DPL Music Conference and webliography

The Bennett Law Office blog passes along information on Dallas Public Library's one-day "Texas Music Mini-Conference: History of Texas Music" on May 30.  Maybe of more strategic value for those not able to attend is the included webliography on selected music sites. See more at http://ipandentertainmentlaw.wordpress.com/2009/05/28/texas-music-mini-conference-history-of-texas-music/

Texas Mystery Month in May

Texas Mystery Month is May.  Visit Texas Mystery Authors at http://www.texasmysteryauthors.net/curious.htm

The Road movie - Cormac McCarthy

Cormac McCarthy's The Road as a movie will be released in October 2009.  See the official trailer at http://bookpage.wordpress.com/2009/05/18/cormac-mccarthy-news-from-all-over/ The movie's inspriation came to McCarthy, according to his interview with Oprah, one night while in an El Paso hotel, as his son slept nearby.

See the Sites - THC - Blogging for Historical Sites

Recently the Texas Historical Commission began a blog "See the Sites."  The postings' focus on particular historical sites, with some attention to current events at those.  The narrative is supplmented with colorful photos.  And there's a touch of experimentation with embedding video.  Over a dozen postings so far.   See the Sites:  telling the real stories at the real places of Texas: From western forts to Victorian mansions and pivotal battlegrounds, the Texas Historical Commission's 20 state historic sites exemplify a breadth of Texas history. Come explore the real stories at the real places. See more at http://seethesites.blogspot.com/

Light Cummins - Texas State Historian

Dr. Light T. Cummins will succeed Dr. Frank Jesus de la Teja as the official Texas State Historian.  The term is two years.   Congratulations! Cummins holds the Guy M. Bryan Chair of American History at Austin College, where he is a Professor of History and has been a member of the faculty since 1978. A 1946 native Texan reared in San Antonio, he received his Ph.D. from Tulane University. He is a Borderlands specialist.  He has been a Fulbright Scholar to Spain and is the author of several books, including: A Guide to the History of Louisiana (1982) A Guide to the History of Texas (1988) Texas: A Political History (1990) Spanish Observers and the American Revolution (1992) Louisiana: A History 4th Edition (2001) Austin College: A Sesquicentennial History (1999) Emily Austin of Texas: Sister to an Empire (2008) United States History to 1877 (2006)   Other awards have included Appointment to the Stephen F. Austin Bicentennial Committee Appointment as director of the Center for Southwestern and Mexican Studies Becoming an Associate of the Danforth Foundation Becoming a Fellow of the Texas State Historical Association Becoming a Minnie Stevens Piper Professor. Receiving the Premio de España y America by King Juan Carlos I of Spain for his scholarly research dealing with the history of Spain and the United States Becoming a Kentucky Colonel for his work on the Mississippi Valley Receiving the Francisco Bouligny Prize for his publications dealing with Spanish colonial Louisiana  See More at http://artemis.austincollege.edu/acad/history/lcummins/Light%20Cummins%20Vita%20Oct%202006.htm

Blessed Bud Shrake Died

It's an odd phrase, "Bud Shrake Died."  Seems so out of context.  Life is steaming all around us, Bud should be here.  But, Bud Shrake died, at age 77 in Austin on Friday May 8.  Born in Fort Worth in 1931, beginning as a writer for his high school newspaper and getting educated at TCU, Edwin went from being Fort Worth Press police beat writer to a remarkable career in sports journalism (Texas newpapers and Sports Illustrated), novels (9 of his 10 set in Texas), co-authoring a best-selling book on golf (Harvey Penick's Little Red Book), co-biographer (Willie Nelson and Barry Switzer), magazine essays (e.g., Texas Monthly, Harpers), screenwriter (one being Tom Horn, 1981) and all sorts of other paperwork. I first read Shrake's Strange Peaches while in Library School in the 1970's and subsequently fell under the spell of Blessed McGill.  His early literary companions were often Gary Cartwright, Billy Lee Brammer, Dan Jenkins, and Peter Gent with whom he stirred the pot and drank at the well of Texas literature.  But his influence was broad.  He will be buried in the Texas State Cemetery near Ann Richards. Shrake's partial bibliography includes Blood Reckoning (1962) But Not For Love (1964) Blessed McGill (1968) Strange Peaches (1972) Peter Arbiter (1973) Limo (1976, with Dan Jenkins) Night Never Falls (1987) Willie: An Autobiography (1988) Bootlegger's Boy (1990) (the Switzer biography) Harvey Penick's Little Red Book (1992) The Borderland: A Novel of Texas (2000) Billy Boy (2001) Custer's Brother's Horse (2007)   An anthology, Land of the Permanent Wave, An Edwin "Bud" Shrake Reader, was published in 2008 by UT Press.  Shrake introduces himself there in an introduction - revealingly as usual. His papers are at Texas State University in the Southwestern Writers Collection http://alkek.library.txstate.edu/swwc/archives/writers/shrake.html View a Texas Monthly Talks interview collected in Will's Texana Channel Playlist of "Authors" at http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=FEDACCD3C2E25DAA

Secession and Division Questions

The fascinating secession question and its often corollary division question are decidedly interesting to Texans.  The recent discussion followed Rick Perry's reviving the "issue" of Texas secession at the time of annexation.  See http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z5xTxcFA398 The following two blogs begin with opposite views by the blog hosts, but the truly invigorating numerous Comments in both lead you through a remarkable discussion of Texas AND American history, philosophy, politics, constitutional law - and in some cases international law.  There are some cogencies, some pot-shots, some outright misleadings, some sublime observations - much of which is historially backed up by the various authors.  If you are not completely hide-bound to ignorance (and hence stupid by definiton) both trains of discussions will teach you something, even if you're reluctant.       Ed Darrell - Millard Fillmore's Bathtub http://timpanogos.wordpress.com/2009/04/18/no-texas-cannot-secede-no-texas-cant-split-itself/      Professor Bernardo de la Paz - I Am Simon Jester http://simon-jester.org/2009/04/the-texas-question/       And you have views expressed in a Bryan-College Station newpaper and an Austin newspaper.                http://www.theeagle.com/columnists/Perry-was-wrong--but-why-would-Texas-ever-secede-   http://www.statesman.com/blogs/content/shared-gen/blogs/austin/politics/entries/2009/04/16/could_texas_secede_scholar_say.html        Having begun this posting with Gov. Perry, you may wish to consider another view from an up-coming issue in the Texas Observer.

North Texas Book Festival Book Awards

http://www.ntbf.org/NTBFBookAward09.html   2009 NTBF BOOK AWARD FINALISTS General Trade Book (Fiction) Brooklyn and Braden by Keri Diane Fry Evacuation Plan by Joe M. O'Connell Magnolia Moon, Texas Sage by Janice Rose General Trade Book (Non-Fiction) One Day As A Lion by Ronnie D. Foster A Place to Be Someone by Shirley Gordon Jackson From Guns to Gavels by Bill Neal Children's Book (Fiction/Nonfiction) My Dog Don't Bite by R. Wayne Edwards ill. R. Wayne Edwards Birth of the Fifth Sun by Jo Harper, ill. Irma Martinez Sizer Arrowhead's Lost Hoard by Hazel Spire And the winners are listed at Mike Merschal's Book Blog at the Dallas Morning News.  Those journalists get informaltion before its posted sometimes. http://booksblog.guidelive.com/archives/2009/04/the-north-texas-book-festival.html

Western Writers Spur Awards

Western Writers of American announces its 2009 awards. See Mike Merschal's Texas Books at http://booksblog.guidelive.com/archives/2009/04/press-release-for-immediate-re.html or WWA at http://www.westernwriters.org/awards.htm

Texas Tech University Press Awards

http://today.ttu.edu/2009/04/texas-tech-university-press-garners-national-recognition/

Mike Kearby and Hypocrisy of Culture

Texana Mike Kearby, Spur winning novelist of the Free Parks trilogy, offers an insightful article on the "Hypocrisy of Culture" at Isnare.  Kearby's novels' plots are set in Texas' multi-cultural frontier times after the Civil War. http://www.isnare.com/?aid=373250&ca=Culture