200 replies to this topic

[Brian Luenser]

Main Street Arts Festival. No wonder it is rated best outdoor Arts Festival in the World!

Here are my favorite 4 pictures of the event. As well as my slide show of 140 if you are REALLY interested.









Be sure to click the arrows button on bottom right of your viewer to fill your screen!

http://www.flickr.co...978337419/show/

[BobZupcic]

Main Street Arts Festival. No wonder it is rated best outdoor Arts Festival in the World!

Here are my favorite 4 pictures of the event. As well as my slide show of 140 if you are REALLY interested.

I'm so glad you caught that picture of that cloud. I was probably 6 blocks south of you when I saw that behind the courthouse. By the time I made it further up Main, the cloud was down 6th street...there must have been 20 people taking camera phone pics outside of Flying Saucer.

I'm still obviously a rookie...I never have my camera on me

[Brian Luenser]

You may be expecting 8 great shots of last night's Boxing match... Nope. Boxing sucks. I have no use for the promotion of violence, blood, puke, icky people or the smell of sweaty men. In fact considering the 25 year old boxer that was killed from a match in Dallas last week I think this event should be canceled permanently. If you didn't see my letter in yesterday's paper you might take a look. (Death of a Boxer) http://startelegrame...the_startelegr/

So the only picture here you will see is what I wished the turnout would be for this pathetic event.

[Papaw]

I read your article in yesterdays ST and I couldn't agree more. That is one "sport???" we could do without - Life is too short and precious.

[cajunmike]

Likewise I saw your Op-Ed in the S/T. Not something that should be in downtown.

[Brian Luenser]

A fun little setup in Sundance Square tonight to coincide with the Colonial Golf Classic this week in Fort Worth.

This is what I found on it.

MICHELOB ULTRA 19TH HOLE IN SUNDANCE SQUARE

It is the place to meet friends after the round. Located on Main Street between 3rd and 4th in Sundance Square (downtown Fort Worth). It is centrally located within walking distance to great restaurants and clubs. Open Wednesday - Sunday 2-10 p.m. Activities included ESPN Radio 103.3FM Galloway & Co. Wednesday, 2-6 p.m., live music with Poo Live Crew, Thursday and Josh Weathers Band, Friday starting at 7 p.m., golfDFW.com Long Putt Challenge, and huge video boards to see all the tournament highlights. Oh yeah...and enjoy a cold beverage while you take it all in.


Looks pretty fun from up here. You might check it out.

[Papaw]

Monee, something very odd I noticed about that parking lot photo. There are only 9 out of 155 cars that are red. This is very unusual as the best I can remember, the average representation of red cars is 7 out of 25. Odds and probability have always fascinated me and this picture is very unusual in that respect.

[Brian Luenser]

Monee, something very odd I noticed about that parking lot photo. There are only 9 out of 155 cars that are red. This is very unusual as the best I can remember, the average representation of red cars is 7 out of 25. Odds and probability have always fascinated me and this picture is very unusual in that respect.

Good for you Papaw. Nice observation. I too am interested in probability.

The subject picture... could be the parkers are a combination of business people, business cars, Cliburn music fans and golf fans. I am guessing business cars are much more likely to be white than any other color. (I think we can all agree that white is by far the smartest color, at least here in Hell (I mean Texas) And could be golfers and Bass Hall patrons are a more conservative bunch, less likely to have red vehicles.

It could be that the same picture at the mall at the same time could show 11 out of 25 cars being red.

You now have me interested in this silliness. I think I am going to compare a few shots from weekends, nights, concert crowds etc... to prove my "Depends on the time of day and crowd" theory. Stand By!

[David Love]

Varies by weather, cost for parking and planned festivities.

White car owners seem to be the most resilient, bad weather, crowds, etc... tends to equal more white / off white vehicles.

Red is deffinately the fair weather crowd, various events, specials, print and radio ads bring the red tide. On occasion you can almost tell what part of town holds the draw by how they're bunched.

[JKC]

Monee, something very odd I noticed about that parking lot photo. There are only 9 out of 155 cars that are red. This is very unusual as the best I can remember, the average representation of red cars is 7 out of 25. Odds and probability have always fascinated me and this picture is very unusual in that respect.

OK, now I am interested too. Why / how do you know that the average representation of red cars is 7 out of 25? And do you know any psycho-graphical info correlating to car color?

[360texas]

I shrunk my IE 8 web browser to 75% and I could see it on my 24" monitor.

Of course now I can't read all that tiny type text LOLOLL

[Keller Pirate]

To follow monee's line of thinking, I wonder if being downtown has an influence on the color of a vehicles. Black is a favorite choice of clothing color for urban citizens. That might translate to vehicle color choice also. It seems like back and white were the two most popular colors in the picture.

If 7 out of 25 cars are red, would a suburban location come closer to fulfilling that number, than a hip urban location?

[Papaw]

I am trying to dig up that color probability - it was a number of years ago, but after making that comment I'm pretty sure that is no longer a valid number. To know the exact probability you would have to know the number of cars still operating and the total number of those which are red - which is impossible to know, so you take observations of a number of random parking situations and count the total and number of red. You could also take traffic samples and have a total traffic counter and count the reds. There are surveys that have recent statistics arrived by such methods and I am still searching for a recent one using red cars. I am really surprised at the number of white, off white and black colored cars at the malls now since looking at Monee's picture, this might be a more accurate representation now than I thought.

[cajunmike]

Sounds like I would have to use my Six Sigma training to figure this out.

[Papaw]

You taught me one cajunmike, I had to look that one up - I thought Six Sigma might have been a new gun model on the market.

[Papaw]

A very interesting application of probability gives us the value that is placed on a human life. If one accepts a risk of life for a dollar amount then he is placing a value upon his life.
A popular basic example:
If you are thinking about buying a new car and this car has a sophisticated air bag system that will save your life in 1/4 otherwise fatal crashes and the odds of having such a crash are 1/100, then the odds of the device saving your life is 1/400.
The device cost $10,000 so you decide to take the risk and not buy the air bag. So you are saying that the expected benefit of having this air bag is not worth the cost so:
1/400 value of life = $10,000
value of life = $4 million

Actually the average value of life is about $6.1 million as calculated from everyday common decisions people make such as this.

[cajunmike]

Papaw,

You know Smith & Wesson makes a Sigma. I don't have a S&W, but do have several others.

[Papaw]

I guess thats why it sounded more like a gun to me. Oh well, I learned something.

[David Love]

I think the key item about those parking lots, the majority of people parking there don't live downtown.

That makes it a whole new demographic can of worms and I'm 99.999999% sure of that.

[Brian Luenser]

Huge Tea Party Rally in Downtown this afternoon. I was surprised I had not heard about is as it is gigantic. Even in the rain. Saw it on Fox News also. One of the biggest events I have ever seen downtown. Certainly the biggest Rally I have seen in my 3 years Downtown. Guessing several thousand marching and rallying. Quite a sight. I will post a YOUTUBE video later. They are still meeting on Main near the convention Center at 4pm.

[Brian Luenser]

And a little video I took of this big event from my balcony. (All in the rain)

[Birdland in Handley]

The anti hate crime rally we attended in the early 90's was much larger, to Forth Worth' s credit. (The impetus, if you don't remember since it was so long ago, was that a bunch of bubbas were hanging out in a driveway drinking beer in Arlington. A couple sick racist teens shot the one Black bubba.)
I hate to politicize our forum but these yayhoos make the hair on the back of my neck stand on end.

[cbellomy]

I bet FW hasn't had a rally quite like that since the 20s.

[RD Milhollin]

Huge Tea Party Rally in Downtown this afternoon. I was surprised I had not heard about is as it is gigantic. Even in the rain. Saw it on Fox News also. One of the biggest events I have ever seen downtown. Certainly the biggest Rally I have seen in my 3 years Downtown. Guessing several thousand marching and rallying.

Any way for you to further quantify the number of people in the protest you observed? The S-T states about 1000, and other sources range from 5000 to 20,000. I would guess your vantage point would allow you a better ability to estimate the number of people than most.

[Brian Luenser]

Huge Tea Party Rally in Downtown this afternoon. I was surprised I had not heard about is as it is gigantic. Even in the rain. Saw it on Fox News also. One of the biggest events I have ever seen downtown. Certainly the biggest Rally I have seen in my 3 years Downtown. Guessing several thousand marching and rallying.

Any way for you to further quantify the number of people in the protest you observed? The S-T states about 1000, and other sources range from 5000 to 20,000. I would guess your vantage point would allow you a better ability to estimate the number of people than most.

For a million dollar prize, I would say 4,000 marched in the parade. There may be many that did not walk the parade but just came for the speakers.. As I did not even know it was coming, I was very surprised. I had to get my big-eyes after it to figure out what was going on. Huge deal, really.

I happened to see this pic among the other Rally pictures. It is the parking lots over by the ITC train station. These would normally be empty on a rainy Saturday afternoon. And these are just the people that were OK with paying to park as most of downtown on a Saturday is free parking. I saw some garages looking kind of full already at Noon with 2 hours to go.
See those 5.8 GHZ antenna's on top of that building. (That's right, I don't have a clue )

[shipman]

Yeah, I hadn't heard anything about the rally beforehand. But I will tell you that it totally screwed up the bus routes on Saturday. The drivers were all having to be detoured and didn't seem to know where they were going. All I knew at the time I got on the bus was that there was something going on downtown that closed off streets and I couldn't help wondering why the city was hosting an event but hadn't planned on how to work the buses around it. It easily added an hour to my errand running...

So was this approved beforehand? I know it wasn't spontaneous as they had a stage and sound system out in front of the convention center. It appeared to have the backing of the city and police (as opposed to anti-war protests).

[shipman]

And I swear I'm not trolling...

But here's an interesting article about the D.C. protests: http://www.politifac...ifferent-event/

Apparently, the crowd photo that a lot of the blogs were using (alongside stories about the protest) was for a Promise Keepers rally from about 10 years ago.

[Brian Luenser]

And I swear I'm not trolling...

But here's an interesting article about the D.C. protests: http://www.politifac...ifferent-event/

Apparently, the crowd photo that a lot of the blogs were using (alongside stories about the protest) was for a Promise Keepers rally from about 10 years ago.

Of course there are hundreds or thousands of crowd pictures circulating of the D.C. Rally. Most easily verified as to the exact time... as these pics and videos in this Sundance Square thread can be.

[Fort Worthology]

Yeah, I hadn't heard anything about the rally beforehand. But I will tell you that it totally screwed up the bus routes on Saturday. The drivers were all having to be detoured and didn't seem to know where they were going. All I knew at the time I got on the bus was that there was something going on downtown that closed off streets and I couldn't help wondering why the city was hosting an event but hadn't planned on how to work the buses around it. It easily added an hour to my errand running...

So was this approved beforehand? I know it wasn't spontaneous as they had a stage and sound system out in front of the convention center. It appeared to have the backing of the city and police (as opposed to anti-war protests).

I can't say I'm entirely surprised that the city or the T didn't plan for this. The T has...issues...in general.

And of course, you're talking about a crowd of protestors who probably relished the thought of gumming up that "socialist" public transportation stuff...

[mmiller2002]

And of course, you're talking about a crowd of protestors who probably relished the thought of gumming up that "socialist" public transportation stuff...

Why would you say that?

[Fort Worthology]

Why would you say that?

We're talking about a crowd comprised of maybe 40% "socialism" = "anything the government does that does not directly benefit me" and 60% "socialism" = "anything the government does, ever." It's not a stretch to say that they'd probably get their rocks off on screwing up The T's buses.

Not that they were there for that purpose, but if they read shipman's comment they'd probably laugh and feel good about it.

For the record, I have about the same opinion of the Tea Baggers as I do the hardcore left protesters that usually gather for big political events like this - they're mostly nuts. The people screaming that Obama is an eeeevil Socialist are about as laughable to me as the people screaming that Bush was the next Hitler.

[Brian Luenser]

Really, it is not complicated to ascertain everybody's viewpoint.

At the next FORUM gathering everybody bring their last 10 year's tax returns.
With 90% accuracy I will tell you the people OK with massive handouts and taxation and those that are not.

(No need for many of you to bring your tax returns as we can guess exactly what they look like.)

[Keller Pirate]

I got a kick out of a photo of an African-American man with a sign that said, "I don't belong to the party of no, I'm with the party of HELL NO."

I bet FW hasn't had a rally quite like that since the 20s.

[Papaw]

Huge Tea Party Rally in Downtown this afternoon. I was surprised I had not heard about is as it is gigantic. Even in the rain. Saw it on Fox News also. One of the biggest events I have ever seen downtown. Certainly the biggest Rally I have seen in my 3 years Downtown. Guessing several thousand marching and rallying. Quite a sight. I will post a YOUTUBE video later. They are still meeting on Main near the convention Center at 4pm.

Have you noticed the lack of coverage of the despicable ACORN activity? This is about as sic as you can get and it's our money sponsoring this and all the liberal news media just turn their heads.

[David Love]

I'm just glad to see people taking an active interest, becoming passionate, about politics in America, maybe the state of America, would be a better choice of words.

[RD Milhollin]

And of course, you're talking about a crowd of protestors who probably relished the thought of gumming up that "socialist" public transportation stuff...

Ha ha! RIGHT! I'll bet a dollar to a donut the T had no surge in ridership coinciding with that production!

[shipman]

Really, it is not complicated to ascertain everybody's viewpoint.

At the next FORUM gathering everybody bring their last 10 year's tax returns.
With 90% accuracy I will tell you the people OK with massive handouts and taxation and those that are not.

(No need for many of you to bring your tax returns as we can guess exactly what they look like.)

Yeah, I'm sure it really is THAT simple. [/sarcasm]

I would say that if you look beyond the usual rhetoric, that large corporations are the ones that get the REALLY massive handouts. And that's not counting the bailouts, which were started by George W. Bush and continued under Obama.

[Brian Luenser]

Today in Sundance Square is the annual Cowtown Cruis'n for a Cure day. Tons of old cars etc...

Here is a shot of the first arrivals at 7am. The event is 10-3 today. (For prostate cancer causes) They have Mobile medical units for screening etc...

Just as I proclaimed there are no more colors in cars...

[Brian Luenser]

Sure enough. Hot rods were coming out of no where. Nice event. Good cause. (Prostate Cancer Research and detection)
These cars each pollute 20 times more than modern cars but I guess they are only driven a few hundred miles a year.

Here are some shots. I was going to go down there but I picked up 12 big bags of trash along the Trinity at the Trinity River Trash Bash and I am plum wore out. It was a great event. Very satisfying to live the river looking nice and a mound of trash bags being picked up. Oh, ya, I won a prize too! Golfing for 4, including carts, at Hawks Creek Golf Club on White Settlement Road. (for finding Nemo hidden among the river trash)

This Hot Rods downtown event is over at 3pm officially today.



Get your free screening!

[cajunmike]

Monee,

Good shots. I love those old cars. Your right they most likely only get a few hundred miles per year going from show to show. I saw some of them out on the road today. Reminds me of when I was 15 years old in 1966 and come home from school and my brother told me he bought me a car.
I run out to the driveway and it is a 1949 Olds (like a tank) 4 door, starter button, big flat head 6 engine. He paid $25 for it. I drove it for two years in high school and sold it for $50. Wish I had it now.

[Papaw]

Hey Monee -
Like cajunmike said, great shots that bring back fond memories of my era. Those were the days the back seat had more respect and memories than the front.
Chris has done an outstanding service for the prevention of Prostrate Cancer and my hat is off to him.

Sorry I haven't contributed lately to Fort Worth scene as I'm in the process of putting my elderly mother and aunt in assisted living facility. As always enjoy yours as well as all the other's pictures of our great metropolis.

[shipman]

Aww man! I wish I had known about this... I love hot rods and customs from the 30's through the 60's. I used to have a 1950 Pontiac Silver Streak with a flathead straight-8... Like a tank is right!

[Brian Luenser]

Here is a photo from this rainy morning of the Sundance Square parking lot. (Just rebuilt) This is next to the flying Saucer restaurant. The wife and I were studying the activity this morning trying to figure out what the heck they were doing. Brand new Northeast corner with brick and plantings. We could see them installing the guardhouse (Fee collection) on 3rd street. But what are they doing with those huge rails and forklifted plywood and 2x4s etc? We gave up and got on line.

http://sundancesquar...sary_Event.aspx

Turns out we would have never guessed in a million years. They are building 2 houses there. That's right. TWO HOUSES. It is for a Habitat for Humanity event. (20th anniversary event) When over, they will move the houses somewhere where people will live in them.

The shot. Also note the new N.E. corner and pay gates. But mostly where the action will be for the next 6 days.

[cajunmike]

Blessings on all who work with the habitat program. We did it a few times with our church group. I am sure you will be keeping us up to date as the build goes on. It will most likely look like an army of ants building it. They will knock them out quickly. About time they did something with that lot.

[Brian Luenser]

After I got home from work. At 7:30 pm. Plenty of work done already on these two new houses. Let's take a look, shall we?

At dusk. Working with lights. Like a quarter of a second exposure on a tripod.

[Brian Luenser]

Could somebody ask them to stop hammering in the dark? The Mrs. and I are trying to watch our "who-dun-its" with our exterior doors open...

[FortWorthLowrider]

Sure enough. Hot rods were coming out of no where. Nice event. Good cause. (Prostate Cancer Research and detection)
These cars each pollute 20 times more than modern cars but I guess they are only driven a few hundred miles a year.

Here are some shots. I was going to go down there but I picked up 12 big bags of trash along the Trinity at the Trinity River Trash Bash and I am plum wore out. It was a great event. Very satisfying to live the river looking nice and a mound of trash bags being picked up. Oh, ya, I won a prize too! Golfing for 4, including carts, at Hawks Creek Golf Club on White Settlement Road. (for finding Nemo hidden among the river trash)

This Hot Rods downtown event is over at 3pm officially today.



Get your free screening!

looks like a great event

[Brian Luenser]

And the Habitat project progresses quickly. Here are both house early this morning as well as a shot from last night when I was over there supervising. (which one of these tools is the hammer again?) . Sure is fun to watch these being built before my very eyes. (All in 4 days) Bunches of volunteers working hard. I am taking some video too. Stand by.

[cajunmike]

Any idea how many s.f. these houses are?

[Brian Luenser]

Any idea how many s.f. these houses are?

I will have to ask them down there. If I was a guessing man, and I guess I am, I would say 950 square feet. +/- 400.

I went through a phase in High School where I wanted to be a carpenter. (My family was one of the first families in a new neighborhood and I had nothing to do but watch them build houses) Seemed very satisfying. Amazingly it was like 2 carpenters would build the whole house and then move to the next one. Would be considered incredibly inefficient by today's standards. (frame, frame, frame, plumb, plumb, plumb, roof, roof, roof.)

This is what they are looking like this Saturday evening.