There is a very short list of all time great broadcasters. Larry King, Whoever did the morning announcements when I was in Middle School, and Troy McClure.
Yes Troy "longest IMDb page ever" McClure. You might know him from The Simpsons, or Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore or one of his many many other titles.
The best thing about Troy McClure was that even if you couldn't remember what he had appeared in, he was really good at reminding you. Luckily some beautiful soul on the internet has taken every time Troy McClure mentioned a previous film he appeared in and cut it together. Thank you random internet stranger, thank you.
Since I've started doing the Closing Oil Report (every weekday at 5:20, brought to you by Permian Basin Metallurgical Laboratories) I've started paying a lot more attention to the oil in West Texas. We all know there is a lot of oil here, a lot a lot of oil. I wanted to know more, so I did some research and this is what I've found
The Permian Basin is roughly 300 miles long and 250 miles wide. Here is a handy map from Wikipedia:
The United States produced more Oil in 2012 than in any other year in history, largely because of the increase in Oil Production here in the Permian Basin. We are already on course to beat that record in 2013.
The most conservative estimates say that there are at least 2.7 Billion barrels of oil that are economically recoverable with current technology. There is over 100 Billion barrels of oil more that isn't economically feasible to recover with today's technology, but drilling technology is rapidly improving.
The Basin had a record high 415 Rigs working in 2012. To put that in perspective just 5 years earlier in 2007 there were only 191 Rigs. As you hear me say on the Closing Oil Report there are 392 Rigs running today, but it changes week to week.
The Permian Basin Produces two-thirds of all the oil in Texas and anywhere from %15 to %21 of all Oil in the United States. The only area that beats the Permian Basin in Oil Production is the entire state of Alaska. If you add what is produced in Permian Basin New Mexico, which is usually grouped separately from Permian Basin Texas it would be almost tied with Alaska. Texas as a state however far outproduces Alaska in total Oil Production.
To make a long, detailed story short. Permian Basin has a whole lot of oil.
The Celebrity Cameo is a music video staple. This is especially true in Country Music videos these days, and I don't mean that as a bad thing. Country music has always been about storytelling so country music videos are always more interesting by default. Throwing in a celebrity cameo just makes it that much more entertaining. Non country music videos these days always seem to be the generic "people playing instruments/singing straight into the camera", with some generic choreography happening in the back ground. Whereas country music videos are always trying to tell a story. And I'd much prefer seeing a known face as part of that story then some random actor.
It seems the go to choice for cameos this year is the cast of Duck Dynasty. They've already appeared in at least two music videos in the past few months.
The first was Darius Rucker's video for Wagon Wheel
and just recently in Tyler Farr's new video for Redneck Crazy
And those are both good videos (I'm particularly fond of Redneck Crazy) but the lifetime achievement award for Celebrity Cameo's still goes to Brad Paisley and his video for "Online"
If you have a favorite music video cameo let me know.
Friday, June 7th is the Opening night of Summer Mummers! And I'm in it! There will be performances starting at 8pm every Friday and Saturday night all the way until the end of August, that is 26 performances in all. So there will be plenty of time for you to see it, although I won't be at every show because even I'm not that crazy. But some of you might be asking "what is Summer Mummers?" I know I was when I first moved out here a few months ago and everybody was talking about it. What I've learned in the past month is that you can't really describe Summer Mummers, you have to experience it.
I could tell you that Summer Mummers is a call back to another era (or a continuation of that era, it is in its 65th year after all). It's staged at the historic Yucca Theater in downtown Midland. I could tell you that it has two main parts, the Melodrama and the Olio (I'm in the Olio). It's a big vaudeville type production. The Melodrama has a hero, a villain (complete with giant mustache), crazy sidekicks, a heroine to save etc. And I could tell you about the Olio, which is an old vaudeville term that means a bit of everything. Dances, raunchy jokes, funny songs, and more than a few surprises that even I'm still trying to figure out.
But that just describes the show, it doesn't describe Summer Mummers. Summer Mummers is lots of beer, and the most intense amount of popcorn I've ever seen. Summer Mummers has the most ridiculous audience interaction I've ever seen. A requirement of the costumes are shoes with rubber soles and great traction because the stage gets so slippery with the amount of popcorn that gets thrown. Volunteers of Beer brigades and popcorn crews have been training for weeks to be able to handle the massive demand that occurs during the show. Summer Mummers has a little bit of everything, and it has been a blast for this new guy to be a part of this Midland tradition.
For more info on Summer Mummers, and for stuff like tickets check out their website or follow them on twitter
Its gotta be tough to be a cow. No matter where they are almost every single one of the billions (Maybe, I didn't actually look up the number) of cows on planet earth are raised to benefit humans. Whether it is for Milk, food, or clothing our society would be a lot different without the cow. Cows may live a doomed life but I think some cows have it better than others.
Some cow out there today is going to be lovingly raised by some rural farmer, be fed the nicest and healthiest oats and grass and eventually that cow is going to become the greatest T-bone steak somebody has ever had. The steak they got, that they cooked just right, with just the right amount of seasoning. The steak that was so amazingly delicious they tell stories about it for years and years to come. Good way to go if you're a cow I'd think.
Some other cow might not become the world's greatest steak, but his leather might upholster somebody's very first car. The leather in that car will protect it for years and years. That person will remember that car for their whole lives and talk about using the phrase "it had the greatest leather seats" Pretty respectable for a cow.
But who I really feel bad for is the Cow that doesn't become a great steak or premium leather. I feel bad for the Cow that gets put into a Slim Jim. Mixed in with whatever else is in a Slim Jim, vacuumed sealed into a vague meat tube, and is just sitting on a shelf in a convenience store for years until somebody realizes they are a little hungry but didn't want an entire bag of Beef Jerky. And even then when they eat the Slim Jim it's not even like a really great Slim Jim, it is just an okay Slim Jim. I feel bad for that Cow.
So this one goes out to you, Mystery Slim Jim Cow. You may only be slightly appetizing, but you are not forgotten.
