Co-Blogging Post: Texas

(What follows is a joint-blogging post from myself and Brykmantra, who wrote the text, to be posted simultaneously, more or less, on both of our blogs.)

You are about to enter another dimension, a world between light and shadow, between rationality and insanity ... a place called TEXAS ... :

Only in Texas: A functioning barbecue grill shaped like a six-gun.

Buddy Holly, the Father of Rock and Roll, and inspiration for "British Invasion" bands such as The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, and of course The Hollies. Did you know that his last name was actually spelled Holley, but he was saddled with the alternate spelling due to a typo? You do now.

Anyway, here's a picture of my cousin at Buddy's grave in Lubbock.

Unfortunately, Dallas is best known to the world through to avenues: The TV series Dallas, and the assassination of President Kennedy, making Southfork Ranch and The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza two of the city's biggest international tourist attractions.

Texas community profiles.

The Plainview Cattle Drive Project.

Historic Texas Postcards. (via)

Colossus of Rhodes? Close: It's Big Tex, the towering mascot of the State Fair of Texas.

Texas Trailer Trash - Lifestyles of the Southeast Texan. (via)

The slogan Don't Mess with Texas started out 20 years ago as an anti-litter campaign, and has grown to seem like some sort of jingoistic battle cry -- to the extent that a Croatian punk band has adopted the slogan as its name.

Now comes a new public service campaign that probably won't be as politically charged: "Don't Burn Texas Down", an anti-wildfire anthem by up-and-coming country singer Jake Kellen, is hitting the state's airwaves this week. And if you want to hear the song but don't have access to Texas radio stations, just click here.

Arch-ive.org -- Photographically documenting and archive buildings and sites in Houston and surrounding areas.

Our global cultural influence: ILuvNUFC's favorite childhood candy bar, The Texan (which I, ironically, as a Texan, had never heard of) is about to be brought back on to the market in England.

Haunted House display getting complaints.

Butterflies of Texas.

Urban Legends Reference Pages: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.

Texas images, Texas photography.

Pictures of Texas.

Wild Texas Guide to Texas Parks, Travel & Outdoors includes Texas Photography Web Guide.

Texas Bird's Eye Views. Hand drawn panoramic maps of 44 Texas cities circa 19th century in high resolution. Aerial mapping minus airplanes and cameras.

Texas Beyond History. The virtual museum of Texas' cultural heritage.

Texas Bigfoot Research Center includes 5th Annual Texas Bigfoot Conference.

How to Speak Texas English. Same story with added comments.

Texas Jokes. Lots of them.

There's also a specialized type of Texas joke know as the Aggie Joke, in which the subjects are the students and alumni of Texas A&M University. Basically, they're Polack jokes except that don't make fun of anyone's ethnicity. You can read lots of Aggie Jokes Here, here, here and here. And finally, a true story: How Aggies board up their windows in a hurricane, and the A&M newspaper reaction to the negative attention brought by the picture.

Dumb Texas Laws. Not sure if they are true though.

Music: The Texas Music Project, Lone Star Music, Texas Music Roundup, the Governor's Music Office (!), SXSW, ZZ Top, Texas Music Magazine.


Bonus points: (Former Monkee) Michael Nesmith's Video Ranch.

Famous Texans.

Texas Timeline (Key Events in early Texas).

Texas State Historical Association - The Handbook of Texas Online.

Texas History.

Texas recipes.

This past weekend, Kermit the Frog kicked off this national 50th Anniversary tour in Kermit, Texas.

Shiner Bock Beer, brewed in Shiner, Texas, which just this past Saturday celebrated Bocktoberfest. In 1983, The Spook & I went to the brewery to take the tour, but all we got was the Hospitality Room.

Which was still rather rewarding.

Then there's Lone Star Beer, "The National Beer of Texas". Note that their website is PureTexanBeer.com.

And don't forget Pearl Beer, which, like Lone Star, has been absorbed into the giant Miller conglomerate. But while they were still independent, they did some cool things, like rebus puzzles under the caps.

Texas Instruments designed the first transistor radio and first integrated circuit

And finally: Texas on Flickr: Texas Hill Country, Texas, A Country Called Texas, Texas Tech, Texas Roads, Shiner beer, Lone Star, "It's Texas, Dummy".

If anyone else fancies a co-blogging post with me drop me a line. Email address is at the top of the sidebar.

Newer Texas links:
Geostationary Banana Over Texas
Texas Pictures