Sunday, June 27, 2010
Doin' da Tightrope
Oh to be so limber!
Janelle Monae in this video is very reminiscent of a young, lithe and prettier female James Brown (I think the choreographer surely was tapping into her/his inner Godfather of Soul.)
Maybe it's the hairstyle...and I suspect very intentional in design. (I expect someone will comment, "Well, no duh!")
A Howdy and a thanks to blogger, Russell Beets, and his blog: Mapped By What Surrounded Them
Thursday, June 24, 2010
GIN-uinely Unique!
By net surfing happenstance (I love that word!), I came across a delightful website for Hendricks Gin.
Quite creative and fun, go investigate all the little hidden treasures; some artist was truly in her/his element for this one.
Hendricks Gin also has a blog - Unusual Times - with lots of wonderous exotic drink recipes and I'm not even a gin imbiber unless it is hidden in some concoction.
Cheers!
Monday, June 21, 2010
Guitar Men
If you were tuning into HBO's Concert to celebrate the anniversary of the Rock N Roll Hall of Fame, you might have been fortunate enough to catch this combo of musicians:
Bruce Springsteen is absolutely the showman. I grow more appreciative of his talent every time I see him perform. The concert paired many an odd musical duos, but this one with Tom Morello and Bruce playing a rendition of "The Ghost of Tom Joad" was outstanding.
Although I am sure this question makes the rounds all the time, got me to thinking of other guitar men of rock and I wonder, how would TT readers rank them, given these choices (including Tom Morello above, previously with Rage Against the Machine):
Carlos or Eric?
Duane Allman?
David Gilmour?
Jeff Beck?
Mark Knopfler?
Stevie Ray Vaughn?
Joe Walsh? (if you want to skip to about 3:46, you get Funk 49 or catch the second video with a much better sound track of Funk 49)
Jimi Hendrix?
Bruce Springsteen is absolutely the showman. I grow more appreciative of his talent every time I see him perform. The concert paired many an odd musical duos, but this one with Tom Morello and Bruce playing a rendition of "The Ghost of Tom Joad" was outstanding.
Although I am sure this question makes the rounds all the time, got me to thinking of other guitar men of rock and I wonder, how would TT readers rank them, given these choices (including Tom Morello above, previously with Rage Against the Machine):
Carlos or Eric?
Duane Allman?
David Gilmour?
Jeff Beck?
Mark Knopfler?
Stevie Ray Vaughn?
Joe Walsh? (if you want to skip to about 3:46, you get Funk 49 or catch the second video with a much better sound track of Funk 49)
Jimi Hendrix?
Saturday, June 19, 2010
Jammin' Now, Mon!
Nope, not spaghetti sauce....
My mom has two fruit trees in her backyard: peach and plum. The plum was just overloaded with fruit this year, probably due to the nice rainy season we enjoyed. The peach tree likewise will almost break the limbs once the peaches ripen.
The plum tree has about three-quarters of its bounty ready for harvest, and so what's the logical thing to do? Get canning! (jarring?)
With my mom as instructor, I produced my first ever batch of plum jam! I intended to make lovely clear plum jelly, but the cheesecloth and I had a falling out...that crap gets skin-blistering hot!
Must confess, I had to re-boil the second batch, because know-it-all-me didn't measure the batch and just assumed it would all jell just fine, even though The Joyce told me, "Nope, ain't gonna happen."
Guess what? Didn't happen. So, I just finished the second batch for the second time. All looks better this go round. Had to add more sugar, too, because those dang native plums are jaw-breaking sour, especially the skin.
For something a little different than what Mama always made, I added some almond extract and a pinch of cardemon to the first batch, all against the Jelly Ju-Ju Queen's approval. But, she has nearly finished the first half-pint jar we made yesterday, declaring it Andy Taylor goooo-oood.
Admonished Kman he'd better lie even if he didn't like my jam; I have about fifteen chigger bites from gathering those danged plums, a kitchen sticky stem to stern, and scalded fingers.
Homemade jam truly is a labor of love; why else would we do it?
Thursday, June 17, 2010
Hankerin' for a Hunk o' Cheese?
One of my most longtime bloggy friends, Elisson, has a "shiny new crib" (to quote the great Obi Wan of Blogging.)
I have thusly fixed my blogroll (The Herd) to reflect his new place: Lost in the Cheese Aisle
Ya'll go fix yours, or get to addin' this new address to ye olde blogge.
As Mar-chul Dillon-tinez might have called him, Cheester will keep you pinching your nose from da stink...
And I LOVE this response to the question of "why blog?" from said Cheester:
Ain't it da twooth?
I have thusly fixed my blogroll (The Herd) to reflect his new place: Lost in the Cheese Aisle
Ya'll go fix yours, or get to addin' this new address to ye olde blogge.
As Mar-chul Dillon-tinez might have called him, Cheester will keep you pinching your nose from da stink...
And I LOVE this response to the question of "why blog?" from said Cheester:
Blogging is unique, the only medium in which you can create a self-selected social milieu of people with those talents and interests that appeal to you. The thread that ties you all together is nothing more - or less - than the things you write, and through reciprocal or concatenating linkage and comments, that thread is woven into a true fabric of communication.
Ain't it da twooth?
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
Philosophy - CP Style
Re-blogged....
I recently sent this as an email to a couple of close friends. Whiskey Prajer said I should have blogged it, so I am taking his advice to heart and sharing some of my most intimate moments with all ya'll:
**Update to this story here complete with photos and music links for Collie Ryan
I recently sent this as an email to a couple of close friends. Whiskey Prajer said I should have blogged it, so I am taking his advice to heart and sharing some of my most intimate moments with all ya'll:
Have to tell you this: last night reading in bed with Kman, which is our favorite part of the evening, I was telling him about an article I read in the online version of the Alpine Avalanche newspaper (Alpine, Texas in the Big Bend).
A big money guy out of Dallas just bought out the bankrupt Lajitas resort and was recently down there looking around at his new investment. There is an artist lady who has been virtually a squatter on the Lajitas property, down by the Rio Grande by the name of Collie Ryan. She is a hermit most of the time, but very cordial and approachable. Sells mandalas painted on old hubcaps for extra money. Lives very close to the earth rather like a monk. The big shot owner walked down to her place with a couple of his investors (including Cowboy alums, Charlie Waters and Mike Montgomery) to ask her what and how she thought Lajitas might ought to look like in the new and near future.
Conversations ensued about this and that, mostly on the vein of opening the resort up to the general populace and remove the exclusivity of ownership and usage. Big shot remarked to the Avalanche interviewer that he admired Collie, wanted to introduce his 5 year-old son to her, and after a studied pause, said that her lifestyle was something he would love to follow, but just couldn't. (Collie lives mostly in an old rusting hull of a school bus, but has built nice covered patios with an outdoor kitchen and outdoor shower, paved the area with stones brought from the river. Decorated with her own art, etc. Really very pretty in a primitive way.)
I sighed, and said how I admired Collie as well and was a wee bit envious of her ability to make her life simpler; how living in the Big Bend on your own terms was surely heaven on earth.
Kman sat up further in bed rather abruptly, and got this look of mild horror on his face, and blurted, "Well, I sure as hell don't wanna live in no f- - -ing bus!"
The look on his face, the way the words tumbled out - bad grammar and all, sent me into a spasm of tear-streaming laughter. I rolled and kicked on the bed clutched into uncontrollable hysterics until I had to go get some toilet paper off the bathroom roll to wipe my eyes and blow my nose I laughed so hard.
Then, he got tickled watching my response, and off we went again on a hilarity fit. One or the other would repeat the phrase "No f---ing bus!" and the fit renewed. Even for the next 45 minutes or so in the dark after lights were turned out and books tossed aside we each felt the bed shake with our after-giggles.
Life may deal me crap most days, but when I can share laughter and books, the turds float away.
How's that for a philosophical moment?
**Update to this story here complete with photos and music links for Collie Ryan
Monday, June 14, 2010
15,000,000 Channels and Not a Thing Worth Watching
I've lost Lost, CSI has gored me to death and not the same without Grissom, and if the emotionally stunted Temperance Brennan on Bones says, "I don't know what that means" one more time...
Summer television is not worth the electricity it takes to power our big-assed flat screen, not to mention the hefty monthly bill for Directv.(Though we only subscribed to HBO for a short time to catch the mini-series, The Pacific)
Yeah, I have books out the wazoo, and always have the 'net as replacement entertainment, but sometimes after working at a computer all day, I enjoy the effortless take-me-away-calgon moments of a good television drama.
Now if I could only convince The Man Behind the Curtain to allow reruns of China Beach, I'd be set for the summer!
Dumb programming drones...
Summer television is not worth the electricity it takes to power our big-assed flat screen, not to mention the hefty monthly bill for Directv.(Though we only subscribed to HBO for a short time to catch the mini-series, The Pacific)
Yeah, I have books out the wazoo, and always have the 'net as replacement entertainment, but sometimes after working at a computer all day, I enjoy the effortless take-me-away-calgon moments of a good television drama.
Now if I could only convince The Man Behind the Curtain to allow reruns of China Beach, I'd be set for the summer!
Dumb programming drones...
Friday, June 11, 2010
Reggaellery!
If you are like me, mostly ignorant of the genre of reggae, then riddim-I yo'self over to Ed Leimbacher's blog, I Witness, for an island full of information and inspirations.
Summertime is perfect for some Jamaica reggae music, and Ed has some terrific suggestions. Who knew such fun, seemingly simple music had a much more deeper and darker geneaology?
Ed's online music store is here.
Summertime is perfect for some Jamaica reggae music, and Ed has some terrific suggestions. Who knew such fun, seemingly simple music had a much more deeper and darker geneaology?
Ed's online music store is here.
Thursday, June 10, 2010
New Address, Same Pattie
Starting today, this site is now officially Texas Trifles...minus the blogspot part of the old address. Google will begin redirecting, but you might want to update your links.
Always best to take the bull by the horns!
Most appreciated!
CP
Always best to take the bull by the horns!
Most appreciated!
CP
Wednesday, June 09, 2010
Libby, Montana
THIS is just part of the vast number of reasons why I don't trust Corporate America to "do the right thing" in regards to the proposed nuclear waste dump in Andrews, Texas.
And the company was acquitted of any criminal misconduct. Oh, and after this pronouncement of acquittal? The company stock jumped up 38%.
Un-freaking-believable.
Tuesday, June 08, 2010
Bogus Japanese "Science"
Nazi propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels once remarked that if a lie is told often enough people will begin to see the lie as truth.- Joseph Goebbels
Over the weekend, I watched a television program about the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society - Whale Wars - and their efforts to curb illegal whaling.
The story this weekend highlighted an encounter with the Institute of Cetacean Research - a front for Japanese illegal whale harvesting.
Here is an editorial comment from Captain Paul Watson.
I encourage you to take some time to visit the Sea Shepherd site, particularly note the story about the Japanese imprisonment of Captain Pete Bethune.
Along with deep oceanic oil drilling, illegal whaling really pisses me off...as if you couldn't tell!
Humans are idiots 99.9% of the time, especially when money is in the equation.
Cro-Magnon Buckeroos
Proof that cowboys were important to the culture of ancient man!
(Note my new domain address of Texas Trifles: http://www.texastrifles.com)
...The biographical equivalent of 12 hour chili - Sticks to the ribs! -
