Texas Monthly articles from July 2006

Texas Monthly archives from July 2006

Trees v. forest: the problem with law school--when I went four decades ago, and today--is one of perspective: the big picture hardly matters, and the little picture is everything. Fortunately, I know how to fix it.(Behind the Lines)
July 1, 2006... The voice on the telephone was from a long time ago and far, far away. It belonged to a friend from the University of Texas law school, an honor student, whom I hadn't seen since the day he graduated. (Notice I didn't say the day "we"...

DeLayed reactions.(Letter to the editor)
July 1, 2006... Back at you, TEXAS MONTHLY. Don't let my door hit you... Paul Burka's article on Tom DeLay was not very objective ["Without DeLay," May 2006]. J. Hundley AUSTIN Democrats deemed Tom DeLay the new bogeyman for one reason only: He...

That's no bull.(Letter to the editor)
July 1, 2006... What a steaming load of cow pies! Skip Hollandsworth's attempt to glorify Roddy Dean Pippin made me want to throw up all over my new TEXAS MONTHLY ["The Last Rustler," May 2006]. This kid is no rustler or Robin Hood. He is a spoiled-rotten...

Wise cracks.(Letter to the editor)
July 1, 2006... Gary Cartwright wrote that crusty, conventional baseball managers handed out advice like "take two and hit to right" ["The Rookie," May 2006]. My coach at the University of Wisconsin during the fifties would growl, "Don't take that third one"...

Health assurance.(Letter to the editor)
July 1, 2006... TEXAS MONTHLY and Patricia Kilday Hart performed a needed public service by raising awareness about MRSA in "Field of Nightmares" [May 2006]. Unpublished data collected by the Texas Department of State Health Services reinforce the fact that hu...

See spot brush.(Roar of the Crowd)(Letter to the editor)
July 1, 2006... Just a word of caution to Oscar Casares on his article "Pet Project" [May 2006]: To ignore your pet's dental health is to put him at risk for other health issues, such as congestive heart failure. Cindy Johnson MIDLAND

That's right, he's from Texas.(Letter to the editor)
July 1, 2006... Thank you for the article on Lyle Lovett [TEXAS MONTHLY Talks, May2006]. I was fortunate to meet him last November at a local restaurant in Spring. I was finishing lunch with a friend when she saw him come in. As we were leaving, we walked past...

Toad warriors.(Letter to the editor)
July 1, 2006... Since we at Texas Christian University have a somewhat, ahem, proprietary interest in the horned frog, I was intrigued to read Anne Dingus's expose [TEXAS MONTHLY Reporter, Encyclopedia Texanica, May 2006]. Ms. Dingus noted that our little...

Independent's day.(Kinky Friedman)(Editorial)
July 1, 2006... Yes, that's gubernatorial candidate Kinky Friedman--four words I've yet to utter with a straight face--on our cover this month, dressed somewhat less outlandishly than in the past. The last time (July 2004), you'll recall, he was elegantly done...

Topic A: operation rescue: how to save the Bush presidency in ten imaginative steps.(Reporter 07.06)
July 1, 2006... The number one question in Texas is also number one nationally: How can George W. Bush save his presidency? His abysmal approval ratings--29 percent in a mid-May Harris poll--and the prospect of losing the Republican majority in Congress have...

Being a cable TV pundit.(The Horse's Mouth: EVERYTHING I COULD EVER TELL YOU ABOUT ...)(Interview)
July 1, 2006... NAME: Paul Begala AGE: 45 HOMETOWN: Missouri City QUALIFICATIONS: Former co-host of CNN's Crossfire/ Co-author of Take It Back/Political contributor to CNN's The Situation Room * The first time I was on television was when Governor Bill...

Diamonds are forever: why baseball--steroid scandals and all--will never lose its sparkle.(The Sports Authorities: STACY HOLLISTER CALLS IN THE EXPERTS)
July 1, 2006... PANELISTS: LARRY DIERKER Former Houston Astros pitcher, broadcaster, and manager NOLAN RYAN Hall of Fame pitcher and all-time strikeout leader Hollister: So, May 28, 2006, the day Barry Bonds hit home run number 715. In,...

It's a great day when your replacements arrive.(A Soldier's Story; Part IX: DISPATCHES FROM THE FRONT)
July 1, 2006... Ours flew in around three in the morning, and many of my soldiers met them at the helipad to help them unload and bed down for the night, I was awakened by the sound of the rotors as they landed, and I remember smiling and having a warm feeling...

Oak Hill: Church of Christ.
July 1, 2006... Luling | March 19, 2006 Over the past fifteen years, I have driven through the small town of Luling hundreds of times on my way between Houston and Wimberley, stopping occasionally for watermelons or barbecue. On each trip, I have passed a...

Texas myth #: 29.
July 1, 2006... THE TV SHOW DALLAS WAS FILMED IN DALLAS, Hey, we're talking Hollywood here. The hit show, which ran from 1978 to 1991, was filmed at MGM Studios, in California. A few exterior shots showed Big D skyscrapers and Southfork Ranch, the...

Shooting blanks: what John Sayles never got about Texas.(Lone Star)(Movie review)
July 1, 2006... You know you're in for a drubbing early on in John Sayles's Lone Star-from the very first scene, to be exact. We watch as two middle-aged Army officers putter around the Texas desert: One of them is taking stock of different species of cactus...

Sacred.(Previews+Reviews: Music: ON THE MONTH'S NEW RELEASES)(Sound recording review)
July 1, 2006... The multiplatinum success of their debut made San Angelo's LOS LONELY BOYS one of Texas's biggest musical exports. Small wonder. The Garza brothers--Henry, Ringo, and JoJo--oozed charisma and played a melodic, amped-up brand of rock and roll....

Seven angels on a bicycle.(Previews+Reviews: Music: ON THE MONTH'S NEW RELEASES)(Sound recording review)
July 1, 2006... Here's a surprise. Austin's CARRIE RODRIGUEZ, who never set out to be a singer, has crafted a charming, almost meditative solo debut. Rodriguez initially studied classical violin at Oberlin and Berklee and on occasion sat in with her song...

Graveyard shift.(Previews+Reviews: Music: ON THE MONTH'S NEW RELEASES)
July 1, 2006... Is SCOTT H. BIRAM for real? His death-rattle blues crash around like a cat trapped in a squirrel cage; this self proclaimed "dirty old one-man band" has made enough ruckus to send more than one listener fleeing toward the exit. Rough and...

Clifford Antone (1949-2006).(Previews+Reviews: Music: ON THE MONTH'S NEW RELEASES)(Obituary)(Brief article)
July 1, 2006... The legendary Austin club owner, who died May 23, helped launch many a Texas musician, from Stevie Ray Vaughan to Charlie Sexton. ZZ Top's Billy Gibbons remembers the larger-than-life music impresario. One evening, at the club's third...

The Worthy: A Ghost's Story.(Brief article)(Book review)
July 1, 2006... The Greek system sure must have pissed off WILL CLARKE during his brief stint as a college lad in a toga, because he returns the favor in his second novel, THE WORTHY: A GHOST'S STORY, by mercilessly satirizing frat boys and their obsessions:...

The Next Time You Die.(Brief article)(Book review)
July 1, 2006... THE NEXT TIME YOU DIE, HARRY HUNSICKER'S second detective caper featuring hard-luck investigator Lee Henry Oswald, should earn Dallas a colored pushpin on the wisecracking-gumshoe map for its double-trouble combo of mean streets and meaner...

The President's Counselor: The Rise to Power of Alberto Gonzales.(Brief article)(Book review)
July 1, 2006... Those looking for clues to the Bush administration's seeming assault on civil liberties--from warrantless wiretaps to allegedly condoned torture--will find much to ponder in THE PRESIDENT'S COUNSELOR: THE RISE TO POWER OF ALBERTO GONZALES....

James Lee Burke.(Previews+Reviews: Music: ON THE MONTH'S NEW RELEASES)(Interview)(Brief article)
July 1, 2006... The Houston native celebrates his seventieth year on earth by publishing the twenty-sixth novel of his forty-year career. Pegasus Descending is the latest book in the Dave Robicheaux crime fiction series. What is it about Robicheaux that...

Busted.(Brief article)
July 1, 2006... Summertime livin' wouldn't be as easy (or memorable) without some papier-mache--especially a pinata custom-made for the occasion. San Antonio's Becky Gonzales got into the party business with a one-woman flower booth on Cupples Road, on the...

Zip it: I've found the newest way to explore the Hill Country: flying from tree to tree.
July 1, 2006... Forty feet above the chiggers and poison ivy. Moving faster than the mosquitoes. Flying without wings or motors or fear, taunting the water moccasin fishing in the creek far below, pretty certain he can't climb trees. [paragraph] Now, this is...

Eileen Collins.(Interview)
July 1, 2006... Your application to become an astronaut was approved all the way back in 1990. How hard is it going to be to leave? I've spent sixteen years in a wonderful series of jobs--my four space missions and the support jobs I've done before and in...

T.R. Fehrenbach is history: his classic book Lone Star has reigned supreme for nearly forty years, but two new challengers are hoping to ascend the throne.
July 1, 2006... "The great difference between Texas and every other American state in the twentieth century was that Texas had a history." So wrote T. R. Fehrenbach in Lone Star: A History of Texas and the Texans, first published in 1968 and now widely...

Seems like old times: at my high school reunion--Wichita Falls, class of '63--I laughed with lifelong friends, mourned the dearly departed, and relived one of the greatest Texas football dynasties that no one ever talks about.
July 1, 2006... As the drinks go down and the laughter builds army high school reunion, a DVD of the 1961 state semifinal football game between our former Coyote has recorded a play-by-play in which he says the words "Twenty-Eight Spinner One"--an end run in...

Capture the flag: the only thing stranger than a (relatively) docile and (mostly) productive special session is a free-for-all race for governor. What does 2006 mean for 2010? What does 2008 mean for the future let the battle for the future of Texas begin.(Cover story)
July 1, 2006... When I look back at the recent history of Texas politics, I can hardly believe the strange turns it has taken. The first time I noticed Rick Perry was in 1987, when the price of oil was in the teens and the state budget was very tight. He was a...

My life as an illegal.
July 1, 2006... by IMMIGRANT X AS TOLD TO JOHN SPONG THE WORD WE USE with ourselves is mojado. It means "wetback." Or inmigrante ilegal. "Illegal immigrant." But usually we say "wetback." I don't think that's bad or good. That's what they used to call the...

Body of work: the Southwestern Writers Collection, at Texas State University, in San is home to a treasure trove of manuscripts, letters, and personal items the state's greatest writers, singers, and photographers. And one stripper.
July 1, 2006... It's really not so strange that the star of the Southwestern Writers Collection is the simulacrum of a one-legged body taken from the set of a television show. First, the fictional character who in-habits that body is perhaps the best known in...

School of pop: from all over Texas they come--teens and tweens with talent and ambition--to Septien Entertainment's Studios in Addison, where a young, unpolished Jessica Simpson was first discovered. And the next big star could be.
July 1, 2006... IT'S THE LAST WEEK OF APRIL, A FEW DAYS BEFORE the Septien Entertainment Group's 2006 Master Artist Showcase, and the master artists are definitely getting tense. Emily Holt, a twelve-year-old pop singer with blue eyes normally seen in Siberian...

Peas be with you.
July 1, 2006... STEP 1: Fill a basket with fresh vegetables from your local farmers' market, STEP 2: Cook them up using from a hip Houston chef. STEP 3: Serve them to your family, who can't the okra from chicken nuggets, STEP 4: Repeat. Joan Gundermann...

Guilty pleasure: when the Enron verdict came down, a collective giddiness swept over Houston--much of it, anyway. Can we move on now?
July 1, 2006... During a break in the closing arguments at the Enron trial, in one of those awkward coincidences that private people who become unwilling public figures probably detest, I found myself in the restroom of the federal courthouse with Linda Lay. I...

Glass Wall: Houston.(Glass Wall)(Restaurant review)
July 1, 2006... BACK WHEN HOTSHOT Houston chef Lance Fegen was at Zula and Trevisio, there was a whole lotta shaking going on: a lot of food on the plate, a lot of flash in the kitchen, a lot of figures on the check But that was then and this is now, and while...

New + noteworthy: Polenta fries in Austin; tropical ceviche in San Antonio.(The Filter: Dining: OUR FAVORITE RESTAURANTS, BISTROS, CAFES, AND JOINTS)(Restaurant review)
July 1, 2006... Austin JO'S HOT COFFEE All done shopping the Second Street district? Drop (in) here for a pick-me-up: a cappuccino, pastry, salad, or a sandwich. An Olde Austin hippie sensibility (like a picture of Allen Ginsberg eating breakfast...

The Filter: dining.(Brief article)
July 1, 2006... 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...

Essence Music Festival: Houston.(JORDAN'S PICK)
July 1, 2006... IT'S BEEN nearly a year since Katrina forced thousands to flee from New Orleans and turned Houston's Astrodome into a hurricane hotel Now, with another storm season looming and much of the Gulf Coast still in disrepair, Reliant Park will be a...

He is the very model of a modern major thespian.(Gilbert and Sullivan Society of Houston's Alistair Donkin)(Interview)
July 1, 2006... Who would have thunk that a Texas theater troupe would be earning international kudos for its English comic operas? In its own topsy-turvy plot, the Gilbert and Sullivan Society of Houston has become one of the premier amateur groups to perform...

The Filter: events.(Calendar)
July 1, 2006... Welcome to the Fold HOUSTON So the second-ever Origami Festival is not the most obvious event to attend--folding paper, admittedly, can be less than thrilling. But the masters descending on Tansu the hosting Heights-area boutique, are no...

Meet the needles: who needs chewing gum or inherited jokes? Let's go to the acupuncturist!
July 1, 2006... Did a visit to the doctor's office always seem like a few hours at the Tijuana bus station? You've got the fluorescent lights, the endless waits. The chairs are bolted down, and they make you yearn for those Sani- Seat things in gas station...