Monthly Archives: December 2013

(Community Matters)  CLARITY, my word for 2014. It was almost LAUNCH.  Steven’s is STEWARDSHIP.  2014 Words

my previous words 2013: DEFINE, 2012: TRANSITION (hmm, immediately recall before) 

(OED) the quality of being clear, in particular:

• the quality of being coherent and intelligible:for the sake of clarity, each of these strategies is dealt with separately
• the quality of being easy to see or hear; sharpness of image or sound:the clarity of the picture
• the quality of being certain or definite:it was clarity of purpose that he needed
• the quality of transparency or purity; the crystal clarity of water

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(Community Matters) Playing with the idea of a living art installation – a weekend when Marfa is completely off the www grid – no wifi, no ethernet . . . anywhere. Would couples come to Marfa to connect in a new way? Would strangers talk to each other while waiting in line? What if no cable either . . . what would couples do in bed at night?

(Community Matters) A slow night in Marfa: Steven & I walk to Pizza Foundation, discovering a light & camera trained on a building, movie making a la Marfa. Sit at counter, nice chats with Saarin & Boyd. Emily unexpectedly shows up. 2.5 hours for new pizzas so we amble over to Cochineal where we grab seats at the bar. Turns out, next to Debbie & Bird, and their son who we’d never met. Ha! there’s Janie & Dick at a table so we sync plans for ny eve & day. Walk back home, back by the picture posing building and realize there are two people in there, one looks like Rob. Come home, read a bit, Steven announces he’s ready for bed – I’m not. Steven to bed, me to Padres where I spend an hour or so catching up with Andrew & Mahala, talking education, entrepreneurship and the new Alpine Beer Company. Of course, all seen have been invited to NYE in RHS. Quiet night in the ‘hood.

Headed out now for breakfast at Debbie & Bird’s restaurant, Buns & Roses.

update: ran into Rob at Buns & Roses. It was him last night. They were filming, hoping to catch a train come by. It’s a Rosa Barba installation. Opening Sunday night. 

(Community Matters) Spending Boxing Day cooking and making Boquillas tour arrangements for some of our New Years guests. I think we’ll have 30ish of the 60ish NY guests arriving Saturday to Marathon. We’ll spend Saturday night at the Gage, drive down through Big Bend National Park to the US – Boquillas Border Crossing, ferrying across the Rio Grande, take burros to Boquillas, tour, have green chille enchiladas and cold cervezas for lunch, cross back over, car tour Big Bend, Terlingua, Big Bend State Park, Presidio, then up to Marfa.

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super blog posting about Boquillas and day trips

(Community Matters) Christmas dinner w/ members of our Marfa family – Julie Speed, Fran Christian & Garrick Stephens and friends including Scrapy Judd Newcomb, Jamey Garza & Constance Holt-Garza, Mary Lou Saxon and Katie Chicca & Terry Ohm.

(Community Matters) 

Merry Christmas from Sealy, Texas

(Community Matters) It’s time to select a word for 2014. Last year’s was DEFINE – I’d come to realize, I had too many balls up in the air to not spend more time clearly defining goals, objectives, success, tactics, even meanings for various terms – not only for and by myself but with all who were part of various teams. My 2012 word was TRANSITION which certainly framed going from fundraising for the President to Pres/CEO for Marfa Public Radio.

Thinking about 2014, there’s another transition underway, perhaps a new venture, a little bit of politics and more focus. hmm . . . the word?

update: I should have given credit to Kip Keller & Michael Barnes. The four of us started naming a word many years ago. I’m pretty sure it was an existing tradition for them. Wish I would have kept track of the words every year – funny how intentionality begets results.

update #2: I eventually decide my 2014 word is CLARITY. It’s a noun, define was a verb. I’m going for the manifestation of  define.

(Community Matters) What a treat last night – dinner with our cousins, Juan Sepulveda, Teresa Nino and Vicky Venegas. Talk about accomplished and challenging years. Vicky graduated from Harvard and is now working at Warner Brothers in LA. Teresa is a political appointee at Health & Human Services, CMS and has responsibilities for Obamacare outreach; Juan is the senior advisor for Hispanic Affairs at the DNC and about to announce an exciting, new job. Unfortunately, Michael wasn’t able to join us, but he graduated from Loyola and is doing cool stuff with kids in Chicago.

(Community Matters) I believe the bar should be very high before enchroaching a property owner’s right to develop – and I don’t think affordability should be limited to dilapidated properties. Feels like the cost of a solution to a public problem should be borne publicly, not by individual landlords. Should Austin channel more affordable monies to buy down individual rents?

Good coverage in today’s AAS – On fast-changing East Riverside, some are squeezed out.

I do support zoning and development standards which I think constitute a high bar shared broadly. 

(Community Matters) Excited we’ll be traveling on a Dreamliner tomorrow for the first time, the new Boeing 787.

excited to be returning home – one night in Austin, then to the farm, then to Marfa through the new year.

(Community Matters) One of our dearest friends talking money with girls & women. It’s a good & important story.

I love how genuine, generous and authentic his presentation – it’s pure Tommie.