No time for the blog... (7)

... just more photos. I'm almost current again.

"Billiards and Pool" ghost sign / Coca Cola ad - a non-railroad photo I snapped in Wichita Falls, TX during a railroad-themed photo shoot.

Dr. Pepper sign / storefront - Venus, TX

Chris Berman helps us make sense of the Cowboys' final game. He left out the phrase "Jerry Jones is a &$#%-ing retard", but we were all thinking it...

The Gourds at Dan's Silverleaf (Denton) on Jan 15. Highlights included a cover of Neil Young's "For the Turnstiles" --> segue into --> "Clear Night"...

... another highlight was the "Lowrider" instrumental during "High Highs & Low Lows". Viva Dem Gourds!

Check back soon for more...

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np: Corb Lund Band - "5 dollar bill"

details & dating

Behind the locomotives

Recently, I stopped for a few minutes south of Tower 55 near downtown Fort Worth to watch a Union Pacific freight roll by. With the locomotives heading directly into the sun at solar noon, and a distracting background of freeway overpasses, the resulting photo wasn't much to get excited about. But I had my camera ready all the same, just in case I happened to notice an interesting railroad logo or moniker as the cars rolled past. The phrase, "Sign up now; graffiti contest ends soon" came to mind as I counted no fewer than 15 monikers gracing the sides of the cars.

Wonder what's behind this trio of UP units...

... no less than 15 Paintstik sketches and signatures...

Repeat visitors to this blog will recall that I have discussed freight car monikers (hobo & railway worker drawings on the side of freight cars) before:

July 5, 2008
February 6, 2008
January 10, 2008
December 22, 2007
July 25, 2007

I continue to watch for them and photograph the ones I find interesting, whether I've seen them before or not. As I complete the 13th year of my railroading career and grow increasingly weary of look-alike locomotives on the Class One megasystems, freight car scrawls are something that help me stay interested in going back to the tracks to watch trains.

These days, monikers are attracting something of a cult following among graffiti artists and proponents, many of whom view and respect them as the "original" freight train graffiti, the forerunner of today's proliferation of aerosol spray graf. Witness the following albums on Flickr, for example:


http://www.flickr.com/photos/true2death/sets/72157603840278784/

http://flickr.com/photos/stealw0rker/sets/72157605242646773/

http://flickr.com/photos/seetwist/collections/72157600000655012/

Next time you get stopped at a crossing for an approaching choo-choo, instead of turning your car around and trying to beat it to the next crossing, stick around and watch. You never know what will be behind those locomotives.

Other detail shots...

ACI tag

Chicago & Eastern Illinois buzz-saw

Huh-huh... it says...

Whiskey goes dating

As my recent divorce progressed through its final stages, I began to wonder what kind of women (if any) I'd be able to attract when I began dating again. Chalk it up to low self-esteem and a battered sense of self-worth, but I just could not comprehend the idea of women being attracted to me or wanting to make me a part of their lives. But the combination of my weight loss, a new attitude a new "look", and support from my friends helped to restore my self-confidence to the point that I decided that I was ready. I quickly found that lack of interest was NOT going to be a problem. I also quickly discovered that not everyone who showed an interest was compatible with my wants, needs, and interests. But that's part of the fun of dating and meeting new people, right? Even though I didn't make a romantic connection with everyone I've met, I'm glad that I've made some new friends... at least one of whom holds a job with a certain amount of municipal authority (Pssst... hey, Detective R.W., do you think you could use your "influence" to convince a certain north Texas police department to dismiss my recent speeding ticket?)

A text message representation of my recent dating life. Alas, none of these women would end up being the "right one" for me.

So who is the "right one" for me? Well, I will admit to having met someone I've been spending quite a bit of time with lately. But I don't want to give away ALL my secrets all at once. Keep checking back and you'll learn more soon.

Sports scene

Thanks once again to WBAP's Hal Jay, who keeps Cowboys fans laughing when all we want to do is cry. Hal decided to make "lemondade" out yesterday's "lemon" (the loss to the St Louis Rams) thusly:

"I discovered yesterday that my tv would block a vodka bottle from being thrown through the wall!"

And...

"The local U-Haul dealer is offering a 25% moving discount to anyone who can prove that they're the Cowboys coach."

Well put, my friend... I have a feeling I'll be turning to Hal for some more cheering up during the next few Monday mornings.

Meanwhile, the Tampa Bay Rays have made it to the World Series. For those of you who are even more "casual" baseball fans than I am, or for those who just haven't been paying attention, four out of the four (yep -- all of 'em, 100%) expansion teams since 1993 have reached the World Series. This year it's the Rays, last year it was the Rockies, in 2003 the Marlins won the W.S. (and also won it in 1997, their fifth season) and in 2001 it was the D-backs (in just their fourth season).

And what have the Texas Rangers, the poster-boy examples of perpetual mediocrity in the AL West, done for us lately (besides being swept in consecutive divisional playoff series against the Yankees in 1998 and 1999 (and only winning one game against the Yanks in the '96 playoffs)? They've been in Arlington since 1972, are one of only three major league teams to have never played in the World Series, and have never even won a single playoff series. Now that the fourth expansion team of the past 15 years has reached the Series, Texas Rangers fans should be rioting in the streets. At least they have been voting with their wallets... the season attendance totals at "Rangers Ballpark in Arlington" -- below 2 million for the first time since 1995 -- should tell the owners everything they need to know... right?

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np: Moe Bandy - "Roll on, Big Mama"

Perspective

You can't spell "crocodile tears" without "T.O."

God bless WBAP's Hal Jay for putting things in proper perspective yesterday morning following the Cowboys' playoff loss to the Giants.

"Is this worse than Vietnam?"

"Would you rather wake up in the morning with Jessica Simpson lying next to you, or win the Super Bowl?"

And my favorite: "Do y'all think this is worse than Britney Spears' parenting abilities"?

The playoff loss was a bitter pill to swallow, but that doesn't change the fact that this year's team gave us a great regular season (well, the first 12 games, anyway) of entertaining football. Their 13-3 record exceeded my expectations for the season by 3 or 4 wins, and they were a fun team to watch. At this point, the phrase "wait til next year" sounds like little more than a stomach-turning, half-assed attempt at an optimistic outlook, but really... what else are we to do, other than try to keep things in their proper perspective?

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np: Townes Van Zandt - "The Catfish Song"

Cowboys, Itunes, freeway philosophy

The road to the Super Bowl goes through Dallas

NOC Thursday night cheering section.

Some of us had to work Thursday night and didn't get to enjoy the Cowboys' victory over Green Bay. That's ok; if things work out like most of the analysts are predicting, I'll be enjoying Cowboys football well into January, and possibly even a Super Bowl showdown with the hated Patriots. I still don't think Dallas is good enough to beat New England, but I think I'll like the Cowboys' chances against them in February better than I did in October.

Hopefully, the Dallas coaching staff was paying attention during the New England - Philly game a couple Sundays ago, because Philly had actually figured out how to move the ball against them. I don't think the Dallas "D" can stop the Patriots' Brady and Moss and Welker, but the Cowboys might be able to keep pace if they throw a lot of passes up the middle to Jason Witten.


instant gratification

Do you like itunes as much as I do? Ive really been impressed with how easy it is to organize my music with Itunes -- and I'm working with a catalog of thousands of songs. I can set up no end of playlists, not only to install on my ipod but to burn to cd's. And then there's the itunes store, where I can purchase and download music for around 99 cents per song. Beats the hell out of plunking down 18 bucks for the new Foo Fighters cd just to get the one or two decent songs I really want to listen to. And their music selection is nothing short of amazing. I've found songs there that I couldn't find anywhere else. Think of a song -- any song -- and chances are, you can find and download it from itunes.

On Wednesday something prompted me to recall some songs I heard on KTCU, our local college station, a few years ago. One was a cover of the Beastie Boys' "Fight for your right (to party)" performed in a "jazz / lounge music" style... the other was a version of the Oasis song "Wonderwall", covered in similar fashion. (Yes, I'm a big fan of the cheesy cover, whether it's the Dead Kennedys taking on Johnny Paycheck's "Take this job and shove it" or Siouxsie and the Banshees handling "Helter Skelter" by the Beatles. The more overdone and outrageous, the better. ) The thing was, I didn't know who performed them. No problem... a quick search, first on Google, then in the itunes catalog, turned up exactly what I was looking for: "Fight for your right" by lounge-cover guru (ahem) "Richard Cheese", and "Wonderwall" by the Mike Flowers Pops. Ironically, I hated the Oasis version of "Wonderwall" (along with everything else Oasis ever did), but the Mike Flowers cover is kind of catchy and hip -- they make it sound as if it was written to be played in "lounge" style. I just wish I could get their video to this song out of my head... I never should have watched this on youtube, and you shouldn't either.... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0P0xa0e7M3w


As far as the Richard Cheese stuff, how in the world did this guy escape my attention all these years? His name is certainly reflective of his work; it's hard to get more "cheesy" (or ridiculous) than his cover of, say... "Baby Got Back" by Sir Mix-a-Lot. Check out a few samples on itunes and you'll see what I mean -- if you don't laugh yourself silly. His lounge covers run the gamut from "Like a Virgin" (Madonna) to "Creep" (Radiohead) to "Enter Sandman" (originally by Metallica, with the background harmony from the 1950s classic "Mr. Sandman" added as a twist) -- all of which I'm proud to say are now installed on my itunes.

Anyway, even though it took me a few years to get around to trying to find these songs, when I finally got the ball rolling, the actual process -- from initial search to sound samples to downloads to listening to the complete songs on my own computer -- took no more than about five minutes. If only everything in life were that simple.


Still, and somewhat inexplicably, Itunes doesn't always have everything I'm looking for. But if I can't find a song on itunes, I'm usually lucky enough to find it on ebay. I've been trying to bulk up my collection of early-1990's college / alternative tunes, the stuff I remember hearing during my freshman year of college on KDGE when they actually played stuff more "cutting edge" than Blink 182 . A couple of songs, "Number One Dominator" by Top, and "Here at the home" by Tribe, were unavailable on itunes, but I found both of them on ebay (conveniently with "buy it now" options). A couple of clicks, a payment to Paypal, and three or four days later the cd's were in my mailbox. Not exactly instant gratification, but easier than driving to a half a dozen specialty music stores trying to find the right cd's. How did we ever get by without the internet?

philosophy at 75 mph

Heading back to Massachussetts? Northbound on I-35W...

How do others perceive north Texas? I was pondering that one day a couple weeks ago when a van with Massachussetts plates passed me heading north on I-35W. I was on my way home from lunch; they might have been on their way home, too -- a dozen states away. And I wondered -- does north Texas (its landscape, its people, its roadside scenery) seem as different and strange and wonderful to them as Boston or Wyoming or southern California seemed to me?

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np: Reel Big Fish - cover of Duran Duran's "Hungry like the wolf"

nr: John Steinbeck - East of Eden

Stockton shortlines, cutting it close

Stockton shortlines

By mid-afternoon on Monday the 22nd, I felt like I had covered the M&ET fairly well. So I headed up to Stockton to see if I could track down the Stockton Terminal & Eastern. I found one of their switch jobs shoving cars around with MP15DC # 777.

Stockton Terminal & Eastern 777 at Stockton, CA

You'd think this would be common sense, but I guess not...

Later, I worked my way up to Lodi and happened upon a Central California Traction job heading south. I spent the last 30 minutes of daylight chasing them back to Stockton.

Central California Traction shop building in Stockton

Central California Traction GP18 1790 heads south between Lodi and Stockton.

My day wasn't over yet... I had a motel reservation for the night down in Monterey, so now I had about 2 hours of driving ahead of me. Tuesday's plans... sightseeing in Monterey, visiting the National Steinbeck Center in Salinas, and driving south along the coast on Highway 1. Stay tuned for the reports...

How I almost missed my flight to California

So, I scheduled my California flights way back in August or September. After checking the Cowboys' football schedule, I saw that they were lined up to play a noon game on Sunday the 21st against the Vikings. So I picked a flight with a 6:40 pm departure, which I figured would allow me to watch the game at home and still have plenty of time to get to the airport without missing anything. On the Friday before my trip, I learned that the game's start time had been pushed back to 3:15. Dammit! The whole reason I was taking an evening flight was so I could watch the game. Now I wouldn't even be able to see the end of the game at the airport before I had to board my plane!

Well, Sunday finally rolled around, and I'll admit that I found the noon to 3:15 time frame quite useful to pack for the trip. And I managed to watch the first half of the game (it was kind of ugly and not really worth watching anyway) at home before I left for the airport. I listened to most of the 3rd quarter on the radio, and once I got checked in, I found an airport bar that had the game on and I settled in to watch part of the 4th. I was about halfway through my second beer when I began nervously checking the clock on my cell phone. 6:05... 6:10... 6:15... where had my waitress gone? Oh, there she is... taking a large order of food to another table. Now she's talking with the customers... now she's taking someone else's order... She passed back and forth several times without looking my way. I finally flagged her down, got my check, threw down a few bills down on the table, and headed off to my gate, now with insufficient time to purchase a bottle of water at the newsstand or even take a leak before boarding. (Incidentally, the game was down to about the 2 minute warning, so I did get to watch most of the 4th... and it only cost me eleven bucks for those two beers....)

I checked the departure boards. "Flight 1535 to San Jose -- FINAL BOARDING" Didn't they know I was trying to watch the game? So I high-tailed it to the gate (D-20) that showed on the board. People were coming UP the jet-way, exiting a plane that had just arrived. What the hell? My flight hadn't already left, had it? I asked the gate agent. "Oh, that's been moved to gate D-15". I had visions of the plane backing away from the gate as I hurried up to the counter. Pretty much moving at a full sprint by now, I made it there in time... barely. It wasn't too hard to find my seat -- it was the only empty one! Almost everybody else was already settled in for the flight. Wheeeewwww. There's nothing like the "rush" of cutting something a little too close.

Oh, and how 'bout them Cowboys?

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np: R.E.M. "There she goes again" / Monday Night Football - Steelers vs. Ravens

nr: John Steinbeck - East of Eden

Fading ads

A couple years ago, I made a daylight trip to the Deep Ellum area of Dallas to photograph the side of a brick building which featured a fading advertisement for the Texas & Pacific Railway. The T&P was merged into the Missouri Pacific system in 1976, but the railroad had stopped offering passenger train service in the late '60s, so that ad had to be at least 35 or 40 years old when I photographed it.

A Texas & Pacific mural graces the side of a building in the Deep Ellum area east of downtown Dallas - December 2005.


Recently, I received an email from a guy in New York who had seen that photo on my website. Frank Jump produces the Fading Ad Blog, which documents fading advertisements on the sides of buildings in New York and elsewhere. That's part of the beauty of the internet; once you start posting stuff, there's no telling who you'll hear from next, where they'll be emailing you from, and what they'll want to discuss. In Frank's case, he was interested in posting a few of my photos on his blog and linking to my site. I sent him several photos of another interest of mine -- fading ads and logos on the sides of freight cars.

In exploring Frank's blog and related websites, I've discovered plenty of interesting photos and commentary on topics ranging from fading ads to Rosario Dawson (quite possibly my new "dream woman"... so long, Britney!) to gay marriage and AIDS activism. And I've started keeping a more vigilant eye out for fading ads here in north Texas.

Here are a few shots I took on Saturday of the grain elevators in Saginaw. (Note: for the purposes of fading ad documentation, I don't limit "fading ads" to actual advertisements like the T&P mural, but I also allow the term to include fading names of buildings' previous owners.)

Horizon flour mill - Saginaw, TX - September 2007

Union Equity logo on grain elevator -- now owned by ConAgra -- Saginaw, TX


Saginaw's Attebury elevator displays fading "Far-Mar-Co" lettering

Watch for more fading ad photos coming soon, both on Frank's Fading Ad Blog, and right here in Whiskey, Texas.

how 'bout them Cowboys!

Well, the Cowboys unleashed an ass-whupping on the Bears last night, winning by a score of 34-10. The Cowboys look pretty good so far this year. Even with a 3-0 record (with only one win coming against a quality opponent -- Chicago), I'm beginning to hear lots of talk of Dallas making a Super Bowl run this year. I'd say that's a little premature... seeing footage of Bills quarterback J.P. Losman suffering a knee injury in yesterday's game against New England reminded me that the Cowboys might only be one key injury away from finishing the year with a .500 record. But if the team stays healthy, I see no reason why they shouldn't at least make the playoffs. They'll need to watch out for Philadelphia and Washington... both teams have had good games and bad ones so far. And Green Bay has looked strong so far this year; they do have a game against the Pack looming on the schedule in November.

It's good to see Romo continue to perform strongly -- each quality performance lends further confirmation that the games he helped win last year were no "flukes" -- he really does have some great talent. And I think that the new coaching staff (Wade Phillips, Jason Garrett, et al) has made a big difference in the players' attitudes, and obviously in the team's game strategy. I'm missing Bill Parcells even less than I thought I would. In short, I feel better about the team's chances this year than I've felt at any time since the end of the Jimmy Johnson era. Keep up the good work, 'Boys... I'm looking forward to December and January... then we can start talking about the Super Bowl.

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np: Tennessee Ernie Ford - "Sixteen Tons"

nr: Ayn Rand - The Fountainhead

no fun, national anthem

The No Fun League

So, the NFL fined Terrell Owens $7500 for his end zone celebration last Sunday. Following a touchdown he scored during the Cowboys' game against Miami, Owens propped himself against the goal post and pretended to use the football as a video camera, "filming" signals in the manner of the New England Patriots. All I can say is, "Where the hell is the NFL's sense of humor?" Sure, football is about sportsmanship and being a team player and all that, but isn't it also about entertainment? I don't know about you, but I sure got a good laugh out of it. Why not just hand out the 15-yard penalty (which in itself is probably even a tad too harsh), let the Cowboys' coaching staff handle the situation as they see fit, and be done with it? The moniker "No Fun League" -- as some are referring to the NFL these days -- certainly seems appropriate here.


The "National Anthem of Texas"?

I recently received a Texas Music newsletter which contained a link to a Lone Star Beer promotion. Lone Star is encouraging music fans to help select the "national anthem of Texas" Participants are presented with a list of a few dozen "Texas" songs to choose from -- from classics by Bob Wills, Willie and Waylon, and Tanya Tucker to lesser known, more contemporary tunes by Cooder Graw and Cory Morrow. I scrolled down the list, planning to enter a quick vote for Pat Green's "I Like Texas". Alas, it wasn't listed (although some other Pat Green songs were). I was trying to figure out why, and then it occurred to me that in "I Like Texas", Mr. Green voices a preference for a competing brand: "I like to pick my guitar down in Luckenbach, and drink that Shiner Bock beer..." I guess that was enough for the folks at Lone Star to scratch it off the list. Too bad, 'cause it's a great Texas song. Sure, you can argue about Pat Green being a sellout and appealing to the lowest common denominator of Texas music fans and all that, but it's still a good song (and from his pre-sellout days, at that). I was glad to see that Doug Sahm's "Beautiful Texas Sunshine" made the list -- it's one of my favorite "Texas" themed songs. But I don't see it being a "national anthem" type of song. So in the end, I ended up not voting. "I Like Texas" really should have been one of the choices, even if it does advertise a superior product.

I actually remember the last time I drank a Lone Star -- probably seven or eight years ago at an Old 97s concert at the Ridglea. A guy offered to buy me a beer if I saved his spot for him while he went to the bar. When I agreed, he asked "what are you drinking?" I held up my Lone Star can and he asked, "Why are you drinking that?"
"'Cause it's cheap." (Lone Stars were a buck-seventy-five at the Ridglea; every other brand was at least two-fifty).
The guy insisted on returning from the bar with something other than a Lone Star. "Well, do you drink anything else?"
"Sure, how about a Shiner?"

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np: Junior Brown - "Semi Crazy"

nr: Ayn Rand - the Fountainhead