America's Alma's Got Talent

The Songbird of the Texas Gulf Coast, Alma Squillante, is going to be on this year's America's Got Talent, if those who decide who is going to be on that talent show have any sense at all.

Alma has previously auditioned for America's Got Talent, twice. The second time, the America's Got Talent talent seekers sought out Alma, giving her an audition reservation, so she was able to sing without having to wait in a long long line.

This year America's Got Talent, in addition to live auditions, is accepting YouTube video auditions. Alma would not have been able to go to the live auditions, this year, so this YouTube option seems like a good omen to me.

Alma's Audition videos are on the America's Got Talent blog site.

If you are visiting Port Aransas you can hear Alma live at various venues, like the Tarpon Ice House.

Village Creek Vanishing Pipelines, Topless Jogger & Lubricant

On May 1 I blogged about pedaling my bike at Village Creek Natural Historical Area and being surprised to discover that the reason I'd been seeing a sidewalk closed sign for weeks was because a pipeline was being run across the trail.

That and I saw a mess of other pipelines. And the mess those laying the pipelines had made.

Now, today, 8 days later, I pedaled the Village Creek trail again and found no sidewalk closed sign, no pipelines. And the muddy ruts had been smoothed over and re-seeded.

The only mess left behind was where the sidewalk closed sign had been on the north side of the underpass. A big pile of material that had been used to block the trail had been left behind and seemed to be deteriorating. Maybe that's the disposal method, to let the elements slowly melt it away.

I did have something else happen today while pedaling at Village Creek. Naked Bike Ride Day takes place in a few days. Austin is being vexed because even though Austin is on the list of Naked Bike Ride Day towns, no one in Austin has organized this year's ride.

I digress. I mention the Naked Bike Ride Day due to what I saw on the trail at Village Creek Natural Area today. Keyword, natural. I was peacefully pedaling along, quite fast, when in the distance I saw what appeared to be a female form. Topless. With the non-covered top jiggling quite vigorously as the jiggler jogged along.

As I got closer I thought, topless for sure, either that or form-fitting flesh-colored shirt. As I got still closer the form started to look less female. As I got within 100 feet I realized it was an older man with long white hair and the biggest man boobs I have ever seen.

That's been my Friday today. That and that vehicular mechanical problem that had me cranky yesterday was easily fixed with a squirt of White Lightning Lubricant. I am not mechanically minded. But I can accidentally fix things sometimes.

Fort Worth Democracy Now: Vote Out The Incumbent and the Ruling Junta

Tomorrow, Saturday, May 9, 2009, is the people of Fort Worth's best opportunity to overthrow Fort Worth's Ruling Junta and establish democratic rule.

As near as I can tell, and people tell me, the current political mood, among many in Fort Worth, is the most rebellious in Fort Worth history.

Thomas Jefferson once opined that it is good for a democracy to have a revolution every once in awhile.

It's time for Fort Worth's Revolution. More Fort Worth people are sick and tired, than ever before of being ruled by an oligarchy. Even if most of them don't know what an oligarchy is. They do know what a good ol' boy (and girl) network is. They do know what special interests are. They do know what doing business the "Fort Worth Way" means and they don't want to operate that way anymore.

Are those who want to revolt in the majority? I suspect so. Will those in the majority take control and revolt? I suspect not. Why not? I don't know. All you have to do is get yourself to a ballot box and vote against the Incumbent and the Ruling Junta.

Would you like to be able to go to a city council meeting to air a grievance and have more than 3 minutes to do so? Then vote out the Incumbent and the Ruling Junta.

Would you like to be able to go to a city council meeting and express yourself in any manner you choose, like you could if you lived in a free speech democracy? Then vote out the Incumbent and the Ruling Junta.

Would you like to have more say regarding things like Barnett Shale drilling? Then vote out the Incumbent and the Ruling Junta.

Would you like to have a corruption free, ethically clean city government? Then vote out the Incumbent and the Ruling Junta.

Would you like to vote on things like River Visions, Convention Center Hotels, Mercados, Santa Fe Rail Markets and other Ruling Junta type projects? Then vote out the Incumbent and the Ruling Junta.

Would you like to see Fort Worth become a vibrant, modern city that takes care of all its people, in all its neighborhoods? Then vote out the Incumbent and the Ruling Junta.

It is time for Fort Worth Democracy. Now.

Go Vote Tomorrow!

Dialing Doctor Durango and the Parker County Peach Festival

Every year around this time of the year, for the past 7 years, I start getting emails like this one from Leroy...

---

I understand that you have some gospel singing at the festival and would like the opportunity to be considered for a spot to sing. I have a group called Established and you can see us and listen to our sound clips at establishedtrio.com. Thank you for any consideration,

Leroy Lewis,the old gospel singer

---

They go to my Eyes on Texas webpage about the Parker County Peach Festival and somehow think I run the thing. To help alleviate this confusion I put a link to the actual place where they can get the information they are seeking, but that doesn't help, they still email me.

I don't know how anyone could mistake one of my webpages for any sort of official website representing an event, but every year I get questions about the Fort Worth Main Street Arts Festival, Fort Worth Stock Show Parade, the Sweetwater Rattlesnake Festival and General Granbury's Birthday. And others I'm not remembering right now.

One of the reasons people get confused, maybe, is my webpages on these subjects show up at or near the top of searches, often above the official website. They should all hire me to make websites for them and solve this problem.

This sort of confusion, where people somehow miss the drift, dates back to way back when I made my first website, Dialing Doctor Durango, way back in 1995. Dialing Doctor Durango was supposed to be this tongue in cheek thing where I acted as if I was an authority on everything. I made up a lot of fake questions and answers.

Then Dialing Doctor Durango got picked for one of those site of the day things. I think it was Funky Site of the Day. After that happened I started getting questions of all sorts from people who did not get that I was not actually a doctor. Just a quack pretending to be one.

One of the questions came from Wee Cheng in Singapore. It was a lovelorn question about her ex-boyfriend who was returning from London, wanting to rekindle their relationship. I advised Wee to give Teck Seng another chance. Soon Wee became Wee Cheng Seng. Wee credited me with pointing her in the right direction to getting married. Wee and I communicated for years, including several phone calls. Wee shipped me several gifts. Wee got mad at all Americans after George W. invaded Iraq. I've not heard from Wee since.

Soon after I first heard from Wee I found out that a medical university in Munich had listed Dialing Doctor Durango as one of the Top 25 medical advice websites on the Internet! I was appalled.

Soon after that I got a very serious gynocological question regarding a UK lady's uterus. I thought, I've got to put a stop to this. I explained to the UK lady that I was not a doctor and that she should consult a real doctor about her uterus problem.

I then killed Dialing Doctor Durango and turned it into the Durango Files. Dialing Doctor Durango had become so huge it was easy to lose the doctor part and still have a website. The Durango Files lasted til I moved to Texas. Some time in 1999 I got the durangotexas.com domain. Some time after that I started Eyes on Texas. I don't have the Dialing Doctor Durango or Durango Files files anymore. They died long ago on a long ago dead computer. Sad.

A Hunky Dory Day at the Tandy Hills Natural Area

Everything was going just hunky dory today, well, except for my pool still being closed. I'd solved a long time vexation over Feedburner and was feeling real pleased about that.

I'm not missing a morning paper, even though I did glance through that Star-Telegram that was left at my door this morning.

Like I said, everything was going just fine, one good thing after another. And then I decided it had been enough days, since our recent deluge, that the Tandy Hills should be dried out and hikable.

So, I go to get in my vehicle to find that a mechanical problem, that was fixed a month ago, is back malfunctioning. It's no HUGE big deal, but still annoying, particularly since I had such a long string of things going right going.

Thus, I got to the Tandy Hills Natural Area (I'm switching to calling it Natural Area instead of Park, due to noticing that's how Don Young refers to it. And he knows best about such matters) in a grumpy mood. But was pleased to find the hills dried out enough for a very hot, humid hike. The only muddy zone was very odd. It was on the slope up to the former Tandy Hills Shrine. It made no sense that this was muddy. Other, usual wet spots were dried out. Why was this usually dry slope muddy? It perplexed me.

It was too hot and humid today to be wearing my heavy duty cargo shorts. After about an hour I was saturated. It's time to break out the nice breezy mesh shorts.

The Tandy Hills Wildflowers were being their most numerous yet. The picture above does not do them justice. You should see them with your own eyes and not rely on my photo taking skills.

Remember. The Prairieland Wildflower Ball is this Saturday at the Tandy Hills Natural Area.

Southlake Texas Tornado Siren Test

Yesterday I mentioned the unsettling experience I had yesterday up in Southlake regarding an extremely loud siren and the equally loud voice that spoke after the siren finally shut up.

Well. Someone calling himself Big Ed in Texas directed me to a YouTube video of the Southlake siren.

Apparently I am not the first person startled by it. Now that I now what makes the noise, that being the thing in the picture, I know where I've seen one before. I was up at Bob Jones Park, also in Southlake and wondered what the big cylinder on a stick was.

I remember it was speculated at the time that it might be a tornado siren. I guess it's a good thing having such a powerful and loud warning system covering such a large area. As in in Southlake you don't have to rely on Pete Delkus interrupting your TV viewing to tell you you are in danger, you've got a much better system. Unfortunately, even though Southlake does have this ultra-sophisticated system, Southlake likely still gets the annoying TV bad weather interruptions.

You can vicariously go to Southlake, Texas and experience the Big Brother Siren and Voice by watching the YouTube video below. You'll have to suffer all the way through the siren, to hear the voice, just like I did yesterday....

The Sad State of Newspapers: Dallas Morning News & Fort Worth Star-Telegram

A couple days ago I blogged about the sad demise of me getting the Dallas Morning News. I'd pre-paid for 3 months. After that 3 months was up, the paper kept coming. I got no bills. And then delivery was stopped. I called to say I'd gotten no paper that morning, which is when I was told it'd been stopped. I was told I could re-start the paper, which would now cost $30.00 a month.

I said send me a bill for what I owe and keep delivery stopped.

I have not yet received a bill, but I have received a "special offer" from the Dallas Morning News. Now, keep in mind the reason I dumped that paper, in addition to the incompetence, was the price increase.

But in this "special offer" it says I can get the paper 7 days a week for $15.75 a month. Which, I believe, pretty much matches what I thought I remembered being told by the guy who originally talked me into subscribing.

So, why did the Dallas Morning News customer service guy pretty much kiss off a subscriber with that $30 a month deal, while they are sending out "special offers" for $15.75?

It's a big mystery why the newspaper business is in rapid decline.

And on that rapid decline line of thought, fresh newspaper weirdness this morning. I opened my front door and what do I find? A Fort Worth Star-Telegram! With a "special offer!"

The Star-Telegram's "special offer" was not as special as the Dallas paper's. I don't remember what it was now.

I had not read the Star-Telegram since I fired them. The paper seems to have shrunk some more. One example was the pathetic editorial pages. The editorial section is 2 pages. 50% of those 2 pages is now taken up by the weather! 12.5% is taken up by editorial cartoons. The paper was so thin it felt flimsy.

And in the Star-Telegram there was no mention made, that I saw, of last night's pre-election event at the Botanic Garden's Moncrief Room. Named, according to one of my sources, after one of the "good" Moncriefs, not the current corrupt mayor, who, incidentally deigned to briefly appear at this event, causing giggles and snickers when he said he could not stay long.

Fort Worth's Parks & Mayor Mike Moncrief's Reign of Craptacularness

Like I said in the previous blogging, here in Fort Worth we are being inundated by a propaganda misinformation campaign by the Ruling Junta seeking to convince those few who vote to keep Mike Moncrief as mayor.

Those singing the praises of Mike Moncrief go on and on about all he has done to make Fort Worth the most celebrated city in America, how he has solved the many problems thrown at Fort Worth, how he has helped make Fort Worth the dynamic wonder that it is.

I beg to differ.

Let's just take one example of something that has happened during Mike Moncrief's reign and how it effects those little people who his supporters claim he cares so much about.

Fort Worth has one of the biggest areas of parkland in the nation. It is called the Fort Worth Nature Center & Refuge. This park has buffalo, prairie dogs, miles of trails, a nature center, boardwalks over a bayou. And very few visitors.

In April of 2006, with very little debate, Fort Worth's city council, with one or two councilmen objecting, voted to begin charging an entrance fee for access to the Nature Preserve.

I have never read any followup as to how this has worked out. Has the fee even been able to raise enough money to pay for the toll booth and pay to man it?

The entry fee is $4 for adults, $3 for seniors, kids 3 and older $2, under 3 free. And residents who meet federal low income guidelines get in free.

This is what I said about the fee and the city council debate on my Eyes on Texas website...

The argument was made that other cities charge for admission to similar parks. However, no argument was made to counter that dubious assertion. Many cities consider their parks to be amenities that add to the overall quality of their communities and to which it is important that the least affluent of their people feel 'free' to visit. Does Central Park in New York City charge an admission? Does Point Defiance Park in Tacoma? Does Stanley Park in Vancouver? Does Golden Gate Park in San Francisco? Does Cameron Park in Waco? Does any city with real aspirations to being a livable community charge an access fee of this sort to a park of this sort? And require the poorest among us to prove they are without means in order to enter?

It's that low income part of this that really bugs me. This is why a great city has parks like this. So those who can't afford to fly to California to go to Yosemite or drive up to Wyoming to go to Yellowstone, can still enjoy the great outdoors.

I mention Point Defiance Park in Tacoma, above. I had an interesting incident at Point Defiance last summer. Point Defiance is one of the biggest urban parks in America. It is huge. There is a zoo and an aquarium in Point Defiance, miles of trails through old growth forest, beaches, picnic areas and other attractions, like Fort Nisqually. You do not pay an admission fee to enter Point Defiance. There is a fee to enter the zoo and the aquarium.

Last summer I was heading back to my car after jogging the trails at Point Defiance. A couple was walking towards me, looking perplexed. The man of the couple said "excuse me, can I ask you a question? Where do you pay to get in this park?" I was perplexed. But I recognized the accent. I asked if you guys are from Texas? Yes, was the reply. To which I explained that in Washington, unlike Texas, there is no entry fee to state parks, nor is there an entry fee to city parks, like Point Defiance. A few years ago, during a budget shortfall period, Washington tried charging an entry fee to the state parks. The public rebelled, like the public in a participatory democracy is prone to do when they don't like something. The fees were removed.

I have other issues regarding Fort Worth's parks during Moncrief's corrupt reign.

Heritage Park in downtown Fort Worth has been turned into an embarrassing, for any city with pretensions of livability, eyesore.

Fort Worth does little to help the Tandy Hills Natural Area, an area the city should embrace and appreciate as being something in Fort Worth that is truly unique. The city should send in crews to clean up the litter, remove the dumped roofing material, remove non-prairie vegetation and cover up no longer needed manhole covers and pipes from a bygone era.

On Boca Raton Boulevard in east Fort Worth, in an area of dense population due to their being a lot of apartment complexes, one of those complexes was condemned and removed, leaving a huge open space in an area with no parks. Has Mayor Moncreif and the Ruling Junta, caring about all the citizens of Fort Worth in that magnificent manner we hear so much about, proposed turning this new open space into a park? No.

Sansom Park near Lake Worth has been allowed to deteriorate during Mike Moncrief's reign, with the rockwork pavilion now closed off by crime scene type tape, just like Heritage Park is closed off.

There are likely many other examples of park deterioration and neglect and wrong-headedness that I am not aware of or currently not remembering.

Fort Worth really deserves better than it is currently getting from the Ruling Junta. The only way to change that is for the people of Fort Worth to have a revolution and throw the bums out. But that won't happen. It's not the Fort Worth way.

Fort Worth's Public Library & Mayor Mike Moncrief's Reign of Craptacularness

Preserving scenic areas by establishing National Parks and free to use Public Libraries are 2 of the best ideas America has given the world.

We are getting a daily dumping of Ruling Junta propaganda here in Fort Worth regarding our amazing mayor, Mike Moncrief, and all he has done for the people of Fort Worth during his reign.

The Ruling Junta shill's letters to the editor of the Junta's mouthpiece, the Star-Telegram, are long on meaningless fluff and weak on facts. Facts like pointing out what exactly Moncrief has done for Fort Worth that warrants him remaining in office.

I can think of one specific that has occurred during this ethically challenged man's reign. He cut the number of days and hours the Fort Worth Public Library is open. The reason for the cuts? Not enough money.

Here's another accomplishment of the City of Fort Worth's government under Moncrief's sterling, inspiring, leadership. Millions of dollars have gone missing. Just vanished. Now when I first read of this, my first thought was has anyone checked Moncrief's pockets for the missing money? I mean, this is a guy who operates in an ethics free bubble, doing stuff that would have you under investigation, or in jail, in the parts of America that have opted to live under a system of laws. I forget how much money it is Moncrief and his wife have made during his reign, off the various natural gas drillers he is in cahoots with that he does not recuse himself from voting on when natural gas drilling issues are on the table.

So many of those Ruling Junta shills have mentioned how much Moncrief cares for all the citizens of his city. Has he seen the kids lined up outside the Eastside Regional Library, waiting for it to open, later than it used to? Has he seen all those kids, with no computer at home, eagerly waiting their turn at a terminal?

But, what's got me blogging about this right now is I just returned from the Eastside Regional Library. I needed to get some new books to read, now that I've bailed on all the local papers. Except FW Weekly, this week's copy of which I got at the library.

Anyway, ever since the library cutbacks there has been a line when I go to check out. It can be a long wait. Today it was at least 20 minutes. The first time I experienced a line, between when I walked in and was ready to check out, the line had not moved at all. I waited at the back of that line for maybe 10 minutes, then with a couple people now behind me, I got feisty and started complaining. Another librarian then began checking out books.

I like going to the library. I always have. I've never experienced a library as badly run as they are in Fort Worth. I never waited in a line in the Mount Vernon library, the Bellingham library, the Burlington library, the Seattle library or the Tacoma library. Now, what is the difference between those libraries and the Fort Worth one? They are in Washington. The state with America's highest per capita number of book readers and library users. And trust me, if you tried to pull on people in Washington the stunts pulled in the Fort Worth library, it would not be tolerated. You'd have so many people complaining, demanding it be fixed, that it would get fixed.

But, the bottomline is, this type problem would never have been allowed to even develop up in Washington. Paraphrasing Bart Simpson, Fort Worth is used to things being craptacular. You accept craptacular service in your public library, in your trash pickup service, in your road maintenance. And worst of all, you accept a level of craptacularness in your elected officials that not only, would not, it could not, occur in Washington. Moncrief would be in his 5th or 6th year in prison by now if he'd been mayor of Seattle and tried to do business the Fort Worth way.

At the top I mentioned National Parks. Tomorrow I'll blog my crankiness about the craptacular way Fort Worth has managed its parks under Mayor Mike Moncrief's caring leadership.

Big Brother, Sirens, Signs, Sprouts & Near Misses

If it is Wednesday I probably had to be in Southlake today. Which my one longtime reader might guess likely meant I went to Sprouts Farmers Market when I was up north.

My one longtime reader would be right. I had my camera in my pocket today, so I took a picture of the TEXUS TOMATOES sign I see each week when I walk into Sprouts and get a grocery cart.

I like the signs in Sprouts. There are several of them.

Speaking of which, every single Sprouts shopper that I saw come in today, pulled off one of the sanitizer paper towels and wiped down their grocery cart handle. I've seen a few random instances of this before, but never like this. I am almost easily swayed into a herd mentality, so I wiped my cart down for the first time.

I must back up to what happened before I got into Sprouts. I was heading north on Davis Boulevard. Sprouts is at the northeast corner of Davis & Southlake Boulevards. As I neared that intersection the loudest siren I have ever heard went off. It was loud, with the windows up and with Rush Limbaugh in full loud blowhard mode. It was rock concert from hell loud with the windows down.

The siren was a steady sound, not like a tornado siren, but that is what I thought it might be, the weather being a bit unsettled and T-Storms mentioned as possible. The sound seemed to be coming from every direction. After what seemed like minutes of this ear-piercing noise it finally quieted down to silence.

And then the weird thing happened. A voice, just as loud as the siren, started speaking, "This has been a test of the emergency warning system. This has been a test of the early warning system." And then, finally, silence.

Where were the speakers located that this voice was coming from? How large an area do they have wired in Southlake to broadcast like this? It was such a weird Orwellian Big Brother moment. I asked a few people if they knew where the sound came from. No one knew. It's like it came from everywhere, as if it was broadcast, perfect use of that word, from above.

The siren warning incident and Big Brother speaking had my nerves on edge while I did my hunt for stuff at Sprouts. I was only in there about 20 minutes.

On the way back, heading south on Davis, suddenly it started up again, more sirens, only this was an emergency vehicle, followed by a fire truck. Less than a minute after almost getting hit by a firetruck I saw a longhorn I've long wanted to take a picture of. I started to slow up, saw the driveway entry coming up quicker than I thought, hit the brakes, not realizing there was a car a bit close behind me. That driver seemed to handle it okay and a rear ender was obviously avoided or I would have already mentioned it.

Anyway, that's been some of my day today, up at 4 am, no newspaper, pool closed due to all that rainwater of a couple days ago requiring a shock treatment. Impending doom weather-wise, with ultra-high humidity and temps in the 90s.