by Phil Houseal | Jun 14, 2017 | All Articles, Events, Music
June 14, 2017–No current artist comes close to keeping alive the sound of traditional country music more than Mark Chesnutt. But if the straight-talking Texan had continued with his first music gig, he might have ended up as a rock drummer instead. “I played drums in...
by Phil Houseal | Jun 8, 2017 | All Articles, Events, Music, People of the Hill Country, Philosophy, Venue
June 7, 2017–When Terry Theis first attended the Kerrville Folk Festival back in 1978, he, uh, bypassed the gate. “Yeah, I joined up because I finally got caught sneaking in,” confessed the Harper engraver and accordion player when I interviewed him outside Threadgill...
by Phil Houseal | Jun 1, 2017 | All Articles, Events, People of the Hill Country, Venue
May 31, 2017–It’s the kind of meeting even people who hate meetings will attend. Invite everyone you know–and don’t know–and ask them to bring a favorite bottle of wine to share. No agenda, no minutes, nothing to vote on, and barely anyone who claims to be in charge....
by Phil Houseal | May 25, 2017 | All Articles, Education, Events
May 25, 2017–I spent the last week watching a thousand students take a test. A field test. Because the tests took place in the middle of a field on a working ranch near Willow City, Texas. It wasn’t a paper and pencil kind of test, although hours of calculation were...
by Phil Houseal | May 24, 2017 | All Articles, Philosophy
May 24, 2017–When is enough enough? I’ve been trying to quantify the exponential futility of doing more. One easy way to visualize this is knot tying. If the sole function of making a knot was to, say, fasten one object to another, we could achieve the goal in many...
by Phil Houseal | May 18, 2017 | All Articles, Education, People of the Hill Country, Philosophy
May 17, 2017–I always wanted to build a bonsai tree. So when Dietert Club Ed offered a class, I signed up. Nine other wannabe tree makers shared my interest. We were a diverse group, with several retirees, a couple of younger ladies, and one millennial. Instructor...
by Phil Houseal | May 11, 2017 | All Articles, Events, People of the Hill Country, Philosophy
May 10, 2017–Anyone who has ever owned a Volkswagen Beetle will understand. My wife does. She owned an early 1970s model, robin’s egg blue convertible. Cute, affordable, and got good mileage. But when she started dating this homeless farm boy musician, something...
by Phil Houseal | May 4, 2017 | All Articles, Venue
May 3, 2017–Back in the dark ages of computing, when screens were black, letters were green, and images were created using backslashes, asterisks, and parentheses, we nerds played “escape” games. Those early versions were crude, with simple dialogue and limited...
by Phil Houseal | Apr 27, 2017 | All Articles, Events, People of the Hill Country, Venue
April 26, 2017–It’s Hollywood in the Hill Country. This weekend, film aficionados from around the world will be drawn to the flickering screens of the Hill Country Film Festival. The non-urban setting has grown to become one of the most appealing places for...
by Phil Houseal | Apr 19, 2017 | All Articles, Events, Music
April 19, 2017–Just out of high school, a group of my buddies and I were so anxious to see Crystal Gayle in person that we got a speeding ticket driving to her concert. The year was 1975 and Gayle, with her trademark long, dark hair, had just released her first album...
