When A Happy Thing Falls

“But suppose the endlessly dead were to
wake in us some emblem:
they might point to the catkins hanging
from the empty hazel trees, or direct
us to the rain
descending on black earth in early
spring. —

And we, who always think of happiness
rising, would feel the emotion
that almost baffles us
when a happy thing falls.”
― Rainer Maria Rilke, Duino Elegies

Saturday, at the brewery tour at Four Bullets Brewery, they had, as is common at these sorts of things, a number of games, including the grand hipster pastime of Giant Jenga.

I always like to watch this and always try to photograph the moment when the pile of wooden blocks falls.

Giant Jenga requires careful planning.

Giant Jenga requires careful planning.

She was able to remove this piece.

She was able to remove this piece.

But if fell later as they tried to move another piece. Note the rare "suspended section" of blocks. I'm not sure of the physics of leaving a few behind for a handful of microseconds.

But if fell later as they tried to move another piece. Note the rare “suspended section” of blocks. I’m not sure of the physics of leaving a few behind for a handful of microseconds.

Some old images of falling Giant Jenga.

The end of a game of giant Jenga - Community Beer Company, Dallas, Texas

The end of a game of giant Jenga – Community Beer Company, Dallas, Texas

Deep Ellum, Dallas, Texas

Deep Ellum, Dallas, Texas

Four Bullets Brewery

Front door to Four Bullets Brewery, Richardson, Texas

Front door to Four Bullets Brewery, Richardson, Texas

For about I year I watched the progress of a new small brewery here in my own town of Richardson. It was established by two experienced home brewers that wanted to take the next step and open up their own establishment. It was called Four Bullets Brewery and has finally had its soft opening, with the official grand opening scheduled in a couple months.

It’s been open on Saturdays from noon to six with the typical tour deal – ten bucks for a glass and three beer tickets. I have been enjoying these craft beer tours for a few years now and really wanted to check out Four Bullets. The last couple weeks were too busy for me but today I was able to make a visit.

The brewery is located in a little industrial area north of downtown, near the Arapaho DART train station. It’s very close to where I live – but there is a railroad track blocking the way, so I rode north past the rail station and doubled back. It was a nice, easy ride, about three and a half miles.

I folded my Xootr Swift and locked it to a sign out in front – I should have ridden around to the back of the building, but I didn’t know.

My bike folded and locked up in front of Four Bullets.

My bike folded and locked up in front of Four Bullets.

The brewery is small – about the size of a generous garage, but it has an extensive open area out back with tables and some games. The crowd grew throughout the time I was there, until they had a very respectable bunch hanging around. A food truck sold barbeque in the back – he had his smoker located upwind and the smell made it impossible to resist.

The crowd grows in the patio in back of the Brewery.

The crowd grows in the patio in back of the Brewery.

I’m not expert on beers – but I enjoyed the three I tried. They all had the complexity and freshness you expect in a small batch craft beer. I especially liked the Oatmeal Stout – excellent and not too heavy, and the Pale Ale – very drinkable with a lot of flavor without being too hoppy. It’ll be interesting to watch Four Bullets as they go along – see if they get more adventurous with their beer varieties.

The City of Richardson looks at this industrial park as a potential little Design District – with the same kind of development – restaurants, galleries, breweries – that Dallas is working on in the area between downtown and the river. A food truck park is slated to open soon. I hope the trend continues – it would be a cool thing.

I will definitely go back, maybe try and organize a bike ride from a DART station through the east side of the city down to the brewery.

Yeah, that’s the ticket.

Good Review of Four Bullets

She Spent Hours On the Riverbank

“She wore flowers in her hair and carried magic secrets in her eyes. She spoke to no one. She spent hours on the riverbank. She smoked cigarettes and had midnight swims…”
― Arundhati Roy, The God of Small Things

Downtown Dallas, Texas

Downtown Dallas, Texas

Simply Look At Its Biggest Buildings

“If you want to understand what’s most important to a society, don’t examine its art or literature, simply look at its biggest buildings.”
― Joseph Campbell

Architectural Detail, Dallas, Texas

Architectural Detail,
Dallas, Texas

In Dialogue With Pain

“It is in dialogue with pain that many beautiful things acquire their value. Acquaintance with grief turns out to be one of the more unusual prerequisites of architectural appreciation. We might, quite aside from all other requirements, need to be a little sad before buildings can properly touch us.”
― Alain de Botton, The Architecture of Happiness

Arts District Dallas, Texas

Arts District
Dallas, Texas

“Bad architecture is in the end as much a failure of psychology as of design. It is an example expressed through materials of the same tendencies which in other domains will lead us to marry the wrong people, choose inappropriate jobs and book unsuccessful holidays: the tendency not to understand who we are and what will satisfy us.”
― Alain de Botton, The Architecture of Happiness

Not the Shadow Of the Past Nor the Shadow Of the Future

“Have you also learned that secret from the river; that there is no such thing as time?” That the river is everywhere at the same time, at the source and at the mouth, at the waterfall, at the ferry, at the current, in the ocean and in the mountains, everywhere and that the present only exists for it, not the shadow of the past nor the shadow of the future.”
― Hermann Hesse, Siddhartha

Trinity River Dallas, Texas

Trinity River
Dallas, Texas

Carry A Big Can Of Paint

“Speak softly, but carry a big can of paint.”
― Banksy, Wall and Piece

Anti-Graffiti Rectangles Richardson, Texas

Anti-Graffiti Rectangles
Richardson, Texas

It its infinite wisdom The Man fights graffiti here by painting giant rectangles of Pepto-Bismol Pink over the forbidden tags and symbols. I guess this is so your imagination can run wild thinking of what horrors must have been underneath.

“Censorship is telling a man he can’t have a steak just because a baby can’t chew it.”
― Mark Twain

Prayers Of One’s Own Unanswered

“Losing faith is a complicated business and takes time. There are no epiphanies, no “moments of truth.” It takes much thought and concentration in the later phases, which thenselves come about through an accumulation of small accidents: examples of general injustice, misfortune falling upon the godly, prayers of one’s own unanswered.”
― Thomas Pynchon, V.

Fair Park Dallas, Texas

Fair Park
Dallas, Texas

You Are A Conductor Of Light

“It may be that you are not yourself luminous, but that you are a conductor of light. Some people without possessing genius have a remarkable power of stimulating it.”

― Arthur Conan Doyle

Luminous Santa Fe Trestle Trail Dallas, Texas

Luminous
Santa Fe Trestle Trail
Dallas, Texas

Custom Love Lock on the Santa Fe Trestle Trail.

Some Flawed Place In the Iron Dark Of the World

“By early evening all the sky to the north had darkened and the spare terrain they trod had turned a neuter gray as far as the eye could see. They grouped in the road at the top of a rise and looked back. The storm front towered above them and the wind was cool on their sweating faces. They slumped bleary-eyed in their saddles and looked at one another. Shrouded in the black thunderheads the distant lightning glowed mutely like welding seen through foundry smoke. As if repairs were under way at some flawed place in the iron dark of the world.”
― Cormac McCarthy, All the Pretty Horses

Trinity River Dallas, Texas

Trinity River
Dallas, Texas