To Hook ’Em, or To Gig ’Em? A Son Schools His Father on a College Tour
The night before I take my oldest son to visit Texas A&M, my wife comes home to find me watching The Blind ... Read More »
Conjunto Ambassadors Los Texmaniancs on the Magic of ‘Musica Alegre’
The Tex-Mex sound of Los Texmaniacs is also called musica alegre—happy music—for good reason. That bouncy two-step rhythm, powered by a button accordion and a 12-string guitar known as the bajo sexto, is made for dancing. Sitting in place or standing still is not an option. And no one sits or stands still when Los Texmaniacs, the band led by Max Baca, 51, and his nephew Josh Baca, 27, are on stage. Read More »
My Hometown: Take a Tour of Decatur with Longtime Newspaper Publishers Roy and Jeannine Eaton
Roy Eaton’s earliest memory of the Wise County Messenger was his parents eagerly awaiting its Thursday delivery during World War II for news about local servicemen. “Many were our friends and neighbors,” recalls Roy, who would leave the family ranch near Decatur for college, become a TV news anchor in Fort Worth, marry his high school sweetheart, Jeannine Eaton, and return with her in 1973 to buy the weekly newspaper his parents read. Read More »
“Boots, Beer and Baseball: The Story of Nocona” Announced as True Texas Travel Experience Winner at Thin Line Fest
University of North Texas students Hayley Knight and Kaarthik Tharmiya’s “Boots, Beer and Baseball: The Story of Nocona” earned the top prize, sponsored by AJR Media, which includes a 3-night/4-day stay at Port Royal Ocean Resort in Port Aransas, plus $2,000 in cash. Texas Highways photography editor and category judge Brandon Jakobeit says the winning film’s “story line and camera work were exceptional.” “It’s a great showcase for Nocona and its strengths – its history of boots, gloves and now a newer brewery. It makes a decent case for checking it out,” says Texas Highways’ Strategic Partnership Manager Lois Rodriguez. Read More »
A Runner Reflects on Lady Bird Johnson’s Legacy and the Companionship of Nature
Johnson described nature as her daily companion. “The song of the wind in the upper branches of the pine trees is the most evocative symphony I’ve ever heard.” Read More »
Meet Our Makers: Jae Benjamin of Benjamin Soap Co.
At her studio in Hutto, Jae Benjamin crafts small batches of cold-process soaps and hand-poured soy candles using all-natural ingredients. Her artisan bath, body, and home products often contain organic herbs, raw honey, and plant-based essential oils, and some feature inventive additions like coffee beans and stout beer. Benjamin started out small at an Austin farmers market in 2014, but now her wares can be found at select shops across the nation. Read More »
The Surrender of Santa Anna
In 1886, 50 years after the Battle of San Jacinto, Austin painter William Henry Huddle set out to interpret a critical scene from the conflict with his painting, The Surrender of Santa Anna. Huddle’s oil-on-canvas work, which has hung in the South Foyer of the Texas Capitol since 1891, depicts the morning after the April 21, 1836, clash as Texian fighters presented Mexican Gen. Antonio López de Santa Anna, dressed in the white pants of a private, to Texas Gen. Sam Houston, who is reclined with a battle wound to his leg. The decisive victory secured the rebels’ independence from Mexico, a turning point Texas honors annually on April 21, known as San Jacinto Day. Huddle’s painting includes more than 30 historical figures, among them scout Erastus “Deaf” Smith (seated on a log), Secretary of War Thomas Jefferson Rusk (to the rear left of Houston), and Col. Mirabeau B. Lamar (left of Rusk). Read More »
Indie Record Stores Are Turning the Tables on Texas Music Sales
For some time now, prognosticators have been predicting the total demise of records—you know, the old-fashioned discs that play musical sound—as well as the brick-and-mortar establishments that sell them. And yes, it’s true that CD sales are down, and more than a few record stores have shut their doors. But there’s good news for those of us who can’t imagine life without flipping through bins, admiring the physical objects for their creative covers, and listening to the tunes imprinted in their grooves. Read More »
Jefferson’s ‘Diamond Bessie Murder Trial’ Plumbs 19th-Century Mystery
It was the O.J. Simpson trial of its day. Reporters descended on the northeast Texas town of Jefferson to chronicle the tragic tale of Diamond Bessie with black ink and purple prose. Nobody recognized the dashing young couple Annie Moore and Abe Rothschild when they checked into a local hotel in January 1877. But when Moore’s body was found in the woods two weeks later, a bullet in her head, the mystery of Moore, aka Diamond Bessie, catapulted Jefferson into the national spotlight. Read More »
Photographer Captures the Evening Light of Texas’ Blackland Prairie
On most evenings, as the sun sinks below the horizon in the Blackland Prairie, photographer Andy Sharp is in his aged Honda chasing the light somewhere on a country road or in a small town. Sharp has rambled about for 10 years, since he and his wife moved to Taylor in Williamson County. Read More »
Man Versus the Most Untamed Stretch of River in Texas
It was midday on Día de los Muertos as I hurtled down a rain-swollen Rio Grande, my illusions of control over my ... Read More »
Dearest Dumplin’: Ya Novelist Julie Murphy Talks Teen Empowerment, Dolly Parton, and Her Netflix Movie
Julie Murphy was on the law school track when a little book named Twilight came out during her senior year at Texas Wesleyan University. The young adult vampire novel reignited a love of reading in Murphy that she hadn’t felt in years. It also gave her the writing bug. “It was the first book that made me feel like maybe writing isn’t so far out of reach,” Murphy says, sitting at the kitchen table of her home just east of Fort Worth. “Maybe if this woman can write this admittedly ridiculous book about a sparkling vampire, maybe I can write one book that one person will read at least once.” Read More »