Ramble On

Whenever I hear the String Cheese Incident come up on my audio feed I feel good. Such a fun band! I actually saw Kang play at a Dead show in Oakland, back in the nineties I guess, but can't quite remember all the ins and outs...

Selfie Time

 

I remember everything

Texas three step

I am back from my long trip to Texas. It is a bi-annual thing, might even make it tri-annual if I do the Winter show but that one you can catch bad weather if you're not too lucky.

It wasn't a great show, definitely the worst of the three that I have done so far. But still adequate and probably better than the shows many of my peers had. Will tighten the belt and keep moving.

Sad thing was that people loved the merchandise, high rollers came in and sniffed around six or seven of the high ticket items and just couldn't pull the trigger.

I heard the same sad refrain from many, "You know how much I lost in the market today?" I don't care how rich or poor you are, the economy is traumatizing right now, with five and six dollar a gallon gasoline all over the country and a conflict in the middle east that doesn't look like it has any sort of pretty ending any time soon.

I just don't get it. About three days after the war started Trump said that we had taken out 100% of Iran's military capability. He repeats it over and over. My question then is who the hell is lobbing all these missiles at the U.S., Israel and Gulf states if the Iranian Army, Air Force and Navy has been so decimated?

100% is a lot but I never took too much to the new math and things might have changed since I was in school.

Anyway back to the post mortem, might as well give you the blow by blow breakdown. Left on the 15th and drove to Phoenix to drop off a painting with Steve, then hightailed it to Tucson for dinner with friends in their beautiful home.

I have sold them a lot of art over the years and loved both the delicious rib dinner and getting a chance to see all the paintings again.

Beautiful sunset.

I found a motel nearby and took off early the next morning for Texas.

Crossed New Mexico without much of a thought. 

Saw some mildly arousing landscapes.

Third day I got to Hill country, pulled into my first taste of Texas Barbecue, David's Old Fashioned Pit BBQ in Fredericksburg.

I sat down next to the sheriff, ate perfect chicken and moist brisket, potato salad and green beans. Mighty fine.

Took me about three more grueling hours to get through the Austin area to the section of Hill Country I was heading to, Carmine and Giddings.

Found my hotel. The place was owned by some very nice people from Gujarat but the spicy aroma of their kitchen made me want to wretch as it floated into the office.

Made me want to cry it was so piquant and definitely not my favorite flavor set.

Place looked spartan from the outside but was recently remodeled and served my needs perfectly.

I arrived at the Big Red Barn at eight the next morning to start my setup. 

I probably should have arrived a day later, a five day setup is excessive, I can usually finish setup in a day and a half. 

Have it down to a science after all these years.

Had some lighting problems, took a couple trips to the hardware store to resolve and finally found a great solution.

The first time I did the show I had over 80' of wall space. They got rid of the pass through booth model, second time was about 56'. Too big an area to patrol. This time I got a thirty foot booth which gave me about 46'. It was okay. Next time I go back to a twenty footer, see how that works.

Here's how it shook down.

I figured when I set up that the mostly black and white wall on the left would make me the most money and it did. All price point. Sold a lot off that wall. Country western star Zach Bryan bought three pieces off it, didn't want a discount, I gave him one anyway.

Next time I bring more in this range. I did sell some nice things and a few more high ticket items but the crowd is much more decorator based than collector and I need to adjust more for that.

I bought well. 

Bought a nice mission basket and an early San Carlos Apache basket from my great pal Ron Munn. 

Bought a nice open bellied Pima pictorial from Bill Spencer.

Found a great Carmel painting by Carl Sammons and a lovely early saltillo blanket, which I have since sold to a client.

It was a nice space but I had some chemistry problems with one fellow dealer, who was unhappy with both my volume and content.

I got a daily finger wagging and was presented with a list of words I could no longer utter which included words that started with a c, b and h.

His wife was Church of Christ and he told me that he was saddened by this new breed of dealers californicating his precious show.

Next show I am moving. A little too old to self censor at this point in my life.

Not like I was testing the limits of probity, just mild adult conversation.

Only one guy but enough to make it not so fun.

Round Top is like a rite of passage in the South. 

People come from many surrounding states to promenade down its halls.

Typical costume is cowboy hat, backless sun dress, boots and large conspicuous cross. Women were also typically very beautiful and there was a steady parade of them.

Here are some people shots.

Certain few also had their eccentricities but who am I to judge?

Best thing for me was seeing my little sister Laurie who drove up from Corpus Christi with her husband Steve, who I had never met before. Great to hang with them. Really enjoyed her husband.

I will share a funny story. I like to play with the customers and I can be playfully flirtatious on occasion. A woman about my age walked by with her daughter and her friends. Mom had a nice figure and was wearing elephant bells. Do you remember, 1969ish, tight at knee and very wide flare? She had a snakeskin buckle and I told her how good she looked, reminisced about the jeans.

Later she walked by and I said, in a loud voice, "Jan, would you like some candy, little girl?" offering her some skittles. Her daughter flips out and gets in my face, telling me that her mom is a happily married woman. Next moment, Mom spins her around and out of the corner of her mouth, tells her to shut up as they hurried away. I was on the floor laughing.

I bought maybe the most beautiful piece of silver I have ever seen at the Carmine Dance Hall.

Gorham, from Providence, Rhode Island but lacking customary date marks. 

I figure 1904-1905. Does have finishing marks, will try to track down with the archives. My expert friend Michael thinks that it might be an exhibition piece.

It is in the hand hammered athenic, martele finish. Grapevine handle.

I paid a fortune but it was so stunning it hit me over the head. Will be a privilege to own it, for however long I do.

So what else? A long ass show, with many great meals at Las Patronas and with friends.

Best skillet of mole I have ever tasted, incredible beans with bacon, quail, ribs, parilladas, carnitas, Manuel treats us like family.

I took a trip to Brenham for my favorite quesobirria tacos at El Rorro.

Barbecue from both Truth and Nathans.

And after packout I treated myself to a prime 22 oz. porterhouse at JW's. Expensive but worth it.

So what else? Trip is a blur. Three days back, stopped by Sublette's in Tucson and then Barry and Steve's in Phoenix. Came back home with a sore throat and cold. Tired, back hurts, lots of laundry to do. Going to try to ease back in but have clients coming over Friday and I need to get the shop together.

No more shows until May. Want to spend time with my wife who is hurting right now. Wish her well, please.

How much did you get for your soul? Lucinda Williams

Rape of the Innocents

I am not glued to the Epstein case but I do tune in now and then and one of the things that I found thought provoking was Epstein commissioning a copy of this particular painting to hang at the Zorro ranch in New Mexico.

It is titled The Massacre of the Innocents and was painted by the Dutch artist Cornelis Cornelisz van Haarlem in 1591.

It is a depiction from the Gospel of Matthew. 

The magi were searching for the newborn king of the Jews.

Fearful that he would be dethroned by this future king, Herod then ordered that all baby boys in Bethlehem under two years old be put to death by Roman soldiers.

Not hard to figure out why this one struck a chord with him.

A painting that depicts such depravity seems so fitting in the Caligula like atmosphere of Epsteinworld. Of course this sort of debauchery that takes place when rich and powerful figures feel like they are beyond the bounds of moral censure are not new. And as you can see, the antagonists came from both the left and right.

I even contributed to one of their Presidential campaigns, Bill Richardson's. A man I knew personally but who had also always been shadowed by these kinds of allegations.

My bad.

This sort of behavior is nothing new among the well connected. Benjamin Franklin was said to engage in similar acts of licentiousness at the Hellfire Club in England, which was a creation of his friend Sir Franklin Dashwood.

I read the names of the people who have come up in the investigation, Lauder, Richardson, Clinton, Woody Allen, all people with serious baggage in this regard, took particular joy in seeing Chomsky's name, a man I truly despise. Summers, Tisch, Wasserman, Bannon, a lot of very powerful chaps getting their poles waxed at one Epstein haunt or another.

Rich guys at their creepiest.

I keep thinking, where is Polanski, how did he not get an invitation? Or Jerry Lee Lewis?

*

Having said that, I also honestly have to say that many of the young girls that were exploited in these situations were probably paid very well and knew exactly what they were getting into and giving up for their participation.

They took the deal, yes, underage, but with eyes wide open and with full knowledge of what they were getting into. 

The younger generation is not necessarily as chaste or innocent as their forebears. when I worked the horse show circuits I met some very hard young ladies, one in particular had already had two abortions by the age of thirteen.

Getting to know her better, she was certainly young but in no way innocent.

I don't think these girls were kidnapped or raped but I could be wrong about that. More likely they were intoxicated by wealth and by consorting with the rich and powerful.

I get it, eighteen is the legal age of consent but sex among people younger than that has been flourishing for eternity. I am not justifying it in any way, old guys paying to play with young maidens can be really icky and is certainly illegal if they were truly underage.

But the responsibility probably ultimately extends to all parties here, albeit to a limited degree.

How far?

here's a couple...

Roughly a third of Gen Z women think that a wife should always obey her husband. Where in the heck have you girls been?

In a poll conducted by IPSOS of more than 23,000 people from 29 countries, 31% of Gen Z men believe "a wife should always obey her husband." By comparison, only 13% of baby boomers responded as such in the International Women's Day study.

The majority of Gen Z men – 59% – believe that men are “expected to do too much to support equality,” compared with 45% of baby boomers; 57% of Gen Z men believe women’s equality has gone so far that men are now discriminated against, compared with 42% of their boomer counterparts.

 Palantir's Alex Karp wants his AI to lessen the power of democrats and women.

Palantir CEO Alex Karp thinks his AI technology will lessen the power of “highly educated, often female voters, who vote mostly Democrat” while increasing the power of working-class men.

“This technology disrupts humanities-trained—largely Democratic—voters, and makes their economic power less. And increases the economic power of vocationally trained, working-class, often male, working-class voters,” Karp said in a CNBC interview Thursday. “And so these disruptions are gonna disrupt every aspect of our society. And to make this work, we have to come to an agreement of what it is we’re going to do with the technology; how are we gonna explain to people who are likely gonna have less good, and less interesting jobs.”

Nice, that ought to go over really well. Asshole.

Only the U.S. votes against Women's Rights document at U.N..

Happy Birthday Ray Hamblen!

 

It's a real wake up call when one of your buds turns ninety, a sign of your own impending due date. But Ray is a ninety year old that can still outwork me and everybody else at this table. Does more in a month than most people do in a lifetime.

Built about a thousand hot rods in his lifetime, sold more cars than Cal Worthington. Grew up in Midland, couldn't wait to leave.

He is the guy second from left with the chocolate cupcake, provided by Debbie Ramsey. This is at our morning coffee.

Congratulations Ray, looking forward to you seeing the century mark.

Shhh, don't talk about it...

Two articles caught my eye recently. At the NYT Republicans concede they need to pivot on immigration before midterms. And at Axios White House tells House Republicans to stop talking about mass deportations.

DORAL, FL — White House Deputy Chief of Staff James Blair privately urged House Republicans on Tuesday to stop emphasizing "mass deportations" and instead focus their messaging on removing violent criminals, according to sources in the closed-door briefing.

Why it matters: Mass deportations were central to the GOP's 2024 campaign message.

• Nearly half — 49% — of Americans say Trump's mass deportation campaign is too aggressive, including 1 in 5 voters who backed the president in 2024, a Politico poll from January found.

State of play: Blair delivered the message during a policy listening session with House Republicans at their annual retreat in Doral, Florida.

• He encouraged members to focus on deporting violent offenders rather than defending the broader concept of mass removals.
• The advice signals a recalibration by the White House — and reflects growing concern among some Republicans that Democrats are successfully framing Trump's immigration policy as overly sweeping and indiscriminate.

It doesn't take a brain surgeon to figure out what this one is about. Texas. Where latino support for Trump is plummeting.

A new poll from the Pew Research Center shows that President Donald Trump is losing support among Hispanic voters as well as the wider Hispanic community, with 70% disapproving of his performance.

In the 2024 election, 42% of Latinos voted for President Trump, which was 10% more than in the 2020 election. While those Hispanic voters who voted for President Trump in the 2024 election remain optimistic about the President’s performance, with 81% still approving, this number is down from previous polling of 93%.

Lots of young hispanic voters who flocked to Trump in the last election are now deserting him in droves after witnessing a ghastly deportation campaign that is harassing and sometimes killing both immigrants and U.S. citizens alike.

With John Cornyn and the venal MAGA head and philanderer Ken Paxton engaged in an internecine primary war stoked by the President, the Democratic candidate Talarico actually has a shot at grabbing the first Senatorial seat in Texas in well over twenty years.

So now we aren't going to talk about mass deportations again until after the midterms, we aren't going to make any policy changes either mind you, but maybe with Noem out and an emphasis on "violent offenders" we can pull our usual sleight of hand game on the American citizenry.

Beads of sweat

Dry Spell

My buddy Barry's son Ethan has a spot in this video. Pretty funny song.

New graffiti in Fallbrook

 

Jessica Pratt

I was at my favorite coffee shop in Santa Barbara, Vices and Spices, when this came on the music stream. I asked who and the barista girl told me. I like this singer.

Butcher Bird

 

I think I have a pretty good understanding of our President. I hate to say it but I see a lot of his rationale as much as I can't stand the consequences of his actions.

But the one thing I don't get is his obsequious toadying to Putin and Russia. It's just not in his makeup, he gets one call from Vladimir and he meekly folds his hand, every time. They piss all over him and he just takes it.

Last week word came that Russia was giving U.S. intel to Iran. Not a peep from Donald, but his dutiful servant Witkoff responded today.

"We can take them at their word." Really, since when? I have to think Putin has something really big on the Donald, a pee tape perhaps? Epstein pics? This subservience is just so out of character for him. Wonder if we will ever know?

Nearly Texas Time!

 

Noon meal on the ROs - Wayne Justus (b. 1952) 24 x 48"

Please join me next week for the Round Top Show in Carmine, Texas. And if you can't come, wish me luck!

Bye Joe

I would be remiss if I didn't put a shout out to the late Country Joe McDonald, who passed over the Rainbow Bridge to a new pond the other day.

I feel inexorably tied to Joe, in a strange way, because he played in a brief but key part in my personal evolution. I think that the statutes of limitations have long run out on these sorts of confessionals so here goes.

I was a very precocious young man, not even a teen yet if you can believe it, when a boy from junior high school, now deceased, named Donald Hill, sold me the 500 microgram hit of Orange Sunshine. Five bucks. Very powerful stuff, especially for my very young mind. Needless to say, it was my maiden voyage.

My father and his second wife were in Las Vegas for a three day weekend and the nanny drove me and my friend Bobbi Jenke to the Sports Arena to see Lee Michaels and Country Joe.

To say that life and reality as I knew it took a major U-Turn is a gross understatement.  I sort of left my body with one last heighty high.

I remember on the way home the nanny asking me what I had to eat at the show? I said "Orange sunshine" and peering into my face with a strange fisheye lens, she said, "We can't have that, I need to make you a cheese sandwich."

We dropped off my girlfriend and it took three days for me to feel the floor again. I actually cold called a random entry in the white pages asking for help and, god bless the universe, the guy who answered the phone had tripped before and helped talk me down.

Finally got my sea legs and nothing has ever been the same since.

*

Later I saw Joe and the fish at the Tribal Stomp in Berkeley. They were a very funny and very psychedelic band. I was able to meet lead guitarist Barry Melton at some point, cool guy, now a district attorney I believe.

Not a course of action that I would ever recommend but there you have it.

Thin s are oing reat

I bought a new computer Saturday. I really needed one bad. The g has stopped working on my thinkpad. I used to have expensive laptops but they all got old. Now I get free laptops from a friend in the industry but they are bargain basement school computers and chromebooks and don't really cut the mustard.

I work hard, am always on the road and need something with a backlit keyboard. Is that too much to ask? 

I really never buy anything for myself except really good food and choice beef. In fact I no longer have a suede coat, I left mine in the van between shows, to my wife's consternation, and a mouse ate a hole out of the back.

They are really expensive, probably won't be replacing that one anytime soon.

Anyway, I drove to the Apple Store in Temecula on Saturday and splurged on a new 14" MacBook Pro M5 in silver. I get a small education store discount on account of my curriculum writing for the college.

I bought Leslie the M4 model last year and she likes it, the last MacBookpro having bit the dust.

Anyway I tossed and turned all Saturday night, worrying about my extravagant purchase. Was it going to be too heavy, did I really need all that computing power?

You see I do most of my photo processing from my desktop, I don't need a beast on the road or on the couch, I need something comfortable and light.

So I drove back to the store yesterday and cancelled my purchase.

Bought this instead.

A new 13" MacBook Air M5 in my preferred color, starlight. I bumped up the SSD to 1tb. 10 cpu, 10 gpu. 16 gb Ram. Light as a feather.

It comes on Wednesday. I save four or five hundred dollars. Why did I do this?

Because of the weight, 2.7 lbs. versus 3.3. I saw several interviews with hardcore techies that use these and don't even open their MacBook pros anymore.

I had one of these small Mac Intel laptops years ago and got used to it really quickly. Now with Apple Silicon, they scream.

My only hesitation was the lack of a fan and the passive cooling system. But I think that it will do exceedingly well for the tasks I have planned for it, not doing any heavy coding or graphics work.

It will be great to have a nice laptop again.

Mighty Singer

I was barbecuing the other evening on the deck when I heard a strange but familiar song.

Was that a meadowlark?

I have never had one one singing on my ranch, at least that I am aware of. I am not a great auditory birder but I do know that the meadowlark is my favorite singer. The most melodious song in my limited bird world.

I pulled my phone out and Merlin confirmed that it was in fact a Western Meadowlark.

Cool.

I took off yesterday for the San Jacinto Wildlife Area in hopes of capturing some bird images. Was not a good day for sightings. Buffleheads, coots, tree swallows, a shrike and a few other things but very few raptors in sight. No vermilion flycatchers either, even at the normal spot where they always are.

What I did see was the warm wind playing with the grasslands, the shadows turning the landscape into a molten Van Gogh type painting. Gorgeous.

And then on my way back from the Walker Ponds I spied this meadowlark male singing on the fence.

Thank you friend.