Diners, Divebars and Yard Sales

Throughout our trip, as we were griping about the horror that is West Texas, the town of Marfa kept surfacing in conversation.

Marfa is supposedly some sort of mythical land. Well, not really, but it’s supposed to be neat, and a neat spot of West Texas is probably all that much neater, by sheer comparison. Marfa’s supposed to be chock full of artists and fun installations and all sorts of things otherwise not seen in the dilapidated ruins that are West Texas (no offense, West Texas, but we did manage to roll through two of your “largest” towns and were largely unable to find any restaurants that were even open… ghost towns full of zombies, it were). Friends — and strangers, too — from the “hip” Austin area thought it strange we had gone through West Texas without going to Marfa. Marfa’s where it’s at, apparently.

For starters…

A permanent Prada store installation, with, apparently, little quirks like left shoes only and such. Okay, fine, it’s called the Prada Marfa, but it’s not actually in Marfa. It’s in Valentine, which is about a half hour from Marfa. Close enough. It’s not a real store. It’s just art, kids!

So, Marfa does have a very appealing name, and it certainly stuck out in my head. One night, in the midst of part-sleeping, part-droning out on music, and part-wondering why people would choose Marfa of all places in West Texas, it suddenly dawned on me! Marfa is supposedly a special place… not just in terms of cool art crap, but other stuff, too.

I vaguely recalled a recent interview we did with YACHT. YACHT’s entire See Mystery Lights album was inspired by an on-a-whim move to Marfa. There, they became fascinated by the Marfa lights, which I had never heard of before…

“Sightings are reported occasionally and unpredictably, perhaps ten to twenty times a year. There are no reliable reports of daytime sightings; the lights seem to be a nocturnal phenomenon only.” — claims the ever reputable and never wrong Wikipedia.

So, it’s a big question mark as to what the Marfa lights are. They might very well be complete bunk. But since we missed Roswell, New Mexico this time as well, I hope next time there will be some element of mysterious mystery to it all… just for kicks! Ghost stories, alien rovers, whatever, whatever. Bring it on.

– Vivian