18th Annual Deep Ellum Arts Festival

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One of Deep Ellum's familiar faces

The 18th Deep Ellum Arts Festival got underway Friday. Pictures are from day two (Saturday) with the closing day Easter Sunday.

Deep Ellum is an awesome area . It is one of the most eclectic entertainment districts from before the days of Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrows who lived in Deep Ellem,Texas at one time. It is a historic district that continues to thrive as an entertainment district when music,film and fashion are in their most creative modes.Artist do what they do and Deep Ellum is the place to do it. There are actually two Deep Ellums. One by day and the other one by night. During the day it is a sleepy place with old line businesses caring on their daily business. About 4PM, Deep Ellum comes alive with restaurants,bars,clubs, some of the best tattoo salons anywhere. Rock and eclectic band groups, keep the entertainment going into the wee hours of the morning.

Sheridan of the band,Convoy and the Cattlemen on fiddle.
Ladies and Gentlemen, put your hands together for them boots!

Convoy (Tyler) in the black hat and rattlesnake boots with Joel on guitar. Not pictured is Alex on lap steel ,Benji,bassist and Chris on drums.

During the festival, it is one of the few times each year when you can actually walk down the center of Dallas' Main Street eating corn dogs and funnel cakes! Or, listen to a band from a stand-up table while drinking  cold brews.Albeit a few hundred blocks from the center of downtown.

Dallas Little League Make the Big Leagues!



Close up  of the Big New Board

The Big New Sign Board

The Second and Smaller Score Board

Dallas Little League not only got new fields with lights, the new score boards are up,too! They look very nice. This summer at Winfrey Point will be a class act on the diamonds.

Two Generations of Kayakers

On this late winter afternoon,the low gray clouds that hung over the lake this morning and cast that gloomy winter's look, lifted. The sun was warm. There was a North wind that had a bit to it at times but outdoors was the place to be.

Now, this is what I had in mind.



Where's Forward?

 There were two kayakers that I had seen on the lake earlier when I came across a guy putting in a paddle board and a father and son team getting ready to launch their trip on the lake. This team  represented two generations of the sport and for that reason, that is somewhat unusual, brings them to the blog today.

Aargh! Portage!

Missed the Demonstration but Caught the Event

In solidarity with Occupy Wall Street, the General Assembly of Occupy Dallas staged a demonstration today. The Death of the American Dream was a mock funeral and complete with a casket. I would have liked to have been there.  But, I did happen upon the No War on Iran event.

The System was Never Broken. It was Built This Way

No War on Iran

I'm a product of the 60's. My first demonstration to attend was right in the middle of Court Street and Union under the center hung stoplight. Antioch College,the birthplace of protest, was about 80 miles North  and West of the stop light. That movement,while birthed at Antioch,  moved West to San Francisco and  became the Haight-Ashbury cradle of the demonstrations and protest of the Viet Nam War. The rest--as they say--is history. So, I remember intersections and their potential. When I saw the crowds on all four corners of Royal Lane and Greenville Avenue today, I had to stop and get some pictures of the No War on Iran event.

White Rock and a Record Rainfall

Most rain ever in the month of January 4.27 inches officially at DFW International Airport.

The roar was amazing

The noise of heavy rain after it falls was a crowd  draw today at the spillway of White Rock Lake. Several mentioned that this was the highest that they had ever seen the water. I can't recall a time when it was more. Love Field,which is closer to White Rock, had 4.46 inches, but the official record keeper is DFW, some 20 miles to the West.

The Old Katy Railroad Bed

Straight out of a James Bond movie, men were down in the drain pipe as it was covered over and new sections were added in the front. But, the history here lies in the railroad bed that the drain pipes are now below.
The Katy or the Missouri,Kansas,Texas Railroad (M-K-T) was the first railroad to enter Texas from a Northerly point. It was chartered on  May 23,1870. The railroad's stock symbol was K-T and soon, the railroad was know as the K-T. Later it was changed to Katy. Today the 3.5 mile long section of the Katy Trail has been  converted to a trail from the Park Cities area to the American Airlines Center downtown. There is a Katy Trail extension that runs through the M-Streets and connects with White Rock Lake. This new section is just North of Mockingbird Lane and runs South/Southwest to the Katy Trail Extension just before T and P hill. Following the railroad bed that has been removed, the former track parallels the water filtration building, is now an active finished trail that crosses Grand Avenue at Gaston and continues up the hill behind the golf course off Samuel Blvd., where it once tied into the Union Pacific track section that is live rail today. At this point, the trail turns and heads to Fair Park.
Going North from this point  the former rail bed travels along its present course crossing Greenville Avenue just North of Meadow Road, traveling along what is presently used by DART on the Red Line adjacent to the Royal Oaks Golf Course .

Looking North toward the Meadow/Greenville Crossing

A symphony of equipment working in unison to travel forward with drainage culverts buried under the old Katy Railroad tracks.

A Sneak Preview of the March Celebration

Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge

There were people on the bridge today en mass. The excitement for the first weekend in March celebration  grows as people check out the newest landmark on the Dallas skyline. Here are a couple of images from  today.

The Santiago Calatrava portion of the bridge begins where the cable stays begin, 600 feet eitherside of the signature portion  that stands 400 feet. So, 1,200 feet in the center is cablle stayed, holding the bridge deck up.