Archive for the ‘Houston’ Tag

The World Still Grows   1 comment

Swampy Area of East End Park, Kingwood, Texas (December 28, 2022) — Image by kenne

The world still grows it grows relentlessly
And yet there is always less of it

— from The Old Painter on a Walk Adam Zagajewski

Mother and Daughter   2 comments

Jill and Joy (Daughter and Mother) — Image by kenne

“A daughter may outgrow your lap, but she will never outgrow your heart.”

Katelyn and Sisters At Her Graduation   Leave a comment

Re Ann, Justice, and Katelyn after Katelyn’s Graduation on May 28, 2022 — Image by kenne

“Wear sunscreen.

If I could offer you only one tip for the future, sunscreen would be it. The long-term benefits of sunscreen have been proved by scientists, whereas the rest of my advice has no basis more reliable than my own meandering experience. I will dispense this advice now.

Enjoy the power and beauty of your youth. Oh, never mind. You will not understand the power and beauty of your youth until they’ve faded. But trust me, in 20 years, you’ll look back at photos of yourself and recall in a way you can’t grasp now how much possibility lay before you and how fabulous you really looked. You are not as fat as you imagine.

Don’t worry about the future. Or worry, but know that worrying is as effective as trying to solve an algebra equation by chewing bubble gum. The real troubles in your life are apt to be things that never crossed your worried mind, the kind that blindside you at 4 p.m. on some idle Tuesday.”

— from Advice, like youth, probably just wasted on the young by Mary Schmich 

Great Blue Heron   Leave a comment

Great Blue Heron on the Shores of Lake Houston (May 27, 2022) — Image by kenne

Early morning

walking the trails

in Eastend Park

watching for animals

in the thick woods

near the shore

of Lake Houston

as a blue heron

views the murky

waters from the

heavy overnight rains.

— kenne

Chase’s Graduation Day, May 24, 2022   7 comments

Chase, December 12, 2005 — Photo-Artistry by kenne

Chase (October 11, 2005) — Image by kenne

Chase and Grandma Joy (May 28, 2005) — Image by kenne

You are educated. Your certification is in your degree.
You may think of it as the ticket to the good life.
Let me ask you to think of an alternative.
Think of it as your ticket to change the world.

— Tom Brokaw

Red Rock Country — Sedona   6 comments

Last week James, Jill, and Hugh visited us for six days from Houston. In addition to taking in sites around Tucson,
we went north to Sedona, Flagstaff, and The Grand Canyon. Here are a few images from the Sedona area.

— kenne 

Houston Skyline at Sam Houston Park   Leave a comment

Houston Skyline at Sam Houston Park — Image by kenne

“Houston is an example of what can happen when architecture catches a venereal disease.”

— Frank Lloyd Wright

Sherman — Come Away In   Leave a comment

Houston Blues Legend, Sherman Roberson — Image by kenne

Don’t tell me The Blues is not a feeling!

Christmas Past: Holidays In New Orleans   2 comments

Royale Street in New Orleans (December 2014) — Image by kenne

For years, after celebrating Christmas with family and friends,
Joy and I would go to one of our favorite ‘getaways,’ New Orleans.

Big Easy dreaming
Strolling through the French Quarter
Existential being.

— kenne

Houston’s Trudy Lynn   Leave a comment

Houston’s Trudy Lynn (October 24, 2002) at  Houston’s Photofest — Image by kenne

 

Looking At Community Service Days (04-27-01)   Leave a comment

kennejoysheriff-04-27-01-B&W-72Joy & Kenne at a Fund-raiser for the Harris County Sheriff (04/27/01) 

Mr. Gino’s Lounge   Leave a comment

Mr. VDancing to the Blues at Houston’s, Mr. Gino’s Lounge (03/09/08) — Image by kenne

 

The Blues

“The fundamental form in all of American music —
that’s what the blues is. It’s in every folk song,
The sound of the banjo and the sound of the guitar.
It’s in the sound of ragtime, it’s  in the sound of
John Philip Sousa’s marches. It’s hard to get the 
blues out of your sound. Blues is also call and
response, which is democratic form. It generally
has lyrics that described something tragic or sad.
But many times it reverses that and gives you
something that’s hopeful.”

— Wynton Marsalis (NY Times, June 28, 2020)

 

Houston Blues Legends   3 comments

Billy Blues (1 of 1)-2-72Pee Wee Stephens, Pete Mayes, Grady Gaines, Calvin Owens, Joe “Guitar” Hughes,
and I don’t know the gentleman playing bass on the stage at Billy Blues (1999)
— Image by kenne

During our time living in the Houston area, Joy and I were very much into live music, especially the blues. Although there are still plenty of blues venues, many have passed with time. One such place was Billy Blues, on Richmond Avenue on Houston’s trendy westside. Regional and nationally known blues musicians played there for about seven years. Known for its 63-foot-tall saxophone made of Volkswagen Beetle parts and beer kegs, the venue never seemed to capture the same blues feeling of clubs in Houston’s working-class 3rd and 5th Ward communities. “I love the blues. It’s a feeling,” Martha Turner said to Roger Wood in his book Down In Houston: Bayou City Blues. “You got to feel a song, you know. When a person comes into a club to see you, they enjoy your expression, not so much as what you’re singing. They watch your face.”

“You watch this person sing a song,
and it’s almost like you’re doing it yourself.
Know what I’m talking about?
You enjoy that blues.
The Blues is something you can identify with.”

(Martha Turner)

During these trying times, what better way of coming together than with The Blues, and Buddy Guy reminds us,
“. . . you treat everybody just the way you want them to treat you.”

— kenne

 

Lyrics
I've been around a while
I know wrong from right
And since a long time ago
Things been always black and white
Just like you can't judge a book by the cover
We all gotta be careful
How we treat one another
I say

Skin deep, skin deep
Underneath we all look same
Skin deep, skin deep
Underneath, don't we all look the same?

A man in Louisiana
He never called me by my name
He said "boy do this and boy do that"
But I never once complained
I knew he had a good heart
But he just didn't understand
That I needed to be treated
Just like any other man

Skin deep, skin deep
Underneath, don't we all look the same?
Skin deep, skin deep
Underneath we all look the same

I sat my little child down
When he was old enough to know
I said "I fear in this big wide world
You're gonna meet all kinda folks"
I said "Son it all comes down to just one simple rule
That you treat everybody just the way
You want them to treat you"

Skin deep, skin deep
Underneath, don't we all look the same?
Skin deep, skin deep
Underneath we all look the same

Skin deep, skin deep
Underneath, don't we all look the same? Yeah
Skin deep, skin deep
Underneath we just all look the same (the same, yeah)

Skin deep (treat everybody), skin deep
Skin deep, skin deep
All look, all look the same
Skin deep, skin deep
Don't we all look the same?

Katelyn   1 comment

Katlyn-04-01-05-B&W-72Katelyn Turner (04/01/05)– Image by kenne

Every time I see this picture

I wonder what she was thinking —

I can imagine but never know.

— kenne

Down In Houston Blues   Leave a comment

DownInHouston-art-72Down In Houston Blues — Photo-Artistry by kenne

“For the latter half of the twentieth century, Houston has been home to what the
sociologist Robert D. Bullard has identified as perhaps, ‘the largest block community
in the South.’ More to the point, as David Nelson says in an editorial in Living Blues magazine,
the city is also the birthplace for ‘some of the most significant developments in modern blues.'” 

— from Down In Houston-Bayou City Blues by Roger Woods

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