You’ll have to wait until later in the year before you can see the complete movie, but filmmaker Andrew Garrison has just released these excerpts from his new feature, called “Trash Dance.” The film documents the creation of last September’s performance of The Trash Project, organized by choreographer Allison Orr of Forklift Danceworks and performed by the nimble artists of Austin’s Solid Waste Services Department. (For full effect, we recommend viewing the HD version.)
Video: Andrew Garrison
Same tech, same team: A view of Texas Video & Post’s improvements to Sugar Land City Hall, for New Year’s Eve.
Video: Jack Hattingh
For those of you who missed Downtown’s Gloworama at the end of November last year: A couple of videos showing the George R. Brown Convention Center — as you knew it was, all along.
And now we return once again to Swamplot’s continuing series on love, lust, and Houston’s public spaces. The obelisk of her affection: Hermann Park’s Pioneer Memorial. Next up: A Miniature Choo-Choo Train Named Desire.
Note: Audio possibly NSFW.
Video: sergio
Ah, yes: The signs reader Candace Garcia promised. Photos taken recently on Taft St. between West Gray and Dallas:
COMMENT OF THE DAY: MORE SIGNS OF WHAT THEY’RE THINKING ABOUT IN MONTROSE “There are several more signs on Taft: I really want a baby, just not now. On Westheimer, there’s a sign across for Bj’s that says: I think I’m a bad artist. On Mandell, there are several more signs: I really want to win the lottery and I sometimes think about men. I have photos, just not with me.” [Candace, commenting on Wanted in Montrose: Rock Hard, Built by Apple]
Trying to work in a little last-minute resale shopping before Christmas, photographer Sarah Lipscomb spots a few signs that some desirable hardware is missing in Montrose:
My mom and I were on our way to the Guild Shop the other day and I noticed a couple of multi colored signs posted just before the Fiesta on Dunlavy. The first one says “WHY CAN’T YOU LOVE ME†the next one “LIKE l LOVE YOU?†I thought this was curious, my mom didn’t notice and we kept driving. We get to the Guild and it was closed for Christmas so we turned right on Welch and headed to the Blue Bird (our second choice in Resale shops.) I then see two more signs. The first one says “I WANT A ROCK HARD†next one “SIX PACK†Now I am getting really interested . . .
And where was this? From the description:
take two rails from a gas station, weld them together, dress up as a city worker, install on public land, skate for a few weeks, cry when city takes rail away
Update: Found! Bernard, in a comment, says it’s at the northwest corner of Edloe and Westpark.
Video: Jake Hayes
Steering his bike carefully to avoid the thousands of caterpillars covering Maury St., just off the Elysian Viaduct north of Downtown, 2-wheeled wanderer and lawn-art enthusiast Robert Boyd stumbles across the Fifth Ward workshop of Blumenthal Sheet Metal:
The official address is 1710 Burnett St., but it appears that their facility takes up a whole block–Leona on the south, Burnett on the north, Hardy on the west and Elysian on the east. Blumenthal is a sheet metal fabrication plant, which makes them on the face of it no different from hundreds of small industrial firms in Houston (the secret engines of our city’s economy). Blumenthal has been in business for over a 100 years, which definitely distinguishes them, but what also distinguishes them is that a lot of the fabrication they do is for artists.
Boyd snaps photos of a few Blumenthal constructions in the area:
And now, a rare look at the Second Ward’s indigenous Ship Channel dance ceremony, performed along the gentle banks of Buffalo Bayou and celebrating the bountiful fall harvest of crushed concrete.
Video: Freneticore
Eastwood clock-watcher Spencer Howard documents the end of the line for the 1935 Sterling Laundry & Cleaning Company building on Harrisburg. Metro doesn’t have any use for the bulk of the Streamline Moderne building in the way of the new light-rail East End Line. But how about grabbing that right-twice-a-day timepiece the building is wearing? The bulky fashion accessory might go with any of several new get-ups envisioned for Eastwood Park across the street.
METRO began the disassembly of the building last week. After several days of careful planning, joints were sawed into the steel frame, stucco clad facade. By the end of the week, a large crane was delivered to the site to assist with the removal of the facade.
From Alex Luster’s documentary project, Stick ’Em Up!
Video: Alex Luster
All that uproar over the impending demolition of a favorite Streamline Moderne structure in Eastwood seems to have had an effect: Houston architect Sol R. Slaughter’s 1935 Sterling Laundry & Cleaning Company building at 4819 Harrisburg will be preserved!
Sort of. Metro has committed to saving the façade.
Well . . . maybe at least the center part of it.
Okay really, just the top part, above the door. The part with the clock.
Hey, at least it’s not going to go away!
. . . ?
Uh, well . . . architectural antique fan Spencer Howard, who helped sound the alarm about Metro’s demolition plans for the building a few weeks ago, writes in with the latest:
Deconstruction will begin in two weeks, at which point the façade will be placed in storage (yet to be located) until the permanent home is designed (yet to be funded).
But the face-saving fun doesn’t stop there. After a short but brilliant week of investigations, brainstorming, and Photoshop work, Metro has produced a series of proposals for the rescued stretch of stucco that’s likely to be studied and appreciated by historic preservation experts, redevelopment advocates, and postmodern philosophers for some time to come.
Monday’s presentation at the offices of the Greater East End Management District was simply titled “4819 Harrisburg,” but that’s just Metro being modest. Maybe when this thing is resurrected for academic conferences it can be called something like “Representations of Time: Practical Opportunities in Deconstruction and Preservation.”
Note: Story updated below.
Feel like taking a quick 16-ounce shower after your turn sweating or just watching the action at the Jamail Skatepark? It looks like Matthew Geller’s pipe sculpture at the Sabine Water Pump Station in Buffalo Bayou Park — counterintuitively named Open Channel Flow — is now will soon be open for pumping.
Here’s architect Joe Meppelink of Metalab and family taking a ceremonial first spritz over the weekend:
