Culture in Austin, December 2015

Austin is known as a hive for youth culture. We were able to take in three cultural activities in Austin.  

A real fun event was the launch of the Naked Feminists, which is a comedy on the web. The writers and performers organized at the The Institution Theatre. An excellent evening of stand up comedy, music and the first episode of the show. 

The cast of the Naked Feminist

We attended a great performance of Dracula from  Different Stages held at Vortex, which is an excellent small theater,  bar and restaurant (OK, a food truck). It was done quite traditionally in terms of the script -- but not the staging. 

And then for something completely different, we attended the Christmas concert of the Texas Early Music Project (TEMP). Which was of the highest standard. 

The trip is over

We completed our long trip across Canada and the USA on January 6th, flying back to Honolulu. Our truck and trailer is now in long term storage in the Inland Empire of Los Angeles.

Some key statistics on the trip:

• 22,000 miles travelled in the Chevy Silverado
• 10 Canadian provinces visited
• 20 US states visited
• Stayed at ~50 campgrounds and boondocking sites
• And explored countless parks, art galleries, museums
• Attended countless cultural events
• Ate at many, many restaurants both good (actually, in many cases, very good) and not so good

I will work on loading up photos from our trip across Texas and into New Mexico, Arizona and California.

Contemporary Art in Dallas,Texas 2015

We spent a pleasant afternoon visiting galleries in Dallas. The warehouse district between the city and the Trinity River has become a mecca for local artists and galleries. Dallas is pretty cheap for artists to live and there is (I imagine) a good source of support in the local wealthy community.

First up was the Dallas Contemporary, which is a large old warehouse structure that has been converted into a flexible space.

Adriana Varejão from Brazil does tremendous work .. in three distinct series. I particularly loved the large landscape works, which are almost in 3D, with the surface of the earth projecting from the canvas. Very striking. There were a couple of other important exhibitions at the Contemporary, including striking photographs from Synchrodogs.

Color Wheels

Colored portraits

Landscape?

Photography from Synchrodogs

A series from the USA

Then on to several galleries. Of particular interest was the exhibition at Circuit12 Gallery. We were both taken with the work of Matthew Zefeldt in a group exhibition.  He is a young artist who brings together traditional art forms of oil painting and the digital. All is paintings are done by hand in oil, but seem on first view to be a digital collage. Just really funny and challenging. I was surprised that they had not sold.

Matthew Zefeldt

Matthew Zefeldt

Elvis Memorial Garden, Memphis, TN, November 2015

When in Memphis (and I missed posting this page), we took an early morning visit to Gracelands to see the memorial gardens where Elvis is buried. The house and gardens were at there best. And interesting to view the  memorial gardens.

Gracelands at dawn

The memorial garden

The memorial garden

Dallas and Fort Worth, Texas, December 2015

From Houston, we made our way north to Dallas and Fort Worth. I was rather taken with Fort Worth -- perhaps because it is not so overwhelming as Dallas.

On the night we arrived, we drove out to Fort Worth to Rahr and Sons Brewery to listen to the young opera singers from Fort Worth Opera. We were expecting thirty or so at the Brewery .. wrong, wrong, wrong. There was a crush of two to three hundred people, most drinking beer and talking, but some listening to the opera. It was a very difficult environment for the performers but they labored mightly against the odds. A friendly group of people gave us several hints on where to visit in Forth Worth.

Hundreds of people at the brewery, many lining up for beer (of course!)

Singing opera in a brewery? That is tough!

On the Friday afternoon after I had presented at the University of North Texas, we headed back to the Stockyards District at Fort Worth to see the running of the longhorns. This celebrates a time in Texas history -- a very short time, as it happens, of only a dozen years -- when longhorns were driven to Fort Worth for sale. Twice a day, a group of longhorns are driven down Stockyards Boulevard for the tourists. Interesting to see.

The longhorns being run down Stockyards Boulevard. Notice something wrong in this picture? Look carefully.

In the stockyards

At night, we went to see the rodeo, that is on each weekend year round. I had last been to see a rodeo in the 1990s -- actually, across town at the Mesquite Rodeo. The rodeo is down to earth -- literally. You have to take it for what it is.

At the rodeo

Museum District, Houston, December 2015

One of the great things about Houston is that all the (many) major museums are within walking distance -- or at least, they are in a few minutes by car. We visited the Menil Collection, the Contemporary Arts Museum and the Asia Society Texas Center on different days. The Menil Collection was funded by the de Menil family with oil wealth. It has a stupendous collection of surrealist art and modern American art. Unfortunately, no photographs are allowed, so look up their website. The main building is by Renzo Piano and a striking example of his typical pavilions (and see my post on Fort Worth for another pavilion).

The Contemporary Arts Museum had an exhibition of contemporary Texas design, which was lively and challenging. Who knew there was such as thing as contemporary Texas design!?

And the   Asia Society Texas Center is in a relatively new building by Yoshio Taniguchi, who did the renovation of MOMA in NYC. The Center had an exhibition of contemporary art from Asia which was nothing less than stunning.

Cambodian artist Sopheap Pich works in rattan

The building

Seon Ghi Bahk works with charcoal, strung on nylon line from the ceiling. I have seen nothing like it. You have to stand and look at these works for quite some time.

Cambodian artist Sopheap Pich works in rattan

Mineko Grimmer’s sculptural sound installations

Every 11 minutes, the pond on the second level has mist .. adds a mystical flavor to the building

Houston, Texas, November and December 2015

From New Orleans we headed due west to Houston. In the week after Thanksgiving, things were pretty quiet and we took it rather easy, going to the gym and three movies. It is the Oscar season, so too many good movies to see. Houston is a huge metropolis with ridiculous freeways and interchanges. Oh, and no town planning. But still interesting to visit for a few days.

We did take in a concert at The Match is a brand new $25m venue in Houston. Michel Doneda on saxophone & Tatsuya Nakatani on percussion. New music in Houston, of all places. Tatsuya does incredible things with the percussion. On the Sunday of Thanksgiving there were still sixty or so in the hall. The Match is obviously going to be important in the performance life of the city with several flexible halls for music and theater.