As promised...Waddie and myself

Just thought I would upload the picture of Mr. Mitchell and myself, taken at the Roswell Art Museum Gala. Sorry my tie is crinkled mom!!!

Cowboy Poet Laureate

Hello folks in cyber-land, and thanks for checking in to the blog. Things will begin to pick up here pretty soon with the college's production of "The Importance of Being Earnest" set to go in a few weeks.

In the meantime, The Roswell Museum of Art had a big Gala celebration last Friday to officially open a new exhibit. For those of you in town, or coming to town, it is definitely worthwhile to take an hour out of your schedule and check it out. And...I am not just saying that because I am on the board of trustees either!

During that celebration there was a fancy-schmancy black tie dinner followed on Saturday by a festival. Yes...these small towns do love there festivals. Not only did I get to help set things up for these events, but I also attended them. The festival, that celebrated skills, arts and crafts of the southwest got off to a slow start, but business picked up. Of course there were the usual suspects there: the vendors selling funnel cakes, popcorn, burritos and the usual carney fare. But, the nice thing was that the people at most of the booths were not selling things, the were showing things and teaching things.

Two of the highlights for me were our own Doc Bender manning the Historical Society booth churning butter. That's right, good 'ol Doc was standing there for hours turning a handle and wondering if it would ever become butter. For all the ribbing he took, a couple of hours and viola! Butter. I was a bit afraid to taste it, but I did and it was good. I washed it down with some apple cider that I watched be made straight from the press!

The second highlight was getting to listen to and to meet Waddie Mitchell, the Cowboy Poet Laureate. He was the main attraction. This guy is great. He's been everywhere and done everything and his poetry is everything you would want: thought provoking, entertaining, funny, engaging. I can't say enough about him. The best part is, he was such a nice guy. I got a chance to meet him at the Gala and we talked for a few minutes about the importance of poetry and theater and the arts in general. He excused himself for a minute in our conversation and I thought he probably was just moving on to other more important people, but, instead, he walked back and handed me a drink and continued where we left off.

I think there is a picture of us out there and I'll post it when I get it. One of my colleagues took it and said to Waddie, "how about a picture of the two poets...East coast meets West coast". It was a thrill and honor to be even mentioned in the same sentence with Mr. Mitchell.

So...that's my excitement for the week...Remember: "The Importance of Being Earnest" at ENMU-R, November 17-19 at the Performing Arts Center! It's free, so unless you are more then 1000 miles away...you have no excuse!

Super Genius??

(For some reason I can't get a photo to upload today, so imagine Steve Lyons smiling face here.)

Not so fast sports fans! I'm not so quick to throw Steve Lyons to the wolves just yet. Instead, I am awarding my Super Genius award this month to Fox Sports for their immediate dismissal of Mr. Lyons.

For those of you who do not know, Mr. Lyons, nicknamed "pyscho" during his playing days and best known up until now for forgetting where he was and pulling his pants down at first base trying to get dirt out of his pant legs, has been fired from Fox Sports for making racially insensitive comments.

Here is a chunck from Sports Illustrated's website (linked above):

In the second inning of Friday's game between Detroit and Oakland, Piniella talked about the success light-hitting A's infielder Marco Scutaro had in the first round of the playoffs. Piniella said that slugger Frank Thomas and Eric Chavez needed to contribute, comparing Scutaro's production to finding a "wallet on Friday" and hoping it happened again the next week.
Later, Piniella said the A's needed Thomas to get "en fuego" -- hot in Spanish -- because he was currently "frio" -- or cold. After Brennaman praised Piniella for being bilingual, Lyons spoke up.Lyons said that Piniella was "hablaing Espanol" -- butchering the conjugation for the word "to speak" -- and added, "I still can't find my wallet."
"I don't understand him, and I don't want to sit too close to him now," Lyons continued.

Insensitive? Perhaps. Cause for losing your job? I'm not so sure. Did Lyons mean it the way it is being portrayed? Does it matter? I leave it up to you my much smarter than I readers!!!

Fore!!!

Last weekend I served as a volunteer at the ENMU-R Charity Golf Tournament. As many of you know, I am not a golfer. So, I was not playing, but rather helping to facilitate the event. It was quite a long day, but it was fun.

One thing I did was stand out at hole 13 and measure drives for the closest to the hole. For that particular hole, the closest drive won a nights stay at The Inn of the Mountain Gods in Ruiodoso. Luckily I had good company at the hole with me or it could have been a bit boring.

There was also a drink cart roaming around the course and I tried my first Bloddy Mary. I should have known better. I don't like Tomato Juice and I am not big on Vodka, but I figured it was a good time to try one. Well...one swig and I knew i was a mistake. Ugghhh! Repulsive. I don't know how you people do it! For the rest of the day it was beer for me.

Now that's a big spider!

I finally got to see it. The New Mexico giant Tarantula. It was sitting right outside my door a few days ago. I have to say the chills, they went right up from my big toe to the top of my head. It was at least the size of my hand. I wanted to take a picture, but I only had my phone with me and I wasn't about to get close enough to get a good shot.

I have to admit I feel a bit silly being affraid of a bug that the local kids play with or squash, but I just can't help it. The thing was huge! My neighbor came outside and told me I could get close to it to take the picture and that it wouldn't try to attack, but as I started to move in ever so slowly he said to be careful not to upset it or it might jump at me. Not upset it!?!? How the heck am I supposed to know what might upset a tarantula???

Anyway, it has been a few days and every once in a while I see the thing crawling around the outside of the buildings. My rule is that I will kill anything that is in my home. Outside, well, that's their domain. But as I look upon the giant arachnid, I have to wonder: could I kill something that big? What the hell would I do if one was crawling inside my home? Ugghh.

Komikazee time!

So here's my shameless plug thought of the day:

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Now back to your regularly scheduled day.

Pure Water, Fast Ducks

While driving back from San Diego this summer, we saw a sign that made no sense in Deming, New Mexico. It said: Welcome to Deming, home of pure water and fast ducks. I can see why a place in the desert would want to claim pure water. But what's the deal with the ducks?

Well, as fate would have it, someone in my department has lived in Deming and related the story.

Deming, New Mexico is the home of the Great American Duck Race; an event that just celebrated its 27th year. Each year, multiples of people go down to Deming with their wannabe speedy ducks and let them tear it loose on the track.

Now I know what you are thinking; who cares about a bunch of fast ducks? Well, that's what I was thinking anyway, but just like most small towns americana, this is a party. Sure there are the duck races and I am sure a multitude of duck related things for the duck enthusiast, but when you boil off the fat, it is a festival like any other. From what I hear, it is actually a lot of fun. I just wonder what they do with the losing ducks when it is done (le'orange?)? Maybe next year, I'll mark it on the calendar and head down their. If anyone wants to join me, I'll flip the bill (sorry...bad duck pun intended).

I think it is utterly amazing that I live in a state that you can go see the ducks run and then make your way a couple of hours and see the rocket races. You got to love this state!

Before I let you waddle on the subject, I have to throw out my favorite duck joke!
A Priest, Rabbi and a duck go into a bar. The bartender says: What is this...a joke!?!?!
I'll be here all week.

The final hunt

I'm not usually one to give these death announcements/memorializing speeches, but today I felt compelled to write about the passing of Steve Irwin, aka, the crocodile hunter. I wasn't a big fan of his shows, though I did watch them ever so often. Also, I don't like to mourn celebrities more then any of the countless unknowns that die everyday that I have never heard of, but I just had to.

I guess I am wondering if it was all worth it for him. All of those years playing with fire, putting himself into dangerous scrapes. Was something like this bound to happen? I heard on CNN that this is only the second Stingray related death on record in Australia and that the Stingray doesn't even make the top ten most dangerous creature list there. It just seems so pointless.

I wonder if a guy like that would have had it any other way. I'm sure that he would have loved to have seen his kids grow up and to grow old himself, but I wonder if he had an idea that this could happen. I don't think in any way he got what he deserved or anything like that that I have been reading today on various sites. Is he the Bruce Lee or Jim Morrison of his genre?

To the mall!

After a year of avoidance, I finally made my first trip to the Roswell Mall. I didn't go for shopping though, so I still have that going for me. I went to lend a hand to the Media Arts department of our school to help with recruitment.

The mall isn't actually as bad as I thought it would be. It actually looks like a mall inside and has your typical mall stuff offered. The two things that got me were:

1. Giant roaches. I'm not talking your little brown, we have a problem type roach here. No. I'm talking your indigenous two inch long, dinosaur looking things. They were everywhere outside the exit of the mall. Luckily most were dead, or dying, but yuck!! I think Roswell is as close to Galapagos as I'll ever get!

2. The sign on the door. The Roswell Mall has their do's and don'ts posted on a sign like many malls do. No smoking. No skateboards...that kind of thing. But...they had two things posted I have never seen (and being from Philly, you'd think I would have). They have a no bandana and no gang related attire policy. Yes, they will boot you from the mall if you are wearing your bandana. No eighties heavy metal stars here: sorry Axel!! And...how do you get those gang related tattoos off before you go in there?!?!?

Back to work

I guess it was bound to happen. Work. Today was the first of two days of meetings to get us back in the groove for another semester. This semester should be cool, but majorly busy.

I will be teaching 4 sections of Rhetoric, 1 section of Intro to theater arts, 1 section of Rehearsal and performance and 1 section of Comic Book Design. Then there is the play.

Besides that, I got back to Roswell safely and reclaimed my spot on the couch in front of the idiot box. I won't have much TV time for a while, but I did get a chance to catch up on most of the stuff I Tivo'd this summer.

No giant spiders. No scorpions. So far, off to a good start!

Wild blue yonder

Today I have airplanes on my mind. Maybe it is because I have to drive to Philly International to drop off Ali this afternoon, or because I have to fly out on Monday. Either way, I have been thinking about the pain in the rear which is air-travel.

Philly International is probably the biggest pain in the butt airport I have ever been to. It takes forever to get through there and there are always tons of people there. I know JFK is a big pain too, but my limites experience their has been positive.

Dallas, on the other hand, is a joy in comparisson. The only problem there is that when you land you might have a ten minute ride to your terminal. The first time you land there it is confusing. Your plane actually drives over the highway. It is even stranger when you drive to the airport and see a plane drive over you. But it is such a big airport and arranged so well that it is a breeze to get things done. One of the best things in Dallas.

I really like small airports though like Lubbuck or Santa Barbara. No muss no fuss. You enter in the one door, go to the one counter and sit at one of the few gates to wait for your plane. I love when I get to do a trip like that. It really lowers that travel stress.

Internationally, it seems like all airports are a pain for Americans. The Amsterdam airport was nice though. It had smoking and nice areas to get coffee or a snack. It was mobbed though. We got a verbal lashing at the gate too. We stopped for coffee because we were so early. When we showed up at the gate, about one hour and a half before the flight took off, a snooty airport employee gave us a lecture about being on time. They wanted us there to check in (even though we had already done that once) with them at the gate two hours before takeoff. I could've killed that jerk.

Anyway, I was just having a conversation and mentioned that if I were going on vacation and had a few choices of destination, I would totally pick the one with the least stressful airport. Is that dumb?

Anybody have a favorite airport or great airport story? I know most of you have heard all of mine before, so I won't bore you with them again.

The Philadelphia Five

As I get ready to head back to New Mexico, I thought I'd give you my list of things I miss most obout the greatest city in the USA: Philadelphia. Of course you can put family and friends aside for this, of course they come first. But the following is a list of things that are very difficult for me to do without in Roswell.

1. Rita's Water Ice. If you have been to Philly and had Rita's, you know what I am talking about. If you haven't, man, it is hard to explain. On the surface it would appear that Rita's is just a tasty, cool and refreshing icee snack. But, once you have tasted a Rita's, you realize there really is nothing like it in the world. Nuff said.

2. Snow. How do people live in climates that really do not get any snow? I love the snow. I love the way it looks, they way it falls, the way it feels to jump in and even shoveling the stuff! Every Winter I watch the news or weather channel and watch other people's snow. Is that wrong?

3. Attitude. I like the people I live near, but there is just nothing like the brunt honesty of people from Philly. No B.S.. I love when people look at me funny at restaurants when I ask for something ridicolous. Or when people tell me that something I am going to buy is ugly or dumb. You can't beat that kind of caring!

4. Angelos Pizza. Oh man, you gotta be kidding me. How do I go months and months without Angelos? The best pizza. Great Strombolis and Calzones. Perfect Cheese Steaks. I could eat there every night and not get the same thing for a month and be thrilled. I have been getting food there for about 27 years, and I guess you can say in part that they have made me into the man I am today.

5. Sports. It's not really the biggest deal in the world. I have friends to watch football with in Roswell and have great fun, but there is just something about being at home with Philly fans watching a game. Yelling at the TV. Arguing about who sucks the worst or who should be traded of fired. A whole flock of people to root against anything that even remotley reminds of New York or Dallas, or pretty much anything not Philly.

And of course there's a ton more, but that's enough for now. Let me know your top five from your hometown!

Where in the world!?!?

Hello my brothers and sisters. I apologize for the long absence, but it has made my heart grow fonder. Before I get into the usual routine, I thought I would give you my excuse for being gone such a long time (and no, it is not wanting to have you see Big Ben R. as my super genius for a month).

Fact of the matter is I have not been home since May 17th. This summer has been filled with travel, both pleasant and laborious. I will let you decide which is which and what is what. Being on the road for so long, it has been difficult to get online to update. But...I'm back.

Here's my summer to date:

Fly from Albuquerque to Seattle. Jump on ship and cruise Alaska. Fly Seattle to Dallas. Stay in Dallas 10 days. Fly from Dallas to Las Vegas. Pick up parents in rental car. Drive to Hoover Dam, Vegas, Sequoia national Park, Yosemite, San Francisco, Ventura and finally Santa Barbara for my brother's graduation (yay Ben!). Fly from Santa Barbara to Philadelphia. Stay in Philly for a couple of weeks. Fly from Philly to Dallas. Next Day, drive from Dallas to San Diego for conference. Drive from San Diego back to Dallas. Take train from Dallas to Los Angeles (56 hours). Drive from West Lake Village, Ca to Philadelphia.

So far, with layovers, I am at 14 flights this summer with two more to go to get back to lovely Roswell. I estimate my total miles in travel this summer to be over 20,000! And...all in the USA (except for a bit on the Pacific through Canada). Also, I have changed my watch 23 times to account for time zone changes (with two to go). Next summer, I want to visit some places in Dreamland. Just give me coffee, friends, some sports, good books and a bed!

I hope all of your summers are going well and I hope to hear from you!

D.W.

This month's Super Genius Award

How can it not go to Big Ben Roethlisberger? Sorry Pittsburgh fans, but he is the winner. Not only is this moron riding around without covering his melon on his motorcycle with an expired permit, but, and this is the part that gets me, he did like a million interviews about how smart he is and how he wouldn't get into an accident. I'm sorry, but when you make Bill Cower look smart...ugghh

A close runner up for the award was the drunken captain on my cruise. The only reason he doesn't get the SGA is because the very next cruise that went out on the same ship had almost every passanger come back sick! Super Genius!?!? Maybe more then we know!

Viva Las Vegas

Well...made it to Vegas in one peice after a few days of hellish travel. I think I might be getting old. I like Vegas, but I'd rather be doing, well...nothing (or sitting on a cruise ship doing nothing anyway). I'm just not a big gambler/drinker/partier as I used to be. Maybe I should be married...then I'd have an excuse!

While staying in Dallas I started writing some new tunes. One of these songs has my new motto: when I think of all the things I could've done today, it makes me want to do nothing tomorrow. Is that lazyness-maximus or what!?!?

A must read

Most of the comics I read are not very good; rather, I should say, most comics I read I wouldn't recommend. People laugh at me when I tell them I put my books in the order that I want to read them: crappy to good. If I read good ones first, then I know I won't read the crap. Why do I buy the crap? Why do people scratch there asses in public, pick their noses, read Steven King, or eat pixie sticks? They just do. They are compelled.

Anyway, I wanted to take a second to tell you about a great comic book. The latest edition of "Fell" just hit the market last week, and I have to say it is one of the best single issues of any comic I have read in the last year or so. It is engaging, well written and well drawn. The fact that "Fell" is up for like 5 Eisner Awards means that I am not the only one reading it or praising it. I'm not trying to claim discovery or anything. I just thought I'd share.

Also, speaking of must reads and sharing, our own "Doc" Bender has started a blog of his own based on interesting Civil War stories and people. It's a great site to add to your reading lists and certainly of more value than this one! Check it out and leave him some commentary so the old chap knows people are out there!!! Jo Shelby's Mule.

It's time to get things started...

Okay, so this is two in a row. But, based on the fact that the last post got so much feedback, I felt compeled to give you another silly quiz. This one is "which muppet are you?". Take it and let me know who you are. This time I was Kermit the Frog (Yay! Yay!) and I couldn't be happier. I was Spider-man in the last one and if I had to say which muppet was Spidey, Kermit would have been my guess.

Muppet quiz

That's about it for now from hotter then hell Dallas, Texas!

Which super hero am I?

I took this little test and was pleased with the results:


Your results:
You are Spider-Man

Spider-Man 65% Iron Man 55% Superman 55% Wonder Woman 48% Green Lantern 45% The Flash 45% Robin 43% Supergirl 43% Catwoman 35% Batman 35% Hulk 25%

You are intelligent, witty, a bit geeky and have great power and responsibility.

Click here to take the "Which Superhero am I?" quiz...

Alaska: Day 1, Part 2

After the Captain of the ship was tossed, the cruise finally begun. Being my first cruise, I was unaware of the procedures that are expected to be followed. One such requirement was an emergency drill. So, we are in the room waiting for the signal and then it happens. We run to the mustardation site assigned to us with our life jackets on. Life jackets, by the way, that were not made for someone of my magnitude. I wasn't even sure I would float with one of those things on me.

Nothing really exciting happened during the drill of interest, but I had an eerie feeling during it. For some reason, in my mind, I thought of the nazis lining up the Jews in Germany and just pushing them in massive graves. Not the best image to have when starting a trip, but I just couldn't help thinking how massive a grave the ocean is. That and I thought of the Pink Flyod movie "The Wall". You know the part where the kids are being dropped in the meat grinder? That one.

Then of course I thought of pirates. I thought of the pirate who goes into a bar with the steering wheel of his ship stuck in his pants. The bartender asks him if it hurts and the pirate responds, "Arrgghhh...its driving me nuts!!"

I thought alot about pirates. Not of pirates coming onto the cruise ship. I know the Alaskan cruises don't attract the pirates like the Islands might. No, I thought about me becoming a pirate and living out on the ocean, robbing cruise ships of their bountiful vitals and treasures. Man, I wish I was a pirate.

Alaska: day 1, Part 1.

Captain's Log: 14:00, 19/5/06.

The Firshed daze of da cruuushe. I love being the capshion of dish ship. Eyes can't wait to getch to the open shees. Better drinks more of thish shmirnoff bottled water though sho I shober upss quishly. I donsh wans ta shteer thish baby inta land whensh we shhhoove off.

Captain's Log: 16:00, 19/5/06.

Yo Ho and A BoTtLe oF rUM. Thatsh what I'm shingin. Give me a bott el and shwab up the deck, shlo-bo and a mottle of bum.

Whatsh thar shound I'm hearin now? Shomone ish snocking on missa door. Goes away. Imsha catman of thish veshel and your shnot. Hey, gets outta here. Who arshe yous guys. Why are you pussshhing me off the ssshhiip? I'm the catman! I'm the Capshion! I'm the cushion! Shhiitt.