Category: American Culture
Posted by: an okie gardener
The travelogue continues. For previous entries Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3.
South of Burnet is Marble Falls. One of the most beautiful towns in central Texas--rocky hills and a lake--with some of the worst traffic in Texas, apparently because getting anywhere in town means using U.S. 281, putting the locals and those just passing through onto the same pavement. The lake resulted from the damming of the Colorado River (of Texas), which covered the Falls that had given the city its name. Can't have everything. Perhaps the town best should be known as having elected the first woman mayor in the United States in 1917 when the voters were all men.
The small community of Round Mountain is off the highway, but along 281 is a truckstop that a sign proclaims to be municipally owned. While I don't think that the Federal Government owning GM or Chrysler is a good idea, I'm OK with communities choosing to operate businesses within the larger structure of regulated Capitalism.
Above the Pedernales River sits Johnson City, hometown of Lyndon Baines Johnson. The town was named for a relative of LBJ, one James Polk Johnson. The LBJ boyhood home is now an historic site maintained by the National Park Service. It was a Texas-sized ambition of LBJ's to eliminate poverty in the U.S. The Great Society did not turn out as planned, and probably could not have under any circumstance. Dependency on the Federal government, like any dependency, tends toward dystopia, no matter how noble the initial vision.
The next town south is Blanco, along the Blanco River. To the traveler, the town looks like a tourist jumping-off point for fun in the Hill Country, especially tubing the rivers.
San Antonio. Germans, Hispanics, the Alamo, the Riverwalk, the Spurs. And Trinity University, the goal of our trip, to see our youngest graduate (with honors I might add). A fun town. A big city. And I can't help but wonder how its residents will have enough water in the 21st century. San Antonio is perhaps the easternmost of the major cities in the U.S. such as Phoenix, where population growth seems destined to outrun the water supply. We Americans have operated on the assumption that we can always bend nature to our desires through our technology. The Greeks had a word for this attitude--hubris. Every so often the Mississippi, or a hurricane, reminds us 'tain't necessarily so. Drinking water may be our future lesson in humility.
South of Burnet is Marble Falls. One of the most beautiful towns in central Texas--rocky hills and a lake--with some of the worst traffic in Texas, apparently because getting anywhere in town means using U.S. 281, putting the locals and those just passing through onto the same pavement. The lake resulted from the damming of the Colorado River (of Texas), which covered the Falls that had given the city its name. Can't have everything. Perhaps the town best should be known as having elected the first woman mayor in the United States in 1917 when the voters were all men.
The small community of Round Mountain is off the highway, but along 281 is a truckstop that a sign proclaims to be municipally owned. While I don't think that the Federal Government owning GM or Chrysler is a good idea, I'm OK with communities choosing to operate businesses within the larger structure of regulated Capitalism.
Above the Pedernales River sits Johnson City, hometown of Lyndon Baines Johnson. The town was named for a relative of LBJ, one James Polk Johnson. The LBJ boyhood home is now an historic site maintained by the National Park Service. It was a Texas-sized ambition of LBJ's to eliminate poverty in the U.S. The Great Society did not turn out as planned, and probably could not have under any circumstance. Dependency on the Federal government, like any dependency, tends toward dystopia, no matter how noble the initial vision.
The next town south is Blanco, along the Blanco River. To the traveler, the town looks like a tourist jumping-off point for fun in the Hill Country, especially tubing the rivers.
San Antonio. Germans, Hispanics, the Alamo, the Riverwalk, the Spurs. And Trinity University, the goal of our trip, to see our youngest graduate (with honors I might add). A fun town. A big city. And I can't help but wonder how its residents will have enough water in the 21st century. San Antonio is perhaps the easternmost of the major cities in the U.S. such as Phoenix, where population growth seems destined to outrun the water supply. We Americans have operated on the assumption that we can always bend nature to our desires through our technology. The Greeks had a word for this attitude--hubris. Every so often the Mississippi, or a hurricane, reminds us 'tain't necessarily so. Drinking water may be our future lesson in humility.
25/05: Memorial Day
Category: American Culture
Posted by: an okie gardener
The Remittance Man has this post commemorating the taking of Monte Casino in WW2 by Free Polish Forces.
The inscription on their memorial reads:
WE POLISH SOLDIERS
FOR OUR FREEDOM AND YOURS
HAVE GIVEN OUR SOULS TO GOD
OUR BODIES TO THE SOIL IN ITALY
AND OUR HEARTS TO POLAND
Today, as we honor our own war dead, let's remember also our allies from The Revolution to Afghanistan.
The inscription on their memorial reads:
WE POLISH SOLDIERS
FOR OUR FREEDOM AND YOURS
HAVE GIVEN OUR SOULS TO GOD
OUR BODIES TO THE SOIL IN ITALY
AND OUR HEARTS TO POLAND
Today, as we honor our own war dead, let's remember also our allies from The Revolution to Afghanistan.
Category: American Culture
Posted by: an okie gardener
On down the road from Hico is Evant. In the Texas dialect it is pronounced EEvant, the accent tending to move forward and lengthen the vowel. The story of Evant is the story of West-Central rural Texas in miniature. Settled in the 1850s, growing to its maximum population by the 1950s, then a steady decline since then. Before the Corps of Engineers "stabilized" them, rivers such as the Missouri and Mississippi wandered over their bottoms, changing course gradually by cutting sideways on the outer side of bends, and changing course suddenly during floods. The U.S. population and economy also have "wandered," cutting new channels slowly or suddenly. Centers become peripheries, and vice versa. I doubt that attempts to stabilize populations and economic networks will be as successful as river control. Bad news for West Texas, and Michigan, but security is rare in this world.
South of Evant the terrain begins to look like the Texas Hill Country: ridges and knolls of limestone, covered in mesquite and cedar. Hard to believe that when white settlers arrived in the Hill Country it was covered with grass, except along the creeks. But, overgrazing and ill-advised attempts to grow cotton, depleted the soil and grass cover. No longer contained by wildfires the brush claimed the land.
With Lampasas we are entering the region of Texas explored by the Spanish. Lampasas is the next town of any size (sorry Adamsville), its economy largely dependent upon nearby Ft. Hood, home of armor. Though I would not promote military spending as a jobs-creation program, or an economic stimulus, I think it is important to realize that much of the military budget is spent within the American economy.
Burnet had a role in the construction of the Texas State Capitol Building. A narrow-guage railroad was built from Granite Mountain to Burnet to haul (wait for it) granite to a finishing yard on the south edge of town, whence it was loaded onto railcars for the trip to Austin. A waste of money? I don't think so. There is a place for beauty in public life, and the Texas State Capitol is beautiful. Messages are conveyed with symbols, and the solid, imposing beauty of capitol buildings, and courthouses, preaches without a voice that life together is possible when law is solid and respected, and is the product of citizens meeting together in council.
South of Evant the terrain begins to look like the Texas Hill Country: ridges and knolls of limestone, covered in mesquite and cedar. Hard to believe that when white settlers arrived in the Hill Country it was covered with grass, except along the creeks. But, overgrazing and ill-advised attempts to grow cotton, depleted the soil and grass cover. No longer contained by wildfires the brush claimed the land.
With Lampasas we are entering the region of Texas explored by the Spanish. Lampasas is the next town of any size (sorry Adamsville), its economy largely dependent upon nearby Ft. Hood, home of armor. Though I would not promote military spending as a jobs-creation program, or an economic stimulus, I think it is important to realize that much of the military budget is spent within the American economy.
Burnet had a role in the construction of the Texas State Capitol Building. A narrow-guage railroad was built from Granite Mountain to Burnet to haul (wait for it) granite to a finishing yard on the south edge of town, whence it was loaded onto railcars for the trip to Austin. A waste of money? I don't think so. There is a place for beauty in public life, and the Texas State Capitol is beautiful. Messages are conveyed with symbols, and the solid, imposing beauty of capitol buildings, and courthouses, preaches without a voice that life together is possible when law is solid and respected, and is the product of citizens meeting together in council.
Category: American Culture
Posted by: an okie gardener
Mineral Wells is near the Brazos River, along the John Graves Scenic Waterway. Before the current lakes were dammed, Graves canoed the upper Brazos and recorded his experience in the book Goodbye to a River. A great read, a thick narrative of the region.
Crossing the river, U.S. 281 a few miles farther south crosses the modern trafficway of Interstate 20. Travel farther, faster, and see less.
South of I-20 is Stephenville, in Erath County. Erath has the largest concentration of dairy farms in Texas, affecting water quality on the Bosque River from manure run-off. Economics drive producers to larger and larger dairy farms so that the economies of scale can make the investment of money and labor profitable. But, concentrate large dairy operations and the resulting manure produced harms the local envirnment. Government regulations to curb pollution tend to force farmers either to quit the business, or to get even larger to sustain profitability in the face of regulatory requirements. Larger and larger dairy farms produce more and more manure . . . You see the dynamic. But, in a creative effort to solve the problem, Erath County dairymen are engaging in a program to compost the manure and then market it--turning a problem into a profit.
Next in turn is Hico, a town with a couple of problematic claims to fame. Years ago an old resident claimed to be the real Billy the Kid. Not to lose an opportunity, the Chamber of Commerce created a small bandwagon to draw tourists: putting up a billboard on the edge of town claiming to be the home of Billy the Kid, and opening a small museum. Another instance of the desire for dollars trumping self-respect. More troubling is the local reputation of the town as a stronghold of the KKK. True or not, Hico is believed by central Texas blacks to be a place to avoid. We didn't stop.
The next town of any size is Hamilton. Like almost all the towns in this area it was founded in the 1850s as the Comanche Empire (called by the Spanish Comancheria) began to wane under the pressure of Anglo settlement and the Texas Rangers. After 1700, having been introduced to horses through their allies the Utes, the Comanche had moved onto the southern plains and within fifty years had driven out the Apaches, killing many and selling large numbers as slaves to the French in Louisiana. When the Comanche arrived, the Apache had just established themselves as the rulers of the southern grasslands all the way to below the Rio Grande, wiping out their main enemies the Jumanos. Apacheria, as the Spanish called it, was short-lived. Ironically, the Comanches, with whom the Anglos fought a genocidal war, were indirectly responsible for the American presence. Spain, and then Mexico, had been unable to dislodge the Comanche to allow settlement, and so invited in settlers from Europe and America. Give human beings the technology to dominate our neighbors, and history shows we will do it, whatever our race or ethnicity.
Crossing the river, U.S. 281 a few miles farther south crosses the modern trafficway of Interstate 20. Travel farther, faster, and see less.
South of I-20 is Stephenville, in Erath County. Erath has the largest concentration of dairy farms in Texas, affecting water quality on the Bosque River from manure run-off. Economics drive producers to larger and larger dairy farms so that the economies of scale can make the investment of money and labor profitable. But, concentrate large dairy operations and the resulting manure produced harms the local envirnment. Government regulations to curb pollution tend to force farmers either to quit the business, or to get even larger to sustain profitability in the face of regulatory requirements. Larger and larger dairy farms produce more and more manure . . . You see the dynamic. But, in a creative effort to solve the problem, Erath County dairymen are engaging in a program to compost the manure and then market it--turning a problem into a profit.
Next in turn is Hico, a town with a couple of problematic claims to fame. Years ago an old resident claimed to be the real Billy the Kid. Not to lose an opportunity, the Chamber of Commerce created a small bandwagon to draw tourists: putting up a billboard on the edge of town claiming to be the home of Billy the Kid, and opening a small museum. Another instance of the desire for dollars trumping self-respect. More troubling is the local reputation of the town as a stronghold of the KKK. True or not, Hico is believed by central Texas blacks to be a place to avoid. We didn't stop.
The next town of any size is Hamilton. Like almost all the towns in this area it was founded in the 1850s as the Comanche Empire (called by the Spanish Comancheria) began to wane under the pressure of Anglo settlement and the Texas Rangers. After 1700, having been introduced to horses through their allies the Utes, the Comanche had moved onto the southern plains and within fifty years had driven out the Apaches, killing many and selling large numbers as slaves to the French in Louisiana. When the Comanche arrived, the Apache had just established themselves as the rulers of the southern grasslands all the way to below the Rio Grande, wiping out their main enemies the Jumanos. Apacheria, as the Spanish called it, was short-lived. Ironically, the Comanches, with whom the Anglos fought a genocidal war, were indirectly responsible for the American presence. Spain, and then Mexico, had been unable to dislodge the Comanche to allow settlement, and so invited in settlers from Europe and America. Give human beings the technology to dominate our neighbors, and history shows we will do it, whatever our race or ethnicity.
Category: American Culture
Posted by: an okie gardener
On Friday we traveled to San Antonio for the graduation of our youngest from Trinity University. From the end of our driveway to Trinity it was U.S. 281 for about 400 miles.
First past Ft. Sill, the U.S. Army's large base just south of us, the home of Field Artillery. Most days we hear the thump of cannon fire from our yard. Sounds like freedom.
Ft. Sill is adjoined on the south by Lawton, hometown of 2007 Miss America Lauren Nelson. About a year ago I ran into her at a pow-wow. I did not recognize her as I walked by until she smiled at me from about two yards away. When Miss America smiles at close quarters you notice.
South of Lawton we passed Walters, Oklahoma, site of the annual Comanche Homecoming. (This year July 17-19). A camp ground just north of this small town hosts this large gathering and dance.
Across the Red River into Texas. If you've never seen the Howard Hawk's movie of the same name, you've missed one of the best westerns--John Wayne and Montgomery Clift. Another movie in which Wayne plays a character whose "manliness" nearly undoes him and everyone else. If Shakespeare had written a western, this would have been it.
South of the Red River is Wichita Falls, home of Shepherd Air Force Base. The falls on the Wichita have been no more since the late 19th century. But, in true American Chamber of Commerce fashion, an artificial falls have been created to show tourists.
cont. below
First past Ft. Sill, the U.S. Army's large base just south of us, the home of Field Artillery. Most days we hear the thump of cannon fire from our yard. Sounds like freedom.
Ft. Sill is adjoined on the south by Lawton, hometown of 2007 Miss America Lauren Nelson. About a year ago I ran into her at a pow-wow. I did not recognize her as I walked by until she smiled at me from about two yards away. When Miss America smiles at close quarters you notice.
South of Lawton we passed Walters, Oklahoma, site of the annual Comanche Homecoming. (This year July 17-19). A camp ground just north of this small town hosts this large gathering and dance.
Across the Red River into Texas. If you've never seen the Howard Hawk's movie of the same name, you've missed one of the best westerns--John Wayne and Montgomery Clift. Another movie in which Wayne plays a character whose "manliness" nearly undoes him and everyone else. If Shakespeare had written a western, this would have been it.
South of the Red River is Wichita Falls, home of Shepherd Air Force Base. The falls on the Wichita have been no more since the late 19th century. But, in true American Chamber of Commerce fashion, an artificial falls have been created to show tourists.
cont. below
12/05: Chick Corea--Jazz Musician
Category: American Culture
Posted by: an okie gardener
I have been a fan of pianist Chick Corea since the early 70s. He was around before that, I just was not aware of him. In the 70s he was on the cutting edge of Fusion music--jazz and rock, experimenting with the new possibilities offered by electronic technology. For those of us who remember that decade, and that hybrid genre, we know there was a lot of crappy sounding stuff. But not with Chick. Chick always made music. To paraphrase someone whose name I can't recall: often when jazz musicians move toward rock, it sounds as though they are slumming, (and when rockers edge toward jazz, it sounds as though they are reaching above their station). But not Chick, he always made music. Electronic music in the 70s often was bad, bad stuff. But not with Chick, he always made music.
Listen to an early version of his group, Return to Forever, playing Crystal Silence. From 1971.
Return to Forever, RTF for short, evolved toward a more fusion sound. Here is a 1974 recording of the new quartet--Chick, Stanley Clarke on bass, Bill Conners on guitar, and Lenny White on drums.
By 1975 Al DiMeola had replaced Conners on guitar in RTF. Here is Beyond the Seventh Galaxy. And Vulcan Worlds.
The guys never forgot how to get acoustic. From 1976, The Romantic Warrior.
By the late 70s the members of RTF were into solo albums, but I think each one never again achieved the heights they reached together.
Return to Forever also functioned as a kind of "outreach band" for Scientology. In the 70s all four were Scientologists (though I have heard that Clarke left the religion), the album covers directed listeners to sources of more information on that religion, and the music itself, in my opinion, evokes a Scientology feel.
The music I recommend, though not the religion.
UPDATE: RTF has reunited for a tour. Here is Stanley Clarke talking about RTF in the 70s.
Vulcan Worlds from last June on the Reunion Tour.
Listen to an early version of his group, Return to Forever, playing Crystal Silence. From 1971.
Return to Forever, RTF for short, evolved toward a more fusion sound. Here is a 1974 recording of the new quartet--Chick, Stanley Clarke on bass, Bill Conners on guitar, and Lenny White on drums.
By 1975 Al DiMeola had replaced Conners on guitar in RTF. Here is Beyond the Seventh Galaxy. And Vulcan Worlds.
The guys never forgot how to get acoustic. From 1976, The Romantic Warrior.
By the late 70s the members of RTF were into solo albums, but I think each one never again achieved the heights they reached together.
Return to Forever also functioned as a kind of "outreach band" for Scientology. In the 70s all four were Scientologists (though I have heard that Clarke left the religion), the album covers directed listeners to sources of more information on that religion, and the music itself, in my opinion, evokes a Scientology feel.
The music I recommend, though not the religion.
UPDATE: RTF has reunited for a tour. Here is Stanley Clarke talking about RTF in the 70s.
Vulcan Worlds from last June on the Reunion Tour.
08/05: A Secular Society? Not Yet.
According to the Pew Forum, Americans tend to be a praying people, with 58% of the population responding that they pray daily. Even 22% of those who self-identified as "unaffiliated" responded that they prayed at least once a day. Figures were higher for older Americans, women, and those with incomes under $30,000/year. Among religious groups, Jehovah's Witnesses seemed the most prayerful, followed by Mormons and Black Protestants. Tellingly, Mainline Protestants came in under the national average, at only 53% praying daily.
Our society is not secular yet.
Our society is not secular yet.
Photgnome sends this link to the Oklahoma Farm Report on the dismay being felt by cattlemen that Rush Limbaugh is doing commercials for the Humane Society of the United States.
Key paragraph in the OK Farm Report:
( to Rush) I know you believe in doing solid research. If you really check into what HSUS is up to, you will find that – despite having $200 million in assets – HSUS does not operate a single animal shelter nor provide financial support for local humane societies or shelters. HSUS is nothing other than a radical political organization determined to force all Americans to eat a vegan diet and forfeit the unique nutritional properties of beef.
HSUS web site.
Here is their page on farm animals, with an emphasis on reducing meat consumption and going vegetarian.
The lead paragraph on the HSUS farm animal web site:
Each year in the United States, nearly 10 billion land animals are raised and killed for food. Just like the dogs and cats we welcome into our homes, chickens, pigs, turkeys, and cows have their own personalities, inquisitive natures, likes and dislikes, and—most importantly—the ability to feel pain, suffer from boredom and frustration, and experience joy. As someone raised on a farm--cattle, sheep, hogs--this sounds like a paragraph written by someone without much experience around farm animals.
That is not to say I condone cruelty. Many poultry producers do overcrowd their stock, as do some hog producers for economic reasons. (Though overcrowd too much and the rate-of-gain loss due to crowding stress, acts to put an upper limit on crowding.) And, I do not eat "white veal", made from calves who are kept in crates too small to prevent much movement.
But HSUS seems to go too, too far, because it misunderstands animals--they are not people with feathers, four legs, or snouts.
Key paragraph in the OK Farm Report:
( to Rush) I know you believe in doing solid research. If you really check into what HSUS is up to, you will find that – despite having $200 million in assets – HSUS does not operate a single animal shelter nor provide financial support for local humane societies or shelters. HSUS is nothing other than a radical political organization determined to force all Americans to eat a vegan diet and forfeit the unique nutritional properties of beef.
HSUS web site.
Here is their page on farm animals, with an emphasis on reducing meat consumption and going vegetarian.
The lead paragraph on the HSUS farm animal web site:
Each year in the United States, nearly 10 billion land animals are raised and killed for food. Just like the dogs and cats we welcome into our homes, chickens, pigs, turkeys, and cows have their own personalities, inquisitive natures, likes and dislikes, and—most importantly—the ability to feel pain, suffer from boredom and frustration, and experience joy. As someone raised on a farm--cattle, sheep, hogs--this sounds like a paragraph written by someone without much experience around farm animals.
That is not to say I condone cruelty. Many poultry producers do overcrowd their stock, as do some hog producers for economic reasons. (Though overcrowd too much and the rate-of-gain loss due to crowding stress, acts to put an upper limit on crowding.) And, I do not eat "white veal", made from calves who are kept in crates too small to prevent much movement.
But HSUS seems to go too, too far, because it misunderstands animals--they are not people with feathers, four legs, or snouts.
21/04: Back Home
Category: American Culture
Posted by: an okie gardener
This story from back in my neck of the woods perhaps explains some things about me. It at least offers a glimpse into rural north Missouri attitudes.
Headline: "Shots Fired During Drunken Brawl"
key paragraph: When officers got there, they found two intoxicated men who had been assaulting each other.
“We weren't sure who assaulted who so we were trying to figure out who was going to be charged with assault. Upon determination that neither person wanted to be victim, they were both released,” said Wayne Winn, Scotland County Sheriff.
I'm homesick.
Headline: "Shots Fired During Drunken Brawl"
key paragraph: When officers got there, they found two intoxicated men who had been assaulting each other.
“We weren't sure who assaulted who so we were trying to figure out who was going to be charged with assault. Upon determination that neither person wanted to be victim, they were both released,” said Wayne Winn, Scotland County Sheriff.
I'm homesick.
15/04: Git-R-Done Values
Category: American Culture
Posted by: an okie gardener
Recently parts of Okahoma burned; over 200 houses becoming ash. In many cases families had no time to gather belongings.
This past Saturday two business owners in our town were talking about the families burned out, and decided to do something. They called all the churches in town, and asked that it be announced Sunday morning that clothing, furniture, bedding, etc. be brought to their businesses by Wednesday afternoon. They would donate the use of two trailers to haul the goods to the worst hit part of the state.
This morning I took some bags of clothing and bedding my wife and I were donating downtown. Between the two sites, our town has collected quite a pile of stuff on short notice.
Personal initiative, community spirit, and not a government dime or bureacrat. God bless America.
This past Saturday two business owners in our town were talking about the families burned out, and decided to do something. They called all the churches in town, and asked that it be announced Sunday morning that clothing, furniture, bedding, etc. be brought to their businesses by Wednesday afternoon. They would donate the use of two trailers to haul the goods to the worst hit part of the state.
This morning I took some bags of clothing and bedding my wife and I were donating downtown. Between the two sites, our town has collected quite a pile of stuff on short notice.
Personal initiative, community spirit, and not a government dime or bureacrat. God bless America.
