STICKY DOORKNOBS

Meeting Sara Hickman

SAN ANGELO -- Shortly after I met my wife, she told me stories of how she and her sister had grown up in Southwest Houston with a girl who she said was far more creative than the other kids on the block. The girl, Karen told me, had gone on to achieve a modest amount of pop star success. I admit I hadn't heard of the woman at that point in my life, but would come to know her, as would others, in the 1980s.

Her name was (and still is, actually) Sara Hickman. Sara didn't achieve the mega-stardom that would properly justify her considerable talent as a song-smith, vocalist extraordinaire and performer, but you get the impression when talking to her that didn't put the skids on what is obviously a joy-filled life. Sara's voice is exquisite, capable of acting alone, carrying a church sanctuary or a concert hall without aid of instrumentation. With the best of them she can bend all the right notes at all the right times, wrapping her nimble cords around melodies in a wide array of octaves. Her range is impressive, her passion for her craft infectious. If we can make superstars out of the likes of some of the people we have crowned in the last 20 years while talents like Sara Hickman are left behind, relatively speaking, we should seriously reconsider what we fancy entertainment.

It's not as if Sara has had zero recognition. She toured with the late Dan Fogelberg and rode a brief wave of media attention with her still memorable, hummable, "I Couldn't Help Myself." She's had some fine albums, "Shortstop" "Equal Scary People" and 2006's "Motherlode" among them. Based in Austin today, Sara has a new passion: she is in the middle of a 12-month tour of Texas to join with others in a dialogue about capital punishment. With the help of the Texas Coalition to Abolish the Dealth Penalty and its founder, Bob Van Steenburg, the two will bring the year-long tour to a close in Austin in October. Their appearances are a time of peaceful, open and frank conversation and song, bringing awareness to Texas' rampant penchant for execution. I recently commented to Bob how massive an undertaking he and the others in the tour had undertaken. "Yes," he said. "But I'm right!"

Sara and Bob, along with talented San Angelo-based singer-songwriter Cindy Jordan, brought the tour to San Angelo Wednesday night

I had the distinct pleasure of meeting Sara. Or hugging her about four times (Sara's a hugger). She painted revealing word pictures through her song and voice, and shared with the 200 or so in attendance her intimate emotive expressions on love, life and death through lyric.

Sara's most poignant moment came during a song she wrote called "The One," a heart-wrenching story told through the eyes of the mother of the Virginia Tech shooter, Seung-Hui Cho. Almost three hours after opening the evening with her beautiful a cappella, "It's OK,"  Sara closed with "We Are Each Other's Angels," one of the most uplifting and hope-filled songs I've had the pleasure to clap along with recently.

(Watch Sara singing both "The One" and "Each Other's Angels." last night in San Angelo.

Or watch Sara's original video of "The One" here.)

Thanks, Sara, for sharing your talent with West Texas.

NewsWest 9's Darrell Ward hangs up his doppler

Veteran weathercaster Darrell Ward has turned off his radar for the last time at NewsWest 9. Ward, a fixture in the local television market, was on the air 22 years at the Niner, including the last 12 as morning weather guy.

He says what prompted the move in part was his desire to spend more time with family.

"My bedtime is way before our sons', and when you have to go to bed before they do, you miss a lot of their activities," Darrell said Tuesday afternoon.

Ward said he is unable to make an announcement about his future, adding that he "could neither confirm nor deny" whether that future would be in front of a camera. Ward added that he spent 10 years doing television advertising and may in fact return to that line of work in the future.

He began with Ch. 9 in 1986 doing part-time weather while still working in radio. He began full-time weather casting in 1996.

"It's been a fun ride, Darrell said. "When I went there, Ch. 9 was No. 4 in a three-station market and it has been fun watching it build and being a part of it."

Darrell is an avowed Oklahoma Sooner, a licensed Baptist minister-turned-Catholic and one of the best villains Summer Mummers has ever put on stage. He and wife Arminae have twin sons.

We'll miss you, Darrell.

Update: MediaWeek says 'BlackGold' sets viewership records

Industry publication says last week's debut episode "notched all sorts of viewership records." Read the MediaWeek report.

'BlackGold' ratings show TruTV has a huge hit

A source close to the 'BlackGold' syndicated reality series, about the West Texas oil patch and the roughnecks who run it, told me last night that last Wednesday's premiere of the program was the highest rated single show in the 17-year history of Court TV/TruTV. Network execs were reportedly hoping for 900,000 viewers. What they recorded was 1.7 million viewers.

The eight-week miniseries continues Wednesday at 9 p.m. on TruTV.

PROGRAMMING UPDATE: An updated TNT schedule show that the second episode, "Black Gold 102," will air to basic cable subscribers Sunday at 5:30 p.m.

Mystery uncovered: Who LuAnn really was

When our local Luby's closed down a couple of weeks ago after more than 30 years of being in service, I wondered allowed if anyone knew who LuAnn was. I figured if she had a platter named after her, she must be pretty important.

Late last week, Jerry Krueger, pastor of First United Methodist in Albany, emailed me. Before he attended  and graduated from seminary he was manager of the Luby's in Midland, from 1976-96. He told me he was saddened to hear of the closure of what he called "My Luby's."

If anyone knows who LuAnn was, it has to be a former Luby's manager, right? Yup.

"LuAnn was fictional. She was not named for anyone in particular," Rev. Krueger said. "There was no LuAnn Luby. LuAnn was symbolic of taking the first two letters of Luby's, and the name Ann was added. LuAnn was  a logo, a symbol of what Luby's stood for. Wholesome food, family atmosphere.  Her depiction on printed materials was to remind folks of 'Luby's Goodness.' "

Now you know. Unless you already did ...

Future headline: Mummers villain, last known living remnant of Midland, Texas, blown by strong gust of wind into Martin County

I used to be somewhat leery of the dome theory over Midland that prevents our little desert oasis from benefiting fully from the oasis part. Not anymore. Not after confirmation from a real live weather dude and friend, Darrell Ward, who posted these comments for the whole world to see:

Given my multiple years of sterling accuracy in weather forecasting (ahem), I'm convinced there is indeed a mystical, invisible dome of dryness over Midland. I have spent many an hour watching the doppler as storms come our way, only to split and go around us, and then reform on the other side of the city.

Why is that? Perhaps there are evil weather gnomes bent on making our fair city dry up and blow away.

Perhaps Wallace is right (check comments here) ... Maybe there is a theological foundation. Maybe we're just not living right. Rain prayers never hurt.

Seriously, it has been an interesting phenomenon to watch. (And when a weather person says "interesting", watch out!)

Mayhaps it will finally go away and we'll get back to our usual, semi-arid bliss.

I certainly hope (and pray) so.

Spoken like a true villain-preacher-weatherman. Thanks, Darrell.

Kudos to George

Congratulations to George Johns at Sleepless in Midland for his photo coverage of Saturday's Juneteenth festivities in Midland.

'BlackGold': The feedback begins to surface

Reviews are beginning to come in on the new miniseries BlackGold, the show about a lot of people in West Texas.

This from a friend who makes a decent wage in the oil bidness:

Watched the first two episodes this week and here’s my critique.  First off, I have never worked on a rig and have no intention to do so.  However, having worked for three companies that had a drilling subsidiary, I have some insight.

Overall, the mechanical and personality aspects of the crews were accurate.  It’s a dirty, stinkin’ job but somebody has to do it and to do it you have to have a mentality and physicality to do it.  The language was right on.  Following the one crew to the bar was probably pretty accurate as it’s not uncommon to have a tour show up drunk and hung over.  That’s how accidents happen and people get killed.  Drugs were also a problem in the past and I’m not sure anymore if they screen as diligently as they used to when things weren’t so busy.  FYI those are usually 12-hour shifts they run with two or three workers overlapping.  Or at least they used to.  They may not now with the help situation.  The driller that got run off probably walked across the field to the nearest rig and got a job.

As to the company side of it. The storyline of racing the other two rigs is pretty BS.  They make it sound like the first one to 10,000 feet finds a big lake of oil and they just stick their straw in and deplete it. Those wells being drilled are probably on 160 acre spacing, with room for two wells or more.  The oil is in the pores of the rock and it takes a massive fracture stimulation to break apart the formation.  You just don’t put a sponge in their and soak it up.  As for the Viking rig with this being its virgin outing, that happens more often than not with problems on a first run.  Sort of like a new car, you gotta get the rattles tightened down.  Even refurbished rigs 20 years old that get new draw works or a derrick, there’s going to be problems.

And one thing they sort of passed over was the safety aspect.  The companies that contract the drilling services are, or were, pretty hamstrung as to having a safe environment as required by their carriers.  When someone gets hurt, for example, on a Big Dog rig, the rig owner gets sued, the oil company gets sued, the contracting company gets sued, the pipe supplier gets sued, the mud company gets sued, etc. etc.  Therefore the only shield a company can have is a good safety program in place.  Of course, focusing on that aspect takes away the rough and tumble atmosphere.

I’ll watch again.  Its very interesting to try to view it as if you’re on the outside.  Its much better quality than that train wreck CBS7 did last year, although the voice over and video was very similar.

And Jeff at Archeaotexture had a few thoughts on the premiere of BlackGold as well.

Next run date, Episode 2: Wednesday, June 25, at 9 p.m. on TruTV. It does not appear that TNT will rebroadcast the next episode, according to its online schedule of programming.

 

Global drying?

OK, all those theories about some weird atmospheric phenomenon causing rains to bypass Midland or dissolve as soon as they get to the city limits sign (ala Wednesday morning's rainless, hard blow) are all forgotten this morning: We've had enough moisture to push our yearly total clean over the 1.25-inch mark.

Let the rejoicing begin.

OK ... rejoice.

NOW!

I am starting to wonder about this theory that Midland has some sort of weirdly invisible dome over it ... Like a lot of people Tuesday night into Wednesday morning, I stayed up and watched this massive monster storm descend on us at 40 mph from Lubbock and other points north ... and with seemingly every swipe of the radar the dry spot between the storm over Ector and Andrew counties and a twin storm over Martin and Howard counties grew larger and larger. I don't think we received any rainfall during those wee hours ... and it was  strange to watch it all just disappear.

It was enough to make you wonder what's going on.

As for the photo ... thanks to alert reader Dave Taylor, who captured some great lightning and a storm from the Midland Polo Club Monday. Any seasoned MIdlander would likely conjecture that the rain snapped in the photo is north of the city limits.

'BlackGold' spoiler alert: psst .... Mike LaMonica ain't what TV would have you believe

This will come as no surprise to anyone in or out of the oil business who knows Mike LaMonica, but the man portrayed on TruTV's new miniseries "BlackGold" ain't nearly as mean and nasty and surly as the TV folks probably hoped he'd be.

"BlackGold," an eight-episode reality miniseries focusing on roughnecks on three wells just south of Odessa, starts tonight on TruTV, the former CourtTV, with airings of the first two episodes beginning at 9 p.m., our time. The objective is that the workers on one of the rigs be the first rig team to drill 2-miles down.

After having previewed the first two episodes a couple of weeks ago, I found the program to be educational and entertaining. I know little or nothing about what it takes to retrieve oil from underfoot, and "BlackGold" shed light on just how difficult a task it is, what all goes into it, and the kind of people who are routinely assigned to do it. The roughnecks, drillers, tool pushers, etc., on the show are home-grown talent. They are far from actors, which made the whole program even more believable.

The first two episodes reveal a wide range of plotlines from the troubled young father-to-be Peanut who fails to show up for work on time after a night of carousing when he learns he's gonna be a daddy. Other storylines deal with another hand who over-celebrates his 30th birthday and is run off the rig for his behavior and for missing a shift.

The foremen are difficult men to work for, though one treats his men noticeably better than the others, once even leaving the rig to fetch dinner one night for his crew during a long shift. He gets in trouble for his actions by his supervisor, but he is also rewarded by his men with their strong loyalty.

"BlackGold" has the potential to portray West Texans as a bunch of trash-talking, brash-walking, beer-drinking, grease monkeys (and little else) 24/7 and there is a certain risk that we may come off as not looking like the longest sucker rods in the batch. I only hope I'm wrong. After all, that feeling is based on having seen only the first two episodes. Stay tuned.

The roughnecks in the show will hopefully come off looking more like the hard-working, life-loving people they are, and hopefully Hollywood will paint us using the right strokes and not the ones that are all too often  used to fall back on. It may be the biggest danger of the entire eight-episode program: the impression people are left with about who we really are out here.

I will point out that the high point in the first two episodes comes when a worker at a rig that has malfunctioned notices their Texas flag is hanging upside down. "There's your problem," he says, and proceeds to climb the flag pole and re-hang the Lone Star properly. It is handled well by the show's producers which hopefully serves as a sign that future episodes will continue to look favorably on Texas and its working class.

Another scene paints a not-so-great picture. When the workers on one rig go out for some beer and target practice, the rig foreman, holding a can of brew, looks into the camera, and says, "Beer, guns and destruction. Only in Texas."

Not just real flattering.

Mike, in the picture above, is a partner with ExL Petroleum. He's made and spent millions in the business and is a huge success professionally. He is also one of the finest, most decent people I know. We've been friends for over a decade and shared a room at a recent spiritual retreat. He has counseled my family and helped us in our darkest hours. He is, in many ways, my spiritual director; his beautiful wife Maddie has been my daughter's confirmation sponsor, and he is one of the finest homilists of the Gospel I have ever heard. (He told me recently he cringes when he hears the bleeps and beeps in "BlackGold" and insists that his men "don't talk that way around me.")

One of the high points in the first two hours is when Mike goes dove hunting with friend and fellow Midlander Rooster McConaughey, brother of the famous Texan, Matthew. Mike blows through boxes of shells and never downs a dove, and can be heard laughing his infectious, trademark belly laugh. He might be able to shoot something in a video game, but take out a real one? Not a chance.

"I never kill anything I'm not gonna eat," he joked recently. My wife told me Mike missed the doves because they are symbolic of the Holy Spirit and as such, he'd never come close to hurting one.

When I saw the sinister squint in the promotional photo above, all I could think of was how my friend probably just had something in his eye. I doubt he's ever looked menacingly at anyone.

And the hat ... that's, in all likelihood, my favorite story here. I don't know that I've ever seen Mike wear a cowboy hat. Or any hat for that matter. I asked him if the show's producers made him wear it and he said it was their preference that he go with the 10-gallon look. Gotta look like the part, the menacing oil tycoon ala Daniel Day Lewis in "There Will Be Blood" even if in real reality, Mike is as gracious, as generous and as compassionate as human beings come. What you likely won't learn in the show is that away from the office, he is a dedicated servant of God and a deacon in the Catholic Church. For many who make it through the rigors of three-years of deacon formation, that volunteer position can often more resemble fulltime work.

Back to the hat: Mike told me he agreed to wear it on one condition: that whatever cowboy hat he wore, it would bear the logo of his son Jonah's metal arts company, Palladium Arts.

That's just like Mike LaMonica: Always looking out for someone else.