Culture

The Observer Review: Our Secret Life in the Movies

Our Secret Life in the Movies offers dueling fragmentary bursts of short fiction that blur the lines between memoir, fiction and homage, and offer a peek inside the minds of two men raised on movies at the tail end of the Cold War.

The War at School

When I confide my anxiety that I have fewer than 10 students in one of the two classes I teach twice a week, Ryan shares his relief that he has fewer than 30 in one of the six classes he teaches every day. After I express my impatience with students who do not read deeply, Ryan tells me about students who cannot read at all.

Ben Sargent’s Loon Star State: Ted Cruz-Approved

The Changing Culture of Killing for Food

Author and chef Jesse Griffiths is taking locally sourced eating to the next level by making hunting accessible to a younger generation.

Richard Parker’s Lone Star Nation Explains Texas to Non-Texans

Are you under the impression that Texas is going to just sit idly by and leave America unmolested by its transformative mojo? Richard Parker is prepared to tell you a thing or two.

Ben Sargent’s Loon Star State: Non-Voters, Non-Government

How Do You Memorialize a Mob?

Gainesville, Texas, is a patriotic small town. It’s also the site of the nation’s largest act of mob violence. One hundred and fifty-two years later, the town finally has a memorial to the 42 men who died in the Great Hanging.

Direct Quote: Helping the Blind Experience the Arts

“I’ve done audio description in a theater where people would come up to me and say, ‘What does it matter? They’re blind!’”

Ornette Coleman Documentary, Made in America, Honors a Jazz Pioneer

Filmmaker Shirley Clarke’s Ornette Coleman documentary, Made in America, honors the jazz pioneer.

Ben Sargent’s Loon Star State: Pocket Greg Abbott