Friday, November 28, 2014

Today's Totally Tacky Look At Texas Will Not Include A Visit To Black Friday's Loneliest Downtown In America

The past few days Google has had me motivated to do something I have not done in years. As in open all the webpages that exist under my durangotexas.com domain.

We are talking hundreds upon hundreds of webpages. Some of which were initially made late in the previous century, as in early on in my Exile in Texas.

One of the webpages that I had not looked at in years is titled Totally Tacky Texas.

Apparently before I found myself adjusted to the Texas culture shock I found a lot of things that I came across to be a bit tacky. This all seems quaint to me now, like I was operating out of my naive innocence, or something like that.

One of the tacky things I made note of is still being tacky all these years later, that being the long abandoned eyesore in the Fort Worth Stockyards called the New Isis Theater.

The blurb I wrote about the New Isis Theater sort of sounds like the type stuff I am still saying, all these years later....

The example of Texas Tacky to your left is in Fort Worth's Stockyards. There is an abandoned theater on Main Street in the heart of the Stockyard's 'Historical District' called, ironically, the 'New Isis'. This theater appears to have long been abandoned, broken windows covered with plywood as per the Fort Worth standard for abandoned buildings. To add to the tackiness semi-current messages are put on the marquee. On one side the sign says 'Welcome to the Historic Fort Worth Stockyards', while the other side announces 'Christmas in the Stockyards', which would be fine, except this sign still says this, on the first day of spring, 2002, well after Christmas. It is difficult to understand how a major city would allow such an eyesore to exist in the heart of its main claim to tourist fame. Particularly an eyesore with such renovation possibilities. Where is the civic pride? Perhaps a city government group could be sent to other towns to see how they manage to fix such problems. Any of the tourist towns in Washington state would suffice, or any of the tourist towns on Highway 49 in California. Or any of the tourist towns in Colorado, Utah, Arizona or New Mexico. Or just stay in Texas and find out how the town of Archer City managed to renovate their town's famous theater.

If I were to update Totally Tacky Texas in 2014 I would need to add the eyesore that Fort Worth's Heritage Park has become. Along with some of that which the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle has wrought, like the shoddy looking Cowtown Wakepark, the also shoddy looking Coyote Drive-In, and let's not forget that also shoddy location where The Boondoggle has its Rockin' the River Happy Hour Inner Tube Floats, with its outhouses and over all junky looking layout.

I think I'd also add Arlington's Dallas Cowboy Stadium to a 2014 update of Totally Tacky Texas. Sticking a stadium at that location, with urban blight on two of its four sides, across the street  from a Super Walmart, not to mention the outrageously tacky abuse of eminent domain which was used to take the land upon which the stadium sprouted, is all very tacky.

Well, all this tacky talk has brought me to the time of day where I am off to do something tacky, as in participate in the Black Friday mayhem. But I won't be Having Fun Looking For Black Friday Shoppers Today In Downtown Fort Worth like I did a year ago today....

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