Friday Night Videos

Until a couple of days ago, I'd never heard of the Linda Lindas. But goodness gracious, I'm well aware of them now! This quartet of talented young women can rock with the best of them. It is hard to believe that the youngest is only 12 years old! Their talent and focus belies their callow youth. Their single, "Oh!" is a perfect synthesis of old school punk rock and the New Wave that followed. Rock on, ladies!

Previously on Friday Night Videos... The Who.

Now Playing: The Hooters Nervous Night
Chicken Ranch Central

Tiki build-along, pt. 28

It has been an exceptionally long time since I've posted a build-along. I regret that, but probably not enough to alter that pattern significantly. A Moment of Tiki has taken the place of my build-along posts and that YouTube show is, unfortunately, more time-consuming to produce. That said, I had a small project this past weekend that doesn't warrant a full Moment of Tiki episode but may still be of interest to folks building their own tiki spaces, so I share it here now.

A year or so back, I came across this curious coconut palm tree/monkey lamp at a thrift store for cheap. Naturally, such a thing would fit in well in a tiki bar, so I grabbed it even though it did not have a shade. Note that a weird thing about this lamp is that the monkeys depicted look very much like chimpanzees, they sport tails. So are obviously monkeys. Mutant monkeys. Or mutant apes. Take your pick.

Finding a shade proved more challenging than I'd initially thought. It was more than a year before I came across the one below for $3 at a thrift shop. First, the shade had to be the proper size. I think this one is slightly undersized, but not terribly so. Secondly, I wanted a plain white or off-white fabric on the shade so patterns wouldn't ghost through the new material I applied to it. Thirdly, I wanted the shade to be a straight cylinder to simplify the application of fabric. Check, check and check.

I had some material left over from a different project I realized would work well. I spread the fabric over the dining table then rolled the shade over it to mark where I needed to cut.

I used a pencil to mark the edges of the shade as I rolled it over the length of the fabric, then added an inch to the end of the run as well as an additional inch on either side of the path. As I learned, it's better to leave more fabric than less.

After cutting out the fabric I'd mapped out, I hit the end (that extra 1") with some spray adhesive, then folded over the edge onto itself to make a hem. This will add stability to the fabric later.

Next, I sprayed down the back entire piece of fabric adhesive. I used Gorilla Glue, but any spray adhesive should work. Normally, one would spray both surfaces to be joined for maximum bond but by spraying only one surface give me extra time to reposition the fabric before the glue sets. Turns out, I needed that time.

I positioned the shade on the fabric and rolled it over. Then pulled it off and tried again, as I got it on crooked the first try. And the second. And the third. Forth time it looked good. The hem I'd made earlier was the last to go on, overlapping the raw opposite edge of the fabric. There should be an inch of extra material extending beyond the edges of the shade. Fold these over the sides into the shade and press onto the inner sleeve of the shade. The adhesive should still be tacky and adhere. I cut one side a little short so it wanted to pull up when I folded it over. I had to apply a bit of extra glue to get it to stay.

In most cases this would probably be enough, but seeing that tiki is an over-the-top aesthetic, I wanted to add a little more. I've got a stash of bacbac braiding that would look good on it, so I measured out and cut two lengths to span the circumference of the shade.

Because the bacbac braid has an uneven, textured surface (it's made from weaving together strips of dried banana leaves) I used Goop, a thick, rubbery glue, to attach it to the shade. I held the braid in place with binder clips until the glue set.

And the final result turned out better than I expected. The fabric--which I acquired from Spoonflower--was perfect for this project. I added a LED flicker bulb to the lamp to complete the effect. I'm very happy with it. This is hardly a huge build but the little things add up. Many people don't realize how easy it is to reskin a lamp shade, and the right type of material can make a world of difference in someone's home tiki space. I know this one fits much better into my tiki aesthetic now!

Now Playing: The Who Thirty Years of Maximum R&B
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Friday Night Videos

I just realized I've been doing Friday Night Videos here for almost 15 years, and in all that time I've never featured the Who. Let me rectify that now with "Won't Get Fooled Again."

Previously on Friday Night Videos... The Kinks.

Now Playing: The Who Thirty Years of Maximum R&B
Chicken Ranch Central

Chicken Ranch anniversary: Happy Birthday Miss Edna!

On this date in 1928, Edna Arretha Milton was born. Today would've been her 94th birthday. Miss Edna passed away in February of 2012, the last surviving madam of the infamous Chicken Ranch in La Grange, Texas, and inspiration for Miss Mona Stangley and The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas.

Throughout the six-plus years it took to research, write and publish Inside the Texas Chicken Ranch: The Definitive Account of the Best Little Whorehouse, there was no bigger supporter than Miss Edna. As I've said elsewhere, my biggest regret is that she did not live to see the finished product. I can't say for certain what she'd have thought of it, but others who were close to the Chicken Ranch have given me the thumbs up, so I like to think Miss Edna would've approved (while giving me an earful about what I got wrong).

Let me share something about her that didn't make it into the book. When I first met Miss Edna, she asked where I was from. I answered that I was originally from Columbus. Miss Edna paused a moment, then said, "Twenty-two miles." Then she asked my wife where she was from. Bastrop, Lisa answered. Miss Edna paused again, then said, "Thirty-six miles." Almost four decades removed from her life in La Grange, Miss Edna still remembered those details that would've mattered to her prospective out-of-town customers. I'll wager we could've sat there for hours, tossing out town names like Brenham, Hallettsville, Bryan, etc. and she'd have come up with the distance between them and La Grange like there was nothing to it. I have long felt that a fascinating glimpse into her character.

Inside the Texas Chicken Ranch: The Definitive Account of the Best Little Whorehouse is now available from both Amazon.com and BarnesAndNoble.com. It's also available as an ebook in the following formats: Kindle, Nook, Google Play, iBooks and Kobo.

Now Playing: Martin Denny Primitiva
Chicken Ranch Central

Friday Night Videos

It's not really Christmas until the Kinks play "Father Christmas," so let me help you get into the holiday spirit!

Previously on Friday Night Videos... Christine McVie.

Now Playing: Various artists A Classic Cartoon Christmas
Chicken Ranch Central

20 years

Exactly 20 years ago today I started work for Texas State University. It was a weird time for me. My family was living in Temple and I was staying in San Antonio and Austin. I'd worked the previous nine months for Prime Time Newspapers in San Antonio, which had the most ethically challenged, incompetent management I've ever had the misfortune of working for (and that's after leaving my previous job because of a terrible, terrible boss as well--honestly, I've had great bosses and bad bosses, so I know the difference. My bad ones outnumber the good ones 2:1. My luck is absolute crap in that department). They were terrible (the staff working there were great--it's just the management that was awful). Texas State offered me a lifeline, but there was a catch: Orientation only occurred once a month, so if I didn't start on the December date (10 days away) I'd have to wait until January. That meant spending another month working for those terrible people whilst making less money.

Oh, and because of the academic calendar, if I came to Texas State on December 16, I'd work four days then get two weeks off for the holidays. Paid. I hadn't had any kind of time off in two years at that point.

The decision was not difficult. The management at Prime Time called me all sorts of names, accused me of betrayal, being unprofessional and a litany of other insults because I had the nerve to give only 10 days notice rather than a full 14. I served my time then got the hell out of Dodge. And you know what? I soon found out that they sold one of the magazines I'd edited the following week. Those kind of deals don't happen overnight. It had been in the works for some time, and when it happened they'd planned to fire me and pass the other magazine on to one of the other editors there. I'd seen it before. Talk about a bunch of rat fink bastards.

I did not expect to spend the next 20 years at Texas State. The first 12 years were the best job I'd ever had. My coworkers were great, my supervisors were friendly and supportive. It was the best environment ever. Then there was a change in leadership, and suddenly I had another rat fink bastard making my life miserable. She was pathologically incapable of telling the truth, insisted she had expertise on everything (often with disastrous results) and believed good leadership meant firing someone every three months. And yes, I looked for a way out, but nothing ever quite worked out although I got very close to leaving a couple of times. Her bullying got so bad that I finally had to file a formal grievance, which despite dragging out almost two years, ended with her adopting a hands off policy on me. I enjoyed some well-earned schadenfreude when she pulled her shit on the wrong person and was escorted off campus by police earlier this year.

Now, I'm in a new division with new leadership and finally getting the staffing help that I've desperately needed for the past 8 years. I'm not quite ready to say things are back to being the greatest job ever, but at least they're trending that way. I will not be sticking around for another 20 at this point I suspect this is the final stop in my career as a media relations professional.

Now Playing: Various artists Ultra Lounge: Christmas Cocktails
Chicken Ranch Central

Friday Night Videos

Christine McVie died this week. No cause of death as been given beyond "a brief illness." This is somewhat shocking, as she always struck me at the one who would outlive all the other members of Fleetwood Mac.

Growing up in rural Texas, we listened to both kinds of music--country *and* western. When I reached junior high and high school and realized most of my peers were listening to other kinds of music (what is pop? what is rock? what is R&B?) I kinda flailed for a while. But then one day in 1984 I was watching Showtime (we didn't get HBO) and back then they used to have a "Take 5" segment filling dead air between movies where they'd run music videos (we didn't get MTV then, either). And what came on by the video to McVie's second solo single, "Love Will Show Us How." I was immediately captivated by the exceptionally silly video, which poked a lot of fun at the cliches of all those other videos, most of which I'd never seen. But what stayed with me was the velvety texture of her voice. I've never really heard any other singer who sounded like her. That led me to our local record store (we did have record stores in those days) and I came away with her album on cassette. It was melodic. It was lyrically engaging. It shared much in common with McVie's Fleetwood Mac work, except that it didn't have that creative tension to take it to the next level. But still, solid music. From there, I discovered Fleetwood Mac (naturally), Billy Joel, Sheena Easton, Aerosmith, Pink Floyd and my music obsession was born. But Christine McVie was my gateway drug, and for that I'll always be grateful.

Previously on Friday Night Videos... Jane Wiedlin.

Now Playing: Fleetwood Mac Mirage
Chicken Ranch Central