Author: Dick

I’ve been hearing a lot of advertising for Saturday’s Rock Fest ’77 at Ford Park here in Beaumont, Texas. A number of cover bands will be playing Pink Floyd, Led Zepplin, etc., and people are encouraged to dress in 70s attire since the event is being filmed for a movie. The real “throwback,” according to the advertisement I heard this afternoon on the radio, is the price for the event of $15.

Now I must admit, $15 to see any show these days isn’t all that bad. But I don’t know about $15 being a 70s-style concert price. I seem to remember paying something like $4 to see my first concert, when Creedence Clearwater Revival played in the old Sam Houston Coliseum in Houston in the early 70s. I distinctly remember paying $6 for some other shows, although I only recall the price along with maybe the band’s name and where they played. Everything else is a little fuzzy.

If I were to dress in 70s garb I would have to go buy it. I did have a couple of my old Navy uniforms that I wore in the mid-1970s until I recently purged them along with tons of other packratta that needed to just go away. I didn’t even attempt to try on those uniforms. I don’t know, it’s just seems a waste of time when you know it’s not going to fit. I think I learned that in the O.J. case.

The thing is, I can’t recall too many features that set clothes that I wore in the 70s apart from what I wear today. I do admit to wearing some authentic 70s attire while in high school, the bell bottoms with deep cuffs and off-the-ground shoes. And polyester? Bad stuff happens with that around flames so I tried to avoid it like an STD.

Maybe I need to go to that show just to find out how stupidly I may have dressed back then. Maybe not.

I found this outside El Rincon de Villa restaurant on Greenville Avenue in Dallas. God knows what these people were thinking.

I watched most of the 1972 Clint Eastwood movie “Joe Kidd” on Sunday afternoon. I hadn’t seen it in who knows how long. Something that struck me in particular about this film was a scene in which all these Mexicans who were riding horses wore those big sombreros. You know the kind, they are usually gaudy and big enough to provide shade for a family of four people.

It had not really occurred to me before that probably every Western movie ever made that featured folks who were supposed to be Mexicans wore those double-wide hats. I don’t know if they really were worn a lot back in the old days. I am ignorant about a lot of Mexican culture. I have seen old pictures of vaqueros. In some photos they wore regular cowboy hats and in others they wore the taller and wider sombrero. These hats were not like the ridiculously large ones you see such as those in “The Three Amigos.” But whether Mexican cowboys wore such hats or not, at some point in time the hats became stereotypical. Perhaps even in SurroundSound. That was just only part of the stereotype in movies. Some were what I consider now to be rather culturally incorrect, if not racist.

But you got to love those wide old sombreros. I mean you’re a walking tree wearing that thing. There have been many times I could have used a Mexican sombrero. In the Texas heat this summer would be a good example.

The hats do pose a couple of problems. First, I drive a small Toyota pickup truck and there would be no way I could wear the hat while driving. I have a wide-brim straw hat and I can’t even wear it and drive. I perhaps could set the sombrero on the truck seat if no one else was sitting in it but it still would be a tight fit. Of course, I could always place the hat in the bed of the pickup but it would be vulnerable to wind blowing it away.

I need a sombrero but one is really impractical for me, I suppose. But now that I think about it, I wonder what reaction a driver might have seeing a big ol’ sombrero coming out from nowhere and flying toward them? Would the driver wreck? Would he or she curse en Espanol? Would they catch it, stop and do the Mexican hat dance around it?

So many things to ponder in this world and so little time.

I think the executives at CNN have totally gone around the bend. Because of the need to watch expenses, I don’t get CNN on cable anymore but I understand morning anchor Bill Hemmer is being replaced by Miles O’Brien in joining the show’s co-host Soledad O’Brien (no relation). O’Brien and O’Brien. Sounds like the setup for an Irish joke. The official explanation was CNN wanted to make the show “newsier.” Okay. I like Miles O’Brien. He is one of the funnier TV news guys and a whiz at explaining technological stories. It took me awhile to warm up to Soledad, but I thought she was doing just great with Hemmer and Jack Cafferty, the show’s resident curmudgeon.

I’m sure CNN bigwigs think they know what is best for whipping the Fox Network, which continues to bedevil them and me for one. But I am not sure they are right. CNN misuses good news talent. Hemmer is one of the best network TV anchors and reporters going these days. I am hoping CNN will realize one day their decision comes back and bites them in the ass. Hopefully, it will be too late and Bill Hemmer will have a good gig where he gets the proper respect he deserves.

Signs are pretty useful. Sometimes they convey the obvious and sometimes the strange, other times they warn of danger or ask you buy someone’s product. I often think of signs in terms of art.

My dad would be 90 years old tomorrow had he not been dead for the last 21 years. Pop was a sign painter whose work made me come to appreciate signs as an art form. I think of how he used to cut patterns of letters and use a bag of chalk to leave an outline on a sign board onto which he would paint. And holy cow! Out came art.

I was cursed with not being able to draw a straight line, nor could I ever color inside those lines. I always admired my dad for being able to turn out letters so perfectly crafted. No matter how much booze he had the day before, he could still paint with precision and with a steady hand. It was amazing. But he was quite an amazing fellow in my eyes.

Are there too many signs? Yes. But are there too many works of art? I guess that would be in the mind of the beholder. Are all signs works of art? Hell no. Did I forget what point I was going to make? Apparently. Oh well, I’m sure it will come to me at 2 a.m. along with all the other brain clutter. Meanwhile, follow the signs to wherever it is you want to go. And have a hell of a good trip going there!