Texas Monthly articles from July 2005

Texas Monthly archives from July 2005

This blog's life: could Nate Nance be the future of the media? Only if his mom keeps giving him gas money.(Behind the LINES)
July 1, 2005... The street where Nate Nance lives in McGregor, a town of 4,700 west of Waco, is two short blocks from Texas Highway 317; you can see cars whizzing by from his driveway. That makes it noisy enough, but the Burlington Northern and Santa Fe...

E-mail bonding.(Roar of the CROWD)(Letter to the Editor)
July 1, 2005... "Old-timers' Day" [May 2005] is the best thing that's been in TEXAS MONTHLY in years. I've always enjoyed both Gary Cartwright and Dan Jenkins, but this was like sitting and listening to them argue and tell stories over a long lunch. Please...

Race relations 101.(Roar of the CROWD)(Letter to the Editor)
July 1, 2005... Thanks for printing "Pug" [May 2005]. It ought to be required reading for all white folks who walk this earth. Don Rylander BASTROP

Picture perfect.(Roar of the CROWD)(Letter to the Editor)
July 1, 2005... I have never seen anything else that so well captured the pain and dignity of the people in the colonias and their struggle for justice and a better life ["In America," May 2005]. Steve Brodner's drawings speak more poignantly than all the...

Data processing.(Letter to the Editor)
July 1, 2005... After reading "Where We Rank" [May 2005], I don't think the question is which Republicans should run for what offices but whether they should run for cover. Their report card is in, and they failed. No pass, no play. Mike Lively ...

Girl talk and talk and talk.(Letter to the Editor)
July 1, 2005... In Evan Smith's interview with Liz Smith, we are treated to hearing from yet another "feminist" (isn't that supposed to mean "pro-female"?) who describes family-centered women like Laura Bush as "Stepford Wives" [TEXAS MONTHLY Talks, May...

Ah, sweet mystery.(Roar of the CROWD)(Letter to the Editor)
July 1, 2005... Gary Cartwright has always been bold, but he transcends even that when he steps up to confess and profess a belief in God at a time when to do so quickly aligns one with the likes of the dangerous right-wingers, who would have us all believe...

July: people, places, events, attractions.(Around the STATE)
July 1, 2005... 07.02.05 In the summer of 1955 a Hollywood imperial army' invaded the small West Texas town of Marfa. For five weeks acclaimed filmmaker George Stevens and a huge Warner Bros. cast and crew labored on nearby drought-stricken ranchland to...

Grilling: it's the quintessential American cooking experience. Food Network chef cum scientist Alton Brown, who on July 9 brings his unorthodox methods to Barton Creek Square Mall, in Austin, shares his secrets for the ideal hamburger.(COMING ATTRACTIONS: The month in summer fun.)(Interview)
July 1, 2005... Is it true that your favorite food is the cheeseburger? Without question. So how do you grill the perfect patty? Well, if you're really looking to make great burgers, then you shouldn't grill them. The fat leaks out and catches fire,...

Swimming: beat the heat at these old-fashioned water holes.(Brief Article)
July 1, 2005... BLUE HOLE, DINOSAUR VALLEY STATE PARK (NEAR GLEN ROSE) Jump into the cool Paluxy River from the hole's surrounding boulders and look for the underwater dinosaur tracks. Open daily 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. DEVIL'S WATERHOLE, INKS LAKE STATE PARK...

Fireworks.(celebrating Fourt of July in Houston, Texas)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2005... Houston mayor Bill White has thrown down the patriotic gauntlet this year, proclaiming that his city's FREEDOM OVER TEXAS Fourth of July celebration--and its fireworks show, specifically--will be the biggest, most breathtaking in the state....

Annie Leibovitz.(Brief Article)
July 1, 2005... This month, "Annie Leibovitz: Women, Part III," the final installment of a series donated to Dallas's Women's Museum by the photographer herself, will show off more than thirty female faces, both obscure and famous--Madeleine Albright, Lit'...

Stoop shoot: Robert Earl Keen, whose portrait with Lyle Lovett appears in "American Music," recalls sitting for Leibovitz in 2001.(Brief Article)
July 1, 2005... The day of the shoot was dreary. It was misting and it was maybe fifty degrees. We all met on this ranch outside Austin, and Annie was very outgoing and friendly. Lyle Lovett and I wrote this song together called "This Old Porch," and so Annie...

She's here. She's queer. She's fired. The residents of Bloomburg thought they had everything they could want in basketball coach Merry Stephens--until she moved in with another woman.
July 1, 2005... In Bloomburg there isn't a stop sign, or even a blinking yellow light, at the center of town--just a bend in a winding two-lane road that meanders through the woods toward the Arkansas state line. Every now and then a logging truck piled high...

See spot. See spot grow.(Melonama)
July 1, 2005... Pardon me for being the skunk at your summer picnic, but as you're enjoying the sun on your face, remember that overexposure to ultraviolet-B waves accounts for about half of all diagnosed cases of cancer each year. That's one million cases of...

Magic bullet watch: a melanoma vaccine?(MINISTER OF HEALTH)
July 1, 2005... A vaccine for melanoma has been a holy grail for skin cancer researchers for decades. Now there's hope for a successful one at the Baylor Health Care System of Dallas's Institute for Immunology Research. Under the direction of Jacques...

For so long.(Sound Recording Review)
July 1, 2005... Now and then, a young artist arrives with such confidence that you wonder where he or she has been hiding. In ROBYN LUDWICK'S case, it was in Bandera, where she learned to play, then in the anonymity of Austin's open-mike scene, where she cut...

Lord Vishnu's Love Handles: A Spy Novel (Sort Of).(Brief Article)(Book Review)
July 1, 2005... There is a stylistic no-man' s-land where many an alleged comic novel has crashed with a resounding thud. But Dallasite WILL CLARKE navigates the terrain with reckless abandon in his wry and inventive debut, LORD VISHNU'S LOVE HANDLES: A SPY...

The Hustler.(Sound Recording Review)
July 1, 2005... Dense with smoke and sweating booze from its pores, the music on JEFF KLEIN's THE HUSTLER (One Little Indian), his third album, completely inhabits New Orleans, the city of its Inception. In reaction to his previous singer-songwriter-type...

No Country for Old Men.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
July 1, 2005... The 1,081 citizens of Terrell County will recognize their desolate swath of Texas-Mexico borderlands as the backdrop of NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN (Knopf), CORMAC MCCARTHY's first novel since 1998's Cities of the Plain. Its in this harsh...

Weather and Water.(Sound Recording Review)
July 1, 2005... THE GREENCARDS--so named because they're two Australians and one Brit--got together in 2002 in Austin, where their organic acoustic pop garnered instant acclaim. Recently they deserted their adopted hometown for Music City with an eye on the...

Mission Road.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
July 1, 2005... San Antonian RICK RIORDAN returns the Alamo City's most offbeat private investigator to action in MISSION ROAD (Bantam), the most fully realized of his six Tres Navarre novels to date. The road in question was the scene of multiple unsolved...

A sell of a town: after more than a year of being hawked on the Internet, Cornudas finally has a new owner.
July 1, 2005... When last we checked in on doings in the remote West Texas town of Cornudas (Reporter: "Dream for Sale," December 2003), locals were gathered, their breath bated, around what was believed to be the only laptop in Hudspeth County. The exact...

May's Day: the new mayor--and millionaire--speaks.(Brief Article)(Interview)
July 1, 2005... Q: Did you change your sales approach while you were waiting for a buyer? A: Well, we took it off of eBay because too many people were playing around with us. And then one day I saw that West Virginia had been up for sale on eBay for about...

What's the matter with Dallas? Why the city's timid political culture doesn't live up to its brash image.
July 1, 2005... May 7 was supposed to be when Dallas decided what it wants to be when it grows up. That was the day Dallas voters considered replacing their city's current organizational chart, where real power is vested in the city manger--a sort of...

Weed all about it: yes, I think we should legalize marijuana--and maybe all drugs. But the big news is that some prominent conservative Republicans agree with me.
July 1, 2005... What is it about marijuana that makes politicians hallucinate? The faintest whiff of "the weed of madness" (as government propaganda used to call it) causes them to see distorted images of things that aren't there and never were: law and order,...

Lance Armstrong: the 33-year-old cyclist on surviving, winning, retiring, doping, Sheryl, and his future in politics ... maybe.(Texas Monthly Talks)(Interview)
July 1, 2005... Let me ask you, first of all, what may not seem like an obvious question: How's your health? In terms of the cancer? As of the latest check, which was a few months ago, everything was perfect. When I give blood, they do a test that's very...

The best & worst legislators of 2005.
July 1, 2005... Imagine a kitten, very curious but easily frightened: That was the Seventy-ninth Legislature. It poked around school finance, pawed at tax reform, heard loud shouts of "No!", fled to Mama, curled up, and went to sleep. Lawmakers did a lot of...

The Anderson boys grew up in Texas: before Eric Chase Anderson was an author and his brother Wes was a director, they were members of a fairly typical Houston family. Well, not that typical, as you can see from his memoir-with-maps.
July 1, 2005... I grew up in Houston in the 1970's and 80's with my two older brothers, Mel and Wes. Wes was four grades ahead of me in school. Mel was five grades ahead. Our parents split up when I was 3, and from that time on we visited our dad and...

Exiles on main street: roughly 4,500 refugees will resettle in Texas this year, but few will have a tougher time adjusting than Ali Mohamed and his family. When they arrived in San Antonio from Africa in February, they didn't know how to speak English. Or read or write. Or use a telephone or an electric stove. And in a few months they would have to start paying the rent.
July 1, 2005... TO ANY CONNOISSEUR OF HUMAN HAPPINNES, especially in its more hidden forms, this was an occasion not to be missed, the sort of modest moment from which an entire people's history might someday be made. It was nine-thirty on a Thursday night in...

Got game: Hudson's on the Bend is where Austinites (and foodies from near and far) go wild for smoked venison and other full-flavored fare. With these recipes, you can too.
July 1, 2005... SEVERAL YEARS AGO my mother phoned me with an urgent question "Honey, I need your advice on something," she said. Resisting the impulse to shout, "Omigod, hell has frozen over!" I replied, "Sure, what is it?" Her query, as it turned out, was...

The Mildcatters.
July 1, 2005... If you have lived in Houston for a certain period of time--since the oil boom of the late seventies, say--it is nearly impossible to avoid feeling your pulse quicken whenever oil and gas prices look to be headed for an extended uptick, as they...

Angie Barrett does not use butt cream: or so she says--and from the looks of her, she doesn't need it. Although she once stole hundreds of thousands of dollars' worth of clothes from Neiman's--and did hard time in the state penitentiary--she's clawed her way to the top of the Dallas socialite heap and now hosts her own reality TV show. Who says there are no second acts?
July 1, 2005... THIS PAST SPRING, I asked the Dallas socialite Angela Barrett if I could follow her around for a few weeks. A striking fifty-year-old brunette with the obligatory blond highlights, along with bluish-green eyes, a dandelion-slim body, and...

Pat's pick: Riccardi's.(Restaurant Review)
July 1, 2005... It's the Sistine Chapel wallpaper on the walls and ceiling of the entry that clues you in: "Hip" Riccardi's is not. The Dallas establishment may be new, but its heart belongs to an earlier time--when restaurants looked like dining rooms, not...

The dining guide.(restaurant review)
July 1, 2005... POLICIES AND DEFINITIONS The Dining Guide 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. The reviewers'...

Cool quaff.(lemonade from Irma N. Galvan)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2005... If any drink is identified with the Fourth of July, it's lemonade. And the best "lemonade" in Texas comes from famously quirky Houston Mexican restaurant Irma's. This rustic pink refresher is made from fresh fruit--just about every variety in...

Altar peace: no jitters. No going broke. No stress-induced cold sores. My surprise wedding is a memory I love, honor, and cherish.
July 1, 2005... Whew! June's over. We made it. Survived another wedding season. [paragraph] Brides, how are you all doing?. That spastic twitch in your colon calming down? That giant stress-induced cold sore that ruined the most perfect day of your life almost...