Tuesday, January 30, 2007

The Accidental, State-Funded Installation

There is an intersection I go through nearly every day of my life here in Houston. It's as I pass under Highway 59, aka the Southwest Freeway. At night, as I'm coming home from the day job that is sometimes an evening job, I usually have to stop at this intersection. It's a very urban scene, all white concrete under the overpass, not anything particularly striking in and of itself. Any city dweller sees the like daily.

This intersection's stoplights are angled in such a way that both, the light facing on-coming traffic and the light facing the one-way traffic coming from my left, gets reflected on the concrete. Some of the light falls under the overpass, on those lines that look like gigantic corrugated cardboard. The play of the green, the yellow, the red against the deeper, black shadows always holds my interest. I find the colors on the concrete somewhat soothing, maybe a bit eerie, but peaceful. There's not much traffic some nights, and there's a feeling of--I hesitate to use the word--intimacy, just me waiting for my green and the changing hues on the concrete. It's like a light installation project just for me and it makes me smile.

I tell you, there is beauty everywhere.

3 Comments:

Blogger roadkills-r-us said...

Excellent stuff (not surprising). I hadn't heard about the hospital visit; glad you're OK! I don't remember mine in a lot of detail...

I also didn't realize you were back in Houston. I'm hoping to get over that way soon. I'll want an autograph, of course. 8^)

9:34 PM  
Blogger Siren said...

LOVE this post!

10:25 PM  
Blogger Neil Ellis Orts said...

Hey Roadkills! Took me a second to realize who you were. It's been a long time!

Come on down to Houston. There's a signing scheduled for March 25th . . .

9:48 PM  

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