★ Weeknote 75

Katie and I spent New Years last week in Marfa, Texas where we got to explore the Chinati Foundation's collection of modern art. For a town of about 2000 people where most of the restaurants are only run as a hobby, Marfa contains a lot of great art and architecture. Katie posted some photos on her photo blog and even more on her flickr site.

While in Marfa, we visited Prada Marfa. We drove from Marfa, 35 miles out into the desert. For the entire drive, a creepy border patrol blimp hovered motionless overhead. I was convinced we were looking at a UFO. The desert rolled on in all directions. And then, just when we started wondering if we were going to run out of gas, we arrived. And, there we were, in the middle of the desert, looking at a fake shoe store. And as the sun set over the mountains and cars whizzed by at 95 miles per hour, it felt like it was the greatest thing ever, like having played a part in our very own personalized absurdist road movie. The entire experience was very immersive and felt highly designed.

I noticed that along the side of the building, people had left a long line of business cards and notes, each one under a little rock sitting upon it so that it wouldn't blow away. Whether they were left as some sort of offering to the piece, or just as proof that someone had made the trip, the underlying purpose these cards played there in the middle of the desert was to open up a communication channel between distant strangers.

"Can you believe it?" they say.

"I did this too!" they say.

It reminded me of the internet.

- Ben Brown, Jan 5, 2010