Texas Monthly articles from March 2008

Texas Monthly archives from March 2008

The democraddick primary: nothing less than the future of Texas--at least in the near term--hangs in the balance on March 4.(Behind the Lines)(Tom Craddick and the primary for the Speaker of the House of Representatives of Texas)
March 1, 2008... On March 4, Texans will cast their votes in party primaries for offices from, as the saying goes, the courthouse to the White House. For the first time in more than thirty years, Texas is situated to play a pivotal role in selecting the next...

Bum rap.(Roar of the Crowd)(Letter to the editor)
March 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Oy! It's a pretty bad state of affairs, I say, when TEXAS MONTHLY--the arbiter of all things hip in the Lone Star State-botches a sneering slam as badly as y'all botched the "Guns Up! IQs Down!" Bum Steer ["The 2008...

Bravo, troops.(Roar of the Crowd)(Letter to the editor)
March 1, 2008... Thank you for an outstanding article relating the individual experiences of our young people in this most outrageous of all wars involving the American military ["'I Think We Got Blown Up for Nothing,'" January 2008]. It is too bad that our...

What about Bob?(Roar of the Crowd)(Letter to the editor)
March 1, 2008... I read your article on Bob Bullock with interest but remain mystified as to his venerated position in Texas politics ["The Devil and Bob Bullock," January 2008]. True, he collected a lot of back taxes, but any conscientious comptroller could,...

Return to sender.(Roar of the Crowd)(Letter to the editor)
March 1, 2008... I enjoyed Greg Curtis's article on the state's would-be purchase of the purported Davy Crockett letter ["What a Crockett," January 2008]. Following the publication of this article, the Texas Historical Commission received the results of the...

Charlie's Angels.(Roar of the Crowd)(Letter to the editor)
March 1, 2008... Would someone please explain to Christopher Kelly the difference between a documentary and a feature film [Reporter; Hollywood, TX; January 2008]? Charlie Wilson's War is a Hollywood lefts-pretend movie, Christopher, not a historical tome. Sit...

Panhandlers welcome.(Roar of the Crowd)(Letter to the editor)
March 1, 2008... I can't believe you ignored the best town slogan of all: Home of the DingDong Daddy from Dumas [Reporter, Pass/Fail, January 2008]. Of course, you may be forgiven for overlooking Dumas, because many people, including elected officials, believe...

Running with the bull.(Roar of the Crowd)(Letter to the editor)
March 1, 2008... The Dan Bartlett interview by Evan Smith was what we in my neighborhood call a bunch of bull caca [Reporter, Texas Monthly Talks, January 2008]. Why didn't Smith ask the hard questions, on topics such as renditions, torture, lying, war...

Hearts and crafts.(Roar of the Crowd)(Letter to the editor)
March 1, 2008... What a refreshing male perspective about the wonder-filled world of quilters ["Being There: International Quilting Convention," texasmonthly.com]. You could hear the pride Mike Hall has for his mother's work. And the surprise in his voice about...

March madness.(Editor's Letter)(presidential primary)
March 1, 2008... I bet you'd like to know what's going to happen on March 4, when Texas finally gets to have a say in the presidential race. Beats the heck out of me. Over the past twelve months, I've been asserting, with arrogant certainty, that the November...

Long time coming.(In the Chute)(Long Center for the Performing Arts)
March 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] LIKE A GREEK tragedy, the building of the Long Center for the Performing Arts, Austin's newest cultural gem, has had no lack of theatrics. Let's revisit the opening scene: It's the early nineties. The tech boom is...

Made in China.(In the Chute)(photography exhibition)(Brief article)
March 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] IN THE SPRING of 1995, photographers Frederick Baldwin and Marc Riboud were having coffee at the latter's home, in Paris, when a package arrived. Inside was a book of photographs that Riboud had edited, featuring the...

Tamale town.(In the Chute)(Diboll Tamale Festival)
March 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] WHEN LANCE MOORE Was hired as Diboll's civic center director last May, one of his first tasks was to cook up more events for the East Texas town. As a former director of the Blueberry Festival, in Nacogdoches, he...

Being an art critic.(The Horse's Mouth: EVERYTHING I COULD EVER TELL YOU ABOUT ...)(Dave Hickey)(Interview)
March 1, 2008... NAME: Dave Hickey AGE: 69 HOMETOWN: Fort Worth QUALIFICATIONS: Author of two volumes of art criticism, The Invisible Dragon." Four Essays on Beauty and Air Guitar: Essays on Art and Democracy/Fiction and culture writer for magazines such as...

Once more unto the breach: a letter to the long-suffering Rangers fan.(The Cheap Seats: BRYAN CURTIS POPS OFF ABOUT SPORTS)(Texas Rangers )
March 1, 2008... Dear Season Ticket Holder: Welcome to the 2008 Texas Rangers season! We're glad you'll be joining us for year 36 of our eternal rebuilding project. You're one of the hardy few who still make the trek out to Arlington, lay down $70 for an...

Bryan Christian, 37: Advertising executive.(The Working Life: STORIES FROM THE 9 T0 5)
March 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] All during college, I thought I would graduate and go to seminary or something like that. Either that or law school or advertising. In a strange way, they all seemed like forms of the same thing: evangelism. Through...

Oak Hills Church.(Faith Bases: WILLIAM MARTIN REVIEW OUR PLACES OF WORKSHIP)
March 1, 2008... San Antonio | October 7, 2007 Having grown up in the Church of Christ, I have been interested in observing, at a modest distance, the differences that have evolved over the years between the smalltown churches of my youth (similar to the...

Action heroes: our annual search for the next great Texas directors.(Hollywood, TX: CHRISTOPHER KELLY ON OUR STATE OF ENTERTAINMENT)
March 1, 2008... Between No Country for Old Men and There Will Be Blood on the big screen and the second season of Friday Night Lights on TV, the Third Coast enjoyed a fertile year in 2007. But there's also a vanguard of emerging talent nipping at the...

Texas director, class of '08: where to see their movies.(Hollywood, TX: CHRISTOPHER KELLY ON OUR STATE OF ENTERTAINMENT)
March 1, 2008... Margaret Brown: Be Here to Love Me is on DVD. The Order of Myths will play the festival circuit, including SXSW, as Brown shops it around for theatrical distribution. David and Nathan Zellner. The siblings' shorts are all viewable on...

Previews + reviews: music: Jeff McCord on the month's new releases.(Sound recording review)
March 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Guitar muscle, ferocious drumming, commanding vocals, and hook-laden tunes: no sophomore slump here. Austin's WHAT MADE MILWAUKEE FAMOUS took its time with the follow-up to its 2004 debut, and it was a wise move. The...

Bun B.(Interview)(Brief article)
March 1, 2008... As part of the rap outfit UGK--his partner was the late Pimp C--the Port Arthur rhyme veteran has earned many a peer admirer in the notoriously prideful hip-hop world. He is working on his second solo album, II Trill, and appears this month at...

Previews + reviews: books: Mike Shea on the month's new releases.(Book review)
March 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Meet Sonny Bravo, the sweet but surly almost-six-teen-year-old who shrugs his way through THE FLOWERS, Austinite DAGOBERTO GILB'S first novel since 1994's The Last Known Residence of Micky Acuha. At Los Flores--the...

Terry L. Moore.(Interview)(Brief article)
March 1, 2008... In June 2007 the Houston artist, writer, and publisher wrapped up his Strangers in Paradise comic book series after a fourteen-year run. He writes Runaways and Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane for Marvel Comics, and he is now launching Echo, a new...

It's only natural: no strip malls. No master-planned communities. Can this be northwest San Antonio?(Go: SUZY BANKS HITS THE ROADS LESS TRAVELED)
March 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The sights I saw on my drive to Government Canyon State Natural Area this winter pushed me to the brink of vandalism. The endless strip malls. The bulldozed hillsides. The dense housing developments named after the...

Twin wells: chapter three: the gunslinger.(Texquisite Corpse: A STORY IN TWELVE PARTS AND TWELVE VOICES)(Short story)
March 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Or not quite night. Baldwin stood for a moment, let his thoughts fade into the stillness and his eyes adjust to the flatland twilight smoldering like a brushfire out there somewhere. It was startling then, right...

Mark McKinnon.(Texas Monthly Talks: EVAN SMITH SITS DOWN WITH ...)(Interview)
March 1, 2008... Last summer every reporter in the world, including me, left John McCain for dead. What happened? Well, he wasn't six feet under, but he was five feet under. I went into the office at that time and it was like a neutron bomb had hit. [The...

Chuck it: the only surprising thing about the self-destruction of the Harris County district attorney is that it took so long.(Letter From Houston)(Chuck Rosenthal)
March 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] January 17 was a great news day in Houston. Texas Supreme Court justice David Medina and his wife, Francisca, were indicted by a Harris County grand jury for charges related to a fire that torched their McMansion in...

The easier life: my housekeeper's son was caught between two countries and two cultures. Even with all my luck and privilege, there was nothing I could do to help him.
March 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] We hired our first housekeeper after eight years of marriage. At that point, it was either a maid or a therapist. Since all my husband and I really argued about was housekeeping (I was pro, he was indifferent), we...

Bear market: with the federal government in knots, Texas and California--the two most powerful megastates--are fighting to lead the country forward. Guess who's winning.
March 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] It is a clash of civilizations that had festered for decades before it erupted just months after President George W. Bush was inaugurated, seven years ago. Though not a war in the conventional sense, it is a...

The valley of the shadow of death.(Kari Baker murder case)(Cover story)
March 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATIONS OMITTED] MATT AND KARI BAKER appeared to be the perfect Baptist couple. He was a charismatic minister in Waco; she taught Sunday school and happily raised their children. When she committed suicide after their baby daughter...

Where to eat now 2008.(Directory)
March 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] WHAT'S UP, WHAT'S DOWN? WHAT'S IN, WHAT'S OUT? I GOT DIZZY TRYING to tease out the trends in the 2008 edition of our annual roundup of the state's new restaurants. At first I thought I saw a seafood restaurant fad;...

Untitled Mike Flynt project.
March 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] THE MOVIE WOULD HAVE TO OPEN WITH A SHOT OF Jackson Field, in Alpine, home of the Sul Ross State University Lobos. Built in 1929 and having seen little touch-up since, the rockwalled stadium would give an instant...

Wyatt's world.(Wyatt Mcspadden )(Interview)
March 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] In the three decades that contributing photographer Wyatt Mcspadden has been shooting for Texas as monthly, the Amarillo native has trained his camera on almost every cultural icon in the state, from Bob Bullock and...

The Grove: Houston.(PAT'S PICK)(Texas)(Restaurant review)
March 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] HOW MANY DOWNTOWN Houston restaurants look out on real, honest-to-God trees? Whatever the number--and I suspect it's in the single digits-you can add another to the list: the Grove. I'll get to the food in a minute,...

Merchants Grand Cafe: San Antonio.(NEW + NOTEWORTHY)(Texas)(Restaurant review)(Brief article)
March 1, 2008... You might wonder what this simple, white, "big box" space used to be. Then a local tells you it was a hardware store. Ah, that makes perfect sense. The Alamo Heights newcomer has a name chef at the helm (Jonathan Parker, from the River Walk's...

Charlie Palmer: Dallas.(NEW + NOTEWORTHY)(Texas)(Restaurant review)(Brief article)
March 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] To live in Dallas today is to have a roster of glitzy upscale "chain restaurants" to choose from. Yet the words hardly fit a place like Charlie Palmer, the offspring of one of New York City's most prominent chefs; in...

The filter: dining: our favorite restaurants, bistros, cafes, and joints.(Directory)
March 1, 2008... The Filter: Dining 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...

Smoke gets in your eyes: sometimes a cigar is just a cigar. More often--especially today--it's a political statement.
March 1, 2008... When I was a child, I spoke as a child and, believe it or not, I smoked as a child. At the tender age of eighteen months, when my mother's back was turned, a prescient if somewhat perverse uncle surreptitiously substituted a cigar for my...