From: shannon stoney (sstoney@pdq.net)
Date: 04/15/02-07:08:42 AM Z
> >
>> >winter. It's a total contradiction. It's so homely it's interesting. Lyle
>> >Lovett is from here.
>
>Who is Lyle Lovett ?
He's a homely but interesting country music person. He was going to
perform at a party we went to last weekend, but a bull sat on him and
broke his leg and thumb.
>
>> I live in an old neighborhood near downtown. My favorite thing to
>> photograph is people's yard art. This IS a pedestrian
>> neighborhood--one of the few that's left--built in the late 19th,
>> early 20th century. The sidewalks are fairly close to the porches,
>> so there's lots of decoration. One of my neighbors has a toilet in
>> her front yard decorated with ceramic ducks and an agave plant in a
>> pot on the seat. This is par for the course.
>>
>
>I'm sorry Shannon, this isn't ugly at all. It sounds even better than New
>Jersey with the shrines and flamingos -- more individual character &
>imagination. Which is to say pure MFA heaven.
Could you write an email to sbloom@uh.edu and tell her that?
OK, if toilets in the front yard aren't ugly enough for you, how
about...smog on the freeway? I have lots of pictures of the freeway
shrouded in smog. And what about pictures of the businesses along
the feeder road, such as CARPET GIANT, a bright blue building with
huge red letters and a picture of a giant holding a roll of carpet?
Or the pair of giant concrete car salesmen guarding their lot a few
blocks away from our house? Naah...I guess that's more Jersey
kitsch. How about...a concrete river with deformed catfish scouring
the bottom?
Darn. I suppose it's all homely but interesting.
OK, what WOULD be ugly in Houston?
>
>Maybe they'll do the townhouses with rust? And are there trees?
No. They didn't leave room in front to plant any trees. The houses
are pretty close to the street. Those houses are going to be very hot
in August, and/or the AC is going to run constantly.
There are some tin houses in Houston. Some architect came up with
the idea, and there are a bunch of them, with galvanized metal
siding. But they aren't rusty yet. Also, they are sort of like
fortresses, with only a garage on the ground floor and big fences
around them. They seem to hate and fear the neighborhood they are in.
--shannon
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