From Chris' Journal: Meeting Buddy From Tejano Time

...And we didn't. We sat around and then went downstairs. Then we got taken back after waiting another 10 minutes. Now any other typical day we would be checked out right when we got back, but not today. We had to sit in the waiting-to-be-assigned area and wait to be checked out for the day for 30 minutes, then they finally let us go. Any other typical day I would walk to my car, get in and drive home, but not today. Today my car was in the shop and I had to walk home.

So there I was on North Side Drive walking, reading about Princess Diana, admittedly, more interested in the way she died rather than who she is, thinking about fame and its good and bad points. I get to the underpass of I-35 when someone pulls up to the light and says to me, "Hey aren't you the Sniffles guy?" (I just want to point out for the record that he didn't sniff when he said the name.)

He was a Hispanic male and at first I thought it might be one of the guys I had told about the show last Tuesday at work release because I recognized him too. Then he said, "I'm on Tejano Time. Your show comes on after mine." I was kind of shocked. I was like, "Yeah we've watched your show waiting for ours to come on." I was watching the red light wondering if I should ask him for a ride.

He asked, "So how are you guys doing?" I told him just fine and that we were still working on it. He started asking what night it was again our show came on because he knew it was after his show, but he couldn't remember which showing. I told him Thursday and then said, "I hate to ask this, but I'm walking home right now and I was wondering if I could get a ride." He said sure so I got in. I told him the best way to go.

He told me that he saw me walking and that he thought I looked familiar. Then when I flipped my hair like I "always do in the show" and he knew it was me. I noticed that he was wearing a polo shirt with "Tejano Time" embroidered on it as he told me that he thought the funniest thing was when we were "trying to get that girl to do the laundry."

I wowed in the fact that he had been watching it that long. He asked me why I was walking so far from home and I told him I was on work release and that the skit where I was talking about playing a rock show in court was based partially in reality because I actually was awaiting a court appearance. He acknowledged that he had seen it, which I kind of knew because it's the one of the skits that I flip my hair in.

He asked me where we edited as he complimented how well it was edited. I told him we used Miguel's VCR with a sychro edit jack and a jog shuttle. And that Miguel was going to UNT studying film. He said(probably referring to the laundry skit where I say, "You're the one who's studying film.") "Yeah I saw that one, but I wasn't sure if that was a joke or not." I told him that we had a skit that was shot for Miguel's film class that we did silent and scored with Mario Paint music I had written on the Nintendo. I told him basically up to the point where I pee on myself and he thought it was funny.

He asked why we decided to do a show and I told him that we had a web site address posted on Episode 4 and the site had a detailed history, but I told him about "Myles of Smyles" and that the waiting for the access rules thing at the beginning of the chase thing was based in reality too. He told me that he thought that was funny and that he liked the way it was cut together.

I asked him why he got started. He told me he had been working promoting outdoor Tejano shows and that he had met a lot of the artists that way. And that Channel 39 had a Tejano video show that they took off for baseball(and even though I don't actively listen to Tejano music, I must say selling out music for sports is bad.).

He got involved with some Tejano dance show on 45 that had kids dancing to Tejano music and that he was trying to get them to implement videos along with the dancing because he missed being able to see the videos. They told him that they really didn't have the means to do it, but that he should do his own show and he was like, "What do you mean?" So they told him about 46. He called up some record company contacts he had made and started producing the show.

I told him that I admired his drive to get it done and said, "I admit we don't listen to Tejano music and we usually just raz on the music while waiting for our show, but we had been wondering how you got started with your show."

He dropped me off at the apartments and said, "Haven't you shot some stuff here?" I said, "You must be thinking of my Dad's apartments, like the camera fight." He laughed and said, "Yeah." I told him that we shot that at my Dad's and that the only thing we had shot in these apartments was one of the end meat segments. Again he laughed and acknowledged the skits by saying, "Yeah."

He gave me a flyer and a business card and I gave him my work number and the pager number and I told him I'd send him flyers to his P.O. Box.

To think of all the little things that contributed to both of us being at that light at the same time, including me stopping to go pee behind a tree.

Go figure.

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