Here is my latest piece in progress.  It is 20 x 20.  I'll post the finished product in a few days.  I'm digging it so far!

Gruene Hall

One of my summer goals was to open an ETSY shop and start piddling around with selling some small items.  Well, today I went back to work....so technically my summer is over, so I had to get this thing up and running!  I listed a few of my Texas Holga images. Finally some of my old beer bottles came in handy! Stop by the shop and check 'em out!  Any feedback on things to improve would be greatly appreciated!  Here is the shop link 

Style Station #1 - Mixed Media  - 12 x 12 - on gallery wrapped canvas.

This was a really fun piece to do.  Expect more of this in the coming weeks.....I'm feeling a little inspired.

The haul from 7-22

Finally I had a chance to hit some estate sales over the past few weeks!  I was about to go through withdrawal.  They don't call me the Junky Trinket for nothing!  I love to hit the sales on Thursdays and find the goods.  I picked up around 400 matchbooks from all over the southwest last week.  Tons of Las Vegas ones and a lot from Dallas as well.  The Alamo Plaza one is my fave!  On my last adventure I picked up some great finds.  1950's Bingo cards and other games - $1 each - great for collage.  1950's Texas license plates - $3 each -steal!! 1960's Texas maps .25 each - always pick up the maps. Perspective Drawing book - $1 - my second one of those. Old Pepsi bottle crate - $3 - what a deal! 1940's ticket stub for war event at Cotton Bowl - free!- it was in an old scrapbook and she said to just take it. 1960's Coors Beer drinking glass - .25 - for my bro.  Not too bad of a haul!!  I did run into some trouble when a man running a sale changed the price on a sign  from .10 a piece for old postcards to $6.00 a piece...needless to say I let him know he was out of bounds.....I told him to call me when he realized his error.

Old 97's released a new EP in early July.  I just got around to downloading it....I know, I'm losing my status as their #1 fan.  The title is Mimeograph and includes the following 4 cover songs:

Rocks Off - The Rolling Stones

For The Girl - The Fratellis

Driver 8 - REM

This is a very solid EP. Old 97's take on thes songs are great! It's only like $3 so download it now right here

Wow! They painted Gruene Hall - Is there any better place to be on a Friday night in Texas?? No!

Last Friday night was about as good as it gets for me in my little music world.  Carrie and I were able to see my all time favorite female singer - Kelly Willis play at Gruene Hall.  I've been a diehard Kelly Willis fan since 1993 or so.  I have all of her albums and I bet I've seen her play 15+ times in my life.  It had been about 8 years since we had last seen KW play, so this was a treat!  Her show was awesome and she hasn't missed a beat since the early 90's.  After the show I got her to sign the setlist I got, and I was also able to get a picture with her.  Kelly is always very laid back and friendly with her fans....which is cool. She managed to play a great mix of old and new stuff and plenty off of my favorite KW albums - What I Deserve , Kelly Willis, and Well Traveled Love. I'm biased I know but Kelly has the BEST voice around.  Make sure and check out her albums when you get a chance.  One thing Kelly has going for her is that her husband is Bruce Robison.  He's one of the best singer/songwriters in the business today.  Below is a video from Friday of Kelly singing  a Bruce Robison song -"Wrapped" maybe you've heard of it......we were listening to this song back in the late 90's....way before George did it.

My wife and I celebrated America's birthday with the tunes of Ryan Bingham and the Dead Horses at Whitewater Sports in Sattler, Texas.  Whitewater Sports holds a special place in my heart because I worked there for two summers back in college.  I patched tubes, patched canoes, took parking money, drove tube shuttles, guided raft trips, picked up trash, cleaned toilets, helped drunk tubers out of their rafts at the end of their trips.....fun times.....no really... FUN times!  But even after all those great memories of WWS, I have to say my favorite WWS memory was last weekend at the Ryan Bingham show.  I've seen RB twice and was blown away both times.  This show took the cake.  The show was sold out and the crowd was nuts, I mean bananas....just like I like it.  He opened the show with Day Is Done and closed with Bread & Water during the encore.  We had crowd surfing, flashers, a dude that got goat roped by a Comal County Sheriff 5 feet from us, and a friend of RB dance on stage in his undies.....now how can you beat that?  Oh yeah, Bingham tore it up!  Even had some fireworks in the background....what a scene!  If you are not on board yet, then get on board.  Go buy his albums Mescalito and Roadhouse Sun and then go see RB live.  What a great night and one of the best shows that I've ever seen.

The undie dancer...hilarious!