"That Feller Had on a Dress..."

Men wearing dresses has been in the news lately. So has the fact that temps have been over 100 degrees around here for 23 days this summer. I say that a dress is cooler than trousers and for some years now a sarong, a one piece wrap popular in tropical areas of Asia and Africa has been a favored type of dress to wear while lounging about my house. Even though it seems that men with real short hair wearing suits may pass laws against men wearing dresses I may go against the mainstream and wear my sarong to town. It's hot enough, I don't think anyone will bat an eye and anyway that's kind of how I go, different from everyone else. 

Of course men with real short hair and suits have passed laws against heroin use. That does not make me want to go against the law and mass public opinion to sample narcotics because after all like climate change, COVID viruses and more there is science behind the reasons you should not take heroin. As far as I know there are no studies about men wearing sarongs. 

The other day I was driving along a main thoroughfare and I saw a poor woman walking in the 100 degree heat in a black bikini. She was probably in her 30s, the swim suit was on the modest side of this type of wear and she had a nice tan. By all appearances she was very hot and on a directional heading to the corner convenience store where what I imagined to be the only air conditioning she would experience that day lay in cool wait behind heavy glass doors. I say this woman would have been better served by a sarong and if you think I'm picking on women I saw a few men that would have also been well served by wearing a sarong. 

Once while working in the nursing home I had two physical therapy patients. One gentleman got up each day and dressed in button up western shirts, jeans, and leather shoes. The other gentleman preferred a patient gown with a pair of shorts underneath. Despite the differences in dress both men liked a good domino game and when they ended up in the gym together as a build up to more strenuous activities I placed a bedside rolling table with the dominos on them between the two and they happily spent quite a while playing. At the conclusion of the game I rolled the table from between them and Mr. Jeans sighted the other mans patient gown. "That feller's got on a dress!" he exclaimed. When you wear an unconventional garment in public it will take getting used to for some.        

Just so there is no confusion when you see me so you can start getting familiar with the terminology a sarong or sarung is worn wrapped about the waist. A West African word from the Akan language srong or sorong means fastened at the highest point. Memorize this and you will not be ignorant about which one I'm wearing. 

Cathy also has a sarong. She likes it when we are all matchy matchy. Whatever men in suits with real short hair think I like it also.  

 

Latest Two Used Records...

A few weekends ago I managed to hit the downtown Heritage Antiques parking lot flea market. They hold something like this each spring and fall. I have always found good deals here and in the past I've had some very profitable days when I had a booth selling the cigar box guitars I made. The Heritage Antiques people have been good to me. On a quick walk through this day there were plenty of well organized good records to be found and I limited mice elf to only two and I think I was drawn to these through a cosmic connection. 

In the front you see Al Hirt's "Our Man in New Orleans." It's a 1963 release and this seems to be a rerelease from 1976. Al was a New Orleans fixture, playing trumpet on Bourbon St. and at one time being apart owner of the Saints and performing a few Super Bowl halftime shows. This is a recording of all the traditional jazz favorites but it's in kind of a big band style. Amazingly enough you can still buy this on cd or as an mp3 but used records by the big man are a rich vein of cheap record collecting. They made millions, they sound good, are easy to find and usually the previous owner took good care of them. 

On the cover Al is pictured in front of Jean Lafitte's Blacksmith Shop on the corner of Bourbon and St. Phillip. It might be the oldest building in the French Quarter. It's reported to be the most haunted structure in the Quarter and in the 1940s was a place for the bohemian community which included Noel Coward and Tennessee to hang. By the time I first spotted the place in the early 1980s it looked like a joint where a tourist might pay too much for a drink so that day I located my operation a few blocks over to a dark, quiet, mostly empty watering hole whose name long escapes me. I did not see any bohemians there but I did not want to be bothered.   

The other record is Parliament's Motor Booty Affair. It's a George Clinton project from 1978. This record had two Number #1 Billboard singles come off of it. Bootsy Collins who (linked is part of the show we saw) we saw at Riot Fest a few years ago and his brother Catfish play on the record. The cut out paper doll stand up characters, art work by Overton Loyd are all still intact. I wish I had been into this kind of music when it came out but my shell like ears lumped it in with disco. The disco joints in east Texas usually required nice pants for entry in the late 1970s and as I had had a bad experience with nice pants in the third grade or something the scene was a turn off. This music is really what they call funk and it's good. Later I would learn more about it in New Orleans    

Maybe That's the cosmic connection is that Al is from New Orleans, like on the album cover I only stood outside Jean Lafitte's Blacksmith Shop, I learned more about funk there and some years ago we did see George Clinton play live in New Orleans. I swear I wrote a blog post, and everything and had some photos of  had photos of Diaper Man who was still alive at the time. 

Good thing there are records, lots of them and if someone turned up that blog post I would invite you to a quiet bar afew blocks over from somewhere.   

 

Working Allright...

Sometimes in my work I meet people in entry level positions. They might be young, they might be older but when they are smart it's pretty obvious that they have what it takes to rise higher in the field. I met a young woman like that this weekend at work. She was 18 years old. It was her first job. She was employee of the month. 

Later that day I was combing through some memorabilia and I found this old high school student ID. It's me at about the same age as the young lady I met. I was not employee of the month that month. I probably won't be employee of the month this month either.  

Today as I was driving home from work and passed a drive through beer store. A guy was getting out of a company car wrapped in the logo of a major American brewing company. He had on black trousers and a polo shirt that probably also had the same logo imprinted upon it.  He tucked a clip board under his arm and entered the beer store.

I can imagine the conversation. 

Beer salesmen says, "you need beer?" 

Beer store owner says, "Yeah." 

Beer salesman writes on clipboard.

"I'll send the truck tomorrow." 

"Ok" 

Both those guys are probably employees of the month.  

Thrift Storing...

Great minds think like. Even though Cathy went out of town while I stayed home we visited similar concerns. I guess that's what makes us good together.

It started with my need for a black shirt for the upcoming Angelina College Community Band gig on April 29th. I hit at least two thrift stores before I hit the gold at Second Blessings in Huntington. I got a black long-sleeved shirt so nice that I just had to spring for the black trousers that fit like they were tailor made. I passed on the French cuffed black shirt as I though the sleeves looked a little too bunchy. Since I was on a roll a quick look around the store and there was a statue of St. Theresa just waiting for me.

If you remember, Saint Theresa was a Spanish Mystic, a Carmelite Nun and a Saint of the Catholic Church. A motto associated with her is "Lord let me suffer or let me die." I think the Mountain Goats said something like that also. "I'll get thorough this year if it kills me."

Today was the day that Heritage Antiques in downtown Lufkin hosted their Spring Fling of vendor booths in the parking lot. I have been selling my cigar box guitars at their spring and fall events for a couple of years and it's good folks down there. They understand my shtick. Not everybody does. I had to work so no booth for me. I went down after work this afternoon and despite the morning rain it was a good turn out of vendors. I bought a couple of things from my favorite guys. Mike sells records and sell is what he does. I usually find out I know more about the records. I guess he just likes to sell and they are good prices. He had a record by the old reggae band that used to play the Crossroads in Doches, the Lotions. He said "don't you want that Lotions record?"  I said, "dude,  I bought a Lotions record from you two years ago." Not many people come by two of those records. 

Anyway I picked up a Buddy Miles, former Jimi Hendrix drummer who I also saw play the Crossroads one time, great show, called Roadrunner. It did not have a cover but a quick google shows this to be a $15-20 record in good condition.

The Good the Bad and Ugly sound track by composer Enrico Morricone is a must have for all music fans with a case of the spooky spaghetti western jones on.   

Also without a cover I got the old Chicago Live at Carnegie Hall. I had this release 8 track back in the day. I looked it up and seems the group is divided on the quality of the recording. Some likened the horn sounds to kazoos. That's cool I like kazoos. Also there have been a couple of recent documentaries on the history of this band where they admit to being reckless cocaine users. That will have effect on what you think your horn sounds like as well as what it really sounds like.

I think this record still holds the mark as the best selling 4 LP box set release ever. I gave $5 total and have only had to get up and kick the record play twice when the needle got stuck so far.

I bought this from a guy, and I forget his name I am sorry but he has promised me if he ever raises good gourds he will give me some for guitar making. A tiki totem from someone's cruise vacation I'll probably hang it on a tree in the yard and years later the kids will think it was some kind of shrine their crazy old man was out praying at. Maybe I'll combine it in an alter with the Saint Theresa.

Meanwhile I was busy with all this Cathy picked up these two Astros shirts at a thrift in Lake Jackson. We have tickets for the Stros and White Sox next visit to Chicago. Someone I know was worried I might wear White Sox gear to that game. Get outta here dude! 

Cathy also picked up a $5 all you could stuff in a bag special of clothes. Cathy never buys new clothes. Always used. Maybe a new t shirt from a favorite band now and then. 

I did hit up a garage sale with a bunch of used fishing gear but they had nothing essential. 

Total expenses thrifting comes to about $32.  

What to do When it's Cold...

I was in Gaido's Seafood Restaurant one time. That's a classy place to eat in Galveston. At least it used to be considered real classy because you had to wear trousers and a real shirt when you ate there. Times have changed because now you can get in wearing shorts (nothing permitted bottomless yet) and with declining attitudes toward what is considered classy I bet a tank top from a major designer brand will now gain you admittance. I think in my life time a person will be able to walk right up from the beach in a bikini and flip flops all sun burnt and sandy and get seated. Maybe not me in a bikini, but someone will break that barrier one day and I'll be ok with that. One barrier that won't be broken is what a waiter there told me once when I asked what was good today. He said if the water is hot, eat crab. Water cold, oysters. Well the water is cold so for right now it's the oysters. 

Christmas with the family is past but not too late to thank brother and sister in law Kevin and Margaret for once again bringing the oysters. When they fly in from Indiana for time with the family they always stop by a seafood market for a sack of oysters in the shell. Here's Kevin standing by the grill having an oyster basted in a special sauce created by Chef Morgan.

I would say that the sauce Morgan made was as good as any I have ever had on a plate of grilled or broiled oysters. I am at a time in my life when I am always impressed when my children know how to do stuff well and it's stuff that I have not taught them. 

Morgan and Pop shuck the oysters out and eat them raw. That's Samantha's boyfriend Mitchell in the middle. He's a new blog character and a real good guy. Knows how to deer hunt and catch big bass. Has a good job following Samantha's dad Jim around and holding up cell phone photos of big deer and bass Jim has caught as as he tells the story. It's a good gig if you can get it.  

Real men shuck oysters in pink shirts. 

It was nice having those young boys in there shucking and sucking. I can slack off a little bit. Don't have to lead the charge. Maybe that means I'll last a little longer. 

With the temps expected in the low 30s tonight I'd say oyster time is the right time. 

It's the Most Confusing Time of the Year...

I know that it should be like the old song goes, the most wonderful time of the year.  When it comes to the great silly string shoot out that is a yearly part of the stocking stuffer gift it can be confusing to the grandchildren. I know it's not confusing to you because as I say it's yearly and you have seen it  posted here before. 

It's confusing to the children because it's adults making a big old mess and getting stuff all over their nice pants. I still get in trouble for getting my trousers messed up even though I am not a child. I remember how I used to think and laugh about how it was so so square for a guy to be in Sears or JC Penny shopping the slacks that advertise "stain resistant." I have since grown. I usually find myself in those stores once a year or so and I can see the advantages to a stain resistant product.  

I also get in trouble over making a big mess and so do the children. They know almost from the start you are not supposed to do that and I guess I know that also. That's why it's so troubling to us and Coraline hollers "All over my dress." 

So here are the photos of the great silly string massacre. If you look close you might see silly string from last year on the walls. It's like that around here. A big old mess, a good mess at a wonderful time of the year..  

Pulled My Pants Up at the Discovery Green Concert...

Discovery Green is a nice little outdoor park in downtown Houston where they have free concerts. It's good people. We meet Morgan, Ali and Anne to see Paul Thorn with Craig Kinsey opening. Coming up is Rodney Crowell. Though we stayed the night a concert here, especially if you like the people is worth a drive down and back in my humble opinion. If you happen to see Paul though keep your pants pulled up. 

I had a Paul Thorn CD and was already familiar with him. They play a lot of his tunes on WWOZ radio out of New Orleans. He's a Mississippi boy raised Pentecostal and his funky southern rock/soul music has a nice raise the church roof feel good on Sunday morning after being bad Saturday night dark old south Gothic vibe.   

He had a really great band including in the following photo a lefty guitarist who played killer slide. One thing I noted was that there were no amps on stage. In this part of the world Texas Headphones, a couple of road battered Fender amps are the weapon of choice for the guitar players in a band. They had some kind of electronic trickery that sound great including the use of sitar like sounds by the lead player. It all sounded great but as my newest amp was made in the early 1980s and has been retubed with 1950s military grade tubes I am kind of in the dark as to how they did this. If it was 1952 and I had to help Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys set up I could go right to work. I could not help these guys.  

The good old Mississippi feel good boy Paul is tempted him to solve the world's problems a bit from his bully pulpit of the stage. He was getting most of it right as far as I was concerned but when he made a crack about things will be a little better when when the young people start pulling up their pants. Paul, that's just a style. When I was in high school I had a pair of bell bottom pants, and they were big bells and they had cuffs. They were a kind of maroon color.  I might have had two pair but I don't remember the color of the other one. I could have worn those to your concert and then where would you have been? What would there have been left to say? As George Harrison once said in a song "All things Must Pass." I don't think George was talking about styles but they do pass away. I don't think they are the cause of the worlds problems or change the way people act. As they say around here, "you can take him out of those sagging pants..." 

Anyway it was good, sound good and I bought his newest cd. It's called too Blessed to be Stressed and I like that title. From the looks of thinks the Paul Thorn Band is getting good gigs so you will see more from them. 

The other band was Craig Kinsey. Though the started with a Woody Guthrie song they quickley switched to a cabaret style mode that included dancers. Cathy liked this band more than Paul. 

They do get extra points for the girl dancers and the horn player. 

Ok. Just like Paul I had my say. Now I'll put on pants, pulling them all the way up. I am an old man in case I said something here that otherwise made you believe different and I wear my trousers pulled way up high. 

The Old Favorite They Named This Blog...

I'm trying to remember when Cathy first started liking the gypsy punk band GoGol Bordello.  Their origin dates to 1999. This blog, which takes it's name from a line in one of their songs began in 2004. We saw a lot of exciting shows by them in the past decade. Somewhere along the way what seems to happen is bands change, move on from what they were doing, get too big, get  $100 rock and roll haircuts instead of cutting each others hair, catch the sue me sue you blues or maybe you get a new haircut or something yourself and it's just not the same anymore. We did see them play at Riot Fest this past weekend so I'll try to review that show as well as put the past 10 years into some kind of perspective. 

I liked the show we saw this weekend. It was pouring rain. We stood in mud. I'm still trying to get the mud from the crowd surfers off my Mardi Gras suit jacket. Not as bad as the Stubbs show that time when I was trying to recover from a detached retina (not caused by punk music) and had to avoid jumping up and down, head banging, crowd surfers and any generalized jostling. Here is lead singer Eugene, the brains behind the operation. 

I like the festival atmosphere but to tell the truth I have not been to but a handful of big light show concerts in the past years. I am usually pleasantly surprised.  Most of the time I prefer music in some dive.   

Here is a full band photo. They have new members

Some of the old members missing are guitarist Oren and bass player Rea.These were some of Cathy's favorites. Once Cathy met them coming down Red River Street in Austin and they stopped her (types always pick her out, it's something she lives with) and in thick Israeli accents asked "where is Stubb's?" She directed them to the venue where they were on their way to catch a set by the Pixies.  Seems Oren and Eugene are in some kind of lawsuit these days. It happens. Ask the Beatles. Also missing is accordion player Yuri also a favorite. He was a bit older and the road grows weary.  

Cathy seems to think the band is a bit too choreographed these days. Everybody hits their marks right on cue. They are not like the old days when two guys would run into each other and fall down or one guy would try the punk rock gobbing thing only to have it fall short and land on another's trouser leg. I thought the show was good. I do play in a band where the marks are sometimes missed and they aint trying to be punk so coming in on time does have it's place. 

At the old club shows one of the band members usually flipped the bass drum over and surfed the crowd on it. And in those days the crowd usually was not as thick as it was at this event. There was plenty of room to stand at the front of the stage and meet the other illuminated few who knew about Gogol Bordello and gypsy music. You know those kind of people. They are not the people who say "I like all kinds of music" and then when you give them a GoGol Bodello cd they say "I did not like that." 

Seems I remember a night and I think it was at Tip's in new Orleans when we stood around a bit with Eugene after the show. I guess he's a bit bigger that that these days. He did jump down after the show into an area between the stage and the crowd barriers. He suddenly had a girl with him but she looked too clean to have come out of the crowd. They walked away. Even more suddenly than this the security people pulled a guy from the crowd and subdued him very efficiently.  It looked like an old guy. Hard to say what he might have done to warrant the security reaction but it was hard for me to see. As I say, things have changed. Maybe some of the people at the shows have changed also. 

So to wrap things up we might be getting to the end of the trail with this band. I'll probably still get thier cds but we picked up some new favorites to follow at this festival. That's good because sometimes I fret I might not be finding out about the good stuff when it comes to new music. I got to remember, the older you will get... 

Sometimes You Got to be a Big Boy...

And I don't care how stylishly low you have been wearing those trousers you are going to have to be a big boy and pull them up. This is not some middle age old white guy get off my lawn rant about the state of the pants, I am talking metaphysically, metaphorically, universally get a hold of the loops, the belt what ever and hang on.

You did not think things were really going to stay the same did you? Say what, you did not know it was going to be in public? You have a lot to learn.

Signs Signs Everywhere a Sign...

That's a song I heard on the radio one time, but not anytime lately. This is not technically a sign, unless we are talking reading sign as in some type of shamanistic sense (it would reveal someone has been cat fishing) but a bumper sticker I saw on a truck parked in my garage.

Seemed to be a familiar figure there, maybe the shrill talking heads are right. In addition to trying to pass a health care bill, stop the war and bail out the economy Obama is now trying to tell us what kind of cat fish bait to use. I was wrong though, not Obama and I figure any way if you could pull a shrill talking head out where you could check the skirt length or trouser cuff style you would learn way more about health, war and the true state of the economy than would be useful to know.

Back to the bumper sticker, J Pigg's is a current favorite cat fish bait in this house hold. I know we have a link on the blog side bar to Danny King's and old Danny has put the meat in the boat for us but we continue to try new things all the time. Fact of the matter is Danny King really does not have anything to do with his bait anymore, he sold the name. It's still pretty much the same stuff to me but there are purist who think not. You can get Danny's bait at the big box stores these day so back to the economy that means it may well be outsourced to a factory in China. Hope it has been well explained to the workers there by a bilingual person what it is that rural Americans do with this stinking stuff. Wouldn't want any wrong ideas about democracy to get started out there.

We do have another new bait in the boat right now as yet untried and it's made by Lewis King, who happens to be Danny's brother. I know by now it may seem like I am making all this up but the word on the street is that it is better. Lewis is suppose to mix it with his own hands.

Band Photos from The Church Festival...

Here's some band photos from last weekends church festival. This first one is Mudbelly. One of his favorite things is playing music outside on hot days and completely sweating through his clothes. Loves large closed back Fender speaker cabinets cranked up loud enough his trouser legs flap from the passage of sound waves. I am not making any of this up.

Dan on drums. A friend in the neighborhood later recounted recognizing "Wipeout" from two blocks away. Drums weren't miked either.














Roy on lead guitar. He was a sub for our usual guy, Larry who could not make the gig. He rehearsed with us once, see the blog post on the sheriff's visit to the house then played a gig. We only hung him out to dry a couple of times when he took a ride. A very good sport, said he would like to play with us more. Maybe we can treat him a little better in the future.










Runt on lead vocals. People ask me all the time, "is that is real name?" I say, "No."

They say, "What is it?" I say, "Runtly."


There was another guy in the band. Will deal with him in a separate post, not enough room for anymore pictures in this space today.