A sentimental animation from Aniboom

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From Gene’s Notebook
…too good to pass up, this short piece ….
Orange pumpkins on Boca Chica, from Native Americans out in the Southwest who only sell to churches.
I stop and buy one. The woman says, “Any children at home?”
“No, but I consider myself one, and my wife often does the same!”
“No matter. Take a tiny pumpkin [...]

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An announcement from Virginia Gause

Fresh Fruit and Vegetables!
Natural Soaps!
Gulf Coast Shrimp!
Flowers, Herbs, & Plants!
Fresh Baked Breads!
Homemade Jams!
More, More, More!

See you there!

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An announcement from Virginia Gause
November 1st at Anzalduas Park, south of Mission, Texas, from 7:00 AM – 6:00 PM.
* International Canoe and Kayak racing!
* music and instructional clinics by
LOS LONELY PARENTS
JAKE CORTEZ
CECILIO GARZA AND MORE
* The Impossible Healthy Tex-Mex Cook Off
* guided nature tours, sports activities and more!
all free w/ $4 per vehicle entrance fee.
Bring [...]

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A video from Cube News

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From Gene’s Notebook
…must be the cool air, and my mind goes here and there ….
- Out at the edge of Cameron Park, more 18-year olds, unregistered, various in-the-US situations …. Like in Southmost and even at the other end of the pocketbook, Rancho Viejo, Cameron Park – I don’t fit, and, I do fit ….
- [...]

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A comment from Stan
There are two days left for early voting, today and Friday. If you registered to vote but haven’t yet done so, it is time. Go, my friend, and save democracy!
I voted last Thursday at the Brownsville Public Library. It took ten minutes, in and out, not the forty-five minutes it took the [...]

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From Gene’s Notebook
Clouds, always clouds, easy on the eyes and mind, a break from earthy issues, cares ….
But clouds can only go so far.
Places of confusion:
- Matamoros, where near midnight on walks, the bricks speak. Listen! And a city, where when Paco Renteria plays “free” guitar like no one else in the World, military [...]

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Lyrics by Edgar Clinton, Jr.
It’s a bitter wind that’s blowing and it’s time to be going
It does no good to ask where
There’s many a tear
And many a wisp of laughter to haunt the years
And many a joy left behind
For while we were sleeping something
Came to steal our dream away and now
It’s time to go, where, [...]

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From Gene’s Notebook
…sitting near the McDavitt coffee stand, waiting for my coffee and muffin, looking at the mailman delivering in his red and white truck, looking at a ball, wondering if it was a soccer ball or volleyball, my mind wandered to the end of train trips ….
…two San Antonio train stops, and each time [...]

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An announcement from Kristina Wilson
South Texas College is 15 years old this year and so the college is throwing a big, day-long Quiceanera to celebrate. The community is invited to partake in a full day of free, fun festivities and activities from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 8, 2008 at STC’s Pecan [...]

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A note from Stan
Sitting in the sun outside the little theater in the Blue Star complex that houses Rudy Harst’s Celebration Circle, not quite a church, but yeah, it is, a church for hippies, young and old, who’ve burnt out on the ancient rigmarole of the so-called churches, and I’m smoking my third cigarette of [...]

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A video from BraveNewFilms

The campaign to smear Acorn–which has essentially been challenged to prove that it does not beat its wife–gets an answer.

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From Gene’s Notebook
- Hispanic man tells me that whites up in the Rockies would call him a wetback. He’d say to them, “You’re wetter than I am! I crossed a river; you crossed an ocean.”
- Friend tells me that he votes on the following: “If I’d like coffee with the candidate he or she gets [...]

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From Gene’s Notebook
She reads hours into the night, her lamp dim.
She turns the lamp off, and I still sleep. But a grey film, checked with white, flashes, and then glides across my sleep.
Where, exactly, is it? Why is it there?
Then, comfort, as I sense the final curtain will contain that grey and white …
Eugene “Gene” [...]

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From Gene’s Notebook
…and two cats, side by side, were at the edge of the small park, nibbling grass, resting on their fours, mellow cats they were ….
…three former students, in and out of jail, with one definitely in jail with a little more than a year to go, don’t get time to chill in [...]

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From Gene’s Notebook
…after a sunrise, oranges, and other citrus, and the moon and eggplant, below and above, I go on and see ….
- A man coming home with a small package of tortillas, soon to be breakfast ….
- And, a fast-getting-ruined Washington Park, fountain now a trickle, graffiti in ugly brown and black on anything [...]

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From Gene’s Calendar
…and it’s autumn, and if you like the cool weather and have a sweater, try some live music, under the stars ….
- Rescheduled Narciso Martinez Cultural Arts Center ConjuntoFestival, Saturday and Sunday, mid-afternoon through the night in San Benito ….
- Final weekend of Festival Otono, with great events in the Plaza Hidalgo, around [...]

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From Gene’s Notebook
…so clear, so muddled ….
Wheat kernels spilled like hard brown rain from the back of the truck through a grate on a scale, and then moved, unseen, to the grain elevator.
Long long lunches, close to two hours, where deals are made, deals that put more knives in the planet.
Clean clean grain.
Murky murky words.
Eugene [...]

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A video from Funny or Die
I saw this on AlterNet and thought you might like it, too.

See more Ron Howard videos at Funny or Die

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A note from Stan

If you haven’t visited The Merovingian’s site lately, check out the story he posted Monday. What a hoot. Now we know why the county can’t seem to answer any questions about how it operates. We do hope part two is coming soon.

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From Gene’s Notebook
..and the library people tell me to use the automatic check-out ….
…and Greens urge me to pay by electronic mail ….
…and the banks and other establishments like folk to drive to windows to do business ….
But I’ll do face-to-face until face-to-face ceases, call it a mini-moment of human contact, if superficial ….
…and while [...]

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A note from Marianna Nelson
The Valley Byliners November 8th meeting will hear Michael Gerleman on “The Power of Persuasion: Making Your Case – Techniques for Writing the Persuasive Essay.” The Byliners meet at 1:30 p.m. at the Harlingen Public Library, 410 76 Drive.
Whether you are a student writing essays on college applications or a citizen [...]

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A note from Stan
If you’ve not yet understood the scope of the project proposed for the Brownsville Baseball Park, take a look here: The brochure  with the unfortunate title, given the health of the intended league, In a League of Its Own. For notes on the health of the league, look here.

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From Gene’s Notebook

…baseball, not popular in Deep South Texas, and Brownsville does NOT need a baseball stadium, with questionable funding, in a always folding league with always folding cities ….
…and I was surprised the other day when a man carrying groceries told me in Spanish that the Red Sox would come back from a 3-1 [...]

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