Category Archives: Uncategorized

Mardis Gras Bands 2012

February 21, 2012 by Jeff C | Comments Off

As I mention in my main Mardis Gras post, some of the best parts of Mardis Gras parades are the New Orleans area high school bands. The best ones are often from the mostly-black high schools. I started trying to get some interesting pictures of some of the band members as they marched by. Remember: I’m a long-time band nerd myself. These groups had an amazing number of twirlers, pom poms, cheerleaders, drum majors, rifle carriers, sword bearers and everything else. Good to see that band was apparently considered “cool” at these schools. I sure thought they were.

The two pictures with several kids acting a little crazy was the culmination of a “duel” of sorts between two big New Orleans bands. The two bands set up in an intersection, facing one another, and took turns doing their best to outplay their rivals. They were both great — amazingly so for high school bands who had just finished three-hour parades. Toward the end, one group ran forward to taunt the other. I was standing right between the two groups — right in the middle of the craziness. You can see the New Orleans police standing there as if to keep the peace, but it was all in good fun.

The Phoenix Rises!

December 14, 2011 by Jeff C | Comments Off

If I remember my mythologies correctly, the phoenix is a creature that rises triumphantly from the ashes of its predecessor.

Recall that my car recently (and spectacularly) burned to a crisp. Ouch. With insurance check in hand, I set out to find a replacement — generally looking for one of similar vintage, color, mileage, etc., because I had loved the old one and hoped to keep it forever. Well, I’m back on the road. Crazy part? The replacement I found is the hotrod version (SL55), so I’ve got (pointlessly) 493 horsepower raring to go, which will really come in handy with my drag racing. I guess I’ll name it Phoenix. (Are cars supposed to have girl names like boats? And is Phoenix a boy name or a girl name anyway?)

Costa Rican Streets

November 22, 2011 by Jeff C | Comments Off

I was in rural Costa Rica recently. Driving the roads, you can’t help but notice the basic and primitive transportation often used by many of the locals: Old, stripped-down cars, kids holding grocery sacks and riding on the handlebars of their parents’ bikes, motorcycles with no lights, and “worse.” That’s all far from ideal, but despite what we would view as evidence of poverty, the country seems happy and vibrant and is making progress. I suspect our roads (maybe our country more generally) looked and felt about like this 80 years ago.

That kind of transportation would be illegal in the U.S. today. We effectively tell our poor people that if they can’t afford a car with three-point seatbelts, emissions controls, liability insurance and a government-certified infant carseat, they’ll just have to stay home or walk. And then we’re frustrated that the poor have trouble “getting anywhere” in America.

Wild fire

September 7, 2011 by Jeff C | 1 Comment

Wow. Last weekend (Labor Day weekend), I drove to Austin (or at least started that direction). There were wildfires near Bastrop, and the highway closed — you could see the smoke and flames just a mile or so from where I had to U-turn. Traffic was chaos as about 1,000 cars and I (I’m probably exaggerating) headed up a small road toward highway 290. Soon, traffic was stopped again, and this time as I U-turned, my car was hit in the back right-hand side by a truck coming the opposite direction. Not a huge impact, but a good thump that knocked the car to the roadside. I was fine, and quickly hopped out to check with the other driver (who was also fine).

About 2-3 minutes later, as I stood 30 yards or so from my car talking to the other driver, a gawking passerby pointed at my car and yelled, “That car’s on fire!” Indeed it was. (And completely independent of the wild fires that happened to be raging just a few miles away). Standing there empty-handed in shorts and flip-flops, there was nothing I could do but watch. It pretty much burned to a crisp. Sadly, there are no pictures — my phone (the only camera I’d have had with me) was in the car, whose charred remains were towed away just as I left. I wound up hitchhiking to the next town with the folks I’d had a wreck with. I borrowed a phone to call my friend Scott, who heroically drove 2 hours to rescue me from the Smithville convenience store parking lot.