GASLAND, Fort Worth's Museum of Modern Art, Elsie Hotpepper & Me

Yesterday. Or was it the day before? I mentioned the gala GASLAND the movie event, Wednesday, at Fort Worth's Museum of Modern Art.

I said...

"It was a gala affair. I can not remember the last affair I've attended that was more gala. I also do not recollect seeing Elsie Hotpepper attired in red carpet worthy fashion, before last night, nor myself, with a bow tie. Like I said. Gala affair."

This morning I was asked if there were any pictures of myself in a bow tie and Elsie Hotpepper being all red carpet worthy.

Then, this afternoon, the Queen of Wink commented on the bow tie.

Thus, obliging sort that I am, I felt compelled to find a picture of myself and Elsie Hotpepper in our movie going duds.

I have to tell you, I find wearing a suit and a bow tie to be very annoying. I am not used to wearing that much clothing or having something choking me around my neck. Bow ties do not last long, on me, before being loosened.

I am scheduled to go to a wedding, tomorrow, at a church in downtown Fort Worth. It is the first wedding I will have attended since a disastrous one in Washington in April of 2006, where I was severely criticized for my wedding attire, one element of which was brown cargo pants.

I will not be wearing cargo pants to a Fort Worth wedding. I also will not be wearing a bow tie. And I do not believe Elsie Hotpepper will be in attendance.

Flash Flood Watches & Levee Inspections In Fort Worth Texas

WeatherBug went off with a chirping warning from the National Weather Service about a Flash Flood Watch in effect til Saturday, just as I was reading an incoming email from Elsie Hotpepper, telling me about something flood related.

As in the Army Corps of Engineers is going to be inspecting the 27 miles of levees along the Trinity River that make up the Fort Worth Floodway. Recently Dallas got a failing grade from the inspectors.

Due to levee failures, like what happened in New Orleans, due to Hurricane Katrina, and levee failures elsewhere, tougher standards have been enacted with Congress telling the Corps to check out 14,000 miles of levees across America via the National Levee Safety Program.

The Dallas levee system is going to cost about $150 million to fix.

Fort Worth's massive Trinity River Levees were built following the flood of 1949 which covered much of Fort Worth with way too much water.

Water District officials claim the Fort Worth levees are in good shape. But, we've all learned, of late, how much stock to put in the Water District's veracity.

One aspect of the slow going Trinity River Vision Boondoggle is a flood control bypass channel. This bypass channel will somehow allow the removal of the massive Trinity River levees on the section of the Trinity River that flows by downtown Fort Worth.

That area has not flooded since the massive levees were built, decades ago. It seems counter-intuitive to remove them. But, what do I know?

Well, I do know that it is coming up on noon, this Friday in May in Fort Worth, Texas. The skies are currently darkening. I suspect soon some of that material that causes flash floods will be falling from the sky.

What Has Happened To Fort Worth Weekly This Week?

Has something happened to FW Weekly?

It used to be Fort Worth's only real newspaper, the alternative to the much larger Fort Worth Star-Telegram, but, unlike the Star-Telegram, FW Weekly practiced, at times, actual investigative journalism.

And now, this week, starting on Wednesday, all of the spots I usually find the current edition of FW Weekly are empty. Krogers, the East Regional Library, Holiday Booze Depot. All empty.

Has the fate that has befallen so many print publications befallen FW Weekly? The FW Weekly website is up and running, with new material. But, usually, the FW Weekly website will have a picture of that week's hard copy cover. I could find no such picture, this week.

FW Weekly has a MySpace page. I don't know why FW Weekly has a MySpace page. But, it has not been logged into since 2/17/2010. Why would FW Weekly have a MySpace page while being free of Facebook and Twitter? Very perplexing.

Wikipedia has an entry about FW Weekly, with not a lot of information. No mention is made in the Wikipedia article about the demise of the hard copy print version of Fort Worth's closest thing to a real newspaper.

So, has anyone out there seen the print version of FW Weekly this week?

Hiking The Hot Tandy Hills & Expecting Jesse James Great Great Great Nephew Casey James To Come To Fort Worth Tomorrow

As you can see, by looking at the stunning skyline of beautiful downtown Fort Worth, it is a bit overcast today. Semi-HOT at 84 and a bit muggy.

I had no giant lizard encounters on the Tandy Hills today.

Today may be the last I am on the Texas Prairie for awhile. BIG STORMS are in our forecast, with a lot of wet stuff, thunderstorms and possible tornado action predicted.

Tomorrow, Jesse James' alleged great great great nephew, Casey James, is coming to town, to the Fort Worth Stockyards, at 4pm to ride in a parade, where all his American Idol fans will, supposedly, scream like rabid fans. On cue. The parade goes down Exchange Avenue, the same route the Fort Worth Herd moves at the exact same time.

Nothing, except for Christmas and extreme weather, stops the Fort Worth Herd from being on the move. Maybe Casey James will be riding with the herd. He did say, on Wednesday, that he was missing Texas. You can't get much more Texas-y than riding with the Fort Worth Herd. He also said he was longin' to be back where he would hear y'all, a lot. And play with his puppy dogs.

I don't know if I'll be fixin' to head to the Stockyards tomorrow to see the manufactured brouhaha over Casey James. Though, I do find that type stuff to be amusing.

Living In GASLAND In Texas With Josh Fox & Others

You are looking at the sort of thing we Citizens of the Shale, as in Barnett Shale, can fear coming out of our water faucets. Unodorized natural gas. That goes to flame.

Of course, the gas drilling industry does not acknowledge that such things happen. No matter who gets burned.

A guy named Josh Fox set out to document what's happening around the world, due to the now wide practice of using new technology, to do this process called fracturing, to a formerly stable layer of shale, in order to release trapped natural gas.

I have one of these fractured operations going on across the street from where I live. So far, no fire has come out of my water faucets.

The Josh Fox documentary, about the Shale Fracturing, GASLAND the movie, has been winning film festival prizes and is now being shown around the globe, including last night at the Museum of Modern Art in Fort Worth.

It was a gala affair. I can not remember the last affair I've attended that was more gala. I also do not recollect seeing Elsie Hotpepper attired in red carpet worthy fashion, before last night, nor myself, with a bow tie. Like I said. Gala affair.

Watch the YouTube video below to get an idea of what GASLAND the movie is all about...

Sharing Fort Worth's Tandy Hills Trails With Big Lizards

I did not make it on to the Tandy Hills til the late afternoon today. The wind has been in intermittent gust mode all day, again, today. I guess, even though it is warm, the Wind Chill Factor is still in play.

So, at 85 degrees, with winds in the 20-30 mph range, I don't know what the real temperature feels like. I do know, from first hand, eye witness evidence that the Wind Chill Factor was cold enough to cause cold-blooded reptiles to be a bit sluggish, like the Tandy Gator you see in the picture.

He, or she, seemed more interested in staying on the warm rocks than concerned with me getting down on the ground beside him/her to take pictures. As you can see the Tandy Gator was a very willing subject.

I do not know why I have no aversion to the lizard brand of reptile, while the snake brand of reptile unsettles me. I have never seen a snake slithering on the Tandy Hills. Lizards and snakes have the same reptilian head, yet that head looks cute, to me, on a lizard. That same type reptilian head, on someone like Fort Worth Mayor Mike Moncrief, does not look cute to me. It's quite a conundrum.

I was not long into hiking today, enjoying the jungle-like foliage along the new Tandy Highway, when I came to one of the Sanitary Sewer Manholes sporting an orange Dunce Cap.

Then I heard a voice ahead shout something like, "the video is stuck." This told me the Fort Worth Water Boys were back playing with their pipeline again. I wondered if they had now crossed Tandy Falls, with dire results for the Falls.

I decided to try and avoid a White Truck encounter, due to my well-earned neurosis regarding Confrontations with White Trucks, and come at Tandy Falls from the north, where I could approach in stealth mode.

A half hour later I was where I could see if the Tandy Falls had been destroyed. I was glad to see, so far, the Falls are fine. Dried up, but fine. The Water Boys were working on the manhole due south of Tandy Falls.

About a half hour later I was again walking down Tandy Highway, heading north, when I heard the rumble of the huge Water Truck. I quickly reversed direction to head up a trail off the highway, to get a vantage point to take a picture of the passing truck.

As you can see, the Water Truck is as big as a plus-sized RV. The jungle shakes as it rumbles by.

I have grown accustomed to sharing the Tandy Hills with heavy equipment. I like some of the results. It is pleasant now, when the trucks are gone, to walk the Tandy Highway, as it is heavily wooded, shady and cooler than the more exposed zones.

Today I noticed that someone has been pruning branches along the various trails. There was one section where I was pleased this had been done. I've been tempted to bring a pruner with me a time or two, but I never remember.

I'll likely have Giant Lizard nightmares tonight. So, I'm thinking I should go for an early evening swim to calm my frazzled nerves.

Is A Day Of Reckoning Coming For The Fort Worth Way & Its Good Ol' Boy Network Of Dirty Dealers?

If I have said it once, I have said it twice, I don't understand why more civil lawsuits do not find their way to a courtroom in this somewhat lawless zone of Texas which I find myself observing.

The City of Fort Worth orders Gestapo Stormtrooper type raids on a citizen because he had the gall to defend himself against the attack on his property. Yet, no legal action is taken to bring the miscreants, and those who gave them their assault orders, to justice.

And, now, today, Wednesday in Fort Worth, I find myself heartened to learn that there is one good citizen of Fort Worth, Adrian Murray, who is mad as hell at what the Ruling Oligarchy and the Good Ol' Boy and Girl Network did to him. And even though, to the Good Ol' Boy Network, what they did was simply The Fort Worth Way, to Adrian Murray it was, and is, a criminal assault on his integrity, livelihood, character and sense of well being.

Adrian Murray is demanding a retraction of the lies stated in a mailer sent to thousands of homes on behalf of the Leonard/Lane campaign, run by the corrupt Eppstein Group of Dirty Tricksters. Murray wants a full and complete retraction sent to those who received the damaging mailing. And unless this is done promptly, legal action will follow against the various perpetrators.

In part, Adrian Murray's retraction demand to John Randolph Thompson, Jr., of the Clean Water Committee (a Tarrant Regional Water District Board Shill Committee), says...

"Your mailer further asserts that I have a “dubious past” and a “lack of financial accountability.” As a respected business owner in Fort Worth with many clients and vendors here, my reputation and by extension that of my company have been seriously damaged due to your malicious and false mailer. I hereby demand a full and complete retraction by mail to the same recipients of the May 7 mailer be immediately made by the Clean Water Committee clearly stating that your allegations were made based upon false information. Failure to promptly do so will leave me no choice but to pursue vigorous legal action against you and your clients."

I am sitting here hoping, hoping hard, that Adrian Murray's feistiness, and willingness to right a wrong, becomes the New Fort Worth Way.

Lying & Deceiving The Fort Worth Way About Adrian Murray & John Basham

I am fairly certain I've mentioned, previously, my disgust regarding the Culture of Corruption, also known as "The Fort Worth Way," that runs rampant in Fort Worth, Texas,

The Fort Worth Way: The Definition---

A city run by an Oligarchy controlled by a Good Ol' Boy and Girl Network, in cahoots with a propaganda purveyor, to the benefit of the Good Ol' Boy and Girl Network's cronies and themselves.

A good example of The Fort Worth Way occurred during the recent Tarrant Regional Water District Board elections.

Two fine, upstanding, good citizens of Fort Worth, John Basham and Adrian Murray, ran against the Good Ol' Boy and Girl Network's puppets, Marty Leonard and Jim Lane.

As it often does, the Good Ol' Boy and Girl Network's propaganda shill, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, worked as a purveyor of misinformation for the Ruling Oligarchy, to the benefit of the Leonard/Lane Cabal.

The Star-Telegram told you John Basham had filed personal bankruptcy. The disinformation purveyors told you that John Basham lost his house and was given property in Fort Worth, by Clyde Picht, so that John Basham could run for election to the Water Board.

What you did not get told was that John Basham was injured while on active duty. Yes. He was a soldier. A Combat Medic with the Army National Guard. Didn't read that in your local newspaper of mis-record, did you? He was hit with a severe spinal injury when coming to the rescue of a fellow soldier.

John Basham was treated in a military hospital. The Army did not pay his bills. John Basham was forced to file personal bankruptcy.

The local newspaper of record slandered and smeared John Basham, dishonoring an injured Veteran who had served his country at great sacrifice, giving John Basham absolutely no chance to respond to the misleading charges leveled by the corrupt opposition and its mouthpiece, the Star-Telegram.

The professional political hacks, employed by Marty Leonard and Jim Lane, slammed their smears into mailboxes across the district, knowing they could get away with it, knowing the propaganda shill, that being the Star-Telegram, would not counter their misinformation with the truth.

And now let's move on to the Good Ol' Boy and Girl Network's smear of Adrian Murray.

The Smear: A Marty Leonard/Jim Lane Dirty Tricks mailing stated "Murray moved here a few years ago, leaving behind a long list of County Tax Liens for unpaid taxes."

The Truth: Adrian Murray returned to Fort Worth in 1998 after spending 10 years in California. Murray was transferred to California in 1988 and returned to Fort Worth and Texas as soon as he could. In California, Adrian Murray bought a boat. When he moved back to Texas he moved his boat to Lake Eagle Mountain. A few years later Adrian Murray learned that California was still taxing his boat, despite it no longer being registered in California. He flew to California and took care of the matter. Clerical errors were admitted, with all liens being released as invalid.

Did you read any of that in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram? No. You did not. Did the Fort Worth Star-Telegram know the truth? Yes. It did. Propaganda shills are not interested in the truth. They serve to further the interests of the Oligarchy, of which they are an integral part.

How did the Marty Leonard/Jim Lane Dirty Tricksters come to know about Adrian Murray's California woes? What sort of Black Bag operation were (are) they running?

The topper, to all this corruption, lying, deceit and Alice in Blunderland type black is white, white is black, up is down, down is up, wrongness, is, in the end, after the election, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram actually printed the Marty Leonard/Jim Lane campaign's assertion that Adrian Murray and John Basham had mislead the voters! Hence their loss!

Can we all say Raw Gall together? Just when I think my contempt for The Fort Worth Way can not sink any lower, lower it goes.

It perplexes me very much.

10 Year Old Texas Girl Gets Detention For Jolly Rancher Crimes

A few minutes ago I was at some random cable news website. Which one, I don't remember. I saw the headline, "3rd Grader Caught With Jolly Rancher Gets Detention."

I read that headline and thought to myself, please let it not be in Texas, please not Texas this time, please.

So, I was not at all shocked when I clicked on the link to quickly see my pleas for it to please not be Texas were to no avail.

Once more a Texas school is about to become a National, maybe International Laughing Stock.

Are there not any adults in positions of responsibility in this state who can put a stop to this type embarrassment?

Little 10 year old Leighann Adair came home crying, afraid to tell her mom and dad she'd committed such a horrendous offense that she'd been slapped with a week of detention for possession of a contraband substance.

The contraband? A single piece of Jolly Rancher candy.

No, you skeptics who live in the sane parts of the planet, I am not making this up.

I am a little unclear of the timeline of this crime, but recently a friend of Leighann's gave her the single Jolly Rancher. Two weeks went by without Leighann unwrapping the candy. And then, somehow a teacher at Brazos Elementary School in Wallis, Texas, got wind of the fact that Leighann was carrying contraband candy.

After interrogating Leighann, to find out who her supplier was, Leighann gave up the friend. Both were then convicted of the Candy Contraband Crime and sentenced to detention during lunch and recess. Plus both had to write an essay detailing their crime and why what they did was wrong.

The idiots, who somehow got into positions of responsibility over the lives of kids at Brazos Elementary, are standing by their draconian punishment, saying they have to be strict in order to enforce their no gum, no candy policy, because gum and candy can make a mess.

The Supreme School Idiot in Wallis, Texas, Brazos Independent School Superintendent, Jack Ellis, says it is a matter of following state guidelines to limit the amount of junk food in schools, saying, "Whether or not I agree with the guidelines, we have to follow the rules,"

What is it about the moronic obsession about following rules in Texas? Idiotic rules are made to be broken, not followed.

The Texas Department of Agriculture says there is nothing in any sort of rulebook that compels a school to punish a student for junk food possession.

The department informed the school that state policy does not outline such punishments, saying, "If a parent wants to pack candy, it's their decision, not against school policy. A parent needs to decide what a student eats."

So, there are pockets of common sense in Texas.

Now, should not parents be able to hire a lawyer and bring a civil suit against this inept school district for the pain and anguish and embarrassment to which their daughter was subjected?

The Jolly Rancher ban is not this school's only Supreme Idiocy. Students are required to wear a belt, needed or not. A few months ago, Leighann's brother was suspended for failing to wear a belt, even after his dad had called the school to let them know that the boy would be beltless, because his dog had chewed the boy's only belt, right before the school bus arrived. The boy spent his jail time stuck in a room all day long, with nothing to do but stare at a wall.

Is there any connection, maybe, between these type lame educational standards and Texas schools being near the bottom, academics-wise, of the American states?

A Hazy, Smoggy Fort Worth Tuesday With $5 Million Bell Tower Makeovers

As you can see, it is a very hazy Tuesday in my zone of Texas. Last night tornadoes touched down north of my location, mostly in Oklahoma and Kansas.

But, last night I did see the local ABC station's super annoying Pete Delkus go on and on and on and on about a supposed tornado on the ground up by Lake Texoma, near Dennison, in Texas, mentioning it every time regular programming went to commercial.

This morning I came across no mention of a Lake Texoma Tornado. Pete Delkus is so excitable. How are those who purchase commercial time compensated when Pete Delkus takes over the air waves with his Weather Drama Queening? Seems as if it must cost the local station a bit of money.

That is a smoggy, hazy picture I took from the top of Mount Tandy today, zoomed in on part of the stunning skyline of beautiful downtown Fort Worth. Notice the pointy spire on the right? And the skyscraper towering over it on the left?

That pointy spire on the right is the Tarrant County Courthouse Clock Tower. The style of architecture of the Clock Tower and Courthouse is Renaissance Revival. The copper dome of the Bell Tower was never waterproofed when it was built 115 years ago, in 1895.

Years of enduring heavy rains, hard hail hits, strong winds and lightning strikes, have left the 110 foot tall tower in bad shape.

So, $5 million is going to be spent fixing the tower, which some claim is a focal point for downtown Fort Worth. I've never really noticed it. And how much of a focal point can this tower be with that skyscraper tower hovering over it?

Maybe the old Bell Tower should just be taken down and the $5 million spent to restore something that seems a bit more important, that being Heritage Park and the sad state of eyesoredness that it has been allowed to fall into.

But, what do I know? My priorities are always a bit skewed...