‘The Hobby’: A Love Letter to Board Gamers like My Son
Texas Observer Magazine
by Josephine Lee
1d ago
My 12-year-old son creates some wacky board games. When he was younger, there was Pillow Fight, where players spin a wheel to collect pillows to smack people, build a fort, or knock down pins. Then there was Chick-fil-A vs. Canes, a game where players collect coins by buying, selling, and promoting menu items from Texas’ favorite fast-food chicken places—but if you get stingy and don’t pay your workers, they’ll go on strike and you’ll find yourself without food. Recently, his creations have turned into more sophisticated battle strategy games, played according to pages and pages of rules.  ..read more
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Dade Phelan’s Efforts to Expand Healthcare Still Leave Many Struggling in His District
Texas Observer Magazine
by Kim Krisberg
1d ago
Three years ago, Texas House Speaker Dade Phelan unveiled a set of bills that he declared would improve the health of millions of Texans, largely by expanding access to healthcare. The measures, authored by Republicans and Democrats, were applauded by health advocates such as the Texas Medical Association. This month, an updated version of one of the most noteworthy bills took effect, extending postpartum Medicaid coverage for new mothers from two months after giving birth to a year. The reforms—most of which passed—fell short of full Medicaid expansion, but they cast the newly elected House s ..read more
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Clearing the Air
Texas Observer Magazine
by Kit O'Connell
3d ago
Most people survive the Coronavirus with their kidneys intact. But not 34-year-old Austin resident Vanessa Ramos.  An experienced community organizer with nonprofits like the Sierra Club, Ramos was healthy and active before she got infected. Then she caught the COVID-19 virus in December 2021, and symptoms lingered through the new year despite her efforts to focus on healing and recovery.  “I was trying to prioritize my physical health because I couldn’t lift things; I couldn’t open things,” Ramos recalled. “I didn’t understand why I was getting weaker.” In 2022, she kept getting sic ..read more
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Loon Star State: Utter Fantasies!
Texas Observer Magazine
by Ben Sargent
6d ago
Ben Sargent To see more political cartoons from Ben Sargent, visit our Loon Star State section, or find Observer political reporting here. Read more from the Observer: Texas GOP Flirts with Secession —Contributor David Brockman’s reporting from the 2016 Texas GOP convention where a vote to add secession to the party platform nearly succeeded. The post Loon Star State: Utter Fantasies! appeared first on The Texas Observer ..read more
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An Open Letter to Richard Linklater on Our Texas Death Penalty
Texas Observer Magazine
by Walter C. Long
1w ago
Dear Richard, Your movie “God Save Texas: Hometown Prison,” which debuted recently on HBO, was joyfully upsetting for me. Kudos to you for loving Huntsville, the complex setting of your formative high school years. Kudos for not moving on, for coming back time and again to the life and culture there in your many films. Kudos for loving the people there but not looking away, bringing your unflinching lens to the things they find hard to see. Spoiler alert: This is a movie review about the human subjects of your film. Working as a postconviction capital defense attorney for almost three decades ..read more
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A Bittersweet Portrait of a Photographer, Obsessed
Texas Observer Magazine
by Gus Bova
1w ago
Good photography and good cinema are cousins. So a new documentary about legendary Austin photographer Dan Winters has a built-in advantage. It can weave Winters’ own striking pictures into the telling of his backstory; it can show us a master of the form arranging and taking a shot, then reveal the photo itself, braiding the moving with the still and exposing the gulf between—where the magic happens. Part of a National Geographic series, the hour-long documentary titled “Life Is Once. Forever.” premiered earlier this month in Austin at South by Southwest (SXSW) and is available March 19 on Di ..read more
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A New Documentary Reveals the Real Eagle Pass
Texas Observer Magazine
by Francesca D’Annunzio
1w ago
The Flores siblings were supposed to leave their small Texas border town and make films together. Robie Flores, a self-described “awkward Tejana” teen who just wanted to “get the fuck out” of Eagle Pass to reinvent herself, had dreams of making movies with her brothers, Paco, Alex, and Marcelo.  But their dreams were crushed when Marcelo, who went by Mars, died in 2015. He had recently graduated from the University of Texas at Austin’s Radio-Television-Film program and was only 23. Director Robie Flores Courtesy In the wake of her brother’s death, Flores returned home and reexamined her h ..read more
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Gulf Coast Petrochemical Buildout Draws Billions in Tax Breaks For Polluters
Texas Observer Magazine
by Dylan Baddour
1w ago
A booming petrochemical buildout on the Gulf Coast has drawn billions of dollars in public subsidies from state tax abatement programs despite regular violations of pollution permits, according to a new report released Thursday.  The Environmental Integrity Project, an environmental nonprofit based in Texas and Washington, D.C., compiled data on all U.S. plastics projects built, expanded or proposed since 2012, almost all of them along the Gulf Coast.  The report identified 50 plastics complexes built or expanded in the last 12 years, 33 in Texas. Together they have drawn a total of ..read more
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The Specter of Disinformation Haunts South by Southwest
Texas Observer Magazine
by Steven Monacelli
1w ago
When some of the largest newswire agencies in the world had to retract a manipulated photograph of British royal Kate Middleton on March 11, one thing was made clear: Even well-resourced journalistic outlets are ill-equipped to detect technologically advanced fakery.  Counterfeit photos created to deceive audiences have existed nearly as long as photography itself. Joseph Stalin famously edited political opponents out of the historical record. The use of deceptive photo editing by a PR flack for a British aristocrat may seem inconsequential relative to disinformation deployed to influence ..read more
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 ‘The Queen vs. Texas’ Revisits the Battle over Lone Star Drag  
Texas Observer Magazine
by Kit O'Connell
2w ago
When the drag queen known as Hermajestie the Hung reached her breaking point, she transformed into the Joker, becoming the scourge of patriarchy, homophobic lawmakers, and anti-transgender bigots everywhere.  “She’s that queen that’s just had enough,” Hermajestie told the Texas Observer.  In reality, The Queen vs. Texas—a new short film recently screened at the South by Southwest (SXSW) film festival in Austin— isn’t exactly a supervillain origin story, but it does depict the transformation Raemonn James, better known as “Hermajestie,” undergoes as she applies her drag makeup to beco ..read more
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