Sunday, April 27, 2014
Kilgore Film Festival
Saturday, April 19, 2014
Casa Ole
Ian and I like to go out to eat. Lat night we wanted Mexican and thought we would tray something new since we have been disappointed by the ones we used to frequent.
Casa Ole, has decent reviews and two locations in Longview. We selected the one on the loop by the mall.
I had a cheese Chimichanga that was delicious, fried rice not so great. Service was good price about $10 per dish.
The most note worthy thing about the restaurant was the overwhelming large percentage of staff and customers who are large.
Sunday, April 13, 2014
Glimer Lake
Lake Gilmer
Lake Gilmer first opened to the public on September 29th 2001 and is located at FM 852, 4 miles west of downtown Gilmer.
Lake size is 1,010 surface acres. There is an additional 1,557 acres of mitigation property that will be developed into combination hiking and nature trails and bird watching stations. A swimming and picnic area will be developed on the north end of the lake near the dam area.
If you are interested in Lake Gilmer, please contact Lake Ranger Danny Lancaster at 903.843.8209
Lake Gilmer Park and Kelsey Creek Sanctuary Nature Trails Are Now Open at Lake Gilmer located on Armadillo Road, just off Cherokee Trace.
http://gilmer-tx.com/?page_id=326
I visited today and did both the smaller loops and about 2 miles of the 4 mile trail before it started to rain. the park is awesome, finding it was a bit of an ordeal, i have no advice for you but stay on paved roads and keep a good sense of direction to you.
I am confidant that this is a place I will visit again, only 20 min from Longview its a great get away and today I was the only one there! WIN WIN.
The smaller loop at the park itself is paved and the trees and plant are labled making it a great spot to learn more about the areas plants.
The longer straight trail was very well marked and also had a sprinkling of plant labels as you venture along
Discrimination overlooked
Discrimination masked by talented young women.
Kilgore Tx, a town that has passed its prime but still holds much charm was once one of America's great oil boom-towns, home of the world's richest acre. 75 years ago Killgore College the Jr college in this little Texas town struck gold in a more metaphorical sense. Seeing the challenge of a town built around the male-dominated oil industry a new fine art form was introduced to attract a different type of person to Kilgore. Introducing the Kilgore Rangerettes. A group of young women who are top dance drill members who come together for two intense years of study sprinkled with high profile performances and football half time shows. When this concept was born in 1939 it was the birth of an art form that has grown in popularity throughout the world.
Last evening I had the opportunity to go watch the Rangerettes perform and their talent was apparent but equally apparent was the discrimination happening within the drill team, the community and the college.
Gregg county where Kilgore College is located has about 22% of its population identifying as African American, about 15% who identify as Hispanic, 1% who identify as other and the remaining are identified as Caucasian. As with most of the United States, about 51% of the population is women and 49% men.
The KC Rangerettes are comprised of approximately 60 members, 2 coaches/ directors, 7 choreographers and 6 mangers. Of these 70+ individuals 2 maybe 3 would be identified as African American. No directors, no choreographers and no dancers were male, all of the managers were.
While this composition and inequality within the Rangerettes performance a larger level of discrimination has me truly upset and disgusted with our society that turns a blind eye.
Pictured below is the Rangerettes on-campus housing.
And here is Athletic on-campus housing. The KC football team has approximately 60 members 43 of whom would be identified as African American
The photos can't capture the difference, on the street where the Rangerettes reside, practice and perform the landscaping is well maintained and aesthetically pleasing, the street is repaired, the sidewalks clear of debris. Less than 5 blocks away the football team lives in on a street that has little landscaping, poorly maintained roads, and debris is left on the sidewalks.
This entire situation is a problem, inequality and discrimination are occurring daily at this local Jr College as the administrative staff and the community that supports them allow for policies to prevails that create such dramatic divides between groups of people.
Wednesday, April 9, 2014
Wednesday, April 2, 2014
Art and antlers - another East Texas gem
Sunday, March 30, 2014 4:00 am | Updated: 7:42 am, Sun Mar 30, 2014.
By Richard Yeakley ryeakley@news-journal.com
After more than a quarter century making furniture, lighting and sculptures with horns and antlers, Jeff White considers himself a craftsman.
White, the owner of White Oak’s Little Big Horns, crafts each piece that leaves his workroom by hand, sacrificing quantity to be able to give a personal seal of approval to each piece.
“It’s not just a job for me, it’s a craft. It’s making something,” he said. “I am excited about making something that (makes) people go ‘wow.’ ”
And “wow” people have gone.
Since leaving the hair cutting profession in 1988 to begin crafting furniture with one of his clients, White’s work has — through word of mouth — found its way into the homes and properties of Ross Perot, Ted Turner, Jay Novacek, Ed Belfour, Larry Gatlin and Sharon Young of Sharon Young Clothing/Sharon Young Stores.
It also has been featured in magazines such as D Magazine, Country Home Magazine and Architectural Digest Magazine, and been featured on “Extreme Home Makeover” on ABC.
His career took him from Dallas to Fredericksburg and to White Oak, where he works from his home without a store front, selling online, made-to-order pieces.
Most recently, the Museum of Modern Art in Mexico City agreed to purchase his original sculptures.
“Rich people aren’t rich because they are lucky. They are smart and pretty savvy,” he said. “They know the worth of something, what the fair market value of things are. … These billionaires like that reuse me to reorder as their properties grow, as their houses enlarge. The reason they call me back, because they know … I am not a price gouger.”
In his early days, Jeff split his time making the artwork and gathering the antlers to use.
Because many animals shed their antlers, White would make trips to the Rocky Mountains and the Grand Teton National Park and walk trails picking up antlers.
Later, he formed relationships with people who gathered antlers and sold them to international markets and to craftsmen around the nation.
White said a part of his success throughout the years had been his timing for getting into the business.
“The concept has been around for thousands of year, but the look nationwide was brand new,” he said. “Back then, a ranch could constitute 10 acres; now we could get antler chandeliers. It exploded and within a matter of years ... I had made friends with some of these big players.”
Because he now operates without a store front, White said it was the work of Alan Strickland of Alan Strickland Photography and Chris McNabb of Key Creative, a website design firm, that gives him a global presence.
“It is only by these people that I look good,” he said.
White builds chandeliers, furniture, lamps, mirrors, knives and other items.
When he took off in January 1991, White opened a permanent showroom in Dallas in the Dallas Market Center and in a week took more than $25,000 worth of orders.
White can be reached by phone at (903) 297-2222 for distributor, retail, decorator or private price list.
His work station is at 1104 Idlewood Drive in White Oak.
http://www.news-journal.com/features/local/art-and-antlers-white-oak-man-has-passion-for-crafting/article_0bcefbf9-71fa-5f33-8093-eed2c82c0b0d.html
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