James Brush is a teacher and writer who lives in Austin, TX. He tries to get outside as much as possible.
I had dinner with my parents this evening and went home with a box of old stuff, mostly clothing from my childhood.
So, here it is. My old bowling shirt from when I was in a bowling league at Subic Bay Naval Base in The Philippines.
It was the early ’80s.
I was probably in fourth grade.
We were “The Four Aces.”
We were pimpin’.
Monday – Halloween: Daphne hid from the vicious trick-or-treaters who kept coming to the door and continued her tradition of guarding the couch in the study. Phoebe, experiencing her first Halloween away from a racetrack, followed me to the door eveytime the bell rang and peeked out with great curiosity at all the costumed kids.
Wednesday: We learned something interesting about greyhounds that we had known, but never really thought about: their skin, which is paper thin, tears very easily. This can be problematic since these are big strong dogs. I came home Wednesday to find that they’d been playing (as they’ve started doing lately). I was home for about twenty minutes with Phoebe whining, whining, whining the whole time while Daphne hid in the study. As it turns out Daphne had been nipped on the scruff of the neck, and her skin had torn. (Perhaps the whines were her version of ‘Timmy fell into the-I mean-I accidentally bit Daphne.’) So I took her to animal emergency, a place with which I am way too familiar.
One of the vets glanced up from a boxer whose ear was bleeding all over the floor, and asked, “Greyhound tear?” without doing much more than noticing the greyhound standing in front of her.
“What?”
“You know, when they play,” the receptionist offered, “their skin’s thin so it tears.”
I nodded. Daphne shivered. “This is our first time with this. How do people prevent it?”
The receptionist shrugged. “I think they just let us sew them back up.”
So sew they did. The vet had to put Daphne under and extend the wound so that he could put a drain in. When I picked her up Thursday morning it looked like her head had been sewn back on, but it’s not as bad as it looks. Of course she looks like Frankenstein’s hound. This was sadly too late for Halloween by a few days.
Thursday: When I got Daphne home, Phoebe followed her around, crying and crying and licking her face. I suppose this is the canine version of abject apology and prostrating oneself in guilt.
All was well when my wife got home and both dogs barked. Phoebe, it turns out is a barker, but Daphne, like most greys does not bark except when she’s in a very good mood. This was bark number seven in five years and a good sign coming from a hound with a drainage tube in her neck.
Friday: We separated them on Thursday while we were gone and will continue to do so while Daphne heals and maybe for a little while beyond so as to avoid anymore roughhousing.
There seem to be no hard feelings. When I got home today they were excited to be reunited, followed each other around, and clearly wanted to play. Now they’re curled up together on the couch.
Epic of a backyard Genius is hysterical. Check it out.
It seems a likely scenario. We’re too far from the coast for a hurricane, and tornado season is still a few months away, so that pretty much leaves asteriods as the only remaining tool with which God can punish the Klan when they rally in Austin in support of proposition two on Saturday. The Supreme Deity apparently used a similar tactic in New Orleans to thwart a gay pride rally, and since God currently seems to be in an it’s-time-I-teach-these-little-bastards-a-lesson mode it would be wise to prepare for the worst.
There is debate raging about the best way for Austinites to deal with the odious intrusion of the Klan – moon them as was done when they came here in 1993, or ignore them and go about our lives as Mayor Will Wynn would prefer. Considering the cosmic wrath that could very well come down on the Klan and take out a bunch of well-intentioned mooners as collateral damage, I’m surprised an evacuation order isn’t being considered.
I assume, though, that preparations are being made and talking points written to apply that last little bit of spin to the impending tragedy in the runup to Nov. 8:
“God Krushes Klan, Says No to Prop Two”
against the nut jobs who will say:
“God Annihilates Deviant Mooning Perverts, Supports Prop Two”
Personally, I’ll be ignoring the Klan. I’ve seen plenty of morons; I don’t need to see them play dress up. Besides, my mind is made up on this issue.
I’ll probably just watch the Longhorns use the Baylor Bears to demonstrate the terrible effects of an asteroid impact.
Since I was a kid, I’ve loved maps, so I was excited when I stumbled upon Nathan’s Updates from Seoul, which led me to world66, a very cool site for anyone who loves the magic of staring at maps, remembering places visited and highways traveled, and the lure of faraway places yet to be seen.
So here’s my world map, most of which is the result of growing up in a Navy family. I didn’t count layovers in airports.
create your own visited country map
As an adult, the only trips abroad I’ve managed are Canada and Mexico. But I have traveled quite a bit in the states, usually by car, which is my preferred method especially when the drive invloves days of desert travel. Here’s my map of the states:
create your own personalized map of the USA
And, of course Europe, just because this site lets you do Europe:
create your personalized map of europe
You can also make a Canada map, but since mine would only include Quebec, I decided not to do that one.
What fun!
Lots to be proud of in Texas especially when one considers the constitutional amendments being put to a vote, particularly proposition two. While at a loss for how to pay for adequate public education in Texas and lacking either leadership or the will to consider the problem seriously, the lege did find the time to give ‘we the people’ the opportunity to exercise our collective predjudices and vote to make gay marriage illegal.
Of course gay marriage is already illegal in Texas, but the new amendment will make it really illegal. After all, denying marriage to a group of people is only just a way to protect marriage in much the same way that denying liberties to some groups of people protects liberty. Right? Something like that… Anyway, the Texas Constitution already has more than four hundred amendments, so why not try to push it up to an even 500?
Seriously, though, both the far-right conservatives and the KKK (scheduled to rally in Austin on Nov. 5), seem to agree that re-banning gay marriage in Texas will help protect marriage. And perhaps there really is a threat out there. We can’t take chances on this because gay marriage could pose a threat to everything the KKK supports “decent family values.” And looking beyond the concerns of the Klan, I keep hearing and reading that it will be beneficial for some Texas families and their children to know that other loving families will be denied this legal status.
When the subject of protecting marriage in Texas comes up, however, it’s interesting to note that in Texas, marriage can be entered into at the age of 16, or at even younger ages if a judge approves it. This was not uncommon among my high school students (I’m talking underclassmen here) when I was a teacher. With the bar this low (as a bar must be at an early-teen bachelor party), it’s important to remember that if you hear a Texan talk about defending marriage for his children, he might really mean it.
One can only hope that when the ballots are counted next week, Texans will break with the Klan and vote down this ugly constitutional amendment.
I ain’t holdin’ my breath.
I stumbled upon Calexico at the 2004 ACL Fest and standing under the sweltering heat of that day, I was immediately enthralled with their ability to create a sonic landscape that sounds the way the southwestern deserts look. Listening to them that day, I heard traces of country, mariachi, western swing, surf rock, spaghetti western soundtracks, electronic experimentation, jazzy improv, well-controlled guitar noise, and acoustic folk produced by a large group of musicians many of whom were multi-instrumentalists. And an upright bass, a welcome change of pace outside the jazz world. The music was big and lonely and utterly captivating. By the end of the month, my wife and I had collected all of their CDs, and ever since then they’ve been in constant rotation on the stereo and in the cars, especially The Black Light and Feast of Wire.
Last spring, we went to see them when they were opening for Ozomatli and Los Lonely Boys at The Back Yard. Sadly that was a bust for us, since due to horrible traffic and a parking fiasco, we only caught the last two songs of their set. What we heard from the parking lot was great, and Ozomatli turned out to be an interesting show (we left before Los Lonely Boys) so it wasn’t a total loss.
Finally, last Sunday night, we made it to see a (sort of) Calexico show at Stubbs BBQ. I say “sort of” only because the headline portion of the show was Calexico with Iron & Wine supporting their recent collaboration. Calexico came on after a quick set by Edith Frost and started out a bit too folk-y for our tastes. This is a band that is capable of substantial musical exploration, but the incarnation that started was to me the least interesting version of Calexico. It works for me on CD, but when I see live music, I want to see a band stretch out a bit, as I know Calexico can.
As the set progressed, my allergies began to get the better of me (as they do every time I am foolish enough to stand around outdoors in October) and disappointment began to set in. About halfway through the set though (at “Alone Again Or”), things changed. Charlie Sexton joined them on stage and they began to play more like the Calexico that I love…mariachi horns, Spanish rhythms, the hints of surf rock, the country twang, all creating that impression that when someone opens the first country bar on the moon, it will be a regular gig for Calexico.
The remainder of their set was well worth the price of admission and exactly what I was hoping to hear. We left before Iron & Wine and the joint set primarily because of a combination of allergies and what I’ll call end-of-daylight-savings-time exhaustion that on a Sunday night was more powerful than a desire for more music. Of course, I did pick up two of their tour-only CDs, Scraping, and The Book and the Canal. So far, I’ve listened to most of the former, and only the first few tracks of the latter. Overall, I’m pleased, but I’m still waiting for an actual Calexico (as the headliner and primary draw) show. Not during October, please.
A hound update, of course. Phoebe made her first visit to the vet yesterday. She seemed to enjoy the ride in the car more than I thought she would. Daphne went along for the ride and stayed low in the back of the car in case there were enemies about. The vet looked Phoebe over inside and out and found no problems. She’s a prefectly healthy dog.
After the vet, she discovered the study, a room she hadn’t been in yet, and I had to ask her not to eat one of my books, but she didn’t seem to mind when I traded her a nylabone for the book. She’s still following Daphne around, still unsure about the humans, but very very curious.
I’ve gotten some email from people who’ve been reading my short stories since I started this blog (thanks, by the way), and so I figured I’d go ahead and post another one.
They’re hosted on the main Coyote Mercury site in the library section. Most of the stories are a few years old and were once included in an online literary magazine called TheSoundofWhat?, which is now, sadly, defunct.
Anyways, here’s the latest old story: “This Thing of Darkness,” a South Austin tale concerning a giant fungus and some neighbors who fight.
Incidentally, all of the stories can be found in the Selections from the Hard Drive section of the sidebar. Enjoy, and thanks again for reading.
I seem to be blogging about books and dogs more than anything else, but since the title of this blog is taken from a dog in my book, I guess it fits. I clearly spend too much time thinking about books though, but I guess I wouldn’t read and write them if I didn’t love them. Of course, when thinking about books I often find myself looking for new ones to read and that’s where LibraryThing once again proves its usefulness: book suggestions.
When I click on the suggestions button, it goes through and compares my libarary to others with similar libraries and lists 61 (why 61 I don’t know…maybe it thinks I don’t have time for more) books that I don’t have, but apparently should. Some I already have, some I’ve read, some I’m interested in. I struck out the ones that I either own, once owned, or have borrowed and read, or some combination of the three. Surprisingly, many of these are books that I have been wanting to read…
1. Ulysses by James Joyce
2. Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
3. A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (Penguin Popular Classics) by James Joyce
4. The Mayor of Casterbridge (Penguin Classics) by Thomas Hardy
5. Tess of the Durbervilles by Thomas Hardy
6. Sister Carrie (Oxford World’s Classics) by Theodore Dreiser
7. Shirley (Wordsworth Collection) by Charlotte Bronte
8. Oliver Twist (Penguin Popular Classics) by Charles Dickens
9. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
10. The Handmaid’s Tale : A Novel by Margaret Atwood
11. A Journal of the Plague Year : Being Observations or Memorials of the Most Remarkable Occurrences, As Well (Penguin Clas by Daniel Defoe
12. Aspects of the Novel by E. M. Forster
13. Great expectations by Charles Dickens
14. The Mill On The Floss by George Eliot
15. Postcards by Annie Proulx
16. The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
17. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn : Revised Edition (Penguin Classics) by Mark Twain
18. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey
19. Mansfield Park (Penguin Popular Classics) by Jane Austen
20. The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton
21. Foucault’s Pendulum by Umberto Eco
22. Frankenstein by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley
23. Romola (Penguin Classics) by George Eliot
24. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
25. The Vicar of Wakefield (Penguin English Library) by Oliver Goldsmith
26. Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier
27. The Telling by Ursula K. Le Guin
28. The Left Hand of Darkness (Remembering Tomorrow) by Ursula K. Le Guin
29. Ender’s game by Orson Scott Card
30. The waste land and other poems by T. S. Eliot
31. The Portrait of a Lady (Penguin Popular Classics) by Henry James
32. A Wizard of Earthsea (The Earthsea Cycle, Book 1) by Ursula K. Le Guin
33. Possession : A Romance (Vintage International) by A.S. Byatt
34. Bleak House by Charles Dickens
35. The English patient : a novel by Michael Ondaatje
36. Literary theory : an introduction by Terry Eagleton
37. The jungle by Upton Sinclair
38. The World According to Garp by John Irving
39. Zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance : an inquiry into values by Robert M. Pirsig
40. Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
41. Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf
42. A passage to India by E. M. Forster
43. Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O’Dell
44. Orlando: A Biography (Penguin Popular Classics) by Virginia Woolf
45. MLA handbook for writers of research papers by Joseph Gibaldi
46. Le Morte D’Arthur, Vol 1 by Thomas, Sir Malory
47. The Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley
48. Moll Flanders by Daniel Defoe
49. The Silmarillion by J. R. R. Tolkien
50. Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys
51. Far from the Madding Crowd (Signet Classics (Paperback)) by Thomas Hardy
52. Daniel Deronda (Penguin Classics) by George Eliot
53. Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell
54. The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood
55. Les Liaisons Dangereuses (Everyman’s Library (Cloth)) by Choderlos De Laclos
56. Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood
57. A room with a view by E. M. Forster
58. Othello (Folger Shakespeare Library) by William Shakespeare
59. Of Human Bondage (Bantam Classic) by W. Somerset Maugham
60. Midnight in the garden of good and evil : a Savannah story by John Berendt
61. A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving
Feel free to offer other reading suggestions in the comments section. I’m pretty open in my tastes.
