A rum row (a line of booze-laden ships from Cuba, Jamaica, and the Bahamas) became a fixture approximately 35 miles (56 km) beyond the coastline where smaller boats fetched the goods and brought them to shore.

(Via The Free State of Galveston on Wikipedia)

Hurricane season starts tomorrow. So far in my tenure as a Houston resident, we’ve been super lucky with regard to missing the storms. For Katrina, Rita and Ike, we’ve been out of the country each time. But this year they’re predicting a hectic season. We shall see.

This weekend is the 10-year anniversary of Tropical Storm Allison. I hadn’t yet moved here, but I’ve seen the pictures and heard the horror stories. I’ve kind of always loved dramatic weather though, and in a small way hope for a storm — one that brings a little excitement, but doesn’t leave us without power for several days, or floods our house, or damages anything.

This time of year always makes me think bout the glory days of Galveston, mostly about the Victorian era and the 1900 hurricane and Kate Chopin’s Awakening, which I know is set in Louisiana but which represents the same time period I romanticism with regards to Galveston. Then I read this crazy comment on Swamplot about a very out of place house built in the 1920s in Dickinson, Texas.

During the 1920s, Dickinson became a significant tourist destination resulting from investment by the Maceo crime syndicate which ran Galveston during this time. The syndicate created gambling venues in the city such as the Silver Moon casino.

Ahh, the Maceos. That set me off remembering the old Balinese Room and my many fond memories of the place. Which in turn led me to a Wikipedia wormhole. So here are some links to enjoy. Did you know there used to be a military blimp base on Galveston Island?

• Free State of Galveston
• 1915 Galveston Hurricane
• Rosario Maceo
• Balinese Room
• Galveston Movement

The truth is, the "bikini body" craze goes so much deeper than fatism or fatphobia. It is part of our society’s relentless insistence that a woman’s body is not her own.

The last part of the line really struck me. I’ve been spending so much time lately thinking about all the ways the government tells us what we can and can’t do with our bodies that I have never really though about how the media sends us the same message.

(Via There Is No Such Thing As A Bikini Body – Jezebel.)

SlutWalk Houston is right around the corner. In case you’re not familiar with the march, SlutWalk was born of a Toronto police officer’s comment that women should avoid “dressing like sluts” in order not to be raped. It’s a chance to stop the cycle of victim blaming when it comes to rape, and possibly to strip a dirty word of its sting by owning it as only true sluts can.

Here’s an homage to our five favorite Texans who took a stand through the name of sluttiness.

(Via Five Texas Sluts Worth Admiring – Houston News – Hair Balls.)

From The 20 Raddest Posters from Roger Corman-Directed Flicks

In case you’ve ever wondered if the Governor of Oklahoma has an Oklahoma-shaped pool. (Via @kylejack.)

For example. This weekend was the inaugural screening of the Tex Hex, an artist-built boat that floats along the bayou and shows movies on a screen to people sitting on the banks. In keeping with the Art Car theme, the Tex Hex showed short films regarding car culture, from personal faves Kenneth Anger, Buckminster Fuller, Buster Keaton, and the short below, about what is possible the most amazing soap box derby to ever take place.

It’s easy to see how this event, in San Fransisco in 1975, could have been the genesis for the Art Car Parade.

I’ve always been a college basketball, never a pro fan, but that’s changing now that the Thunder are in the playoffs, against a Texas team even. Yesterday, on the even of the Western Conference Finals first game, my mom sent me this video.

In Oklahoma, basketball goes hand in hand with tragedy. But something else struck me about the story above.

I was 14 years old when the Murrah Building was bombed. I was in junior high, had not yet taken my first creative writing class, had not yet worked for a newspaper. But I loved to write, and I had been keeping journals every year. Watching the video now reminds me of my desperate need for info after the bombing. How voraciously I consumed every newspaper, magazine, news report and update. It never occurred to me before, but in no small way did the OKC bombing influence my later development into a news junkie and journalist.

Elizabeth Taylor has died. I loved her in nearly everything she did, from Cat on a Hot Tin Roof to Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf to A Place In The Sun, but the above scene has always been my favorite. The Film That Changed Hollywood, a feature-length documentary on the troubled production of Cleopatra, is an absolute must-see for anyone with an interest in the way cinema works, then and now.

Update: Here’s the obit I wrote for the Houston Press on her best movies.