Monthly Archives: August 2015

Dogs and Cats Living Together… Mass Hysteria

Posted on by Bill Chance

Dr. Peter Venkman: This city is headed for a disaster of biblical proportions.
Mayor: What do you mean, “biblical”?
Dr Ray Stantz: What he means is Old Testament, Mr. Mayor, real wrath of God type stuff.
Dr. Peter Venkman: Exactly.
Dr Ray Stantz: Fire and brimstone coming down from the skies! Rivers and seas boiling!
Dr. Egon Spengler: Forty years of darkness! Earthquakes, volcanoes…
Winston Zeddemore: The dead rising from the grave!
Dr. Peter Venkman: Human sacrifice, dogs and cats living together… mass hysteria!
Mayor: All right, all right! I get the point!
—-Ghostbusters

Companions Oscar Alvarado Plano Animal Shelter Plano, Texas

Companions
Oscar Alvarado
Plano Animal Shelter
Plano, Texas

When I drive to Plano I often pass by this odd sculpture – a three dimensional mosaic of a dog and cat. It was easy to find out what it was – “Companions,” a mosaic-tiled sculpture depicting a cat nuzzling up to an affectionate dog by San Antonio artist Oscar Alvarado in front of the Plano Animal Shelter. Both pets have collars and tags and there is even a microchip implanted into the mortar of each animal to highlight the importance of identification for all animals.

I wanted to take some photos of the sculpture so I pulled over and stepped out. Immediately the triple digit Texas heat hit me like an open oven door – I think it was about 106 F. Snap Snap Snap and back in the steel-lined air conditioned envelope of my vehicle. In Texas, AC is more important than brakes.

Companions Oscar Alvarado Plano Animal Shelter Plano, Texas

Companions
Oscar Alvarado
Plano Animal Shelter
Plano, Texas

Companions Oscar Alvarado Plano Animal Shelter Plano, Texas

Companions
Oscar Alvarado
Plano Animal Shelter
Plano, Texas

Companions Oscar Alvarado Plano Animal Shelter Plano, Texas

Companions
Oscar Alvarado
Plano Animal Shelter
Plano, Texas

M41 Walker Bulldog

Posted on by Bill Chance

“A man must know his destiny… if he does not recognize it, then he is lost. By this I mean, once, twice, or at the very most, three times, fate will reach out and tap a man on the shoulder… if he has the imagination, he will turn around and fate will point out to him what fork in the road he should take, if he has the guts, he will take it.”
― George S. Patton Jr.

M41 Walker Bulldog Liberty Park Plano, Texas

M41 Walker Bulldog
Liberty Park
Plano, Texas

I think every park should have a tank, don’t you?

I mean, kids play in parks – and wouldn’t any kid rather play on a tank, on a real tank, a huge hunk of steel, than crawl around on engineered plastic safety guaranteed soft padded equipment set in deep beds of pine mulch or recycled rubber.

Back in the day there were steel monkey bars. The kids would line the sides and wail away – hit and kick – each in his turn as they tried to work hand over hand down the line. Anybody that made it to the end without falling would “win.” It didn’t happen often. This was awful, vicious, and violent. Nobody would act that way if they had a tank to play on.

This is an M41 Walker Bulldog in Liberty Park, in Plano, Texas… by the way.

The only disappointment is that the thing is welded shut. Wouldn’t it be cool if the kids could crawl in through an open hatch – look around inside – maybe a working periscope from the driver’s seat. Of course, I know that’s impossible – way too dangerous… not to mention what critters might move into a space like that. The maintenance costs would be astronomical.

But still… it would be so cool.

Their little imaginations would be so stimulated – their minds run free. I think there has to be a bit of danger involved – a forbidden element – for the flights of fancy to really go to town. Imagine if you grew up near a park that had a tank – a tank you could get inside of – one you could look out from. Imagine. You would talk about it your whole life.

But then everyone would say, “Yeah, we had one too – every park has a tank.”

M41 Walker Bulldog Liberty Park Plano, Texas

M41 Walker Bulldog
Liberty Park
Plano, Texas

M41 Walker Bulldog Liberty Park Plano, Texas

M41 Walker Bulldog
Liberty Park
Plano, Texas

I Do Not Think They Will Sing To Me

Posted on by Bill Chance

“I have heard the mermaids singing, each to each.

I do not think that they will sing to me.”
― T.S. Eliot, The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock

Banjo Player and Singer New Orleans, La

Banjo Player and Singer
New Orleans, La

Thought Is A Bird Of Space

Posted on by Bill Chance

“For thought is a bird of space, that in a cage of words may indeed unfold its wings but cannot fly.”
― Kahlil Gibran

Deep Ellum Dallas, Texas

Deep Ellum
Dallas, Texas

What I learned this week, August 7, 2015

Posted on by Bill Chance
Bikes locked up in front of Parkway, New Orleans, Louisiana

Bikes locked up in front of Parkway, New Orleans, Louisiana

The New Orleans Restaurant Bounce, After Katrina

Woman writing in a Moleskine Notebook, Wichita, Kansas

Woman writing in a Moleskine Notebook, Wichita, Kansas

Why Keeping a Daily Journal Could Change Your Life

Magazine Street, New Orleans

Magazine Street, New Orleans

Why Are Bicycle Sales Declining (for the 14th year)?

hamburger

Top 10 Restaurants in Dallas, TX

I don’t know if these are really the “top ten” – it tends to list middle-road sandwich places – but there are some interesting choices here.

British artist Richard Long has given us his ‘Dallas Rag’

I absolutely have to go see this.

The Myth of Big, Bad Gluten

Why Eating Fresh, Just-Caught Fish May Be a Thing of the Past

Actually, this seems like a way to drive the “little guy” out of the marker – who can afford that sort of ultra-freezer?

Wind/Pinball: Two novels

Murakami baby!

One of my favorite things ever is riding in the monthly Dallas Critical Mass ride. It runs from Main Street Garden Park in Downtown Dallas to a different, usually secret, destination – the last Friday of every month. To find out more, check out the Facebook Page.

Here’s a nice video of the last one – which ended up at a party (DJ, ice cream truck, keg, tamales) in the Sheep Barn at Dallas Fair Park.

The month before, June, was epic in that the ride was caught in a massive thunderstorm and we had to take refuge under the overhang of Dallas City Hall.

Here’s a 8X speeded up version of the ride.

And, if you have the patience to sit through it, is the whole thing.

Paltry As Those Lives Are

Posted on by Bill Chance

“The spider Mercer gave the chickenhead, Isidore; it probably was artificial, too. But it doesn’t matter. The electric things have their lives, too. Paltry as those lives are.”
― Philip K. Dick, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?

Manmade Stream and Naturemade agave plants Downtown Dallas, Texas

Manmade Stream and Naturemade agave plants
Downtown Dallas, Texas

On the Foam of the Sea

Posted on by Bill Chance

I would that we were, my beloved, white birds on the foam of the sea!
We tire of the flame of the meteor, before it can fade and flee;
And the flame of the blue star of twilight, hung low on the rim of the sky,
Has awakened in our hearts, my beloved, a sadness that may not die.
—-W.B. Yeats, The White Birds

Foam on a small fountain, Street Corner, Arts District Dallas, Texas

Foam on a small fountain,
Street Corner,
Arts District
Dallas, Texas

Smoke and the Blood of a Man

Posted on by Bill Chance

A bar of steel—it is only
Smoke at the heart of it, smoke and the blood of a man.
A runner of fire ran in it, ran out, ran somewhere else,
And left—smoke and the blood of a man
And the finished steel, chilled and blue.
—-Carl Sandburg, I. Smoke Nights 1.Smoke and Steel

Tony Smith Willy 1962, Steel Dallas Museum of Art

Tony Smith
Willy
1962, Steel
Dallas Museum of Art

American Macho

Posted on by Bill Chance

“I knew I was different. I thought that I might be gay or something because I couldn’t identify with any of the guys at all. None of them liked art or music. They just wanted to fight and get laid. It was many years ago but it gave me this real hatred for the average American macho male.”
― Kurt Cobain

Design District, Dallas, Texas

Design District, Dallas, Texas

Dancers In the Strobe-Lit Dark

Posted on by Bill Chance

“Empires die, like all of us dancers in the strobe-lit dark. See how the light needs shadows.”
― David Mitchell, The Bone Clocks

Dallas Arts District Dallas, Texas

Dallas Arts District
Dallas, Texas