Marfa Winter
Posted on January 13, 2010 by jason10 Comments
We woke to sub-freezing temperatures and snow in the desert. Not exactly what we had in mind when we imagined driving through West Texas to avoid winter weather.
If you’ve driven a ’71 bus, you know the heat isn’t all that great and the defroster is sub-optimal. By the time we made it to Alpine, the windshield was iced up and we were looking through tiny port holes just above the defroster vents.
After a quick coffee break to warm up, we finished the final 30 mile drive to Marfa. Funny how all the towns out here are on average 25 or so miles apart – a good day’s trek by covered wagon.
As soon as we get to Marfa – not even 10 seconds later – the first person we see crossing the street is Dave.
Angela and I have both known Dave for around 20 years, and we each knew him before we even met each other. It doesn’t seem like it’s been that long, but we can both say we knew Dave before he wore shades permanently.
Anyway, Dave’s a pretty well-known guy these days. He currently owns and operates Padres in Marfa – the only nightclub in town (and it’s a good one). He’s got a local radio show, he’s on the City Council (he won by 2 votes,) the Rotary Club, etc. He’s been in a 100 bands (last SXSW he played 7 gigs for 7 different bands in one day) and toured all over, opened and managed several successful nightclubs in Houston that are still going strong, was the MC for the Houston Roller Derby, has been a Buddy Holly impersonator, machinist, hot-dog slinger, you name it. To boot, he’s tall, dark, and handsome and has a velvety smooth crooner voice that literally makes women swoon. And, he’s a really nice guy.
Anyway, Dave moved out here to slow down and get away from a pretty hectic lifestyle in Houston… one of the Urban Refugees that Marfa seems to attract. The problem is that like many folks out here, he now has twenty different things going on and hasn’t slowed down at all. Such is life.
Dave invited us to stay at his place. An actual house, since he was kicked out of El Cosmico – a local hipster Airstream trailer park. He says his Airstream wasn’t nice enough. Anyway, he warned us that his place was pretty grim and coming from him, that’s really something. To call it a bachelor pad would be an insult to bachelors. We’re not picky, but to put it bluntly, it’s a craphole. Actually, that would be an insult to crapholes. Dave calls it a crackhouse, so we’ll go with that. He’s moving next month. However, it does have two things – heat and Dave – and that’s plenty for us.
I actually know two David Beebe’s. The other one is a professor in Wisconsin.