Got lucky with the light out at my folks' place the other evening.
Hey, Venus
Whorehouse music, Texas style. No kidding
Piano scholar and player James Goodwin has a number of videos up on YouTube. This, he says, "is an improvisation in the piano blues style that developed in the barrelhouses and whorehouses of Texas in the 1920s and 1930s. Characteristic is the use of slurred notes in the right hand and pumping chords or stride... Continue Reading →
Your blender is about to turn purple
Earlier this month Pantone selected its Color of the Year for 2014: "Radiant Orchid," or 18-3224 in the Pantone color-specifying system that prevents designers from having to say, "It's a kind of purpley lavender... No, not that bright." This business of selecting colors may strike normal people as complete horse hockey, but I am pretty... Continue Reading →
Rock, fire, Photoshop
Been planning to try making a logo like this for a while but needed to learn some stuff, like how to make 3D text, drop an image onto text and erase the background of semi-transparent flames, since you can't separate the red channel in Photoshop Elements (I used settings of Contiguous and tolerance 13%). This... Continue Reading →
Lady Bird Johnson’s recipe for King Ranch Chicken
If it is good enough for the Bird, it is good enough for me. This is also kind of a classic example of the mid-20th-century "open four cans of Campbell's" school of cooking. (Bonus: Queen Elizabeth II's recipe for scones.)
Texas dancehall music in Czech: The Shiner Song
Ran across this piece of history by Western swing man Adolph Hofner. To quote a Texas Monthly story from 2000 about him: Here's the true sound of the South and Central Texas dance hall. Adolph Hofner, born in 1916 in the predominantly Czech community of Moulton and based mainly in San Antonio since the thirties,... Continue Reading →
Kyle Field student section: Not just the kids in khaki!
Howdy! This post is still getting traffic, so I decided to update it with the 2025 Kyle Field student section. In the original 2013 post below, Kyle Field had not yet undergone its 2014-2015 expansion and redevelopment; its capacity now is 102,733. Kyle Field in 2025: Marked in yellow is the largest student section in... Continue Reading →
Perhaps a friendly recital of my flaws will inspire change
Recently did a quickie personality quiz that seems to be a not-bad "lite" version of Myers Briggs. I've been Myers-Briggsed before more thoroughly, but as with reading a literary work, it seems you get something different out of the experience every time you come at it, depending on where you are in your life at... Continue Reading →
Socrates, “Doonesbury” or Kinky Friedman?
Lately I've been trying to simplify and automate a lot of tasks, and I keep thinking of this quote: "I'm trying to develop a lifestyle that doesn't require my presence." Yes! If everything could keep humming along while I took a week-long nap ... This quote, or a version of it, is attributed all over... Continue Reading →
My desk was in an Angelina Jolie movie
Back in 2007, Michael Winterbottom filmed parts of a movie in and around Austin. The film was "A Mighty Heart," in which Angelina Jolie plays the wife of kidnapped journalist Daniel Pearl, and the Austin American-Statesman co-stars as a Wall Street Journal bureau. Us Statesfolk were reminiscing about this last week, and I thought y'all... Continue Reading →
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