Art shows and food trucks....Life Is Good!

My second favorite time of the year after Autumn (football season, cooler weather) is this too-brief anomaly known as "Spring".  It's that tiny little gap between blah winter and hotter 'n hell summer when all the artsy types bring their cool stuff out to art shows for the rest of us to admire (and hopefully buy).  

Last weekend we found a new show, this one in Deep Ellum. 

 This is a seedy area of Dallas just east of downtown that has become a magnet for all the bohemian types in town. 

Lots of bars....

 ....and tattoo parlors and little hole-in-the-wall clubs buried deep in the alleys

....and some really talented artists.

Down a six-block stretch they set up their stalls, and young and old alike showed up to admire their talents.  The people-watching was phenomenal.  Wanna know where all the old hippies went?  I found 'em.  :)

This weeks art show couldn't have been any more opposite....suffice it to say the Main Street Arts Festival in downtown Foat Wuth was classy with a capital K.

 

 It was a judged show, meaning only the best of the best (as chosen by judges) were invited to participate.

 

This was apparently judged tops in the "carved horns and old bottle caps" category.  (Hey, it's Fort Worth.  Cowboy hats and boots are still considered de rigueur.)

I must hand it to our cousins to the west....they have fixed up their downtown and made it a true fun destination with....

 Little urban oasis scattered around  

The Bass Performance Center

Impromptu "guy juggling fire while riding unicycle" venue

Quiet little sidewalk bistros

And they're apparently much more open minded than I would have thought, too, as evidenced by this topiary  commemorating....umm....mans' desire to do unnatural things to animals?

 

  I was even inspired to try my hand at creative photography.  *Look ma....I'm an artiste!*

The one piece of art that impressed me the most was this "kinetic sculpture" by Jeffrey Zachmann.  To truly appreciate it you have to see all the moving pieces working together.  Just click on any one of the pieces shown on his website here and you'll see for yourself how hypnotizing they can be.

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After all that we went back towards home, stopping in at the Frisco Food Truck Expo (or whatever they called it).

I almost went Italian, but passed because I was sorta scared of where it might be in my digestive system when it exploded.

Instead I had a coupla sliders from Easy Slider.  They were awesome!  Angus beef, grilled jalapenos and onions, barbecue sauce and....oh yeah....BACON!

Apparently the Dallas Cowboys souvenir shop on wheels sold out of Jerry Jones Voodoo dolls early as I didn't see even one patron buy anything the whole time we were there.  *snicker*

That was our weekend(s).  Hope you had a good one, too.   :)

S

Just kickin' back....

For once I have nothing bad to say about our Texas weather.  Nothing at all.  Right now it's perfect!  Saturday was one of those Chamber of Commerce days where promises of....well....anything wouldn't be enough to coax you back inside.

Yesterday was the first arts festival of the year, and as luck would have it it was just a couple miles up the road from us in beautiful downtown Frisco.

It wasn't a big show at all, nor was it even a judged show, but it was a show.  And as we haven't been to one in 6 months,  I'll take it.  The morning began sweater cool, but it quickly warmed up into the low 70's.  Here is K holding Luke the Wonder Dog, who for a while became an unwitting therapy dog. 

All day long people were trooping over to visit with K and The Lukester.  Pay attention single guys....little dogs are a chick magnet!  (Don't worry, I had them both on a short leash  :)

The setting was our downtown City Hall plaza.  This little country (?) town has blossomed in just a decade from this...

....to this.  

Fifteen years ago our city fathers hustled themselves a giant shopping mall, which is today the city's sales-tax-producing cash cow, enabling us to build ourselves monuments like this opulent City Hall / Library complex.  (Unfortunately many of our residents have let their heads grow to match our city hall's proportions, too.)

We didn't buy anything because the things that appealed to me / us all cost up into four figures.  Ouch!  Instead we pooled our liquid assets and drove over to Hook, Line, and Sinker for some....umm....

....liquid assets.  And some shrimp, catfish, hush puppies, and fries, too.

In the coming weeks we have more art shows in Deep Ellum, Southlake, Foat Wuth, and Cottonwood.  And I'll probably sneak in a Cars and Coffee, also.  

Springtime in Texas is pretty sweet.  Just wish it could last longer.  :)

S