kinky goes to hollywood

-> thanks to my kind doctors, i am beginning to feel consistently well for the first time in months, so i went to a little fundraiser for kinky friedman at lucie's in hollywood. kinky (top R pic), country singer-songwriter ("a**hole from el paso"), mystery writer ("god bless john wayne"), now politician, is running for gov of texas. how does that affect ca? queried kinky, whose heroes are mark twain & will rogers & buds are willie nelson & jesse "the body" ventura. well, if an independent takes the lone star state for the first time since sam houston, big money pols (the blues & reds) will be quaking in their loafers. right now, kinky's at nearly 23% in the polls -- far beyond what ventura had this time of year during his successful run for gov of minnesota.
-> kinky's from a family of teachers, like i am, & i was drawn by his outlaw-absurd reputation as well as a terrific recent new yorker article (http://www.newyorker.com/fact/content/articles/050822fa_fact). kinky's campaign started as pure satire, but people responded to his humor, openness, & down-to-earth populism. as a result, the jokester now finds himself possibly about to become an elected official... kinky's education program is called "no teacher left behind" & will require all education appointees to actually have "classroom time" in their background. "the teachers are getting screwed," he said, "and the good ones are leaving." sit an experienced teacher down & you'll hear the same. children aren't being instilled with a love of learning under the present system. "we're teaching the kids to pass tests, and that's it," said kinky.
-> the crowd included actors, musicians, artistes, texans, lots of tall folks & eclectics a-plenty -- chuck e. weiss, tony gilkyson, jimmie lee maslon, van dyke park, danny hutton from 3 dog night; ruth buzzi, bud cort, max gail, david steinberg; bill osco, director of "flesh gordon," etc. many faces looked familiar, & i relied on my friend art to fill me in. kinky's right-hand man, "little jewford" (jeff shelby, top L pic), wore a flashy elvis jacket under a beatific baby face & curls, but chuck e. weiss (bottom, with art) stole the sartorial shoe show with his spankingly fantastic teal and brown stacy adams wingtips. he said that mr. florsheim himself had made those shoes especially for him.
-> an interesting evening? most certainly, all y'all. as the candidate would say, "may the god of your choice bless you."