Blogs

Shell Oil was the latest target of a Big Oil/gas prices protest. Members of the Harris County AFL-CIO led the protest on Friday, on a sidewalk in front of Shell's downtown office.

Richard Shaw, secretary-treasurer for the labor union, said the protest was prompted, in part, by John McCain's recent visit to Houston, and the protest was directed at McCain as much as Shell and other oil companies. Some of the protesters held signs that read, "Bush & McCain Heart BIG OIL."

The AFL-CIO has also launched this Web site, citing McCain's ties to oil companies, and his proposed plan that would give major oil companies $3.8 billion in tax cuts.

The protesters mainly yelled for change, but Shaw said his group hopes for investment in new sources of energy, with a focus on job creation for American workers.

Terry Abbott, for years the spokesman for the alleged “Houston Miracle” of HISD, the man who spun Rod Paige into a conservative saint serving well above his abilities as U.S. Department of Education, is leaving the school district.

Abbott announced in a press release the official confirmation of what he called “maybe the worst-kept secret in town” – that he’s leaving to form a PR group with a former assistant.

This isn't even the half of it.

This year, at least for my group of Pride-goers, the parade was all about the swag. It started coming even before we left the house. A friend lives on Kipling near Woodhead, in the neighborhood where all the floats are set up, and we sat on his porch watching all the action. OutSmart magazine’s float was parked out front, and whenever participants had to go to the bathroom, they knocked on the door bearing T-shirts that say “Pink Sheep of the Family.”

Memo to Joel Osteen – we know Rolling Stone is a must-read for you, but it’s probably better if you give it a skip this month.

RS’s Matt Taibbi, who’s a very, let’s say, enthusiastic writer, has a profile of John McCain. At one point he goes after McCain’s blithe willingness to betray everything he stood up for a couple of years ago.

Taibbi writes:

Remember low-rise jeans?!? Or when that Ken Jennings guy would not stop winning at “Jeopardy”?!? Or that crazy time Mel Gibson got arrested and he was totally wasted and spit out all that anti-Semitic hatred?!? OMG. I was, like, 28 when that happened. I remember it so well…

Because it all happened three or four years ago.

Now look, I’m about as big a pop culture junkie as you can get, obviously, and I’m the first to admit that 90 percent of the crap I write about on this blog is most likely irrelevant in terms of global impact and political importance. Fine. That’s why it’s pop culture.

But you know, I think pop culture does serve a certain kind of purpose, especially when it comes to reminiscing with a person of a similar age over some generational touchstone or marker that united kids in the suburbs for five minutes (e.g. Garbage Pail Kids trading cards, Day-Glo jelly shoes, and knowing all the lyrics to the “Facts of Life” theme song, for example). These events, these benchmarks, these symbols all serve to build a sort of web of understanding between people who came of age at a similar time. A set of signs that remind us…hey, we’re all human. Sort of like a Grapes of Wrathian oversoul concept via Members Only jackets, you know what I’m sayin’, English majors?

We hope everyone had a loud and proud weekend. We sure did, and we'll have a wrap-up of Saturday's Houston Pride Parade festivities in a little bit. Promise.

1:17 a.m. at La Carafe

Photog Bill Olive hit up Market Square for a glass of wine...

2:04 a.m. at Frank's Pizza

...and a slice of 'za.

Pulitzer-Prize winner Tony Horwitz hit the best-seller lists a while back with the critically praised Confederates in the Attic, but since I’m not much of a Civil War buff I took a pass on it.

Now that I’ve read his new book, A Voyage Long and Strange, I definitely understand the charm.

The subject of this book may turn off some people, too – the history of the pre-Mayflower exploration of the North American continent.

Tedious descriptions of starving conquistadors and vain searches for golden cities, right? Not in Horwitz’ hands.