from ArtsRGV

from RGVArts

by Rudy García

There he stood,
All proud and honored and bought
Barato, yet proud, to be the center of attention for someone else`s intention.

In a room filled with us, people
He speaks star-crossed
Selected and chosen and fronted,

By the white rancher, just as it happens, every two years, for years, and years and years. [Read more →]

by Rudy García

I am the border patrol agent
Who carries with me,
In my border patrol car, truck, helicopter, horse, boat,
Body bags…
One size fits all.
For the dead people I often find.

To the alive and too the barely alive
Ones I encounter
I spic Spanish, too
That’s what I`m trained to do.
I spic it very well .
¡Alto! ¡manos arriba, donde estan sus papels! [Read more →]

by Gene Novogrodsky

He’d throw slow
Curve balls, a break
From the eggs and chickens and feed
Of the farm ….

I’d catch some,
Then miss ….

The ball would roll down
The pebbled driveway,
Past the fruit-dropped
Peach, peach and apple trees,
Past the frost-killed brown pasture,
Past the half-sunken springhouse ….

I’d run down the ball,
But when back up the slope
He’d be gone, inside,
To work ….

by Gene Novogrodsky

Impossible

It’s impossible.

When the parade starts
Not to see the last float,
Stray confetti, barricades down ….

And when the first
Pitch of Spring is delivered,
I already see Fall, empty seats ….

The eyes.
Across a table.
They’ll go, and the seat
Will be vacant.
”
The young readers,
Soon they’ll set the books
Aside, on shelves, in boxes.

Pass on parades, games,
Eyes and books ….

Go, move to the edge,
Beyond, too ….

Intellectual theft by Stan

by Jack Moffitt

Farmers Market Communications – Century 21, Decade 2

Until recently there was no need for much communications in the farmers market environment. Probably anyone you met in any small town, 100 years ago, could tell you what days and times perishables were sold at public market, in their town. Surely that person would be as amazed at the demise of the public market, as they would be the advent of the internet.

Now, email is old hat. The myriad of subject-matter, work demands, spam, phishing scams, etc. have reduced the effectiveness of email as a communication tool. People are more than likely to be reading electronic messages on a phone size appliance now, not a screen. I’m humbled to have lived through yet another demise of cutting edge technology. Eight tracks, VHS tapes, and now email.

Facebook is the now we face. I was skeptical until forced to use it by the organizers of another Farmers Market. It is the way to hook up with people who share an interest in a very specialized subject matter.

The Brownsville Farmers Market 9 to noon each Saturday at the 6th Street Linear Park. That is the only repetitive message to communicate. The bulk of our communication about the Market is not repetitive – who is coming ?, what they are bringing ?, what is a good way to prepare it ?, etc. The most efficient way to get that timely info to you, is to have it bypass as many middlemen as possible. Every repetition degrades the info. Accuracy is lost, the information is older and of less value.

So, this is a “heads up”. The weekly email is going to stop and the info is going to be posted to the FaceBook page for the Brownsville Farmers Market. The farmers and other vendors will be able to post their individual info directly, daily or weekly. More importantly, we can get some communication among ourselves about our now treasured Farmers Market.

You can create a profile that is very bare bones, with very little personal information, visit the FaceBook page of the Brownsville Farmers Market and become a “Fan”. Once you do that, any Brownsville Farmers Market Facebook posts will be on the opening page, each time you open FaceBook. Odds are, you won’t stop there. I keep up with everyone from my high school biology teacher to a cartoonist that specializes in Valley humor.

Go to FaceBook now and become a fan!

The Graybill Report

Hi Jack,

Well the Graybills have no report as we were not at the market last week (we’ll be back this week). But the sun is shining today, and we have had good rain, and I suspect there will be a fine harvest this weekend from our local stewards of the land. So I will re-post last week’s report, as it is probably similiar:

By Ruth had plenty of dill, cilantro, parsley, lemongrass, Mexican tarragon,Texas Ruby Reds, Texas large lemons, calamondins, turnip greens, mustard greens, collards, and aloe.

Nam had tong so, daikon, arulgula, cilantro dill, mustard greens, turnips, salad greens, bok choi, spinach, and New Zealand spinach.

Cal from Two Pines had his green cabbage, winter cabbage, leeks, lettuces (Romaine, black-seeded, and Simpson), the pretty Rainbow Swiss chard, Holland greens, spinach, New Zealand spinach, broccoli, and cauliflower.

Yahweh Farms had turnips, broccoli, cilantro, radishes (red and white), mustard greens, turnip greens, and Romaine.

The Alaniz family had cabbage, baby cabbage, tomatos, dates, cilantro, and nopales.

Bayview Veggies had eggs, dill, parsley, baby letttuce, onions, mustard greens, salad mixes, and their usual assortment of nutrition-packed sprouts.

Speaking of bread, Alice of Alice’s Kountry Kitchen had her ukelele on hand, and was singing her own original bread jingle. No where else can you go and have your baker sing for your bread!!!!

Resaca Grove had their grapefruit and pecans.

The Gracia family had turnips, radishes, nopales, turnip greens, cilantro, spinach, kale, collard greens, and romaine. They also had eggs.

Art from Bella vista had grapefruit, oranges, and lemons.

Gorgas Society had their assorted citrus, as well.

Acacia Farm had Tsai Tai aka Chinese flowering cabbage, Swiss baby chard, spinach, broccoli, cauliflower, kohlrabi, cabbage, carrots, bok choi, pac choi, cilantro, parsley, dill, oregano, rutabaga, greens, baby romaine, radish, watermelon radish, and cabbage.

Jam Makin’ Rose had her homemade jellies, jams, and salsas, Texas Gold Shrimp had their fresh, gulf-caught shrimp, and Letty and her family had their lush Fruit Cups and fruit drinks. Perrenial Favorites had their native plants for sale, and we (the Graybills) had our valley honey, eggs, and beeswax candles (thank you to everyone who brought us glass jars – we will be pouring more candles soon).

We were so very sorry to hear of the passing of Ron’s wife, Mrs. Dickerson. She was a cheerful and kind soul at the market; she will be missed.

We look forward to seeing everyone for what is surely the best way to spend a Saturday morning in Brownsville – surrounded by family, food, and friends at the Farmer’s Market!

Erin

Your humble correspondents
Jack Moffitt, Erin Graybill

–
The Brownsville Farmers’ Market

Saturdays from 9am – Noon
Linear Park
Harrison St. between E. 6th and E. 7th

Hello Mr. Jack,

This is Max reporting today. The biggest problems about having chickens that are free-roaming are dogs and raccoons. Last week I was sitting at the kitchen table doing my spelling when Nana (my grandmother, who lives next door) came bursting in! She started screaming, “There’s a chicken being attacked by a dog!” I ran out the door, and my dogs Boots and Ruthie and I chased the dog away into the cow pasture next door. I jumped over the fence (the dogs went through it, but Boots had to run around to find a big enough hole to get his big fattiness through) and we chased it along the edge of the resaca, until it was out of sight, as it disappeared into a low spot in the pasture. [Read more →]

by Jack Moffitt

Elect a carrot and finally get what you voted for.

It is that time of year when elections make newspaper filler regularly. Street corners at busy intersection have sprouted the annual crop of election signs. Even if your worst nightmare of a candidate gets elected, you have cast many votes more important to your well being. When you spend money, you are voting. And unlike our city, state and federal elections, you will get what you most frequently vote for when you buy food.

If you buy a lot of refined sugar, white wheat, fatty, type foods – it now seems pretty certain you will have elected high blood pressure, obesity and possibly diabetes as the rulers of your destiny. [Read more →]

at the Galeria 409

Who: Ensamble La Misiøn, Joey Tamayo, and Marla
What: Music, live performance
When: Sunday, 14 February, 7:30 p.m.
Where: Galerîa 409,
Admission: $5, includes refreshments

by Jack Moffitt

Locavores, vegephiles and connoisseurs de jardin, take note:

We are deep into the season the vegetables love. Cool weather, regular rains, foggy mornings. It takes a little getting used to, for farmers and shoppers, but the harvests make it worth any inconveniences from weather. I understand there will be some cooking demos this week, and one featured veggie will be the humble cabbage.

Cabbage seems to have Celtic origins, according to archeo-veggie-ologists, but from my reading, they rely heavily on the origins of the words in languages such as Latin. [Read more →]

by Gene Novogrodsky

Her coffee-drinking and bus-riding friend died.
Then she quit smoking.
Then she left her provider work.
And then she lost 17 pounds, going down to 93.
What’s left?
A six-day-a-week walk to check on scratch tickets,
And then the walk back ….
Deep deep lines in her tiny face,
Mouth pinched ….
She loses more than she wins.

Eugene “Gene” Novogrodsky February 2010

from ArtsRGV

Friday, February 19, 2010, 7 pm
UTPA Social and Behavioral Sciences Building
Room 101 Auditorium

JOHN ROSS

1810-1910-2010
Cycles of the Mexican Revolution

Co-sponsored by
UTPA Mexican-American Studies

Saturday, February 20th, 7 PM

El Monstruo Book reading/signing at the Narciso Martinez Cultural Center
225 E. Stenger
San Benito, Texas

$5 donation (956) 367-0335

An invitation

Call for Submissions Has Opened! (All Submissions Via E-mail Only)
Boundless: The Rio Grande Valley International Poetry Festival Anthology 2010
Deadline: Received by March 21, 2010

Boundless will be published this year as a perfect bound edition with an ISBN.

As always, poets do not have to attend our festival or register for our festival in order to submit for publication. (While this may change in the future, our open policy remains generous.)

Previous editons include poets from Texas, New York, and London. Be part of this exciting edition!

Guidelines: [Read more →]

From Politico.com

Sen. Al Franken ripped into White House senior adviser David Axelrod this week during a tense, closed-door session with Senate Democrats.

Read the rest on Politico.

Perhaps we need more comedians in politics. Since Lenny Bruce, quite a few comedians have schooled themselves on speaking truth to power. Think of Bill Hicks (the most astute in my opinion) or George Carlin or even the late night guys. A couple of days ago, Bill O’Reilley tried unsuccessfully to recruit Jon Stewart to run as his presidential running mate. Stewart declined, of course, citing “a boxful” of damaging photos in his attic that would keep him from working at the Post Office.

Maybe he ought to rethink this. [Read more →]

by Jack Moffitt

Hello Brownsville!

Carrots are now showing up regularly at the Market. The seed doesn’t want to germinate when it is hot, and they grow a little slower than some of the other crops that are now old hat, this time of year.

In a country where the pursuit of cheap food is king, the Imperator carrot is the one most of us grow up eating. It gains weight well, so it appeals to the farmer, as he usually sells by the pound. The Imperator stores like a phonebook, so the grocers like them, as well. Processors have found they can carve “baby” carrots out of them, so yet another faction drives the Imperator sales. [Read more →]

by Gene Novogrodsky

Black street,
Puddles, pooled
Shine white-yellow
In stilled darkness ….

The rain.

Rain of violent departures.
Rain of dark love.
Rain of shut doors.

Knives drip blood.
Lovers stand, look away.
Sealed to passersby.

Intellectual theft by Stan

Flash: Satirists detecting a trend.

by Jack Moffitt

Greetings locavores!

How about some cauliflower! Last weekend we had the pleasure of setting up shop next to Dave and Nancy of DNR Maters and More, after they harvested a big trailerload of cauliflower. Earlier in the week, I had the pleasure of seeing some beautiful cauliflower under production at Acacia Farms (Bud and Suzanne). That’s a sign, right there, my friend – this week we talk cauliflower!

It is a pretty good theory that we are eating cauliflower today, because the Europeans ate it and grew it. The English were reported to have been importing seed from Cyprus by 1600. [Read more →]

from Gene’s Notebook

…in corners, on benches, through busted doors and windows, ripped siding, the man finds rest, dozing, heavy belly heaving, maybe one eye open …and yesterday, sitting on a guardrail, he was shampooing his wild grey hair and wild grey beard, shampooing without rinse water ….

…in the foggy dawn, two cars pull into the parking lot across from the elderly care facility; two women get out, lock their doors and begin to walk to the rear door of the facility, past two swollen dumpsters, those stained plastic gloves, bunched adult diapers, and ring the rear-door buzzer, ready to enter, the residents still asleep, hall lights on, quiet start …. [Read more →]

The New York Times has an interesting device that runs the video and tracks the text of a speech side by side. It’s a good way to watch / read an oration. Here is the President’s speech.

-stan

Intellectual theft by Stan

Austin’s Ben Sargent hits it on the head again. To my mind, corporations should have NO free speech rights, nor should they be recognized as a “person.” Now this would include non-profits and unions, the poor person’s corporations. What we should have as a legal standard is something akin to the idea that brought the civil rights movement to success: One man, one vote. In the case of corporations [Read more →]