Lost in the "In-Between", a Midwestern Anglo-Saxon descendent searches for commonality and a sense of place in this post-modern, post-politically-correct, post-American dream, post-EVERYTHING Brave New World of a high-tech surveillance police state polarizing the ignorant masses into hypnotic apathy or zealous outrage as lobbyists and politicians trade away the remnant freedoms of America's citizens.
I love this snapshot I took at an Austin protest a while back. I just came across the history of this slogan and even T-shirt from a bunch of East Texas hog hunters. You gotta love Texas attitudes and history. :)
"Come and take it" was a slogan used in the Texas Revolution in 1835. At the minor skirmish known as the Battle of Gonzales, a small group of Texans successfully resisted the Mexican forces who had orders to seize their cannon. As a symbol of defiance, the Texans had fashioned a flag containing the phrase along with a black star and an image of the cannon which they had received six years earlier from the hands of a Mexican officials.
Steve Earle comes out on encore in his "Townes Van Zandt" tour playing in New Braunfels, Tx. June 20, 2009 and talks about gun-control and raising an "out-of-control" fourteen year-old son.
This was about as entertaining as it got.
The venue sucked and I almost got into a fight with a staff member who threatened to call a sheriff to throw me out. I swore I'd bad-mouth the Whitewater Amphitheater to no end.
First they charged an additional $10 when you get there just to park, there site directions there and on the web is confusing, at least one member of staff was a threatening jerk, one drunk (supposedly works for the owner) stood up front near stage making scene and being a distraction till several audience members complained. The organizing was lame and for the price of a $28 ticket (plus $10 surprise parking) there wasn't even a full band.
On the good side you can buy a shot of Hornitos Tequila for $6. Plus I got to hear and visit with a friend of ours - grammy song-writer Susan Gibson.
If it hadn't been Steve Earle and Susan I'd of passed on this one. Adena finally did get him to sign my Texas Troubadours book, but he was harder to get to than freaking Bob Dylan - (we had to hand the book to a gaurd, who then waitied and handed it to Steve Earle - it was all meant to discourage fun)
I’m trying to think about some things we could do next year to make our Blanco Brethren Intelligentsia Christian Beer Bash (BBIC beer bash) a little more memorable. I'm looking for ideas and wanted to brainstorm a few of them here.
Pitch in and give me some ideas. The only requirement is it has to be actually doable and believable.
For starters, we'll need a keg of beer next time. We should spend a lot of time anguishing that the keg will not be enough and calculate many times how many ounces per day everybody gets before we tap it.
We can drink and buy other beer till the last member shows up and then we'll open up bottles of whiskey and vodka and drink that instead.
We'll need some general not too intelligent discussions on nearly non-resolvable topics like GOD, POLITICS, and HOW TO RAISE CHILDREN.
I think lots of blood-curdling free-style singing easily heard for miles up and down the valley would be enjoyed by all.
We should have at least one or two brawls at the height of drunkenness. We should include some life threatening shouting and at least one tent getting busted up and maybe even a nice guitar getting smashed beyond repair. That'd be cool.
We should go on at least one long hike (10 miles) over rough river rock with a mixture of swimming and climbing and thrashing through wilderness. We should take the dogs for fun. This should prepare us for by-passing the keg of beer and going straight to the whiskey and vodka.
Let's plan on somebody getting lost - preferably at night while completely drunk. We’ll call him 'dumb-ass'. He can wonder up and down the river bed not sure of direction or which side of river camp is on. The rest of the folks should be bedded down totally not caring.
First thing in the morning we can ask each other, "Hey, where's 'dumb-ass' ? Is he alive? What a dumb-ass."
On one night someone needs to sleep out on a big rock in the river bed. This could be the same 'dumb-ass' or not. In the morning we can call him "Man-Who-Sleeps-on-Rock."
We should generally lose lots of equipment and supplies. Things like cigarettes, bandanas, eye-glasses (these should be repeatedly stepped on, lost and found and stepped on again) and other trivial things. We should somehow misplace and never find a watermelon.
With all the lost items, we'll need someone throwing out some paranoiac expressions and accusations like "hey who took my cigarettes?" and "hey, why are you guys ganging up on me?" and "hey, has anybody seen that watermelon I brought?"
Last but not least, we'll need someone on the last night to really guzzle the whiskey and all through the night they should wail and moan and cry out in the night to God in fits of rage, anguish, and pain. Ideally, this will wake the sober people enough that they will worry and not sleep. This should sound like demon-possession akin to wailing and gnashing of teeth as hell is described.
These things along with a few injuries like described in last post - especially someone falling into the cacti - should set us up for some real fun.
