Thursday, June 11, 2009

Laredo Broncos Baseball


*Correction* (thanks for my new "Editor")


According to their website, opening day at Veteran's Field for the Laredo Broncos will be on Monday the 15th of June at 7pm. Hopefully some of us can make it out to the ballgame. If I make it out, I will surely post some pics and comments before the weekend.

On another note, here are some comments I found online by a baseball follower that has an annual roadtrip and goes from town to town watching independent baseball teams. Here is what he had to say. His comments are more about Veterans Field than the Broncos team.

Disclaimer: These comments and opinions are not my own.


Veterans Field, and the team playing there in 2007, epitomize the often negative attitude some fans have toward independent baseball.
On the day I showed up for a 7:30 game, the start was not until 8:20 because the ground crew had failed to cover the field with even the small mound and plate tarps when a sudden rainstorm came through in mid-afternoon. Field maintenance pushed the start back by nearly an hour, and then both pitchers complained about the mound as the game went on, resulting in further delays.
The Laredo Broncos failed to provide a line-up board. An attempt to buy a program resulted in no visiting team roster and an outdated home team roster. The public address system was clear for music, but the microphone was muffled, so announcements, such as they are, were difficult to decipher.
On top of that, the stadium is nothing great. There is one main grandstand, set far back from the playing field, with seven rows of �box seats� in front of it. Aluminum grandstands flank the main stand. The view of the game isn�t horrible, but it would be improved if the grandstand were closer to the field.
Finally, when I went to complain about the lack of consideration for the true baseball fan, the person I spoke with concluded the conversation with, "I hope you enjoy the show." Excuse me, sir, but I didn't come for the show, I came for a baseball game.
This was by far the worst baseball experience of my annual road trip in 2007.



Ouch! Eso duele. Be back soon with more on the Broncos.
Ouch! That hurts. Nimodo.com

Laredo Downtown 1940-50s




Cool picture I came across of downtown back in the late 1940s, maybe early 50s. This town must have been cool back then.


Wednesday, June 10, 2009

La Sanbe and Mexican imports



San Bernardo used to attract a heavy traffic of outside tourists for both the legal and illegal trades. Now however, Sanber is pretty much dead. A quick drive down that road will reveal that business has been suffering for the past few years now. Many stores that used to cater to people from other states and cities, and that would specialize in Mexican imports, have now closed down or seriously downsized. It's a tough business world out there. Maybe soon the imports business will make a comeback. Maybe not.


Mall del Norte at Sunset

The mall can be one neat place, especially at sunset. This lady, in the picture above, was having too much fun at the mall. In any case, its one neat picture.

Tuesday, June 9, 2009

Lapis or Lapiz



Over on the north side in the Tiarra Subdivision is a street that inexplicably changes spelling from one corner to the other. The street goes from Lapis Ln. to Lapiz Ln. for no apparent reason. Does the name of the street change, or is it just a simply misspelling of the word? I vote for the latter. We all know Laredoans can't spell.


Moreno's Cash Carry Meat Market


Sign found behind LCC main campus. Not exactly sure what is advertised here.

Monday, June 8, 2009

Summer VHS Movie Review (Xmas in June).



Stay out of the heat this summer and stay cool indoors and watch a good ol' slasher film. I recommend "Silent Night, Deadly Night". Review is found below. If you can catch a VHS 1984 version, even better. It is found on DVD so netflix it. Or drop me a line I can lend you my copy!



Of all the slasher movies to meet controversy in the 1980’s, perhaps the most loathed of these was the festive tale Silent Night, Deadly Night, which was picketed by angry parents and pulled by the studio. Still unreleased in several countries, this tale of a homicidal Santa Claus was not the first festive slasher (there had already been the likes of Christmas Evil) but was by far the most loathed, released in North America just six weeks before Christmas. Whether or not it was the sight of a Santa raping a woman or the comments it makes on Catholic punishment, the movie touched a nerve and was subsequently banned outright or simply removed from cinemas one Tri-Star, the distributors, buckled under the pressure.



Surprisingly, Silent Night, Deadly Night does have some depth and is not just a series of gruesome gags. The story sees Billy, emotionally scarred after witnessing his parents’ murder (and mother’s sexual assault) at the hands on a drunken Santa Claus, sent to a strict Catholic boarding school, where he is eventually brainwashed into associating all forms of reckless pleasure (pre-marital sex, fun-loving partying) with punishment. When he is foolishly given a job of as a Santa Claus in a store over Christmas, Billy slowly loses his mind, before marching to each of his co-workers and hacking them to death, all the while shouting ‘Naughty!’ Once done, he sets his sights on the rest of the town as the police desperately try to find out what is happening.

This was not the first Christmas horror, others that came before it include Black Christmas, To All a Goodnight and the aforementioned Christmas Evil (aka You Better Watch Out), but it was the one that, for some reason or another, managed to get under the skin of the moral majority, who seemed more sensitive than usual during the early eighties. The two-headed critic known as Siskel and Ebert seemed to take more offence than most, singling out each of the filmmakers on their television show and repeatedly declaring ‘Shame on you!’ This was all due to the marketing campaign, which resulted in young children being subjected to images of Santa Claus with an axe, hacking his way through the family festivities.

Silent Night, Deadly Night runs with the moral implications of Friday the 13th and Halloween and takes them to extremes, with Billy’s sole justification for his actions being that he is punishing the immoral. Whether or not this could be seen as a morality tale or a social comment on Catholic punishment is down to the individual viewer, as when all is said and done this movie’s main purpose is to entertain, not preach. And while it may not be a masterpiece it is certainly a perfect example of how slasher movies did not have to be accepted by the mainstream, after all, this is a genre that has been loathed by critics since day one. Followed by one pointless sequel (which would re-use footage from the first movie), there would in all be five Silent Night, Deadly Night movies, the latter two having no direct connection to this film.

(Thanks to CS for the movie review)

BorderTown Laredo

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