“Never underestimate how much assistance, how much satisfaction, how much comfort, how much soul and transcendence there might be in a well-made taco and a cold bottle of beer.”
― Tom Robbins, Jitterbug Perfume
Beer Taps at The Underpass, Dallas, Texas
And in the end, we were all just humans.. drunk on the idea that love, only love, could heal our brokeness.”
― F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby
Kyde Warren Park, Dallas, Texas
“Shit, money, and the World, the three American truths, powering the American mobility, claimed the Slothrops, clasped them for good to the country’s fate. But they did not prosper… about all they did was persist”
― Thomas Pynchon, Gravity’s Rainbow
Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge
Dallas, Texas
so I turned the radio on, I turned the radio up,
and this woman was singing my song:
the lover’s in love, and the other’s run away,
the lover is crying ’cause the other won’t stay.
—-Lisa Loeb, Stay
Deep Ellum
Dallas, Texas
Goat Ranch
Dallas, Texas
The famous Suzuki Windmill – new technology for an old purpose from the far east.
I have seen places in my lifetime where people took showers in little wooden boxes that sat underneath a windmill. Sort of a vintage romantic throwback… at least in the summertime.
A bitch in the winter, though.
Gravity, velocity, and the ground; stopping is going to cost a fortune and the only acceptable currency is pain.”
― David Mitchell, The Bone Clocks
The Goat Ranch
Dallas, Texas
With a taste of your lips
I’m on a ride
You’re toxic I’m slipping under
With a taste of a poison paradise
I’m addicted to you
Don’t you know that you’re toxicIntoxicate me now
With your lovin’ now
I think I’m ready nowI think I’m ready now
—-Toxic, Britney Spears
Last Saturday I went on a fun bike ride – a fundraiser for the Santa Fe Trail that runs from White Rock Lake to Deep Ellum and Fair Park (my favorite Dallas trail). We ended up at a new place, The Goat Ranch which was fun.
At the end of the festivities, instead of riding straight back to White Rock, I rode into the thick crowd at the Deep Ellum Arts Festival. I had been there the evening before to buy a little monster head in a box (this was my seventh – will have to write about that soon), but thought I’d check it out for a few minutes and see what was going on in the crowded melee of a Saturday Afternoon.
I locked up my bike and hobbled in on my SPD cleated cycling shoes along Murray Street until I saw a woman setting up with a guitar and a small Fender amp on a little busking stage at Murray and Commerce. There was a table with a chair available so I decided to sit and listen.
Alexandra Tayara and her Fender amp
Her name was Alexandra Tayara and she was very good. Surprisingly good.
Her first song was the chestnut “House of the Rising Sun.” I’m not sure if she knew the significance of singing that song in that spot. This was the heart of Deep Ellum, of course, and I could almost feel the ghost of Leadbelly wandering those very streets with Blind Lemon Jefferson and singing “House of the Rising Sun.”
She went on to sing some original tunes (really liked “Hurt Boy” – you can get a copy from her website) along with some covers.
My favorite was an emotional bluesy version from that master of emotional bluesy songs – Britney Spears. I had heard people say that “Toxic” was a very good song, but until that Saturday, I didn’t understand it.
I wasn’t the only one that was affected. The crowd grew on the sidestreet as members of the thick throng parading by on Commerce were pulled in by the sound. A guy sitting next to me kept shouting out – his girl would walk over and admonish him but he would reply, “I can’t help it.”
Alexandra Tayara
She did a few more songs and then finished up. She was going to perform on a larger stage at seven that eveing. I would have enjoyed hearing her again, but I had a lot of work to finish, so I unlocked my bike and began the pedal home.
There’s a brand new dance but I don’t know its name
That people from bad homes do again and again
It’s big and it’s bland full of tension and fear
They do it over there but we don’t do it here
—-David Bowie, Fashion
Main Street Park
Dallas, Texas
“Come come! Come Out!
From bogs old frogs command the dark
and look…the stars”
― Kikaku, Japanese Haiku
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.”
― Arthur Conan Doyle
Taken Saturday at the AOT Just Ride Dallas Drag Race on the Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge.
Bicycle Drag Races
Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge
Dallas, Texas
Bill Chance 