Blog Archives
the ol’ red, white, and blue
An earlier version of this place holds an important spot in music history as well as the history of Lubbock; that’s probably not a thing you could intuit from looking at this photo, though.
The Cotton Club first opened in Lubbock in 1938 as a place for the fancy people to hear orchestras, jazz, and swing bands. The place was air conditioned, which seems pretty ahead of its time. There was a lot of music played in that original Cotton Club, including five appearances in 1955 by Elvis Presley. It’s said that a young Buddy Holly attended one of those shows and was inspired to a career in music. The Cotton Club was the first integrated dance hall in Lubbock and during the 1940s many well known Black musicians performed there.
Eventually, the club relocated. Times changes, music changed, buildings burned down (mysteriously), and more of the usual stuff that happens on a downward trajectory. The building’s still there, in rough neighborhood out on the Slaton Highway, but it’s been closed since 1984.
(Editorial Comment: Lubbock’s pretty proud of its musical history, but not quite proud enough to be able to save some of the actual places where important things happened.)
Cotton Club
Lubbock, Texas
photographed 1.17.2025
something doesn’t seem right
Good gracious! Something seems amiss here.
But the worst thing (possibly) is that no one seemed to notice; they were just going about their day not even caring that there was an armless man piloting the boat through thin air while also blowing a sizeable amount of smoke out of his mouth.
Lubbock County, Texas
photographed 5.30.2025
floral/arrangement
Why, yes, I DO have a new lens. I got a LensBaby Sweet 50 – it was part of my medium-term plan to keep busy while my foot gets well enough to walk on. That’s 25 more days, for those of you keeping track, so I needed to think of a project that I could do inside my house. And like skillful photographers everywhere, I used that little project as a justification for a new lens. I mean, I only had to convince myself and I’m notoriously easy to sway, but still you never know.
Lubbock, Texas
photographed 5.19.2025
floral/skirt
I love it when people take the time to send flowers – they brighten up the place quite a bit and it is always nice to know you’ve been thought of.
And then, when all that’s stuff done, they are a ton of fun to photograph as they pass through various states between vibrant and crunchy and dead.
Lubbock, Texas
photographed 5.19.2025
fell
On one hand, this is an absolute mess of a photo. But on the other hand, it’s my favorite of ones I made over at a park the other afternoon. (It’s a genre I’m calling UICM, or Unintentional Camera Movement. I didn’t invent it but am nonetheless an avid practitioner of it. Apparently)
Jan Jennings Park
Lubbock, Texas
photographed 11.21.2024
One Day | One Image 