Just realized I had not posted for awhile. Maybe I was waiting to post some good news, but lately there has seemed to be nothing but endings.

Mike's Beer Barn has closed down, and it was a shock to learn that after being there for 300 years, he did not own the property. The Barn is no longer a priority in life since I no longer live in that neighbourhood, but in the KAOS era, it was our main supplier. In time, I was even able to lift a full keg by myself. My roommate worked there for awhile, so that was my only glimpse at the inner workings of Mike's empire; sitting up there in the overlook with a shotgun, departing his racism and disgust with the homeless to his employees. Deprived of Mike's, the residents of the Shelter have discovered that the Circle K that opened in the old Bill's Bookstore is the nearest source of beer. The sorority girls will be in for shock.

It appears that the crooked county officials won after all. Posey's is closed as well. They had intended to rebuild after the hurricane, but were denied key permits. The land is now going to be sold too-- big shock-- condo developers. The closing of Posey's also led to Blue Moon being disbanded, as it was their only regular paying gig. Danny and Kelly had a baby recently, plus Danny is more concerned about his other band, Stillwood. So practice started dropping off, as they did not want to rehearse unless there was a show coming up. They will do their final show at the Moon on April 20th, and hopefully, in few years, there will be a Blue Moon reunion tour. Now that they are splitting up, my mother's long shot efforts to get them noticed by Texas musicians will probably pay off.

Closer to home, the Progressive Center is in danger of losing their building. The landlords have been very supportive and patient, but there are two other elderly owners who are eager to sell and a serious offer has been made. After all this time, we were happy to be just meeting building expenses, but no one took initiative on finding the necessary serious investors. Most of the blame belongs to the disunity of the left wing. Two or three of the bigger non-profits could have insured that we could meet rent and plan for acquiring ownership. However, there is so much rivalry amongst the non-profits, no one would even consider sharing resources, and I'm pretty sure some of them were rooting against us as well.