rubaiyat redux

Back in 2008 I wrote this (http://redbridgerancher.blogspot.com/search?q=rubaiyat) about a folky club I used to go to with friends in Dallas way WAY back in my college days. Since then it has been fun to see who stops by and reads. I've had several folks share some memories with me. Not too long ago a Paul Kelso contacted me and we exchanged an email or two and he wrote the following reminiscence which I post with his permission. It's my hope that others may notice a tag or two and respond to add their own memories.

 "It was a sunny day in 1959 when I walked into the tiny store building that was to become the original Rubaiyat and the first folk music/coffee house in Dallas. I think it was in spring, because I was involved in opening the second, the Poet Restaurant, with actor Norman Smith, later that summer, also on McKinney Ave a few blocks toward downtown. The Poet was located in the front of the building housing the 90th Floor jazz room where Dick and Kiz Harp held forth for perhaps
a decade.

Ron Shipman rented the former neighborhood grocery and conceived of
the little music room based on west coast rooms. Ron was busy painting the walls
black and screwing together antique sewing machine tables to be placed in front
of the narrow benches along the walls. (Dallas artist Tom Motley would create
some intriguing wall art and other mood setters. He later taught at Richland).

I’m not sure of the dimensions of the room, maybe twelve wide and
forty deep. As you faced the back, you saw a tiny restroom in left rear corner,
small kitchen center and right rear, with a window looking out into the room.
In the window squatted a magnificent, belching, smoking Espresso machine.
The place did not have booze originally, that came later, if at all. There were
pastries and maybe little sandwiches later on.

The stage was just in front of the kitchen area, right center to right
wall. Ceiling spot. (Note: not sure what Mr. Kelso means here.)

I learned of Shipman and his project most likely through Lu Mitchell
and Hermes Nye of the Dallas Folklore Society. (I was raised out by SMU but
was a NTSU student then). Shipman was of course the house primary, full time
singer, but ran an open mic stage most of the time with many unpaid regulars
(including me) as well as the occasional pro from out of town.

One story is that Ramblin’ Jack Elliot was booked one weekend but
didn’t show till Saturday as a horse threw him a few days previous. He drove in
from New Mexico with a leg in a cast! I recall an excellent young Latino guy
whose name I cannot remember, who not only gave us the beautiful Mexican
traditional pieces but also belted out Leadbelly! I’m searching for his name.

Interesting sidebar is that of Herta Marshall, a pert little red head sponsored in town by Nye. (1960?). She appeared at the Rubaiyat several weekends. Previously married to Will Geer, who played Grandpa of The Waltons TV fame, she sang and acted for decades and appeared as one of the elderly wives in the Cocoon movies. Last I spoke to her—in the ‘80s—she ran a Shakespeare rep company in the northern hills of Los Angeles at Topanga. Her Folkways album as Herta Marshall: To You With Love: American Folk Songs For Women (1957), is still available.

People should remember that the “Beat” era was still strong in 1959.
Coffee house culture and protocol demanded silence while singers performed or
poets read, real art hung on the walls, and we all dreamed of doing a Jack
Kerouac and splitting for Algiers. That era should not be confused with the later
anti-Nam and flower child years.

A dozen coffee houses and folk or jazz joints quickly opened up and down McKinney after Ronnie. The legendary 90th Floor jazz room, (I think older than the Rubaiyat), and The Poet. The 8th Day, with floor to ceiling art carved into the walls and run by bros. Steve and Stan Crooks, which later was sold and became strictly gay, The Interlude, owned by Hank Arnold, where great jazz flute man Jimmy Clay played and Sherry Riley read jazz poetry on Sunday afternoons. The street became a “strip” with funky clothes shops, art galleries and studios and a Beat bookstore. Shipman could be said to have kicked off the Dallas “movement,” which was short lived as the Viet Nam years changed the atmosphere.

Local police did try to infiltrate the “scene,” but were easily spotted, as they couldn’t speak the ever-changing lingo. Of course they looked for drugs but to my knowledge availability or use on the street was slight.

The Dallas Morning News railed against us but used our fads and language in their ads to sell ‘with it’ products. The DMN also had apoplexy when Pete Seeger appeared in concert at the old Knox street theatre and, despite its efforts and that of the Birchers, couldn’t get him canceled.

I left for grad school at Iowa U in the fall of 1961. The Poet closed as Smith pursued acting. When I returned to Dallas for visits in the ‘70s or early ‘80s, I played one gig at the new Rubaiyat and visited several times to catch Frummox and others. The newer group of singers seemed to regard me as a relic from the past. I suppose that was true.

To get to a close, a little praise for Ron Shipman (he and Lu Mitchell still appear at the Pocket Sandwich Theatre sometimes), now living in Allen, Texas. He was and is a fine singer, more eclectic than straight folk, accomplished at calypso, and a good songwriter. Theodore Bickel bought and recorded one about eternity. Ron ground no political axe and, in truth, never was a “Beat”. He was just serenely determined to proceed despite many telling him his little venue on McKinney would surely fail, or that our kind of music would never succeed in Texas"



Paul Kelso

Whatever happened to OPEC?

I will quickly show I know just enough (and maybe not even that much!) to be dangerously stupid but what are blogs for?

I was having lunch with a couple of friends and of course briefly we bemoaned the rising prices of gas.

My pet peeve has been what I call “self-fulfilling prophecy”; i.e. some speculator somewhere thinks gas might be higher in a few months or hears that a middle eastern dictator has a cold, then buys some sort of commodity derivative or something at a certain price and off we go. The media reports prices are going up and sure enough, drive by your friendly local station and the guy will be out there with a ladder, suction cups and numbers in hand, changing the price.

Made me wish for OPEC. I remember something about the days when OPEC were the bad guys, a group of Arab Sheiks who met in Switzerland or some such ritzy place to determine who was going to produce how much and for what price. Then I figured – surely they couldn’t have been setting prices for the world market but then …

“One of the most common misconceptions about OPEC is that the Organization is responsible for setting crude oil prices. Although OPEC did in fact set crude oil prices from the early 1970s to the mid-1980s, this is no longer the case. OPEC's Member Countries do voluntary restrain their crude oil production in order to stabilize the oil market and avoid harmful and unnecessary price fluctuations, but this is not the same thing as setting prices.” source OPEC

So who exactly DOES set the prices for Oil and indirectly gas?

Then I read this: “In today's complex global markets, the price of crude oil is set by movements on the three major international petroleum exchanges. They are the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX, http://www.nymex.com), the International Petroleum Exchange in London (IPE, and the Singapore International Monetary Exchange (SIMEX, http://www.simex.com.sg). source OPEC

Please refer back to my earlier statement about a speculator. Wonder where those people go to work everyday?

Again my faulty memory of the bad OPEC days is that the Sheiks would meet, and because at the time the Saudis were the biggest and baddest OPEC dudes, they could call the shots, raise or lower their own production so the smaller guys wouldn’t get hurt too much and in general keep the flow of crude somewhat stable (because it benefited their own economies and countries) which had the effect of keeping gas prices somewhat stable.

Note I didn’t say low but think back to those earlier days when we started feeling the pinch. I do remember when gas went over a $1 a gallon. I remember when it broke $1.50. What I don’t remember are times when it was up a dime today, down a penny or two tomorrow and then back up a nickel again the next day. It seemed like there were longer periods of the same price and not the day-to-day volatility in the market. Buying gas now is like watching an auction on eBay!

Wonder who the OPEC members are? Algeria, Angola, Ecuador, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Libya, Nigeria, Qatar, Saudi Arabia (2^nd largest known reserves of OPEC countries) United Arab Emirates, Venezuela (largest known reserves of any current OPEC country)

We used to complain that higher gas prices were just making a bunch of spoiled Saudi Princes richer and richer. That may still be true but who is really profiting by the rising prices? I found these folks on a list of the 20 most profitable U.S. companies:

#1 Exxon ($30.5 bil.), #3 Chevron #3 ($19 bil.), #16 Conoco/Phillips ($11.4 bil.) Two int’l cos. are Shell ($28.6 bil.) and BP (a measly $5.3 bil. in the year after the big spill)

Can you see where this is going?

The next little bit of research is to see who of these folks are paying taxes. I found an article where Exxon was whining to CNN about how they paid out more in taxes than they took in, in profit. But it turns out they were counting sales taxes collected at the pump as taxes they paid! So the 25-50 cents per gallon tax that you and I pay at the pump, Exxon was telling reporters THEY paid those taxes. All their stations did was collect them and pass them on. Those taxes were OUR nickels and dimes and DOLLARS, not Exxon’s. But in fairness I did find that Exxon paid about 29% of those profits as actual corporate income taxes – still below the 35% that our tax code requires (can you spell tax subsidy?)

All I set out to do here was find the bogeyman for the daily price rises at the gas pump. We can hate the Arabs all we want (and Chavez too) but it seems there are plenty of our own villains to go ‘round!

I don’t really understand the futures market. I sort of get that if I want to buy a share of Apple stock, I’d pay $532 today (give or take). What I don’t understand is that as a speculator I can presume Apple’s stock price might be $750 (they wish!) and then buy up options or futures based on that assumption. What I further don’t get is how this option purchase today can affect the stock price tomorrow or next month? Shouldn’t that be based more on performance, the long-term market for the products etc.?

Bottom line, low or high, gas is always going to be profitable. Oil companies weren’t going broke when I paid less than 30 cents a gallon back in college. In fact for many, those days were the hay-days of big oil in Texas.

Finally just read this: Obama is considering revoking some tax subsidies for oil companies because of the high prices at the pump. I’m no economist and I really don’t think any of them need subsidies but … taking them away will mean their operating costs go up – right? And if their costs go up, what will happen to the price of gas?

What goes around, comes around I guess.

Only if you like poetry

If you don't like poetry then just skip this. But if you are willing to take a chance, spend a few moments, please read the short composition below. At the end I will tell you something about it.

"She skipped childhood like a stone

Skimmed the surface straight into adulthood

Never gave thought to her youth, it rippled softly before it disappeared

It was never dolls and make believe

It was babies and a real house to tend

she woke up one day and realized that she hadn’t played outside in years

And that she had nothing to show for her toil

except her children, who barely see her anymore

But she keeps working because she must

She is wise

And wiser still each day

You can see it in her face and in the movements of her hands

Hands not dealt an easy deck

And hands that know the cost

Of skipping rocks"

This is not a vanity thing. The above was written by my daughter. The one who keeps saying she wants to write, wishes she could write etc. Well guess what? I think she can and I'm proud of her. I had to get her permission to re-publish this. I just hope there is more where this came from. Keep it up Bean!

Not a Christmas letter

Disclaimer: This is NOT; repeat NOT our family Christmas letter. Patti typically writes those but for a variety of reasons we’ve not sent one in a few years – time, postage, I forgot to mail it etc.

This represents my recollections and mine only of this past year. Patti may see fit to comment on it via Facebook.

2011 can be summed up in three words: we became grandparents! And that’s pretty much what I have to report. See ya’ next year!

OK, now back to the beginning. I can either do this by subject or chronologically. OK survey says? Chrono so here we go!

Jan. 2011

As has become our annual tradition, Sarah and Caleb visited us for a couple of weeks in January. Many of our Saturdays were spent watching Janie play basketball on a local girl’s team. We also (yeah!) got our woodstove installed so we began to enjoy the real heat and warmth. And did I mention this is when all my chain-saw-sagas began? Also visited my dad in Dallas for his 89^th birthday.

Feb. – Janie continues her basketball efforts. Almost every Saturday. Plus practices in between.

March – Patti spent a month working for Oxford Home Health Care after leaving CMH in Ash Grove but after trying to take care of a bed-ridden 300+ lb. hoarder, she called that one quits. I spent two days in our state capitol, Jefferson City, with a leadership program, trying to learn how our state govt. functions. You think DC is dysfunctional? Just kidding!

April – Senior prom month for Annie. Patti starts working for a different nursing home – Quail Creek – a nice facility.

May – Vesper Brielle Krantz is born in May, daughter of our oldest daughter Sarah and her husband Caleb. Patti flew up for a week or so right after the birth, took hundreds of pictures. Cutest girl in town!

Right before Patti left, Annie graduated from high school (yeah and congrats!) and somehow I was asked to be the commencement speaker. It took me weeks to write my 12-minute-speech which was essentially a look back at the last 40 years (for me) since my graduation and what might be in store for them in their next 40 (you can read it online if you like here). I took some liberties with Tim McGraw’s, “My Next 30 years”, but I did not sing. The audience was thankful.

June – Able to visit my Dad in Dallas for a couple of days at Father’s Day. Annie starts working for Walmart. Gilly took me to see Lyle Lovett and John Hiatt as a Father’s Day present. As usual June is wedding month and we celebrated two multi-cultural marriages with friends at our church.

July – Janie and Anna go to kid’s camp at church giving us a week-long break!

Later, Vince, Janie and Anna drove to Montana to spend a week with Vesper and the rest of the Krantz clan. Spent a lot of time sitting with, holding, changing and in general just being a grandpa to, Vesper. I could get used to that! While there we also spent a bunch of time at Flathead Lake swimming in the super-cold water. The girls never batted an eye!

Aug. – Annie started college at OTC in a nursing program. She has a scholarship which covers her tuition. Patti quits working for a while. We take a brief family camping trip to an unusual place in MO called Johnson’s Shut Ins.

Sept. – Helped launch a major internal training program at work called CAmP – City Ambassador Program – to help employees get a better handle of how their jobs fit into the much bigger picture of the entire City government operation. It’s a once-a-month program that is now beginning to take shape.

I also got to go back to San Fran for a conference. Enjoyed walking the hills, the waterfront, eating real Chinese food and seeing some old friends. Got to meet a real-live VP from Google!

Late in September, Patti I spend a few days alone in Branson and Eureka Springs celebrating our 35^th anniversary. Nice places, nice time.

Oct. – Near the end of the month my co co-interim Director left for another job, so that left me running the dept. by myself. For the last two months (and one more to go) I’ve been doing at least 3 jobs: his, my old job, the dept. director position and helping our Parks Dept. produce their monthly TV show until they replace someone as well. Note: In January I will finally have a new boss after 21 months of sort of getting to be the boss. I’ll miss some of it and other parts, not so much.

Nov. – Annie moved out into her own apartment in town closer to work (still Walmart) and school (still OTC). We fire up the woodstove and I begin my chain-saw-saga again. But we are keeping warm!

Dec. – Patti did about 99% of the Christmas shopping. My job was the tree and lights. Looking forward to friends and family on Christmas eve for Patti’s traditional 3-way chili (aka Skyline and/or Cincinnati chili) We expect a group of 12 or more for a fun evening.

Overall 2011 was a challenging year both personally and professionally. On the farm front we still have: 10 chickens, 3 dogs, 3 horses, one cat and one rabbit.

Also really looking forward to Sarah, Caleb and Vesper who will come again in January. Plans this time include a trip to Dallas for my folks to meet Caleb and Vesper. Then we head to Nashville for a short McCarthy family re-union. Should be quite a crowd there!

Hope you and yours have a Blessed time of year!

Vince, Patti, Janie and Anna holding down the Everton home front

Sarah lives in Montana with Caleb and Vesper.

Gill and Annie each have their own places in town.

Just wondering

There may be a really simple and good explanation for this but … in my re-read through of the Bible, I started Luke today.

That’s where we read the more familiar accounts of the annunciation, Jesus’ birth, etc. One part of this always bothered me (are we allowed to be “bothered” by something in Scripture? Not sure, but that’s the word that fits.)

The angel Gabriel comes to Zacharias and tells him about his son-to-come who of course became John the Baptist. In their conversation Zacharias questions the angel “Whereby shall I know this?” and for this he was struck dumb (for awhile at least.)

Later on Mary is also greeted by Gabriel who tells her about the coming birth of Christ – her child and the son of God. Mary’s response: “How shall this be?” Gabriel didn’t chide or punish her in any way for asking essentially the same question.

Always wondered why Zacharias got dinged for asking questions.

Maybe because I like to ask lots of questions!

It (almost) happens

Saturday night, I was coming home with the girls just after dark.

Coming off the state highway (speed limit 60) to our town road where it drops to 35 pretty quick.

I usually coast in and by the time I hit the 35 mph sign I’m doing between 35-40.

Saturday I crested a small hill in our town when I saw the unmarked Police car sitting behind a small church. As is my habit, I looked down to my speed which I’m pretty sure was 35. (yeah, right, you say!)

The officer in the car thought otherwise and pulled out behind me and turned on his lights – no siren in our dinky little town I guess.

At first, since I had just looked at my speed, I wasn’t sure he was coming after me so I drove on down the road another block, turned off onto our road. I looked back and saw he had also so I knew he wanted me.

By the time he got to the car I had my license and registration out. He asked me if I knew why he had stopped me to which I honestly answered “no.” (yeah, right, you say!)
He said City Council was really asking them to stop anybody going over 35 and that I was doing 40. He asked me how fast I thought I was going and I told him 35. He took my license (gave me back my reg. card right then). He was in his car a long time, which made me start to worry.

Observation: when they shine that light into your mirror – you can NOT see anything. It is sooo very bright that it almost hurts! I’m sure that is intentional so you can’t see them or what they are doing.

After a bit, he came back, handed me my license and said, “Mr. Crunk, you have a good evening.” I said thank you and drove home.

Even if I was going 40 (and my wife says I always drive too fast thru town) I doubt many folks get stopped for 5 over. I’ve heard the off-the-record number was +7. Mind you I don’t try to push that envelope, I’m just sayin’.

Later that night I had to go back thru town again to pick up another daughter at work and rest assured, I never even broke 30 on the way out and the way back in. Not taking any chances!

Location, location, location

I’m not a businessman or a restaurant owner but I’ve been watching something repeat itself for a few years.

At three intersections I pass through almost every day, are (or were, or will be) small restaurants – a pizza place, a former Italian rest. and a drive-thru coffee shop.
I can’t keep up with how many different businesses have gone in and OUT of each of these in the last few years. In a couple of cases the businesses may have lasted 2- 3 years, which in this economy might be doing pretty good. But the third one has turned over more times than I can recall.

I feel sorry for these small business-people who I’m sure lost their collective shirts (or more!) on these failed ventures.

To my title – it would seem that none of these locations can support a food related business. You’d think after awhile, folks would recognize that. For whatever reason this intersection etc. just is not going to work.

Before I forget – one of the locations held a small independent church for awhile but even that was short-lived.

I’ve heard the joke (or maybe serious statement) that Walmart and McDonalds aren’t in the retail or food business but rather in the real-estate business. They do traffic counts, demographic surveys, scope out the competition etc. for perhaps years before they go in and buy property for a future location.

Maybe these small business owners need to do the same type of research.