Texas Monthly articles from February 2009

Texas Monthly archives from February 2009

Here comes the neighborhood: after fourteen long years, the Bushes have made it back to Preston Hollow. (And they're finally in the honey pot!).(Behind the Lines)
February 1, 2009... I live in Preston Hollow, an upscale Dallas neighborhood bounded by Northwest Highway to the south, Royal Lane to the north, Midway Road to the west, and Hillcrest Road to the east. The homes range in price from $450,000 on the southeast end of...

Cafe klatch.(Roar of the Crowd)(Letter to the editor)
February 1, 2009... Before Mark Seliger talks to me about photography [Reporter, Texas Monthly Talks, December 2008], he needs to study the terrific cover of the December issue. Dick Mitchell AUSTIN You failed to mention the best hidden cafe and beer...

Begging your pardon.(Roar of the Crowd)(Letter to the editor)
February 1, 2009... Presidential pardons should be used for people like Deborah Murphey, not the like s of Scooter Libby and Mark Rich ["The Fugitive," December 2008]. Jan Tenery VIA E-MAIL We live in a society of many antiquated laws. If you had the...

Crossings to bear.(Roar of the Crowd)(Letter to the editor)
February 1, 2009... "Before and After" was no more than pro-illegal alien propaganda and cheap, emotion-manipulating journalism [December 2008]. Where was the discussion of Francisco Garcia-Rodriguez's personal responsibility? Where was the discussion of illegal...

Grand fathers.(Roar of the Crowd)(Letter to the editor)
February 1, 2009... I finished Oscar Casares's tribute to his father with a feeling of kinship and heartbreak ["Grass Roots," December 2008]. My dad died in '03, and like Mr. Casares, I have had to let go of many things that meant "Daddy." Thank you for a poignant...

Subscription accomplished.(Editor's Letter)
February 1, 2009... On Tuesday of the week that this issue arrives on the newsstand, President George W. Bush will rise from his bed on the second floor of the White House for the last time. Accordingto custom, he will receive President-elect Barack Obama for...

Dancing queen.(In the chute)
February 1, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] IT'S TWO MONTHS into the New Year, and we're still looking for a diversion from all the layoffs and bailouts and general bad news. Luckily, the Houston Ballet is sending in the queen. Artistic director Stanton...

Pieces of glass.(In the chute)
February 1, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] AFTER AN EIGHTEEN-MONTH renovation, the University of Texas at Austin's Bass Concert Hall is looking like itself, only better. A $14.7 million face-lift--which includes a new glass facade, more-spacious lobbies, a...

Progressive art.(In the chute)
February 1, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] TO FOLLOW THE ARC of artist Marcia Gygli King's forty-year career, you'll need to know your way around San Antonio, because her first retrospective spans not one but three local art institutions. King, who is known...

Lobbying.(The Horse's Mouth: EVERYTHING I COULD EVER TELL YOU ABOUT ...)(Interview)
February 1, 2009... NAME: Gaylord Armstrong AGE: 69 HOME: Austin QUALIFICATIONS: Senior partner at McGinnis, Lochridge & Kilgore / Has been a lobbyist for forty years / Clients include Exxon Mobil, the Texas Film Industry Group, GE Capital Corporation, and the...

Judith Bailey, 66: Hospice nurse.(The Working Life: STORIES FROM THE 9 TO 5)
February 1, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] I became a nurse after a friend of mine was diagnosed with breast cancer. I was in New Orleans at the time, and she lived around the corner from me. She didn't have family in town, so I ended up being her primary...

The Texanist: offering fine advice since 2007.
February 1, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Q: Something has been wrecking my yard during the night and I suspect varmints. I consider myself an animal lover but have reached my wits' end. What can I do to keep them from further destroying my beautiful...

The Texas two-step: how to get your Texas tango on.(The Manual: WHAT EVERY TEXAN SHOULD KNOW ABOUT ...)
February 1, 2009... Watching couples coast around at the honky-tonk may intimidate the double-left-footed, but heck, if a cowboy can dance, how tough is it, really? "Two-stepping is just walking to a beat," says Austin-based Rowdy DuFrene, a two-time United...

Second Street District, Austin: where the city that insists on staying weird is made to grow up.(Street Smarts: A QUICKIE GUIDE TO ...)
February 1, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] [1] Baby store WEE carries enough traditional pink and blue pastels to satisfy most new grandparents, but the emphasis here is on contemporary items, like Dwell cashmere blankets, Orbit strollers, and modernist Boon...

The Truth According to Ruthie Foster.(Previews + Reviews: Music)
February 1, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] It took a few tries, but RUTHIE FOSTER's 2007 The Phenomenal Ruthie Foster was a stone-soul triumph for the Austin singer, with an unprecedented laser focus on her strengths. To a large degree, THE TRUTH ACCORDING TO...

The Tiffany Transcriptions.(Previews + Reviews: Music)
February 1, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] BOB WILLS AND HIS TEXAS PLAYBOYS took the fiddle-country-cawing influences of Wills's Kosse youth and infused them with the popular music of the time--swing--for a combination that would inspire generations. Despite...

Changing Horses.(Previews + Reviews: Music)
February 1, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Hearing BEN KWELLER cite Garth Brooks as a childhood influence may not be welcome news to his fans, who have already followed the young songwriter through one abrupt stylistic shift. His Greenville grunge band,...

Gurf Morlix.(Interview)
February 1, 2009... The acclaimed Austin guitarist and producer (Blaze Foley, Lucinda Williams, Slaid Cleaves, Ray Wylie Hubbard) is also fast becoming known--on the basis of his 2007 album, Diamonds to Dust (Blue Corn), and this month's LAST EXIT TO HAPPYLAND...

Cutting for Stone.(Previews+Reviews: Books)
February 1, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] In a sense, Marion Stone, the narrator of ABRAHAM VERGHESE's sparkling first novel, CUTTING FOR STONE, is a dramatically enhanced doppelganger of his creator. Like Verghese, he is born in Ethiopia to Indian parents,...

Sum: Forty Tales From The Afterlives.(Previews+Reviews: Books)
February 1, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] In the twenty-first century, when the American consumer can choose from among hundreds of flat-screen TVs, DAVID EAGLEMAN'S pocket-size work of philosofiction, SUM: FORTY TALES FROM THE AFTERLIVES, is nothing if not...

Pratap Chatterjee.(Interview)
February 1, 2009... In light of the American military's increasing dependence on corporate entities, HALLIBURTON'S ARMY: HOW A WELL-CONNECTED TEXAS OIL COMPANY REVOLUTIONIZED THE WAY AMERICA MAKES WAR questions our government's ability to oversee massively...

Bottoms up: how Texans in Hollywood are overturning the traditional top-down content model.(Hollywood, TX: CHRISTOPHER KELLY ON OUR STATE OF ENTERTAINMENT)
February 1, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Meet Natalie "Nate" Cross (Natalie Raitano), a tomboy by breeding (her father taught her to hunt animals when she would have much rather been playing with dolls) who's now all grown up, with bee-stung lips, a...

Spinning a Web: what Jordan Levin is generating.
February 1, 2009... "In order to create a voice in the marketplace that has any resonance, it's going to be difficult to do it in only one medium," says Jordan Levin. In 2006 Levin co-founded Generate, a production, distribution, and talent management company that...

Dean fearing.(Texas Monthly Talks: EVAN SMITH SITS DOWN WITH ...)(Interview)
February 1, 2009... Your restaurant, Fearing's, at the Ritz-Carlton in Dallas, was just named number one in the country In hotel dining by the Zagat Survey. What does recognition like that say to you? The great thing about Zagat is that it's the people's...

Indivisible man: what the new president means to me.
February 1, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Early on November 5, the morning after the election, I lay in bed wondering to myself if we had really just elected a man named Barack Hussein Obama to be president of the United States. Would the country's...

Game changers: how two Texas oilmen invented the Super Bowl.
February 1, 2009... In the first years after World War II, a new breed of ultrawealthy oilman arose from obscurity to capture national attention as no Texan had since Sam Houston. The media, from the New York Times to Life magazine, christened this top layer of...

The Thrilla in Vanilla: straitlaced Rick Perry & demure Kay Bailey Hutchison going toe-to-toe in a republican primary doesn't exactly get the blood pumping. Ali-Frazier it ain't. But it's the heavy weight title bout every political junkie has been waiting for.(Cover story)
February 1, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] AT 3:01 P.M. ON FRIDAY, DECEMBER 19, 2008, EXACTLY EIGHT YEARS AND ONE MINUTE AFTER TAKING THE OATH OF OFFICE AS GOVERNOR, SUCCEEDING GEORGE W. BUSH, RICK PERRY BECAME THE LONGEST-SERVING CHIEF EXECUTIVE IN THE...

An isolated incident: that's how officials at Southern Methodist University described the fatal drug overdose of sophomore Jake Stiles, whose body was found in the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity house in 2006. Then his father stumbled across evidence that campus police had ignored-and learned a painful lesson about the polities of damage control at one of the state's most exclusive universities.
February 1, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] ON NEW YEAR'S Day 2007, Tom Stiles resolved to do something he had been putting off. He climbed the stairs of his two-story house in the Chicago suburb of Naperville, where he worked in sales for a company that made...

Where to eat now 2009.
February 1, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Now that I've been doing this annual roundup of the tastiest new restaurants in Texas for seven years, patterns have started to emerge. As usual, Dallas had a raft of exciting newcomers. Houston turned out fewer, but...

The Carillon.(Austin)
February 1, 2009... Executive chef Josh Watkins, formerly of the Driskill Hotel, rules THE CARILLON, a hard-to-find conference-center dining room on the University of Texas campus. His food far, far surpasses the stuffy setting. Try delish crab cakes (with a...

Olivia.(Austin)
February 1, 2009... On a good night, OLIVIA'S kitchen--under chef/co-owner James Holmes and chef de cuisine Morgan Angelone--can be as arresting as the chic, airy building it occupies. Check out the salad of beets with creamy-tart goat cheese and the tuna...

Neighborhood Services.(Dallas)
February 1, 2009... The dining room is as comfy as a fifties den, and the menu includes homey dishes like crunchy fried chicken. But NEIGHBORHOOD SERVICES chef and co-owner Nick Badovinus can't resist classing things up with the likes of a cider-brined pork...

Nonna.(Dallas)
February 1, 2009... Arancini are the hush puppies of Italy, and no place in Dallas does them better than NONNA, where the fluffy rice balls come stuffed with veal-and-pancetta ragu. This small, softly lit, not overdressed Italian cafe headed by chef/co-owner...

Rise no 1.(Dallas)
February 1, 2009... Judging by the sex and size of the crowds at RISE NO 1, Dallas women have been souffle-deprived for years. Chef Cherif Brahmi's menu features the delicacies, both savory and sweet, and for variety throws in French bistro classics such as salade...

The Grove.(Houston)
February 1, 2009... The next best thing to dining alfresco is eating at THE GROVE, with its acres of glass and parklike site. Executive chef Ryan Pera's skin-on salmon, sided by a cider-vinegar sauce, is perfection, though die-hard Texans will go for the grilled...

Coco Chocolate Lounge and Bistro.(San Antonio)
February 1, 2009... "Too much is never enough" is the decorative mantra at sexy COCO CHOCOLATE LOUNGE AND BISTRO. Slink in for a French bistro entree (from chef Pedreaux Cuellar) like mussels and pommes frites, stay for the decadent house dessert: creme brulee...

Tre Trattoria.(San Antonio)
February 1, 2009... Get a crowd together, the better to enjoy TRE TRATTORIA'S hearty, family-size entrees, like wild boar ragu. But couples can also dine well on chef-owner Jason Dady's thin-crusted pizzas. Everyone enjoys the urbane-rustic setting.

Wildfish Seafood Grille.(San Antonio)
February 1, 2009... All snap and polish, big, bustling WILDFISH SEAFOOD GRILLE feels like an oceangoing steakhouse. Top choices from Steve Warner's menu include sea bass in a light soy-sherry broth and jumbo scallops sauteed with citrus and brown butter.

The night the music died: searching for the ghost of buddy holly in Clear Lake, Iowa.
February 1, 2009... [ILLUSTRATIONS OMITTED] IT CAME OUT OF THE SKY ABOUT five miles north of Clear Lake, Iowa, and slammed into the frozen earth. The right wing dug a six-inch-deep furrow for 57 feet as it disintegrated into bits of fabric and metal. The...

Bedford.(PAT'S PICK)
February 1, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Houston IF SOMEONE HANDED ME FIFTY recipes and said, "Pick out the one by Robert Gadsby," I could do it in a flash. It's not that I'm so smart; it's that he's so distinctive. I mean, who else but Gadsby is...

Cibus.(NEW + NOTEWORTHY)
February 1, 2009... Dallas Our hat is off to serial restaurant developer Alberto Lombardi (the brains behind Taverna, Toulouse, and Sangria) for elevating mall dining to a new level at NorthPark Center. In the cafe, we dined on salmon, mascarpone, and leeks...

Cover 3.(NEW + NOTEWORTHY)
February 1, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Austin Initially skeptical about eating anything more serious than a burger in a sports bar, we got dragged here for dinner and were quickly converted to fan status. The open room feels like a modern lounge, its...

The Filter: Dining.
February 1, 2009... POLICIES AND DEFINITIONS The Filter: Dining is a service to our readers. The magazine accepts no advertising or other consideration in exchange for a listing. Reviews are written by resident critics in the cities that we list and are...

Dishing: break out the monocles and tweezers, recession deniers! It's time to eat in a fancy restaurant.
February 1, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The Invitation was a big score for a moocher like me. An exceedingly well-upholstered friend in a major Texas city had asked George and me to celebrate his birthday at a swankoriffico restaurant that we couldn't have...