Wednesday Night Racing

Here are some photos from yesterday's Wednesday night race.

This J/30 is called "Lone Star":

The starting line is between the Yacht Basin breakwater and the race committee based in lawn chairs and car tailgates parked along the T-Head pier. Typically, a race committee is located in a boat and the starting line is between that boat and a floating mark... but this is quite atypical.

A dolphin followed our J/24 for a good mile or two, scaring the bejeezus out of our female crew member. As we were sitting along the rail with our legs overboard, she was scared that it might confuse our boat shoes for fish. Dolphins are traditionally considered good luck for sailors.


I love dolphins

Art Museum of South Texas

After touring the port, I visited the Art Museum of South Texas.

Originally designed by Phillip Johnson in 1972, with an expansion (seen to the left) done this decade by Designed by Victor and Ricardo Legorreta of Mexico City. I had visited the museum originally in 2005, which I believe was before the new wing opened. They have a nice collection and they currently were exhibiting a bunch of Ansel Adams prints. They had some interesting cards in the Museum gift shop which I bought.

The Port

Last week I got the wonderful opportunity to tour the Port here in Corpus Christi. Corpus Christi is actually the US's 6th largest port by volume.

At tanker arrives in the inner harbor, over 90% of the cargo entering the port is petroleum products.

A growing part of the port is "Project Cargo", ie large things that don't fit in containers. Texas is currently leading the nation in Wind Power development, thanks in large part to T. Boone Pickens. Wind Farms are popping up everywhere, there are some planned for around the Corpus Christi Bay area, and the state is well on its way to reach the 20% of all energy generated target.

The windmills mostly come from abroad and they are imported and brought ashore here in Corpus. Below is someone else's photo of a shipload of wind tower columns.

Here is a photo of the harbor... another interesting fact is that Corpus is the only port in the US that trades with Cuba. A 2000 act of congress allows for the sale of humanitarian, agricultural, and medical goods to Cuba. In 2003 the port and Cuba signed a Memo of Undertanding. So Cuba gets a ship yearly of grains and other things and they have to pay cash. When the embargo is released, which might happen as soon as next congress and under the new president, Corpus Christi stands to benifit.

The port is also hoping to build a large container port, the port currently does not have container facilities, but they have a large tract with highway, rail, and ship channel access that would be promising for one if the demand is there.

Overall, very interesting, International Trade was one of the classes which I enjoyed the most, and this year Paul Krugman is winning the Nobel Prize in Economics for his New Trade Theory. It's easy to only read his Times columns and dismiss him as a partisan hack, but his academic work is impartial, reasoned, and really changed the way (academic economist) people thought about trade.

Fair and Balanced

This is the selection of political books at a certain Texas Walmart:

Sarah Palin: A New Kind of Leader and The Case Against Barack Obama.

Although this is Texas and it's Walmart we're talking about, I'm a bit surprised being as that the Texas 27th Congressional District, covering most of coastal South Texas from North of Corpus Christi to the Brownsville and the Mexican border has had a Democrat as its representative since its creation in 1982, Solomon Ortiz.

Presidential Race

While I think it is a good thing for the country that both McCain and Obama are in general pragmatic non-ideological centrists, the idea that this campaign would be waged at a level of civility unseen in Presidential races for decades was unfounded. The idea that Obama is 'post-partisan' is both ludicrous and unsubstantial and McCain has lost his formerly significant upper hand in the area of honor, moderation, and experience.

The election in reality is between independent voters in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Florida, & Virginia; because of the current political alignments and the electoral college, nowhere else matters... at all. The only thing the elimination of the electoral college would be is eliminating campaigning in more rural parts of Ohio, Pennsylvania, Florida, & Virginia and increasing campaigning in the outer-ring suburbs more cities ...inner-ring suburbs (i.e. Chestnut Hill, Bethesda, Westchester) are unlikely to vote for Republicans anytime soon.

Most activists, TV talking heads, both campaigns but particularly the McCain campaign, and the general public seem oblivious to the fact that the people who decide this election are people in those four eastern well-populated states who mainly live in outer-ring suburbs and are independent because they don't like things about both the Republican and Democratic parties. If you don't buy the full platform of either party, nothing alienates you more than partisan rancor and mindless resuscitation of talking points. On the bright side both McCain and Obama had the highest support of independants versus their opponents in their respective primaries... Obama uses less anti-corporate rhetoric than Kerry did and McCain, while appealing to jingoism, nevertheless avoids the tone and verbage Bush used to defend the Iraq War while campaigning in '04.

...I ran across this quote again, I remember running across it before... Bruce Alger was the first non-Reconstruction Republican Congressman from Texas elected to more than one term. He served from 1955 to 1965, leaving well before the Republican Party realigned itself and gained substantial support in the South (Strom Thurmond switched parties they year Algers lost reelection, Jesse Helms switched parties in 1970, and Texas's congressional delegation had more Democrats until the 109th Congress in 2005.

Anyway, for those possibly optimistic or depressed about any upcoming political developments, here's a quote:

At the turn of new year in 1958, Bruce Alger was asked by Time Magazine about the upcoming second session of the 85th Democratic Congress, he responded:

"I foresee bitterness and hatefulness. . . . We are going to squabble and fight and make the world think we hate each other and that we can't solve our problems. We are going to have bigger and bigger budgets, higher taxes, more government spending at home and abroad, and more inflation accompanied by deficit financing. Happy New Year!"

Golfing

Sunday I golfed 9 holes at a semi-private course in Corpus:

The club house and the grounds looked like they have seen better days. I'm not so sure how many members the club has, but the empty pool and pool house (not pictured) looked like they haven't seen people in quite a few years. The clubhouse, an excellent example of 50s/early 60s contemporary architecture, needed a good renovation/regular maintenance.

Fun course nevertheless, many water traps. I drove better than I ever have, maybe it's because I'm more relaxed than usual; it's probably been about a year since I last played golf.

The sun in the sky and the tropical climate:

Jazz Fest

Saturday evening I went to the same Jazz Festival that every medium-sized city in the western world has. You know, the one with the requisite multiple stages, beer tents, corporate sponsors, funnel cake, and vendors selling handmade crafts, sand art, and wannabe-Thomas Kindades try to sell their bland artwork.

This one was in Corpus.

It was unique in its own way of course, I wouldn't be able to get some quality authentic Mexican food on the cheap at Jazz Festivals in other parts of the country and beer was $4, in the Northeast it would be $7 ...maybe. There also were a disproportionate amount of people smoking cigars there, one of the vendors was selling them.

It was in "Heritage Park", which is where they put all their Victorian buildings to roost.

A statue of BUD MAN was there, the real BUD MAN had more important things to do, I suppose.

These guys were really good, except when the bassist played, but it wasn't his fault, there was something wrong with his connection or the amp.

A voyage to Shamrock Island

Saturday I went on a voyage with some friends of the family to the mythical Shamrock Island, home of the famous leprechaun who invented Lucky Charms in 1947. I skippered most of the way and we never made it ...we did set out past 1, oh well.

The wind was blowing in the high teens and lower twenties, the boat was an '03 Beneteau 331. I am used to sailing racing dinghies and crewing on J/Boats, so it was a bit different of an experience for me. It had a roll-furling main and genoa jib. I didn't like how I couldn't see the sails easily from the helm with the bimini in the way. We also could never get the main trim how I would like and the leech of the main sail kept on luffing and we couldn't get to the right line because of the bimini.


Corpus Christi from Sea

Corpus Christi Bay is littered with these well heads/oil rigs/pumps/pipes/whatever these things are. We didn't come very close to any of them, but we were a lot closer than I was comfortable with before I tacked away from these.


They use these well heads as course marks to round for Wednesday night racing, in the dark too!

My view from the helm, I normally like looking up at my sails, so this takes some getting used to:


Shamrock Island was almost directly into the wind from the club, after spending hours of tacking to get out there and getting within 2 nautical miles of it, we decided to head back because it was getting late. As we sailed back with a pleasant quarting sea and then a following sea as the wind eased as the sun sank slowly towards the horizon.

Stop Making Sense

I love the Talking Heads and David Byrne is currently out with a new ablum with Brian Eno.



Here David Byrne interviews himself in the documentary/concert movie/'rocumentary' Stop Making Sense:



One of my favorite Talking Heads songs, also from Stop Making Sense:

The Debate & the election

As an astute observer and a dedicated follower of the dispassionate rational political discourse which typifies American national politics, I have spent the past year reading the comments sections on news sites and following only the best CAPS-LOCK email forwards to put together a definative list on the issues that will decide the election. Below are my findings:



This election is about:
Joe the Plumber (greatest American and hero to us all!)
Scranton (Salt of the Earth!)
Hatchets (use first or not at all?)
Scaples (everybody wants one!)
The Weather Underground (still pallin' around!)
Moose Hunting
Hugo Chavez (precondition: Collect Call)
shooting wolves from aircraft
invading Pakistan (should we tell them about it first? Opps, too late!)
who can talk to Iran (just the State Department or the President too?)
people who attend rallies and shout things (cabinet appointments or future diplomatic corps?)
George Wallace (will he run again as an independent?)
who will be ready to lead at day 1 at 3am (Hilliary Clinton, of course)
the amount of houses McCain owns (and if he buys more, will it solved the mortgage crisis?)
domestic oil production (celebrated)
Exxon Mobile (derided)
Bristol Palin (can she be simultaneously pregnant?)
how much you support clean coal & nuclear power (it can never be enough)
Colombian labor leaders (were their lives properly honored?)
Ireland's status as a tax haven
How many times can you talk about NAFTA while never mentioning Canada? (infinity)
will we use a timetable or a time horizon to exit Iraq? (Time Horizon, it's more poetic)
the ability to articulate the Bush Doctrine (Summer 2002 to Spring 2007, in a five paragraph theme, no less than 500 words)
the ability to properly form a sentence on television (gotcha media!)
does a layover count as visiting a country? What if it's Ireland, with an 11% corporate tax rate?
can incompetent and creepy government officials be fired if they're relatives?
in third least populated state, can you be a government official and not related?
can Joe Biden restrain his famous arrogance during an hour-long debate? (surprisingly, yes)
can Sarah Palin participate in an hour-long debate? (surprisingly, yes)
does voting against an amendment and for the bill mean not supporting the bill? (always)
does voting for an amendment and against a bill mean supporting the bill? (always)
Community Organizing (most noble job or euphemism for 'unemployment'?)
grimacing and making strange faces (policy or strategy?)
ACORN
Obama, secret Muslim or covert Muslim?
Repainting a Patriotic Cargo plane to use as the campaign plane (a BAD IDEA)
Joe Six-Pack (does he buy his beer from Cindy McCain?)
Whining about Phil Gramm (and did he singlehandedly cause the current crisis?)
Main Street (everyone works there!)
Wall Street greed (the cause of everything)
Conservative Temperament ("Keep Cool with Coolidge")
Vitriolic Righteous Indignity (GET SOME OUTRAGE!)

Texas State Aquarium

In honor of Columbus Day I went to the Texas State Aquarium:

It's a very nice aquarium, they have a nice amount of fish.

The boat's name is "Working Together", you can tell it's trawling not only by the lines its dragging, but by the display of the black hourglass shape you can see near its antennae (for more: Chapman Piloting & Seamanship).

Across the bay is the newly expanded Art Museum of South Texas, designed in 1972 by Phillip Johnson before he turned all Po-Mo.

South Texas Bike Ride

I went for a bike ride after my run on Saturday. Here are some pictures

This is not a hockey rink or athletic center, one of the things I've noticed down here versus the Northeastern US is that there are a number of suburban churches with large congregations in relatively affluent areas that nevertheless are not obviously places of worship architecturally:

Oso Bay empties into Corpus Christi Bay:

This house has a Burro (donkey) in their front yard.

Dog Breeder/Rifle Range combos are pretty common down here

Walking for Diabetes

Saturday I participated in a fundraiser walk for Diabetes through downtown Corpus Chirsti. I walked about a half a mile until I decided to run the rest of the 4 or 5 miles. I didn't want to run initially because it was a walk, not a run, and I wanted to stay with the group I was with but there were a number of people who ran. After a few minutes of walking at a regular pace my urge to run couldn't be surpressed. I ran track in high school and wearing running shorts, sneakers, an ipod laden with workout music, and a sweat band and having a good course with blocked off roads just triggered something in me. Although I hadn't ran regularly for a few months, I managed to pass everyone I saw... the group of serious runners who had started running at the begining of the walk had probably all finished. I didn't time myself but I think I finished in about a half an hour, I would have picked up the pace but I started to taste the smoked salmon I had from breakfast's lox & begal on the last two miles.


As you can see, the people to the right forgot how to walk:


The walk ended by circling the infield of Whataburger Field. Built in 2005 on the site of cotton warehouses As you can see on either side of the scoreboard, rusting port infrastructure is incorporated into the baseball stadium

a walk through Corpus pt2

One of the nice things about Corpus is that their highways are more aesthetically pleasing than nearly anywhere else I've been. Besides this Public Art installation on elevated highway pilings there are all sorts of precast and red-dyed cement highway improvements and other finishes and embellishments. I can't seem to find any pictures online of them, I'll post some later.

Foxy Lady's is Corpus Christi's hottest night club.

After walking many miles downtown I had dinner at a great Sushi place and then made my way over to the L-head to crew for Wednesday night Racing. The city's self-proclaimed nickname is The Sparkling City by the Sea and here is an example of just that.


Sailboat Racing on Corpus Christi Bay