Singing Cowboys

Three Tejano Cowboys and their song:
From the Ranch Hand Breakfast at King Ranch in Texas, three spanish-singing cowboys and their songs:



More live music:

Ranch Hand Breakfast pt2

Live music:

Rodeo:

The Ranch Hand Breakfast at King Ranch

Last weekend I attended the Ranch Hand Breakfast at King Ranch, the largest ranch in the United States. (more pictures from the Press).

They served the traditional cowboy breakfast of vinegar, piss, and camp fire biscuits.

These Texas Ranger reenactors were missing their Chuck Norris component

What I've been up to

Somehow, after planning to be abroad on an internship which has yet materialize, I wound up turning what was supposed to be a brief visit to South Texas into a two month stay. While being unemployed and car-less and not knowing anyone here less than twice my age, it's hasn't been an absolute waste, it's just been mostly a waste.

Read:

• Maximum City (2004:Suketu Mehta)
• Commanding Heights: The Battle for the World Economy - I'm halfway (1998:Daniel Yergin and Joseph Stanislaw)
• Snakes and Ladders: Glimpses of Modern India - I'm halfway, I thought I was going to India for a while (1997:Gita Mehta)
  

Visited:

• The dentist (twice)
• The doctor (twice)
• My Brother

Activities:

• South Texas Museum of Art
• Texas State Aquarium
• Volunteering in Galveston after Hurricane Ike
• Wednesday night (sailboat) racing
• Sailing Cruising to Port Aransas
• Toured the Port of Corpus Christi
  
• Turkey Day Regatta
  
• Golfed (a few times)
  
• Went to the beach a few times
• Swam a few laps on an infrequent basis
• Got a Texas Driver's license because I lost my Pennsylvania one before I left
• Learned all about Greyhound Bus travel
  
• Wrote about politics and drew a new political map based on political, demographic, and cultural data
• Walked for Diabetes
• Took a bikeride
  
• Went to a Cowboy Breakfast/Rodeo thing on America's largest ranch (post soon)
  

Watched:

• Burn After Reading (2008:Cohen Brothers)
  
• Tropic Thunder (2008:Ben Stiller)
  
• Slacker (1991:Richard Linklater) free on Hulu
  
• Crawford (2008:David Modigliani) free on HULU!
  
• Bonfire of the Vanities (1990:Brian De Palma)
  
• Blade Runner - Director's Cut (1982:Ridley Scott)
• City of God (2002:Fernando Meirelles & Kátia Lund)
• Logan's Run (1976:Michael Anderson)
• The Motorcycle Diaries (2004:Walter Salles)
• Split: A Divided America (2008:Kelly Nyks)
• Mad Men, both seasons
  
• Arrested Development, entire series, Free on HULU!

Acquired

• A new laptop, an Eee PC 1000H netbook
• Motorola S9 bluetooth Stereo headphones
• External Hard Drive case for my old laptop hard drive
• External DVD/writer drive
  
• a dozen books at excellent Texan used book store chain, Half Priced Books
  

My New Political Map

I devised my own geopolitical map of the united states with borders based on geographic, political, demographic, ethnic and cultural boundaries:

Here are some region names:

• Continental Divide
  
• Tidewater South
• Gulf Coast
• Deep South
• Tornado Ally
• Little Scandinavia
• Piedmont South
• Upland South
• Bluegrass/Bourbon Country + "Middle Tennessee"
  
• Rust Belt
• The Maritime Provinces
  
• Northeast Corridor/Boswash
• Laredo
• LA Metro
  
• Mormonia
• Cascadia
• Silverado
• Greater Bay Area
  
• Phoenix/Las Vegas/San Diego --- name ideas?
• Chicagoland (might be annexed by Rust Belt)
• Upstate
• Northern Uplands
• South Florida
• Interior Plains

Any other name suggestions will be fielded

Galveston, 2008 pt4

Devastation from Hurricane Ike in Galveston, Texas.
November 2008

Galveston, 2008 pt3

This medical clinic in a shipping container was a part of a community charity organization.

While we worked at bleaching all the studing and ripping everything up down to its bare bones, community members stopped by looking for assistance and we directed them to the church where the charity had moved. It was for working at a community organization like this one, that certain people tried to somehow denigrate and demean the "community organizing" which Barack Obama chose to pursue in lieu of working for biglaw.

These people were providing meals at 3 for free aparently, it was all very crowded every time we passed it.

Galveston, 2008 pt2

A similar photo of this house was picked up by major news outlets, Sunfish and all. Note the silver kettle in the window.

Galveston, 2008

A few weekends ago I volunteered with a group doing cleanup in the aftermath of Hurricane Ike. Ike was the third most destructive in US history (in terms of property loss) behind Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Andrew. Burried in the headlines during the 2008 presidential campaign, it recieved considerable less coverage than much smaller and less destructive storms.


Boats strewn along the highway were steadily being lifted away by the time we arrived.

note that this Corvette that the house fell down on is not in a logical position of where a garage would be:

There were homes here a month before, the woman who lived in one of these houses found here bedroom behind a house nearly a block away. There was likely a tornado that went through this part:

Cruise to Port Aransas pt4

This massive catamaran shrimper sells its catch right off the boat in Port A.

After some breakfast and bloody maries we left back for Corpus Christi

Here you have to play "dodge the ferries" like frogger. They come from both sides and leave as soon as they fill up with 9 cars.

Cruise to Port Aransas pt3

We arrived in Port Aransas after sailing 3/4 the way and motoring the rest. We saw about two dozen dolphins and a few followed us for a while along the way.

Once there, the YC has a pot luck and there were a bunch of colorful baby boomers with all sorts of stories, there weren't any people less than twice my age, but I still had some interesting conversations.

When I got in a conversation about where I live and I said, "Philadelphia".
Someone said, "I'm sorry."
I realized they were just ribbing me but I repeated, "Philadelphia."
They then explained that they heard me, but they say, "I'm sorry" every time someone says anything other than Texas.
"No, I like living in Philadelphia."

As this was before the election, someone brought up Sarah Palin. Not because of any particular political belief or persuasion but rather out of the need to share an interesting fact which I had recently read, I felt like bringing up the interesting point that her husband might not be able to get security clearance because of his previous association with the Alaskan Independence Party. Nearly everyone I've met down here, which is a fairly small subset of society consisting of mostly friends of my parents and baby-boomer sailors, loves Sarah Palin.

Eventually, after establishing that I was not attacking Sarah Palin, an older Texan told me about Texan independence and that he was very proud that Texas was the only state that was an independent nation before it was admitted to the Union. I forgot to put on my diplomat hat and felt like correcting him that technically California was briefly a country as the Bear Flag Republic, albeit for less than a month. In retrospect, I feel like a jackass because the Republic of Texas was a nation for over a decade and recognized by multiple countries.

I ended up in a conversation with a retired government agent from a non-US English-speaking country who had some interesting stories of rerouting flights, terrifying third-world hotels, and deporting people around the globe.

Meanwhile, we were serenaded by a Jimmy Buffet look-alike (& live-alike) who lived aboard a sailboat at the marina singing Jimmy Buffet and folk songs and playing guitar.

This whiskey & rum dispenser was on a larger and interesting looking limited-production Taiwanese sailboat.

Cruise to Port Aransas pt2

While there is a huge Naval Air Station in Corpus Christi, there is a smaller Naval base across the bay in Ingleside. The base is one of the newest in the Navy but is also scheduled to close.

Offshore drilling rigs and equipment is made here. These cranes are absolutely massive.

Oil Tanker

Liquid Natural Gas tanker

Cruise to Port Aransas pt1

A few weeks ago I was invited on a 2 day cruise from Corpus Christi to Port Aransas and back with some friends of my folks and their YC.

Corpus Christi from the marina:

Tankers pass us in the ship channel

A tugboat was carrying around a crew boat to service well heads