Oh, the horror…

Texas, part III

I have been in Hill Country for several days – Frederickburg on Saturday and Sunday then Austin for the last two nights – and am moving south towards San Antonio tomorrow. I am looking forward to checking out Dia de los Muertos there.

Gallery Tres: Hill Country Uno:

Ttl. bllsht.

From Time’s “How Washington’s Bailout Will Boost Wall Street Bonuses”:

“[T]he average managing director at an investment bank, a title typically earned around eight years on the job, will receive a bonus of $625,000. That’s down from nearly $1.1 million last year, but it is still 15 times the income of the average American household. Top bankers could receive as much as $1 million. Even a bond trader just out of business school could see his or her bank account enriched by as much as $170,000 this Christmas. ‘The firms have had an extremely difficult year,’ says Joan Zimmerman, a Wall Street career coach. ‘But they can’t afford to lose talent either.’

While the government rescue limits the salaries of five top executives of each of the participating financial firms, Congress did nothing to restrict Wall Street firms from using taxpayer funds to boost the compensation of rank and file investment bankers. ‘Some people might argue that these bankers should not be penalized if they weren’t personally involved in the risky mortgage-backed securities,’ says Sarah Anderson, project director of the Global Economy Project at the Institute for Policy Studies, a progressive think tank in Washington. ‘My response is that average taxpayer wasn’t either, but she is being asked to take a hit.’”

Makes me sick to my stomach.

link

Texas, part II

From Amarillo, I traveled to Turkey then Lubbock then Fredericksburg. I have been focusing of Texas’ awesome musical culture from Bob Wills to the Butthole Surfers.

Gallery Dos: More Panhandle:

Texas, part I

After early voting for Obama, I left Denver yesterday  for Texas to work on three books: Frommer’s Texas (new edition), The Border y la Frontera: Inside the Checkpoints (working with Jay Johnson-Castro, getting there), and Ramble Texas (just barely getting started). I should make it home by Thanksgiving.

Gallery Uno: Amarillo and vicinity:

Ha ha, very scary

Random pics for Friday

Great analysis of financial meltdown

Rolling Stone’s Matt Taibbi: “You honestly think a company like AIG tanks because a bunch of minorities couldn’t pay off their mortgages?”

link

Great American Beer Fest 2008

I wrangled a ticket to the 2008 GABF last Friday and went and drank and conquered as many uno-ounce samples as I could in the allotted four hours. I think I won.

I liked too many of the breweries to list, quaffed black cherry stout and chili beer, got obnoxiously social, chatted with one of the few McCain-Palin sticker-wearers on the festival floor, and otherwise tried to do some research for some articles on beer and beer people and beer gadgetry, like the Beer Buckle, a bottle- and/or can-holder that folds right back into a swell belt buckle.

Awesome

via boingboing