Bandera, like any small town, produces more than its share of bands featuring talented young musicians. Unfortunately, most disappear as quickly as they form, music drifting into memory.

Bella Fool, I can confidently say, is the best band I’ve heard come out of Bandera since Rune. They are the small-town equivalent of a supergroup: Gilbert Rivera on vocals, Christopher Peterson on guitar, Chris Byman on drums, Erik Hillman on bass. If I were to hand pick a set of talents, these guys would stand out on any list.

I had the chance to photograph Bella Fool at their weekly Bandera Bowl performance Thursday night, which has to be one of the most unique venues I’ve shot at. My full set of photos can be found in the Bandera.net Gallery:

Bella Fool at Bandera Bowl – Feb. 25, 2010

You can catch up with Bella Fool’s music on MySpace and connect with the band on Facebook.

Don’t miss out; their Bandera Bowl weeklies are must-see, cover is cheap and includes bowling for hours, and there’s a big Bandera presence there for the band.

Below, Bella Fool’s great acoustic performance on KABB Fox News. Their musical magic here shows talent far beyond their years.

Comedy hypnotist Tim Castleman left the Bandera High School auditorium in stitches after his performance with some of Bandera’s finest young minds last Thursday.

Castleman’s show was to benefit the BHS senior class.

As always, you can view photos from the event in the Bandera.net Gallery:

Comedy Hypnotist Fundraiser at Bandera High School – Feb. 11, 2010

Bulldog Times writer and Outlaw Intern Megan Greebon’s article “Life in a war zone after Bandera High School” was published this week in the Bandera Bulletin, bringing Greebon’s excellent reporting and writing to thousands of new readers.

You can read her story online on the Bulletin’s web site.

Congratulations, Megan!

I’m working with Megan to hopefully do some exclusive content for here on Bandera.net – what would you like to read about?

Hill Country DJ’s again tore up the turntables at RevengeOfTheSpin at the Pipe Creek Community Center on Jan 23.

DJ’s BOG, Hauss-Style, Lazy K, Crizzly and Ghost Pizza kept the dancers, fire spinners, hoola-hoopers and other revelers moving to the sweet beats.

These parties are always a blast to attend and shoot at.

You can view my video from the event in High-Def over on YouTube.

You can also check out videographer Caleb Burnett’s video from RevengeOfTheSpin on YouTube.

April Scott from Diamond Dachshund Rescue of Texas sends word via comment on our original coverage that the dachshunds rescued last month from a Utopia puppy mill are now in their care.

They are in need of donations, foster homes and adopters.

Read more on their web site, http://www.ddrtx.org.

Now this was one heck of a partay.

DJs Crizzly, Hauss-Style, Bog and Lazy K threw down some incredible beats for five hours at the Pipe Creek Community Center on Monday, kicking off Christmas break in delicious bass-saturated style.

I had the pleasure of shooting photos and video alongside my videographer mate, fellow Bandera High School grad Caleb Burnett.

I had a blast and I can’t wait for the next event – grapevine says we might see another concert at the end of January. I’ll keep you posted.

You can view some of my favorite photos from the event attached to this post.

To view the full photo gallery, click here.

To view Caleb’s photo set, click here.

For high-def video and audio from the event on YouTube, click here.

To watch my audio slideshow with over 560 images from Tannen-Bombz, click here.

To let me know what you think, post a comment below, drop me an e-mail to James@team-outlaw.net, hit me up on Twitter @BanderaOutlaw, or call/text me at 830-688-1564.

I am a big reader – books, magazines, blogs, newspapers, anything I can get my hands on.

Magazines especially provide a great content-to-cost ratio, and a monthly subscription keeps that content fresh and tasty.

Amazon.com is doing a limited-time sale right now on many magazines, including quite a few cowboy, horse, and Texas-themed mags I thought Bandera.net readers might be interested in, such as:

Texas Monthly

American Cowboy

Horse Illustrated

Horse Journal

The Trail Rider

I don’t have an Amazon Affiliate profile, so these go straight to the Amazon product pages for these mags. I’m renewing several of my favorites like Fast Company, Esquire, and Inc. while the sale is on. As I understand it, the sale ends on Dec. 19.

It’s no secret that I love choir.

I did four years myself back in my high school days at Bandera, including as president and student director under director Jerry Neuenschwander. I met my then-wife-to-be on my first day of choir class. If it weren’t for choir solos, I think I’d have never been given the opportunity to know people in so many different cliques and walks of life. Music is an integral part of my every waking moment.

You can safely say choir class did more for me in life and love than just about anything else in high school.

It’s always with great pleasure that I photograph the Bandera choirs whenever I can. You can find my full album of photos from tonight’s Bandera Middle School and High School Holiday Choir Concert in the Bandera.net Gallery.

Parades are a fun and dynamic event to shoot for a photographer. You never know what your light’s going to be like, you never know who or what you’ll see in the parade, and you almost always have 360 degrees of access to shoot from.

Outlaw Goodwill Ambassador Canon and I took in this morning’s Holiday Parade from the Courthouse lawn to snap a few close-ups of the floats and their riders. Bulletin editor Jessica Hawley-Jerome was officially on-duty shooting the parade for the newspaper, so I double-teamed from a different angle. When we work an event together, we try to catch different people and different perspectives to give the best coverage as we can.

Outlaw Baby Photographer Jacklen and Outlaw Spokesmodel McCayla were on board the Girl Scouts float and had fun tossing candy to parade-goers.

The evening turned extra cold for the Cowboy Campfire Christmas with the Kemp Family Singers, Lee Haile and his stories, the Riverside Players’ presentation of the nativity, and other performances down at the Bandera City Park, my favorite place to take photos in the wide world.

You can find all of my images from the two events in the Bandera.net Gallery: Bandera Holiday Parade here, and Cowboy Campfire Christmas here.

Cowboy Christmas is always a fun event to photograph out front of the Bandera County Courthouse. The live nativity, choral singers, Bandera High School band and carolers, youth dance classes, open-late merchants and Christmas lights at the Bandera City Park kick off the Christmas season in Bandera.

You can find all of my photos from tonight’s festivities in the Bandera.net Gallery.

Don’t forget about the holiday parade tomorrow at 11 a.m. (watch for Outlaw Spokesmodel McCayla riding on the Girl Scouts float!) and Cowboy Campfire Christmas at the City Park at 5 p.m.

I’ll see you guys there!