Blog Archives
This door? I wanted to take it home.
I love this door. I really do. I like the curled-up ends of the decorative metal rods on the bottom half of the screen door. And the way the Xs where the rods cross are a slightly different color. And the way the diamond-shaped grid at the top contrasts with the square grid at the bottom. And the pieced-together look of the weathered wood frame. And the dark hinges.
This is the third shot of an unintentional chain of photographs. There’s yesterday’s storm picture. And, this picture has the same storm overhead, and this door on the left. I’d claim I did all of this on purpose, but I suspect you wouldn’t believe me.
Also, if you drive by my house and the front door looks vaguely familiar, it’ll be just a coincidence.
Valentine, Texas
photographed 8.16.2013
The Crazy Water Hotel
The ballroom at the Baker Hotel in Mineral Wells is well past its prime.
But in its prime, the Baker Hotel was grand, and folks came from far and wide to “take the waters” the town was famous for. Now, I think Mineral Wells is largely famous for having once been famous.
The great songwriter Tom Russell has a song about the place, and the ghosts that haunt it. Reading the lyrics doesn’t convey Tom’s talent, and there’s no video of it that I could locate. So instead – and pardon this abrupt digression, but he got in my head and wouldn’t leave until I agreed to post a link – here’s Tom Russell and Andrew Hardin with The Ballad of Edward Abbey. (Here’s his website.)
Mineral Wells, Texas
photographed 8.15.2010
Chair Jail
I am not sure what these chairs did, but it must have been pretty bad for them to be incarcerated. Look at them, pressed against the bars of the chair jail, in their prison uniforms, dreaming of life on the outside.
Or, maybe they are plotting an escape.
I didn’t stick around to see…..
Lubbock, Texas
photographed 3.29.2013
I’m guessing the reclamation isn’t complete
The other side of this building, which has that nice banner announcing Reclaim Colorado City. Good that the city’s started the effort, but there’s still a ways to go.
But, to be slightly selfish for a minute, I don’t mind the disrepair one bit: it makes for much more interesting photographs.
Colorado City, Texas
photographed 3.13.2013
The bypass did
The highway used to go through town. But now there’s a bypass and all the traffic heading south toward Lamesa or San Angelo or north to Lubbock just goes right by, at 75 miles per hour. At the very north end of town, and almost literally in the shadow of the first bypass overpass, an abandoned restaurant has spent the past couple of decades trying to fade away.
It hasn’t. Yet. But I feel like it will eventually be successful in that endeavor.
Tahoka, Texas
photographed 10.6.2013
One Day | One Image 