Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Sadly, there is no cure for stupid.

If senate republicans had any shame, they’d die of it.

Fear or fury? The choice is ours.

Only Democrats have agency, apparently.

We’ve had enough carrots to last a lifetime. break out the sticks.

If you can’t control your emotions, someone else will.

People identifying as christian while ignoring christ and his teachings is a strange thing indeed.

I might just take the rest of the day off and do even more nothing than usual.

Insiders who complain to politico: please report to the white house office of shut the fuck up.

You don’t get to peddle hatred on saturday and offer condolences on sunday.

Keep the Immigrants and deport the fascists!

Giving up is unforgivable.

Optimism opens the door to great things.

Nothing worth doing is easy.

People are complicated. Love is not.

When do we start airlifting the women and children out of Texas?

Fucking consultants! (of the political variety)

Well, whatever it is, it’s better than being a Republican.

Let’s bury these fuckers at the polls 2 years from now.

Black Jesus loves a paper trail.

Imperialist aggressors must be defeated, or the whole world loses.

Jack be nimble, jack be quick, hurry up and indict this prick.

Usually wrong but never in doubt

Of course you can have champagne before noon. That’s why orange juice was invented.

You are here: Home / Let the midnight special

Let the midnight special

by | 108 Comments

This post is in: 

I want to re-up Anne Laurie’s post about how to help people in Houston. I gave to Houston Food Bank.

When Hurricane Katrina hit, one of my local stations did nothing but music from New Orleans for 24 hours. I was just thinking the other day, there’s so much great music from the Houston area too — Janis Joplin, Beyonce, Jimmy Webb, Rodney Crowell, the Winter brothers, the chopped-and-screwed hip hop stuff.

What are your favorite songs related to Houston?

And, speaking of New Orleans, here’s a nice article (edit: here’s a similar article you can read without a subscription — h/t lamh36) about the volunteer “Cajun Navy” of volunteers helping out with the relief effort.

Reader Interactions

108Comments

  8. 8.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    Houston Food Bank.

    me too. from their receipt they’re affiliated with Feeding America/America’s Second Harvest.

    and at times like this they often advise you should not designate your gift, wherever you give it, for any specific need, since they might have sent all their cash to the immediate disaster and might want/need to use your gift to keep their other operations going

  11. 11.

    Ruviana

    @lamh36: Just for now the Wash Post has suspended its subscription wall to let as many people read the coverage possible. I don’t know when the wall will return.

  20. 20.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    re-upping a topic from earlier this afternoon. If you’re on twitter, get blocked by Joel Osteen

    Facial Merkin‏ @ facialmerkin 7h7 hours ago
    Asked Joel Osteen why he won’t open his megachurch to Harvey victims he blocked me. Church reaps $77M tax free annually #HoustonStrong

  21. 21.

    raven

    (CNN)As Harvey continues dumping rain on East Texas and the waters there continue to rise, people are starting to panic, rushing rescue boats and even shooting at them if they don’t stop, said one volunteer rescuer.

    Clyde Cain, of the Cajun Navy, a Louisiana-based rescue force that gained fame during Hurricane Katrina, said in one instance, a boat broke down, and while the crew sought shelter in a delivery truck, people tried to steal the inoperable boat.
    “They’re making it difficult for us to rescue them,” he said. “You have people rushing the boat. Everyone wants to get in at the same time. They’re panicking. Water is rising.”
    Because of the hostile responses, the Cajun Navy has been forced to halt some rescue attempts, Cain said.
    Keep track of Harvey
    “We have boats being shot at if we’re not picking everybody up. We’re having to pull out for a minute. We’re dropping an air boat right now to go rescue a couple of our boats that broke, and they’re kind of under attack,” he said.”

  23. 23.

    Davebo

    Reverend Willie G and ZZ Top’s LaGrange.

    Fun fact, Billy Gibbons father was at one point conductor of the Houston Symphony!

  28. 28.

    lamh36

    OT, but I don’t know As Katrina evacuee…

    Ugh…I don’t like it when folks calling into to news places and them using it for on air interviews…no…get them help first..THEN interview

    Ugh…I also don’t like reporters sticking mics in folks face as they are evacuating and or who are carrying their children and their belongings…leave those people alone damnit…

  31. 31.

    lamh36

    @Omnes Omnibus: don’t you hate clowns…dude…I don’t have a “phobia” but I don’t like scary movies…and the trailers for It have me already feeling heart palpitations…if I had a clown phobia…my heart would be racing even more!

    Sooo…what did you think?

  33. 33.

    lamh36

    on the subject of Harvey…

    I can actually understand why they didn’t evacuate Houston..

    Logistically, it’s just too much…I remember with Rita…and the highways and byways…and people running out of gas and cars stalling on highway….traffic was backed up for days wasn’t it? Folks were abandoning their cars and walking along the highway

    Now look at all these byways and highways surrounding Houston man of them are under water in like 48 hours!!! Can you imagine the number of stranded people and vehicles?

  35. 35.

    lamh36

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: I mean there has to be people who regularly pay their tithes and offerings to the church…smh

    Dude can’t even open it for like a few 100 of his own parishioners? Really…dude…smh

  36. 36.

    ? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?

    @raven:
    That’s sad

    I really don’t know of many artists or music from the Houston area off the top of my head.

    But I think I will donate to the Houston Food Bank. Every little bit helps right?

  37. 37.

    Mike J

    Lightnin Hopkins.

    Also, most of the Bowery is South of Houston, so all the great CBGB bands should count. (It was 2 blocks north, but close enough).

  40. 40.

    barbecue swinger

    @scottinnj:
    Just saw him here in Houston Thursday night and he played that song. It was another world then, just a few short day ago.

    I’ve been lurking here since forever. Or at least since Katrina, which is forever in blog years. I think I found this blog via Daily Kos during that particular American tragedy, when the horror of government incompetence was overwhelming. I’m a former New Orleanian who moved out of NO pre-Katrina. My nym is an homage to New Orleans’s Kermit Ruffins and the Barbecue Swingers. Fun fact: he played at my wedding pre-Treme days ;-) I grew up on the Gulf Coast, lived in NO many years, and still have relatives there. Now a Houstonian, I’ve been heartened by the vast majority of the Balloon Juice community’s expressions of support during our flooding from Harvey. My family and most of my friends are safe and dry, but I have some friends who have feet of water in their houses as I type and have been displaced and lost so much.

    While lots of people have a stereotype of Texans as MAGA-hat-wearing ignoramuses, it is just that: a stereotype. Nearly everyone I know is actually a bleeding-heart liberal and they wear that label proudly. Those of you who are mad about Texas going red, please know that many of us here in Texas feel angry about that too. We’re working to turn Texas blue and elect people like Beto O’Rourke. All I’m asking is that you please have some empathy and/or sympathy for your red state/blue voting brethren (Amaranthine RBG, I’m pleading here.)

    Okay, I had to get that off my flood-weary chest.

    Back to lurkdom.

  41. 41.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @lamh36: because I am fair, Osteen is saying the roads around his church are flooded and make it inaccessible, it’s in Lakewood, for anyone who knows the area

    One church, however, drew criticism online for remaining shut. Joel Osteen’s Lakewood Church, a 16,800-seat indoor arena, announced on Facebook that it was “inaccessible due to severe flooding.” […]
    Lakewood Church has previously helped with relief efforts in the city, most recently hosting a benefit concert in 2016 after heavy flooding. In 2001, the church sheltered roughly 5,000 Texans displaced by a tropical storm.

    ETA: And because I hate these prosperity cult con artists

    Osteen and his wife live in a $10.5 million mansion in the upscale River Oaks neighborhood in central Houston.

  45. 45.

    Jeffro

    @lamh36: Someone should tweet at @SNL and get their attention…I bet they could do a send-up of Fake Pastor Osteen like nobody’s business this Saturday…

  47. 47.

    Chet Murthy

    @lamh36: Wikipedia sez 90-118 deaths -during- evac and -before- the storm actually hit. Also read that it’s been a design goal to turn the freeways into storm drains when the bayous overflow. So it makes complete sense they didn’t go for evac.

  50. 50.

    lamh36

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: there has been a number of folks who live in the area and have posted pics showing the church and area nearest to it does not have the flooding that many have.

    Are the highways/byways flooded…some…but NOT all. In fact last photo I saw showed their was like 20 or so cars in the parking lot. The church is a former stadium…so it’s actually elevated via ramp above the street level.

    But as I said…the doors are closed even to loyal parishioners? And if you look at the area w/flooding and folks evacuating to shelters…they are braving the flood waters to get to shelters…

    But hey…you can give Ostenn benefit of the doubt…I’ll just sit here with my less optimistic outlook…lol

  54. 54.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @lamh36: But hey…you can give Ostenn benefit of the doubt…I’ll just sit here with my less optimistic outlook…

    I’d love it if he were shamed into opening the church and coughing up some those prayer-gained* millions

    *snark

  56. 56.

    Steve in the ATL

    @barbecue swinger: please de-lurk and join the fun, unless you’re going to spout heresy about anything involving beef being BBQ.

    I’m heading to Austin in the morning and am steeling myself for such atrocities.

  57. 57.

    barbecue swinger

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    If Nathaniel Hawthorne were around today, he’d be writing stories about Osteen and his ilk, and well,
    Osteen would NOT be the hero.

    Osteen has tons of room as his church is the former Rockets arena. He and his wife are jerks, but we all knew that.

  59. 59.

    barbecue swinger

    @Steve in the ATL:

    Hahaha! I’m a BBQ agnostic. I actually ate Amy’s canned vegetarian chili last night and enjoyed it! Hey, groceries are running low, and I guess I’m a philistine.

  60. 60.

    Mike J

    And, speaking of New Orleans, here’s a nice article (edit: here’s a similar article you can read without a subscription — h/t lamh36) about the volunteer “Cajun Navy” of volunteers helping out with the relief effort.

    Don’t I remember the wife of Bush the smarter being nasty about Nawlinites coming to Houston after Katrina?

  63. 63.

    lamh36

    It doesn’t surprise me that some of the same people who love to defend the Confederate flag are the same people who are soo quick to defend Joel Osteen…along w/usual get along Christians…

  64. 64.

    Steve in the ATL

    @raven: the other day (or week or month) you mentioned men returning from the war and working at Langdale Turpentine Works in Valdosta. One of my drinking buddies in law school was a Landgale, and you’ll be delighted to know that the family still runs Valdosta and most of Lowndes County.

  71. 71.

    Steve in the ATL

    Apropos of nothing, anyone know a good way to get a golden retriever to drop a baby rabbit? Bonus points if your method gets him to drop it outside rather than on an Oriental rug.

  72. 72.

    lamh36

    Oh…back on topic point…can’t talk bout Houston w/o mentioning Bey…

    My daddy Alabama, momma Louisiana
    You mix that negro with that Creole, make a Texas bama

    Beyoncé – Formation youtu.be/WDZJPJV__bQ via @YouTube

    (also in honor of Katrina anniversary)

    ETA:

    @GrooveSDC
    Beyoncé pledges to ‘help as many as we can’ with Hurricane Harvey relief efforts chron.com/news/houston-weather/hurricaneharvey/article/Beyonc-pledges-to-help-as-many-as-we-can-with… … via @houstonchron

  78. 78.

    MaryRC

    Has no-one mentioned Archie Bell and the Drells?

    Hi everybody
    I’m Archie Bell of the Drells, from Houston, Texas
    We don’t only sing
    But we dance just as good as we walk…

  79. 79.

    raven

    @Steve in the ATL: Yea, I met with Harley Jr, UGA Law School Grad and big time Dawg. I was at Tech working with the Advanced Wood Product Lab and toured the lumber yard in Valdosta and the MDF plant in Willacoochee. Maybe your classmate was Harley’s son?

  86. 86.

    Steve in the ATL

    @raven: usually Tech people know where stand relative to UGA. Hell, Bill Lewis’s son was in our class as well!

    (Bill Lewis was Georgia Tech’s football coach at the time)

  87. 87.

    barbecue swinger

    @Davebo:

    It was! He’s a consummate entertainer. So sad to hear Hobby Center is flooded, though. It’s a really nice venue. You’re in H’town, right? You’ve come through Harvey ok so far?

  89. 89.

    JPL

    @Steve in the ATL: haha My mutt brought me Peter the cottontail. He was disappointed when he discovered, I wasn’t planning on cooking it.
    Many years ago, Duchess the best golden in the world brought me a kitten. A friend adopted the baby kitten, so it worked out. With most dogs, you say drop it.

  93. 93.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    Here’s a question I’d love to see somebody bean Trump with:

    Mr President, some have opined that you seem only interested in yourself and have no regard for people who aren’t your supporters. They even wonder about your refusal to get a dog. What do you have to say about their concerns about their hopes and dreams, and what steps will you take to show that you have empathy regarding their experiences.

    And as followup, why won’t you get your son a dog?

  98. 98.

    lamh36

    @Omnes Omnibus: yes…folks been talking about it since the video screen cap was released before the video premiere.

    If you saw the original Lemonade visual album or Formation, you can def see the influence in the video…and you don’t have to be a crazy Beyhive fan. It’s the blatant “no it’s not even close” to Formation defense that folks hate…lol

  100. 100.

    lamh36

    Ugh…CNN, this time Don Lemon had another person called into the station saying they are stranded…makes me wonder how they decide who to feature on air and who they don’t…another reason why I doesn’t sit well with me.

    Here’s an idea of the type of things I’d loved to see more from reporters instead…

    @meetmissjoness
    Incredible, watch as @BrandiKHOU flags down a rescue boat on-air, saving this truck driver’s life thebea.st/2wg4TLd

    ETA:This is what I’m talking about…I need to see more of this from the NATIONAL MEDIA…not just the local…put down the damn mic for a minute and help people!

    The full video including the rescue: twitter.com/JMKTV/status/901842756829679616

  102. 102.

    Amir Khalid

    @germy:
    It’s a shame Ted Cruz won’t come out and say it: “That was Jersey: not my state, not my voters. This is Texas.”

  104. 104.

    J R in WV

    Oh, man. The very Reverend Horton Heat gets air play on WV public radio late Saturday night. Great odd cooking-hot country music.

    When you drive to Houston TX on I-10 from Louisiana, when you go through Beaumont, petrochemical center of east Texas, you are only 10-12 miles from Port Arthur, TX, birthplace of Janis Joplin, one of the first blues geniuses I ever heard. I attended her shows at least 3 times, Newport Folk Festival in 1968, Philadelphia in ’69, and Chicago in ’70, IIRC.

  106. 106.

    scottinnj

    @barbecue swinger: I’ve seen him over a dozen times. Not just him but the whole band is first rate. Sadly I missed him on the duet tour with John Hiatt which I think would have been a great show to see.

  108. 108.

    jame

    “Ain’t Living Long like this” — Rodney Crowell, who truly did grow up in Houston off of Wayside Drive.

Comments are closed.