“What you see on the freeway is just what there is,
a funeral procession of the dead,
the greatest horror of our time in motion.
I’ll see you there tomorrow!”
― Sifting Through the Madness for the Word, the Line, the Way
High Five Interchange, Dallas, Texas
“She glided away towards the lift, which seemed hardly needed, with its earthly and mechanical paraphernalia, to bear her up to the higher levels.”
― A Dance to the Music of Time: 3rd Movement
Sculpture being installed at the Meadows Building, Dallas, Texas
Dallas is the worst city there is as far as preserving its history, art works, and interesting architecture (such as it is). There has been a struggle over the redevelopment of the uber-cool Meadows Building. They were going to raze a historic wing just to create room to run a driveway through.
There used to be a sculpture between the building and the Lover’s Lane DART station – Birth II by Arthur Williams.
Birth II, Arthur Williams, Dallas, Texas
All of a sudden, during the construction, it disappeared. I seem to be the only person interested in the sculpture – there is no record of where it went that I can find. I certainly hope they didn’t scrap it.
The other day, I rode my bike around the construction site as best as I could trying to see if they simply moved it somewhere obscure. I couldn’t find it – but they were putting in a new giant three part sculpture nearby.
It looked cool, but not anywhere as cool as the old Birth II.
Birth II, by Arthur Williams, Dallas, Texas
“Perforation! Shout it out! The deliberate punctuated weakening of paper and cardboard so that it will tear along an intended path, leaving a row of fine-haired pills or tuftlets on each new edge! It is a staggering conception, showing an age-transforming feel for the unique properties of pulped wood fiber.”
― The Mezzanine
Perforations in the roof of the Pavilion in Pacific Plaza Park, downtown Dallas, Texas
The centerpiece of the new Pacific Plaza park in downtown Dallas is the Pavilion. Designed by HKS it is an elliptical metal ring suspended in the air – giving much needed shade. I wondered what the story behind all the holes was.
From a D Magazine article:
The design team punctured 58,290 holes in the pavilion canopy, a subtle, morse code tip of the cap denoting the names of 337 stops along the Texas and Pacific Railroad.
Pacific Plaza Park, Dallas, Texas
“Here, are the stiffening hills, here, the rich cargo
Congealed in the dark arteries,
Old veins
That hold Glamorgan’s blood.
The midnight miner in the secret seams,
Limb, life, and bread.
– Rhondda Valley”
― Collected Poems
Downtown Dallas, Texas
“Careful man, there’s a beverage here!” — The Dude
Artwork in the Braindead Brewing Company, Deep Ellum, Dallas, Texas
Lime and limpid green, a second scene
A fight between the blue you once knew
Floating down, the sound resounds
Around the icy waters underground
Jupiter and Saturn, Oberon, Miranda and Titania
Neptune, Titan, stars can frighten—-Pink Floyd, Astronomy Domine, from The Piper at the Gates of Dawn
One of the order boards, Braindead Brewing Company, Deep Elllum, Dallas, Texas
Nick and I took the DART train towards downtown with our bikes. He got off before me and went for a longer ride – but we met up at Braindead Brewing in Deep Ellum for a late lunch and a beer. Braindead has a lot of taps with their own unique brews displayed on the wall. I ordered a number 14 from a very young-looking waiter.
“That’s a Pink Floyd reference,” he said, with pride.
“I’m old,” I said, gesturing at my gray hair, “I know that album,” (although I was only ten when the album was released… Actually I think I heard it on re-release in the 70’s).
“I’m just showing off that I know what it is,” the waiter replied.
And I was suitably impressed.
And the beer – a strong dark Scotch ale, brewed with coffee, was good… worthy of classic early Pink Floyd – with Syd Barrett.
The First of the Ninth was a old cavalry division that traded in their horses for helicopters and went tear-assing around ‘Nam looking for the shit…—-Capt. Benjamin Willard, Apocalypse Now
Pacific Plaza, Dallas, Texas
“When the spirits are low, when the day appears dark, when work becomes monotonous, when hope hardly seems worth having, just mount a bicycle and go out for a spin down the road, without thought on anything but the ride you are taking.”
―
Vintage Peugeot converted into a single speed. Deep Ellum, Dallas, Texas
“Oh, this beer here is cold, cold and hop-bitter, no point coming up for air, gulp, till it’s all–hahhhh.”
― Gravity’s Rainbow
Taps on the wall, and a bear. Braindead Brewing Company, Deep Ellum, Dallas, Texas
“If time travel is possible, where are the tourists from the future?”
― A Brief History of Time
Braindead Brewing Company, Deep Ellum, Dallas, Texas
If I could travel back in time I would end up in a place and time where and when I really owned a brand-new operating Symphonic Brand Cathode Ray Tube Television and thought it was pretty cool.
Never mind.
Bill Chance 