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BACK OF THE BOOK
- Cultivating Creativity
- Our environment has always shaped our artistic undertakings. In Africa, elaborate wooden masks and sculptures come from the west, where rainforests dominate. On East Africa’s savanna, wood is a precious commodity, so the arts focus on jewelry, clothing and body modification.
In Texas, folks frequently lament a cultural …
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The Art of Destruction - When we think of art, we think of museums, places where we preserve human creations for later generations. Not all art, though, is meant to last forever. Some artworks are designed for destruction, and a couple of Texas artists are at the forefront in modernizing this ancient, ritualistic fusion of art …
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The Wind Delivers - The streets of Lubbock are remarkably clean. The good people here can certainly take some credit for keeping litter at bay, but so can the wind.
More often than not, the wind blows down the brick lanes of downtown Lubbock with a gentle urgency, like a constant nudge to …
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Going with the Flow - I have something in common with Laura Bush, and it’s not narcotized adoration of George W.
John Graves’ Goodbye to a River is my favorite Texas book, too. It’s a common choice, but no less defensible for being so often chosen. I like the book for all the usual …
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One Man’s Trash Fish ... - The West Fork of the San Jacinto River was dammed to form Lake Conroe in 1973. By the early 1980s, the 20,118-acre lake was choking on hydrilla, an exotic aquatic weed originally imported to Florida for use in aquariums. From there boat trailers and dirty props flushed it into the ecosystems …
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Jerky Boy - Brad Tyer on the mythology of Texas BBQ and why jerky deserves top meat billing.
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Being Townes - Brad Tyer on Steve Earle, Townes Van Zandt, and the cult of the Texas troubadour.
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Where to find the Observer
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Austin, TX 78703Independent Publishers
Beacon Press
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617-742-2110Curbstone Press
321 Jackson Street
Willimantic, CT 06226
860-423-9242Observer Authors
Um...: Slips, Stumbles, and Verbal Blunders, and What They Mean
By Michael Erard
Pantheon
304 pages, $24.95
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Texas and Gommorah
As this issue of the Observer went to press, Jehovah had not yet seen fit to rain fire and devastation on the wicked citizenry of Houston. Not since Hurricane Ike, anyway. But if you ask Eric Story, Republican candidate for Congress from Houston’s 29th District, the Good Lord was barely getting …
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Copyright © 2000-2009 The Texas Observer.
- Investigative reporting is supported in part by a grant from the Open Society Institute.
- Books & the Culture is funded in part by the City of Austin through the Cultural Arts Division and by a grant from the Texas Commission of the Arts.
