Chicken Shit Makes You A Winner

You are hollering. Loud. A simple number. 18. Over and over. Your eyes are fixed on a number grid. You are not alone, there are 50 others screaming numbers; just not yours. Some try it with "here, here,...." No, you are not in Las Vegas at a roulette table, you are cramped around a wire cage west of San Antonio, in Big T's Roadhouse and you watch a chicken strut the grid. Finally, relief is here, the chicken sets a wet one on a number and that number wins. Wins, wins big, the whole pot.

That's how you experience "Chicken Shit Bingo." What started out at carnivals under tents, is still played in the country. Also known as "Chicken Drop" it actually has universal appeal, in the Alps furry cows do it on a gridded meadow, they call it "Cow Patty Bingo." But back to the fowl in St. Hedwig, where Big T's draws a big crowd every Sunday.

Whenever the band takes a break people rush to the pool table covered in a randomly numbered and gridded plywood top with a chicken wire cage on top of it. Two dollars gets you in and gives you "your number." And then the protagonist of the afternoon arrives. Shiny feathers, a comb reaching the sky. He knows it's his 15 minutes of fame to make you a loser or a winner.






Normally the 15 minutes get cut short - a mild laxative helps to keep the attention span at bay. Originally brought into Austin by Country musician Dale Watson, the by now worldwide famous Chicken droppings event, started around 2000 in Ginny Kalmbach's bar, "Ginny's Little Longhorn." She retired in 2013, new owner Dale and part of his family took over. Dale also bought Big T's in St. Hedwig. By now Dale left the central Texas area, sold his interest in both bars and moved to Memphis. So I assume there soon will be a "Chicken Shit Bingo" - maybe at Graceland? But the tradition in Austin and St. Hedwig goes on, after church and lunch you spend the afternoon at the bar, having a couple of cold ones and scream your numbers.

And when relief comes, I heard more than one patron shout "shit," not to encourage the barnyard fowl, but realizing that they just lost. 5 won the pot, 18 the sneer. Glad there is another round of playing the next time the band takes a break. Let's get a beer and dance to the band like the dickens to the West Texas Waltz.

Keeping Score At The Double Ringer

Unfortunately by now they almost belong on the endangered species list in Texas. We are talking about old fashioned Honky Tonks, the dive beer joints, the bustling saloons, which by now have mostly disappeared from urban areas. Some isolated ones, mostly hiding in the country, can still be found. Their habitat, even though shrinking, lies from Central Texas going south towards the border, the buckle of the bible-belt up in North Texas was just too tight, with only Fort Worth and it's legendary stockyards being an exception.

This specimen, the Double Ringer (lat.: Duplex dingding), can be found about 25 miles northeast of San Antonio on your way to Seguin.  Drive south off IH-10 on 2538 or 325 and you should find it nestled into the woods in an old German town called Zuehl. The Double Ringer has a history, it used to be primarily a meat market and a bar on the side in the beginning, these days it pretty much sticks to the selling of libations. But if you are lucky - and chances are way better than the odds of the Texas lottery - the owner Billy may cook something for his guests, either frying fish or barbequeing on one of the many grills outside.

Double Ringer refers to the game of Horseshoe pitching, where you try to throw horseshoes around a stake. If your shoe completely encircles the stake and a line can be drawn from both ends of the shoe without touching the stake, you score a ringer. If you repeat this with your second throw and both shoes are lying around the stake, then you score a Double Ringer.

And if you walk in and nobody is in the bar, the patrons are sitting outside, below some shade trees, telling tall tales and lore and enjoying some cold ones. If you need a sports bar, are on the prowl to chase the other gender or not flexible to mingle with people - this bar is not for you! Obviously they are also biker friendly.

Sources: National Horseshoe Pitching Association,
This shot and others are available for publication through photo agency, Dispatch Press Images, DPI. It is also featured in my ClickASnap portfolio and in my Niume photo sphere blog.

Pickin' & Grinnin' In Luckenbach

For the last almost 30 years I've been an infrequent frequent visitor to the small hamlet of Luckenbach, Texas. Made famous thanks to the Waylon Jennings/Willie Nelson Hit "Luckenbach, Texas - Back To The Basics Of Love" the "town" with its own loop attracts people from all over the world. I published a first installment of a blog "Let's Go To Luckenbach, Texas" in Niume a while ago.

While weekends may be quite busy and overrun with tourists coming in buses and bikers showing up in swarms, it's the quieter moments that make this little town so special. If you ever go there in winter, the only thing warming you is a small little wood stove inside. It's mostly locals and regulars that show up, but there is always a picker or two, who want you to listen to his newest song creation.

If you go through the summer months, choose a day during the week or come in late on Sunday afternoon, when the "big" stars are gone, the stage is empty and the local people, the pickers and grinners show up for a traditional picker's circle or song swap or whatever you wanna call it.

The talent is wonderful and you may actually ran into one of the bigger stars on his way home, who just drops by to see what's going on. Chill, have a cold one and forget the world just for a little while.

These images and others are available for publication through Dispatch Press Images, a photo agency.

From The Ashes

Six years ago, in March 2010, the Phoenix rose out of the ashes and became a bar again.

Originally built in 1871 the building housed several bars and saloons as well as several department stores, especially after prohibition put a temporary end to the bar business in 1918.

According to their own history chapter on their Phoenix Saloon website, one of the owners, William Gebhardt invented chili powder on these premises. Supposedly it was also the first saloon in Texas that offered service to women. At that time a revolutionary thing as most women weren't allowed to attend bars, saloons and honky tonks for their own pleasure and could only meet men in dancehalls. "Hell's Half Acre" in Fort Worth with its establishments and bordellos only catered to men, who came through the area on their cattle drives on the Chisholm Trail. Originally a war term, where the most bloodied and dismembered bodies were, it became an expression for the devil's sins and temptations.

Beautifully restored, an old original brick wall was exposed, the venue now offers libations and serves Chili, which was featured in one of the cooking shows on TV. Besides offering a lively nightlife as a bar with music during the week and on weekends, you may also encounter some haunted spirits that are alleged to be meandering in the 145 year old building.

Sources: thephoenixsaloon.com
This shot and others are available for publication at Dispatch Press Images.

Made It Clean

"I told you, I made the shot, clean. No I did not touch the four ball on the way to the hole." The statement is imagined but it goes well with image. That said I feel comfortable and love to shoot in bars, there is something special about it.

And the only way to improve your aim and your shooting in pool, is HAMB - Hit a Million Balls. That said, I'm up to play next.

This and other shots of mine are available for publication through Dispatch Press Images.

Salud - En La Perla

This more than a moment in time. It probably soon will be in the very past. La Perla is one of the last Hispanic bars on the legendary East Side of Austin, Texas. With gentrification and condos came higher rent and a change in demographics. Rich kids, mostly working behind desks in the moving in, while families can't afford the raise in taxes anymore. House prices soar, what could have been bought below $100'000 a bit more than a decade ago, triple, quadrupled or even quintupled. And it's not unseen that an "old" 50-60 year old home is bought, torn down, razed and replaced with a "McMansion."

All this is called progress. Progress for what and whom. By destroying the dives and neighbourhood bars - well there aren't anymore customers anyway - part of the social fabric is gone. Replaced by anonymous sports and music bars. Don't get me wrong, where ever there is music, let's check it out. But no more families celebrating a quinceanera, where somebody would have brought fajitas or gabrito, where the six year-old would have made her first dance moves twirling with her dad, where a Mariachi or the jukebox were playing songs by Ramon Ayala, Vincente Fernandez, Juan Gabriel or local hero Flaco Jimenez. No more. No it's a battle of the bands. Loud, agressive - far, far away from the all encompassing family feel to the fake "you're-a-part-of-the-crowd-now"-illusion.

People move to the more affordable edges of town, into non-descript starter homes - as living in a family home for generations now demand that you start a new. "Little boxes" (Thank you Pete Seeger) in cookie-cutter neighbourhoods, where you don't know your neighbours anymore. No social life on the street or in the corner bar - well there are no corner bars.

It's a lament of the times. So next time walk across the tracks or as in Austin under the once dividing highway and soak in a different culture. And have a toast to the times that are gone.

This shot and other photography of mine are available through Dispatch Press Images for publication.

Gilley's In Dallas - No Honky Tonkin' Anymore

Even though the name Gilley's does imply Dance hall, Honky Tonk and country music in general, the original Gilley's in Pasadena, Texas, was none the less founded by country singer Mickey Gilley and was the backdrop for the movie "Urban Cowboy," the new Dallas incarnation seized to be a Honky Tonk in 2011 "due to the high demand for private events" as their website puts it. The 92'000 square foot place now hosts pop, rock and hip-hop concerts and offers it's eight different rooms for private events.

This shot and other photography of mine are available through Dispatch Press Images for publication.