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.

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!

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.

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 .

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.

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.

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.