“I dream that I have found us both again,
With spring so many strangers’ lives away,
And we, so free,
Out walking by the sea,
With someone else’s paper words to say….They took us at the gates of green return,
Too lost by then to stop, and ask them why-
Do children meet again?
Does any trace remain,
Along the superhighways of July?”
― Thomas Pynchon, Gravity’s Rainbow
Continental Bridge Park,
Dallas, Texas
“Eventually, all things merge into one, and a river runs through it. The river was cut by the world’s great flood and runs over rocks from the basement of time. On some of the rocks are timeless raindrops. Under the rocks are the words, and some of the words are theirs.
I am haunted by waters.”
― Norman Maclean, A River Runs Through It and Other Stories
Before and After
Entrance to the Santa Fe Trestle Trail, Dallas, Texas
I took this photo on a fun organized bike ride last October.
We lost about half the ride at Lee Harvey’s – but here’s the rest at the Santa Fe Trestle Trail.
(click for a larger, better version on Flickr)
Here’s what the same spot looks like now.
Downtown from the entrance to the Santa Fe Trestle Trail,
Dallas, Texas
My attitude is, I make the sculpture in the studio on my own terms on my own time, and I want to see it go out of the studio and have its own existence whether it’s noticed or not.
—-Tony Cragg
Tony Cragg’s “Line of Thought”
Dallas, Texas
Ever since I saw his exhibition at the Nasher a few years ago, I have been a fan of Tony Cragg. It was a tough time for me and visiting his sculpture meant something to me – it gave me an ethereal comfort. I think I found it reassuring that independently beauty still existed in the world.
Then I shot his work in the sculpture garden of the Dallas Museum of Art. Earlier this year, I found another work I liked in a museum in Houston.
At any rate, it is one thing to see sculpture in a museum or gallery – in a carefully-prepared setting – it is something entirely different to see sculpture in the wild… especially unexpectedly.
We were riding through Uptown Dallas at night on the monthly Critical Mass Ride, when I spotted a large sculpture out in front of a fancy office building – and it was undoubtedly a Tony Cragg. It was really cool to see, even if I had to keep on pedaling on.
Later, it didn’t take much internet searching to determine that the sculpture was Tony Cragg’s “Line of Thought” out in front of the Rosewood Court Complex. It has been there for a number of years, but I had never noticed it. Of course, that isn’t really my hood….
The weekend of the Uptown Ciclovía, where a street through uptown was closed to automobiles I made a point of finding the Rosewood Court (the Ciclovia route went right by it) and stopped to look and take a photo.
It was cool finding Cragg in the wild.
Tony Cragg’s “Line of Thought”
Dallas, Texas
“Dream tonight of peacock tails,
Diamond fields and spouter whales.
Ills are many, blessings few,
But dreams tonight will shelter you.”
—-Thomas Pynchon
Dallas, Texas
“A man should hear a little music, read a little poetry, and see a fine picture every day of his life, in order that worldly cares may not obliterate the sense of the beautiful which God has implanted in the human soul.”
― Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Continental Bridge Park,
Dallas, Texas
(click image for a larger version in Flickr)
Well, we know where we’re goin’
But we don’t know where we’ve been
And we know what we’re knowin’
But we can’t say what we’ve seenAnd we’re not little children
And we know what we want
And the future is certain
Give us time to work it outWe’re on a road to nowhere
Come on inside
Takin’ that ride to nowhere
We’ll take that ride—-Talking Heads – Road To Nowhere
Then and Now
Not long ago, back in January, I posted a photo of the trails in the Trinity River Bottoms taken from the Continental Street Bridge Park. The entry was called Ride To Nowhere.
Here’s the photo:
Trinity Skyline Trail (east side)
from the Continental Bridge Park
Dallas, Texas
Now, it really does go nowhere.
Flooded river bottoms, there is a concrete trail under that water, if you look closely, you can see the trail marker.
Trinity River, Dallas, Texas
At least the big tree has leafed out nicely.
“Because here’s something else that’s weird but true: in the day-to day trenches of adult life, there is actually no such thing as atheism. There is no such thing as not worshipping. Everybody worships. The only choice we get is what to worship. And the compelling reason for maybe choosing some sort of god or spiritual-type thing to worship—be it JC or Allah, be it YHWH or the Wiccan Mother Goddess, or the Four Noble Truths, or some inviolable set of ethical principles—is that pretty much anything else you worship will eat you alive. If you worship money and things, if they are where you tap real meaning in life, then you will never have enough, never feel you have enough. It’s the truth. Worship your body and beauty and sexual allure and you will always feel ugly. And when time and age start showing, you will die a million deaths before they finally grieve you. On one level, we all know this stuff already. It’s been codified as myths, proverbs, clichés, epigrams, parables; the skeleton of every great story. The whole trick is keeping the truth up front in daily consciousness.”
― David Foster Wallace, This Is Water: Some Thoughts, Delivered on a Significant Occasion, about Living a Compassionate Life
Then and now, the view of the Margaret Hunt Hill bridge from the Continental Bridge Park
December 23, 2014 – Time Gaines Momentum
View of the Trinity River and the Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge from the Continental Bridge Park, Dallas, Texas
May 17, 2015
Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge, Trinity River Flood Stage, Dallas, Texas
“With cities, it is as with dreams: everything imaginable can be dreamed, but even the most unexpected dream is a rebus that conceals a desire or, its reverse, a fear. Cities, like dreams, are made of desires and fears, even if the thread of their discourse is secret, their rules are absurd, their perspectives deceitful, and everything conceals something else.”
― Italo Calvino, Invisible Cities
Downtown Dallas from the Commerce Street Overlook
(Please click on image for a larger version on Flickr)
“I went down to the river,
I set down on the bank.
I tried to think but couldn’t,
So I jumped in and sank.”
― Langston Hughes
I like to ride my bike in the Trinity River Bottoms and take a rest on one of the benches that are spotted along the trail. I took these less than a year ago. You can see the Continental Bridge Park in the background.
My Xootr folding bicycle, Trinity River Bottoms, Dallas, Texas
Continental Bridge,
Dallas, Texas
Now, the water is rising.
The bench is swallowed by the rising water. Taken from the Continental Bridge Park, Dallas, Texas
I see on the radar that there is another giant storm to the Northwest – this area drains into the Trinity. The river isn’t finished going up.
“…the great floodgates of the wonder-world swung open…”
― Herman Melville, Moby-Dick; or, The Whale
Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge, from the Commerce Street Viaduct
Dallas, Texas
(please click the image for a larger and better version on Flickr)
After the Uptown Cyclovia on Sunday, I rode my bike down to the Trinity River – visiting the flood stage water at several places. It was quite a sight to see. I filled up my digital card with photos – I’ll be putting them up here as I process them.
This photo I took at sunset from the sidewalk along Commerce Street. The sun just peeked out from under the clouds for a few seconds.
The blog format can’t do this photo justice – Please click to visit on Flickr.
Bill Chance 