Haiti and Pete Rose, More Alike Than You Think...

 If I get a chance I always go see Haitian music. There's a lot to unpack in that music and it beats standing at a show counting a 1, 2, 3, 4 rock beat. I don't go to baseball games as much as I would like to but I take in the Astros when I can and when in Chicago have been able to see the Cubs at Wrigley Field and since the PK are on the Sox side of town I've been there also. My dad took us to Astros games in the Dome and it's possible I saw Pete Rose play as a child but I really don't remember. With Haitians in the news and Pete's passing it occurred to me how much they are alike.

The Haitian Revolution, slaves rose up against rose up against French rule to free themselves 1791-1804. It was a terrible bloody time but the French and later the British and Spanish who all came to be involved in the conflict were pretty impressed with former enslaved people's initiative and organization and American slave owners were so scared by it that they banned anyone from Haiti (some slipped into New Orleans) and by 1808 had banned importation of Africans preferring homegrown enslaved people to anyone than might cause trouble. The war probably helped the USA in the fact that the horrible losses of troops suffered by the colonial powers blunted their ambitions in this hemisphere but Haiti was left destitute when in 1825 France sent warships to demand repatriations for those that owned land and slaves. Haiti was forced to take out loans which hurt prosperity and though paid off in 1947 the country has never recovered and is rife with gangs and occupied by U.N. police forces. 

That's the history of the Haitian Revolution in a nutshell as I read in Ned Sublette's books which pile many interesting tidbits on history, culture and music together. Apparently some are still taking it out on Haiti by claiming immigrants in the U.S. fleeing the current chaos eat household pets. That's a long grudge. 

Pete Rose, the all time hits leader in major league baseball bet on baseball and as a manager he bet on his own team. He admitted these things. Pete's nickname was Charlie Hustle and by all reports may not have been all that nice of a guy having led a controversial life and baseball seems to have it in for him by basically ignoring attempts at reinstatement (hind of like Haiti) while other people have been tarnished by betting without suspension and as long as I check the box that says I'll old enough I can download an app to bet on sports from my phone. Don't tell my wife about that as she's all in for Mahomes and I don't want her that far in.   

I think we can connect the dots pretty easily between Pete and Haiti. Both are on the outs with the powers that be. The question is how do you get back in? Do we summon Papa Legba? I may be asking this myself by the time the other hand, which we are never watching reads this blog. 

             

   

     

Chicago, Evansville and All Points in Between...

 We made a great trip to see family in Chicago and Evansville, In. this past week. It's traveling and living and while we are not visiting the Grand Canyon with specular views we are enjoying the company of people we love the most. It can be a little hard to rationalize the joy we have in our lives with the terrible things going on in the world such as storms, war and political unrest but maybe we just do the things we can as we can and pray for the best. 

One thing that might have an effect on the world and something that made me as well as my pocket book happy was the performance of out hybrid gas electric Toyota automobile. We racked up 2049 miles driven getting 50.1 miles per gallon, used 40 gallons of gas and spent $110 dollars on fuel. Maybe I won't save the planet today as my next trip to the beach my Ford F 150 will use 40 gallons to and from my favorite shark fishing spot but driving a hybrid to met the needs we can is a start and a start is what we need. 

Speaking of starts we saw these wind farms along the way. Actually Texas leads the nation in wind farms but the are mostly in southern Texas where I don't often travel. Illinois and Indian, though we saw many do not even make the top 5 list.

We also saw quite a few solar farms. Texas rates number 6 on solar. In Chicago Katie and Peter have a solar plan for panels on the roof which requires and investment but the plan is that by their retirement and of course taking in developing technology that the harvest of power will amount to a passive income stream. 

Also along the way I noted many service stations advertising EV charging. Granted with the technology we have now I could not have driven 12 hours straight from Indiana to sleep in my own bed with the neighbor's cows mooing in the backyard but as with the energy changes we saw it will happen one day. The naysayers may say it won't and that you can't charge your car when the power goes out but one day you will.  

Like I say I did not view the Grand Canyon but while in this save the planet mode I hit several thrift stores and picked up several records (another blog post), a pair of skinny leg black pants and a couple of used climate fiction change books.  

Kim Standley Robinson is a noted climate change author and I've read several of his books. He includes the science to back his stories up. Afterglow is a short story compilation and so far the resounding vibe I get from the stories is hope and that mankind does not start to make changes until it is apparent there is a disaster about to happen and then while the world becomes a quite different place it also becomes a better place while the planet begins to bloom and grow again so do the people. 

That's also a good pattern for us, to love, to travel, to bloom, grow and change.     

     

       

More Beach Camping and Shark Fishing...

We made another beach camping trip to the spot by Brazoria County Free Beach beach access road #3 (here's a tip) that we are calling Pop Pop's Secret Fish Spot. This is the third trip of the summer here, once in the old Rpod and now the second beach trip for the new camper which if I see some kind of bumper sticker that says "beach house" I may purchase it and sick it somewhere prominent because that's how we feel down here camping. Some almost always stops and asks, "Is it just free to camp here?"  

We could see a few other campers down the beach but not close enough to feel crowded as people that camp here are looking for solitude and the weekend beach traffic was also low.   

Fall is the time for the Texas Redfish run but while we caught no reds there was plenty of ankle bier shark action to be had. Final total was four sharks, three lady fish (poor man's tarpon), a sting ray, a small pompano and several whiting. We ate the biggest shark, a 27 inchers (gotta be 24") cooked on the iron cooktop with Jamaican jerk spices, peppers, onions and cheese as fish tacos and sometime I'd like to catch enough whiting for a meal as they are good and I also like to eat the pompano if big enough to fillet.    

 

There's always a variety of opinions as to whether shark is good eating. This was a very mild tasting black tip, not all kinds of shark meat is created equal, and I think it's important to fillet the shark as soon as he is caught. When they die the body fluids pollute the meat so don't haul one around in the bottom of the boat, the ice chest or on a stringer till you are finished fishing. If the good fish, trout, reds and flounder are biting toss the shark back but in this case I was able to tend to the cleaning properly.  

By the way this shark was in the first gut, or the first little deep spot you come to on wading out, very close to the beach. 

Plenty of good bait was available and all fish caught on live finger mullet on a falling tide. So many mullet left in tidal pools that the grandkids Warren and Coraline got good experience throwing the cast net. 

Here's a sting ray, which they say this makes good hut bait for shark but I removed the barb so he's harmless incase I step on him the next trip. I've been stung and it took 9 weeks for the wound to stop draining. That could be considered the mildest outcome you can expect from something like this.  

Coraline with mullet. 

Cathy and friends

Warren was much more interested in fishing if he caught the bait. Note the clear water. It's the time of the year to hit the beach.  

If the fish aren't biting take a note from the seagulls. Sit around until they start again. 

Fiestas Patrias at St. Patrick's Catholic Church...

 Our church, St. Patrick's Catholic Church, celebrated Fiestas Patrias this past weekend. Fiestas Patrias is actually a set of holidays celebrating the anniversary of the revolution in 1910, the call of Mexican Independence from Spanish rule in 1810, Labor Day and the birth of President Juarez in 1806. Cinco de Mayo is the holiday that celebrates victory over the French at the battle of Puebla in 1862. 

While Cinco de Mayo seems to have grown a life of it's own with tequila and tacos St. Patrick's as well as the Hispanic Catholic Churches in Diboll and Nacogdoches are the only places I know around town that actually has a celebration to to honor Fiestas Patrias.    

As we get older our parts in these festivals have decreased from the St. Patrick's Festivals of the early 90s which me and Cathy were chairmen of where we rented the Expo Center, moved every chair and table in the parish, raffled a car and played music to this weekend where we played music for the Mass, Cathy counted the money raised to benefit education programs at the church and I help put up chairs and tables and gave out a few balloon animals that Mary and Miguel made in the kid activity area. 

We don't get to play music around the church much anymore. I guess you can call us semi retired or fired depending on who might tell the story but even though I feel a bit rusty with the music it's fun and the people that show up to sing with us, some who who have been in the group since they were teens and some good young musicians make it a gathering of like minded people. 

The music we did was bilingual and though Mass times were changed a bit in an effort to combine the English and Spanish Sunday Masses I would say the congregation was 98% Hispanic. Maybe slightly more Anglos came out for the festival itself which was good to see. Interest had tailed off in gathering a big group of volunteers for the St. Patrick's Festival and this event is not a fund raiser but just a potluck dinner these days. Fiestas Patrias is our church festival. We had Sri Lanka and Filipino food to go with all the tasty Mexican dishes and all cultures should come and celebrate their heritage.

That's a novel idea, all gathered together working for a common good. I have heard arguments for and against this. Guess which one I'm making now.   

Raising money can be done many ways. You can sell something, you can give a donation which seems to become the way of the world, no inconvenience other than monetary involved or you can work together to have fun and build a community. 

And dance, don't forget dancing! 

All these people pictured here are my friends. I'm proud of my parish, the worship, the work and the fun. 

     

 

 

263, It's Just a Number...

 When I was a kid we had an old dog named Smokey. He was brindle colored and had some chow dog in his linage as evidenced by his partially black tongue. Smokey was aggressive and protective of the family and his food. He bit a neighborhood kid running by his food bowl and also the Avon lady when she knocked on the front door selling her wares. 

It was a different time. The old man could be pretty dismissive of some people which included door to door salesmen or women or some neighbors and I don't remember Smokey ever being subjected to the kind of regulations we have now that require reporting, quarantine and in some cases liability. I don't recall what ever happened to Smokey. My brother might but seems there was a bloody injury, out with the old dog, long live the new and I doubt the old man was sensitive to a  rainbow bridge crossing.    

In 1804 Lewis and Clark set out on an expedition to map the western part of the USA. It was one of the most well documented events of American history.  Both leaders kept extensive logs and the men themselves were encouraged to journal their experiences. This was a grueling experience often involving boating upriver against the current and to keep up the exertion the men required 8-10 pounds of proteins a day. They ate their way across the country consuming elk, deer, beaver, horse, birds and by the records they ate 263 dogs bought from the Native Americans. Eating dog is part of our history, our culture, out cuisine. 

It should be noted that Lewis did not eat his own dog, Seaman, and in April 1806 he wrote in his journal:

 “The dog now constitutes a considerable part of our subsistence and with most of the party has become a favorite food; certain I am that it is a healthy strong diet, and from habit it has become by no means disagreeable to me, I prefer it to lean venison or Elk, and it is very far superior to the horse in any state.”

Just as things were different in my childhood things were different from that in Lewis and Clark's days. There was not much effective first aid and at the first sign of illness expedition members were often administered a laxitive called Dr. Rush's Bilious Pills or "Thunderclappers." It was their CONCEPT that this mixture of mercury, calomel and jalap would cause the body to rid it's self of the aliment. My wife was able to retire a couple of years early due to insurance offered by the Affordable Care Act and this treatment was not covered or even an option under that plan. 

Back to the dog, my neighbor has elk in the pasture next door. I have pictured killing, butchering and transporting a carcass to my freezer and I just can't see it happening for me. I have extensive small game hunting experience and have skint squirrels, the occasional rabbit and plucked ducks. I could probably hull a dog out pretty easily so dogmeat, maybe. 

You know there's always those things you would like to ask your parents after they are gone and my mother used to say she hated cooking squirrel because it reminded her of cat. I'd ask her how she knew what cooking cat was like. I guess I'll ask the old man what happened to old Smokey and I'll double check that dog count with Lewis and Clark.             

The Doing Holidays Right Catfish Blog Post...

It was a pretty quiet Labor Day Weekend Saturday on the lake. Not many boats out at all. Our favorite boat ramp was back open after a couple of spring incidents that involved 25 inch rains and Hurricane Beryl but looks like after the flooding and due to fallen and standing dead trees the campground will not be open for months. There was a pretty good chop on the water when we arrived but we motored up the lake to be sheltered and after a good blow it calmed.   

 After a fun live music show yesterday and fishing trip this holiday weekend made me feel that in our retirement, after careers that involved working weekends, holidays, nights and sometimes 24/7 attention we are finally learning how to do holidays right.  

This is our first real catfishing trip since spring though there has been lots of swimming, tubing and beach fishing. For the yearly total we had 17 cats caught in 30' of water suspended just a little off the bottom. We weren't in our usual spot because I saw some guy on the internets said he always fished in sight of the bird nest. We threw back a bucket load of small ones. 

We been catfish hungry and Cathy's eyes were bigger than her appetite because she wanted them all fried and swimming in her belly. I managed to save a couple of packages of the biggest fillets for grilling another day and fried up the rest with hushpuppies and homegrown okra. It was good and there are some left overs. 

Think I'll really get with the holiday and grill ribs tomorrow. 

Dictator of Taste...

We saw one of my heroes last night at the Heights Theater in Houston, Tx. Think if you rolled the Temptations, Curtis Mayfield, Archie Bell and the Drells all into one then spiked blues singers Ledbelly and Mississippi Fred McDowell's whisky with ayahuasca and you get what Fantastic Negrito calls "black roots music for everyone."  

I called this blog "Dictator of Taste" because that's what he had painted on the back of a gold flowing thrift store costume he wore. Fantastic Negrito's story is a good one and it's why he's my hero. Poised for pop success with an album out in 1996 under his given name of Xavier he suffered a near fatal car cash which left him in a coma for three weeks. The crash left permanent damage to his right hand. In 2015 he won NPR's Tiny Desk Concert contest and has since won three Grammy's. 

His stage show is very energetic and his dancing energy does not indicate that he's 56 years old. The songs are the story of a man examining his life. His experiences guide the music and he is an independent artist with his own record label for people who were told the were too old, the wrong body type or the wrong color. The backing band was treat. Everybody was a singer and sometimes there was so many parts going on vocally, high gospel harmony and low bass singing that it could be hard to keep up with.       

I did not get the guitar players name. Good playing and singing, a strong back up man, doing it all. Great costume also. A stage show, it's what we want to see. 

We enjoyed the show from the gallery balcony seating. I'd say maybe 200+ people at the show and while certainly dedicated fans our seats were good and not crowded. 

There was a great performance of Ledbelly's "In the Pines." That's a good song for me as I have an oscilloscope reading of this tune tattooed in tribal style around my left upper arm. As I say, we connect. 

  Fantastic calls himself a recovering narcissist. "My dog died, my cat died, how can I make this about me?" He says there a lot of steps to this journey of taking the bullshit and turning it into good shit.    

Opening band was the Houston based Mighty Orq. Great guitar sound playing electric and a wonderful delay drenched cigar box guitar and resonator used to good effect. I think he has played locally at the Live Oak Listening room and looks like he has guitar lessons on his YouTube channel  

Check out these bands and check out the Heights Theater. Be a Dictator of Taste. Turn that bull into something good.