Tag Archives: Dallas

Ice Melts in the Sun

Posted on by Bill Chance

It was cold today… especially cold for Dallas. Barely above freezing with a whipping north wind. I thought about staying in, but I wondered how Transcendence was doing, how the ice sculptures were holding up. I didn’t go see them yesterday and there were a couple other things I wanted to do downtown (like eat some Kimchee Fries from the food trucks in the Arts District) so I went to catch a DART train.

As always, the southbound train was leaving as I climbed the stairs to the platform. It would be twenty minutes before another southbound came along, the platform at the station I had chosen was elevated and the wind was biting and miserable.

So I grabbed a Northbound Train. It was more comfortable sitting in a heated car than knocking about the wind-swept concrete platform. I looked at the schedule, examined the time between stops, did a little hard calculation and was able to exit only two minutes before the next southbound came along.

Back at Transcendence…

Unveiling

First Day

Second Day

I found that the first rock had fallen. The more upright figure had given up his whole torso and his stone had dropped to the gravel alongside what was left of his legs. The other human still had his rocky heart inside his torso – but barely. He had melted through to the stone on both sides and there was a visible gap at the top. It would only be a matter of time before his fell.

The rectangular blocks were holding up better. They were full of faults and cracks now, their once crystal clear complexion now a white tracing of opalescent pearl – beautifully glowing when the sun peeked out. The rock inside the largest block was almost invisible now.

There was a professional photographer down there with a big expensive camera. He had been coming down every day. We talked about how long the big block would last.

“It depends on the temperature,” he said.

“Of course, but that big block might last another week – if it stays this cold.”

“Ah, but the ice melts in the sun, no matter how cold it is.”

Every time the sun would emerge from the clouds he would yell at me, “See! See!” and wave his arms.

He’s right… but I still think that big block will be here for a bit.

Steak Frites!

Posted on by Bill Chance

After walking around looking at the ice sculptures in the Zen garden Friday night, I decided to get something to eat. There was a lot going on – a huge crowd had gathered around the Arts District for the Tree lighting ceremony. To feed these hungry horde, a line of food trucks were ready and rarin’ to go.

Let’s see, if memory servers there was The Butcher’s Son out on Flora Street, then The Green House, SsahmBBQ, Jack’s Chowhound, and Gandolfo’s in a line next to the Opera House.

Mae West said, “When given the choice between two evils, I’ll pick the one I’ve never tried before.” I have the same philosophy on Food Trucks… I’ll pick one I’ve never tried before. Jack’s Chowhound it was.

There were lines at the trucks, and I stood there, trying to decide on an order. One problem waiting late to eat at a truck, is that they will start running out of stuff – they had all been serving since before lunch and only so much inventory will fit in a truck.

I was thinking about ordering a grilled cheese with tomato soup, but was a little bit worried about how to eat the soup, when the guy in front of me ordered “Steak Frites.” I had no idea what that was, but it sounded cool, so I said the same thing when it was my turn.

This was a mistake, because the guy in front of me stole my Steak Frites when he picked his up, and I had to wait for another order.

Steak Frites are French Fries with chunks of steak on them. Pretty good if you like that sort of thing, but I think next time I see Jack’s Chowhound I’ll go for the grilled cheese. I’m just not that big of a steak fan.

One of the sometimes difficulties with a gourmet food truck is finding a decent place to eat. Here, they had provided a small sea of stand-up tables with candles on them and I managed to snag one in the crowd.

As I was finishing, a couple walked up and the blonde woman asked if she could share a bit of my table.

“Of course,” I said, “I’m done really, anyway.”

I thought maybe they were going to eat, but she gave a murderous stink-eye glare at her man and started grabbing shit out of her purse and whacking it down onto the table with obvious aggravation. I really wanted to stick around and find out what the argument was about (I would guess they had lost something and the guy had asked one too many times, “Are you sure it isn’t in your purse?”) but since I didn’t have any food left, it was a little awkward to simply stand there and stare at this woman having a temper tantrum, so I turned and walked away.

After the Christmas festivities wound down and I was disgusted by the drunken revelers trodding all over the artwork, I hoofed it back to my train. Along a fairly dark and isolated stretch of street I walked past some guy and his wife and toddler. They looked lost, the kid was crying and the wife was yelling at her husband. I was about to offer help, but I recognized the guy as the one that had stolen my Steak Frites.

So he was on his own. I thought about saying something, but he looked miserable enough already.

Jack's Chowhound in the Dallas Arts District

Lined up to order at Jack's Chowhound

A cute couple in front of the SsahmBBQ truck

The line of trucks, the little stand-up tables, and a crowd of hungry Christmas - tree - lighting - fans

Ice Melts in the Rain

Posted on by Bill Chance

Help me, I'm melting!

It was a cold (well, cold for Dallas) wet and miserably gray day. Storms all night and rolling bands of rain driven down from a dark sky all day. A perfect fall day to huddle inside… maybe read a little, eat the last of the leftovers, maybe watch some football on TV, maybe do nothing at all. And that’s what I did.

But there was one burr under my blanket. I wanted to see what the ice sculptures were doing in downtown Dallas. I had seen Transendence at its unveiling, one day later, and now… what was it up to? It had been raining constantly and I knew that fresh water from the sky would melt the ice quickly, so I had no choice but to head out and drive down there.

The roads were wet, the visibility was poor, and, of course, everybody else was driving like bats out of hell – so the drive was stressful enough. I pulled up and parked illegally right next to the installation (there was nobody, and I mean nobody around). Luckily, there was a bit of a break in the weather – only a cold spitting windy miserable drizzle.

The first thing I noticed was that they had put out some hand-lettered signs all around the place that said, “Keep Off Gravel (Art Exhibit).” No shit, Sherlock. If those had been out there that first night, would all the drunken idiots have trampled all over the place? Whatever. For the first time, there were no tracks at all across the raked gravel. Never underestimate the power of a hand-lettered sign. The Sharpie reigns supreme.

The human figures were melted into unrecognizable shapes. Their heads were gone, arms mere suggestions, their stone hearts seemed poised to plunge from their bodies to the gravel below.

I know that is what they are supposed to do, it is their purpose – but it is still a little sad to see the beautiful things come to such an end.

The rectangular blocks, on the other hand, are fairing a lot better. They have shrunk a little, one is tipping a bit, but are still intact. They may last quite a long time.

The flesh is feeble, weak, and transient, while the crystalline inanimate geometric mass resists the heat, the water, the slings and arrows and survives until the bitter end. It is the way of all things.

Here are three pictures of the second human figure on each of the three days. If I had thought about it, I would have carefully taken pictures from identical spots, using identical lenses, on each day… but I’m an idiot. Sorry, that would have been cool.

At the unveiling

One day later.

After a day of melting in the rain

The Next Day

Posted on by Bill Chance

It was with more than a little trepidation that I drove downtown to take a look at Shane Pennington‘s installation for TEDxSMU, Transcendence. I had left the place in shambles the night before, with drunken Christmas Hooligans tramping across the Zen garden, poking at the ice, and posing in (for them) hilarious poses with the artwork, snapping a record on their iPhones.

I was relieved to find that the Zen Garden had been restored. There were some folks out keeping an eye on the installation, and a few hardy souls were braving the spitting rain.

Everyone agreed that the thing was mesmerizing in the daylight, even with the overcast skies. I would love to see the ice in bright daylight.

I had an interesting conversation with a woman from the Dallas Center for Architecture. She had given the tour of the Arts District that Morning (the one I attended a few months ago), had discovered the sculptures, and had returned for a closer look.

She said that she had heard that one of the stones in the human forms was from the parents of a childhood friend of the artist. This friend had passed away and after the ice is melted and the artwork is closed the stone will be given back to the parents to be placed in their stone garden on their rural home as a memorial. A nice story.

I would like to return every day while the sculpture melts, if possible. That may be difficult, but I know I can make it a few more times. I have no idea how long it will take before it is all gone. The biggest change from last night were in the human forms – their heads and faces were noticeably smaller and had lost all detail.

A wonderful thing. The only aspect it lacks… if this were my installation I would definitely put in a webcam.

This photo was shot through the large monolith of ice, and you can see a human form beyond.

Piedras en el Hielo

Posted on by Bill Chance

I was terribly tired after work – futzed and dutzed around too much and was late getting to the Arts District downtown. Luckily, I caught a train quickly and made it only a few minutes after the unveiling. I would have liked to see it opened up, displayed, unveiled… whatever… but still, walking up on it in the dark, seeing the crowd, the bright lights reflecting off the ice was excellent enough.

In a little gritty disused space on the corner of a parking garage across the street from the Wyly Theater a local artist, Shane Pennington, had hauled in some gravel and raked out a temporary Zen Garden. The beautiful kicker is that the stones were embedded in giant sculptures made of ice. The idea was that as the ice melted, the stones would drop into their proper place in the garden. The work was called Transcendence.

The crowd was awed and impressed. At first, there were a lot of men in suits (apparently sponsors) and serious looking folks wearing ID tags. It was hard to take photographs – it was dark overall and the light glancing off and refracting through the ice looked fantastic – but didn’t surrender to a static recording. Still most folks hauled out their phones and snapped something. There were some professional photographers out with heavy tripods and huge lenses. Most folks walked around and around, but a few clots of people developed along a concrete wall, simply standing there and staring.

There was a big Christmas celebration going on, so it didn’t take long for families to start drifting over. The kids, of course, were mesmerized. Their parents would try to speak to them about what they were seeing, but the kids ignored their words. I heard one mother extolling her toddler to look at the, “piedras en el hielo.”

I left the sculpture and wandered the area for a few hours – ate at a food truck, heard some jazz, and stumbled across a unique and wonderful troop of Aztec dancers rehearsing down by the Cathedral Guadalupe. It wasn’t really very late, but I felt like heading home so I decided to stop by the ice sculptures one last time before I hiked to the train station.

How long does it take ice to melt? Big blocks like this take a long time. I remember when I was a kid there was a stupid game show and part of one episode was the contestants were given a huge block of ice, matches, towels, and such – they were going to get paid by how much ice they could melt in a half-hour, plus they made bets on how much would melt. It was shocking how little ice melted – only a couple of pounds. Large hunks like those sculptures might last days.

I loved watching the water drip off the noses of the two human forms, but drops won’t get it done very fast.

But I was horrified when I reached Transcendence. Earlier, everyone had moved around the installation in an orderly fashion, respecting the waves of raked gravel that made up the Zen Garden. Now, however, there was a different group there. They were younger, louder, and drunk. Most had plastic cups of wine teetering in their hands, hauled up to their giggling faces, while they trod willy nilly all over the place.

They were walking all over the gravel – the carefully sculpted shapes long trod into nothing. They were posing with the sculptures, licking the people, pretending to hug them, or worse. I saw one guy kicking at the blocks.

It was disgusting. They had no idea what the artwork was about. Unless I’m wrong – maybe the artwork was about how people would fail to respect the garden, in retrospect, it was to be expected. To these upper-class-twits the sculpture was about their own crass amusement.

I couldn’t stand the scene, so I walked away as quickly as I could.

Sliders!

Posted on by Bill Chance

I wanted to do the right thing. When the alarm screamed, I tore myself out of bed and put on my bicycling clothes. I had meant to work on my bike the night before, but had run out of time, so I went out in the garage and cleaned and oiled for about an hour.

Then I set off down the trail. I had been looking at google maps and, in my mind, had a long route planned, through some newly constructed bits. A small camera was in my bag – I wanted to take some pictures here and there.

But things didn’t feel right. The saddle was uncomfortable, so I stopped and fiddled with it – to no avail. Then I turned and faced into the wind and it felt surprisingly cold, harsh, and impenetrable. Things were fading fast, so I turned and headed home. I felt defeated.

Well, it was a good thing. Over a short period of time, about an hour, the weather turned dramatically. The mercury plunged and the wind grew to a cold howl from the north. Jagged rain started spitting and the whole world became a dark grey. I was not dressed or prepared for that.

If I would have stayed on my bike I would have been trapped a few miles from home huddling in a doorway somewhere calling people on my cell – hoping to convince someone to come rescue me and give me a ride home. For once, my instincts had served me well.

I decided to celebrate by finding a new food truck.

The folks that brought us Gandolfo’s have a sister truck out, The Butcher’s Son. It is in cahoots with a sausage company and offers a selections of meaty treats. Two trucks were perched out in a busy parking lot not too far from our house.

I decided on the selection of sliders – the tiny hamburger-like sandwiches are perfect for slinging from a gourmet truck – sort of like round bread-y tacos.

Like usual, it was pretty good.

The two trucks in the chilly parking lot

The Butcher's Son gourmet food truck

Three Sliders

This is a selection of sliders called “The Butcher’s 3-Way.” Clockwise, from the bottom – The Longhorn “Braised Mexican Beef, Fresh Jalapeno, tomato, and pepper jack cheese on a mini brochette bun” –  The New Frontier “Johnsonville Andouille, Naval Pastrami, sautéed onions, Swiss cheese and spicy mustard on a mini brochette bun” – and The Southern Belle “Johnsonville Chipotle Monterey Jack Cheese Chicken Sausage, fresh onion, cheddar cheese and barbecue sauce on a mini brochette bun.”

Beck Park

Posted on by Bill Chance

From when I worked Downtown I have had an fond appreciation for small “pocket” parks in the dense urban core. I have a deep love for these tiny jewel-like pieces of nature stuck down in the concrete vastness.

A really nice one in Dallas is Beck Park, a private oasis that is open for public use. Carefully designed, it is a set of four “room” with a waterfall, some rocks, grass, and tables.

I like it and miss the days when I worked down there. Maybe some day during the holidays the weather will be nice enough for me to go down there and sit for a while, read a little, write a little, relax. That would be nice.

A skyscraper towers over the water feature in Beck Park

 

I forgot to write down the name and artist of this sculpture in Beck Park

Rosie

Posted on by Bill Chance

I was sitting around with a head full of memories of one of my favorite things – the St. Charles Streetcar in New Orleans. I came to a sudden realization – Dallas has a streetcar too. It isn’t as famous or as beautiful – but it is there

It’s called the McKinney Avenue Trolley, or the M-Line. It’s an important part of Dallas’ hard work at becoming a real city, with a vibrant downtown. The line has been here for quite some time, and runs along McKinney Avenue from the Downtown Arts District out through the West Village and on to connect up with the DART train line at the underground Cityplace Station. Although it is operated by DART, the trolley is free.

Originally, the trolley was viewed as a small, quaint tourist attraction – and it is. However, now that a large population is beginning to move into tony uptown condominiums it is becoming an important transportation artery for the young professionals to get to their offices in downtown. Now, the trolley line is about to expand – first through the new park being constructed atop the Woodall Rodgers Freeway, then on through downtown and across the river into Oak Cliff.

Again, I remembered the trolley as I was on the DART train headed downtown and decided to take a ride. As I walked along the sidewalk a couple of tourists from Henderson, Nevada asked what train to take to catch the trolley.

“Well, actually, the trolley is only a few blocks away, and I’m walking there now, I’ll be glad to show you,” I said.

“Does it go around downtown?”

“No, it doesn’t go around through the skyscrapers. It goes out through Uptown, which is more interesting anyway – there’s a lot of restaurants, shops, and stuff.”

So we chatted as we walked. I always wonder about tourists in Dallas. It’s a pretty nice place to live, but a terrible place to visit. It’s not a tourist type of place.

So I dropped them off at the trolley stop by the Dallas Museum of Art and went on – I wanted to visit a couple other places before I rode the trolley. A couple hours later I was back and sat down to wait for a car. While I waited, trying to read a little, I was bothered by an aggressive, obnoxious panhandler who became abusive when I didn’t give him any money.

Experiences like that make it difficult to maintain feelings of charity and goodwill to all even during the holiday seasons. Downtown is getting a growing population of hard-core homeless panhandlers that are becoming problematic as the city is trying to increase the livability of the place.

While he was yelling at me, my streetcar arrived so I turned and got on board. The car was packed with about half tourists and half office workers on the way home. The residents helped the tourists with information on the trolley route and points of interest along the way.

Dallas doesn’t have a neutral ground like New Orleans does, so the streetcar has to fight its way through traffic like everybody else. It makes for a slow, rattling ride.

Another difference between Dallas and New Orleans is that here, all the streetcars are unique. This day, I was lucky enough to draw Rosie, the oldest operating streetcar in the country.

Rosie, turning around at Cityplace

She looks good for 102 years old

Rosie was built in Philadelphia by the J.G. Brill company in 1909. It spend many years running along the rails in Porto, Portugal. It was the first car that the M-Line restored and ran on the opening day in 1989. Since it ran past and was sponsored by the Crescent development they gave it the name “The Crescent Rose.” This was shortened to “Rosie.” Since it is now over a hundred years old, it is usually used for special events and charters, it was a rare treat to have it out on a regular run. It’s a popular car – a common subject (another).

Down at Cityplace Station they are building a turntable so that they can begin operating some trolleys they have that are only able to run one way.

The turntable under construction

I wasn’t in the best of moods and the trolley still can’t hold a candle to the St. Charles line – but I am excited about the plans for expansion. I can see sitting for a while watching that turntable go round. I think I need to come down some more and ride some of the other trolley cars – the “Green Dragon” looks like fun

The Cool Pool

Posted on by Bill Chance

The coolest swimming pool in the one in the Joule Hotel in downtown Dallas. It’s cantilevered out over the street – I wish I could afford to swim there.

The pool looks closed for the winter.