Texas Monthly articles from May 2007

Texas Monthly archives from May 2007

A Bronx tale: Ruth. Gehrig. Mantle. Jeter. Ohlendorf? All of Austin, and Texas, is waiting to see if one of the newest New York Yankees earns his 'stripes.(Behind the Lines)
May 1, 2007... In the spring of odd-numbered years, I generally use this space to write about Texas politics--about the inevitable failure of the Legislature and especially the leadership to do enough for the public weal--and I never lack for material. But so...

Beating around the Bush.(Roar of the Crowd)(Letter to the editor)
May 1, 2007... Good grief. Everyone has to be so circumspect and carefully cautious ["The Test of Time," March 2007]. Let's try this for W.'s legacy: worst president in the history of the United States of America. Rick Schwertfeger AUSTIN While...

Turn on, tune in, rock out.(Roar of the Crowd)(Letter to the editor)
May 1, 2007... Many thanks for Michael Hall's "The Songs Remain the Same" [March 2007]. It brought back many cherished memories, including the night that changed my life: I was riding in the backseat of my parents' car as we returned home to Archer City on a...

After shock.(Roar of the Crowd)(Letter to the editor)
May 1, 2007... Congratulations on a wonderful story about the New London explosion ["'Oh, My God! It's Our Children!'" March 2007]. That tragedy overshadowed my young life, and I've never sent my children off to school without remembering it. Kathryn...

Firing squad.(Roar of the Crowd)(Letter to the editor)
May 1, 2007... Well, thank you, Gary Cartwright. I wish I could have signed your letter to Jerry Jones too ["Go Fire Yourself!" March 2007]. The sad part is that with such an inflated ego, Jones will probably laugh, think he can do no wrong, and nothing will...

Library science and religion.(Roar of the Crowd)(Letter to the editor)
May 1, 2007... After the beating you received for the fun cover of Dick Cheney with a shotgun, I can understand why you retreated to the shelter of "mere politics" on the issue of George Bush's presidential library and think tank on the Southern Methodist...

A M*A*S*H note.(Editor's Letter)
May 1, 2007... In the end, I had visions of Henry Blake. Surely at least a few of you remember the character played by McLean Stevenson on the TV version of M*A*S*H: the lovable goofball of a lieutenant colonel who commanded the 4077th, a ragtag surgical unit...

Topic A: the great undoing: this has been a session of furious backpedaling.(Reporter 05.07)(Brief article)
May 1, 2007... The Legislature is entering the homestretch--and pulling its final high links. But this session seems less about the future than the past: Plagued with second thoughts about policies they enacted in previous sessions, lawmakers have been...

Training for an ironman.(The Horse's Mouth: EVERYTHING I COULD EVER TELL YOU ABOUT ...)(Interview)
May 1, 2007... NAME: Desiree Ficker AGE: 30 HOME: Austin QUALIFICATIONS: Placed second at the 2006 Ironman World Championship in Kona, Hawaii (2.4-mile swim, 112-mile bike, 26.2-mile run), the first American woman to stand on the podium since 1998/ Competing...

Make that a double: cloning asks for a seat at the dinner table.(FAQ)
May 1, 2007... More than seven years ago, scientists at Texas A&M University made headlines by cloning the first bull. Is it true that steaks from cloned cattle will now be sold in supermarkets? Officials at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration are mooving...

There's no May sale.(Meanwhile, Back at the Ranch: Part X: STORIES FROM SOUTH TEXAS)
May 1, 2007... Normally at this time of year we'd be selling our Vintage 2007 females (our bulls go in October and February), but we canceled a few weeks ago due to drought conditions. I know, I know--if you were reading along last month, you're aware of how...

Turkish Cultural Center: Houston March 2, 2007.(Faith Bases)
May 1, 2007... Where are the moderate Muslims? The short answer to that frequently asked question is, "Look around you." Of the many Muslims with whom I've become friends over the years, some are pious and scrupulously observant. Some are secular, having...

Catherine Rohr.(Cojones: A TIP OF THE HAT TO RISK-TAKING, BARRIER-BREAKING ESTABLISHMENT-TWEAKING TEXANS)
May 1, 2007... Thirty-year-old Catherine Rohr has the shiny brown hair and bright smile of a beauty queen, which may be why anyone passing by her at a coffee shop might be puzzled to overhear her discuss her associates. "I have a strong preference for the top...

Arousing success: the year's best slasher flick exposes teenagers as never before.(Hollywood, TX)(Movie review)
May 1, 2007... The boldest Texas-set movie of 2007 begins on the first day of school, when all the cool kids take off for a party hosted by blond-haired jock Dylan (Adam Powell). The boys swill booze and smoke pot. The girls strut around in barely there...

From The Cradle To The Grave.(Brief article)
May 1, 2007... For the many disparate artists working to revive the golden era of country, one thing tends to set them apart from their role models: They approach this vintage music with a hip, modern sensibility. Not DALE WATSON. Though he didn't start...

Woke On A Whaleheart.(Sound recording review)(Brief article)
May 1, 2007... Recording for almost two decades under the name Smog, BILL CALLAHAN attracted an intensely devoted fan base as his work grew from lo-fi origins to a more orchestrated sound. Over a chugging rock beat, he juxtaposed his sad, narcissistic...

Red Dog Blues.(Sound recording review)(Brief article)
May 1, 2007... He's blessed with a tenor voice of extraordinary range, which often earns him comparisons to Gene Pitney or Roy Orbison. MICHAEL FRACASSO is a disciplined singer-songwriter who has flirted with pop, rock, folk, country, and blues, dragging them...

Robert Gomez.(Interview)(Brief article)
May 1, 2007... With the worldly pop of his Brand New Towns, the singer-songwriter becomes the fifth Denton act to be signed by the British label Bella Union. The label, headed by Simon Raymonde, has found a treasure trove in the small college town, most...

Stormy Weather.(Brief article)(Book review)
May 1, 2007... San Antonio's PAULETTE JILES combines telling period detail and credible characters to evoke Depression-era Texas in her terrific second novel, STORMY WEATHER. The Stoddard women--mother Elizabeth and daughters Jeanine, Mayme, and Bea--are...

The Virgin's Guide To Mexico.(Brief article)(Book review)
May 1, 2007... The Price clan, of Austin's well-heeled West Lake Hills neighborhood, inhabits ERIC B. MARTIN'S third novel, THE VIRGIN'S GUIDE TO MEXICO, as a less than holy family. Truitt, a prosperous businessman, suspects his wife, Lindy, of cheating on...

Elmer Kelton.(Interview)(Brief article)
May 1, 2007... Born on the Five Wells Ranch, in Andrews County, this consummate Texas writer has authored almost fifty books and been voted the greatest western writer of all time by his peers. Sandhills Boy: The Winding Trail of a Texas Writer is a...

If the shoe fits ...(Buy This Now)
May 1, 2007... Somewhere on a continuum of casual footwear, between Sperry Top-Siders and Vans, sit Toms, the embodiment of unisex functionality and nonchalance--and with a Texas pedigree, no less. Their creator, Blake Mycoskie, a Gen Xer with roots in...

Going for the old: how antiquing in Gladewater revived my material spirits.(Go: SUZY BANKS HITS THE ROADS LESS TRAVELED)
May 1, 2007... I drove almost to the Arkansas border seeking relief from mass-produced minimalism. Don't get me wrong: I'm awed by big-box stores full of big boxes of insanely cheap yet hip furniture made in China of pretend wood and assembled (by you) in...

Rick Perry.(Texas Monthly Talks: EVAN SMITH SITS DOWN WITH ...)(Interview)
May 1, 2007... When I interviewed you during your reelection campaign last fall, we talked about the likelihood that you wouldn't get a majority of the votes cast, and you said, "Whatever percentage I get on Election Day, on the day after Election Day I'm...

None-a-day: why your bottles of supplements and vitamins are a prescription for trouble.
May 1, 2007... My most rational friends and patients, the kind of people who would have wanted irrefutable evidence of WMDs before we went into Iraq, do not require such proof when it comes to taking kava, comfrey, Xango juice, or blue cohosh. Walking down...

The good wife: how is Mary Alice Cisneros emerging from Henry's shadow? By following in his footsteps.(Letter From San Antonio)
May 1, 2007... On the cold and windy Saturday in January when Mary Alice Cisneros announced her candidacy for a se at on the San Antonio City Council, two people hovered close by. The first was her husband, Henry Cisneros, the city's former mayor, who had...

Lust in space: laugh all you want at Lisa Nowak, the lovesick astronaut in the diaper, but there's nothing even remotely funny about the shuttle program's bleak future--or the sorry state of NASA.
May 1, 2007... WE MAY NEVER KNOW exactly what was in Lisa Marie Nowak's heart--what she thought, felt, believed, or dreamed. How desperately she loved or how compulsively she hated. Or why she would do something, entirely of her own free will, that was...

Carlos Brown is a hero (no matter what he says).
May 1, 2007... I've known him since the seventh grade, when he was awkward, obnoxious, and unpopular with the girls (okay, we both were). He always said he was going to be a surgeon, and when the Navy sent him to Iraq, I flew there to see him. I watched him...

Made in America: long before "illegal" was a dirty, demagogued word, Vincente Martinez crossed over from Mexico to work my family's ranch in Wimberley. A generation later, he and his family are still living happily and working productively in the Hill Country--and that's a good thing, no matter what the TV screamers say.
May 1, 2007... If for some reason you have occasion to be driving through the Hill Country on Farm-to-Market Road 3237, bound for Wimberley, you're likely to pass a tall Hispanic man working alone on a sprawling quarter horse ranch known as Foothills Farm. He...

Sins of commission: we should absolutely find out who knew what when and why nothing was done sooner. But the real scandal at the state's juvenile lockups is how little we learned thirty years ago, the last time the system failed us.
May 1, 2007... IT BEGAN WITH A WORD ONLY a child would use--"icky"--uttered in a place where innocence was commonly assumed to be dead. A conversation between a tormented teenager and a volunteer math tutor about sexual abuse at a high-security lockup in...

My dog days: they've been steady companions as I've moved from house to house, station to station--and each one has provided me with a lesson about my life's passage.
May 1, 2007... THE FIRST DOG I ever outlived was Moe. He came with my family, which was in the process of getting bigger (I was the third child out of what would become five) and had adopted the dog to appease my brothers' having to tolerate a new...

Silo Elevated Cuisine.(PAT'S PICK)(Restaurant review)
May 1, 2007... San Antonio WHEN I HEARD THAT popular San Antonio restaurant Silo was in the family way, I was excited for the mother-to-be. The modest but excellent dining room in exclusive Alamo Heights had been childless for years, while far less...

New + noteworthy: teatotalers in Austin; tequila tipplers in Houston.(The Filter: Dining: OUR FAVORITE RESTAURANTS, BISTROS, CAFES, AND JOINTS)(Cissi's Market, Kona Grill and Nunzia's)(Restaurant review)
May 1, 2007... 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 that...

Fort Worth Opera Festival: Fort Worth.(JORDAN'S PICK)
May 1, 2007... IF YOU'RE A SIXTY-YEAR-old opera company, how do you (a) reinvigorate your aging self, (b) draw in new (and younger) audiences, and (c) steal a moment in the international spotlight while you're at it? Simple: You get off the old posterior and...

Animal magnetism.(The Filter: Events: WHERE TO GO, WHAT TO DO, WHO TO SEE)(Interview)
May 1, 2007... HOUSTON John Lithgow is a triple threat: An actor, a singer, and a ballet dancer--who knew? In 2003 the Tony Award winner, who has also penned seven best-selling children's books, worked with world- renowned choreographer Christopher Wheeldon...

Where the wild things are.(The Filter: Events: WHERE TO GO, WHAT TO DO, WHO TO SEE)(Brief article)
May 1, 2007... SAN ANTONIO Three distinct ecological regions converge near the Alamo City: the Edwards Plateau, that great arc of limestone dotted with wooded hills; the Blackland Prairies, which is marked by dark clay soil; and the gently undulating South...

Rhapsody in blues.(The Filter: Events: WHERE TO GO, WHAT TO DO, WHO TO SEE)(Brief article)
May 1, 2007... DALLAS The city's live-music scene operates in fits and starts, with an erratic fan base and few nationally recognized homegrown acts as of late (we're still waiting on the next Norah Jones). And it has felt even more unmoored recently as the...

A life in pictures.(The Filter: Events: WHERE TO GO, WHAT TO DO, WHO TO SEE)(Playing Dress Up)(Brief article)
May 1, 2007... DALLAS British photographer Mary McCartney's friendship with Filippo Tattoni-Marcozzi, the director of the Goss Gallery, in Uptown, is largely the reason she has chosen the sleek contemporary art space--which turns 2 this month--as the venue...

Sounds of the city.(The Filter: Events: WHERE TO GO, WHAT TO DO, WHO TO SEE)
May 1, 2007... AUSTIN You won't need a pricey wristband to get into the Road to Austin concert at Auditorium Shores this month to see the likes of Kris Kristofferson, Bonnie Raitt, Joe Ely, Delbert McClinton, and Bob Schneider, as well as a long list of other...

Monumental figures.(The Filter: Events: WHERE TO GO, WHAT TO DO, WHO TO SEE)(Southwest School of Art and Craft presents 'The Baroque World of Fernando Botero')
May 1, 2007... SAN ANTONIO When an artist has as distinctive a style as Fernando Botero does--his exaggerated figures are politely described as "corpulent," "rotund," "fleshy," and "voluminous" and can be identified instantly--it is often more illuminating...

Mi casa es su casa.(The Filter: Events: WHERE TO GO, WHAT TO DO, WHO TO SEE)(Museo Alameda)(Brief article)
May 1, 2007... SAN ANTONIO The Museo Alameda, the country's largest Latino museum, finally opened its permanent home in Market Square last month. As an affiliate of the Smithsonian Institution, the Alameda has access to a vast vault of treasures and...

Lark of the covenant: so let me get this straight: marriage is, like, forever?(interview with William Zedler)(Interview)
May 1, 2007... Human papillomavirus. The theory of evolution as a product of a rabbinical conspiracy. Faith-based prisons. Gay adoption, Our Legislature concerns itself with such intriguing topics. And why not? I mean, property taxes? Children's health...