The Dirty Bay

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I've been passing this piece of street art along NASA Road 1 for a while now, but I only stopped to photograph it today. I'm still pondering why a horn is levitating above his hands...

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My wife got me interested in orchids, and we now have several in our home. It's very exciting when it sends out a spike, and we know blooms are coming!

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Just a helicopter on a flatbed trailer.

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Last weekend, I went on an architectural tour of downtown Houston put together by the group Preservation Houston. The tour got canceled less than halfway in because of heavy rain, but just seconds before it started pouring, I managed to get some photos of Houston's City Hall, built in 1939 in the Art Deco style. I darkened it in order to bring out the storm clouds and to try to give it a sense of menace.

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On Tuesdays and Thursdays, I drive out to Liberty County early to teach dual-credit classes at two of the local high schools. I was lucky enough to have my camera with me for this sunrise, over US 90 between Dayton and Liberty.

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Recently, as I was driving back from meeting some of my dual-credit students on an overcast day, I saw a sign which simply read "Cemetery" pointing down a county road. I couldn't resist and followed it to Guedry Cemetery, just south of Batson. Two groundskeepers were there, tending a burn pile of branches they'd cleared from the graves, as i slowly walked among the section of older graves. Several caught my eye, but I particularly loved this one, a granite Bible atop a granite pulpit, both covered in lichen and algae.

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Another piece from Gallery M Squared. This figure was mounted above me on the office wall, and I took the photo looking  up. I used a lot of shadow to maximize the creepiness...

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Last night, the poet, actress, and artist Antonia Lassar performed at Zeteo, a church near Rice University. She is wonderfully talented and honest.

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This "Greetings from Houston" mural is on the side of Gelazzi Ice Cream in the Heights area of Houston. I saw a picture of it online and wanted to track it down myself, and only after photographing it did I realize it's done by one of my favorite Houston street artists, Daniel Anguilu.

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The East End of Houston is undergoing the process of gentrification--an older run-down neighborhood gets "rediscovered" and prospers--but it's a slow, patchwork process, as seen by these two historic buildings. In the first, a 1929 Weingarten's (one of Houston's oldest supermarket chains) was lovingly restored to its original Spanish-Colonial-style glory, while this once-magnificent Art Deco building (I have no idea when it was built but likely 1940s) crumbles and rots.

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On Labor Day, I spent the morning tracking down various murals I'd either read about or seen photos of. The exterior walls of the Avis Frank Gallery, on White Oak Dr in the Heights, are covered with art by several prominent Houston artists. One of my favorites was this one--a serene but wounded girl cradling her pet whale, who himself is enjoying a long strand of spaghetti. Whimsical and affecting, all at the same time.

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My latest travel and photography blog post, this time exploring Beaumont and its history. 

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Strange to find a pyramid in East Texas, but I discovered this wonder down a side street in Cleveland, Texas. No sign or front entrance indicated the pyramid's purpose, but a rendition of the Last Supper was carved on the adjacent stone wall, so perhaps it is a chapel of some kind? A true mystery...

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On my recent drive through Houston's East End, I saw this rusting sign for the Milby Barber Shop and doubled back to photograph it. I wonder how long it's hung there?

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Bragg Road Paranormal Investigation, May 1, 2014.

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Last weekend, I stopped to photograph this old gas station (which I think dates to the 30s) on Harrisburg Blvd, in Houston's East End. The owner, Juan, was happy to talk about the building (he's owned it since 1971) and was just as happy to pose with his antique register.

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Between classes one Tuesday, I drove down US 90 looking for things to photograph. In China, a small town of 1100, I saw the Our Lady of Sorrows Church, with its bells dramatically silhouetted against a dark sky.