SWEARING IN OF CITY COMMISSIONER DISTRICT 3 ROY DE LOS SANTOS BY JUDGE ARTURO MCDONALD

 

The swearing in of Roy de los Santos by Cameron County Court-at-Law #1 Judge Arturo McDonald.  De los Santos is  accompanied by his mother.

WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT THE IMPROVEMENTS TO BOCA CHICA BOULEVARD?

 

Boca Chica Boulevard

It was just over two years ago, at a meeting of the Brownsville's Metropolitan Planning Organization, that I learned about the project to add a median to Boca Chica Boulevard.

The implementation of the project in the last few months has made travel down Boca Chica a risky and sometimes time-consuming endeavor.  

As individual parts of the median are under construction, traffic is rerouted, swerving around traffic cones to the left or right, sometimes turning the boulevard into an ultra-narrow, scary two lane.

In Facebook conversation today, Commissioner Jessica Tetreau and others noted that Boca Chica Boulevard is part of the city's hurricane escape route and wondered about the wisdom of doing this particular roadwork during hurricane season.

MPO Director Mark Lund

One personal observation is that MPO Director Mark Lund decided that it would be unwise to allow a left hand turn off Boca Chica Blvd. into H.E.B., forcing drivers wanting to access the supermarket to pass H.E.B., turning left at Paredes Line Road, then left again on the west side entrance to H.E.B.'s parking lot.

But drivers, myself included, have figured out a faster way of getting to Boca Chica H.E.B.

We cross the median, just past the U-Haul Center, making a u-turn to enter the west side of that parking area, then drive past the dollar store and U-Haul to get to H.E.B.

U-Haul has countered with numerous speed bumps to slow the traffic, but that seems to be the pathway of choice for those approaching H.E.B. from the east.  

I'm certain even Mark Lund would admit that traffic control and highway design is an imperfect science.

WHAT'S CAUSING THE EXTRAORDINARY TEMPERATURES IN THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST?

 

Since I'm from Seattle, I've been intrigued by the historically high temperatures there.  Today, in Maple Valley, Washington, SE of Seattle, where my grandfather built a home and family still resides, it was 109F today, 37 degrees ABOVE the normal high.

Lytton, British Columbia, 231 miles north of Seattle on the Trans-Canada Highway, recorded a high temperature today of 46.6C or 115.88F.  

Since the majority of homes in the Pacific Northwest do not have air conditioning and the normal high temperature in Seattle on June 28 is 72F, it's not difficult to imagine the stress for senior citizens and others this historic heat wave has become.

The explanation is a "heat dome," the most intense on record, illustrated above.

A heat dome is a essentially a mountain of warm air built into a very wavy jet stream, with extreme undulations. When the jet stream — a band of strong wind in the upper levels of the atmosphere — becomes very wavy and elongated, pressure systems can pinch off and become stalled or stuck in places they typically would not be. 

In this case, a ridge of high pressure, which is the heat dome, has become lodged in the Pacific Northwest. It is acting as a block in the atmosphere, not allowing the weather to move. The specific type of block is called an Omega block, because it looks like the Greek letter Omega, and the hot air is pooling inside. 

SHOULD GOVERNOR ABBOTT SANITIZE OUR COUNTRY'S HISTORY FOR TEXAS STUDENTS?

"When I think back on all the crap I learned in high school

It's a wonder I can think at all

And though my lack of education hasn't hurt me none
I can read the writing on the wall"

Paul Simon, "Kodachrome"

Governor Abbott

Governor Abbott is not the sharpest tool in the shed.  His current attempt to meddle in Texas school curriculum reeks of blind Trumpism, a loyalty history will not view kindly.

Abbott signed House Bill 3979, a misguided piece of legislation designed to control the way history is taught in Texas, vowing to do even more to block the teaching of "critical race theory."

Senator Ted Cruz goes off the deep end, claiming that including the incontrovertible truth that the United States utilized and permitted black slavery for 400 years is a claim that "all white people are racists."

Cruz is not that much of a simpleton.  He's simply taking a page of the Trump playbook, playing on the fears of his political base.

Denying our country's long history of slavery is the equivalent to saying Nazi Germany's obliteration of 6,000,000 Jews in the holocaust never occurred.

Abbott is embarrassing himself and the State of Texas by trying to shield our kids from the truth of our country's history.

ABDUCTED 13 YEAR OLD BROWNSVILLE GIRL FOUND! AMBER ALERT CANCELLED!

 

Antonette Rodriguez, Clayton Philips

An Amber Alert for 13 year old Brownsville girl Antonette Rodriguez has been cancelled.

Rodriguez had reportedly been abducted Saturday afternoon by 18 year old Clayton Philips according to the alert issued by the Brownsville Police Department.

Philips and Rodriguez were found Sunday at 2 AM, resulting in Philips' arrest for kidnapping.  He remains in the Tarrant County Jail(Fort Worth).

HOW IS THE MIKE HERNANDEZ III HOTEL PROJECT COMING ALONG?

 

Mike Hernandez III

Two years ago the City of Brownsville entered into an agreement with Mike Hernandez III and the Hernandez Foundation to build a "National Franchise" hotel, i.e., Hyatt, Marriot, Omni or Hilton.

The completion date for that project was set for 12/31/2021, about six months from now.

Below is our report from two years ago, announcing the project:

Texas Tax Code 351 authorizes the collection of a Hotel Occupancy Tax on rooms rented, an addition of 7% to the room rate.

According to the code, the monies collected can be spent on:

"Revenue from the municipal hotel occupancy tax may be used only to promote tourism and the convention and hotel industry, and that use is limited to the following:

(1) the acquisition of sites for and the construction, improvement, enlarging, equipping, repairing, operation, and maintenance of convention center facilities or visitor information centers, or both;"

That's pretty much the language used in the agreement between the city and the Hernandez Foundation, a 501(c)(3), that his foundation will promote tourism and a conference facility.

The City of Brownsville agrees to convey to the foundation up to 100% of the Hotel Occupancy Tax generated the hotel on the premises up to $6,000,000 over 20 years, called a Hyatt, but the actual agreement specifies simply a "national franchise" including Hyatt, Marriot, Omni or Hilton.

An additional $3,000,000 to the Hernandez Foundation can be "justified" under the agreement, but also $2,000,000 in infrastructure, landscaping, roads, etc. for a grand total of $11,000,000 on an estimated $37,100,000 project.

The anticipated completion date is 12/31/2021.

Article 4 of the document calls for the City of Brownsville to "compensate" the Hernandez Foundation "for Conference Center Operations and marketing."

An intriguing statement in the document is that the city "finds that the Owner(Mike Hernandez III) possesses expertise in the development and operation of hotel conference facilities."(Does anyone know if Hernandez has ever actually developed or managed hotel and/or hotel conference facilities?)

Hernandez, with 90 days notice, can change the franchise of the hotel, but is limited to one of the national franchises mentioned above.

Since the city's website included no packet with supporting documents concerning the June 13, 2019 Special Meeting agreement with the Hernandez Foundation for a new hotel, we contacted City Manager Noel Bernal for more information receiving that today via Helen Ramirez.

The proposed project to be built on a 28 acre tract at 4555 N. Expressway 77/83(roughly between the Courtyard by Marriot and La Quinta Inn and Suites) would include a 138 room, 4-story Hyatt Hotel, an 8,000 sq.ft. event center and a hospitality, tourism and management teaching facility by UT-RGV.

Total investment for the project is estimated at $37,100,000 with the City of Brownsville committing no more than $11,000,000.(The city's participation includes $2,000,000 for infrastructure, roads, landscaping, etc., but also another $6,000,000 from the city's Hotel Occupancy Tax over 20 years.  An additional $3,000,000 in Hotel Occupancy Tax could be included, "if justified," thus the $11,000,000 total.)

The agreement, between the City of Brownsville and the Hernandez Foundation(Mike Hernandez III) is contingent  upon UT-RGV "choosing the site for their new teaching facility."

A dual enrollment high school program is included with a projected 60 students in the fall of 2020, 250 by 2023.

Just for comparison, an 8,000 sq. ft. event center would provide less than half the space of the current Brownsville Event Center's 17,000 sq. ft. facility at 1 Event Center and 1/20 of the McAllen Convention Center's 174,000 sq. ft.

The 4-story, 138 room hotel will total 84,284 sq. ft.

"WHAT'S HAPPENING WITH "BLOGFATHER" JERRY MCHALE?

 

Jerry McHale, sometimes called "Brownsville's blogfather," but frequently described more colorfully, has been in soul-searching mode of late.

Well into so-called retirement with a near-empty nest, Jerry is frequently introspective, even nostalgic.  

Gone is the buzz cut of the athletic coach, replaced by a shaggier, more intellectual look, timeless, but solemn.  

Septuagenarians have a lifetime of regrets, triumphs and missed opportunities, all part of the well of information a blogger can call on to understand what they think they just saw or heard. 

We give you Jerry, in historical black and white, lecturing on the art of blogging:

  

Jerry McHale

We don't walk the streets collecting information, particularly during the summer season. We scan our screens to keep informed. From these sources, we collect tidbits as well as complete stories and selected comments to complement our site.

Ultimately, we do our own thing, which can be categorized as performance art with an informational/entertainment intent. There is no set format for blogging unlike mainstream journalism. Bloggers are only limited by their imaginations. Newspapers and news cast are limited by a thousand rules and the patina of objectivity. For once and for all: There is no such thing as objectivity. Humans cannot escape their own subjectivity.

Despite the plethora of events, we are in a slow-news-day frame of mind. After the runoffs in which we vigorously participated, we're burned out, but we still feel a commitment to keep The McHale Report relevant and popular. When we turn to our picture strategy, our readers know that we are going to the bullpen. Fortunately, we have a strong bullpen but with a twist. It isn't their job to put the fire out; it is their job to keep the fire burning.

The picture strategy is a success. On the blog there is not a drop in numbers and on Facebook we receive the same average number of comments. They say a photo is worth a thousand words, but nobody wants to read a thousand words. We streamline the process for our three readers.

We are so anal retentive at The McHale Report that we try to produce something--anything--on a daily basis. Blogs fail because they fail to constantly and consistently display new posts. In order to achieve this goal, bloggers have to be versatile. 

The need to write may endure stagnant periods, but the blank computer--we will occasionally put pen to payer--always offers a challenge. This piece is simply meant as filler. No hay ganas hoy. But we need our vigilant bloggers to substitute for the Herald that is little more than a ghost newspaper these day: No editorials, no essays, no investigative reporting, no columns, practically no nothing. In Brownsville the bloggers have stepped into the void.

BROWNSVILLE METRO BREAKS GROUND FOR EAST SIDE TERMINAL

 

Brownsville Metro has broken ground on a new East Side Bus Terminal at 700 Jose Colunga Jr. Blvd. in Brownsville.

The project will be a 35,000 square foot canopy area with a pier foundation for bus drop off and pick up of passengers.

Plan specs show an initial estimated cost of $900,612.  

The design calls for "rigid or flexible concrete" base.

Temporary toilets, wash facilities and drinking water is mandated for construction personnel, but no permanent restrooms for passengers are mentioned in the specifications. 

Apparently, this new terminal will be an outdoor facility similar to the North Side Terminal adjacent to Ruben Torres Blvd.  

 

FANTASTIC PIANO DUET AT GEORGE RAMIREZ PERFORMING ARTS CENTER

Linda Chavez,
Llana Joyce Cady
"Table for Two"
George Ramirez Performing Arts Center

 

GIULIANI LOSES LAW LICENSE, KAMALA DILLYDALLIES, MAYOR PETE SHINES

Rudy Giuliani

Former Trump administration lawyer and adviser Rudy Giuliani lost his law license yesterday when a New York State Appellate Court  found that his conduct threatened "the public interest and warrants interim suspension from the practice of law."

The court's 33 page report also stated:

  "We conclude that there is uncontroverted evidence that respondent communicated demonstrably false and misleading statements to courts, lawmakers and the public at large in his capacity as lawyer for former President Donald J. Trump and the Trump campaign in connection with Trump’s failed effort at reelection in 2020.”

So, Giuliani essentially lost his license to practice law for lying, the predominant trait of the Trump administration and modus operandi of Donald himself.

It was Trump operative, Public Information Officer Kellyanne Conway, who came up with the rationalization for untruths, "alternative facts."

Trump, if ever questioned publicly about Giuliani, will likely say he "barely knew the man" or that he was just the "coffee guy."

A sizeable minority of this country will continue to believe "the Big Lie", many of them my closest friends.  

They cannot be reached, not with facts or reasoning.  Having been raised in a high control religious cult with nonsensical beliefs, I know that nothing will penetrate your belief system until you see the bull shit yourself for what it is.

WAB, what about Biden?  That will always be the defensive response by Trumpites.

Actually, Biden is what Eugene McCarthy said he would be in 1968, "an adequate President," someone who fulfills the office, but with the occasional guffaw or misspeak.  

Vice President Kamala Harris

Even Vice President Kamela Harris, who some view as Biden's possible successor, keeps squandering her opportunities to look Presidential.  Once assigned to assess the immigration crisis on the border, Harris dillydallied for days before finally scheduling a visit in El Paso, over 900 miles from Brownsville, where the problem actually exists.  Why not San Diego, Kamala?  Geez!

Of course, Harris may impress with what she says and does on the border.  We will wait and see.

Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg

The 2020 presidential candidate many found most articulate and skilled, current Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg, our country's first openly gay candidate, seems to be standing head and shoulders above all current Democrats and Republicans, potentially being considered for 2024 and beyond.  

Had Pete been the one sent to the border, the narrative would have been much different.  Buttigieg has already demonstrated he can go into a hostile environment and perform as his appearances on Fox News demonstrated. 

 

TOM JONES DOING DYLAN'S "WHAT GOOD AM I?"

 

PIANO RECITAL AT GEORGE RAMIREZ PERFORMING ACADEMY JUNE 25

 

Piano Recital
George Ramirez Performing Academy
June 25 @ 7:30 PM
FREE

DIEGO GARCIA iii DISCUSSES TEXAS SOUTHMOST COLLEGE'S HISTORY AND PROJECTS ITS FUTURE

 Great summation of the history of Texas Southmost College and a projection for it's future by Diego Garcia III of The Brownsville Beacon:

Texas Southmost College

It was established almost a century ago as The Junior College of the Lower Rio Grande Valley. Having gone through several name changes, Texas Southmost College is celebrating its 95th anniversary of serving Brownsville and the surrounding communities this year. Brownsville's junior college has gone through several trials and tribulations over the last few decades, but somehow they've managed to establish themselves as a legitimate, viable educational institution.

What was once ridiculed as "Texas Almost College" has emerged as the premier two-year institution of the Rio Grande Valley and Deep South Texas.

The school offers over 40 different associate's degrees and over 20 certifications. You can study anything from architecture to business. You can get your Texas peace officer's certification. And, what may be TSC's biggest draw, you can receive degrees that will help you secure employment in the medical field from respiratory care to the nursing profession.

Its affordable tuition rates also make the school an attractive alternative to those who an expensive, out-of-district four year institution is out of reach.

Nestled in the southern edge of historic Downtown Brownsville, the TSC campus has a rich history all her own. The campus is built among the remains of Fort Brown, an American military installation established as Fort Texas during the Mexican-American War. The city's namesake, Major Jacob Brown, was stationed at the fort and fought against the Mexican Army to help establish and keep the Rio Grande Valley as part of Texas and the United States. 

The earthworks of the original six-sided fort are on the grounds of the old Fort Brown Memorial Golf Course, but more modern buildings of the old fort dot the campus landscape, including the Commandant's House, the old hospital and morgue, the old cavalry building, and perhaps the most recognizable building on campus, Gorgas Hall. The army would continue to use Fort Brown to train cavalry soldiers until the fort was officially deactivated in 1945.

The grounds' history as an educational institution is just as colorful as its military past. Texas Southmost College operated as a junior college that would eventually enter into a partnership with The University of Texas Pan American in Edinburg. Students could stay in Brownsville and work on getting a four year degree from Pan Am after starting off in TSC. That agreement changed in the early 1990's when The University of Texas at Brownsville was established. Then the whole campus was reorganized as the University of Texas at Brownsville in partnership with Texas Southmost College. It was the same unique arrangement. Your first two years you were a TSC student, then you became a UTB student your junior and senior years.

I graduated from UTB/TSC under that system.

Eventually, the UTB and TSC partnership would break down and the two schools would split. UT Brownsville would be a stand-alone university for a few years in the early 2010's before merging with UT Pan Am to form the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley. 

The mascot situation would also be somewhat of an imbroglio. TSC's mascot when UTB entered into their partnership was the Scorpion. It then became the mascot for UTB/TSC. When the two schools split, TSC kept the scorpion mascot but changed school colors fromt  UT System orange and dark blue back to what I believe was closer to their original color scheme of yellow and a lighter blue. When UTB was flying solo, they changed to the ocelot, and when they merged with Pan Am to form UTRGV, Brownsville's ocelot and Edinburg's bronc were put away in favor of the vaquero.

TSC would regain sole use of all the buildings once shared with UT, including the old Amigoland Mall which had been acquired shortly after the mall lost almost every one of its stores. It has recently received a multi-million dollar renovation and refit. The ITEC building houses several of the technology related degree programs, including the modern drafting and architecture programs.

TSC is evolving and moving forward at breakneck speed. 

I will always be proud to have graduated from UTB/TSC. Im glad my class ring says Brownsville on it and I'm glad I remained a scorpion, but the UT System has all but abandoned Brownsville. All UTRGV athletic programs and the bulk of the degree programs are run out of Edinburg. I have always said eventually the UT System will abandon Brownsville completely and stay in Edinburg.

The only school that isn't abandoning us is TSC. If I had my way, I would like to see TSC move forward and evolve from Texas Southmost College to Texas Southmost University. I'd love to see the junior college leap into becoming a four-year university. I know it's a dream, but it'd be nice if we could establish bachelor's degree programs and graduate degrees, maybe even a legitimate certified law school program. We could restart athletic programs and recapture some of the magic we once had when our volleyball team was winning national championships. Maybe we could build a soccer team and offer scholarships to all those soccer players who have to leave home and go play at Kansas Wesleyan because the UTRGV athletic program would rather offer scholarships to students from countries from Eastern Europe. Brownsville is the chess capital of Texas. We could build a championship chess program.

Or maybe a merger with the Texas A&M University System could be in the works? Texas A&M University - Brownsville, or Texas Southmost A&M University has a nice ring to it.

And maybe, just maybe, we can instill some local pride in Brownsville's best and brightest and try to convince them to help make Brownsville a better place rather than add to the Rio Grande Valley brain drain syndrome.

If TSC would become a four-year institution, maybe we can attract a larger population from outside the Valley, prompting the need for student housing that would translate to growing downtown beyond just a fun night spot with nightclubs and restaurants. Maybe those downtown buildings can put their upper floors to use as apartments and lofts.

Brownsville is looking for someone to take us into the atmosphere. Maybe we've been looking in the wrong place. Maybe the real launchpad isn't out at Boca Chica Beach.

Maybe its been nestled in the southern edge of historic Downtown Brownsville all along.

GULF CARTEL GROUP "CYCLONES" GOES ON SHOOTING SPREE IN REYNOSA, KILLING 14 INNOCENT CIVILIANS

 

One of several crime scenes in Reynosa Saturday

Borderland Beat~Last Saturday, the city of Reynosa was again a ghost town of desolate avenues and closed shops. Messages circulating on WhatsApp asking people not to leave their homes and alert their families that the nightmare had begun again.

That day a caravan formed by trucks and sedan cars arrived in Reynosa from Río Bravo. Those who were part of the convoy toured four colonies in the east - Almaguer, Lampacitos, Unidad Obrera and Bienestar - shooting at the people they were encountering in their path.

Construction workers, workers repairing the sewer, a young newly graduated nurse, an elderly person who walked under the burning sun (and who was shot in the throat), the owner of a grocery store and a customer who was shopping at the time he passed the hitmen's armed criminal cell.

In total, 14 people whose lives were cut up on the chopping block at the whim of the murderers.

The citizens of Reynosa have learned to live between shootings that are recorded almost every day, at any time. It is common for citizens to check their social networks before leaving home or work, in order to avoid war zones: roads in which persecutions are recorded, or vehicles are burned.

It’s not strange that civilians lose their lives by being caught in the crossfire of the groups that dispute control of that border city.

But nothing like this had ever happened. The hunt for innocent people, without a criminal record or any relationship with organized crime. "Unpublished, unprecedented," said Attorney Irving Barrios.

In April 2017, a former bodyguard who had become leader of the Gulf Cartel, Julián Manuel Loisa Salinas, El Comandante Toro, was killed by the Navy.

Loisa was fleeing for the sixth time from an operation designed to stop him. On that occasion he couldn't escape. The truck in which he was fleeing crashed into a tree: he descended opening fire on the sailors. He was riddled on the spot.

His death unleashed two days of chaos and extreme violence in Reynosa. His men burned shops, cars, buses, cargo trucks. There were 32 blockades in the city.

The Gulf Cartel itself circulated audios ordering people not to leave their homes. There were versions that a group of Cyclones - one of the factions of the cartel - had been sent from Matamoros to take over the city, one of the main drug and migrant crossings: a kidnapping gold mine, "protection fee", hydrocarbon theft and extortion.

LUBY'S AT SUNRISE MALL TO REMAIN OPEN AFTER LAST MINUTE BUYOUT

Brownsville Herald staff write Rick Kelley reports that Luby's Inc. restaurants in Texas were handed a lifeline with the announcement Monday that it's 32 locations in the state would be sold to entrepreneur Calvin Gin for $28.7 million.

Luby's in Brownsville and Harlingen will remain open, "retaining most of their employees," according to the report.

HOW BROTHER WHITE AND HIGHWAY 61 EDUCATED ME ABOUT SLAVERY & RACISM

One of Hundreds of Antebellum Houses Along Highway 61

When I still believed in religion, we attended a large black church in Little Rock for ten years.  It was an education, and remains part of my heritage, background and knowledge that no one can take away or likely duplicate.

We saw the effects of racism, even sometimes experiencing so-called reverse racism, watched proud people overcome and some fail.

It's hard not to respect strong Black women, who, with a single glance can control five children, frequently including boys one foot taller.  

At the church I had frequent talks with a man named Ulysses White, forty years my senior.  Brother White, as we called him, was a tall, slim Black man, in his 70's, who could still put in a day's work as a carpenter, plumber or handy man.

Brother White was always educating me.

One day I pointed out a large Victorian style house in downtown Little Rock to Brother White.  Those houses had been owned before desegregation by rich whites, then afterward became multi-family units divided into 4, 5 or more apartments for Black families.  

Now, as downtown Little Rock was being revitalized, rich white folks were buying them up again and restoring them to their previous grandeur.  Yes, gentrification!

Brother White listened patiently to me about "these great houses" and then said abruptly:

"I never look at the houses.  I look in the back at the slave quarters."

While I said nothing in reply, I felt the full sting of those words.

But, it was not until a few months later that I actually understood.

The Crossroads~Intersection of Highways 61/49

We were in Memphis with some time on our hands, bored of sampling barbecue.  I looked at the map and saw the famous Highway 61, the legendary "blues highway," stretching from Memphis to Clarksdale, Mississippi, down through the Mississippi delta where nearly every blues performer was born.

"Mileage between cities" on the map showed only 76 miles separating Memphis and Clarksdale, just north of where Highway 49 intersected, the famous Crossroads where Robert Johnson dealt with the Devil to improve his guitar skills.

We would drive that 75 miles in our orange and white VW bus and see what we could see.  Maybe we would even run into Mr. Devil.

Almost immediately, exiting Memphis to the south, we saw huge antebellum houses, plantation houses, one after the other.  Antebellum means built before the Civil War.  

Across the highway from these houses were huge farms, measuring thousands of acres, planted in cotton and other crops.

  

Reminded of Brother White's words I started trying to see behind each house, staring at an angle before being directly in front of each house, to see the slave quarters.  I was not disappointed as, time and again, that's exactly what I saw.

Then it hit me.  These houses, some measuring several thousand square feet, could not be maintained, cleaned, meals cooked and children cared for without Black women as slaves.  

And, across the highway, these huge farms, some measured in thousands of acres, yet farmed before mechanical equipment was available, could not have been plowed, planted, cultivated and harvested without Black slave labor.

Both house and farm were far too large to be run without the nearly free labor of Black slaves.

It finally dawned on me that this whole Southern agriculturally-based society was built on the backs of Black slaves.

Below is a YouTube video of legendary bluesman Johnny Winter, accompanied by his brother Edgar on sax.  Both were born with albinism. They're playing Bob Dylan's "Highway 61 Revisited:"  

 

  

91 YEAR OLD ROBERT LOCKWOOD PLAYING "SWEET HOME CHCAGO"

This is the video I intended to include in the last story, 91 year old Robert Lockwood, just before his death, playing "Sweet Home Chicago"
 

MY LIFE-CHANGING EXPERIENCE AT THE BEALE STREET MUSIC FESTIVAL

 

Beale Street Music Festival

While I've often referred to the concert we witnessed in the early 90's as Memphis in May, it was actually the Beale Street Music Festival.

Memphis in May is much more than music with several other activities, such as the World Championship Barbecue Cooking Contest, the Great River Run and the Beal Street Music Festival.

And, the Beale Street Music Festival does not primarily feature the blues.  The year we attended the Black Crowes were featured on the main stage, but we avoided that, instead going to the Traditional Delta Blues Stage a good distance away.

In recent years, blues music has been relegated to the Coca Cola Blues Tent.

Just an observation about the audience at the Traditional Delta Blues Stage: While the City of Memphis is predominantly Black, about 65%, the audience we joined at the blues stage, numbering maybe two or three hundred, was majority white, from all over the U.S. and even Europe.  We met a man from Norway.

The Blacks in attendance seemed to be mostly family of the musicians with extreme familiarity with the music.  The whites resembled RGV bird watchers, elderly, holding expensive cameras with long lenses.  

As the music started, a very short black lady, with a wide-brimmed straw hat, tapped me on the shoulder from behind, asking if she could move in front of me.

"Yeah, sure!" I said, and spent the next two hours peering over her hat at the performers.

B.B. King's Last Ride Down Beale Street

It should be noted that B.B. King was not treated as just another performer in Memphis, but like an icon.  As he took the stage about a dozen or so from the Memphis Police Department set up around the stage in a protective stance.

Seeing the police move in, the Black lady on my left quickly got Mr. King's attention.  He looked right back at her.

"Hey B.B.!!  What's all this?  Ain't nobody want your 300 lb ass!!"

Robert Lockwood

One performer who "never escaped my mind" was commonly called Robert "Junior" Lockwood, born in Turkey Scratch, Arkansas in 1915. The nickname "Junior" referred to the legend that he was the son of Robert Johnson, the bluesman who made a deal with the devil at the Crossroads.  I read that Mr. Lockwood hated the name "Junior."

Actually, Johnson moved in with the Lockwood's mother after his birth, mentoring him in the blues, but was not his biological father. 

He was nearing 80 when I saw him, taking the stage with his elderly wife, who was directed to a chair on the stage, facing the audience. 

Lockwood, as he took the stage, shouted out:  "This is a Hell of a way to make a living!"

He then took the chair meant for him next to his wife, turned it around, sitting with his back to the audience the entire performance.

No telling what induced Lockwood to appear seemingly against his will, but I did notice other blues performers, who'd already finished their set, joining the audience.

During Lockwood's set, one bluesman in the audience kept yelling out for a particular song, not once, but several times.

Finally, Lockwood, visibly annoyed, stood up and, staring right at the man, calling him by name, shouted:  "Gawdammit!  I'm not retuning my guitar for one stupid song!"

According to his bio, Lockwood played piano in church at the age of 8, then, turned professional at the age of 15, taking his blues to fish fries, jute joints and clubs in and around Clarksdale, Mississippi.

He was one of the first black entertainers on Southern radio, appearing on the King Biscuit Hour in the 50's after making his first record in 1941.

At the age of 60, he took up a new instrument, the 12 string guitar, having a custom one made by Japanese stringed instrument makers Moony Omote and Age Sumi.  That guitar is on display at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Museum in Cleveland, Ohio.

I found this video of Robert Lockwood on YouTube playing at the age of 91, just before his death:

REPUBLICAN CHAIR MORGAN CISNEROS GRAHAM CONGRATULATES YESTERDAY'S WINNERS, CHASTISES ROMAN PEREZ FOR DIVISIVENESS

Morgan Cisneros Graham

Cameron County Republican Chair Morgan Cisneros Graham:

Congratulations

Commissioners Roy De los Santos, Cardenas, and Frank Morales on your victories tonight!

"Running for office isn’t easy, and it sometimes can be an experience that takes faith in humanity away from those who entered the arena to make a difference. Other times, it is an opportunity for leaders to emerge and inspire by not being willing to sell their souls to get ahead.

May all serve their constituents with wisdom and finish that service with our city better than when they began, and may they inspire others to do the same.

God bless you both in the years ahead."

Trump Republican Paula Ralaford Davis, from Harlingen, was not so pleased with Morgan's bipartisan congratulations, saying:

"That sounds very gracious, but in my mind, you might as well have said, "Hail Satan.'"

In response, Morgan courageously called out the above comment by her fellow Republican:

That’s an incredibly rude thing to say, and ridiculous.

This election has brought out the worst in some of you. I’ve seen more wickedness and rudeness and snarling in the past week and a half than in years of being involved and serving at various levels as a volunteer. Some folks have become outright bullies, liars, and cowards.

Wishing that God guide leaders isn’t “hailing Satan” nor is congratulating people for their victory. Full stop, Paula."

Morgan, continuing he discussion of avoiding divisiveness in the local Republican Party, mentioned former Republican-in-good-standing Roman Perez as someone to avoid like the plague:

Roman Perez

"Also, Roman's definition of “viable” is incorrect. I suggest not believing anything he says that is truly intended to turn people against others. You can ask those who have been involved in Brownsville and Republican politics for some years, and they’ll usually cringe. Tad, James, Maggie...they were around the last time Roman caused discord and division in the party with my predecessor before having to cease participating as nobody wanted to associate with him. He’s wicked."