Tarantulas

While we were viewing the Judd aluminum box installation, one of the guys on the tour pointed out this substantial spider keeping cool in the shadow of one of the boxes. The tour guide explained that it was tarantula season in Texas and that they were "on the move". That explained why the highway to Marfa was covered in crawling things I couldn't quite identify from the speeding car. We had another run-in with a tarantula while driving to New Mexico.




We pulled off to the side of Highway 17 to take in the scene when Melody spotted another tarantula hanging out on the shoulder. I walked over and snapped a picture. Soon after the spider begins to amble out onto the highway. There isn't a lot of traffic, but about every 30 seconds a car or truck goes flying by. We began to fear that our arachnid friend would get smashed right in front of our eyes. The spider took about five minutes to cross the highway. During that time there were about ten absurdly close calls where the spider nearly got smashed.



But he made it.

Flavin

Melody in the first Dan Flavin barracks at the Chinati Foundation in Marfa, TX.

Prada Marfa

Melody and I were driving from El Paso to Marfa, Texas last week to see Donald Judd's aluminum boxes and Dan Flavin's flourescent lights. As we were cruising down highway 90, I was concentrating on not running over the tarantulas that were crawling all over the road so I wasn't paying attention to the featureless landscape on either side of the car. All of a sudden, Melody said, "I think we just passed a Prada store". I said I thought that was unlikely, but Melody said we should turn around and check it out. As I was doing a three point turn on the empty highway, Melody suggested that the Prada store might be some Art. She was right.