The Next Big Thing: Part Two

Here I sit, content that by clicking on my facebook, stumbleupon, digg and twitter buttons and launching my thoughts into the ether of the web that I'm doing it right; that I'm current; using the latest... Oh, but no, wait!  Suddenly, or so it seems to me, there are new apps and sites that I should be pushing off into.

But, what about the ones I already use?  I've gotten good results, thus far anyhow, by using them and my God, just how much time do these folks think I have to click this button, then that one... I mean, hell, I just want to write and hopefully have a few people read and understand...you know: Get it.

My scenario-forming brain goes into auto-overdrive in moments like these; I start forming Orwellian tales out of mass, social idiocy, which we are just prone as hell to do, as a national species, so-to-speak.

Imagine your great grandfather, for instance.  Suppose he had to get up every morning and chop wood.  Talk about a thankless job; but imagine, if you will, that one morning your Granddaddy got up and heard the sound of a chain-saw going off in the distance, and then saw trees and limbs being chewed off at an alarming rate.  How quickly would he decide that he just had to have that chain saw?

Of course, that's the reason any of it works.  We're so damn easy, it's silly, really.  Our species can come up with some really incredible shit.  A lot of it works, and we, as a whole, have little or no resistance to the impulse of "Making life more comfortable."  Hell, we refined the ART of convenience.  


I was reminded this week, as my Houston Texans went down the tubes--thanks guys--of a sad fact about human nature... One that I've gotten all too familiar with: We will go after what we want, even if we have to ignore what we need.


Back in my sales days, I once made a call to a household, a young couple just in their second year of marriage.  I presented a product to them that would have taken money they were spending, and put it back in their pockets.  They nodded, agreed, and went as far as to say: "Man, we really need us one of those..."

In the end, they declined, stating that they could not afford it at the time--and get this: "We can't even afford a new crib for the baby yet, she's sleeping in the box that the new TV came in..."  Quietly, I nodded and said little else but my goodbyes.  There is no reasoning with such thought.


This blog may be nothing more than my own lashing out at the instability of an up-side-down world that puts an application in front of me, encourages me to learn and use it, then makes it obsolete just as I get comfortable with it.  However, all lashing and thrashing aside, I still have a point to make: Who's running this show anyhow?


More coming in Part Three!

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The Next BIG thing...

It has nothing to do with what day it may be, you can not go through a day now without seeing, or being exposed to, what is being claimed as: The Next Big Thing.

This morning, The Fabulous Feathermaye and I sat down here at our desk as we usually do, getting our various settle-in chores done, fetching the water from the well, and all that...


Once ZEAL was downed and coffee was in hand, I looked over and saw feathermaye dabbling around on a new site.  Every three or four minutes she would get excited, say: "Look at this!" and turn her netbook my way to show me an image.


"What is that site, Baby?"


"It's call Pinterest," she said. "It's the next BIG thing."


You should understand that for years feathermaye and Your's Truly have spent our days sitting beside each other, a computer screen, and whatever the "Next big thing" was at any given moment, there in front of us, usually with my sweet wife showing me what's what about one site or another.
  


Generally, I give these things only slight awareness, enough to allow me to come back to it later, when my brain is ready to get around another, Next Big Thing. 



Personally, I find it hard to get all worked-in and comfortable on one site or another(like say: Diggit, or Stumbleupon, or even Twitter), at least effectively--as it ties in with this Blog and my other life interests.  

The constant changes, however, also direct my mind to another issue that seems suddenly obvious when I look askance at our NEXT BIG THING culture: No wonder A.D.D. is spreading--seemingly--like some sort of strange STD that has just popped up on the social horizon.  




How do you find the time to come to terms with all this new...stuff?




More to come in the next issue of "The Next Big Thing"

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excerpt from today's AGONIZING TRUTH: More reactions over Herndon's Tell All book

THE AGONIZING TRUTH 
Agony, Texas (cir 312 339!)
Jackson Tuck Editor

Today, I went into the streets of Agony... to get down and dirty over the real reactions of Agonites. As the only true 'newsman' in all of Vinegaroon County, it is my burden to observe, and report: The Agonizing Truth.


Now that I have finished my college career, I feel the responsibility that my Grandfather, former circuit court Judge for the Agony Basin District, the honorable Clayton Onyx, has left me in bequeathing this historic newspaper into my young hands.

The divided town I witnessed today reminded me not of the town I grew up in, or the place where I knew people to be of solid stock, people whose names are familiar, mostly because they never change... Not, the important ones, anyhow.


Now, our story is about to come out.  This writer you all spoke with, and had his wife over for tea, and poker, this man-with-no-first-name, evidently, this S. Bond Herndon has torn what little peace we have known away like a Twister, sweeping down off the Llano Estacado.
.  
My own aunt was killed by one of those, much to all our regret.  I have heard that Herndon has even made mention of that tender subject, and rekindled certain feelings, perhaps best left alone.  


Not all residents are angry at Mr. Herndon.  Many are excited about anything that tells people outside 'The Basin' about their existence...


"It's kinna nice to think folks off somewhere's else might be thinking about us here..." Tate Munchassenberger told the AT. "Mostly we figger no body really cares..."

Some Agonites predict this book with ruin the town!

Others I spoke with seem to have taken a more philosophical approach to the news that A Week in Agony...Texas is about to cause storms of controversy once readers across the nation realize that one of the main characters in his expose' goes by the name JESUS, which is true, everyone in town knows Jesus and understands that he out-right refuses to be addressed as 'Hey-Zues'. 


What any Agonite with some leather to snap their heads against knows, is that Herndon is about to tell the world what our town, our little nothing-of-a-town, once did to the very same, above mentioned, Jesus... Jesus Matesse DeSoto Solo Cabrerra, to put the record straight. 

Travis Drylander age 12

This is not the first time such events have spilled out of Agony. The time Herndon's book is supposed to be set within is the very week Travis Drylander went insane and started broadcasting to the heavens the darkest of secrets about everybody who had a piece of Agony; most have long gone... 


"The Families Herndon Exposes in his book are not ready to have such matters open for public consumption". Lawyer for (as he terms it) THE AGONY CONSORTIUM J. Dagwood Holmgren told the AT. He is also the attorney responsible for filing a record number of lawsuits aimed at stopping publication of, as Holmgren puts it: "What can only end up being an offensive rag of a book, filled with blasphemies that only the 'Godless' would permit!"

Books signed in Canton, Tx.

Many Agonites have become fans of S. Bond Herndon's writing.  His most recent novel, "Tormenta", set on Galveston Island as hurricane Rita bore down, was a tour-de-force of Southern Gothic storytelling, and historical drama.  Yes, I read it, and was shocked to note that such a writer would switch his genres.  Risky, to take the chance that his readers would follow his tall tales about a town like Agony.  


As our town awaits to hear the date for release, some are awaiting the 'pre-order' phase to make their internet purchases, orders for signed copies.  Mr. Herndon will also be ON THE MOUNTAIN (Living, evidently, in a fake Western Town: Flathat) in Canton, Texas during The First Monday of The Month for both the November and December Markets (It is estimated that up to 500k flow through that pretty little place on an average Market Day).  He will be signing books and doing readings, and keeping an eye out for Mulligans...


Next issue of THE AGONIZING TRUTH:

What, exactly, do the Mulligans want kept out of Herndon's new book?  Why is Travis Drylander still missing?  


Also coming in the next issue: THE REAL HOUSEWIVES OF AGONY

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People of THE MOUNTAIN: Photo Blog: More looks into what people have done with their spot of THE MOUNTAIN

At the base of THE MOUNTAIN...
Buffalo Girls Hotel breathes authentic!

Finding a stage is never a problem...

Lots of stuff, carefully arranged, artistically
placed for you to find... 

and maybe talk about...

or even make an offer on...if you feel it talking to you...

Things will pop out at you, unexpectedly...

they will call for your attention, and hold it a while...

Found things...mean something here...

Like an empty stage, waiting for the visionary to sweep it and
have a little company drop by...

maybe you want to channel the
ghost of an old Blues Man...

or just stay in your own clubhouse...you choose who can play...

there's plenty of rooms with a view...

and dreams waiting to continue...

or even coming to life as we speak...

...Know this...THE MOUNTAIN is waiting.


S


Thanks for taking a look, folks... you can always follow this blog by clicking over there on the far right. We're also on facebook, thanks Steve, I'm always Stumble-ling-Upon, and if you'd be so sweet, please give this one a Tweet!

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Calling ALL STARVING ARTISTS: Through a little premiere art by FEATHERMAYE

It matters not what your art is.  If you paint, prepare yourself for both subject matter, and sales, often on the piece you are standing there working on.  If you sculpt, you'll find excellent company to talk about your experiences, and pick the mind of some WORLD CLASS sculptors.

Maybe you sing, play the guitar, or the xylophone, there's a spot of MOUNTAIN up here for you too.  We don't care if you design dresses, hats or Windmills for your artistic expression.  We only know that you secretly dream of a place where folks like us can come, relax, find the rhythm of the place, its pulse, and let it throb up your frame as you let your art flow.

Street performers, Wild West re-enactments, shops with stuff folks have found with your name on it...c'mon all you pickers, this is your stuff and the folks up here are just holding on to it for you.

Gotta book you want to promote?  Me too, and some painting I want to do, and, and... THE MOUNTAIN sees its fare share of the estimated 500k that can come through the town of CANTON TEXAS during First Monday of the Month, when this sleepy little town turns into the largest swap-meet, flea market, trade station (as it was during the early days of TEXAS settlement).

The market days activity and commerce swings full all day Thursday through Saturday and half a day on Sunday.  At night, hundreds of thousands of travelers look toward THE MOUNTAIN, to continue shopping for those 'rare finds' or that art that they need for... or just to listen to some tunes, or laugh at the performers, maybe even cry with them too.

They eat in numerous venues and see more in an evening on this magical little spot of ground that has risen to legendary status.  You'll see buildings that look like the Lost Boys built them, or a entire village of kid's tree forts, or club houses, only they are Bed and Breakfasts, shops, galleries and a virtual DREAM WORLD for any good ole American Picker...

Influenced by 'Escher', Feathermaye
keeps her eye ready for the
unusual

I'll just shut up and let Feathermaye TELL you, in her own way, with her own eyes--tricky, eh?  Ladies and gentlemen, the ART of MY WIFE, THE FABULOUS FEATHERMAYE: compositions from the upper hill...

Ed "Pappy" Picket World Class Sculptor, see link in text above
The Memorial Statue still needs help with funding for
the cast.  Dig deep, everybody...this is a worthy effort.

We saw composition everywhere... "I'm Just Captivated by the juxtaposition of it all: The drab bordered by color, the old next door to the new." feathermaye

Folks, my neck was hurting from all the looking back and forth, as we crept along in Nanny Fru-Fru's 'mountain rigged' golf cart with "Who Dat" on the side.  

If you don't feel like a kid again as soon as you set foot here, turn around, go back, this is not for you.  But don't be surprised to feel this place as it puts an arm around you, points to a currently available little spot of MOUNTAIN, and starts tickling the kid in you again.  C'mon, you know you want to.  I'm currently working on getting my own Hippie Feet back in shape. 

As always, you can follow this blog by clicking on the right buttons to your right...also you can find us on facebook, thank you very much.  Also, if you'd be so sweet, give this one a Tweet!   I'd be remiss not to mention that feathermaye now has me stumbling as well...

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From the Balcony: Photo Blog 'How THE MOUNTAIN comes to life'

Gun fights during the day are attention get-ers to shoppers below.

Then, evening descends over the hill...

... music, art, craftsmanship and creativity meet a bargain-hunting night crowd

They shop, they eat, they even get a little enchanted with one spot or another...

And, take back a lot of memories

This sleepy MOUNTAIN waits for you next First Monday of The MONTH
In Canton, Texas!


Follow us, if you will, on facebook.  And if you would be so sweet, give us a  Tweet!

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