Pare de Sufrir

(photo: Church on Guadalupe and Bartlett)

Faith can sometimes be expensive and in these trouble times, remedies to all our ills are just a couple of bucks away. This church, Pare de Sufir, called a quasi-Christian sect by a Baptist friend of mine, has always captured my attention. I've never belittled someone else's beliefs, but the 'infomercials' done by this particular denomination are quite intriguing. I've been meaning to walk in to a service, just to experience the place. Maybe one of these days I just will. I don't frequent 'maquinitas', but these days church is even a bigger gamble.

West Express Video

One of the last remaining local video stores, West Express, located on Guadalupe St, has an excellent selection of movie titles available. Check out their great selection next time you are staying in for a movie night.

TAMIU

Karmic Law Gone Awry: Sport Column

Karmic Law Gone Awry
by Clark Kent
for DeLaredo Blog

Green Bay’s favorite son, Brett Favre, returned to the Packers Lambeau Field this past Sunday as a member of the dreaded rival Minnesota Vikings. The equivalent to Cowboy fans, as Troy Aikman returning to Texas Stadium in a hated Redskins uniform.
Green Bay is by far the smallest market in the NFL, with a population of a little over 100,000 and this traditional old fashion mid-western city was a community torn on Sunday. Torn between their loyalty to a Brett Favre that helped to bring back the Green Bay Packers from complete NFL obscurity, that had existed since the era of Vince Lambardi in the 60’s and a Brett Favre that had, in the eyes of some Packers fans, turned his back on Green Bay.
Now whether Favre turned his back on Green Bay by his own accord or he was run off by the front office, is still uncertain. What is for sure is that Favre plays this game with a boyish charm and passion not seen in many of today’s modern athletes. Favre plays the game to have fun and that’s the way it should be, playing the game for the simple reason of enjoying it. Much like the town he played in for 16 years, Favre is a throwback quarterback to simpler times. So it is for this reason that it was odd that he appears to have used his current stint with the Minnesota Vikings as a form of revenge on his former team, better said against his former front office personnel for losing faith in the now 40 year old quarterback, a move that has now come back to haunt Packer management and consequently their very own fan base. A white haired Brett Favre marched onto Lambeau field this past Sunday and convincingly beat the team that had lost confidence in him, placing the Packer fans in quite a loyalty conundrum.
They say revenge is a plate best served cold, but in a world ruled by karmic law, this recent turn of events in the Favre saga seemed inappropriate for the everyday, simple, down to earth and loyal mid-western Packer fan to have to endure.

"un besito pa' todas las haters"

I first saw this video about two months ago after it became something of a mini, local viral hit among the high school teen crowd. I didn't really see a point to it, other than the two protagonists in the video, show a strong command of local Spanglish street talk. My younger cousins, in their teens, love to imitate the young ladies in this video. I offer no judgement on their behavior or their free use of profanity. To each his own. The video caused such a stir, it was parodied by several local kids. Watch below: "Dale shine"

This is the original video



This is a short parody




Another short parody



The video parodies aren't really SNL like quality, but you have to admire their creative output.

Soon we won't have a bookstore but...

I don't mean to sound like a yuppie, go green, tree hugging, Starsucks drinking, anti-gun, liberal, snobby elitist, BUT...


Laredo has something like 5 gun shops, 8 Liquor stores, 2 porn shops, 5 beer runs, over 25 "maquinitas" but...

pretty soon we won't have a bookstore in this town. I'm just saying.

Laredo has never really been a place for culture and knowledge. We prize our carne asada, Bud Light drinking, Little Joe listening pastimes (not that it's necessarily wrong). Reading is not really our forte. I'm just saying...we won't have a bookstore pretty soon in this city. But, honestly, looking around me and glancing around at the population, I'm not that surprised. I'm just saying...

Are you surprised? Leave your comments regarding the pending closure of our only true bookstore.

South Side boy in Box

Driving around Laredo, I spotted a little boy playing carelessly in a box, having the time of his life. I drove by, just wishing, that I could have as much fun with something as simple as a cardboard box.