Join Joe Nick at the Summer Writing Retreat in Far West Texas

With pen in hand, or keyboard at the fingertips........

Two weeks from today, on July 27, I'll be leading a weeklong writers' workshop as part of the Writers' League of Texas Summer Writing Retreat at Sul Ross University in Alpine.

Making Book: Turning Your Nonfiction Idea in to Reality is the subject.

Writing is hard enough. Hopefully, by talking about it, doing some writing, and sharing some experiences, we can all sharpen our game.

It's going to be some kind of fun, concluding with the West Out West Texas Book Festival on Saturday August 1. Come on out and join me where the summer nights are the coolest and the stars are the starriest in all of Texas.

Click on the headline or go to writersleague.org for all the details.

Selena Etc. Boutique Closes in Corpus Christi

The one interview I had with Selena, nine months before her death, all she wanted to talk about was her new boutiques in San Antonio and Corpus Christi and her fashion line. Music was almost beside the point. The boutiques were one of the few things that was not a family enterprise, but rather hers and hers alone. She was clearly proud of being an independent businesswoman. The San Antonio boutique shut down shortly after she was killed. The Corpus boutique however has remained open, largely as a touchstone for Selena fans. Until now. It's another reminder of what once was, and what could have been. There has been no one like Selena, before or since, which makes her passing nearly 15 years ago all the sadder.


from the Caller.com website, home of the Corpus Christi Caller-Times:

Boutique and salon named after slain Tejano singer opened in 1993
By Fanny S. Chirinos (Contact)
Originally published 01:51 p.m., June 29, 2009
Updated 05:20 p.m., June 29, 2009

CORPUS CHRISTI — Selena Etc. Boutique and Salon, named after the late Tejano singer Selena, has shut its doors.
The store’s phone number has been disconnected, there no longer is merchandise inside and there’s a for sale sign in the window of the building in the 4900 block of Everhart Road.
Calls and e-mails in the past week to Selena’s family were not returned.
George Clower, vice president of The Clower Co., said the for sale sign went up about a week ago, just after the merchandise was removed. The building is owned by Chris Perez, Selena’s widower, and appraised at $91,454, according to the Nueces County Appraisal District.
Clower said the asking price is $165,000 and he has received several inquiries.
“Some of it could be due to the history of the place, but it’s in a good central location and has plenty of traffic,” Clower said.
Attempts on Monday to reach Perez were unsuccessful.
Selena was killed in March 1995 and at the time of her death was known as the Queen of Tejano Music. She won a Grammy in 1993 and later that year opened two Selena Etc. boutiques, one in Corpus Christi and the second in San Antonio.
The San Antonio boutique closed after Selena’s death.
The stores featured a full-service salon as well as Selena memorabilia and fashions, some of them designed by the artist. They also sold jewelry, hats and other accessories.
Fans still may enjoy her designs and mementos at the Selena Museum inside Q Productions at 5410 Leopard St.


And from the mysa.com website, home of the San Antonio Express-News:
by Michael Quintanilla, Express-News

The boutique and salon named after Selena, the slain Tejana singer who was killed 14 years ago, has closed its doors, the victim of a slow economy, according to her father, Abe Quintanilla.

The Corpus Christi Caller-Times online edition reported that a "for sale" sign for the Selena Etc. Boutique and Salon, owned by Selena's widower, Chris Perez, went up about a week ago. Merchandise has been removed, the shop's phone number is no longer in service and the asking price for the property appraised at $91,454 is $165,000, George Clower, vice president of The Clower Co., a real estate service company told the paper.

The popular singer, who was born in Lake Jackson, a Houston suburb, was killed in March 1995, a month shy of her 24th birthday. At the time of her death she was known as the Queen of Tejano Music, having won a Grammy in 1993 for Best Mexican-American album, "Selena Live!"

Later that year she opened two Selena Etc. boutiques, one in Corpus Christi where the family had moved in 1981, and the second in San Antonio. The San Antonio boutique closed after Selena's death.

Her boutiques featured a full-service salon as well as Selena memorabilia and fashions, some designed by the singer who was known for creating many of her own stage looks, including her famous purple — her favorite color — sequined jumpsuit.

Selena's father, Abe Quintanilla, told KRIS-TV in Corpus Christi that he decided to close the boutique because coupled with a weak economy the boutique was outside of the main focus of "Q Productions" which has always been on the music. He said the family kept the boutique open out of respect for Selena as the shop was her special project.

Quintanilla reported Selena's fans can find some the boutique's merchandise at the gift shop inside Selena's Museum at Q Productions in Corpus Christi.

The songstress was part of a band called Los Dinos that included her brother AB on bass and her sister Suzette on drums. They played in the family's restaurant and later at weddings and parties. The band's big break came in 1987 when, at 15, Selena won the Tejano Music Award for Female Entertainer of the Year. That led to a contract with Capitol Records and six successful albums.

In the early 1990s Selena branched out musically as well as clothing designer with her own line and married Perez, a guitarist.

Selena was murdered by Yolanda Saldivar, her friend and president of her fan club on March 31, 1995, the day she was due in a studio to work on her first English album. Saldivar was found guilty of first degree murder and sentenced to life in prison.

When Michael Jackson sang with Joe "King" Carrasco

(click on the headline to read the story in Mojo)



Back in the fall of 1981, the band I managed Joe "King" Carrasco & The Crowns, signed a recording contract with MCA Records to make their second album, Synapse Gap (Mundo Total) We lived at the Tropicana Motel on Santa Monica Blvd., ate breakfast at Duke's and spend the rest of the time at Studio 55 at 5555 Melrose, right by the Paramount Studio gates. The studio was a tricked out facility with two rooms that was owned by Producer Richard Perry. The other room was booked by the Jackson family who were mixing down their live album. Over the course of the next two weeks, we got to know the Jacksons, hang with them in the rec room where the TV was, and even share some of the fried chicken their aunt had bought them.

Michael was already a star, having hit platinum with his Off The Wall album; the best selling album of all time, Thriller, would be issued in less than a year. Michael seemed like a nice guy for a twenty three year old. He was quiet, shy, and polite, not saying a whole lot except when asked. The only indication he was Michael Jackson was the Rolls Royce Bentley he drove to and from the studio. Once he had a flat about a block from the studio but summoned help by using his mobile phone, the first wireless cell phone I'd ever witnessed. Then again, there were those times I'd walk into the men's room and see MJ standing in front of the mirror, playing with his face, like he had a big zit problem, or was contemplating some alterations......

About a week and a half into the recording session, Joe "King" mused, "Wouldn't it be cool with Michael Jackson would come in and sing harmonies on 'Don't Let A Woman (Make A Fool Out of You)'?"

It was a reggae-fied tune Joe had written that sounded more than a little like "No Woman, No Cry."

Someone said to Joe, "Why don't you ask him?" So he did, and Michael said Yes.

So there he was, headphones covering his ears, trying to figure out just who was this Joe "King" character, while he professionally stepped up to a microphone facing Joe, nailing the high harmonies and making Joe sound good. Someone by the mixing board wisecracked that Joe's vocals should be mixed out of the recording so we could release a dub version of Micheal Jackson singing the song.

As it turned out, the song was mixed with both voices and released on the album and as a single which generated some airplay for a few weeks before dying (dirty little secret: MCA didn't give a shit about Joe "King" who was signed by the label as a favor from their president, a former accountant, to another accountant who was doing JKC's books; and you wonder why the music industry is dead).

I had to pay union scale for Michael on the session, and cut him a check for $100. which was cashed. The album came and went, although Joe and band did tour with the Police behind the record. Within the year, Michael would release the best selling album on all time, Thriller.

Say what you want about his music career, his personal life, his plastic surgery and his love of children and of childhood, which he didn't have much of because he was too busy working. At the heart of it all, he struck me as a nice person, cocooned in a not-so-nice business.