Saturday, February 27, 2016

Personal Observations

Performing Arts

Thursday night my wife dragged me out to dinner and then to a night of culture. She snagged a couple of tickets to the Tao Drummers road show, Seventeen Samurai (video below)


If you're not familiar with the Tao Drummers, you're not alone. I'd never heard of them until Thursday. But now I'm a fan. They're hard to describe - sort of a mix of traditional Japanese music - heavy on the drums - combined with flutes, stringed instruments, martial dances, acrobatics, and a dash of slapstick. They're on a North American tour. If they come anywhere near your area do yourself a favor and take in their show. Definitely well worth your time.

Election Happenings

Yesterday I did the 'early voting' thing for the Texas primaries - part of Super Tuesday. The turnout was pretty heavy. There were actually people waiting in line to vote, something I've never seen before in our sleepy little town, even in a general election.

I'm not going to say who I voted for, but I will say this. I'm in Lamar Smith's congressional district. He's a no-doubt-about-it conservative, has an A+ rating from the NRA, is a powerful member of several congressional committees, and has been our representative for 30 years.

I didn't vote for him.

The reason is simple. He's had 30 years to get things done. However, over that time things have gotten worse and worse. Nothing against him personally, but he's part of the problem: a career politician who checks off all the boxes, but at the end of the day nothing changes.

Now it's time for a change

In other election news, there was a woman standing a couple of places behind me with her mother. The woman was around my age - mid 50s to mid 60s - and her mother had to be in her 80s. The poor old lady was hunchbacked, had thinning grey hair, and needed a walker to get around.

I have no problems with that. What I do have a problem with is that the old lady kept asking her daughter "Why are we here?"
The daughter replied "We're here to vote for the president."

The old woman replied "Who is running?"

The daughter said "Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders."

The old woman said "Wasn't she president already?"

The daughter's response: "That was her husband. Just vote for Hillary and then I'll take you to lunch."

The sad part is that her vote is worth the same as mine.

Sigh...


6 comments:

Well Seasoned Fool said...

Who is the one on the right? Serious question, I don't know.

Randy said...

those drummers look pretty good. maybe next time

Anonymous said...

Quietly, without commotion, inform the head officer of the polling place that you witnessed electioneering within 100 feet. (Texas Voting Code 85.036). Have the miscreant removed from said place to await formal charges.

CenTexTim said...

WSF - I didn't know either. So I did a Google Image search. It's a creature named Snooki. From Wikipedia:

Nicole Elizabeth "Snooki" LaValle (née Polizzi; born November 23, 1987) is a reality television personality and dancer who is best known for being a cast member of the MTV reality show Jersey Shore and starring in Snooki & Jwoww. Snooki has gained popularity by appearing on talks shows including The View, The Ellen DeGeneres Show, Jimmy Kimmel Live!, Late Show with David Letterman, and The Wendy Williams Show. She also appeared as the guest hostess for WWE Raw in 2011 and competed at WrestleMania XXVII that same year.

Randy - It was a fabulous show. Try to catch them if they come back to this area.

Anon - good point. Next time...

Old NFO said...

I've seen them, and you're right, they ARE impressive!

CenTexTim said...

NFO - agreed.