sorry, we're closed...

marfa kinda closes up shop mondays...and some places don't open again until wed...the coffee shop, the brown recluse - a shop run by big bend coffee raosters, is closed tuesdays and wednesdays...what the? the pizza joint is also closed those days...it's a ghost town until mid-week...the chinati foundation, the bq joint, the juice place, the book store...closed.
so today, after having a nice south african/mexican breakfast and coffee (for me) and yogurt, fruit and tea (for shauna) we headed to fort davis to see what's there - answer: not much...but along the way we dropped by the airport to look at the gliders. the marfa gliders is a group that really does this sort of thing up right and were having a rally of some sort. it was a 200 dollar tab if we wanted to go up - each - so we passed...pretty cool though.

tonight was wine and pizza night but the wine we bought at the local grocer - actually open for business - was off (as in shitty..)...so, shauna went got the hotel bar and got a glass of wine for herself and a margarita for me...that and our new found fireplace - we had to switch rooms today because our other one was already booked and they moved us to a much nicer room...with a patio and an outdoor fireplace...lcd tv on the wall, a fancy LG remote control air conditioner, cd player/radio, fridge, etc....nice....all for the same price as our previous room - which was also a nice room.
tomorrow we're heading back towards el paso as we leave outta there wed. evening...off to phoenix (for our connecting flight...) and then to seattle...to pick-up the lawn order limo and outta there...we may stay in seattle but haven't decided yet...

more as it develops.

g. xo

more sunburns, more art and coffee.

we spent most of our day today at the chinati foundation wandering the grounds and looking at the art there...the judd stuff was awesome, the chamberlain pieces were interesting in a great space and the rest was...well, it's really all great just not all of it rocked our boat...
we also found a coffee shop today - this is a big deal here...had some local pizza for lunch and tried to see the world famous marfa lights - still bullshit as far as i can tell...
oh, and we had dinner at sonic burger again since almost everything is closed here sundays. no shit, this ain't the big city leroy.
we've moved from alpine into marfa and set-up shop at the paisano hotel. nice.
here are a few pics from today....ok, more than a few.

g. xo

mmmm, sunburn.

from inside the sheds that house judd's aluminum boxes.

sometimes ya gotta just jump.

more marfa.

doors in side the hall that houses chamberlain's work.

shauna takes in the shade next to judd's cement boxes out in the field near the sheds.

judd's aluminum boxes inside the old artillery sheds.


judd's cement boxes.


judd made beautiful swinging doors on a central pivot.

dan flavin flourescent pieces were next.

more cement action. it was really fuckin' hot out.

j-j-j-jump!

the banquet hall.

more aluminum boxes.

the converted artillery sheds.


pieces by chamberlain.


copper action.

solid copper milled pieces.

wine, art and sunburns....all in a day in marfa.

we were a little slow getting going today, which was and is fine, we're on vacation afterall...we wandered down to the main drag of alpine and then wandered around looking for an espresso shop that was, or so we had read, great...we finally found it, and it was decent and had a coffee and a smoothie there before heading off to marfa to begin our day there wandering around. you have to book in advance for the tours at the chinati foundation so i did that this morning online and we're all set-up for tomorrow. it's a two part tour, one at ten a.m and the second half at 2 p.m. a whole lot of art tomorrow...judd style.
there are a lot of galleries here for how small the area is and we saw a lot of them today...we also stopped by a winery called the Luz de Estrella winery that has won some awards for their vino...after sampling some of their stock shauna was not impressed but we did have a very good conversion with the kid who was manning the shop. he had grown up in marfa and gave us some good info about the area. they had some cool little pooches there that just seemed to roam around and sit in the shade of the cars parked there.
when we got into marfa we parked and went into a gallery there that had three pieces from andy warhol's 'last supper' - something i know nothing about. at the gallery we struck up a conversation with the woman taking care of business there, gretchen lee coles, who is an artist herself living and working in marfa. she used to teach at some big US university in chicago but now lives here in a converted shed of sorts. we went by her place because she was/is having an outside art exhibit outside her place based, essentially, on 'x' marks the spot.
marfa has a couple fancyish restaurants and tonight we choose the blue javelina located just at the entrance to marfa. a nice place that's understated and somewhat casual with a decent menu...i wasn't crazy about my meal but it has more to do with what it was not how it was - if that makes sense....shauna had a largeish salad with avacado, prawns and bacon...she loved it...also we had a quatro leche cake for dessert with caramel that we loved and, in fact, ordered a second piece of.
now, time to sleep and get ready for the big judd action tomorrow morning....
night night.

g. xo

here are a lot of pictures from today.

shauna tries on the mascot head of the university here. nice.

the luz de estrella winery.

what would donald do?

wine doggies.


no guns in the gallery please.

no grapes in the winery right now.

nice little house in alpine.

downtown alpine.

andy.

marfa.

our hotel in alpine.

more judd love.

more marfa.

hhhmm, friday, must be texas...

yup.
at 5 a.m. today, this morning, like early, our cell phone alarms went off and we were on our way outta NYC...bye, bye big apple. we caught a flight outta there at 8 a.m. and were on our way to chicago (connecting flight doncha know...) - again - and then off to el paso, texas...where's it's considerably warmer - shauna's happy about that.
so we're now driving a ford mustang rent a car - and i'm happy to be out of the air (because flying is bullshit...) and we're made it to marfa, texas..actually we're in alpine, texas because all the hotels in marfa we're booked-up..and super expensive. it would seem in the last six years or so, since i was last here, marfa's become an art hotbed - although, i think the art was always here it's just now it's more well known for art and the hotels and such are taking advantage. an old hotel called the thunderbird - which was a run down hotel - is now a five star ultra modern hipster hangout with wi-fi, swimming pool, art from high brow artists, cd and dvd players in all the rooms, hipster furnishings, etc...super nice but anywhere from 125 to 200 bux a night - in town of 2100 people...yikes. we paid less in NYC...sure, it was the belnord hotel but it was NYC...and there's a super fancy restaurant there as well that we're gonna try out tomorrow night and a show in a gallery here that includes some odd warhol pieces...
it's a bit odd, sure i only spent a day here before but, it was a much more rundown version of marfa than this...i like where it's going but i hope it doesn't get so full of itself that it's becomes unaffordable for people who just wanna see some cool art in the middle of nowhere...
and speaking of out in the middle of nowhere. there's a prada store that we had been told about that is a replica of an actual prada boutique near valentine, texas - about 25 miles from marfa. some artists made it and filled it with some shoes and bags from the 2005 prada collection. and then closed it up. the doors don't open and never will. it is basically being left to rot, sort of. it has electricity so the store is lit up at night but that's it. it will, one day, just fall apart from the elements. i can't say i 'get it' but i think it's interesting. and yes, it's art, but what kind or what it means i'm not sure. and maybe that doesn't really matter.



tonight we ate sonic burgers for dinner and then hit the local grocery store for some breakfast shitola and now need some sleep...that sonic burger was really good...

night night.

g. xo


some pictures i took near sierra blanco, texas.




our sweet ride while in texas.

hey! let's go to the guggenheim!

ok...let's not, it's closed thursdays...and speaking of thursday, yesterday was wed. - issy's birthday...happy birthday issy...we made our way over to the googlyheim this morning and found it's closed on thursdays - well, of course it is...so fuck it - we made our way back downtown and grabbed a coffee and made plans with monica for dinner at sylvia's in harlem. i bought some Mets gear, ate some pizza, shauna dropped into H&M, and then we walked some more and rolled like we do on the subways...hit chelsea, the village and then out to harlem tonight for dinner at sylvia's....nice - that's some great food...thanks to marcy for pointing us in that direction....
we're off to texas tomorrow for a few days and will, hopefully, get there with no problems as American Airlines has had some wacky inspections in the last couple of days grounding few planes.
cross yer fingers...

g. xo

welcome to harlem.


shauna enjoys some salami in grand central station.

sylvia's...

combo plate.


a tribute to mishi's dad, peter...a cheesecake called 'little fella'.


monica and her new sweetie pie outside sylvia's.


pies.


my slice of pie.


125th street subway station in harlem.



the world famous apollo theatre.


central park.