A Kinky Weekend

I think Jerry Garcia might have had a weekend such as this in mind when he wrote, “what a long, strange trip it’s been.”

I’m in Texas, which I used to refer to as “The Cultural Demilitarized Zone” or “Below the Smith and Wesson Line.” I’ve mostly been in Austin, but did go to 100 miles of strip centers and freeways known as “Houston” for part of the day on Sunday. Austin is a great city but if you can at all avoid Houston, you’d be ahead of the game. Sorry about that one Phil.

The purpose for this trip was to help out an old friend named Reid who is running part of the campaign for Kinky Friedman for Governor. For those of you who haven’t heard of Kinky, he’s a irreverent country singer whose band was called Kinky Friedman and the Texas Jewboys. He’s friends with Willie and Waylon and the Boys and also toured with Bob Dylan so he has a little reach musically.

He’s got a few songs that are worth a listen; one is called Sold American and the other is They Ain’t Makin’ Jews Like Jesus Anymore, which is a great satirical song on racism and bigotry.

Reid and I had the pleasure of having dinner with Kinky last night as he had a “big ol’ hairy steak” and it was quite a Texas adventure. He was joined by a lady friend and his longtime friend and former band mate Jeff Shelby who is determined to go by the name “Jewford.”

Reid is a bit of a musical savant and has introduced me to a number of offbeat musicians – some of them who are pretty good. Reid began the dinner by singing show tunes at Kinky’s request which lasted up until the steaks arrived. The singing was punctuated by generous belches from Kinky and Jewford. Since we were in tight quarters – a point that Kinky rarely let pass by saying if he was governor he’d get a better table – the tables near us heard the strange combination of South Pacific and bad manners. He lost about a half dozen votes to the table behind us, but probably picked up another 30 just by chatting with people who came up to meet him.

Kinky has a unique campaign style and even more unique slogans. He says he’s running for governor so he can begin the “dewussification” of Texas. He’s for gay marriage, explaining that gays should have the right to get married and “be just as miserable as the rest of us.” He says he is neither pro-life nor pro-choice but pro-football and, on the death penalty, he says, "I am not anti-death penalty, but I'm damn sure anti-the-wrong-guy-getting-executed." His two main slogans are “How Hard Could It Be?” and “Why The Hell Not?”

Will he win? My guess is it’s a long shot. But he will make the campaign much more interesting in Texas, and his down-to-earth, home-spun style is something that is sorely lacking in politics.