11055 N IH-35
Austin, TX 78753
(More on the impending Mercury Retrograde.)
“Come not between the dragon and his wrath;”
Lear 1.1.104
ATX 10-28-25
Kramer Wetzel at Nature’s Treasures
“6:16 These six things doth the LORD hate: yea, seven are an abomination unto him:
6:17 A proud look, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood,
6:18 An heart that deviseth wicked imaginations, feet that be swift in running to mischief,
6:19 A false witness that speaketh lies, and he that soweth discord among brethren.
6:20 My son, keep thy father’s commandment, and forsake not the law of thy mother:
6:21 Bind them continually upon thine heart, and tie them about thy neck.”
Excerpt From Proverbs
The King James Version of the Bible
#Bible
A comedian, an actor, then a congressman, disgraced, pulled into a role for the CIA?
“An actor once again, except this time he didn’t know whether the script called for farce or tragedy, or if he’d still be standing by the final scene.” Page 53.
What could go wrong?
Satire? Thriller? Fiction?
Fun book, or good reading, under any heading.
Akin to Whyte Python World Tour.
Sagittarius buddy, we were talking fishing, then books, next he suggested an earlier novel, some author, so I went looking. The River Why from my 2003 notes. Then I found this one. Strange premise and set-up. Early on, though, it’s that lyrical prose. In a single take?
“FOR HER FIRST eighteen years, Risa was an unusually bright but otherwise typical American child of TV, rock and roll, A.P. English and math classes; child of FM radio love songs inseparable from clogged Portland malls and sprawls and hi-speed girl chatter; child of parents whose dysfunctional marriage led to a divorce that simply chopped the dysfunction in two, bequeathing Risa two untenable homes instead of one; child increasingly aware, therefore, of the deep bewilderment of her parents’ generation and the binge consumption, binge investment, binge drinking, eating, sex, religiosity, to which bewilderment led; child who, from the age of thirteen or so, was virtually self-raised amid a circle of smart, irony-addicted peers desperate to at least make black comedy out of their nation-state’s willingness to sacrifice life, including children’s lives, in the name of global markets, global shopping, tumorous growth, global golf.” Page 24.
One long breath, breathless, in a form, and I’ve done it before in horoscopes, but not the same, really, but there’s an almost poetic flavor. Satire? Real irony? Encapsulates a generation, raised on MTV, so to speak.
When I connected the author’s name to a previous book, and then even in the opening passages, there’s a was style I recalled, a feeling imparted by the way words wee strung together, an inimitable eloquences, of sorts.
“Politics is high school with guns and more money. —Frank Zappa” page 52.
Like the quote.
In my mind, deep college recollection, and probably faulty, it was Hemingway who suggested, “Get some characters together, put them in a room, see what happens.”
“Here’s the very very hard thing. Whoever life harms, she heals. But almost never in ways we get to see.” Page 344.
It bounces back and forth.
“Or is there a tipping point where litanies of horror shove our empathy and creativity where the sun doesn’t shine?” Page 278.
Perfectly acceptable modern question.
Reminded me of The Starship and the Canoe.
“I know this is going to sound like some paranoid fantasy conspiracy, but it’s what my dad told me.
“Years ago, way back, we lived in Virgina, West Virgina. I think, might be on my birth certificate? Should check that. I was little at the time. My dad claimed he had seen the Mothman, and my dad swore he had a hand that was cut off from one of the Mothman creatures. I never did understand exactly how that happened, the ‘hand getting cut off’ part, but it’s what my dad said.
“The deal is, there was a time, this was a several years back, there was a time when all the old family materials were stuffed into a storage unit. Before we moved here. That storage unit, this much is true, burned down, or, like the middle row of buildings got toasted. Roasted and burnt. ‘They said’ it was a meth lab in the unit next to ours, but I’m not sure.”
“Did they even have ‘meth labs’ back then?”
“The hand, cut off from a Mothman, was just wrapped in an old dish towel, in a regular shoebox, like, with the rest of the family’s junk. Old pictures and newspaper clippings, famous headlines? Moldy magazines and spare dishes. How my dad got that hand? I don’t know, something about an encounter, and he said he didn’t like talking about it.
“Sounded ominous, but most of my family stories were like that. Remember that this was before cell phone with cameras, so who really knows?
“My dad always hinted that it was a big government conspiracy cover-up, that’s what burned the storage unit. He got a big pay raise when we transferred here.”
(Reused with permission.)
(Hashtag) True Story
#TrueStory
#Mothman
![](https://astrofish.net/aimages/ENBasse.jpeg")
Eagles Nest
1235 Basse Rd
San Antonio, TX 78212
Store phone: 210-354-7343
11 AM – 4 PM
“Too young to retire, too broke to quit, and I don’t have the butt to be a stripper. I guess I’ll have to work.”
We can all use a ladder up.
Sunday at the Eagle Nest in San. Antonio
(More on the impending Mercury Retrograde.)
Tuesday evening was a I-35 Costco parking lot, next day, Wednesday was Walmart parking lot sunset, Thursday Torchy’s Taco1 in New Braunfels on the way back to Austin. Up and down the I-35 corridor, three days and running.
Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing at the Curtain Theatre2 in Austin. Along the shores of Lake Austin.
The intermission, the interval, the fearless leader popped out in costume to ask for money and reminder that this was the final season at this location. I kept wondering if the Curtain was being torn down, and moved to the south side of the river.
Upcoming: Taming of the Shrew, Merry Wives of Windsor
The crowd booed when the villain Don John came on, a personal favorite of mine, “I wonder that thou (being, as thou say’st thou art, born under Saturn) goest about to apply a moral medicine to a mortifying mischief.” (I.iii.6) He’s just a Capricorn.
The staging of the Benedick’s overhearing the gossip about him and Beatrice was exceptional in that it used the edge of the stage, and the physicality of the actor’s work was outstanding.
Hint: still have seats available for the rest of the run.
Curtain Theatre
After a drive home, though I was still thinking, I found it more believable than ever that Benedick and Beatrice were in love; although, that merry war of wits is one I can do without.
Very satisfying, near perfect conditions.
Take bug spray: it is outdoor theatre.
#thebaronsmen
#Shakespeare
Eagles Nest
1235 Basse Rd
San Antonio, TX 78212
Store phone: 210-354-7343
11 AM – 4 PM
Tuesday afternoon at Nature’s Treasures in Austin:
11055 N IH-35
Austin, TX 78753
Hours: 11 AM – 5 PM.
“Come not between the dragon and his wrath;”
Lear 1.1.104
At the Rock Shop Again