The bravest and most subversive act I could think of was to simply get up and out of bed that morning.
—-Armando Vitalis, From Hell’s Heart I Stab At Thee
Deep Ellum, Dallas, Texas
Subversive
Yearly Archives: 2017
Bikini Detail
“Then there was a fine noise of rushing water from the crown of an oak at his back, as if a spigot there had been turned. Then the noise of fountains came from the crowns of all the tall trees. Why did he love storms, what was the meaning of his excitement when the door sprang open and the rain wind fled rudely up the stair, why had the simple task of shutting the windows of an old house seem fitting and urgent, why did the first watery notes of a storm wind have for him the unmistakable sound of good news, cheer, glad tidings?”
― John Cheever, The Swimmer
detail of mural by Amber Campagna, Deep Ellum, Dallas, Texas
Truth And Alibi
“Sometimes you climb out of bed in the morning and you think, I’m not going to make it, but you laugh inside — remembering all the times you’ve felt that way.”—- Charles Bukowski
Deep Ellum, Dallas, Texas
Empty Conduit
“Don’t walk in front of me… I may not follow
Don’t walk behind me… I may not lead
Walk beside me… just be my friend”
― Albert Camus
Deep Ellum, Dallas, Texas
Ghosts In the Library
“I woke up as the sun was reddening; and that was the one distinct time in my life, the strangest moment of all, when I didn’t know who I was – I was far away from home, haunted and tired with travel, in a cheap hotel room I’d never seen, hearing the hiss of steam outside, and the creak of the old wood of the hotel, and footsteps upstairs, and all the sad sounds, and I looked at the cracked high ceiling and really didn’t know who I was for about fifteen strange seconds. I wasn’t scared; I was just somebody else, some stranger, and my whole life was a haunted life, the life of a ghost.”
― Jack Kerouac, On the Road
Window Reflection, Dallas Public Library
You’ll Never Know
“If you have to ask what jazz is, you’ll never know.”
― Louis ArmstrongAlley, Fort Worth, Texas
What I learned this week, May 21, 2017
Will Bike For Beer: The Five Most Bike-Friendly Bars and Restaurants in Dallas
On a sunny Sunday afternoon — one of those pre-summer days that’s hot but not quite the surface of the sun — cyclists have swarmed Deep Ellum. They may not outnumber the patio-seeking brunch crowd, but there are dozens of them. These are not the typical bikers who are mashing around White Rock Lake as fast as possible in head-to-toe moisture-wicking fabric.
These riders, dressed casually in jeans and peddling leisurely on cruisers, are going somewhere. And more and more, their destinations are Dallas bars and restaurants.
My Xootr Swift folding bike in the cool bike rack in front of the Cold Beer Company
Deep Ellum, Dallas, Texas
Guy Sucks At Photoshop, Spends 10 Years Mastering Microsoft Paint To Illustrate His Book
Turns out, sometimes our resistance to learn something new and master a new skill can lead to something pretty amazing. Pat Hines, who couldn’t be bothered to learn Photoshop and illustrated his ebook using good old Microsoft Paint, is the proof. “I suck at Photoshop and other programs, and have worked exclusively in Microsoft Paint for over ten years… I honed my craft working long overnights at a hospital reception desk…,” the guy writes. That’s why when it came to choosing the program to create illustrations for his novel Camp Redblood And The Essential Revenge, he looked no further and just went for something he was already good at.
15 Dallas Hiking Trails You Probably Never Knew About
Umm, I knew about all of these.
Wasps at the Trinity River Audubon Center
Map Shows How Much Land the Government Owns In Every State
10 Valuable Lessons I’ve Learned About Street Photography
After shooting all sorts of things from 2011 to 2012 without ever finding myself and feeling my photography, I discovered my deep passion for street photography in the first month of my 365 project in 2013. Since then, I’ve not only spent almost every single day on the streets of the world to capture wonderful moments, but I’ve also built my life around it.
Vivian Maier
5 Things Cyclists Do You Didn’t Know Are Perfectly Legal
It’s true that city cycling is on the rise in the United States, and that has come with some backlash. The mere sight of a bicycle can send some motorists into a fury — often due to drivers not knowing the law. This has caused an alarming number of injury accidents that were completely preventable. Odds are, that annoying thing the person on the bike is doing — is completely legal.
Bicycle Drag Racer on the Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge
For the world to be interesting, you have to be manipulating it all the time
Acoustic listening devices developed for the Dutch army as part of air defense
systems research between World Wars 1 and 2.
Rusted
The army sent him halfway around the world and forgot him. He was wounded and they remembered him long enough to take the shrapnel out of his chest – they said they took it out but they never showed it to him and he felt it still in there, rusted, and poisoning him – and then they sent him to another desert and forgot him again. He had all the time he could want to study his soul in and assure himself that it was not there. When he was thoroughly convinced, he saw that this was something that he had always known.”
― Flannery O’Connor, Wise Blood
Railroad Bridge, Waco, Texas
Reality Doesn’t Impress Me
“Reality doesn’t impress me. I only believe in intoxication, in ecstasy, and when ordinary life shackles me, I escape, one way or another. No more walls.”
― Anaïs Nin, Incest: From a Journal of Love
Fire Escape, Fort Worth, Texas
From Moscow With Love
“But I am greedy for life. I do too much of everything all the time. Suddenly one day my heart will fail. The Iron Crab will get me as it got my father. But I am not afraid of The Crab. At least I shall have died from an honourable disease. Perhaps they will put on my tombstone. ‘This Man Died from Living Too Much’.”
― Ian Fleming, From Russia With Love
Plano, Texas
Bill Chance 