Texas Monthly articles from March 2007

Texas Monthly archives from March 2007

The secret history: should SMU have reservations about proceeding with the Bush presidential library? Yes--but not for the reason most of its critics have cited.(Behind the Lines)(construction of the George W. Bush presidential library on the campus of Southern Methodist University)
March 1, 2007... At the same time that a discussion of George W. Bush's legacy is taking place in our pages (see "The Test of Time," page 114), a parallel conversation has Dallas and the rest of the country buzzing. The likelihood that the Bush presidential...

Cheney reaction.(Roar of the Crowd)(Letter to the editor)
March 1, 2007... Three words about your January 2007 cover: incredibly bad taste. Patricia DuBose McDaniel WICHITA FALLS Please tell me what is the significance of an isolated accident that occurred on a private outing among friends. This was a...

Power play.(Roar of the Crowd)(Letter to the editor)
March 1, 2007... S.C. Gwynne's "Coal Hard Facts" is a thoroughly researched, well-written, and engaging piece of journalism covering a complex and critical issue [January 2007]. Unfortunately, it includes one statement attributed to me that lacks full context....

Punch line.(Roar of the Crowd)(Letter to the editor)
March 1, 2007... A bit of context may help readers understand how I became unfortunately entangled with Dan Patrick, as described in "Here Comes Trouble" [January 2007]. While the article says I "assaulted" Patrick during the eighties, that's just not so. That...

TGIFNL.(Roar of the Crowd)(Letter to the editor)
March 1, 2007... Christopher Kelly gripes about almost every single aspect of Friday Night Lights [Reporter, Hollywood, TX, "Fumble!" January 2007], from handheld cameras to too many stereotypes. (Stereotypes? Let's revisit Dallas and Walker, Texas Ranger....

Legacies.(Editor's Letter)(Molly Ivins)
March 1, 2007... Only a higher power with a truly perverse streak would have deposited the Decider and the Derider in the same social circle--Houston's close-knit private-school world--as teenagers. As the latter told me in an interview several years ago, the...

Topic A: at ease: four years later, Texas soldiers are still dying in Iraq.(Reporter)
March 1, 2007... Conflicts end, countries rebuild, diplomacy resumes, politics dissipate--but lives lost are lost forever. Since the first coalition forces set foot in Iraq four years ago this month, more than 275 Texans have been killed in action, the highest...

Barrel racing.(Martha Josey)(Interview)
March 1, 2007... NAME: Martha Josey AGE: "I'd tell you, but I don't believe it myself." HOMETOWN: Marshall QUALIFICATIONS: World champion barrel racer with the Women's Professional Rodeo Association, American Quarter Horse Association, and National Barrel...

Wall of confusion: the latest on that controversial border fence.(FAQ: BRIAN D. SWEANY ON THE STORY BEHIND THE STORY)(Interview)
March 1, 2007... I know that President Bush authorized the construction of a border fence, Then I heard critics say it wasn't going to be built. What's the story? In October of last year, just before the midterm elections, the president signed the Secure Fence...

Bulldozers.(Meanwhile, Back at the Ranch: Part VIII: STORIES FROM SOUTH TEXAS)(seismic surveying on the Thomas Ranch)
March 1, 2007... Five of them, unannounced at our gate on a Thursday morning, right after I'd noticed that one of our heifers was calving and needed attention. My brother, Mitch, had left for the Fort Worth livestock show the previous night with our show...

Cathedral of Hope.(Faith Bases: WILIAM MARTIN REVIEWS OUR PLACES OF WORSHIP)
March 1, 2007... Dallas | January 7, 2007 In the minds of many, to be gay and Christian is oxymoronic. The 3,500 members of the Cathedral of Hope, in Dallas, disagree. From its beginnings with only 12 disciples in 1970, it has come to be known as "the...

Don't mess with Texians.(Encyclopedia Texanica: ANNE DINGUS SOLVES THE STATE'S GREATEST MYSTERIES)
March 1, 2007... What is Texas's most dangerous city? A: That would be "dangerous" with a Big D. Despite Houston's dramatic increase in crime in late 2005--which some blame on the influx of 100,000-plus Hurricane Katrina refugees--Dallas is actually the,...

Action heroes: our first annual search for the next great Texas directors.(Hollywood, TX: CHRISTOPHER KELLY ON OUR STATE OF ENTERTAINMENT)
March 1, 2007... Don't get us wrong: The Third Coast is real and thriving. Prison Break and Friday Night Lights are being shot in Dallas and Austin, respectively; Texas-set films by the Coen brothers and Paul Thomas Anderson recently wrapped production; even...

In My Element.(Sound recording review)
March 1, 2007... Houston's ROBERT GLASPER is a formidable piano talent with a penchant for lush harmony and mainstream jazz uncommon for a player in his twenties. Were that the whole story, you might lump him into the Wynton Marsalis tradition: fastidiously...

Heartbreaker's Hall of Fame.(Sunny Sweeney, )(Brief article)
March 1, 2007... What's improv comedy got to do with country music? Not much, it turns out, which is why when SUNNY SWEENEY sang in a few skits as an aspiring comedian in New York, her fellow actors--walloped by her voice--sent her packing back to Texas. She...

Booker T. Jones.(keyboardists)(Interview)
March 1, 2007... Known for his magic in the Stax Records studio in the sixties, the Tennessee keyboardist--whose career comprises performances with not only his group, the MGs, but also such artists as Neil Young and Willie Nelson--is a special guest at this...

Where are they now? Sly Stone.(Previews + Reviews: Books: JEFF MCCORD ON THE MONTH'S NEW RELEASES)(Brief article)
March 1, 2007... Even in the insane creativity of 1967's Summer of Love, they were peerless: Sly (Sylvester Stewart) and his multiracial, multigendered Family Stone band electrified the world, rolling everything from doo-wop to acid rock into upbeat soul. Yet...

To Live's To Fly: The Ballad of The Late, Great Townes Van Zandt.(Brief article)(Book review)
March 1, 2007... JOHN KRUTH clearly intends to revere his subject's memory in TO LIVE'S TO FLY: THE BALLAD OF THE LATE, GREAT TOWNES VAN ZANDT, a biography of the difficult, beautiful mess that was Van Zandt before his 1997 death at age 52. But while Kruth...

When the Light Goes.(Brief article)(Book review)
March 1, 2007... Be thankful LARRY MCMURTRY decided his Thalia trilogy deserved a fourth book, because WHEN THE LIGHT GOES is an essential (though not to say concluding) chapter in the Duane Moore saga. Duane, introduced as a callow teen in The Last Picture...

Steven Saylor.(Previews + Reviews: Books: MIKE SHEA ON THE MONTH'S NEW RELEASES)(Interview)
March 1, 2007... The Austin novelist famous for his Roma Sub Rosa series of historical mysteries delivers his magnum opus, Roma, this month. The engrossing tale tracks Rome from its origins as a stop on a salt trade route through the story of Antonius and...

Reduce, reuse, relax.(Buy This Now: AMY PRINCE ON THE THINGS YOU CAN'T LIVE WITHOUT)(reDO lawn chair)(Brief article)
March 1, 2007... In case you haven't noticed, Houston is working on its reputation, evolving from a burn 'n' churn city fueled by thoughtless sprawl and the energy industry to a metropolis with a thriving downtown, a design community, and, increasingly, an...

Forty acres in forty hours: my crash course on the University of Texas at Austin.(Go: SUZY BANKS HITS THE ROADS LESS TRAVELED)
March 1, 2007... I'm not saying I didn't have fun when I attended the University of Texas at Austin, but I certainly never thought of it as a weekend getaway. Of course, this was back when the Tower was closed, the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center was as...

Phyllis George: "Miss America is America's idea of what a young woman should be today. I don't want to hear from Donald Trump, because ... he can get vicious when he's mad, but [Miss USA contestants] are Donald Trump's idea of what young women should be today.".(Interview)
March 1, 2007... I was interested to read that, 36 years after you were crowned Miss America, you're still involved with the pageant as a member of the Miss America Organization's board. Once a beauty queen, always a beauty queen. When I was asked to go on...

Go fire yourself! An open letter to Jerry Jones.
March 1, 2007... Dear Jerry, So what's the plan this time? You don't have a clue, do you? First you let Bill Parcells take a two-week nap before showing him the door. Then you signal that Captain Queeg is back at the helm by hiring former backup...

Glove story: eight months after its headquarters burned to the ground, and years after all its competitors moved overseas, the nation's last large-scale baseball mitt manufacturer is still in the game.(Letter From Nocona)(Company overview)
March 1, 2007... Driving down U.S. 82 in Nocona you see a familiar clutter of small-town Texas land--Queen, acouple of burger and barbecue joints, an auto parts distributor, some liquor stores, and a flyblown motel. You see something else that familiar too:...

The test of time: what do fifteen of the smartest people in the room--presidential scholars, best-selling biographers, and White House veterans of both parties--think history will say about the legacy of George W. Bush? And is there anything he can still do to change it?(Cover story)
March 1, 2007... Douglas BRINKLEY President Bush has hopes of being seen as Harry Truman. Truman has become the patron saint of failed presidents, because he left office with a 27 percent approval rating and people were saying, "To err is Truman," yet look...

"Oh, my God! It's our children!" On March 18, 1937, the combined junior-senior high school in the small East Texas town of New London exploded without warning, killing nearly half of the students and teachers. To commemorate the seventieth anniversary of that tragic day, survivors remember the horrific events--and the heroic response--that changed their lives forever.
March 1, 2007... It is considered the worst school disaster in U.S. history. On Thursday, March 18, 1937, at 3:17 in the afternoon, some seven hundred students and forty teachers were inside the high school in New London, about 25 miles southeast of Tyler, when...

The songs remain the same: one generation passes and another generation comes, but the Top 40 abides. For these eight Texas acts, a few hours in a recording studio was all it took to secure an everlasting place in history as that most singular of creatures: the one-hit wonder.
March 1, 2007... One-hit wonders are held in the public's esteem somewhere above child stars, game-show hosts, and losers from American Idol. They're not real stars, not as talented as those who have really made it, who have had more than one hit, like, say,...

Family values: what if every time the state ligislature was in seasion, your right to raise children was up for debate, and bills that might take your kids away were getting closer and closer to the governor's desk? This is what it's like to be one of the 84,000 gay parents in Texas.
March 1, 2007... On a crisp Sunday evening last fall, Della Nagle stood in the living room of her suburban San Antonio home and ordered everyone to get ready for church. Nagle, who is 45, has taught junior high for most of her career, and you can hear it in her...

From husks till dawn: Paula Disbrowe's cowgirl spin on classic Texas dishes will leave even your sleepiest ranch hands begging for more.("Cowgirl Cuisine: Rustic Recipes and Cowgirl Adventures from a Texas Ranch")(Book review)
March 1, 2007... Five years ago, what Paula Disbrowe didn't know about Texas was a lot. The poor New Yorker didn't understand that around here, barbecue is a state-sponsored religion, that Mexican food without yellow cheese is like a day without sunshine, and...

Lamberts downtown barbecue.(PAT'S PICK)
March 1, 2007... Austin AUSTIN IS A CITY WHOSE schizophrenic self-image is suspended between its laid-back, small-town, beer-swilling past and its high-speed, big-city, wine-sipping present. That gap can be hard to bridge, and restaurants that open here...

New + noteworthy: a bevy of beers in Dallas; fine wines in Houston.(The Filter: Dining: OUR FAVORITE RESTAURANTS, BISTROS, CAFES, AND JOINTS)(restaurants)(Buyers guide)
March 1, 2007... STAR POLICY, CREDIT CARDS, AND PRICE SCALE *** Three stars designate a superlative restaurant. ** Two stars designate an excellent restaurant. * One star designates an extremely good rest aurant. All listed restaurants accept...

AFI Dallas International Film Festival.(JORDAN'S PICK)
March 1, 2007... Dallas SO THAT BIG-BUDGET Dallas movie may not actually be filmed anywhere near Dallas. But frankly, who cares? The city can now claim a new image booster: the inaugural AFI Dallas International Film Festival. With a goal to screen 150...

Up, up, and away.(kite festival)(Brief article)
March 1, 2007... AUSTIN, PORTLAND A kite can be many things: a relaxing diversion, a scientific tool, or a work of art. But mostly it's a sign that winter has finally given way to spring. Never mind that in most parts of Texas it's warm enough to go kite-flying...

The beat is on.(Dance Company of Guinea, Amazones Women Master Drummers)(Brief article)
March 1, 2007... DALLAS That which is forbidden often brings about great art. For the Amazones Women Master Drummers and Dance Company of Guinea, that which was once culturally taboo--the playing of the djembe, a goatskin-covered drum traditionally handled only...

Courtroom drama.("Twelve Angry Men")(Theater review)
March 1, 2007... DALLAS If you want to see a Broadway show before it reaches its expiration date--and with a first-string cast, to boot--there's often little recourse other than to book a flight to the BigApple. Luckily for those with aviophobia (and those...

High notes.(Samuel Ramey, Frederica von Stade to perform together in a concert)(Brief article)
March 1, 2007... GALVESTON, FORT WORTH If March comes in like a lion, so too does baritone Samuel Ramey, one of the most recorded bass singers in history, whose signature role is Faust's Mephistopheles. Joining him onstage at Galveston's Grand 1894 Opera House...

Reeling 'em in.(bass fishing)(Brief article)
March 1, 2007... DEL RIO If you give a man a fish, you feed him for a day. But if you advise him to move to Lake Amistad, he'll be indebted to you for a lifetime. This West Texas lake--which forms at the confluence of the Pecos, Devils, and Rio Grande...

Play station.(The Filter: Events: WHERE TO GO, WHAT TO DO, WHO TO SEE)(The South by Southwest Interactive Festival)(Brief article)
March 1, 2007... AUSTIN The South by Southwest Interactive Festival--which broke off from the SXSW Film and Multimedia Conference in 1995 to become its own entity--has a long list of digital-era celebs lined up for panels, presentations, and speeches this...

Funny girls.(The Filter: Events: WHERE TO GO, WHAT TO DO, WHO TO SEE)
March 1, 2007... CROCKETT, RICHARDSON The premise is familiar: A team of red-state comedians, each occupying his own particular niche on the redneck spectrum, plays to sold-out crowds across the country. With distinct but equally uproarious acts, they take...

Herd mentality.(The Filter: Events: WHERE TO GO, WHAT TO DO, WHO TO SEE)(Elgoatarod)(Brief article)
March 1, 2007... EL DORADO About three thousand people turn out every year for the annual Elgoatarod, loosely inspired by the Alaskan Iditarod but with goats instead of dogs and kids piloting carts instead of burly mushers guiding sleds. Founder Jim Runge's...

Outside the box.(paperboard)(Brief article)
March 1, 2007... HOUSTON When is apiece of cardboard more than just a piece of cardboard? When it has been handled by a master artist, or so proves "Robert Rausehenberg: Cardboards and Related Pieces," now on view at the Menil Collection. The Port Arthur native...

Good-bye, Mrs. Chips: what's a nice girl like me doing at a Texas hold 'Em table?
March 1, 2007... So many ways for a Texas girl to lose her virginity. My own deflowering was witnessed by 88,971 spectators at Memorial Stadium when I attended my first-ever University of Texas football game last fall. In the time-honored tradition of so many...