“Faeries, come take me out of this dull world,
For I would ride with you upon the wind,
Run on the top of the dishevelled tide,
And dance upon the mountains like a flame.”
― The Land of Heart’s Desire
Mural in back of Sandwich Hag, The Cedars, Dallas, Texas
“There is a tree in California, a Great Basin bristlecone pine that was found, after an intensive ring count, to be five thousand and sixty-five years old.
Even to me, that pine seems old. In recent years, whenever I have despaired of my condition and needed to feel a bit more mortal and ordinary, I think of that tree in California. It has been alive since the Pharaohs. It has been alive since the found of Troy. Since the start of the Bronze Age. Since the start of yoga. Since mammoths.
And it has stayed there, calmly in its spot, growing slowly, producing leaves, losing leaves, producing more, as those mammoths became extinct,… the tree had always been the tree.”
― How to Stop Time
Mural outside of Sandwich Hag, The Cedars, Dallas, Texas
“We should consider every day lost on which we have not danced at least once.”
―
Ervay Theater, Dallas, Texas
Euphonic Autonomy, Ervay Theater, Dallas, Texas
Despite the warning sign at the Ervay Theater during the performance by Euphonic Autonomy (and I didn’t hear anything that would warrant such warning) there were two young kids dancing in the dark at the back of the theater. They were having a blast. The low-light capability of modern digital cameras is amazing.
Euphonic Autonomy, Ervay Theater, Dallas, Texas
Euphonic Autonomy, Ervay Theater, Dallas, Texas
Euphonic Autonomy, Ervay Theater, Dallas, Texas
If you go down to Deep Elem
Just to have a little fun,
You’d better have your fifteen dollars
When the policeman come.Chorus:
Oh, sweet mama, daddy’s got the Deep Elem Blues;
Oh, sweet mama, daddy’s got the Deep Elem Blues.If you go down to Deep Elem,
Keep your money in your shoes;
The women in Deep Elem
Got those Deep Elem blues.If you go down to Deep Elem,
Take your money in your pants;
The women in Deep Elem
Never give the men a chance.Now I once knew a preacher,
Preached the Bible through and through,
He went down into Deep Elem,
Now his preaching days are through.Now I once had a sweet gal,
Lord, she meant the world to me;
She went down into Deep Elem;
She ain’t what she used to be.Her papa’s a policeman
And her mama walks the street;
Her papa met her mama
When they both were on the beat.—-Deep Elm Blues (Deep Ellum Blues), Traditional
Jerry Lee Lewis sings the “Deep Elm Blues“. This was an unissued take made in the Sun Studios (lyrics and audio from wikisource).
Deep Ellum Poster, by Brad Albright, Deep Ellum, Dallas, Texas
I saw this poster hanging on telephone poles in Deep Ellum honoring some of that spot’s musical history:
Bessie Smith, Leadbelly, Robert Johnson, and Blind Lemon Jefferson
The poster is by Brad Allbright (website, instagram)
I have a piece of original art by him, bought at the Kettle Art Gallery’s For the Love of Kettle event.
Painting #1 – by Brad Allbright
“Passion has little to do with euphoria and everything to do with patience. It is not about feeling good. It is about endurance. Like patience, passion comes from the same Latin root: pati. It does not mean to flow with exuberance. It means to suffer.”
― House of Leaves
Euphoric Autonomy, Ervay Theater, Dallas, Texas
I had always heard your entire life flashes in front of your eyes the second before you die. First of all, that one second isn’t a second at all. It stretches on forever, like an ocean of time. For me, it was lying on my back at Boy Scout Camp, watching falling stars. And yellow leaves from the maple trees that lined our street. Or my grandmother’s hands, and the way her skin seemed like paper. And the first time I saw my cousin Tony’s brand new Firebird. And Janie, and Janie. And Carolyn. I guess I could be pretty pissed off about what happened to me, but it’s hard to stay mad when there’s so much beauty in the world. Sometimes I feel like I’m seeing it all at once, and it’s too much. My heart fills up like a balloon that’s about to burst. And then I remember to relax, and stop trying to hold on to it, and then it flows through me like rain, and I can’t feel anything but gratitude for every single moment of my stupid little life. You have no idea what I’m talking about, I’m sure. But don’t worry. You will someday.
—- American Beauty
Atrium, American Beauty Mill, Dallas, Texas
“I do not believe that all books will or should migrate onto screens: as Douglas Adams once pointed out to me, more than 20 years before the Kindle showed up, a physical book is like a shark. Sharks are old: there were sharks in the ocean before the dinosaurs. And the reason there are still sharks around is that sharks are better at being sharks than anything else is. Physical books are tough, hard to destroy, bath-resistant, solar-operated, feel good in your hand: they are good at being books, and there wil always be a place for them.”
―
Deep Ellum, Dallas, Texas
No, I would not give you false hope
On this strange and mournful day
But the mother and child reunion
Is only a motion away—-Paul Simon, Mother and Child Reunion
Reunion Tower, Dallas, Texas
“Curiosity is gluttony. To see is to devour.”
― Les Misérables
Deep Ellum, Dallas, Texas
“Silence. How long it lasted, I couldn’t tell. It might have been five seconds, it might have been a minute. Time wasn’t fixed. It wavered, stretched, shrank. Or was it me that wavered, stretched, and shrank in the silence? I was warped in the folds of time, like a reflection in a fun house mirror.”
― Dance Dance Dance
Bank of America Plaza building reflected in the Hyatt Regency Dallas from the Union Station DART platform, Dallas, Texas
Bill Chance 