“There was a sky somewhere above the tops of the buildings, with stars and a moon and all the things there are in a sky, but they were content to think of the distant street lights as planets and stars. If the lights prevented you from seeing the heavens, then perform a little magic and change reality to fit the need. The street lights were now planets and stars and moon. ”
― Hubert Selby Jr., Requiem for a Dream
Downtown Dallas Skyline
from Pegasus Plaza
“I believe…that to be very poor and very beautiful is most probably a moral failure more than an artistic success.”
—-Raymond Chandler
Sculptured Composition
1953
Charles T. Williams
Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth
“They had spent a year in France for no particular reason, and then drifted here and there unrestfully wherever people played polo and were rich together.”
― F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby
Plano, Texas
Watching girls go passing by it ain’t the latest thing
I’m just standing in a doorway.
I’m just trying to make some sense.
Out of these girls passing by, the tales they tell of men.
I’m not waiting on a lady, I’m just waiting on a friend. Mm.A smile relieves a heart that grieves, remember what I said.
I’m not waiting on a lady, I’m just waiting on a friend.
—-Waiting on a Friend, Rolling Stones
Plano, Texas
Dr. Peter Venkman: This city is headed for a disaster of biblical proportions.
Mayor: What do you mean, “biblical”?
Dr Ray Stantz: What he means is Old Testament, Mr. Mayor, real wrath of God type stuff.
Dr. Peter Venkman: Exactly.
Dr Ray Stantz: Fire and brimstone coming down from the skies! Rivers and seas boiling!
Dr. Egon Spengler: Forty years of darkness! Earthquakes, volcanoes…
Winston Zeddemore: The dead rising from the grave!
Dr. Peter Venkman: Human sacrifice, dogs and cats living together… mass hysteria!
Mayor: All right, all right! I get the point!
—-Ghostbusters
Companions
Oscar Alvarado
Plano Animal Shelter
Plano, Texas
When I drive to Plano I often pass by this odd sculpture – a three dimensional mosaic of a dog and cat. It was easy to find out what it was – “Companions,” a mosaic-tiled sculpture depicting a cat nuzzling up to an affectionate dog by San Antonio artist Oscar Alvarado in front of the Plano Animal Shelter. Both pets have collars and tags and there is even a microchip implanted into the mortar of each animal to highlight the importance of identification for all animals.
I wanted to take some photos of the sculpture so I pulled over and stepped out. Immediately the triple digit Texas heat hit me like an open oven door – I think it was about 106 F. Snap Snap Snap and back in the steel-lined air conditioned envelope of my vehicle. In Texas, AC is more important than brakes.
Companions
Oscar Alvarado
Plano Animal Shelter
Plano, Texas
Companions
Oscar Alvarado
Plano Animal Shelter
Plano, Texas
Companions
Oscar Alvarado
Plano Animal Shelter
Plano, Texas
“A man must know his destiny… if he does not recognize it, then he is lost. By this I mean, once, twice, or at the very most, three times, fate will reach out and tap a man on the shoulder… if he has the imagination, he will turn around and fate will point out to him what fork in the road he should take, if he has the guts, he will take it.”
― George S. Patton Jr.
M41 Walker Bulldog
Liberty Park
Plano, Texas
I think every park should have a tank, don’t you?
I mean, kids play in parks – and wouldn’t any kid rather play on a tank, on a real tank, a huge hunk of steel, than crawl around on engineered plastic safety guaranteed soft padded equipment set in deep beds of pine mulch or recycled rubber.
Back in the day there were steel monkey bars. The kids would line the sides and wail away – hit and kick – each in his turn as they tried to work hand over hand down the line. Anybody that made it to the end without falling would “win.” It didn’t happen often. This was awful, vicious, and violent. Nobody would act that way if they had a tank to play on.
This is an M41 Walker Bulldog in Liberty Park, in Plano, Texas… by the way.
The only disappointment is that the thing is welded shut. Wouldn’t it be cool if the kids could crawl in through an open hatch – look around inside – maybe a working periscope from the driver’s seat. Of course, I know that’s impossible – way too dangerous… not to mention what critters might move into a space like that. The maintenance costs would be astronomical.
But still… it would be so cool.
Their little imaginations would be so stimulated – their minds run free. I think there has to be a bit of danger involved – a forbidden element – for the flights of fancy to really go to town. Imagine if you grew up near a park that had a tank – a tank you could get inside of – one you could look out from. Imagine. You would talk about it your whole life.
But then everyone would say, “Yeah, we had one too – every park has a tank.”
M41 Walker Bulldog
Liberty Park
Plano, Texas
M41 Walker Bulldog
Liberty Park
Plano, Texas
“For thought is a bird of space, that in a cage of words may indeed unfold its wings but cannot fly.”
― Kahlil Gibran
Deep Ellum
Dallas, Texas
“The spider Mercer gave the chickenhead, Isidore; it probably was artificial, too. But it doesn’t matter. The electric things have their lives, too. Paltry as those lives are.”
― Philip K. Dick, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
Manmade Stream and Naturemade agave plants
Downtown Dallas, Texas
I would that we were, my beloved, white birds on the foam of the sea!
We tire of the flame of the meteor, before it can fade and flee;
And the flame of the blue star of twilight, hung low on the rim of the sky,
Has awakened in our hearts, my beloved, a sadness that may not die.
—-W.B. Yeats, The White Birds
Foam on a small fountain,
Street Corner,
Arts District
Dallas, Texas
A bar of steel—it is only
Smoke at the heart of it, smoke and the blood of a man.
A runner of fire ran in it, ran out, ran somewhere else,
And left—smoke and the blood of a man
And the finished steel, chilled and blue.
—-Carl Sandburg, I. Smoke Nights 1.Smoke and Steel
Tony Smith
Willy
1962, Steel
Dallas Museum of Art
Bill Chance 