To Infinity and Beyond

Happy New Year!

Jack Warren - Jewelry Designer Extraordinaire

Jack is a jewelry designer in Dallas. His extraordinary rings are soon to be available at Stanley Korshak in Dallas and in California. He's a true Dallas original.

When he was a little boy he worked for money at a gas station pumping gas. Every day old man Hunt - patriarch of the Hunt oil baron clan - would drive his ancient Model T up Parry avenue and stop for gas at the station. One day Jack and his friends were talking about how hot it was and how great it would be to go to the pool at the YMCA. The next day, old man Hunt gave Jack and his friend LIFETIME memberships to the YMCA.

That is one tiny story - Jack's got a million of them - fun guy. And his wife - painter Vida Warren is a lovely artist as well.

Beautiful building detail

Planet of the Apes Parking Garage - Night

Crappy night shot of the Kennedy Memorial downtown

Big traffic accident.

Downtown church

Another little Christmas house scene. Sweet.

Dallas World Aquarium at night

Another cute little old house... Nice porch!

Christmas Butterfly Lights at Neiman-Marcus Downtown

Deck the halls

This is very simple, but I love these blue and white lights on a Victorian house in the Dallas area. Sometimes, it's better to underdo the lights than go overboard, and I think this looks very sweet with the lovely lines of this old house, probably circa 1890-1900.

Texas School Book Depository - Sunday Night

I took this photo about 8:30 on Sunday night. It's funny, but I googled images of this building and didn't find a single one that was taken at night. Of course, this is the building where Lee Harvey was working and from which he shot someone once.

That night was great because there were these little white clouds that looked like brocade backgrounds on the longer exposure.

Fountains, blue trees and Neiman Marcus lights

Downtown Dallas, I snapped this image looking south down Ervay Street from Elm Street. I love these little fountains and the blue-lit trees downtown look especially lovely, and the Neiman-Marcus display is spectacular this year - I love the butterfly lights. I'll be showing more of the NM lights in days to come.

Best wishes for the season!

Blue and white lights on a Victorian house

These lights are simple, but I think they are very sweet - I love the look of this house--it made me feel cheerful.

Barbara at Mama's Daughters' Diner

Barbara is a total rock star and I absolutely adore her. She always wears her blingtastic sunglasses to work and lots of big big jewelry. The necklace she's wearing here has a Santa and a whole herd of reindeer.

Last week a diner at the table next to me asked her if she was behaving and she said "God didn't put me here to behave." I think I'm going to steal that line - it's a keeper!

Barbara has a sister named Natalie who works over at the Market Diner on Harry Hines. I think a film-maker is about to do a documentary on them soon - that should be a hoot.

Cute Christmas Lights

Sweet little decorated house. I loved the lights all being red or white. Very cheerful, indeed.

Apparel Mart View #2

Sorry, this is 3 days in a row of demolition, but I found this fascinating. Unlike the Arcadia snap from yesterday, I have no warm personal association with this structure to sadden its passing for me, other than the vague notion that some beloved garment of mine may have passed through here at one time or another. Otherwise, meh. Nary a blip.

But the demolition is riveting to watch. The demolition progresses so slowly that all the cranes and bulldozers buzzing about seem more like little worker bees attending the queen than the spearhead of destruction.

30 minutes ago, fall of a Dallas Landmark - Arcadia Theater

In the most bizarre coincidence, I happened to go to work early and drive down a street I never usually traverse in the mornings, lower Greenville Avenue, and I happened to see the crew demolishing the remains of the magnificient Arcadia Theater which was irreparably damaged in a recent fire. The two cranes worked a section of the building back and forth until it fell, and I caught the structure mid-fall. I suppose they are spraying water on the demolition to keep electrical fires from erupting. It was rather windy, and water was streaming from my eyes, but I don't know if it was sadness or the wind that made me cry. I saw dozens of momentous concerts in this venue, and I'm sorry that I've seen the last of it.

Demolition of Dallas' Apparel Mart

I've watched over recent weeks as this massive structure has been gradually dismantled. I suppose owing to the many hospitals in the immediate vicinity, an implosion-style take-down of this structure was not an option. In truth, I always found Apparel Mart to be a particularly unattractive building. Anyway, I was fascinated by the piles of rubble spilling down from the upper floors as their joists were pulled away. I'll probably post one or two more pictures from this day, because this was riveting to watch.

One particular favorite thing I noticed was one of the big heavy equipment operators was using the jaws of his vehicle to pick up enormous girders and examining as if he were trying to choose the ideal piece of candy from a candy bowl. Then I saw the purpose to that activity - he was finding a sufficiently straight piece of metal to "sweep" up tons of detritus from the path of his machine. Cool stuff, the terrible beauty in destruction.

More Neon from the Inwood Theater

This is the neon just above the Ticket Window, which you can see is a curved structure. This will probably be the last exterior shot of the Inwood. Look for more interior shots in future. I love this place and have spent many a happy hour here seeing foreign and art-house films.

Blue Tiles

I love the blue tiles on this mid-century modern building downtown. It was probably constructed in the late 50s or early 60s.

Inwood Theater

This is the sign atop the glorious art deco Inwood Theater in Dallas. It's a stunning place to see films, and they generally show foreign/classic/arthouse fare. I've seen many a midnight movie here, too, on a Friday or Saturday night. More photos here to come...

Snow in my own back yard

Last Thursday when it snowed, I snapped this photo. The day before it was 80 degrees F, and you can see lots of the flowers were still blooming. By the way, I haven't tended my garden in ages, so it's a bit overgrown and you can see some leaves that have fallen into the pool...

I-HOP

A view into the kitchen from the dining room of an International House of Pancakes. Sometimes you need to have breakfast in the middle of the afternoon. For those and every other occasion, IHOP is open 24 hours. The cramming college student's friend with free refills on coffee.

Winter Swans

I snapped this image of swans in a pond near my home in Dallas on a brutally cold day last week.

Inwoon Theater entry area

Iced Lavender

Another winter scene from Thursday, November 30th, this time it's the snow/ice collected on a thriving lavender plant. It's after midnight on the 3rd of December, the niece and nephew are over and we have a rip-roaring fire going. The temperature will be somewhere around the freezing mark tonight, so we're all cozy with some great big band music and fuzzy slippers. Good times!

Windblown Tree

I love this tree which stands near my home. I've been walking my dog past it all summer and looking forward to winter so I could get a picture of its wind-blown form denuded of its shroud of leaves. It looks like it's bowing in the wind, as if it could gently spring back and stand completely upright. I love this.

I took this on the first wintery day of the year - November 30, 2006.

Mosey over to Fatale Abstraction today to see some photos I took that afternoon of snowflakes. Sweet!

Some Spider

Today we've had severe weather in Dallas. It's about time. Yesterday the temperature was 80 degrees F and frankly, it was almost sultry. I prefer the blustery, bitterly cold weather, so this cold snap suits me fine.

I took this photo of little icy balls of sleet netted in a spider web in the afternoon on Thursday, November 30. Everyone stay bundled up and cozy!