For many school districts: competing mandates from state leaders and local health officials leaving teachers parents and kids in limbo. Our conversation with superintendent of EL Paso ISD on the practical challenges of reopening public schools. Also, more on a newly unveiled proposal to cut 130 million dollars from state health services as the Coronavirus fight continues. And 5 years after the death of Sandra Bland, the mark she left at her alma mater, and on a movement. Plus the week in politics with the Texas Tribune and much more today on the Texas Standard:
Archives for July 2020
We Can Be Heroes
The everyday looks different for everybody right now. That was the inspiration for this Typewriter Rodeo poem.
Nick Garza’s Get Along: “Muchacha” (feat. Augie Meyers & Los Texmaniacs) [PREMIERE]
While cookouts and hayrides may be off the agenda for a while, one Austinite’s supplying a perfect outdoor soundtrack. As a co-founder of stomp-folk act Hello Wheels and an accomplished songwriter on his own accord, Nick Garza has always drawn inspiration from a myriad of musical traditions across the Lone Star State. But today Garza’s kicking off a whole new chapter of Tex-Mex eclecticism with his country outfit Nick Garza’s Get Along.
The Get Along finds Garza reuniting with Hello Wheels drummer Josh Halpern and bassist Gary Calhoun James for the upcoming debut full-length, Heartbreak and Enchiladas and for the record’s first entry, Nick Garza’s Get Along has enlisted the help of Texas Tornadoes and The Sir Douglas Quintet’s Augie Meyers on Vox organ as well as Grammy winners Max and Josh Baca from Los Texmaniacs on bajo sexto and accordion, respectively.
Fitting that this first offering from Heartbreak and Enchiladas comes on the final day you can enjoy the legendary enchi’s at Dart Bowl, so let this rustic roster get you in the mood for some Texas nostalgia with “Muchacha”!
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Love In Quarantine – Kam Franklin “I Can’t Wait”
Love In Quarantine Episode 2 features Kam Franklin, lead singer of Gulf Coast Soul band The Suffers who you might recognize from performances on Late Night with David Letterman, Jimmy Kimmel Live, The Daily Show with Trevor Noah or basically every major music festival in North America. Throughout her career, Kam has been a vocal opponent of sexism and racism in the music industry. Walker and Kam discuss this at length as well the French-themed confession that inspired “I Can’t Wait” in the interview. Now available wherever you stream and download music.
Beauty of the Unfamiliar
This is stunning. Ambitious? Perhaps. But stunning, definitely.
Austin-based music artist Mobley organized something gargantuan with A Home Unfamiliar, a tremendous multi-media undertaking and an intriguing experiment in collaborative creativity, back in April. Tomorrow, Friday July 17, marks its world premiere. Conceived and directed by Mobley, it includes the contributions of 30 musicians and filmmakers from Austin and surrounding areas, each of whom had two days to work on their segment. All music and visuals were created instinctively, with only a remote glimpse of the artist’s work placed before theirs in the visual album.
You can experience A Home Unfamiliar starting via Alamo On Demand. Proceeds benefit the Central Texas Food Bank and the DAWA Fund.
-Photo of Mobley courtesy of the artist.
Texas Standard: July 16, 2020
A New York Times reporter covering the impact of COVID-19 returns to the Rio Grande Valley and finds himself part of the story. We’ll have a conversation about his experience. Also, new record numbers of COVID-19 cases reported in Texas. And how should teachers prepare for their own safety if they have to return to campus in the fall? Dr.Fred Campbell of UT Health San Antonio takes up that and more listener questions about COIVD-19. Also how facilities dedicated to health care for Veterans are coping. And challenges faced by contact tracers in Lubbock. Those stories and more today on the Texas Standard:
Dichos
By W. F. Strong and Lupita Strong
Dichos are proverbs. Dichos is a Spanish word for wise sayings, clever maxims, humorous perspectives that can guide you well. Dichos are life coaches, lighting a pathway that, if followed, can make our lives better and less painful. Dichos are nuggets of wisdom that are handed, like gold, from parents to children to enrich their lives. They exist in all languages of course, but here in Texas we get the benefit of having them in English and Spanish. Sometimes they’re similar, but sometimes they’re vastly different in both content and expression.
I’ve collected a few of my favorite dichos to share. I’m grateful to my diaspora of Hispanic friends who sent in an avalanche of suggestions which helped me remember some I’d forgotten and taught me a few new ones as well. To spare you from my inadequate Spanish rhythms, I’ve brought in an authentic voice to help out. Vámonos!
There are many dichos about the value of keeping your mouth shut:
En boca cerrada, no entran mosca. Keep your mouth shut and no flies will get in.
El pez por la boca muere. Fish die through their mouth.
There are many dichos about love, of course. Here are two about long distance love:
Amor de lejos es amor de pen#$%&@ – well, can’t finish that one here, but I’m sure – if you know some Spanish – you can. Long distance love is a love for DANG fools.
And there’s a corollary: Amor de lejos, felices los cuatro. Long distance love makes four people happy.
Here are two about the best laid plans:
Del plato, a la boca… se cae la sopa. From the bowl to the mouth, you can lose your soup. Or, Del dicho al hecho, hay mucho trecho. From planning to doing, much can go wrong.
Now for a few about being a good person.
Dime con quién andas y te diré quién eres. Tell me who you run with and I’ll tell you who you are.
Aunque la mona se vista de seda, mona se queda. A monkey in a silk dress is still a monkey. Lipstick on a pig.
El burro hablando de orejas. The donkey talking about ears – hypocrisy.
And for lazy people we have these cautionary dichos:
Camaron que se duerme so lo lleva la corriente and El flojo trabaja doble. Sleeping shrimp get carried away by the current and the lazy one does everything twice.
The devil often appears in dichos:
Más sabe el diablo por viejo, que por diablo. The devil is cunning because he’s ancient not because he’s the devil.
And here’s the five-second rule in dicho form. When you drop food on the floor you will often hear: Todo para dios, nada para el diablo. All for God, none for the devil.
Let us end with this timeless jewel:
Los niños y los borrachos, siempre dicen la verdad. Little children and drunks always tell the truth.
I’ll drink to that. I’m W. F. Strong. Estas son historias de Tejas. Algunas son verdaderas.
Glasshealer: “Endless Hall”
It’s been a recent rarity for artists to value production quality just as high as compositional creativity, at least compared to icons like The Beach Boys’s Brian Wilson or Steely Dan’s Donald Fagen. But what’s even more astonishing is when a full band of engineers takes the mixing and mastering out of a producer’s hand and into their own throughout the songwriting and recording process.
That’s the case with alt-indie electronic-experimenters Glasshealer, whose quartet of Austinites banded together in 2018 and released their first single just last fall. Emulating the likes of Sigur Ros, Radiohead, and Björk, Glasshealer continues to polish their already impressive and refined sound ahead of their debut EP, teased out today with another new track, “Endless Hall”!
–Photo: John Jackson
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Short-Term Focus For Long-Term Change
It can be hard to think in terms of the long game when there is so much that needs our attention in the moment.
In this edition of Two Guys on Your Head, Dr. Art Markman and Dr. Bob Duke discuss strategies for focusing in the short-term to make informed decisions that will affect the future.
Trust and Cooperation
There is a certain amount of trust build into systems that work well, but when times are uncertain and tensions are running high what we trust can change.
In this edition of Two Guys on Your Head, Dr. Art Markman and Dr. Bob Duke talk about the psychology of trust and cooperation.
Rock Jazz Soul
In a recent interview with Austin Music Foundation on Instagram, songwriter and musician Scott Strickland offered his observations of creating during quarantine. That is to say, the isolating has been challenging, but it’s also been a time of refocusing and refiguring live performances.
“I definitely have more time and more space to be working on stuff, which is amazing,” Strickland said. “So that’s a blessing of mine, that I have all this time to kind of just be one with the music, just dive into that, and not go anywhere or do anything, because…I can’t go anywhere or do anything,” he chuckled.
Right before the pandemic, Strickland was scheduled for studio time for his next LP. Though everyone playing in the same room is on hold for now, he and his crew have been figuring out logistics and having lots of conversations about how to proceed. Meanwhile, Strickland continues some social-distance working with producer/saxophonist Carlos Sosa at Sosa’s home studio, and with Mike Ingber and Eric Harrison of Studio 601 in South Austin, laying down drums, bass guitar and scratch vocals.
And, while Strickland’s rich rock-jazz-soul mantra has served him well, he says the new material brings “a dark, colorful, melancholy record…but it’s gonna make you feel really, really good.”
This is WINNING. Don’t miss Strickland’s live stream show at 7 p.m. (Central) tomorrow night, Thursday July 16, on the Austin Music Foundation’s Instagram.
-Photo courtesy of the artist.
Texas Standard: July 15, 2020
Results from primary runoff day in Texas are setting the stage for a general election like few others in Texas history. We’ll take a look at the outcomes in some closely watched runoffs statewide and what the balloting hints at for election day in November. Also many companies asking for and getting getting a pass on environmental regulations in Texas. And in Lubbock: a test run for a return to campus in the fall, a Politifact check of a claim about the Texas education agency and much more today on the Texas Standard:
Each Others: Rita Valencia and Charlotte Sáenz
“How do we build these understandings from a decolonial, antiracist and antipatriarchal basis? How do we build real solidarity bridges that do not replicate patronising structures of power? How can we learn and build with those who have resisted and re(x)isted, in order to open new imaginaries to heal mother earth, the other, and ourselves?” Rita Valencia and Charlotte Sáenz
These are just some of the questions we explore with Rita Valencia and Charlotte Sáenz on this edition of The Secret Ingredient with Raj Patel, Tom Philpott, and Rebecca McInroy.
Rita Valencia has been working for several years with the Proceso de Liberación de la Madre Tierra movement in the Cauca region of the Nasa people in Colombia, and she along with Charlotte Sáenz talk with us about joy, the difference between translation and interpretation, reimagining liberation, time and social movements, and the paradigm shift that must take place today.
In our correspondence prior to this recording, Charlotte and Rita wrote: “It feels important for us to hear and learn from such pueblos en movimiento, that are doing things beyond the nation-state and reframing ways of doing, not only politics but also social and even ontological existence. This is particularly important because complex concepts such as Mandar Obedeciendo or Buen Vivir are being imported into English and other dominant languages and mindscapes as mere translations (bad ones for that matter), and not as grounded practices. This becomes even more urgent and necessary because extractivism, repression, and all climate change drivers are increasing and will continue to do so during the current global pandemic and economic recession.”
Read more about Rita and the Food March, the movement organized to feed the most dispossessed in the cities, in a piece published in La Jornada newspaper’s Ojarasca.
Johnny Dioxide: “Red Turtle”
Originally from Grayslake, Illinois, singer-guitarist Chase Risinger has been writing since the tender age of thirteen, when lyrical inspiration could be found in the likes of Pirates of the Caribbean. Fast forward to 2013 when Risinger loaded his truck up and moved to Austin, where he’s since found a footing with several bands, most notably with The Pendulum Hearts and with his own Ghost Rock Radio under the moniker Johnny Dioxide.
Dioxide’s latest came just today with a single and music video inspired by Toshio Suzuki’s film of the same name, and with a Reinhardt-reminiscent acoustic guitar solo to boot, this is a perfect opportunity to poke your head out of your shell and take a breath of fresh air (with your mask on, please) with “Red Turtle”!
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Bittersweet
It’s definitely an Austin Music Minute favorite. Lianne La Havas made your AMM host’s top-three list with the new track “Bittersweet,” from Havas’ forthcoming self-titled LP, out this Friday.
This is the third full-length release for the UK-based singer/songwriter/guitarist, her first release since her 2015 Grammy-nominated album Blood, and the first album she’s self-produced. It all began with a melody Havas heard in her mind as she was falling asleep. But she kept it close, recorded it in a jam with friends, and turned it into “Paper Thin,” the first single released from the LP.
Do not miss the performance by Lianne La Havas on a special live stream tomorrow night at 8 p.m. (Central), coming to you from The Roundhouse London on YouTube. Your virtual ticket provides access to the show link.
-Photo courtesy of the artist.
Texas Standard: July 14, 2020
New York City: once considered the national epicenter in the fight against COVID-19, now health experts fear a Texas city has taken its place. Hospitals in Houston struggling to deal with the pandemic on a scale similar to that of New York City in late spring. Our conversation with New York Times reporter Dr.Sherri Fink. Also, a warning from climatologists about a coming drought that could reshape Texas for the long term. And getting schooled by Selena: a Texas University launches a first of its kind course. Those stories and more today on the Texas Standard:
Goldroom & Moontower: “Guess I’m Jaded”
Between newfound fatherhood, a near fatal bodysurfing accident, and almost a full decade of electronic tracks, L.A. producer-singer Josh Legg AKA Goldroom is still shining strong. Following the 2017 incident and recovery that largely steered the bleak direction of Surface /\ Plunge, this longtime lover of the ocean is still in the process of creating his third album, but has recently teamed up with indie three-piece Moontower for a summer-ready French-house inspired club banger!
But…avoiding an obvious, poor taste “disco fever” joke, there haven’t been many clubs to fill. That said with quarantine still lingering, Goldroom & Moontower couldn’t have picked a better time to declare that they’re over the social scene in general (even though the song was recorded just before social mandates). So embrace the anxiety and chaos and turn your living room into your own personal nightclub with “Guess I’m Jaded”!
–Jack Anderson
–Photo: Brittany O’Brien
Rhett This Week
Rhett Miller is as antsy as you are about having live shows put on hold for safety reasons, but this is also an artist making the most out of the situation. On every other day of the week, Miller delivers a fantastic set of performances on his live stream series, featuring different themes as well as a few surprises:
-It kicks off each Monday with Monday Memories, with Miller doing his solo work or music from Old 97’s albums – definitely a fan fave. At 8 p.m. Central tonight, Monday July 13, Miller performs music from his 2002 album, The Instigator.
-Every West Coast Wednesday includes a set benefitting MusiCares.
–Friday Friends features awesome set lists created by some pretty cool friends, quite frankly; this week, it’s Molly Ringwald.
-Naturally, Sunday afternoon is Fun In the Sunday. Wear your shades.
Each live stream show can be seen at StageIt; your virtual ticket provides a link to the show, and Miller would like to remind you that it’s pay-what-you-can. All support is appreciated.
-Photo courtesy of the artist.
Kanye for President?
This week on The Breaks, Fresh and Confucius:
- Discuss Kanye’s West’s announcement that he is running for president.
- Touch on the impact of COVID-19 on Austin’s live music venues.
- Talk about ACL Radio’s Blues on the Screen curated by Jackie Venson.
- In his Unpopular Opinion, Fresh urges the biggest Black artists in Austin to speak out about their experiences of racism in the Austin music scene.
- In his Confucius Says, Confucius explains that loyalty is a two-way street.
Listen to this week’s episode of The Breaks
Texas Standard: July 13, 2020
5 years after the death of Sandra Bland, how much has and hasn’t changed? A conversation with two top Texas lawmakers on the changes to criminal justice in Texas since the death of Sandra Bland and what more needs to be done. Also, how Texas colleges and universities are trying to address changes in student visa rules. And as organizers push for greater Latino representation at the polls, a parallel initiative to preserve the history of one of the groups that led the push. Those stories and more today on the Texas Standard: