Driving into Marfa for our first night, we were road weary and hungry. We checked into our spot at Bohemio, a converted restaurant with several lush courtyards, comfortable accommodations, and an advertised 'beat writer' theme. Not so sure a generation of washed out, pilled up, frenzied, broke, first-thought-best-thought drunks is what I felt when I walked in, but the girls were enchanted. They had done the research, "This place is so Marfa cute," said one of my favorite daughters. They went from room to room, they thought it was cool, they thought it was nice.
Despite the hours of driving, we were energized, it was close to sundown, we walked to the nearby Piasano Hotel for dinner. The grandness of the place is immediate, the architecture is unexpected, the food was delicious, we cleared our plates, we passed on dessert. That night was a happy night, they were beginning to understand the ying and the yang of this dusty, disorderly, symmetrical place. We walked back to our spot after dinner and checked out their cliche vinyl collection. It was solid, but not spectacular--Stevie Winwood really sucked in the mid 70's, both the Miles records were scratched, Daft Punk's Robot Rock was the headliner, the Neville Brothers were over produced, and UB40 is way overrated (except for that red wine tune).
The following morning, the girls dolled up, it was time for digital images. We took the 40 mile drive north on US-90, past Valentine, to Prada Marfa. Despite the awful vandalism, featuring broken glass and bad graffiti, the ironic and satirical landmark was pictorial gold. They are fabulous artists in their own right, already at this young age, eyes for light, eyes for shadows, eyes for lines, like their mother. As we were leaving, two recent graduates of the Milan, Italy School Of Design asked me to take a photo of them; they had done a project based on this place, this was the first time they'd been there, I snapped several for them, made sure I got their shoes, made sure I had a good angle, made sure I got the mountains in the background.