Well, I just got into town about an hour ago
Took a look around, see which way the wind blow
Where the little girls in their Hollywood bungalowsAre you a lucky little lady in The City of Light
Or just another lost angel…City of Night
—-LA Woman, The Doors
Time Exposure, Night, Downtown Dallas, Ross and Pearl
New Orleans, French Quarter, Halloween
.
Graffiti in the Dallas Art Park, Deep Ellum, Dallas, Texas
The Travelling Man Sculptures have become an instant icon in Deep Ellum.
Painting at the entrance to the Urban Gardens, Deep Ellum, Dallas, Texas
Up with the sun, gone with the wind
She always said I was lazy
Leavin’ my home, leavin’ my friends
Runnin’ when things get too crazy
Out to the road, out ‘neath the stars
Feelin’ the breeze, passin’ the cars
Women have come, women have gone
Everyone tryin’ to cage me
Oh, some were so sweet, I barely got free
Others they only enrage me
Sometimes at night, I see their faces
I feel the traces they’ve left on my soul
Those are the memories that make me a wealthy soul
Sometimes at night, I see their faces
I feel the traces they’ve left on my soul
But those are the memories that make me a wealthy soul
I tell you those are the memories that make me a wealthy soul
Travelin’ man, yea
—-Bob Segar, Travelin’ Man
Click on any of the photographs for larger versions on Flickr.
I’ll always remember when I went down there and took these. In particular I remember walking backward looking through the viewfinder, tilted up at the tall sculpture looming overhead. Do you see that little green step by the sculpture’s feet?
I didn’t.
You don’t forget those kind of falls.
A few more photographs taken of an Airstream Trailer graveyard I stumbled across on a trip to Denton, Texas.
“My life amounts to no more than one drop in a limitless ocean. Yet what is any ocean, but a multitude of drops?”
― David Mitchell, Cloud Atlas
…time is the speed at which the past disappears.”
― David Mitchell, Cloud Atlas
“Our lives are not our own. From womb to tomb, we are bound to others, past and present, and by each crime and every kindness, we birth our future.”
― David Mitchell, Cloud Atlas
“I lost my balance when the train pulled away, but a human crumple zone buffered my fall. We stayed like that, half fallen. Diagonal People.”
― David Mitchell, Cloud Atlas
“Don’t bemoan your misspent life quite yet. Forgive me for flaunting my experience, but you have no conception of what a misspent life constitutes.”
― David Mitchell, Cloud Atlas
Grease Container outside Bar-B-Que joint, Dallas, Texas
I don’t spend as much time on my hair as people think. I get out of the shower, whack some grease on there and I’m done.
—-Chris Isaak
That bright bold warning sticker on the nasty old steel grease container is a very sternly worded warning to not take anything from said container. It says the container and its contents are privately owned, “pursuant to an exclusive contract with the restaurant owner.” It goes on, “We will prosecute anyone who tampers with, removes any of the contents from, or damages this container. We provide service with uniformed drivers in clearly marked company trucks. We DO NOT use subcontractors.”
Why such concern? This is a nasty steel box full of used pig grease in the alley outside the Baby Back Shack in Dallas… it is not Fort Knox.
Well, as it turns out, since the rise in popularity of bio-diesel, restaurant grease has become the new black gold… Texas Tea. Stealing grease has become big business.
Baby Back Shack, Cedars, Dallas, Texas
Oh, what’s that? You don’t care about the stolen grease warning? You’re curious about the stickers? Who is the girl?
I have no idea. Life is not fair.
And as i walked on
Through troubled times
My spirit gets so downhearted sometimes
So where are the strong
And who are the trusted?
And where is the harmony?
Sweet harmony.
—-Elvis Costello, (What’s so Funny ’bout) Peace, Love And Understanding
Art Park
Deep Ellum, Dallas, Texas
People understand me so little that they do not even understand when I complain of being misunderstood.
—Søren Kierkegaard
Someone else was taking photos at the same time I was.
Graffiti
Art Park
Deep Ellum, Dallas, Texas
Ramp 40 – Deep Ellum Art Park, Dallas, Texas
No more speed, I’m almost there
Gotta keep cool now, gotta take care
Last car to pass, here I go
And the line of cars goes down real slowAnd the radio played that forgotten song
Brenda Lee’s “Coming On Strong”
And the newsman sang his same song
Oh, one more radar lover gone—-Radar Love, Golden Earring
Graffiti
Art Park
Deep Ellum, 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.
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 Elem (Ellum) Blues – Trad.
Graffiti
Clint Schism
Art Park
Deep Ellum, Dallas, Texas
Clint Schism
Deep Ellum, Dallas, Texas
In front of the Winspear Opera House, Arts District, Dallas, Texas
“Even so, there were times I saw freshness and beauty. I could smell the air, and I really loved rock ‘n’ roll. Tears were warm, and girls were beautiful, like dreams. I liked movie theaters, the darkness and intimacy, and I liked the deep, sad summer nights.”
― Haruki Murakami, Dance Dance Dance
“We feared that the music which had given us sustenance was in danger of spiritual starvation. We feared it losing its sense of purpose, we feared it falling into fattened hands, we feared it floundering in a mire of spectacle, finance, and vapid technical complexity. We would call forth in our minds the image of Paul Revere, riding through the American night, petitioning the people to wake up, to take up arms. We too would take up arms, the arms of our generation, the electric guitar and the microphone.”
― Patti Smith, Just Kids
I’ve taken pictures here before and before… and now I’ve done it again and again.
“If music be the food of love, play on,
Give me excess of it; that surfeiting,
The appetite may sicken, and so die.”
― William Shakespeare, Twelfth Night
Bill Chance 