From: pete (temperaprint@blueyonder.co.uk)
Date: 04/13/02-11:46:05 AM Z
Clay Harmon
> on 4/13/02 3:04 AM, Judy Seigel at jseigel@panix.com wrote:
>
>
>>> ... Like Judy, I also photograph "ugly" things almost
>>> daily here in Houston; as well as photographing the magnificent live
>>> oaks and huge pines in our neighborhood, I put garbage bags, trash,
>>> rusting machinery and old warehouses in my digital collages. I have
>>> come to love looking at these things. (Houston is a very ugly city.
>>> If you like ugly, you would love Houston.) These collages have the
>>> beautiful trees in the background and the foreground is filled with
>>> weird junk from people's yards and from the streets. Also there are
>>> lots of freeway ramps, cars and downtwon buildings. I am making a
>>> website now where these collages will soon be available for your
>>> delectation.
>>
>> With all due respect to Houston, which must have some redeeming features
>> and some fine sections, I spent a week there in 1978 -- for the "Women's
>> Meeting," we were "arts delegates," and Bella Abzug was the wicked witch
>> of the east. I never imagined a city could be so oppressive -- everything
>> was in highrises -- no street life, no street food, no pedestrians, no
>> sidewalks, and if you did walk, nothing to see at street level because
>> everything was 15 stories up in a tall building. Actually, the sight of
>> some trash would have been a relief... all we could see was "moderne"
>> architecture -- metal and marble.
>>
>
> I have lived and worked in Houston for over 10 years now, and I can say that
> it may be one of the ugliest cities in the U.S. Yet at the same time, it can
> be beautiful in some places, often within a few blocks of the ugliness. It
> is a shining example of the results of a totally laissez faire, no zoning,
> unplanned, freewheeling metropolitan development. Housing is cheap, the food
> is great, the traffic awful, and the people are unpretentious for the most
> part. The weather is brutally hot in the summer and beautifully mild in the
> winter. It's a total contradiction. It's so homely it's interesting. Lyle
> Lovett is from here.
>
> Clay
>
Sounds Great to me something like Southend-on-sea except for weather, which
is brutally mild.
Pete
PS_ It is sometimes described locally as the A/hole of Great Britain
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