Author: Nico

Designing for Nature

Buffalo Bayou showcased its new look this weekend. There’s something about the modern design that produces an odd mix of emotions. You want to love it because it’s modern. But like modern homes, it lacks warmth and community. The Riverwalk in San Antonio bridges that gap brilliantly and still offers plenty of non-touristy trails. Buffalo Bayou can’t be The Riverwalk … but it could go a little more in that direction. As it stands today, it’s pretty stark.

The new walking-trails deliver a quiet, eerie, uneasy stroll through a land-of-the-lost motif. Sudden severe structures rise right out of the Bayou and reach for the sky. Tiny people way up on the bridge look freaky. There are no lovers lanes in this new dystopia. Maybe that’s good. But Bird Watchers…? A dream come true. And there’s a brilliant Dog Park where dogs run free and splash each other in the world’s biggest bath tub. It’s wonderful. There are successes here for sure.

Like “The Kitchen at The Dunlavy.” In spite of its cold steel and polished concrete it has a strange allure … and sometimes, a strange smell. It’s on the Bayou after all.

I can’t help wondering if the designers had it in mind that the built environment would impinge minimally upon the natural environment. If so, they succeeded and there’s something to said for that approach. But it’s not a happy design.

Buffalo Bayou October 3rd 2015

The Spot

We found China Garden over 35 years ago (yikes!) when like us, it was still relatively young, or so it seemed. We made our annual pilgrimage to it last night for a party to find it still there and still great – best Egg Rolls in the known world. When you can get great Egg Rolls with Jasmine Tea what else do you need? Well, a lot apparently as those familiar old waiters began filling our table. Nothing’s changed … almost.

The 2nd generation runs the place now. The 3rd generation is running away as fast as they can to pursue art, photography, yoga, anything to escape fate. There’s something magical about cooking food and serving people but you better love it ’cause it takes commitment and deep reservoirs of ready energy. It’s easy to understand why some people do it and why others won’t.

There one more thing different now – a giant Orange tree growing right out of the sidewalk. And dire warnings against picking from it. The tree is magnificent and laden with fruit that glows in the dark of the neon night. The owner says she lets them tree-ripen before picking. I’m sure they will be amazing.

Taking the long way home, I couldn’t help thinking about all the gatherings we’ve held there over the years: dinner with friends, dinner with family, birthday dinner parties, and dinner parties for no reason. Recalling the loud-shout euphemistically referred to as dinner conversation in those ancient times, I began to see that in some ways we were a lot older then. I hope we will always have this spot, with brand new memories, and us.

Charlie’s Birthday Party at China Garden 10/02/15 10:30PM. It was stellar.

Dangerous Allure

When Chevrolet introduced the only American made air-cooled rear engine car in 1965 it caused a sensation. But it was dubbed “The One-Car Accident” by a young muckraking activist in a hit-piece on the auto industry called, Unsafe At Any Speed. The Chevy Corvair made Ralph Nader famous. This is the Pickup version and you can see it today at Gen’s Antiques on 19th Street in The Heights.

The Corvair was a stripped-down car targeted at the folks but the Pickup had innovations that have never been duplicated even today among Pickups: Cab-over forward control, rear engine mount, and a fold-down side panel on the bed makes a ramp for rolling-up cargo – like your motorcycle.

The 60s were like no other decade before or since. You had to be there. No seat belts. No holds barred. No safe sex. Fender Stratocasters smashed and burned on stage. Civil Rights. Psychedelic music. Psychedelic T-shirts. Psychedelics. The original Mustang. Louis Armstrong, Louie Louie, and Gloria all in one decade. And the Chevy Corvair. Until that humorless troll killed it with the stroke of his righteous pen.

In 1969 Woodstock signaled the end of the long strange trip, and the end of the Chevy Corvair. The Corvair symbolized the 60s perfectly: heat-seeking-cool, stripped-down, dangerous as hell, and unsafe at any speed. When Ralph Nader finally killed the Corvair he killed fun, he killed the 60s, and saved thousands of lives.

Still, if this Corvair Pickup ever comes up For Sale, the next thing you’ll see is me driving West on I-10 toward Santa Barbara with my motorcycle sitting over the rear-engine, a mile of smile on my face.

September 2, 2015

Update Note – March 2018
Gen’s Antiques closed and the object of my desire has simply disappeared into the fabric of the city

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