News
 
Gravatar

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

the Chicks singing in front of an American flag background projected on a screenThere was a time when the Chicks were best known for their music, but since 2003—when they dissed George W. Bush on a London stage and were all but tarred and feathered by the Nashville establishment—their mere presence has been an inherently political thing. For years, the brand was the public face of left-leaning country music, and though these days they are joined by the likes of Maren Morris, Kacey Musgraves, Mickey Guyton, and the Hill-McGraw couple, the Chicks were the original proudly, loudly liberal country artists. So it was a no-brainer to have them perform at the Democratic National Convention, which they did this Thursday. The trio of Texas natives—Natalie Maines, Martie Maguire, and Emily Strayer—sang the national anthem before Kamala Harris, now officially the…

The post The Chicks and the DNC Are a Match Made in Political Heaven appeared first on Texas Monthly.

Thank you for reading!

Gravatar

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

boerne little league world seriesWHO: The youngsters of Boerne competing in the Little League World Series.WHAT: A dominant tournament run that has them two wins away from being the first Texas team in nearly sixty years to win the whole shebang. WHY IT’S SO GREAT: It’s always fun to root for kids doing their best in sport; it’s even more fun when those kids come from a community you recognize. In this case, those kids represent the San Antonio suburb of Boerne, perhaps best known for being frequently mispronounced (it sounds like “Bernie”). It’s also the home of what certainly looks to be the best Little League baseball team in the United States. The city’s squad is the only undefeated team remaining in the Little League World Series, having vanquished all…

The post These Texan Boys of Summer Are Two Wins Away From the Little League World Series Championship appeared first on Texas Monthly.

Thank you for reading!

Gravatar

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

Texans' diminished presence at the DNCTexans feel it’s their birthright to be at the center of everything. When it came time for Texas Democratic Party chair Gilberto Hinojosa to deliver his state’s delegates to Kamala Harris during the roll call at the national convention on Tuesday, he began with the boast that Texas was the “nation’s biggest battleground.”You can’t blame him for trying; it’s his job to make that the case. But while the long-term trend lines are pushing Texas in the direction of becoming a purple state, and recent polling shows a closer race than 2020 now that Harris leads the ticket, the Democratic and Republican presidential campaigns aren’t treating it like one. Texas is expensive to campaign in, and not quite competitive enough to justify massive expenditure. The…

The post Republicans and Democrats Are Treating Texas Like a Cautionary Tale, Not a Battleground appeared first on Texas Monthly.

Thank you for reading!

Gravatar

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

Houston Texans inaugural season 1974The new team’s offense was designed for a quarterback who didn’t show up for training camp and never set foot in the locker room. The biggest name—and body—on defense was ordered off the field after five plays, having been served with a restraining order that barred him from playing. And Texas’s only team in the inaugural season of the World Football League, fifty years ago, wasn’t even in Texas when the chaotic campaign lurched to its finish.“Everything about covering the Houston Texans, it was almost surreal,” recalled Tony Pederson, who covered the team for the Houston Chronicle.The WFL’s name was no accident—the upstart league launched with plans to locate franchises around the globe. That’s how San Francisco lawyer Steve Arnold bought the rights to a…

The post The Texas Football Farce That Linked Jason Garrett, Larry King, and Sloth From ‘The Goonies’ appeared first on Texas Monthly.

Thank you for reading!

Gravatar

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

do judges taste state fair of texas foodTexas Monthly has a long history of lightly roasting the State Fair of Texas for its Big Tex Choice Awards nominees. The list of specialty fair food offered every year has felt like it got progressively more unhinged, making fried Oreos seem positively pedestrian. (Some might remember 2018’s cotton candy tacos or 2023’s Fruity Pebble pickles.) Now we have a clue as to why.Until this year, no one at the State Fair of Texas was required to actually taste the entries until they got to the semifinalist stage. Of course, it may not surprise you that the wacky dishes on offer are mainly marketing efforts, designed to get curious people trying and sharing—and expressing outrage about—them. But it still feels like a shocking oversight. When asked…

The post Wait, Judges Weren’t Required to Try the State Fair of Texas Food Semifinalists Until Now?! appeared first on Texas Monthly.

Thank you for reading!

Gravatar

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

Keeping Austin Weird in the Tim Walz EraDuring the early days of Kamala Harris’s candidacy for president of the United States, Tim Walz—then the governor of Minnesota and not yet her running mate—dropped a casual, offhand remark that had a sudden and dramatic impact on the American political landscape. You probably heard it: during a brief appearance on the MSNBC’s Morning Joe, when discussing Donald Trump and his VP selection, JD Vance, Walz declared that “these guys are just weird.” A full suite of politicians, activists, columnists, podcasters, pundits, and more reacted as though a spell had been broken. After decades of allowing Republicans to own the lane of representing the mainstream, middle America that’s into tractor pulls and Applebee’s, Walz’s five-word manifesto gave Democrats a rallying cry they could use to…

The post Is America Ready for More Than One Kind of Weird? appeared first on Texas Monthly.

Thank you for reading!

Gravatar

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

Eterneva-ashes-diamonds-grief-jewelryHundreds of mini Polaroids are strung along the white hallways at the Eterneva lab in Kerrville, each one clipped to a long string by a clothespin. There’s Hassan, Luis Manuel, and Millie. Jojo, Angie, and Big Al. They’re fathers and sisters, children, mothers, astronauts, teachers, fisherman, and pilots. Their backgrounds and life experiences may have been vastly different, but their images all hang here for the same reason: a loved one didn’t want their stories to disappear, so their ashes have been turned into diamonds. Scattered among the photos, you’ll also find Camembert the dog and Scooter the cat.“It’s about sixty/forty pets to people,” says Eterneva co-CEO and cofounder Adelle Archer. She’s riding in the front passenger seat of the company Tesla that is taking…

The post A Kerrville-Based Company Turns Ashes Into Diamonds. And Why Shouldn’t Grief Be a Little More Sparkly? appeared first on Texas Monthly.

Thank you for reading!

Gravatar

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

MUSICPostcards From Texas, Miranda LambertSeptember 13For her eleventh studio release, the Lindale-raised star has assembled fourteen songs that she says are each “a letter from home.” The result is an album, which she recorded in Austin, that’s Texan from hat to spurs. She wrote or cowrote ten of the tracks, many with the help of songwriters from the Lone Star State, including Shane McAnally and her collaborators on 2021’s The Marfa Tapes, Jack Ingram and Jon Randall. Conroe’s Parker McCollum lends his pipes to one tune, and the chorus of another delivers what may be the best divorce gag since Mark Chesnutt was “goin’ through the Big D and don’t mean Dallas.” On “Alimony,” Lambert croons, “If you’re gonna leave me in San Antone, remember…

The post Miranda Lambert, George Jones, and More Make It a Legendary Month in Texas Culture appeared first on Texas Monthly.

Thank you for reading!

Gravatar

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

which texas restaurants will receive michelin starWord on the street—or in the kitchens—over the last week is that restaurants in at least two Texas cities have been asked confidentially to provide certain materials and information to the Michelin Guide. That suggests Michelin’s anonymous inspectors are finishing up their last few bites—and may, in fact, already be through.On July 16, the famous French restaurant guidebook announced it would be adding Texas to its roster of (now) eleven locations covered in the United States, including parts of California, Colorado, and Florida, plus Atlanta, New York City, and Washington, D.C. While Michelin noted that the Texas restaurants that made the guide would be released “later this year,” no date was specified.The cities selected for scrutiny are Austin, Dallas, Fort Worth, Houston, and San Antonio…

The post Which Texas Restaurants Will Get Michelin Stars? appeared first on Texas Monthly.

Thank you for reading!

Gravatar

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

Texas Couples Are Walking Down the Aisle In Over-the-Top Custom Wedding BootsBefore she pictured the dress, the ring, or even the groom, singer-songwriter Sara Woody could see the boots. “I had a little-girl dream of designing cowboy boots for my wedding,” says Woody, who married John Fitch at a treehouse resort near Austin in a “cosmic rodeo”–themed four-day affair. “The boots led the whole way.”Her vision: an intricate leather mosaic of symbols meaningful to the couple, including monarch butterflies, the planet Saturn, San Pedro cacti, mushrooms, rainbows, doves, and a lacelike pattern mimicking Mexican paper cutouts on peachy ombré leather. The wedding’s invitations, color palette, decor, and even the design of the dress—which unzipped dramatically at the hem for a splashy reveal—would follow.Nevena Christi, owner and designer at El Paso–based Rocketbuster Handmade Custom Boots, never batted…

The post Here Comes the Bride, All Dressed in $15,000 Custom Cowboy Boots appeared first on Texas Monthly.

Thank you for reading!