Wednesday, January 9, 2013

It's a rainy night in Lubbock, and I'll say it again: this town doesn't handle the rain well. Lots of towns, you get a huge thunderstorm, it floods the streets for a while. Here, if it rains at all, it floods the streets for a while. What, does everyone get used to it? Cars are going through three feet of water here. I wouldn't want to live on a low part.

On the good side, I took a break, and, flying back to Lubbock, was happy to notice that everyone on the plane was in a good mood when we took off from Dallas, as if, it's all going to be ok now, Lubbock is a lot more relaxed, you can live your life here and enjoy yourself. I felt that feeling on a plane once leaving Miami and going to the Dominican Republic. It's like, we don't have to put on a show anymore.

In the new year I want to learn about a few people. Some are not in Lubbock anymore. For example, what happened to Meat Loaf when he was here? Flunked out/dropped out, maybe, from Lubbock Christian. Or Natalie Maines? I don't want to rub it in, but she's an excellent musician, hometown girl, but everyone's really mad at her, and it can't just be about Bush. But that's ok, if they don't want to tell me, I can handle it. It's not like I run a publicity blog or anything. I'm just curious. And I'm a musician.

Then you have Buddy Holly, who lived here, went to school here, and sooner or later I'll actually find the houses he occupied, etc. Now he has staying power, fifty or sixty years later, and people are still leaving flowers on his grave. I think there's more to him than meets the eye. I'd like to know a little more.

Bob Wills and Woody Guthrie both spent a fair bit of their lives in the Texas Panhandle, and though I know we can't claim we're the panhandle, we're still West Texas and I'd like to know a little more. To be specific, I'd like to know who's still playing music like Bob did, or what they do to celebrate Woody. We'll see.

Then there's a diversity of just Texans, though Texas is a huge state, I'd still like to know a bit more about some of these folks. This list includes Willie Nelson, Kinky Friedman, Jim Hightower, and a few more. Can't even remember some of the ones who have caught my eye. Some have written books about Texas, and I fully intend to get a few, and others just keep cranking out good music. I have a couple of dreams: one of these days, I might open up a Texas bookstore, or at any rate a place that sells Tex-arcana (you heard it first here)....and, one of these days, I want to play Austin. Now there are a couple of local dreams for ya. Time goes by, I become more of a Texan every minute. That could be bad for both of us!

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