Month: October 2005

It doesn’t take a weekend out of town like I had this past weekend in Austin to realize that, as much as I like where I live, the radio in this area really blows. And that’s really saying something because I’m within earshot of the nation’s fourth largest city, Houston. Man, you’d think Houston would have a decent radio station. But really, in my estimation, it doesn’t.

Austin does have one really great radio station, KGSR-FM. And you can hear it on the Internet by magically clicking here! Check out their recent airplay: Tracy Chapman, Coldplay, Ry Cooder, Eliza Gilkyson, Rodney Crowell, Delbert McClinton, John Hiatt … And that’s not to mention my hearing old things from Traffic and Little Feat this past weekend. Jesus Tap Dancing Christ that is some good music.

I also have a Louisiana Internet favorite, KBON-FM in Eunice, La. You can savor this experience by clicking RIGHT CHERE! This station has perhaps the best mix of soul, Cajun, Swamp pop, maybe even a surprise thrown in there, that you can find.

I’m glad these choices exist on the Internet because, quite frankly, broadcast radio has gone to hell in a handbasket. At least that’s the case where I live.

“Just wait,” daydreams Alito, “It won’t be long before Bush becomes MY bitch.”

Do you remember recently when I told you the next pick GW made for Supreme Court justice was sure not to please everyone? You don’t remember? Well, I did make such a prediction and that forecast was realized this Monday morning with the rancor of a rehashed passed interference call from some crappy, NFL game the day before.

Appeals court judge Samuel Alito, affectionately called ‘Scalito’ or ‘Scalia-lite’ with reference to ultra conservative Justice Antonin Scalia, seems destined to make the right-wingers dance in the streets with glee while the Dems break out their voodoo dolls and summon the spirit of M.M. O’Hair. The confirmation fight is going to get nasty, I predict, as it should.

I mean, the world just seemed to be tilting the wrong direction on its axis with Harriet Miers. The Democrats were content to not bitch about her nomination while the Bible-beating conservatives ate their young. A course correction was made by GW’s bunch by over-correcting. Yet again our governmental geniuses keep forgetting the past.

Both Democratic and Republican partisans apparently either flunk history or ignore it completely as a legitimate subject. The right may get their man and he may go on to help “win” some of the battles in what is ridiculously termed the “culture wars.” But the minority of fundamentalists are not going to be in charge forever and neither is the Republican Party. And possibly, neither will the Democratic Party when the people get tired of the Republicans. The pendulum eventually swings. It’s inevitable, like death and the little guy getting screwed.

So the stage is set for another political drama. Let it happen! Bring it on! Let that boy boogie woogie!

Here is how sheltered a life I live these days. Until browsing Toy Joy on Guadalupe in Austin last night with my friend, I never knew a Charles Dickens Action Figure ever existed. Now I know.

I can’t think of a time that seeing the Texas State Capitol has failed to leave me awestruck. It is stil quite a sight on this gorgeous, late-October Sunday afternoon.

Among the odd sights I’ve seen in Austin perhaps none can match seeing Kinky Friedman speak from the Texas Senate Chamber. My friend and I made it to Austin Saturday for the Texas Book Festival on the State Capitol grounds just in time to hear the independent gubernatorial candidate, the Kinkster, speak.

Now I will admit it was rather odd to hear what was almost a pure political speech at an event in which books and writing are celebrated. But then again, Kinky is a mystery writer. He did a hell of a lot better at that gig than fronting the Texas Jewboys. Although, I did see Kinky and the Jewboys playing with Bob Dylan on the Rolling Thunder Review Tour back in the mid-70s in Hattiesburg, Miss. Just the fact that Kinky sang a song called “I’m Proud to be an Asshole from El Paso” was enough to endear the man to me for life.

Just how serious Kinky is about becoming governor of Texas, I don’t know. It’s one hell of a long shot. But he speaks more and more like he really is serious. And he makes some sense, at times. The photo above that I took this morning outside an Austin strip-mall church shows how big an issue the November General Election proposition to ban gay marriage in Texas is to a lot of folks. Kinky, who repeated his one-liner about supporting gay marriage “because they should be just as miserable as everybody else,” nonetheless made a very salient point in his speech.

He said people are all obsessing over gay marriage. Meanwhile, “Texas is last in education and first in executions. You do the math,” says Kinky.

Then again, if the gays are allowed to marry, the next thing you know they’ll be teaching evolution in high school science classes in Texas. I don’t guess we can have that can we?