Texas

TX seems pretty fuckin' cool to me, I just wish it wasn't so hot.

Though I'm a conventional Yankee and say I'd hate it, I'm sure I'd really love it if I went down there. But I won't because it's too damn hot.

The place?...Don't know much about it, was an independent country once?

Houston is mostly a dud, based on what I've heard. Disgustingly hot and humid, with nothing & no-one to counteract the disgusting weather.

Oh, and San Antonio is lovely.

Except that, um, Chinatown isn't the coolest part of New York. It's a one trick pony that would be great if it weren't for obnoxious 20 something male hipsters deeming it "fucking awesome" and insisting on hanging there all the time.

Most things would be improved if scenesters and hipsters were shot.

Time to revive the one thread that's just called "Texas." I do love the place. (Except when it's hot. But anyways.)

I got all mushy about the song "Galveston" on the Isaac Hayes thread (and I was wrong about how long that line hangs in the air... it just feels like a lot longer, because it's such a punch), and later I found this Jimmy Webb performance and banter on YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bibi9hyZQ6Y

Jimmy, God love ya, but Galveston "was our version of the Riviera"? Whose, and when was this? Where did you pick up that brochure? He admits that he didn't realize it was a working-class town until he went there, and even that's kinda the understatement of the 20th century. The place has been a depressed, haunted shell of a city since 1900, when the storm hit, but more importantly since 1914, when the Houston ship channel opened (or even since 1902 when Teddy Roosevelt approved a million federal dollars to dredge the stinky motherfucker in the first place), making that the major port in the region and leaving Galveston a tourist town with (at best) only local tourists. Fucked and fucked again, that city was, and what's sad is that it could have and SHOULD have been the Riviera of the south. It should have been a more prosperous New Orleans, and with vastly better weather. (No personal offense, New Orleans.) Instead of having neighborhoods filled with late-Victorian architecture and deliciously seedy history (heh), it instead has premium, really amazing examples of Victorian architecture here and there, with little history after 1900 save for perhaps offensive disrepair, philanthropic restoration, and then hordes of tourists. At best, the old Galveston is a museum. (This book of photos is nearly historic in itself, as it inspired some to find these decaying homes and churches and restore them.)

I can almost imagine that Galveston -- New Orleans with chili instead of gumbo? -- but there's no point to it. Fiction writers love the scenario where Germany won WWII, because there are cogent or ironic points to be made. There's no story in an alternate history where Galveston wasn't devastated by a storm and then devastated again by a competing city. It would only result in a very beautiful, very historic, and probably very expensive city. (Which would by now have more than one evacuation route off the island, but hey... show me a city with no money, and I'll show you one with shitty infrastructure, even where lives are concerned.) Even so, just to know what might have been makes me... oddly... miss it.

Is there a word for missing something in the past that never existed? Do the French have a word for that?

haha, back when Chinatown was the "coolest part" of New York. How things chhhaaannggeee

(change meaning there isn't an inch of Manhattan below 190th street that's affordable to anyone not super wealthy, section 8, or found their apartment through MySteRioUs ConNecTions "dude you're not paying 400/month for a 8 bedroom in the East Village? You got ripped off!")

This thread is about Texas.

(but... try queens, just north of williamsburg. not a lot of difference in train time, way cheaper, quieter neighbors. So I hear from a friend who's there now and has been for a couple years. But I should shut up or "queens" might lose its glorious stigma. If it hasn't already.)

this is the thread where I talk about places I do not live.

:/

Austin's a college town that likes to pretend it's a big city. I love it for the most part except that it's been overrun by interlopers lately who insist on calling South Congress SoCo and South Lamar SoLa and it's like Jesus give me back my movie theater and diner and cheap rent and go back to your fuckin coast already.

Houston is crazy. People are super friendly unless there's a crime uptick, at which point your neighbor might not lend you a cup of sugar. DFW is Satan's armpit.

San Antonio is really interesting. It's a tourist town, which means that you're dealing with lots of people who just wanna see the Rivercenter Mall and the Alamo and shit. Because the town relies on the tourist trade, though, a huge percentage of the population works in the service industry, so you've got a really tight-knit and thriving community of blue collar artists and writers and musicians down there too. After the mariachi band that plays the mall finishes their shift they go down to the in-store at Hogwild to hear the local punk band, that sort of thing. The natives are comfortable in their own skin, and they're comfortable with their city. It's not like Austin whose population and municipality are suffering an identity crisis. I miss it a little bit.

and yo that "go back to your fuckin coasts" bit up there wasn't a shot at yall costal people, just sayin i'm a little resentful of some gentrification that's been goin on is all.

Is there a word for missing something in the past that never existed?

Saudade?

"you may all go to hell, and i will go to texas" -- davy crockett

Status update from my cousin:

"Just saw a guy riding a horse along the highway talking on a cell phone. Gotta love texas."

I'll probably never go back to texas

The current Texas textbook brouhaha is telling.

I think I've finally gotten comfortable with Texas.

The current Texas textbook brouhaha is telling.

I'm not sure I understand the brouhaha. There's something about taking Christmas out of Social Studies textbooks, which is silly to get up in arms over since I believe the proposal is to take all religious holidays out of Social Studies textbooks, not just Christmas. That's not to say it's a great idea, but it's not something that Christians have any right to get up in arms over personally. It would be a unilateral and non-denominational removal of religious holidays. (I'm surprised they're not upset about the inclusion of any other religious holidays.)

And then there's something about giving history a racial context. That's where I get really confused. What are the arguments here?

Less about Christmas, more about some sorta Leninist/Stalinist attempt to politicize history texts

So it's about Cesar Chavez?

among other things

Or rather, it's about including labor leaders as part of history, I'm guessing? They are, you know.

So basically the right wingers want to exclude from Social Studies textbooks anyone who didn't agree with their laissez-faire capitalist philosophy?

start here: http://www.texastribune.org/stories/2010/jan/12/hijacking-history/

Sakes alive.

i have telescope work in west texas in august. i get three days off in the middle of the trip, which i will spend in marfa, so that's covered. (although i will have questions soon about exactly what to do/where is good.)

i can also take a couple of days at the end trip. i haven't chosen where to fly into from europe yet. options are el paso, austin or san antonio. i would probably take my break at the end in whichever town i flew to.

el paso upsides: never been, 3 hour drive to/from the observatory. downsides: don't know anyone there or anything about the place except the juarez gang stuff. austin and san antonio are more like 8-9 hour drives, but i know people there to hang with. i have done the tourist stuff in san antonio and seen austin's beautiful 6th street. i like food and beer.

p.s. what el paso gains in travel time it pretty much loses in 3 leg flights from europe.

Any state that could produce Molly Ivins could not be all bad. Any state that could produce so many louts, bullies and ignoramuses could not be all good.

no one? basically is el paso a good place for a two day solo break?

i've been to el paso before, moving a friend into her new apartment. i don't know it's kind of a hard nut to crack as a city, i think. of course we didn't do much except help her find a place. beautiful in that austere west texas way, for sure.

thanks, my impression too. still on the fence.

El Paso is safe (despite the cross-border violence) but kind of dull. I don't know anyone who's ever spent time there for fun, but quite a few who moved to Dallas to get away from EP.

I'd go SA or Austin if possible.

ha well my SA friends are awol, and after a bit more thought, i decided not to tack on a weekend drinking and eating in austin (this will be the last leg of a 1 month, 10 flight trip). so 24 magical hours in el paso it is!

https://fbcdn-sphotos-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-snc6/282932_319547218130271_781611209_n.jpg

i arrive sunday

midland? my dads hometown. sucks.
if you find old streets named after universities my dads father built those houses

no, the mountains. it will be a comfy 100 there.

oh good! a friend of mine from HS went to college out in Alpine which is right in the thick of them mountains, it's v pretty there

alpine is awesome. glad we at least made it to june before it hit 100 this year.

i have been there a few times, but this is the hottest it's been for me.

i miss texas :(

i'm going to texas (houston & austin) for work in early december. i also have 6 days holiday i need to use. should i take them in texas? i don't think i know anyone there.

caek - how was it, what did you do?

it's silly season

Republican Leader Tanya Robertson Calls For Statewide Ballot On Secession From USA

http://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/texas/article/texas-independence-secession-republic-TNM-texian-6654896.php

would be hilarious if Texas seceded and Mexico immediately invaded, then the US said "you're on your own, guys, just like you wanted"