Wednesday, December 23, 2009

CREATING A MEMORIAL WITHOUT A COLISEUM

UPDATE: I refined my thoughts for caller.com printed in the paper December 31, 2009. Catch it here.

-------------------------------------------------


If the Coliseum is demolished, Corpus Christi will continue to function and exist. We can't forget that the Coliseum is a memorial to Veterans and embrace the opportunity to create a new, world-class memorial that becomes a statewide, if not nationwide, attraction.


On Nov. 17, city council voted to pursue two parallel tracks with the Coliseum: begin the process of tearing it down WHILE AT THE SAME TIME negotiating publicly with the National Swim Center to renovate the Coliseum into a competitive swimming venue with a 325 room hotel and parking garage.

Elsewhere on this blog, I've discussed why the Swim Center is not correct for the Memorial Coliseum land. Here, I want to discuss the first track: tearing down the Coliseum. Change of any kind creates stress--some justified; some not. One justifable, uncomfortable element of this change can't be denied: if the Coliseum is now a memorial, how do you replace it?

Corpus Christi thinks small suffering from a populace that, generally, doesn't get out there and see things. Many of Corpus Christi's ills could be solved by getting 100% of the population on buses and shipping them out for visits to successful, growing cities. Education on what's 'out there' would wake our population up, finally, to realizing the potential of this city. They'd storm the castle demanding the destination bayfronts of Venice, CA, Miami, FL, Sarasota, FL, San Diego, CA, and Waikiki, HI.

Google Image the phrase 'Veterans Memorial'. Or simply click here, because I'm so nice I've done it for you. I'm not kidding. Click that link, and use a few minutes to take a look around at what Veterans' Memorials can be. Go ahead, I'll give you a few minutes.

The Memorial Coliseum, as a memorial to veterans, is disgraceful. ESPECIALLY SO when you see what successful memorials exist around the country. I do not understand the mentality of local veterans' groups who say the Memorial Coliseum is the best memorial possible--save it or duplicate it at any cost. I think they think that since this is what we have, we should keep it. This attitude, as well-meaning as it may be, actually has the opposite effect of their intent.

I believe our veterans are so important that the Memorial Coliseum simply isn't good enough for them. Don't believe me? Click here again!

We live in a world where things decay, things deteriorate, things become obsolete...change leaks in and requires things to be different. Unless you purposefully construct a building to last 1000 years (see the architecture of Paris, Pennsylvania, and Washington, DC), a building will fall apart. It's not a mystery, it's not confusing, it's not a surprise.

Why, though, does the Corpus Christi population fight things as if we have the patent to stop physics and time? If we rally around the Coliseum hard enough, it will quit being a building in decline. If we get some petitions signed, we'll buck conventional wisdom and fly in the face of the population's wishes (as 10 people you don't know what we should do with the Coliseum). If we rally around a solid '3', we'll miss a potential '10' and we're fine with that. (?!)

When you hear of the Coliseum's inevitable demolition you can choose to fight it (because you have magical powers to keep the roof from deteriorating) or you can embrace the refreshing elixir of 'possibility'. The Coliseum can continue to be your cross to bear OR it can be the chance to honor our veterans correctly.

If the Memorial Coliseum is demolished, why not make it our mission to commemorate our veterans with an amazing, world-class Memorial? Why not put our passion into creating THE MEMORIAL that hosts every veterans ceremony in Texas due to its beauty, spope and magnetism?

Take a look at what real memorials look like around the country. The Coliseum is such a 'big issue', but those fighting for the coliseum are simply not thinking big enough.

Imagine...







































Now, none of these may be our exact solution. These are what other communities did to commemorate their veterans.

Consider Fort Collins, CO, and their current campaign to create Veterans Plaza:





Read about their efforts here.

If the Memorial Coliseum is demolished, we can embrace the empty canvas of that land and create something our Veterans deserve.

Imagine a ceremony in 2012 where all of our State government delegate are in attendance along with veterans group delegates from every major Texas city. We unveil our new memorial and jaws drop. The perception of our ineptitude in 'getting things done' vanishes on the spot. Tourists and citizens pause during their visit to embrace this new area's beauty and purpose. It could be incredible.

OR we could invite everyone to the Memorial Coliseum and gracefully accept their polite decline.

Saturday, December 19, 2009

TO SWIM OR NOT TO SWIM - SHOW NOTES 12/19


2.
On January 12, the very next city council meeting, council will have three options available to them: strike a deal with National Swim Center, extend negotiations with National Swim Center because a deal has not been agreed to, or cease negotiations with National Swim Center. If they cease negotiations with National Swim Center, then they are tearing down the coliseum (as voted for on Nov. 17).

So: National Swim Center or not?

I say not.

Here's a recap to the bring urgency of our city's situation:

On Nov. 17, city council voted to pursue two parallel tracks with the coliseum: begin the process of tearing it down WHILE AT THE SAME TIME negotiating publicly with the National Swim Center to renovate the coliseum into a competitive swimming venue with a 325 room hotel and parking garage. The deadline for those negotiations, for now, is January 12 which happens to be the next council meeting.

---
1.
There's a lot to discuss today so I'll be keeping all calls short and to the point. If you don't stay on topic we'll have to say good bye.

We have a new producer but doing his on air interview will have to wait. As promised from last week I did find definitive proof rather or not the Memorial Coliseum was created for that purpose or if it was dedicated after the fact...has to wait until next week when I'll be presenting a huge collage of archived articles about the Memorial Coliseum on my blog from the 30s, 40s and 50s. In fact I need someone to do a research project for free at the library. Someone with a lot of free time and an interest in history. Email me if you're interested: joe@keysweekendmagazine.com

------

I have a joke for you:
A man walks into a doctor's office with a huge boil on his face. "Doctor, I've got a huge boil on my face and I have cancer. Give me some medicine for it."
The doctor, confused, asks, "Do you want medicine for the boil or the cancer?" The man scratches his head and says, "You don't have one medicine for both?"
The doctor says, "The boil is a symptom of the cancer. You have two options. Option One: I can make the boil look pretty that does nothing to help the cancer OR I can remove the boil and, with a lot of hard work, we can tackle the cancer."
The man scratches his head, thinks, and finally says, "Option One sounds easier let's go with that."

On January 12, council will be making the most important decision in recent memory--a decision that has the possibility to change CC forever.

Boiling it down and getting to the point, as King Sausage would demand: at the very next city council meeting, January 12, a motion will be made and that motion, one of four possible motions, boils down to having faith in the swim center as the best use of the Memorial Coliseum or not, the swim center's ability to finally create the magic pixy dust 'growth' the city needs. As early as the very next council meeting the decision will be made: NO Coliseum any longer OR the swim center.

Of those two options, which is better?

Using the Memorial Coliseum for a Swim Center is such a bad idea that it's better to tear the Coliseum down.

Repeat: Between the Swim Center and having no Coliseum at all, it would be better to have no Coliseum.

We have made our way to the Swim Center as a desperate last resort.

And although there are thousands of people listening right now, I know six of you are city council members: If your answer on January 12 is to go with the swim center because SOMETHING is better than NOTHING...because ANY structure is better than NO structure...If this is the way you're thinking--that ANYTHING there is better than NOTHING there--then you're thinking incorrectly. You're thinking short-term with SERIOUS long term problems.

And I'll repeat my joke because it's funnier the second time.

A man walks into a doctor's office with a huge boil on his face. "Doctor, I've got a huge boil on my face and cancer. Give me some medicine for it."
The doctor, confused, asks, "Do you want medicine for the boil or the cancer?" The man scratches his head and says, "You don't have medicine for both?"
The doctor says, "The boil is a symptom of the cancer. You have two options. Option One: I can make the boil look pretty and we ignore the cancer OR I can remove the boil and, with a lot of hard work, we can tackle the cancer."
The man scratches his head, thinks, and finally says, "I'm sick of the boil. Option One sounds easier let's go with that."

Hilarious.

We're so desperate for medicine that we'll take ANYTHING. Even if that medicine doesn't solve our problems.

The swim center gets the memorial coliseum issue off the back, temporarily, but doesn't solve our cancer.

We incorrectly want the coliseum issue to solve this long list: Economic Growth, Gaining jobs, Drastic rises in tourism, improving quality of life, attracting white collar population and a retiree population, and to fix downtown.

The coliseum is ONE project...it's not THE project.

People keep saying this council was elected as a pro-growth council and their actions with the coliseum (not pursuing brass, etc) has not been indicative of lack of growth-mindedness. The problem with that argument is that it's speculative and rewards short term progress over long term progress. It assumes that council can, in 8 months, create a growth plan.

Now, they do need a growth plan. If we as a city are here and want to get there, whatever THERE is, then a plan must be in place to get there. I don't think there's that plan and that disturbs me. Rather we're short term goal oriented and we've allowed it, with the Memorial Coliseum issue get us to a place where we could potentially be cutting our throats.

Fixing the memorial coliseum is a short term goal with so much fury in it that we've landed on AN solution rather than THE solution. The National Swim Center gets us to that short term goal: "Look, everyone. We made a decision. You can get off our backs now about the Memorial Coliseum now. Swim Center for Everyone. Yayy!"

It's not THE solution. Hear me: City Council is poised (if they have the vision and fortitude) to create the CC of the future beginning this January 12--one that every citizen can be proud of and every visiting tourist will spread the word about. This is the most important city council meeting in years \.

How do you fix downtown? According to the experts we need residents. Downtown begins to thrive and develop by getting residents nearby.

How do we do that? The swim center doesn't do it.

-------

If the Memorial Coliseum is demolished, an amazing, world-class Memorial needs to go up there or nearby. Look at what real memorials look like around the country. The Coliseum is such a 'big issue', but we're not thinking big enough. Saying Memorial Coliseum is a fitting memorial is short changing those we want to memorialize.





lso:
http://www.caller.com/news/2009/dec/18/petition-to-save-memorial-coliseum-fails/
Madrigal’s request for a recount is for the 9,040 signatures he turned in Nov. 17. The city verified 3,402 of the signatures as belonging to registered voters in Corpus Christi. Madrigal had needed at least 7,362, a number that represents 5 percent of registered voters and is required to put an issue on the ballot.

Saturday, December 12, 2009

SHOW NOTES - 12/12/09 - MAINTENANCE

A couple of weeks I suggested that CCISD'S boundary changes were a very short term fix for a problem that leaps out of existing issues:

--a) short term solutions taking precedence over long term strategy (the creation of a bayfront master plan is good enough; don't bother executing that master plan) and the current population paying for the sins of the past
--b) the quick acceptance of limitations (no new school--it's simply not an option)
--c) the failure to budget maintentance (see the condition of our parks, the coliseum, weed-grown medians and ditches, etc.)

You can read the whole blog here.

CCISD, among other issues, has a maintenance issue. It seems that taking care of the facilities is an afterthought--a squeaky wheel problem. Doesn't the Memorial Coliseum issue boil down to being a maintenance issue, too? How does a structure so prominent on the most important street in town become so run down? The Memorial Coliseum didn't grow up out of the ground like a pimple that we suddenly needed to pay attention too.

News flash: New buildings and facilities will need a new roof, have its lawn cut and watered, need an occasional sheetrock repair, and a new coat of paint someday.

Without all of that, any city facility will be at the same level of disrepair as the Memorial Coliseum. But surely after living through the Memorial Coliseum issue we would never make the same mistake again, right?

I remember being part of Leadership Corpus Christi Class #XXXIII. (LCC is a great program that you should apply for click.) Every class must complete a class project that the class chooses. Our class chose to erect a monument to those who fought and continue to serve in the Global War on Terrorism

Here it is in the context of Sherrill Park (which prior to LCC, I really had no knowledge of)


The point of showing you this, besides confirming how incredible I am, is to tell the story of why it isn't more. Our class originally wanted to erect the same thing with a base that allowed the globe to 'float' on a current of water and spin. Maybe you've seen them at Disney, etc. We, most likely, could have raised the funds to create that element, but the agreement with CC Parks and Rec was that we provide the structure and they'd maintain. They couldn't afford to maintain it given that water elements in our area have many hidden maintenance costs -- CC is the most corrosive outdoor environment in the country.

So we didn't do it. We had the foresight to sacrifice end result for long term maintenance. Man, that water element would have been cool.

So why was a committee of 30 city gov't novices able to grasp this concept? Surely those 'in charge' would never DUPLICATE THE COLISEUM issue? Well, they tried to. Who knows the intricate maneuvers of the newer ABC center and the city? It's admittedly difficult to get your mind around. But this article in the caller suggests that we are working as hard as we can to shoot ourselves in the foot one more time.

City Considers American Bank Center Repair Fund

Read the whole article so as not to take anything I excerpt out of context.

“A building gets 5 years old, and things start needing to be repaired,” he said.
“What we don’t want is to have a facility that deteriorates.”

Uh...yeah!

The arena opened five years ago and warranties on different building parts are
expiring, Assistant City Manager Margie Rose said.

Novel concept. These warranty expirations weren't surprises, surely.

The only solution I can think of is to begin admitting defeat. We are simply a 4A town and we can't afford cool new stuff.

If someone at CCISD or the city would say out loud "We can't have XX because we simply can't afford it" rather than maneuver funds to create things we can't long term maintain, then perhaps that would jump start a real dialouge about the deeply rooted aspects of this city that are retarding progress. That are keeping us back in a way that all of those cities we can never admit that WE ARE JEALOUS OF have thrown off.

Our median income isn't high enough to attract real quality of life elements and growth industry? Let's say it out loud, and get the best minds in the city on those issues and solve them.

Tuesday, December 8, 2009

THE FLEETING PERFECTION OF 'WHAT'S UP WITH THAT?'



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I DVR Saturday Night Live every week. My eventual replay is heavily fast forwarded for all the usual reasons: the sketch drags past the expiration of the funny, the sketch was a great idea poorly executed, or the sketch flat out isn't funny.

I keep recording it because usually, and maybe only once per show, something is very funny. A betting man would play the odds that one funny pit is the SNL Digital Short (examples below). If you're lucky enough to see a Dick in a Box or an I'm on a Boat on the first airing, there's a sense of ownership, and, let's be honest, it's fun to teach others about these phenoms rather than being the student.

The flavor of the month in my world is a beautiful symphony of the absurd: What's Up With That.

The first of two installments of this Kenan Thompson-starring sketch aired Oct, 17, 2009, with the very unfunny Gerard Butler guesting:



I remember seeing this on my DVR rewatch of SNL and laughing (mostly at Jason Sudekis's dancing in the background), but it didn't raise much interest.

Then two Saturdays ago they did it again:



The sketch is so absurd and filled with detail that it simply takes a repeated viewing. In fact, I dare you to watch these a couple of times in a row and NOT have it infect you.

I'm in love with it. I sing 'Oooooooooo...weeeeeeeeee' and 'What's up with that?' at every opportunity--both appropriate and inappropriate. Do you realize how often in a day you could say 'What's up with that?'

WUWT is at a great place. It's about to launch virally and there are only two available to watch. What SNL will do now is ruin it. Like many of their sketches there's a very limited place to take the concept. Rather, they just duplicate it to diminishing returns. See The Barry Gibb Talk Show below. It was funny once, kind of funny twice, painful the third time.

A similarly-typed sketch was Tracy Morgan's Brian Fellows. The sketch has the same skeleton every time. In that case it was the over-produced intro, Tracy Morgan yelling "I'm Brian Fellows" again and again, the guest host of the week highlighting an animal that offends Fellows, and a subsequent dream sequence with that animal. Always the same. The opportunity for anything new came with how outlandish the relationship was with that week's animal. With nothing new, it got boring fast. "I'm Brian Fellows" as a catch phrase is no "We're two wild and crazy guys."

Same with What's up With That?. It's not rocket science. Every future occurence of the sketch will have:

  • Kenan singing the same intro song
  • A three guest panel (guest #1 speaks, guest #2 is a random celebrity, guest #3 is Lindsey Buckingham--a fantastically absurd choice for a bumpable celeb
  • Guest #1's comments get sung back to them and ultimately interrupted by Kenan's need to stand up and sing
  • The weekly guest host is a quirky (unfunny) walk-on guest
  • A cast member makes an appearance as a dancing D-list celebrity
  • Jason Sudekis dances <--again, the best part
  • Guest #1 acts confused
  • The show has run out of time and guest #2 and Lindsey Buckingham are bumped

Where can they take this? See again, The Barry Gibb Talk Show.

Right now, it's perfect, so enjoy the right now. Ooooooooh Weeeeeeee...What's up with That?

Dear Sister


Two Worlds Collide aka Hangin' like my nuts.


The unfunny installment of The Barry Gibb Talk Show

Saturday, December 5, 2009

THE BEST FILMS OF THE DECADE; I HAVE A SERIOUS PROBLEM



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Skip Joe's nonsense and get straight to the list.

I've been putting it off long enough: It's time to discuss my movie spreadsheet.

I've mentioned my movie spreadsheet on the radio show and on the podcast a few times, but they've only been fleeting comments. You know I love and live movies. That's no secret, but it's way past time to come completely clean: this part of my life is flamboyantly OCD and quickly confirms that when it comes to movies, I have serious problems.

To admit it is freeing: I have a movie spreadsheet. It's the first thing I moved over to the new laptop. If spreadsheets could be saved from a burning home I'd dive in Backdraft-style to save my spreadsheet's life (provided my family was out, of course). My movie spreadsheet probably needs a name. (email me here to suggest one)

From the moment I got my hands on the ability to spreadsheet--which would have been around '96 when I bought myself my first computer (a mac powerbook) with my first credit card (Best Buy)--I was cataloging my movie going. That first go 'round, I made a simple list of the movies I saw that year using whatever the Excelish program was at the time. At the end of the year, I probably ranked them to create a top ten. Nothing too weird.

The new year began and I repeated that process until, after a couple of years, I'd added a column here and a column there.

13 years later, It's evolved into nonsense....delicious, anal retentive nonsense.

My movie spreasheet lives in Excel and the worksheet tabs are full calendar years in descending order from left to right. Months before 2010 was here, the 2010 worksheet was filled with titles of films expected to open in 2010 in anticipation of my eyes laying upon them.

Here's each year's layout, from left to right:

It begins with all the movies I've seen during the year in descending order of preference. Ideally, the year end top ten creates itself since my favorite sits at the top with #2 below it, etc. (at the time of this writing Inglorious Basterds sits at the top, but I can't decide if it deserves it or not--in a few weeks I'll reveal my top ten of 2009 and you'll see where it landed).

Next to each film title is a 'T' for theater or 'V' for DVD. That data is fed into a ratio. At this writing, 73% of the 2009 release films I've seen were in the theater.

Then, every movie currently in theaters is listed in descending order of preference. At this time, the movie in theaters I want to see most is Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans. It is in red text because it's not in Corpus Christi.

Under the 'in theater' section is every movie that I know of coming out between today and Dec. 31 in chronological order.

Then, movies I missed in the theater that I want to catch on DVD are listed in descending order of preference. The movie at the top of the list is on the top of my Netflix queue. Eventually this list gets to the point of abandonment.

Then, the final list is movies from this year that I never want to see in no order at all. Sorting alphabetically the first five are: 12 Rounds, Bandslam, Carriers, The
Collector
, and Confessions of a Shopaholic.

I've got a serious problem. I've done this all the way back to 1990.

So when Ethan and I decided to rank the best films of the 2000s on The Movie Hour Podcast I knew I'd have no problems because I already had the films ranked in descending order year to year. I'd just cut and paste the tops of each year together and rerank and voila.

I have serious problems. I cut and pasted the top 20 films from each year into one list and began comparing film to film in pairs. My favorite of the two gets a value of one, the other a 2. I then created an average of each film's value. So after one round the averages were either 1 or 2. Resort, repeat. Trends start to occur. Films having more 1's than 2's go to the top of the list. Films with more 2's go to the bottom of the list. At the end of the process, one film will have all 1's and be #1, etc. I have serious problems.

At the end of the day the order is more or less correct. I'd say #1-#3 are concrete, but you could easily swap a few. The film at #11 or #12 could just as well be #8 or #10.

AND AFTER MANY DRAFTS AND HAND-WRINING DOUBLE THINKING, IT ALL CAME DOWN TO THIS:

#10. Moulin Rouge!, 2001


The early 00s saw a string of the movie musicals. Chicago won the Academy Award for best picture a year or two later without deserving it and, I believe, as a delayed 'oops' for MR not getting more attention. The forbidden love story is a wonderful skeleton to hang the delightfully manic meat of this film: the retreads of 80s pop songs, the go-for-it-all character commitment of everyone with extra kudos to Jim Broadbent, John Lequizamo and Richard Roxburgh and the lush, overrich art direction to name a few. When no one's looking I'll throw The Elephant Love Song Medly into my iTunes DJ a few times. MR is very much deserving of the excalmation point in the title.

#9. The Incredibles, 2004



We're going to quickly see a trend here with the themes of meeting (or failing to meet) your potential and coming of age. I'm a sucker for both. Young Dash running into and over the water as he is allowed to fully flex his muscles, and the in-awe-with-himself giggle he can't help but let go defines the viewers reaction to this whole film. The Incredibles is Pixar's best film since the Toy Storys with flawless voice work, animation, and what continues to set Pixar apart: story. Not a fart joke or clever timely pop culture reference in sight--just smart animated filmmaking for adults and children alike.

#8. Y tu Mama Tambien, 2002



Coming of age again, and the confusion young adults can feel about themselves and each other when they dabble in sticky sexual situations best left to adult professionals. Youth is fearless and brash which doesn't go hand in hand well with immature and stupid. Having everything to prove to themselves and one another, two young men are ill-equipped to deal with the journey they throw themselves into. A great import (the only one on my list) and the birth of Cuaron, Diego Luna and Gael GarcĂ­a Bernal as someone to pay attention to.

#7. Almost Famous, 2000



Coming of age, anyone? If my wife were making this list, AF would be at the top of her list. She loves it which means I watch it a lot. It's one of those of films that we pop in once every 6 weeks while we clean house, pausing at the TV at key scenes. This is my favorite Crowe film. I'll say it. Take that Maguire and Say Anything. Fish out of water never felt so sweet as Crowe creates his unique biography--writing as a minor for Rolling Stone with the best bands in the world. To good to be complete fiction. Kate Hudson's only good film performance.

#6. Before Sunset, 2004


Love lost with an ample dose of regret delivered in real time on the streets of Paris. Nothing really to say. If you've seen it you love it or don't and I don't feel like convincing the latter why their wrong. Beautiful film.

To hear #5-#1, tune into Episode 35 of The Movie Hour.

My movie spreadsheet's out...I feel a burden's been lifted. A new me arises.

Now, what's coming out in 2010?

SHOW NOTES - 12/5/09 - SNOW: THE OTHER FOUR LETTER WORD

IN PROGRESS - DON'T QUOTE ME, BOY! I AIN'T SAID SH---ER...SNOW

:15 break come back:


If you're reading this near show time, I apologize. I'm out of time and this IS NOT fully fleshed out. Drought, rain, snow....it all makes sense, but sadly made sense Saturday morning early when kids were stirring and strawberries needed to be rinsed and washed for them. Expect my world class thesis on how to get snow soon.

The media owns us and proved it by whispering a four letter word late Thursday.

We want things as a society. We require them. Overall, we need the basics and those don't shift from place to place: your food, your shelter, your clothing ('the boring three'). From place to place, though, some items on the menu may change. We live in CC. We know that means that 11 months out of the year we're going to fry, sweat and melt. We know it, we deal with it. Some of us love it.

But when you fry 11 months a year the idea that change can come gets a little intoxicating. Cold? That could actually happen? I think we had some cold a year ago didn't we? I recall that there was a magical snow a few years ago, right? Did that happen?

The media, sensing our overall malaise and hearing the 10,000th citizen invent the classic, "90 degrees on Thanksgiving!...who would have thought?", says and prints a four letter word. A four letter word, when uttered in a temprate climate, is more damaging that starts with f or d...I'm talking the 's word': snow.

And they don't have to yell it. Just whisper it into our ears: snow.

It started with this caller.com whisper: Snow in Corpus Christi? (since the lack of snow it appears this headline has actually been changed to: Light snow in forecast for Friday, hard freeze for some areas Saturday

And that's all it took for everyone to GO ABSOLUTELY CRAZY.

In this case we went from it may snow to we will be skiing on the 'hills' of SPID in about 3 hours. I heard it happen at work, in different Stripes around town, on sales calls. 'It may snow' became 'ready for the blizzard' in about 6 hours.

If you are a social media user then you saw it with posts like:

"Is that snow?" "What is sleet" "I've got snow here!!!" "A flake landed on my jacket" "I just stripped down nude and rolled around in the mud because I saw some sleet"

Mine:
"this just in: single snowflake sighted in cc, population's collective head explodes in hysteria followed by post-apocalyptic looting and cannibalism"

And finally, the admission that all was hype at Caller.com: It snowed in Corpus Christi, whether you saw it or not:

You probably saw sleet Friday morning in Corpus Christi.

Believe it or not, it also snowed, weather officials said. It wasn’t very much, just a trace.

After a wintry mix with near freezing temperatures hit the Coastal Bend and the state, local school districts sent students home early, flights were canceled at Corpus Christi International Airport and events Saturday were called off.

Only trace amounts of snow accumulated in parts of Bee, Calhoun, Goliad, Jim Wells, Kleberg, Live Oak, Nueces, Refugio, San Patricio and Victoria counties, where the National Weather Service said up to 3 inches were possible Friday.


The media and media savvy people can certainly play us by knowing what we want and giving us hope that we're going to get it. Smart people realize that if you want something you've got to a) go out and get it or b) if it's something that's somewhat out of your control, you've got to set up the conditions that make the thing you're after most likely to occur.

Bill Vessey, though, had nothing to do with it. I don't normally watch channel 3. I'm a channel 6 man. Since weather is so important to my real job, though, I tivo'd 3 and 6. Bill Vessey, who moves around too much when he talks in front of the map...especially his hands...explained in great detail that we weren't getting snow: snow requires this temperature at this height, precipiation that does this or that, then you need this temperature at ground level..etc...i got lost in the middle of it.

We as a community want snowth. We crave it. People that think see the writing on the wall: without snowth this city is going to die. But, we need to get serious about it and realize there are ways to make it snow and then things that make us feel good about snowth but don't get us closer to any real snowth. To get snowth you can't dream it, you can't hype it, you can't wish really hard. The caller times can't create it by writing headlines about it. I can't create a facebook page and get snow or create a committee and talk about snow real hard, open the window and believe that it will be there. Snowth comes from elements being set in place at the right time. It's hard to snow in a national-crisis-level economy and criticizing leaders for lack of snowth now and 8 months into terms is irresponsible. That doesn't create snowth. Think Bill Vessey: snow comes when, and only when, the temperatures are this and that up here, this and that on the ground and this happens in between. That happened in 2005 on the magical snow-filled Christmas and was happening in the late 1950s when we were building high schools left and right to accomodate all the snow. It snowed once in CC. That was a magical time. I was glad to be here when it happened and will always cherish that memory.

I want it to snow again, but we can't point to the 2005 Christmas and say that it snows a lot and that it's still snowing. It's time to get temperatures correct in the stratosphere and temperatures correct on the ground. Then and only then, when the rains begin to fall can we PREDICT snow correctly and absolutely.

More soon...very soon.

I needed to address the walk out last week and did so by referring to my blog on it here.

And finally the top 10 flicks of the 2000s. Here's 10-6. Hear 5-1 on The Movie Hour at The Movie Hour.

6. Before Sunset, 2004
7. Almost Famous, 2000
8. Y tu Mama Tambien, 2002
9. The Incredibles, 2004
10. Moulin Rouge, 2001


Misc.: What Waiters Won't Tell You