Presidential History in Northern Texas
While the Austin area is LBJ country, the first Texas-born president of the United States hailed from the far north. I recently visited Denison, 270 miles north of Austin, to…
The Full Monty: Terrence McNally at 80
“A play isn’t finished until the last character enters.” So said Terrence McNally at his 80th birthday celebration, held at Austin’s Zach Theatre on Nov. 12. The ‘last character’ he…
Otello: Lessons for Our Time
The lasting legacy of Shakespeare resides in part on his relevance to more modern times. Even though his plays deal with events hundreds of years ago, each succeeding generation finds…
Jerry Brown: It’s a Dangerous Time
California Governor Jerry Brown, during a visit to Austin, issued a dire warning for the near future. “The population is segmenting: we’re going from unum to plurality. It’s a dangerous…
Edgar Allan Poe: A Life Full of Woe
The musical Nevermore, currently playing in Austin, had a special showing on Halloween. This is quite appropriate as Poe’s legacy is so identified with horror and the macabre. I actually…
Halloween: Vampires and Witches
Austin author Raymond Villareal recently had his first novel published: A People’s History of the Vampire Uprising. He related in October at the Texas Book Fest that his inspiration for…
HALLOWEEN
There are many ways to get into the spirit of Halloween (pun intended), and virtually all of them can be found explained in a new book by Mickie Mueller. Entitled…
Americans Abroad: Paintings 1860-1931
The Bridge at Andorra in the tiny country between France and Spain was done by Henry Strater in 1920. Strater toured Spain between his first summer in Ogunquit, Maine, in…
Bernstein at 100
Leonard Bernstein would have celebrated his 100th birthday this year. Alas he only made it to 72, dying in 1990, the year after I saw him at Carnegie Hall. Throughout…
Fallingwater
When is Fallingwater not Fallingwater? Answer: some winters are so cold the waterfall at the ueber-famous Frank Lloyd Wright house freezes. One of the guides told me it is quite…