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The things I’ll do…
Here’s another shot, from a different trip, of the very same wall in Marfa. This time, though, I spotted the yucca that had been very considerate to send its wavy stalk up right in front of the white line on the wall.
In the interest of full disclosure*, I want to point out that the yucca wasn’t the only, uh, spiky plant in the area. And that I wasn’t standing upright to shoot this. If you see what I am getting at. Also: red ants. There were a lot of red ants. And they weren’t all that happy to have an itinerant photographer show up and walk around their front yard.
Marfa, Texas
photographed 8.16.2013
*Or, as it is also known, too much information.
How odd that this would have caught my attention
Well, look at what I found: rectangles.
In case you wondered – Charles von der Ahe was the founder of the Southern California grocery store chain, Vons, which was among the first stores to offer pre-packaged, self-service meat and deli items. (Vons was also the Official Grocery Store for the 1984 Summer Olympics, for whatever that’s worth.)
This building is on the campus of Loyola Marymount University; when you walk over to it from the visitor parking, a crossing guard will stop traffic for you. Which is sort of entertaining, since compared to the rest of Los Angeles, the campus has practically no traffic. But, still, we made it there and back without any car-pedestrian accidents to mess up the trip.
Los Angeles, California
photographed 6.27.2013
See it. But don’t believe it.
Another view of a movie set in the wilds of West Texas that I featured earlier this year.
As with the previously-featured building, this one was disconcerting: the exterior looked old, with the hitching post out front and that porch roof made of branches*. But on the inside, modern-day plywood was visible…
near Lajitas, Texas
photographed 1.20.2013
*Correctly called latillas, which I could pretend I knew all along, but which actually I only just now looked up. We strive for honesty here at One Day | One Image. Unless an exaggeration** or cheap joke seems more appropriate.
** Actual comment, from my spouse to me, said without irony: You always exaggerate.
Same town but a different toilet
Remember this photo of a toilet? This is another toilet, plus a random chair and a wadded up towel, from the same building.
The walls behind the, uh, seats are old – those narrow wood slats indicate that the original wall was plaster, which fell from use after drywall (or Sheetrock™) became the favored building material.
(If you want to know a LOT more about plaster walls, or any other building material, I can highly recommend The Walls Around Us, by David Owen. It’s witty and accurate, a winning combination if you ask me.)
(On another subject, I had a chat recently with the curator of the local photographic society’s exhibit. My Toilet.Seat. print was in the show, but didn’t win. The curator, whom I had just met for the first time, said, “Oh, your photo of the toilet was SO popular. Everyone loved it….well, everyone except the juror, I mean.” So, there you go: jurors don’t speak for everyone.)
Tahoka, Texas
photographed 6.16.2010
Meanwhile, over at the old brewery
The former Pearl Brewery site in San Antonio is in the process of being transformed into a mixed-use development; the brewery operated from 1881 until 2001. The site sat vacant until 2006, when the first tenant of the redevelopment, the Aveda Institute, opened. Now there are about 35 tenants.
The last time I was in San Antonio, for a conference, my work colleagues and I took a cab over to the brewery to check it out. Our cab driver was entertaining. By “entertaining” I mean she scared us to the point that we opted to walk back. She talked the whole way about various traffic accidents she’d been in; none of them were HER fault, though, so I am not too sure why we were worried. As she pulled into the brewery, and ran up over a curb, we suddenly realized that the very first place we saw – which turned out to be the Aveda Institute – was just where we needed to stop. She offered us a card, so we could phone her to arrange a return back downtown. I guess she’s probably parked under a tree somewhere, waiting on that call.
After we ditched her, we decided that our frayed nerves could probably do with a margarita or four. Luckily for us, we found La Gloria Icehouse, which had an accommodating wait staff, and accommodating happy hour prices.
Then, as I said, we walked back, along the Riverwalk, which is pedestrian-only, so we weren’t at risk of seeing that cab driver. Or being run down by her.
None of this has really anything to do with the photograph, except that it is another building on the brewery grounds.
San Antonio, Texas
photographed 11.26.11
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