San Antonio Sunday

Today in San Antonio — at the Rim — and answers to questions….

• See listing for details —

(Like Shakespeare said…)

Sunday! Sunday in San Antonio!

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San Antonio Sunday

Curious as to the astrological details?

There are two sources of data, seeing me in San Antonio this weekend — or the weekly horoscopes.

San Antonio Sunday

“It’s really him.”

Technically, it’s a private event and at the discretion of the promoter, masks are required.

Portable Mercury Retrograde – Kramer Wetzel

Bexar County Line

• Two-Meat Tuesday
• Bexar County Line – Kramer Wetzel
• Bexar County Line

San Pedro Creek

• San Pedro Creek – Kramer Wetzel
• San Pedro Creek
• San Pedro Creek
• Digital Version here.

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Vincit Qui Primum Gerit

“First to arrive gets the best deal.”

Weekly Notify Email

Shakespeare Said

“If thou hav’st not a masque, thou shalt not pass.”

• (Shakespeare)

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Sunday in San Antonio

San Pedro Creek (temporarily free e-book)

Hamlet

Hamlet as a ghost story?

And the skull? Yorick?

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Implicit

My old joke, used to be, “I’m white, male, straight. Means I have no rhythm and poor fashion sense.” A neighbor was perusing my immediate bookshelf, looking at what was at a hand when I write, mostly astrological references with a smattering of Buddhist, Stoic, a pair of Shakespeare references, and Latin texts, as well as a well-thumbed King James Bible, with an extant scholastic bookstore price tag.

“See the King James version? By white people, for white people.”

Intended as humor, but implicit within the structure of my commentary? Thinly veiled racist message. Not intended, but implied, only, not on the surface, a little beneath.

Wasn’t my intention, not on any kind of a conscious level. Just the opposite. That one neighbor, I respect him. He was active duty in Bosnia and the Middle East. One of his cars has a license plate displayed, “Legion of Merit” medal. (“Free parking at the airport.”) Maybe one year I’ll relate his Xmas story out of Bosnia.

Out of deference and respect for him, as he does wander into my place from time to time, I moved my Penguin academic holographic copy of Koran to another shelf — he once raised an eyebrow at my copy, thinking I was — I don’t know.

Implicit

Way I was raised? My background? While the teachings were to be liberal and “non-racist,” all men are equal, the background noise, there’s that implicit racism. Didn’t say it was right, just called it what it was. Think: Liberal WASP.

Another family commentary from me, “I’m out of Austin, so I’m color blind.” While I wish that was true, the old Austin I recall? It was about as white-washed as could be.

The implicit systemic racism doesn’t extend to just “people of color,” which implies “brown people.”

My buddy Dr. Woo, not his real name, is a retired — I don’t know — something with Health Science and old Austin. Med School? TG&R? Ivy League? I’m not sure. I watched, horrified, when one old redneck buddy referred to my friend as “You people.”

Dr. Woo himself is more amusing; he was born in Texas. His “people” are just like me, Texan. No black, brown, yellow, or white, just “Texan.” Dr. Woo does, occasionally, lapse into a faux-Jamaican sing-song, “I’m from the island, mon, Galveston.”

Which is not unlike my neighbor, not a color but just “Texan.”

Implicit

However, in my own ignorance, I’ve obviously fed these issues. Not a valid defense, just an observation, moving, unaware that I was still propagating — not intentionally — but still propagating the old systemic racism.

For years, I’ve worked on, around, and with the sexist material. Once guilty, twice bitten, and now very shy? The sexist material starts from my own study and practice of astrology. Shows up in some of my work, even years ago. I suppose, on some level, I owe previous authors who made me aware of the nature of the material itself, and how that impacts what we do.

Implicit

Implicit — or otherwise? From the beginning, I’ve tried to undo some of the frankly sexist material in the canon of work I employ. Moving forward, while I never actually committed to a fresh start, I did, along the way adjust the course, as need be, or as directed, trying to prevent a future that was just black and white.

Scrolling through the spurious news feeds, I noticed a revered celebrity, and I think his comment suited me best. “I’m an old white guy. I think I need to shut up and listen.”

Floral Overtones

I have a simple, if rudimentary, method for dealing with the obvious mercurial miscues foisted upon us by Mercury in apparent retrograde motion — my catch-all solution?

Coffee.

My own wee mum, trying to impress me with superior epicurean coffee, picked up a couple of nickel-bags of fine, locally-roasted, free-range coffee.

One package was marked with “nutty, chocolate, floral overtones.”

Floral Overtones

I started drinking, what was then second-wave coffee, espresso on a Sunday morning from an Italian Espresso machine that looked like it could launch rockets.

Little twist of lemon rind, next to the tiny cup of condensed coffee, coffee made by shooting high-pressure hot water through finely ground Italian (roasted) coffee beans. Usually on a Sunday morning, in the bright light of a Texas slightly-before-noon-hence-no-booze hour. (Subtitle: follies of youth.) Cafes where we could hang out with our cafe racer styled motorcycles.

That didn’t end well, either. But I recall the coffee, and I recall that first sip of true Italian espresso; a gleaming, hulking machine gurgling behind the bar.

That was second-wave coffee, with, eventually, the gilded mermaid (Starbucks) leading to the third wave, I mean, whatever generation that was, is, we’re on third, fourth, or fifth wave now?

Starbucks led me to individual coffee shops, and that’s where the subtle nuances of the bean, and its extraction processes, that’s where I learned more.

Floral Overtones

So my sister would sometimes ship California Coffee to me. Good stuff, and she assumed, rightly so, that I prefer the darker roasts. That would be correct, often as not. I do tend to prefer the dark roasts, maybe not always the French or Italian Roast, but a darker roast suits my humors and flavors. However, for sampling, there are times when the lighter roasts are better.

As a plus one, for part of an afternoon in North Austin, I did sample a couple of the local places, and found them entertaining, requisite third-generation coffee, and good enough coffee. For the espresso, they all seemed to use a slightly lighter roast than what tradition dictates. Not bad. Not good, just, well, different? Certainly enhanced the ability to detect floral overtones, but other than that? I was tad miffed: espresso should be dark, rich, bitter, and creamy.

Floral Overtones

I can, vaguely, detect floral overtones, but I’m no coffee purist. I never claimed to have the refined palate. However, when Mercury is Retrograde?

I have a preferred process for dealing with emergent exigencies. Mercury Retrograde Ritual, as it were.

Coffee.

Someplace, I had a sticker that said, “COFFEE: make more mistakes, faster!”

However, as a notion, coffee plays an integral role in the way to deal with circumstances, especially, when Mercury — Venus are spinning out.

I wouldn’t know a floral overtone if it smacked me. It is good coffee, that’s for sure, and it does provide a requisite answer to dealing with Mercury’s concurrent conditions.

Floral Overtones

Cold Snap | Acre Coffee

the Portable Mercury Retrograde

Portable Mercury Retrograde – Kramer Wetzel

Doc

From the prep file?

“Air is insufflated into your colon during the exam to open it up so it can be better seen.”

So the doctor really is blowing hot air up my backside?

During the prep, one buddy was worried about me. I told him I was using aloe (aloe infused wipes).

“I hope you’re using aloe vera juice and not the spiny leaf.”

Good point. Talk about a pain in the ass.