A few images from the first stage rehearsal of “Devils at Play”, courtesy of Ballroom’s Jennifer Trammell. Click here to RSVP and secure a seat for one of the two free performances this Saturday at the Crowley.
The crossing between Rio Grande Village in Big Bend National Park and the village of Boquillas in the Mexican state of Coahuilla was closed in May of 2002, part of a shutdown of traffic across the US-Mexico border in the wake of the September 11, 2001 attacks. Despite the efforts of a number of activists to re-open the crossing in the style of automated facilities like those found on the US-Canada border, the port of entry at Boquillas stayed closed, fueled in part by the debate over immigration and the explosion of violence elsewhere in Mexico.
As a result, Americans were forced to forgo tacos and beer after a day of hiking or rafting in the park: An idyll documented most famously by Robert Earl Keen on the titular song from his 1994 album, Gringo Honeymoon:
Meanwhile the residents of Boquillas were left without access to groceries or the basic educational and medical resources that they had come to depend on from their American neighbors in Rio Grande Village on the other side of the knee-deep river. While RGV is a few short hours on well-maintained roads from Terlingua, Presidio, Marfa and Alpine, the nearest Mexican town to Boquillas — Melchor Muzquiz — is five hours away on rough dirt tracks. The nearest port of entry between Ojinaga and Presidio is at least a 10 hour drive.
The tourist dollars that were the backbone of the local economy disappeared and Boquillas’ population shrank from 300 to just under 100 people, turning the already impoverished village into a harsh laboratory for many of the ideas explored at the first Marfa Dialogues in 2011, namely a demonstration of the the effects of strangling long-established cross-border exchange between neighbors and families.
That changed on April 10, 2013 when, after years of delays, the crossing re-opened as an automated class-B port of entry. Hundreds of Americans made the trip over to Boquillas in the month that followed. Here’s our primer on the coverage the crossing has received since then:
The New York Times takes a look at what itinerant Far West Texas personality and Design Build Adventure honcho Jack Sanders is up to, with plenty of Marfa coverage thrown in for good measure. Some choice advice from “Lessons in How to Play With Fire“:
“Never panic,” Mr. Sanders announced. “That’s pretty critical. Sparks are flying. It’s loud. People get into trouble from overreacting to the sparks. Don’t be self-conscious about an idea, that’s another one. Things take place right beyond your comfort zone. And right beyond that is injury or death.”
New music from Duemolly, aka Marfa’s own Warren Acosta. Produced by Brian LeBarton and Stomach Club.
MarfaList has all the details for their cassette tape release party, but here’s the nutshell:
“ALL AGES
Thursday, May 2nd, 8-10pm, performance at 9. ADMISSION IS SO FREE.
@ MBCo. (next door to the right, this will be the inaugural event for Tim Crowley’s new event space)”
Also plenty more “trippy party” photos on Twitter. Flyer after the jump …
For the third installment of Rio Bravo, Joaquim Hamou brings UC Berkeley Professor Ronald Rael to the Marfa Book Company where he’ll be “discussing a series of critical / theoretical / architectural interventions he has designed for the US = MEXICO border.” That’s tonight, Thursday 25 April 2013 at 6pm.
Rael’s 2008 book Earth Architecture features Elmgreen & Dragset’s Prada Marfa installation, Presidio’s Adobe Alliance and several other Far West Texas sites.
A preview of Earth Architecture‘s Prada Marfa section via Google Books:
I was working every single day to complete this project,” she said in a video statementHe pick up his son and lifted Lo.
We haven really spoken about it at training,” he said.
Kavita Mariwalla, a New York based Dermatologist says that numerous studies show that, by improving overall health, moderate exercise contributes to a youthful (read: more attractive) appearance.
24, Bazemore.
“If they do that, they minimise the risk of a pendulum or see saw tackle happening,” Harrigan said.
Two years later, when one of the offenders was about to be sentenced, Jordan wrote in a victim impact statement that her daughter was still “in constant fear of black men.
Greller’s experience in the classroom likely helps him on the fairway, Jenks said.
Our quad-annual Flickr crawl. A few highlights.
Marfa landscape by tjtak23 (view the whole set)
The backside of Prada Marfa. Photo by Reed Jones.
Ballroom Marfa, with skateboarders and Woody Guthrie, the dog. Photo by Audrey Golden.
Just in case you’re not joining the army of 60 Minutes tourists who are expected here in our quiet Far West Texas town any day now, you can now take a virtual tour of our gallery space and Rashid Johnson’s New Growth solo exhibition via Google Maps.
And if you do come by IRL, just a reminder: New Growth is on view until 7 July 2013 — and the Ballroom gallery is open with free admission Wednesday through Saturday, 10a–6p and Sunday, 10a–3p.
Preview Sunday night’s Beach House performance at the Crowley Theater here in Marfa with Forever Still, a concert film “directly inspired by Pink Floyd’s Live at Pompeii.” It was recorded near Sonic Ranch in Tornillo, one of our neighbors here in the Far West Texas borderlands.
ALSO: $10 standing room tickets for the sold-out show will be released at the door on Sunday.
Beach House
with Holy Shit
21 April 2013
Crowley Theater, Marfa, TX
Doors at 8 pm; show at 8:30 pm
Click here for more info.
There is a really rich body of work out there
Japan’s narrowly defeated opponents in the Qatar 2011 final, Australia (21st, up 5), as well as the losing semi finalists Korea Republic (32nd, up 7) and this month’s highest climbers Uzbekistan (77th, up 31), have obtained their reward in terms of places and points.
Hawaii becomes first state to raise smoke age to 21Starting on Jan.
I want to score goals again.
“This is just a situation I can laugh at later in life, if I’m here or somewhere else,” he said.
Not much evidence is needed for a judge to compel someone in Georgia to submit to a paternity test, said Randy Kessler, an Atlanta attorney who specializes in family law and is not involved in this case.
A good parent will do anything to take the pain from their children.
the first industrial park of its kind in the world eventually gains acclaim as a classic example of mid 20th century modernism, known as International Style.
Our friends and frequent collaborators at Marfa Book Company have launched their new website. All things MBCo in one place online.
From our friends at the Marfa Book Company:
“Thursday, April 11th 6 pm
RIO BRAVO: Danish artist Joachim Hamou and MBCo are teaming up to reanimate , Hamou’s former gallery and performance space, for a series of three talks pertaining to Border Issues. Join us this Thursday, April 11th, to hear Redford, TX based Historian Enrique Madrid talk about the history and culture of the Greater Big Bend.”
Enrique and his wife Ruby were part of Ballroom and Alyce Santoro‘s Texas Biennial weekend in 2011. Santoro’s short film about Madrid’s radical tortilla cosmology will give you some idea of how deep Enrique can go.
