As Hurricane Milton bears down on Florida, one Texas mayor has a novel idea about how to deal with it: Nuke the damned thing. In a since-deleted Facebook post, Bobby Lindamood, the mayor of Colleyville (a Fort Worth suburb) wrote: “For the amount of destruction this next hurricane is brining, it’s time to throw a […]
Tag: TB1
Posted inCulture
In Texas, Selena Is at Least as Popular as Jesus
Texas hasn’t gotten its due as a major piece in the complex puzzle of American art. We’re here to rectify that. Every two weeks, H. Drew Blackburn will conduct a thoroughly scientific analysis of the 254 essential (one for every county) books, movies, tv shows, albums, podcasts, songs, and magazine articles — you name it […]
Posted inOpinion
Everything About Our Elections Has Been Politicized by the Right
Election officials were reviewing disputed ballots on a Wednesday morning at an unremarkable government building in downtown Miami when hundreds of collared-shirt-wearing Republicans — many of them political staffers — descended upon the building. It was November 22, 2000, and the men were chanting “Shut it down!” Before long, the demonstration turned violent, and the […]
Posted inNews
An ‘Innocent’ Man’s Last Days: Robert Roberson’s Prayers from Death Row
Last Friday, a cloudless, azure sky framed the Allan B. Polunsky prison unit — where 167 men await executions on Texas’ Death Row — as an unlikely group ventured through its doors in the name of salvation. Polunsky is the state’s supermax prison for the most egregious criminal offenders in Texas and, for decades, the […]
Posted inMusic
How a Grunge Gen X Dad Learned to Love Taylor Swift
Last year, I realized I had opinions about Taylor Swift. And not just “she sucks,” which would have been my go-to before having a daughter. But over the years of driving to and from daycare, swimming lessons, school, volleyball practices, basketball games, playdates, doctor visits, dental checkups, vacations, road trips, birthday parties, and sleepovers, I […]
Posted inCulture
The Soul, and the Destruction, of Peyote Gardens in South Texas
Out in the Tamaulipan thornscrub of South Texas, Mario Garza has spent years looking for something sacred. To the untrained eye, the ranchland he visits might seem unremarkable, or even hostile — a wide expanse of mesquite and huisache thickets littered with rattlesnakes and tasajillo spines, among other natural hazards. But Garza sees it differently. […]
Posted inMoney
How Austin Became a Haven for ‘Bro Saviors’ Like Alex Jones and Elon Musk
(Editor’s note: This is an excerpt from Alex Hannaford’s book “Lost in Austin: The Evolution of an American City.” It’s an exploration of the profound movements that have shaped Austin — charting the shifts within its vibrant music scene, the impact of rapid urbanization, and the challenges of gentrification — ultimately questioning what Austin’s transformation […]
Posted inNews
Election Astrology: There’s Hope for Colin Allred — and Karma Coming for Ted Cruz
The stars at night are big and bright in our Lone Star State, so we are dedicating a special section of our little internet corner to reading them, deciphering them, and finding some patterns deep in the heart of Texas. Every month, Jasmin Alejandrez-Prasad, also known as Esoteric Esa, will serve as our in-house astrologer […]
Posted inNews
The Unbearable Weight of ‘Democracy at Stake’
Like a reality show audience buckling up for yet another “most dramatic season ever,” Americans once again find themselves hurtling toward an historic, pivotal presidential election. One candidate would be the first woman elected to the country’s highest office. She’d also be the first South Asian president. The first president to be a daughter of […]
Posted inCulture
‘We’ve Been Left Out’: Joaquin Castro Wants to Fill the ‘Void’ of Latinos on Screen
Growing up in West Side San Antonio, Congressman Joaquin Castro’s world was wholly different than the one on his TV or downtown at the Aztec Theatre. “What I would see on screen almost never matched what I saw when I stepped out my front door and into my neighborhood,” he told The Barbed Wire. “The […]