If you don't Bugle, Who Will?...

 My neighbor has elk in his pasture. On crisp, chill fall nights they bugle. I hear them but because it's night I don't see them and I imagine these large animals ducking their mighty heads adorned with heavy antlers and coming up reared to the sky as they let out their high pitched trumpeting call. 

I had a co worker once. She was not my co worker for long and I've forgotten her name which seems to be one of those talents that have gone out of my head, remembering co workers names but I recall in the discussion of some situation, probably the work, she reared back her head and in a bugle of her own containing  the authority of the bull elk exclaimed, "Aint that some buuulllll shxxxx!" It was a strong expression, so strong I thought "I'm going to use that myself" and if I was all internet up to date I'd make a tiktok video of people saying this instead of writing out a sanitized version thinking "in case my grandchildren ever look up from their own tiktok videos on their phones to read this blog they will say,  "Aint that some buuulllll shxxxx! Pop Pop was being so cute!"

Sometimes I get these female fans that follow me on insta. I look at their profile and it's Hailey382240 who describes herself as "mother of three, trying to find myself and just looking for fun." The account is private but having been there and done that I say "aint that some..." and don't click any further because after all that is kind of a background plot of this blog playing softly like Muzak in an elevator as it runs up the shaft of a building with uncounted stories. Of course the same thing happens to me. The woman with the three kids did happen and the uncounted stories will eventually run out but the friend requests I send out and they look and see all that stuff about tuba and it's decided "aint that some..." I do not want clogging up my newsfeed every day. 

I saw a bunch of old friends this past weekend and it was fun. A couple of them, I have never much thought about other than to occasionally wonder, "they still alive?" and that I'm pretty sure are not connected to me on social media in any way came up and said, "you still playing that tuba?" If they had looked at my social media they would not have to ask that question but instead I decided they were recalling a party that took place about 40 years ago at the old Press Road House where I played a sousaphone with an electric rock band. I can zero it to 40 years ago because I know I did not own an electric bass at the time which is why I played tuba with an electric rock band and that although the serial # on my Fender Bass dates it as a 1983 model I am pretty sure I bought it in 1984.

I told my friends, "yes, still playing the tuba, now more than ever and in fact sometimes I get paid to play it." They both said, "aint that some..."

So if you read this blog and did not think  "aint that some..." here's my venmo so you can help me save up for the chill fall nights. 

         

         

    

 

Benefit for Anne...

 

Our good friend Anne, who Cathy has known since the late 70s when they were roommates and I have known almost as long recently had a serious heart episode. It looked pretty grim  for a while and I think her recovery serves as a reminder to us all that miracles do still happen. If you don't know Anne I'll just use this blub from the go fund me page created to get a van for her since transferring to drive her old car is not going to be an option: 

   If you know Anne Kelly-Keehnen, you know she has been a paraplegic for 40 years, but that it hasn’t slowed her down at all. If you don’t know Anne, she is a devoted mother, grandmother, sister and friend to all. Anne is a pillar of service and strength to her hometown of Nacogdoches, Texas. There, over the years, she has served as a teacher, a counselor, a Girl Scout leader, a camp counselor, and an original founder of the women's shelter. Anne is in constant service to her community.

Friends, family and community came together yesterday in a benefit concert at the Fredonia Brewery and rumor has it that with the outpouring of generosity monies required have been raised through the contributions of the Brewery, the generosity of friends and items donated in the raffle. I can't even begin to name all the people that helped so the best I can do is publish these photos of the musicians. 

Another great thing about the day was getting to hang with so many old friends including the ones that do not get their blog character photos on here much but continue to keep in touch by reading what I publish.  

  

One more photo of us. It is my blog and other than Cathy holding a catfish I am the main character. 

It's a wonderful world. There are good people and good things happen all the time.  

    

Milo Eugene Zamora...

May 25th is quite a day. It's the birthday of various friends and relatives. Today also happens to be Mary and Miguel's 10th wedding anniversary and they made it one to remember by having their third child, Milo Eugene Zamora born today weighting in at 8 pounds 13 ounces and 21 inches long.

Brothers Ezra and Luca meet him for the first time.  

 Mom and dad are doing just fine after the delivery. 

That looks like a tuba player to me. 

 Grandma and Pop Pop are happy and made it through the delivery just fine. Eugene just happens to be my middle name. I grew up being called Carl Gene and my dad was called Gene. Every now and then an old friend or a cousin still calls me Carl Gene and of course I answer to it. 

Keep tuned for more new blog character adventures. He will be fishing before you know it. 

The Fried Catfish, Hushpuppy and Eggplant Fishing Report...

In the past 30 hours or so I have attended a kindergarten graduation, a dance recital and a soccer game. After lunch today we went fishing and took Luca, Ezra and brother in law Matt along for the adventure.    

When we first got there we were approached by a Texas Parks and Wildlife boat doing a catch survey. We had not even made a cast yet and they said well we only check people who have been fishing longer than 30 minutes. I said come back, we've caught hundreds of catfish from this spot over the past several years. 

They never came back. The fishing turned out to be a little slow. Cathy blamed me because I bragged to the TPW guys. I suffered her cries ringing in my ears, "you a Jonah, you a Jonah," but they finally started to bite a little on punch bait and earth worms fished under slip corks in 6' of water. We ended with 13 cats.

My fishing log shows us catching deep this time of the year in past times so we may give that a try next time.   

Ezra says he ate all the fish he caught. 

So much going on in this photo I don't know where to start. A trailer house and a helicopter in the background. A kid with a mullet and my brother in law who just bought a lake front property between the Cassels Boykin boat ramp and the 147 bridge. There will be other blogs about all this.  

The I've fried and gone to heaven supper. Fried catfish, made from scratch hushpuppies and friend egg plant. 

 

Fishing With an Old Friend...

An old buddy, Darwin came into town for a fishing trip. We let him catch big fish. It was the only fish he caught but some people are like that, going for quality unlike those people like Cathy who who fish in a rage of getting them all out of the water before they use up all the air in it leaving the lake a dead space where nothing survives.  

Luca enjoyed the fishing trip. When you pull a catfish in the boat Luca says, "I eat it, I eat it." Only problem was that his momma showed up to fetch him back about the time we were cleaning the fish and preparing to fry so later on he probably sat at home thinking, "They ate all that fish I caught and did not leave me any."

Darwin and Luca share a boat lunch

Here's a new toy that for about $12 looks to make my life better. I occasionally stick an old candy thermometer in my fish grease to see the temperature. About 350 to 375 is recommended for fish. I like just a little less for the hushpuppies which I usually fry first as the oil is coming to this temp. It seemed like with this more scientific monitoring I was more consistent.  

I shot the BBQ grill the other day while cooking a local favorite, chicki-legs and noted the temp at 249 which is about prefect for BBQ. 

For you foodies I made a mustard/beer wash using non alcohol (warning Kris Rock trigger) Bud Zero (50 calories, 0 alcohol, 0 sugar, no hangover)  and then rolled in Zatarains Cornmeal. Probably start doing this all the time. I do have a box of what is called air fry fish meal which we won't experiment on any of you good people with but instead keep cooking with all the health benifts of old cheap cooking oil when serving the masses.      

After making sure we had enough fish we gave Darwin a bird watching boat tour and poked around looking for gators (no luck, probably have to wade the back water after all that rain) which he wanted to see. After dining we fixed him up with a pack of wild caught fresh fillets, some left over fried fish and  gave him a fishing rod. He said Cathy would have made a good pioneer woman and left us a paddle board to use in further outdoor adventures.

For the fishing log final count was 16 fish on slip corks. It was a real good day. 

  

 

Brave Combo at the Museum of East Texas...

 I think I saw Brave Combo the first time about 40 years ago at the old Crossroads bar in Nacogdoches, Tx. I last saw them at Octoberfest in Crockett, Tx in 2021. I saw them again yesterday at the Museum of East Texas as the last show of the season in their Sights and Sounds Series that has brought free family oriented entertainment including chamber ensembles, gypsy jazz and now a show of what Brave Combo calls Nuclear Polka.

I thought the group, which had been scheduled to play on the plaza outside but was moved inside due to the rain sound great with the acoustics of the Museum's chapel. 

Nuclear Polka is when you start out playing polka but then suddenly everything from jazz to salsa to rock to cumbia to movie music and more becomes twisted into one great big polka dance old party. How good is a Brave Combo Party? They have won Grammy awards, they were the band that David Byrne of the Talking Heads hired to play his wedding and the music has appeared on TV shows and movies. Not too bad for the best little polka band out of Denton, Tx that even managed to get half the crowd of 25-30 people that attend on a rainy Sunday Mother's Day afternoon up and dancing. It was obvious who in the audience knew what the band was about.  

The Sights and Sounds Series of Museum was new this year. It's made possible by the Angelina Arts Alliance in partnership with The TLL Temple Foundation, National Endowment of the Arts, Texas Commission on the Arts, Angelina College, and the City of Lufkin as well as this seasons corporate sponsors Georgia Pacific and Brookshire Brothers. When I visit my daughter's family in Chicago I can't tell you how many shows I have seen in Museums, parks and sometimes in clubs that were free shows sposered like this for the education and betterment of the citizens of the city. It makes me proud that my little home town can offer something like this. 

Reportedly next season there will be local talent included in this program. I left them with my name and number.   

I own a Brave Combo Cd, Polkas for a Gloomy World and after the show, which was free although I'm sure the series paid the band I decided I'd add a little gravy to the pay check by purchasing another. I was surprised to find them only charging $5. The merch girl said, Oh, we have thousands of these." Try to get out of an Eagles or Rolling Stones show where you only spent $5. I went ahead and bought a t-shirt to go with the CD because polka is timeless. I collect lots of old polka records from Chicago thrift stores by the local bands there that had TV shows in the late 50s and early 60s and when I put the record on I never have to say, "here's some old old music from way way back."  Polka is a timeless thing. 

Keep an eye out for next year's schedule.   

  

    

You Know that You Would Take That Gig if You Could...

 I saw a post on the internet the other day about a guy that finally made some money off his tuba degree. He said that opportunity came up to rent his horn out at a rate of $100 bucks so he did it. I'll also admit that I took the the gig of "guy dancing with the band" when it was offered to me. Really I was not hired for a position with that title but instead it was as a percussionist shaking my homemade turtle stick but when the band rocks into something like "Sounds of Silence" or some other such shit playing along on a turtle stick just don't fit so I danced. You might not think a 240 pound man dancing to "Sounds of Silence" fits either but it worked better than you might think and they have asked me back. 

When we were at Old Settler's Music Festival there was an old hippie looking dude that was up front at every band and I don't think you could call it dancing but more an interpretive performance of what the song was about. He wore a sparkly top of which he had various colors of and changed into to fit the vibe of the song and waved his hands in motion to represent matters of the heart, feelings of longing, pie in the sky, tears of sadness and much more. 

Here's one where he was feeling the blue vibe. This was my first time at this festival but I've had a few friends that are consistent attendees and I bet some of them know this dude's name and in fact I can think of a few people I've known that he reminds me of.   

The vibe was red here. Cathy thought may be he was an old retired junior high band director who had waved his arms around in an attempt to get teens to respond to music that the activity turned into some kind of neurodivergent pattern that he could no longer control in the presence of rhythmic patterns.  

More red. 

Shining white vibe on these tunes. 

Uh oh, red again. 

The green rears it's head. I bet he made all these tops. I noted a nice feature, a thumb strap that kept the sleeves in place. The little touches like that show years of design development, make it comfortable to wear and flow with the music.  

I know I have a lot of pictures of the red but I doubt this was an angry man. I saw many women come up to dance and he seemed to be well liked by all as he performed this most important addition of color to the festival. 

Next time you have a gig, dance with the band. Interpret the songs with the feelings you feel. They will be glad when you come back the next time.  

     

Has it Actually Been This Long Since a Catfish Report...

 The last catfishing trip was the camping and fishing trip on March the 14th. We've made a couple of camping trips since then which one of them included some pan fishing but I would guess that between March 14 and May 4 there were a lot of catfish that died of old age because I was doing other stuff. 

I know some will say, "mudbelly, what other stuff is there?" There's all kinds of stuff as the 200-500 people who visit this blog know. After all it is people from all over the world drifting through here on the currents of the internet and not just some guy on his lunch hour eating a sandwich sitting there clicking and the visits are spread pretty evenly and not just all The Girls on the Beach post which has been visited at a continuing trickle of 248 times and continues to be popular to this day.  

Cathy decided there was enough photos of her holding a catfish on the internet and she wanted bent rod pictures showing the flex of mighty arm muscles which she counted as her exercise since she did not get to hit the pool for her laps. She did wear a swimsuit to the lake but at a water temp of 74 that's not quite in our comfort zone yet. 

Brother in law Matt takes a nice blue. These cats were in the very same place we left them on March 14th and were biting from the first cast. The channel cats might have run a bit smaller but still nice fat fillets and that size makes for easy skinning.  

I took big fish with this blue. 

A blue heron watches the proceedings. That biggest blue bit right by the small stump in the lower right of the photo. That was a long cast with a lot of line on the water to make a good hook set and I missed several bits that came afterwards.  

These fish caught under slip cork rigs with Cathy and Matt using up the last of our JPiggs punch bait  which is out of stock due to the brisk sales during COVID and the aging process that is required. I opened and used C.J's shad which the fish bit either one just as good. The C.J's seemed to have a good bit of fiber which some may like. 

Osprey files as we pass. 

Final count was 31 cats. 

Cook

 ramen noodles, mixed with stir fried vegetables. Fry catfish in egg wash and panko bread crumbs seasoned with Tony Chacheres. Make a sauce with honey, chili pepper sauce, soy and a splash of balsamic vinegar.

Top noodles with fish, add sauce to taste. I got this from the Outside the Levees fishing channel. If you watch the fishing videos at the end he cooks whatever he catches and since these are Cajuns that might be anything and the recipes are simple and made with ingredients that are usually on hand. 

I had planned on fish tacos for Cinco de Mayo but this was pretty good. As my grandson Luc reminds me whenever catfish is mentioned "I eat catfish" 

That Girls on the Beach blog post was from 2014. Next year will be 10 years. How about a reunion? 

Band Back Stories...

 One time I sat down with the guys to name that band. I thought of the name "The Raguet Street Ramblers." Raguet Street is in my home town of Lufkin, Tx. I have a history book on Lufkin Street names but I can't lay my hand on it to find who it's named for but the street runs roughly north/south through residential, industrial, and commercial prosperities. The people living along this street represent several ethnic, cultural and socioeconomic groups. I could imagine a back story of a band adding to all this history and reality and whose music is played to celebrate all these aspects of Raguet St. which are the history of our town. 

For various reasons no one else liked this and we named the band something more direct that from which you could tell where we were from and what we were going to do. Probably has not made any difference and my historical backstory delusions of the Raguet Street Ramblers are not the biggest band name fail I have had.

One of the workshops I attend at the Old Settlers Festival was by the band Goodnight, Texas. The two main guys, Pat and Avi are from opposite sides of the country. The town of Goodnight, Tx represents the exact midpoint between them. The workshop I attended was called "Finding Middle Ground" and how they incorporated their lives into the music especially being from different places. One mentioned that he had an ancestor, a civil war army doctor to whom the task fell to give a great and inspiring speech to troops after President Lincoln's assassination. The text of the speech survives in the family today. The other partner had in his family mementos old tintype photos of ancestors. To write their songs they pulled from the lives, times and feel of these days gone by.   

I regret I did not catch their set which was a late night jam delayed even longer by thunderstorms that rolled through that evening. Looks like they have updated their sound with instruments such as baritone guitar and steel guitar which is a sound I like so I'm going to follow this music. They did get the song "Railroad" on the show Tiger King which I know since that show shattered streaming records when it came out you have heard Goodnight, Texas. 

  

Another good intelligent set of music was by Nigel Wearne. He's from Australia and his day job was as a teacher so these songs were well written bringing to life the history of that country in a folk blues Americana kind of way with good between song details that filled in the back story for the people not familiar with the history lived a world away. 

I think the backstory is important. What story does your life tell? If you can't tell it let me name your band.