Let There Be Lightnin’
Twenty-five years after his death, Sam Hopkins is still one of the most influential bluesmen in history—that much we know. But we don’t know nearly enough about who he was.
June 2007 Issue
Features
Feature
Sounds Like Teen Spirit
Each year, some 55,000 talented high school musicians try out for 1,500 chairs at the Super Bowl of band geekery: the Texas Music Educators Association Clinic/Convention in San Antonio. Once upon a time, I made the cut.
Feature
Human Mate Selection Is a Many-Splendored Thing
David Buss understands how Stone Age hookups made us who we are—but can that help me get a date?
Columns
“The President Is Dead, You Know”
What the late LBJ confidant Jack Valenti remembered about the longest day of his life.
Sarah Bird
No Ifs, Abs, Or Butts
My instructor is a Flabbo Nazi, and other tales from the aerobics wars.
Reporter
Bill Paxton
“The only way you hit that next level in terms of film persona is to let go and accept the fact that, for better or worse, you’re all you’ve got . . . The camera’s not as concerned with what you are can do as who you are.”
Author Interview
Rick Riordan
In 2005, with seven adult mysteries under his belt, the San Antonio writer and teacher launched a series for kids: Percy Jackson and the Olympians. Now Harry Potter producer Chris Columbus has signed on to bring book one, The Lightning Thief, to the screen. Percy’s print adventures continue with book
Music Review
Crazy Ex-Girlfriend
So she’s only 23. Lindale’s MIRANDA LAMBERT may not be ready to impart any life lessons, but that doesn’t mean she isn’t already a damn good storyteller. Here’s how CRAZY EX-GIRLFRIEND (Sony BMG Nashville), the follow-up to her hit debut, opens: “I’m goin’ home, gonna load my shotgun/Wait by the
Faith Bases
Basilica of Our Lady of San Juan del Valle, San Juan.
William Martin reviews our places of worship.
Music Review
You Are Beautiful at All Times
Artists like Dallas’s MC 900 Ft. Jesus (all the rage in the early nineties) and current acts like Austin’s D:Fuse have always dotted the state, yet Texas has barely had a foot in the door of the electronic music scene. While superbly envisioned and created, YOU ARE BEAUTIFUL AT ALL
Music Review
Exciting Opportunity
The backstory attached to Austin singer-songwriter BEAVER NELSON used to be his fruitless early-nineties run through the major-label wringer. But now that he’s released albums more or less consistently since 1998, the question is this: Why isn’t the world beating a path to Nelson’s door to record his songs? As
Book Review
Forgive Me
In AMANDA EYRE WARD’s cinematic third novel, FORGIVE ME, the Austin writer beautifully spans the physical and social divide between Cape Town, in the waning days of apartheid, and Cape Cod, where journalist Nadine Morgan wrestles with the all-consuming ambition that finds her both single and childless but desperately wanting
Book Review
This Time, This Place: My Life in War, the White House, and Hollywood
THIS TIME, THIS PLACE: MY LIFE IN WAR, THE WHITE HOUSE, AND HOLLYWOOD hits the shelves barely a month after the death of its author, JACK VALENTI, at the age of 85. Valenti professed to have written this memoir so that his grandchildren might understand his journey from mean circumstances
Book Review
The Beautiful Miscellaneous
If genius truly skips a generation, what becomes of the moderately stellar offspring of brilliant parents? In his wry and affecting THE BEAUTIFUL MISCELLANEOUS, Austinite DOMINIC SMITH probes the fate of Nathan Nelson, who must suffer his quark-physicist father’s efforts—whiz kid camps, science drills—to mold him into a prodigy. While
Artist Interview
Jonathan Meiburg
The Austin ornithologist and rocker has enchanted audiences with the lush, intense music of his band Shearwater. Thanks to the group’s recent signing with the independent label Matador, its 2006 album, Palo Santo, is getting the reissue treatment (with previously unreleased tracks).How did the band end up on
Web
Web Exclusive
Head to the Coast
Writer-at-large Suzy Banks on writing about traveling and hanging out at the beach.
Recipe
Queso Flameado
1 cup chopped onions 1 cup chopped bell peppers, various colors 1 cup chopped mushrooms, any type 2 cups shredded Monterey Jack cheeseSauté chopped onions, bell peppers, and mushrooms in 1 tablespoon of olive oil until soft and slightly brown. Combine sautéed vegetables and cheese in a medium-sized
Web Exclusive
Blues on My Mind
Senior editor Michael Hall on researching blues legend Lightnin’ Hopkins.
Pat's Pick
Armandos
“Everybody goes to RicK’s.” Isn’t that the play they made into Casablanca? The film was on my mind the other night at the Houston enclave that houses the third and grandest incarnation of locally renowned Mexican restaurant Armandos. Conversation and top-shelf margaritas swirled around us, and owner Armando Palacios
Books That Cook
Books That Cook
“Fiddlesticks!!” is Katy Johnson’s rumored retort to those who say they can’t fix a good home-cooked meal. But help for the culinary challenged has finally arrived via Fiddlesticks: Johnson Family Cookbook, a collection of “grandma classics” compiled by Johnson’s family. Now there’s no excuse; we all can fix a good
Miscellany
Editor's Letter
Dealey or No Dealey
AT SOME POINT EARLY IN THE PLANNING of this issue, our articles editor, Brian Sweany, asked if it was a problem that two stories hinge on the Kennedy assassination: the excerpt (“The President Is Dead, You Know,”) from LBJ consigliere Jack Valenti’s memoir and my interview with actor Bill
Around the State
Around the State
Jordan’s PickMenil CollectionHOUSTON“I CALL MYSELF COVETOUS,” the late Dominique de Menil once told this magazine. “I have an enormous appetite for what- ever turns me on.” Luckily for her adopted city of Houston, what she craved most was art of the highest caliber: When the Menil Collection opened as its
Contributors
(Li’l Contributors)
OH, BABY: That’s what Texas Monthly’s editorial and art staffs thought when we learned that three of our editors were expecting their first children within a few weeks of one another. We’re pleased to introduce our future staffers below (though we’re not through yet: senior editor Pamela Colloff is due
Roar of the Crowd
Badge Boys
CAPTAIN CLETE BUCKALOO? Even Hollywood couldn’t make that up. Why? Because Captain Buckaloo is Texas real, as are the rest of his fellow Rangers. One look at him should make any criminal think seriously about going legit.CHARLES POLANDNacogdochesHOW THE HECK did you ever get Big Tex into a suit?GLORIA S.
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