The last time I was in Dallas, I only saw it from the outskirts. I was driving through Texas from Marfa, and I stopped to get barbecue at a roadside joint. The downtown loomed in the distance like it had gotten lost on the horizon.
Now I’m back, and it’s unseasonably cold here. The downtown still looms, but today, it’s obscured by a veil of rain. I’m staying in the midst of the concrete skyscrapers, on a street that looks, to an Easterner like me, like any post-Robert Moses city in Connecticut. Only the buildings in this town are far, far taller. They do things bigger, so I’ve heard, in Texas.
Despite the weather, I have a good feeling about this town. I like Texas. I like Texans. I like super-sized Truffle fries, and I like that there was only one salad on my room service menu. I like that there are no maps available for sightseeing, because no one walks here. I like that people hold doors. More to come, I’m sure, as I absorb it all.
Yesterday, my parent’s power was restored by a team of 14 guys who had driven 2 days from Texas to New York, to help out with Con Edison’s relief efforts. In celebration of them, my baby sisters hung a sign that said “Go Texas” from our mailbox .
Hopefully New Yorkers without power will also cross paths with kind people from other places, and soon.
Thanks to some insider knowledge, I happen to know that Beyonce was just in Marfa, Texas, a sleeper town turned art world destination.
I absolutely love that the Daily Mail has no idea that the photograph above shows B in front of the “Prada Marfa” installation by Elmgreen and Dragset, not an actual Prada store. Here’s their caption of the image:
“Jump for joy! How exciting to be able to afford everything inside that branch of Prada.”
If you’re not an avid follower of Beyonce’s Tumblr like me, you can check out the rest of the pictures from her trip with Solange in this hilariously misinformed Daily Mail post. My friend tells me that not only did she do the art shit, she also caused quite a ruckus by showing up at some field party a bunch of high school students were throwing. Yee-haw, Lady B!
