June 25th, 2015 · Tags: Arts
It’s not “the best of times and the worst of times” like the author penned … but it may be the time when farmers work the hardest with the chance for greatest reward. Harvest. With the first combine that hits the fields, you can smell it. The combination of dust, wheat beards, a few green weeds in the mix. Even with all of the rain, when the time is right, the sun turns the land golden, outlined by the green of other plants outside the wheat field rows. You can hear it. The wind whips through and a million tiny wheat beards brush up against each other. You can also hear another sound, this time of year. The patriotic ritual … the popping of firecrackers in the distance. Farm boys know better, with the chance of wildfire. The wheat straw is eager to burn. There are the memories … greasing the dozens of pulleys and gears on the machinery …
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What did people “not hang” their clothes on in hotels, before the invention of the fire sprinkler in rooms?
Ponder that while I give the 3Q report … my findings from three La Quinta hotels in rapid succession. As you may have read, first the Dirty Gig took me to some coastal flooding hotspots near NASA, up Houston/Clear Lake way. Ha … we were already working in flood stricken areas before the Great Texas Memorial Day Flood of ’15.
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A weekend trip to Austin took the PingWi-Fi guy off the grid and back to nature … at times. Perhaps the highlight — witnessing a pretty acrobatic birds-n-bees thing at Zilker Park. No. Not hippies nor hipsters. Not what you think. I was cruising through the park on the Triumph Thunderbird when I spied something naughty in the air in front of me. Two birds, checking each other out, mid air, right in front of me.
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Confession. I never got over the disappointment of the Dallas Mavericks allowing Steve Nash to slip through their fingers to free agency, reminiscent of how the mop-headed point guard eluded so many star-studded defenses during his all-star career. Arguably the best soccer player to ever quarterback an NBA team … Nash revolutionized the point guard position. And then he was gone.
But, before he left, he also helped to introduce a young European to America. When Nash came to Dallas, the Mavs had one legitimate star in Michael Finley. As Finley peaked, he and Nash helped to groom a future superstar — teaching him American culture, the language, the game and the positive side of the NFL lifestyle. The Mavs had discovered and signed a tall, skinny, foreigner with a big smile, a “Scooby Doo Shaggy” look with a German accent and the work ethic to match.
Michael Finley
Together, those three came so close to basketball history for Dallas, but it was not to be.
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One of the first events I covered in a blog was a film festival. It had Wi-Fi, so I knew I was on to something. There have been a few since. Film festivals never disappoint. … So fun to shoot photographs of and interact with the experts who create the most poignant, artsy and entertaining works …
There was Sundance a few times … yes … that film festival is so Hollywood although it bills itself as Indy … Redford, Ben Bratt, Keanu, Snoop (when he was a dog and not a lion), Dillon & his entourage, Tilda Swinton, Wyclef Jean, Penn without Teller, even Jackie The Jokeman, etc., etc. Lots of star power, and you never know who you will see in the huge line at the only Starbucks in Park City.
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#PingForADay > Would I go back to wearing a watch if it had Wi-Fi? Don’t know, how much #Apple pay me? electroiq.com/chipworks_real… #WiFi #travel
It was my nice, kindly gentleman uncle, on my father’s side of the family, who first introduced me to Luby’s cafeteria on one of my first trips to the Dallas Fort Worth Metroplex.
“Sorry sir. Thanks for lunch … but Luby’s just isn’t Furr’s,” (I thought to myself).
Ha … that was more than 30 years ago.
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Amazing, the way people drive between Fort Worth, Texas and Shreveport, La. I suppose if you are going to drive that far to lose money in a smoky casino, you better get there ASAP, right?:) As for me, I kept it pretty much within the legal limits, as I headed out to make money in Cajun Country … At least, on the third leg of my four trips between those two cities on the latest installment of The Dirty Gig.
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When I reviewed the 2014 Triumph Thunderbird a few months back on the ride from Fort Worth to Columbia, Mo., one of my criticism was about the bike’s stealth. It hardly makes any noise, and anyone can tell you “loud pipes save lives” for motorcyclists.
But the silence has grown on me. It’s golden. It is nice to be able to listen to music on the bike with tiny earbuds and no need for speakers that blast the neighborhood. But I doubt quiet bikes will be trending any time soon. It is so much fun to let your presence be known …
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Remember the scenes in old westerns in which the “Indians” refused to be photographed because they believed the camera might steal their souls? Well, me and my Nikon don’t subscribe to that theory … and yet …
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