beautiful wrought-iron balustrade

This beautifully wrought balustrade is at the front of a business in a former house on Lover's Lane not terribly far from Love Field. Perhaps if the cold ever kills off the vegetation here in Dallas I can go back and snap a more clear photo.

INWOOD THEATER NEON ROWS

This is such an amazing theater in impeccable condition inside and out, that I will post many photos of it in days to come. Someday soon I'll go inside and photograph the murals and the Inwood Lounge, one of the coolest bars in Dallas for a very long time.

Stairwell Sisters

This is San Francisco's Stairwell Sisters performing in a Dallas-area gallery. Great show.

Giraffes Gone Wild!

This is a giraffe at I-35 and Marsalis near the Dallas Zoo. This is a huge statue in bronze and I'm not sure if this story is true, but I'll tell it as though it's gospel:

Around the time this statue was being executed, a gigantic statue of Sam Houston was being erected on the east side of I-45 just north of Houston. Once I was driving to Houston in the black of night and came upon that illuminated giant statue of a man mid-stride and 'bout dropped my transmission - scared the CRAP out of me!

Anyway, Texans being a somewhat competitive lot, someone up in Dallas was peeved that Sam Houston was going to trump our giraffe in the stakes for the tallest figural statue in Texas, so they added a rod of additional bronze on the top of the tongue to eke out more precious inches. Isn't that lame??? I think so. Even so, it's still a neat statue, and kids love it.

I snapped the photo on Thanksgiving day while driving south on 35 and not aiming. Loved how it turned out - I didn't expect to even get the giraffe in the frame.

A bit of the beer section of a local foodie emporium

Yes, Virginia, there IS a Santa Claus. And yes, that's Chimay on the right. Yum!

Oh, and these are ALL imports, by the way. Nary a bud nor coors nor anything that should have been left in the horse in sight. Here I was closest to the enormous Trappist section from Belgium. Sweet!

Thanksgiving

Today is Thanksgiving Day in the USA. I'm thankful for my little dog who has been my companion for 15 years. She is fearless, intrepid and a real go-getter. She's also incredibly cute and a cuddly little beast. She's 15 pounds of love and mischief, and on cold nights I think of her as a fur-clad hot water bottle. She's a Dallas dog.

Happy Thanksgiving, y'all!

Keller's Drive-in

On the Northwest Highway near Abrams

Samuel

I'm an eccentric person, so I'm usually drawn to other eccentrics when I see them. This guy caught my eye and made me smile. He walks along the street with a walker bedecked with all he'll need for his walkabout. I don't think he's homeless: I think he has his own particular way of doing things. He has cup holders and several big lights and a full speaker system that blasts Hank Williams Jr.'s Family Tradition as he shuffles along. I met him as I was leaving an art opening Sunday afternoon, and he put a steering wheel lock on the bottom of his walker to keep anyone from absconding with it while he was inside.

Cool old car

Top Ten Records on Jefferson

Southbound on North Dallas Tollway

Heading toward downtown in some remarkably light traffic. There's lots of construction going on there right now, and some lanes are blocked off and the center keeps being shifted around, and getting to and from downtown has been a little more of a pain lately. Still, it's one of the best thoroughfares in town, and during non-rush hours, it's my road of choice.
The video enforcement sign refers to people who rush the gates at the toll plaza and don't stop to pay. If you drive through without paying, you'll get a bill in the mail to pay a ticket for not stopping, and I think it's about $70, versus the .75 cent fee you pay when you drive through.

Scatalogical Radio Station Billboard

Doodie Free. No poop! I posted this on my other blog a few weeks ago and several people from England asked "what's doodie?" Wow. I thought "doodie" was universal. Or, at least common to all English-speakers. Go figure!

Absinthe Lounge

A grouping of pale buildings

...on a foggy day.

One Era's tile floor is another Era's parking lot

This is the site of a Victorian store at Main Street and Pearl downtown. I love the grey, white and black tile of the original floor, and I'm glad they didn't completely pave over it. I think this says a lot about the efficacy of Victorian era construction and tile installation - no telling how many thousands of cars (including mine) have driven over these tiles and yet they last through all the weather and all the weight. Impressive.

Kel's Kitchen neon sign

Kel's Kitchen is a greasy spoon at Forest Lane and the Dallas North Tollway. I've never eaten there, but I like the sign.

Victorian building missing its former neighbor

This is the side of a downtown brick building from the Victorian period, taken from the adjacent parking lot. You can see the divets in the surface of the brick where the joists embedded to support the various floors of the building that used to stand there. I loved the terra-cotta colored wall against the backdrop of the sky at twilight.

sun setting in the west behind a crosshatching of vapor trails

Taken from the uptown area just north of downtown

Golden Tree, Defoliating

Even though it's been very warm here lately, the usual trees that change color in Fall have done so as if things are business as usual.

Under a Freeway Overpass on a Dreary Day

The star-spangled bus is a tour bus of some sort, and the large vehicle is a Chevy or GMC Suburban, transport of choice for large, well-heeled families in this neck of the woods. This is near American Airlines Center and under Stemmons Expressway.

Sticks, Stones, Music and Flowers at Cottonwood

Cottonwood is an arts festival held every Spring and Fall in a northern suburb of Dallas. This garden display was erected just for the event two weeks ago, I believe. Anyway, I thought it was pretty. I wouldn't mind something like this in my garden.

External Elevator - EEK!

I feel a little wobbly just looking at this elevator thingie.

Dallas Newspaper Boxes

Sorry for the spotty posting lately - I've just switched from the crappy service at AT&T/SBC to cable through my internet provider and this looks like it's much better service already - yippee!

Anyway, here's a grouping of newspaper boxes at the corner of the library downtown.

Dallas City Hall

I think the Dallas City Hall is a rather homely structure. Actually, I think that fits, because Dallas politcians/civil "servants can be rather ugly, in my opinion. Sci-Fi film fans may recognize that this was the police headquarters building in Robocop, only after filming they made the structure to have a sky-scraper top, with many levels above the top of what is the actual structure.

There is a neat pool out front with a couple cool floating sculptures I'll photograph sometime soon.

Dallas Convention Center Old Section

This is the old section of the Dallas Convention Center, and it is a tiny fraction (perhaps 1/40th the size) of the rest of the center combined, taking up the entire southwestern segment of the Downtown Area.

Demolition Impending: Arcadia Theater on Greenville Avenue

Today's Daily Photo Blog Theme is Something that will be gone soon.

This picture shows the remains of the much beloved Arcadia Theater. I've been featuring a photos of a lot of the Art Deco theaters remaining around Dallas since I started this blog, and the Arcadia was among my favorites.

I drove past it last week to see that despite what looks like a very solid facade, the interior of this building has been gutted by fire, so I was crestfallen. The building was so gutted that it will have to be completely torn down.


I saw many live bands perform here between 1985 through the mid-90s.
Shows I saw there included The Cult, Shriekback, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Peter Murphy(on his first solo tour), Nine Inch Nails, Love and Rockets, The Cramps, and too many more to mention and a few I'm embarrassed to mention. Great stuff. It will be missed.