BEATSVILLE

2012

2010-03-05T22:55:00.000-03:00

I don't fear 2012. Maybe I should? Hmmm, I'd like to because it seems more exciting and there is much to read on all the different catastrophes that are due to happen but I just can't seem to get all caught up in the drama that mightcouldistobe. The reason we don't know what happens in 2012 is because the Spaniards destroyed the Mayan culture. One bishop in particular, Diego De Landa Calderon, threw all their writings into a fire. A single act of disrespect and destruction has created terrible anxiety for some individuals today.

1. I once saw a ruin in Quintana Roo that was part of an altar. There was a hole in the stone and it was said it corresponded with the winter solstice. Tulum was populated by large, brown and grey iguanas. They occupied the ruins. They stood on either end of entrances to what were once large rooms and entrances to what I imagined were regal quarters. I would look at them and in their eyes seemed to be everything you ever wanted to know about the place. They lived there, slept there, bred there, the ruins were theirs. If the energy of the past slept in those rocks and they slept with them, they must hear or feel everything and therefore know.

Tulum was on a cliff overlooking the beach. It was a bit windy that day and the wind in y ears mixed with the waves on the beach below creating one big shhhhhhhhhhhh. It was a warm September morning and I wanted to feel hot sun on my skin but instead it was just mildly warm. It was hard to pay attention to the guide because the place inspired so many thoughts and feelings.

I noticed someone speaking Italian was messing with an iguana. I couldn't help but disike that. Those iguanas were really so dignified and unlike any others I had ever seen in a zoo or pet store. It was painful to watch the poor thing taunted by the same tourist who just the night before had spoken horribly to a young waiter. The Italian kept asking for a limon and the waiter kept bringing him limons. Limon to the Italian was a yellow lemon but to the waiter it was a green lime and nothing else. That was such a rude scene and I instantly disliked this group. So I strung together , "Arresto per favore" and smiled nervously. They just walked away. The iguana and I stared at each other for awhile then it closed one eye making it appear to wink. Made me want to curtsy but I resisted and made my way down to the beach.

When I think of 2012 I only think of these creatures unable to speak, guarding the secrets that will remain mysteries. No one knows what will happen on 12/21/2012 but my feeling is nothing cataclysmic. Just be nice to those iguanas that occupy Mayan ruins.

Turn the set on, it's time for my program

2010-02-28T03:47:00.005-03:00

My earliest memories of television watching include the Lawrence Welk Show. Watching the show now, because I still tune in, I can see why it appealed to a kid. I was probably drawn to the bubbles, the music and movement, the big smiles and once we got a color television set, the technicolored costumes. Captain Kangaroo, Mr Rogers, Banana Splits, The Monkees...it was all music, movement and color.

While dining at Houston's a few weeks ago, I overheard someone about my age say, " Yeah, I went up to the desk to checkout the DVDs and the librarian lady asked me if I was checking these out for a grandparent. I said no, I just love Lawrence Welk. They are out on DVD!" When I watch the show I don't know where I go exactly but I'm gone, complete veg. Perhaps I should look into thes DVDs.

I really loved Anacani because my mother did. They were both from the same part of Mexico. I wanted to be Anacani one day. The Lennon sisters were part Mexican-American but I never knew that until much later. My mother loved Welk's accent. When they show the audience members dancing I always remember hearing my mom say, "How sad, all those people are dead now." Well, I'm sure they are now.

Even in my teens I could still stomach the Champagne Lady and accordians. It contains much that is cringeworthy. At the same time, maybe for some people, the show has the ability to placate on some level. For some reason. At the same time, I understand how the Stepford streak, all that polyester and Gleem tainted smiles could creep a person out. I wish I had stopped that Houston's customer to ask her if she just sort of goes blank while she watches the show. When it's over I wonder if she feels like she just time traveled. For me, it is like a good nap or something. I wonder when Lawrence Welk will cease to echo at nursing homes. I know of at least two people of my generation who will be watching the program.

Then came spring, the great time of traveling...

2010-02-27T01:56:00.001-03:00

Last Sunday Parisa wore a sundress and I dug out a linen ensemble from my out of season clothing bin. It was such a warm day. We brunched at Eastside Cafe, walked around their garden and admired the miniature roosters crowing their hearts out. We drove with the windows down and visited Mr Gage for a spell then hung out in my backyard until a large dark cloud blew over us, pulling a chilly breeze along. Inside.

I can wish for Spring. I have enjoyed winter thoroughly. That weekend in the teens made me so happy I found it hard to remember the exact sensation of 104. Mother Nature made her amends. There was even snow as if to beg for foregiveness. But last week, when I looked at our dormant lawn , I spotted the greenest little blades of grass buried under the leaves. My fig trees are budding and the mourning doves have started up again. I'm ready.

We had another sublime day, not as warm but just as beautiful. I noticed these tiny, well formed flies. Baby flies? Had they just been hatched or however it is that flies come into the world; or just not the typical housefly? They were rather cute and seemed to have better manners than what tends to land on me in June. It's time to make plans.

That there is some strange weather you've been having...

2010-02-24T10:47:00.003-03:00

What Parisa left behind...

2010-02-23T14:11:00.002-03:00

Marjoe

2010-02-23T03:27:00.001-03:00

We watched the 1972 documentary on Marjoe Gortner this evening. I wonder if he was the inspiration for Jimmy Joe Jeeter played by Sparky Marcus on Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman. The footage of Marjoe at age four is something out of a Little Rascals film or perhaps David Lynch. Articulate, intelligent and philosophical, Marjoe is a talented performer whose views on being a preacher/con artist are really poignant. The filmmakers did an awesome job and I truly don't think that even the Maysles could have created a more compelling portrait.

Marjoe is a fascinating character and I'm surprised there isn't an updated documentary on his life since he stopped preaching. What did he end up doing exactly, how did he get there and what happened to Agnes?

No, not a misogynist

2010-02-23T02:05:00.000-03:00

Thank you for leaving the new perspectives behind

2010-02-23T01:30:00.007-03:00

Tourists

2010-02-19T17:06:00.003-03:00

Parisa is visiting from Brooklyn and I'm showing her the town. It's always interesting to view one's life through someone else's eyes every now and then. I'm a tourist today too. As we walk through the town I've made home for twenty one years I'm starting to see it for the first time again.

I'm sticking with you.

2010-02-12T17:16:00.011-03:00

Lost in Translation

Time passes quickly. It seems as if you were always there, as far as I can remember. Beyond nine years ago, beyond years ago, you were there. Happy Valentine's Day Mr. C

Nine for my Valentine.

The Gourmet Tamale Mistake

2010-02-10T13:42:00.000-03:00

We decided to get the Gourmet Tamales form the Texas Tamale Company that came in a cute little bag because they seemed healthier with their No Trans Fats and NO LARD claims. However, when I got home I noticed soybean oil was listed twice in the ingredients. So back to the tamale recipes and learning that skill so we can make our own. Mr. C has been showing interest. Instead of lard, Spectrum shortening could be used, no soybean in that. Could I track down masa from corn that has not been exposed to GMOs? {sigh} Good luck to me. Perhaps I can find some way to get the Irish to make some and then ship it to me? Ireland GM-Free!

More Valentines

2010-02-09T16:54:00.000-03:00

Made some special ones for my Mother and Grandparents. The box has been filling up since the party. I don't want to stop. I don't know that I can stop. It's so addictive.

Car Phones 1978

2010-02-08T12:47:00.002-03:00

We watched Roller Boogie (1978) last night. Once we discovered the trailer on youtube we had to Netflix the film ASAP! It starred Linda Blair as a rich, Beverly Hills brat seen here sporting the epitome of luxe, a car phone in her vintage roadster. The movie was uber fun, lots of cool and tres cheezee rollerskating moves. It really did live up to all of our expectations.

Realities

2010-02-07T17:49:00.000-03:00

En route to Seminole Canyon this weekend my mother told me I had been to Marfa when I was four or five years old. I thought I had no recollection of this. She said my Grandparents drove us all to Marfa to board a train headed for Mexico and there was nothing in Marfa. Still no recollection. I asked my Grandparents who told me they sure did remember that trip because Mexican Federales were positioned on the train cars because we were heading into the mountains and then I remembered! I always had that memory of fully armed, scary Mexican Federales standing on train cars but always thought that memory was from some movie. It was no movie, it was real and it was between 1975 and 1976.

I always thought I had seen the remains of the house used in the movie Giant but didn't know we had actually visited the old film set from the highway. I always remembered seeing the silouette of an old house from the road and was impressed with how it sat against nothingness and loved the nothingness more than the house. I remember it was windy and I was bored but the adults were going on and on. I filed this memory to maybe a visit to Langtry or a dream. It was part of that Marfa trip.

Dusting off old memories and putting them back into place is something that doesn't happen often. I now have a list of memories to ask my mother about. I'd like to know what else is real or only part of a dream or a movie.

I do remember sitting on my mother's lap in a car once and turning around to look at my baby brother in the back seat. He was tiny and his feet and hands were covered as he slept on a blanket stretched out in the backseat. I remember the sun began to come through the car window and it illuminated his face. Then I looked out the window and saw nothingness. I would like to know where we were headed, maybe my Mother remembers the first trips made right after my brother was born.

Bruised

2010-02-05T17:58:00.002-03:00

Seems the fall I took at my skating lesson was harder than I thought. When I landed I felt pain but my coach said skate it off and that wasn't hard to do. I only went back to try the cones again. I didn't fall due to a bad skating move, I fell because I lifted my leg way above the cone, for fun, too see if I could and then fell. My coach didn't think it was a graceful nor a smart move. I skated for two hours after that fall.

A bruise did not appear there for several days however I had a dull ache that just worked to distract me from everything. I saw the doctor who showed me the x-ray and said it was the deepest bruise she had seen in a long time. She showed me all the nasty shadows and said six to eight weeks and it should heal on its own.

I looked up rolller derby injuries and sure enough, my killer, mega-bruise could be found on all of those injury pages. I am holding off skating until I heal. If I were to fall right now, it would really hurt. I don't think I would fall although I feel it would be my bad luck to fall. My coach thinks I'm a badass, that is what he said a week later when I told him what came of the fall. He said the fall looked bad but I got right up so he figured it wasn't too bad. He said my skating a full session later made him think it was nothing. Then I skated full sessions for a week after that.

What I don't like though is people telling me skating is dangerous because of this recent injury. Stories about blood clots stemming from hip surgeries and death by all sorts of head injuires, blood clots and so on. I try to explain, I wasn't even doing a skating move, I was being stupid. Lesson learned. The floor is cement not hardwood. I heard of a hardwood rink in town on the east side. I will be checking that out soon.

Some co-workers got together and thought it would be funny to send me this lil note:

Dear Roller Derby Queen,
It has been brought to our attention that you are in need of a serious intervention. To be more specific, an intervention involving the selection of a more safe and appropriate past-time!

We, therefore, have chosen a list of safe, enjoyable, and non-mobile hobbies than hopefully can replace your current addiction to the roller rink and its mesmerizing speed and whirling winds and sparkling disco lights…not to mention all that great retro music!

So, we hope you will choose one of the following activities and send those roller skates to Roller Rink Heaven!
Here are your options:
1. Knitting (in a chair)
2. Crocheting (in a chair)
3. Reading (in a chair)
4. Watching movies (in a chair)
5. Watching TV (in a chair)
6. Shopping at a Mall (in a wheelchair)
7. Talking on the Phone (from bed)
8. Petting your Chickens (from a seated position on the ground)
9. Light gardening (from a kneeling position on kneepads and foam kneeler)
10. Snacking (anywhere except the Roller Rink)
We hope you will appreciate all the concern that has gone in to this written intervention and remember that we only have the best interests in mind for your elbows, knees, and hips!
No need to respond. Merely ponder!
CARRI
(Citizens Against Roller Rink Injuries)

Has it really been five years?

2010-02-02T18:07:00.001-03:00

I guess so! Five years of typing out most of my ponderments and some of my opinions du jour. There are plenty of ... ideas. I've told you of a few daily activities. Reading my entries of these past five years will result in a notion of who I am. Oh but I do hold back. Not enough time in the day and a woman needs mystery. Ruth would agree.

Be Mine

2010-01-30T12:48:00.001-03:00

My friend had her annual Valentine making party. Wine, French music and yummy eats complimented a table covered with stamps, ink, paper punchers, gorgeous sheets of paper and even an embossing kit among other inspiring supplies. We should have pulled an all nighter, the food and supplies were there.
As always it was a most lovely time and when I leave I really can't wait until next year.

Today I HEART

2010-01-29T18:05:00.005-03:00

Lenny and the Squigtones

Vikki Carr

Rollerskate Films

Watching the intro to Taxi

Du Jour

2010-01-27T13:08:00.003-03:00

It seems that all of us vintage lovers heard the same NPR story about this Korean television set. It also seems we were all so uber excited with it that we are all blogging about it. I hope we get this in the US soon because I have the perfect place for this set!

The mid-century aesthetic is really getting a lot of love. I recently found a computer styled to look like a Predicta attached to a vintage typrwriter keyboard. I don't know if I am 100% into the look but I can see how it might look nice on a Heywood-Wakefield desk. I think there should be more a merge between the new technology and old aesthetics. I'm not too crazy about the whole steampunk look though. I'm talking about what they quite frequently do in the UK.

Actually, I wouldn't mind a rotary Princess phone sans any upgrades sitting on my desk. Rotary phones gave you a few more seconds to think of what your going to say. I loved hearing the sound the dial would make as it ran over all the numbers. There was a heaviness to the dial.

Philco PC from Dave Schultze on Vimeo.

Yesterday, as I was driving, it occurred to me that my husband and I had John Lennon until we were nine years old. It's weird to think of all those born after he passed. There is something really poignant about having been able to live in a world that still had John Lennon if only for the first nine years of our lives.

Tony Sarg, please come back!

2010-01-25T12:27:00.002-03:00

All those beautiful Tony Sarg books need to be re-published. They are too beautiful to be left only in the hands of collectors, never finding their way to a child's bookshelf today. Tony Sarg made several mechanical books and from what I can find online, they are all works of art. I have been lucky enough to have been given The Tony Sarg's Treasure Book, printed in 1942. It is a super deluxe mechanical book containing Alice in Wonderland, Rip Van Winkle and Treasure Island.

The Desk Set

2010-01-24T03:07:00.000-03:00

We just got a brand new desk and chair from Furniture in the Raw. It's a nice, sturdy desk with clean lines and we are fighting over who get's to sit in the matching chair and hang out at the new desk. New desks are like clean slates. I can remember several new desks growing up. The fun for me was first getting it all organized and then getting started on work. A new desk always made homework more fun and inspired stories. I would just write and write to stay at the desk. In college whatever writer's block I had was easily cleared by just moving on to a new desk in the library or sitting at my roomates desk instead of mine while she was working at the library. Mr C seems to feel the same away and is really amped about sitting here at our new desk to begin his projects. Eventually the new desk luster wears off and the ideas stop coming as fast as they did but not for a long, long time because this desk is awesome and it faces the window. Now I must go because someone would like to sit here, man, I had no time to even upload a pic.....

All Skate

2010-01-23T01:59:00.025-03:00

Tomorrow is my last skating lesson for awhile. I begin again in the Spring. I do love my coach, he is really an awesome and enthusiastic skater. What I truly appreciate is his other worldly patience for someone like me who couldn't do anything except skate round and round in the most boring way possible and was afraid to fall. His ability to teach skating is really a skill. Now I'm doing ribbons, skating on one leg, going backwards and doing cross-overs. I do need work on spinning and turning and I could also practice the switching leg thing. Now I just practice, practice, practice. I still don't come close to looking as good as the regulars on Tuesday night. Not even. Since the rink won't be open to me like it was during lessons, I'll be at the tennis and basketball courts taking spills.

It's been years since I picked up something like this. When I was in ballet, there were lessons five days a week, bloody toes and practice was after school where I had a full hour of running and jumping rope, sit-ups and chin ups. I continued being athletic on some level through college but it all came to a screeching halt when I turned 26 or 27 because all of a sudden I felt old. What was I thinking?! I should have kept it all up. It had something to do with being around other late twentysomethings who felt old.

It feels good to be involved in some sort of sport again. It took awhile to work up the enthusiasm for a more active lifestyle. It was finding the right gym a few years ago that put me back on track. Skating practice has been three hours of non-stop movement three days a week and that is nothing compared to the speed skaters I see practicing or the roller derby girls. Now that it's up to me to practice, I feel the need to really push it. I would like to be able to skate every day for at least two hours.

When I skate I am using all my concentration because it's all new, so there is no room in my head for anything else. My coach has said a few things regarding how to attack skating and skating form that I find myself thinking of when I am not in the rink like always chin up, never look down, then there is stay flexible, bend those knees because stiffness causes falls and he is always reminding me of the constant trust I have to have in myself and in what I can do. For all those people who spend money on life coaches, taking up a sport keeps you nice and fit and you get plenty of life coaching, teehee.

Early to bed...sniff

2010-01-22T16:00:00.008-03:00

Goodbye Conan,
We'll be tuning in for the last time.
How we will miss you after the news.
We were always loyal fans.
On the bright side,
I guess it will be easier to get up
in the mornings for work and
we won't bave dark circles
under our eyes.
XO, The Crains
PS: Loved seeing Pee Wee again!

Sunday Night Games

2010-01-19T15:47:00.005-03:00

We found these cool board games at a toy show in San Antonio. They were priced at only $1 and $3, not what I expected but I think it's because the boxes are slightly marked or we just found the most reasonable dealer there. Otherwise, both games were in really great shape and complete, including instructions. We had fun playing while listening to the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack late on a Sunday night and into early Monday morning. Even Mona was really into it.

Mi Tierra

2010-01-16T21:01:00.006-03:00

After a long, tedious week nothing could cheer me up more than driving to San Antonio. Being at El Mercado and dining on mole enchiladas at Mi Tierra was just what I needed. Mr. C. bought me a beautifully embroidered Mexican shirt and paid for a Mariachi to sing my favorite song.