Wildlife Spottings and Urban Sprawl

A few weeks ago a deer ran into our car while trying to escape the giant, evil-looking land-moving machines that were plowing their away across her habitat so that another endless tract of suburbs could be built. Yes, the land the deer lived on is being parceled, and streets with insipid names like Sunnyview Court and Meadow Park Lane are being built. Yesterday morning Martina and I saw a wild turkey by the side of the road not far from where the deer ran into the side of our car, and it is clear that all of the animals in the area are moving toward a final stand of trees, which will most likely be turned into houses once the fracking of the area is complete and the land's natural resources have been removed. Then, when the animals have nowhere to go, the residents will start complaining of the nuisance animals such as coyotes and raccoons that will be roaming the neighborhood trying to survive, when in reality the real nuisance happens to be the residents themselves and the short-sighted builders who stack people one on top of the other knowing that the roads will be hopelessly congested, that the wildlife will be eradicated, and that they are creating yet another food desert. If you hate urban sprawl as much as I do, please contact your local council of government and let them know.

  

Booked Up: Purveyor of Rare and Obscure Texana

Yesterday Martina and I rode out to Archer City to spend the afternoon at Booked Up, the ranchlands' most venerable antiquarian bookstore. When we arrived in town, an Archer County Rodeo banner hung from the awning of Building #1. Curiously enough, the last time I was at Booked Up was almost a year ago to the day. I say this with some certainty because a compadre and me stood under the same red, white, and blue banner and watched the rodeo parade after the bookstore closed.

When I visit Booked Up, I usually have a very specific focus. For example, since much of my fiction centers around immigrant communities, on previous visits I largely purchased accounts of 19th century immigrant life in Texas. On this visit I was looking for accounts written by my grandparents' generation. In the end, I purchased a couple of memoirs. One is by a sharecropper raised in the Depression era (published by UNT Press) and the other is by a North Texas rancher. The rancher's memoir is of the DIY variety and has a cardstock cover and tape for its spine. Only 150 copies of this memoir were printed, which I only know because someone (most likely Larry McMurtry) wrote it in pencil in the corner of the first page beside the price.

In Eddie "Sarge" Stimpson's sharecropper memoir, which is called My Remembers, something in the introduction really struck me. I learned that Preston Road in Dallas is the oldest road running north to south in this part of Texas. It was originally an old buffalo trail, which in turn made it a pre-columbian Native American hunting trail. During the Republic of Texas period, the road was used as a route from Fort Preston to Austin, and after the Civil War former slaves used the road to find a new life in the north. Today it is hard to imagine Preston Road being anything other than a major thoroughfare going through an affluent part of Dallas. It is hard to imagine that Preston Road was once a white rock trail passing through the prairie. Reflecting on this, I can not help but think about the song "No More Buffalo" by James McMurtry ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tIwfI3k8kV0 ).

Visiting Booked Up is always a treat. Wandering around the place gives me the same feeling I had when I first saw Goethe's library in the Goethe House in Weimar, Germany. At the risk of sounding like a romantic, there is just a glow of Apollonian genius surrounding this West Texas bookstore. And, for a writer like me, it is a place where I can find rare and obscure volumes that help me improve in my craft. Thus, it perhaps comes as no surprise that I love to make a pilgrimage to Archer City whenever I get the chance.

   

Terry Allen: Texas Artist and Songwriter

The other day I met an old guitar picker who got to talking about Terry Allen and playing his songs. Allen is from West Texas and is probably best known among country music fans for the song "Amarillo Highway." Allen's concept album, Juarez, has been called the greatest country concept album of all time, right there beside Willie Nelson's Red-Headed Stranger. Allen is also an accomplished artist and his work is displayed in places like the Met and MoMA. He was friends with Guy Clark, and one of Clark's final wishes was for Allen to use his ashes in a sculpture.

Here's a link to Allen's album Lubbock (On Everything).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qnS7uiXlCk0 

Battle of Palo Alto

While in Brownsville recently, Martina and I visited the site of the Battle of Palo Alto. We are not exactly military enthusiasts, but we do occasionally visit the sites of famous battles. For those not familiar with it, the Battle of Palo Alto was the first major engagement of the Mexican-American War (1846-1848), and it was largely a cannon battle. The US, though outnumbered, won the battle due to agile cannon maneuvers.

I had always thought that the old paintings of the battle were stylized, but after visiting the place, I quickly realized that they were not as stylized as I originally believed. What struck me was the sharpness of the grass, the abundance of cacti, and the size of the soaptree yuccas in that part of the country. Although I did not see any, there must have certainly been rattlesnakes present. For the soldiers it must have been miserable trying the cross the battlefield much less fighting the enemy. 

Cowboy Jamboree Magazine

Cowboy Jamboree is an online magazine with Texas ties. This nascent magazine publishes western and rural writing, and each issue is built around a theme. Number One was called "Oh, Death!" and Number Two is entitled "Flood Waters." The founder, Adam Van Winkle, was born and raised in Texoma and formerly taught at the tertiary level in Fort Worth. Contributors have included Spur Award nominee James Reasoner, the Iowa Review's Tim McGinnis Award for Humorous Writing winner Jason Half-Pillow, and Sterling H. Cash.

You might want to give it a gander.

http://www.cowboyjamboreemagazine.com/ 

New Indie Bookstore on the Block

In the age of Amazon, in a time where it seems that brick and mortar bookstores are teetering on the edge of extinction, a new independent bookstore has emerged in Fort Worth. The bookstore is called The Last Word, and it is at 615 South Jennings Street on the Near South Side. Martina and I visited on Saturday, and we were pleased to learn of their Around the World in Eighty Books book club and see books by both local and world authors.

Martina and I purchased a copy of Aledo native E.R. Bills' Texas Obscurities as well as a copy of Dona Barbara by former Venezuelan president Romulo Gallegos, with a forward by Larry McMurtry. The inventory is impeccably chosen, and we were pleased to see books by authors such as Haruki Murakami and Milan Kundera as well as great titles by local authors and even books from Dallas' Deep Vellum press. If you get the chance, stop by The Last Word.

https://www.facebook.com/thelastwordbooks/