Let's Work on Cars...

 This is a photo from the old collection of family photos assembled by my cousin Mary Lou and her husband Mike. An unidentifiable man works on a Ford automobile. I believe it's a very late 1930s or possibly 1940s model. There's a lot to take in on this photo. 

First off if I stood on my car's bumper it would probably come off or the plastic it's made of would shatter. My little hybrid car (yeah this is that dreaded liberal virtue signal running up the flagpole) is a discontinued model because some very smart man decided to lower gas mileage requirements a few years ago and automobile manufacturers made a decision to build only cars larger than WW2 armored tanks that get about the same MPG so I probably could not get the part and if I could it wouldn't be the same color as my car is now.  

Also if I look under the hoods of my car or truck, both coming up on 10 years old or more I see warnings that if it's not yellow don't touch it. They are talking about oil dipsticks, windshield washer fluid and such that have yellow handles. I would imagine on a new car if you touch something you are not supposed to your phone dings. 

This guy's arm has disappeared completely up to his shoulder as he grapples with some demon in the very depths of the engine compartment. There's no way my arm will penetrate to this depth and if it could get past the inner circle of unknown auto part hell it would quickly encounter the Earth's surface because generally vehicle clearance is so poor that an encounter with a large racoon on a Texas Farm Road will end with severe damage or completely upends the car.  Don't ask how I know this because that's another blog post. 

Also it's amazing to me that he's doing this and I don't see his phone propped up somewhere showing a youtube video of how to do whatever it is. I suppose they had youtube and maybe they had phones because the number of views these videos get indicate they have been watched a lot, a long time or something. 

Oh yeah, one more thing about the hybrid. Unlike this old Ford (hybrid is a Ford) it has been very maintenance (knock on wood) free. I've taken it to my guy a few times for an occasional minor issue and I'll think and tell him "hey why don't you check the such and such for me, it's never been checked." He'll call me back and say, "It didn't have on of those."   

After all this talk about about modern cars I am a little closer to cars like the old ones than you think. My neighbor to the north east a yard over has hauled several rusting hulks of similar vintage onto his property. He must consider these valuable because he put them close to his house which is better than along the generous back border we share and if I stand on small stool at the kitchen window I can just see their roofs above the privacy fence me and the side neighbor share. 

If I can't work on cars I figure watching these old cars sit in the yard will give me something to do for the rest of my life.          

Boat Traffic High Fish Bite Good Memorial Day on the Lake...

There's nothing like fishing under pressure. Ever called up a bunch of people and said "let's have a fish fry" before you headed out to the lake? That's what we did today. There was a short period when we thought about the G-Meat in the freezer and how we probably had enough to throw on the grill but when our normal hot spot turned out to be cool we scooted to the other side of the point and there they were. 

That short period of 30 minutes or so before we had a good bite (yeah we fish a lot and keep a steady hand on fish location) I had time to think about how I had pressure washed the boat the other day in anticipation of a big ski trip next weekend and how that might have jinxed us but then I said well except for a couple of swimming trips I don't think I have really had a good bath in a few days so that should be enough to offset the loss of dirty boat mojo. I guess it was because although the fish ran smaller than usually they were still caught about 3 to 4 feet deep using punch bait under slip corks. 

Final total was 28 and we fried them up nice and crisp for friends and family. The grandkids did not mention that the fish were smaller than usual. They said, "more ketchup please!" 

It was a Memorial Day weekend so there were more people than usual out and about and as we sat on our little windy point more boats than we normally see in this area passed us by at a high rate of speed. I would estimate many would have exceeded 40 mph. I have been fishing this spot since the early 1980s, maybe a little longer. The area closest in the photo is probably 6' with lots of ups and downs and includes a submerged old railroad embankment. When summer hits full force and the water drops there will be a few stumps to hit and sandbars to drag. 

When I see people posting on the internet how stumpy Rayburn is I'll wonder if I saw them today. 

By the way all those boats did not effect the bite.      

 

Times Have Changed...

 I learned to duck hunt following my dad up and down old backwater sloughs like the one in the photo toting a single shot Winchester model 370 20 gauge shotgun that brand new cost $50. My techniques have not changed much since those days. Once someone suggested I accompany his group on a trip with the tease, "we all killed 270 ducks last trip." I told him right quick that I was not picking 270 fricking ducks. 

We won't start figuring productivity on manhours or anything like that but if I bring home two ducks and breast them out and also take off the legs Cathy will chicken fry them in hot grease and make gravy and we will eat that and feel all fat and sexy. If I just bring home one duck I'll roast it with vegetables in one of those clay pot cookers and we will eat it with a bottle of dealcoholized wine and feel all skinny and sexy because after all it is  lean meat and the fake wine means that we wake up in the morning without our tongues wearing little hairy purple jackets. 

Once I was in a sporting goods store. The counter with the fishing reels shared space with the firearms. As I looked at the reels just down the counter a middle age man with his wife looking on asked to see a gun similar to the one that is popular with school shooters. I think my dad, who landed on Omaha Beach in WW2 and who I learned everything about guns from would have recognized it as a military style weapon. 

As the counter clerk handed over the gun for examination the gentleman took it and turned and aimed out through the store. The clerk responded immediately with a firm, "Sir, sir if you aim not out through the store, behind the counter only." 

Obviously the gentleman had never done his time on a slough with a WW 2 vet and a single shot shotgun. What he knew about guns he probably saw on the internet somewhere and like all that stuff you learned on the internet it's wrong. 

All that duck hunting with my dad is committed to memory. That's good enough. Tines have changed and if I could give up an old shotgun right now to ease someone else that is in pain and suffering because of ineffective gun laws and dummies like that guy in the sporting good store I would.     .           

Guided Canoe Paddle B.A. Steinhagen...

Years ago I noticed, after reading several books by a writer I liked that all of a sudden the latest book seemed a lot like the other books and as singer songwriter Randy Newman said, "just not as good." I understand that now because as I write this blog I see that I do the same things over and over and come back to the same themes. This past weekend I participated in a guided canoe paddle on B. A. Steinhagen Lake out of Martin Dies Jr. State Park. It's one of my most frequent and favorite paddling places. 

The guided paddle was free. The guide was a volunteer and my entrance to the park was kind of free as I had bought a yearly pass and here comes one of my reoccurring themes. This is something the government, which works better than you might think, provides for you. Most people don't even know what the government does for them (I'm not talking about (birds aren't real) because it's out there operating, maintaining parks, clean water, protecting wildlife and other such boring tasks. Occasionally there might be a branch of government or a political party that makes these tasks harder for the professionals in ways that seem like pure spite but I think they do a pretty good job despite which ever way the winds may blow.  

I know you probably watched Netflix, shopped on Amazon, or went to Walmart and listened to autotuned country music in one of the corporate restaurants on the south loop and called it fine dining all the while thinking these things are freedom and America is lovely but they tracked all those things and billionaires got your money and are figuring out how to sell you more stuff. 

They may track my park pass purchase but so far the only evidence of that is email inbox invitations to paddle in other nice places. 

Here in this photo you see our guide, Mark Stevenson, as he provides some education on history, nature and as with the group that turned their boat over some guidance on how not to drown parked at the mouth of the creek looking down the Neches River toward the forks where it joins the Angelina River above the lake.           

  

Here's how our caravan set out from the Walnut Slough Day Use Area where canoes and kayaks are available for rental if you don't have your own. That's called eagle point up ahead there because you can look across towards an eagles nest from here. 

Great swampy south east Texas scenery. Actually I had not been over here since January when we caught a pretty good mess of bream and small bass and this time last year we were catching good bream but as the guide pointed out the warm winter and recent warmer than normal temps has lead to a vegetation bloom on the lake that while not doubt the fish are there it makes it harder to present a bait to them without a glob of weeds of some type hung on it. It's global warming folks. This is how it's going to be.  

You might can barely spot the eagle nest in this photo. It's in a pine tree. They estimate it to be about 9' in diameter. 

After gliding over a couple of miles of hydrilla and through lily pads we entered a little creek that while it was only a few feet deep there was no weed growth. I should have asked but I would say maybe a different soil type, maybe some river current entering here, maybe the shade of the forest, something was inhibiting the weeds from taking over.   

I love this river bottom scenery. I told they guide this is what I came for to see this and learn my way around the lake. He had to make the decision on paddling skill if the group was up to this kind of trip or to try and easier trail. One boat did turn over on the winding slough and while not deep they did struggle to right the boat. All total it was a three hour paddle and fairly strenuous as some parts were against the wind. I was the only boat with one paddler so I was usually bringing up the rear as the slowest.  

Saw a couple of small gators, hog wallows on the banks and here's something that would probably cause the most trouble, a wasp nest overhanging the water. No worries if you are home watching Netflix. 

Someone asked me how I know about these things. Well while you on Amazon helping those rich guys get richer I'm helping myself do the same thing, over and over.   

 

It Was His Best Day Catfishing So Far, Maybe Mine Also...

We pulled up to the spot where we caught them on our last trip which had been on April 27th. Has it been almost a month since I've been catfishing? Yes it has but conditions looked right as far as wind direction and all but we were prepared to switch to summer time patterns give the unseasonable higher than normal temperatures. We did not have to. The fish were in shallow water, about 3' with a quick drop to 4.5' nearby with that sloping to 6' and they were hanging along this edge. I got a bite immediately and caught a throwback but the real star was my grandson Ezra who boated 5 unassisted keeper cats before I could get another fish in the boat. Ezra has reeled up plenty of fish before but with just a little casting help he was putting the bait right on them. It was his best day catfishing ever and maybe mine too.     

When you see these osprey nests in the area that means plenty of catfish nearby. 

Final total was 22 cats. He probably reeled up at least 5 more fish I hooked accounting for major devastation of a passing school of catfish and a large part of the day's total. All fish caught on punch bait. I think last trip had fish to 4 pounds and these were all small but lots of fun on the slip corks. See little brother Luca looking on? His skills came into play later when we fried these up and he destroyed a plate of fillets and hushpuppies.   

Water temps were 81 degrees. We had swam and canoed at Ratcliff Lake the day before this and the water was much warmer in the shallow swimming area there as opposed to the big water. 

I wish I could tell you that the pattern is to fish by the pink flowers. It's not but it might be as there are plenty of cats in the lake. Just get a wind blowing along a structure break or a point, use punch bait and slip corks and get the grease hot.  

 

Book Report...

 I read the book by Kim Stanley Robinson "New York 2140." I checked it out from the Kurth Memorial Library. It's a climate change novel. There's dangerous stuff down there in the library of our little town. There's ideas, science and things that people think and write about that they think might come to pass given the directions things seem to be headed. 

If you don't know the author Kim Standley Robinson he's a sci-fi writer and has been named "the gold standard of realistic and highly literary science fiction writing." He came to my attention through this article recently in the New Yorker Magazine. His main themes are nature and culture, economic and social justice, ecological sustainability, scientists as heroes, and climate change and global warming.

In the book I read, New York 2140 there has been a 50' rise in sea levels. All kinds of things are hinted at happening in the decades leading up to the present time of the book and the seeds of those things can be seen happening now. New York, though flooded is still an important place and people have managed to adapt to living there but one thing that is noted about climate change is that the ultra rich have enough money that they are not much effected by climate change. The world is still run by the financial institutions that run it today including the cycle of boom, bubble and bust which is always bailed out by the governments piling up more debt and making the rich richer. The people effected the most by climate and boom and bust are and you may have guessed it by now are the poor people. I'll leave it to you to figure out which you are.

In the book, the climate problem does not get solved but it is hinted that in the early years when the situation is finally accepted effective carbon reducing technologies are rolled out at an amazing pace even though things are past the point of no return. The economic and social justice problems get solved and guess what? The world is a better place if people are happy and taken care of with their needs met. I'll stop with the spoilers here. 

As I write this book report the temperature is about 10 degrees higher than normal. The government of Texas has asked that you keep your thermostats on 78 degrees. A little over a year ago we had some record lows and 246 people in Texas died from the cold. In 2016 I wrote this song about climate change (yeah I was getting around to selling my own stuff) and though there are a couple of versions floating around out there and I have changed and tightened up the words a bit this version recorded on a battery powered amp on a record low day during a grid failure will give you a hint at my ideas. I have performed the song in public but everyone thought it was by Paul and John.

For your info the record low when this video was recorded and the 10 degrees warmer today are related events. Come on, you scientists as heroes, YouTube researchers, poor people cause I know no rich people are reading this or they would have called me over to their houses by now figure it out! 

               

Old Town Brass Band...

I managed to catch another show by the Old Town Brass Band at the Fredonia Brewery with my son Morgan on drums this past weekend. There was good swinging traditional jazz and dance lessons by the Nacogdoches Swing Dance Club. 

If anyone needs to know the yard sized jenga blocks make good percussion instruments when you bang them together but I'm not sure everyone thought that. 

Lots of second lining. 

Like father, like son 

Gotta be careful, I'm getting too many photos of that tuba player. He will think I'm stalking. 

Caught Luca raiding the tip jar once. 

The crowd rushes the stage, 

They should pay me for this photo. I think it was that big ol blonde's birthday.  

 

The Flying Balalaika Brothers...

At Festival International in Lafitte, La. we saw the Flying Balalaika Brothers. They are not really brothers but a musical unit of Russians, Ukrainians, Texans and a last minute addition from Louisiana that set a good example of the cooperation the rest of the world should be seeking.   

The group has been in operation almost 20 years and is led by Zhenya Rock, the former lead guitarist of a group you may have heard of, The Red Elvises. Rock was named one of the best guitar players in the world by World Music Magazine. 

The Brothers mine Gypsy Punk territory using Balkan, Romani, Russian and Jewish melodies and themes and several languages to break down barriers and norms you might expect at a typical rock show. Other bands of note which I have cds by are Gol Go Bordello, Balkan Beatbox, Devotchka, Emir Kusturica and the No Smoking Orchestra, Golem, Kulture Shock, The Lemon Bucket Orchestra ( Pete, my son in law's brother Ian is the tuba player) and there are many more, these are just the ones I have explored.     

Always a plus when there are gypsy dancers.  

Some use of traditional instruments. Once I bid on one of these in an ebay auction. Luckily for the rest of the world I was outbid.  

I think the trumpet player was from Louisiana. Note from the backline of amps it's like I say, the answer is always Fender.  

It's not too late to get on the gypsy punk bandwagon especially since many of these groups are fund raising for Ukrainian relief and using their influence to bring world attention to the culture. 

 

Strand of Oaks in Chicago...

In Chicago this past weekend we saw Strand of Oaks. This band is the vehicle for songwriter Tim Showalter and it's the second time I've seen them. First time was 2015 and I blogged about it at this link.  The band played at Lincoln Hall which is a part of the world famous Schuba's Tavern music venue.   

Going to see Strand of Oaks is a little like going to a Mountain Goats show. It's a room full of nerds rocking out and singing all the lyrics. Even though I probably own five of his cds and I can't say I know any of the lyrics it's music that makes me feel good. If you have ever had some kind of set back, injury, illness, career changes, struggled with being fat, had relationships go bad or sat in your room wondering if these songs you were writing would ever be played in front of a room full of people that felt the same way as you I bet you will like this music.    

The band has that anthemic rock song sound that someone compared to the late Meat Loaf. I don't know much about Meat Loaf other than he got good critical reviews, sold 65 million records that are still selling and appeared in 50 movies. He probably had some ups and downs during all that but they have not connected with me. Maybe it's because I'm in my room with them old songs of mine and if I start buying Meat Loaf records at this late date after I'm gone the kids will see them and say, "See I told you he was sick." 

Both times I have seen Strand of Oaks the backing band has delivered guitar fireworks

I also suggest you check out Tim's guitar player Pat Finnerty. He was the opening act and did a combination of comedy and song as a guitar and drum duo. Very funny and the you tube channel is What Makes This Song Stink. Some kind of reaction to all the youtubers coving the opposite thing, what makes this song great. I don't know if he does anything on Meat Loaf but if you click here you can start to understand how bad Kid Rock really is. warning, there are bad words and all said by Kid.  . 

   

 

Back From Chicago...

Judging from blog history (if there is another history you know about mention it in the comments) we have spent a good portion of the first part of May in Chicago. Maybe it's because it's Cathy's birthday or Mother's Day but we again spent time this weekend on a visit to Katie, Peter, Wallace and Hamish.  

A tradition for a few years but waylaid like so many other things by Covid but now back at least for now is the Chicago crawfish boil. If you got the dinero which some people not on fixed income like us do there are Cajuns down in Louisiana that will overnight a bag of crawfish to you. They are good crawfish too. Big, fat, and 100% alive with juicy sweet meat. There are some northern states where the department of natural resources is starting to frown on the mail delivery of an invasive species but with the carbon footprint of overnight delivery handing over our heads and all those climate change deniers out there I might as well be a crawfish is bad for Illinois denier.      

With temps soaring and air-conditioners roaring in Texas it was a bit cool for the first couple of days we were in Chicago. Cathy managed to grab a slice of sunlight which felt good except for the fact it was exposed to the wind.   

The boiling pot. The good thing about crawfish in Chicago is that most people have never had them. I mean what did you think the first time someone said to you, "see all that stuff there in the head, suck it."  

So I get to eat all the crawfish I want at these affairs. Of course people get shown how to do it, often get good and drunk and like good and drunk people do they start eating stuff they might not if not good and drunk and when they go to the next crawfish boil they are ready for fun.  

Old Hambone was a bit in a momma phase so while he was a big flirt with these strange crawfish eating people that call their selves his grandparents he did relent to let Cathy hold him but just a bit. Pop Pop is ok if momma is nowhere in sight.

Having a visit to Chicago for family is nice. It's also nice in Texas to listen to the frogs when I got home last night or hear birdsongs this morning and break a good sweat on lawn chores.   

Chicago will come to Lufkin this weekend for a short visit. We will manage to have 6 0ut of 8 grandkids on hand.   

 

Natu Camera at Festival International...

Once when I was picking out music for a group of people whom I thought were really ready for some grooves I discovered that this group and I can only logically transpose this conclusion to general proportional percentages of the population was uncomfortable listening to tunes sung in a different language. 

Somehow that has never bothered me. I like it different. It's possible I was in the minority at Festival International in Laffite, La. listening to Natu Camera an Afro Pop singer from the west African Country of Guinea where most people are French speaking as are many people in Laffite.      

Afro Pop is big right now. You might tell me country music is big right now because Garth Brooks caused an earthquake when he sang Calling Baton Rouge in Baton Rouge because of all the stomping and singing his fans did but worldwide there are a lot of people buying Afro Pop records. Guinea is a predominantly Muslim country bordered by Mali and Senegal. Enslaved people were exported from it's Atlantic coast along with the stringed middle eastern desert instruments that became the banjo, fiddle and dobro. Without this happening Garth Brooks would not have a day job.      

This is happy party music. There is some despair in it, in Natu's personal life and in the struggles of her country. There are 24 different ethnic groups, a long history of military coups, authoritarian rule, and human rights abuses including female genital mutilation.  

I was glad to see this band. I'm not really educated in the Afro Pop stars and who they are but instead I pick my music by country. Now that I have heard music from Guinea I'll be on the look out for more.  

Get outside the comfort of your language. Just listen, just dance.