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Get in-depth coverage of news, reviews and conversations about Texas barbecue. It's basically Christmas every day for barbecue-lovers.

Johnny Manziel podcastBruce Springsteen wrote sadder songs than “Glory Days,” one of the final tracks from his 1984 masterpiece Born in the U.S.A., but perhaps none of the Boss’s songs more effectively examines the feeling of being someone who used to be. It might be the most tragic song ever written in a major key, built around a honky-tonk piano and garage band guitar sounds, and meant to be sung with a smile on your face. The pathos of the song—that whether you were a great athlete, great beauty, or world famous rock star in your youth, obsolescence awaits us all—is both undeniably true and incredibly grim. Which, we suppose, makes it a fitting inspiration for the title of Johnny Manziel’s forthcoming interview show, Glory Daze, the…

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Get in-depth coverage of news, reviews and conversations about Texas barbecue. It's basically Christmas every day for barbecue-lovers.

A young model wears a show stopping sequined red gown from Victoria's Elegance at the Houston Quinceañera Expo.It took just one lap around the event billed as “America’s biggest quince expo” for me to question whether I had ever really known what a quinceañera was.When I arrived at Houston’s NRG Arena on an August Sunday, I could hear the faint sound of Latin pop trickling out of the building and into the parking lot. Inside, I made my way through pink-and-white floral archways and was met with the booming voice of expo emcee DJ Hershey welcoming a teenage dance crew, High Class Productions, to a faraway stage on the other side of the hall. Beckoned like a sailor to a siren, I followed his voice.To my right, excited teenage girls and their parents were standing in front of sequined backdrops, testing out…

The post I Went to the Biggest Quinceañera Expo in the Country. Here’s How 15-Year-Olds Will Be Celebrating This Year. appeared first on Texas Monthly.

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Get in-depth coverage of news, reviews and conversations about Texas barbecue. It's basically Christmas every day for barbecue-lovers.

Southlake suit against Title IX LGBTQ protectionsCouples walk the hallways at Carroll Senior like they do at any other high school: holding hands, kissing goodbye before parting for seventh period. But only the straight ones, according to Emma. An outspoken senior who loves reading and launched a “banned book” club last year, she says she never publicly displays affection with her girlfriend at school and avoids attracting unwanted attention to her sexual orientation at all cost. She’s overheard homophobic slurs in casual conversations and has seen her friends get called them too. If Emma—who is using a pseudonym because she is not out to her parents—is assigned a personal essay in English class and writes about a relationship, she changes pronouns to male to obscure her orientation. She explained to me…

The post “Just Easier When You’re Not Openly Queer”: Students Respond to Texas School District’s Fight Against LGBTQ Protections appeared first on Texas Monthly.

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Get in-depth coverage of news, reviews and conversations about Texas barbecue. It's basically Christmas every day for barbecue-lovers.

texas college football season tailgate recipesIs it just us, or does this late summer feel more autumn-y than normal? The temperatures are mercifully below triple digits, and there have been spots of rain in the forecast. It may be an unfamiliar feeling for most Texans, but it’s perfect for the start of college football season (or Labor Day weekend, if sports aren’t your thing).The surprisingly not-that-hot weather is even better for indulging in some cold-weather favorites, whether you’re watching the game at home or dragging a smoker out to the stadium parking lot. Speaking of smokers, throwing some turkey legs on one will make you feel like a king for a day. Or maybe you’re a guest who wants to bring something more low-effort: bean dip is for you. And…

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Get in-depth coverage of news, reviews and conversations about Texas barbecue. It's basically Christmas every day for barbecue-lovers.

Rep. Colin Allred standing on the House floor in Washington D.C.Colin Allred was running late, but it didn’t matter—nobody was waiting for him. Only staff and a single journalist occupied the cavernous International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Union Hall in Houston at 2:30 on a recent Tuesday afternoon, the time Allred’s campaign had provided for what it was touting as a “roundtable on Texas energy jobs.” Three conference tables were arranged in a U shape beneath the IBEW Local 716 flag, but neither the congressman nor the roundtable participants had shown up. Journalists had been informed of the event just the previous day; the invitation did not extend to the public.Nearly half an hour passed before the nine invited union representatives—mostly electrical workers and city bus drivers—finally shuffled into the hall and took their seats…

The post In His Bid to Unseat Ted Cruz, Colin Allred Is Hardly Visible. Looks Like It’s Working. appeared first on Texas Monthly.

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Get in-depth coverage of news, reviews and conversations about Texas barbecue. It's basically Christmas every day for barbecue-lovers.

The Wildest Details at Yolanda Hadid's Fort Worth RanchSometimes you’re working, trying to endure a long week, when you come across a piece of online content that synthesizes your interests and personal values so perfectly that you are given a new lease on life. That was me a couple hours ago, when Architectural Digest posted a video tour of Yolanda Hadid’s Texas ranch house. Hadid, mother to models Gigi and Bella; ex-wife of Katharine McPhee’s current husband, David Foster; onetime cast member of the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills; OG “almond mom”; and no fan of former boy bander Zayn Malik, is apparently now a resident. As she explains during the best ten minutes I’ve spent in recent memory, she fell in love with Cowtown when her fiancé, Joseph Jingoli, first took her…

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Get in-depth coverage of news, reviews and conversations about Texas barbecue. It's basically Christmas every day for barbecue-lovers.

A Wildfire-Ravaged Panhandle Town Rallies Around High School Football“I’m very excited for football season,” said Jessa Bell, a senior cheerleader at Canadian High School. “We’ve been doing a lot to get ready.”Bell’s sentiment is shared by many CHS Wildcats fans from the Texas Panhandle town, with the team playing its first game Thursday in Elk City. In fact, the enthusiasm for high school football in Canadian this year likely exceeds that at many other Texas schools—only in Canadian, it has almost nothing to do with returning starters or a chance to make the playoffs.The Bells were among the more than fifty families in and around Canadian who lost their homes to the Smokehouse Creek wildfire six months ago. The fire, considered the largest in Texas history, raged over slightly more than one million…

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Get in-depth coverage of news, reviews and conversations about Texas barbecue. It's basically Christmas every day for barbecue-lovers.

The headquarters of RealPage in Richardson, Texas.On Friday, the United States Department of Justice—along with the attorneys general of eight states—announced a civil antitrust lawsuit against the Richardson-based company RealPage. The firm’s software allows the owners of rental properties to anonymously share the details of their rates, lease terms, vacancies, and other information previously regarded as trade secrets, and to receive suggested rent prices based on an algorithm that aggregates that data. The lawsuit alleges that this violates the Sherman Act, the famous antitrust law, that has been in place since the late 1800s. The implications of the case could be significant. Rent prices nationally have increased an average of 33 percent over their prepandemic rates. The problem is particularly acute in Texas: according to research from Harvard’s Joint Center for Housing…

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Vertical FarmingWander through the labyrinthine tunnels twenty feet beneath downtown Houston, and the past practically oozes from the walls. Office workers walk over pink-and-green speckled tiles. Steve Winwood’s eighties banger “Valerie” plays over a sound system. But next to the Smoothie King and across from a restaurant called Pastabilities that reeks of marinara, a door to a well-lit space displays a potential glimpse of the future.Bart Womack, a former nightclub owner and music event entrepreneur, is the founder and CEO of Eden Grow Systems. Inside his showroom, a gardener tends to three carts, each about the size of an office desk, from which a couple of dozen golden and purple flowers grow out of trays connected to the sides of the cart. Rather than extend into…

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Houston’s Geothermal Energy Sector Is Hot—and SteamyEarlier this week, tech giant Meta—the parent company of Facebook and Instagram—unveiled plans to buy a lot of electricity from an innovative power plant to be built by geothermal energy start-up Sage Geosystems. The location of the new-fangled facility remains sketchy. Somewhere east of the Rockies was all the companies said.But there’s another, even more important, location worth noting: Sage Geosystems is based in northern Houston, not far from Greenspoint Mall. Hop on Interstate 45 and head about fifteen miles south, to the downtown skyscrapers, and you’ll find the headquarters of Fervo Energy, another geothermal start-up, which recently announced an even larger power deal with Southern California’s largest utility.Arguably the two most promising companies in what is arguably the most promising new source of energy…

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