Guns & Butter

I was reading stuff from my retirement account and saw that last years’ best performing fund was one that held stocks from developed countries other than the U.S.

This is what Joe Higgins would call “another sign of republican economic prosperity" like when you see somebody pushing their broke-down car off the road.

The Bushites like to say that their guy is carrying on the legacy of the sainted Ronald Reagan. Actually it’s been worse than that as Bush had a republican congress for 6 years so the lunacy has been unchecked.

The national debt today is $8.8 trillion, or $29,000 per person, half again what it was when Clinton left office, and Clinton had balanced the budget for two years, actually starting to pay down the debt for the first time since 1940.

And we thought we had it bad when Reagan left us $3 trillion in the hole!

David Johnson on the Marketplace show today talked about traders being skittish today after rumors that an American ship had been fired on in the Persian Gulf, and that the Brits had launched a raid to free their sailors held by Iran. Those guys know we could have $100 oil overnight, and know what that would mean to the world economy.

At least when Reagan picked a war with somebody, he chose some chump spot like Grenada or Libya. If we let President Chucklehead have his way, he could make a big mess before he leaves office. Let’s impeach Cheney first.

Let 'Em Eat Cake

Ms. Hendrix,

We like you very much. How are your dauschunds (standard Bavarian greeting)?

We have decided to be more community minded on our band-blog, www.liquiddaddy.blogspot.com by linking to your site. Hope you get some visitors.

Feel free to listen to some great Texas music at www.liquiddaddy.com We recommend Snake Farm.

Love,

Peter

p.s. I am not a stalker

----- Original Message -----

From: Terri Hendrix

To:.

Sent: Wednesday, February 21, 2007 3:47 PM

Subject: Re: We have linked to you

Thanks a bunch!

Will check it out.

P.S. i am not a stalker either ...

Terri

:)

Terri,

I wanted to take time to thank you for your warm response to my note to you about linking to my blog.

As an experiment, I had written similarly to my other heros: Billy Joe Shaver, Mark Jungers, Adam Carrol, the Morales Sisters, Buddy Miller, ect., and you are the only one who replied! My purpose for this was to see whether or not the web sites were misserving the artists by limiting contact, or the artists themselves had decided web contact with the public is problematic.

About that time Judy Hubbard hollard at me, "we don't answer thos e-mails on our site with all those nuts and crazy people trying to sell us their great ideas. Hell, people are constantly sending us death threats and weird letters about themselves. Ray couldn't talk to those people." (true story)

I told her Ray ought to mention that on the site, and perhaps Homeland Security should screen his e-mails..

According to the CDC&P, 28% of Americans have a treatable mental illness. Artists cannot be afraid to talk to people. With CD sales in a free-fall the last few years, perhaps music folks should not be so insulated?

Anyway, I have always enjoyed your music and performances (although I think Mr. Maynes should be more respectful to you in public-no offense). Thanks again for your refreshing realness.

Warmest regards,

Peter

p.s. Happy Easter!

From: "Terri Hendrix"
To: "
Sent: Friday, March 23, 2007 2:44 PM
Subject: Re: We have linked to you


> "It's all folk music" I ain't never heard a cow sing - Big Bill
> Broonzy said that ...
> Anyway thanks for the email and happy pickin' to you!
> Kind Regards,
> Terri
>


Ms. Hendrix,

Forgive me for mistaking you for someone else.

Very truly yours,

Peter

PETA Be Damned

Driving in to town today I had to swerve to avoid splattering a dead dog on the freeway. Some imbecile must have been taking it for a ride in the bed of his pick-up. This was right by one of those billboards with the big picture of a cheeseburger
on it. The dog probably lunged, snapping at the big burger, and that was the last thing that crossed its’ mind.

When I see something tragical like this, I try to find the silver lining. I thought of all the in-bred yokels that think it’s a good idea to breed pit bulls like rats, the better to abuse them all. Occasionally authorities catch one of these dipwads and send him up the river, leaving the question of what to do with all the rabid mongrels left behind.

Maybe they could all be released on the 610 loop, to give driver training to wildlife-deprived city people. Folks might turn off their cellphones when they’re driving if they were all the time having to dodge or dispatch roving attack dogs. This might also have the added benefit of discouraging pedestrians from trying to cross the freeway. Whaddaya think?

Juice and the Legislature

Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst and other Texas Republicans are pushing a bill to require random steroid testing among the 733,000 athletes in Texas’ public schools. Sen. Kyle Janek’s bill would have the state spend $4 million dollars for this, while Rep. Dan Flynn’s house bill would allow the schools to charge admission to school sporting events to cover the monetary costs of testing.

If the legislators are so concerned about steroids getting into our children, they should pull their attention from the schools and have a good look at the Cattlemen and Meatpackers; see this.

From the LA Times:
Sons born to women who ate a lot of beef during their pregnancy have a 25-percent-below-normal sperm count and three times the normal risk of fertility problems, researchers reported Tuesday.
The problem may be because of anabolic steroids used in the United States to fatten the cattle, Dr. Shanna Swan of the University of Rochester Medical Center reported in the journal Human Reproduction. It could also be because of pesticides and other environmental contaminants, she added.
If the sperm deficit is related to the hormones in beef, Swan's findings may be "just the tip of the iceberg," wrote biologist Frederick vom Saal of the University of Missouri in an editorial accompanying the paper.
In daughters of the beef eaters, those same hormones could alter the incidence of polycystic ovarian syndrome, the age of puberty and the postnatal growth rate, he said.
"It's a small effect, but it is a significant effect," said Dr. Ted Schettler, an environmental health specialist at the Institute for Global Communications in San Francisco.
"It's not surprising. The more you look at dietary factors, the more you turn up interesting information about how diet during pregnancy affects lots of aspects of human health."
Six growth-promoting hormones are routinely used in cattle production in the United States and Canada: the natural steroids estradiol, testosterone and progesterone, and the synthetic hormones zeranol, trenbolone acetate and melengestrol acetate. At slaughter, not all of these hormones have been metabolized.
Diethyl stilbestrol was also used in the U.S. between 1954 and 1979, when it was banned after tests showed that minks fed chicken waste containing DES became infertile.
The Food and Drug Administration sets limits on how much hormone residue is permissible in beef. Those limits may need to be re-examined if Swan's findings can be confirmed, vom Saal said.

Rock 'n Roll

Teen's wild ride ends in capture

Web Posted: 03/19/2007 01:00 AM CDT

Vincent T. Davis
Express-News

A person who police say stole a cruiser Sunday night isn't old enough to vote or legally drink.

But police say she was old enough to commandeer the vehicle, leading officers on a high-speed chase down South Side streets until crashing and ending up in a wooded lot.

Her age? Sixteen.

The marked police cruiser was young, too. Its mileage? About 2,000.

A witness said she was looking in her rearview mirror when police arrived at a home on Taft Boulevard to pick up a man on a felony arrest warrant.

The witness, who didn't want to give her name, said she saw the teen outside, looking dazed and confused. The woman then saw a man dash from two police officers, who gave chase.

During the chase, one of the officers dropped his keys, said San Antonio Police Department Sgt. George Antu.

The girl looked at the car, cursed the officers, picked up the keys and jumped in the cruiser, witnesses said.

Antu said the girl sped away in an attempt to divert officers from chasing the man, who might have been her boyfriend.

The girl drove down South Zarzamora Street at 80 mph, running red lights, Antu said.

No pedestrians or motorists were hurt during the chase.

Her diversionary tactic came to an end when she lost control at Zarzamora and Fitch Street. She slammed the cruiser into a phone booth and telephone pole, leaving a scattered trail of debris as the car went airborne at Milvid Avenue, landing on its roof.

Witnesses said she crawled out of the drivers-side window and tried to escape, but officers tackled her.

"Did he get away, did he get away?" she said after police apprehended her.

Police caught and took the man on the run into custody.

"She got real lucky for being a juvenile" said Erica Garza, 28, standing behind yellow police tape at the scene. "They come up never getting hurt. The innocents are the ones who (usually) end up getting hurt."

vtdavis@express-news.net

Chupacabra Report

The Chrons daily rundown of the 80th legislature today featured Sen. Robert Talton (R- Pleistocene) who found fault with the bill to reform the Childrens Health Insurance Program and sent it back to committee, saying that he hopes it doesn’t come back. “I believe in limited government. I think people ought to pay for health insurance themselves,” he said. And “I didn’t have health insurance when I was growing up. Back when I was a kid, doctors didn’t charge for office visits and shots were 5 bucks.”

It’s hard to know where to start on this. Houston Rep. Sylvester Turner estimated that “there must be hundreds, if not more uninsured children in Pasadena Republican Talton’s district,” and that it would cost the state $78 million to cover the extra children covered under the bills changes, money that would be matched by more than $100 million in federal funds.

Talton won’t vote to clean up the air in his district, and he won’t vote to care for children who get sick from breathing there. A REAL fiscal conservative would fund the CHIPS program because the care they’re deferring, denying, and ultimately delivering at the emergency room ends up being much more expensive, even ignoring the costs in human suffering and degradation.

How does this pompous ass get re-elected?

Buck Jones Killed

by a drunk driver along the highway outside of Royce City. The 33 year-old up-and-comer leaves a wife and 7 month-old child. He was a native of Belton and Texan from start to finish.

There is a memorial fund at www.buckjonesmusic.com and with the nice folks at www.galleywinter.com

Whoa, are we moving too slow?

I was disappointed last week to hear John McCain apologize for using the expression “tar baby.” Whatever happened to straight talk? Brother rabbit is the arch-typical trickster that appears in every cultural tradition throughout world history. Uncle Remus may be off color in today’s light, but like seeing the Marx brothers in blackface, it’s a reflection of its time, hardly hate speech.

Joel Chandler Harris wrote the Uncle Remus books 120 years ago, but this story came from West African mythology. Harris read it to Mark Twain’s children.
Mark Twain used the n-word in his books, doesn’t mean we shouldn’t read them.

When Ralph Bakshi made a satire of Disney’s “Song of the South,” featuring Scatman Crothers and Barry White, it won praise from Richard Pryor and Spike Lee, but didn’t get distributed because theatre owners were afraid that Al Sharpton would picket them.

Back when folks complained about Clarence Darrow’s colorful language, he replied that
“there’s damn few enough words everybody understands.” Our language and culture are going down the tubes fast enough without us blue-lining it out of existence.

Chupacabra Report

More news that gets my goat.

-Harris County Commissioner Steve Radack (R-Gridlock) reversed himself last week and announced that he will seek re-election next year to help elect other Republicans on the ticket. Do you think he means to resign after the election like Judge Robert Eckles, or “Virginia Tom” DeLay? Maybe he found out that he’ll lose his $10,000 a month consulting contract if he no longer has influence to peddle. I hope his double-dipping makes him vulnerable. Radack’s made a career of beating up on the County Hospital District, maybe some smart Doctor will run against him.

-Two local state legislators have joined local smogville mayors to stop Bill Whites’ efforts to clean up Houston’s toxic air. Rep. Wayne Smith, (R-Baytown) and Sen. Mike Jackson, (R-LaPorte), knowing which side their bread is smutted on, have introduced a measure to prohibit any municipality from regulating pollution beyond its city limits.
As I remember, the legislature acted on this issue in the last session, asserting their sole authority to collect campaign cash from polluters, the Texas version of emissions trading.

-And Congressman Chris Smith of New Jersey was on NPR this morning telling how he ran afoul of the House leadership in 2004 when he wouldn’t go along with their cutting $750 million from the Veterans healthcare budget. Tom DeLay fired him from his post of Chairman of the Veterans Affairs Committee and purged members who wouldn’t play games with veteran’s healthcare. DeLay has a book out this week. I enjoyed Lou Dubose’s book ABOUT Tom DeLay, but I’m not interested in what he’s selling.
Juanita at Kiss My Big Blue Butt points out the tags that Amazon customers have put on DeLays’ book; they include criminal, felon, liar, hot tub, pig, and assgasket. Don’t buy books by crooks.

Thanks to Lucinda Williams

Lucy and I made the Lucinda Williams concert last night in the rain. It was at the hallowed Floore's Country Store in Helotes.

She looked good but a little haggard. She sounded great with her four piece. Taking time to explain that she had just played Austin last night which had tired her out and caused her confusion. "This is great. Now I know why all y'all have moved down here. It reminds me a lot of Austin back before things changed. It's just not cool anymore. When they closed the Armadillo, it just wasn't the same anymore."

I can imagine what she went through in Austin. Dozens of vacuous know-nothings obsessed with their own "ideas."

People who write crap like this (www.sxsw.com)

Know any rockstars?

Are your musician friends going to be in town for SxSW Music? I'm going to be conducting interviews with rockstars on the topic of cooking and food for my project, CookingwithRockstars.com, and I'd appreciate any leads and introductions you're generous enough to offer. Just drop me a line at "jen [at] jenville.com".


For the attendees of the "Create a Campaign in a hour" we all experienced a very strange exciting and spontaneous session. So in honor of that session I made a badge that you can use, link to, whatever commemorating your attendance. Don't forget to protect your banana.


Protect your banana.

Lucinda Williams rocked the house down with authenticity and real emotion. About as real as a toothache.

Thanks to Lucinda Williams

Lucy and I made the Lucinda Williams concert last night in the rain. It was at the hallowed Floore's Country Store in Helotes.

She looked good but a little haggard. She sounded great with her four piece. Taking time to explain that she had just played Austin last night which had tired her out and caused her confusion. "This is great. Now I know why all y'all have moved down here. It reminds me a lot of Austin back before things changed. It's just not cool anymore. When they closed the Armadillo, it just wasn't the same anymore."

I can imagine what she went through in Austin. Dozens of vacuous know-nothings obsessed with their own "ideas."

People who write crap like this (www.sxsw.com)

Know any rockstars?

Are your musician friends going to be in town for SxSW Music? I'm going to be conducting interviews with rockstars on the topic of cooking and food for my project, CookingwithRockstars.com, and I'd appreciate any leads and introductions you're generous enough to offer. Just drop me a line at "jen [at] jenville.com".


For the attendees of the "Create a Campaign in a hour" we all experienced a very strange exciting and spontaneous session. So in honor of that session I made a badge that you can use, link to, whatever commemorating your attendance. Don't forget to protect your banana.


Protect your banana.

Lucinda Williams rocked the house down with authenticity and real emotion. About as real as a toothache.

Chupacabra Report

News that gets my goat!

-When people use the terms “Houston Chronicle” and “liberal press” in the same sentence, I respond with three words: William Randolph Hearst. And their reactionary positions didn’t end with the robber baron that started the Spanish-American War, this paper endorsed Reagan, the Bushes, and Tom DeLay for 20 years. Nevertheless, Chronicle staffers are still committing journalism down on Main Street, and deserve credit when they get it right.

I’m not very confidant that people are paying attention, but the editorial staff was right on the money with yesterdays lead editorial about the administrations program to develop new hydrogen bombs undermining nuclear nonproliferation. Here’s some:

“If the established nuclear powers continue to maintain and upgrade their nuclear stockpiles without pursuing internationally supervised disarmament, as envisioned in the Non-Proliferation Treaty, leaders of other countries will conclude that the pact is one-sided, to be enforced on the have-nots and ignored by the haves.
In a world where 40-50 nations, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency,
possess enough fissionable material to build a bomb if they choose, such a message could lead to a disastrous resumption of a global arms race.”

Do you feel safer than you did seven years ago?

The Day the Music Died

Legends being larger than life, the plain truth is that the facts get set aside for the better story.

From Lynard Skinnard to Stevie Ray, once rockers get on the smoking goonie birds to make the next show, crazy hijinks ensue. Who needs the following buzzkill?:

(Yahoo News) KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — J.P. "The Big Bopper" Richardson suffered massive fractures and likely died immediately in the 1959 plane crash that also killed early rock 'n' rollers Buddy Holly and Ritchie Valens, a forensic anthropologist said Tuesday after exhuming the body.

...There have been rumors a gun might have been fired on board the plane and that the Big Bopper might have survived the crash and died trying to get help.

...Bass took X-rays of the body and found nothing Tuesday to support those theories.

"There was no indication of foul play," Bass said in a telephone interview from Beaumont.

"There are fractures from head to toe. Massive fractures. ... (He) died immediately. He didn't crawl away. He didn't walk away from the plane."

The rock 'n' roll stars' plane crashed after taking off from Mason City, Iowa, on Feb. 3, 1959 — a tragedy memorialized as "the day the music died" in Don McLean's song "American Pie."


This got me questionning whether Ricky Nelson really did set his plane on fire freebasing cocaine that ignited the coke whores....

Rumors that drug use among the passengers caused the crash frequently resurface, but the original NTSB investigation long ago stated that the crash was probably due to mechanical problems. An examination indicated the fire originated in the right hand side of the aft cabin area at or near the floor line. The ignition and fuel sources could not be determined, although many believe that the most likely cause was a defective cabin heater. The pilot indicated that the crew tried to turn on the cabin heater repeatedly shortly before the fire occurred, but that it failed to respond. After the fire, the access panel to the heater compartment was found unlatched. The theory is supported by records that showed that DC-3s in general, and this aircraft in particular, had a previous history of problems with the cabin heaters. (Wikipedia)


It just sits better with the public that the great one's died from sex/drugs/rock'n'roll instead of crappy planes that nobody should be in because music promoters are trying to squeeze even more money out of performers.

SXSW is All Grown Up

Well, well, well, it seems that SXSW has shaved it's beard, cut it's hair, traded the tie-dye for a suit coat, hired some lawyers, and, quite frankly SOLD OUT!!!! What was once a proud alternative venue has become the man, the system, the establishment, and big brother. Now there are real alternative to the alternative venues popping up, and it seems SXSW doesn't like the competition. SXSA -oops - I mean SA Indie Fest - lost it's moniker in the 11th hour via some legalese from the SXSW organization. (see LD's previous blog, right-on sisters!).
So, who is funding SXSW, you may ask? Musicians, that's who. What once was a genuine benefactor of the arts has turned into a chupacabra of sorts, though thier unquenchable thirst is not for goat's blood. This business model seems neither self-sustaining nor mutually beneficial. I implore the masses to rise up, refuse to pay for gas money to get to Austin, don't shell out your precious time to carting gear, footing your own bar tab, shelling out some payola just to play an off-off-off sixth street bar at 2am on Wednesday night for a 15 minute set in a 16 band schedule in a crappy sounding venue with overpriced beer!
Why? Because payola just ain't what it used to be.
Rock On

Because Music Matters

I have thought quite a bit lately about the music business' transition through the upheavels caused by new technology. The band/cooperative "driftwood" has committed to promoting its' music on the web, rather than traditional media. We rarely perform due to its costliness. We refuse "pay-for-play," and we don't kiss ass. Along the way, we have met great people like Delphine Gunning, who had the idea of hosting performances in a listening room with no bar and a no shoes policy. For a nominal cover folks can hear the best music available in near perfect conditions.

According to the SA Current:

About three weeks ago, Delphine Gunning and Robin Lambaria received a letter from South By Southwest. It wasn't one of those friendly "Hey, just wanted to let you know that Pete Townshend is this year's keynote speaker" kind of letters. It was a stern warning that Gunning and Lambaria better change the name of their new musical festival, which they'd dubbed SXSA, or risk a copyright-infringement suit from SXSW.

The cease-and-desist letter sent Gunning and Lambaria into crisis mode. With their festival only three weeks away and 20,000 flyers already printed, it was hardly a convenient time for a name change. But it says something about the challenges faced by the festival's organizers that the possibility of getting sued by the most powerful multimedia confab on the planet doesn't even rank among their biggest obstacles.

Gunning, a French-born music lover who runs the singer-songwriter haven the Red Room, and Lambaria, a young filmmaker and indie-rock devotee, have been friends since they met at a Buttercup show three years ago. But Gunning, who concedes that her passion often leads her to be overbearing, says that the pressure of building a week-long festival from scratch occasionally put a strain on that friendship.

"There was no way to separate the business partnership with the friendship partnership," Gunning says. "So things can get very personal, especially with me, because I'm a stubborn, self-made person. I always do everything alone. That has been a crash course. But I'm learning. It's teaching me how to work with people, and shut up when I have to. It's hard, but I hope to come out of this a better person."

Gunning and Lambaria have adopted the no-risk, no-reward mindset with their undertaking, which they renamed SA Indie Fest, deciding to blow it up into a seven-day music celebration. They've struggled to attract sponsors (winning a coveted commitment from Dos Equis), to recruit volunteers (they still need 20 more), and to overcome backbiting among some local musicians. But they've received invaluable support from Celeste Diaz Ferraro, a Trinity grad who recently returned to the city after spending six years in Washington, D.C. Ferraro has handled marketing for La Quinta and World Bank, and served as communications director for the governor of Puerto Rico. Her business acumen and calm demeanor brought a sense of organization to Gunning and Lambaria's grand experiment. While Ferraro is officially the festival's marketing director, Lambaria has dubbed her Indie Fest's "voice of sanity."

"I'm not a music-scene person, which is why this is such an odd connection," Ferraro says. "But it's been fantastic, and I've been so glad to meet them.

"San Antonio has changed a lot since I used to live here, and there's more acceptance. People are looking for more sophistication in the types of activities that they participate in, and they're looking for something different. You don't often get to hear this kind of music in San Antonio, unless you go to Austin. And San Antonio shouldn't have to play second fiddle to Austin all the time."

With that in mind, the organizers of Indie Fest shed few tears about having to change the festival's name from SXSA. In Gunning's mind, the festival was always meant to be an anti-SXSW, a warm, inviting, relatively inexpensive, listener-friendly event that treated musicians as artists rather than cattle.

This type of stuff is springing up all over. Not to be outdone, Dan Electro's in Houston once again is hosting 70 bands in March (www.danelctrosguitarbar.com) at South by Due East or SXDE.
This should get him good and sued.

There is plenty of music in Texas to celebrate. People should join the revolution against the oppression of the MSM and search out the good stuff. Because music matters.

Chupacabra Report

News that gets my goat!

-Heads rolling in Washington over veteran’s healthcare; the Secretary of the Army and the General in charge of Walter Reed Hospital canned over deplorable conditions and breakdown of care delivery for wounded soldiers. This should come as no surprise from this administration that has yet to face even the fiscal cost of the neocon Iraq adventure. They have failed all along to provide resources to care for the thousands of wounded, some of whom will require disability care for the rest of their lives. But they’ve trotted out a couple of scapegoats, and soon, no doubt will be blaming the congress, or the press.
Support our troops, indeed! These bastards should resign in shame.

-Last week the Texas House passed their version of “Jessica’s Law,” complete with death penalty provisions. Now, I’m not surprised that some Bill O’Reilly viewers can’t get their mind around the problems this raises, but how can these state legislators disregard the testimony of professionals in this sad field that applying capital punishment to these cases will result in some perpetrators going scot-free because some witnesses and victims will not testify if it means Uncle Ernie will go to the deathhouse. And some victims may be murdered by their abusers to eliminate the only witness. Another travesty from Austin!

Kudos to new West U. Rep. Ellen Cohen, former head of the Houston Area Womens Center, for speaking out against this measure, but until we vote all these pandering Pharisees out of office, eloquence such as hers or that which we enjoy from Rep. Sefronia Thompson, will amount to no more than dissenting opinions.

-And the Wa Po reports that the FDA is about to approve the use of the antibiotic cefquinome in cattle feed, despite warnings from it’s own scientists, and the AMA, that this will “probably speed the emergence of microbes resistant to that important class of antibiotic, as has happened with other drugs.”

Again, when the facts contradict the party line, or the bottom line; the facts lose out.
When Agribusiness and The Cattlemen can’t but poison us without letting drug-resistant microbes loose on the population, something is way wrong. Our congress ought to know that, but then again we know that the last meaningful safe food legislation to come out of congress happened during Theodore Roosevelt’s administration, after he saw more U.S. troops die from Armour Bully Beef than from Spanish bullets.

Crawling From the Wreckage

Sorry everybody. I been sick.

I have been spending a little time studying the jewish diaspora from Mexico City to Monterrey in 1577. This is a little investigated story. About 900 jews who had been converted to catholicism at the tip of a sword were forced to practice their rights in secret. Since there were no other anglos in the frontera at that time, and few later, I wonder if they invented the tortilla?

I told you I was sick.