Panther Creek Inspiration Ranch
“Horses Healing Children”

HELP US CELEBRATE OUR 3RD ANNIVERSARY
DECEMBER 5th

Located in The Woodlands, Texas, PCI Ranch is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization using horses to enhance the lives of disabled children and their families through equine-assisted therapy. Youth challenged by health disorders, such as: different types of paralysis, Down syndrome, multiple sclerosis, epilepsy, autism, and cerebral atrophy can improve their posture, muscle tone, coordination, balance, sensory/motor development, as well as speech and language skills. By also focusing on the family, all members of the family unit benefit, which has an impact on the total health of the community.

In recognition of three years of serving disabled children and their families, you can spend an evening enjoying great barbeque and learn more about the work of PCI Ranch, 6:00 p.m., Saturday, December 5th. This celebration is being held at the August Pines Equestrian Center.

You can reserve your table or individual seat at RSVP@pciranch.org or contacting Linda (713-302-3640)

Tables of 8

Blue Ribbon Table – $200.00/seat
Red Ribbon Table – $100.00/seat
Individuals – $50.00/seat

Of course, you can also contact me kenneturner@yahoo.com (281-298-1065) for additional information. Profits from this event will help support the Ranch and this much-needed committee activity in the north Houston area. If you will not be able to attend, your donation to the PCI Ranch will be most appreciated.  Please share this information with your friends.

Click here to download The Ranch Hand Fall Winter 2009 newletter.

kenne

Technology continues to make it so easy to experience what you may have missed. Example, if you didn’t see Austin City Limits this past Saturday evening (November 21, 2009), then check out the following:

http://video.pbs.org/video/1335500400/

You will love the Ben Harper segment! In case you don’t know who he is, he’s an excellent folk rock and blues musician!

Also, 10,000 photos went into making the following video of their appearance on ACL.

kenne

Arriving late to Ken & Mary’s Blues Project last Saturday, we were only able to get a few photos and no video before Ray Bonneville’s gig. However, we should be able to capture more at Dave C&W jam tonight. Joe Hill and Ken Grumbles are expected to be part of the jam. Look for a future posting on the jam.

kenne

I believe that all the little things in life add up to one’s life. So, it’s important to get them right, otherwise nothing else matters.  I’m here to tell you that Ken and Mary Harris have been getting it right for a long time.

They love people and they love the Blues, and for years now have been doing a lot of little things that have been adding up in the form of the “Blues Project.”

Several times a year, Ken and Mary open their home to friends and their guests to experience the best in blues music this side of Texas. Sadly, many have no idea what they are missing, and sometimes it can get lonely in the promise land by yourself.

Even so, Ken and Mary’s Blues Project remains a portal to the Blues, through which many enter in their east Texas travels. One recent traveler (November 14, 2009) was eclectic singer-songwriter, Ray Bonneville. I use the word eclectic, as in free, simply because there is something about Ray and his music that causes one to recoil at the thought of putting him in a box.

Just as Ray may write about a place he has lived, e.g., New Orleans, he is not from there. He is a traveler in other people’s reality, writing stories that serve as a portal to his existence.

“Firefly comin’ this way
a flickering light is to say
time ain’t but this long
here tonight, tomorrow gone.”
– from “Goin’ By Feel”

As a fellow traveler in the reality of others, I hope our paths will cross again soon.

kenne

(Oh, I almost forgot — HAPPY BIRTHDAY, Ken!)

(Photo Set)

In November of 2006, I posted the following noting the first anniversary of blogging:

. . . One year ago, 135 entries later and aproximately 9,500 hits (I read recently where there are now so many blog sites that the average number of hits per day is one.), this blog began with the purpose of sharing existence through the experience of one with the desire to generate other views on our place in time and space.  In doing so, I have come to the realization that this poetic gesture may be nothing more than bullshit to someone else.

So, on the anniversary I’m taking this moment to share a few words from the renowned moral philosopher, Harry G. Frankfurt:

“One of the most salient features of our culture is that there is so
much bullshit. Everyone knows this.  Each of us contributes his
share.”

And I would add, some more than others.
But then, one person’s truth is someone else’s bullshit.

“As conscious beings, we exist only in response to other things,
and we cannot know ourselves at all without knowing them.
Moreover, there is nothing in theory, and certainly nothing in
experience, to support the extraordinary judgment that it is
the truth about himself that is the easiest for a person to know.
Facts about ourselves are not peculiarly solid and resistant to
skeptical dissolution.  Our natures are, indeed, elusively
insubstantial – notoriously less stable and less inherent than
the nature of other things.  And insofar as this is the case,
sincerity itself is bullshit.”

kenne

(This blog averages about 10,000 views annually.)

A lot can happen in ten years. Some friends are no longer with us; some groups are no longer with us; some businesses are not longer with us. It was a little over ten years ago when Montgomery College began working with Twister Communications in Conroe to consider becoming Twister’s corporate university. It was at a luncheon meeting that Dale Armet and I got off the topic and began talking about the Blues. One thing lead to another and we called a few Blues people to meet with us on the topic of forming an organization called, Friends of The Blues – Montgomery County (FOB). As they say, “the rest is history.”

Although, as an organization sponsoring an educational series at the College, called appropriately, “The Blues Series,” we only existed for a little more than three years. When the series ended, the reasons were several, but paramount among them was the death of A.J. Murphy, a founding member of FOB. Although we didn’t realize it until after his death, A.J. was the glue that our loose-net organization together.

Francine Murphy @ Veteran's Cemetery on Veteran's Day, 2008

Much has changed in ten years, however much remains the same. In our own ways we continue to support the Blues and live music. There’s not a day without something reminding each one of us about FOB and A.J. Murphy, so when Joy and I decide to host a dinner for some of “The Friends,” it was super that Francine Murphy was able to attend. A fun evening was had buy all, and as always, A.J.’s spirit was in the house.

kenne

By the time Sonny Boy Terry and Rich DelGrosso were finishing their set at Ken & Mary’s Blues Project on the 17th of October, darkness, along with the stage lighting behind them created a silhouette, making for an image fitting for their last song, “Amazing Grace.” (See video below.)

The song was also their last in their recent gig at Babin’s Seafood House in The Woodlands, where we had an enjoyable evening of the Blues with Sonny and Rich.

Reminder: We encourage all our friends in the Houston area to attend this Sunday’s 20th Food for Blues — the following is from Sonny.

Hey kind folks, Here is the line up for our Umpteenth Annual Blues For Food festival ’09 at Shakespeare’s Pub located at 14128 Memorial Drive, Houston, TX 77079 . The official date is Sunday, November 15^th, 2009. Music begins at 1PM and runs for 13 hours.  Please be advised some time slots may change. More details to follow. Any non-perishable food items and cash donations are accepted. There will also be raffles and a silent auction.  All proceeds benefit the Houston Food Bank. A free Texas style BBQ plate comes to all those who donate. With 12 acts and numerous special guests, NEARLY FIFTY musicians and a total of one hundred volunteers  are donating their time and energy to this great Houston tradition.

20 years running now with over 24 Blues For Food events under our belt (Big Roger Collins was doing them twice a year at first), Blues For Food, a precursor to the development of the Houston Blues Society, has set the bar for charities on the local Houston music scene raising close to 100 Thousand Dollars and 150 thousand pounds of food in it’s long history.

Please visit www.myspace.com/houstonbluesforfood or www.shakespearepub.net for continuous updates as more details develop. Feel free to pass the word and promote it within your social groups, businesses, organizations and/or church activities. For more information, call Sonny Boy Terry at 713.869.7746 or 713.822.0437.

Being and Nothingness – Image by kenne

Sheryl Nelms, Holly Hughes, Janet Lowers, Dave Persons and Carolyn Dahl

To experience the slow loss
of brain function before death

is to become disconnected from the sound of the tree
that falls in the forest. No longer able to ponder
the questions of our existence,
rendering silent the sound to others
who will listen beyond the silence.

Still, somewhere in the forest a tree falls
and others continue to collect the sounds
so that no one will forget that there was a time
when your existence recorded the sounds of silence.

It is the nature of poetry to help us understand adversity. For poet, Holly Hughes writing about Alzheimer’s disease helped her deal with the experience of being a caregiver for her mother who was one of over five million people in the US with Alzheimer’s.  The experience inspired her to gather and edit a collection of poems and prose, titled, “Beyond Forgetting: Poetry and Prose about Alzheimer’s Disease.”

On two recent evenings in November, Holly Hughes and others read poetry and prose from her anthology, on the campuses of the University of St. Thomas and Lone Star College – Montgomery. All  proceeds from book sales went to the Alzheimer’s Association of South Texas. The anthology may be purchased at/or ordered from Good Books in the Woods, The Woodlands, Texas, www.goodbooksinthewoods.com.

kenne

(Photo Set)