Osler's Razor

For the past ten years, Dallas has been somewhat of a mystery to me. Austin, I get-- you hang around outside, let your hair go, enjoy life, have a hippie burger-- and I like it. But Dallas was a mystery. It struck me as big and corporate and impersonal. The green lights attached to the tall buildings seemed intended to attract aliens, and I didn't know where I was most of the time. As it turns out, I just wasn't going with the right people.

On Saturday, I drove up to Dallas with my dad to visit some galleries, and I finally saw a wonderfully human side of Dallas, and a new side of my dad.

First of all, the art scene in Dallas seemed much more vibrant and alive than the one in Austin (I went there on Friday with my dad for the same reason). Many of the Dallas galleries are on Dragon Street in the Design District, and somehow the aesthetics of that area suit Dallas in a wonderful way. It isn't a city street, really, like you would find in Chelsea or the West Village, or a new clean-scrubbed area. It has a certain grit to it. Dragon Street is a semi-industrial alley with hidden coves of beauty along the way. It reminded me of Detroit, in a way-- albeit, a more successful Detroit, but with a similar feel to the best and most creative parts of that city.

In the late afternoon we went to some galleries, had dinner at the Meddlesome Moth on Oak Lawn (pictured here), and then went back down Dragon later in the evening for some opening parties. We drank wine, laughed, and walked from party to party. In the course of this, I saw a part of my own father I had not truly seen in my forty-something years around him. I loved seeing him talk to other artists he did not know, exchanging stories with them. There was this wonderful bond he shared with other people who have a true passion for their subjects (and that is a sub-set of all artists); their conversations were electric with creative energy. We all admire our parents, but it is perhaps too rare that at this point in life we find new things to admire-- still, that is what happened on Saturday.

It was a wonderful evening.

And now I kinda like Dallas.