Dallas / Fort Worth and Me

First of all, folks, allow me to assure you that I haven’t fallen off the face of the Earth. I’ve been going places and seeing things and taking photos, all for your sake (it’s a hard life!), and now I’ve got several blog entries waiting and eager to be written. I’ve also been working on the 2009 Calendar of Events, which I’ll be unveiling shortly.  

Today, let’s talk about the 46th Annual National Championship Indian Pow Wow, one of many Pow Wows around the continent, which I visited at Trader’s Village in Grand Prairie this past weekend.   It was a fascinating cultural event, about which I’m going to have a lot to say — at least two entries’ worth, I suspect. 

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In my last exciting entry, I told you about my recent visit to the House of Blues in Dallas, which I rather enjoyed and heartily endorse to you all. When I left you, we were waiting for the band (Tokio Hotel) to come on stage. And waiting. And waiting.

That’s the Tokio Hotel symbol up there on the curtain, by the way.

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While tooling around looking for the neighborhood of Lower Greenville recently, I somehow ended up at White Rock Lake and came across the Bath House Cultural Center. Now, anyone who knows Dallas would probably wonder how the hell I managed to end up there when I was supposedly heading for a whole other part of the city, and don’t ask me how it happened; my only excuse is that I was suffering from a combination of too much heat, irritation at a condescending store clerk, an upset stomach, and an annoying bout of moving house. Yes, I really have been living in Dallas for 15 years, and yes, I really did get completely turned around the other day. These things happen to me. Look, shut up.*

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To paraphrase an old Mark Chestnutt song, I’ll sure be glad when these ol’ dog days of summer are gone. There’s just not much brewing here in the middle of August, when it’s omigod hot and the days go on and on — what Southern novelist Babs Deal described as “acres of afternoon.”  You want to know what I’ve got planned for the rest of this month? Well, you’ve seen a lot of it already in my recent entries on July Jazz and Symphonic Saturdays, both of which we can thank the civic-minded Town of Addison for. So gracias, Addison, for doing your damnedest to keep culture alive as we slide slowly toward fall.

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If you head over to West Dallas, off Olive Street, you’ll find an interesting place called Victory Park. It’s only a few years old, but it’s definitely worth visiting when you’re in town. Not only does Channel 8, WFAA-TV, maintain a broadcasting studio there — with glass walls, so you can gawk at the local news personalities as they work — but American Airlines Center, our newest and most expensive sports stadium, anchors the far end. 

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Addison is a relatively small town imbedded deep within Dallas County. It’s all city, more or less; the only way you can tell when you’ve crossed over from Dallas or Richardson or wherever is when you see the street signs, which are all labeled Addison! in flowing script. I used to work there  once upon a time, and I’ve gone to quite a few events in this little “Mid-City”, as we call the prosperous burgs between Dallas and Forth Worth.

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This weekend I was fortunate enough to attend this year’s ARTFEST, an institution that returned to Fair Park after several years of being celebrated in Addison.  Thanks to a very nice lady named Susan Friedman, who handled the PR for the event, I even got free tickets (thanks, Susan!).  Of course, I would have attended anyway, but I’m never going to turn down free.

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A few weeks back, I attended the Cottonwood Art Festival held in Cottonwood Park, Richardson. Now, Richardson was my home for 11 of the 15+ years I’ve lived in DFW, but for some reason I’d never attended the Cottonwood — a fact I’m kicking myself about now. I had a good time, despite the fact that I lost my cell phone, a traumatic event I’ll talk more about later.

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 Before we return to our regularly scheduled program, folks, I wanted to point out that May is chockfull of exciting events to attend — so many, in fact, that I expect to be writing about them well into June (which is also an eventful month).  While the various Cinco de Mayo celebrations and Richardson’s Cottonwood Arts Festival are over, there’s still lots to do.

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Once more into the breach, dear friends, and I’ll be done with my report on Ye Olde Scarborough Renaissance Festival. While the bulk of this particular entry will be devoted to photos (primarily from the Grande Parade), there are a few more things I’d like to point out.

One thing you’ll need to check out is the glassmaking exhibit, which (much to my irritation) I was unable to get any decent pictures of.  This blurry image of the glassblower rolling a molten blob of glass is about the best I could do. The pictures of everything else — including the roaring furnaces — didn’t really come out.

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