Mr G

I woke up to NPR announcing that Robert Goulet passed away yesterday. He was awaiting a transplant. I can still remember seeing him sing Camelot in the Macy's Thanksgiving Parade in the late 70's. Sad.

list of thoughts du jour

1. Happy Birthday Miss Librarian!!!!!!
2. I was once a French Maid but now would rather not

3. The Tiki Monkey buzz
4. Hope this will be a cooler and colder season than last
5. Excited about Loma Alta and Lost Pines
6. Recycling old ideas into new executions
7. Expecting Gingernuts or Stars by Spring

Interest Du Jour:
Trenet, Aznavour, Brel and Villard
Distel singing La Belle Vie, swoon!

Hood Minutiae

Seems that Paz Dhody did offer the owners of Brentwood Taverns a fair deal but they claimed it was too little too late. BLEHK! That's just being...the word in Spanish is caprichudos. In the end they didn't sound as invested as their hood clientele. I am sure whatever replaces the Brentwood Tavern will become a gathering place once again. I think if any of the other plans and developers had been picked for this venture there most surely would have been way more unhappy people. For the most part the Farmer's Market development seems a pleasant and welcomed distraction from the Wal Mart development. If only Paz Dhody could have purchased that piece of land. I'm sure he would have had more creative and culturally lucrative plans for the place. Social value just doesn't have the clout economic value has when it comes to development, tres triste.

Clean up in the creek area near Dart Bowl is in order. ICK! Litter all over the place. Very ugly. Now that the weather has changed this is the plan. Creeks scare me a bit. In Del Rio they bring cotton mouths and they are scary: The Cottonmouth snake is related to the copperhead but more dangerous. Venom is highly toxic with severe tissue destruction. Bites are fairly frequent in the southern United States. Color dark or nearly black, especially in adult of the species. Average length 3½ feet, maximum length 6 feet. Possums eat snakes so I am hoping Pepper the possum takes care of the snakes, if there any.

Seems like chili pequin grows all over this neighborhood. I find that so comforting for some reason. I like using it in pico. Very hot pico.

I wish our hood would have a sign up sheet for the homes participating in trick or treat. Our house always gets passed up. Actually, seems everything south of Koening does. Poop.

Thoughts Du Jour

Thinking about televisions a lot. There are a lot of free vintage television sets floating around if you know where to look. Basically anything tube, black and white made after 1955 is nearly worthless and after 1960, worthless. Of course, no taking into account aesthetic and emotional value to the prospective buyer.

Oatmeal raisin cookies, funnel cake kits, pecan praline making, bread pudding at Mimi's, Dart Bowl restaurant. This place is so cool and yummy!

The Dangerous Book for Boys-I dig this book, it's on my list of books I want.

Pecan trees, fig trees, heirloom roses, Jasmine, and the Treefolks

Taking walks after dinner in this great weather!

Sewing

Analog People in a Digital World, analog watches,

walking minutiae

After turkey meat loaf and macaroni and cheese made by my Grandmother (all 1940's diner style) we took a long, leisurely walk through the hood. My Grandfather's pecan trees were hit with the web worms this year and he had no pecans to give me. Poop. But on our walk I managed to pick up assorted varieties. All the neighbors were out picking them up. Along Arroyo Seco I also found blackberries, pomegranates and chili pequins. Yay!

So, anyway, there will be pecan pralines!

The day could not have been more perfect or memorable

Wm and I went to Del Rio,TX for the Fiesta de Amistad Parade. The few times I have tried to attend this parade it was cancelled due to rain. This year my Grandmother wanted my Grandfather to ride in the parade and my brother and I to ride with him in his own car not a float. Her reason was he is in his 80's and has never been in a parade so why not. It became more and more important to us both as the plans went on.

The theme was Military Order of the Purple Heart. My Grandfather is a Purple Heart recipient and WWII veteran. I was more than happy to make this happen for them both. Since late August I have been making arrangements and ordering supplies to decorate this vehicle. I would not be able to decorate it until I got to town the evening before the event. I knew nothing of decorating cars for parades but there are websites dedicated to parade supplies, much to my amazement.

What was required to be in the line was to display the American and Mexican flag in keeping with the theme of amistad between the two countries. I didn't want to mess with homemade signs and tape or glitter, that sort of thing. After much shopping around online I came up with some flags, ribbon, made Mexican style paper flowers and ta-da.....

My Grandparents were happy with the results. This was all for them. I was very happy to have the car pass the grandstand and have the MC introduce him to cheers and applause from the bleachers. After that it was a forty five minute ride at 5 miles an hour down Main St waving and smiling. That is an experience. The street is narrow and the car open on both sides and you can hear everything everyone says. Thankfully it was all kudos on the decor and people who knew my Grandad saying hi, clapping, some cheering......

After the parade we went to the arts and crafts/ food festival. What was missing were all the craft booths they used to have. I thought for sure, with this whole crafty fad, there would be a few more but maybe Makers Faire took them. Maybe Del Rio is just to far off in the sticks. However the food was great! I was truly surprised at the choices, really good food. The corn tortilla nopalito quesadillas were awesome! I tried my first funnel cake ever and now I want one every Saturday. I was never one for carnival food except cotton candy when I was younger and that went icky after five minutes. Actually I was never one for the lines, just too impatient. But I'm never passing on funnel cake again. I'll wait.

The photos look so patriotic, and my Grandfather is. My loyalties are with my Grandad who was one of the Blue Devils. He did return from war with a terrible wound and endured countless surgeries. I have always looked up to him. He has never let me down.

Big plans, lil brrrr

It's chilly out! Yay! Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee Yippee! A lot going on in town this weekend like the Maker Faire, lots of festivals. What to do, what to do.....

Next weekend is booked. RECORD CONVENTION in town! Woohoo, then there is the return of Dino Lee and His White Trash Revue!!!!! We both saw that Cutting Edge episode back in 1986. We are so there! When I arrived in town back in 1989 Claude and I would see the ads for his show but could never get from St Ed's to wherever to see him so this is going to be AWESOME!

Sad Day

Harry and Wende Devlin

I just recently bought Old Witch and the Polka Dot Ribbon by Harry and Wende Devlin because I had it as a kid and always wanted to make that cake recipe on the back cover. After I bought it I realized that I used to also own Old Black Witch and a Cranberry Thanksgiving. So I'm thinking of trying to find these books again to either just read or maybe buy.

In looking for information on the Devlins I found Loganberry Books
yet another cool website if you are into children's books.

Frank Sinatra Jr

I bought our tickets in September or the end of August and waited to finally see Frank Sinatra Jr. I have wanted to see him perform for a long time now. I knew that he would perform in Houston and Dallas from time to time, mostly charity events. I really don't know how it came about but something that day made me want to check out the Sinatra Family website and check out his calender. When I saw that he was performing at Jones Hall with the Houston Symphony Orchestra I bought tickets on the spot.

I have to thank the woman on the phone who sold me those tickets, they were the best seats in the house! Row M! We were close up but not so close we had to strain our necks like the people in the first row. I freaked out when we got our seats and the stage was right there. We were so close I felt the green light from camera would distract him when I took pictures and the flashing red lights that go on when recording could really disrupt the show. As a result, not the best photos and a few audio clips and seconds of him finishing his last song.

Watch my video here.

The concert began with The Houston Symphony performing among other pieces, the arias from Puccini's operas. Tears. Puccini is my favorite. After a brief intermission, Frank Sinatra Jr came on stage and I just about dropped out of my seat. I didn't think I would be so impressed by his charisma, his voice, gentle and friendly stage presence. This was his third night and the place was filled. He began with The Lonesome Road, sang I've Got the World on a String(my fave), Summer Wind (Wms fave) and even French Foreign Legion. Frank Jr's voice was in top form, tres clean and the notes he carried!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The performance lasted almost two hours and you couldn't help but feel that this man was not performing alone. He is not Frank Sinatra but his admiration and love for his father expressed itself in his treatment of the songs he sang. This was no cheesy Sinatra impersonator, or simply a lounge act. Frank Jr did make you feel that Frank Sr was still around. The night was all Frank Jr's, it belonged to him and his classically trained voice. He gave the music a divine respect I have not witnessed in my lifetime. I've seen many sing those songs, even Tony Bennett, but it was special to hear them done by an artist who doesn't just sing them but practically prays them. The evening was dreamy on so many levels, thanks, Wm.

A weeks worth

My best friend's cousin stars in a popular prime time television show. It's weird because I remember hearing about him struggling to be an actor for a very long time but never thought of him actually being an actor or becoming a well known star. Now he is on Oprah and you can find blips and articles on him in magazines in waiting rooms. He still shows up in their pictures from family reunions though, tres odd feeling. But what's really weird is finding out he got married on ET. No one knew.

I never thought much of possums until recently. I happened to see a purty lil possum in a tree near my shed. She had sparkly eyes and a cute face. We just stared at each other for awhile and I thought, for a possum, you are like the George Clooney or Audrey Hepburn of your lil possum world. Really good looking possum, clean, well groomed, big, shiny eyes, elegant air, are they all like that? It just climbed away but I named it Pepper. I never thought I'd think possums were cute. I always thought of sharp, scary teeth and rat tails when I thought of possums. I had a close encounter with a Nutria once and eek! Possums sort seemed like Nutria to me and I never looked at them, always turned away from them.

Considering two hens, maybe Gingernuts, Stars still looking. Online research leads me to think that this is the latest fad or something? Urban chickens. I've been wanting two hens for a long time and now that we have a house and a huge back yard, it's easy. My grandad raises chickens and is an expert. His lawn is green as can be and he's always built and maintained great coops. But with coops like the Eglu, you wonder if the whole chicken/hen thing has gone hipster or something. It looks like an iMac and maybe because it does...the whole yard bird thing will be in again? Anyway, I am sure, from old ancient remnants in the shed, that our house had kept hens or chickens in the past. I can see that chickens were kept in many backyards in the hood at one time. Some still have ancient coops standing.

Leaf Blowers! UGH! I loathe these things. I saw a film from 1966 called Petulia and they had leaf blowers back then, just as noisy too. No improvements seem to have been made on the design in over forty years. It's been annoying people and breaking up the sounds of nature for at least 40 years.

This weekend while killing wasps we spotted monarch butterflies en route to Mexico. Awwwwwwwwwwww I love them! This made wasp killing a bit hard, didn't want to injure or annihilate a sweet lil Monarch. They seems to love my Maid of Orleans Jasmine and now all the butterflies can be found dancing around it. Going to plant some along the fence next year. I previously posted on the blog that I had not seen a butterfly in sometime. Well, I am enjoying seeing them now!

I cannot recommend Drakula's enough! Curious though to what the link between Guatemalan textiles and Romanian textiles is. They look alike. So does Mexican Talevera pottery and the Romanian pottery that was on the wall. I even asked if the items decorating the wall were Romanian or, I was thinking, just left over from a Mexican restaurant that occupied the space maybe? Never saw a Mexican restaurant occupy the space though. The Romanian waitress said they were in fact all Romanian and said it's all Latin. True but how exactly did those craft cross the sea all those ages ago?

California Split is a new favorite movie.

I heard Paz Dhody wasn't going to keep the Brentwood Tavern up and open by offering them a long term lease. It seemed to fall right in with his plans for the Old Farmer's Market. There is enough room in the space for the Brentwood Tavern and more. I don't frequent Brentwood Tavern but it's always hopping when we pass by. I do know how it is to lose a favorite hangout-Frisco{sniff}. I just hope he stays true to the presentation he made as much as possible. I can't remember if the tavern was part of that but I do remember there is supposed to be vendor booths, a restaurants and a park like setting. It's hard to trust anyone building or planning anything for the town these days. Seems like all the neighborhoods in town are irked for one reason or another.



Just today, while looking up Buck Moore Feed Supply, I found this awesome blog. I read a bit only to discover that YAY! Like minded Luddites exist...to an extent, we do have blogs and computers after all...neo luddites?
Just an observation: So I work with people degreed in Information Science who went to school to learn how to research and search for things: titles of magazines for instance, on line for instance. It's amazing how many are either learned helpless or never learned how to search for info using this here tool called the computer and it's "internets". If I charged $1 for every ridiculous, silly, justtypethetitleintoGoogle search and TA-DA the website with information regarding the title! AMAZING! If I charged $1 to do this I would be rich enough to buy back their degrees. What's with the learned helplessness? It's INFORMATION SCIENCE! Use your degrees, use your resources. Sorry, this was harsh but really....

Box of moonlight?

For some reason I am left thinking of the movie Box of Moonlight.I really liked Box of Moonlight quite a bit. Then I started thinking of all the movies I have seen. I have never seen so many movies as I have in just the last three years. Watching a movie with my sweetie is the best! After watching our first two movies together I could tell that he was The One. Well, it was yet more evidence that he was The One. He claims that he wanted to and knew that he would marry me after our first real conversation. I'm getting mushy. Okay, the next movie we are seeing together is The Darjeeling Limited. Kudos to W. Anderson for bringing back Peter Sarstedt. I remember that song...now, could he ever use Tee Set in a film?

Garage Sale

Downtime-This is only 1/4 of the sale.

So Saturday was my big garage sale. As I unpacked everything I wondered why these purchases were ever made, who was I from 1992-2002? I didn't recognize this person anymore. Prices were set uber low. The point was to move stuff out of my yard and have only a trunk load of stuff to cart to Savers. Simplify, simplify.

So I figured, if everyone had to either sell or give away their stuff, no landfills or dumping grounds like Savers or Goodwill, they would think twice before making purchases. Imagine having to sit with all your junk trying to give it away to people who had their own junk... That is the last garage sale I ever want to have. I had it because I don't own a truck and there was just too much stuff to cart away. Thankfully, I didn't even have to fill my trunk when it was over.

Kress Building, Del Rio,TX

Del Rio has a lovely old Kress Five and Dime building being used as...last I checked, a banquet hall. Since I was a kid I wanted that building. I wanted to take it's floors and dedicate each floor to something creative. First floor, lobby and cafe (coffee shops were not the rage in 1980, even now I'd prefer a cafe to a coffee shop), this would help generate money for the place and organization (loved that noun as a kid). Second floor, art gallery, show space, dancing space (where I used to think I could showcase my ballet. Hey, I was nine and had just seen Isadora). Third floor, art studios so everyone can go and practice or paint or whatever. Fourth floor community radio station. This was where I wanted to be as well. I pictured a cute transmitter atop the Kress building.

All this dream building and idea making was before I even stepped foot in Austin. It was my Lilliputian Utopian dream as a kid. Now too. For some reason I wanted to call it Downtown, Under Ground. At twelve I pictured me and my group of Sidewalk Social Scientist (both a band and movement, taken from the Blondie song 11:59-a B side. I know, I was only twelve though so cut me some slack), hanging out at the cafe thinking up new ways to make Del Rio purty and then going upstairs, via the old restored elevator, to rock out. I was going to release a line of clothing and sell it in a boutique. That would be the old Texas Theatre. I wanted to buy that place and turn it into a store where you could buy everything my friends and I made: clothing, furniture, movies, music, paintings...special place for my grandparents antiques.

When I see the building all the momentum still builds and wells up. UGH!
Still, it's the only ongoing dream I have had, along with raising chickens. As an adult I could see how perfect it would be to have an art building in an old Kress store, he was an uber patron of the arts. I can also see how something like this could revitalize the town. The place needs a more dynamic community. Del Rio needs more art, new ideas and new people coming in and out. This is me talking? This is me talking....

Alamo Village:A Movie Set in Texas?

Ever been? I recommend. It's great for photos. This is where the 1950's version of the Alamo was filmed.

Del Rio schools used to take students there for field trips. Once at Alamo Village I got into one of the horse drawn carriages with a couple of 12 year old dummies who shot cap pistols, scared the horses resulting in a mad ride at super high speeds and all of us flying and bouncing in the carriage. It was tres scary, the carriage was shaking violently back and forth, one kid threatened to throw up, two others were laughing their asses off until the doors flew open (just a lil chain holding them), I was pissed that I had picked this group to ride with. We could hear the driver going crazy cursing us and the horses then saying, "Dear Jeeeezus" in a terrified way that made me realize, this was serious.

Later, much later, took awhile to get the horses to calm down, the driver yelled at THEM (cap pistol dummies) for endangering his life and those without cap pistols (just me). He said we could have all been killed. I wondered at the time why nothing was said about spooking the horses. I mean you sell cap guns, kids and teens come here all the time, what were the chances? Why didn't they have better trained horses...aren't movie set horses expected to take snaps and pops?

On that same trip I got into my first ever fist fight, cat fight, hair pullin, girl fight. Before I got into the carriage I named names and said she was a bitch. When I got back, having a root beer and a hamburger at the cantina the girl asked if I said such thing. I emphatically declared that not only did I say it but from my point of view it was nothing but true. She left, we heard some chick named Linda sing and then we all went outside. It was there that I was confronted again.

Classmates gathered in a circle because me (the quiet one) had suddenly started cussing out loud. I got slapped! Remembering moves I saw on Happy Days once (Fonzie) I grabbed her collar (Fonzie never got further than that so I was at a loss) and then it got jumbled up. I remember being slapped, pulling hair, slapping back, knocking her to the ground, being on the ground and then it was over when two teachers pulled us apart. I do remember kicking and swinging and cussing after that. All of a sudden I was overcome by huge waves of deep embarrassment. What the hell had I done?

The ride home was with the cap pistol guys and they had no tact so I heard the gamut of point of views, true confessions and opinions regarding me, the day, the fight, the other girl and how fun that carriage ride was. UGH! What was my mother going to say I wondered? She worked at the school. So when we arrived the teacher told her and I got this stare of complete disbelief. I had cracked, I came out of my shell. The cutest boy in class walked by and with a smirk said, "You're the fighting girl", nodded and then walked away. What was that about? What had other people been saying on their rides back? I had not even thought of that. UGH!

The next day I had to stay in during PE for a "talk". The teachers and nuns thought that because I had always been so quiet and mild mannered that the outburst indicated I needed a talk. After all, the other girl had come from public school and all public schools were trouble to them and was not their concern but me..what set me off was the question that year.

What set me off was just a twelve year old girl being mean to twelve year old me for an entire car trip to Alamo Village and a bad carriage ride, nothing more. Things were awkward for a number of weeks and eventually the event was absorbed into my past. By eighth grade it was funny. Anyway, I digress.