It Was a Good Weekend For Music...

 It was a good weekend playing music with people and for people. It started out with a Children's choir rehearsal on Friday night, busking at Fae's Hideaway, a Ren Faire Pride Event Saturday and ended up playing with the children's choir for Spanish Mass at St. Patrick's Sunday morning.  

I was glad to get the invite for the Pride Event. Nice people put together a DIY day of local vendors selling arts and crafts with many people wearing costumes or sword fighting and it was the perfect thing to have a tuba player playing grooves, harmonica and didgeridoo. . 

Note that I also used my turtle shell shaker, the instrument that I am second most famous for playing. 

I got to jam on a tune with a strolling musician (i think I heard his name as Dawson, but you know the ears, tuba and big Fender amps) on uke playing a bit of harp, tuba and percussion. 

It was also the first time I opened for a harp player, Tris Day. As they say, check her out on the streaming platforms. 

Mass was good with the kids today. Great fun playing with Maria and Hugo who are the group leaders and we often have a great mix of kids singing, playing guitar, flute or Cajon drum. This photo grabbed off a video a couple of weeks ago. 

I think I might have actually grown up to be everything I wanted to be, 

Of course you have to eat and there was crawfish Saturday evening at the big Agular birthday party. 

 

St. Patrick's Catholic Church Honors Black Catholic Witness to Our Faith...

 Saturday St. Patrick's Catholic Church in Lufkin celebrated the contribution of Black Catholics to the faith with a Mass at Pitser Garrison Civic Center led by the Bishop of Tyler, Greg Kelly and with music by the Liturgical Choir of St. Francis of Assisi from Houston, Tx. Many volunteers from our Lufkin Parish worked together to provide a beautiful alter to celebrate the Eucharist, a great meal with greens to die for and hospitality for all who attended. These are the photos I made. 

The gospel Readings selected for this Mass were from Luke 6:27-38. I found them very though inspiring.

27 “But I say to you that listen, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, 28 bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you. 29 If anyone strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also; and from anyone who takes away your coat do not withhold even your shirt. 30 Give to everyone who begs from you; and if anyone takes away your goods, do not ask for them again. 31 Do to others as you would have them do to you.

32 “If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. 33 If you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. 34 If you lend to those from whom you hope to receive, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, to receive as much again. 35 But love your enemies, do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return.[e] Your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High; for he is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked. 36 Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.

I especially like our Pastor Father Denzil's thoughts on the day as published on the local TV station web site:

Father Vithanage emphasized the unity that faith brings, particularly in today’s climate.

“Especially in the midst of racism and division, we are one. Especially when it comes to our faith,” he said.

The event was spearheaded by Father Denzil and Dr. Guessippina Bonner. Father Denzil said the event will be the first of many commemorations for Black history.

I am proud of my church and my friends for the efforts to preserve this history and the story of the people who have lived it. . 

Of course I bought their CD. 

History tells us the first Black Catholics were in Texas in the 1500s and that there have been several Black Popes. 

A great day for all people and it was right here in Lufkin. 

 

  

What You Do?...

We do many things. I know it seems like an ever revolving good time camping, fishing and grandchildren escapade around here but there are actually things that we do to help people. We volunteer for St. Vincent de Paul which can be a full time job if you are carrying the on call phone and are often called to play music for funerals, weddings and Quinceaneras by our church family. Lately we have been handing out red cards. 

All people in the USA have rights and protections under the Constitution. You may have seen a TV show where they said, "innocent until proven guilty." It's true and the red cards give examples of how you can exercise your rights. They are not legal advice and for this it's advised you check with a trusted legal provider. 

In case you think this is some radical thing the Catholic Bishop of Tyler put of this letter and it's a document the Catholic Bishops of the United States are in agreement with as they support vulnerable migrant populations. As I am a member of the local Catholic Church I'm glad to see this. 

So far we are on our second box of cards well on the way to distributing close to 500 in the community. We give handfuls to friends and they spread out from there. 

If you need some red cards they can be ordered from a Union shop and you can also be supporting good jobs, wages and benefits or you can download a form and have your own printed in business card format   

You can also see me for a handful of red cards. 

All these things that we can do for our community, our church family or your friends might not seem like much but hopefully they will add up especially as everyone gets involved. 

 

  

  

Grupo Generacion Mix at the Lufkin Heritage Festival...

 I went downtown yesterday to see my friends from church, Grupo Generation Mix play at Lufkin Creative's Heritage Festival. I had last seen the group at the Fiestas Patrias Festival at St. Patrick's Catholic Church in September and while I enjoyed that performance (what's better than friends playing music?) I believe this group is improving and with it's mix of various generations should be gigs to keep an eye out for at future events. 

Grupo Generacion is made up of family members and participants in St. Patrick's Bilingual Youth Choir. This music is an expansion of that project and I don't really know what you call the style but it's dance music with lots of cumbias. I've known some of the members for years even going back to the 1990s when we had a kids choir at St. Pat's and the early 2000s when we had a bilingual choir so I feel this group has that same spirit combined with more ambition to present itself to the greater Lufkin Community at events like this. 

That's Hugo on bass. I worked with him at the old paper mill another lifetime ago. The mom of one of the singers sang with us when she was a teen in our church groups and still comes for the Quinceaneras, weddings and funerals we play for.  

Check the lady in the boots dancing. Cathy who worked 30 years as a labor and delivery nurse, says she delivered her as a baby. That's her dad, Enrique on guitar. 

There were also traditional dancers in the style of Oaxaca (I think) and I had some real good food truck quesadillas.  I think earlier in the day there were some DAG (dude and guitar) acts and other entertainment. It was a good show and I look forward to the next festival in this great downtown space. You might even see a Drum and Tuba Christmas pop up gig here soon. 

 

Making That Internet Money...

One morning this week I woke up to this email. 

Since I made that first million with my band Drum and Tuba Christmas it looked like I was off and running to that second million. A closer examination revealed that it was not my personal facebook page making this money but another page, St. Patrick Catholic Church, Lufkin, Tx of which I one of the administrators that got this dough rolling in. I am the original administrator that created the page on Aug. 11, 2011 but for the past five years our pastor, Father Denzil Vithanage has been the main content creator. Father D loves to make photos and videos of events in the parish and lately has thrown in some of his drone footage and a bit of AI. Content creation can be tricky but I like what Father does and am in total agreement with his vision and more than happy to give him credit.

I'm not exactly sure how we make this money since the only thing we sell is sometimes after Mass groups set up with home made tacos and snow cones or enchilada plates to support various causes at the church. I guess those likes and video clicks add up and people view ads that their algorithm generates and that's a good thing for us.    

And though the money went into my bank account I am more than happy to dig in my pocket and place this extra, which looks like it will be a monthly occurrence in the collection plate. Maybe it will increase and grow bigger and better just like our parish has. 

I recall when the page first started how we stalled out with just a couple of hundred followers but now with over 3000, which is more than in attendance each Sunday I think the effort of posting current information has paid off. 

You can also check out our traditional web page. I maintain it and while probably not as entertaining and in the moment as facebook you can find out the time of services, how to register for things, links to the bulletin or how to contact people in charge of ministries. My personal philosophy as to the content here is what would a traveler or someone completely unfamiliar with our parish or possibly not a social media user need to see as that is how I use church web pages to find a parish near me when travelling. 

Just for the record most of our followers and site traffic come from Angelina county but Mexico is second place. Give us a click sometime or better yet just stop by. 

    

 

  

 

Very Fruitful Day...

 We made a real good Saturday this weekend. 

It started with the grandkids soccer games. They played well and soccer is something I've never watched or participated in but I think it's a great sport. The boys play well and it's a joy to see them giving their all. They have big hearts and that will help them do great things in their life. 

After that we headed to church and played for a Quinceanera. The family was very appreciative and many of the older folks told us how much they liked the music. We played many of the old favorites. 

After that we headed down to the Spring Vintage Vibes Flea market held twice a year downtown. I used to participate selling my cigar box guitars here and they were good to me and understood my art. Some of the few. We picked up a 1970 Jerry Lee Lewis album, a cassette of the John Lennon recording sometime in New York City and a dinosaur hand puppet.  These are all things that will come in handy.

While down town we got a call through the St. Vincent de Paul group we are in to help a guy with a bus ticket. He was stuck in Lufkin and needed to be with family in a northern city. His friend brought him to our meeting at the bus station. They were two very nice young men and I didn't ask what ethnic group they might have belonged to but bought the ticket on my phone, texted it to him and then provided a $50 gift card to a local grocery for food and water for the two day trip. They could not believe it was so easy to get help. All monies for St. Vincent de Paul provided by the donations of the parishioners at St. Patrick Catholic Church. 

Next we hit up Napoli's for a late lunch in the basement of the old Perry Building and went to 5pm Mass afterwards working the sign up booth so people could get remembrances for the Mothers posted in the bulleting and newspaper.   

Later we attended Angelina Benefit Rodeo with Miguel and grandkids on reserved tickets his work had comped. First rodeo in some time and next year I'm signing grandkids up for mutton busting.

To top it off it was Morgan and Ali's 11th anniversary. They sent me this photo from South Carolina. 

If you had a better day I'd like to hear about it. 

     

 

Mardi Gras Fish Fry at St. Patrick's...

We had a great Mardi Fras Party at St. Patick's Catholic Church. Proceeds from fish dinners donated and cooked by the Knights of Columbus and Pop-Pop's Famous Gumbo which I cooked went to our church St. Vincent de Paul Conference. Looks like we sold about 125 plates and they were good heavy servings of fish and all the gumbo you could eat. 

If you know anything about SVDP you should know that it's a world wide organization that helps our neighbors in need.  Different conferences do things like food pantries, thrift stores and food kitchens but our group seems to have found a place helping the working poor who have hit some kind of bump in the road that got them behind on bills or people that have become stuck in our city and need help for a a bus ticket to a place where they have more support. It's necessary for our neighbors to have a way forward and the basics of our ministry is a home visit to determine how we can help since our funds are limited to what is donated by the members of our church which we could see by the success of this fish fry is solid.     
 

If you ever wondered what you can do to help people, this is it. 

It was great to see Father Denzil back in action. He has been laid up recovering from a back surgery and he has been very instrumental in starting our group and it's been unusual to not have his energy present in the parish.  

Cathy decorated for the party while I cooked. If everyone has a ministery or a calling I guess one of ours is throwing a great party. Thanks to all who helped with cooking, serving, clean up and more. 

 My grandson Milo stood behind me in our newly remodeled hall kitchen begging, "bite, bite" all the while I cooked.   

Mardi Gras Galveston...

It was cold, windy and wet but that did not stop us from enjoying a the 12pm parade this past Saturday on the beautiful, choppy, gray Gulf of Mexico for Galveston Mardi Gras. 

We had a good spot, floats were great, caught several specular throws and there were lots of tuba in the marching bands. 

They let you put your RV on the Seawall starting on Thursday morning before the parade at 5am. I talked to the fellow in the camper across the street behind Rose and Miguel and he said at 5am Thursday he was unable to secure a spot close to friends he was trying to camp with. Looks like fun but I don't think I can get Cathy up this early to get a good place. Maybe next year at least bring a BBQ grill.   

Waiting for the parade.

Getting drunk on Vienna Sausage. 

He's making a good Mardi Gras Man. 

Who dat in the mask? 

If I mention it enough when you google the Gulf of Mexico my blog will be one of the hits. 

These beads will be used at the church Mardi Gras, Tuesday March 4th at 5:30. I'm cooking gumbo.  

Throw me something mista! 

Tuba! 

They ended up canceling the 6pm parade because of rain but opened up the area of the Strand requiring tickets to free admission. We headed home as relocating this circus might have been a Mardi Gras too far.