Rick's Cafe: United States

Showing posts with label United States. Show all posts

Saturday, January 02, 2010

A Prayer for Owin' Money

5/27/09

Oh holy market, give us a sign. We have wandered in the desert, been seared by the burning Bush, and genuflected at the feet of the Golden Bull.

Your invisible hand doth smite our fundaments, and its middle digit doth lead our vision heavenward. Give us the wisdom to heed your warnings, yet send us no more the mad prophets who speak the twisted tongues of Babel.

Deflate not our assets, oh holy market, and trickle down upon us the manna against which we have borrowed in your name.

Sunday, September 27, 2009

Castroville, the Alsace of Texas

Castroville is a historic little town with a rich cultural heritage nestled in the Medina River Valley just 15 miles west of San Antonio. It is known as “The Little Alsace of Texas” because of its origins. The town was founded in 1844 by Henri Castro, for whom the town is named. The first European emigrant settlers in this area were mostly Catholic farmers from Alsace, a region of France, brought over to fulfill Castro’s contract to colonize vacant Texas Land. Calling themselves Alsatians, they were mostly of German decent speaking a dialect of German and French.

Henri Castro, founder of Castroville

Sunday, September 13, 2009

A Childhood Friend

The year is 1958, the place is the southside of San Antonio. Midway between the ancient Mission San Jose and the abandoned Terrell Wells (a natural hot springs spa whose sulfuric rotten-egg scent wafted for miles) lay tiny working class tract houses, one of which was my childhood home. On lazy summer afternoons, the boys of the neighborhood would play baseball in the street or explore the woods adjacent to our subdivision...

Approaching dusk might bring out blinking lightning bugs, or if you were really sharp-eyed you might spot a horny toad on a tree branch or fence post. It wasn't actually a toad (the real name was horned lizard), but the crowning achievement of a summer day was to capture one of these creatures and drop it in your pocket.

I haven't seen a horny toad in 50 years. I suppose they're still around - some say they fell victim to the fire ant invasion from South America. Progress has its place, I suppose, but I'm glad not to have lived my childhood in the sadly depleted world I see around me now.

Take a look at:

Rick's Photoblog

Two Tons of Steel crash into Landa Park!

Texas favorites Two Tons of Steel give a decidedly western swing twist to the Ramones punk classic Sedated. (2009 KNBT Crossroads Party):...

Monday, September 07, 2009

Rose Hill Manor

The Luckenbach, Texas Sign over the Post Office

Vacation time for Rick and Sandy! We had an overnight stay at the Rose Hill Manor, near Stonewall.

Our room was called the Carriage House.

Our short trip allowed for a little shopping in Fredericksburg, a trip to fort Martin Scott, a visit to the Wildseed Farms, and a quick stop at Luckenbach.

View slideshow:

Dinner was a four-course formal affair featuring quail stuffed with rice and cous-cous, canneloni, a chocolate box drenched in cherry syrup with strawberries and blueberries inside…that’s all I can remember, anyway!

Thursday, August 20, 2009

King of the Texas Dance Halls

In the long and storied history of the Texas dance hall, Gruene Hall holds a unique place. And it's not just because it's the oldest continually operating dance hall in the state of Texas, but also because it has served as both a launching pad and a continuing venue for some of the most influential musicians in American music. Gruene Hall has been pivotal in the careers of such musicians as George Strait, Lyle Lovett and Hal Ketchum, and has nurtured blues, rockabilly, folk, and singer/songwriter artists. This famous stage has also welcomed the likes of Bo Diddley, The Dixie Chicks, Jerry Lee Lewis, Garth Brooks, Willie Nelson, Merle Haggard, Junior Brown, Robert Earl Keen, Stevie Ray Vaughn, and many more.

Website:

Gruene Hall

Monday, June 29, 2009

Remembering LBJ

The presidency of LBJ coincides roughly with my teenage years. Looking back, his presence looms large over my passage into adulthood. Most of us who are old enough to remember Lyndon Johnson will probably recall the vivid last months of his presidency. The American public had grown tired and disillusioned with the Vietnam War, and maverick Senator Eugene McCarthy had won surprising early primary victories against a sitting president. The final blow was the entry of Robert Kennedy into the primaries - even the brother of his ticket mate had turned against him.

A weary and defeated LBJ made his fateful decision: "I shall not seek, and I will not accept, the nomination of my party for another term as your President."

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LBJ has been part of my family history for as long as I can remember. My maternal Grandmother voted for the young Congressman in the depths of the Great Depression. It didn't take long for LBJ to gain the fierce loyalty of his poor rural constituency.

It was the common wisdom of the day that a Republican could not be elected dogcatcher in Texas. The loyalty to Johnson (and the Democratic Party) would last for decades. Not until Nixon's "Southern Strategy," would the tide begin to turn. Along with the new prosperity, a wave of Republicanism swept the Lone Star State. It seemed Texans had forgotten their humble past.

Certainly LBJ never forgot his past. He was born in 1908 near Stonewall, in a small farmhouse on the Pedernales River. Despite the poverty of his childhood, this land never lost its hold on him. As family fortunes improved, Congressman (and later Senator) Johnson built a sprawling
ranch home that became a hub of political activity.

The LBJ Ranch is now a part of the National Park System, and is open to the public. Rangers lead guided tours of the home (no interior photographs are permitted, unfortunately). The residence, although large, is quite unpretentious, with plain furnishings. It's very little different from other ranch dwellings of the era.

The only hint that this was not an ordinary residence are the ubiquitous telephones in every room, and the Secret Service command center in an adjacent trailer.

In the old airplane hanger are some of LBJ's favorite vehicles. I love the Ford Phaeton from the thirties and the classic Continentals. One of Johnson's infamous pranks was to take foreign dignitaries on a tour of his ranch, head straight for the water, and scream "the brakes are out!" Of course, he neglected to mention the convertible they were riding in was amphibious.

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Despite the tragic end of his presidency, Johnson will be remembered as central figure in the reconstruction of the nation, first as an ally of FDR, and later shepherding the civil rights and voting rights measures through Congress.

Johnson was the greatest master of getting things done in Washington. His powers of persuasion were honed to perfection in a technique known as "The Treatment."

"Historians Caro and Dallek consider Lyndon Johnson the most effective Senate majority leader in history. He was unusually proficient at gathering information. One biographer suggests he was "the greatest intelligence gatherer Washington has ever known", discovering exactly where every Senator stood, his philosophy and prejudices, his strengths and weaknesses, and what it took to win him over. Robert Baker claimed that Johnson would occasionally send senators on NATO trips in order to avoid their dissenting votes. Central to Johnson's control was "The Treatment", described by two journalists:

The Treatment could last ten minutes or four hours. It came, enveloping its target, at the LBJ Ranch swimming pool, in one of LBJ's offices, in the Senate cloakroom, on the floor of the Senate itself — wherever Johnson might find a fellow Senator within his reach.

Its tone could be supplication, accusation, cajolery, exuberance, scorn, tears, complaint and the hint of threat. It was all of these together. It ran the gamut of human emotions. Its velocity was breathtaking, and it was all in one direction. Interjections from the target were rare. Johnson anticipated them before they could be spoken. He moved in close, his face a scant millimeter from his target, his eyes widening and narrowing, his eyebrows rising and falling. From his pockets poured clippings, memos, statistics. Mimicry, humor, and the genius of analogy made The Treatment an almost hypnotic experience and rendered the target stunned and helpless."

Image via Wikipedia

One last picture, and we're on our way home.

Monday, June 15, 2009

Zephyr Nods in Your Direction

Our youngest family member is Zephyr, a five year old Paint. He resides at a ranch near Luling, Texas, until he can join us after we retire and move to the country.

(Video editing by Sandy)

Tuesday, June 09, 2009

The Mystery Ranch

The Light of the World illuminates rural Texas.

If you take a spin on the interstate, cruising east along I-10 past Seguin, you will see something rather curious and unexpected. Off to your right, in place of the usual cow pastures, mesquites, and cacti, arises a bizarre vision. A Shrine Circus with minaret domes, perhaps? An Algerian village abducted by aliens and plopped down in the vastness of central Texas?

We've passed it dozens of times and had fun speculating as to its nature and origin. Finally I decide to investigate this mystery - armed with a single clue: an ornate sign along the highway proclaiming the Silver Wolf Ranch.

Information about the ranch is not easy to find, but I did run across an archived article in the San Antonio Express-News:

"KINGSBURY — Almost every day, at least a few of the 27,600 motorists who drive Interstate 10 through this speck of a ranching community pull over to check out a curious fenced ranch just off the highway.

Easily visible from the interstate, twin white domes of a massive structure poke up like mushrooms from the private 340-acre forested reserve. A giant bronze bison statue stands in plain view, as do live stick-legged emus and ostriches.

But tourists never get through the well-appointed limestone facade entrance that beckons them into the Silver Wolf Ranch. As they have for 10 years since the property came under new ownership, polite Spanish-speaking workers shoo away the camera-toting motorists with the same unrequited promise: The ranch is just about to open.

The land, a 40-minute drive from San Antonio, remains just as enigmatic to immediate neighbors left to ruminate — sometimes darkly — about relentless construction activity, howls of unseen wolves, reports of gun-carrying guards, and especially the tint-windowed SUV caravans for which the gates do occasionally open.

“I don't know nothing; I don't want to get involved,” said neighbor Jesse Weinaug, who owns a cattle ranch next door. “They don't come over here. I don't go over there. It ain't none of my business.”

The property, it turns out, is the private playground of a Mexican family that has grown immensely wealthy and politically powerful while ruling as a dynasty over the controversial religious denomination known as Iglesia La Luz del Mundo, or the Light of the World Church.

The Pentecostal-like denomination's supreme leader, the iconoclastic 71-year-old Apostle Samuel Joaquin Flores, is viewed as a messianic figure to be worshipped as a direct link to God and obeyed by church faithful in Mexico and abroad.

Some of Joaquin's nine grown children, themselves considered quasi-divine royalty, have transformed their Texas land into a lavish private zoo-themed family retreat for their father's enjoyment on the scale of some owned by American pop stars or Saudi oil sheiks.

The Guadalajara, Mexico-headquartered denomination, which claims 5 million members worldwide, a figure disputed by some religion researchers, is not without some tenacious allegations of wrongdoing against Joaquin involving abusive treatment of followers."

The Silver Wolf Ranch remains as mysterious as ever, but (at least so far) there have been no threats against neighbors or any hint of confrontation. Texans are wont to mind their own business, and the Light of the World people aren't acting like Branch Davidians or the infamous "Republic of Texas."