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08 July 2009

PizzaQ -- find the 2 differences between Reality & not-Reality / Galveston / Flaco Jimenez: accordian but it not suck


Click, certainly.

From our trove of photos from Cape Cod. Taken on the only Sun-shiney day of the whole week.

But I liked the fog and the ocean gale and the violent lightning storms. I don't think Chatham Lighthouse, long automated, blows a horn, but in the night fog you could see its beam swing across our pond every 20 seconds. Cape Cod was and remains very dangerous waters to navigate. Typically the skipper or bridge watch makes 3 small little mistakes in a row, none of which by itself would cause harm, and then the ship hits the rocks and everybody drowns. In the Quaker Meeting House Cemetery, every sixth gravestone: Lost At Sea.

My brother is a mahof, of both musical and spiritual matters, of a whomp-butt Unitarian-Universalist church near Washington DC. Last trip I had lunch with him and Pastor Lilly of the Universalist Society of DC, I think she originally hails from the Texas Gulf Coast, maybe Galveston -- the Hurricane Smash Hit Center of North America -- but I could be wrong about that.

Galveston historically is destroyed by hurricanes more than any other city. These tropical cyclones of the North Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico must like the local seafood -- a lot of shrimp -- or the music -- Janis Joplin was from there, and this is also the region where Tex-Mex and Flaco (Skinny) Jimenez el Rey de Tex-Mex, who also plays the accordian and it not suck, was born and blossomed.

There's a large German-American population in this part of Texas, and in some towns you can hear nothing but deutsches on the street. (New Braunfels also has WurstFest (30 October - 8 November 2009) where thousands of cowgirls and cowboys in cowboy and cowgirl hats and cowboy and cowgirl boots dance much Polka and consume much Wurst and Beer.)

They had their accordians and polka music, and their Tejano neighbors paid close attention to all the things they were doing wrong to music, and the ways they were tormenting and insulting music, and sometimes the Tejanos played in their polka bands. So polka somehow partially morphed into Conjunto/Tex-Mex, a truly unexpected miracle. I think recently I posted Flaco's English/Spanish/German cover of

"en el Cielo no Hay Cerveza"
"In Heaven, There Is No Beer"
"Im der Himmel dar ist kein Bier"

so that's why we drink it here
and when we're gone from here
all my friends will be drinking all the beer

It's a sad sort of song about a serious defect in Heaven.

But back to the U-Us. I wanted to snap this very handsome piece of architecture, so I talked S.W.M.B.O. into parking in the strip mall while I got out with the little digital camera and photographed the church across the road perched up on a hill.

Very much as you see it here. But

What You See
Is Not What I Got

when I looked at the church.

Back at the Graphic Arts Department of Agence-Vleeptron Presse, I changed -- fixed, I think is a good word -- Reality to suit my taste with 2 specific changes.

My new way, this way, makes a better New England Cape Cod Tourist Postcard. Reality sucked, so I fixed it. Now it's Better Than Reality. It's New, Improved Reality (tm).

One change (1) is/was Large, and the other (2) Smaller, a bit more subtle.

Okay, 2 slices extra mozarella, capers.

If nobody gets these, I may explore a possible future as a counterfeiter. I already make faux postage stamps, how hard can this be?

6 comments:

James J. Olson said...

First, you photoshopped the overhead electrical wires out of the picture. (you did leave part of the lowest one on each end still in place, however.) I believe there were three wires you removed.

James J. Olson said...

Actually, now I think there were four wires you eliminated.

Second, perhaps you fixed the paint along the top of the words on the front of the building, giving it a virtual new coat of paint?

Paul P said...

I was in Cape Cod six summers ago. The greatest summer of my life :)
Enjoy!

Libby Spencer said...

Your Vleepness! On a long overdue cruise through my blogroll. You're still here. I'm so happy.

I'll guess you cropped the road out of the photo. And also tweaked the contrast.

BTW, I love your fake postage stamps.

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Anonymous said...


Traditional cowgirl hats include wide brims made of fur felt and often decorated with colorful bandanas, feathers or other accents.