On the Street
Letters Sent to OST's
Penthouse Suite
The Spurs lackluster play has countless sleeper cells of
Spurs fans across the country in a state of shock. Here is
one example of this, from a reader named Rocco.
Letter Number 1:
Rocco writes,
Title:
Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck Dat Noise
"I go out for some
burgers. Have a few beers. Life is
good.
Come home and check how
the Spurs are doing.
I found out the answer
They Are Too Busy Participating
In An Ass Sucking
Festival To Actually Bother Playing
Competetively Against A
WC Title Contender AT
HOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!
So I'm like fuck
it. One of two things need to
happen.
1. The Spurs need to
withdraw from the ass-sucking
festival and participate
in the basketball festival
known as the NBA regular
season.
2. I need to stop
placing any compartment of my
emotional well-being in
how 12 merceneries
representing my
childhood home do in a game of
basktetball.
Since I can only control
the former the former, fuck
the latter.
I'm a Rocco
fan now. That's the only shit I
can control."
Well done, Rocco. Though unlikely by his tone, this letter is full of
Carl Rogers humanism.
(Tangent)
While Rocco was off having burgers I was eating a cold over-priced
pulled pork bbq sandwich at the aforementioned Spurs game. I
rarely go to the games because I don't always have time but also there
is the
possibility that I don't want to pay to get bombarded with advertising
and loud noises. I can do that on I-10 at 5:00 pm.
(And slowly the inner Roddy Stinson is born.) I
still have memories from Hemisfair when there were only 5000 people in
attendance so perhaps I took for granted the quiet, contemplative,
Russian Winter like atmosphere. Clearly, that's it.
However, a promising architect took me along with the company tickets.
Amazing tickets. You are so close you analyze the players'
tattoos. Notice the rows in front of me. That's
right, not that many.
The fact that the Spurs got humiliated was lost on me. I was
mesmerized by Babylon. The annoying, pulsating music of the
arena
sound system seems softer on the first few rows as if it were soft
house music from an ultra
lounge. Waitrons buzz back and forth.
It's
a very country club atmosphere. The food court is high end
and
exclusive, which made the cold sandwich all the more confusing.
My
friend sent it back twice but to no use. We were exposed for
being
impostors.
A recreation of the Hindenberg disaster as symbol for the Spurs
demoralizing loss and fall from grace. And underneath the
dirigible in a black coat and pink shirt and completely out of focus,
Joe Reinagel's doppleganger.
Letter Number 2:
A link to this dog dancing video that's
captivating the country.
A Conversation With
Congressman Al (About the Sorry State of the Spurs and the History of
'Twilight' Point Guards that Have Played in San Antonio)
A little tattoo-art love
Yesterday I had the absolute pleasure of watching D. Dominick Lombardi's work being installed for his show over at Blue Star — The Post Apocalyptic Tattoo: A ten year survey. It was as if I walked into a comic book.
Lombardi is an artist, writer, and curator who has a knack for capturing abstract characters. The show starts in 1998 with the tagline, "The birth of a universe …"
"The Elite Eight," a series of eight characters with poems displayed underneath each piece reminds viewers of Ed Wilcox's show late last year at Salon Mjangos with Lombardi's caption, "They're special because they're the friends of the tattoo artist." The entire collection of Lombardi's work is comprised of various characters — from sketches to fully illustrated, bold in color characters.
Shrunken heads, tattoo sketches, and more fill the main gallery walls. The period from 2002-2004 ("The era of faces in the crowd") has a series of some of Lombardi's 1,088 India ink drawings. His creations are done using ink, markers, and crayons. They are created on scraps of paper or even the back of an envelope.
Is it too bold of me to state that this show will probably be one of the best to hit the local gallery circuit this year? Oh well, I'm already putting it on my Best of '08 list.
UPDATE: Sadly, today there was no official schedule of Luminaria events, this following message is posted on their website: "The event schedule is in development and will be made available here within the next two weeks. An announcement will be made when it is available." Boo! I will anxiously wait and keep you loyal readers updated.
Remember Goliad?
What can I say? The day grows shaggy. The chair too stiff. And even
public hearing aficionados start to talk trash: So, apologies in
advance to any person of reasonable (or noble, even) character I
besmudge in this week’s review of the uranium mining hearing
down Goliad way.
So let me talk at you a scant blogo-minute to set a couple important
items (in my sincerest impartial moderator tone) straight.
Uranium
Energy Corp’s record is blemished, despite company
officials’ reassessment of their regulatory history at last
Thursday’s public hearing in Goliad. As it turned out, the
confessions of UEC Director Harry Anthony were more telling than any
possible denial he could offer.
See, the company had only just started making its mark on Goliad terra
firm with a few hundred boreholes proudly littering the landscape when
the Texas Railroad Commission showed up.
As we wrote in October:
GPS coordinates supplied by UEC didn’t lead to any holes, either, confusing inspectors. “The holes that were located were found because there was some surface indication of the borehole location, not because they were at the exact coordinates provided,” the inspection report reads.
“Surface indication” turned out to mean piles of radioactive tailings, drilling fluids, and soils left exposed on the open ground. Of the 117 boreholes checked, only 14 had been plugged – and these were either plugged too deep or too close to the surface to protect groundwater supplies.
Gamma-radiation survey results didn’t surprise the RRC’s surface-mining director. Melvin Hodgkiss wrote on May 9 that the discovery of elevated radioactivity “confirms our previous visual observation and determination that drilling mud/cuttings were left on or near the surface at some drill sites.”
About 22 percent of the sites tested were found to be higher in radioactivity than natural background levels. Elevated radiation levels were minimal, Hodgkiss wrote, “relative to the land area disturbed … and not sufficient to pose a radiation exposure hazard.”
Anthony, responding to repeated statements of his numerous violations, allowed only that “There was a little bit of a housekeeping problem out there. We took care of that.”
As to ongoing problems at uranium mining operations in Kleburg County, Anthony bravely owned up to his role there, stating he had already left the company by the time the public began complaining about the state allowing Uranium Resources Inc. to expand mining operations before cleaning up the mess in the aquifer.
“I wasn’t involved,” he said.
Many complained at the meeting that the whole event had been engineered simply for another pitch to potential stockholders. Low and behold, optimistic statements on the company’s exploratory progress went up today at StockQuote via RediNews:
Uranium Energy Corp (AMEX:UEC)(FRANKFURT: U6Z)(BERLIN: U6Z) announces continuing development at the Company's Goliad Project in Texas. Notable developments include:
- Continuing success with step-out drilling that is increasing the extent of known mineralized trends in both B and D Sands at Goliad;
- Ongoing drilling to support the permitting process, extensive coring program; and
- Addition of quality technical personnel at the project site.
The state's moderator said she has never seen so much security at any similar public hearing. We have Anthony’s attorney, Monica Holmes, to thank for this, I’m told. Holmes placed a call to the Texas Rangers, according to Goliad County Sheriff Robert De La Garza. The Rangers kicked it down to Highway Patrol, and a security detail made of state troopers, sheriff’s deputies, and constables blocked off the street in front of the meeting hall.
The older crowd was none too pleased with the unexpected walk.
“They are trying to make them look like radicals,” Goliad Commissioner Jim Kreneck told me before the meeting.
I tried hard, but I only spotted a handful of traditional “tree-hugger” types in that crowd of roughly 400. Unless the new radical chic is South Texas ranchland fashion...
Maybe that was probably the problem.
Your straps are showing: A sneak peek at how the city's PR folks keep it together
It's a question the Current poses in light of this Friday's City of San Antonio Media Open House, where our government will introduce us to the new Public Information Team (aka the people who have to call other people before they call you back and relay a message, upping the chances that something will be lost in translation). Refreshments will be served, so rest assured it's a line item somewhere.
Meanwhile, courtesy of an open-records request regarding archeological finds at the Main Plaza construction site, here's what one PR head is up to when she's not interfacing with those bothersome journalists.
Surfing Big Tex
As promised, the EPA's official Big Tex site is live. Surf on over to epaosc.net/bigtex to download the spiffy PowerPoint presentation from the January community update about the asbestos-contaminated site and find contact info for On-Scene Coordinator Eric Delgado.
Manu Being Manu
The
possible turning point in the Spurs’ thus-far disjointed,
injury-addled season
arrived this week against Los Angeles Lakers, courtesy of future
Hall-of-Fame
coach Gregg Popovich and Olympic gold medal winner Manu Ginobili.
Ginobili has
already provided
“I
don’t think all the guys could remember what Pop said at
halftime tonight,” Spurs guard Brent Barry said after the
contest. “He reminds
us that things aren’t always going to go well but you have to
fight through it
and that you’re not going to beat every team in this league,
but you got to
grind out wins and stick to our guns.”
Perhaps
more than any other championship defending campaign, this year has
illustrated
the targets painted on the Spurs' collective backs and how much larger
they grow
when injuries strike. The team’s leading scorer, NBA Finals
MVP Tony Parker,
has steadily labored through a nagging bone spur. Tim
Duncan, the foundation for the Spurs' dynasty, overcame a nasty looking
leg injury
earlier in the season yet at times appears to be playing in Robert
Horry-esque
cruise control. Ginobili himself has been battling the usual assortment
of
bumps and bruises that accompany his relentless style of play but was
still the
most exciting player on the floor, despite the presence of Kobe Bryant.
“The
Spurs stepped up the pressure during the third quarter and we were
unable to
handle it,”
The
next evening, the Spurs survived a squeaker against the lowly Miami
Heat, thanks
to Ginobili’s late-game heroics, and Tim Duncan was named to
his 10th all-star
game. Barring some major surprises,
(Tears of) Joy to the World
You must watch the trailer for Tina Fey and Amy Poehler's new movie, Baby Mama:
:
Then read Stephanie Zacharek's salon.com review of There Will Be Blood:
http://www.salon.com/ent/movies/review/2007/12/26/blood/
Stephanie's criticism is exquisitely written, and expresses so many
things that I (and perhaps you, too) felt during the film but
didn't know how to articulate -- or were too unsure of my/yourself to.
Anyway, as a PTA believer and a lover of good writing, I was nearly in
tears reading this. [Insert mocking here.]
On the Street
MLK in Low Resolution
The crappy weather intitially kept me from going down to the MLK Day
celebration. I wanted to ride my bike. After I
realized that wasn't going to happen in the rain I finally drove on
down. The march was over but I was able to make it
to the celebration at least. I walked up to the west side of
the park. I couldn't help but notice
the street food parked on Palmetto.
I saw an entrance to the celebration just behind me. I was
looking for the quickest way in but then realized this entrance was for
the media, and then I realized that I was the media. I showed
my press pass (which I accidentally had with me) and was actually
granted "backstage" access. All this really meant was that I
could get closer to the Mayor and the Mayor.
For horrible weather there was an incredible number of people out.
The city boasts hosting the nation's largest MLK Day
celebration. I can only imagine the turnout if the weather
was better.
Someone later pointed out the irony that we host the largest MLK
celebration yet have the smallest per capita African American
population for a major city. This paradox might touch upon
how MLK as an idea has transcended the original historical, political moment. National leaders
all pay homage to MLK, but more as a concept rather than a specific
political person. San Antonio seems to get most of it down
and leading the march with a garbage truck (a direct allusion to the Sanitation Worker's strike that
drew MLK to Memphis) is a great example.
Later watching the Spurs on Tivo, at halftime, a local news station
teased footage of
the march by showing a bunch of Trinity students marching.
Could
any image be less representative of the event I first thought? They
somehow
find
the one image where there are no black people...at the MLK Parade?
But then I wondered if MLK day was more about everyone and
not just one group of people. That sounds nice but seems a
disservice. The MLK of the 60s should be celebrated as well,
not just the ambiguous legacy that politicians of all parties try to
contort into nothingness.
When MLK was killed he had become a critic of the Vietnam War (in part
because wars drain resource$ that could go to rebuilding our own
country. Sound familiar?), and a critic of economic policies,
hence his support of the Sanitation Worker's Strike.
I suppose that's why the local tv footage seemed so wrong. My
point has nothing to do with Trinity students who were celebrating the
march but that the historical legacy of MLK is so open to
interpretation. To me it is the same but opposite phenomenon
of when television media shows footage from a contemporary protest.
Instead of showing images of the more typical average protestor,
television instead presents the most outlandish crazy looking protestor
they can find. At the MLK celebration, they instead found
the safest.
There Will Be Head
Scratching
With high expectations I finally went to see There Will Be Blood.
After being introduced to the Palladium a few days ago for
the screening of Cloverfield, I somehow ended up
back there. The first review of the film I read came from
Texas Monthly which pretty much trashed the film. I assumed
the reviewer just didn't like P.T. Anderson's films. But why?
Boogie Nights was gold. Magnolia was overwrought,
yes, and filled with actor highlight moments every 5 minutes, but there
were great moments nonetheless...
....which makes the film great, at least in moments, because what was
that film other than a long collection of moments? The
musical moment attempted to unite all the different characters
together, and while the song was interesting, it didn't really amount
to much. P.T. was trying desperately to pay homage to Robert
Altman in Magnolia, even so much as recasting Henry
Gibson from
Nashville. A surprising lack of Youtube Henry
Gibson/Nashville clips gives only this tangential moment, outstanding
at it is.
So, I figured the negative press of There Will Be Blood was actually
negative press towards P.T. Anderson. After watching There Will Be
Blood, I came to agreeing with some of the rare criticism I had read.
In interviews, P.T. mentions how he is working in classical
storytelling with this latest film. No more ensemble for this
film. This was supposed to be an old fashioned story.
That's not true, and in a good way for the most part, however
the suggestion as such by the director led me to the wrong expectation.
(Expectations for films should always be low it seems. But no
one wants low expectations for life. There is another Taoist
lesson in here, I'm sure.)
The film starts amazingly well for the first half. Daniel Day
Lewis and Paul Dano, it seems, will be our two main characters.
The film suggests to be a character study of the greedy
oilman versus the charlatan preacher. A battle of wills.
But then the Paul Dano character disappears for about an hour, a
mysterious long lost brother returns, and the film derails.
The direction is still wonderful but the script on a
structural level falls apart. Introducing new characters for
no important reason is basically lazy or self-indulgent. I
wonder if P.T was running out of ideas. I realize I'm in the
minority on this point but the film became boring. Daniel Day
Lewis' character all of a sudden becomes evil. He
was actually likeable before but for whatever reason a switch was
thrown and now he's homicidal. The story became unrealistic.
Later we are supposed to disregard early sincere
moments by Daniel Day Lewis. The film ends with Daniel Day
Lewis turning on his son, punctuated by earlier unseen footage of
Daniel Day acting poorly. This has become an editing
technique I can't stand. In the third act someone tells a
story and we get a new visual perspective of how it actually happened.
It's supposed to be a reversal. Its one thing for
Daniel's character to grow bitter with age but to recast previous
moments in the film in a darker light seem phony.
The strive towards being epic actually distracts the film from its own
purpose. But what is the purpose of the film? The
film is about oil and religion - two extremely heavy topics for today.
However, P.T. pits these two forces oil (Daniel Day Lewis)
and religion (Paul Dano) as adversaries. When I think of oil
and religion in today's world they seem to be on the same team. To
think of religion as being an adversary to oil and capitalism is a real
head scratcher. I don't see it. I suppose I'm
getting to specific some might say but these muddy themes make the film
less important in my opinion.
It's a film of great direction and style but throwing in oil and
religion suggests significance. I wonder if P.T. went into
this trying to do a serious message film that reflected our times but
realized that wasn't his forte. The film is about dysfunctional
relationships even if people think its about something grander.
It's not. It's still a very good movie but more for
its direction and mood. Fair enough.
Honky Tonky Parking Lot
(or Swamp Boogie?)
(Seen underneath 281 at
10:36pm on Saturday: hand-held laser light show.)
Saturday I went by Sam's Burger Joint to see Jesse Dayton. It was a
great show. It felt very much like we were transported to
South, South Lamar in Austin to the Saxon
Pub, which is not a place I actually ever went to while in
Austin but I was assured that crooners and honky tonkers sang there
frequently.
The San Antonio music scene has often piggy backed off of the Austin
scene. There's no shame in that. In fact, I wish
Austin bands would come down more often.
I've never actually heard "swamp boogie" as far as I know and I'm
positive I didn't hear it Saturday night but I'm intrigued by the name.
I'm guessing it has something to do with New Orleans.
Wikipedia could only come up with this.
Creedence Clearwater Revival is associated with "swamp rock"
but they weren't even from New Orleans but somewhere in California.
I'm ready for emo-swamp and ambient-swamp and everything in
between. Waiting...
(Seen outside Sam's
Burger Joint at 12:17am.)
Welcome to San Antonio
Not far from the city one can still find wide open spaces such as this.
Even better, this is still inside the city. And inside 1604.
Between the loops, pockets of arrested de-civilization still exist.
This is the mysterious rapture that can be San Antonio.
In the far distance, industry looms.
In front of our eyes, forgotten worlds.
They Don't Shoot Horses, Do They?
Dancing and bowling if you open the door.
Soon, all of this will make sense (and by soon I mean probably at least
a month...)
And so goes another week
on the streets of San Antonio. As always, to be continued...
It's almost here!
Earlier this morning I attended the Luminaria: Arts Night press conference where the media (and a few unaware people trying to catch an elevator) gathered to share more about the first-of-its-kind event. I don't know about you but I'm really excited about this event and I truly do hope everything goes right. With a line-up that includes symphonic, operatic, jazz, blues, ballet, international dance, hip hop, DJ, laser lights, and film — I'd love to see how everything is going to come together. Will the array of art be too much to take in? Or just enough? Over 130 artists will participate in alleyways, art will be displayed in storefronts from Alamo Plaza to Peacock Alley and Houston at Jefferson — every imaginable street or shady alleyway will be center stage for a slew of homegrown art. Ending the night with a celebratory cherry on top — a fireworks finale.Imagine 16 hours of non-stop art from morning well into the night, activities are already being planned, and by Friday performances and exhibition information will be available online.
Here's a look at a possible exhibit at Luminaria by project band Fields of Forel.
And also Bill FitzGibbons LED project.
Check back on Friday once the schedule is up, I'll do a run down and see what everyone's opinion is on the line-up.
... and now your moment of random Luminaria-inspired art
Now 'til 2100
It was the week I joined the Current that my freelanced
article on the Aggie endeavor to peer behind the Global
Warming curtain first saw ink.
The key findings of international scientists on climate change have
been startling enough, but somehow having them tailor cut to our
pasture made the matter more immediate.
When I consider what increased climate volatility means for the
region’s many poor residents, I think, ‘Why in the
hell aren’t we equipping these communities with decentralized power?
With solar?
With wind?’ I take to heart predictions of a potential oil crash.
I listen when science says seven-degree increases in average
temperatures. Same for flooding and drought, from our dear Aggies.
We are already living in a “climate vulnerable”
part of the world (vocab courtesy of A&M’s
finest).What will stability cost? Each day we fail to plan, that fee
rises.
I refuse the arguments that clean coal or nukes will save us.
Community gardening initiatives, roof water catchments, local power
generation, more closely knit communities: this is what my reading of
some leaked chapters suggests.
So, show up tomorrow in Kingsville and get yourself a free clarion
call, likely embedded with plenty of line graphs. After that,
availability is vague. Barnes y Noble, I hear. Or from the university
(I have yet to get a contact for sales, but I will update this post as
that becomes available.)
Paz.
[PRESS
RELEASE FROM TEXAS A&M, KINGSVILLE, BELOW]
‘20-YEAR-OLDS
NEED TO KNOW THEY’RE GOING TO GROW UP
IN A WARMER WORLD’
New
book projects effects of global warming to year 2100
Co-editors
host book-signing Jan. 23 at A&M-Kingsville
bookstore; free books for first 50 attendees
KINGSVILLE, Texas (January 15, 2008) – More frequent heat
waves in summer. Fewer hard freezes in winter. More prolonged periods
of drought. Worsening air quality. More extreme individual rainfall
events.
That’s the forecast predicted for the year 2100 in South
Texas – a region already known for its unforgiving climate
– in The Changing Climate of South Texas 1900-2100: Problems
and Prospects, Impacts and Implications. Co-edited by two research
professors at Texas A&M University-Kingsville, the book
features chapters written by leading scholarly authorities on the
effects of climate change on the region’s coastal areas,
water resources, air quality, ecology and wildlife.
Texas A&M-Kingsville’s Regents professor of geography
Dr. James Norwine and Frank H. Dotterweich College of Engineering
associate dean Dr. Kuruvilla John co-edit the book and will host a
book-signing at the Barnes & Noble University Bookstore,
located in the Memorial Student Union Building on Santa Gertrudis
Avenue at University Boulevard, from noon to 1 p.m., Wednesday, Jan.
23. The first 50 people to attend will each receive a free book.
A century from now, South Texas will experience the type of climate
change that would occur if the entire region were moved 100 miles to
the southwest, becoming both more tropical and more arid.
“There’s not a lot of fudge factor in the
numbers,” said Norwine. “Those who are 20 years old
need to know they’re going to grow up in a warmer world.
People can take that to the bank.”
He also stresses the book’s objective and scientific
approach. “Readers get a fair, understandable depiction of
the most current scientific climate data about our area,” he
said. “We also are clear in categorizing our predictions as
hypotheses, noting those in some areas that are untested.”
Norwine and John call climate change “…a regional
challenge which we believe is the greatest test South Texas has faced
since its first human inhabitants arrived ten or so millennia
ago.” The co-editors and authors use the latest climate data
to sketch an outline of what the South Texas region will look like as
the 22nd century begins:
* The water supply will be reduced, even
as the population of the region continues to grow, creating greater
demand on municipalities and other water-providing agencies.
* The sea level will rise along the
coastline, flooding the region’s salt marshes and leading to
changes in the ecosystem of the region.
* Changes in wildlife –
mammals, birds and amphibians – will be volatile; some
animals will be able to cope with the changing conditions and some will
not, and no current model exists to predict which will and
won’t.
* Because climate change is expected to
occur due to an anticipated growth in global emissions, the injurious
effects on regional and urban air quality will intensify.
* Long-term climate change will
exacerbate the effects of urbanization as population grows; for
example, paving open land leads to an increase in the amount of
rainfall runoff and flooding.
* The region’s agricultural
industry will increase its demand on the water supply by more than 50
percent.
* There will be a rapid northward and
eastward shift in the breeding ranges of several tropical, subtropical
and warm desert bird species.
* Future weather and climate extremes
– hurricanes, droughts, heat waves and others –
will intersect with the region’s vulnerable ecologies to
create future megadisasters, and leaders at all levels of governance
are underestimating the growing fragility of the region and failing to
enhance existing methods of regional sustainability.
The book concludes with a “Letter to a Young
Reader,” in which the co-editors note that the
volume’s lack of proposed solutions was by design:
“There is a place for advocacy but this is not that place.
… Our job was to describe and explain the challenge
… It is up to the present and next generation of citizens
and leaders to ‘come and take it,’ [the challenge
issued by Texas colonists to Mexican authorities when ordered to
relinquish their cannon at the 1835 Battle of Gonzales] We are
confident that they, you, will do so.”
Norwine first considered the book after he and collaborator Claudia
Tebaldi of the National Center for Atmospheric Research made a climate
model for South Texas, using past temperatures, pollutant levels and
other pieces of information to determine what the area’s
environment might be like in 100 years. The results echoed research
findings of the 1990s from James E. Hansen, director of
NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies. Hansen developed
a climate model for Houston that showed the city changing to an
essentially tropical climate by about 2050 if carbon dioxide levels
continued to rise as they had been since the late 18th century. The
changes experience in such a scenario include night temperatures of 80
degrees or higher for three months each year; many years, even decades,
with no significant freezes; higher energy use; and more heat-related
health problems.
“Even if Hansen is only half right, it moves us in a
direction that is worrisome,” said Norwine.
Contributors include Dr. Ralph Bingham, Dr. Jhumoor Biswas, Dr. Leonard
Brennan, Dr. Kim Jones, Gomathishankar Parvathinathan, Dr. Venkatesh
Uddameri, Irama Wesselman and Dr. Jaehyung Yu, all of Texas
A&M-Kingsville; Dr. Gene Blacklock of the Coastal Bend Bays and
Estuaries Program; Dr. James Gibeaut of The University of Texas at
Austin; Dr. Robert Harriss of the Houston Advanced Research Center; Dr.
Paul Montagna and Dr. John Tunnell Jr., both of Texas A&M
University-Corpus Christi; Dr. Gerald North of Texas A&M
University; Dr. John Rappole of the Smithsonian Zoological Park
Conservation and Research Center; and Dr. Claudia Tebaldi of the
National Center for Atmospheric Research.
Publication of The Changing Climate of South Texas 1900-2100: Problems
and Prospects, Impacts and Implications is sponsored by
A&M-Kingsville’s CREST-RESSACA, the Center of
Research Excellence in Science and Technology-Research on Environmental
Sustainability of Semi-Arid Coastal Areas which is funded by the
National Science Foundation.
Little Romeo goes down
More than enough ink has already been
spilled on Tony Romo's Mexican vacation and his subsequent failure to
record his first playoff win with the Dallas Cowboys, but it's time for
a little sanity to be restored.
Much as we hate to (even indirectly)
defend Jessica Simpson, it's mindless media piling-on to suggest that a
two-day vacation in Cabo with a faded pop star and a few teammates,
during Romo's off-time, and a full week-and-a-half before the Giants
playoff game, had anything to do with Romo's inconsistent performance.
Sportswriters are remarkable
hypocrites. They celebrate the swashbuckling memories of Joe Namath,
Paul Hornung, and Kenny Stabler, guys who liked to tie one on the night
before a game, preferably in the company of a star-struck young lady.
Just a few months ago, when Super Bowl I hero Max McGee passed away,
writers laughed about how McGee was hung over for the Super Bowl, and
found himself having to play after the Packers' starting wide receiver
suffered an injury. McGee played for the ultimate disciplinarian, Vince
Lombardi, and even Lombardi couldn't keep him in line before the
biggest game of the year.
Compared to such behavior, doesn't Romo's
across-the-border romp seem pretty tame? Without a question, Romo's
late-season letdowns have become a concern, with his September-November
record as a starter a glittering 15-2, and his December-January record
a less-than-glittering 4-7. But it's safe to say that the Giants'
second-half pass rush (and Patrick Crayton's drops) had much more to do
with Romo's frustrations on Sunday than his much-publicized
vacation.
Coffee grumps
Slate returns to the bottomless Starbucks well this week for a contra-conventional-wisdom piece about how the caffeine mega-chain in fact has built and sustains a coffee economy, and most cups rise with the latte. A hard piece of evidence -- "Just over the five-year period from 2000 to 2005—long after Starbucks supposedly obliterated indie cafes—the number of mom and pops grew 40 percent, from 9,800 to nearly 14,000 coffeehouses" -- is bolstered locally by Mark Jones's anecdotal observation in his Olmos Perk review that SA is enjoying a coffee-shop boomlet.
Slate theorizes that the reason Starbucks often benefits local shops is that it doesn't enjoy the key competitive advantage (lower prices; larger inventory) that makes Wal-Mart a mom-n-pop serial killer. When Starbucks is too crowded or not within easy striking distance (although their tendency to pop up overnight has caused this writer to theorize that the Starbucks already exist in the universe in an infinite number, and as the universe expands, we inevitably come into contact with them, geography and economy notwithstanding) customers in need of a fix will try the local shop -- where they may discover lower prices and higher quality.
On a related note, I want to suggest that the Starbucks empire has grown weak in its foundation because it has violated the cardinal chain rule: consistency. The bitter Charbucks backlash began long ago, but assuming you like, or at least tolerate, your coffee blunt and overbearing, Starbucks delivered. Until about a year-and-a-half ago locally, which is when I first was handed a truly sucky double-short latte at the Starbucks in Alamo Heights. It was an isolated enough incident to stand out in my mind at the time -- but the problem was crystallized when a new location opened at McCullough and I-35. It was slammed from the moment it turned on the big green sign -- a catastrophic success Rumsfeld might call it. The store was so busy from the get-go that there was little time to train the staff -- a few quick learners saved the place from utter disaster, but it wasn't until about a month ago that you could expect any consistency in the coffee drinks. (The staff is friendly, though -- hi, staff!). Even then, last week I was handed a latte that tasted as if it had been brewed from previously used, burned beans. Yum -- charred coffee water. Today, I picked one up at the Quarry Starbucks that was cool enough to dip a baby's toe in. When I brought it back to the barista, he immediately asked if it was cold -- because he fucking knew it was when he handed it to me. If I have to call someone a barista, for chrissakes, I think they should give a damn if the coffee's hot. It's all in the training and management, and Starbucks has either grown too big to manage itself effectively, or too rich to care. Or maybe it's cut its much-lauded employee benefits. Local Starbucks employees, let us know what's going on out there! Are they training you? Are they taking care of you? Are you, too, tired of smiling at short-tempered (not to mention short) editors who want their double-short non-fat latte, like, yesterday?
Big Tex update: testing, ho!
Several Southtown residents expressed frustration with the pace of remediation and redevelopment following the EPA's presentation. One realtor and developer asked whether it wouldn't be cheaper to just clean up the entire site rather than continue with rounds of testing to target contaminated areas (Nope, says Delgado, it would be wildly expensive to wet and scrape the entire seven-and-a-half acres). The expense matters, too, since the EPA must recoup the costs from its list of eligible payors. That list isn't based on culpability, but on ownership, says Delgado, which means if they can't get the funds from the pending W.R. Grace settlement or other sources, they could stick the current landowner with the bill. That result, says Lifshutz, would "prohibit it from being developed. So my hope is that they'll do what they need to do to collect the costs from the polluter."
More than one meeting attendee coveted Tuesday's colorful EPA Powerpoint presentation, which used old aerial maps and other info to create a grid showing the areas of Big Tex most likely to contain significant levels of asbestos contamination. Delgado says it will be available on a website he plans to have finished by Monday morning. The likely address: epaosc.net/bigtex.
We're also awaiting the promised Government Accountability Office's assessment of W.R Grace asbestos/vermiculite sites, including Big Tex, which the agency estimates will be completed this spring. The GAO released a report in October titled, "EPA May Need to Reassess Sites Receiving Asbestos-Contaminated Ore from Libby, Montana, and Should Improve It's Public Notification Process" -- available at gao.gov and our nominee for 2007 Most Self-Explanatory Title of the Year.
The Current Craft o' the Month
I have a pretty clear picture of the universe I'd like to inhabit; it's basically Amelie meets The Science of Sleep. Ish. And if those titles mean nothing to you, I think I can sum things up in one clearly definable word: Whimsical. In fact, in this imaginary Ash-iverse, there are actually popsicles called Whimsicles.So I got this idea the other day, sprung from the Ash-iverse and a recollection of the children's film, Hook. (Yes, Phil Collins was in that.) Anyway, remember that character, Tootles? The one who said nothing but "I've lost my marbes" and then at the end of the film -- uh-oh, spoiler -- it turned out he'd left 'em in a bag in Neverland? Well I was thinking, wouldn't it be great to find lost marbles somewhere? Like you're at the grocery store, you crab a bottle of, I don't know, cran-raspberry juice, and behind it -- tada! -- a pouch of misplaced marbles. Holy crap, that would just make my day.
With that idea in mind, I bought some felt, thread, and put my newly-inherited collection of vintage marbles to work. What I ended up with is just a prototype -- I'd like to end up with something resembling a luggage tag next time -- but with a bit more practice, I can see this being an incredibly fanciful, unexpected object to leave behind on public trans, on a chair at a restaurant, or sneaked into the pocket of the gentlewo/man who's put you out of your mind.
How to make your own "Lost Marbles":
Acquire marbles:
Trace any shape onto your felt or chosen fabric, twice. These shapes, once cut out, will serve as the top and bottom of your lost-marble "pouch." I used a coaster the first time, a coffee mug here:
Sew the two patches together around the edges. You may use any method you prefer. Once you've only a small opening left, roll an appropriate amount of marbles inside:
Here's what I ended up with originally (If you wish to include text on your handiwork, might I suggest printing with a light marker first for great accuracy) (Yes, mine looks like something from Winnie the Pooh):
Oh, sweet Marjane
I am attempting the impossible. Thus, I plead with you not to
completely rip me to shreds in the comments section of this
blog. While perusing at the nearby Half-Price Books, I came across a
book that captured my attention Graphic
Novels: Stories to Change Your Life (Yes, if Natalie
Portman was into graphic novels [H-e-l-l-o she was in V for Vendetta, so
this daydream may in fact be true.] she would have totally put
down the old-school headphones after listening to The Shins and handed
over this book as an endnote.). Anyhow, for a really long time I have
wanted to get into graphic novels. I was in love with the bright, bold,
forever-etched-in-my-mind images that leaped from the page to the film
— so when the buzz about the film version of Persepolis came
my way, I had no other choice but to jump on the bandwagon and devote
my time to Marjane, the protagonist of the novel (the novel is actually
the memoir-in-comic-strip form of the real Marjane Satrapi).
For the past two days, I have been reading The Complete Persepolis,
a 352-page chronicle of Marjane's life growing up during the Islamic
Revolution. I was a bit intimidated by the novel since there was a
heavy historical plot to it; however, I quickly became fascinated with
wide-eyed Marjane, her rebellious tendencies, and her family, who
accepted and loved her for who she was. (Her parent's commitment to
their daughter provided interesting anecdotes such as when her
parents visited Turkey and smuggled in posters of Iron Maiden and Kim
Wilde, a denim jacket, and chocolate for Marjane.)
I'm about 75-percent done with the book, but I will provide you with no
spoilers (sorry!). Either read the book (which I highly recommend) or
catch the film, when it comes to SA on February 2. As for Graphic Novels: Stories to
Change Your Life, I've thumbed through a few pages and I
already feel another graphic-novel-themed blog post coming real soon.
(Fear not, loyal readers of John DeFore's Framed articles — I
am nowhere near the master of graphic novels as he is … but
DeFore, I recommend you watch your back.)
Letter Perfect
Beautious Big
Bend is being battered right and left lately with bad, bad,
bad policy.
Patterson
has pretty much ruined any chance of a reasonable solution to the
Christmas Mountains fiasco. (Forcing a buy-back and redonation of the
preserve doesn't count as reasonable in my book.)
Chertoff and Homeland Security are anxious to start digging the Berlin
Border Wall across this remote landscape.
And (to top it off) Benders also have a non-sensical trade corridor
known as La
Entrada to contend with. But thanks to some great agitators
and resisters and do-gooders we have the opportunity to do something
here in SA to help.
While letter-writing may not sound like much, it is the very least you
could do (meaning: do this much, minimum).
Should you opt for more active resistance, I'm sure any number of folk
would be willing to help find a trucking firm for you to splay out in
front of... The campaign will be at Ruta next
week.
[BELOW IS THE FULL PRESS RELEASE]
On Saturday, January 26th, from 1-3 pm, Texans will gather at several
locations across the state to write letters to TXDOT asking them to
divert the La Entrada Al Pacifico (LEAP) truck corridor away from its
planned route through the Big Bend. This event is being sponsored by
the Reviva! Collective and Big Bend Letters, two Alpine groups fighting
the LEAP corridor.
“Letter-Writing
Parties” will take place at the following locations:
San
Antonio
Ruta Maya on the Riverwalk - 107 E. Martin St.
Austin
Jo’s Coffee - 1300 S. Congress
Jo’s Coffee - 242 West 2nd St.
Denton
Jupiter House Coffee - 106 N. Locust Street
Alpine
La Trattoria - 901 E. Holland Ave.
Ft.
Davis
Twin Souls Coffee House – 209 N. State St.
Marathon
Eve’s Garden Bed & Breakfast - Ave. C & N.
3rd
Marfa
Marfa Coffee & Wine - 103 Highland Ave.
Terlingua
Family Crisis Center of the Big Bend - “Next to the Porch in
the Ghost Town”
Big Bend communities have worked hard to develop their
region’s tourism and retirement relocation economy, based on
clean air, small town charm, breathtaking vistas, and a lack of
traffic, congestion, and pollution. Many residents feel that a truck
route through their small towns will destroy this economy, to say
nothing of the region’s traditional ways of life and unique
and fragile ecosystems.
Information about La Entrada Al Pacifico will be available at the
parties, or folks can visit www.stopthetrucks.org , or
www.revivacollective.org . Both sites examine the numerous issues
surrounding the placement of a truck route through one of
Texas’ most wild and unique regions, and contain sample
letters and contact information for state and federal elected officials
and TXDOT.
Folks who are interested in hosting a letter-writing party on January
26th can contact bigbendletters@yahoo.com .
The Texas portion of the La Entrada Al Pacifico trade corridor was
officially designated by the legislature in 1997 as following US 67
from Presidio, through Marfa and Alpine to Ft. Stockton, and from there
via US 385 and I-20 to Midland. This route was named a
Federal High Priority Trade Corridor in 2005. (Texas H. B. 2115, the
LEAP authorizing legislation, literally suspended the Texas
constitution to avoid having the bill read on the Texas House and
Senate floor; it passed on the local and consent calendar.)
While the originating traffic for this route was to have come from
Topolobampo, Mexico on the Gulf of Baja, the difficulty of crossing the
Sierra Madre Occidental (including Copper Canyon) indicates that
Chihuahua City will likely be the starting point for most trucks
following this route into the United States.
The Letter-Writing Parties seek to point out to TXDOT Executive
Director Amadeo Saenz that the current LEAP plan is projected to
traverse heavily mountainous terrain on two lane roads through Mexico
and the Big Bend. However, trucks traveling from Chihuahua
City through El Paso to Midland have four-lane highways the entire way,
and existing railroads on this route can create even greater
efficiencies (and reduce pollution) handling bulk shipments.
Additionally, the six-lane Tornillo-Guadalupe Bridge, scheduled for
completion in 2010, will bypass El Paso to the east and provide swifter
access to I-10 (and I-20) through a state of the art Immigration and
Customs facility.
El Paso (and Juarez) officials have embraced cross-border trade as an
integral part of their area’s economic model and are actively
seeking and planning for increased traffic, in marked contrast to the
Big Bend’s relatively limited trade infrastructure
TXDOT is currently conducting a feasability study of the LEAP truck
route based on the corridor described in H. B. 2115. At the
study’s first public meeting in March of 2007 in Alpine,
nearly four hundred Big Bend residents attended, with a show of hands
revealing that everyone except one person opposed the LEAP
corridor.
A second public meeting will be held soon to discuss alternatives TXDOT
has identified to the original LEAP plan. (These alternatives will be
posted on that agency’s website before the second meeting.)
The Reviva! Collective and Big Bend Letters encourage Texans and folks
everywhere to communicate with TXDOT soon regarding the La Entrada Al
Pacifico trade corridor at tpp_txdot-leap@dot.state.tx.us (note
underscore after “tpp”) or 1-800/517-4652, or
better yet join us on January 26th at any of the locations listed above.
Letters written at the January 26th events will be gathered by the
Reviva! Collective and presented to TXDOT officials at the next public
meeting of the La Entrada Al Pacifico feasability study.
On the Street
On the Road Again
Down a dark alley behind Hogwild Records is the unlikely opening (in
many ways) to the new club that hosted San Antonio's own Girl in a
Coma.
Cops circled around on Dewey looking for...something. I can't
imagine anyone calling in any complaints. They were probably just
looking to commandeer some six packs from underage drinkers for
themselves. Joking?
I tried to get a steady shot of the alley but was trying not to laugh
at the two people loudly arguing a mere few feet to my right off
camera.
This has to be one of the best entrances to any club in San Antonio.
Dismal, dank, like an art directed favela. Perfect.
Manager Faith Radle got me backstage but I wasn't sure what success my
sub-compact camera would have in photographing the band. Low light
moments beguile. This guy was in the doorway for most of the
show. To his right...
...a (cedar) fever pitched crowd. The
energy at the show was high, for both the crowd and the band.
In just a few days they would be playing in France, which is
a surreal thought. Faith told me they played almost 150 shows
last year.
The flash on my camera was so inconsequential I experimented with
trying to catch moments when someone else was using theirs.
The blue and red lights were deep. The flash would
only betray that.
I suppose this is more factual but seems less interesting.
What happens next for the band will be interesting to observe.
Their song-writing is undeniably excellent. The
accented vocals bring distinction. There have been other
bands that develop unlikely singing styles (Green Day, Jawbreaker), but the more I
thought about it, her accent is something else altogether. At
first I thought it was British. But then I thought it reminded me of
this band from the Netherlands...
...which made no sense because Bettie Serveert's articulation is
much more precise.
Chameleons everywhere.
After about 30 minutes of trying to time my photos with the flash of
the camera across
from me I went back into the crowd and talked to Faith a bit
before leaving. Though almost all the merchandise had been
sold people still kept forming lines.
I imagine this will be a show fans talk about for a while.
Drowning in Their Own
Sauce
While observing Ben Judson's show at Fl¡ght Gallery, several
unlikely conversations emerged: the pros/cons of wet versus dry
application of gunite, the whereabouts of Col.
D. Williams (Ret.), as well as a peculiar observation on the
success and failure of various local restaurants based on square
footage.
Consider these establishments: Green, Cool Cafe (behind the Havana
Hotel), Ruta Maya, Merchants Grand Cafe (in Alamo Heights).
Each have made a great effort in their debut. However, I have
to wonder if they've over-extended themselves from the beginning.
Rather than establish a small, busy environment, they have
gone for as large a space as possible in the hopes to draw a large
crowd. To echo a previous article on the Current about the
flow of human traffic, people tend to go where other people go.
Creating a smaller, more intimate space suggests exclusivity
and creates anticipation. Taco Taco on Hildebrand understands
this idea, and their banner outside the restaurant with the quote 'best
tacos in the country', or something to that extent, builds upon that,
nevermind that they aren't even the best tacos in San Antonio.
But on to the show.
Judson sold his work for a reasonable, Jeffersonian price of $150.
The show was a success. Red stickers were
everywhere.
Most of the pieces were dominated by a letter that initiated a phrase
or a line of poetry. To counter cries that I was
photographing them in full so that I could sell them, I tried to focus
on smaller aspects of the larger whole.
From what I remember, the pieces were not silk-screened.
If I wasn't immersed in gunite talk I might have remembered
the details.
However, I do remember hearing that the process lends itself to organic
imprecision - in the best sense possible.
I had no idea what the show would be like. There was
restraint and reflection which fit with the happy/sad mood of the
recent wave of cedar fever.
Back,
Give Hercules Room!
The text on the kick drum looks as if it could have been printed by Ben
Judson, but more likely has been handed down from drummer to drummer.
The Sons of Hercules must be well into legendary status at
this point.
Rock messianica. Singer Frank Pugliese was transported
down from above on a mission from God.
I hadn't seen/heard them in at least ten years. I want to
believe I actually saw them perform in a garage once. Garage Rock isn't
a term I hear much anymore. I get the sense that Sons of
Hercules are placed more in the Iggy Pop school now, which is
interesting, because that's how Frank's band was described to me in
regards to their opening for the Sex Pistols 30 years ago.
The most interesting point of the show was when a fan/friend? of the
band jumped on stage to sing-a-long and rock out. In the 80s
this would have been more of a fleeting race across the stage
punctuated by a jump back into the crowd. This moment lasted
for the whole song. Opinions varied as to how it was
received. One person thought Frank waved him off from singing the verse
but was cool with him joining in for the chorus. And at one
point it did seem as if Frank was "blocking him out" from taking the
mic.
Despite this beer drenched moment, the show was less about antics and
more about the music. The set was loud, fast, and tight.
Musically, they don't seem to have lost a step.
I wonder if Frank will ever end up in a Texas Music Hall of Fame.
I heard Tim Kerr made the list (thought
that might have been something cooked up by the Austin Chronicle.)
The last moment to recall was this guy, doing his own homage to Bret Michaels. The hat
and hair might have been connected together.
A Discussion with
Congressman Al
This is already outdated, but perhaps interesting to about 2-3 people
at most. Topics include: the Iowa Caucus fallout, predictions
for the political season, and whether or not the Spurs will regret
cutting Darius Washington.
Enjoy?
Big Tex meetin'
While a "Unilateral Administrative Order" sounds powerful, and is in fact a directive, Lifshutz can still refuse the EPA access, which would require the agency to go before a federal judget to get a court order for testing. According to EPA On-Scene Coordinator Eric Delgado, Lifshutz had consented to let the EPA enter the property for sampling, but in return had asked to be held harmless in case any of his former Big Tex tenants develop asbestosis 20 years down the road. There's "no way we can do that," says Delgado; those unacceptable conditions led to the UAO.
Lifshutz did not return a call asking how he plans to respond to the UAO, but his office said a representative will attend Tuesday's meeting. Delgado will also be there, as well as reps from TCEQ and the Texas Department of State Health Services.
The Brackenridge cafeteria is fully ADA accessible. For more info on Big Tex, see "Test the Artists, but with what?" and The Queque.
So I'm going to LA
So, I was sick a few weekends
ago, and, sprawled out on my daybed/couch, made ecstatic by Will
Arnett’s brief appearance in The Sopranos (my illness was a perfect excuse to
catch up on the last five years of pop culture), I began to ask myself:
In my wildest dreams, what awesome people would I like to run into when
I visit LA (for the first time!) in February?
Odds are, I won’t run into anyone, as the occasion for my
visit is an NEA Theatre-writing fellowship, one where I’m
told I’ll have little to no time for sightseeing (but
I’m psyched just the same!), and because almost nothing will
be in production, I imagine, due to the writer’s strike, and
because didn’t the wildfire cause everyone to migrate to New
York? Wow — did that sentence make any sense? Anyway, I made
a tragically short, mental list of the talented folks I’d
like to rapturously wave at (that’s code for “I
admire your work; thanks for your artistic contribution to society),
but then thought the better of publishing it. You know, that way, when
I melt down in front of _____, s/he’ll never’ve
seen it coming.
Anyway, on the off chance I do have a spot of time to wander a few
blocks around USC Annenberg, I’d love your must-visit
suggestions, Curblog readers (How far would I have to walk to picket
with the people from _____?). In the meantime, take a gander at the
shows I and the other NEA fellows will be attending (and surely
blogging about):
The
Color Purple,
Orson’s
Shadow
(Austin Pendleton), The Wooster Group’s Hamlet, Victory (Athol Fugard), Bloody, Bloody Andrew Jackson (Alex Timbers), Carnage (Adam Simon and Tim Robbins), Dickie
& Babe: The
TRUTH About Leopold & Loeb (Daniel Henning), The Joan Rivers Theater
Project
(Joan Rivers) (stop that laughing), and Voices from Okinawa (Jon Shirota).
Whipped Creem Dreams
I spent much of the holidays obsessively poring over my favorite
Christmas gift, a hard-bound, coffee-table collection of the best of Creem magazine,
published last year by Collins, an imprint of HarperCollins.
As someone who admired the magazine's enthusiastic but
irreverent take on the punk explosion of the '70s, I would have
preferred to see more punk and less Bob Seger, Grand Funk Railroad, and
John Cougar Mellencamp. But there's plenty of priceless material here
nonetheless:
An amazing/embarrassing Marc Bolan interview from 1973, in which Mr. T.
Rex repeatedly goes out of his way to slag David Bowie as lacking in
charisma, destined for obscurity, and not "even remotely near big
enough to give me any competition" (Bolan wasn't exactly Nostradamus,
now was he?); a Lester Bangs-penned profile of Iggy Pop, in which the
World's Forgotten Boy takes his shots at Bowie for lousing up the mix
of the Stooges' Raw
Power, by branding him "that fuckin' carrottop"; a
never-before-published 1982 photo of Pretenders guitarist James
Honeyman-Scott, in frilly white dress and long, auburn wig, draped
across a car, a full five years before Tawny Kitaen put Whitesnake on
the map in similar fashion; and plenty of rude Creem Profiles and
Backstage photo captions.
My favorite remembrance comes from Bill Holdship, currently with Current sister
paper, the Detroit
Metro Times, who recalls taking a phone call from Billy
Joel, who angrily complained about a Creem photo of
Christie Brinkley, accompanied by the caption: "Dating a moron? Why I
am!" Joel told Holdship that when the magazine made fun of his
girlfriend "them's fighting words!" Holdship, to his credit, explained
to Joel that the photo was making fun of HIM, not Brinkley.
Doctors Against N-BAF
New York's Senators have said that N-BAF is "too
dangerous" for their state.
Maryland site lost for proximity to "major population center" (D.C.).
Now a coalition of North Carolina doctors have organized against the
Homeland Security germ lab. (See below for a letter
to the editor in the Raleigh News & Observer.)
San Anto is looking better and better for U.S. Homeland Security's germ
warfare crew...
the letter:
Proposed lab could unleash dangerous microbes
We strongly oppose siting the National Bio and Agro Defense Facility (NBAF) in Butner. The work done at this facility will not and is not intended to improve the health of any people or animals in the United States. The only purpose of the NBAF is the study of diseases that may be used as biological weapons.
Not one of these deadly, exotic viruses currently exists in North Carolina or has ever infected any human or animal here. They pose no threat now, but that will change once they are imported from across the world to Butner, where a single accident could unleash a disease in our backyard for which there is no cure.
According to the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease (NIAID), this facility will study "the world's most dangerous microbes, several capable of rapid widespread human depopulation." Many of these diseases are hemorrhagic fever viruses, which typically cause death by massive internal bleeding. They infect animals and then spread to humans. None of these diseases can be cured.
Experts agree that Biological Safety Level 3 (BSL-3) and 4 (BSL-4) labs such as the NBAF are not foolproof. As evidence of this, a 2001 outbreak of foot and mouth disease in England originated from virus stolen from a lab. It could be contained only after the slaughter of 10 million cattle and sheep, and it resulted in economic devastation for the agricultural industry.
In 2007, a lab accident resulted in another outbreak of the same virus in England. In 1978, an outbreak of foot and mouth disease occurred at the Plum Island Animal Disease Center in New York (the lab that NBAF will replace) and was contained only because the lab is on an isolated island. In 2004, an accident at China's most secure disease lab caused an outbreak of the deadly SARS virus. In 1999, the first animal and human cases of West Nile Virus ever to occur outside of Africa cropped up near the Plum Island Disease lab in New York. Since then, hundreds of thousands of Americans have been infected, and hundreds have died.
Dozens of well-documented incidents of safety or security violations, theft or loss of viruses, worker exposures, infected animal waste leaks and disease outbreaks are known to have occurred at existing BSL-3 and BSL-4 facilities in the United States. These failures have been published in reputable news media and mainstream scientific journals.
A U.S. House of Representatives oversight committee report from October found that more than a hundred accidents and violations were reported over the past four years at BSL-4 labs involving biological weapons viruses, and they believed this to be an underestimate of the actual number of accidents. Congress has recently called into question the safety and oversight of these labs.
The Department of Homeland Security will run the NBAF and is interested in studying biological weapons viruses there, in part, because even a tiny amount can result in massive devastation. Infections are most likely to occur in people who are nearest to the source of the leak, but viruses can travel in the air for up to 40 miles.
If you or a family member become infected with any of the BSL-4 diseases that the government may bring to Butner, there will be nothing that any of us can do to cure you, and it is highly likely that you will be quarantined.
--
Want more?
Check out our
version of N-BAF events and don't miss "America
the Beautiful's Germ Warfare Rash" by Sherwood Ross:
On the Street
Appetite for Construction (Aka, "Destruction Can Be a Creative Force!")
For days I pondered making the impossible journey all the way up to Austin via bike. Almanacs were almost consulted. Wind charts were somewhat referenced. Temperature guages were considered heavily. And at 7:45 am when it was 37 degrees Fahrenheit, innate common sense took over. Hell no. I drove. (I later considered trying again in a few days, but that idea quickly fell away as well.)
I got there before my friends were available. So I parked my car at the West Austin ranch house and continued by bike back into the city. Going across the town lake I found this view. Anyone who has driven south on Mopac by town lake has possibly peered into the distance and noticed these houses. Why, I don't know either but they stand out in their ability to punctuate an otherwise arboreal landscape.
As the houses dissolved into the horizon I took a turn north onto what once was an interesting dilapidated trail that went underneath Mopac through various drainage ditches and "frontier era" structures. I went north a bit and then was turned back by construction. A homeless seer was sitting next to a limestone wall acting like a gatekeeper out of a bad children's story. We exchanged nods and left it at that.
I suppose all towns are built with concrete but there seemed to be an abundance in Austin. It is a new city.
And what to make of this glove?
There was another urban trail that began underneath this bridge. Behind us (basically) is the "famed" 6th & Lamar street intersection. The glove gets lost in the shuffle.
I went underneath and went past this guy. This was painful to see - someone holed up, hiding in the middle of the day.
The ubiquitous crane flies across the sky. I continued into the east side and found an abundance of loft/apartment buildings that seemed to be made for late 20 somethings who wanted to live in a place that looked like a college dormitory.
I also came across an abundance of small houses that were bought and remodelled. Behind many of these homes were newer, larger, Dwell-ier additions. This trend has been likened to the larger house in the back humping the smaller house in the front. San Antonio Southtown/LaVaca homes haven't yet gone this way. Here the style is more of south Texas homestead and less European glass/steel modernism with hints of darkened wood. At least for now.
Oxymoron?
While in the east side I thought I would stop by to see if an old friend was around. While he made popcorn, he offered me a Diet Moxie, which is from some small town in Maine and tastes like Jagermeister without the alcohol. Each year there is a Moxie festival with a parade and a pancake meal. It's impossible to find around here. Much less in Diet. So Diet Moxie and...
...a hint of amaretto. This combination must have been invented by my friend. It really wasn't that bad. For soda, Moxie has an earthiness that transcends other root based drinks. I later found references to people mixing Diet Moxie with Allen's Coffee Brandy. This is called a "Welfare Mom." One part Moxie and two parts bourbon is a "Country Girl." The best might be Moxie with Jagermeister, which is called a 'Mad Mailman."
My friend Doubek, aka the Doober, discussed his wrangling with his landlord, a huge audition coming up in Chicago, and other tales of survival in Austin.
My friends from the Westside called and said they were going to the Whole Foods mothership store. Doober and I biked over to meet them for a light meal. Doober masterfully navigated the store's complimentary items. Afterwards, I headed west on 6th to meet my friends back at their ranch/house.
It was then that I came across this...
...a bike painted in all white with a R.I.P. sign attached to it. I had heard of these memorials in Portland and NYC but didn't know it had come to Texas.
After a meal at an amazing crepe cart (try the tarragon, spinach, and gruyere) and few more days in Austin I was back in San Antonio.
Concrete Dreams
The river's edge. No dead bodies or debuts by Keanu Reeves. Just pipes and dirt.
With a further step back one can see that work is moving along fairly quickly - much more quickly than say if this was a freeway that was to be used by millions of people.
Will the riverwalk extension succeed? It might not initially but at least its better than spending money on another sports arena no one really likes. The dead spot of the river will probably remain as such. (I'm referring to the spot by Ruta Maya coffee.) But if quality, local establishments set up on the northern part there is hope. The downtown portion has already been surrendered to the tourists. But if there was a place for locals to actually go to, then maybe it could work better than expected, especially if housing is finally finished along Avenue B and Jones.
Here at St. Philips, they too have purchased thousands of pounds of concrete. It's everywhere I look now.
This fresh coat of paint betrays itself. A scrap of paper hints at what once was here before.
This is the Nolan underpass a few blocks east of downtown. Once these walls were covered with work from grafitti artists from around the country. Initially there seemed to be support from the community but then it turned and pieces were slowly painted over. Up until recently the bulk was still there but in the distraction of the holidays everything has been removed.
A few blocks away is this sign.
This is the "entrance" to the Hays Street Bridge which at some point will become a hike and bike trail into the east side. Seeing it now one would have a hard time believing that, but yet it seems to be true.
A few other blocks away on N. Alamo is this building next to the indoor soccer league. I remember riding by and coincidentally saw a huge party of people painting. With the keep-out sign, the question is raised - is this to keep further artists away, or to keep away people from painting over their work?
And then a few more blocks away, I came across this lonely sign attached to one of the over passes.
The last Bike Gang Summit was supposed to begin here in this epic, underused space but through bad timing and poor judgement people herded themselves in the other field next to Pig Stand.
And then a few more blocks away the final stages of destruction were underway. The process began two Fridays ago at night. Broadway was filled with smoke and dust. It was all very eerie and wonderful.
And a return to the chorus - 'what happens next?'
And in the distance, the Pearl Brewery and all its uncertainty. Along with the riverwalk expansion, hope for the Pearl revitilization is high. Surrounding businesses are trickling in yet the city still seems reluctant.
The setting sun or a new day rising?
And so goes another week on the streets of San Antonio. As always, to be continued...
Nuke Hearing
If you want to have your timed three minutes of
front-of-the-room glory stuttering in front of an ironed-on board of
nuclear examiners, don your paper robe, brew a stout pot'a, fill up the
Honda, and cruise on down to sunny Bay City, U.S.A.
(It's either that or, like, fax your comments to the monster shredder
on the other end of the NRC's Division of Administrative Services...
details below.)
While there has been no official word as yet, I suspect some sort of
rideshare will set up for those with good-to-marginal hygeinic skills.
Those with oversized glowing puppets ride free. But there are no
guarantees, implied or explicit, that you will be absorbed by the
ionizing rainbow of radioparticulatory bliss, as pictured.
Oh, and remember the flap on that robe goes in the BACK. It's
more fun for the rest of the audience and less threatening to the
federal regulators.
Alright, already!
THE NOTICE:
Nuclear
Regulatory Commission staff will hold public meetings Tuesday, Feb. 5,
in Bay City, Texas, to discuss the agency’s review of a
Combined License (COL) application for two new reactors at the South
Texas Project site near Bay City, and the environmental issues the
agency should consider in reviewing the applications.
The meetings will be held from 1:30 - 4:30 p.m. and
7:00 - 10:00 p.m. at the Bay City Civic Center, 201 7th St. in Bay
City. The NRC will transcribe the meeting, including any follow-up
answers the staff provides later, and post the transcript on the
agency’s Web site at http://www.nrc.gov/reactors
NRG Energy and South Texas Project Nuclear
Operating Company submitted the COL application and associated
information in a Sept. 20, 2007, letter. The companies seek approval to
build and operate two Advanced Boiling Water Reactors (ABWR) at the
site, approximately 12 miles southwest of Bay City. The ABWR is a 1,300
megawatt electric design the NRC certified in 1997, and is currently in
use overseas. The application is posted on the NRC Web site at http://www.nrc.gov/reactors
Those wishing to register in advance to present their comments at the meeting should contact Cristina Guerrero by telephone at 800-368-5642 x2981, or via e-mail at STP_COL@nrc.gov (the address is STP_COL) by Jan. 29. Members of the public should request special equipment or accommodations for attending or presenting information by that date so the staff can consider the request. Those wishing to speak may also register at each meeting no later than by 1:15 p.m. and 6:45 p.m., respectively. Individual comments could be limited by the time available, depending on how many people wish to speak.
Vets vetoed
Anyone who read our recent
story about the rash of personality disorder discharges in
the U.S. military will wonder at this Bush veto.
The $686-billion National Defense Authorization Bill, HR
1585, would have addressed many needs in the veterans
community, including pay raises for servicemembers and increased
benefits for those who have returned.
It also would have eliminated the practice of "personality disorder" discharges until an investigation
into the practice had been completed by the GAO.
It is estimated that more than 22,000 veterans have been discharged
from the military for preexisting mental conditions in the last six
years. Many of these have also seen combat or incurred battle wounds
along the way. Still, most are stranded without access to the VA. One
of the worst cases of obvious injustice was chronicled by Johua Kors
early this year.
Jaded vets and cynics alike wonder how so many allegedly crazy folks
got through the military's screenings in the first place.
While the bill blasted through the House, 370-49, and eased through the
Senate, 90-3, Bush killed it with a veto
December 28, while you were sleeping off your eggnog.
According to Congressional
Quarterly, Bush
The Iraqi government had threatened to withdraw $25 billion worth of assets from U.S. capital markets last week if Bush signed the bill.
What provision this was and why the White House didn't communicate about it in the months in which the bill was being crafted is a mystery. So apparently not only are we in the U.S. captive to the whims of the Chinese market, Bush's war policy, but to the Iraqi financiers, as well.
The House leadership is now considering an attempt to override the veto, which Bush is claiming has magic "pocket" powers that can't be undone.
We'll just have to see about that.
Log into Chisme Libre to discuss veteran's issues in more detail.
Photo Credit: Greg Harman
On the Street
On Saturday Savior Daughters and Snowbyrd played at the smoky but cover-free club The Mix. I showed up a bit late for Savior Daughters but was able to get at least one image of them onstage, though it is completely indecipherable. Yet somehow appropriate?
I had seen them play about a year ago at a house party. At that event, the sound system was poor, it was cold, and all I recall was a lot of keyboards and someone in the band wearing a gas mask. Friday's show was a better showcase for their songs. The keyboards were still present, but no gas mask...though I suppose this might have been the best moment for a gas mask in order to navigate the shroud of smoke...not that there's anything wrong with a room full of smoke. (I later left the Mix for a bar with a room full of mirrors, but more on that in a moment.)
I had no expectations for Savior Daughters but was quite impressed. They put on a great show. The musicianship was tight and the energy was high. Their 80s influences are not hidden. I heard the Cure in a few of their songs, at least in the singing style, though musically they are more energetic than the Cure. The whole approach for Savior Daughters is very straight-forward. I suppose the term electroclash is relevant, and San Antonio has had a few other bands of a similar style before, but they seem to have created a good niche for themselves.
And as for the Mix, I can see how the lack of stage and tight space make it a good venue for them, or any band really. The architectural layout of Ruta Maya and Limelight isn't perfect for hearing some music. The energy often gets lost, though they have their other advantages.
Next up - Snowbyrd. This photo is a bit murky.
It's a tough call. Here's an image with the flash. I'm not sure which is better.
Their music soars in a different way. Scott Lutz can be seen in the background on a pedal steel guitar. Hey, that's the drummer from El Santo. Obviously, I hadn't seen them play before.
Some described them as indie rock. Others - country. They are somewhere in between, but somewhere else at the same time. The pedal steel brings the obvious country connection but Scott's playing transcends just one style. To me they are country in the way the Meat Puppets' Up on the Sun was country.
Though 80s influenced bands are quite popular now (Savior Daughters being the most obvious example, having played previously that night) I think Snowbyrd could have easily been a band from the 80s. Then, a diversity of sounds was more acceptable, at least in my opinion. Bands were all over the map then, with the Meat Puppets being an a seemingly odd inclusion for SST records (the most influential label of the 80s, which now is oddly located in Taylor, Texas for some reason. SST put out records by everyone from Dinosaur Jr. to Sonic Youth to spoken word and obscure jazz.) In other words, bands were doing their own thing, which is true as well with Snowbyrd.
At first I thought they reminded me of Austin's Lil Cap'n Travis but the Gram Parsons style isn't as dominant.
I had to meet some people later so I drifted away sooner than I would have liked. With an impenetrable layer of wool products, I got back on the bike and continued towards downtown.
Wall of Mirrors
The bar at the Havana Hotel has a unique atmosphere. It was not until I looked up towards those pipes that I fully absorbed the insane number of mirrors that cover the various walls, and perhaps, create part of the bar's elusive mystique.
And then what to make of this frame of nothing in the bathroom? Is this what is known as anti-space? Somehow, it seemed so interesting when I took the photo...
December 31st
Down off of McCullough behind St. Mary's, on a street that was more of a dead-end alley, I ended up at this party. A few Downtown Highlifers were jockeying with discs. I didn't stay too long, or so it seemed.
Most of the night was spent over on Magnolia street for the last of the great roof terrace parties. Ben, the host of these events, is splitting for Seattle. However, that isn't Ben.
The previous New Year's Party there wowed everyone in attendance with its spectacular view of downtown and the Westside.
The buildup. Smoking cigarettes on the ledge. Not too far in the distance, the Westside is preparing to light the fuse.
Though not as prolonged as last year, the pyrotechnics lasted for about 20 minutes. Explanations wer considered for various reasons - the most popular being economic. Was this the indicator of an impending recession? A drop in fireworks sales?
Somewhere in this murk are people and Roman candles. Wonderful.
The Helicopter on Cherry Street
As house condemnations rage the near East side, what to make of the Apache helicopter being towed down Cherry street behind the Alamo Dome at 2:34 pm on Thursday January 3rd? Unfortunately, no photos for documentation. There were Army promotional trucks in the Alamo Dome parking lot. Evidently for some sort of convention. When the circus comes to town one might see elephants walking the streets but this was just as odd...
A New Political Ad from Mike Huckabee
Reminder
Don't forget to check out these never before seen photos for the current cover story.
And so goes another week on the streets of San Antonio. As always, to be continued...
Missed Characters
A strange thing happened over the holidays. It appears the anti-nuke
crowd got cordoned off at Hippy Hollow.
An abbreviated Houston Chronicle story
that ran in the X-News
listed two Austin groups as opposing our City-owned CPS's
plans for two new nuclear plants. While I would have thought an astute
copy desk editor would have made an effort here, the story stood.
Stranger yet, when the local daily's energy writer "localized"
the story in a recent blog, she failed to include local groups. Who was
it storming the CPS meetings downtown and following the utility's PR
flacks on the speaking circuit with bullhorns? Well, those would be San
Antonians, many unaffiliated, but including members of the Southwest
Workers Union and the Alamo Area Sierra Club. There have been folks up
from Kingsville and Goliad, where uranium mining is happening and may
be on the way, respectively. And there have been the Austin groups,
too, without a doubt.
The problem with the X-News
representation is that it makes the whole matter appear to be an
outsider issue. In truth it is an issue the whole region is contending
with. The day that CPS took their vote approving $216 million for
nuke-related projects, there were some comments made about the Austin
"crazies" causing a ruckus. But as folks from South Texas started
taking the mic and explaining what uranium exploration and mining is
already doing to regional water supplies some utility folks were given
pause. The realization that this is anything but an Austin-vs-SA issue
was very clear that day, if it hasn't been clear in the local paper of
late.
Meanwhile, a national campaign by the Nuclear
Information and Resource Service opposing the reanimation
of the country's nuclear power industry has enlisted 416 U.S.
organizations, 146 international, as well as more than 6,000
individuals. Pretty good considering they're not the most prominent
non-prof out there…
"We do not
support construction of new nuclear reactors as a means of addressing
the climate crisis. Available renewable energy and energy efficiency
technologies are faster, cheaper, safer and cleaner strategies for
reducing greenhouse emissions than nuclear power."
Texas signers to date:
Sustainable Energy and
Economic Development (SEED) Coalition, Austin, TX
South Texas Opposes
Pollution, Martindale, TX
Collective Vision, La
Marque, TX
Oil Patch Democrats,
Houston, TX
Environment Texas,
Austin, TX
Southwest Workers Union,
San Antonio, TX
El Paso Regional Sierra
Club Group, Sierra Blanca, TX
Texas Fund for Nuclear
Responsibility, Austin, TX
Texas Center for Policy
Studies, Austin, TX
Garcia Hill Residents
Opposed to Uranium Mining, Kingsville, TX
While the local Sierra Club hasn't signed yet (they weren't familiar
with NIRS when we contacted them this week about it), their energy
policy recommendations to the city are clearly contra-nuclear.
It'd be nice if readers of the X-News were allowed full access to the actual dynamics of resistence at work here.
To burn, or not to burn: that is the question
When someone sends a MySpace bulletin attempting to publicize their event with the following kooky message (in regards to not attending the event): "Or I will hunt you down and make you wish you'd never been born ... No, but seriously… I will," you best listen. I had no other choice but to check out this event, for fear of my life.Now, I'm not one to question a person when it comes to publicizing their upcoming shows — most pass out fliers, post cards, send nice little email reminders — but Mike Suarez (who also happens to be a regular visitor to our comments section on our site) went all Satan-like (in short, he didn't mind busting out the crazies with us) with his approach to getting the word out on his event Watch it Burn. I Googled Suarez's name to find that he was part of the Satanic Calendar Project (if you haven't been living in a hell hole, this is what it's about — it's a first-of-its-kind calendar created by the Church of Satan Members listing major Satanic holidays and birthdays). On that note, Suarez has my attention.
As included in the rather normal informational-type email from Suarez (I must note this was following the MySpace bulletin) the event was tagged as a performance piece/psycho-drama/cathartic ritual not limited to: fascist imagery, mood music, a bit of speechifying, and questioning the value of "art" according to your Average Joe. I was hooked — all New Year's Eve plans were out the window — I had to see this. Watch it Burn, his devilishly planned performance entailed burning pieces of art. No it wasn't full-on anarchy, as one may think, it was rather actually subdued. In fact, it worked — it has since got me seriously thinking about the local arts scene.
I headed out for evening New Year's Eve event, and as the sun set the winds picked up and my feet went numb. I spent nearly an hour in a trance as Suarez picked up the mic repeating "This is a revolution" and preached his views. The few audience members in attendance chose which art to burn and which would survive. A handful of art survived; while the rest was tossed into barrels where "executioner's" doused lighter fluid on various art works.
Following the event Suarez immediately chatted it up, with me asking my opinion of the event. As I previously told his camera crew, I considered it to be thought-provoking. Suarez did bring up a few points, how various artists in San Antonio tend to keep it safe. And how First Friday has somewhat escalated into a place to be seen, rather than to see art. True, true … however, with artists like Bunnyphonic (aka Michelle Valdez) who presents outrageously interesting mixed media and performance shows and the FL!GHT Gallery crew (who, judging by a sneak peak image of the show SNEEZE, providse a unique and a definite conversation starter for weeks to come) who create art forms that they enjoy that are out of the ordinary and catch a few people off-guard — I think there are artists that are creating art to the beat of their own drum, but in Suarez's opinion, the San Antonio arts scene is stagnant. It's safe, mundane, and nothing short of extraordinary and I would have to say that I agree with Suarez's suggestion to break free from the safety net in the local arts sphere. Because isn't art about creating something beautiful? And what's more beautiful than creating a piece of work that the creator feels reflects their character, mood, emotion, etc? It's a true masterpiece when there are no restrictions and when everything needed to be expressed, is expressed. If it offends a few people, that's fine … not everyone will be enjoy it, but that's what makes art art.
Suarez questions in his blog: "Is Art truly a subjective experience for artists and audience? Or must some objective standard be applied to all creative endeavors for them to be considered good? If so, where and by whom are these bars set? The power of Art appreciation is NOT in the hands of some elitist group of snotty collectors, galleries, or "Artists." The responsibility lies with each of us." I second that notion.
This newbie art critic gives Suarez major props for his efforts: Suarez's rationale is something I can agree with no matter how bizarre his execution with it is — I understand his plea. He isn't fond of the Blue Star art scenesters; he doesn't want to fall into being tagged as a Chicano artist (which by his own works won't label his as one); he isn't about to follow some trend in the arts world just so he can get noticed.
He may come across as a jaded artist that may have been snubbed repeatedly in the local scene but Suarez is definitely speaking out about the scene the best way he can — if not through words — through action art.
Maybe San Antonio isn't quite ready for Suarez as he seems to note in many of his comments on our site, but he's definitely someone that the city should notice in a serious manner. Suarez, a local artist (with his work being shown at Gas Gallery in July 2007 in the show Porn Paintings: The Allure of Color, which raised an eyebrow or two while also questioning our contemporary racial views), is credible and has the potential to really stir the arts scene in town— however, it comes as a disappointment to me that people haven't quite taken his actions too seriously. Possibly, it's his in-your-face approach, or his tendency to come off as arrogant online, but as commented earlier in the week by Suarez (under the nickname Mr. Atrox) Watch It Burn "was a swift kick to the [art] scene's testicles."
I'm not sure if I fall into Suarez's category of "self-appointed critics of the creative" considering that I am a creative-type too, but I really don't care — and Suarez probably doesn't care whether or not people showed up at his event or not, or if people take him seriously as an artist. His goal was accomplished by causing people to think, even if I was the only one in the crowd to do so.
I must end this post with the powerful clincher to his December 18 post "Setting the Standard: "San Antonio, you artistically bulimic bitch, you prepare to FEAST!!!!!!! Oh, sweet San Antonio, how I love thee. No worries, you'll be plenty fed of art in '08.
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