Texas Monthly articles from May 2004

Texas Monthly archives from May 2004

AWOL: the Texas Democrats insist they've still got some fight left in them. So why are they deserting the battlefield?(Behind The Lines)
May 1, 2004... A few months ago, in the parking lot of the LBJ Library in Austin, I bumped into Ben Bentzin, the retired Dell Computer executive who ran unsuccessfully as a Republican for the Texas Senate in 2002. Ben and I are relentless kibitzers about...

The lay of the land.(Roar Of The Crowd)(Letter to the Editor)
May 1, 2004... We at Texas Parks and Wildlife were appreciative of and impressed with the comprehensive coverage of Texas state parks in your March 2004 issue. However, S. C. Gwynne's article on his wilderness experience near El Solitario, "Conversations With...

A victim's burden.(Roar Of The Crowd)(Letter to the Editor)
May 1, 2004... I read "The Pedophile Next Door" and was not shocked to learn that a street gang crack dealer will receive more jail time than this vile creature who has ruined the lives of at least forty innocent victims [March 2004]. I am a survivor of...

Bob's brain.(Roar Of The Crowd)(Letter to the Editor)
May 1, 2004... Thanks so much for the interview with Bob Inman ["The World According to Bob Inman," March 2004]. I had the pleasure and honor of knowing and working with him during his years at MCC. He impressed me then and does so now in a way that no one...

Dialing for dollars.(Roar Of The Crowd)(Letter to the Editor)
May 1, 2004... Kudos to Patricia Kilday Hart regarding Rick Perry's plan for school finance [Politics: "Hood Riddance," March 2004]. However, she neglected to include Governor Perry's line-item veto in June 2003 killing the Telecommunications Infrastructure...

Truth vs. myth, round II.(Roar Of The Crowd)(Letter to the Editor)
May 1, 2004... If the so-called Bowie-knife-sharp Alamo Guys and anyone else want to continue believing all the mythology part of Texas history, well, let them [Texana: "Siege Mentality," March 2004]. All the ugly, crude, and base epithets they can lash out...

Texas history grows up.(Roar Of The Crowd)(Letter to the Editor)
May 1, 2004... Don Graham's article on H. W. Brands's and William C. Davis's Texas histories made me wonder how many readers recall the Texas history cartoon books subsidized by Magnolia Petroleum and distributed to Texas schoolchildren back in the forties...

Case closed.(Roar Of The Crowd)(Letter to the Editor)
May 1, 2004... Kinky Friedman's "Case Open" is moving, focused, and in my opinion, slightly skewed [The Last Roundup, March 2004]. Max Soffar comes off as a death row inmate who bowed to police pressure during an interrogation and supposedly gave the police...

05.01.04.(May: people, places, events, attractions)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2004... Last December, when the Second City comedy troupe held a 24-hour show in Chicago just before its forty-fourth anniversary, two actors battled head-to-head in a BILL COSBY impersonation contest. And next year comedian Kenan Thompson--who did a...

Night galleries.(48 hours: San Antonio, May 7 through 9)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2004... It was more than a decade ago that merchants and members of the San Antonio Neighborhood Commercial Revitalization Program for the area called Southtown--which encompasses the King William Historic District, the Blue Star Arts Complex, and the...

Main squeeze.(48 hours: San Antonio, May 7 through 9)(TEJANO CONJUNTO FESTIVAL)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2004... You may think you can "just watch" the TEJANO CONJUNTO FESTIVAL from the pavilion at Rosedale Park, but once the music starts up and the audience members begin to pair off and rotate on the floor like a giant whirlpool, you'll probably feel...

Hotels.(48 hours: San Antonio, May 7 through 9)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2004... East meets the River Walk at the Hotel Valencia, where Asian-inspired spaces splashed with color make a statement. But the buzz goes beyond the lobby--the V Bar is where the young play. 150 E. Houston, 210-227-9700.

Sports.(48 hours: San Antonio, May 7 through 9)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2004... The San Antonio Missions, the Seattle Mariners' AA affiliate and last year's Texas League champion, take on the Wichita Wranglers. Ballapeno and Henry the Puffy Taco cheer on the crowds. (See page 57.)

Points of interest.(48 hours: San Antonio, May 7 through 9)
May 1, 2004... The Mission Trails start at the famous Alamo and head south to four more historic missions: the Concepcion, the San Jose (noted for its beautiful Rose Window), the San Juan, and the Espada. (See page 58.)

Restaurants.(48 hours: San Antonio, May 7 through 9)(El Mirador )(Brief Article)
May 1, 2004... By day, Southtown's El Mirador is pure Tex-Mex, but at night, interior Mexican dishes shire, such as the empanadas de huitla-coche. But truth be told, everyone really comes for the legendary sopa azteca. 722 S. St. Mary's, 210-225-9444.

Museums.(48 hours: San Antonio, May 7 through 9)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2004... The national premier of "Tesoros Modernos: Latin American Masterpieces From the Monterrey FEMSA Collection" at the San Antonio Museum of Art features more than sixty paintings, works On paper, and sculptures by Latin America's most celebrated...

Around the state: wheelchair accessibility key.(Calendar)
May 1, 2004... (W) The place is accessible to wheelchairs: The main entrance is at least 32 inches wide and there are no steps; restrooms, however, are not accessible. (W+) The place and its restrooms are accessible. No symbol: This place is not...

Albany.(On the road: oh, the places you should go)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2004... For the past seventeen years, polo players from throughout the United States have been making the pilgrimage to the Musselman Brothers Lazy 3 Ranch, just outside the tiny West Texas town of Albany, to play Polo on the Prairie, a fundraiser for...

Bandera.(On the road: oh, the places you should go)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2004... If you're going to play cowboy for a day, then you should do it in Bandera, the Cowboy Capital of the World. Folks come here from all around the globe to experience what they consider to be the real Texas--the land of rodeos and country/music,...

Marfa.(On the road: oh, the places you should go.)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2004... Technically, the masterminds behind Ballroom Marfa, a haven for contemporary art in West Texas, could have uncorked the celebratory grand-opening bubbly last fall, when they opened their spacious cultural center. But so much for technicalities....

Divine secrets of the Alamo sisterhood: a sensational lawsuit, a disputed election, and months of vicious rumormongering can mean only one thing: the Daughters of the Republic of Texas are at war--again.(Texas Monthly Reporter)
May 1, 2004... Write it in red: Armageddon. Odessa. May 2004. No, not an at Qaeda attack or a Jerry Lewis Telethon. Something worse. The Daughters of the Republic of Texas, that otherwise genteel, blue-haired matriarchy charged with the caretaking of the...

Encyclopedia Texanica: Anne Dingus solves the state's greatest mysteries.
May 1, 2004... Texas Myth # 514 TEXAS IS HOME TO THE SAGUARO CACTUS. You won't find the saguaro growing naturally in Texas; it flourishes chiefly in Arizona. Still, the fantasy endures. The stately cactus has been featured widely in Texas postcards,...

Escondida.(Brief Article)(Sound Recording Review)
May 1, 2004... Still in her late twenties, JOLIE HOLLAND has a ghostly voice that channels a one-hundred-year-old soul. On ESCONDIDA (ANTI), her proper studio debut, the Houston-area naive who co-founded the Be Good Tanyas (she quit) winds her pitch-bending...

The Full Matilda.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
May 1, 2004... THE FULL MATILDA (Harlem Moon/Randora House) is an elegant and bitter-sweet novel about Matilda Housewright, who bears not-always-silent witness to the social evolution of her African American family's near-century of domestic servitude to...

Movimiento Popular.(Brief Article)(Sound Recording Review)
May 1, 2004... Austin's GRUPO FANTASMA is a traditional Latin band in one sense; they sing exclusively in Spanish and derive their music from cumbia and salsa rhythms. But they're also a new generation of players. By upping the energy, subtly blending modern...

Kings of Infinite Space.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
May 1, 2004... Austinite JAMES HYNES found his literary groove writing hallucinatory satire about the inanities of academia in The Lecturer's Tale and Publish and Perish, With KINGS OF INFINITE SPACE (St. Martin's), he parodies mind-numbing bureaucracy...

Impossible Dream.(Brief Article)(Sound Recording Review)
May 1, 2004... Despite powerhouse vocal workouts like "Rain," PATTY GRIFFIN's last studio effort, 1000 Kisses, felt like a retreat to a safer place. This was not expected: The Bostonite-turned-Austinite, an uncompromising singer and writer, didn't achieve...

A Hole in Texas.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
May 1, 2004... In 1993 Congress killed the Super-conducting Super Collider project outside Waxahachie and unwittingly provided prime fodder for Pulitzer prize winner HERMAN WOUK'S new novel, A HOLE IN TEXAS (Little, Brown). Wouk constructs a tidy atom of a...

My time out: when people ask me how I handled growing up gay in a small town, I tell them I just stayed true to myself.(As told to: stories from Texans in their own words.)
May 1, 2004... I was fifteen when I first came to terms with being gay. I grew up in Slaton, outside Lubbock, and there were rumors spreading about another guy on my all-star cheerleading team. I didn't think it was a big deal, and I became friends with him....

Taking its toll: is the state's massive new transportation plan a path to the future or a road to nowhere?(FAQ: Christopher Keyes on the story behind the story.)
May 1, 2004... Who initiated the Trans-Texas Corridor plan? Governor Rick Perry. Acting on a promise he made to improve the state's transportation system, Perry sent the commission that oversees the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) a letter in 2002,...

Speakergate: who's going to get indicted in the grand jury investigation of Tom Craddick, Tom DeLay, and corporate contributors to Republican campaigns in Texas? That's the $190,000 question.
May 1, 2004... Who can blame Texas Republicans for succumbing to giddy euphoria in the weeks after the November 2002 election? The victories of 88 House candidates cinched a long-sought GOP majority, guaranteeing the election of a Republican Speaker, easy...

Statues of limitations: why do we get so worked up over larger-than-life likenesses of heroes and icons? Because they're less about stone and bronze than what we're made of.
May 1, 2004... Sometime this summer, pedestrians near the intersection of Sixth Street and Congress Avenue in Austin will come upon a huge bronze of a berserk woman firing a cannon. No, she's not trying to blow away the Goddess of Liberty perched on the...

Expatriate act: while some Texas-born writers, like Katherine Anne Porter, had to leave home to do their best work, for John Graves the reverse was true. But his new memoir, filled with prosaic diary entries from a long-ago sojourn abroad, won't enhance his legacy.
May 1, 2004... Of all contemporary Texas writers, no one shines broghter in the pantheon of Lone Star lit than John Graves. Why this should be so is less a matter of critical exegesis than one of conviction, of belief. The reputation, the legend, the legacy,...

Michael Dell: the 39-year-old computer mogul on stepping down as CEO of the company he founded, why he doesn't play footsie with the press (hey!), and the product line he should have launched years ago.(Texas Monthly Talks)(chief operating officer)
May 1, 2004... Did you ever imagine the day would come, or come this quickly, when you wouldn't be CEO of the company you founded? When you start a company, you get all the jobs. You're the chief operating officer, you're the president, you're the CEO, you're...

Corps values: most Aggies ask nothing more of their beloved university than to remain the same. But every departure from the past--and there are many these days--is an omen for the vigilant that Texas A&M isn't what it used to be. And thank goodness for that.
May 1, 2004... I WAS LUCKY TO BE STANDING in the student section during the t.u. game. However, I was horrified when I looked across the Kyle Field to the alumni stands midway through the fourth quarter. The second and third decks on the alumni side of the...

Aunt sister: contankerous and independent, sharp-tongued and opinionated, Rosita Holdsworth Hollar was a frontier woman who loved teaching children and acquiring land, a terrible cook who had no use for housekeeping or fashion, a loner who was self-sufficient well into her nineties. In other words, she was the best role model a girl could ask for.
May 1, 2004... WHEN MY GREAT-AUNT SISTER WAS FOUR years old, her uncle gave her a silver dollar. For weeks she took it to bed with her at night and looked at it first thing in the morning. At last she approached her father and said she wanted to buy an acre...

The metamorphosis: Once upon a time, Sugar Land was a fading company town on the banks of the Brazos River and Tom DeLay was a young exterminator in a state dominated by Democratic rule. How did we get from there to here?
May 1, 2004... In 1974 American theaters were briefly graced by a movie called The Sugarland express. Based on a true story, the film proposed the adventure of a fugitive Texas convict and his spunky harebrained wife. The two hijack a rookie state trooper in...

Cast away: during her 23-year marriage to a brother of the president of the United States, Sharon Bush dutifully played the role of stay-at-home mother while reaping the rewards of her famous last name. Only now does she understand the terms of inclusion in the world's most powerful family: membership can be revoked at any time.(Biography)
May 1, 2004... SHARON BUSH IS NOT THE BEST WITNESS in her own defense. Even before the collapse of her 23-year marriage, the excitable, diminutive blonde possessed a fervid, eager anxiety--the kind that some people shy away from, the kind that telegraphed,...

Triumph of the Grill: from dazzling pomegranate daiquiris to spicy poblano quail, this simple feast--created by three of the hottest young chefs in Texas--is destined to raise the bar for backyard dining.(hospatility)
May 1, 2004... WHAT KEEPS YOU sane in the onslaught of a Texas summer? A picnic, of course: friends sharing food around a shady patio table or a tablecloth flung on the grass under a tree. Smoke from a grill permeates the air, and in the distance a radio is...

Pat's pick.(May: restaurants, cafes, bistros, joints)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2004... The restaurant's sign--a giant white "7" set against a marine-blue background--is an enigma. But here's a hint: Think "seven seas." Located in a small, unfussy space on South Congress, 7 brings Austin diners a daily-changing menu of pristine...

The dining guide: policies and definitions.
May 1, 2004... The Dining Guide is a service to our readers. The magazine accepts no advertising or other consideration in exchange far a listing. Reviews are written by resident critics in the cities that we list. The reviewers' identities are kept anonymous...

The thrill of the chaser.(Liquid assets: these are a few of our favorite drinks.)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2004... Sangrita... the name alone suggests mystery, romance, a little vida loca. Loosely translated "little blood," sangrita is not the most famous tequila chaser (salt and lime take that honor), but it's certainly the most exciting. Resplendent in...

Let Saigons be bygones: thirty-five years ago, I refused to let my government send me to Vietnam. So why did I finally go? Because my kid sister asked me to.
May 1, 2004... Why did I go to Vietnam recently when I refused to 35 years ago? The answer is that this time I was going to visit my sister, Marcie. Another answer to that good question is that Vietnam was a bad war. In the late sixties I'd been in the Peace...