2018 Brownsville's Most Boring Blogger is Jim Barton

The dirty ol' geezer is a complimentary sort of fellow.

This private message was in-boxed to me on Facebook.  This is not the first time I have heard of this about Jim Barton. 

Jimbo wants the City of Brownsville, Texas to make everything perfect for him.  That will make him a happy person.  If you want to be bored out of your skull watch video in it's entirety by clicking BORING VIDEO OF JIM BARTON link.  WARNING:  It really is BORING.

Jim Barton is known as the "Kiss of Death" for those running for political office.  If he endorses you, you might as well throw in the towel.  

Jim Barton Jr does Photoshop images for his father's blog to insult people in the community.  He almost got sued because of it but charges were dropped after ol' Jimbo removed the offensive blog post and could not afford an attorney to defend his dumbass.

Photo of James Barton Jr. (a.k.a. Diego Lee Rot) at family estate last Thanksgiving when they killed a few pigeons with a pellet gun and had a feast.  Jim Barton Jr earns a living from advertisers by how many viewers watch his YouTube videos.  He needs your support.  Please support him by watching video of him ridiculing some of our downtown "street" people by handing out free beer.  The first guy is an obvious phony.  It's Bartin Jr's cousin maybe.  Some of his videos have a kind of "so stupid they're funny" quality to them.  A chip off the ol' blockhead.

Here's a father-son VIDEO project they worked on together.  James Jr pretends to be mentally retarded but he probably does it to embarrass his family for controlling him all those years they were fooled into being Jehovah's Witnesses.

Jim Barton thinks I am angry over a rock that snowflakes want removed.  Sorry Jim - This is all for you - to make you feel like someone important that people care about.  

2018 03-04 Latino Comics Expo at Brownsville Museum of Fine Art

by Javier R. Garcia

Several cosplay characters near entrance to museum

Aaron Moses has published two issues of a cult favorite The Oppossum with a third one in the works  His comics can be found at Indy Planet.  

 Co-comic conspirators Aaron Moses of Brownsville, Texas  & Omer Garcia III of Alamo (GarciaDesigns.com Productions) published The Oppossum.  Garcia also has his own comic book Glitch.  

Web comics artist/cartoonist Cayetano "Cat" Garza is from Harlingen, Texas and you can learn more about his Magic Inkwell comic book and art at magicinkwell.com   He is also the creator of Year of the Rat and Cacahuate Collection comic book.  

Comic illustrator Alexis Garza of Edinburgh, Texas can be found on Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr and Instagram as "Severed Thumbs" and he had several zines to offer.    He is holding one of his Dia de Los Muertos t-shirt prints.  He is currently developing an online website.

Brownsville Public Library- Central Branch

Artist/architect Alejandro De la Cruz from Matamoros, Tamaulipas, Mexico.  His creation, Superpatrullin (a "Super Patrol" police dog) who promotes ecological preservation and protection of the environment.  De la Cruz has published four issues of this educational comic book.

Ramon Ramirez is the amazing creator of Smarty Cartoons and is well known for his "Only in the Valley" cartoons and many other creations. 

This artist from Matamoros had screen print t-shirts and other goodies on her table.

Brownsvillian Rolando Esquivel is the writer for the comic Mashbone & Grifty and Jennifer Garza's Tristen's Small Problem inked by Oscar Garza.  

Vicko Alvarez of ScholaR Comics is originally from Dallas, Texas but came from Chicago, Illinois to be at this event.  One of her aims is to reach adolescent children to teach them how to express their feelings in a "comfortable" way so they can face their problems and deal with them.

José Cabrera is a Los Angeles based artist. His art is influenced by Latino and Asian cultures, his love for comics and his urban upbringing. He's currently active in the art community participating in art shows with up and coming urban and comic artists.    Check out his webpage at The Art Of Jose Cabrera

Weslaco native Hector Cantu lives in Dallas, Texas and is the creator of the comic strip Baldo which is published by Universal Press Syndicate in nearly 200 newspapers.

books by Javier Hernandez of Whittier, California (in Los Angeles County) 

Javier Hernandez's El Muerto and other books are easy to find on Amazon.com and his hero has been made into an independent film with Vilmer Valderrama in the lead role. 

Alejandro  "Alé" Juvera is a comic book illustrator from San Antonio who co-created the comic book Xeno-Gaurdian Red Visor Go!  with another illustrator from San Antonio who is working on her first comic which she hopes to publish soon.

Yes, Ma'am is a feminist zine is published by Elle Minter and Suzy Gonzalez in San Antonio.  That's Suzy's father at the table where there were FREE zines and other publications to look at.  

"Xicana Vegan" Suzy Gonzalez and some art

Jillian Gomez of SybilPress makes limited edition artist books

Freelance designer and artist Miguel Mendo and cosplayer Joanna Uresti as Harley Quinn of Brownsville, Texas.

Brownsville artist/activist Nansi Guevara brought some samples of her screen prints on fabric with sticker art and is originally from Laredo, Texas 

Artist/Illustrator Tony Saavedra with Heriberto Leyva of HL Arts & Design

art by Lao Alcaraz

Los Angeles based Chicano artist, satirist and cartoonist Lalo Alcaraz also served as a cultural adviser for the film "Coco"   Visit his page at Lalo Alcaraz Art Shop

Monica Garcia of Monicatdesigns.com and Andrea "Andi" Rivas (Artedeandi.weebly.com) from San Antonio, Texas.

Cristina Garza and Kitkkun with stickers and art crafts made in the city of Brownsville, Texas

Rio Grande Valley's Z Elements were there to produce FREE cosplay photos

Cosplay medic on call to make any repairs to costumes that might need repair

X-Men's Magneto and Mystique

Thanks to Felix Espinoza of Brownsville Visitor's and Convention Bureau who gathered much of the information about the artists who I was very fortunate to have met on Saturday.  I apologize if I was unable to include everyone who participated at The Latino Comics convention.

2017 0131 Blue Moon Viewing from Southmost Observatory

Javier R. Garcia

The Brownsville Public library invited the community for a gaze at the night sky to view the blue moon which gets it's name from the rare occasion when two full moons occur within the same month.  The last major event where hundreds of people attended was last August when we had a solar eclipse.  Last night's event was well-attended by a few dozen people.  The next solar eclipse in the United States will not occur again until 2024.

The moon-rise occurred shortly after sunset.  There was plenty of librarians and assistants nearby to greet visitors and answer questions.  There was also a crossing guard by the driveway near the observatory to ensure safety.

Here's our first close up at the blue "blood" moon as it rose above the trees over the horizon.  Even though I used a gate to hold the camera still nothing can replace a good sturdy tripod but we never expect professional quality on the Bronsbil Estacion blog anyway.

Librarian Tom Robinson explained the blue moon phenomena and answered questions from visitors.  Tom took his first look at the moon at the age of 10 when his father let him look through his surveyor scope and he's been a star gazer ever since.  

 A large screen monitor was placed outside of the observatory to display video-feed from the telescope.

 Sharing fun facts about the surface and rotation of the moon.

Here's the inside of the observatory with the telescope and young astrologer who can adjust the viewer as the moon rises in the sky.  The flash from my camera lit-up the inside of the pitch-black dome.

As Mr Robinson spoke about the telescope he explained that within the scope is a large highly polished Newtonian lens made of thick curved glass mirror which makes for powerful magnified viewing.  The library intends to plan for future viewings by watching a calendar of celestial events.  Another librarian said that fall or winter seem to offer the best times and conditions for these nightly views.

The moon after it cleared the trees continued to rise but was later obscured by scattered clouds but by then the event was coming to a close so no one arrived or left disappointed.

This observatory is the fruition of a decade of funding and planning through monies that became available from community development block grants.  The observatory's grand opening was in 2017.  I'm sure I'm not the first person to notice that the trash receptacle kind of looks like a miniature observatory.

A powerful 20x-80x set of binoculars on a tripod was set-up outside with a guide to adjust its sights to follow moon as it rose in the sky.  That tiny dot above the girl's head is the moon.  While it would be great if they let people take a look through the actual telescope inside the observatory that just isn't feasible with so many people at once but maybe in the future that might be possible.  The view through the binoculars was amazing as was the screen monitor live-feed transmitted from the dome's interior.

This was my first observatory experience in Brownsville, Texas.  We can be assured that librarians at Southmost Branch Observatory will be on the lookout for the future planet gazing events to view things such as an aligning of planets, rings around Saturn, a dance of Jupiter's moons, and meteor showers which wont be cataclysmic. All we have to hope for are clear skies!  



































You can try to insert Uranus jokes in comments below if they're funny enough.  Thanks for reading.