handful of upsets, especially in two matchups on the right-hand side of the bracket: Despite the growing empire that is Kendra Scott, the dominant Austin jewelry brand proved no match for the iconic power of Stetson, now in its sixteenth decade of outfitting Texans (and others). Then, in our “Wild Cards” division, the battle between sorta-Texan Elon Musk’s Brownsville-conquering SpaceX…The post The Ultimate Texas Brand Bracket Heats Up in Round Two appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Which Texas brand is the most iconic? This March Madness, Texas Monthly is asking readers to cast their votes.Vanilla ice cream is hard to master. It’s a subtle flavor, at once earthy, floral, and sweet. Different companies produce varied results when combining it with cream, milk, and sugar to make the frozen treat. Lesser brands lose the vanilla flavor completely when the taste of the cardboard carton seeps in.I’ve always preferred Blue Bell’s Homemade Vanilla for its distinctive vanilla-forward taste. Could it be because the Brenham business doesn’t use egg yolks in its recipe while most other companies do? Or is it because I’ve always associated it with sticky summer nights by the pool and getting an A-plus on a report card?Nostalgia is a powerful…The post Blue Bell Is Still My Ice Cream of Choice appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Which Texas brand is the most iconic? This March Madness, Texas Monthly is asking readers to cast their votes.The original Rudy’s Country Store and Bar-B-Q in Leon Springs is about a 15-mile drive from my childhood home in San Antonio. But growing up, if I rolled down the window around mile 14.5, I could smell the oak wood burning, smoking up the meat just right. It evoked a savory campfire, a scent that I’d take home with me, in my jeans and hair, long after driving away. (There would never be any other leftovers.)Waiting in line is a crucial part of the Rudy’s experience. Butchers cut meat within view, the thud of their knives always outpacing the strum of country music playing overhead. The meat…The post Rudy’s Bar-B-Q Overnight Shipping Got Me Through the Pandemic in New York appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Del Benedict is the craftsman behind Hill Country Antler Art near downtown Fredericksburg. What started as a simple hobby has now become a business with waitlisted clients and elusive trade secrets. In the attic above his shop, Benedict collects naturally shed elk and deer antlers, which then become the raw material for his custom lamps and chandeliers that cleverly conceal any electrical wires.The post Hill Country Antler Art Uses “Nature’s Most Incredible Sculpture” to Create Cleverly Crafted Decor appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Which Texas brand is the most iconic? This March Madness, Texas Monthly is asking readers to cast their votes.A few years ago, I got some of my family’s videotapes converted to digital files. One of the bits of resurrected footage was of my little sister’s third birthday party, at a Chuck E. Cheese on Austin’s Louis Henna Boulevard. She looked sweet, with her shy grin and halo of short curls, but a little oblivious to the chaos surrounding her. I held court, dancing around the table, urging my sister to blow out her candles, and cohosting. At nine years old, I was already an expert at the Chuck E. Cheese birthday party, a rite of passage for any child of the nineties in America.Being at…The post Chuck E. Cheese Was a Child’s Greatest Birthday Dream—or Nightmare appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Which Texas brand is the most iconic? This March Madness, Texas Monthly is asking readers to cast their votes.I was ten years old when I walked into a GameStop in Houston with my mom and brother to become one of the 8.5 million customers to buy 2010’s Red Dead Redemption that year. The Western-themed video game—about a former outlaw who is forced by the FBI to hunt down members of his old gang and bring them to justice—follows the antihero tradition of Clint Eastwood’s characters and features the expansive scene-setting of Lonesome Dove and a script on par with that of The Searchers. Unfortunately, the guy at the register didn’t quite put it like that.After my brother and I picked up the plastic case, with…The post The GameStop Generation Would Like Some Respect appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Which Texas brand is the most iconic? This March Madness, Texas Monthly is asking readers to cast their votes.I had my first sip of Big Red this year, at age 31, not with barbacoa, as is recommended, but with Impossible “Chicken” Nuggets during a hastily thrown-together lunch.I’ll be honest, I’m not a good Texan—though I spent much of my childhood here, I was tainted by my time living in the Pacific Northwest. I’m a pescatarian and languish even in 85-degree weather. Mosquitos treat me like a buffet. I don’t own cowboy boots. And my go-to “soda” is an ashwagandha-blackberry “Adaptonic” with six grams of sugar that I should probably get bullied for (head to the comment section below). But, upon hearing that I had never…The post Texas First: A Dr Pepper Loyalist Finally Tries Big Red appeared first on Texas Monthly.
The Waco siege was made for television. From the opening volley of the February 28, 1993, raid on the Branch Davidians’ compound at Mount Carmel, which was captured in real time by a local news crew, to the April 19 fire that brought the subsequent 51-day standoff to its ashen, funereal end, there was nary a moment of the Waco saga that didn’t play out in front of a camera. Inside the complex, David Koresh, the Branch Davidians’ self-proclaimed messiah, was making his own videos as well, taping himself even while he lay seriously wounded, using a camera provided to him by the FBI. Taken collectively, all of that footage helped sustain the Waco standoff within the 24-hour cable news cycle that, in 1993, was…The post What Is Left to Say About Waco? ‘Waco: American Apocalypse’ Doesn’t Even Try appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Which Texas brand is the most iconic? This March Madness, Texas Monthly is asking readers to cast their votes.Generations of Dallas denizens can still recall zipping past the Mrs Baird’s factory along North Central Expressway at Mockingbird Lane and encountering the heavenly scent of baking bread. For decades, the aroma permeated the area. Though the factory has been closed for more than twenty years, I can still almost smell it. I suspect you’d hear much the same from anyone who grew up near the company’s other bakeries, which at one time stood in Abilene, Austin, Fort Worth, Houston, Lubbock, San Antonio, Waco, and elsewhere. In the early sixties, Mrs Baird’s accounted for one out of every four loaves of bread sold in Texas.For me and…The post An Ode to Mrs Baird’s, the Fluffy White Bread of My Texas Childhood appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Which Texas brand is the most iconic? This March Madness, Texas Monthly is asking readers to cast their votes.There were certain dilemmas that my mom, a single parent in her twenties living in 1980s Dallas, had to contend with. Should we live in a “good” neighborhood or buy a cheap house? Should I let my son ride on the back of my boyfriend’s Yamaha or undermine a boy’s natural desire to take risks? And, perhaps most consequentially, where are we going tonight: El Chico or El Fenix?Two factors made it a tough call: each had multiple locations in the Metroplex, and each served roughly the same menu items. Decades later, they still do. But today, when I’m back in Dallas, there is no dilemma. Going…The post The Draw of El Fenix’s Sensory Overload appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Which Texas brand is the most iconic? This March Madness, Texas Monthly is asking readers to cast their votes.Every Christmas Eve, my family eats the same meal. My mom polls me, my three brothers, and any extra guests: “A double or a single?” She scratches the answers down on a piece of paper, Notes app be damned. My dad, cash in hand, makes the trek out to pick up the nondescript paper bags of food (one of which is entirely and unnervingly filled with loose shredded cheese), and we gather around our table to construct our orders. A fleet of little cardboard boats of rolled tacos begins to assemble. Every Christmas Eve, we eat Chico’s Tacos.If you know anything about the El Paso institution, which will…The post Soggy and Divisive, Chico’s Tacos Are Perfect to Me appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Which Texas brand is the most iconic? This March Madness, Texas Monthly is asking readers to cast their votes.I mourned when the site of the first Chili’s location was razed. The building wasn’t much of a looker when it opened in 1975, at the intersection of Greenville Avenue and Meadow Road in northeast Dallas. It was a drab green with off-white accents and low ceilings. The original structure was replaced with a bigger building in 1981 after the city expanded Greenville Avenue right through the kitchen. That’s the one that was torn down in 2012. By then, the Chili’s had been closed for five years, but the restaurant chain was so instrumental in feeding my young family, I couldn’t help but feel a twinge of…The post Despite Its National Appeal, Chili’s Is a Dallas Restaurant Through and Through appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Which Texas brand is the most iconic? This March Madness, Texas Monthly is asking readers to cast their votes.A pink doughnut with sprinkles, please, and a bag of doughnut holes for a sweet treat later. That’s been my order at Shipley Do-Nuts since the days of riding in the backseat of my mom’s car.I grew up in McAllen, a predominantly Hispanic community known for its cuisine, especially its wide range of tacos, from the Korean–Mexican ones at Nuri’s to the globally inspired ones at La Cocinita. Despite the abundance of unique restaurants, it’s the 24-hour doughnut shop with red and yellow lights on its sign that reminds me most of home. When I moved to Austin for college in 2020, I was surprised—and a bit…The post No Matter Which Shipley Do-Nuts You Go To, You’re Always Home appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Which Texas brand is the most iconic? This March Madness, Texas Monthly is asking readers to cast their votes.One day in the late 1980s, Juan Francisco Ochoa Sr. meandered through an H-E-B in Laredo. His new restaurant, Taco Palenque, didn’t have a menu yet, but he had a vision. A bell had rung—the same one that inspired his other Mexican restaurant chain, El Pollo Loco.That grilled chicken franchise became a sensation in Mexico after he opened the first in his hometown of Guasave, Sinaloa, in 1975. By 1980, he and his family operated more than 90 restaurants across the country. Eventually, they decided to try their luck in the U.S., and by 1983, California had seventeen El Pollo Locos.Could he do it again? During that…The post Taco Palenque, South Texas’s Drive-through Sensation, Keeps Growing appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Which Texas brand is the most iconic? This March Madness, Texas Monthly is asking readers to cast their votes.One is a self-promoting narcissist who pals around with far-right extremists, picks feuds with public officials, and has a cultlike following. The other owns Twitter and much of Tesla. Meet Jim “Mattress Mack” McIngvale and Elon “Elon Musk” Musk. Despite their superficial differences, they have more in common than you might imagine.McIngvale is the Mississippi-born, Dallas-reared proprietor of Gallery Furniture, a three-store chain that includes a sprawling warehouse in north Houston boasting a miniature zoo and a 30,000-gallon aquarium. For nearly four decades, he’s been a ubiquitous presence on local television, thanks to manic commercials in which he hyperventilates about futons while promising to “Save! You! Money!”…The post Can SpaceX Rocket Past Mattress Mack in Our Brand Bracket? appeared first on Texas Monthly.
After issues with his heart, Dale Acker was on the hunt for a new hobby that would decrease his stress. His fascination with the stories behind old weapons led him to begin collecting historical arms, from Davy Crockett’s rifle to Wyatt Earp’s pistol. Today, his collection is on display at the Up in Arms museum in the small town of Nazareth.The post A Small-town Gun Museum Tells a Story of Our Past appeared first on Texas Monthly.
After learning about the discovery of a beaver carcass in 2015, Texas Tech researcher Garret Langlois observed that the water-bound critter had seemingly defied scientific and topographic hurdles to return to the Llano Estacado after an absence of five thousand years. In this dispatch from Texas Country Reporter, Langlois describes his research and how he was able to document his discovery. His story is also featured in the April 2023 issue of Texas Monthly.The post Meet the Texas Tech Researcher Who Broke the Beavers Story appeared first on Texas Monthly.
For the thousands of travelers who cross into Matamoros, Mexico, from Brownsville every day, the commute across the border requires a practiced vigilance. Since the days of Mexican bootleggers tunneling whiskey into Prohibition-era Texas, gangs in Matamoros have vied for control of cross-border contraband routes. Their battles are unpredictable and brutal, and, for those who travel to the city, the trick to stay safe has come down to a simple maxim: don’t be in the wrong place at the wrong time. Mexicans who live there summarize this same guidance in a different way: no seas estupido. (Don’t be stupid.) The most important rule is to cross the border during the day: northern neighborhoods, right along the wall, can get rough at night, but are typically safe…The post Matamoros Was Once Relatively Safe for Texans. That Seems to Be Changing. appeared first on Texas Monthly.
There weren’t many signs of spring in Franklin County on March 1, when I arrived at Bob and Donna McFarland’s home in Hagansport. Bluebonnet sightings were making their way north but were still hundreds of miles away. Redbud trees had yet to show their vibrant purple colors in this patch of northeast Texas, about a hundred miles east of Dallas. The only indication of the season was the stack of large cardboard packages on the McFarlands’ porch. The packages held wood duck boxes that the retired couple is known for distributing in this corner of the state, which is marked with an assortment of trees, ponds, and lakes—perfect breeding grounds for one of the most beautiful waterfowl in North America.The McFarlands’ unusual hobby started nearly…The post This Texas Couple Helps Hatch Hundreds of Baby Wood Ducks appeared first on Texas Monthly.
If you were living in Japan in the mid-twentieth century, and you were cool, intellectual, and politically conscious—or, at least, you were pretending to be those things—your go-to hangout would almost certainly have been a jazu kissa, a cafe dedicated to listening to jazz records. Jazz, invented in America, boomed in midcentury Japan partly thanks to French New Wave films; jazz made up the bulk of their soundtracks. Japan was soon a country infatuated with the genre, but jazz artists at the time rarely toured in Japan, and jazz records were very expensive since they had to be imported from the States. That didn’t stop some entrepreneurial obsessives from spending the cash to build record collections that would serve as the foundations for kissa, which quickly…The post Austin Music Lovers, Your New Favorite Bar Is Hidden Away in a Former Storage Room appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Like so many strange developments over the past several years, it started with a tweet. In February, as brands, filmmakers, musicians, tech companies, and others began announcing their plans to visit Austin in March for SXSW, one surprising organization chimed in: “We’re flying south to SXSW!” proclaimed the Central Intelligence Agency’s Twitter account. The tweet featured an image of birds flying past a colorful horizon, debuted the hashtag #CIASXSW, and hinted at what the agency would get up to at the festival. We're flying south to SXSW!SXSW attendees – come see us at the Creative Industries Expo and make time to attend #CIA's Spies Supercharged panel. #SXSW2023 #CIASXSW #SXSW— CIA (@CIA) February 21, 2023 The post immediately went viral (it’s now been viewed more than…The post What Is the CIA Doing at SXSW? appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Fried pies have always been a part of Shelia Parker’s life. Her mother and grandmother made them for nearly every special occasion and community potluck. Now Shelia uses the same secret recipe at Farmhouse Fried Pies, where sweet smells waft from a counter at the back of the Mineola Mercantile. See more in the latest dispatch from Texas Country Reporter.The post Farmhouse Fried Pies: Easily Overlooked, but Not to Be Missed appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Janine Nabers doesn’t have a Twitter account (“I am a little scared of Twitter”) but she says Donald Glover, who “lives on Twitter,” saw a tweet that inspired their newest show. “There was a Black woman that he follows on Twitter who he just loves her tweets, and she was like, ‘Why does every Black woman on TV have to be a therapist or a funny best friend or someone looking for love or a teacher? We can be crazy; we can be serial killers too.’ And the rest is Swarm.”When Glover pitched Nabers on a show about a Black woman obsessed with a pop star, she knew it needed to start in Houston. Nabers, a Houston native now based in LA, was working with…The post In ‘Swarm,’ the Beyhive Is Out for (Literal) Blood appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Who would school vouchers really benefit?Governor Greg Abbott is helping to answer that question, not so much through his rhetoric, which is relentlessly on-message (“educational freedom,” “parental rights,” “school choice”) as through his actions. Over the last few months, the governor has been taking his case for school vouchers on the road, traveling around the state to talk up the benefits of education savings accounts, the wonky name for a program that would offer taxpayer dollars to parents who enroll their kids in private schools. But it’s impossible not to notice that Abbott has only visited expensive private Christian institutions—all Protestant—in front of friendly audiences of parents who have opted out of public education. Of the seven schools the governor has visited on his “Parent Empowerment…The post Preaching to the Choir: Greg Abbott Tours Private Christian Schools (Exclusively) to Make the Case for Vouchers appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Flamin’ Hot Cheetos weren’t made with me in mind. I’m a white guy who was born in Indiana, and the creators of the red-powdered snack were more focused on consumers living in major metro areas who bought snacks at convenience stores and gas stations. A lot of other things are made for me—there was probably a photo of someone who looked like me under a sign that read “our target customer” in the facility where Cool Ranch Doritos were conceived—but a bag of Flamin’ Hot Cheetos isn’t on the list. Flamin’ Hot, Eva Longoria’s directorial debut, which premiered on Saturday at SXSW, wasn’t made with me in mind, either. The movie tells the story of Richard Montañez, a Frito-Lay janitor who invents the snack during his…The post Eva Longoria Is a Flamin’ Hot Movie Director appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Twenty years ago, Baylor’s decision to hire a little-known 32-year-old bundle of energy named Scott Drew to lead its men’s basketball program didn’t feel like the start of a Texas college hoops renaissance. These days, though, traces of the significance of that moment populate every corner of the 2023 NCAA tournament bracket.If Baylor could rise from the ashes of a horrific scandal to become one of the country’s best programs, and if that success could shine a positive light on the entire university, then why couldn’t other schools go get their own Scott Drews?“To me, it comes down to commitment,” Texas A&M athletic director Ross Bjork told me. “And it comes down to the right coaches. Coaches are the leaders. Coaches are the ones that…The post The Texas Versus Everybody Guide to March Madness appeared first on Texas Monthly.
The bill: SB 2431Filed by: Paul Bettencourt, District 7 (Houston)What it would do: The Texas Legislature created the Harris County Flood Control District (HCFCD) in 1937, in response to two catastrophic floods that hit Houston in 1929 and 1935. The Lege charged the district, which is governed by the Harris County Commissioners Court, with the “control, storing, preservation, and distribution of the storm and flood waters of the rivers and streams in Harris County”—no easy feat in a pancake-flat region with 2,500 miles of waterways. But what the Legislature gives, it can take away. Last Friday, Senator Bettencourt, who represents a section of northwest Harris County stretching from the Woodlands south to Houston’s wealthy Memorial neighborhood, introduced a bill that would rename the HCFCD the Gulf…The post Texas Lege Watch: A GOP Bill Would Put Greg Abbott in Charge of Houston Flood Control. What Could Go Wrong? appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Things We Missed, Numbers 44,390 and 44,391 Some things just shrink my mind. I finished your “Icons, Then and Now” issue [February 2023], and it’s most impressive, except for one problem that is perpetual with Texas Monthly: northeast Texas doesn’t exist! You could have at least put that the Oak Ridge Boys and Gene Watson have links to Paris. As well as Edie Brickell and Jay Hunter Morris. Today folks in northeast Texas are treated as if we are in Arkansas! We in Paris produce millions of diapers each month. We even have a highway to Canada! But you’d never know it south of here. Maybe northeast Texas ought to be the first region to split from the state. Those Oklahoma casinos that the Texas Legislature won’t allow…The post Roar of the Crowd: April 2023 appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Whether or not a picture is worth a thousand words, the right one can make a thousand words—or even ten thousand—a lot more interesting to read. That’s why, from its launch fifty years ago, Texas Monthly has published the work of the state’s best photographers, plus a few with Lone Star roots who have been drawn to New York City or Los Angeles and are glad to come home occasionally to shoot for us. Our database of freelance photojournalists numbers more than five hundred, who specialize in everything from interiors to the outdoors, food, and “funky light.” Claire Hogan, our photo editor, observes that “we know what areas each photographer specializes in and enjoys, but I also like to pitch them assignments that stretch them…The post The Creative Whiz Behind Our Award-Winning Photography appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Santiago Reyes was trying to impress a girl. The teenager told a young lady he could cook when he actually didn’t know how. Reyes’s brother took pity on the young man and introduced him to Chris Morrill, a chef and friend who could teach him some culinary skills. After a good chuckle, Morrill helped him out and encouraged Reyes to pursue a career in food. “Ever since then, we’ve just been cooking together,” Reyes says of Morrill, who is his business partner in Around the World Catering Services and their taqueria, Taco Shop, both based in El Paso.The catering company came first. It was established in 2009 and was doing so well neither Morrill nor Reyes considered opening a restaurant. Why would they, when the…The post Kangaroo in Your Taco? “Why Not?” Says This Adventurous El Paso Restaurant appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Annemarie Sullivan grew up gardening alongside her grandfather on her family’s land in Hooks, and before she finished high school she was already laying the groundwork for her future in farming. Soon she launched Sullifarm and Kitchen, which specializes in pasture-raised meats, regenerative practices, and farm-to-table dinner events. See more in the latest dispatch from Texas Country Reporter.The post Sullifarm and Kitchen Is an Upstart Regenerative Farm Taking Root in Texarkana appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Much of the public attention now focused on Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk, the Amarillo-based federal judge who is expected to soon outlaw mifepristone, the so-called abortion pill, has focused on the ways in which his political and religious beliefs have shaped his legal career. His fervent opposition to abortion arose as an issue during his confirmation hearings in 2019, as did his his staunch opposition to same-sex marriage and his previous statement that transgender Americans were “delusional.” He isn’t a fan of birth control either: in 2015, as deputy general counsel for a Plano-based nonprofit law firm called First Liberty Institute, Kacsmaryk argued in an amicus brief that pharmacies should be prevented from providing contraception. Kacsmaryk’s time on the bench has only reinforced the view that…The post How a Right-wing Law Firm Shaped the Judge Who Will Rule on the Abortion Pill appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Gather round, my friends, to hear true stories about the knights of the rectangular tables, the misshapen band of 31 adventurers we call the Texas Senate. Today we consider news from Charles Schwertner, Republican state senator from Georgetown, and King Dan Patrick, the benevolent ruler who inspires senators to feats both great and small, hand in hand with his ageless wizard (adviser Allen Blakemore). How does Patrick mete out justice to his sometimes wayward warriors—and what does it say about his plans?Consider the following tale. On Thursday Patrick, flanked by nine senators of both parties, held a press conference at the Capitol to tout a package of bills that he said would restructure the electricity market in Texas and prevent another failure of the electric…The post How Dan Patrick Made the Texas Senate in His Image appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Lewisville, at first glance, is a typical Texas suburb. Wedged in the northwest corner of the Dallas metroplex, the 113,000-person city encompasses a little triangle bordered by a six-lane state toll road and an interstate highway. A small downtown with shops and cafes surrounds the intersection of Church and Mill Streets. There are broad streets, ranch homes, and tidy cul-de-sacs. Until recently, almost every yard in sight was watered and trimmed to maintain a lush appearance. Like so many communities, Lewisville has been an ode to the American lawn: manicured and mowed green grass. That reputation may be changing soon. In recent months, Lewisville has begun taking steps to transform the city from a sprawling suburb to a wildlife haven. Starting in 2019, city workers began…The post How One Texas Town Is Rethinking the American Lawn appeared first on Texas Monthly.
It all started with a camper, but soon Ethan and Amanda Langley’s weekend hobby turned into a passionate business. Now, American RV Restoration attracts customers from across the U.S. and Canada. See more in the latest dispatch from Texas Country Reporter.The post A Longview Couple Brings Vintage RVs Back to Life appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Larry McMurtry was missing the good ol’ days. In the introduction to his 1968 book of essays, In a Narrow Grave, he lamented our state’s fraying image in the global imagination. The Kennedy assassination and Johnson administration had tarnished our reputation. “We aren’t thought of as quaintly vulgar anymore,” McMurtry wrote. “Some may find us dangerously vulgar,” he added, before twisting the knife, “but the majority just find us boring.”McMurtry needn’t have worried. If Texas was regarded as a tedious topic in the late sixties, it wouldn’t stay so for long. The next decade’s energy crisis was very good for domestic oil’s bottom line, and as we got richer, we got shinier. By the end of the seventies, Texans had so captured the country’s imagination…The post Why 1980 Was the Year Texas Went Worldwide appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Texas Monthly adds and updates approximately sixty restaurant listings to our Dining Guide each month. There’s limited space in the print issue, but the entire searchable guide to the best of Texas cuisine is at your fingertips online!Below are a few highlights from the new restaurants reviewed in our April 2023 issue. Click “More Info” for further detail on each restaurant:Fort WorthTannahill’s TavernÜber chef-restaurateur Tim Love has rolled out his sixth restaurant in the Stockyards district with generous sides of live music. His comfy Mule Alley “tavern and music hall” is decked out in red leather booths and serves both elevated bar food and serious entrées. We started with oysters grilled in their shells and crowned with a buttery garlic-parmesan spread; they were excellent piled…The post Fondue and Chicharrones, “Pear Snow,” and Wood-Grilled Prawns: What Our Restaurant Critics Ate This Month appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Tom Craddick has served in the Texas House of Representatives since before the first man walked on the moon. At 54 years in office and counting, he is the longest-serving state lawmaker in the United States. For one of every three days the House has been in session since statehood, Craddick has been a member. He represents Midland, the pumping heart of the Permian Basin—the largest oil basin in the country and one of the largest in the world. So it should come as no surprise that for most of the past half century, Craddick has sat on the Energy Resources Committee, which oversees the misleadingly named Railroad Commission of Texas, the powerful body that has nothing to do with railroads but instead regulates the state’s oil…The post The Craddicks’ Gushers of Cash: How a Powerful Texas Lawmaker and a Key Regulator Profit From the Industry They Oversee appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Q: I recently came across a newspaper article about personalized Texas license plates that listed some examples of ones that were rejected by the powers that be, and I have to say I was a little confused. What’s wrong with “BBQ*GNG” or “EAT@TACO”? And who decides what gets approvedand what doesn’t?Puzzled in Port ArthurA: Is there anything better than motoring along a winding ribbon of beautiful back-road blacktop, the windows rolled down, the fresh country air blowing freely through the cabin while the dulcet tones of, say, Willie Nelson’s “On the Road Again” provide a perfect soundtrack to an afternoon’s carefree meanderings? The Texanist—a man of some worldliness, mind you—thinks not. Much to the good fortune of all kings and queens of the Texas road, the…The post The Texanist: What Makes a Vanity License Plate Offensive? appeared first on Texas Monthly.
After the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in the summer of 2022, a “trigger” law banning almost all abortions in Texas went into effect. Currently, Texas allows abortion only in the case of a life-threatening medical emergency for the patient. But that hasn’t stopped GOP lawmakers in the state from proposing further restrictions. Friday marked the end of the 88th legislative session’s filing period, during which lawmakers could propose bills for debate in the once-every-two-years convening of the body. Republican lawmakers have introduced bills in the House and Senate that would restrict abortion in eighteen different ways. Some of these bills appear unlikely to advance, filed by lawmakers without much sway in the Capitol. Others, which would also affect issues identified as priorities by state…The post Tracking All the Ways Texas Republicans Are Trying to Further Restrict Abortion appeared first on Texas Monthly.
About four miles east of Crosbyton is a safety rest area that is more like a state park than anything else. Nestled among sandstone boulders and tall cottonwood trees, Silver Falls Park has long been a popular swimming hole and gathering spot where generations of Texas have learned to swim, stolen their first kisses, and celebrated family reunions. In 2004, it underwent a renovation from the Texas Department of Transportation, and it’s now the largest rest area in the state. While many will pass through for a quick restroom break, travelers often return to reminisce about things that took place at Silver Falls.The post This Texas Panhandle Rest Area Is an Unassuming Nature Haven for Highway Travelers appeared first on Texas Monthly.
There were many ways to die underground during the Ice Age in Central Texas. Sinkholes in the karst hills, slick-sided and treacherous, swallowed unwary animals. Saber-toothed cats dragged their prey back to underground dens, leaving behind generations of bones, including those of the cats themselves, lying beside their victims in the dark. Treacherous paths in the depths, far from the sun, waited for those with the urge to explore. In 1960, that animal urge to slip underground led Orion Knox Jr. and three other St. Mary’s University students—all avid cavers—to go looking for caves. With the owners’ permission, they explored the Wuest family ranch in Comal County, 25 miles north of San Antonio. There the group discovered a passage at the bottom of a sinkhole, under…The post The Hunt for Wildcat Fossils in Central Texas appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Talk with any mycologist these days—really, anyone who’s obsessed with fungi—and it won’t take long to arrive at the subject of the zombie apocalypse. You can thank The Last of Us for that. In the hit HBO show, a zombie fungus based on Cordyceps infects the majority of the human race, and chaos ensues. The premise takes inspiration from the very real-life effects of entomopathogenic fungi, like Ophiocordyceps unilateralis, which corkscrews parasitic threads into an ant’s brain, hijacking and puppeting its body until it reaches the perfect spot (maybe you saw this harrowing moment on the BBC’s Planet Earth) to spew spores into the wind. Obviously, fungi can be terrifying. They are the gods of the underground, responsible for one of the largest living organisms on the…The post Where to Try Cordyceps, the Star of ‘The Last of Us,’ in Texas appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Beside a horseshoe bend in the Colorado River where ospreys and egrets hunt for fish, a few miles northeast of Austin’s airport, the largest factory in the world stretches the equivalent of fifteen city blocks. One sweltering afternoon last August, a couple of hundred men and women scurried from their cars—nearly all Teslas—into the building’s cool interior. There, a makeshift bar served cocktails, including the Plaid Libation, a tequila, Red Bull, and orange juice concoction that took its name from a $115,000 Tesla model that can accelerate from a dead stop to 60 miles per hour in two seconds.Eventually the crowd made its way past industrial artworks—including a partially assembled Tesla sedan hanging from the ceiling on steel cables—to the rows of white folding chairs…The post Elon Musk Came to Texas to End the Oil Age appeared first on Texas Monthly.
For thirteen tense days in 1962, a corner of West Texas was in the cross hairs of the Cold War. Just below the earth, a giant missile silo under the command of Dyess Air Force Base was just an order away from becoming ground zero for nuclear war during the Cuban Missile Crisis. Today, current property owner Larry Sanders gives tours and is working to preserve the legacy of the historic site and the military personnel who worked there.The post Meet the Caretaker of This Cold War Relic Located 200 Feet Underground appeared first on Texas Monthly.
On paper, one of the most important functions of the Texas Legislature is to provide oversight of state agencies and to hold wrongdoers and incompetents accountable. In practice, state lawmakers do much less of that sort of thing than you’d like. When they choose to intervene, and when they don’t, is often very telling.Take the case of Texas attorney general Ken Paxton, who is in hot water at the Legislature—well, lukewarm water, at least. Paxton has exhibited an almost reptilian ability to slither out of his many scrapes with the law, ethical impropriety, and marital troubles—including by avoiding a felony fraud trial for nearly eight years and by fleeing his home to avoid being served with a subpoena. Now he’s getting some gentle pushback in…The post Don’t Be Fooled by the Legislature’s Tough Talk About Ken Paxton appeared first on Texas Monthly.
The residents of Nazareth have long dealt with droughts. The Panhandle hamlet was founded in 1902 by four farming families and a German priest, and for the three hundred or so Texans who now call the town home, “drought” might have been the local term to describe the past few years’ swoon for Nazareth High School’s proud girls basketball program. Though it’s hard to believe anyone else in the state would have called it that.In 2022, the Nazareth Swiftettes failed to reach the University Interscholastic League class 1A state semifinals for the first time in a decade, falling two games short. With that, the number of consecutive seasons the team had gone without bringing a state championship trophy back to the school gym extended to—gasp—two.Well,…The post This Panhandle School Is the Tiniest Girls Basketball Powerhouse in Texas appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Change—in the form of more dining, shopping, and hotel options—has come to the small town of Comfort, which boasts one of the best-preservedhistoric districts in the state. But its unincorporated status remains sacred to many of the three thousand or so residents; it’s a direct link to the German Freethinkers, stout advocates for the separation of church and state, who in the 1840s began settling here, about fifty miles northwest of San Antonio. “People ask us all the time if we want to be like Fredericksburg or Boerne,” one local told me. “And it’s not just no, it’s a hell, no.” Some businesses are ready for Comfort to become more of a destination, but they want to do it their way. Last year, the new…The post Comfort Is the Hill Country’s Best-kept Secret appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Two unaccompanied goats that wandered into a Target store in Spring were removed without incident. Customers of an Austin coffee shop lined up for cups of award-winning Panamanian Black Jaguar joe that cost $150 each. A 24-year-old man who was arrested for stealing two emperor tamarin monkeys from the Dallas Zoo—making his getaway via the city’s light-rail system—said he loved animals and, once he was freed, would steal more. A man who had been asleep in a van in San Antonio accidentally shot himself in the leg when he was startled awake. A creepy-looking fish that washed up on the beach near Port Bolivar turned out to be a stippled spoon-nose eel, a.k.a. a snapper eel, a.k.a. Echiophis punctifer, normally a denizen of the Atlantic…The post Meanwhile, in Texas: Two Goats Made a Target Run in Spring appeared first on Texas Monthly.
I’m not sure if my colleague Dan Solomon inspired me or shamed me recently when he wrote a story about vegan convenience foods. He went vegan for a week without eating vegetables, at least not in their whole forms. I figured if he could do it for a whole week, I could at least try it for a meal. Back when Solomon was researching the article, he and I talked about Barvecue, which makes a soy–and–sweet potato protein product meant to mimic pulled pork. I’d seen it before in the freezer section at the grocery store, but I ignored it because it was made in North Carolina—and because it’s a soy–and–sweet potato protein product. But on my last trip to Central Market, I saw a…The post Vegan Brisket and Pulled Pork Can Be (Somewhat) Redeemed by Putting Them in Sandwiches appeared first on Texas Monthly.
In those first chaotic hours after Chris Beard’s arrest on December 12, the man tapped to take over the University of Texas men’s basketball program gathered a group of anxious players before that night’s scheduled game against Rice. Three months later, it seems clear that interim head coach Rodney Terry’s calm and confidence in that first meeting went a long way toward keeping one of the country’s best teams and a legitimate national champion contender together.“Control what you can control,” Terry told the Longhorns that day. “In life you’re going to always have to adapt and adjust. Nobody controls your own destiny but you.” He’d just learned he would be the interim head coach as the school investigated the circumstances leading to Beard’s arrest for…The post How Rodney Terry and Texas Basketball Saved Their Season appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Last summer, I visited my parents back home in San Angelo. Every time I walk through their door, I’m hit with the huge amount of snacks and knickknacks my mom has gathered for my arrival. But on this trip, what I really wanted wasn’t Cheetos Puffs or IPSY bags. It was under the bathroom sink and had been collecting dust for more than five years.I headed to my mother’s bathroom, where I’d watched her get ready for work, spray-paint her hair green for a makeshift haunted house, and burn her fingertips off with the latest straightening tools. I opened the bottom drawer and found them: her purple and gray hot rollers. The main goal of a true Texas blowout is volume—almost too much of it—and I…The post Which Everyday Household Items Will Give You the Best Texas Curls? An Investigation. appeared first on Texas Monthly.
“I was definitely a restaurant brat,” said David Cordúa. The Houston chef laughed at the memory of his long-ago childhood routine. “After school every day, my two sisters and I would go to my father’s restaurant,” he said, “and the cooks would make us something to eat. We loved the grilled chicken with sherry cream sauce. After that we’d sit at the bar and do our homework.” The time was the late nineties, and the place was the tremendously popular Churrascos, which had been opened by his dad, Nicaraguan-born chef Michael Cordúa, in 1988. It was a classy early example of the Nuevo Latino concept that took hold in the U.S. in the mid-nineties, and Michael would go on to add two more restaurants to his…The post Chef David Cordúa Keeps the Home Fires Burning appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Willie Nelson was struggling in Nashville when, in the early sixties, Harlan Howard, a hotshot songwriter at the time, took a shine to him and convinced Pamper Music, where Howard worked, to hire the fresh-faced Texan as a songwriter. Six decades later, Willie, with the help of longtime producer Buddy Cannon, pays tribute to Howard, who died in 2002, with a new album on which he covers ten songs written by his late friend. (It’s Willie’s 150th album, by our count, and his 71st best, by our estimation.) The lead track is a tight rendition of 1964’s rollicking “I’ve Got a Tiger by the Tail,” which Howard cowrote with Sherman-born Buck Owens, who performed it with his band, the Buckaroos, and made it a hit,…The post Willie Nelson’s Faithful Rendition of a Harlan Howard Classic appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Burnet has a hard time holding onto its barbecue joints. Even the ones that have enjoyed accolades in the small town northwest of Austin have gone by the wayside. Burnet County Barbeque was in our Top 50 BBQ list in 1997 and 2003. It was replaced by Payne’s Bar-B-Q Shak, which made our 2017 list, but the Paynes retired and closed the place last year. A long while back, I enjoyed meals at Post Mountain BBQ and Burnet County Feed Store, and appreciated the strange tiki atmosphere at Bird’s BBQ. They’re all gone, but there’s a new joint in town that might have some staying power.Danny Lester and his business partner, Jonny Simons, opened Warehouse BBQ and Meetery in an old Coca-Cola warehouse in October…The post This Small Central Texas Town Needs a Barbecue Joint That’ll Stick Around appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Angelica Castillo hasn’t eaten lunch. It’s a humid 84 degrees outside, but she’s also stopped drinking water. “It affects me,” she says. “I’ll, like, burp it.”The 45-year-old special-education assistant has shown up to Brownsville’s Washington Park, at the tip of South Texas, for an annual contest in which men and women vie to deliver the best grito, a traditional Mexican yell. Held at Brownsville’s Sombrero Festival (a weekend celebration launched in 1986 to complement the city’s week-long Charro Days), the grito contest is a departure from the generic attractions that blanket the strawlike grass on this recent Saturday: a corn dog stand, a kiddie carnival ride, someone dancing in a Chick-fil-A cow suit. There’s a stifling layer of cloud cover, and a slight breeze ruffles…The post At Brownsville’s Annual Grito Contest, It’s All About Yelling Your Heart Out appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Cathy McMullen became a fracking refugee in 2009. The part-time home health-care nurse had been living on an eleven-acre spread near Decatur, forty minutes north of Fort Worth, where she fostered rescue dogs and tended a peach and plum orchard. Her rural idyll was shattered in 2008 when a company called Aruba Petroleum began drilling a natural gas well about two thousand feet from her property. The fracking boom was going strong, and McMullen’s land sat atop the Barnett Shale, a five-thousand-square-mile geological formation stretching across North Texas. At one point, McMullen counted 82 trucks lined up outside her home, loaded with water, sand, and fracking chemicals. McMullen didn’t own the mineral rights to her land, which meant she couldn’t stop Aruba from drilling. She received…The post How the Texas GOP Became the Party of Big Government appeared first on Texas Monthly.
The walls of Mango Deli in Houston’s Energy Corridor are adorned with affirmations like “I am worthy,” “Do your best,” and “Keep smiling, dream big.” One wall is covered in faux greenery with the neon sign “humble hustle” hanging near the top. (In fact, the word hustle appears several times across the one-room cafe.) The phrase is the foundation of LaToya Larkin’s efforts. The 41-year-old owns Mango Deli, a cafe offering sandwiches and soups to surrounding office workers. It’s also the base of operations for Black Girl Tamales, her three-year-old commercial enterprise specializing in soul food tamales. As far as “hustles” go, Larkin has many. In addition to running Mango Deli and Black Girl Tamales, the classically trained chef caters through her Not Enough Thyme…The post This Tamale Company Infuses Its Popular Dish With Soul Food Flavors appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Texas might have a lower percentage of public land than almost any other state, but the variety of its options—from the coast to the canyons—is staggering. In honor of the centennial of the Texas State Parks system, Texas Monthly staffers chose their favorite parks for everything from vigorous hikes to gentle sea breezes. Read Next: Empire, Wide and Glorious Best SnorkelingBalmorhea State Park, ToyahvaleOne of the world’s largest spring-fed swimming pools, Balmorhea offers a swimming experience that might feel more like Caribbean than Texan, with schools of fish swaying and turtles paddling in the gin-clear water. Just brace yourself for the brisk temperature, which hovers between 72 and 76 degrees. Best BirdingBentsen–Rio Grande Valley State Park, MissionArguably among the top birding destinations on the planet, this pocket…The post There’s a State Park for That! appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Forty-six enamel pins adorn a canvas banner hanging on my bedroom wall. Collected over a decade of camping and hiking trips, each one evokes a small but powerful memory. When I look at the red leaf that represents Lost Maples State Natural Area, I can smell cinnamon buns baking in a Dutch oven nestled in campfire coals on a chilly Hill Country morning. A grinning skeleton in an inner tube takes me back to a lazy summer day floating the Frio River at Garner State Park, not far from Lost Maples. There’s a pin depicting Enchanted Rock State Natural Area, in Fredericksburg, where my flashlight beam caught a glimpse of a ringtail cat. The image of a shorebird reminds me of shrimping in the bay…The post Empire, Wide and Glorious appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Texas Monthly is excited to announce the addition of two assistant editors over the past few weeks. Kristen Steenbeeke and Arman Badrei have joined the editorial staff as copyeditor and fact checker to aid in the production of Texas Monthly’s primary export: great stories about the great state of Texas.Kristen Steenbeeke lived in Sugar Land, Texas, as a kid, but spent a large portion of her life in Washington state. There, she attended college and earned a BA in creative writing at the University of Washington. After attending the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and earning an MFA in poetry, Kristen returned to Texas—this time to Austin. She was most recently the managing editor at MissionWired, leading a team of editors to copyedit and do quality assurance…The post Two Assistant Editors Join the Texas Monthly Staff appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Nagging chest pain sent Claudia Hopper, then a junior at Texas State University in San Marcos, to the doctor. Nine years earlier, in 1992, Hopper had survived thyroid cancer, so she knew to pay attention to her health. For the better part of a year, doctors assured the 21-year-old that there was nothing to worry about—that the swelling on an MRI scan of her chest was just inflammation. They were wrong. She was finally diagnosed in 2002 with a rare type of sarcoma, an orange-sized tumor that had grown on her sternum, likely a result of radiation exposure during her previous cancer treatment. In a moment, her life changed from that of a carefree college kid to a full-time patient. Hopper withdrew from her classes,…The post The Fight for Fertility Preservation for Cancer Patients in Texas appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Stephen, a Houston restaurant manager who is profiled in Ricardo Nuila’s new book, The People’s Hospital: Hope and Peril in American Medicine (Scribner), has health insurance when he learns that cancer has invaded his tonsils. But, like so many Americans, he discovers only after getting sick that his bargain-basement policy won’t pay for the care he needs. The ER at a local hospital charges him $639 for his diagnosis, and then a social worker advises him to do the unthinkable: go to Ben Taub, the city’s public hospital. “This is gonna be hell,” he thinks. “I have hit bottom.” Stephen is in for a surprise. Even after he loses his insurance altogether, he receives affordable, state-of-the-art care at Ben Taub. Scaffolded by stories like Stephen’s,…The post Texas’s “Safety Net Hospitals” Are Better Than You Think appeared first on Texas Monthly.
You have no idea how many things must go right to produce a great profile—in this case, Texas Monthly‘s August 2021 cover story on Fort Worth–born R&B singer Leon Bridges. First, the writer has to stay alive. I almost screwed that up. I’d arrived in Los Angeles on a Friday afternoon, boyfriend at my side, and had immediately taken advantage of the gift of legal drugs. Drug-laced chewy treats, to be exact. I knew my history. But I’d been cooped up all pandemic, you know, so my boy and I drove right to Abbot Kinney, right to MedMen, walked right to the chewy treats, started chomping them en route to dinner—and before I took my first bite of some awful vegan nacho dish, I knew I’d gone…The post The Stars Aligned for This Writer’s Classic Portrait of Leon Bridges appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Joe Warner manned the office’s patio grill on a drizzly morning in November, flipping burgers for the sixteen new employees who’d soon break for lunch after their first few hours of corporate orientation. A managing editor for Community Impact, a chain of local newspapers headquartered in Pflugerville, outside Austin, Warner, with his fellow editors, was about to receive an infusion of talent for a team of about sixty journalists who cover several dozen towns and neighborhoods in and around Texas’s four largest cities. In defiance of almost every trend in print media in recent decades, Community Impact is expanding. Once a month, in fact, Warner, a 34-year newspaper veteran, fires up the grill for a new batch of “Impacters.” This time around, thirteen were hired…The post How Community Impact Built an Oasis in the News Desert appeared first on Texas Monthly.
In the movies of old, when everything was black and white, Texas was the playground of heroes. It made sense that “the Texan” was such a stolid archetype of the silent film era, because the Texans didn’t have much to say, or any real need to say it. They were the strong, capable cowboys who patrolled the lonesome scrub, relied upon to shoot the bandit and rescue the most vulnerable nearby woman without making a big fuss about it. Their dance cards didn’t leave much room for inner lives. Most of those guys—and they were always guys—didn’t even have names. Often, they were just called Tex.The earliest Texas movies were a lot of fun, but they were mostly filler. They weren’t exactly going to win…The post When Texas Took Over the Oscars appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Texas Republicans have gotten more and more creative in imagining the dangers transgender folks pose to the state. Last legislative session, Senator Charles Perry of Lubbock argued they were endangering girls high school sports, despite his not being able to identify a single instance of a transgender athlete participating in a Texas school athletic competition. Last week, U.S. senator Ted Cruz raised worries about “transgender witch” pilots crashing planes. And now, a right-wing lawmaker has conjured a new threat: transgender kids in juvenile detention. Read Next: What’s Driving the Texas Right’s Campaign Against Transgender Youth and Their Parents On Thursday, Valoree Swanson, a Republican from the northern Houston suburbs, filed H.B. 3213, which would require juvenile detention centers to detain and house inmates based on…The post The Texas Right’s Newest Target: Transgender Juvenile Offenders appeared first on Texas Monthly.
The Wittliff Collections, at Texas State University, opened its newest exhibit last month—and its contents may look familiar. “Behind the Lines: The Art of Texas Monthly” will give visitors a behind-the-scenes look at the work that the Texas Monthly art department has created over the past half century. From original artworks to archival photographs, the exhibition aims to celebrate five decades of storytelling in the Lone Star State.The Wittliff—which includes the Southwestern Writers Collection—has been home to the Texas Monthly archives since March of 1994—making this collection of TM artifacts the most extensive in the magazine’s fifty-year history. The name of the exhibit, “Behind the Lines,” references a former editor’s column that aimed to give readers a look behind the curtain and into the editorial…The post Behind the Lines: The Art of Texas Monthly appeared first on Texas Monthly.
At least Mark Adams didn’t quote any Old Testament verses dealing with child sacrifice. That could have made things really awkward for the Texas Tech men’s basketball coach—especially with his son, Luke, on his staff. Then again, it might not be possible for the Red Raiders’ imploding season to reach a more bizarre and disappointing low than its current position.On Sunday, in an announcement that was as blunt as it was stunning, Texas Tech athletics director Kirby Hocutt suspended Adams after learning of the coach’s unforgivable comments during an interaction with a player last week. Adams, the release said, had attempted to motivate the player by quoting scriptures that referenced “workers, teachers, parents, and slaves serving their masters.”Those words, the release said, were “inappropriate, unacceptable,…The post Mark Adams’s Unforgivable Comments Wrap Up Tech’s Nightmare Season appeared first on Texas Monthly.
As I stood alone in Christy Carlson Romano’s West Austin living room, waiting for her to come downstairs, I had one question on my mind: Would she be wearing her eyelashes? The 39-year-old Disney star turned nostalgia influencer often dons falsies when shooting for her various social media accounts, and in some Youtube and TikTok videos, her fake lashes are so thick that she seems barely able to open her eyes. But there was no videography on the day’s schedule. It was a normal Wednesday afternoon, on which Romano’s husband, Brendan Rooney, was holed up in the couple’s home office and her two young daughters, Izzy and Sophia, were on their way to the library with the family’s beloved nanny, Gemma, the tall, fashionable woman…The post How Christy Carlson Romano Lost Her Disney Money and Founded an Empire appeared first on Texas Monthly.
A real home: that’s what Alexis Roberts wanted for her children. Her four young boys talked about it often, their hopes never dimming, even as the prospect eluded them time and again. “When we get our own place . . . ” is how their daydreams often began. A home implied all sorts of possibilities: a closet to store football gear, a spot to put up their own Christmas tree, a puppy.For years Roberts and her kids cycled in and out of homelessness in Dallas. They bunked in several shelters, once hunkered down in an abandoned house, and spent a few stretches in pay-by-the-week motels. She lost count of how many social service agencies she’d visited, trying to do better for her kids. She hit bottom on…The post The Problem With Low-Performing Schools? It Isn’t Just the Schools appeared first on Texas Monthly.
When Patricia Cox was a young girl, she would walk from her family’s home in the historic Tenth Street neighborhood of Dallas to Show Hill, a shopping center nearby that featured a laundromat, a barbecue joint, and the only movie house in Oak Cliff that Black folks could patronize at the time. On the floors above the cinema was a hotel that welcomed many famous Black entertainers. “I remember seeing Sammy Davis Jr. and Ike and Tina Turner,” Cox recalled recently, at age eighty. “I would be with my dad, who was a bartender at the Dallas Athletic Club, and he would say, ‘Honey, that’s so-and-so!’ ”Just south of the Trinity River floodplain, the Tenth Street community originated after the Civil War as a freedmen’s town…The post Can a Park Stitch Oak Cliff Back Together? appeared first on Texas Monthly.
In 2020, when I first interviewed Jonathan Majors, he was on the cusp of making it big as an actor and becoming a household name. With a few pivotal projects under his belt and more already lined up, I wanted to know how the Cedar Hill–raised actor decided which roles were right for him. “I look for what responsibility the character has in telling the story,” Majors said at the time. “If you remove the role from the story, can you still tell the story properly? And if the answer is no, then I’m interested.” Even then, his policy was no small roles. Now, over the span of two weeks, he’s in two A-list projects that will solidify his arrival as a full-fledged movie star.As…The post Jonathan Majors Has Arrived appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Four years ago, I wrote that the best barbecue chain in Texas was True Texas BBQ. At the time, there were ten locations, all housed within H-E-B stores and with drive-throughs. Since then, the grocer has added thirteen new locations. When H-E-B opened its first outposts in the DFW area last year—in Frisco and Plano—I was excited to get up there from my home in Dallas to try them. I thought I’d write an easy article letting my North Texas neighbors know they were much closer to some incredibly convenient, relatively inexpensive, and impressive smoked brisket. But that’s not going to happen.My first visit to the Frisco location was last September, the day before its grand opening. Just like every other True Texas BBQ I’ve…The post H-E-B’s True Texas BBQ Restaurant Is Slipping appeared first on Texas Monthly.
A neighborhood in the North Texas town of Prosper had an unusual visitor earlier this month: a male kangaroo named Jax escaped from a nearby backyard, where he had been raised as a pet. Jax’s owner had to coax him back home with a bottle of milk. Less than a week later, another pet kangaroo named Nigel escaped his backyard home in Granbury and went on the lam for two days before hopping home. These are just the latest in a slew of kangaroo escapes across the state over the last few years, including in Mercedes, San Marcos, and Lumberton.All of which, honestly, raises the question: You can keep a kangaroo as a pet in Texas? And how many are there, anyway?The answer is yes…The post What’s Up With All the Kangaroos on the Loose in Texas? appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Even hard-core Willie nerds sometimes forget that his spear-tip position in the mid-seventies’ outlaw movement was actually the second time he revolutionized country music. The first came at the dawn of the sixties, when he signed a publishing deal with Ray Price’s Pamper Music company, joining a writing staff that included fellow young-gun composers Harlan Howard and Hank Cochran, both of whom were also recent Nashville transplants. Read Next: See Where Willie’s 150th Album Ranks Against the Other 149 The three wrote songs that were more sophisticated, both melodically and lyrically, than what had come before—and, arguably, just better—as evinced by Patsy Cline’s two massive pop-crossover hits in 1961, Harlan and Hank’s “I Fall to Pieces” and Willie’s “Crazy.” Those tunes, brought to life by…The post Willie Nelson’s New Album—His 150th—Honors Another Country Legend appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Ben and Sarah Lambert are happy to have left their food truck behind. Last year, they moved their JNL BBQ to Upscale Market on East Cesar Chavez in Austin. The Lamberts serve from a counter inside the little store that is lined with refrigerated coolers full of drinks. (Draft beers will be available soon.) If you visited La Barbecue’s old location, it’ll look familiar—but the building was called Quickie Pickie back then. La Barbecue left when it opened its new location two years ago. JNL came into the space after a vegan restaurant moved out last year, marking the second time the Lamberts’ smoked meats have replaced a vegan concept. When they first opened at Buzz Mill back in 2020, they parked their barbecue truck…The post You’ll Find a Smoked BLT, Pastrami Burger, and Big Red Cheesecake at This Austin BBQ Joint’s New Location appeared first on Texas Monthly.
When Jairon Abraham Cruz left Cuba in early January, he had already spent years looking north toward the United States, telling his mother about his dreams of living in Florida, where his grandmother already resided. In October, the seventeen-year-old had posted a photo of himself on Facebook dancing with an American flag, the Havana skyline silhouetted in the sunset behind him. He hoped to become a dance influencer on YouTube and TikTok in the states. Then, around New Year’s Day, as Cuba had slipped into a historic economic crisis and the government cracked down on protesters, Cruz’s mother and her husband decided it was finally time for them, Cruz, and their daughter to leave. When the family’s journey to the U.S. began, it felt to…The post Fleeing for Your Life? There’s An App for That. appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Jesse Gilbert, CEO of the Texas State Aquarium, in Corpus Christi, hands me a hard hat as we walk toward a massive building in its final stages of construction. To our right, palm trees sway in the wind and sunlight glints off the expansive glass ceiling of the Texas State Aquarium, where visitors encounter more than 250 species of fish, reptiles, mammals, birds, and invertebrates from the Gulf and the Caribbean. “We’re the biggest aquarium in Texas,” Gilbert says. “And now what’s really incredible is you’ve got the leading coastal-wildlife rescue program in the country.”Open to the public today, the aquarium’s new Port of Corpus Christi Center for Wildlife Rescue is a 26,000-square-foot, state-of-the-art hospital for marine mammals and sea turtles. While the aquarium requires…The post Texas’s Biggest Coastal Wildlife Rescue Center Is Now Open in Corpus Christi appeared first on Texas Monthly.
How do you say goodbye to a state park? On Monday, which was most likely Fairfield Lake State Park’s last day open to the public, hundreds of visitors poured into the 1,420-acre green space to experience the place for one last time—or for the first. Some hiked the forested, lakeside nature trails in the park, which is about a hundred miles southeast of Dallas. Others tried to catch their limit in the 2,400-acre lake, one of the hottest bass lakes in the state. Some grieved. Some raged. Some still couldn’t quite wrap their heads around how the state could allow one of its 89 parks to shutter at a time when more public land is direly needed. But by 10 p.m., when the gates closed,…The post Saying Goodbye to Fairfield Lake State Park appeared first on Texas Monthly.
On a cold Saturday in February, a black Chevy began hitting donuts on a busy intersection just south of the river near downtown Austin, at Barton Springs Road and South Lamar. Other cars joined in, and puffs of burnt rubber filled the intersection as if from a fog machine. A huge throng of onlookers gathered, and some of them threw fireworks right in the middle of the scrum. The crowd got rowdy when police tried to break it up: at first, some refused to disperse and threw fireworks and rocks at cop cars. At least two cruisers’ windows got broken, and Austin Police Department reported that one officer, hit by a thrown object, was hospitalized briefly before being released that same night. By the end of…The post Cars Spun Donuts in Austin, And Greg Abbott Got Furious, Fast appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Eva Ybarra, better known as the “Queen of the Accordion,” has been performing conjunto music with her beloved accordion for the past seventy-plus years. Hailing from San Antonio, Ybarra discovered her love for the accordion at the young age of four. Today she has made a name for herself in the male-dominated world of conjunto music by performing all over the nation, and she was most recently inducted into the American Accordion Hall of Fame.The post Eva Ybarra, the “Queen of the Accordion,” Reflects on Her Long Career appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Just when you probably thought you’d seen conference realignment give us the craziest, most illogical dance partners imaginable, there’s word that Southern Methodist University may be headed for membership in the once august Pac-12 Conference.You may be thinking that SMU joining a West Coast conference with Stanford, Oregon, and Washington makes no sense. SMU has called Dallas home for the last 112 years and was a proud member of the Southwest Conference for 78 years, right up until the conference’s 1996 demise.What’s next? Rutgers joining the Big Ten? Central Florida in the Big 12? Whoops, Rutgers has been a member of the Big Ten since 2014, and Central Florida will join the Big 12 this summer. Welcome to the world of college sports realignment, where…The post Can College Sports Get More Absurd Than SMU Joining the Pac-12? appeared first on Texas Monthly.
The street address of the Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine is a suite in a glossy office building tinted to reflect its surroundings. The building sits on the corner of South Taylor Street and Fifth Avenue in downtown Amarillo, mirroring the U.S. courthouse directly across the intersection that contains the chambers of federal judge Matthew Kacsmaryk. The AHM, which incorporated as a nonprofit organization in Texas last August, with a registered agent in Amarillo, is the lead plaintiff in a civil lawsuit moving through Kacsmaryk’s court that could outlaw the nation’s most common method of abortion, even in states whose legislatures have kept the procedure legal.The complaint, filed in November, alleges that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration did not follow proper procedure when it approved mifepristone—the first…The post A Federal Judge in Amarillo Could Effectively Ban the Abortion Pill. Why Does He Get to Make That Call? appeared first on Texas Monthly.
You’ve had all month to read the latest issue of Texas Monthly. Take this monthly quiz and we’ll tell you how you stack up at the end.And if you got this quiz from a friend: Hello! We hope you enjoy it. If you do: become a subscriber today, and we’ll send next month’s quiz directly to your inbox.The post February 2023 Reader Quiz: What Did You Learn? appeared first on Texas Monthly.
One woman hid her daughter’s pink hair tie inside her sports bra. Others kept floral-print postage stamps they’d torn off letters from home and glitter shaken from greeting cards. For many incarcerated women, these little stashes of fuchsia, silver, or yellow are against the rules, but worth the potential risk.There are issues more pressing than greeting cards and glitter inside our prisons, such as the struggle to survive stifling Texas summers without air-conditioning or the fact that inmate deaths by suicide in the state continue to climb. Tiny pops of color that might be taken for granted on the outside, such as wildflower postage stamps, may seem frivolous, but they can pull someone out of a low moment or remind them to keep putting one…The post Incarcerated and in Search of Color appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Ten years after her historic filibuster, former state Sen. Wendy Davis will be returning to the Texas Capitol in a new role: senior adviser to Planned Parenthood Texas Votes.She joins the group’s political fundraising and advocacy arm at a low point for reproductive rights in Texas. Abortion access has been obliterated in Texas and many of the surrounding states. Abortion funds have stopped financially supporting people who travel out of state to have the procedure, fearing prosecution. After moving Planned Parenthood out of the Medicaid program, Texas is now trying to sue the clinics out of existence.And while other states saw electoral backlash to aggressive abortion bans, Republicans in Texas swept to easy victories across the board.After two high-profile defeats at the ballot box herself,…The post Wendy Davis Returns to the Texas Capitol and a Whole New Political Landscape appeared first on Texas Monthly.
In 1856, Hadji Ali—one of the first documented immigrants from the Middle East to the United States—was recruited by American soldiers and brought to Indianola, along the coast between Galveston and Corpus Christi, to lead a herd of camels along the unforgiving trails of the West. He traveled alongside Navy Lieutenant Edward Beale through New Mexico to California, as part of a project dubbed the United States Camel Corps—an effort that was ultimately abandoned, but not before the duo made progress that became part of the iconic Route 66. Ali, often pictured wearing western clothing, spent the rest of his life in the United States.Laith Majali, a Los Angeles–based Jordanian photographer, told me he was drawn to this man who was pulled from the Arab-speaking…The post From Camel Herding to Blues Music to Tacos al Pastor: Finding the Middle East in Texas appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Trees are sparse in the small town of Whitharral (population of about a hundred) but it doesn’t stop Cam Dockery from transforming tree trunks—either dead, fallen, or sourced from out of state—into chiseled works of art. Chainsaws of all sizes line the walls in his shop, which used to be an old cotton gin. Many of his commissions are one-of-a-kind gifts for individuals or families. “I like to make things that are special to that family or that person,” he says. “It’s just wonderful. I make a living using my imagination; that’s crazy. For a guy from Whitharral.”The post On the Wide Plains West of Lubbock, a Chainsaw Carver Works From an Old Cotton Gin appeared first on Texas Monthly.
A man in a bow tie and an old-fashioned suit walks slowly along a sidewalk, smiling shyly and singing. “Good morning, Kemmerer,” he sings, in full voice. “Good morning!” The tune is dramatic and a little corny, a man singing to a town—Kemmerer, Wyoming, 1902. His hair is short, his mustache full; he carries a broom. He turns and walks back, his hopeful face suddenly turning somber as he stands in front of a window with his name painted on it: J. C. Penney, proprietor. “It is six a.m. and no one’s come,” he sings, as the music resolves sadly to a minor chord. “I’ve swept the sidewalk twenty times this morning. My heart is beating louder than a drum”—he makes a fist with his left…The post This Texan Was a Master of a Curious Midcentury Art Form, the Industrial Musical appeared first on Texas Monthly.
At 98 years old, former president Jimmy Carter has begun receiving home hospice care, the nonprofit Carter Center announced on February 18. As the longest-living president spends his last days with friends and family, I’m reflecting on Carter’s colorful relationship with Mexican food and Texas.The importance of the cuisine in Carter’s life was established during his presidential campaign. The politician had recently finished his tenure as governor of Georgia and had risen from having no national recognition to barely any at all. But he caught the attention of the National Taco Council, the San Antonio–based civic organization infamous for its food stunts to raise awareness about community issues and the political power of Latinos. The group saw something familiar in Carter. The Plains, Georgia, native…The post Jimmy Carter’s Peanut-and-Egg Taco Made Quite the Impression on San Antonians appeared first on Texas Monthly.
In December 1969, a young Dallas attorney typed a letter to a fellow lawyer and former law school classmate in Austin, catalyzing a journey that would alter the landscape of abortion rights for the next five decades.“I am very enthusiastic about the possibility of your organization in Austin . . . bringing an action to challenge the Texas Abortion Statute,” wrote Linda Coffee, 26, to Sarah Weddington, 24, who was working with a women’s rights group that was researching ways to challenge the state’s abortion law. “Would you consider being co-counsel in the event that a suit is actually filed. I have always found that it is a great deal more fun to work with someone on a law suit of this nature.”While Weddington ultimately argued Roe v. Wade…The post Linda Coffee Argued Roe v. Wade. Now She’s Auctioning Off Her Archive. appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Visitors and locals alike flock to San Antonio’s Historic Market Square to get a broad, if perhaps superficial, taste of Texas’s rich Latino heritage: classic Tex-Mex fare, mariachi performers, and knockoff versions of traditional handicrafts. For the next four months, visitors to the odd mixture of living monument and tourist trap will also have the option to engage on more sophisticated terms with the present and future of this huge, diverse, and ever-changing culture, thanks to the savvy exhibition “Soy de Tejas: A Statewide Survey of Latinx Art” at the Centro de Artes Gallery through July 2.“Soy de Tejas” is the labor of love of a single San Antonio curator, Rigoberto Luna, who is also the proprietor of Presa House Gallery. Luna is a keen…The post In San Antonio, a Road Map for the Future of Texas Art appeared first on Texas Monthly.
The bill: House Bill 1191, the Chicken Freedom ActFiled by: Briscoe Cain, Republican, District 128 (Deer Park)What it would do: Contrary to what its name implies, the Chicken Freedom Act does not grant special freedoms to fowl. Rather, the prefiled bill would amend Chapter 251 of the Texas Agriculture Code—a chapter that deals largely with the protection and preservation of agricultural operations—to include special protections for Texans who want to raise chickens in their own backyards. The amendment states that “a political subdivision may not impose a governmental requirement that prohibits an individual from raising or keeping six or fewer chickens in the boundaries of the political subdivision.” It adds that a municipality may impose “reasonable requirements” on the raising or keeping of poultry within city…The post Texas Lege Watch: A House Republican Fights for ‘Chicken Freedom’ appeared first on Texas Monthly.
In a grassy field carved out from the East Texas pines, cousins Lareatha Clay and Phillip White host a summer festival in the community of Shankleville. At first glance, the Texas Purple Hull Pea Festival celebrates the legume that many local families grew up growing, picking, and eating. But history lies at the heart of Shankleville, and through the event, Clay and White hope to preserve the legacy of one of the state’s early Freedom Colonies, founded by their ancestors Jim and Winnie Shankle. See more in the latest dispatch from Texas Country Reporter.The post Texas Purple Hull Pea Festival Is More Than an Event. It’s the Story of Shankleville, One of the State’s Early Freedom Colonies. appeared first on Texas Monthly.
In Texas, festival fashion in the fall means fringe, hats, and sparkle. But in the spring, during the two weeks in March when South by Southwest (SXSW) takes over Austin, fashion coalesces around one must-have accessory: the coveted festival lanyard and badge. As for what else to wear at this year’s SXSW, be nimble, as temperatures can go haywire in the Texas spring. Pack a hoodie for chilly conference rooms and to blend in with the tech bro masses. Two accessories that will certainly come in handy: sunglasses and comfy shoes, all the better for stomping around downtown Austin. Plus, don’t forget a big ol’ bag or backpack to cart around the plethora of branded water bottles and other sundries given out as freebies from panel…The post A Fashion Lover’s Guide to SXSW 2023 appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Kitt Williams and her mother, Sarah Williams, opened Jefferson’s House of Pies in Jefferson, Texas, in 2003. Today, the restaurant is called Kitt’s Kornbread Sandwich and Pie Bar. It sells a variety of pies, but it is most famous for serving up variations of Kitt’s signature “Kornbread Sandwich,” which she first created at age eight after craving an afternoon snack. While Kitt won’t disclose her secret recipe, her unique creation satisfies new and loyal customers.The post In Jefferson, Kitt’s Kornbread Turns Familiar Fare Into Something Special appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Mark Nesmith is an educator and Beaumont native. He also writes music, paints, and used to think he had to leave southeast Texas pursue an artist lifestyle. Years later, he’s returned to his hometown, realizing just how much he took it for granted. And he hopes to pass this lesson down to his students—that creativity blooms wherever you plant your roots.The post Life Lessons From a Hometown Art Teacher appeared first on Texas Monthly.
How to really clean your dryer vent. French pharmaceutical must-haves. An orangutan expertly inserting a straw into a juice box. Someone dancing well. Someone dancing badly. Hyperrealistic cake decor. The history of Japan’s international relations told via puppet. The coolest waterfall in Oregon. Nine different ways to achieve the same braid. A dog drinking out of an unattended glass of water in a funny way.Depending on the #ForYou page, popular short-form video app TikTok can present as a frighteningly endless scroll of sometimes brainless, sometimes absurd, occasionally educational, and always easily digestible entertainment. But in recent months the app has also become the renewed focus of cybersecurity concerns and the target of more than two dozen statewide bans, including one issued by Texas Governor Greg Abbott last…The post TikTok Is Banking On “Project Texas” to Avoid a U.S. Ban. But What Is It? appeared first on Texas Monthly.
The writer John Graves was of a different era. He was born in Fort Worth in 1920, he attended Rice University as an undergraduate and Columbia University for a master’s in English, and he was injured by a grenade on Saipan, losing the use of one eye, while fighting with the Marines in World War II. By the time he was first published in Texas Monthly, in 1974, he was 53 years old and famous for his 1960 debut, Goodbye to a River, which had been a finalist for a National Book Award.Founding editor William Broyles—and most of the magazine’s staff—was at the time Graves’s junior by close to thirty years. But if such a venerated writer could be coaxed into working for Texas Monthly,…The post Author John Graves Was a Literary Godfather to Texas Monthly appeared first on Texas Monthly.
In the mid-twentieth century, the Ukrainian tailor Nudie Cohn elevated the craft of suit-making to an art form. The rhinestone-studded western wear he produced at his North Hollywood shop, Nudie’s Rodeo Tailors, not only sparkled but also told stories. “Nudie” suits, as they came to be called, were embroidered with anything the wearer wanted, from covered wagons and saguaro cacti to pterodactyls and marijuana leaves. They were uniforms of self-expression, no two ever quite alike. Johnny Cash wore them. So did Elvis. As did plenty of Texans, including Waco-born honky-tonk singer Hank Thompson, who wore airplanes, ducks, and Humpty Dumpty at his performances. “I really got the compliments on it Saturday night in Fort Worth,” he wrote Cohn after wearing one suit in 1964. Gene Watson…The post These 14-Inch Rodeo Suits Are Too Teeny to Wear, Too Cute to Miss appeared first on Texas Monthly.
You used to be able to make friends in low places who were actually in high places. A lobbyist was explaining as much to me shortly after the Texas Legislature convened in mid-January. We were outside The Cloak Room, a basement bar adjacent to the capitol complex where folks can speak freely in near darkness, without meddlesome journalists watching. The lobbyist, who had worked for lawmakers in prior sessions before seeking a bigger paycheck and greater legislative influence, regaled me with tales of the good old days. Just a decade ago, he said, the largest bills many lawmakers would carry were bar tabs. After the spectacle of antagonistic legislating under the pink dome, politicians would flock to dives for a pageant of bipartisan congeniality, and…The post Democrats and Republicans in Texas Might Not Agree on Much. But They’ll Sing Karaoke Together. appeared first on Texas Monthly.
You may have heard Wagyu cattle in Japan are massaged daily and bottle-fed beer and fine whiskey by Japanese farmers. Or maybe you’ve heard that the term “American Wagyu” simply means “not Wagyu.” Neither are really true, but the terms used in the Wagyu beef industry can be confusing. It gets worse when they’re translated from Japanese for use by ranchers, consumers, marketers, and government entities in the U.S. This glossary will help clear up some of the myths and redundancies you may have heard about the Wagyu breed.Wagyu or American Wagyu (United States)For an animal to be labeled Wagyu, one of the parents must be either purebred or full blood. That means, genetically, the animal being harvested can meet the requirements for being labeled…The post 19 Terms You Need to Know to Talk Wagyu appeared first on Texas Monthly.
If you’re hungry for lunch and pull up to the strip mall at the corner of Huebner Road and Floyd Curl Drive, near the San Antonio Medical Center, you’ll be spoiled for choice. There’s Indian food, tacos, ramen, and sushi. And then, at the corner of the building, there are two fried-chicken joints right next to one another: Mr. C’s Fried Chicken & Waffles and Project Pollo.But the two stores aren’t really in direct competition. While Mr. C’s serves regular ol’ chicken, there is nary a bird involved at Project Pollo. The fast-casual spot, which opened last August as the San Antonio–based chain’s fifteenth location, is fully vegan. Everything from the shakes to the ranch dressing to the breaded and fried “chick’n” is made from…The post Is It Possible to Be Vegan Without Eating Vegetables? appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Oscar the dumpster-diving bear has acquired a taste for barbecue. The 338-pound male black bear was first sighted at DB’s Rustic Iron BBQ, a food trailer in the Terlingua Ghost Town, on November 6, nosing around in the dumpsters for scraps of owner Doug Baucham’s popular smoked turkey. “Who can blame him?” said Krysta Demere, a bear specialist with Texas Parks and Wildlife. “DB’s got great barbecue.” Locals soon gave the bear his nickname, a nod to Oscar the Grouch, the Sesame Street muppet who lives in a trash can. But Oscar’s repeated appearances in Terlingua, the once desolate, now booming Big Bend town, was no joke to Demere and other experts who are closely monitoring an increasing number of human-bear interactions in West Texas. It…The post West Texans Are Learning What It Means to Live in Bear Country appeared first on Texas Monthly.
In San Antonio, Linda Pace’s former penthouse loft, listed at $7.25 million, has been described as the ultimate blank canvas. In this video, real estate agent Michael Reisor gives viewers a quick tour of the 15,000-square-foot residence.The post Take a Tour of Linda Pace’s $7.25 Million Penthouse appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Walk into City Shoe Shop in downtown Palestine, and you’ll step back in time. A weathered, wooden workbench spans an entire wall, marked up from polish, glue, and hammer impacts. Owner Robert Lane leans over an antique stitching machine, just like his father and grandfather before him did. Even in spite of life’s hardships, Lane and his wife Sandra are still committed to keeping the family’s legacy alive and City Shoe Shop’s doors open for years to come. See more in the latest dispatch from Texas Country Reporter.The post Family Memories Echo Through an East Texas Shoe Shop appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Texas Monthly was honored on Thursday by the American Society of Magazine Editors across several of its journalism awards. In the 2023 National Magazine Awards, TM was named a finalist in the Lifestyle Journalism category for its “Springs Eternal!” package, from the July 2022 issue. Edited by Kathy Blackwell and designed by Victoria Millner, the package featured more than three dozen explorations of how to enjoy Texas’s waters, with writing by David Courtney, Elizabeth McCracken, Maya Perez, Cat Cardenas, and many other TM contributors and staffers. The National Magazine Awards are the Oscars of the magazine industry, and this nomination is the eighty-fifth such nod that TM has received in the fifty-year history of the magazine.The ASMEs on Thursday also announced the finalists and winners of its Awards for Design, Photography and Illustration. Texas Monthly won…The post Texas Monthly Recognized by ASME in the 2023 National Magazine Awards appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Sloan Rinaldi is a fourth-generation Texas pitmaster with a driving desire to smoke memorable barbecue and to help establish a place for women in the industry. At her food truck, Texas Q, she honors her family’s roots and the city’s diverse culinary landscape, while finding joy in serving her customers. See more in the latest dispatch from Texas Country Reporter.The post The Daughter of a Barbecue Family Takes Tradition in a New Direction appeared first on Texas Monthly.
We were primed to peer at the world through rectangles long before the digital revolution. The flat-screen on the wall and the phone in your hand frame the world much as paintings have for many centuries—or windows, come to think of it. But the way the glossy electronic screen has taken over so much of our attention, so much of the time, is astonishing. While that’s not a new idea, it’s still one well worth exploring in an art exhibit.“I’ll Be Your Mirror: Art and the Digital Screen,” on view at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth through April 30, is one of the largest such shows in years. It aims to show us how artists have responded to the momentous changes brought by…The post A Digital-Age Exhibit in Fort Worth Will Spike Your Blood Pressure appeared first on Texas Monthly.
It does have an odd ring to it, not unlike when you hear about a celebrity’s weird venture into franchising. Like, “Wow, I didn’t know Shaq liked pretzels so much . . .”The two-month-old news that Chip Gaines, of Fixer Upper and Joanna’s-husband fame, purchased revered Texas author Larry McMurtry’s Archer City bookstore has resurfaced on a national scale after a CNN spotlight earlier this week.The purchase was first reported by Archer County News late last year after, in what I imagine to be true Archer City fashion, a former owner of the newspaper saw Gaines carrying boxes of books out of Booked Up (which has been closed since McMurtry’s death in March 2021) and walked over and asked him what was going on. Easy…The post Chip Gaines Bought Larry McMurtry’s Historic Texas Bookstore. Bring on the Shiplap? appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Wednesday night was a clinic on why the University of Houston might be the most dangerous team in the NCAA men’s basketball tournament. The Cougars can bring you out of your seat with acrobatic dunks and dazzling no-look passes. If that’s your thing, you can love this team, too.Only, that’s not why the No. 1–ranked Cougars have the look and feel of a national champion—that is, they win with a defense that allows fewer points than any other team in the nation at 55.9 points per game and holds opponents to 35.9 percent shooting, the second-lowest in the nation. That part of their game was on display earlier this week, when Houston won for the twenty-sixth time in 28 games with an 89–59 rout of…The post A College Basketball Dynasty Grows in Houston appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Ryan Cade doesn’t like the USDA’s generous definition of the term Wagyu. “There are a lot of us in the Wagyu world that would like to see the standards tightened,” he said. Cade founded R-C Ranch with his friend Blake Robertson in 2010. They purchased ten heifers and cows from Triangle B Ranch in Oklahoma, and through in vitro fertilization from Wagyu bulls, started sending full-blood Wagyu beef to market in 2013. They’ve since done some crossbreeding with Angus cattle, but if it has an R-C Ranch label, then the animal had 75 percent or higher Wagyu bloodlines. The current USDA specifications allow for animals as low as 46.875 percent to be labeled as Wagyu beef. There is currently no quality or marbling score required for…The post One Texas Ranch Has Beef with How the USDA Grades Wagyu appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Time is running out, adding to the doctors’ sense of urgency. Four teams of physicians take careful measurements and make precise cuts while conferring in hushed voices about how best to proceed.Several pounds of chicken need to be sliced, seasoned, and cooked for the fajita bowls. Meanwhile, across the kitchen—several floors up in an office building in Dallas’s Medical District—a medical student takes charge of the sweet potato chili on another stovetop as two family practice interns calmly prepare the garnish.Nearby, Dr. Emmanuel Enriquez neatly chops cucumber, red onion, and tomato while instructor Milette Siler, dressed in a black chef’s smock, wonders aloud whether the ingredients should be diced into even smaller chunks. That could enhance the flavor of each bite, which would allow the…The post Why Doctors Aren’t Taught Much About Nutrition appeared first on Texas Monthly.
David Claybar has lived in Orange all his life, except when he went away to college and culinary school. This homesick chef came back as fast as he could and has run the Old Orange Cafe since 2004. Inside the old Orange Dairy Company building, the lunch-only restaurant caters events all over town, dispatching delivery drivers just like the milkmen of days gone by. See more in this video from Texas Country Reporter.The post The Old Orange Cafe Is a Piece of Local History appeared first on Texas Monthly.
With all the natural disasters, political upheaval, and civil unrest saturating media, the last thing I needed was news that Maseca is among the top ten most popular brands used by Gen Z. But that’s exactly what Business Insider reported this week, based on data released by market-research firm Numerator earlier this year. The company surveyed more than 1,600 consumers and leveraged the data alongside the “verified shopping behaviors of over 5,000 Gen Z buyers.” As the demographic (generally defined as including people born between 1997 and 2012) comes into financial independence, businesses are seeking to better target it. Among Numerator’s findings was that—alongside aluminum-free deodorant and prebiotic soda—commodity corn flour was “purchased by at least 5% of Gen Z buyers” last year.A few things…The post Gen Z’s Homemade Tortillas Could Use an Upgrade appeared first on Texas Monthly.
WHO: University of Texas at San Antonio neurointensivist and associate professor Ali Seifi.WHAT: A cure for the friggin’ hiccups.WHY IT’S SO GREAT: Hiccups are one of the extremely low-level scourges that come with a human body. They may not be deadly (though tell that to Pope Pius XII), but they are annoying, embarrassing, and inconvenient, a tiny rebellion of our bodies against our general sense of control and well-being. And while the obnoxious affliction tends to go away on its own after a time—unless, as was the case for the poor pope, they’re the sign of a more serious underlying issue—the moments during which our diaphragms spasm, leading to a silly sound escaping our lips and a jolt to the rest of our bodies, are…The post A UTSA Professor Has Cured Hiccups, Folks appeared first on Texas Monthly.
It’s an immigrant tale as old as time: Members of a family aspire to live in the United States, so they sell their assets and bring their small fortune to America. They find a good school district for the kids. They’ll rent at first if they have to, but home ownership is a pillar of the American dream. So they find jobs and save up for a down payment, buy a home as soon as they can. In the meantime, they ride out the long journey toward naturalization. Even if they’re lucky, it’ll be years before they become U.S. citizens.Kenneth Li, who’s been called Houston’s “unofficial mayor of Chinatown,” knows the story well. That’s partly because, as the owner of Southwest Realty Group in Houston, serving one of the…The post American Dream Deferred: Two GOP Bills Would Block Some Legal Immigrants from Buying Texas Property appeared first on Texas Monthly.
“Sometimes, it gets so hot down here,” Hattie McGill sang to hundreds of onlookers assembled before Waco City Hall. “It feels like my soul is on fire.” The recent Sunday afternoon ceremony had begun with a prayer and a haunting a cappella performance of McGill’s version of “Motherless Child,” the spiritual that originated among enslaved laborers in the American South.We had all gathered under a clear blue sky to witness the unveiling of a state historical marker commemorating a brutally racist incident. Many, like me, had been born and raised in Waco. Others had come from places as disparate as Houston and Wales. As the marker’s text noted, more than a century before, on these grounds, one of the most notorious lynchings in American history…The post Inside the Decades-long Effort to Commemorate a Notorious Waco Lynching appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Like many Texans, I always assumed that Howard Edward Butt was the mastermind behind our state’s favorite grocery chain. The business is named for his initials, after all. Women tend to be relegated to minor roles in rags-to-riches stories, when their names are remembered at all—and it’s time to correct that. H-E-B—arguably the most beloved brand in the state, with roughly 430 stores and a well-oiled disaster-response machine that Texans trust more than the government in times of crisis—wouldn’t exist if it weren’t for Howard’s mother, Florence Thornton Butt, who opened the family’s first store, in the Hill Country town of Kerrville, in 1905. She did so out of desperation. Florence’s husband, Charles Clarence “C. C.” Butt, fell ill with tuberculosis and couldn’t work; it was up…The post How Florence Butt—Not Her Son—Launched the H-E-B Empire appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Not long ago, when drivers paused at the stoplight on Highway 290 in the heart of Johnson City, an hour west of Austin, they might note the distinctive rusted silos of the 1880s feed mill—and then motor on to Fredericksburg. These days, travelers familiar with the thirty-sixth president’s hometown (which is named for one of his ancestors, James Polk Johnson) are more likely to pull over and stick around. Ranch families that have been around for generations are still here, but now so are young winemakers, acclaimed contemporary artists, and schoolkids drawn to those same silos, which now house the mind-expanding exhibitions of a small but excellent science museum.“This is a crossroads town—always has been, always will be,” says artist Mark Smith, whose eponymous gallery…The post Our Guide to Johnson City, Where You Can Stroll to Wineries and Museums appeared first on Texas Monthly.
The bill: Senate Bill 1029Filed by: Bob Hall, Republican, Senate District 2 (Rockwall)What it would do: Hall’s bill would create liability for health insurance companies and health-care providers if they offer what the legislation defines as “gender modification procedures or treatment” in adult patients. Those treatments include surgeries such as castrations, phalloplasties, and vaginoplasties, as well as much more common procedures such as hysterectomies, mastectomies, and vasectomies—but only when offered to transgender patients seeking gender-affirming care. The bill also includes nonsurgical treatments such as puberty-blocking medications (which are typically given to transgender youths, not adults) and estrogen and testosterone therapies. The bill would leave an insurer and/or provider offering such treatments financially responsible for “the patient’s medical, mental health, and pharmaceutical costs, including costs associated with…The post Trans Kids Have Been a Focus of Right-wing Lawmakers This Year. Now Trans Adults Are Too. appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Eighteen years after Peggy Jo Tallas died by what’s now called “suicide by cop,” the story of Texas’s most unlikely bank robber is the stuff of urban legends.Polite, generous, and otherwise law-abiding, Tallas first made headlines in the early 1990s when she pulled off a string of five bank heists in the suburbs of Dallas disguised as a bearded man in a ten-gallon hat. The authorities nicknamed her Cowboy Bob before they caught up with her in 1992 and realized, as one lawman said, that their man was not a Bob but a “Babette.” Tallas was in her mid-forties then, and after nearly three years in prison, she lived quietly until she was sixty. She died after one last robbery, like the heroes of her…The post The Cross-dressing, Bank-Robbing, Outlaw Tale of Cowboy Bob Is Now a Musical appeared first on Texas Monthly.
“If you can’t be handsome, be handy,” quips our handyman, John, as he fixes the latch on the door of our screened porch in Rockport. Raising two hammers at once, he continues: “One to use and one to lose.” He moves his cowboy hat–shaped hard hat to a rakish angle and adjusts the tucked-in tea towel that he has pinned to the hat’s back brim. It covers his neck as a makeshift sunburn protector. His thick-as-sorghum drawl, liltingly mellifluous, is music to my ears. I’ve missed those soulful Texas accents in recent years. It seems like they’ve all but disappeared in Austin—and other metropolises—as Texas has grown more urbane in recent decades. But they aren’t gone after all. They’ve apparently been stored here on the…The post Finding Weird All Over Again in Rockport appeared first on Texas Monthly.
How outnumbered were the Alamo defenders?What was discovered in Corsicana in 1894? Who shot J.R.?These are but three of the one hundred questions you’ll find in Texas Monthly’s “Tex Education” quiz. Published in four parts over the course of 2001, this collection of brain busters was designed to test the historical and cultural literacy of both native Texans and the many newcomers who were pouring into the state. The questions, which range in difficulty from “you really oughta know” to “seventh-grade Texas history teacher knowledge,” cover our state’s saga from Cabeza de Vaca to La Raza Unida.These riddles were designed to stump and delight readers by longtime staff writer Anne Dingus. A native of Pampa, Dingus started at the magazine as a fact-checker, in 1978, when…The post Pop Quiz: What Inspired the “Tex Education” Quiz? appeared first on Texas Monthly.
To Casey Hallmark, it seemed like a dream job. In early 2022, the 37-year-old native Odessan was named the executive director of Downtown Odessa, a government-funded nonprofit dedicated to revitalizing the city’s historic center. Hallmark, who had previously served on the boards of several other local nonprofits, couldn’t wait to get to work. Shortly after being hired by Odessa city manager Michael Marrero, she addressed a meeting of businesspeople, politicians, and other civic leaders. “We live in the greatest city ever,” she said, “and my job is to help everybody else fall in love with it as much as I have.” But Hallmark believes her centrist politics—in an interview with Texas Monthly, she described herself as “fiscally Republican and socially Democratic”—soon made her the target of…The post A Right-Wing Cabal Took Over Odessa’s Municipal Government. City Employees Are Heading for the Exits. appeared first on Texas Monthly.
On a Wednesday morning in mid-December, Cari Ray drives her dark green Toyota Tundra into the parking lot of Lazy L&L Campground in New Braunfels. There’s a hockey puck–size Zen Fly Fishing sticker on the outside of the truck. Inside, each nook and cranny is jammed with rods, waders, and gear. “My truck looks like a fly shop exploded in it,” Ray says as she hops out. From her home in Granite Shoals near the shores of Lake LBJ, she owns Zen, a school and guide business. Ray is also a member of the Texas Women Fly Fishers (TWFF), a 22-year-old club that organizes trips and retreats throughout the state and to places like Broken Bow, Oklahoma.As someone whose knowledge of fly-fishing was limited to its…The post Texas Women Fly-fishers Are Angling for Respect appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Down on Rey Rosa Ranch, life revolves around birds, not just cattle. Fashion designer and 2023 Texas Medal of Arts honoree Lela Rose has been coming here since 1989, when her parents purchased the 8,600 lush acres of native grasses and trees less than an hour south of their Dallas home. Her father, Rusty Rose, was a bird lover. Her mom, Deedie, has a passion for architecture. Together, they built their own oasis with floor-to-ceiling windows that turn the mid-century modern space into a tree house. The property has several lookouts built specifically for birdwatching, but you can just as easily indulge in the hobby from the living room, which is outfitted with ornithology books and hand-carved figurines.Lela Rose now lives in Jackson Hole, Wyoming,…The post Fashion Designer Lela Rose’s North Texas Family Ranch Is a Birder’s Paradise appeared first on Texas Monthly.
My first thought when I heard that San Antonio mogul Red McCombs had died, at 95, was of his house, one that I think he hadn’t lived in now for many years. But when I was a teenager, that house loomed large, not just in my imagination but in the imaginations of many San Antonians who were beginning to grow restless with the ersatz modesty of the city, run as it was by old-money types who disdained flashiness and couldn’t be bothered to care much about people who weren’t like them.So, the house: it started going up on the corner of Devine Road and Olmos Drive, which, if you know San Antonio, is about as flouncy an address as you could have back in 1965…The post Red McCombs Turned Old San Antonio on Its Head appeared first on Texas Monthly.
In the early hours of February 13, 2023, San Antonio lost a titan of its rich artistic heritage. Jesus “Jesse” Treviño was 76 when he died. It wasn’t last year’s bout with cancer that ultimately took him, but that certainly cleared the way for his quiet exit last Monday morning. It was a day I know Jesse had thought about since he was a young man. The only question left, he once told me as we worked together on his biography, was: What will happen next?Jesse’s career can be summed up by stating that his art is in the Smithsonian, the San Antonio Museum of Art, three presidential libraries, countless private collections, and wherever King Charles of England keeps his art, but that doesn’t tell…The post Remembering Jesse Treviño, Who Transformed San Antonio Art appeared first on Texas Monthly.
The Duncanville High School boys basketball team pulled out all the stops for its senior night. First-year head coach Neiman Ford presented the eight Panthers seniors with framed jerseys and then posed for photos with each of them and their families at midcourt. Before the team’s final home game on Tuesday, the gym’s video boards screened a 36-minute tribute to the departing players, including extended interviews with them and candid moments from their high school careers.It all seemed befitting of Duncanville, the high school in southwest Dallas County whose powerhouse boys basketball program currently sits at number two in ESPN’s national rankings and whose gym is decorated with banners from past Texas state championship wins.Senior Night at Duncanville has typically been a send-off, a launch…The post The Best High School Basketball Team in Texas Doesn’t Need a State Title appeared first on Texas Monthly.
I really wanted some Buffalo wings for the big game this past weekend, but I knew every wing joint in town would be overrun with orders. I was feeding a crowd, and even raw chicken wings are so darn expensive at the grocery store. So instead, I reached for the cheapest cut of chicken in the store: the drumstick.The benefit of a drumstick is all that good skin, but on the grill it can get burnt before the meat by the bone is done. One way around that is to butterfly the drumstick by cutting the meat along the bone, and splaying it out. The process adds more surface area for seasoning and gives you a skin side and meaty side. And sauce really sticks…The post Butterflied Bimini Chicken Drumsticks appeared first on Texas Monthly.
If you watched Governor Greg Abbott’s State of the State address on Thursday night, you were treated to what amounted to an extended political ad, 25 minutes of made-for-TV messaging for a third-term governor who may be eyeing a White House bid. Traditionally, the governor gives the State of the State address at the Capitol, where lawmakers gather to hear what the state’s top executive would like them to do during their brief, every-other-year legislative session. The press and invited members of the public attend. The setting—the seat of democratic governance in the Texas capital—makes more than just symbolic sense.And for his first three State of the States, Abbott did just that: he laid out his legislative priorities at the Lege. In 2021, amid the…The post No Media, No Cellphones, No Questions: Greg Abbott Finds a Safe Space for His State of the State Speech appeared first on Texas Monthly.
When Texas lawmakers gathered in Austin for the first time since 2021, Amber Briggle woke up 250 miles north, in Denton, and worried about her two kids. It was a chilly day in January, and both children were home with strep throat, and Briggle and her husband Adam strategized over who would take them to the doctor and who would pick up their meds. But her concerns ran deeper. In the afternoon, as homemade chicken soup simmered on the stove, Briggle sat at her kitchen table and composed seventy emails to state senators and representatives. Her message was simple: please don’t take my children from me.Even before the Legislature convened, as it does every two years, Briggle, whose fifteen-year-old son is transgender, had seen a…The post What’s Driving the Texas Right’s Campaign Against Transgender Youth and Their Parents appeared first on Texas Monthly.
HBO Max’s highly anticipated limited drama series Love & Death is officially set to premiere this spring. The seven-episode project, debuting on Thursday, April 27, takes a closer look at the case of Candy Montgomery—a picture-perfect eighties housewife who was accused of brutally murdering her lover’s wife with an axe. Watch the official teaser trailer above.Courtesy of WarnerMedia/HBO MaxCourtesy of WarnerMedia/HBO MaxThe long-awaited limited series, written by David E. Kelley, is based on parts one and two of the 1984 Texas Monthly article “Love and Death in Silicon Prairie,” as well as the book Evidence of Love: A True Story of Passion and Death in the Suburbs, by Jim Atkinson and John Bloom. Courtesy of WarnerMedia/HBO MaxSome lucky South by Southwest–goers may have the chance to…The post HBO Max Announces ‘Love & Death’ Premiere Date appeared first on Texas Monthly.
A poignant prologue and epilogue bookend the new iteration of ROE, the perennially timely play about the landmark 1973 Supreme Court decision known as Roe v. Wade, running at Stages in Houston through March 5. As Sarah Weddington (the lawyer who represented “Jane Roe”), actor Kelley Peters delivers fervent monologues that contextualize Roe for our current, urgent times. The additions, written over the past few months to confront the Dobbs v. Jackson decision that rolled back reproductive rights, capture the challenging reality of our post-Roe society. As we listened to Peters recite the sobering state of reproductive rights today, Texan theatergoers fell still and silent.“This is a Texas story,” said playwright Lisa Loomer. “It began in Texas, and most of the play, maybe all of…The post Onstage in Houston, Abortion Activists Find Common Ground appeared first on Texas Monthly.
When Texas A&M announced it was fleeing the Big 12 to join the Southeastern Conference back in 2011, Baylor’s then-president, Ken Starr, wrote a passionate newspaper op-ed about what was about to be lost. “Quite frankly, I can’t imagine having a Baylor football season without a game against A&M with the Midnight Yell and the pageantry of the Fighting Texas Aggie Band marching at halftime,” he wrote.Starr encouraged the Texas Legislature to persuade the Aggies to remain in the Big 12 and preserve the conference’s cherished in-state rivalries rather than pursue new ones against the likes of Alabama, LSU, and Georgia. “It is in the best interest of our state that the four Texas schools of the Big 12 stay together,” he added. So much for…The post The Big 12 Doomsday Clock Is Ticking appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Evin Garcia grew up in poverty and food insecurity in the small Rio Grande Valley town of Mission. His earliest memories of cooking are of when the kitchen cupboards were nearly empty and he was challenged to be creative with whatever he could scrounge up. He remembers one day when he collected enough ingredients to make pancakes for his mother. “She said they were the prettiest pancakes she ever had,” he says. “I like that I could feed her and make her happy.” He grew accustomed to making “something out of nothing,” as he describes cooking in his youth.Garcia’s ingenuity and love of cooking for others continued as a young man. He traveled to places such as Taiwan, Kuwait, Nigeria, and Australia as a shutdown…The post The Tacos at This South Texas Restaurant Are Inspired by the Taquero’s International Travels appeared first on Texas Monthly.
The tagline that accompanies the Texanist column in print each month reads, “Offering Fine Advice and Keen Observations Since 2007.” It wasn’t always this way. Prior to the August 2016 edition, this piece of text simply read, “Offering Fine Advice Since 2007.”The modification signaled a change for a column that had for some nine years been a fairly straight rendition of a semi-spoof of a traditional advice column, the type for which the author takes letters from readers and provides answers to questions or some sort of guidance for a wide array of situations. In its original form, the Texanist, authored by me, David Courtney, covered all manner of tex-centric material. Charcoal or propane? When out at a dance hall, do you really need to…The post The Evolution of the Texanist, According to the Texanist appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Steer’d WrongThis past year we saw a massacre of children, police who let it happen, and our governor’s utter failure of compassion, humanity, and leadership. We saw a dramatic rise in bigotry and violence directed at queer Texans. And you went with the low-hanging fruit and picked Austin as your Bum Steer of the Year? Come on, man. This feels like such a disappointing choice. Maybe confronting our profoundly ugly state leadership was just too much right now. Anton Prosser, St. Paul, Minnesota How rich that Texas Monthly named Austin the Bum Steer of the Year when the same progressive agenda that the magazine pursues is responsible for the mess that our state capital has become.Preston Lewis, San AngeloSchool of Art KnocksThanks to Rainey Knudson for the…The post Roar of the Crowd: March 2023 appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Specialization is often a requirement for excellence, in fields ranging from engineering to medicine. Those focusing on a niche such as, say, pediatric heart surgery, have a better chance of becoming a top physician. Many magazine writers similarly develop expertise in a specific area. I’m proud to work alongside several authorities on topics such as energy, barbecue, and tacos. But in journalism, as in medicine, the gifted generalist also plays a vital role. And one of the best in Texas is our senior executive editor Mimi Swartz.Mimi writes about whatever engages her curiosity—including state politics, fashion, and profiles of all sorts of fascinating characters. For our March cover story, she reported on the escalating campaign by certain right-wing activists and politicians to undermine public schools…The post Meet the Writer Behind Our March Cover Story appeared first on Texas Monthly.
In August 1974, Steve Onstad watched his year-old barbecue joint burn to the ground. “I had put some fire in the pit, and went down the road to help a local gentleman jumpstart his car,” Onstad, the owner of Swinging Door Bar-B-Q in Richmond, recalled. “When I came back, the place was in flames.” He had originally built the shack on his family’s land southwest of Houston after flunking out of college. Two days before the fire, he had installed an air conditioning system in the newly enclosed patio, bringing the indoor seating capacity to 27. During the hot summer he chose that business expense over purchasing insurance, which he lamented as the garden hose he was futilely aiming at the flames lost water pressure.…The post The Texas Historical Commission Recognizes Barbecue Joints That Have Turned 50 appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Valentine’s Day is here, and if you’re what I like to imagine is the average person around this time of year, you’re only now searching (frantically) for a gift for your special someone. A box of chocolate-covered fruit and flowers might as well be an admission that you gave this no thought until your commute home. But if your special someone has a literary inclination—and is just as head over heels in love with Texas as we are—consider pairing up that bouquet and those chocolaty confections with one of these romance novels, all of which have a Texas twirl to them.Ruby, by Cynthia BondRuby Bell’s childhood in a small East Texas town during the fifties is marked by violence and despair, so much so that…The post Ten Perfect Texas Romance Novels for Your Bookworm Valentine appeared first on Texas Monthly.
In the early hours of a cloudy morning in May, a 23-year-old Mexican American man found himself surrounded by six Anglo Houston police officers. By then, the man, José Campos Torres, had been badly beaten. He stood on the edge of a drop of about twenty feet overlooking the murky waters of Buffalo Bayou, near downtown Houston. “Let’s see if this wetback can swim,” one of the cops said, in what were likely the last words Torres heard before he was pushed into the bayou. His body was found two days later, on May 8, 1977, drifting near the water’s edge. Such a story had been and would remain a familiar one in American life: law enforcement officers holding the power of life and death…The post The Killing of José Campos Torres appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Valentine’s Day can be rough on single folks. The holiday may be a fake, made-up way to try to sell chocolate and flowers and those plaques you see on Instagram ads of the Google Maps intersection of wherever you had your first date, but still—the reminders that other people are happily coupled (and that you, yourself, are not) are everywhere.It’s even worse for the jilted and recently heartbroken. Those who may have expected that they’d be on the receiving end of a bouquet or a dinner for two somewhere fancy but who are, instead, left warming up a can of Hormel Chili on a space heater and lamenting their lonely lot in life have every reason to despise Valentine’s Day. And, weirdly, it seems like…The post San Antonio Seems to Be Going Through It This Valentine’s Day appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Mateo Herrera makes each tortilla with methodical care. The west El Paso restaurant where he works is closed on Mondays, so he has the kitchen to himself and his metal tray of bolitas—balls of masa awaiting their turns on the manual tortilla press. The corn tortillas gently puff up on the comal, where Herrera flips and pats them with his deft fingertips. Once cooked, they go into a terra-cotta container to stay warm. He finds this kind of work relaxing—serenity in the repetition. The longtime restaurant chef is making tortillas for La Puerta del Sol, a project he launched in fall 2022 to bring ancestral foods of the Chihuahuan Desert into people’s homes. La Puerta del Sol offers online subscriptions for tortillas and sometimes other foods, such as tamales…The post This El Pasoan Is Making Sure Nixtamalized Tortillas Aren’t an Occasional Luxury appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Q: Recently, I was visiting the lovely town of Bar Harbor, on lovely Mount Desert Island, in the lovely state of Maine, where I was shocked to read the following statement on a historical marker: “Mount Desert Island was a world-renowned source for pink granite for buildings (such as the Philadelphia Mint and the capitol building in Austin, Texas).” What the . . . ?! That can’t be true, can it? Dave Pasley, San AntonioA: The Texanist, in his long life, has had the opportunity to spend time in bars, on harbors, on mountains, in deserts, and on islands. He has even had the pleasure of knocking back a few at bars on harbors, on mountains, in deserts, on mountains in the middle of deserts, and, of course, on…The post The Texanist: Did the Texas Capitol’s Pink Granite Come From Maine? appeared first on Texas Monthly.
In October, I wrote about a wild, under-the-radar scheme in the Hill Country town of Wimberley to route taxpayer money to private schools around the state. Unbeknownst to almost anyone in the community, all-Republican members of the Wimberley ISD school board had spent much of last spring and summer laying the groundwork for a plan to create Texas’s first school-voucher program, using a loophole in state law. Read Next: Inside the Secret Plan to Bring Private School Vouchers to Texas The plot had been cooked up by a consortium of right-wing activists and donors, a politically connected charter-school executive, and Texans for Education Rights, a new nonprofit founded by Monty Bennett, a wealthy Dallas hotelier, and Aaron Harris, a GOP consultant from North Texas. Under…The post How a Brazen School-Voucher Scheme in Texas Got Derailed appeared first on Texas Monthly.
I started writing professionally about bars in Texas sixteen years ago, concentrating on my favorite category of watering hole, the dive bar, mainly because it can be divisive. That’s also why I wrote Texas Dives: Enduring Neighborhood Bars of the Lone Star State with Austin photographer Kirk Weddle after getting to know the people who own, work at, and frequent dive bars. I’ll save you $35 right now and reveal the book’s big lesson: nobody’s ever unhappy about being at a dive.After the book came out last year, people asked me: “How do you become a regular?” I responded with an anecdote. Back in 2012, upon finding the Triple Crown—a cinder-block building in San Marcos that was formerly a brothel and was always dark as…The post How to Become a Regular at a Texas Dive Bar appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Before he became a Gulf Coast fishing guide, James Sanchez endured a painful rite of passage. “I was about eleven years old, and my dad and I were fishing in Port Aransas, at one of the piers off the ship channel,” he recalls. They were casting at the height of the fall flounder and bull redfish runs, using shrimp for bait. Sanchez reached down into the bait bucket, “and I felt something kick hard against my hand.” He recoiled in pain, thinking, “Man, that was a big shrimp!” Sanchez had encountered one of Texas’s fiercest invertebrates, the mantis shrimp (which, confusingly, is neither a mantis nor a shrimp). The many Texans who use the predatory crustacean as live bait know it by another name: the…The post Beware the Mighty Mantis Shrimp appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Joanna Day has never been a fan of horror movies, which is why she didn’t yet realize she was starring in one in real life. If you had to pick a turning point in her story, the part when everyone in the audience feels their jaws and shoulders tighten because they know—unlike the oblivious, trusting protagonist—that really bad things are about to happen, it would be when a member of the Hays County Sheriff’s Office showed up at Day’s home, in Dripping Springs. It was a hot evening in August 2020, with the sun just about ready to give up on the day. The family was collected around the dinner table, which, thanks to its second-floor location, felt like it was in a tree house nestled…The post The Campaign to Sabotage Texas’s Public Schools appeared first on Texas Monthly.
When David Morring was thirteen, it was rare to find him without a notebook in his hand. He’d sometimes write about life in his small farming town in Alabama, but mostly he’d jot down sketch ideas that he hoped could someday take him to New York, where he dreamed of working for Saturday Night Live. He filled notebooks with dark humor, bits he’d file away for future use. Later, in college at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah, he studied advertising and it all clicked. “I realized, this is my Saturday Night Live,” he tells Texas Monthly. “I can make people laugh through commercials about toothpaste or potato chips and do thirty-second comedy skits on TV and get paid for it.” His work eventually took…The post A Dallas Ad Firm Is Rebranding Jesus at the Super Bowl. But Is It Actually Offering More of the Same? appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Attorney General Ken Paxton and four of his former top deputies who said he improperly fired them after they accused him of crimes have reached a tentative agreement to end a whistleblower lawsuit that would pay those employees $3.3 million dollars.In a filing on Friday, attorneys for Paxton and the whistleblowers asked the Texas Supreme Court to further defer consideration of the whistleblower case until the two sides can finalize the tentative agreement. Once the deal is finalized and payment by the attorney general’s office is approved, the two sides will move to end the case, the filing said.In a joint statement, attorneys for three of the whistleblowers—Blake Brickman, David Maxwell, and Ryan Vassar—said: “Our clients are honorable men who have spent more than two…The post Attorney General Ken Paxton Agrees to Apologize and Pay $3.3 Million to Whistleblowers appeared first on Texas Monthly.
It’s 1999 at Houston Baptist University, a religious college nestled in southwest Houston. The constant whistle of tires on pavement from the neighboring Southwest Freeway is no match for a row of nondescript practice rooms where two violinists—teacher and student—face a Manhasset music stand. The teacher’s black hair is pulled back into a rubber band; her mane is so thick that the elastic need not be looped twice. Clad in relaxed denim bell-bottom jeans and a soft, electric blue cotton T-shirt, Chanda Dancy, the teacher, is thrilled to be in the presence of music. The teenage musician, me, is desperate to show Dancy that she practiced the Kreutzer études assigned the week before.Dancy was not like other classical-violin instructors. Her violin was always within reach…The post Chanda Dancy, a Fearless Houston Violinist, Is Breaking Boundaries in Hollywood appeared first on Texas Monthly.
In July 1993, a Northwest Airlines 747 specially equipped to transport livestock touched down in New York. It had been loaded with three Wagyu cows and two Wagyu bulls before taking off from Narita Airport outside Tokyo. It was just the second time the sacred Japanese cattle breed, prized for its tenderness and marbling, had left Japan. The cows, Okutani, Rikitani, and Suzutani, were the first females of the breed ever exported. The bulls, Haruki 2 and Michifuku, were the first Wagyu bulls brought to the U.S. since four other bulls, long deceased by this point, came over in 1976. This controversial shipment thirty years ago provided the cattle genetics that helped lay the foundation of the breed in this country today.Wagyu cattle are native to Japan,…The post Thirty Years Ago, the First Wagyu Cows Came to the U.S. Now, the Industry Is Bigger Than Anyone Predicted. appeared first on Texas Monthly.
All these years, you figured the Dallas Cowboys had turned mediocrity into an art form for the usual reasons. You know, team owner Jerry Jones, a string of clueless head coaches, self-styled talent evaluator Jerry Jones, and a roster that has way too many underachieving players every single season. Did we mention Jerry Jones?But what if there’s another possibility, and what if that possibility is so over-the-top it might actually make sense? And what if there’s a simple fix? How about the Curse of Granny’s Bluebonnet Patch? And what if it’s reversible? If Jerry would only convert a small square from one of his parking lots into a neat little bluebonnet garden, Cowboys fans could start planning for Super Bowl LVIII in Las Vegas next…The post Is a Texas Granny’s Curse Behind the Cowboys’ Super Bowl Drought? appeared first on Texas Monthly.
For a long time, choosing a hat was easy for me: I simply didn’t. I saw The Hat as a fashion flex (way before I knew that term), an eccentricity that involved image management and risk. Of course, I’d known hat people, stylish types who could pull off a fedora or a bowler, but I’d also encountered try-hards who were practically wearing a sign asking “Am I cool yet?” I’ve come to realize, though, that head coverings are useful, which must be why our ancestors invented them. They are handy in sun, rain, and bitter wind, to say nothing of how well they disguise bedhead and bald spots. Over the past decade, they’ve made their way into my closet in ever-increasing degrees of boldness: baseball…The post Don’t Let “Big Dumb Hat” Happen to You appeared first on Texas Monthly.
It’s chaos on the tabletop! And in the dining room. And on the menu . . . Remember when we used to have traditional courses (small appetizers, ample entrées, humongous desserts)? Not anymore. They started disappearing years ago as share plates, piled up almost on top of one another, took their place. Inexplicably, though, serving utensils also vanished; you practically have to beg for them. And forget about getting your own dessert plate. Servers plunk down everything—cake, pie, even crème brûlée—in the middle of the table and hand you a spoon as if it were a five-year-old’s birthday party. No wonder customer attire is more casual than ever. If you’d like to wear your ball cap backward while you sip your 1989 Latour and eat…The post Texas’s Best New Restaurants in 2023 appeared first on Texas Monthly.
When I told my family that I was writing a story about tarot-card readers in Texas, my husband said, “Yikes,” and my eleven-year-old daughter said, “Amazing!” This about sums up the varied emotions conjured by the 78-card tarot deck. The cards have a long history and an underlying logic, but during my happy weeks learning about tarot, I came to understand that the knowledge gained in readings can be as varied as the decks themselves.A tarot deck contains 22 “major arcana” cards (which can be compared to face cards in a traditional deck) and four suits of “minor arcana”: swords (which relate to the element of air), wands (fire), cups (water), and pentacles (earth). Each minor arcana suit has the cards ace through ten, plus…The post Nine Tarot Readers for Witchy Texans (and Their Dogs) appeared first on Texas Monthly.
On Tuesday, February 7, 2023, Jeff Blackburn passed away from cancer at the age of 65. A cofounder of the Innocence Project of Texas, Jeff was instrumental in exposing a sham drug-sting operation involving nearly fifty innocent residents of Tulia and worked tirelessly to achieve a posthumous exoneration for Timothy Cole, a Texas Tech student and Army veteran who was wrongfully convicted of sexual assault in 1986 and died of an asthma attack while in prison. The list of contributions Jeff made to criminal justice reform—especially in collaboration with Governor Rick Perry’s administration—is long and well chronicled. His role in changing forensic science is discussed less.We met Jeff in our respective roles with two organizations—the Texas Forensic Science Commission and the Texas State Fire Marshal’s…The post Running Into Fire: The Legacy of Jeff Blackburn appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Orlando’s Italian Restaurant was founded in 1965 by Michael Frank Cea. Today his son, David, carries on the family business by maintaining the legacy of his father’s unique Italian food while also expanding the restaurant’s footprint and personnel. In this dispatch, Texas Country Reporter pays a visit to this local Lubbock favorite.The post Orlando’s Italian Restaurant Is a True Lubbock Original appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Almost eight years later, Kevin Flanigan remembers Jalen Hurts for something many other folks probably would never have noticed. Perhaps only a Texas high school football coach would have zeroed in on it.Flanigan is the athletic director of Tomball Independent School District, but back in 2015, he was head football coach at Beaumont’s West Brook High School. “It was a subvarsity game on a nasty, damp Thursday night,” Flanigan told me. Hurts, then about sixteen, was a member of the visiting Channelview Falcons. “I look over, and there’s Jalen standing on our sideline working with the chain crew. You could look at him and just tell he was thinking, ‘Okay, this is my role tonight.’ It’s a great example that he saw himself as part…The post Texas Football Coaches Recall Jalen Hurts’s High School Dominance appeared first on Texas Monthly.
I was walking along the banks of a remote stretch of the Pecos River when I spotted something at the water’s edge: a blue plastic box, the size of a small book, out of place in this unpeopled land of rock and cactus. Inside lay a colorful assortment of fishing flies. It was May 2020, and I had been trying to teach myself to fly-fish on the Pecos, where some friends and I own a patch of riverside desert near Langtry, in southwest Texas. I had learned just enough to know that the lures were mostly hand tied, a personal collection curated by an expert. Some angler out there, I thought, must be pretty bummed. I, on the other hand, felt lucky, if a little…The post My Quest to Lasso an Aquatic Bronco appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Common carp are nearly ubiquitous in Texas fresh water, from the clear streams of the Hill Country to the muddy bayous of Houston. They can be caught in ponds, lakes, rivers, and, yes, even ditches. Here are a few of the best spots to try your luck at fly-fishing for this species.Central TexasPedernales RiverThe popular Pedernales Falls State Park, west of Austin, provides a blissful setting—and some of the best carp fly-fishing in Texas. Seat yourself on the knobby knees of a cypress tree and wait for the fish to come to you, or traverse the shallow waters in search of feeding carp. Pro tip: “The section downstream from Trammel’s Crossing has the advantage of easier wading and lots of bank access and—especially—shade,” says Aaron…The post Carp Diem! Where to Try and Catch Texas’s Most Underappreciated Fish appeared first on Texas Monthly.
This story was originally published in November 2020 and has been updated.It’s hard to go wrong when you’re in the region that’s the birthplace of most of our state’s great tacos, but we tried to whittle down some choices for you. You don’t want to miss the original breakfast tacos, tacos estilo Matamoros, and real barbacoa. The Rio Grande Valley Taco Trail is a long road. Eat up.Ana Liz TaqueriaThis taco shop, located in a shopping center, displays its molino—or corn grinder—in the open. It shows the pride owner Ana Pulido has in traditional Mexican preparations. But she’s not afraid to put her own twist on things. Instead of offering chips, she serves tostadas made from nixtamalized corn tortillas with a swoon-inducing fragrance. The chile…The post The Rio Grande Valley Taco Trail appeared first on Texas Monthly.
When the modern, two-story home on Castro Street was sold for nearly $1.3 million this past spring and renovations began, neighbors barely noticed. For several years now, the formerly quiet East Austin neighborhood, which had for decades been home to the majority of the city’s Black and Latino residents, had been in a state of flux. Seemingly overnight, modest one-story homes that had stood for seventy years were being torn down and replaced by large, contemporary dwellings with clean lines, geometric shapes, and conspicuous coats of white or black paint. It didn’t take long, however, for the Castro Street renovations to strike some neighbors as odd. After weeks of shrill buzz saws and nonstop hammering, the house’s front yard was littered with Amazon boxes and construction…The post Inside the Bro-tastic Party Mansions Upending a Historic Austin Community appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Dallas’s music scene boasts an uncommon breadth of subcultures and microcommunities, a stylistic dynamism often represented by the artists who emerge from the city. Add to this list Liv.e (pronounced “liv”), a singer and producer who relentlessly swerves among genres, meshing psychedelic soul with synth-funk and traditional R&B with jazz-inflected hip-hop. On her debut album, 2020’s Couldn’t Wait to Tell You, each song was flecked with the unexpected: a sample suggesting a squeaking chair, a cymbal warped through a thin phaser. Somehow, Liv.e’s second album, Girl in the Half Pearl, gets even weirder. Most songs blend electronic effects with live instrumentation, as when a Rhodes piano or an electric bass is punctuated by distorted percussion. Midalbum standout “Wild Animals” is striking precisely because it avoids all…The post Liv.e Doesn’t Suffer Foolish Men Gladly appeared first on Texas Monthly.
My first Mardi Gras memory happened when I was just five years old. I went to Catholic school in Houston, and in 2006, when I was in kindergarten, I gained a new friend, who’d fled New Orleans with his family after Hurricane Katrina. To help Christian and all the other newcomers feel at home, our school organized a parade around the rose garden in front of the church. We crowded the street in our purple, gold, and green gear, eager to catch beads. A few years later, at age ten, I got to attend a Mardi Gras ball in Galveston with my parents. The floor-length tulle gowns and the live zydeco band were thrilling. I come from two of the biggest Catholic cultures—Italian and Mexican—and…The post Let the Good Times Roll at These Texas Mardi Gras Parties appeared first on Texas Monthly.
When I first saw the winter storm warnings for Austin and Travis County on TV last weekend, I felt pretty good about how my household was positioned. My wife and I had stocked up on a few hundred bucks worth of fresh and frozen food that could be heated on a gas stove. We had a massive, 1,500-watt-hour, solar-charged battery/generator that we’d purchased after the 2021 failure of the electric grid that left more than 4.5 million homes and businesses in the state without power and resulted in as many as seven hundred deaths. We’d stockpiled plenty of blankets. And we had a Siberian husky who loves to snuggle and who’d treat the onset of a winter freeze as the best thing that could possibly…The post We Texans Are on Our Own When Disasters Hit appeared first on Texas Monthly.
TikTok has a new influencer. She’s decisive, to the point with her product reviews, and has great style to boot. She’s also two years old.Sunday Kramer went viral last November when her mom, Bri, posted a video of the toddler at a boutique candle shop in their Dallas neighborhood. In the video, her dad, King, offers Sunday different scents. She buries her nose in each and contemplates for a few moments before definitively shaking her head yes or no.Bri posted the video to her personal account (@brikramer) before bed. When she woke up it had more than 800,000 views. Within 24 hours, it was up to 3 million. “The most honest product review ever made. No lie, just a pure real fact,” commented one viewer.…The post The Best Candles, According to TikTok’s Cutest Candle Influencer appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Plenty of meat markets proclaim that they carry locally raised meat. At the new Heritage Butchery & Barbecue in Denison, that ethos is actually on display. Customers waiting in line for barbecue can peer through a large window into the chilled cutting room where whole pigs from Prairie Creek Farms and lambs from the Noble Institute (both based in Oklahoma) are broken down. When I visited, manager Pete Gonzales and his crew were trimming down an Angus rib section from River Creek Ranch near San Saba, getting the ribeyes ready for the case. Next week will bring another whole beef carcass, maybe Wagyu from G Five Cattle in Sulphur Springs or grass-finished beef from Prairie Creek. Most everything Heritage carries—honey and produce included—is from within…The post This North Texas Meat Haven Supplements Barbecue With Retail Beef appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Katherine Propper was cruising through Central Texas in February last year with a vanload of rappers when she stumbled upon the next scene for her movie. The young Austin director, sitting in the wayback of the van with her sound engineer, was making a film about a fledgling hip-hop performer on a road trip of self-discovery when the driver pulled over for a pit stop at an RV park near Manor, just east of Austin’s creeping suburban sprawl. That’s when Propper saw a cow, a couple of horses, and a Longhorn standing in a field. The creatures intrigued Propper, who grew up in the suburbs of Los Angeles, and she sought out their owner to ask permission to film them. His name was James Burke…The post This Twentysomething Texan Is Already an Award-Winning Film Director appeared first on Texas Monthly.
In the latest dispatch from Texas Country Reporter, meet Round Rock resident John Urban, also known as “the Train Doctor.” The former faith leader finds joy in refurbishing and fixing model trains at King’s Hobby in North Austin, but the real lesson in life, he says, is remembering to pursue curiosity at any age.The post The Train Doctor of Round Rock Prescribes a Little Childlike Wonder appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Last week, Willie Nelson added yet another honor to his already boundless résumé: Rock & Roll Hall of Fame nominee. Willie made the short list for this year’s ceremony for the first time, along with others who’ve made outsized contributions to the genre—Iron Maiden, Joy Division (and its spin-off band, New Order), Rage Against the Machine, and Soundgarden among them. Willie’s nomination isn’t without controversy, though. Only a fool would argue against his excellence as a performer, songwriter, and icon—but does he belong in this particular Hall of Fame? Country fans and rock purists alike have struggled with the question. So have Texas Monthly’s own Andy Langer and Dan Solomon, who find themselves on opposite sides of the issue. As we count down the weeks until…The post Does Willie Nelson Belong in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame? appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Jasmine Crockett was a passionate presence in her one and only term in the Texas House. She was an even more notable absence among the instigators of the quorum break that led almost the entire Democratic caucus to steal its way out of Austin and decamp en masse to Washington, D.C., for a few weeks in the summer of 2021 to try to keep Republicans from enacting new voting restrictions during a special session of the Legislature. Crockett, who is, at 41, the youngest Black legislator, emerged to the broader public as one of the faces and voices of the Democrats in exile, thanks to her background as a civil rights and defense attorney and her telegenic ebullience. Democrats failed to lobby a Democratic Congress and…The post Two Texas Progressives Got Seats on the U.S. House’s Most Anti-Biden Committee appeared first on Texas Monthly.
One night in the fall of 1869, an angel visited a homeopathic physician in upstate New York named Cyrus Teed. She told him he was the Lamb of God, spoken of in the Bible’s book of Revelation, who was prophesied to open the seven seals and bring about the end-time. This was heady stuff and Teed embraced his destiny. Eventually, he attracted followers, moved with them to a plot of land in rural Florida, and waited for a great fire that would ignite the world in the “grandest pyrotechnic display.” By then, Teed had decided he wasn’t just the Lamb; he was the modern incarnation of another biblical figure, the Persian king Cyrus. He dropped his given name and adopted a new moniker, the Hebrew…The post The Waco Fire Is Still Burning appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Every winter, Texans flock like migrating geese to higher elevations, where we strap on skis or snowboards and point ourselves down snow-slickened mountain slopes. So many of us hit the slopes at some resorts—three that come to mind are Wolf Creek Ski Area and Crested Butte Mountain Resort in Colorado and Red River Ski Area in New Mexico—that these vacations can feel almost like home. You’re likely to sit next to a fellow Texan on a chairlift, sip a beer next to one when you belly up to the bar for some après-ski refreshment, or ease your aching quads next to one soaking in a hot tub like a dumpling in a pot.Trying to decide where to cool your heels this winter or spring? Every destination…The post Six Great Ski Spots for Texans appeared first on Texas Monthly.
The knock on his door came less than 24 hours after Christopher Flakus was raised from the dead. It had been more than six years since he’d overcome his longtime addiction to heroin and prescription opioids. He had finished his undergraduate degree, began pursuing a master of fine arts, and was teaching creative writing. But the isolation of the COVID-19 pandemic—followed by the end of a long-term romantic relationship and the February 2021 statewide freeze and blackout that burst pipes and destroyed his apartment—left the 35-year-old feeling “enveloped totally by despair.” The following May, almost without thinking, he’d shelled out $20 for a drug he hoped would bring relief. The sidewalk dealer called it heroin. But after Flakus injected “a grain of rice worth” into…The post To Stem a Rising Tide of Fentanyl Overdoses, These Texas Paramedics Are Going Door-to-door appeared first on Texas Monthly.
On Sunday, the NBA world absorbed the bombshell reports of a trade that would send All-Star guard Kyrie Irving to the Dallas Mavericks. Irving, who had been with the Brooklyn Nets since 2019, is one of the league’s top talents—and also one of its most, uh, mercurial personalities. He’s prone to embracing conspiracy theories, he seems to believe that whatever he sees on YouTube or Instagram is the gospel truth, and he has some, er, curious ideas about everything from COVID-19 vaccines to the shape of the Earth to—well, to whether a Hitler-referencing film called Hebrews to Negroes: Wake Up Black America is an accurate history of the Jewish people. In other words, he will probably be happier in Texas than in New York. Following a suspension…The post Four Items for Kyrie Irving’s Texas Bucket List appeared first on Texas Monthly.
For nearly seventy years, three generations of Skrehot family members have been serving up southern hospitality at Barbecue Inn in Houston. While they do serve your traditional Texas barbecue fare, it’s the fried chicken that keeps customers coming back for more. See more in the latest dispatch from Texas Country Reporter.The post The Legendary Barbecue Inn Serves Up Fried Favorites appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Beyoncé did not win the Grammy for Album of the Year.This is surprising, because Renaissance is one of the finest albums by one of the most celebrated artists in the history of popular music. It’s also not surprising, because the Recording Academy loves nothing more than to not give its major awards to Beyoncé. It didn’t give her the Album of the Year award in 2017, when Lemonade was in contention. (Adele, who won, wept as she dedicated her award to Queen Bey.) It didn’t give her that award in 2015, when her industry-altering self-titled album was in contention. (The prize was awarded to Beck’s sixth-best album instead.) It denied her Record of the Year last year for her collaboration with Megan Thee Stallion on…The post Beyoncé Still Can’t Win Album of the Year, and Other Things We Learned From the Grammys appeared first on Texas Monthly.
The Alamo, where one of the world’s most famous last stands took place—a sacred Texas shrine abutting Ripley’s Believe It or Not! Odditorium—has always been as much a puzzle palace as a historic site. Only a few weeks after the 1836 battle ended and the funeral pyres of the defenders had stopped smoldering, the sprawling Spanish mission that had been turned into a fortress was being torn down by the victorious Mexican Army. And that was just the beginning. With its walls and houses destroyed or repurposed, its boundaries engulfed by urban expansion, its dignity degraded by amusement arcades and souvenir shops, and its physical integrity threatened by the ceaseless exhaust of automobile traffic, the Alamo has been transformed over time into an almost incomprehensible…The post The Alamo’s New Battle Plan appeared first on Texas Monthly.
It’s a typical weekend in the upscale neighborhood of Oak Park, three miles from the San Antonio airport, and the shopping center off busy Nacogdoches Road is filled with customers milling about. They leave the dry cleaners, finagling with the blowing sheets of plastic around skirts and suits, and load cars with groceries from H-E-B. Outside Starbucks, a group of women laugh on the sunny patio. Just a few blocks away, a wrought-iron fence surrounds a small plot of land between Camellia Lane and Hillview Drive. Oak leaves blow around signs identifying prickly pears, Alamo vines, and mountain laurels. You’d never know it, but beneath this spot lie more than five thousand feet of subterranean mazes. One of Texas’s first show caves, the place once hosted…The post One of Texas’s Coolest Caves Lies Beneath an Upscale San Antonio Neighborhood appeared first on Texas Monthly.
By the time Ray Lopez put the crispy dog on the menu at his namesake Ray’s Drive Inn in 1956, it was already an iconic San Antonio food. The dish—an American cheese–stuffed frankfurter that’s wrapped in a corn tortilla and deep-fried—might not have been held in as high regard as Lopez’s puffy taco, but denizens of the Alamo City hankered for it. They continue to do so. Lopez’s niece and the restaurant’s current co-owner, Maria Lopez-Rambo, tells me crispy dogs aren’t going off the menu anytime soon. “Our customers love them too much for us to remove them,” she explains. Crunchy on the outside, soft and gooey on the inside, and served with yellow mustard, crispy dogs are indeed addictive.While crispy dogs might have once…The post How the Crispy Dog Became San Antonio’s Signature Snack appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Whether perched against a mountain with the chill of the high desert wind blowing across his brows or steeped in the summer heat on the Texas-Mexico border to unravel stories from the past, David Keller is most comfortable in the outdoors. During 21 years at the Center for Big Bend Studies at Sul Ross State University, in the far West Texas town of Alpine, Keller has played a principal role in documenting the region’s nearly 12,000-year history. He’s excavated prehistoric sites where early inhabitants scraped out a living in the harsh desert, and he discovered evidence raising new questions about the massacre of residents of Mexican descent at the Texas border village of Porvenir in 1918.For Keller, who grew up in Lubbock, landing a staff…The post A Celebrated West Texas Archaeologist Has Been Fired—and No One Will Say Why appeared first on Texas Monthly.
The Texas Monthly editorial staff is continuing to grow in 2023. We are thrilled to announce that Sasha von Oldershausen and Lauren Castro have both begun their official tenure this January.Sasha von Oldershausen has joined the editorial team as an associate editor—focusing primarily on News & Politics. Sasha has written for a wide array of state, regional, and national publications, including the Big Bend Sentinel, the International, the Atlantic, the Believer, Harper’s, New York magazine, the New York Times, and more. More recently, she’s worked as a Metro desk stringer for the New York Times and has been helping the paper cover the Iranian diaspora as protests have spread over the past few months.If her name rings a bell, it’s for good reason. Sasha’s byline has been featured…The post Texas Monthly Welcomes Two New Hires appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Usually it sounds like distant thunder punctuated by a bone-splitting crack. Then the lights flicker before going out. Sometimes, it’s silent. Hundreds of pounds of ice weigh down a branch, which sags onto a power line, stretching it until the copper and steel tendrils snap. And then the lights go out.This week, for the second time in less than two years, hundreds of thousands of Texans were left sitting in extended winter darkness. Only this time, the culprit wasn’t an Arctic blast that froze up power plants and gas infrastructure—it was icy trees.The “oakpocalypse” has wreaked havoc across much of the Hill Country through Central Texas and into northeast Texas, places where the Quercus virginiana, the live oak, has taken root. These beautiful specimens have…The post Why Can’t Texas Just Bury Its Electrical Lines? appeared first on Texas Monthly.
James Harry Reyos spends a lot of time by himself, waiting to go home. He wakes up about 4 a.m. in his room at the ragged South Austin housing complex where he lives. He goes to the dayroom and gets a cup of coffee and a doughnut or a pastry. He might watch the news on the TV there. Many of the other residents are ex-cons like him, accustomed to rising early, and they drift in and out.He’ll spend most of the rest of his day alone in his small room, listening to country music (he loves George Jones and Dolly Parton), reading, writing, and remembering. For Reyos, the past is never far away. On the wall above his bed is a large American flag…The post The Apache, the Irish Catholic Priest, and a 40-Year-Old Miscarriage of Justice appeared first on Texas Monthly.
When Attica Locke wrote “The Exile’s Lament,” her 2012 essay on being from (and leaving) Texas, she was already deep into an incredibly accomplished career. Her debut novel, Black Water Rising, published three years earlier, had been nominated for a half dozen major awards, and its follow-up was hotly anticipated. Working in Hollywood, she’d contributed to film scripts for major studios. But she was nervous, she says, about telling a more personal story. “It just scared the crap out of me,” she recalls. “I’m very comfortable just making things up. I get very nervous about telling the truth.” What Locke turned in was a powerful, clear-eyed—yet tenderhearted—look at both Texas and her adopted home in California. She wrote of taking her family for barbecue in the San…The post A Novelist and Hollywood Screenwriter Grapples With Her Texan Identity appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Cra-a-ck.The occasional resounding snap of falling branches (and portions of trees much too big to be called branches) broke up the wintry calm in Central Texas Wednesday. Many woke to an icy wonderland of trees bedazzled and seemingly dripping with the night’s precipitation—a watery, sleety mix sometimes both ambitiously and wrongly called “snow.” Two years out from a harrowing and deadly winter freeze, Texans understandably worried and tweeted and texted about the power grid and the roads and the grocery store lines. They shared funny videos, à la Seattle ice chaos, on TikTok, and they took “Who lost power?” polls in group chats. But they also talked about the trees. Because, what about the trees? Roads and yards were littered with fallen limbs, and trees that hadn’t…The post But What About the Trees? The Rundown on Texas’s Icy “Oakpocalypse” appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Jason Robertson dropped to the second round of the 2017 National Hockey League draft because of his skating skill, or lack thereof. Six years later, the Dallas Stars left winger is on pace to set franchise records for goals and points and is set to appear in his first NHL All-Star game Saturday in South Florida.“Obviously, you can see the numbers,” Robertson said of his 66 points on 33 goals and 33 assists through 51 games. “But the only thing I can do is go out there and perform. If I keep doing that, the numbers will come.”Those statistics put him in league with Dallas’s first NHL superstar, Mike Modano, the flashy forward and former number one overall draft pick who was the face of…The post Filipino American Jason Robertson Is the Breakout Star of the NHL Season appeared first on Texas Monthly.
My initial response to the recent surge of media buzz over ChatGPT has been to shrug. The free chatbot, developed by Microsoft-backed, San Francisco–based startup OpenAI, pulls from millions of writings from the Internet to answer queries in natural, humanlike language. One media site even announced it would start creating content using the technology formally called a large language model.Thinking about tacos, as I always do, I decided to throw ChatGPT a series of taco-related questions and commands. The results ranged from boring and comical to plain-old dumb and false. I started with the basics. I asked ChatGPT to define a taco, something seemingly simple but actually more philosophical than one might assume. The definition of a taco is something that even those of us who…The post We Asked ChatGPT to Define a Taco. Here’s What It Said. appeared first on Texas Monthly.
On a muggy September night, Jean and his wife waited restlessly on a fume-filled patch of pavement in front of a Stripes gas station that serves as a Greyhound stop in Del Rio. Hours earlier, U.S. Border Patrol agents, who had arrested the couple when they crossed the Rio Grande into the city, dropped them off at the bus stop and suggested they make their way north or 150 miles east to San Antonio. Jean’s wife, visibly pregnant, sat down carefully in the parking lot, pressing her back against the cinder block wall of the Stripes. Nearby, a handful of families with young children huddled together, murmuring anxiously in Haitian Creole. A man on crutches gave me a wary look; a blind man tapped his…The post The Case for Busing Migrants appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Last week, the Sundance Film Festival brought people back to Park City, Utah, for the first time since 2020. It also brought them to the Texas border. Three standout Sundance films—the documentary Going Varsity in Mariachi, the based-on-a-true story student/teacher drama Radical, and the biopic Cassandro—were set on both sides of the Rio Grande Valley, as well as in El Paso and Juárez. While it can sometimes feel a little forced to say that any given Sundance has a theme or trend (though many have tried: “New Queer Cinema” in 1992; climate change in 2017; #MeToo in 2018) such commonalities reflect what’s happening in the world, and say something about both the stories writers and directors want to tell, and what the programmers at Sundance choose…The post Three New, True Stories From the Texas-Mexico Border appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Boyle’s BBQ is a family-run joint in East Texas. Co-owner Taffy Boyle is a showman with a “MEATKING” license plate and a local radio program. He runs the business side, while his sister-in-law, Mandy, rules the front-of-house operations. Taffy’s brother, George, is the pitmaster, but George starts to have doubts about his profession. A new employee lends him some DVDs, including Okja, a film that vilifies the meat industry, and George takes the drastic step of becoming vegan. “I’m a murderer,” he says, on his knees, weeping at the sight of a smoker full of briskets. That’s how the third episode of the new show Poker Face, airing on Peacock, kicks off.Natasha Lyonne stars as Charlie Cale, a private investigator who mixes the inquisitiveness of…The post How ‘Poker Face’ Re-created an East Texas BBQ Joint for TV appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Larry Mahan. Tuff Hedeman. Jim Shoulders. Lane Frost. Ty Murray. Growing up in West Texas, these were some of the rodeo stars I could rattle off as easily as any football-obsessed kid reciting the names of Dallas Cowboys quarterbacks. My granny was the one who introduced me. Every January, she’d drive us some thirty miles from my hometown to the Sandhills Stock Show and Rodeo, in Odessa. It was there, bundled up in the frigid Ector County Coliseum, that I fell in love with the sport, especially the rough stock events: saddle bronc, bareback, and bull riding. And yet, despite my early appreciation for rodeo and its legends, it wasn’t until 2017, when I was nearly thirty years old, that I first heard the name…The post Rodeo Fans Should Grow Up Learning About This Legendary Black Rider appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Texas Monthly has published many stories on the tejano legend Selena over the years, starting with a 1994 piece that ended, “A million Selena fans can’t be wrong,” which was quickly followed by a 1995 article recounting the star’s murder at the hands of Yolanda Saldívar, the president of Selena’s fan club.But the writer who has the most Selena stories under her byline (as of 2023) is Cat Cardenas. A former Texas Monthly intern who later worked as a staff writer from 2019 to 2022, Cardenas mined her lifelong fandom and took every opportunity to write about the singer: when Texas made April 16 “Selena Day”; when Forever 21 launched a Selena clothing collection; when the McNay Art Museum, in San Antonio, opened a photo…The post A Culture Writer and Lifelong Selena Fan’s Ultimate Love Letter to the Icon appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Actors are in the business of transformation. They take on new accents, spend hours getting prosthetics applied, gain and lose weight, all in the name of becoming their latest character. For male actors in particular, much is often made of their bodily makeovers. Want to win an Oscar? Look to Christian Bale in The Fighter or Matthew McConaughey in Dallas Buyers Club. Want to star in the next big blockbuster? Become the next comic-book superhero? Then go the route of John Krasinski, Kumail Nanjiani, or Chris Pratt. This year, Dallas’s own Jonathan Majors will be flexing his range and his muscles, making the most of a bulked-up physique to embody three wildly different roles. In February, he’ll make his Marvel film debut as Kang the Conqueror…The post In ‘Magazine Dreams,’ Jonathan Majors Builds Himself Up to Fall Apart appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Say this for Texas politicians in favor of the oil and gas industry: they aren’t hypocritical about it. Congressman Dan Crenshaw, for example, both believes in climate change and in expanding the use of fossil fuels, including via offshore energy exploration. He’s not alone in this; in 2021, some fellow House Republicans from Texas, including Lance Gooden, Ronny Jackson, and August Pfluger, coauthored legislation with Crenshaw to continue drilling on the Outer Continental Shelf in the Gulf of Mexico, right off the coast of their own home state. You can agree or disagree with their positions, but in either case, you gotta hand it to ’em—they’re consistent. In Florida, meanwhile, those in the pro-oil contingent have an, er, more nuanced view of energy exploration. Broadly speaking,…The post Florida Politicians Would Love to See More Drilling in Texas. Florida? Not So Much. appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Texas Country Reporter visits Jahmicah Dawes, founder of the first Black-owned outdoor retailer in the nation, located in Stephenville. In this interview, Dawes explains the motivation behind Slim Pickins Outfitters, which rose to nationwide prominence in 2021.The post Jahmicah Dawes on the Origins of Slim Pickins Outfitters appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Nari Hodges founded Ooyoo Pan, with her boyfriend, Aldo Cortes. Based in San Antonio, the pop-up micro bakery specializes in handcrafted sweets that are a fusion of Korean and Mexican flavors, paying homage to both Hodges’ and Cortes’ heritages. (Ooyoo is “milk” in Korean, and pan is “bread” in Spanish.) See more in the latest dispatch from Texas Country Reporter.The post A San Antonio Micro Bakery Creates Cartoon-Like Macarons That Blend Cultures appeared first on Texas Monthly.
When a leopard escaped from the Dallas Zoo on January 13, it appeared at first to be an isolated incident—the sort of weird but mostly harmless news that regularly fills Texas Monthly’s Meanwhile, in Texas column. Twitter teemed with jokes about the zoo’s assurances that Nova the clouded leopard was “non-dangerous.” (At 25 pounds, Nova is closer in size to a house cat than a mountain lion—though if you’ve ever encountered a grouchy cat whose claws haven’t been trimmed, you know not to underestimate them.) After a day-long search, zookeepers found a confused but unharmed Nova still on zoo grounds, not far from her enclosure. While it was worrisome that someone had cut a hole in the leopard habitat and gotten away with it, the…The post What the Heck Is Going On at the Dallas Zoo? appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Caliente Hot Glass is a professional glassblowing studio in San Antonio run by Glen Andrews, an erudite craftsman animated by philosophical ideas and lessons from Plato. Texas Country Reporter interviews Andrews in his studio about his process.The post A San Antonio Glass Artist Takes Inspiration From the Ancients appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Moments after her second child was born, Nakeenya Wilson almost bled to death. The Austin mom had already spent that day in 2016 enduring one problem after another at the hospital, from a long wait for a scheduled induction—a simple and common procedure to start labor—to a nurse who kept getting her name wrong. “I felt like I was being punked,” Wilson recalled. “It was kooky from the beginning.” But things got serious when she started to hemorrhage. The bleeding was later chalked up to several risk factors Wilson had throughout her pregnancy, along with the unusual position of her son during delivery. But during her care, she said she received almost no communication about what was going on. “I didn’t even know that I was…The post Health Care for New Mothers in Texas Is Abysmal. Will the Lege Finally Take Action? appeared first on Texas Monthly.
While standing in line at Kat’s Barbecue in Santa Fe (about 45 minutes south of Houston), it didn’t seem like I was in a restaurant that’s only been around for seven years. Employee Ernie Angel shared some familiar banter with most of the customers, and small talk with the rest, as he took their orders at the register. To his right, owner Andrew Steiner sliced the barbecue on a large cutting block and prepared the orders that he placed in the window, through which he surveyed the small, crowded dining room. “Is that Miss Alabama?” he shouted as a silver-haired woman walked though the door. She smiled and waved. Steiner already knew her order, and he says he knows the name of just about everyone…The post This Barbecue Joint Loves Its Community—and the Small Town Loves It Right Back appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Isaac Arellano and his wife, Ashley, opened Pitforks and Smokerings BBQ on a remote stretch of highway in the same building where Isaac’s father built the business that supported his family. Texas Country Reporter visits them in Slaton, where Issac explains how they’re carrying on his father’s legacy.The post Just Off Highway 84 in Slaton Is a Barbecue Family Legacy appeared first on Texas Monthly.
When the 2023 Oscar nominations were announced last week, media outlets that traffic in awards-show coverage as a form of celebrity gossip flooded the internet with lists of high-profile snubs, headlined by Tom Cruise, Viola Davis, and Taylor Swift. Much harder to find was any thoughtful discussion of the year’s best nonfiction films, or of this year’s most egregious exclusion from the list of Best Documentary Feature nominees: Descendant, by Austin-based filmmaker Margaret Brown.Descendant, executive produced by Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson and distributed by Barack and Michelle Obama’s Higher Ground Productions in collaboration with Netflix, tells the story of the 2019 underwater discovery of the slave ship Clotilda near the delta of the Mobile River in Alabama, where it was secretively burned in July 1860 after…The post The Year’s Most Fascinating Documentary Won’t Be at the Oscars appeared first on Texas Monthly.
The bill: Senate Bill 314Filed by: Bob Hall, Republican, Senate District 2 (Edgewood)What it would do: A few things. First, it would require that foods containing human fetal tissue be labeled. Then, it would—Okay, we should probably pause at that one. There, uh, are no foods containing human fetal tissue on your local supermarket shelves (or elsewhere!). Hall’s bill outlines several different kinds of foods that it defines as “fetal tissue food product”: first, foods containing human fetal tissue, which is downright macabre to attempt to imagine. (Some viral social media misinformation threads suggest that it might be a secret ingredient in plant-based meat, even though fetal tissue is (a) not being used in this manner, and we’re not even sure how that would work,…The post A Republican Lawmaker Wants to Make Sure Foods Containing Fetal Tissue—Say What?—Are Clearly Labeled appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Way back in the Cretaceous era, whenever I took a road trip, I would play a cassette or CD by an artist from the city I was visiting. It was an experiment to see if the songs would deepen my understanding of the place, and, vice versa, to see if the experience would enrich my understanding of the music. The latter proved especially true as I passed by local landmarks and played, say, the Texas Tornados in San Antonio, T-Bone Walker in Dallas, and Ray Sharpe in Fort Worth. Why would the exercise result in this resonance? I have no idea, but more prominent ears than my own have noticed the phenomenon, and I don’t make the rules.Then came Spotify. I had been wanting to…The post The Ultimate Road-Trip Playlists for Six Texas Destinations appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Many people may know Lindale as Miranda Lambert’s hometown, but locals Kaitlin and Jeremiah Cagle are catching attention with their charming old-school candy shop, located just a block off Main Street. While the couple has introduced a new line of sweets, they are best known for hand-pulled peppermint made with tools and techniques passed down from the store’s original owners. The process is performed in a kitchen with large windows facing the sidewalk, and attracts crowds of onlookers. See more in the latest dispatch from Texas Country Reporter.The post The Last Peppermint Show: An East Texas Candy Shop Keeps a Tradition Alive appeared first on Texas Monthly.
You’ve had all month to read the latest issue of Texas Monthly. Take this monthly quiz and we’ll tell you how you stack up at the end.And if you got this quiz from a friend: Hello! We hope you enjoy it. If you do: become a subscriber today, and we’ll send next month’s quiz directly to your inbox.The post January 2023 Reader Quiz: What Did You Learn? appeared first on Texas Monthly.
The Texas landscape doesn’t get more fantastical than Caddo Lake, a nearly 27,000–acre swamp on the Texas-Louisiana border, thought to have formed around 1800 after centuries of fallen-log pileups. Spanish moss dangles from bald cypress trees, whose roots protrude like termite mounds above the water. Though just nine feet in average depth, the lake teems with all manner of creatures, including alligators, snakes, and paddlefish, which predate the dinosaurs by 50 million years. Some even claim to have seen Bigfoot wandering around.“It’s kind of wondrous,” says artist Billy Hassell. “It looks primeval and mysterious, and you can definitely get lost in there.” Hassell grew up in Dallas and first glimpsed the wild through the taxidermy dioramas at the Museum of Natural History; now he takes sketching…The post Texas Charged 30 Artists With Capturing the Beauty of State Parks. This Is What Happened. appeared first on Texas Monthly.
David Thomas Roberts took the stage brandishing a rifle and backdropped by a replica of the facade of the Alamo. Inside an exhibition room in the Montgomery County Fairgrounds recently used to host the local kennel club and a reptile show, he was leading the Rally Against Censorship an hour north of Houston. A crowd of a few hundred right-wingers listened intently, as he began his speech with a trigger warning. “I know there are children here, so I’m going to be careful, but I’m pissed off,” he said, before launching into an explanation of his anger.The main outrage of Roberts, a prolific author and the founder of a right-wing press, concerned the media fracas surrounding his rally. In early January, Southern Star Brewing, a…The post Kyle Rittenhouse and What the Right Is Talking About When It Talks About Censorship appeared first on Texas Monthly.
In 1972, Raymond Edmonds and his college friends opened a vegetarian sandwich, salad, and smoothie shop in Houston. In the spirit of the counterculture movement of the time, they named it Hobbit Hole Cafe, after the popular J. R. R. Tolkien novels. Today, Edmonds still runs Hobbit Cafe, as it is now known, alongside his son John. The restaurant’s reputation and menu have grown over the past fifty years. While the cafe’s offerings may not be strictly authentic to Middle Earth, fellowship still rings true at this Houston establishment. See more in the latest dispatch from Texas Country Reporter.The post Houston’s Hobbit Cafe: From Hippie-dippie to Double-decker appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Kyle DeLaughter grew up in the aisles of his family’s grocery store in Maud, just southwest of Texarkana. Eventually, he took the reins of DeLaughter’s Grocery & Deli, known for scratch-made country cooking, fresh meats from an in-house butcher, wild-game processing, and the friendly charm that defines close-knit communities. See more in the latest dispatch from Texas Country Reporter.The post DeLaughter’s Is the Little Grocery Store That Could appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Leonard Botello IV has spent the last eight years chasing smoked brisket perfection. It began with Truth Barbeque, which he opened in Brenham in 2015, and which made the top ten on our 2017 barbecue list. A gleaming new location in Houston followed two years later, which jumped up to the number-three spot on our 2021 list, based largely on the quality of that smoked brisket. The Truth brand got so big that Botello’s wife (and boutique hotelier), Abbie Byrom-Botello, hired a public relations firm that sent me a pitch. It was strange enough that, unlike every other PR pitch I’ve received in my ten years at Texas Monthly, I pursued it. The subject line referred to the “fourth slice methodology,” which the pitch described…The post Is the Fourth Slice the Barometer for a Well-Cooked Brisket? appeared first on Texas Monthly.
When I visited Brownsville on a breezy day back in February 2022, I drove to the SpaceX launchpad site, just meters from the Gulf of Mexico at Boca Chica, a beach on the city’s outskirts. I was shocked by how close I could get to the rockets. The only thing that stopped me from touching the towering metal cylinders was a sense that something was off. “It feels like you’re being monitored,” says Brownsville native Domingo Martinez, author of The Boy Kings of Texas, a 2012 National Book Award finalist for nonfiction. “The back of your neck is tingling.” I had mentioned the incident while Martinez and I were discussing his August 2016 Texas Monthly article “Countdown to Liftoff.” The story braids a personal account of…The post An Author Believed Elon Musk Would Benefit Brownsville. Not Anymore. appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Erykah Badu is undeniably in the pantheon of singular Texas musicians, alongside Ornette Coleman, Buddy Holly, Esteban Jordan, Willie Nelson, Omar Rodríguez-López, and Sly Stone. Over her 25-year career, the Dallas singer-songwriter-weirdo has helped shape the direction of hip-hop, soul, jazz, and rock and roll. She’s done this without being terribly prolific—she’s only released five studio albums, the most recent of which came out in 2010. (She also put out a live album just nine months after her 1997 debut, and a 2015 mixtape.) But when every release feels like a statement, that lack of regular production just furthers the artist’s mystique. The newest statement to Badu’s timelessness comes not from Badu—we’re still waiting on LP number six—but from New York–based jazz vocalist José James. On…The post Reexamining Erykah Badu’s Place in the Pantheon With José James’s ‘On & On’ appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Pearl-snap shirts have traditionally served a utilitarian purpose. The snaps allow a rancher to easily refasten the shirt if it gets snagged on barbed wire—no need to sew on a new four-hole button. The yoke, an extra layer of fabric over the shoulders and partly down the back, provides durability. And a touch of flair is woven into the chain-stitched designs, from yellow roses to Longhorn skulls, across the chest. But why should cowboys have all the fun?Three Texas brands are modernizing the pearl-snap shirt into a style to be worn meeting with friends at the bar on Friday night, toasting newlyweds on Saturday evening, or casting out a line on Sunday morning. According to Houston-based personal stylist Stevie Bingham, the modern take on the…The post Three Updated Pearl-Snap Shirts for the Modern Cowboy appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Texas has a special place in professional wrestling lore. Countless icons, from “Stone Cold” Steve Austin to Eddie Guerrero to Terry Funk, have called the state home, and in previous eras, when the sport was governed by regional territories, cities like Amarillo, Dallas, and El Paso were thriving hubs of scripted combat. Texas didn’t just conceive famous wrestlers; it also spawned a unique type of match that has forever linked the Lone Star State and hard-core violence in the minds of rasslin’ fans—the Texas Death Match. Created in the Panhandle in the 1960s, the Texas Death Match has retained its place over more than half a century of change, as wrestling transformed from regional entertainment to a global multimedia industry. You won’t see a Texas…The post The Rise and Fall and Resurgence of Pro Wrestling’s “Texas Death Match” appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Have you heard? The Eighty-eighth session of the Texas Legislature is underway. For the next 124 days, the Lege, as it’s known ’round here, will meet in its regular session until it adjourns sine die on May 29. (“Sine die” is Austinese for “thank goodness it’s over.”)The Lege, God love it, is the oldest and most important institution in Texas, more so even than college football and the Department of Transportation. It is the seat of power of the world’s ninth-largest economy. Its 181 lawmakers regularly make decisions that alter the trajectories of the lives of millions inside and outside the state. The Lege’s numbered sessions form a continuous thread that links every generation in the state’s history down to the present one, which meets…The post How to Survive the Texas Legislature appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Texas Monthly has a history of publishing oddball crime stories, such as “Family Man,” the tale of a suburban dad who stole safes with his down-and-out siblings, or “How Not to Rob a Bank,” about two bumbling thieves who make one obvious error after another. In the January 2016 issue of the magazine, a Corsicana accountant named Sandy Jenkins provided us with another doozy. Jenkins, a low-level employee at the city’s famed fruitcake company, the Collin Street Bakery, embezzled $17 million from 2004 to 2013, spending the money on cars, trips, watches, and jewelry—all so that he could keep up appearances with the upper crust of his town of 24,000.When I began reporting “Just Desserts” in 2015, I never imagined that Jenkins would talk. But…The post An Unforgettable Texas Tale of Envy, Embezzlement, and Fruitcake appeared first on Texas Monthly.
At Cook’s Garage in Lubbock, Texas, owner Rusty Cook has accumulated enough vintage signs to cover both the inside and outside of the entire restaurant. So many signs, in fact, that he had to hire someone to maintain them all. That’s where Rebecca Welch stepped in. A professional neon glass bender, Rebecca is responsible for restoring the restaurant’s numerous neon fixtures to their original charm and vibrancy. See more in the latest dispatch from Texas Country Reporter.The post This Lubbock Restaurant Is a Vintage-Sign and Neon-Fixture Utopia appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Today, the James Beard Foundation announced the semifinalists for its annual top honors of the restaurant industry. The list continues the paradigm-shifting nominations and winners of the 2022 awards with a diverse group. Texas restaurants and chefs racked up 41 long-list nominations. Together, they show the dynamism of the state’s dining scene, but there are surprises aplenty.Notably absent is San Antonio–based chef Steven McHugh, a perennial finalist, and the restaurants he co-owns with his wife, Sylvia McHugh. Cured, in the Historic Pearl District, the McHughs’ first restaurant, was a finalist six times between 2016 and 2022. Also missing is Mixtli, the San Antonio restaurant fronted by co-owners and chefs Diego Galicia and Rico Torres. The restaurant has garnered myriad accolades for its forward-thinking Mexican food…The post Barbecue and Mexican Cuisine Strongly Represented Among the 2023 James Beard Award Semifinalists appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Just who is Kandy Kaye Horn? When the East Texas outsider launched a bid for governor in 2022, this was the question everyone asked when they drove by one of her billboards, which had cost an estimated $1.4 million to plant across the state. Clad in a dress emblazoned with dollar bills, her face framed by flame-red bangs, Horn beamed a practiced society-page smile beneath slogans that proclaimed her a “SUCCESSFUL CHRISTIAN BUSINESSWOMAN” and a “DIFFERENT KIND OF REPUBLICAN” who wanted to decriminalize marijuana. Horn made an instant impression, although it proved to be a fleeting one: after she garnered a minuscule one-percent return in the primaries, her political life was over before it had barely begun. Whoever Kandy Kaye Horn was, it seemed, most…The post Kandy Kaye Horn Was Unknown When She Ran for Governor. A New Documentary Only Deepens the Mystery. appeared first on Texas Monthly.
In the fall of 1980, an attorney looking for some free publicity called Texas Monthly staff writer John Bloom and told him: in one of the wildest crimes in state history, his client, Candy Montgomery, had blacked out with rage and killed her lover’s wife, a woman named Betty Gore—and was acquitted. Would Bloom want an interview with her?Of course he would. But Bloom hadn’t done much crime reporting at the time—certainly not as much as his colleague Jim Atkinson, who had been writing true crime for D Magazine—so Bloom and Atkinson decided to team up, writing a book for the fledgling Texas Monthly Press imprint, with excerpts published in the magazine.They divided the labor, with Bloom reporting on Candy Montgomery, the killer, and Atkinson…The post The True-Crime Classic That Inspired HBO Max’s Forthcoming ‘Love and Death’ appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Last November, Tony Luhrman brought his crew to the Butcher’s Ball in Brenham with high hopes. The event brings together chefs and pitmasters so they can highlight the products of independent farms and ranches and compete for the Golden Cleaver, which goes to the chef with the best dish. Luhrman, who owns El Topo in Houston (just featured in taco editor José R. Ralat’s list of best new taquerias), had already won the award with his barbacoa in 2018 when the business was still in a food truck. He moved into a brick-and-mortar in early 2020, and he left this past year’s Butcher’s Ball with the top award again after switching from cheeks to brisket. The winning brisket suadero taco has now found a permanent…The post This Brisket Isn’t Barbecued But Is Still a Smoky, Fatty Wonder Served in a Taco appeared first on Texas Monthly.
In 2016, Fredericksburg resident Richard Laughlin, the owner of Laughlin Homes and Restoration, created the program Casa Über Alles. It aims to foster a passion for the building trades with a program that gives students hands-on experience through constructing a concept home each year. Laughlin hopes to provide students who wish to enter the workforce after high school with the necessary trade skills to enter an industry full of opportunity. See more in the latest dispatch from Texas Country Reporter.The post Fredericksburg Students Are Picking Up Trade and Life Skills Through This Unique Course appeared first on Texas Monthly.
The Target Corporation is used to defending itself. That is, it’s used to playing the role of the defendant, often in federal copyright courts, where it faces off against much smaller businesses. In 2021, California company Globalo LLC sued Target for selling a product that infringed on a patent for a curling iron caddy. In 2019, a Georgia woman named Emily Golub, the founder of a meal-kit service called Garnish & Gather, came after the big-box behemoth for copying her name and logo when it launched its Good & Gather line of foodstuffs. Target has even angered fellow major players, such as London fashion house Burberry, which sued the chain in 2018 for allegedly ripping off several of its iconic plaids. But all of those…The post How a Texas Baby-Clothing Company Took Target Down (a Peg) appeared first on Texas Monthly.
As I crossed the Gateway International Bridge from Brownsville, I saw an imposing white tollgate with the words “Bienvenidos a Mexico” on the structure’s facade. I felt joy. Beyond was Matamoros, a city in the Mexican state of Tamaulipas that I last visited in February 2020. Accompanying me was Nathan Burkhart, a native Brownsvillian and Tejano (he was part of the 2020 excursion too), and my friend Rodrigo Bravo, from San Antonio. My happiness turned into excitement as we passed through the gate and entered a plaza featuring a towering abstract sculpture that had a vaguely Mesoamerican style. We met up with Oscar Zertuche, who grew up in Matamoros, went to school in Brownsville, and has been a longtime friend of Burkhart’s. He would guide…The post A Food Tour Through Matamoros Shows Off the City’s Signature Taco appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Without the aid of brushes, pens, or pastels, Natalie Irish has pioneered the art of lipstick painting, earning recognition in cities worldwide and on national television. A typical day in her art studio begins with her applying lipstick and “making out” with a canvas, as she puts it. Her process involves stamping and smearing her lips, creating both broad brushstrokes and fine detail. See more in the latest dispatch from Texas Country Reporter.The post A Texas Artist Creates Detailed Images With Nothing but Her Lips appeared first on Texas Monthly.
As the San Francisco 49ers began to celebrate another trip to the NFC Championship Game, television cameras caught a dejected Jerry Jones in his suite at Levi’s Stadium. The Cowboys owner was forced once more to wrap his mind around a play-off disappointment, this one a 19–12 loss on Sunday.In that moment, Jones looked all of his eighty years, glancing this way and that, surely understanding that the clock is ticking on many levels, especially for this generation of Cowboys and quarterback Dak Prescott, whose arrival in 2016 had generated so much optimism. Instead, the Cowboys keep coming up short. Later, Jones would attempt to describe the pain of Sunday’s failure.“I thought we were suited to come in here and win this thing,” he told…The post Another Year, Another Dallas Cowboys Play-off Disaster appeared first on Texas Monthly.
When Jeff Guinn was reporting his 2019 book, The Vagabonds, he learned that his primary subjects, Henry Ford and Thomas Edison, liked to spend time in Fort Myers, Florida. While there, they enjoyed visiting a compound created by Cyrus Teed, a late nineteenth-century religious firebrand who came to identify himself simply as “Koresh,” the Hebrew pronunciation of the Persian king Cyrus, of whom Teed claimed to be a new iteration. This Koresh, who had a couple hundred followers, insisted that he was the Lamb, the one who would open the Seven Seals of God named in the Bible and achieve, with his followers, a prominent place in God’s new kingdom. This all sounded familiar to Guinn. It sounded like the pitch of another Koresh—David.These are…The post Jones, Manson, and Now Koresh: Writer Jeff Guinn Has Completed His Unholy Trinity appeared first on Texas Monthly.
More than three thousand caves lie beneath the Texas Hill Country. Today, scientists and spelunkers have explored and mapped most of them. That wasn’t the case in the late 1950s, when James Reddell, an English major at the University of Texas, joined the school’s speleological society and began crawling into caves after class and on weekends. He enjoyed the physical challenge of climbing and sliding through narrow passageways and labyrinthine tunnels with only the light of his headlamp, but what really thrilled him was the chance to see spaces and creatures that were virtually unknown. While explorers had been mapping land in Texas for centuries, and collecting and identifying plants and animals aboveground, caves were essentially a blank slate. Reddell was captivated by these hidden…The post After a Long Saga, a Weird Little Texas Cave Critter Is Staying on the Endangered Species List appeared first on Texas Monthly.
A local legend in Wichita Falls claimed that a fifteen-foot sailboat was somehow parked inside the attic of a building downtown. Resident Jim Loudermilk heard that it belonged to a young Navy recruit who put it there right before he shipped off to World War II. When the building was sold to a new owner, Loudermilk was allowed to climb into the attic and check the story out for himself. There, buried under decades of dust and debris, was a Snipe, an eight-hundred-pound racing sailboat made in Mississippi and popularized in the 1930s.The owner offered it to Loudermilk under two conditions. One: he had to figure out how to get it down. And two: he would restore the old watercraft to its original glory.See the…The post A Texas Man Discovered an Old Boat in the Attic. Now What? appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Jeffie Brewer grew up hanging out at his family’s junkyard business, where rusted metal and beat up old cars were abound. As a kid, his job was to help weigh the trucks that came in on massive scales, and stamp their weight tickets. He began doodling on those weight tickets (to the delight of customers) and that turned into a lifelong passion for art. After earning degrees in sculpture and drawing, Brewer started working with the material he grew up with: metal. And now his colorful, lighthearted designs resemble doodles that have leapt off the page. See more in the latest dispatch from Texas Country Reporter.The post A Nacogdoches Artist Creates Giant Metalworks for the Kids Inside Us All appeared first on Texas Monthly.
HBO’s The Last of Us is the first of its kind—an adaptation of a video game that’s actually, um, good. The series, based on a pair of video games that have been heralded as the Lawrence of Arabia of the medium, is a zombie-apocalypse nightmare that deviates from the Walking Dead tropes of a collapsed civilization by showing instead what happens when society tries its dangedest to hang on under world-altering circumstances. These zombies are neither viral nor mystical—they’re the product of a fungal infection that turns anyone exposed into a host-carrier that seeks only to spread to (and/or eat) those around them.The first thirty minutes of the pilot episode, which aired on Sunday, shows the unfolding of the 2003 fungal outbreak through the eyes…The post How Well Texas Cities Would Survive a Zombie Apocalypse, Ranked appeared first on Texas Monthly.
During the lunch rush at East Market and Goods in Waco, the scents of wok-fired chicken and savory pancit waft through aisles of packaged bean threads and papadums. Hungry guests at the counter watch as skilled cooks whip up Filipino delicacies like crisp lumpia, grilled-to-perfection pork belly, and homey chicken adobo—dishes you can’t get anywhere else in Waco unless you have a Filipina auntie.Tim Kulkarni and Joni Navarra, the husband-and-wife owners of the store and deli, shoulder the responsibility of operating the only Asian grocery in town. At their 6,500-square-foot space in a busy strip mall off Highway 84, Kulkarni and Navarra have developed a diverse and rotating deli menu, and stock the shelves with culinary essentials from a wide variety of Asian cultures. The…The post The Only Asian Grocer in Waco Serves Its Growing Community With Hard-to-Find Ingredients and Filipino Food appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Texas has gained some clout with the convening of the 118th Congress. With the very narrow Republican majority in the House of Representatives, there are now four Texas Republicans chairing committees: Kay Granger of Fort Worth leads Appropriations, Jodey Arrington of Lubbock heads the Budget Committee, and Roger Williams of Austin chairs the Small Business Committee. And Michael McCaul of Austin is the first Texan in history to chair the House Committee on Foreign Affairs. McCaul’s role is likely the most consequential, nationally and internationally. McCaul, who has expressed his support for extending aid to Ukraine, will have to be the linchpin holding together bipartisan support for America’s commitment to Ukraine as some other congressional Republicans seek to end the U.S.’s involvement. Meanwhile, he has also…The post Michael McCaul Is the Most Powerful Texan in the House. Will He Be Able to Lead Foreign Affairs With a Divided Caucus? appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Happy New Year? Not for Texas thoroughbred racing, at least not according to the betting numbers that came out of the first weekend of Sam Houston Race Park’s thirtieth season. The Houston track opened its three-month, 43-date thoroughbred meet on January 6, with a total betting handle of $131,419, according to Equibase, a website that compiles nationwide racetrack data. (Handle refers to the amount wagered on the park’s races, as opposed to the track’s winnings or profits.) Last year’s opening day produced a handle of $3,332,147.Betting numbers fell so dramatically this year because last summer, the Texas Racing Commission prohibited state racetracks from exporting their thoroughbred simulcast signals to betting venues in other states. That’s how tracks across the country collect the vast majority of…The post A Regulatory Feud Threatens to End Thoroughbred Racing in Texas appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Retired firefighter Craig Joseph grew up in Houston’s Third Ward, where his grandparents, Frank and Mattie Jones, became anchors of the neighborhood when they opened This Is It in 1959. The soul food cafe has moved between locations over the years, but the recipes and the dedication of Joseph’s family have never changed. Texas Country Reporter visits the local favorite in the latest dispatch.The post A Visit to This Is It, Houston’s Soul Food Staple appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Nacogdoches local Mike Woody has worked as a forester, a carpenter, and a cabinetmaker. With such an obvious expertise in wood, one would think his retirement hobbies would follow suit.Not exactly. These days, he studies the towering pines that surround his self-built cabin and creates impressively intricate metal sculptures that he sells online, twisting trunks and leaves from simple fence wire. See more in the latest dispatch from Texas Country Reporter.The post A Forester Turned Artist Creates Wire Sculptures of Trees appeared first on Texas Monthly.
A decade ago, restaurant partners Tatsu Aikawa and Takuya Matsumoto added some barbecue into a bowl of their ramen. The pair had opened Ramen Tatsu-Ya in Austin the year prior, and Aikawa was providing barbecue from a few Lockhart joints for the staff’s family meal. He added it to the ramen, and a combination that now seems obvious was born. I enjoyed every drop of a smoked shoyu brisket ramen special at Ramen Tatsu-Ya in 2019, and three years later the concept has evolved into a permanent restaurant with the opening of BBQ Ramen Tatsu-Ya this past October.BBQ Ramen Tatsu-Ya is in the building that formerly housed Contigo, and Aikawa said taking over the space felt like coming full circle. It was in a 2015…The post A Decade of Experimentation Led This Beloved Ramen Restaurant Group to Open a Barbecue Joint appeared first on Texas Monthly.
On Tuesday, two women stood in front of the Korean War Veterans Memorial Wall of Remembrance in Washington, D.C., their arms full of red roses. They had each traveled a long way—Megan Marx from Parker, Colorado, and Terri Mumley from Powell, Tennessee. They had come to the wall to pay tribute—and to protest. The wall contains the names of 36,634 Americans who died in the war. But to the two women, it was flawed and incomplete; the wall erected to honor veterans lost in the Korean War did the exact opposite, debasing many of them—as well as their families.Seventy years ago, on January 18, 1953, Lloyd Smith Jr., Mumley’s grandfather, and Dwight Angell, the husband of Marx’s mother, died in a plane crash during the…The post Update: Family Members Press Congress on the Korean War Memorial Wall’s Errors appeared first on Texas Monthly.
A year ago, Brownsville resident Gilbert Hernandez pulled an all-nighter. He wanted to figure out why his hometown didn’t have a bookstore. “I pulled up a list of U.S. cities by population and Google Maps,” he says. With tools in hand, he went city by city and discovered that Brownsville, the historic town with a current population of about 187,000, was a book desert. According to his research, “it turns out that there are six cities larger than Brownsville without bookstores, but they exist in dense metropolitan areas,” Hernandez says. “The largest city on that list is North Las Vegas. If you live in North Las Vegas, where are you going to drive? Just ten minutes down the highway to Vegas.”Though Brownsvillians have two branches of a…The post Brownsville’s New Independent Bookstore Is an Oasis in the Desert appeared first on Texas Monthly.
After more than a decade of hauling smoked brisket and pastrami to Austin-area farmers’ markets, Geoffrey “Geo” Ellis finally has the restaurant he’s been dreaming of for Mum Foods. He had a sixteen-month run with a limited deli menu in a building he knew would be a temporary home. It closed in early 2020, but he’s back with a new location that’s a full-on smokehouse and delicatessen.A pair of thousand-gallon Bison smokers chug away out in front of the new Mum Foods, which opened in December. They’re tended by pitmaster Travis Crawford, who spent time cooking for LeRoy and Lewis Barbecue, Valentina’s Tex Mex BBQ, and the now-closed Smokin’ Beauty. He’s crafting some truly impressive sausages for Mum Foods. The ring-shaped sausages glistened with juices,…The post New York Deli Meets Central Texas Barbecue at This Pastrami-Forward Joint appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Inside a small, unassuming building in Tyler lies an explosion of flavors. C Rojo’s Taqueria blends Rogelio and Carrie Tellez’s Mexican and Chamorro origins, featuring tacos with grilled meats and seafood alongside flavors of mango, coconut, and pineapple. Texas Monthly taco editor José R. Ralat reviewed the restaurant in 2020, and the one-of-a-kind kitchen is still going strong. Meet the owners in the latest dispatch from Texas Country Reporter, and get a taste of their highly specific—and highly personal—culinary fusion.The post Meet the Couple Behind the Tropical Taqueria in East Texas appeared first on Texas Monthly.
When I met Charlotte, she had suffered for years from ulcerative colitis, a disease that causes inflammation and ulcers in the colon. With modern medicine, her condition and related illnesses such as Crohn’s disease are readily treatable with injectable prescription medications. But Charlotte, a 34-year-old whose name has been changed to protect her identity, is one of the 18 percent of Texans who are uninsured.Without basic coverage, she was unable to see a gastroenterologist when she began to suffer from bloody diarrhea, and her colon eventually became necrotic and ultimately needed to be removed. (Though surgical resection of the intestine was a common treatment for inflammatory bowel diseases until the early 2000s, over the last two decades, surgery for patients like Charlotte has become infrequent…The post Opinion: Texas Should Accept Medicaid Expansion appeared first on Texas Monthly.
A walk through the grocery store comes with new sticker shock: eggs are expensive. For some, prohibitively so. This month, the average cost of a carton of a dozen eggs reached $4.25, compared to $1.93 in January 2022, according to data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Why are eggs so dang pricey? The answer is twofold: inflation and avian influenza infecting egg-laying hens. Hearing this news as a taco editor and avid consumer of breakfast tacos, I can’t help but ask: what are Texans and the taquerias selling the morning staple to do?Ale Sanchez, co-owner of El Sancho Tex Mex BBQ, in Mission, says this latest spike doesn’t compare to egg prices during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. “Back then, a case…The post Egg Prices Are High, but Your Breakfast Taco Craving Doesn’t Have to Suffer appeared first on Texas Monthly.
For a half century, Texas Monthly has been telling stories by and about Texans and the unique state we inhabit. In celebration of our fiftieth anniversary, the February 2023 issue explores Texas icons of all shapes, sizes, species, and more, while telling stories of the characters, places, and institutions that have shaped the great state of Texas for the past fifty years. READ THE ISSUE Texas Monthly is also excited to announce the magazine’s new brand campaign. With the help of PlotTwist Creativity out of Dallas, an advertising campaign was developed that puts Texas Monthly‘s stories at the center. Thus, our new brand slogan “Stories for All Y’all” was born. Texas Monthly hopes that every Texan—and non-Texan, for that matter—can find a reflection of themselves…The post Celebrating 50 Years of Texas Monthly appeared first on Texas Monthly.
When Heidi Frazier began homeschooling her children, she noticed how important reading was for young minds. She began thrifting children’s books for a home library, but when her husband’s company was looking to get rid of thousands of books it had in its possession, she had the idea to create a used-book store that could also function as the only library in the little town of Lexington.Today, she admits digital screens are had to compete with, but she doesn’t think there should be any barriers to the wonderful worlds unlocked by books. In this video, Texas Country Reporter visits her store, 40 Acre Wood, where books are sold, loaned, donated, read, and discussed—and where every child who walks through the door gets to take home…The post The Lone Bookstore in a Town With No Library appeared first on Texas Monthly.
About that leopard that went missing at the Dallas Zoo last week: I had nothing to do with it. But when you write a book about a leopard escaping from a zoo, and then a leopard escapes from a zoo, you tend to fall into the person-of-interest category. “The Zoo is closed today due to a serious situation,” the Dallas Zoo tweeted at 10:20 a.m. on Friday, after a four-year-old female leopard named Nova was reported missing. She was found later that afternoon, hanging out near her habitat, to which she was returned—but not before her escape became national news and launched a multitude of wisecracks on social media. The Dallas Zoo is missing a leopard. Def Leppard could not be reached for comment. https://t.co/7o9SqgbQq2— JSWilliams1962…The post I Wrote a Book Called ‘The Leopard Is Loose.’ Then a Leopard Got Loose in Dallas. appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Bob Dylan includes several Texans in his new book about 66 twentieth-century, mostly American pop songs that he likes.He clearly appreciates Townes Van Zandt, observing that “One way to measure a songwriter is to look at the singers who sing their songs.” He notes that Van Zandt has been covered by the best, including Neil Young and Garth Brooks, among others. Another measure, Dylan adds, is whether a person’s songs are still performed. “Townes’s are,” he writes. “Every night—in small clubs, in lonely bedrooms, and wherever the brokenhearted watch the shadows grow long.”In analyzing Van Zandt’s “Pancho and Lefty,” Dylan focuses on the wretched facts of the songwriter’s mental health problems. Yet, despite taking that biographical approach, he doesn’t argue that “Pancho and Lefty” is…The post Bob Dylan’s Favorite Texas Songs appeared first on Texas Monthly.
The ranch is the foundation of much of Texas’s history and myth. The land is baked into our state’s DNA; early Texans were drawn to its abundance. Sam Middleton started selling ranches in 1971, following in the footsteps of his father and grandfather. His Lubbock-based company, Chas. S. Middleton and Son, has been in business for more than one hundred years, and Middleton has been involved in selling some of Texas’s most famous ranches, including the Matador, the Four Sixes, and, in 2016, the Waggoner Ranch, which was likely the biggest ranch sale in history. He recently sold T. Boone Pickens’s 65,000-acre Mesa Vista Ranch, located in the farthest reaches of the Panhandle. Texas Monthly: How would you describe the ranch market when you started fifty years…The post Texas’s Big Ranches Are Still Selling for Big Bucks appeared first on Texas Monthly.
When I wrote for this magazine four years ago about the state’s greatest honky-tonks, I ended up inadvertently posing on the cover—my backside to the reader, leaning over the jukebox at a Hill Country outpost while sporting a pair of Levi’s 511s. Several concerned readers wrote to tell me I had made a grievous error: I was wearing the wrong pants. “When I attended high school in Houston, back in the seventies, one tribe of boys sported Levi’s, long hair, and a black concert T-shirt as they drove Camaros to school,” one recalled. “A distinctly different tribe of boys wore Wranglers, boots, and a feed cap as they drove their pickups to school. Without exception, Levi’s were worn by hippies and Yankees. Wranglers were worn…The post The Age-old Levi’s vs. Wrangler Debate Has Finally Been Settled appeared first on Texas Monthly.
By 1972 Myrtis Dightman was, by rodeo standards, past his prime. He was 37 years old, an age at which most cowboys have hung up their spurs or at least wisely considered doing so. But the bull rider from the East Texas town of Crockett was still in the thick of things, having just qualified for his seventh—and last—National Finals Rodeo.Dightman’s first trip to “the Super Bowl of Rodeo,” eight years earlier, had been historic: it marked the first time a Black cowboy had ever competed at the NFR. But the man dubbed the Jackie Robinson of Rodeo never won the NFR’s gold buckle—not during his first six trips there and not during his final appearance, when he placed seventh. As a younger man, he…The post Myrtis Dightman Was the Jackie Robinson of Rodeo appeared first on Texas Monthly.
In late 1835 the Mexican Army sent a hundred cavalrymen to the town of Gonzales to retrieve a cannon it had lent to the settlers a few years before. Revolutionary sentiment was mounting, and the colonists were not jazzed about the prospect of losing a valuable weapon. Aimless shots were exchanged for a few hours, with a few casualties.As in so many episodes of the Texas Revolution, there’s a conspicuous mismatch between the heroism ascribed to the day’s events after the fact and what actually happened. The Battle of Gonzales was, to be sure, the first battle of what would become the revolution—the Lexington of the Lone Star State. But in military terms it was a skirmish of little importance, and the six-pounder cannon itself…The post The “Come and Take It” Flag Now Symbolizes Something It Never Stood For appeared first on Texas Monthly.
One of the essential rites of passage for a native Texan is that first, confusing visit to a Dairy Queen outside of the state. Sure, a Dairy Queen in Maryland or Missouri will happily sell you a Blizzard and a Dilly Bar. But where’s the steak-finger country basket, the chicken-fried-steak sandwich called the Dude, or any burger belonging to the Buster family, be it Hungr-, Belt-, or Triple-? And why aren’t the posters on the walls emblazoned with the phrase “That’s what I like about Texas,” a line lifted from a catchy jingle that’s more familiar to young Texans than our official state song? (It’s “Texas, Our Texas,” kids.) These details are so central to the Texas DQ experience that it would be jarring to cross…The post The Great Texification of Dairy Queen appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Pro basketball in Texas was a wasteland in 1973. The Rockets, who had moved to Houston from San Diego two years earlier, won a mere 33 games—16 fewer than they lost. The only other pro team was the sad-sack Dallas Chaparrals, who were part of the upstart American Basketball Association. Their mediocrity on the court was matched by the indifference of spectators; oftentimes, just a few hundred showed up. Hoping to expand the fan base, the team had changed its name in 1970 to the Texas Chaparrals and scheduled games in Fort Worth and Lubbock. That didn’t help, and a year later it went back to its old name and its old stomping grounds—though not for long. When the Chaps played their final game in…The post How the San Antonio Spurs Made Texas Safe for Basketball appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Fifty years ago, the tacos most Texans ate—breakfast tacos, barbecue tacos, and crispy tacos—originated in the foodways of South Texas. Not anymore. Today tacos hail from all over and have become a vessel for cultural bridge-building in a wildly multicultural state. The taco is a culinary welcome wagon, inviting Texans to be more adventurous in their eating habits while offering immigrant diners and restaurateurs a passage into American cuisine. Immigrants from around the world and their descendants are adapting their dishes to create new fillings for the familiar tortilla. “I don’t want to say it’s easy to put something in a taco, but it’s more approachable for a lot of people,” says Anna Swann, owner of the Dallas pop-up Ulam Modern Filipino Kitchen.For anyone raised…The post The Taco Welcomes All Into Its Fold appeared first on Texas Monthly.
San Antonio’s 83-year-old Flaco Jiménez—son, grandson, and brother of celebrated accordionists—has won six Grammys, including, most recently, a lifetime achievement award. In the late sixties, a friend of mine, Doug Sahm, asked me if I wanted to blend in with the country rock he played. He was recording at Atlantic Records, so I said yes. The album was Doug Sahm and Band. That was my first experience at a major label, and that’s where I met Dr. John and Bob Dylan. From there, word got around that I could play not just conjunto music—I could play country or a little rock. I started getting offers to record with heavyweights like Dwight Yoakam, Buck Owens, and Linda Ronstadt. It was my heyday. I like to cross over. If…The post You Don’t Know Texas Music if You Don’t Know Flaco Jiménez appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Larry Weishuhn, a.k.a. Mr. Whitetail, is a wildlife biologist and outdoors writer and TV host. He has been deer hunting since he was in diapers, when his father would strap him on his back and head for the woods.The average deer has grown tremendously compared to what it was. Before the early seventies, we had screwworms all over Texas. I grew up in Colorado County, and until we got control of the screwworm flies, our deer population was very, very low. The same thing pretty much happened all over the state. But the flies were eradicated, and the influence on white-tailed deer was huge. Then there was overpopulation, and body size and antlers got smaller because there were way too many deer for what the…The post Why the Deer Are Bigger and the Hunting Is Easier in Texas appeared first on Texas Monthly.
There was no Protestant church in America more renowned fifty years ago than First Baptist Church. God-fearing Southern Baptists from around the country took their summer vacations in Dallas just to attend Sunday services in the historic sanctuary, which was built in 1890. They stared, awestruck, at the towering stained-glass windows, the burnished pews, the thick red carpet, and the choir dressed in red robes, and they gasped when the church’s granite-jawed pastor, W. A. Criswell, often wearing an all-white suit, strode up to the pulpit, accompanied by great musical fanfare. Criswell was a gifted orator, quoting long passages of Shakespeare (and, of course, the Bible) from memory. His voice was so loud that he never needed a microphone. After 50 years in the pulpit, he retired…The post The Pastor of Dallas’s First Baptist on W. A. Criswell, Donald Trump, and God Himself appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Henry Camargo opened Camargo’s Western Boots, in Mercedes, in 1980.In 1973 I started working for the bootmaker Rios of Mercedes, a big company in a small town. We were doing alligator, ostrich, lizard, anteater—anteater was very popular, but we can’t get it anymore—in a cowboy boot style. I started my own shop in 1980. Urban Cowboy was booming, and there was a lot of money down here; you had drug lords hitting the Valley. Guys came in here buying $2,000, $3,000 pairs of boots. As the years went by, a lot of boots were imported from Mexico, and some companies started making them in China. So the price that folks wanted to pay dropped. But if they order custom-made boots, they’ll find out the difference.Now more…The post Is Henry Camargo the Last of the Great Texas Bootmakers? appeared first on Texas Monthly.
When Juneteenth became a federal holiday, a year and a half ago, and there were all those articles explaining its history, were you as surprised as I was to learn the symbolism behind our rituals? That the red food and drink served on that day represent the suffering of our ancestors and our fierce resistance? That the bursting lone star at the center of the Juneteenth flag, created just 25 years ago, stands for the holiday’s Texas origins as well as Black freedom reverberating through all fifty states? In the seventies my family and neighbors drank plenty of Big Red on Juneteenth, but it was pretty much the drink of choice for all summertime cookouts, reunions, and holidays. And I’d never heard of the Juneteenth…The post A Letter to My Fellow Black Texans About Juneteenth appeared first on Texas Monthly.
During his early days in the majors, before Nolan Ryan was traded to the California Angels in 1971, there were seasons when he wasn’t sure he’d show up for spring training. He’d struggled mightily with control during his six years pitching for the New York Mets, posting a less-than-impressive 29–38 win-loss record. Maybe, the Refugio-born right-hander thought, it was time to give up on his dreams, move back to Texas, and train to be a veterinarian.But his wife, Ruth, insisted he give the game one more try, so he did. And then he bonded with the Angels’ pitching coach, Tom Morgan, and everything changed. “He got me thinking about what I had to do to be consistent from pitch to pitch,” Ryan told me. “I…The post Nolan Ryan Threw as Hard as He Could for as Long as He Could appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Fifty years ago, Big Hair was everywhere in Texas. Small-town waitresses, big-city socialites, church ladies, and (of course) beauty pageant contestants would tease, back-comb, and spray their tresses until it looked as if they had great balls of tumbleweed stuck to their heads.No one is exactly sure why Texas women had such an affection for Big Hair. There was one theory that traced Big Hair’s roots (sorry) to the era when Texans began buying Cadillacs. “Women started growing their hair out,” one hairdresser told me, “because they had a lot of room they could fill up in the front seat.” Not so, said Gail Huitt, the hairstylist at the time to no less a personage than Governor Ann Richards, who favored old-fashioned bouffants. “A woman…The post Big Hair 4 Ever appeared first on Texas Monthly.
José Angel Gutiérrez is a 78-year-old political activist and educator who in 1970 cofounded our state’s Raza Unida Party, regarded by many as the most ambitious political organizing force to emerge from the nationwide El Movimiento, which advocated for Mexican American civil rights during the late sixties and seventies. The party won a host of local elections across South Texas but had faded significantly by 1981, when Gutiérrez completed his second term as county judge in Crystal City.Our rage was about living in segregated South Texas—the deprivation, the inequality. There was no voice for us. The Democratic party, until 1994, was the one-party dictatorship throughout the South. Our enemy has always been the Democratic party. And we saw that. We said, “Why are we all…The post Why I Fought for Mexican American Civil Rights in Texas appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Melanie Linnear is senior vice president of concessions for the State Fair of Texas, in Dallas.Fairgoers would always come to the fair, and they’d know: “I’m going to get a turkey leg or a funnel cake, cotton candy, caramel apple”—standard items. The only fried foods the first few decades were the funnel cake and the corny dog. Eventually, vendors offered a few other fried items like the fried Twinkie and the fried Oreo, but there wasn’t a lot of interest in fried foods as a category.That changed after 2004, when Ron Black, who was senior vice president of food service, and Sue Gooding, who was vice president of public relations, were sitting with Tom Kalahar, a friend of the fair, trying to think of a…The post When the State Fair of Texas Turned Deep-fried appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Right now, no eleven-year-old has ever seen the Longhorns face off against the Aggies on the gridiron. If that doesn’t seem like a big deal, consider this: the last time anyone could have said that was in 1894, when the University of Texas played Texas A&M University for the first time. There are many athletic rivalries marked by an intense dislike. The conflict between UT and A&M exists at a different level; each team is virtually defined by its contempt for the other. UT’s fight song has “goodbye to A&M” in its second line. The Aggie war hymn bids goodbye to “Texas University” in its second verse. Texas’s mascot, Bevo, debuted at halftime of the 1916 game with A&M. Before tragedy ended the tradition, the Aggie bonfire…The post Texas Football’s Greatest Rivalry Will Return—But at What Cost? appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Bob Phillips, the longtime host of Texas Country Reporter, produced the show’s first episode in 1972. In 2021 Texas Monthly bought Phillips Productions, which creates TCR. Bob and his wife, Kelli, still run the show, which is broadcast on 28 TV stations in Texas. (You can also find segments on our website.)In the early days of Texas Country Reporter, the nation had just come through tumultuous times, which were occupying most of the news media. We were a group of local TV news reporters saying: Wouldn’t people like some good news?Folks weren’t used to seeing big-city newspeople show up in their little town. In one of the very earliest episodes, I went into a little cafe just south of the Red River, and the staff…The post “Wouldn’t People Like Some Good News?”: The Lasting Popularity of ‘Texas Country Reporter’ appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Big Bend National Park was still unknown to many Texans in 1973. Not yet thirty years old, the park had only recently begun drawing more than 200,000 visitors each year to its abundant attractions—the verdant Chisos Mountains, the churning Rio Grande, the tableau of a starry night sky unmarred by light pollution. The border was essentially wide open. Terlingua was still basically a ghost town, and the drive between Fort Stockton and Persimmon Gap, the park’s northern entrance, was one hundred miles of virtually nothing. Phoning other far-flung parts of the park from inside required a long-distance call. Electric lines were strung on fence posts. And news from the outside world reached the park largely through the “local” paper, the Alpine Avalanche, published an hour…The post Big Bend, Big Crowds appeared first on Texas Monthly.
In the late fifties, computer engineers faced a challenge known as “the tyranny of numbers.” Advanced machines were beginning to require staggering quantities of circuit components such as capacitors, resistors, and transistors. The downfall of this tyranny began on a hot July afternoon in 1958 at Texas Instruments headquarters, in Dallas, when most of the staff were on vacation. Jack Kilby, a recent hire who hadn’t accrued enough time to take any off, scrawled a brainstorm in his notebook: what if the company manufactured an entire circuit out of a single piece of semiconductor material? This method might someday yield smaller and easier-to-build circuits created as a unit on a single waferlike “microchip,” requiring no hand wiring or soldering.Mere weeks later, the integrated circuit was…The post Dallas Was the Birthplace of the Microchip Revolution appeared first on Texas Monthly.
“Brisket Is King” read the T-shirts for sale at Terry Black’s Barbecue, the newest joint in Lockhart, a.k.a. the Barbecue Capital of Texas. But that recalcitrant chunk of beef hasn’t always sat on the throne. In a journal he kept in 1999, Roy Perez, who has worked the pits at Lockhart’s most storied establishment, Kreuz Market, since 1987, recorded that on one busy Saturday he cooked a hundred beef shoulder clods—a popular cut back then—and just fifteen briskets. By contrast, on a recent Saturday, Perez and his crew smoked seventy briskets and just twenty shoulder clods.Kreuz isn’t the only iconic barbecue joint that has witnessed brisket’s seemingly unstoppable rise. The legendary pitmaster Fred Fountaine started working at Louie Mueller Barbecue, in Taylor, in 1946, when…The post Brisket Wasn’t Always King in Texas appeared first on Texas Monthly.
In Texas, business and innovation move in two directions: people come here to turn their big dreams into real things, and people who are from here export their brilliant ideas to the rest of the world. And no, it’s not just about oil (though, of course, a lot of it is about oil). Technology, construction, cosmetics, jewelry, medical advances—Texas has a hand in pretty much any field you can think of. And that two-way traffic shows no signs of slowing down.The Aspiring World LeaderH. Ross PerotThe Dallas billionaire tech entrepreneur’s Texarkana accent was the butt of late-night jokes, but the populist frustrations he tapped into during his two presidential campaigns were no laughing matter.Mark CubanAnother Dallas billionaire, minted by the late-nineties dot-com boom, the Mavericks…The post Sixteen of the Most Influential Texas Business Icons of the Past 50 Years appeared first on Texas Monthly.
For much of our state’s history, the Texas Rangers earned their reputation as frontier lawmen. They covered vast territory on horseback and often defended settlers from outlaws, even as some Rangers unloaded their six-shooters indiscriminately on Mexicans and Comanche. By the mid-twentieth century, though, no one could confuse Texas for the frontier, and the Rangers, lacking a clear purpose, entered a transition period. Governors put them on riot control and had them investigate narcotics cases and engage in strikebreaking. By the seventies, the Rangers had transitioned again, becoming Texas’s top detectives, highly regarded for their skills as interrogators. “They’re always trying to stay ahead of everybody else,” said Joe Davis, who joined the Rangers in 1969 and retired in 1993. He learned that a polygraph test…The post How the Texas Rangers Became One of the Most Powerful Forces in the State appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Academic historians weren’t much impressed with T. R. Fehrenbach’s Lone Star: A History of Texas and the Texans when it appeared in 1968. One reviewer criticized Fehrenbach’s decision (in his own words) to eschew “irritating footnotes” that would interrupt the book’s narrative flow. Anotherscholar dismissed the author—who, after graduating from Princeton and serving in the Korean War, had worked in the insurance business in San Antonio—as a “dilettante” and offered a withering assessment, saying, “All in all, this book is a failure.” Lay readers, however, returned a very different verdict, embracing Lone Star to such an extent that it may be the most widely read history of the state. A decade ago, a journalist in the New York Times noted its canonical status, placing it in the…The post It’s Time to Reexamine One of the Most Beloved Books About Texas appeared first on Texas Monthly.
It’s funny, but when I looked back recently at the famous Farrah Fawcett poster from 1976, I saw it in a completely different way. If you were, say, 12 or older back then, you know the shot I’m talking about: the one of the 29-year-old, breathtakingly stunning Texan who was fast becoming the star of the TV hit Charlie’s Angels and was destined for icon status. The Corpus Christi native was grinning in a scarlet one-piece bathing suit, her blond hair expertly tousled and her nipples prominent and perky against the fabric—a pretty racy display for the time. It’s a photo that launched the sexual fantasies of millions of boys and the nightmares of probably an equal number of girls who knew they could never…The post In the Decades Since Farrah’s Iconic Poster, Texas’s Beauty Standard Has Evolved appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Texas politics has always felt national. That’s partly because so many of our politicians go on to run for president. But mostly, it’s because our political landscape feels as big and complicated as what’s happening in Washington, D.C. There’s ambition, intrigue, corruption, and power grabs. Oh, and characters. The Presidential HopefulJohn ConnallyThe late governor was known for his proximity to presidents: as JFK’s motorcade companion, LBJ’s back-home crony, Nixon’s Treasury secretary. A 1980 bid for the White House taught him that proximity was all he’d ever get. Ted CruzA strong contender for the GOP nomination in 2016, he lost to a man who accused Cruz’s father of associating with Lee Harvey Oswald. He’s seemed a bit wounded ever since—and in 2018 nearly lost his senate seat.The…The post Sixteen of the Most Influential Texas Political Figures of the Past 50 Years appeared first on Texas Monthly.
A friend who recently left his longtime home of Austin for Santa Fe lamented the biggest downside of life in New Mexico: “I learned pretty quickly that other supermarkets aren’t like H-E-B.”Add it to the list of the indignities of the retired life: spoiled by years of chowing down on Hill Country Fare Cut Green Beans and Pork Riblets with Bar-B-Q Seasoning, you head out of state and are reduced to browsing the aisles of Albertsons and Sprouts, wondering where it all went wrong. O, Piggly Wiggly, where is thy Stinging Nettle Leaf Blend Extract?Texans often cleave to an irrational fondness for our homegrown institutions, some of which are difficult to defend. But few of us feel any qualms about our loyalty to H-E-B. After…The post No Store Has Grown More Than H-E-B appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Texans have a complicated relationship with the heat. We complain about it all the time, but we also take a certain satisfaction in our suffering. Of course, the increasingly scorching summers are getting more and more difficult for even the hardiest soul to bear, and there’s no end in sight. John Nielsen-Gammon, the state climatologist, is one of the leading experts on why Texas has gotten hotter and how much hotter it still might get. Texas Monthly: How have temperatures in Texas changed over the past fifty years?John Nielsen-Gammon: Well, 1970 to 1979 was the coldest decade on record for Texas, and 2011 to 2020 was the hottest decade on record for Texas. Starting with the eighties, every decade in Texas has been warmer than the…The post But It’s Not a Dry Heat, Actually appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Between 1937 and 1971, nobody played high school football like the Wichita Falls Coyotes. They won six state championships, sent players to powerhouse colleges, and ran up the score with their single-wing offense. In 2007 Texas Monthly named Wichita Falls the greatest high school football program in state history. Yet those glory days are long gone. The Coyotes last won a state title in 1969, and next winter they will play their final game; the district is consolidating its high schools, and Wichita Falls High will close forever.Over the past fifty years, the program’s trajectory from a dynasty to a memory has reflected the shift in the sport’s balance of power. Across the state, the resources and population that once ballooned in cities like Odessa, Tyler,…The post One of the Greatest Programs in Texas High School Football History Faces Its Final Season appeared first on Texas Monthly.
When Austin’s progressive country music scene coalesced around Willie Nelson in the early seventies, video content built on live music performances was all the rage, spurred by concert films like 1970’s Woodstock and NBC’s late-night program The Midnight Special. Around the state, a number of hungry, young creative types saw potential for something similar in the cosmic cowboys selling out Austin venues like Soap Creek Saloon and the fabled Armadillo World Headquarters. Starting in 1973, the Armadillo, Dallas PBS affiliate KERA, and Lone Star Beer each tried its hand at creating a syndicated Texas music series. The reason none of those efforts is likely ringing a bell is because in 1975 the Austin PBS affiliate KLRN aired the pilot episode of Austin City Limits.Willie’s was…The post More Than 600 Episodes in, ‘Austin City Limits’ Is Still an Austin Show at Heart appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Lynn Wyatt is the queen of the grand entrance. As the 87-year-old philanthropist and style icon gracefully descends the curved staircase of her Houston home in a leopard-print blouse, brown suede pants, and leather-tasseled four-inch-high heels, it’s easy to imagine her wearing a couture gown and welcoming guests to one of the many soirees and themed dinners she’s hosted over the past six decades. Today, though, the occasion is a simple afternoon tea. She leads the way into an inviting sitting room warmed by shades of dark yellow and velvety green. “Tea” is sometimes Wyatt-speak for champagne and popcorn, one of her favorite combinations, but on this particular day, tea means tea, served in delicate gold-rimmed cups accompanied by “LSW” monogrammed napkins. The S stands for…The post Lynn Wyatt Is Still the Best Little Socialite in Texas appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Fifty years is a long time in the life of anyone or anything. Only 6 percent of marriages last that long. Many famous figures, from Jesus to Jimi Hendrix, didn’t reach the half-century mark, nor did once famous firms Blockbuster and Compaq. So it’s with pride, along with gratitude to our readers and advertisers, that Texas Monthly has published a special golden-anniversary issue, our 601st.When my colleagues and I started planning for this occasion, we wanted to focus less on ourselves than on the fascinating state that we’ve been blessed to chronicle. Executive editor Mimi Swartz, a beloved, 33-year veteran of Texas Monthly, suggested we examine how various Texas icons have changed and endured since the magazine’s birth. We all liked that idea, and deputy…The post The Birth of Texas Monthly Is a Very Texan Story appeared first on Texas Monthly.
When the first issue of this magazine was published, the Dallas Cowboys were at the peak of their First Dynasty. They had two recent Super Bowl appearances and one championship in their back pocket, and three more Super Bowls and another championship a few years in the future. Between 1966 and 1981 they posted a remarkable 171–59–2 record and never cameclose to suffering a losing season.But the numbers don’t tell the whole story. To be living in Texas, andespecially Dallas, at that time was to feel a certain electricity in the air every September to January. Cowboys fans took no small amount of pride in the fact that a team from Texas—a place viewed by many as an exotic outpost on the far reaches of…The post The Dallas Cowboys Used to Sell NFL Dynasties. Now They Sell Drama. appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Five years ago, a nonprofit called the Astrodome Conservancy announced that Houston’s most iconic building, shuttered for more than a decade, would reopen to the public for one evening. The 25,000 free tickets were claimed in less than two hours. Local sports fans did whatever they could to get a final glimpse of the famous stadium before a planned $105 million renovation that would transform the Dome into an event space and parking garage. Dressed in vintage Astros and Oilers jerseys, the visitors shuffled reverently down a loading ramp and onto a vast concrete expanse that was once the playing field. The actual field, acres and acres of synthetic Astroturf, had been cut into sections, rolled up like carpets, and stacked in what had been the…The post The Astrodome’s Decline From Eighth Wonder to Eighth Blunder of the World appeared first on Texas Monthly.
For the thirsty Texan who hankered for the cool refreshment of a bona fide local beer in 1973, the options were few: a cold one from Lone Star, Pearl, or Spoetzl, the maker of Shiner. That was it. Which might seem odd: the state’s brewing industry began in the nineteenth century, when San Antonio’s Western Brewery opened in 1855, and the beer business quickly flourished. By 1875 Texas was home to 44 breweries. But the sector was hard-hit by Prohibition and was later overpowered by national outfits such as Anheuser-Busch and Miller. In one form or another, however, the Lone Star, Pearl, and Shiner labels managed to survive. (Dirty little secret: Lone Star and Pearl are both owned by Pabst. Redeeming little secret: Pabst is nowadays…The post The Texas Beer Industry Is Bubbling Over appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Last month, a severe Arctic blast descended upon much of the country, including Texas. Electricity usage rose dramatically, straining the power grid. Fortunately, our state avoided the kind of deadly blackouts it experienced in 2021. To the east, some North Carolina residents celebrated Christmas Eve with rolling blackouts.So last week, Texas regulators took a victory lap. “This was a nonevent,” declared Peter Lake, chairman of the Public Utility Commission. He credited reforms implemented during the past year and a half. And, to be sure, some of those reforms seem to have made a difference.But let’s not get ahead of ourselves and spike the football. We’re not in the end zone yet. Since the Christmas week deep freeze, we’ve learned a lot about what worked—and what…The post Texas Power Plants Swore They Were Ready for the Next Big Freeze. Many Weren’t. appeared first on Texas Monthly.
More than forty years ago, during the first week of December in 1982, the U.S. executed its first prisoner using lethal injection. On December 7 of that year, six years after the death penalty was revalidated by the Supreme Court, Charles Brooks Jr., who had been convicted of murder, was executed in Huntsville, here in Texas. To date, 1,380 others have been executed via lethal injection, comprising nearly 90 percent of all death row executions. In 2023, eight more Texans will be executed by injection. Just days ago, on January 10, Robert Fratta, who was sentenced for hiring two men to kill his estranged wife, was put to death in Texas’s first execution of 2023. He was part of a lawsuit brought with three other inmates alleging that the…The post Opinion: Lethal Injection Was Once Considered a “Less Barbaric” Form of Execution. Now It’s Clear It’s Inhumane. appeared first on Texas Monthly.
The Dallas enclave of Oak Cliff is renowned for its taquerias. Taco shops—be they sit-down places or walk-up joints—dot the roads of the quickly gentrifying Mexican American and Black Dallas neighborhood. Robert Rodriguez’s two-month-old Tacos y Chelas sits next to a wine bar in the redeveloped Bishop Arts District. “Everything is so different,” says the 37-year-old Rodriguez, who grew up in the area. The taqueria—owned by Rodriguez; his wife, Gracie; his brother Nicholas; and Nicholas’s wife, Olga Ortiz—is the latest business to take over a space on Davis Street. It’s a short walk from the heart of the touristy area, which is slowly replacing craftsman homes with indistinguishable multiuse apartment complexes held up by boutiques too expensive for many residents. But Tacos y Chelas offers…The post In Gentrifying Oak Cliff, a New Taqueria Offers Approachable and Affordable Fare appeared first on Texas Monthly.
There is a look and feel to the old, mythic version of Austin that holds space within the collective memory. It goes something like this: Guy Clark on the radio, artists abounding, and the bright lights of a not-so-big city beckoning a kid from East Texas with an artist’s temperament.Neon Road, a new book by Austin-based neon artist Todd Sanders, is shot through with such sentiment. Featuring a twangy nostalgic reverence for the city that inspired him, the self-published art book curates Sanders’s story—from Montgomery to Austin, from commercial sign maker to successful artist—alongside sketches and photographs of his colorful “modern-vintage” displays. Sanders’s aesthetic is familiar to anyone who has spent time in the city, where he has produced neon and hand-painted signage since the…The post Texas’s Foremost Neon Artist Reflects on a Lit-Up Life appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Stephan Nedwetzky’s circuitous path to becoming a barbecue joint owner in tiny Van Alstyne, about an hour north of Dallas, has been filled with pitfalls and second-guessing. The native of Dallas’s Pleasant Grove neighborhood spent his adolescent years in Rochester, New York, but after leaving the Marines in 1999, he came back home to Texas. “Being a Texan, I missed barbecue so much,” he said. He starting smoking in his backyard in Plano while running a landscaping company. After entering a barbecue competition in 2010 (even though Nedwetzky describes everything he turned in as “horrible”), he caught the bug. “It started to interfere with my landscaping business,” he said. So he shut it down to focus on barbecue.“Everyone either laughed at me or told me…The post It Took Years for This Pitmaster to Find His Place in the Texas Scene appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Longtime Texas Monthly contributor Robert Draper has written about prison gangs, Mexican drug cartels, the Iraq War, and, most recently, a family of January 6 insurrectionists. But his favorite TM story, “Manhunt at Menard Creek” (1993), tells an apparently more prosaic tale. In January 1991, a 48-year-old career criminal named Tommy Earl Haynes was found dead in a creek after being chased by police dogs for two days through the Big Thicket of East Texas. The death was ruled an accidental drowning, but a number of lacerations on Haynes’s skull led investigators from the Department of Justice to believe that Haynes had been beaten to death by law enforcement officers as punishment for evading arrest. To report the story, Draper spent months interviewing the folks who…The post Three Decades Later, It’s Still Unclear What Killed Tommy Earl Haynes appeared first on Texas Monthly.
When filmmaker Ben Masters set out to find mountain lions for his 2022 wildlife documentary, Deep in the Heart, his main objective was capturing footage of the elusive predators. There are likely only several hundred of the cats in Texas—the majority in West Texas—and sightings are relatively rare. Masters wanted Texans to see the majesty of the mountain lion, also known as the cougar, panther, or puma, which can weigh up to 140 pounds or more, patrol one hundred square miles or more, and take down prey several times its size. He got his wish. But it wasn’t easy. “They were extremely difficult to film,” he recently said. “Much more difficult than ocelots.”On private land in the Davis Mountains, he and his cameras found the…The post Texas Is the Only State That Doesn’t Protect Mountain Lions. Should That Change? appeared first on Texas Monthly.
For decades, Texas has maintained one of the worst voter-turnout rates in the country. Less than 61 percent of eligible Texans voted in the 2020 presidential election, placing us forty-third out of fifty states. (In Minnesota, the highest-turnout state, nearly 80 percent of eligible voters participated.) In November, 42.5 percent of eligible Texans cast ballots in the midterm election, placing us thirty-ninth in the nation. Embarrassed by these dismal figures, Texas political leaders will spend the Eighty-eighth Legislature passing laws to encourage more participation in the democratic process. Just kidding! Instead of removing obstacles to voting, Republican legislators are introducing a slew of new bills that could disrupt elections and further depress turnout. GOP lawmakers say the bills are designed to prevent fraud and ensure election…The post The Lege Sets Its Sights on Voting Rights (Again) appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Good help can be hard to find in the oil patch these days, which is why Bruno stands out. He has a sunny disposition and doesn’t complain when shifts run long. He’s intelligent and a good problem solver. He is loyal and possesses an uncanny ability to steer clear of the hundreds of hazards on a modern drilling rig. He has avoided injury on the job and has never needed to file a workers’ compensation claim.Unlike many of his coworkers, he delights in swapping the comforts of his house in Midland for life in a trailer in some dusty corner of Andrews or Loving County. He prefers being far from town, where he can encounter rabbits, javelinas, and rattlesnakes. To him, those critters are sources…The post Drilling in the Permian Is Lonely Work. A Rig Dog Can Help. appeared first on Texas Monthly.
On Wednesday morning, Frisco mayor Jeff Cheney held a press conference to “announce plans for a major economic and tourism development” coming to the city. Frisco’s stature as a tourist destination has been an unlikely—but undeniable—story for the Dallas suburb over recent years, with the Cowboys’ practice facility and headquarters, The Star, the marquee name among the growing constellation of attractions. Cheney’s announcement did nothing to diminish Frisco’s growing prestige: the city would, he revealed, be the home of a new Universal Studios theme park, joining similar attractions in Hollywood and Orlando (as well as Beijing, Osaka, and Singapore). Universal Studios in Frisco will differ from the other parks in a few regards—both in terms of its size, where it’s expected to cover about a quarter…The post Universal Studios Is Coming to Frisco. Here’s What We Want at the Park. appeared first on Texas Monthly.
So long, Senate floor. For as long as anybody can remember, credentialed members of the Texas press corps have sat at a long rectangular table at the front left of the upper chamber, free to observe proceedings, talk shop, and occasionally grab interviews with lawmakers and staffers. This was an unusual privilege: many state legislatures don’t allow press on the floor, and of course Congress doesn’t. In one small way, the Texas Lege, a pretty opaque and parochial institution, was a little more transparent than its counterparts. And since credentialed lobbyists are also allowed on the floor, it seemed only fair to let the hacks in too. This year, when reporters received their Senate credentials, they came absent the “floor rules” reporters are supposed to abide…The post Where Did All the Press-Friendly Texas Politicians Go? appeared first on Texas Monthly.
The Peeler name is connected to various cattle operations south of San Antonio. There’s A. M. Peeler Ranch, in Christine, a sixth-generation cattle ranch founded in 1882 that’s owned by Alonzo and Barbara Peeler and their son Jason. In 2014, Jason partnered with Dustin Dean on Dean & Peeler Premium Angus Beef, in Floresville, in 2014, and they have their own USDA-inspected processing facility, in Poth, called Dean & Peeler Meatworks. Out east of Floresville, you’ll find the several hundred head of Akaushi cattle, on three thousand acres, that make up the Peeler Farms Wagyu herd. The last is the brainchild of Jason and his wife, Marianna. They introduced Wagyu genetics into their existing herd of Angus cattle back in 2007. Through crossbreeding and the purchase…The post This Boutique Ranch Focuses on Grass-Fed Wagyu, Tasty in Burgers or as Steaks appeared first on Texas Monthly.
On Sunday, the Houston Texans blew it. On fourth and twenty from the Indianapolis Colts’ 28-yard line, down by seven points with less than a minute to play, quarterback Davis Mills dropped back, surveyed the field, and found receiver Jordan Akins in the end zone for a touchdown. Lovie Smith, the team’s first-year head coach, saw an opportunity to seal the season on a high note and blew off overtime—instead, he called a two-point conversion, on which Mills and Akins connected once more to put the Texans ahead. All that was left was to watch former University of Texas signal-caller Sam Ehlinger, now a Colt, fail to get his team within field-goal range, and Houston had won 32–31. The victory means that instead of claiming…The post What Was the Point of Firing Lovie Smith? appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Former roper and country music singer Larry Callies was always a cowboy at heart, but when he was growing up, he rarely saw any representations of Black cowboys, despite a rich history. So in 2017, he founded the Black Cowboy Museum, which features a collection of artifacts, memorabilia, and news clippings honoring the people who were once painted out of the picture of the Western lifestyle.The post The Black Cowboy Museum, in Rosenberg, Fills an Important Gap appeared first on Texas Monthly.
When President Joe Biden arrived in El Paso on Sunday afternoon on his first trip to the border as president, he landed in hostile territory. Soon after Air Force One touched down, Governor Greg Abbott met the president on the tarmac to hand-deliver a one-page letter that blamed Biden for the “chaos” along the Texas border and demanded more strident immigration policies. Biden, according to Abbott, accepted the letter cordially. “He said he wanted to work with us on it,” Abbott told reporters at the airport, over the drone of jet engines. During his visit, Biden would get a curated tour of the “chaos” Abbott spoke of. In the weeks before the president arrived, dozens of immigrants and asylum-seekers in the city, including families with young children,…The post In El Paso, Joe Biden Embraces Trump’s Border Policies appeared first on Texas Monthly.
I’m standing on a ridge at what will become Texas’s next state park, almost exactly halfway between Fort Worth and Abilene. At this rocky, brush-covered overlook, a creek twists like a curled strip of lime peel far below. Oak trees bow over the ribbon of green, while thick prairie grasses, juniper, and mesquite lend an almost junglelike feel to the rolling terrain. I can hear the tractors that are grading new park roads rumbling in the distance, but when I look out, all I see is untouched land.I can picture myself paddling a kayak down there. After a few hours of exploration, I’d drag my boat ashore. Then I’d scamper up the road to this future campsite, where I’d grab a cold drink and enjoy…The post Welcome to Palo Pinto, Texas’s Next State Park appeared first on Texas Monthly.
The bill: House Bill 61Filed by: Candy Noble, Republican, District 89 (Lucas, northeast of Dallas)What it would do: The bill would prohibit a governmental entity from entering into a “taxpayer resource transaction” or spending money to provide any person with logistical support for abortion care. As defined by the legislation, logistical support includes travel to or from an abortion provider, lodging, food, childcare, counseling, and “any other service that facilitates the provision of an abortion.” The bill allows Attorney General Ken Paxton to file suit and recover attorney’s fees if a city violates the potential law.The Republican lawmaker’s bill is the latest in a long line of not-so-subtle attacks on the city of Austin’s support for abortion care. A 2019 law (Senate Bill 22) passed…The post A Republican Takes Aim at Austin’s Logistical Support for Abortion appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Texas Christian University is going to show up Monday night in Southern California, if only to provide Georgia with a proper coronation as college football’s back-to-back national champions. At least, that’s what the experts are saying. That’s also why TCU is perfectly positioned to pull off a monumental upset and capture the school’s first title in 84 years.You know what? Let’s play along. TCU has no chance. Tell your friends and neighbors. Remind ’em how the Horned Frogs are a two-touchdown underdog, one of the largest point spreads ever for a title game. Remind ’em that TCU’s most important player, quarterback Max Duggan, is coming off his worst game of the season and that TCU’s best running back, Kendre Miller, may not play after suffering a…The post Please, Pretty Please: Everyone Keep Underestimating TCU appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Chris Beard’s firing has been inevitable for weeks—ever since the moment the Austin Police Department released an arrest report describing the domestic violence allegedly committed by the former University of Texas head men’s basketball coach.“He choked me, threw me off the bed, bit me, bruises all over my leg, throwing me around, and going nuts.”That’s some of what Beard’s fiancée, Randi Trew, told officers in the early morning hours of December 12. She described a deteriorating relationship and escalating tension.UT fired Beard with cause on Thursday, less than two seasons into a seven-year, $35 million contract. In a written response to the university’s action, Beard’s attorney, Perry Minton, wrote: “I want to be on record as emphatically stating, and herein memorializing, that Coach Beard has…The post In Firing Chris Beard, the University of Texas Showed Its Values appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Southwest Airlines executives might wanna get away following the company’s terrible, horrible, no good, very bad past couple of weeks. With nearly 17,000 flights canceled, lost luggage piled up in airports throughout the country, and countless passengers told they’d have to wait for days to find flights home from holiday gatherings, some industry analysts have called it the worst service disruption a major U.S. airline has ever endured. In a filing today, the company estimated the cost to its bottom line at between $725 million and $825 million.The whole debacle might be judged as something of an unforced error, considering that Southwest’s top brass have admitted they knew that the software the company uses to track flight crews and reschedule flights was “behind” the times…The post Southwest’s Christmas Mess Has Roots in Its Long Financial Success appeared first on Texas Monthly.
There’s a question customers often ask when they see the bottles lining the walls of Sipple: Is any of this stuff good?The Houston shop has an awe-inspiring selection of around three hundred nonalcoholic elixirs curated from a market that has ballooned into a $1.2 billion industry. For a former boozer like me (I gave up alcohol more than ten years ago), Sipple is like a candy store. The chic labels and exotic flavors are at once familiar and entirely novel, touting supplements like “nootropics” and “adaptogens.” But in a hard-drinking state like Texas, the knee-jerk response to a store like this can be skepticism.“People thought we were crazy,” said Danny Frounfelkner, a former sommelier who runs Sipple with his wife, Helenita. So many retail space…The post Texas’s First Nonalcoholic Bottle Shop Reflects the Shifting Culture Around Drinking appeared first on Texas Monthly.
As the Dallas North Tollway unfurls through the northern reaches of DFW’s urban sprawl, seas of matching McMansion rooftops give way to empty fields. It’s here, at the northernmost fringe of Frisco, that PGA Parkway veers off to the west and leads to the largest resort currently under construction in the nation. One recent morning, Jeff Smith, the vice president and managing director at Omni PGA Frisco Resort, slid into the driver’s seat of a golf cart outside his office, which occupies a trailer on the construction site. A truck rumbled by to deposit a thirty-foot-tall oak tree, its roots bound in burlap, in a row of dozens more trees waiting to be planted. In all, the $520 million property will include some 2,500 new trees on…The post Inside Frisco’s Lavish, Enormous New Omni PGA Resort appeared first on Texas Monthly.
In his lengthy political career, Charles Eugene “Chip” Roy has rarely been one of Texas’s loudest or showiest examples of That Guy—see: Louie Gohmert, Briscoe Cain, Steve Stockman. He prefers to pick his battles, a trait that has given him more influence and staying power than some of his more stunt-prone contemporaries. This week, he has picked one of his biggest battles in years, as he serves as the most prominent Texan in the crew of congresspeople who began the ongoing ritual humiliation and sacrifice of would-be House Speaker Kevin McCarthy. Roy and a small group of like-minded warriors for freedom have effectively vetoed the nomination of the representative from Bakersfield, California, whom they view as a weak-kneed “Republican in Name Only,” for an incredible…The post Chip Roy, Bless His Heart appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Siblings Francisco “Paco” Carmona and Paola Buentello grew up in their family’s barbecue business in Eagle Pass, an hour south of Del Rio and directly across the border from Piedras Negras, Mexico. He was two years old and she was one when their late grandfather Hugo Buentello and their mother, Selena Buentello Price, opened the Wagon Wheel in 1994. They sold barbecue and other goods from a drive-through building. “You grabbed your beer, your deer corn, your brisket sandwich, and you were off to the ranch,” Carmona said. I first visited the joint ten years ago, and when I returned to try it again last month, so much had changed—including the location—that I didn’t even realize it was the same business. Hugo passed away in…The post This Old Barbecue Joint in Eagle Pass Is Teaching Itself New Tricks appeared first on Texas Monthly.
In a pivotal moment of Yellowstone’s pilot episode, protagonist John Dutton’s estranged son, Kayce, returns to his father’s ranch. As he steers his truck toward the property’s entrance, he mutters, “Hope I don’t regret this,” and the choppy fiddle from Texas band Whiskey Myers’s “On the River” sets an adventurous tone. As Kayce drives toward the threshold of his childhood home, the austere song intensifies the scene with a power worthy of a prodigal son’s return. First-time viewers of the hit Paramount Network series may come for the cowboys, the Western culture, and the serene vistas of horse-dappled pastures, only to get sucked into the show’s gripping story lines (think: bar brawls ending in bullfights) and operatic melodrama (think: a livestock commissioner burying someone alive under…The post ‘Yellowstone’ Is Set in Montana. But the Show’s Music Comes Straight From Texas. appeared first on Texas Monthly.
The bill: House Bill 870Filed by: Jared Patterson, Republican, District 106 (Frisco)What it would do: HB 870, which is identical to a bill Patterson introduced in 2021, would ban pet stores in counties with more than 200,000 residents from selling animals that were obtained anywhere other than an animal shelter, animal rescue organization, or animal control agency. The bill is intended to target puppy mills that breed large numbers of animals in inhumane conditions and move them into Texas for stores to sell. The actual impact of the bill would be somewhat limited. There are only 24 Texas counties that would be affected, and fourteen of the largest cities in the state already have municipal bans on selling cats and dogs that were obtained from commercial…The post A GOP Lawmaker in Texas Wants to Try Again to Ban Puppy Mills appeared first on Texas Monthly.
“I love you guys! Can I sit in the middle?” my four-year-old announced, as she hauled her chair to the campfire. My husband, Ben, cooked hot dogs while our ten-year-old and I huddled close by and snacked on chips. Our conversation turned to fire-building strategy and reminiscing about our previous camping trips. It was a cold, rainy Saturday evening in November, and we’d driven an hour west of our home in Houston to camp overnight at Stephen F. Austin State Park. After refreshing the forecast all morning and double-checking our crowded Google calendar, we decided to go ahead with our plans despite the crummy weather. As any parent of a preschooler knows, “You get what you get.” I’d booked the trip only a few days…The post I Fell in Love With Camping at Stephen F. Austin State Park appeared first on Texas Monthly.
WHAT: A viral video showing a Corpus Christi Cinemark employee who prepares buckets of popcorn with uncommon flair. WHO: Jason “Popcorn Guy” Grosboll, the Butter King of Corpus Christi. WHY IT’S SO GREAT: Serving up popcorn at a movie theater is a thankless job. Generally speaking, you’ll only ever be noticed if you screw something up—otherwise, the customers will grab their tub from you, head into the theater showing Avatar: The Way of Water, and disappear for three hours into the wonder of Pandora. Standing out in the role requires a certain panache. That’s something that Jason Grosboll, the Corpus Christi Cinemark Century 16 employee whose name badge reads “Popcorn Guy,” has in spades. He’s the hero Corpus deserves—and after a customer captured the hero that Corpus deserves…The post The Butter King of Corpus Christi Deserves a Raise appeared first on Texas Monthly.
This story was originally published in November 2020 and has been updated.The Capital City gets a lot of taco attention. It comes with the media exposure surrounding large events such as South by Southwest and the Austin City Limits Music Festival. But the focus has long been on Tex-Mex staples like breakfast tacos, the city’s myriad taco trucks, and restaurant institutions like Matt’s El Rancho. While those continue to thrive, a new wave of modern establishments has diversified the landscape and made for a richer Mexican dining experience. Here’s where to find the best along Austin’s Taco Trail.Con TodoRio Grande Valley native Joseph Gomez brings tacos estilo Matamoros to Austin with his food truck, Con Todo. Although the taco is named for Brownsville’s Mexican sister…The post The Austin Taco Trail appeared first on Texas Monthly.
At the Texas Republican Convention in Houston this past summer, delegates booed U.S. senator John Cornyn. Congressman Dan Crenshaw was heckled by far-right activists as a “globalist RINO.” Governor Greg Abbott and Texas House Speaker Dade Phelan declined to address the convention, apparently fearing a similar reception. “The Republican Party of Texas is a grassroots party,” declared state party chair Matt Rinaldi in his opening remarks. “It doesn’t belong to me, or the governor, or senators, or congressmen, or any elected official.” But there was one elected official whom Rinaldi, along with many of his fellow speakers, was eager to celebrate. “Ron DeSantis in Florida [has] stood up and gone on offense against corporations like Disney who receive special favors from the government while taking harmful…The post Is Ron DeSantis the Most Powerful Republican in Texas? appeared first on Texas Monthly.
As ever, we had a lot to cover in Texas this year. The invasion of Ukraine, and its odd tendrils in our state; the massacre at Robb Elementary in Uvalde, and the response from Texas leaders. The changing politics of South Texas, a primary election that spelled the end of one dynasty, and a general election that predictably (no, seriously, really predictably) extended another. Not to mention Robert Earl Keen’s final tour, the fiftieth anniversary of the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders, and the upcoming two-hundredth anniversary of the Texas Rangers. We could go on and on. But, of course, we couldn’t cover everything, and many other publications did wonderful work about Texas and Texans. Fifteen Texas Monthly staffers chose a story from another outlet that they wish…The post Stories We Wish We’d Published This Year appeared first on Texas Monthly.
There’s nothing like a frozen margarita alongside a steaming-hot plate of enchiladas, or a mezcal paloma to down with a basket of tacos. But Mexican restaurants around Texas are looking toward another type of Mexico-made drink to pair with their dishes: wine.As Mexican food in the U.S. has been expanding over the past decade, a concurrent renaissance of winemaking has been happening in Mexico, says Tomás Bracamontes, owner of La Competencia Imports, one of the largest importers of Mexican wines in the U.S. “Mexican gastronomy is becoming more multifaceted,” he says. “You’re finding Mexican steakhouses . . . Mexican seafood houses. Wine is a part of that.”In 2011, when Bracamontes first visited Baja’s Valle de Guadalupe, often called the Napa Valley of Mexico, he was…The post Texas Restaurants Are Adding Wines From This Up-and-Coming Region to Their Menus appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Sonny Dykes had only been head football coach at Texas Christian University for a couple of weeks last winter when he and wife Kate made the 122-mile drive south from Fort Worth to Temple. His to-do list was already long, but almost nothing was more important than visiting star wide receiver Quentin Johnston and convincing him to stay at TCU for the upcoming season.Gary Patterson had been Johnston’s coach with the Horned Frogs for the past two years, and now, with TCU nudging Patterson out eight games into the 2021 season, Johnston knew the NCAA transfer portal was teeming with opportunities for him.A coaching change can prompt a mass exodus of talent into the transfer portal, and in his first days at TCU, Dykes did…The post Managing the Transfer Portal Was Key to TCU Football’s Dream Season appeared first on Texas Monthly.
It has become customary to preface these kinds of year-end lists with a lot of eulogizing. The movie star is dead, we’ve been told. Our entertainment has become too fragmented, creating an environment that’s overflowing with talented people you’ve never heard of, doing excellent work you can’t find the time to watch, in movies that are only available for two weeks in theaters or in shows streaming exclusively on services you don’t have. Even this year’s biggest hit, Top Gun: Maverick, was sweating it out behind the swagger: Early on, someone reminds Tom Cruise’s title character that people don’t have much need for superstars anymore. The wars got smaller, and they’re all being waged from inside our living rooms. And who needs some hotshot pilot…The post Ten Notable Performances From Texan Actors in 2022 appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Even though our latest Top 50 BBQ list came out just over a year ago, I’m already working on a new ranking. I’ve been searching for contenders to include in the 25 best new barbecue joints, which will be named in an issue of Texas Monthly next year. This has involved scoping out promising up-and-comers, revisiting old favorites, and attending events where I’m sometimes surprised by the amazing smoked meat. The top fifty joints need no further exaltation, so I’m highlighting more under-the-radar spots in my favorite Texas barbecue bites of the year. Barbecue PlatterB4 Barbecue & Boba, MabankI don’t normally find great barbecue inside a feed store, but that’s where Nolan and Emily Belcher have created something special. It’s hard to choose between Wagyu…The post My Favorite Texas Barbecue Bites of 2022 appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Back in Austin for their biennial party under the pink dome, Texas lawmakers will have a nice present in January: a whopping, quite likely record-setting $27 billion surplus.To put it in context, that is enough money to send every Texan on a seven-day Western Caribbean cruise out of Galveston, with an ocean view (but not unlimited drinks.) It is also enough to blast every member of the state house and senate into space on a Jeff Bezos rocket launched from Van Horn. We could even pay double to keep them up there for a spell.In home-economics terms, imagine if your family budget was $100,000. This is like having an extra $22,000 drop into your lap. Put another way: if the $27 billion was divided equally, every man,…The post Every Texan Gets $900! And Other Ideas for Spending the State’s Massive Surplus appeared first on Texas Monthly.
In late March, Texas Monthly published a feature about injuries and safety violations at Custom Cut Lumber, an East Texas sawmill owned and operated by members of the Church of Wells. In reporting the story, I’d found that almost one in four of all severe injuries at Texas sawmills since 2017 have occurred at the facility. Eight days after publication online, inspectors from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration inspected Custom Cut Lumber’s sawmill. The agency ultimately cited the business with four new workplace safety violations, the details of which Texas Monthly recently acquired via the Freedom of Information Act. Read Next A Fundamentalist East Texas Church Bought a Sawmill. Injuries and Child Labor Violations Began to Pile Up. By Sonia Smith The Church of…The post More Trouble at the ‘Lord’s Mill’ appeared first on Texas Monthly.
John T. Floore’s Country Store in Helotes is a honky-tonker’s honky-tonk, a veritable institution of Texas music. The dance hall’s walls are covered with photographs of the legends that have graced its stage: Elvis Presley, Hank Williams, Bob Wills, Patsy Cline, B.B. King, Ernest Tubb, Bob Dylan, Merle Haggard, George Jones, Ray Price, Waylon Jennings, and, of course, Willie Nelson, who cut his teeth as a regular performer at Floore’s (the place keeps a sign up that reads “Willie Nelson Every Sat. Nite,” and the red-headed stranger still plays there on occasion) and immortalized it in his 1973 hit “Shotgun Willie.” This year, Floore’s celebrated eighty years of serving food (“World’s Best Homemade Tamales”), drinks (“If you’re going to drive your old man to drinking,…The post Texas Music Legends Look Back on Floore’s Country Store appeared first on Texas Monthly.
It’s an impossible task to sum up any year in art, but it feels especially challenging in 2022, a year in which we laughed with joy on Beyoncé’s dance floor, cried tears of secondhand embarrassment at Love Is Blind on Netflix, and scream-sang to Plains’ debut album. We asked Texas Monthly staffers and contributors to share their favorite moments of culture in 2022. The list that follows mixes high and low, pop culture and the avant-garde, and art to seek out along with streamable couch-potato fare. This year contained multitudes, just like Texas.Beavis and Butt-headThe return of Beavis and Butt-head on Paramount Plus this June was a homecoming of sorts. Mike Judge’s cartoon hellions embraced their Texanness more explicitly than ever before, confirming at last…The post The Best Texas Art, Movies, Music, and TV of 2022 appeared first on Texas Monthly.
This story was originally published in November 2020 and has been updated.The River City is the cradle of Tex-Mex, and its tacos reflect that fact. First and foremost, there are the city’s breakfast tacos. Or as San Antonians call them, tacos. There are also puffy tacos—the taco’s full name is the San Antonio–style puffy taco. The minor league San Antonio Missions baseball team even has a puffy taco mascot. Tacos are everywhere, including delectable barbacoa tacos. So beloved is the dish that there is an annual Barbacoa & Big Red Festival.Carnitas Don RaúlBefore being featured on Netflix’s Taco Chronicles, longtime carnitas purveyor Carnitas Don Raúl, of Morelia, Mexico, was already planning a San Antonio outpost. Martin Muñoz and Michelle Muñoz, the daughter of Don Raúl,…The post The San Antonio Taco Trail appeared first on Texas Monthly.
While the past two years of photo shoots—and magazine production in general—have been made complicated by the COVID-19 pandemic, 2022 brought operations back to normal. That was certainly the case for Peter Yang’s shoot with Glen Powell, one of the stars of Top Gun: Maverick. The profile of Powell was originally set to run in 2020, but as the film’s release kept getting delayed, so did the story. Both finally saw the light of day this year, and the movie might have single-handedly been responsible for getting folks back into theaters.Outstanding portraits like Powell’s were a major theme this year, says Texas Monthly photo editor Claire Hogan. There was “a lot of emotion” in the human subjects, Hogan says, whether it’s the sassy smirk from…The post Our Favorite Photos of 2022 appeared first on Texas Monthly.
The last time I went to California looking for barbecue, most of the good stuff was underground. It was four years ago, and the popular pitmasters were running illegal pop-ups out of backyards and breweries, cooking on smokers not approved by the state, and dodging health department officials who aimed to shut them down. Fortunes for many of them have changed. The state of California has since updated its health code to be more barbecue friendly, and the popularity of smoked meats, especially Texas-style brisket, has elevated some of those renegades into bona fide restaurant owners.Walking through the historic mission of San Juan Capistrano, on the southern end of Orange Country, on a recent Friday morning, I spotted an empty barbecue pit and a brick…The post Texas-ing Their California: L.A. Gets an Influx of Stellar Barbecue appeared first on Texas Monthly.
The holiday season is about celebrating with loved ones—which inevitably means more time-consuming tasks like detangling holiday lights and a long drive to Grandma’s house. Never fear: our Texas holiday music playlist has the soundtrack for all your ornament hanging, cookie decorating, and gift wrapping this season. Whether you’re someone who turns on the holiday station right after Thanksgiving or a listener looking for new music, we’ve got you covered with Texas classics from George Strait and Asleep at the Wheel to 2022 additions from Old 97’s and Norah Jones. Happy listening.The post The Best Texas Songs for the Holidays appeared first on Texas Monthly.
When the crowd in the district court room dispersed for a lunch break, Bonnie Wallace remained behind with a book. Wallace, the vice chairman of the Llano County Library advisory board, had come to U.S. district judge Robert Pitman’s courtroom that day as a defendant in a First Amendment lawsuit. Over the past year she has emerged as one of the loudest voices in Llano, a sleepy Hill Country town of 3,500 about ninety minutes from Austin, calling for the removal of what she deemed “pornography” from the shelves of the county library. A few months after library officials acquiesced to her emailed demands to remove a series of children’s health picture books and other titles relating to LGBTQ and racial issues, county commissioners appointed…The post A Federal Court Will Rule on Book Bans in Llano. Many in the Community Have Already Made Up Their Minds. appeared first on Texas Monthly.
For high school football players and coaches in Texas, a state championship game can mean the culmination of a year’s—or a career’s—worth of practice, preparation, and execution. Craig Way, the play-by-play announcer for Bally Sports Southwest, just called seven of these title games in four days. Last Saturday, as his seventh and final broadcast wound down last Saturday at Arlington’s AT&T Stadium, Way noted that the first of them—a six-man Division II matchup between Benjamin and Loraine—began the previous Wednesday morning. “That game was played three days ago,” he said, “and I called it, and it seemed like it was three years ago.”Eighty-three hours after that first game, Way’s marathon of state championships ended with Duncanville quarterback Keelon Russell running out the final seconds of the…The post Meet the Texas Sportscaster Who Calls Seven State Title Football Games in Four Days appeared first on Texas Monthly.
When Andy Warhol, American genius of mass-produced visual art, famously said “I like boring things,” he probably wasn’t taking into consideration what uses the print-to-order home décor industry might someday make of the words just then leaving his mouth. Today, at least eight different wall-art products bearing Warhol’s less-than-inspirational quote can be purchased on Amazon, plus three more on Etsy, all for sale for under $30 in a variety of cheerful fonts and frames.To suggest that Warhol’s wall slogan epitomizes the vacuity of the art one encounters in a typical vacation rental is to risk ironic understatement. His quote—either a sarcastic celebration of dull taste or a declaration of care for what others take for granted in design—is too controversial and, well, too interesting for…The post Where Does Airbnb Art Come From? appeared first on Texas Monthly.
You could plant a tree. Or jump into a painfully cold body of water. You could count out and then eat exactly twelve grapes, or say “white rabbit” aloud before anything else—even “good morning.” You could wear white (or is it red?), or eat some of the lesser beans: black-eyed peas. You could try all of these New Year’s Day superstitions, or you could simply go for a walk in the woods. If you, like many around the globe, believe that what you do on the first day of 2023 might just play a role in deciding your fate this coming year, then how better to spend it than by packing your dozen grapes and setting out to hike one of Texas’s many wonderful trails?Below, we’ve…The post Take a Hike on New Year’s Day, and You’ll Have Good Luck All Year appeared first on Texas Monthly.
I think we can all agree that the worst time of year is the long, dreary slog from post-holidays December to the first bluebonnet blooms of March. This year, we’re turning to exciting young novelists, up-and-coming A-listers, and nostalgic TV reboots to carry us through to spring. Our winter cultural lineup includes plenty of reasons to get off the couch, including Cowboy Bob, a debut musical based on the infamous bank robber, and 80 for Brady, a tale of Houston Super Bowl LI starring Sally Field, Jane Fonda, Rita Moreno, and Lily Tomlin. No matter your taste or preferred medium of entertainment, there’s no reason to be bored with this roster of happenings around the state. BooksA New Race of Men From Heaven by Chaitali…The post The Best Books, Film, TV, Art & More Coming to Texas This Winter appeared first on Texas Monthly.
WHO: Hill Country African Violets & Nursery, in Boerne, and its faithful customers.WHAT: A little holiday magic to help keep a small business afloat, while brightening doorsteps across the region.WHY IT’S SO GREAT: In a typical year, Hill Country African Violets & Nursery sells nearly two thousand poinsettias between Thanksgiving and Christmas. Owner Ken Froboese usually brings in a fresh batch of the red, white, pink, or variegated beauties every week leading up to the holidays. Lately, though, demand has slumped, perhaps due to a slowing economy and heavy construction up and down this stretch of Interstate 10 just south of Boerne. Several local churches reserved their usual lots, but the nursery otherwise sold just a few poinsettias on some days. By the time Froboese…The post Folks in Boerne Bought Hundreds of Poinsettias to Support a Struggling Garden Shop appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Tommy Lavin wanted to clear up some misconceptions about Satanism. We were sitting on a bench outside the Hardy and Nance Studios, a sprawling art complex northeast of downtown Houston. It was a warm Saturday evening in early December, and the studio was hosting an exhibition called Left Hand Illumination: Visions of the Occult. Tommy, a 48-year-old IT executive, moonlights as an ordained minister in The Satanic Temple’s Houston congregation, which organized the show. He wore a pentagram necklace, an Irish kilt, and Adidas slides over green socks. “Do Satanists drink blood? No. Do Satanists kill babies on the stroke of midnight? No. Do Satanists have great big orgies? Sometimes.” Tommy laughed. “That’s up to individual people.” According to Tommy, Satanists don’t even believe in Satan. For…The post A Journey to Hell: My Visit to the Houston Satanic Temple’s Art Show appeared first on Texas Monthly.
While any fiddler in Texas can play “Faded Love,” the versions at the Festival of Texas Fiddling, in Blanco, might sound as different as an owl does from a rooster. The styles could be Gulf Coast, Creole, conjunto, Tejano, Zydeco, contest-style, son huasteco, Texas-Polish, Polish-Polish, old-timey, or Western swing. The fiddle could use a lot of double-stops, hitting two strings at once; it could hit staccato notes, it could embellish the melody in between verses, it could play the melody all the way through. And of course, “Faded Love” isn’t the only song the fiddlers milling around the two and a half acres surrounding the mid-1870s-era Twin Sisters Dance Hall would recognize, even if titles vary. A fiddler might call a tune one thing, and…The post At the Festival of Texas Fiddling, “Let ’er Rip, and Maybe a Little Out of Tune” appeared first on Texas Monthly.
The bill: House Bill 1006Filed by: Carl Tepper, Republican, District 84 (Lubbock)What it would do: HB 1006 would make a number of changes to the Texas Education Code. Many of them are relatively minor, such as striking the words “serve the public” from the section outlining each institution’s responsibilities and tweaking a line about their duty to “transmit culture” to one about how institutions should “permit the diffusion of culture.” It also adds some new responsibilities to the list. One is to “foster a diversity of viewpoints” and “maintain political, social, and cultural neutrality.” And to a list of enumerated “expressive activities” protected by the First Amendment or the Texas Constitution it adds “published or unpublished faculty research, lectures, writings, and commentary.”Most of these changes wouldn’t…The post A Texas GOP Lawmaker Wants to Increase “Viewpoint Diversity” by Banning Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in Higher Ed appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Texans who pine for a White Christmas are unlikely to have their wish granted this weekend. While early forecasts suggested the possibility of snowfall across the state, as we move closer to December 25, it’s looking increasingly likely that our treetops will glisten only with the pfft of dispersing cedar pollen, and children will have to listen for sleigh bells on the caliche, not the snow. But if you’ve been dreaming of a friggin’ cold Christmas, well, we’ve got great news for you. Starting on Thursday, and continuing through the weekend, the lows across the state will be among the coldest Texas has seen since February 2021, when—well, you may still be unpacking what happened in February 2021 with your therapist. In Amarillo, the overnight lows…The post 15 Items to Add to Your Winter Emergency Kit appeared first on Texas Monthly.
University of Texas head football coach Steve Sarkisian was waiting at the back of the room on Monday to give running back Bijan Robinson a bear hug. If this wasn’t precisely the ending they’d hoped to write, it nevertheless oozed with soaring good vibes.The occasion was a press conference, where Robinson announced he would be skipping his final two years of eligibility at Texas to enter the 2023 NFL Draft, where he seems certain to be the first running back selected. Robinson will not suit up for the Longhorns against Washington in next week’s Alamo Bowl. “It’s been a fun ride here,” he said. “I know it’s time to start the new journey, and I’m just excited to figure out another part of my life…The post Farewell to Bijan Robinson, the Best Running Back in College Football appeared first on Texas Monthly.
These days, when you open a menu and see a Southwestern salad with cilantro-jicama vinaigrette and roasted pecans, or you stop at a market to pick up a container of grilled corn with black beans, you’re glimpsing Texas culinary history. Those spunky, spicy flavors with a Mexican lilt, that “Southwestern” name—they’re the result of a movement that took the country by storm four decades ago. The new Southwestern cuisine (as it was called back then) touted the region’s indigenous ingredients and seasonings, mainly Mexican and Southern. It was centered in the fine-dining scene, and during its heyday, “Southwestern” was the buzzword of the moment. Chefs wanted Southwestern plates on their menus, diners wanted to taste Southwestern flavors, and restaurant critics wanted to cover the unfurling development.…The post Once Upon a Time, “Southwestern Cuisine” Was a Movement. appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Last winter, Heather Schaefer was browsing Facebook when a post caught her eye. “Please pray for my husband that God sends a type B+ living kidney donor to him,” it read. Written by Toshira “Chula” Maldonado-McIntosh, of Mays Landing, New Jersey, the plea appeared on a Christian page that both women followed. Maldonado-McIntosh went on to explain that her husband, Roy, had been battling severe renal failure for most of his life. A bout with COVID worsened his condition, and his relatives weren’t eligible to donate. Chula posted her request a few days before Christmas. “We believe in God for a miracle,” she wrote. More than 1,600 miles away, at her home in Harker Heights, outside Killeen, Schaefer saw the message and felt a calling. Six…The post A Texan Donated a Kidney to a Stranger 1,600 Miles Away. Now, “We Are Family.” appeared first on Texas Monthly.
I was always the scholarship kid; first, in a Connecticut boarding school when I failed out of high school and was sent off to get my act together, and later, in a Massachusetts college. I vividly remember fabulous parents coming to visit their children and whisking them off to restaurants that offered linen napkins, chairs pulled out for you, filet mignon, and desserts made of hot brownies and ice cream with fudge sauce or some soufflé thing in a ramekin.Sometimes I was invited along to these dinners. Scholarship kids are quick studies. In winter, I knew I should wear a navy peacoat, wool sweater, slim wool skirt with black tights, and borrowed L.L. Bean duck boots. I understood the spring dress code as well: floral…The post One Decadent Weekend in San Antonio, I Finally Became the ‘Fancy Mom’ appeared first on Texas Monthly.
In El Paso, the once-great Rio Grande River normally runs dry, or at an anemic trickle, posing less danger than the swifter and deadlier stretch of river 400 miles southeast around Del Rio, where dozens of migrants have drowned in just the past year. That partially explains why, over the past two weeks, thousands of asylum seekers have crossed from Mexico into El Paso each day. The phenomenon of so many migrants arriving at one spot on the border simultaneously, moving in large groups that ebb and flow, is the product of thousands of individual decisions, of late-night family discussions, of difficult strategizing. From this side of the border, however, it looks like fluid dynamics. We see thousands of border-crossers moving in unison, and we…The post The Migration Crisis in El Paso Could Soon Grow Worse—Much Worse appeared first on Texas Monthly.
In 2023, the world-renowned Rangers will mark their two-hundredth anniversary of service to the great state of Texas. Today, with more than 160 women and men serving across our vast 254 counties, the modern Texas Rangers reflect the diversity, integrity, and professionalism you would hope to find in one of the country’s oldest and finest law enforcement organizations. Like any individual or organization, though, there is also some bad and downright ugly; some of these incidents are noted below. A full discussion of the Rangers’ history and how they’ve evolved into the Rangers of today would be impossible to cover in one short op-ed. In my opinion, the net good of two hundred years of Ranger history far outweighs the negative, but there are critics…The post Opinion: Examining the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly Parts of Texas Rangers History appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Earlier this month, when the Iranian government announced that it had hanged the 23-year-old protester Mohsen Shekari, Leyla Shams appeared in an Instagram video, wearing a shirt bearing the name of her country, and translated the protest cry that erupted in response to the execution: “I will kill, I will kill, he/she who killed my brother.”For Shams, the Austin-based creator of Chai & Conversation, founding a Persian-language class always felt like a political act. She started the program in 2010, shortly after Iran’s Green Movement, the massive protest effort spurred by what many thought to be fraudulent presidential elections. Protesters demanded the removal of incumbent president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, which resulted in hundreds of arrests and several deaths. At that time, Shams looked to her friends…The post The Iranian-Texan Teaching Persian Through Protest appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Sonia Margarita Vasquez-Grizzle speaks gently. The tenor of her voice belies the grit the 55-year-old owner of Margarita’s Tortilla Factory has employed to overcome myriad obstacles, including a recent bout with cancer. Just like its owner, the San Antonio tortilleria is unassuming. Located in an industrial neighborhood, the small building features corrugated metal siding; inside, a rolling metal table is used as a cashier’s counter. The utilitarian interior also includes a diner-style coffee maker, the menu written on a mirror, and clusters of chairs in the corners. All the frills are overlooked in favor of creating a superior product.I first encountered that with the smell of corn that permeates the air. Then, I sampled one of the nixtamalized yellow corn tortillas with a smear of…The post Family, Faith, and Tortillas Propel This San Antonio Factory appeared first on Texas Monthly.
It was past midnight in the Bexar County city of Windcrest, and resident Scott Lee-Ross had finally decided to stop staring at the weather report and go to bed. The rain—the type of constant drizzle that humidifies the air and soaks every crack and crevice with moisture—had been exhausting to deal with. “It’s the worst weather you can think of for this,” he told me via phone a few days later, after the stress of those hours subsided. Although rain is a blessing any time of year in South Texas, for the hundreds of light-show competitors whose houses turn the town into a mini Times Square each December, winter rains can really kill the cheer. Lee-Ross’s 25,000 lights of all colors, shapes, and sizes take…The post Inside the Most Cutthroat Christmas-Light Contest in Texas appeared first on Texas Monthly.
On Wednesday, the curious tale of El Paso’s district attorney office came to an end as embattled former DA Yvonne Rosales’s resignation went into effect, and Greg Abbott’s appointed pick to replace her—longtime El Paso lawyer Bill Hicks—assumed the role. Hicks’s colleagues from both parties speak well of him, which should bring hope to El Pasoans who want to put the saga of Rosales, who was accused of incompetence and misconduct, behind them. But those seeking to learn more about Hicks may struggle when they google his name—which he shares with the legendary Houston comedian Bill Hicks, who died of pancreatic cancer in 1994 at the age of 32. The comedian Hicks was famous for an act that blended foulmouthed, bitter, furious rants with existential, psychedelic philosophy.…The post Who Said It: Legendary Houston Comedian Bill Hicks or New El Paso District Attorney Bill Hicks? appeared first on Texas Monthly.
We’re still a full two weeks away from TCU-Michigan in the College Football Playoff. On Saturday, SMU, Rice, and North Texas will play in minor bowl games (sorry, Frisco). But right now, San Antonio is the center of the college football universe, with the University of the Incarnate Word and the University of Texas at San Antonio providing an all–Alamo City doubleheader.Tonight in Fargo, North Dakota, UIW takes on Football Championship Series (FCS) powerhouse North Dakota State in the national semifinals. And before that, in Orlando, UTSA faces Troy in the Duluth Trading Cure Bowl, pitting the number 22 Conference USA champion Roadrunners against the number 23 Sun Belt champion Trojans. Both San Antonio schools are adolescents on the college football scene—UTSA has only existed…The post In San Antonio, the Geriatric College Quarterback Reigns Supreme appeared first on Texas Monthly.
The rains surprised us that day, now decades ago, although they shouldn’t have. It was late July, the monsoon season in the Chihuahuan Desert, and we had journeyed, like we had many times, to Hueco Tanks State Park. That day, the hot summer turned cold, and we were unprepared as the rock turned slick under our feet. We found shelter under a slight overhang. Shivering, my dad, my brother, and I pushed ourselves against the rock. It shared its warmth with us.My father, who grew up in El Paso, loved spending time in Hueco Tanks when he was young. He would climb the rocks and explore the park, which at that time was far from the city limits. He took us there when we were…The post Reclaiming the Outdoors for My Abuelos appeared first on Texas Monthly.
My family and I were a little late in getting our Christmas tree up this year, waiting until this past Sunday. As we hung the ornaments, it became obvious we had collected quite a few with a barbecue theme. For every painted-glass Santa Claus or glittery snowman, we’d unbox a shiny grill or bottle of barbecue sauce. It got me thinking that maybe it was time for dedicated barbecue tree. We had a good start, but I needed a few more ornaments if we were going to fill the branches of even a miniature conifer. I couldn’t help myself going down the rabbit hole, and found plenty of great options. I thought I’d share them in case you wanted to trim your own barbecue tree.A…The post 19 Barbecue-Themed Ornaments for Trimming Your Christmas Tree appeared first on Texas Monthly.
In philosophy, it’s a matter of debate whether a person can think multiple thoughts at the same time. In politics, it’s a settled matter. (Just ask Rick Perry.) Even if politicians could theoretically remember multiple things, that wouldn’t much matter, practically speaking. The second an elected official does one thing, he or she is hammered for not doing another—even if that thing was the very next thing on the docket. So it was no surprise this past winter, as Russia threatened to invade Ukraine, that President Biden was hit for thinking about intervention overseas, as if that would preclude action on matters closer to home. At a Donald Trump rally in January in Conroe, where Trump was firing up folks for the Texas primaries, the former president…The post A Texas Republican Defies His Colleagues on Ukraine, While Louie Gohmert Can’t Stop Believing appeared first on Texas Monthly.
The last time I talked to Rene “Ray” Ramirez was inside his restaurant, Ray’s Texas BBQ in Huntington Park, California in 2018. He was a year removed from a visit by a Los Angeles Times food critic, the late Jonathan Gold, and was still giddy over the legendary tastemaker praising his brisket. Ramirez also shared his excitement about a barbecue research trip he had planned with his son Sebastian to North Carolina after many previous visits to Texas. This past week, I visited the restaurant again, and talked with Sebastian and his younger brother Raul, who are still grieving the loss of their father ten months ago. Sebastian said I saw Ray at a high point in his career in 2018, but his depression was…The post After Tragedy, Two Sons Keep Their Father’s Barbecue Flame Burning appeared first on Texas Monthly.
A few years ago, while loading discarded construction materials onto a truck, Jesus Antonio Lara Cuellar fell and hit his head. He injured his back too, but it was his fractured wrist that landed him in a Houston emergency room. Lara, from El Salvador, couldn’t string together enough English words to explain what had happened. The attending physician’s command of Spanish was no better, and there were no interpreters available to help the conversation along.“He asked me some questions. I said ‘yes, yes, yes,’ and ‘no’ to some things, but I didn’t know what he was asking me,” Lara told me recently, in Spanish. The doctor administered several injections, and then, without warning—or at least none Lara had understood—proceeded to yank at his arm, causing…The post Texas’s Doctor Shortage Is Bilingual appeared first on Texas Monthly.
In 2015, shortly after Jeff Davis County justice of the peace Mary Ann Luedecke took office, the body of a fourteen-year-old Guatemalan boy was found in her jurisdiction. He was alone in the desert, in the vast 2,265 square miles of remote terrain that Luedecke oversees, with no identification. Luedecke, tasked with handling his remains, ordered an autopsy—the cause of death was “exposure,” it found—and set out to give the child a proper burial.After rallying the local funeral home and cemetery to donate their services, she commissioned a constituent performing community service to fashion a headstone for the grave; it read simply “The Guatemalan Kid” and his date of death, the day on which he was found. But the man who made the headstone died…The post In Rural Far West Texas, Justices of the Peace Confront a Death-Investigation System That’s Failing Unknown Migrants appeared first on Texas Monthly.
The bill: House Bill 979Filed by: Donna Howard, Democrat, District 48 (Austin)What it would do: HB 979 would carve out a narrow exception to Texas’s current abortion ban, which grants exceptions only in cases of “a life-threatening physical condition aggravated by, caused by, or arising from a pregnancy.” The bill would add language to the law that indicates that it does not apply to pregnancies resulting from criminal sexual assault. A patient who seeks an abortion under this exception does not need to have filed a police report, preserved forensic evidence of the crime, or have participated in a successful prosecution in order to receive the procedure. The bill was filed by state representative Donna Howard, an Austin Democrat who has long been a champion of…The post A Few Republican Lawmakers Said They Want Exceptions to Texas’s Abortion Ban. A Democrat’s Bill Proposes Some. appeared first on Texas Monthly.
I purchased my first pair of cowgirl boots more than three years ago. When I moved from Oregon to Austin to attend the University of Texas, my great-uncle, who lived in Dallas in the seventies, insisted that I needed a pair of boots. As a high school graduation gift, he financed my trip to the Tecovas store to secure “the Jamie,” a classic cowhide style, in light brown. It took me a year before I felt confident enough to make that quintessential Lone Star fashion statement, but once I finally pulled the boots on—to attend a Longhorns football game—I felt united with the lifelong wearers around me. Soon after, my go-to outfit for a Sunday brunch, concerts, and the occasional night of two-stepping was a…The post Fashion’s Gone Country. How Can a Texan Stand Out? appeared first on Texas Monthly.
It’s easy to forget just how crazy football fans thought Mike Leach was before they decided that he was, in fact, a genius. Perhaps the best example of this was his inauspicious debut at the University of Oklahoma.The year is 1999. Leach has just blown into Norman, along with a new coach named Bob Stoops whose mission is to rescue the Sooners’ declining football program from oblivion. On paper, Leach, the offensive coordinator, is everything you would not want in a football coach, a creature out of the fever dreams of frustrated Oklahoma fans. He has never played college football. He has a law degree from the ultra-effete, Malibu-based Pepperdine University. He surfs. He wears mismatched clothing and speaks in a gnomic, slightly distracted way…The post Mike Leach, the Madman Who Revolutionized Football appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Junk Mail I look forward to my copy of Texas Monthly. I can always count on articles about interesting places to visit, eat, or shop. I especially look forward to the Texanist, even if I don’t always agree with him. However, I think the article “The Reign of the 3%” [November 2022] was just junk. If you’re upset because Texas isn’t more like California, move to the freaking Left Coast. Matt McMillan, Fort WorthIf at First You Don’t Secede . . .Rarely does a politician decline an opportunity to speak to the press or the public about the issues of the day. But when the subject is secession from the United States, a number of Texas politicos get as quiet as church mice. “Are Texas Republicans Serious About Secession?” [November…The post Roar of the Crowd: January 2023 appeared first on Texas Monthly.
The best thing about my office is its location, just across a narrow hallway from the studio where several of my colleagues create aural magic. One morning, I’ll hear Brian Standefer, our talented multimedia producer, playing a lovely passage on his cello. The next afternoon, I’ll eavesdrop on Brian and veteran podcast producer Patrick Michels as they assemble our latest audio story. They’ll play a few seconds of a recorded interview, then hit pause. Patrick will say: I think it’s more powerful if we cut that last sentence. Brian will add: We can wait a couple of beats, start the music, then return to the voice-over.Creating a narrative podcast requires special storytelling skills that Brian and Patrick possess in abundance—and are teaching to writers on…The post The Making of Our New Podcast, ‘White Hats’ appeared first on Texas Monthly.
“We’ve got another goody basket to give out, with stuff from Galveston Candle Company,” said Haley Brown over the microphone. She was announcing the winner of one of the Hogwarts Christmas Village & Holiday Market raffles, of which there would be five during the four-hour event. She stood in front of a piece of plywood painted to look like Platform 9¾ at London’s Kings Cross station, and she was wearing denim shortalls and a scarlet T-shirt that signified she was a Gryffindor. “Looks like we’ve got something in here from the Forbidden Forest,” she said excitedly. “And we’ve got a breast sling from a wonderful lactation consultant that’s here today, selling goodies for those new moms.” Brown was the brain and brawn behind the Hogwarts Christmas Village…The post Muggles Descend on Galveston’s Harry Potter–Themed Christmas Market appeared first on Texas Monthly.
On a chilly Sunday in March 2021, Sam Arscott walked into her home in Utica, New York, expecting the familiar scent of pot roast that had been simmering in a slow cooker all day. Instead, when she entered her kitchen, a waft of floral-scented garbage overwhelmed her senses. A professional caterer, Arscott wondered if she had accidentally cooked spoiled meat and called in her husband to take a whiff. He was confused: the roast smelled fine. She suffered through the nauseating smell for the duration of the dinner, unable to eat. That evening, as Arscott went to bed, the smell of cigarettes hung in the air, but when she checked outside her house, no one was smoking in the street. Over the ensuing days, more…The post Long-COVID Sufferers Are Flocking to a Texas Clinic to Treat Smell Disorders. But Does the Remedy Work? appeared first on Texas Monthly.
The first time Emporium Pies cofounder and former CEO Megan Wilkes made a pumpkin pie as a young adult, it didn’t go as planned.“I decided to go full scratch,” she says. “But I didn’t realize that you had to buy pie pumpkins to do that. And so I tried making it with just a regular ’ol pumpkin, and it was disgusting. But everybody ate it anyway because my friends are nice.”Wilkes has since perfected the art of piemaking—the Dallas shop celebrated its ten-year anniversary this past September. And while Emporium does offer a pumpkin pie with spicy pumpkin custard on a gingerbread crust, Wilkes is sharing a more personal selection: her family recipe for a pumpkin roll.“When I was growing up, we’d eat the pumpkin…The post Pumpkin Roll appeared first on Texas Monthly.
For me, the most reliable indicator that a piece I’m working on will resonate with readers is if I catch myself crying while I’m writing. That’s happened a number of times, like when I wrote about my dad’s funeral. And about my childhood best friend’s reunion with his wife and kids after a deployment in Iraq. And about an older Black man named Pug who took me under his wing when I worked at the Capitol during college. And, perhaps weirdly, it happened when I profiled George Strait.The hook for the piece was Strait’s 2012 announcement that he would retire from touring after a seventeen-month, 48-show “Cowboy Rides Away” victory lap, culminating in a final performance in front of some 105,000 fans at AT&T Stadium,…The post A George Strait Song Was the First Music I Played for My Son. Here’s Why. appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Q: These days it is awfully dry out here in the Hill Country. Blanco County is starting to look more and more like Elmer Kelton’s famous novel The Time It Never Rained. What sage advice can the Texanist offer those of us looking up each day, hoping?William Huston, Johnson CityA: Among the many things for which Texas is well known, its extreme weather ranks near the top. When it gets hot here, it gets really hot. The highest temperature ever recorded in Texas—on August 12, 1936, in Seymour, and on June 28, 1994, in Monahans—was a blistering 120 degrees Fahrenheit, which is very hot indeed. And when it gets cold, it can get really cold. The chilliest temperature ever recorded here—on February 12, 1899, in…The post The Texanist: Will We Get Relief From the Drought Anytime Soon? appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Mike Leach was working on about four hours of sleep when he answered his cellphone on the afternoon of December 30, 2006.“Got back to Lubbock around 4 a.m.,” he told me in that familiar monotone. You know, the one that seldom revealed emotion and often sounded like he was unspooling the setup for a great joke. Hours earlier in Arizona, his Texas Tech Red Raiders had staged one of the greatest comebacks fans had ever seen, rallying from a 31-point deficit midway through the third quarter to beat Minnesota 44–41 in the Insight Bowl. The Tech coach had broken down and cried on live television after the game as he attempted to describe the pride he felt for his team. Inside the locker room, Leach told…The post There Will Never Be Another Mike Leach appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Brunch comes in two styles. The first is the kind where you dress up to impress a new crush or potential in-laws at a restaurant that serves eggs Benedict and bottomless mimosas with tiny orchids decorating each glass. Then there’s the kind you need when Saturday night was way too much fun and you just want to wear sunglasses and start the next day with some hair of the dog that bit you. If it’s that kind of Sunday morning, the newly inaugurated Mexican brunch buffet at Dallas restaurant/bar Revolver Taco Lounge Gastro Cantina, the latest concept from the fervid imagination of owner and chef Regino Rojas, is just the thing. Tables decked out in colorful oilcloth are set up just outside the cantina’s storefront in…The post Revolver Taco Lounge Gastro Cantina Hits the Bull’s-eye appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Listen to this episode on Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Stitcher | Google. Read the transcript below. Subscribe Apple Podcasts — Spotify — Stitcher — Google Podcasts When we ask what the Texas Rangers mean to Texas today, it gets to the heart of what we do with history. What do the people who came before us mean to us?In the past decade, historians and descendants of victims of La Hora de Sangre have raised awareness of the violence against Mexican Americans in the 1910s—including with new historical markers placed by the State of Texas. But organizers of the Texas Rangers’ bicentennial in 2023 want to remind Texans of the virtues that made Rangers legends in the first place.White Hats is produced and edited by Patrick Michels and produced and engineered by Brian Standefer, who…The post White Hats, Episode 6: Memorials and Monuments appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Texas Monthly adds and updates approximately sixty restaurant listings to our Dining Guide each month. There’s limited space in the print issue, but the entire searchable guide to the best of Texas cuisine is at your fingertips online!Below are a few highlights from the new restaurants reviewed in our January 2023 issue. Click “More Info” for further detail on each restaurant:GarlandEl Rincón del MaizCiting its creative vegan menu, Bon Appétit named this humble Mexican eatery one of its fifty best new restaurants for 2022. Excellent corn tortillas, filled with well-seasoned vegetables or meats, come in a range of flavors, from beet to guajillo chile. The tangy Jamaica con Coliflor taco (hibiscus with cauliflower) lived up to the hype: pan-fried hibiscus petals and caramelized cauliflower bits…The post Smokin’ Moon Opens in McAllen, Garland’s El Rincón del Maiz Gets National Attention, and More appeared first on Texas Monthly.
On a Thursday in late October, the Barton Springs/Edwards Aquifer Conservation District declared that the underground reservoir had reached “critical drought” and required that water taken from wells be for indoor use only. The month prior, Lake Travis, a source of drinking water for Austin, dipped below 50 percent capacity for the first time since 2015.It gets worse. The same week those well restrictions were imposed, an Australian company called Surf Lakes Holdings announced that it had secured the land and water easements necessary to build a twelve-acre “surf lake” at a mixed-use development southeast of town. The wave pool would have boardwalks and a sandy beach and would appeal to the “influx of new residents from coastal cities.” The press release struck a confident tone:…The post 2023 Bum Steer of the Year: Austin appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Dear Louie,Remember the racist conspiracy theories, including but not limited to your OG support of birtherism? Remember the opposition to legislation that offered protections for victims of hate crimes based on sexual orientation, when you feared that it might end up protecting those “oriented toward animals . . . toward corpses”? Remember the opposition to gay people serving in the military, when you said, “If you’re sitting around getting massages all day, ready to go in the big, planned battle, then you’re not going to last very long”? Remember not chairing a single committee during the entirety of your nine terms in the United States Congress? WHEREAS it’s been a hell of a run, it is our pleasure to name you our newest member of the Bum Steer…The post 2023 Bum Steer of the Year Runner-up: Louie Gohmert appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Ever since the first COVID-19 vaccines debuted in 2020, the world has been divided between rich countries that can afford to develop or purchase vaccines and poor countries that have generally been forced to accept whatever the rich don’t need (or what big pharmaceutical companies are willing to donate). That started to change in 2021, thanks in large part to Dr. Peter Hotez and Dr. Maria Elena Bottazzi, the codirectors of the Center for Vaccine Development at Texas Children’s Hospital, in Houston. With funding from private donors—including $1 million from the philanthropic arm of Austin-based Tito’s vodka—Hotez and Bottazzi developed a low-cost, open-source vaccine targeted at low- and middle-income countries. By the end of 2022, an estimated 100 million people in India and Indonesia had received…The post The Best Things in Texas 2023: The Texans Vaccinating the World appeared first on Texas Monthly.
The Bum Steers Committee was busier this year than a security guard at a school board meeting. We updated our official position on Dak Prescott.(No longer extremely disappointing!) We passed nonbinding resolutions. (Before starting your vehicle, always check to make sure your trailer isn’t on fire.) And of course, we deliberated, argued about, and voted for the Bum Steer of the Year. After every ballot was counted and recounted, it wasn’t a politician who won. It wasn’t even a human being. It was . . . well, see for yourself. But bring a shovel, because there’s a whole heap of misdeeds and miscreants to get through first.Bum Steer of the YearKeep Austin Steer’d!How a funky little college town became the unbearable-traffic, unaffordable-real-estate, insufferable-tech-bro, inanely-precious-restaurant, expensive-BBQ…The post The 2023 Bum Steer Awards appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Texans in 2022 enjoyed a return to some semblance of normalcy after the two worst years of the pandemic. Indeed, some of us were back to form in exhibiting a certain genius for the awful and the bizarre. (Just survey our annual Bum Steer Awards.) But residents of the Lone Star State, along with the occasional visitor, showed an even stronger propensity for acts of kindness, for impressive achievements, for love of flora and fauna, and, at times, for plain ol’ good luck. Read on and bask in the warm glow of the best our state has to offer.An unidentified young trick-or-treater in Cypress who was dressed as a taco refilled a candy bowl left outside a home with his own treats, after two other…The post The Best Things in Texas, 2023 appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Teaching students and dealing with their parents can be a thankless task, even in the best of times. And the past few years have made working in public education still more challenging with shutdowns and bitter debates over books and curriculum. Amid all this turmoil, many public education workers have left their jobs. But Barbara Yarbrough, of South Elementary, in Midland, has held on.Navigating a pandemic isn’t the greatest challenge Yarbrough has faced. She began her career in 1959 as an art teacher at George Washington Carver Junior-Senior High School, a segregated Black school in Midland. Over the next few decades, she also taught in elementary schools and preschools, before she “retired” in 1996. But she only retired from the classroom, moving into a new…The post The Best Things in Texas 2023: The Most Inspiring Educator In the Country appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Herschel Walker may have run for a Senate seat from Georgia last year, and he may have been born in the Peach State, but Walker’s home for years was Texas. He spent most of his football career as a Dallas Cowboy, and right up until he had to establish residency in Georgia before seeking office there, his home was in Westlake, twenty miles from the old Texas Stadium in Irving. The New York Times reports that he even receives a property tax break intended for primary residents of the state. These passages from his campaign diary (we can’t disclose how we acquired it, but rest assured Project Veritas was NOT involved) reveal that Herschel Walker has remained a Texas guy at heart. Dear Diary, I mentioned running…The post 2023 Bum Steer of the Year Runner-up: Herschel Walker appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Gilberto HinojosaBrownsville, Texas@HinojosaATXEnergetic Texas Democratic Chair seeking new opportunities in legislative affairs, punditry, and/or life coaching. My superpowers are envisioning profound success, reflecting on total failure, assigning blame, and expressing I’m-rubber-you’re-glue-level deflection.Relevant ExperienceTexas Democratic party chair, 2012–present • Before the 2022 midterms, elected 67 Democratic members to Texas Legislature (42 percent increase); flipped Harris, Fort Bend, Bexar counties to Democrats; flipped enough seats that Democrats control half of the courtsof appeal; increased Democrat turnout by 30 percent . . . without ever winning a statewide race, but still! • Came “really close” with Beto in 2018 • Turned Texas into what I like to call the “biggest battleground state”• Have spread more inexplicably positive vibes about Democratic election chances than anyone in the long and colorful history of Texas politics•…The post 2023 Bum Steer of the Year Runner-up: Gilberto Hinojosa appeared first on Texas Monthly.
No doubt Gregg Popovich has stuffed the stat sheet like few head coaches in NBA history, with three coach-of-the-year awards and a record 22 consecutive playoff appearances from 1998 through 2019. By last March, Pop had won more games than any other coach to walk an NBA sideline. And most remarkably, he notched every one of those victories with the small-market San Antonio Spurs.Now, just imagine if we had some way of quantifying the intangible side of Pop’s legacy. A “made their day” quotient for the sommeliers who’ve received generous tips from the NBA’s best-known oenophile; a full accounting of the many charitable acts Pop never discusses in public; or some measure of how it has felt for generations of San Antonians to watch the…The post The Best Things in Texas 2023: The Best NBA Coach Ever appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Number of encounters law enforcement officials had with undocumented migrants at Texas’s southern border:March 2021:109, 456August 2022:116,967When Governor Greg Abbott launched his oft touted and oft maligned security initiative, Operation Lone Star, the goal was to “stop this revolving door and deter others considering entering illegally.” Eighteen months later, after billions of dollars were allocated toward the effort, including transferring money from the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, Texas Health and Human Services, and the Department of Family and Protective Services (and after a $14 million busing stunt that moved more than 10,000 migrants from Texas to Chicago, New York, and Washington, D.C.), the number had risen by more than 7,000, according to the Texas Tribune.This article originally appeared in the January 2023 issue of…The post 2023 Bum Steer of the Year Runner-up: Floperation Lone Star appeared first on Texas Monthly.
It sounded like something out of bad fiction: a cop asked to investigate murders that he himself had committed. It was 2019, and I was writing about a series of vicious killings that had taken place in the border city of Laredo a year earlier. Over a period of twelve days, two sex workers had been picked up from what were known as “the prostitute blocks” on San Bernardo Avenue, taken to remote areas northwest of the city, and shot in the head. After another potential victim made a daring escape from the killer’s white pickup truck, she led police to his house. Two more women would be shot and killed before he was apprehended. The man turned out to be a U.S. Border Patrol…The post What Drove Juan David Ortiz, a Respected Border Patrol Agent, to Become a Serial Killer? appeared first on Texas Monthly.
In a span of four days over the past week, the Texas Rangers signed one of the best pitchers in Major League Baseball while the Houston Astros lost one. Just like that, the cavernous gap between the poor, pitiful, bottom-feeding team from Arlington and the World Series champions closed just a bit.For the second straight off-season, the Rangers are accumulating talent at a head-spinning rate. So far, they’ve not just upgraded their roster, but they’ve also hired one of the great managers in baseball history, along with an accomplished team builder for the front office. Did we mention the new pitching coach? He’s also among the game’s finest.If you’ve dreamed of a baseball summer in which the two Texas teams slug it out for a…The post Can the Free-Spending Texas Rangers Close the Gap With the Astros? appeared first on Texas Monthly.
The bills: House Bill 714, House Joint Resolution 50Filed by: Jared Patterson, Republican, District 106 (Frisco)As a backbencher in the Legislature, you face some difficult choices about how to spend your time. You can accept your irrelevance and focus on the finer things that come with being a state legislator, such as enjoying a life of luxury paid for by your campaign accounts or getting folks to address you as “the Honorable.” Or you can put your head down and embrace the drudgery of lawmaking—committee work and hustling votes—and hope to eventually claw your way into power. Or, in this age of social media, you can try a shortcut: you can build a name for yourself by posting and trolling and desperately crying out for…The post Austin Powers: A Republican Lawmaker Wants the Texas Legislature to Take Over the Capital City appeared first on Texas Monthly.
It was a warm April morning in Humble, and Greg Gatlin of Gatlin’s BBQ squinted through the smoke as he leaned over a grill made of concrete blocks and metal grates at Houston BBQ Fest. Standing on the unshaded concrete lot, sweat poured as he flipped dozens of chicken legs for the crowd gathering at the gate. Gatlin and his executive chef, Michelle Wallace, had marinated the chicken for 24 hours in a jerk sauce they were testing for the first time on a large audience. I got an early sample and was quickly smitten. When I would get to taste this at their restaurant was my next question. Wallace and Gatlin said the jerk chicken would be on the menu at their new restaurant when…The post Fire Up Your Appetite for Smoked Jerk Chicken at This Houston BBQ Spin-off appeared first on Texas Monthly.
On Thursday, a state court in San Antonio tossed out a lawsuit against Dr. Alan Braid. Braid was the first doctor to declare that he had performed an abortion in defiance of Texas’s 2021 Senate Bill 8 “bounty” law, which allows anyone who is aware of an abortion that occurred in the state to sue any party who “aids or abets” the abortion. Braid didn’t perform the abortion in the summer of 2021 out of ignorance of the law. Rather, the physician, who began his career in 1972, did so intentionally—as he wrote in an op-ed for the Washington Post last September that publicized his decision to defy the law—because he considered the law unjust. The plaintiff in the case against Braid, a suspended Illinois lawyer…The post Texas’s Abortion “Bounty” Law Just Lost Its First Test. Here’s What That Means. appeared first on Texas Monthly.
When he launched Wild Boar Man Soap, in 2015, John Michon didn’t set out to promote the wonders of feral hog fat. The 52-year-old hunter, who lives outside the Hill Country town of Kerrville, was just looking for a way to use the lard sourced by his then-employer, Broken Arrow Ranch, an Ingram-based producer and processor of game meats. He remembered his grandfather’s stories about living on a farm in Willis, in East Texas. “Every winter they’d slaughter a pig, and nothing went to waste,” says the former restaurateur and chemical plant operator. “My great-grandmother would add lard to lye to make soap, so I decided to give it a try.” His “certified Boarganic” soaps (and beard and lip balms) use local ingredients such as…The post This Hill Country Hunter Turns Feral-Hog Lard Into Soap, Lip Balm, and More appeared first on Texas Monthly.
One thing I’ve learned in my years covering this state is that there is always a Texas connection, which is why I first set up a Google alert for “Meghan Markle Texas” back in January 2020. Meg and her husband had just announced they’d be stepping down down as “senior” members of the British royal family, and “Megxit” was a massive news story in at least two countries—the UK and the U.S.—if not the entire Western world. Nearly three years later, that royal falling-out is still making headlines around the globe, this week especially, after the release of the first three episodes of Netflix’s docuseries Harry & Meghan on December 8. When I first set up my Google alert, I wanted to prove my theory…The post The Ballad of Prince Harry, Meghan Markle, and the Boy From Huntsville appeared first on Texas Monthly.
U.S. basketball star Brittney Griner, a Houston native, has been released from Russian custody in a prisoner exchange, President Joe Biden said Thursday morning.“Moments ago I spoke to Brittney Griner. She is safe. She is on a plane. She is on her way home,” Biden said in a tweet announcing the release.In a Thursday morning press conference, Biden said he had spoken with Griner on the phone and that she is “in good spirits.”“She’s relieved to finally be heading home, and the fact remains that she’s lost months of her life, experienced needless trauma,” he said. “She endured mistreatment and a show trial in Russia with characteristic grit and incredible dignity.”Griner was arrested in a Moscow airport in February after airport officials discovered vape canisters and…The post Texan Brittney Griner Released From Russian Custody in Prisoner Swap appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Old Fire’s John Mark Lapham chose the title for his latest album of haunted Americana to reflect the losses he endured while recording it: a relationship’s end, the deaths of his parents, and the pandemic and its hush of isolation. Lonesomeness whips through his work like a keening wind, a beautiful desolation that’s inspired by the West Texas expanse, and by Lapham’s experience growing up gay in Abilene. He finds strength in numbers on Voids, pairing his ambient folk with guest vocalists such as Austin’s Bill Callahan. On “Don’t You Go,” a cover of English songwriter John Martyn’s mournful ballad, Callahan sings with somber wisdom over piano, strings, and moaning synthesizer, his doleful croon conjuring the ghosts of fathers and sons lost to “the mastery,…The post One Track Mind: “Don’t You Go” appeared first on Texas Monthly.
The onlookers watching Marc Rebillet scurrying barefoot between instruments weren’t sure what to do with themselves. It was a Sunday night, and a dozen or so strangers were in a Brooklyn office space rented out by Rebillet (pronounced rub-ee-yay), who appeared in jeans and a chic striped shirt instead of his usual performance attire: a bathrobe draped over boxer briefs. On a table before two large picture windows sat his laptop, MIDI keyboard, and loop station—a small, switchboard-looking device that records sounds and plays them back on repeat. Nearby were an upright piano, a Rhodes keyboard, and a drummer and bassist holding down a jazzy groove. There were also snacks, a fridge stocked with booze and sparkling water, some small musical instruments for the guests…The post Making an Album Is Throwing Marc Rebillet for a Loop appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Pitmaster Ren Garcia set a rib plate in the window of Micklethwait Craft Meats, in Austin. I had just eaten the smoked prime rib special, but the juices weeping from those behemoth spareribs were like a siren song. “How much for one rib?” I asked, without intending an I’m Gonna Git You Sucka joke. He handed me a small end rib right off the block, and I polished it off before I could walk to the trash can to deposit the bone. It wasn’t a sauced-up rib, which has become the norm in Texas. Micklethwait‘s rib tasted like salt, pepper, smoke, and—as is less common with today’s trendy sweet ribs—pork.“There are a lot of lies in barbecue,” Tom Micklethwait told me before I got too…The post Where Have All the Savory Spareribs Gone? appeared first on Texas Monthly.
West Texas’s reputation as the land of crunchy tacos, kitchen-sink burritos, and bulky combo platters is well-earned. These are the high-calorie foods of the hardworking folks of the oil patch. The region’s sister cities, Midland and Odessa, offer them aplenty. However, Midland surprises with a vibrant taco truck scene, with many of the trucks parked on and around Big Spring Street.El Taco TakoThis cash-only, counter-order joint is worn around the edges, with faded, hand-painted signage. The tortillas are fresh, though, and they’re best in the form of burritos packed with guisos, such as chile relleno, green chile pork, and barbacoa, as well as with all manner of breakfast options. 718 W. Clements, Odessa, 432-333-5731.Elva’s Taco CasaAnother aged joint—this one established by owner Elva Porras nearly…The post The Midland-Odessa Taco Trail appeared first on Texas Monthly.
In 2023, the Texas Rangers, Texas’s oldest law enforcement organization, will mark 200 years since its inception. Ten years ago, the Public Safety Commission, the civil oversight committee for the Department of Public Safety, organized Texas Ranger 2023 Inc. to “commemorate the 200 years of service the Texas Rangers have given the citizens and the State of Texas.” The year-long celebration begins at the Fort Worth Stock Show and Rodeo in January and continues monthly throughout the state, concluding with a fundraising gala in November in Austin. Events are aligned with honoring all six Ranger companies in their respective regions.This planned year of celebration promotes a particular view of the Texas Rangers—200 years of the kind of unvarnished heroism we see in Hollywood portrayals. But…The post Opinion: The Texas Rangers Bicentennial Is a Time to Reflect, Not Celebrate Mythology appeared first on Texas Monthly.
The Mexican novelist Juan Villoro once noted, “To write about Mexico City is a challenge as elusive as describing vertigo.” From my apartment near the city’s center, I try anyway, with AirPods stuffed in my ears in a futile attempt to block out the noises below my window. On top of the shrieking drills of construction work come the characters who parade up and down my street every afternoon. One man plays the trumpet with his little boy in tow, banging on a drum. Another pedals by, announcing the arrival of his “ricos y deliciosos tamales oaxaqueños.” Trucks driven by men who buy and resell scrap iron blast the audiotape that has become Mexico City’s unofficial anthem: a woman’s droning voice, listing the objects they…The post Why You Should See Mexico City Like a Tourist appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Mexico’s best tourist destinations include more than just its bustling capital and serene beaches. Across the country, 132 towns have earned the designation “Pueblo Mágico,” part of a national program started more than twenty years ago to highlight rural areas known for special qualities, from natural attractions to distinctive cuisines and historic sites. These five magical towns are within a few hours’ drive of Mexico City and are relatively safe to visit, especially if you travel with a trusted driver (such as one hired through a travel agency), take the highways in the daytime only, and stay in groups.Bernal, QuerétaroThis colonial town is known for its rock monolith, one of the tallest in the world, which towers 1,420 feet above the village. The site is…The post Explore These Five Pueblos Mágicos Near Mexico City appeared first on Texas Monthly.
NEWEsquina ComúnThere might not be a more exciting restaurant in Mexico City right now than this clandestine restaurant, which requires reservations via Instagram for one of its eight weekend lunch and dinner services. You don’t learn the address of the location, on a rooftop terrace in La Condesa, until your spot is confirmed. Crafted by chef Ana Dolores, the contemporary menu of seasonal dishes, such as chorizo croquettes and wild-mushroom fideo (vermicelli), is worth the extra effort. Fideo GordoYoshigei Nakatani, grandfather of chef Eduardo “Edo” Ramirez Nakatani, invented the soy sauce–kissed fried peanuts known as cacahuates japoneses, one of Mexico’s favorite snacks, after emigrating from Japan in the thirties. The younger Nakatani is carrying on his family’s legacy at this udon shop in the Roma…The post How to Eat Your Way Across Mexico City appeared first on Texas Monthly.
The Allure of the Seas is 1,187 feet long and weighs 225,000 tons. It has 2,742 staterooms, 24 guest elevators, an ice rink, six hot tubs, four swimming pools, a carousel, a casino, boutique shops where you can buy Coach purses and gold watches, a pickleball court, a mini-golf course, a surfing simulator, two rock climbing walls, a cocktail bar that moves up and down between floors, a running track (thank you, Jesus), 34 bars and restaurants, and a zip line. The hulking Royal Caribbean vessel, which can carry up to 6,780 passengers and 2,100 crew members, feels more like a floating city than anything else. It is the fifth-largest ship currently sailing on the planet and the biggest to ever depart from Texas, which it…The post Four Strange Days Aboard the Biggest Cruise Ship to Sail From Texas appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Why is Guns N’ Roses in the news?It’s so easy to avoid getting sued by Axl Rose: simply avoid naming your business something that implies it might be affiliated with his eighties heavy-metal band. That’s a lesson that the owners of a Houston-area online store called Texas Guns and Roses learned the hard way last week, after they were served with a trademark lawsuit by attorneys for the group. The suit alleges that the store’s name is “likely to cause confusion.”Uh-oh. Sounds like the band’s approach to potential trademark infringement isn’t exactly “anything goes.”The shop’s owners may have believed they were in paradise city when they launched the concept, which is a store that sells guns, gun accessories, and roses, but the band felt otherwise.…The post Guns N’ Roses Welcomes Texas Firearms and Flower Shop to the Jungle With a Lawsuit appeared first on Texas Monthly.
“I either write the book or sell the jewels,” screen star Ava Gardner told her ghostwriter, Peter Evans, “and I’m kinda sentimental about the jewels.” The line appears in the 2013 tell-all Ava Gardner: The Secret Conversations, one of many unauthorized biographies and celebrity memoirs about legends like Richard Burton, Marilyn Monroe, and Elizabeth Taylor that I devoured at the time. I’d been hired to write two comic books about Monroe and Taylor, so my bookshelves became crowded with Hollywood tales. The thing that made The Secret Conversations memorable—besides Gardner dishing about the bedroom skills of famous ex-husband Frank Sinatra—was that instead of working silently behind the scenes, Evans made himself part of the story. Long before I became a ghostwriter myself, Evans’s relationship with…The post Confessions of a Celebrity Ghostwriter appeared first on Texas Monthly.
The bill: House Joint Resolution 56Filed by: James Talarico, Democrat, District 52 (Round Rock)What it would do: The succinct resolution would add 31 words to the Texas constitution, under Section 68, Article III: “The legislature shall not pass a law that abridges an individual’s access to abortion care if the individual’s decision to access abortion care is made in consultation with a licensed physician.” Texas law requires that all constitutional amendments be approved directly by voters, so the resolution further specifies that the election to vote on the proposed amendment would occur on November 7, 2023, and offers specific language for how the amendment would appear on the ballot. If his bill is passed and the amendment is then approved by voters, another bill that Talarico…The post Texas Lege Watch: A Democratic Resolution Would Put Abortion Directly on the Ballot. But It’s Doomed. appeared first on Texas Monthly.
“I hope you’re not disappointed,” Carla Rockmore warns me. “It looks bigger in the photos.” The Dallas-based influencer is talking about her closet—the closet, as I, and likely her other almost two million social media followers, think of it. We step inside, and I see what she means. On TikTok, the two-story room yawns around the 55-year-old like Aladdin’s cave, its walls shimmering with bright silk scarves and glossy brocade coats, velvet platform heels, vintage baubles, and designer bags in every shape and color. In person, it looks far less like the fantasia I’d imagined and a bit more like an ordinary, overstuffed suburban closet—albeit one with a spiral staircase and a fireplace. It’s only when I ask her how to style a pair of…The post Inside Carla Rockmore’s Famous and Fabulous Dallas Closet appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Listen to this episode on Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Stitcher | Google. Read the transcript below. Subscribe Apple Podcasts — Spotify — Stitcher — Google Podcasts People look to a Ranger to solve the crime. If somebody else can’t solve it . . . they figure that Ranger’s going to solve it. It puts a lot of pressure on you, being a Ranger.—Joe DavisToday’s Texas Rangers make a hard distinction between themselves and the men who rode alongside Jack Hays, J. M. Fox, or even Frank Hamer. But the hat and the badge—the Ranger mystique—still count for something. How does that Rangerness affect their approach to policing? How does it affect the people they’re investigating, tracking, and interrogating—the guilty . . . and the innocent?You can read more about the stories in this episode in Michael Hall’s original Texas Monthly feature…The post White Hats, Episode 5: Bias Toward Action appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Sarah Flores and Sabrina Lozano grew up eating calabaza con pollo, a warming blend of chicken and squash perfect for those days in Texas when temperatures (finally!) begin to drop. The sisters, who own and operate Loli’s Streatery food truck, in Corpus Christi, wanted to make a dish that plays off the staple while incorporating their own playful spin on things. That’s their ethos for all the food they serve at their truck, such as crispy waffle fries topped with queso and a loaded roasted corn bowl with slow-cooked brisket.“We wanted to do calabaza con pollo, but on nachos,” Flores says. “And then we started thinking about all the different kinds of squash that are out there.” The women landed on tromboncino and delicata squash…The post Calabaza con Pollo Nachos appeared first on Texas Monthly.
From inside the home, several German shepherds snarled and barked at the sound of strangers arriving on the doorstep. The house, on a quiet street of low-slung brick residences just outside the Panhandle town of Borger, was otherwise quiet. Its garage door had been left open, revealing an array of carpentry tools hung against the back wall. Nothing unusual distinguished the place, except that the windows were lined with black plastic garbage bags and one of the panes bore a two-word message scrawled in red and blue paint. It said: “Trump Won.”The dogs became even more animated after the doorbell rang. Half a minute passed, then the door opened. Standing there, with a hand still on the knob, was a wiry man in his fifties,…The post The Untold Story of the Insular Texas Family That Invaded the U.S. Capitol appeared first on Texas Monthly.
The former football star says his campaign for the U.S. Senate began in his home outside Dallas. Will it end there as well?
The rap star spent more than three hours praising Nazis on Infowars, while making the host squirm—but not for the reasons you might think.
Kerville’s Lecia Hawkins has amassed enough mid-century Christmas decor to cover the North Pole.
The Netflix series honors the fusion food by featuring two joints in Dallas and San Antonio. We add two more that could’ve made the cut.
Undefeated TCU wouldn't be playing for a Big 12 Championship and a national semifinal berth without gritty senior quarterback Max Duggan.
A new Netflix docuseries revisits the string of murders near League City. Texas Monthly interviewed Abel in 1999.
After two years of interrupted travel, taco editor José R. Ralat hit the road full force this year and has a best-of list of a whopping 25 dishes to prove it.
After an election marred by malfunctioning machines, long lines, and a shortage of paper ballots, Republicans are contemplating big changes in the next Legislature.
Austin’s KG BBQ serves za’atar-dusted pork ribs, brisket shawarma, and pistachio rice pudding in a wholly unique dining experience.
At the turn of the century, Mexican American publications paid a price for challenging the local sheriff and elements of the Texas Rangers.
Texpats living in the nation’s capital have recently seen an uptick in the availability of favorite dishes from home, including kolaches, breakfast tacos, and barbecue.
With silk pillows, quill pens, and rhinestone cowboy boot ornaments, these shops across the state have a special gift for everyone on your list.
Every two years the Democrats claim they will win by turning out new voters. Every two years they fail.
The Texas Rangers face a reckoning at the Capitol—and go on to become pop-culture heroes.
You’ve had all month to read the latest issue of Texas Monthly. How much can you remember?
Sterry Butcher on the path that led her to move to Marfa and find God “in the details” while writing about rural Texas.
From cocktail napkins to children’s books, lingerie to cowboy boots, these are our favorite presents for Texans and Tex-stans this year.
Minuscule Valentine School, with eleven total high schoolers, sent three qualifiers to this fall’s state cross-country meet.
There’s potential for the two to be an iconic duo, a new generation’s Robert Redford and Paul Newman.
Making sense of the politics behind the unprecedented attacks on Texas school library volumes that deal with issues of race and gender.
From a chimichurri to a halal rub, these smoked meat add-ons will seriously liven up everything from steak to sausage to eggs.
The San Marcos–bred supergroup released two farewell albums last week, one of which is a reflective solo record that complicates the band’s legacy.
From hosting drag shows to feeding political campaigns, the Local in Abilene has been mired in some controversy, but it remains focused on serving tacos to folks of all stripes.
The Mexican Revolution gave the Texas Rangers a new calling. But it also became the darkest chapter in Rangers history.
Unexploded ordnance saved Castner Range from development. Now conservationists want to open it to the public.
Jimmy Johnson’s memoir, ‘Swagger,’ is another salvo in the catty, decades-long feud between the former coach and Jerry Jones.
Four players on the U.S. World Cup roster came through FC Dallas’s system—and soccer pundits think that number could have been twice as high.
The orange fruit, while prevalent in Texas, is still a mystery to some folks. Try the juicy fall produce in this elevated appetizer.
Texan legislators in Washington keep their eyes on the important things. Texas Monthly rounded up the latest.
Under his new Texas bill, any community theater that hosts a performance of Peter Pan would find itself regulated as a strip club.
Pastel-hued pan dulce pastries like pink cake, chocolate conchas, and sprinkle-covered Garibaldis routinely sell out at Alebrije Bakery.
Of course, Sullivan Old Town BBQ’s twist on a Cuban sandwich, rich pecan pie, and flavorful brisket also encourage multiple visits.
Barbecue editor Daniel Vaughn and taco editor José R. Ralat pay a visit to Vaqueros Texas Bar-B-Q—a white-and-black trailer at Hop & Sting Brewing—to enjoy some of the most “jaw-dropping” bites in Grapevine. Pitmaster Trey Sánchez III puts a delicious …
Author S. C. Gwynne calls his 2009 profile of the pirate-obsessed former Texas Tech coach part of the “golden era” of his journalism career.
The real estate developer who engineered a deal to buy the 134-year-old minor league baseball franchise thinks new team ownership can help transform the city’s urban core.
The historic partnership became pop-culture lore, but Texas’s broken promises to the tribe illustrated a different reality.
Brad Lomax was stoked until he found himself fighting Mother Nature and supervising 1.5 million babies.
Texas’s elite police force has long played the hero in film and television, although the reality is far more complex.
The small-government conservative has proposed a bill to allow pregnant drivers to access carpool lanes.
After the Horned Frogs beat UT Saturday, reports that the Longhorns passed on Dykes for Steve Sarkisian left Texas fans wondering, “What if?”
A Plano man wonders how the likes of Bob Dylan, Sarah Palin, and John Wayne qualified for this prestigious designation.
Vibrant, jewel-toned murals set the scene for masterful Japanese-Peruvian cuisine at Masaru Fukuda’s Pacha Nikkei.
From Enchanted Rock to Fort Parker to the Guadalupe Mountains, we trace three early Ranger legends that mean very different things depending on whose history you claim as your own.
On the first episode of ‘White Hats,’ we visit the museum that tells the Rangers’ official history, then drive to South Texas to hear about efforts to bring other perspectives into the mainstream.
We review dozens of restaurants all around Texas each month. Here’s a peek at what’s new and how we liked it.
The Texas troubadour’s farewell lap was full of misadventures and unforgettable moments. Kind of like a classic REK song.
John Bloom, a.k.a. Joe Bob Briggs, discusses his 2004 opus on the making of the slasher classic and the New York bias against a Texas original.
Multiple times throughout the documentary, Gomez repeats that she no longer craves stardom. But what the singer wants instead remains unclear.
Season three of the Netflix reality series wrapped up in Dallas, but between the gossipy fun and the occasional eye roll, there is insight into the nature of twenty-first-century relationships and marriage.
After a battlefield attack left him mentally scarred, Steven Rossler found strength in telling his story and working the Rossler’s Blue Cord Barbecue pit with his family.
For the second time in history, the oversight body delivered its stiffest penalty—to a tiny central Texas high school with 48 total students.
Plus, porch pirates spread manure on a home after getting pranked, a teen swallowed part of a dog toy, and more.
Each winter, a wildlife sanctuary near the Panhandle hosts one of the world’s largest gatherings of these beautiful birds.
The water at Pagosa Springs’ luxury resort burbles forth from the world’s deepest geothermal spring.
Originally from Haiti, Paola Mathè has expanded her Fanm Djanm line to include bucket hats, headbands, and caftans.
Jeannie C. Riley celebrated her seventy-seventh birthday with a big bash in the tiny town of Burton, where she reflected on the irony of her sixties megahit “Harper Valley P.T.A.”
Butcher paper–wrapped briskets came into fashion about a decade ago, but more pitmasters and home cooks are opting for the full metal brisket jacket.
Somewhere along the line, bourbon’s become something collected. It sits on a shelf, rarely opened and all too carefully poured.Fred Noe doesn’t believe in that.When it comes to bourbon, Jim Beam’s seventh generation master distiller says enjoy it “any damn …
Republicans are pursuing South Texas Latinos. Democrats are counting on the Dobbs abortion decision. Nobody knows who’s going to turn out to vote. And the polls are all over the place.
Weston Martinez can’t provide evidence for his claims of fraud in the 2020 election, but he is drawing crowds of right-wing activists across Texas.
Artist Janavi Mahimtura Folmsbee has installed a soothing, glittering exhibit at Houston’s George Bush Intercontinental Airport.
Meraki Meadows has been producing saffron for two years. The spice, which comes from the crocus flower, can sell for a minimum of $9,000 a pound.
Catherine Engelbrecht and Gregg Phillips refused to disclose the name of a mystery man who supposedly helped them investigate election software company Konnech.
The fifteen-member State Board of Education will determine how public school educators and textbooks teach issues such as sexual orientation and race.
Thanks to a memorabilia boom and another Astros World Series trip, Houston has become a hotbed for rare hat collectors.
You’ve had all month to read the latest issue of Texas Monthly. How much can you remember?
For the first time in fifty years, single-issue abortion voters are pro-choice. Can Texas Democrats capitalize on it?
The titular character of director Ti West’s latest horror movie, ‘Pearl,’ is a young Texan who’s had it with the people and society that keep her repressed.
The family-owned San Antonio company produces the bulk, whole, and blended spices the state can’t cook without.
The South Texas town’s ongoing protests in the wake of the Robb Elementary shooting hold echoes of Uvalde’s 1970s protest movement against racial inequities.
On a farm near Flatonia, Mike Shellman closes the chapter on nearly sixty years in the business.
Insider advice for ordering wreaths and centerpieces, whether you’re getting ahead of decorating this season or not.
The legendary operation partnered with Old Forester in Kentucky to create a Texas-exclusive whiskey that benefits cattle and quail alike.
The Southern Foodways Symposium, held last weekend in Mississippi, made barbecue editor Daniel Vaughn reflect on the industry and his career.
From Johnny Cash to the Stone Coyotes, musicians have long made harrowing music about the Lone Star State.
Scientists are unleashing the computerized canines on the Austin campus to study how humans interact with them.
State Republicans and local business leaders are betting big on the 38-year-old political newcomer, pouring nearly $5 million into her campaign to unseat County Judge Lina Hidalgo. Polls suggest the race is a dead heat.
Gridlock, brand activations, and Austrian funnel cake ruled the weekend’s U.S. Grand Prix at the Circuit of the Americas.
On Monday’s ‘The View,’ and Sunday in Yankee Stadium, the senator tried again to be relatable and regular—with the usual results.
The former president’s rally in Robstown was just like all his others in Texas, but he still commands state leaders’ attention.
Progressive religious leaders are mulling their options to help women who seek abortions—and some are willing to risk lawsuits and jail time.
Our barbecue editor was impressed not only with the quality of the city’s Texas-style ’cue but with the overall love and respect for the cuisine.
With its fourth album and a big upcoming tour, Tulip, which is led by an ex-evangelical opera singer, is on the verge of its big break.
Humorist Wendi Aarons’s ‘I’m Wearing Tunics Now’ depicts middle-age losses (slower metabolisms) and wins (better friendships).
DPS director Steve McCraw could legally release mountains of evidence tomorrow. Instead, he is hiding behind a veil of secrecy.
While Douglas definitely isn’t a “joint,” it still has all the hallmarks of Texas ’cue, including brisket, ribs, mac and cheese, and banana pudding.
While Oak Cliff's Casa del Vegano has a few flaws, its innovative taco fillings like konjac root, banana blossoms, and oyster mushrooms warrant a try.
David Gordon Green’s rebooted horror trilogy concludes with another search for meaning, yet again, in senseless murder.
A new exhibition at the University of Texas at Austin spotlights the life and work of the Houston native, one of the country’s foremost abstract sculptors.
The ninth installment in the Rocky franchise puts honorary Texan Michael B. Jordan and official Texan Jonathan Majors in the ring, and we are here for it.
San Antonio talk radio host Bob Webster has dispensed gardening tips on air for 31 years. A new generation is starting to listen.
They keep their communities running, whether it’s providing a gathering space or keeping prices low in the face of inflation.
A Lubbock woman isn’t sure the state’s wildly successful vineyards fit with our Wild West image.
Political operatives descended on the Hill Country town of Wimberley with a scheme to send taxpayer dollars to private schools. Now they’re shopping the same blueprint elsewhere.
We know she’s a savage and a big ole freak, but is the Houston hometown hero funny? On ‘Saturday Night Live,’ we found out.
With a historic performance last week, the slugger led the Houston Astros to their sixth straight American League Championship Series.
We review dozens of restaurants all around Texas each month. Here’s a peek at what’s new and how we liked it.
Just in time for the holidays, Texas Monthly debuts its first-ever collection of recipes.
Low primary-election turnout and an anemic Democratic party means statewide officials and legislators are far to the right of most Texans.
By declaring that “evil will always walk among us” or calling for Texans to “unify in faith,” politicians communicate specific ideas to the electorate.
The CW drama is set in nineteenth-century Texas but strives for twenty-first-century relevance.
Eva Marengo Sanchez has painted everything from tacos to conchas, and it’s given her work more meaning than she ever anticipated.
Two Texas Monthly writers go head-to-head on the merits and inferiorities of tacos made with crispy shells vs. soft tortillas.
Ruby City rotates its contemporary collection with a new show well-timed for spooky season.
The musician, author, and columnist needed an idea. Texas Monthly’s then–editor in chief said, “Make something up.” The rest is history.
Houston’s poet laureate emeritus started out at competitive slams. Now she’s expanding her work into theater, opera, and books.
With a high-powered offense and a 4–0 start, why can’t the Horned Frogs bag their first conference title since 2014?
Round out your taco meal with add-ons—but order armed with the knowledge of what might disappoint and what will hit the spot every time.
Living in a taco-obsessed world and reporting on border issues makes senior editor Jack Herrera’s relationship with the dish complex—and a little frustrating.
Donald Trump’s baseless claims of fraud have made life more difficult and dangerous for poll workers.
At some restaurants, paying more for a Wagyu steak may lead to disappointment. Not so with the products from A Bar N Ranch in North Texas.
The actor and writer’s one-man off-Broadway show, ‘Everything’s Fine,’ is about a series of bizarre events involving one of his junior high teachers.
The lieutenant governor’s rural bus tour looks more like an extended vacation than a reelection bid.
It’s become a Texas tradition to hold brief gubernatorial debates during high school football prime time.
The legendary actor was feted at a glamorously hammy gala celebrating the Center’s collection, which is a treasure trove of film history that every good fella should study.
The Austin-based film festival returned for another round of horror and fantasy, now tinged with some distinctly real-world anxieties.
As a new location of Terry Black’s Barbecue opened its doors in Lockhart this month, a battle raged on—in the form of quippy signs—with Black’s Barbecue.
Sally Maxwell’s images, made from thousands upon thousands of hairline scratches, are impressively detailed.
The classically trained Houston pop star played a two-hundred-year-old crystal flute at a D.C. concert, causing a meltdown in some corners of the internet.
One of our most important TCR stories involved a surprise encounter with an early advocate of whooping crane conservation efforts.
If you plan to impress your guests with a showstopping smoked meat, Daniel Vaughn suggests you learn to make beef ribs—the Goldee’s way.
Cecilia Ballí recalls reporting on her family’s legal victory over the lawyer who swindled the Ballís out of lucrative land rights on Padre Island.
Martha Kelly, the former “Funniest Person in Austin,” is nominated for her deadly serious role in HBO’s ‘Euphoria.’
The Cougars are nationally ranked and receive millions in university support—so why does UH consistently play in a half-empty home stadium?
The ‘No Demo Reno’ host can transform a cookie-cutter house into an oasis of personality.
Plans were underway to revive tourism at Fort Clark Springs in southwest Texas. But then, in a scenario increasingly common across the state, the water stopped flowing.
Paul Cruz was battling some personal demons before finding faith and founding Cruz BBQ Company in Maypearl.
The Brooklyn-based singer-songwriter and virtuoso guitarist celebrates two of the greatest players he’s ever heard.
In some circles, September 1 marks the first day of fall. In others, it comes a little further into the month, on September 22. In Texas, you have to laugh.
This three-ingredient recipe is simple to execute, but impressive to eat. Perfect for spontaneously whipping up on a hot summer day.
The Austin-based nonprofit has become a social media star with clips of vintage local newscasts, bizarre industrial films, and one-of-a-kind celebrity encounters.
Mary Beth Rogers, who served as Ann Richards’s campaign manager and chief of staff, reflects on Texas politics in ‘Hope and Hard Truth.’
As rains fall across Texas, remember the 1976 Houston deluge that improbably shut down an Astros game at the famed “weather-proof” Astrodome.
From sweet chipotle to dirty rice, the options at this family-run Bellville sausage emporium run the gamut from tame to adventurous.
Visit a jail turned museum, stroll among miles of sculptures, and brush up on your paleontology, all without setting foot in the state’s busiest metropolises.
The writer looks back on his 1998 reporting on an unforgettable murder plot that inspired the 2011 Richard Linklater film ‘Bernie.’
This classic comfort food is made heartier and more exciting when stuffed with rich barbacoa and spicy birria, as it is at many restaurants across Texas.
West Texans didn’t much appreciate Don DeLillo’s ‘End Zone’ at the time, but it elevated the lexicon of football to high art.
Using direct-heat methods, Nathan's BBQ shines when it comes to pork ribs and chicken, and it stands out from the local competition too.
The region has long been characterized as adamantly opposed to abortion rights. But the reality is more complicated. And times are changing.
The Legislature established a committee last year to “promote patriotic education.” Drafts of one of its pamphlets reveal an effort to sanitize the state’s long struggle with racial issues.
The ‘Project Runway’ winner could have stayed in New York. Instead, she chose to build an empire at home in H-town.
Ste. Genevieve, which debuted in the 1980s, was the pride of Fort Stockton. Now the community and the state’s wine industry mourn its loss.
The Huntsville penitentiary wants to tear down the abandoned warehouse where a massive bat colony spends half the year. Locals and conservationists have banded together to find an alternate solution.
In the new Netflix series ‘Mo,’ created by Houston comedian Mo Amer, Bun B is a priest and Paul Wall is a security guard. But it’s not all laughs.
Small towns, like Bellville in Austin County, raise funds for various efforts through preparing meat using direct heat and old-school brick pits.
Two food trucks in the Golden Triangle—the Taste of Texas and James & Jon—excel when it comes to serving barbecue in tortillas.
Craft beer, live music, and small businesses breathe new life into Old Taylor High, a repurposed school building from 1923.
Patricia Sharpe recalls the smoked meats and mileage that went into Texas Monthly’s first-ever Top 50 barbecue list in May 1997.
Gregg Phillips, a former Texas official who claims that “2,000 mules” stole the 2020 election from Donald Trump, has raised millions of dollars to chase nonexistent fraudulent votes.
Three joints in Tulsa and Oklahoma City have embraced brisket, beef sausage, and spareribs—but will bologna-loving Oklahomans follow suit?
In this video, Texas Country Reporter interviews the curator of the wide-ranging collection in Jefferson, one that merely begins with 550 vintage clocks.
According to a crop of producers, researchers, and geneticists, hemp is the future of the state's agriculture industry.
Michael Gregory faced many hardships, and his unlikely path as a sculpture artist and teacher is a powerful story of resilience.
Now that the Rangers have fired their manager and president of baseball ops, their future is in the hands of relative front-office newcomer Chris Young.
Taqueria Mi Rancho serves posito, tacos al pastor, and birria, and is located on the co-owner's ranch, bringing a sense of comida casera to the restaurant.
On a state advisory committee, only one member has experience developing wind or solar power. And he’s voiced some eyebrow-raising ideas.
Stuart Marcus has spent years identifying and photographing hundreds of species of moths near the Trinity River, but he still has more to go.
The hard-core honky-tonker talks to us live from Luck, Texas, about “Face of a Fighter” and the other Willie songs he leaned on when he was homeless.
Sarah Hepola’s cover story expertly examines the fifty-year history of the famous NFL cheerleading squad.
Her 1996 photo essay captured the joy and vitality of Andrew, Luke, and Owen Wilson's charmed youth in Dallas.
Creating Texas Monthly’s special podcast series ‘One By Willie: Live From Luck!’ showed me that, like Willie himself, the Luck Reunion is all about family.
They’re cute, they’re charismatic, and they’re lil’. But these “posh pets” are still a lot of work.
He’s a fourth-generation watermelon farmer, he married the Texas Watermelon Queen, and he puts his face on every melon he sells.
The exhibit makes a nuanced argument about colonialism in Latin America. But Texans without roots in the region may not have the tools to understand it.
While the Longhorns were left out of the preseason Top 25 for the first time since 2016, it’s time for number six Texas A&M to put up or shut up.
We asked for clarification from 99 Texas legislators who support the law, plus the attorney general who will enforce it, for clarification. Only one granted an interview.
If you were charmed by Juan Ramón Cárdenas in ‘The Taco Chronicles,’ you’ll want to make your way to Don Artemio.
A Fredericksburg man wonders how Willie Nelson ever prevailed in a state that brought us Ray Wylie Hubbard, Jerry Jeff Walker, and Jimmie Dale Gilmore.
Friends and former colleagues share their memories of the legendary writer, editor, and mentor.
Chemical engineer Guihua Yu’s team works with tiny particles to try to solve some of the world’s biggest problems.
They’re global icons who have left a lasting imprint on American culture. But do recent controversies threaten the squad’s future?
After the FBI searched Mar-a-Lago, state Republicans near-unanimously lined up behind the former president—before details of the investigation left them silent.
Plus, a man stole $10,000 worth of bleachers, and landscapers discovered human remains in a backyard barbecue pit.
This two-day recipe from the Nicolett in Lubbock might be a bit of a project, but the result of crispy, melt-in-your-mouth morsels is worth it.
A vibrant new book by photographer Frederick R. Preston and former Texas poet laureate Carmen Tafolla captures San Antonio’s wealth of public murals, mosaics, and sculptures.
The periodical, first published in 1818 and known for its simplistic and broad extended forecasts, says its largest readership is in Texas. We talked with the editor about why that might be—and what’s in store for the state this winter.
The Canadian city has its own barbecue culture, and it centers on beef that's smoked—sometimes without wood—and served in old-school delis.
The tons of contraband lunch meat seized at the U.S.-Mexico border tell us something about the market value of nostalgia.
After going through the new-business-owner blues, Luis Mendoza is seeing long lines at Un Mundo de Sabor, which serves tacos, enchiladas, and tres leches.
There was crying in baseball after a Pearland pitcher beaned a Tulsa batter on Tuesday. What happened next might restore one’s faith in humanity.
This collection of recipes—from King Ranch casserole to beef rib nigiri—is a celebration of who we are and what we love to eat.
The freelance journalist disappeared in Syria in 2012. His family in Houston hasn’t given up on seeing him come home.
Jahmicah Dawes opened his idiosyncratic outdoors shop, in Stephenville, hoping to inspire people from all walks to explore natural spaces. Then a brush with viral fame changed everything.
Homeowners could take much more burden off the power grid, if cities and utilities would get out of the way.
Southern Smoke and Plateau Brewing are part of a revitalization effort of the downtown area and add more interest to this West Texas town.
Five years after Hurricane Harvey, the beloved beach town continues to recover and evolve. Here are some of our favorite spots.
Why a host of Texas notables, from Steve Kuhn to Brené Brown, are investing heavily in the popular sport.
Texas leads the U.S. in maternity ward closures, and nowhere is this more of an issue than in the western part of the state.
When a family doctor spoke out about insurance companies ruining his practice, few expected his appeal would still resonate 27 years later.
The restaurant, which will seat almost four hundred diners, is built around a historic building that was painstakingly preserved and updated.
Once known for its distinct lean, the former home of the Liberty Bar underwent a painstaking, eight-year renovation process and will soon become Carriqui at the Pearl district.
In a week marked by militant rhetoric at CPAC—including Ted Cruz’s promise to “fight the barbarians”—the former president vowed to inflict a “crippling defeat” on his enemies.
The damages awarded this week in Austin are only the beginning of the likely end of Jones and Infowars. But it remains to be seen what that means for other purveyors of misinformation.
Barbecue has come a long way from being cooked in a hole in the ground. But how did steel offsets, less than 40 years old, come to define the state’s style?
Through Houston-based nonprofit Hives for Heroes, veterans trade their uniforms for bee suits and take on a new mission to save pollinators.
“The globalists can all go to hell,” the authoritarian populist said at CPAC. “I have come to Texas.”
‘Friday Night Lights’ booster Buddy Garrity, with all his flaws, reminds us that big-time football has always been about excess.
Even when Bush was a complete political newcomer, Burka could see his potential to change Texas and usher in a yet-to-end Republican dynasty.
Learn how to attract the creatures you want and keep out the ones (ahem, deer) that you really, really don’t.
Although the Mexico City style is dominant, tacos made with trompo meat vary regionally, offering many ways to enjoy the spit-roasted specialty.
The three-time Grammy nominee talks to us live from Luck, Texas, about definitive covers, Billie Holiday, and building her family with Willie records playing in the background.
Most pitmasters cook brisket on offset smokers, but Big Boy’s Bar-B-Que in Sweetwater practices the dwindling art of cooking over coals.
In one shared gallery, contemporary portraitist Kehinde Wiley and Baroque-era painter Artemisia Gentileschi both depict the violent biblical story of Judith.
Plaintiffs’ attorney Mark Bankston and F. Andino Reynal, who represents Infowars in the case, both have distinct challenges. Last week, their tensions boiled over.
The water-dense fruit (yes, cucumber is a fruit) serves as the great base for a cooling salad that kicks it up a notch with a spicy dressing.
The former boomtown is home to a robust food scene, turn-of-the-century mansions, worthy museums, and natural splendor.
Fifteen years after the popular journalist’s death, we’re living in the world she saw coming—and struggling to follow her example of joyful opposition.
Texas Monthly editor Jan Jarboe Russell on profiling the larger-than-life Houston oilman Oscar Wyatt.
On Wednesday in Austin, the head of the Texas Forensic Science Commission will interview the author of the latest forensic-science takedown.
Addison Oktoberfest rolls out the barrels and hoists the steins September 15-18, at Addison Circle Park.
You’ve had all month to read the latest issue of Texas Monthly. Take this monthly quiz and we’ll tell you how you stack up at the end.And if you got this quiz from a friend: Hello! We hope you enjoy …
The oil giant this week announced quarterly earnings that set an all-time record for any Texas business. That’s both good and bad news for the state.
A Lone Star State native living in Chicago insists that only small pastry squares filled with cooked fruit deserve that name.
The queen’s new album nails the sweet spot between nostalgia and new wave, paying tribute to past trendsetters while blazing a new path forward for pop music.
At one location, you'll find Desert Oak Barbecue's classic menu. At the other, it's breakfast, coffee, burritos, and burgers using trimmings.
The trial this week in Austin to determine what Infowars owes in damages for defaming Sandy Hook parents could have had huge free-speech implications. Because of Jones’s choices, it won’t.
For decades, Roddy Wiley ran the only bank in the small town of Oakwood, which happily resisted modern technology well into the twenty-first century.
“Plane spotters” gather in and around airports to marvel at (and photograph) their favorite flights—and Texan spotters just got to witness the descent of the largest passenger plane in the world.
Fifty years ago, a minor league game in Midland was postponed for the rarest of reasons—a swarm of grasshoppers biblical in its proportions.
The rich history of the Brownwood restaurant includes expansions, bankruptcy, a catchy jingle, and a towering cowboy statue that still stands.
After the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, employers and workers in the majority-female food-service industry stepped up their fund-raising and travel assistance.
Franklin Bynum has tried to reform the Harris County criminal justice system from within. That's made him a target of the district attorney.
Teenagers Nigel and Shane Mushambi started a baking business that combines go-getter ambition with do-gooder optimism.
Despite my frustrations with our state’s politics, I love our flag and think it belongs to Texans of all persuasions. Trouble is, I can’t seem to find a pair that fits.
Two brothers in Dallas tried for years to correct the misspellings and omissions. Now they’re heartbroken.
Scott Wade’s dusty windshield paintings are a temporary art form that makes a lasting impression.
A jury in Austin, selected on Monday, is about to grapple with that surprisingly complicated question.
Beau Burns doesn’t need limits on screen time, because his favorite place to be is out working in the field.
Throughout her fifty-year career, the English-born cook influenced—and even advised—chefs of some of Texas’s best Mexican restaurants.
Across the state, Texans are experiencing record-high temperatures, but we might be recalling this summer fondly someday.
The Beaumont photographer zeroed in on the dignity of East Texas residents in his 1989 Texas Monthly photo essay.
Meatheads from around the country fly in to the 30,000-square-foot gym in the Houston suburbs where you’re no one if you’re not flexing, vlogging, or networking.
Nonprofits are defying state law to distribute harm-reduction tools amid an opioid-overdose epidemic.
The 1930s estate in McAllen is home to a fifteen-acre wildlife sanctuary that invites visitors to foster conservation corridors in their own backyards.
Homeowners in hot housing markets got a nasty surprise when their appraisals arrived this spring. Here’s what happened when some of them tried to get reductions.
In 1998, Texas Country Reporter did an episode about Roxanne Ward, a champion hog caller who was quirky, kind, and so unapologetically herself we’ll never forget her.
‘More City than Water: A Houston Flood Atlas’ brings together a team of writers, scholars, designers, and eyewitnesses from the front lines of climate change in a grand experiment.
In recent years, Seguin has honored the group with memorials. My father agreed to build one—but then started having second thoughts.
Put the umbrella down. A viral Facebook post offers some bad advice to Texans about how to stay cool in this summer’s record-breaking heat.
It may seem surprising, but this Midwestern state is excelling at brisket, ribs, and more, all inspired by Texas’s most famous joints.
An interview with Armando Vera in Brownsville, who owns the only restaurant in Texas to offer traditional, buried-in-the-ground, coal-smoked barbacoa.
Newly named senior editors Rose Cahalan and Ben Rowen elevate our coverage of Texas’s wildlife and wild politics.
The drought is taking a toll on our swimming holes, although a few favorites are still in good enough shape to help us handle the record heat.
The franchise stunned the baseball world by selecting Rocker, a talented pitcher with a murky injury history, third overall.
At a recent expo in Houston, innovators claimed they can spare us a global catastrophe—and make billions in the process.
Lucas Denney was staying on a ranch that documents suggest belongs to an official who helped pen the border county’s “invasion” declaration.
The easy-drinking German beer pairs perfectly with high temps. Luckily, there are several Texas breweries making excellent versions.
B. J. Novak talks about his directorial debut, ‘Vengeance,’ a dark comedy set in West Texas—and about Whataburger’s “Dunkin’ Donuts moment.”
Sixteen years ago, a small town’s only public school closed its doors. But not before the final graduating class invited a former POW to walk the stage, finishing what he started nearly six decades before.
Texas Country Reporter visits Maniac’s Mansion in downtown Wichita Falls, offering unlimited play steeped in eighties and nineties nostalgia.
Patrick McGrath Muñiz has crafted a beautiful deck that provokes questions about social justice, climate change, and your own way forward.
McCurley was living a quiet life in Fort Worth when new DNA evidence linked him to the notorious crime. Police suspect it wasn’t his first murder—or his last.
At this weekend’s convention in Dallas, a contentious election for party chair revealed racial and gender-based fault lines.
Up in Smoke BBQ closed its Midland location after the 2020 bust, but it has resurfaced three hours east, in Early, with a new meat market.
Border crossers are perishing in trucks, in the Rio Grande, in falls from border walls, and in remote locations. And neither Greg Abbott nor Joe Biden has a serious solution.
El Pastor Es Mi Señor follows the Mexico City tradition of trompo cooking, which yields beautiful pork and sirloin in tacos, salads, tortas, and more.
Patching it cost the state $1.6 million. Many others are similarly falling into disrepair, and the agencies charged with their oversight are doing nothing about them.
Some clinics are resuming abortion services while waiting for the state’s trigger law to go into effect. Paxton says he’ll appeal.
Merritt Tierce, writer of the viral essay “The Abortion I Didn’t Have” and lauded novel ‘Love Me Back,’ speaks to our “hateful, ominous” moment.
Justin Discount Boots has never been challenged on its self-given, prestigious title—until now.
“It really is one of the greatest wildlife-conservation successes of our time here in Texas.”
Mounjaro is a potential lifesaver in a region with a high rate of obesity. Its price tag may prevent many from accessing it.
Six months ago, three year-old Lina Sardar Khil disappeared. The search for her has been hampered by Islamophobia.
Gilberto Hinojosa has led the Texas Democratic Party through a decade of failure. Some Democrats think that’s long enough.
“Your article may be an epitaph,” the then-president of the Houston Audubon Society told the writer.
A road trip from the Midwest to Austin culminated in Matt McKinney on bended knee in the pit room of the most famous joint in Texas.
When early pandemic lockdowns led to empty streets, Simms, a leader among Black BMX riders, catapulted himself to social media fame.
The Fifth Circuit is led by four judges who got their start in Texas politics. For these activists, overturning the right to an abortion is only the beginning.
Democrats are bracing for attacks on contraception, in vitro fertilization, and other reproductive and sexual rights.
No team does less with more quite like the Longhorns do, but even UT shouldn’t be able to spoil the next great Manning quarterback.
Texas, as well as neighboring Arkansas, Oklahoma, and Louisiana, will outlaw abortion within days to weeks. The procedure will still be available in Kansas and New Mexico.
Bud’s House of Meat in Houston took on the tradition of combining meat counter and restaurant, and it’s one of the few in the area still doing it.
On 'Hannity,' Ted Cruz speculated on how Merrick Garland might respond when the Supreme Court opinion on the Dobbs case finally drops.
Bastrop, Lockhart, Round Rock, and others are hosting Pride Month events for the first time. They’re prepared for pushback. And they’re getting it.
Victories by Mayra Flores and Michelle Vallejo illustrate the complex crosscurrents at work as the Tejano vote grows and splinters.
Amarillo may be famous for its steak-eating contest, but Yellow City Street Food is drawing hype for tacos stuffed with mushrooms and seitan.
Following the lead of farm animals, heat-weary humans have embraced the budget joy of cooling off in these shallow metal tubs.
'Facing Nolan' has all the high heat and bench-clearing brawls that MLB fans expect. But deep down, the film is about a beautiful marriage.
Wade and Becky Brewer provide their small town of Buffalo, located between two major hubs, with delicious smoked meat at W. B. Custom Cooking.
The 23-year-old from Georgetown emerges as Texas’s answer to Olivia Rodrigo and—dare we say it?—T-Swift with his sophomore album, ‘Superache.’
Willie’s longtime producer and writing partner talks about how “Something You Get Through” came together and the way Willie changed country songwriting.
John Davidson’s 1982 article on Enrico di Portanova was everything a high-society profile should be.
From luxury spas to grueling drills, our state offers something for players of every persuasion.
While we wait for ‘Renaissance’ to drop on July 24, the Beyhive is frantically trying to decode clues about the album to come. The speculation is the point.
Corsicana-based pitmaster Kevin Bludso shares his family's fascinating story—alongside a multitude of recipes—in a new cookbook.
An Austin man wonders if the people who stand behind a counter and take our orders deserve the same remuneration as the waiters and waitresses of the world.
My dream of navigating through Big Bend’s stunning canyons finally came true. I just had to start a little farther downstream.
How to get the adventure and scenery without having to spend days in your kayak or canoe.
Swimming before sunrise became a necessary ritual for novelist Elizabeth McCracken during an uncertain time. And then came the strangers.
The swampy network of waterways straddling the Louisiana border teems with natural wonders—and more than a few secrets.
My family’s shack on an island in the world’s largest hypersaline lagoon has brought us closer to the fishing—and to one another.
When you’re floating on top of the Marriott Marquis in downtown Houston, you might have reached peak Texas.
Observers cite the party’s convention as evidence that state Republicans have gone “full MAGA.” But if anything, MAGA folks are following Texas.
Texas authorities bungled the facts about the law enforcement response at Robb Elementary School. Then they went silent.
Filmmaker and Dallas native Cooper Raiff is only 25, but his second film, ‘Cha Cha Real Smooth,’ should establish him as Texas’s next great director.
Plus, a man robbing a Port Arthur home stopped first to mow its yard, and a 77-year-old man went for his first skydive in decades.
Squeezebox Bandits front man Abel Casillas grew up singing Hank Williams and playing tejano music.
Stephen Joseph of Riverport Bar-B-Cue in Jefferson serves Lebanese potato salad and spiced spareribs, and he hopes to incorporate more of his family’s recipes.
The late San Antonio philanthropist’s two-story condo, once a social hub of the art world, is the ultimate blank canvas.
Pianist James Dick has spent half a century crafting the Round Top Festival Institute into a world-class destination for classical musicians, where architecture, fine arts, green space, and history meet.
Mashama Bailey and John O. Morisano, who opened two restaurants in Austin this year, defy industry norms with their dynamic friendship.
And the two-time James Beard Award winner has brought the same dynamic Southern fare that made the Grey, in Savannah, a destination restaurant.
From chronic injuries to botched courses, members of the Texas-based 50 States Marathon Club go the distance to go the distance.
Near Fort Stockton, Hoven Riley has been quietly growing more than 20,000 of the prized plants, which are being illicitly uprooted from public and private lands to meet a growing demand.
Digital currencies are tanking, but that didn’t stop more than 20,000 blockchain enthusiasts from throwing a week-long party.
The most dynamic freedom celebration in Texas, begun in the nineteenth century, returns to life.
From the Ex-Wife to the Mother Clucker, the sandwiches at Stanley’s Famous Pit Barbecue in Tyler hint at some legendary tales.
Founded in 1973, Texas Monthly has been reporting on abortion access in Texas since the Roe v. Wade ruling. Here’s what to know.
Robert Evans's ‘After the Revolution’ is the latest entry in the rich canon of speculative fiction that draws on our real-life deadly climate, big money, sinister villains, and true believers.
M&M BBQ Company brought a neglected wood-fired rotisserie from 1984 back to life, in addition to making its own custom builds.
The nine-term U.S. congressman from Laredo first came to power after a bitterly contested recount that led some to call the election stolen.
In its South Dallas neighborhood, Encanto Market & Cocina serves essentials for nearby residents, from dry goods to fruit to guisado-filled tacos.
San Antonio–born Christopher Cross defined a generation of yacht rock and made Grammys history with “Sailing.” But the song’s origins couldn’t be much further from its beatific sound.
The latest pandemic-related supply chain disruption prevents patients from getting critical imaging scans.
Their coach’s obscene gesture helped turn around their season, and now the Longhorns are two wins away from NCAA softball glory.
A smoking octopus and pointy-eared aliens: Johnson's sketches on political letterhead are wonderfully weird.
In a last-ditch bid to avoid paying massive damages to the Sandy Hook families he defamed, the Infowars host sought bankruptcy protection—and failed to win it.
The nine-time Grammy winner talks “Permanently Lonely,” jazzy Django chords, and Willie’s beautifully harsh poetry.
The Uvalde native took to the White House briefing room to talk about the lives of the victims of the Robb Elementary School shooting—and call for change.
Texas Monthly writer Michael Hall, who profiled Seals in 2020, reflects on some of the musician’s best stories.
After ten Texans were murdered at Santa Fe High School in 2018, the Legislature passed seventeen school safety bills. They didn’t work.
Follow along with the latest sayings and doings of Louie Gohmert, the Republican congressman for Texas’s First Congressional District.
The Texas-style ribs, crispy onion rings, and lemon squares at Earnest B’s BBQ will win over even the most skeptical ’cue fans.
Moviegoers have returned to theaters in droves to see the long-awaited sequel—and we have Texas to thank.
No one had a deeper understanding of Texas power—its heroes and villains, its uses and abuses—than Paul.
Though they are a generation apart and of different backgrounds, the two share musical influences, a certain artistic restlessness, and a fastidious devotion to their craft.
Inspired by an ancient Japanese tradition, it’s all about catching as many minuscule species as possible.
San Antonio’s Community Cultures Yeast Lab—the only one of its kind in the southern U.S.—collects indigenous strains for craft breweries.
Harini Logan claimed the top spot last night, making her the seventh Texan spelling bee champ in the last ten years. T-E-X-A-S!
With Texas’s annual Free Fishing Day, you can cast your line without all the red tape. No license required!
Remnants of the Smoke Pit can be found at Sammie’s Bar-B-Q, which boasts a massive smoked pork chop and the coldest, cheapest beer in town.
The governor has long struggled with crisis management, in part because he always strives to avoid taking political risks.
Our staffers share the art and entertainment they're most looking forward to this summer, from an opera about Frida Kahlo to a true-crime book about a famous Austin gangster.
These seven books cover the basics of smoking and grilling while livening things up with recipes for smoked duck lasagna and key lime cake.
The visually stunning new nature documentary, narrated by Matthew McConaughey, is a delight.
I’ve lived in Uvalde for thirteen years. Our community is more complex and nuanced than media portrayals suggest.
Pandemic relief funds provided a “once-in-a-generation opportunity” for homeless support programs. But what happens when the money dries up?
This summer is already too . . . summery. Cool down with citrusy whites or cherry reds that will take you from poolside to grillside.
Tom Cruise returns, with Austin’s Glen Powell in tow, for a crowd-pleasing sequel that just may pull embattled theaters out of the danger zone.
Food lovers from across North Texas keep Addison on their must-go list, for good reason.
Bill Richardson’s creations from discarded metal were featured numerous times on Texas Country Reporter, but our friendship remains near and dear to my heart.
Muscle Shoals bass player David Hood on ‘Phases and Stages,’ producer Jerry Wexler, and “(How Will I Know) I’m Falling in Love Again.”
The legendary pork chop special at Slow Bone BBQ is only available on Sundays and Mondays, but it’s well worth the wait. Jeffery Hobbs’ intricate process takes a solid three weeks from start to finish. With four seasoning applications, three …
Texas can change the status quo if our elected leaders engage in a good-faith debate over gun safety.
The bookmaker apprenticed under the famous Charlie Dunn and is now training a new generation of talented craftspeople.
Bobby Sakowitz dressed Houston’s most stylish through the seventies and eighties boom years. Then things went bust.
Chris DuCharme is self-taught, armed with a telephoto lens and words of encouragement from his late wife.
Lubbock-based artist Jon Whitfill is on a mission to transform discarded texts into eye-popping works of art.
Sylvia's Mexican Restaurant has become such a staple over its 32 years in Stockdale that it's practically a second home for locals.
Lance Scott Walker's ‘DJ Screw: A Life in Slow Revolution’ is a worthwhile biography and oral history, even for those who already know the story of Screw's short, impactful life.
The 99-year-old North Texas musician stumped for LBJ, toured with the USO, and still recalls hundreds of tunes.
The state’s account of how law enforcement responded to the massacre at Robb Elementary School has shifted as it’s been contradicted by witnesses and video.
John Cornyn and Dan Patrick pulled out after Uvalde. Greg Abbott appeared by video. As Ted Cruz spoke, Beto O’Rourke led a protest.
Pastor Buddy Blake led volunteers who help step in for the Department of Defense to honor fallen soldiers with a proper military burial.
Smoked jerk chicken, Trini pepper sauce, and fry bread sandwiches shine alongside Willie Meshack's classic Texas-style meats in Plano.
State leaders have campaigned in 2022 on "saving" Texas children from threats real and imagined. All the while, we've been selling them out.
Leo Davila’s combos are twists on the classics of his multicultural San Antonio upbringing, and they make Stixs & Stone worth the hype.
Decades of conservation have helped save the native fish, now iconic to Central Texas anglers.
Plus, a teacher resigned after she reportedly lit a student’s hands on fire, and a Dallas resident ran her thousandth marathon.
A thriving arts scene, a surprising water lily garden, and historic landmarks make this Texas city a weekend-worthy destination.
Jonathan Mitchell, who cooked up the Texas “vigilante” law that effectively made abortion illegal in the state, argues the quiet parts of the majority opinion out loud.
The small motel has a sliding-roof observatory where people can enjoy some of the darkest skies on the planet.
Taking place May 14–15, the Wild World Festival sets up in Austin to showcase natural wines, kombucha, and other “science fair” drinks.
The Texas Railroad Commission candidate stripped down in a campaign video to get attention for her issues—and landed a spot in the May 24 Republican runoff. Which means it’s time to hear her out.
For two decades, Robert Chavez has overseen the American operations of the luxury French fashion house, which just opened a boutique in Austin.
These inspired collections from three Austin-based brands include everything from bluebonnets to Prada Marfa.
The pistol-packing cartoon villain represents every ugly stereotype about our state, but there’s a strange power in embracing him.
After a four-year hiatus from comedy, the Rio Grande Valley native has a new Netflix special and a new approach to her career.
From the obscure to the historically significant, the Texas Broadcast Museum tells a uniquely twentieth-century story.
Today’s the deadline to apply for federal aid, but some experts say decreasing regulations and hiring more inspectors would be more useful.
I used to feel ashamed that I didn't speak Spanish. Now I understand why my parents didn't teach me.
Democratic leaders have predicted that the leaked draft decision will get Texas liberals to the polls. History provides caution.
He’s pushing ninety and still saddling up at the Four Sixes Ranch. Just don’t call him the last cowboy.
One of America’s greatest songwriters talks Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings, Kris Kristofferson, and Willie Nelson . . . and the surprising debt they owe “My Sharona.”
In the captivating show, on view at the McNay, San Antonio native Donald Moffett remixes the museum’s collection alongside his own work.
At the sprawling North Texas community college, four professors say they were let go for speaking their minds. They’re not going quietly.
CEO Jim Schwertner credits the persistent success of Capitol Land & Livestock to a data-driven algorithm.
In a city famous for its transplants, Austin’s Major League Soccer team has created a space where longtime residents can feel at home.
Our favorite Texas Monthly pieces featuring the country music star, who died on Saturday at 86, and the cultural phenomenon he helped inspire.
Don’t Like Blackouts? Insulate! Your article on the Texas power grid [“It Could Happen Again,” February 2022] gives an excellent account of supply-side failures but doesn’t mention that those failures would have mattered far less if electrically heated Texas buildings weren’t also poorly insulated (if insulated at all), drafty, and hence extremely demanding of heating. Not only do the electricity and gas supply systems need winterization, but the main sources of peak electricity demand—inefficient buildings—do too. This would also cut customers’ bills, winter and summer, for decades to come—and create durable local jobs and a healthier environment. Yet nearly all the policy discussion, like Russell Gold’s otherwise fine article, is about the supply side. Both are important. And when political conditions make supply-side fixes difficult, efficient buildings…The post Roar of the Crowd: April 2022 appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Orlando Reyna’s parents, Felipe and Rosa, owned Reyna’s Bar-B-Q in San Angelo for nearly thirty years. They served barbacoa that glistened in the West Texas sun and crunchy, rolled tacos tapatios, a type of flauta doused with crema. When Orlando and his wife, Anna, decided to open a taqueria, it seemed like they were carrying on the family legacy. Orlando was going to gain expertise from his father, and Anna, who had moved from Austin to marry Orlando, pulled from her retirement fund and stocks to help fund the endeavor. They bought restaurant equipment, leased a space in Sunset Mall, and renovated it. Life looked promising.In March 2016, their shop, Taconmadre, opened. But the location, according to Anna, was less than perfect. The Reynas’ lack of…The post In Burrito-Centric San Angelo, Reyna’s Tacos Stands Out appeared first on Texas Monthly.
A record 581,000 travelers visited Big Bend National Park last year. Tourists are drawn to this prickly desert paradise in far West Texas for its majestic sunsets, spectacular hiking and camping, and remote location along the Rio Grande. Above all, visitors come seeking wilderness and solitude. To ensure that experience is preserved for future generations, a new advocacy group called Keep Big Bend Wild is pushing to give vast portions of the park the nation’s highest level of conservation protection: an official federal designation as a wilderness area. The designation would have virtually no impact on what travelers could do in the park or how outfitters operate there now, according to members of the group and the park’s superintendent, who supports the effort. But it would…The post The “Keep Big Bend Wild” Effort Aims to Forever Protect Texas’s First National Park appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Every week, we share dispatches from Texas Country Reporter, the long-running TV show that invites you to hop in and travel along to explore the backroads of Texas. Joshua Rodrigues has always been passionate about food, but it wasn’t until a friend scolded him about cracklins that he downright fell in love.Through his kitchen jobs on tugboat crews and social meetups at the local Knights of Columbus, Rodrigues had earned a reputation as a great cook. Everyone loved his homemade boudin, but when a fellow Knights member introduced him to cracklins—bewildered that he hadn’t cooked them before—Rodrigues felt like he had discovered his life’s purpose.As demand for his food grew, he opened Big Doobie’s Boudin and Cracklins food truck. It has since become the hub…The post Big Doobie’s Is the Life of the Party in Port Arthur appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Even in the best of times, teaching is a challenging profession. In Texas, K–12 educators have long contended with relatively low pay, a Byzantine school finance system, high-stakes standardized testing, and indifferent politicians. But the COVID-19 pandemic—now in its third year—has introduced extraordinary new obstacles. There’s severe understaffing, heated debates over critical race theory, and plummeting standardized test scores, not to mention the slew of difficulties that accompany remote learning. These interlocking crises can sometimes make the classroom feel like a pressure cooker. And yet teachers—most of them, at least—keep showing up. To understand the toll this is taking, Texas Monthly spoke with a dozen current and recently departed teachers about burnout, COVID fears, learning loss, the upcoming STAAR tests, staffing shortages, the effect of…The post Seven Texas Teachers on the State of Education: “I’m Tired of Getting Punched.” appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Unlike seemingly every other attendee at this year’s South by Southwest, I don’t care a lick about cryptocurrency. I care deeply, however, about the 2003–2007 prime-time teen drama The O.C. There was a time not long ago when those sentiments combined would have seemed like gobbledygook. But that time has passed: it’s 2022, and celebrities from A- to Z-list are flapping their gums about crypto, the blockchain, tokens fungible and non, and a host of other fintech jargon that I’m actively trying not to understand. Most of the celebrities who’ve spoken out support digital currencies, flaunting their investments in things like Bitcoin and NFTs. There is, however, one skeptic among the throngs of the suntanned Hollywood elite: Austin’s own Benjamin McKenzie, a.k.a. Ryan (from Chino)…The post Can ‘O.C.’ Star Ben McKenzie Get Me to Care About Crypto? An Experiment. appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Update: The James Beard Foundation announced the finalists for its annual awards today via Twitter. While the full list of finalists showed the same increase in diversity from previous years as the list of semifinalists, Dallas restaurants and chefs were shut out and El Paso’s lone semifinalist, Elemi, did not make the short list for Outstanding Restaurant. No Texas chef was a finalist for Outstanding Chef. But Mexican food and Mexican Americans are prominent on the list, and there’s ample representation from the Houston scene. The Texas finalists are named below.Outstanding RestaurateurChris Williams (Lucille’s Hospitality Group, Houston)Emerging ChefEdgar Rico (Nixta Taqueria, Austin)Best New RestaurantRoots Southern Kitchen, Farmers BranchOutstanding Pastry ChefRuben Ortega (Xochi, Houston)Outstanding HospitalityHugo’s, HoustonOutstanding Bar ProgramJulep, HoustonBest Chef: TexasTiffany Derry (Roots Southern Table, Farmers…The post Texas Dazzles in the 2022 James Beard Award Semifinals List appeared first on Texas Monthly.
To hear—really hear—the newest album from the long-running (and possibly longest-named) Austin rock band . . . And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead, you’ll need the right audio setup. XI: Bleed Here Now, which drops June 10, was mixed in quadraphonic sound. “Quad” is not new technology. It’s been around since the seventies, when audiophiles would arrange four separate speakers around a room, each playing an isolated signal that allows you to hear a piano over here, a backing vocal over there. But quadraphonic never quite broke out of that niche appeal. Most modern recording artists have never bothered with it. But Trail of Dead cofounder Conrad Keely insists, “Once you check out all this quad stuff and you go back to stereo, it’s…The post How Austin Punk Band Trail of Dead Survived a “Perfect Album” and “Young Devilry” appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Texas Country Reporter turns fifty in October 2022. Each week until then, we’ll share classic episodes from the show’s history and behind-the-scenes reflections from TCR’s creator and host, Bob Phillips. We find stories on the Texas backroads in a number of ways. Sometimes we just stumble upon something so good, we hop out and tell that story right then and there. That was the case with Herman “Train” Gates in October of 1986.There he was, on a corner lot in Carthage, surrounded by bicycles, lawn mowers, plows, and lots of other stuff. A few elementary and junior high school kids were gathered around him as he worked on a bike.After a few minutes of chatting, we learned that “Train” had, at one time, scattered his stuff all over the…The post Meet the Mr. Rogers of East Texas appeared first on Texas Monthly.
During summers in high school and college, I worked as a gravedigger, longshoreman, pizza cook, roofer, and shipyard laborer. I thought that was a uniquely eclectic résumé—until I met Dan Solomon. A senior editor at Texas Monthly, Dan is a throwback to the days when journalists often skipped college. They learned their trade by practicing it and learned about the world by soaking up as many varied experiences as they could. After his graduation from high school, Dan moved to McAllen, where he had relatives, and signed up for courses at what is today the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley. “I lasted about three weeks,” he says, before deciding that he could educate himself better and faster by reading widely and trying out different occupations.He…The post From the Editor: A Dan for All Seasons appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Chris Beard would like you to know this mess of a Texas Longhorns men’s basketball season isn’t his fault. No use pussyfooting around a hard truth: Texas is the country’s most disappointing team because Texas has, according to Chris Beard, too many players who don’t know how to win.This isn’t the same thing as a head coach labeling his guys a bunch of losers, but it’s closer to it than almost any other coach would venture. Beard is surely going to regret these words because they’re going to be used against him in recruiting faster than you can say “Scott Drew.”Beard didn’t hold back last week after watching his team blow a twenty-point lead on its way to a 65–60 loss to TCU in the…The post Can Texas Salvage Its Season with a March Madness Run? appeared first on Texas Monthly.
It’s 10 a.m. and Larry Faldyn, owner of Lukas Bakery in La Grange, is at the tail end of a ten-hour shift.“Good morning, good evening, I’ve been here all night,” he says a shy smile. He has neatly combed salt-and-pepper hair with a matching mustache, and he’s wearing a short-sleeved plaid button-down shirt, a de facto uniform for him.He’s been at the bakery since midnight, rolling out kolache dough, prepping tray after tray of icebox cookies, kneading bread, and hand-rolling pigs in a blanket (pigs, if you’re from the area; klobasniky, if you want to be technical). These signature sausages nestled in yeasty dough are Faldyn’s best-sellers.From midnight to 5 a.m., it’s just Faldyn working. At 5 a.m., a coworker arrives to open the shop…The post A Bakery in La Grange Seeks an Apprentice to Continue Its 75-Year Legacy appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Q: I grew up in South Texas and have lived in the state all my life.I currently make my home in the Hill Country. I need a definitive answer to a question that’s been the topic of many conversations throughout the years: Is there a difference between a ranch and a farm?Randy Hroch, New BraunfelsA: This is a great question. And the answer is a little more nuanced than one might think. But before we get to it, let the Texanist begin by highlighting a few semi-pertinent facts. Firstly, among all the states in the Union, Texas ranks at the very top in the number of farming and ranching operations, with a whopping quarter million such outfits occupying almost three quarters of the state’s 268,581…The post The Texanist: What’s the Difference Between a Ranch and a Farm? appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Annie O’Grady might be the quintessential Kendra Scott fan. The 27-year-old substitute teacher lives in Austin, where Scott’s jewelry brand is based, and owns at least fifty pieces by the designer. She began collecting Kendra Scott when she was a teenager. In high school, she noticed that many of the women she admired, including Taylor Swift, were wearing the line’s dangly statement earrings, and she wanted in as soon as she could afford them.O’Grady’s first acquisition was a pair of Scott’s signature, oval Danielle earrings in tomato red, purchased on sale. She wore a pair of the line’s iridescent lavender earrings to her first college formal. For her wedding day, she selected feather-shaped crystal ear climbers.But earlier this month, O’Grady came across a TikTok video…The post Kendra Scott Is Testing a New Business Model. Some Fans Are Delighted. Others Are Suspicious. appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Every week, we share dispatches from Texas Country Reporter, the long-running TV show that invites you to hop in and travel along to explore the backroads of Texas. Texans have seen countless tales of saloons and shoot-outs over the years, but there is no name that says “western” quite like John Wayne.“When you watch a John Wayne film, when it’s over you feel good,” says Wayne’s biggest fan, his son Ethan. “He built this really archetypical American character and just took him across different story lines.”After rummaging through a storage unit filled with his father’s memorabilia, Ethan wanted to share his dad’s untold stories with the world. “It will just give you a rounder picture of who the man really was, and reinforce what a…The post John Wayne Wasn’t a Texan. But His Legacy Lives on in Fort Worth. appeared first on Texas Monthly.
There’s a first time for everything, and on a Saturday night this past winter, I had dinner at a steakhouse named for a dog. To be clear, it wasn’t just any steakhouse or just any dog. Black Cur Steak is the fanciest restaurant in the small west-central Texas town of Coleman, and its honoree, the late Rio, was a proud member of the breed of hunting and herding dogs known as black mouth curs, who have distinctive dark muzzles and light brown coats. He is fondly remembered by all who knew him: a very large stylized black-and-white photograph of him hangs proudly over the bar. You can’t miss it.Rio didn’t live or work at the steakhouse. He was the designated greeter at Rancho Loma, a…The post Coleman’s Black Cur Steak Is a Doggone Success appeared first on Texas Monthly.
On the surface, the premise of A24’s latest horror flick, X, sounds a lot like The Texas Chain Saw Massacre: it’s the seventies and a group of friends drive into middle-of-nowhere Texas, where most of them meet sensationally gory fates. But by the end of the wild hour-and-forty-five-minute ride, the film might actually be a bit more like M. Night Shyamalan’s 2021 thriller, Old. Just scarier, funnier, and a hell of a lot hornier. Set in 1979, X follows members of an adult-film crew as they head from Houston to a secluded boarding house out in the country to shoot their first project. There’s the smooth-talking producer, Wayne (Martin Henderson), who’s sure the film will make him rich; 23-year-old director RJ (Owen Campbell), who’s set on…The post ‘X’ Is a Fun, Funny—And Feminist—Slasher appeared first on Texas Monthly.
The Rollins Theater near downtown Austin was only about half full, but the boldface names inside were big enough for the event to feel important. It was the world premiere of Shouting Down Midnight, a documentary about then–state senator Wendy Davis’s historic 2013 filibuster of a bill that sought to ban abortions in Texas after twenty weeks. Davis, who achieved national fame for her protest and then ran for governor a year later, sat in the second row, next to director Gretchen Stoeltje, and in front of beloved homegrown director Richard Linklater (an executive producer of the documentary). At the front of the theater, former Austin mayor Kirk Watson, who’s running for the office again this year, took in the film. Greg Casar, a former…The post Wendy Davis Lost Her Fight Against Abortion Restrictions. A New Documentary Pretends She Won. appeared first on Texas Monthly.
A freakish athlete deserves a different kind of book, something that goes against the grain of regionality or idolatry or repetitious recounting of this big game or that. Thomas Pletzinger’s The Great Nowitzki, with its Fitzgeraldian title and novelistic prose, is the place to go if you’re interested in the connection between basketball and jazz, or the particular, earthbound skill set of the “old man game,” or the modern-art tastes of an all-time NBA great. Pletzinger brings a sense of curiosity and discovery to the story of his German countryman, the guy who came to the United States as a large, scared kid who spoke imperfect English and became a face of the league he grew up watching thousands of miles and an ocean away. Pletzinger…The post ‘The Great Nowitzki’ Does Justice to Dirk’s Greatness appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Texans You Should Know is a series highlighting overlooked figures and events from Texas history. It’s easy to forget today, as we battle a different pandemic, but polio terrified Americans throughout the first half of the twentieth century. At the height of the epidemic, in 1952, more than 21,000 people, most of them children, were paralyzed from the disease. More than three thousand Americans died from polio that year. Life during that long-ago outbreak now seems eerily familiar. “You had to stay away from crowds, just like today,” remembers David Oshinsky, who grew up in the fifties and later wrote Polio: An American Story. “You couldn’t go swimming, bowling, or to the movies.” A constant, low-level anxiety was the norm; Oshinsky recalls that his parents…The post The Forgotten Texas Scientist Who Helped Develop the Polio Vaccine appeared first on Texas Monthly.
This article is part of a series that spotlights Texas pitmasters in their own words, available exclusively to TM BBQ Club members. Joe Zavala opened Zavala’s Barbecue in Grand Prairie in 2019. And it’s obvious he knows what he’s doing. His restaurant has received shout-outs for its brisket from Texas Monthly barbecue editor Daniel Vaughn, and for its tacos from Texas Monthly taco editor José Ralat. After two years in business, the joint earned a spot on the Top 50 list, and if Joe’s enthusiasm for the craft is any indication, this is just the beginning.Tell us about the first person who taught you about barbecue.My pops is the person who taught me about barbecue. Every weekend the Cowboys were playing, it was a party…The post Burning Questions With Zavala’s Barbecue appeared first on Texas Monthly.
John and Veronica Avila had been searching for a new home for their barbecue joint, Burro & Bull, for nearly two years. Originally housed in the Conservatory food hall in downtown Houston, it closed in late 2019, and the couple soon after announced plans for a restaurant in a historic building near the EaDo neighborhood. As the construction estimates continued to rise, the couple switched gears and headed to the suburb of Cypress, where the new Burro & Bull opened last November. John had been doing consulting work for a new restaurant, Acadian Coast, and the owners were the same franchisees who attempted the ill-fated expansion of Memphis-style Corky’s BBQ into Houston. One of their Corky’s locations in Cypress was sitting empty. It didn’t have…The post Get a Taste of Texas’s Varied Regions at Burro & Bull in Cypress appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Editors’ note: As we approach our fiftieth anniversary, in February 2023, each week we’ll highlight an important story from our past and offer some perspective on it. From its early days, Texas Monthly has proved a pioneer in the true-crime genre, and former editor in chief Greg Curtis’s massive feature “The Girl, the Con Man, and the Massage Parlor King” remains both an icon and a staple of the Texan true-crime story—which is to say, the story is absurd, folksy, and horrifying. For Texas Monthly, it’s also an origin story. When Greg Curtis first met Sam Corey, the massage parlor king, Curtis had not yet become editor in chief of the magazine—and Sam Corey had not yet become a murderer. This was the beginning of the…The post A Texas Monthly Writer Stumbles Into the Sordid World of the Massage Parlor King appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Texas Monthly adds and updates approximately sixty restaurant listings to our Dining Guide each month. There’s limited space in the print issue, but the entire searchable guide to the best of Texas cuisine is at your fingertips online!Below are a few highlights from the new restaurants reviewed in our April 2022 issue. Click “More Info” for further detail on each restaurant:Dallas Cry WolfChef Ross Demers creates bold dishes with top-tier ingredients, French techniques, and global accents at his charming, 28-seat restaurant. It’s a cozy spot, with vintage-looking ceiling tiles, snazzy wallpaper, and an open kitchen. For our first course, smoked mackerel teamed up with briny caviar, tangy crème fraîche, celery, and diced potato. Next, a bed of kimchi added complexity to whole Florida prawns bathed…The post Dining Guide: Highlights From Our April 2022 Issue appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Richard Linklater makes two kinds of movies: ones with stories and ones without. The story-heavy movies can be commercially successful—School of Rock was a massive hit that spawned a stage adaptation and a TV series—while the plot-light films (Boyhood, the Before series) tend to get him nominated for Oscars. There’s some crossover in the receptions of the two types of films, of course. Boyhood made a relative boatload of cash at the box office, while the more straightforward Last Flag Flying flopped. But making sense of his latest, the animated, space race–era period piece Apollo 10½: A Space Age Childhood—which premiered Sunday at SXSW, and which will hit Netflix April 1—requires accepting that Linklater is, ultimately, an experimental filmmaker who sometimes dabbles in commercialism, rather…The post Richard Linkater’s ‘Apollo 10½’ Continues a Winning Streak From America’s Most Successful Experimental Filmmaker appeared first on Texas Monthly.
San Antonio rock club Paper Tiger is one of the cooler places in the Alamo City. In recent months, it’s hosted a who’s who of the hottest names in indie rock—Idles, Japanese Breakfast, and Julien Baker among them—and its lineup on Saturday morning drew a similar crowd of young folks in Doc Martens and Converse. The headliner? Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, hosting a rally in support of two Texas congressional candidates: Greg Casar, the Austin city council member running in the open primary in the Thirty-fifth Congressional District, which includes portions of Austin, Hays County, and San Antonio; and Jessica Cisneros, the 28-year-old immigration attorney challenging longtime incumbent Henry Cuellar in the Twenty-eighth, a sprawling district that stretches from Rio Grande City to…The post Can Justice Democrats Swing Two Texas Congressional Districts to the Left? appeared first on Texas Monthly.
It was a pandemic love story. After COVID-19 shut down New York City in the spring of 2020, Lacy Lynch gave up her apartment there and moved back to her hometown of Dallas to hunker down with family. The literary agent, who reps celebrities such as Jessica Simpson and Keke Palmer, was single, but soon after her return, she reconnected via text with her middle-school crush, Martin Gaines. He was the first boy she’d held hands with—while watching the movie Titanic.The two were cautious during the pandemic. They corresponded via text and went on a handful of low-key outings before getting serious in early 2021, after a date at Rosewood Mansion on Turtle Creek on the same day that Gaines, a student in Southern Methodist…The post Across Texas, Love Conquers All at Smaller Weddings appeared first on Texas Monthly.
After they were swept up in waterspouts or updrafts, small fish fell from the sky in Texarkana in a rare “animal rain.” A woman found a bag of unidentified ashes in an urn that had been donated to a Travis County Goodwill. A man’s obituary for his El Pasoan mother, which identified her as a “bawdy, fertile, redheaded matriarch,” went viral. After she was arrested for driving while intoxicated, a woman in Ore City who claimed to have COVID-19 coughed into a jailer’s face, for which she was charged with assault. The City of Austin celebrated an 84-year-old woman who had worked for H-E-B for 56 years—making her the company’s longest-serving retail employee—by declaring December 22 “Ofelia Garcia Day.” Harris County constables arrested a man…The post Meanwhile, in Texas: It’s Raining Fish appeared first on Texas Monthly.
One man with courage makes a majority, the old American adage goes. But here in 2022, Don Huffines is learning, one man with courage does not even make a protest. It’s 1:30 p.m. on a balmy January day on the Rice University campus, the type of afternoon when undergrads toss Frisbees and joggers circumnavigate the campus shirtless. Huffines, a former state senator who’s challenging Greg Abbott for the GOP nomination for governor, has just arrived to lead a rally opposing the university’s vaccine mandate for employees. But instead of a throng of dissidents, he has attracted only a group of his own staffers and volunteers, a few of their relatives, three protesters, and a most wretched crew: a small pool of journalists. No one here…The post Don Huffines Won the War of Ideas. Did It Cost Him a Chance to Unseat Greg Abbott? appeared first on Texas Monthly.
WHO: The Soape family of Pflugerville and Philadelphia Eagles safety Anthony Harris.WHAT: A local church’s father-daughter dance, and a story about an Eagles player that’ll warm the heart of even the staunchest Cowboys fan.WHY IT’S SO GREAT: Via the Washington Post, we get the moving story of Audrey Soape, an eleven-year-old Pflugerville resident who lost both her father and her grandfather in the months before her church’s annual father-daughter dance. The tragedy inherent in that situation, however, gave Soape and her mother the chance to receive a moment of exceptional kindness from a stranger. Holly Soape, Audrey’s mother, liked to send the occasional supportive message on Instagram to Anthony Harris, an NFL safety who played his first six seasons with her family’s favorite team, the Minnesota…The post An NFL Star Took a Grieving Plugerville Girl to the Father-Daughter Dance appeared first on Texas Monthly.
This is a big week for Mike Sherman. The former Texas A&M head football coach will watch his son-in-law, Zac Taylor, lead the Cincinnati Bengals to the Super Bowl in just his third season as head coach, which means Sunday’s game will be the best kind of family reunion.And then there’s Von Miller.The Los Angeles Rams’ future Hall of Famer is a DeSoto native, former Texas A&M superstar, and pass-rushing specialist. He’s also one of the names to remember when watching the big game this weekend.The Rams acquired the 32-year-old, eight-time Pro Bowler from the Broncos last November as the final step in a series of splashy transactions that told the entire NFL that Los Angeles was going all in on its chances to reach…The post Former Texas A&M Coach Mike Sherman’s Super Bowl Dilemma appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Jonathan Morris remembers the first time he realized the importance of a hotel’s first impression. “I walked into the Ace in midtown Manhattan, and there was an energy in that space,” he says, recalling how locals and travelers alike gathered in its hip lobby bar as a deejay played music. “It was a scene, right?” To Morris, a Fort Worth entrepreneur, it felt like the real New York.The 37-year-old Texan strove to create that same instant sense of place at Hotel Dryce, which he and co-owner Allen Mederos opened in August in Fort Worth’s Cultural District. In the Dryce lobby, furniture and throw rugs in shades of rust and gold warm up its dark blue walls and concrete floors while a smoky agave incense that…The post A Fort Worth Hotelier Is Ready to Welcome You to Funky Town appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Increasingly, Americans seem unable to agree upon much of anything. If one side approves of something, the other—seemingly reflexively—looks for reasons to distrust it. This strain of division runs deep through our culture. NASCAR belongs to red America, the NBA to blue. Conservatives get Yellowstone, liberals get—well, most everything else Hollywood puts out. Even something as pure and good as Willie Nelson fandom is a victim of the great American culture war. And yet: we all live in this country, and we need to find the things that unite us as members of a shared culture, that we can all agree on. And as a slew of Texas musicians from a wide array of genres have discovered over the past few years, we already know…The post How ‘Neon Moon’ Became a Texas Standard appeared first on Texas Monthly.
The East Austin home of lawyer and critically acclaimed novelist Christopher Brown is difficult to see from the street, and not just because it sits at the back of a one-acre lot near the Colorado River. Called the Edgeland House, which the architects loosely modeled on a Native American pit house, the dwelling is buried some seven feet into the earth. The structure’s two separate triangular roofs blend seamlessly into the landscape. In fact, because they also serve as a miniature Texas blackland prairie habitat, they are very much a part of it.The roofs were spiky-haired and wild with plants when I met with Brown on a late fall afternoon. I followed the writer and his rescue dog, Lupe, along a rocky path in his…The post Dystopian Author Christopher Brown Truly Lives on the Edge appeared first on Texas Monthly.
“Smoky Spicy Pig Parts” is the motto painted on the door of the Crimson Creek Smokehouse food truck. It’s an invitation to come and enjoy a wealth of pork prepared in various ways, including pulled pork shoulder, pork belly burnt ends, and three different types of pork ribs. What you won’t find is beef, unless you plan ahead. Co-owner Jamie Dickens said she and her pitmaster husband, Marcus McNac, wanted to provide something different to the folks in far West Austin. “There is a lot of brisket down here,” she said, so the couple leaned into the pork barbecue McNac grew up eating in Lawton, Oklahoma.McNac is a proud Oklahoma native. The handle for his personal Instagram account is @austinsooner. The trailer’s opening day was…The post In Beef-Loving Texas, This Okie Pitmaster Dares to Stick to Pork appeared first on Texas Monthly.
When Eddie Lucio Jr. entered the Texas Senate in 1991, he was not fond of being the body’s only representative from the Rio Grande Valley. He envisioned instead two Valley-anchored districts, one situated in its western areas and the other closer to its eastern coastline. In redistricting a decade later, he got his wish when a neighboring district was redrawn to include more of the Valley’s booming cities, effectively doubling the region’s Senate representation. Reflecting recently on his 35-year tenure in Austin, split between the state House and Senate, Lucio told me he had sought to unify and amplify the RGV’s political power at the Capitol. “Even though you have two Senate seats and two districts,” he said, “we’re still one Rio Grande Valley.”Now, as Lucio retires with his…The post In a Newly Competitive South Texas, Democrats Are Clashing Over the Best Way Forward appeared first on Texas Monthly.
John Beckwith III had just driven the corpse of former Olympic sprinter Ronnie Ray Smith, who had died at age 64, down the track for one final hundred-meter dash, and he seemed worried that the stunt, which consisted of a coffin strapped to a go-kart, had not worked as smoothly as he had envisioned. The race was the high point of a “homegoing” celebration orchestrated by Dallas’s Golden Gate Funeral Home, and the subject of the second episode of the TLC cable channel’s reality show Best Funeral Ever about Golden Gate and the over-the-top send-offs for which the business had become well-known.It had been hard for Beckwith III, a funeral planner at Golden Gate, to figure out how to get the deceased to the finish…The post The Dallas Mortuary Accused of Producing the Worst Funerals Ever appeared first on Texas Monthly.
The day began, literally, with a bang. A group of Silver Spurs from the University of Texas draped a Joe Burrow LSU jersey over Smokey the Cannon, and ESPN’s College GameDay cameras zoomed in. The crowd booed. The camera zoomed out, the Spurs lit the cannon, and now there was a hole blown straight through the number nine. The crowd screamed in delight.“To be completely honest,” Hunter McKenna, one of the Silver Spurs on cannon duty that day, said earlier this week, “we didn’t even know it was Joe Burrow’s jersey.” They ordered the first LSU jersey they could find online. It just so happened to belong to the player who would almost single-handedly defeat Texas that night and then go on to have arguably…The post Joe Burrow’s Clutch Legend Was Born in Texas appeared first on Texas Monthly.
A romantic comedy should have a few key ingredients: good chemistry between its leads, a meet-cute that sets us up for their journey, a seemingly insurmountable obstacle that threatens their relationship, and an over-the-top declaration of love that wins viewers’ hearts by the end of a tight ninety-minute run time. But one thing that a good rom-com does not have to be is real. To enjoy the vast majority of rom-coms, you have to suspend your disbelief. If you’ve already seen a version of this story, no, you haven’t. If you’re wondering why ditching a pair of glasses or straightening frizzy hair would make a female lead suddenly desirable, no, you’re not. And so when you’re watching Marry Me, and discover that Kat Valdez (a Jennifer…The post ‘Marry Me’ Is a Fun, Ridiculous Revival of the Big Budget Rom-Com appeared first on Texas Monthly.
How many edible plants are growing in your yard right now? It’s almost certainly more than you think. While writing this story, I counted at least six consumable species that have flourished in my Central Austin backyard—and that’s excluding all the typical herbs and vegetables we grow in our garden. My list included yaupon holly, marigold, dandelion, winecup, mulberry, and chickweed, most of which I had no idea I could eat.Like most Texas Monthly readers, I’ll probably never be a forager—my anxiety level is too high for that, especially after watching a spine-chilling episode of Midsomer Murders in which the victim dies by amanita mushroom, better known as the destroying angel. (Fun fact: this deadliest genus of mushrooms, which can be fatal, flourishes in East…The post 11 Texas Plants You Didn’t Know You Could Eat appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Chrissy Twomey was in no mood for guff when her husband, Jonathan, woke her at 2 a.m. on a spring morning in their family’s East Texas fishing camp, along the Sabine River in rural Panola County. “I was grumpy. I was tired,” recalled Chrissy, a 42-year-old champion catfish angler from Carthage, about fifteen miles away. “But I got up and pulled my boots on.” Another tournament awaited the couple in the darkness. Chrissy steered upstream through fog so dense she couldn’t see the front of her boat. “It was kind of like out of a Scooby-Doo movie,” she told me later. The couple approached their first fixed “throw line,” whose five hooks Jonathan had baited the day before with live perch. He’d then tied it…The post Big Money Is on the Line at Catfish Competitions Across Texas appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Back in 1992, a nine-year-old Mickey Guyton packed onto a bus with her church group to see the Texas Rangers play in Arlington. In the minutes before the game began, she watched in awe as a little girl about her age took to the field to sing the National Anthem. It was LeAnn Rimes, then just ten years old and four years shy of releasing her breakthrough album, Blue. As that voice rang out through Arlington Stadium, Guyton’s dreams came into focus: she wanted to be a singer. Thirty years later, Guyton is a country star in her own right, preparing to perform “The Star-Spangled Banner” on a national stage at this year’s Super Bowl. After her history-making Grammy nomination in 2020 for her song “Black…The post Mickey Guyton Was Ready to Quit Music. Now She’s Performing at the Super Bowl. appeared first on Texas Monthly.
But let us come to the point: you must not go to London, Paris, or New York to be cosmopolitan. Just open your ears and your eyes and you have it, right in Houston. —John de Menil, 1949You must understand: for those who are deeply involved in the Houston art scene, it is heresy to suggest that the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, is in any way superior to the Menil Collection. The Menil is our sacred cow, unassailably world-class, frequently described with the word “jewel.” Founded in 1987 by the European émigré Dominique de Menil, who, with her husband, John, dominated Houston’s evolution into a serious art city, the Menil is our pride and joy. By contrast, the MFAH is still associated with the…The post Why the Menil Collection Is No Longer Houston’s Best Art Museum appeared first on Texas Monthly.
For high school quarterbacks of a certain pedigree, toughness can be theoretical. As a senior at Highland Park High School in 2005, Matthew Stafford had plenty of brawn to him—anyone could see that. His size and strength had college recruiters making repeat trips to Dallas and NFL scouts reserving draft slots: six foot two and 210 pounds, with an arm that fired ballistic spirals. His face ended in a big slab of chin, and his legs, when a defender tried to tackle him, seemed reinforced with rebar. He was the rare prep athlete whose football pads didn’t make him all that much larger than he already was.Still, even though he looked tough, the game came so naturally to him that he rarely needed to prove…The post Matthew Stafford’s HS Teammates Never Doubted He’d Play in the Super Bowl appeared first on Texas Monthly.
A black Corriente steer looks around the unfamiliar holding pen and gives his tipped horns a shake. Christy Miller, the owner of Marfa Meats, watches from outside the pen, holding a coffee cup. Her brown hair is pulled into a messy bun, and she wears an oversized cardigan and leggings. The steer’s owner, in his Carhartt coat, clanks closed the livestock trailer’s gate. Miller’s Australian shepherd barks rhythmically from a yard nearby. The Corriente eyes Reine Conrad, Miller’s slaughter manager, who stands in the pen and holds a flag of blue fabric affixed to a rod. Conrad flaps the flag at the steer, urging it into a smaller enclosure with a scale on the ground. A tattoo of a butcher’s pork diagram peeks out from…The post Marfa Meats Brings a Slaughterhouse Back to the Big Bend appeared first on Texas Monthly.
There have been two moments in recent months in which images of cowboy hats appeared unannounced on my laptop screen atop decidedly unexpected heads. The first was last summer, after Jeff Bezos’s first trip to space in his Blue Origin suborbital rocket, when he was photographed strutting around its far West Texas launch site in a blue jumpsuit and ten-gallon hat. Apparently, he’d been wearing the hat as part of his space exploration costume for a while, but I’ll confess I’d paid no attention at all until that point. Lots of chest-thumping national figures have moved to Texas of late, from Elon Musk to Joe Rogan to Bezos’s space travel venture, and I’d not read one word about any of them. I don’t know if…The post Lucifer on the Sofa With Diamonds appeared first on Texas Monthly.
In early October, Kel Seliger took the floor of the Texas Senate to vote against a bill that would have opened the door to audits of the 2020 presidential election results that Donald Trump had called for in the state, though he won here by more than 600,000 votes. The state senator from Amarillo, who a week earlier had decried the bill as “a million dollars [for an] expensive comedy,” was the only member of his party in the chamber to vote against the legislation. (The House ignored the bill and it died when the special legislative session adjourned October 19. Governor Greg Abbott announced that the state was already auditing the 2020 results in four of the largest counties, and in November added some…The post Retiring Kel Seliger Hopes Someone Else in the Texas GOP Will Stand Up To Dan Patrick appeared first on Texas Monthly.
To the uninitiated, the news last week that Houston’s River Oaks Theatre had received a reprieve from its long-threatened death sentence may seem underwhelming. Unlike, say, San Antonio, Houston has long been a place where developers’ bulldozers have easily rolled over whiny preservationists, where the future of the city’s remaining historical buildings has always been tenuous against the coming of any new high-rise or highway.Then, too, the River Oaks could never be mistaken for one of those grand old movie palaces like the Majestic or the Aztec that still survive in San Antonio. It is a small art deco structure, built in 1939, that suffered from some crummy eighties-era renovations that converted the balcony section into two tiny additional theaters where the seating was tighter…The post Houston’s River Oaks Theatre Escapes Demolition—And Will Probably Get a Better Cocktail Menu appeared first on Texas Monthly.
On a winter afternoon nine months into the pandemic, Harris County district attorney Kim Ogg held a Zoom meeting with felony judges and prosecutors to discuss the backlog of cases caused by COVID-19 shutdowns at the downtown Houston courthouse. But the backlog wasn’t the only issue to come up that day. For years, the Democratic DA had been publicly criticizing local judges who set what she deemed insufficiently high bonds for defendants accused of violent crimes. Now her office would deliver a direct warning. First assistant district attorney David Mitcham, Ogg’s top lieutenant, informed the judges that there would be a “reckoning” if they didn’t start setting higher bonds. “My reaction was like, ‘Wow, that was bold,’ ” said Joe Vinas, the president of the Harris…The post Kim Ogg Blames Rising Crime on Houston Judges. 14 of Her Prosecutors Are Vying to Unseat Them. appeared first on Texas Monthly.
The shaman lights a hand-rolled cigarette, inhales, and blows plumes of pungent Amazonian tobacco smoke onto the heads, chests, backs, and clasped hands of his acolytes. Next, he might move about the room while beating on a drum. Standing six foot four, with an unruly shock of platinum-blond hair, he’s accustomed to being the center of attention. These ceremonies have taken place nearly every week for years inside his downtown Austin compound.Some Indigenous Americans believe the tobacco, known as mapacho, possesses healing and protective qualities. But this self-professed shaman isn’t Indigenous. He’s a white, 69-year-old attorney named Mark Mueller, and his acolytes are lawyers, paralegals, and others who work for him. A Wisconsin native who earned his law degree from the University of Houston—and later…The post A Shaman Lawyer Sparks Sexual-Harassment Complaints appeared first on Texas Monthly.