Q&A with Amarillo Author Jodi Thomas About Her New Texas Historical Christmas Novel
A Texas Kind of Christmas, a new historical romance novel by Rachael Mills, Celia Bonaduce, and best-selling Amarillo author Jodi Thomas, takes readers back to Christmas Eve, 1859 Read More »
Photographer John Dyer Drove 5,500 Miles to Document Texas’ Outer Limits
In the spring of 2019, John Dyer set out to see what the edge looked like close up. Dyer is a San Antonio-based commercial photographer who has authored photography books on vaqueros and conjunto music, written two novels, directed several short films, and shot numerous magazine covers including Selena for the May 1995 issue of Texas Monthly. But he’d never taken on a project quite like this. Read More »
My Hometown: A New Frontier of the Old West in Dell City
Andrew Stuart is the poster boy for the “next best place.” Raised in Austin, Stuart lived on both coasts before falling in love with West Texas. He spent two years as a reporter for the now-defunct Desert-Mountain Times in Alpine and three years as the news director at Marfa Public Radio. In 2009, he moved to Dell City, a Chihuahuan Desert farming community with little but a mercantile, a gas station, and two cafés. It’s a place once described by The New York Times as a “borderline ghost town.” But factor in the Guadalupe Mountains—the area’s primary tourist attraction, rising 20 miles to the east—and the feeling that you’re out in the middle of nowhere, and it’s easy to see Stuart, 44, has found his place. “I knew I wanted to live in the desert by myself, a go-west-and-reinvent-yourself kind of thing,” he explains one morning over breakfast tacos at Spanish Angels Café. “The writer Marilynne Robinson said, ‘Out west, lonesome is a positive.’” Read More »
Vintage Photo: Gone Fishing
World War I is over, and the Jazz Age is on. Prohibition is the law of the land. Bootleggers are running booze, flappers are pushing social mores, and the Great Depression is brewing. None of that concerns Johnny and James Hayes, though. All they can think about is a giant catfish. Everything about this photo, taken by their father, Dallas Times Herald photographer James (Denny) Hayes, is period-perfect: the knickers, the caps, the cans of worms, and the cane poles. While we don’t know where in Dallas the photo was taken, the city—home to about 200,000 then—was growing rapidly. It’s a Texas that no longer exists, a place of sweet memories. Both boys later became photographers themselves. But on this day, there are fish to be caught, and little else matters. Read More »
Teddy Roosevelt, San Antonio, and the Birth of the Rough Riders
B eneath a warm Caribbean sun, down a twisted road from the tattered colonial city Santiago de Cuba, an American soldier stands frozen in time. It’s a statue, actually, in a small park that commemorates the derring-do of Teddy Roosevelt and his Rough Riders, formally known as the 1st U.S. Volunteer Cavalry, who helped drive Spain out of Cuba during the Spanish-American War in 1898. Read More »
Against All Odds, Caddo Lake Prevails
The great cypress swamp is lovely, dark, and deep. There is no debating this. The wildly intricate and critter-infested maze of bayous, lakes, ponds, sloughs, and interconnected channels known as Caddo Lake and Big Cypress Bayou is one of the country’s most spectacular nature shows. It contains arguably the most diverse collection of species in Texas. The place has a mystical feel, too, an impression enhanced by the ghostly Spanish moss that drapes the trees, by the cypress roots known as “knees” that rise from the swirling mists like Excalibur in the Arthurian legend, by the lily pads with lotus flowers that spread everywhere and suggest Celtic fairylands. Read More »
Dropping in at the Largest Public Skate Park in the Country
The drive from Austin to Houston is marked by undulant pastures, vibrant swaths of wildflowers, and if you know ... Read More »
Experience “Amarillo Ramp”, a Seminal Work of Art, Before It Disappears
In 1973, when it was completed, Amarillo Ramp was a spiral pathway jutting into Tecovas Lake, an artificial body of water outside of Amarillo. It was comprised of sandstone found in the area, compacted to an ascending height of 15 feet, and measured 140 feet in diameter. Now, with the lake long since dried up, Amarillo Ramp amounts to a quirky, failing rock formation. Read More »
In New Novel, Dallas Native and Foreign Correspondent Sid Balman, Jr., Turns his Lens on Texas
Dallas native and longtime foreign correspondent Sid Balman, Jr., explores the members of two close families in Dell City, following dramatic paths that take them to Austin, West Point, the World Trade Center, the Middle East, India, and home again. Catch his Texas book tour over the next two weeks. Read More »
Color Factory Pop-Up Exhibition Celebrates the Hues of Houston
Live-oak green, NASA logo blue, and Viet-Cajun-crawfish red are among the colors developed for the interactive exhibition. The Color Factory selected Houston for the project because it was looking for “a place that’s quirky and fun and passionate about art.” Read More »
Ruby City, a Contemporary Art Museum 12 Years in the Making, is Now Open in San Antonio
Late artist and philanthropist Linda Pace’s vision puts the Alamo City on the modern art map Read More »
San Antonio Celebrates Day of the Dead With a New Festival Full of Colorful Events
Starting this week, the San Antonio's Day of the Dead festivities range from museum exhibitions to a Catrinas on the River Parade. “Considering the city’s history and diversity, it makes sense that San Antonio is the national destination to celebrate this holiday,” says Dawn Robinette of Day of the Dead San Antonio. Read More »