Tag Archives: Texas

I Don’t Want Realism, I Want Magic

Posted on by Bill Chance

“I don’t want realism. I want magic! Yes, yes, magic! I try to give that to people. I misrepresent things to them. I don’t tell the truth, I tell what ought to be the truth. And it that’s sinful, then let me be damned for it!”
― Tennessee Williams, A Streetcar Named Desire

Hunt Headquarters Building, Dallas, Texas

Hunt Headquarters Building, Dallas, Texas

Agave, Fountain, Cypress, and Streetcar.

There are hidden treasures in a modern city. They put little pockets of nature and beauty in the center of all the miles and acres of concrete, tarmac, and steel. Seek them out.

Lungs Inflate With the Onrush of Scenery

Posted on by Bill Chance

“I felt my lungs inflate with the onrush of scenery—air, mountains, trees, people. I thought, “This is what it is to be happy.”
― Sylvia Plath, The Bell Jar

Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas, Texas

Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas, Texas

Perched Upon A Bust Of Pallas

Posted on by Bill Chance

Open here I flung the shutter, when, with many a flirt and flutter,
In there stepped a stately raven of the saintly days of yore.
Not the least obeisance made he; not a minute stopped or stayed he;
But, with mien of lord or lady, perched above my chamber door –
Perched upon a bust of Pallas just above my chamber door –
Perched, and sat, and nothing more.
—-Edgar Allen Poe, The Raven

Arts District, Dallas, Texas

Arts District,
Dallas, Texas

Then this ebony bird beguiling my sad fancy into smiling,
By the grave and stern decorum of the countenance it wore,
`Though thy crest be shorn and shaven, thou,’ I said, `art sure no craven.
Ghastly grim and ancient raven wandering from the nightly shore –
Tell me what thy lordly name is on the Night’s Plutonian shore!’
Quoth the raven, `Nevermore.’
—-Edgar Allen Poe, The Raven

The Kind of Dream People Have Only When They’re Seventeen

Posted on by Bill Chance

“If I stayed here, something inside me would be lost forever—something I couldn’t afford to lose. It was like a vague dream, a burning, unfulfilled desire. The kind of dream people have only when they’re seventeen.”
― Haruki Murakami, South of the Border, West of the Sun

Cyclesomatic | Bicycle Brewery Tour, Dallas, Texas

Cyclesomatic | Bicycle Brewery Tour, Dallas, Texas

Jonathan Braddick, of Oak Cliff Cargo Bicycles and the organizer of the Cyclesomatic | Bicycle Brewery Tour – leaving Community Brewing Company.

An Aggregate of Last Moments

Posted on by Bill Chance

“It’s been a prevalent notion. Fallen sparks. Fragments of vessels broken at the Creation. And someday, somehow, before the end, a gathering back to home. A messenger from the Kingdom, arriving at the last moment. But I tell you there is no such message, no such home — only the millions of last moments . . . nothing more. Our history is an aggregate of last moments.”
― Thomas Pynchon, Gravity’s Rainbow

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

“My peak? Would I even have one? I hardly had had anything you could call a life. A few ripples. some rises and falls. But that’s it. Almost nothing. Nothing born of nothing. I’d loved and been loved, but I had nothing to show. It was a singularly plain, featureless landscape. I felt like I was in a video game. A surrogate Pacman, crunching blindly through a labyrinth of dotted lines. The only certainty was my death.”
― Haruki Murakami, Dance Dance Dance

All You Feel Is A Caress

Posted on by Bill Chance

“Water does not resist. Water flows. When you plunge your hand into it, all you feel is a caress. Water is not a solid wall, it will not stop you. But water always goes where it wants to go, and nothing in the end can stand against it. Water is patient. Dripping water wears away a stone. Remember that, my child. Remember you are half water. If you can’t go through an obstacle, go around it. Water does.”
― Margaret Atwood, The Penelopiad

Water feature in a pocket park off of Ross Avenue, Dallas, Texas

Water feature in a pocket park off of Ross Avenue,
Dallas, Texas

Maze For Studying Intelligence In Tears

Posted on by Bill Chance

“She couldn’t stop watching his eyes. They were bright black, surrounded by an incredible network of lines, like a laboratory maze for studying intelligence in tears. They seemed to know what she wanted, even if she didn’t.”

― Thomas Pynchon, The Crying of Lot 49

Dallas, Texas

Dallas, Texas

Flinging Itself To Pieces

Posted on by Bill Chance

“Our civilization is flinging itself to pieces. Stand back from the centrifuge.”
― Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451

Trinity River Bottoms, Dallas, Texas

Trinity River Bottoms, Dallas, Texas

I Mean, Is This Guy Pissed Off… Or What

Posted on by Bill Chance

“Letting go gives us freedom, and freedom is the only condition for happiness. If, in our heart, we still cling to anything – anger, anxiety, or possessions – we cannot be free.”
― Thích Nhất Hạnh, The Heart of the Buddha’s Teaching: Transforming Suffering into Peace, Joy, and Liberation

Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas, Texas

Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas, Texas