Your Daily Awesome

David Byrne recently spent some time in Marfa, TX with a slew of TX musicians like Joe Ely, Terry Allen, and Guy Clark. Marfa is one of my favorite spots on the American map (top 3, easy), and David Byrne is one of my favorite living artists (top 5), so this confluence of favorites fills my body with inspiration and longing. Byrne writes about Marfa here (part 1) and here (part 2).

Inhuman, post-human or spiritually transcendent? I sense the utopian ambitions of the 50s and 60s here, paired with a spiritual yearning and Protestant need for control. No sloppy hippie shit here. Libation and self-denial, simultaneously. Push and pull. A bundle of contradictions if you ask me, but fascinating.

People from distant parts are moving here. The “Pizza Foundation” restaurant (a pun of the various art foundations in town) is staffed by RISD graduates. Collectors pass through, there are dinners and drinks and late nights. MoMA runs a film program here (they’re thinking of moving to a drive-in to be built on Barry Tubb’s property.) Visiting artists — some invited by the art foundations — stay for a while and create editions and strange new works. The ranchers welcome the influx of cash, but it’s a bizarre coexistence. The real estate prices have rocketed up — especially for the charming and elegantly proportioned old buildings and houses that remain. The prices may be low by Houston or NY standards, but they’re becoming prohibitively high for locals.

Photograph of Marfa by Allison V. Smith.