Friday, July 31, 2009

Obama drinks Bud Light

No one can be perfect and we all have our downfalls. In President Obama's case it's his choice of beer. For the meeting with Police Officer James Crowley and Professor Henry Louis Gates, Obama chose to order himself a Bud Light while the officer had a Blue Moon and Mr. Gates a Red Stripe. It seems that both of these men have better taste in beer than the president and his chafa beer. Oh, well. It could have been worse. He could have ordered a Natural Light.

Danny's vs. Taco Palenque


What do you think Laredo? Which has the better food in the Gateway City? Danny's or Taco Palenque? Both are good and both have their dedicated and loyal clientele. I want to hear from you, some good late night stories of visiting these fine eating establishments.

Random lyric of the day

I Don't Care What You Talkin' 'Bout Baby
I Don't Care What You Say
Don't You Come Walkin'
Beggin' Back Mama
I Don't Care Anyway


Cinco pesos to whomever guesses artist, record and year.

Hot Laredo Days


It's scorching out there in the dry Laredo heat. We advise you to stay in the shade and drink plenty of cold water. But, please, make sure you don't break down your refrigerator like this unfortunate family in the picture above. Somebody call the Maytag man to get it fixed. Stay cool Laredo.

Wednesday, July 22, 2009

HideOut Grocery



Is the migra on your tail ready to toss you back across the Rio Grande? The sheriff's dept. or the DEA on your case about some pesky kilos? Then come out to the the HideOut Grocery and besides buying your case of Schlitz Beer, we can also hide you from all sorts of law enforcing agency bad guys. Sweet deal right.

Nuevo Laredo, Tamps


Un cordial saludo y bonito abrazo a toda la gente de nuestra "ciudad hermana" de Nuevo Laredo. Gracias por visitarnos.

CarrotHead: The Movie

This is the 'official' intro to my amateur, very low-budget, horror, short film. You can view it here below. If your a fan of bad and shaky camera work, terrible dialogue, questionable plot, inane actors, then drop by and watch my film. View the intro below. Look for the complete short film by the end of August.

Thursday, July 16, 2009

Another Laredo Downtown Postcard


As you've prolly seen, I have a thing for vintage Laredo postcards. Too bad I wasn't around during the "golden age". Oh well! Nimodo.com

Jenny was a friend of mine

Jenny was a friend of mine, until she to told me the cold, hard truth.

“What’s your blog about?” she asks with a puzzled face. “Is it about you or about Laredo? You talk about this, you talk about that. Sometimes, it seems to be all about your own personal life. It seems like your blog doesn’t have a focus.”

As she talks she moves her hands incessantly. Every so often she picks at her plate with her fork as she avoids eye contact. She sits across the table from me at the TKO tapping her fingers annoyingly on the table, as if awaiting an answer.

“I guess your not a fan of my blog” I finally answer trying to suppress a grin. “Not too many people are, and I don’t mind if it stays that way.”

I’m a bit hurt inside, but I’m not going to let Jenny see that.

“You’re right”, I continue, “my blog is unfocused. I want it to be about me. I happened to be from Laredo. Soy de Laredo and I write things that I encounter as I live in this city. My life is unfocused, hence my blog is just the same..”

“Oh come on…that‘s such a canned answer”, she cuts me off. “But, well, maybe you are right”, she says almost apologetically. “Hey its your blog; do what you want with it. Too bad its not as good as the BorderTown one” she says at the end.

I turn away in inner pain as if someone has just given me ten paper cuts simultaneously.

“I can’t compete with BorderTown”, I utter as I began to look for the waitress and ask for my check. “No dessert for her” I whisper to myself.

“All you need is to focus and decide. Is it going to be about you or about the city of Laredo”, she goes on and on like Elaine from Seinfeld. Her lips continue to move and I began to see that she is a littler chatterbox. “But your blog has potential” she tells me as she finally looks straight into my eyes.

I smile wide. Maybe Jenny is right. Maybe the blog does have potential. But the only thing I know for certain is that I won’t be seeing Jenny again. I don’t like the truth being so brutal. I prefer it in small doses.

“What does Jenny know anyway”, I think to myself as I leave TKO and walk out into the hot Laredo night. I turn up my Zune to some random 80’s beat as I drive down San Bernardo looking for trouble.

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

Laredo Chat

There are several local chat rooms, some better than others. Today I ran across MyLaredoChat.Net and it has a few regular chatters in there that keep the page interesting. Stop by if you get a chance and say hi.

Jay St. John


Love him or hate him, Jay St. John is back on the radio. The controversial, but always entertaining radio personality, has bounced from station to station, but now you can catch him at 4pm on 1550 AM. Or you can follow his twitter here.

This is why I don't smoke.

Great anti-tobacco ad. I saw it when I was a kid back in 85' and I never picked up a cigarette because of it. It still haunts me to this day.

Monday, July 13, 2009

Random lyric del dia

Por el amor a mi madre
voy a dejar la parranda
aunque me digan cobarde,
a mi no me importa nada.

Aldo Tatangelo Parkway

Anytime I speak with someone that can recall the late 70's and early 80's in Laredo, the name of Aldo Tatangelo always brings a big, warm smile to their face. He is touted by many as the "chosen one", a golden and heroic figure that "brought Laredo into the twentieth century". His local legacy is that of a hard-working man that helped to modernize Laredo and break up the stronghold of the "Old patron Party". To really understand how backwards Laredo was in the mid 70's, one simple tidbit can suffice. According to Time Magazine and a Wiki Article, up to 75% of Laredo's streets were unpaved, dusty mudroads as recently as the early 80s. Talk about WTF moments! It makes you wonder how the citizens of this city put up with the bullshlitz and shenanigans of Mayor Martin and his poltical croonies.


Hanging out downtown by St. Agustine Cathedral this morning, I spotted the parkway named in Mr. Tatangelo's honor and it made me realize that I do not know much about the history of my fair city, so I decided to do some reading and learn as much about the "Old Patron" party and the events that led to their mayoral defeat in 1978. I began to try and track down a book by Fernando Pinon titled, "Patron Democracy" and I want to also get a video copy of CBS News Reports 30 minute segment by Bill Moyers on the scandal of JC Martin. It is sad but interesting learning so much about the history of my border city. As long as we keep going forward Laredo, progress is just around the corner.

Friday, July 10, 2009

IronGates in Laredo


Need an irongate or windowbars to keep all those darn thieves out from taking off with your VCR and bigscreen TV? Then call the good people up over at FF Ironworks. They can give you a free estimate on all your iron needs. Security is a good thing in these times of need. Give them a buzz at (956) 791-6021. Iron gates, style and grace to protect your place!


Thursday, July 9, 2009

LMT focuses on local blogs


Our blog was on LMT a little over a week ago. An article focusing on local blogs gave us some neat publicity. Thanks to BordertownBlues for the newspaper image. As you can see from the pic, there we are in all the ink-hard copy glory. Sweetbread! I just want to thank all the little people that made this possible....


Dowtown Laredo, Three Sisters

Downtown Laredo in better days. Anyone have any idea of the time period this picture was taken. I'd say 1974. What you think? The store Three Sisters was still around.



CarrotHead (update)

As you regular readers of my useless blog might already know, I am knee deep in the production of my first ever amateur film, "CarrotHead". I know you are prolly dying for an update regarding the status to my cinema de merde production (you know you are so stop kidding yourself please. Just drink your diet Tab and keep reading). My cast has been quietly putting together several scenes and its all starting to come-together rather incompetently nice. My horrendous script is finally coming to life and my cast, that proclaim themselves to be actors and actresses, are doing a spectacular job at being truly awful.



I dug up my Casio keyboard and I have began to compose the musical score, but I just realized that that might take more work than I previously anticipated.I might have to leave that to someone more musically inclined.

The difficult scenes are the only ones left to film, but I'm waiting on a shipment of Ragu tomato sauce to shoot the unrealistic special effects death sequences. I don't need no bleeping CGI bull Schlitz either. I'm still in need of some willing actresses (casting couch warning in effect) so if you've got the goods, drop me a line to hook up! CarrotHead should be completed by the beginning of August and it will have a limited regionally-local online only distribution. Look for it soon. See, that wasn't so bad. Thanks for reading all the way to the end. You must be really bored. Now go do something productive with your life please.

Wednesday, July 8, 2009

Random lyric of the day

there's a liar in my head
there's a thief upon my bed
and the strangest thing
is I cannot seem to get
my eyes open .

Tuesday, July 7, 2009

BorderTown Pulga

This is a shot of one of the three local flea markets (pulgas) that are found in Laredo. Bordertown is located on Hwy. 359 just across from the city landfill. In my humble opinion, its the best of the three pulgas for they really have all sorts of junk and gems intermingled together. I believe that its on Wed. afternoons when they open and have vendors come in from as far away as San Antonio to hawk their wares. Check it out if you've never been there.



Monday, July 6, 2009

Take a rest

I know some of you out there are working hard in these dog days of summer and I applaud you for it. There is much work that needs to be done for progress to fully settle in our border town. However, rest is good and vital at times. So take a seat with us on our front-porch sofa, take a swig of beer and ponder the future. Scrutiny of one's self is always helpful.



Saturday, July 4, 2009

LMT charges for online content

Laredo Morning Times is now charging for its online content! WTF! We now have to pay money to read fictional worm stories. Gosh darn. I guess I'll have to pony up the pesos.



Not everyone took the news as lightly as I did. When I mentioned this news to my bro, he made the shocked and stunned face below.

Plaza Theater in 1950s


Isn't this the greatest picture you've ever seen? Wow! That's downtown Laredo? It seems like a scene out of Back to the Future or a Hollywood set. I would love to walk down the street of that Laredo. For some reason, Laredo seems like a better and bigger city, in that postcard.

LISD's new superintendant

Maybe progress has finally hit Laredo. Dr. Marcus Nelson is the new super at LISD and hopefully he can get things straightened out over there. Seems like a good step in the right direction.

Eddie Macon's Run in HiDef

 No doubt 1983 must have been an exciting time for movies in Laredo! Imagine hearing that big time TV star John Schneider, Bo Duke himself, ...