I can’t wait to see this movie! Tom Waits as Old Scratch. I’m there!

If I was going to select a moment that signaled a tectonic shift in the lives of Generation X, the death of director John Hughes wouldn’t have been it.

I mean, it’s not like he was Orson Wells or Francis Ford Coppola. While Sixteen Candles and The Breakfast Club might have been good films, I wouldn’t have hardly pegged them as epochal events. But, still, there it was. The news of Hughes’ death was like a wound on my soul. Why?

I almost didn’t write anything about because others have written about it so much better. Unlike some, I certainly didn’t know the man personally. But as A.O. Scott put it in The New York Times this week when discussing the deaths of both Hughes and fellow ’80s icon Michael Jackson, “Their deaths make me feel old.”
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When the Fort Worth City Council asked the U.S. attorney in Dallas to investigate the June 28 raid at the Rainbow Lounge that sent Chad Gibson to the hospital with a brain injury, a lot of people in Fort Worth — myself included — believed this was a step in the right direction. With the all of the fingerpointing between the Fort Worth Police and the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission (TABC), it seems that the only way to get a complete picture of what happened that night is to have a third-party investigate. The U.S. attorney’s office, with the full investigative power of the Justice Department behind it, seems the logical choice.

But was that really what Mayor Moncrief intended to do? Not according to one city hall insider.

Although the U.S. attorney had previously agreed to review findings of the FWPD internal affairs investigation, the Mayor asked city staff to check with the Feds to “see what they could do.” According to the source, the recommendation for a federal investigation with agents conducting their own interviews and potentially subpoenaing witnesses was not what the Mayor expected when the staff report was presented in the pre-council meeting for consideration.

“When the Mayor looked at the report for the first time, his face got very red, very fast,” said the source.

So, did someone (or several someones) on city staff “go rogue” on this one? Did they figure that the mayor was not about to argue that a federal investigation wasn’t needed? No one is saying. But to the person or people who went out on a limb for this investigation, here is one thank you from a grateful Fort Worth resident.

In the past week, I’ve been to two baseball games. Last week, I watched the Texas Rangers dispatch the Boston Red Sox from the rarified confines of a luxury suite at The Ballpark in Arlington. Tonight, I watched the Fort Worth Cats take on the Grand Prairie Air Hogs from behind the third base dugout at the far more intimate LaGrave Field. Me personally, I’ll take the Cats anytime.

The Rangers may be fielding a higher quality product these days, but I’d rather enjoy the Cats on Dollar Hot Dog Night with The Famous Chicken doing his schtick. Besides, with Fergie Jenkins and Toby Harrah in attendance and Pete Incaviglia in the dugout managing the Air Hogs, the night had a nice retro feel. I was halfway wishing Mitch Williams could come in and blow a save for old time’s sake.

Perhaps you saw the AP headline last week: “Fort Worth Mayor Apologizes for Gay Bar Raid.” What you might not have seen was the retraction. Turns out he didn’t apologize for the raid, just the fact that anyone got hurt. Which begs the question — why is it so hard to say ‘I’m sorry’ to for leaders to apologize?
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I turned 40 last week, and the trauma has subsided. Although I was initially a little depressed, the more I thought about it, the happier I am to say goodbye to the decade of my thirties. To reduce it to a single phrase, it was 10 years of lessons hard learned. Which is not to say it was a bad decade, but I am happier with life and more comfortable in my own skin than ever, and I’m glad to be right here, right now.

Now, I’m ready to savor a few moments like a fine Bordeaux. Below are the total of knowledge acquired in my four decades of existence. Quite frankly, coming up with 40 was kind of tough, which leads me to wonder if I have really learned anything at all. Am I like a little kid, I just looking at the pictures and skipping the words? Perhaps. Still, I’d like to think I’m smart enough to practice gratitude and remember the small moments, like the picture I took at the right. Just a snapshot of some graffiti, but I love it. It feels true. The same with this list. These may not all be original thought, but I believe them all to be true.
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My company, Starr Tincup, has launched its new website, and I’m really proud of the results. The site really captures the essence of what we are all about — we aren’t for everybody, but if you want to hire a bunch of smart mofos who know how to market Human Capital software and services and are willing to bring unrestrained creativity, we’re the firm for you. In case you can’t tell, I love my job. Part of it is because I feel fortunate to work with a bunch of really talented creative types like Dwamian Mcleish, Tad Dobbs and Blake Hooser. They made the most of the opportunity to turn it up to 11. Well done, chaps.

UPDATE, 7.13.09: The HR Capitalist himself, Kris Dunn, feels the Starr Tincup love.

When Hacienda Brothers’ frontman Chris Gaffney lost his battle with liver cancer in April 2008, the world lost a great talent who really seemed to just be hitting his stride. I was fortunate enough to see him play a couple of times. The first time was with his best friend, Dave Alvin, back in 2005 at the Continental Club in Austin in what might have been the best show I have ever seen. Their friendship translated into a natural chemistry on stage as Gaffney played accordion to accompany Alvin on songs like “Fourth of July” and “Marie Marie” and “So Long Baby Goodbye.”

Although he was a more than able compliment to Alvin, Gaffney was also a songsmith in his own right. Gaffney’s friends recently came together celebrate his talent on “The Man of Somebody’s Dreams: A Tribute to Chris Gaffney.” The interpretations of Gaffney’s music from Alvin, Joe Ely, Los Lobos, Alejandro Escovedo, Tom Russell, James McMurtry, Robbie Fulks, John Doe and others are a moving remembrance of the man and his music. As frontman for the Hacienda Brothers, Gaffney and his bandmates crafted a brand of music they described as Western Soul, a seemingly incongruent and impossible hybrid that was quite infectious and natural. The characters who inhabit his songs navigate heartbreak, regret and disappointment but find solace in the small moments of everyday life and love.
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I’m not a fan of the here’s-who-am-and-this-what-it’s-about posts, but I think in this instance, it’s probably necessary in this instance. If you found your way here, you probably know me from West and Clear or The Caravan of Dreams or one of my other blogs. And, if you know me from there, you probably wonder why I’m here.

Good question. So, let’s try to serve up a few answers.
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