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Bits and pieces

My friend, Paul, called via Skype from Tokyo last night. I had just finished dinner and he was eating breakfast. Sometimes I think Paul keeps up more with what is happening here in the U.S. than I do. That said, he raised an interesting concept that I will try to write about, perhaps, when I am off work Friday or Saturday.

Paul said it is difficult to tell what is real and what is not in our stateside political world these days. He was mostly speaking, of course, of the race for the Republican presidential nomination. I agree and only have to point at Herman Cain’s ill-fated candidacy. Cain said his farewell address was from the “Pokeman” movie but it actually was from a song from the hot stuff disco lady Donna Summer who wrote the song for “Pokeman.” Too weird. Paul has called for some comments on his concept on his Facebook page. I will wait and see what kind of comments he gets to add these into the mix.

20 questions

A former co-worker with whom I keep up through Facebook has asked some strange “20 Questions” of her friends. Most are really interesting, thought-provoking questions such as what religion do you find interesting besides your own or if you have none and another, which tech innovation that has become mainstream do you most like. I put Catholicism for the first. I find it fascinating for many reasons. As for the latter, I wrote the PC with the cell phone camera No. 2. I added that I remember my family’s first TV.

A Who-Done-It Needs Solving

I live in a city of about 115,000 people and metro area of nearly 380,000. Although we are only 80 miles from Houston, I still live in a relatively small city. When a murder takes place in a city of Houston’s size, it being the nation’s fourth-largest city, it usually doesn’t make the front page of the Houston Chronicle unless it is a very out-of-the-ordinary type killing. It’s a little different here in Beaumont, for the most part and especially so when the case when it is something more than a domestic or a fight that got out of hand (cops sometime refer to these derogatorily as “misdemeanor murders.) I think I can also say a murder that stands out here as well is a who-done-it in which the victim is a white person, especially an elderly white woman. Is that racist? I don’t know, but such a murder generates a lot of interest if only because blacks make up a majority in this city.

One story that has received “front-page,” a.k.a. prominent media play, is the homicide of 72-year-old Robbie Rae Allen, who was found dead Dec. 16 in her West Beaumont apartment in the 6700 block of Prutzman Road. Relatives and neighbors described her as outgoing and even sort of the spunky type. She did have meals brought to her and received home health care. It has only been revealed recently that she was smothered to death.

Police have just released a video from a Fast Lane convenience store at Major Drive and Phelan Boulevard in West Beaumont — slightly more than a mile from Allen’s apartment. The video was taken about 48 hours before Allen was discovered dead and shows a woman wearing a red coat and blue jeans and a white hat who used the victim’s credit card. I initially thought this might be the victim herself but it is an unknown black woman.

All murders, for the most part, need solving but especially so this type of homicide. This type of killing is a source of dysfunction for a community. Sure, this thing happens all the time but thankfully not here. I have mentioned before that I don’t think a majority of our area’s news media is particularly adept at “investigating.”  There are various reasons for this that I won’t get into. I only say that because, often, we don’t know a lot and some of what we do not know, just maybe, we should. Some police, in my experience and I do have some experience as a police reporter, sometimes feel as if information they glean is theirs and the public has no business knowing anything whatsoever. This is especially true when a murder is involved. That isn’t to say police shouldn’t keep some investigative information close to the (bulletproof) vest. I’m just saying, more details may often be told and it can even be in the interest of the cops to release it.

I do give props to Beaumont police since new Chief Jimmy Singletary has taken charge in the area of public information. They seem to be making a good effort to help both the public and their agency with respect to crime information.

Now I hope cops and citizens can do their thing to help solve this crime. It sure as hell needs solving.

 

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The right side of Texas in song

The title of The Atlantic’s Top 10 piece “The Geography of the Year in Music” sounded like a good idea at the time. I envisioned, perhaps, a top 10 of cities mentioned in popular music for the year or something of the sort. Instead, it was kind of, how can I say this, boring as hell. Essentially, the piece uses information which a doctoral student in urban planning gathered through a database of hit songs or hit-making acts per city. The result was how many singles were produced per 100,000 for a specific city. Just trying to explain it here has already taken more out of me than was intended.

Look, I know the writer wants to write a piece and the doctoral student in urban planning wants to play with data. I am sure a large number of people will read the article because The Atlantic is bordering on the kitten’s PJs as far as I am concerned. I just found the article left me feeling as if I was in the Recovery Room after major surgery.

But I feel as if I too can write an article that combines what are, to me, the interesting topics of geography and music. Furthermore, I believe that I can bore the hell out of you as well if you are so disposed. Otherwise you might find some redeeming quality or, God forbid, learn something in my little Internet list, which examines:

The Top 5 East Texas Towns in Song

There is no hocus-pocus-focus with statistics here. Believe me, I work with stats part-time and sometimes even that is too much. These towns are picked as favorites of mine and mine alone because of the song, the town or the combination thereof. Purists might argue the tie for No. 5 are not really East Texas and perhaps they aren’t in soul. I say: “Get a map.”

1. “Rock and Roll Doctor” — Sung by the late, great Lowell George with Little Feat. “It’s just a country town but patients come/from Mobile to Moline from all around/Nacogdoches to New Orleans/in beat-up old cars or in limousines/To meet the doctor of soul, he’s got everything.”

2. “She’s Crazy For Leaving” — The No. 1 country single for Houston native and great songwriter Rodney Crowell. Crowell attended my alma mater, Stephen F. Austin State University in Nacogdoches. “So I punched out my truck on a telephone pole/No she never looked back she just said “go driver go.” Well I know I could a caught her/But I ran out of luck/She was long gone to Lufkin by the time they cut me out of my truck.”

3. “Stars on the Water” — Another, older Rodney Crowell tune. “Beaumont to Biloxi/Sea breeze at your door/Gypsy rains, dang hurricanes/White silver sandy shore/Blue Light lounge is shinin’/Way out on the view.”

4. “Teneha, Timpson, Bobo and Blair” — A real oldie by East Texas singing cowboy Tex Ritter. The song refers to communities in Shelby County, to which I know I have been to the first two. Perhaps it was an Army cadence call and for sure something called out in a crap game, Tex explains all in his song.

5. (Tie) “Galveston” — The 1960s hit penned by Jimmy Webb and sung by Glen Campbell. I had long heard it was a protest song about the Vietnam War, but knowing the lyrics, I didn’t see it. Webb later said he had imagined the line “I clean my gun and dream of Galveston” as during the Spanish-American War back in the island city’s heyday.

5. (Tie) “Midnight Special” — A traditional folk song made famous by blues legend Huddie Ledbetter a.k.a. Leadbelly. My favorite version is, of course, by Creedence Clearwater Revival on their “Willie and the Poor Boys” LP recorded in 1969. “If you’re ever in Houston/Boy you better do right/You better not gamble/And you better not fight/Cause the sheriff will grab you/And the boys will bring you down/The next thing you know boy, you’ll be prison bound.” I don’t know if those are the exact words. It’s one of those songs meant to be sung in the way you feel. ‘Cept you best sing Houston. Leadbelly’s words likely doesn’t portray the image that the Houston visitors bureau would like you to visualize. Still, Huddie Ledbetter’s words about Houston law enforcement remains fairly accurate.

 

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Swamp People: More gophers please!

Christmas is kind of a dead time for television which gives me cover as to why I watched “Swamp People” a night or two ago.

The History Channel reality series focuses on several alligator hunters in the swamps in South Louisiana and Mississippi. The episode I watched featured gator hunter Troy Landry cooking up a pot of gator gumbo, I suppose after he “choot ’em.” His sometime partner Liz Cavalier came to the gumbo cooking and I have to say she done clean up well. Well, not a super model but she had her hair done.

What is confounding about the show is it makes everyone around those parts seem as if all they do is “choot” gators. That is, of course, far from the truth. Many fish, shrimp, grow and smuggle weed, raise dem crawfish, that sort of thing. The whole show makes me feel as if these people strive for a living embodiment of “Amos Moses.” I am talking the mythical gator hunter made famous in the early 1970s by singer and actor Jerry Reed. You know Amos, ” … He could trap the biggest, the meanest alligator, and just use one hand. That’s all he got left ’cause alligator bit it! Left arm gone clean up to the elbow,” Jerry sang with glee (Not “Glee” the TV series.)

Swamp People isn’t a bad show. It’s not a great show and it’s not really a good show. It is a show with minimal entertainment value. If it had a character as reckless as Amos Moses, the show might just be 100 percent, or 15 percent, better. Funny though, I used to think Jerry Reed was singing about Doc Milsap and his pretty wife Hanna raising up his son to eat up his weight in gophers. Later, I realized the word was “groceries.” Either way, it would be kind of comical for someone who could eat up his weight in gophers. Maybe someone like that is just what Swamp People needs.

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Here is wishing you an eight feet deep type of Christmas (if not a whole lot better)

Ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho and some more ho. This is my Christmas 2011 message and because of the holidays and the desire to put my poor, crooked toes up and relax, I plan to make this short and sweet. Well, at least I’ll make it short.

To all you non-believers out there, Yes, Damn right Virginia, there is a Santa Claus, and yes, North Carolina and yes, Delaware and yes, Maryland and yes, by God, West Virginia.

Santa on board a C-17 delivers fuel to remote bases in Afghanistan with some help from Tech. Sgt. Mike Morris of Charleston A.F.B., S.C. (U.S. Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. Nathanael Callon)

If you still don’t believe in Santy Claws, then check out NORAD’s page. I mean, NORAD, they’re the ones who keep track of objects which belong and don’t belong in our skies. If you can’t believe them … Pretty interesting story how NORAD got into the business of tracking Santa Claus. You can read for yourself, but a short version:

 
“It all started in 1955 when a Sears media advertisement directed kids to call Santa Claus but printed a telephone number that rang through to the crew commander on duty at the Continental Air Defense Command Operations Center.

“The colonel on duty told his staff to give all children who called in a “current location” for Santa Claus. The tradition continued when NORAD replaced CONAD in 1958.”

Well, that’s all I have to say about that. Dadblamed Gump! Now he’s got me saying it.

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When big brands attack

Just because some suits makes an exorbitant six-figure salary does not mean he or she is blessed with genius. That is a lesson that can be taken to heart by looking at some of the real failures in branding during 2011.

It was not the best of years for companies such as Bank of America, Abercrombie & Fitch or that good old American symbol of prosperity itself, Wall Street. These are among the “Top 10 Brand Disasters of 2011” which were compiled by top sales blogger James Geoffrey in his daily column for Inc.com. Geoffrey has previously included “brands” as diverse as “Islam” and “Obama.” For 2011, he’s focused on big corporate brands because “there were so many hilarious debacles to choose from,” he explains.

Geoffrey recounts some of the strange ways corporate American puffs their chests only to have a deflation quicker than an air mattress at a porcupine convention. With biting humor, Geoffrey looks back at Bank of America’s great “$5 failure” in which the already overexposed company faced a nationwide customer exile due to their badly-proposed $5 debit card fee.

“After all, to banking execs, a fiver is just small change. Who would complain?” Geoffrey muses.

Other branding nightmares includes Abercrombie & Fitch’s not-so-bright idea to market a padded bra for pre-teen girls, something parents surely wouldn’t object to, would they? Or take for instance, Family Radio. The evangelical broadcasting giant’s CEO Harold Camping predicted that the world would end on May 21, 2011. It didn’t, obviously. Too bad some listeners took his word and sold all their worldly goods. Not the best way to plan for the future.

Even Wall Street itself needs a lesson in branding.

“Profits were high, bonuses were higher, regulations were weak and likely to get weaker. Having successfully managed to privatize its gains and socialize its losses, Wall Street was beginning to reposition itself as the engine of American prosperity (as opposed to small business,)” writes Geoffrey.

Then there was that small “Occupy” thing.

Geoffrey, whose recently-published book “How to Say It: Business to Business Selling,” (Prentice Hall, 2011), “features the best techniques from a dozen top sales gurus, packaged into a one-day read for novice sales reps” takes a very humorous look his Inc.com piece on what happens when big brands attack.