Debris

Coming back from Texas

This has been my least productive year for blogging so far, by a long shot. I'm actually very happy about that. 

I needed a break.

A mere 147 blasts. Even if I was to go on some amphetamine addled literary burst, which will never probably happen because I've never indulged in such substances in my lifetime, my past record low of 246 blog entries in 2014 will not be declipsed or jeopardized. Some of you might remember I took six months off that year for burnout. 

In any case, this has been a crazy year for me, forgoing weed and alcohol and writing and photography to a great extent. One glass of cabernet and a glass of port. All year. I don't miss the alcohol much although the thought of a nice bloody mary does sound quite thrilling but I have been thinking how nice a puff of a joint might taste for a week or two now, found myself craving a bit of weed inspiration. I didn't succumb. Who knows how things will turn out in 2026? 

The year off has been good to me, I am definitely more productive and through a variety of deals and machinations am slowly getting my financial house in a little more order. But I may be turning into a bit of a bore. Glad to not be constantly triggered by politics, hoping that one day I/we will wake up from our current national nightmare.

Anyway it is good not to share so much, not to opine, record or take photographs, flip the paradigm around a bit.

I have just returned from my second trip to Texas in a year. This has necessitated two shots of steroids and a nerve block in my foot, which has ached horribly since the first trip. 

I just got back from the podiatrist. 

Ligament strain and tendinitis. 

Says I need to take it easy. 

Right.

Actually the foot is just the start of the problem, foot and ankle, all the way up to the hip, my body can no longer endure the agony of two fifteen hour days driving in a row.

My right leg was on fire on the way out, the last three hours before I reached Comfort, Texas, at the start of Hill Country.

I was suffering in agony and no place to pull off the road. Crying in pain, tortured.

Just gut out the I10 east and try to live to tell about it.

No rest stops and little light, tailgated for the last two thousand miles by a retinue of drivers who don't understand how a normal human being can drive a box truck at 65 miles an hour in the slow lane of a freeway?

My grandfather drove the same way, slow, maybe the slow driving gene skips generations like alcoholism?

Anyhow, I have returned from one of the longest antique roadies of my career, a sixteen day swing to Texas and back. Physically and logistically difficult, trying to figure out such basic things as the socks and underwear count, make sure I have enough relatively clean Hawaiian shirts for the trip.

I left my house at 4:30 in the morning on the morning of the sixth. 

The dipper still sparkled brightly above my home on the crisp and clear night.

It has been so beautiful around here the last month or so.

I stopped at a gas station and made the acquaintance of a female grackle who was giving me the side eye.

I drove to Phoenix to drop off some consigned rugs that did not sell.

Had lunch with a couple of friends at Little Miss, a great barbecue spot.

I wanted to get to Las Cruces the first night but unfortunately ran into a grisly accident scene near Casa Grande that shut down both lanes of the I10 for a couple hours.

Have to deal with what the road gives you.

Eventually the road re-opened. 

I enjoyed the sunset and finally limped into Wilcox for the night, a mere hour or two past Tucson.

I left early the next day and crossed Texas. 

It was a brutal ride, hit rain past Ozona and cussed myself out for not getting new wiper blades.

It was about fifteen hours in the car and my right leg was on fire. I don't ever remember suffering like that but I only had one option, move forward.

Which I did, finally hitting a b and b in Comfort, the Meyer, that would leave me only three more hours in the morning until my eventual destination. Nice place, wish that I had more time to enjoy it. I was absolutely dead, sucked dry by the West Texas passage.

I got to the show at 9 the next morning and started loading in. 

This is how my booth turned out. Last time I had back to back twenty foot booths with a pass through that gave me 80' of walls, this was a forty foot straight shot.

I kind of liked the first way better but they aren't doing that anymore. Take what they give you, but it was a track meet covering all this ground on a bum leg.

My booth was quite Western this time, which happens to be what I have been into of late and after all, I was in Texas. I was sure the cool western furniture would sell, it did not. Maybe too western, they sniffed.

I had a three day setup and then the show started. I did exceedingly well the first three days and then the doors clanged shut, barely anything for the remainder.

So I started looking around the show for stuff to buy and managed to cobble another 10k in sales I engineered from the floor. Take it anyway I can get it. Sold a Rookwood, Tiffany candlesticks, brokered some Tiffany lamps. Bought a beautiful and rare Sara Mayo basket with human figures, a great bracelet. Found a nice Doel Reed aquatint, some rare New York WPA prints. Wish that I had more time to shop but it was almost impossible to move on my bum leg.

I shared a motel room with my old comrade Steve. Steve did really well but will probably not come back, the time it takes is just too much for a sane person who doesn't need to do it for the money at this point. Saved me five hundred bucks sharing the room and we went out for some great meals.

But back to the shows. 

Maybe I got lucky the first time or maybe the right people didn't show up but this show seemed to have more decorative arts buyers than knowledgable collectors. It was not Santa Fe or New York for sure. 

Pretty girls in sun dresses out to be seen. And I am okay with that too. People having fun. 

Roundtop is a definite must do event for the people in Texas and surrounding states and I am grateful to finally be a part of it.

Luckily I brought enough lower end decorative work to keep myself covered and managed to sell some high ticket items too.

This was sort of funny as a way to illustrate the situation.  

I had this great photograph of Georgia O Keefe taken by Dan Budnick in 1995. 

I was asked if it was Frank Lloyd Wright twice and Salvador Dali once. 

Sad, but there is practically no art education left in our schools.

What are you going to do?

The Thomas Hart Benton below the Budnick, arguably our greatest regionalist? 

Perhaps one in ten had a clue.

No matter, I made money, the people were sweet, the women incredibly attractive.

I noticed some trends. Very little ink on the skin, relatively speaking, which is fine with me, and very slim physiques. Lots of backless dresses, not a lot of boobs evident.

I read recently that a lot of women are opting for breast reduction and was wondering if I was seeing the titular augmentation in women this young?

Did see some seriously distorted botox duck lips.

The Texas look is a trip, hat, cowboy boots and sun dress. 

I like it. 

But I saw another fashion trend that gave me mild pause. 

The puffy, ruffled sleeve. 

That sartorial element sure has not made its way to California. 

I think I remember it from some reruns of little house on the prairie.

The woman across from me said that it is indeed a "prairie style" look. As in flour sack dresses. I was informed that there is a burgeoning "trad woman" movement with long hems and puffy sleeves for the woman who knows her proper place in the home. There was even a booth there which catered to the subordinate distaff set.

God bless them. Saw a lot of once trophy wives with men twenty or thirty years their senior, who took the deal some time back and now were entering the sunset hours together, with a slightly different date stamp.

I'm down with what floats anybody's boat. Viva le difference, we all make and live with our choices.

So I had a lot of good sales and a lot of maybees and near misses.

All good. Maybe I will get a call back one day, who knows?

Steve and I ate at Las Patronas in Giddings like five times.

Delicious quail.

Parradillas with fajitas, ribs, quail and shrimp cooked on a sizzling iron grill.

The best beans you ever had in your life.

We also had great prime rib at Santa Fe steaks.

We became fast friends with the owner of the establishments, Manuel. 

He bought us dessert one night. 

It turns out that he was once a farm worker in California, picked tomatoes in Carlsbad in the seventies when I was building houses nearby.

Great guy.

In the morning it was Cafe Chihuahua for breakfast burritos with a line out the door. Great tamales, I had the Carne Guisada, which you can't get here. Lousy coffee, which is pretty much everywhere these days. Hit up the donut shop one day for kolaches, a contribution from the large local Czech population.

Surprisingly, no barbecue this whole time in Texas although I did travel an hour out of the way for my favorite quesobirria tacos in Brenham. Went to my fave barbecue place in Luling but it was closed on Sunday.

So the show was good but long and not helped by not or barely selling the last day or two. I left on Monday to start the long ride home. I ended up in Fort Stockton the first night, then dropped off to see Sublette and buy a couple cool things from him in Tucson including this beautiful blanket. 

I bedded in Gila Bend the second night. I bought some stained glass windows for a friend doing a remodel in Coronado and delivered them Wednesday afternoon, in heavy traffic, now operating on fumes.

I was starving, hadn't eaten in a day and stopped for beef brisket and Chinese noodles at Shanxi Magic Kitchen.

Can't beat hand ripped noodles and spice when you are dragging.

Home now, mostly unpacked, a victory charted up, no regrets. Did my best and was rewarded.

Next month a much abbreviated trip to Santa Barbara and I get to do it all again.

Thanks for coming along for the ride.

By the way, I will be at eleven million views before you know it, closer to it then ten.

And I want to thank you all who have been by my side with this thing.

I talked to an older reader yesterday who doesn't get out that much and have come to realize how important my writing is to some of you.

We have forged a human relationship, despite all my warts and bitching, politics notwithstanding, like it or not. And that is what keeps me going.

Love you.

Van Halen

I'm not a big fan of this band but I heard this on the radio today and thought it was pretty catchy and very well played. By the way, David Lee Roth's uncle Manny was a pretty cool guy.

View from across the pond

 Thanks to Michael for sending this over:

Our "rotting pumpkin idol..."

Free falling

I had a wild dream last night. Somehow I fell out of an airplane a mile up in the air. Something managed to break my fall somewhat along the way down  and I was able to walk away, albeit with sore feet, knees and hips.

Which is apropos because I do have sore feet, knees and hips right now as well as an ankle ligament sprain that just does not want to heal. My brain must have tried to make sense of the pain I am feeling and came up with a plausible scenario.

Still the dream got me to thinking. Could someone actually fall out of a plane and walk away?

I found this site, Highest falls survived without a parachute. 

It lists twenty two instances but not a lot of people walking away, many seriously broken bones and fractures.

Luke Aikens landed in a net, that is cheating. Kobayashi was on skis, nope.

Juliane gets a serious nod, hiked out of the Peruvian rain forest for eleven days with her broken collarbone. Props to her.

Respect for this guy who traveled 18,000' downwards and only twisted his knee.

Capello managed to walk away like I did in dreamstate but it was only a hundred foot fall. Big deal.

Vesna survived the highest fall without a parachute, 33,000', but life didn't get that much better for her after she hit the ground. The Beatles fan flight attendant was the victim of a briefcase bomb, she ended up in a coma, temporarily paralyzed with lots of broken stuff. Later got fired for taking part in an anti government demonstration.

Guess I got lucky.

Sands of Time

Religiosity

I saw a poll I found interesting, How religious is your state? What struck me was not the relative piety of my state, California, which logged in at 39th but the disparity between Iowa and Kansas. Kansas is #10, Iowa #43. Am I misreading the heartland?

The other thing I noted was the relative lack of religiosity in the northeast, which captures the bottom rung of the poll pretty well.

*

In other religious news, we may lose 15,000 churches this year as record numbers of people are terming themselves as religiously unaffiliated.

And there's this:

Don Randi at the Mission Theater

 

This should be a great show coming up in November in Fallbrook. Don Randi was a member of the Wrecking Crew, and one of the most legendary session keyboard players in history. I haven't seen the whole band play but I have heard the guitar player before and he is phenomenal. 

Randi opened up one of the greatest jazz clubs in history, the Baked Potato, and performed with the eponymous house band. 

The list of singles and albums he played on is too big to list. Here is the largest screen shot I could capture. Playing on the Laura Nyro cut is enough for me to canonize her.

I plan on going. 

You can buy tickets by scanning the QR code. 

Join me there and let's sell the joint out.

Norman Blake - Spanish Fandango

So Begins the Task/Hold On Tight (Demo)

Dreidelveis

Sometimes I get these crazy ideas. Can't sleep, mind racing. I was talking to my wife before bed last night when I came up with this brainstorm for a new screenplay. Ran it by my friend Barry today, who was once a big shot and who had a long career in show business. His daughter is a Hollywood screenwriter, might be able to help me sell the angle. Frankly, I think it is a shoe in.

19th century orthodox Jewish guy leaves the yeshiva in Poland. Can't take any more klezmer music. Seeking neutrality as well as a release from the cacophony he decides to set his somewhat myopic sights on the Swiss Alps.

He trades his clarinet in for an alpenhorn. Cows instantly swoon at the dulcet sound of his reverent hornblasts like he's the pied piper of Lodz...

"Dreidelveis, Dreidelveis..."

Honest to G-D, I can hear the tune right now in my head. Seriously, I don't think it can fail. We might have to braid those payos, add a few blond highlights. Maybe work in a local angle, a gorgeous shiksa milkmaid forbidden love interest. Perhaps he introduces bialies or chopped liver to the hinterland? Or kosher Chocolate?

Nu, what do you think? How can it miss?

Sad and Beautiful World

Not quite pinpoint accuracy

I start off every morning playing three games on the Linked In platform, Zip, Queens and Pinpoint. I am fairly proficient at all of them but the best on Queens for some reason.

Pinpoint gives you five clues and you have to come up with an answer. I think I have missed two or three out of the two hundred and ninety nine games I have played.

I failed once again last night. Difficult. These are the clues. See if you can figure it out. When you get the answer it seems so easy.

I hate losing.

Oy

I showed a couple friends the proposed Trump coin and they thought it was a joke. "Uh, no, this is real." Strange times we live in, to be sure. Not sure it is legal to put a living person's likeness on a coin but as they say at the White House, "legal shmeagal."

I saw a great illustration last week where Trump didn't just put his face on Mt. Rushmore, every face was his. Wish I had kept a screenshot.

There has never been so partisan an administration. Yesterday the USDA refused to brief Democratic Congress people after they briefed the Republicans. "Far left losers" or something like that. I wonder if it ever occurred to the GOP that they might find themselves in the minority position one day and get a taste of this sort of thing themselves?

Just might happen but it is a shitty way to run a government. Warfare.

I have a lot of friends on the right who tell me that Dems want to give illegals free medical care. Now this has been thoroughly debunked, in fact it is illegal for a non citizen to receive Medicare or Medicaid but many people are convinced that it is happening. If it happens it is extremely rare. And they want to use the money for transgender surgeries. 

The CBO has previously said it can’t tell how much of the $19 billion in emergency Medicaid spending from 2017 through 2023 actually went to “illegal aliens,” but the overall sum amounts to 1% of Medicaid spending during that time period.

It is true that illegals game emergency rooms, which have an edict to serve everybody. I was sitting in one once where a man was trying to get help for his fatal pancreatic cancer, which can't be fixed in an emergency room. But that is an entirely different story.

Of course, these workers also pick your crops and there might be some small benefit to keeping them alive.

I have friends on both sides of the political equation and they have one thing in common, they are both getting seriously triggered.

Many start the day with a grocery list of the other side's sins. I don't think this is really healthy, to be permanently bent and angry. That is one of the reasons I dialed down the blog this year, didn't need to raise my blood pressure.

I know what is going on, will try to foster intelligent discourse when necessary, but don't need to be pissed off continually. Try to laugh at the absurdity.

Get a hobby, take a walk, or perhaps a new tranquilizer script? Whatever it takes.

Soul Kitchen

Now that's a sandwich.

I'm not really a white bread guy, we called it balloon bread when I was a kid because of the way it stuck on your upper palette, but it does have its place.

Great way to make a beautiful old pair of Sioux moccasins pliable again! No mustard or mayo required.

Cool Cool Water

Close call

 

Rob's down there somewhere...

I dodged a bullet yesterday. Walked into the back of my shop and saw water on the floor. My plumbing is really old and I had a leaking angle stop in the back bathroom. Turns out that I had minor damage but nothing that would kill me.

Ray gave me a name of a great plumber, Jessie.

He showed up quickly. It took him about an hour to get things capped off and fixed temporarily. He was very cautious and fastidious, not to mention inexpensive.

If this had happened in another week, it could have been totally disastrous for my gallery. Wouldn't have seen the leak for a very long time and it would have been an economic calamity for me.

Yesterday must have been the day for it. My friend Rick had a water heater go out. Tom put an iron bar through his main line, while planting his plumeria. The problem with these sorts of things is that there is no early warning system, you know things are bad when you see water on the floor. Thank god I caught it early.

Lucinda Williams

Sierra Strother

If you have ordered or eaten at Bakin' it up, the bakery located across the street from my store, you have probably run into this young lady, Sierra Strother. The first thing you notice about her, apart from her obvious beauty and fitness, is her humility and sweet disposition.

I had no idea that she was also an athlete and performer until I saw her showing someone a snippet of her on Tik Tok the other day. She told me that she started out in dance. I think she is part of a circus troupe now. Pretty amazing.

When I went in for coffee and bread pudding today she told me I could find some demos of her on YouTube.

What an athlete. Incredible!

Dead Chroma

There's never been a rock and roll marketing machine like the Good Ol' Grateful Dead. Now they have branded the iconic Steal your Face colors with Pantone. Talk about squeezing the last drops of moisture from the sponge. 

I just find it sad and curious that a band with this kind of gelt cashes in continually while people like their long time workers like lighting engineer Candace Brightman and soundman Harry Popick are so broke they are forced to start go fund me sites for their serious medical issues. Steals your face right off your head.

Really?

 

https://www.reuters.com/world/italy-poll-finds-15-see-attacks-jewish-people-justifiable-2025-09-30/

https://www.algemeiner.com/2025/09/30/viral-video-jewish-tourists-assaulted-florence-sparks-outrage-surge-antisemitic-attacks-italy/

https://www.ynetnews.com/jewish-world/article/h1idgsikll