Corner Pub Still Life (2008)– Image by kenne
“The secret of a good old age is simply an honorable pact with solitude.”
. . . from One Hundred Years of Solitude, by Gabriel García Márquez
Archive for the ‘Texas’ Tag
Corner Pub Still Life 4 comments
Livin’ On Bayou Time 3 comments
Front Door To Jackson’s Grocery, Double Bayou (The Place), Texas. — Images by kenne
All-time is created equal,
but we don’t use it equally.
Some are livin’ on bayou time,
while others in a New York minute.
My time is your time,
but it is not mine to give.
You can’t give away
something that isn’t yours.
…unless you share the moment.
— kenne
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Austin’s Water-Bucket Is Going Dry 6 comments
The Oasis On Lake Travis — 2002 Image by kenne
Today, voters in Texas have an opportunity to help determine how the state will be able to fund future water needs, especially considering recent trends in population and climate. As reported in StateImpact, “The state’s reservoirs are currently just over 60 percent full.” The continued drought throughout the southwest continues to worsen an already dire situation.
Recently we were visiting family and friends in the Houston area and on our return trip to Tucson, spent a couple of days in the Austin area. Having heard how low Lake Travis is, we went to The Oasis On Lake Travis for lunch, a scenic location we had visited several time over the years.
Lake Travis is currently 33% full. — Images by kenne
The Oasis, because of its high venue over Lake Travis has fared much better than many businesses on the lake. Another well-known restaurant on the lake, Carlos’n Charlie’s, open for nearly twenty years, shut down September 2, 2013. Jeff Beckham wrote in the NY Times article, “With Lakes Drying Up, Businesses are Parched,”
“The closing of Carlos’n Charlie’s was the latest and most visible business impact of the drought. In the past, thousands of patrons would arrive by boat and car to watch the restaurant’s annual Fourth of July fireworks show and listen to live music. But the boat docks have been unusable for more than three years.”
One of the Oasis decks well above the current lake level.
“In 2011, a coalition of governments, nonprofits and businesses commissioned a study to calculate a baseline economic and fiscal value to the area surrounding Lake Travis. The Lake Travis Economic Impact Report found that when the lake level dropped below 660 feet, visitor spending dropped by up to $33.8 million, resulting in up to 241 lost jobs and $6.1 million in lost wages a year. Lake Travis has been below 660 feet since April 2011, and the current level is about 620 feet.” (NY Times)
The last time Lake Travis was full was 2007.
Lunch-Time at the Oasis (October 28, 2013)
Currently, public boat ramps are closed on the lake and most residential boat decks are hundreds of feet away from the residence, high and dry.
“High and Dry” On Lake Travis
Jeff Beckham quoted Pete Clark, co-owner of Carlos’n Charlie’s — “It’s kind of like a sick friend in the hospital right now, but it’s still a friend and it’s still a great place. And it will be again.”
Let’s hope he’s correct, but like it or not, the odds are not good.
kenne
Related articles
- Picking Out Fast Plans In Homes For Sale On Lake Travis (lesleyhzdb.wordpress.com)
- [Press Release] Gov. Perry Visits Lake Travis to Urge Support of Prop. 6 (governor.state.tx.us)
- Drought claims another lakeside business (kxan.com)
- Ongoing Texas Drought Threatens Supply from Two Reservoirs on Colorado River (circleofblue.org)
- Carlos’n Charlie’s closing just the tip of Lake Travis’ melting economic iceberg (bizjournals.com)
- Central Texas Water Woes (alphatangoxray0.wordpress.com)
- Texas voters will decide on water election Tuesday (bizjournals.com)
- Ag expert: Drought could last another 15 years (kvue.com)
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Capturing The Moment — Trash-Tossers Beer Of Choice 2 comments
Willie, Still Great After All These Years 11 comments
Willie Nelson at dedication of statue in Austin.
The first time we saw Willie Nelson and Family was in the 70’s at Austin’s Waterloo Park. Over the years we have attended several of his July 4th Picnics, and Farm Aid events. (This year’s Farm Aid in September is already sold out.)
People love Willie and his music. He is one of the few entertainers who doesn’t need fancy settings and lighting to connect with the audience, establishing a mutual appreciation that lasts for years. This was very evident as we talked to people at yesterday’s Casino Del Sol Resort in Tucson. We were all quick to share our “Willie” stories that flowed in a stream of love. It is said that “Texas is a state of mind,” for us this 80-year-old singer/song-writer (a true poet) is a state of mind.
Jody Payne
Last night’s concert was straight-ahead music for 90 minutes. If he had a message to convey, it was in the music. I was a little surprised that he didn’t mention the death (August 10, 2013) of his longtime friend, Jody Payne. Jody played guitar with Willie for 30 years. You can see a video of Bobbie Nelson is on piano, Johnny Gimble on the fiddle, and Jody Payne on guitar, filmed in Willie’s Church in his town called Luck in Texas at willienelson.com.
As we have done so often in the past, we set on the ground, this time for 2 1/2 hours, which included the talented young band, Wild Feathers. For my old body to allow me to sit on the hard ground that long is testimonial to how entertaining the evening was at the 5,000-seat Anselmo Valencia Tori Amphitheater (AVA) at the Casino Del Sol Resort. It’s a great venue for music under the stars on a pleasant desert night. The only thing that seems to be missing from last night’s concert, compared to those in the past, was a whiff of marijuana smoke in the air — just “roll me up and smoke me when I die.”
The more I look at these gray-headed guys with white beards, the more I can see why, while lounging by the Casino pool yesterday, a guy came over and ask if I was a member of Willie’s band. I thought about playing along, telling him I was Merle Haggard, Willie’s special guest — I’ve been told I look like Merle, it might have worked.Oh, well!
I didn’t have any of my cameras with me, just my iPhone, so I put together a few clips to give you an idea of what the evening was like. I would like for the quality to be better, but these smart phone cameras are getting better all the time.
kenne
Related articles
- Jody Payne, Willie Nelson guitarist, dead at 77 (nydailynews.com)
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Support Live Music Leave a comment
Texas Live Music — Image by kenne
Take a music bath once or twice a week for a few seasons.
You will find it is to the soul what a water bath is to the body.
~Oliver Wendell Holmes
Related articles
- Capturing The Moment – Zydeco Dots (kenneturner.com)
- The Master Of Music Not To Love – JJ Cale, RIP (kenneturner.com)
- Sons of Fathers inherit Texas roots rock with soul (beaumontenterprise.com)
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Capturing The Moment — Zydeco Dots Leave a comment
The Zydeco Dots at The Continental Club, Houston, Texas — (09/24/06)
Roger Wood and James Fraher
Roger Wood writes in the Introduction to his 2006 book, Texas Zydeco:
“No matter where you may have lived or traveled or what your tastes in music might be, somewhere along the way you have likely encountered the uncanny sound of zydeco. For many people it is but a fleeting moment of exposure, leaving them slightly confused but somehow enthused by their sudden involuntary foot-tapping. For certain others it is an even more visceral awakening, the start of an ongoing relationship with a potent force. For some, there is no memory of their first encounter, for they have known it all their lives — the phrase ‘Texas zydeco’ is not an oxymoron but a cultural fact.”
kenne
Bar at Houston’s Continental Club — Images by kenne
Related articles
- Always Two Steps From The Blues – Texas Johnny Brown, RIP (kenneturner.com)
- Capturing The Moment – Gary Clark Jr. and Diunna Greenleaf (kenneturner.com)
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Capturing The Moment — Sunset Over The Lake Leave a comment
Sunset Over The Lake — Image by kenne
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A Break From The Normal Stuff — Way To Go Aggies! Whoop!!! 2 comments
Aggies at the World Sports Grille In Tucson — A scene that can be found all around the world. Image by kenne
“Oh ye of little faith!” I have been connected to Texas A&M since 1977, getting a PhD in 1980 and having three children who have degrees from there. An Aggie learns early on what it is to be let down, but not today — No. 15 Texas A&M upsets No. 1 Alabama 29-24 in Tuscaloosa! Whoop!!! Whoop!!! Whoop!!!
Way to go “Johnny Football!”
kenne
Related articles
- Aggies ready to ‘shock the world’ vs. Bama (espn.go.com)
- Manziel, No. 15 Texas A&M stun No. 1 Bama, 29-24 (mysanantonio.com)
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Screw You, I’m From Texas (1st Posted September 27, 2008) Leave a comment
Screw You, I’m From Texas
They call him Smokey Joe
The big polluters go to man
A notorious Big Oil yell leader
Long before “Drill Baby Drill”
Pockets lined with cash
Joe turns our air to ash
Long a guardian of Big Oil
Giving generous tax breaks
Killing the offshore moratorium
Unwilling to compromise
Now Smokey Joe wants it all
Three miles to 200 miles out
Desiring more for his benefactors
Joe covets the Gulf and the Arctic
Fancying himself as a prophet of capitalism
Leaving no choice, “There Will Be Blood”
All in the name of greed and profit
Screw you, I’m from Texas
kenne
(“Smokey Joe,” Congressman Joe Barton, 6th District, Texas)
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Houston’s Jewel In The Blues Crown — Diunna Greenleaf 5 comments
Jonn Del Toro Richardson & Diunna Greenleaf — Image by kenne
The one thing I miss most about not living in southeast Texas is the abundance of great blues music. Over the years there, I got to see a lot of live music and get to know a lot of great musician — some who have become close friends over the years. And as I have already acknowledged in an earlier posting, I was very pleased to learn earlier this summer that Diunna Greenwood and Blue Mercy lead guitarist, Jonn Richardson were going to be heading this year’s Bisbee Blues Festival. We immediately made plans to be at the festival, but I let Diunna know that she needed to get a gig in Tucson — long story short, she was booked to perform in the Rhythm & Roots Concert Series with special guest Bob Corritore, which took place this past Friday, September 14, 2012. This video is one of several I recorded.
Embodied in this award-winning Texas blues singer, Diunna is the voice of female blues singer legends. This video is almost ten minutes long, but short of having been at the plaza, you will find it well worth the listen, especially with good speakers or ear phones.
kenne
Related articles
- Diunna Greenleaf & Blue Mercy In Tucson & Bisbee This Weekend (kenneturner.com)
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Mother’s Mission Completed, We Celebrate Her Life 10 comments
Mother, Grandmother, Great-Grandmother, Agnes.
Willie Agnes Poe passed away (September 8, 2006) after three months of fighting post-surgery infection. During the last few weeks of Mother’s life, she shared stories of her childhood and often talked about playing with her close childhood friend, Fern. (They remained close throughout life.)
“We had so much fun playing in the cemetery — Can you take me back to the cemetery on the hill?’ she would ask. “I can see the man in black with a big black dog,” she would go on.
In her last days, the man in black visited her. As we were talking, she looked straight ahead, “…see him, he is here! Don’t you see him?” Then she would turn and ask, “Can you bring me a big black dog? I want a big dog! Can you get one for me?”
“Yes, we can,” would be my reply, We were making arrangements for Jill to bring one of their black labs by for Mother, just two days before she passed on.
On August 26, 2012, the family gathered in The Woodlands to celebrate the life of Willie Agnes Poe, which involved a brunch at Cru’ Wine Bar and a gathering at the pedestrian bridge over Grogan’s Mill Road.
After moving to The Woodlands in the mid-1980’s, Mother would walk the trails from her Grogan’s Landing apartment, which included the pedestrian bridge in a six-mile walk around the TPC golf course. Over time, Mother became functionally blind, limiting the trail walking, but not her walking. Early each morning she would spend a couple of hours walking back and forth over the pedestrian bridge. Our gathering at the bridge ended with a symbolic walk over Agnes’ bridge.
Why this celebration now? Because Mother had donated her body to the Texas Medical Center after her death, we didn’t have a family gathering to celebrate her life. It was our understanding that Mother’s ashes would be sent to us 2-3 years after her death. As it turned out, we didn’t receive her ashes till this past May.
Hall Cemetery
Several months after Mother’s death we got word that her brother, J.C. had died. I knew immediately we were going to Alabama. How I know just how important it was to bring closure to the Mother’s life. While in Alabama, Joy and I made a point of going to Lincoln, then two miles out to the country church and cemetery in Refuge. She was always at her happiest when talking about her childhood in Alabama, even more so during her last days with us. She always wanted to go back but knew she would only be able to in her vision of those childhood memories. It doesn’t go unnoted that with the importance of Hall Cemetery in Refuge, Alabama, Mother didn’t desire to be buried there. For her, a higher priority was to give her body to medicine.
While visiting Hall Cemetery, I wanted so to turn around and see two little girls playing in the cemetery on the hill – to see the man in black with the big dog – to hear them laughing, and see the joy when the big dog came running to the children. Instead, Joy and I walked silently, on this sunny fall morning through the small cemetery on the hill, which now represents the burial-place of the last surviving member of the Confederate army. As fate would have it, as we walked through Hall Cemetery, a black dog appeared.
By making the journey to Hall Cemetery, I have for my life captured the feeling of two little girls laughing and playing in a world that never vanished from Mother’s vision of happiness. Real or not, it was real for her – now it is real for me, and I might add, Joy.
kenne
A Celebration Of Life
“When the child was a child, it didn’t know
It was a child
Everything for it was filled with life and all life was one
When the child, when the child
The child, child, child, child, child
And on and on and on and on, etc. And onward
With a sense of wonder
Upon the highest hill. Upon the highest hill
When the child was a child
Are you there
Shassas, shassas
Up on a highest hill
When the child was a child, was a child, was a child
Was a child, was a child, was a child, etc.
… and it’s still quivering there today”
from, Song of Being A Child
Music by Van Morrison, Words by Peter Handke
Related Articles:
- http://kenneturner.com/2012/06/10/dust-and-ashes/
- http://kenneturner.com/2012/05/23/remembering-mother-on-my-brothers-birthday/
- http://kenneturner.com/2011/03/03/happy-birthday-mother-2/
- http://kenneturner.com/2010/05/09/mothers-day-2010/
- http://kenneturner.com/2010/04/17/capturing-the-moment-great-grandmother-ii/
- http://kenneturner.com/2010/04/16/capturing-the-moment-great-grandmother-agnes/
- http://kenneturner.com/2009/05/10/a-mothers-love-mothers-day-2009/
- http://kenneturner.com/2009/03/11/happy-birthday-mother/
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Rich DelGrosso & Jonn Del Toro Richardson at Ken & Mary’s Blues Project 1 comment
Jonn Del Toro Richardson & Rich DelGrosso at Ken & Mary’s Blues Project — Image by kenne
Some people are hard to live with,
the source for many a blues song.
But the blues is easy to live with,
especially in the woods of east Texas.
Ken & Mary know that for sure,
attracting friends and their guests,
year after year to their Blues Project,
sharing the best blues anywhere.
Returning again this year, Rich DelGrosso sang,
“Hard To Live With,” with Jonn Del Tero Richardson.
Their latest CD, nominated by “Blues Blast” magazine for
“Best Traditional Blues CD of The Year!”
Nominated among blues legends,
very deserving of the honor,
with new songs taking traditional blues
to a new creative level.
kenne
Related articles
- Ken & Mary’s Blues Project October 2008 – Revisited (kenneturner.wordpress.com)
- Last Minute Plug For Ken and Mary’s “Fall Music Festival” House Concert (kenneturner.wordpress.com)
- Houston’s Blues Scene Busier Than Ever (kenneturner.wordpress.com)
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Foggy Morning Returning To The Desert 1 comment
Lake Woodlands In The Woodlands, Texas — Image by kenne
On our last day in the Houston area, we had some morning fog to contrast our return to the Sonoran desert. I’m taking some photographic licence with this image taken a few years ago.
We continue to seek new adventures, knowing that each adventure dies as we achieve its object, encouraged by the words of Mark Twain:
“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.”
kenne
Related articles
- Photos – Foggy August Morning (ramblingsfromthedarkness.wordpress.com)
- Foggy Mornings (acrobaticthoughts.wordpress.com)
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Houston’s Big Easy Social and Pleasure Club 1 comment
Trudy Lynn with Duke-Peacock veteran I.J. Gosey at Mr. Geno’s In Houston, Texas, 2004 — Image by kenne
When I talk to blues people in Tucson about the Houston blues scene, I often mention two of my favorite blues clubs, Mr. Geno’s Lounge and the Big Easy Social and Pleasure Club.
Recently, the Houston Press published an article, “Old School: Musicians in their 70s and 80s are keeping Houston’s traditional blues scene real,” with a series of photos taken behind the scenes at the Big Easy.
“Midnight, The Big Easy Social & Pleasure Club, cover charge is five bucks. A blast of heat from the gaggle of horns onstage rushes out of the momentarily open door of the Kirby Drive nightclub, as a writing mass of sweaty Friday-night humanity works it out on the dance floor. Dressed to the nines, saxophonist Grady Gaines and his band the Texas Upsetters are cooking up some nasty, big-beat blues,” begins the article. . . . read on.
The article and photos reminded me of photos I took (2005) at the Big Easy with some of the musicians in the Houston Press publication, which I share in this posting — enjoy and share.
kenne
2005 Photos at The Big Easy Social and Pleasure Club by kenne
Related articles
- Houston’s Blues Scene Busier Than Ever (kenneturner.wordpress.com)
East End Park, Kingwood, Texas — Images by kenne (Click on any of the tiled photos for larger view and slideshow.)
Hikers and naturalists in general often carry a small plastic bag when outdoors to pick up trash left behind by people who routinely show a disrespect for nature. Whether on the trail or along roads in our National Parks, one will frequently see trash, especially beer cans, and from my experience the beer of choice for “trash-tossers” is Bud Light. Yes, I’m aware that Bud Light is the number one selling beer in America, which doesn’t say much for the beer-taste of Americans, whether we toss our cans or not. From my outdoor experience, trash-tossers beer of choice is America’s number one selling beer — coincidence, maybe.
Recently while visiting family in Kingwood, Texas, I took the time to walk the trails in East End Park, located along the shores of Lake Houston. These photos make my case! Since Bud Light commercials are directed at men, well, you can make you own conclusions as to the gender of trash-tossers.
kenne
— from urban dictionary:
Bud Light
Pure piss in a bottle. Popular at high school parties simply
because its cheap and available in bulk.
However, there is actually a good side to this alcohol-injected urine.
They make some of the funniest damn commercials around.
John: *Grabs last bud light*
Sarah: Hey John, wanna get me a bud light?
John: Um….sure, one sec. *Chugs Bud light*
John: *Pisses in bottle*
Sarah: Thanks! Mmmmm…Crisp!
CONCLUSION:
I you like piss in a can
and enjoy trashing nature,
you drink Bud Light.
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