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

It’s pitch black when I arrive at 5:30 a.m. at the Lewisville Lake Environmental Learning Area, a sprawling, 2,600-acre nature preserve about twenty miles north of Dallas. After I make contact with my party, the seven of us caravan in our vehicles, bumping a mile or so down a gated gravel road that twists deep into the woods, where we park by a meadow. Doused head to toe with bug spray, I put on a borrowed headlamp and fall in line behind my companions, stalking silently through fields of waist-high grass and wildflowers and trying to avoid low-hanging branches, fallen logs, and armadillo holes in the predawn darkness.The secret mission I’ve joined on this May morning has one goal: to capture and study painted buntings—the brilliantly…

The post Gorgeous and Elusive, Painted Buntings Are Flitting Across Texas appeared first on Texas Monthly.

Thank you for reading!

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

A Uvalde County grand jury has indicted former school district police chief Pete Arredondo and another former district officer on charges of child endangerment, the first criminal charges brought against law enforcement for the botched response to the deadliest school shooting in Texas history, the San Antonio Express-News first reported.Arredondo and Adrian Gonzales face felony charges of abandoning or endangering a child, the newspaper reported.The charges come more than two years after the May 24, 2022 shooting, in which a lone gunman killed nineteen fourth graders and two teachers.Uvalde County district attorney Christina Mitchell convened a grand jury in January to investigate law enforcement’s delayed response and to determine whether to bring criminal charges against any of the nearly four hundred federal, state, and local…

The post Uvalde’s Former Schools Police Chief Has Been Indicted for His Role in Robb Elementary Shooting Response appeared first on Texas Monthly.

Thank you for reading!

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

Jared Brinkley had never been more anxious on a plane. Not typically a nervous flier, the California video game production manager stowed his valuable cargo as he prepared for takeoff on a recent flight from Seattle to Dallas. Wrapped in a cocoon of foam, cardboard, and packing tape and tucked into the first-class cabin coat closet was a hundred-year-old painting that could be worth six figures.“I carried it around the airport terrified,” Brinkley, 49, said. “The whole trip was stressful.”The artwork, an original Julian Onderdonk oil painting from 1921 titled A Field of Bluebonnets, San Antonio, is representative of the work of the Texas impressionist, who is beloved for his pastoral scenes that showcase the iconic indigo flowers.“If you’ve ever seen a painting of bluebonnets in…

The post This Rare Painting Up for Auction in Dallas Was Almost Sent to Goodwill appeared first on Texas Monthly.

Thank you for reading!

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

Kinky Friedman died on June 27, 2024, leaving behind an impression on everything from Texas music and politics to the very halls of Texas Monthly itself. Michael Hall recalls how Kinky, although controversial and not afraid to offend, held a genuine interest in having an impact on the world and starting important conversations.

The post Remembering Texas Satirist Kinky Friedman appeared first on Texas Monthly.

Thank you for reading!

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

Before landing the contract to write the songs for The Outsiders, a hit new Broadway musical that—thanks to its twelve Tony nominations and four wins—just became a bigger hit, Jonathan Clay had, by his own admission, read only five books. Luckily for the Americana artist and his songwriting partner and Jamestown Revival bandmate Zach Chance, S.E. Hinton’s beloved novel of trod-upon teenagers in Tulsa was one of them. Two rival gangs, a poetry-loving protagonist, literal train tracks to live on the wrong side of—it’s a wonder it took this long for the middle school reading list favorite to become a stage show. As Jamestown Revival, Chance and Clay have been making music together since they were fourteen, about the same age as the novel’s characters. Over…

The post Thank These Broadway Outsiders for the Tony-Winning Show Tunes of ‘The Outsiders’ appeared first on Texas Monthly.

Thank you for reading!