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THE TEXAS GESTALT
Popular
culture has done much to expand Texas’ mighty myth. Explore it
through these books and movies.
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 The Alamo
(VHS)
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(DVD)
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You
can’t truly understand the power of the Alamo until you’ve watched
this ripping yarn, starring John Wayne as Davy Crockett. Wayne
directed this Best Picture Oscar winner, too.
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Giant
(VHS)
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(Book)
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The classic 1956 film
starring James Dean, Elizabeth Taylor, and Rock Hudson was filmed
around the little West Texas town of Marfa. While Texans harumphed over Edna Ferber’s novel, they loved the
movie to death.
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 Hud
(VHS)
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It’s cowboys like this that
keep the dream alive. Paul Newman, circa 1963, stars as one sexy
bad- boy cowboy, whose advances Patricia Neal somehow manages to
resist. Based on Larry McMurtry’s short
story, Horseman, Pass By. |
 Lonesome Dove
(DVD)
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(VHS)
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(Book)
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Real
Texans’ favorite book, Lonesome Dove gave believable sinew and
emotion to the mythical cowboy. The engrossing tale of a Texas to
Montana cattle drive was done justice in a 1989 TV miniseries
starring Robert Duvall, Tommy Lee Jones, Anjelica Huston, Danny
Glover, Ricky Schroder, and Steve Buscemi.
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 The Last Picture Show
(VHS)
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(DVD)Special Edition
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(Book)
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Larry McMurtry’s archetypal novel drew back the curtain on small-town
Texas and was loathed by the locals, but the story outlived the
animosity. Peter Bogdanovich’s exquisite 1971 movie stars Timothy
Bottoms, Cloris Leachman, Jeff Bridges, and Cybill Shepherd. The
theater in the movie is located in McMurtry’s home town of Archer
City. It fell into decay but is being restored. |
Texasville
(Book)
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McMurtry’s silly sequel to The Last Picture Show doesn’t have near
the melancholy resonance of the first book, but it is a lively portrait
of one fictional Texas town as the oil market bottomed out.
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 North Dallas Forty
(DVD)
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(VHS)
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(Book)
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The terrific, irreverent
1979 movie starring Nick Nolte and Mac Davis is based on Peter
Gent’s book about his experiences as a Dallas Cowboy.
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 Urban Cowboy
(VHS)
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It ain’t art, but its irresistible schlock. The 1980 film starring
John Travolta and Debra Winger is set in Houston during the giddy
days of the oil boom. It started the urban cowboy craze and a flood
of Yankee transplants. Look for Mesquite homegirl Jerry Hall.
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Dr. T and the Women
(DVD)
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(VHS)
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Robert Altman’s take on
Dallas is over-the-top and Dallas women -- after the thrill of being
extras in the filming -- were hardly impressed. Still, there is some
deliciously exaggerated truth to the story, which stars Richard Gere as a gynecologist and Corpus
Christi chick Farrah Fawcett as his addled wife.
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TEXAS REALITY
Texas
is in the eye of the beholder and these books offers some mighty
fine beholding.
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 In A Narrow Grave: Essays
on Texas
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Native son Larry McMurtry is affectionate and clear-eyed about his
home state in this collection of insightful essays. |
Molly Ivins Can't Say That, Can She?
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Folksy political pundit
Molly Ivins tweaks conservatives, but she’s
beloved enough to get away with saying just about anything. |
A Bowl of Red
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The late Frank Tolbert, who
is among Texas’ chili royalty, wrote this seminal volume about the
state dish of Texas. |
I'll Gather My Geese
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In 1916, Hallie Stillwell traveled to West Texas in a covered wagon
and made her life in this harsh clime. Her beguiling autobiography
offers tremendous insight into the steel spine of the native Texas
chick.
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 Friday Night Lights
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Texans remain slightly
appalled by this Yankee’s-eye view of the Permian Panthers, a
championship high school football team in Odessa, Texas. Don’t let
anyone see you reading it.
| Southern Ladies and Gentlemen
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While the caustic Florence King is from Virginia, not Texas,
her insights into Southern-think are often enlightening, sometimes
brutal, always funny. |
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GET OUTTA TOWN
You
have to see Texas to understand it. Some guidebooks to get you on
the road.
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Texas
Gateways for Two
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Fall in love again under a
slice of big Texas sky on a weekend getaway. |
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More Offbeat Texas Stops : Traveling With Bob Phillips
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TV personality Bob Phillips
has made a career of poking around Texas’ odd corners.
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Country
Roads of Texas : Drives, Day...
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Pack a cooler, kick of your
shoes, crank up the tunes, and drive, baby, drive.
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Frommer's
Texas
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A big overview of a big
state – one to keep handy.
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THE HOME FRONT
Now
that you’ve found your dream house (and you will) make it cozy and
inviting, Texas style.
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Howard Garrett's Plants for Texas
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Go organic with Texas’
organic gardening guru.
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Neil Sperry's Complete Guide to Texas Gardening
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Few garden-minded homes in
Texas are without this volume.
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 Native Texas Gardens
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Native plants take a lot of
hassle out of Texas gardening, and this book shows you how beautiful
they can be.
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The
Food of Texas : Authentic Recipes from the Lone Star State
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noW
Fancy-shmancy recipes from some of Texas’ celebrity chefs, including
Grady Spears, Stephan Pyles, and Dean Fearing.
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Matt
Makes a Run for the Border : Recipes and Tales from a Tex-Mex Chef
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Can-do
recipes from a Dallas restauranteur.
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 Vegetarian Table: Mexico
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Delicious and easy enough
for even inexperienced Mexican cooks.
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The
Herb Garden Cookbook : The Complete...
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Grow your own herbs and then
cook ‘em up with this guide to doing both.
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Fixin' to Party, Texas Style
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Helen Bryant, formerly a
society columnist in Dallas, has attended enough Texas parties to
know what works. Before you toss out your first soiree, consult her
book.
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TEXAS TUNES
Music
is as important to Texas as beer and football. Here's a random
sampler of some of the state's finest.
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 More A Legend Than A Band
-Flatlanders
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Three singer-songwriters --
Jimmie Dale Gilmore, Butch Hancock, and Joe Ely – each popular in
his own right, got together and made one great, high lonesome album. |
Essential
– Guy Clark
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noW
One of the deans of the
Texas singer/songwriter/storyteller tradition.
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Kick
Ass Polka – Brave Combo
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Perfectly respectable people
jump up and do the Chicken Dance when these guys come to town.
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 Guit With It – Junior Brown
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Junior Brown is the kind of
picker who turns other guitarists pea green. |
The
Best of Texas Tornados
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A true Tex-Mex band featured
Freddie Fender, Flaco Jimenez, Auggie
Meyers and the late Doug Sahm. Gone but not forgotten.
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Antologia
– Ramon Ayala
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A stalwart in Tejano who makes
accordion cool.
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 Guitar
Town - Steve Earle
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Texas’
version of Bruce Springsteen, only angrier. "Fearless Heart" is the swooner on this disk. |
The
Very Best of Asleep at the Wheel
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If you don’t warm up to
Western swing, consult a physician. |
West
Textures -Robert Earl Keen
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noW
Singer/songwriter Robert
Earl Keen likes his songs better when other people sing them, but
his legion of singalong fans beg to differ. |
 Greatest Hits, Vol. 2 - George Strait
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A classic old school
crooning cowboy sings his greatest hits.
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 The Very Best of Willie Nelson
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This grizzled outlaw is one
of Texas’ proudest musical moments. Did you know he wrote Patsy
Cline’s hit, "Crazy"? You should.
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Sign
of Truth -Tish Hinojosa
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noW
Rich-voiced border chanteuse Tish Hinojosa sings her folk songs
in English and Spanish.
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Texas
Flood -Stevie Ray Vaughan
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noW
The late bluesman and Dallas
boy, Stevie Ray Vaughan, is a guitar
god who brings tears to aficionados eyes.
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 Viva Terlingua
- Jerry Jeff Walker
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noW
Recorded live in Luchenbach in 1973, this is a perfect intro to
the good-timin’, hootin’, hollerin’, beer-sloshin’ genre.
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