Musician Pictures...

From the "Pop Thing" jam session earlier this month. Miguel on bass.
Pop on banjo. That's his brother, David in the background. Makes it kind of look like we played to a crowd of one. That's ok, banjo players are used to gigs like that.
Jeff on keys with Miguel on bass. Has Miguel been stabbed in the back with a banjo, kind of looks that way. Plumb to the forth fret, the wound is deep.

Mary Travels Again...

Here's a picture of Mary and some friendly police officers she met on her Italian trip a few weeks ago. Seems to be a common combination, spring breakers, police, you read about it in newspapers, blogs, everywhere this time of year.

This week Mary is off on the Senior band trip, a cruise to Mexico. Might be some problems, there are rumors of swine flu. They could end up stuck on that cruise ship, a quarantined swine boat condemned to endlessly sail the Caribbean, acceptable in no ports of call. I have a picture of her in my mind, she's wearing a swim suit with a surgical mask to prevent the spread of germs and the mask is covering more flesh than the swimsuit I saw her packing.

I guess it could be worse, endless sailing the Caribbean.

Powder Puff Football...

Mary played in the Powder Puff Football game yesterday, she is the pink puff on the left. Her position is inside receiver. Is that the same as tight end? Looks like fixing to be an illegal use of hands to me.
Mary, number 31, cuts a route across the middle.
Senior boys dressed as cheer leaders and drill team. I think I made more pictures of these guys antics than I did of the game. Some of seemed to really like cheer leading and they were good at it.

Shameful Self Promotion...

See me play harp with the Stone Wall Rockers (I work Saturday, gig is at 5:30 in Polk County, they will live if I don't make it) for the 2009 Pineywoodstock. It's a benefit, a worthy cause, follow the link for directions, event schedule and so on:

http://pmccf.homestead.com/

See the link on the side bar for more Stone Wall info. Picture from the First Street Arts Anniversary gig.

Anyway I got this email, forwarded by the Rockers musical misdirector from the concert promoter, it's the rules. What? Rules, I thought this was rock and roll? Here's the text:

Stage rules:

1.Be prepared
2. Tune with your MUTE ON no one like to here you tune.
3. Know what you are playing next. Have a set list.
4. 3 seconds of dead time on the stage sounds like 3 minutes so,
keep it moving.
5. No profanity on stage. There will be kids there please respect that
6. When you get done playing DO NOT leave the stage without your
gear. Remember the next band is waiting on you so, get out
of the way.
7. Make sure you are aware of the time so you DO NOT RUN LATE
8. Keep it professional. This is becoming a large event and we need
you to keep it looking and sounding great.
9. If you run over time the sound guy is going to "pull the plug " on
you.
10. Have a good time. Remember your attitude will reflect in your
music.
11. We are not babysitting your equipment so, keep you eyes on it
and make sure that you leave with what is yours ONLY.
12. Show up at least 30 min before your stage time and be prepared.
13. You are welcome to video tape the stage only.
14. If you show up drunk or under the influence of drugs you will not
be allowed on the stage.
15. No glass No glass No glass
16. no attitudes. Everyone there is a volunteer and they are not there
to listen to your complaints.

Sounds like work. My boss said some of these same things to me just this week.

Really I am just joking around. To get the gig you got to have your act together. And it does not take me long to set up a small Fender amp and a harp mike. I'll have to look around from one of those tuning mutes.

Catfish Video...

People ask me all the time, what was it you did when the plane was going down, why don't you get punched in the face more often, what kind of catfish bait do you use, what Bob Wills song were you listening to when you got that speeding ticket?

Here is an attempt clear some of that up. Posted on a youtube is a video we made the other day titled the "The Big Hook Set." Stars Cathy, with music by Othar Turner from the cd, "Everybody Hollaring Goat." Here's the link:
http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=theolderyouwillget&view=videos

The music is fife and drum music, a very old style going way way back in Mississippi. Here is a picture of Othar Turner's great grand daughter I made at the New Orleans Jazz Fest in 2007. She was on stage learning her craft. Othar was there, not to sure why I don't have a picture of him, but he was pretty old, in his 90s and passed away not too long after. He was basically letting the young ones carry it for him like he knew they would soon have to do when he was gone.

This music goes real well with cat fishing.

Limited Out...

They were biting yesterday. We scored a two person limit of 50 catfish. We were real careful to make sure all Texas game laws were followed. Just so there was no confusion about anyone going over the limit we marked each catfish with a "C" for Carl and a "C" for Cathy so it would be clear who caught what.

These fish were maybe slightly under the average for the last couple of trips, no big ones, just good filleters that totaled up to almost 14 lbs once cleaned. That makes 24 pounds of fillets the last two trips.

All these were caught on J Piggs or Sureshot between about 1 and 5 pm in about 2 feet of water. We have caught a little over 100 catfish on the last 3 trips, all from the same "S" curve in the old river channel we always fish and it's associated structure.

Morgan Does Well at Tournament...

Morgan did well at Master Rose's Taekwondo tournament in Dallas this weekend. Double 1st forms and sparring. That's great, he is in a real tough division.

This is an old picture from last year of him judging a ring at Worlds.

I guess I should have gone up there and competed myself, may be a little of that would have rubbed off on me. Most activities here were a rain out Saturday.

Today I ran the sound board at 9am Mass, played music at RCIA, rehearsed with the Stonewall Rockers for a gig next weekend and then played for our usual Mass at 5.

Make up some lost time tomorrow. Off work, we play for a funeral at 10 and then it's out to the lake.

Team Building Exercise...

Ok, you may wonder what your $39,000 you pay when you get your picture posted to this web site goes for. Well for one this you get invited to the Older You Will Get Team Building Seminar.

Here in this photo the team unloads equipment and muscle from the gator.
Here we go, tote, fetch, get down on your all fours if need be. As you can see each member chooses a task and bends it to his or her will.








The project takes shape. What a team! Wish I had an after picture so that you could see the results and an audio recording to prove that not even one cuss word was said.

More Pictures...

Here's my Mom at the barbecue a couple of weekends ago. Sorry so slow to get your picture up, but you know how it goes, first $39,000 gets on here first.

By the way, this blog is now linked to my new facebook site so that anything I post here pops up there also. Kind of sci-fi, like a foot in both worlds.
While at my Mother's back yard BBQ I noticed the neighbor directly behind her seems to be involved in some R.E.D. Neck business, judging from the set up he had over the back fence. I would call the law, but reportedly he is the law. Maybe I'll go over there and tell him to leave my momma alone.

Event Alert:
See Miguel and the band Altura Musical play at the Downtown Hoedown this weekend. Time is 11am and I guess location is, well downtown.

Quick After Work Trip Today...

That's the spot. Cast just to the right of those two cypress trees you see in the background. I think we each took a fish on the first cast.
I get big fish again, but I did not weight him, maybe three pounds. Cathy gets credit for the net job.
31 cats. Most of this damage was done in about an hour while listening to cds by Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit and R.L Burnside. Just shy of 10lbs fillets. I think we have enough on hand for another fish fry.

I Joined Facebook...

I have had a few invites, so I finally broke down and "got another web site" as my wife put it. I got three friends already. I don't think it will take the place of this location, but maybe I'll just use it to direct people to where the real action is.

After a little browsing, Facebook and what I have heard about twitter seem a little brief to me. Looks like one liners so far and pictures taken by cell phones at parties. Maybe I'll get used to it, but I think one of the big advantage here is that I can post pictures that sometimes need long explanations of what is occurring.

Take this picture for example. Pretty straight forward, I am watering flowers. So this is not a good example, except in the fact that I now have time to water flowers instead of coming over to each individuals home and engaging in long explanations explaining what is exactly going on. Sometimes I used to get out of breath from all this explaining and then sometimes I had to explain it all again from the beginning. So with technology I have not only decreased my carbon footprint at your house, I have saved a lot of breath.

Now here is a picture that needs explaining and in fact it needed explaining to me. I thought I was just sitting on a fallen tree trunk that happens to be 10' in the air with a bunch of people hollaring that I was about to fall. One person said "No he's posing for the dust jacket shot of his next novel." Seems like the falling just stopped right there as did the hollaring. Since I have never written a last novel, that also took some explaining.

Happy Easter...

Egg tree, by Geneva, located at the Land.

Spring Pictures...

Here's the house at the land with a mess of blue bonnets out front. In addition to these the freeway from New Waverly to Huntsville is really lined with them.
Katie and Jeff.
One of several pictures is a series, I thought it was a good one except for the fact it looks like I am pulling something out of my, well, trouser pocket.

Cooney Reunion at the Land...

It was barbecue and Cooneys at the land this weekend as about 25 folks attended what came to be call "the Pop Thing," or a party put on by Pop and of course Geneva. In this photo the beef arrives.
There was music, here cousin Pat and Cathy hold guitars and sing.
Mary on drums. More music and people pictures later in the week.

Mary and Miguel Go Prom...

Busy weekend around here, got enough pictures to keep this weary web page visitable.

We will start with Mary and Miguel go to the prom.

John Michael Talbot Plays St.Pat's...

John Michael Talbot, a leading Catholic composer (50 releases in 30 years) played at St. Patrick's Monday night. Here is a picture Deacon Ray took.

JMT first came to my attention in the early 70's as a member of the band Mason Proffit. I have one of their records from 1969 that I got him to autograph. At least I think it's his name he wrote, something anyway. Not a bad album, topical words and lyrics, war, bad government, environmental concerns, kind of the same message he delivered on this night.

Here is a picture I took in the foyer afterwards. He has a monastery in Arkansas. I think a lot of guys in Arkansas may look like this. Proceeds from the concert went to a rebuilt for the monks after a fire.

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