That being said, I did produce several pieces of work that I'm proud of, including some which I feel to be among the best pieces of journalism I've ever written. February saw the publication of the historical letter written by Henry Lee Hargrove, one-time chairman of the Baylor University English department and missionary to China, as well as the reproduction online of my first acquired daguerreotype photo. The "Ghosts of DFW Music History" series made a return in April with an installment covering Direct Hit Records, which was very long in the making and in fact one of the first for which I ever obtained historical photo clearances (thank you Kelly Keys Handran!). In June, I published a collection of rare couples photos from dates comprising every decade of the twentieth century, a year-long collection effort undertaken to mark the anniversary of Loving Day. And beginning in September, I finally began to tell the story of my nine-ish years spent actively photographing the Dallas-Fort Worth music scene.
Eclipsing all of the aforementioned were two heavily researched blog posts which opened new doors for me with multiple area institutions and which made serious inroads into the historical DFW music community. The post on the Tombstone Factory became my most heavily shared and discussed work to date, rewriting history in the way the venue's story is told and helping to cement its actual place in local history (not to mention making a historical connection that completely exploded decades' worth of myths surrounding the Tombstone's origins). A copy of the post has been added to the archives of the Amon Carter Museum of American Art in Fort Worth. It is especially satisfying to me that, at least as of this writing, my piece on the Tombstone Factory is one of the first (often the first) result to appear for this query in search engines. And my Emma Lucore post, originally envisioned as part of a larger survey of female-owned photography outfits in nineteenth century DFW before taking on a life of its own, became the most deeply researched composition I've ever written on a single subject. The research materials that went into that effort have been donated to the Tarrant County Office of Historic Preservation and Archives. For someone who's essentially a guy working out of his living room on a series of hobby projects in his spare time, that means quite a lot.
Aside from the website developments, there were a few notable events in 2025 which are relevant to this website and to my larger efforts in documenting history and making important personal connections. In September, I attended my first meeting with the Dallas County Pioneer Association following an invitation from their media director, Brian Gunn. I followed this up the following month with their 150th anniversary celebration at El Fenix. The estate sale which followed the passing of former Lithium X-Mas founder and recognized local DJ Mark Ridlen yielded several rare items originating from his decades in the DFW music scene. Prior to his hospitalization, I had been in touch with Ridlen for my "Ghosts of DFW Music History" project. Acquiring some of his former possessions via the estate sale was a bittersweet experience, but I reminded myself that the items in question would go to good use in documenting the historical music scene. In August, I finally applied for and obtained a Fort Worth Public Library card as a non-resident, a consequence of the Dallas library system's recurring challenges with maintaining historical databases. One established tradition of mine which did not manifest in 2025 was my annual road trip, scuttled due to concerns involving automotive wear, finances, and my perceptions of the current international attitude toward American travelers. This marked the first year since 2011 that I failed to hit the road. And, lest I forget, I should point out a couple of major site improvements made during the year: in April, I incorporated a third-party search feature into the website to replace the aged, buggy PDO-based one previously hosted in-house; and in May, I incorporated a newsletter sign up and delivery feature, laying the groundwork for what will hopefully be an eventual online community.
So what are the plans for 2026? Overall, I want to redouble my efforts toward developing and finishing up the "Ghosts" series in preparation for an eventual print volume, and I want to bring my concurrent series on early Dallas photographers and photography studios to its conclusion. I want to shore up the mess of film negatives, slides, historical letters, and other vintage and antique materials I've acquired and put them toward a large number of unfinished projects still in the pipeline. I want to build upon and expand relationships I've established with entities active in chronicling local history, and to continue building upon this foundation. More immediately, my plans include wrapping up the story of my time in the local music scene with two final installments, and publishing two further blog efforts in the vein of my December 2024 walking tour of early Dallas photography studios. The entirety of my story as band photographer was drafted over a two week period in July 2025, and the remaining parts of it are still in need of editing and revision.
Longer term, I have several things in the works that should finally see the light of day in 2026. One project involves someone who played important roles in early Dallas history; this one involves quite a bit of digitization and transcription of antique materials. Another has to do with the relocation of the Trinity River away from downtown Dallas and the consequent destruction of streets which once ran near it. I have a very long term project involving the former Poydras Street in downtown Dallas which remains active after a period approaching two years; hopefully, this can finally be brought to a close before the end of 2026. And the long deferred "Ghosts of DFW Music History" series will be making a comeback as well. Only two installments saw publication over the entirety of 2025, but there are many others in various states of completion for which considerable research has been done and relevant historical materials obtained. A continual impediment to my progress in this department has been the unreliability of human sources, difficulties which range from minor to very significant. I've had more than one person "ghost" me or cancel after arrangements to talk had been made. I've also had considerable trouble identifying and/or clearing period photos for reproduction in the blog. Many potential sources still don't take me seriously enough to even respond to me (a problem I've also faced with one particular would-be source for the Poydras Street project). Human sources on the west side of the metroplex (i.e., the Fort Worth-Arlington region) have consistently been more reliable and helpful with my various research projects than those on the east side have been, a generalization which holds across all topics but for which there are of course exceptions (thank you, Allison!). Especially as it concerns the music scene of days past, you'd think that participants would want their stories told, but... whatever.
Outside of the blog, I want to get another collection of album comparisons up in the very near future. Historically, these have gone up in batches, with a dozen or more new reviews seeing publication at one time. The next update will not deviate from this pattern; many reviews are already completed and several others are currently in draft form awaiting final edits. The road trip galleries are long overdue for an update, as are the live photography (and other photography) galleries which last saw any real update in March of 2025. The main causes of the delays have simply been a lack of urgency due to current interests and being overextended on other, more pressing concerns. The photo galleries take an enormous amount of time and effort to curate and prepare, especially for content that doesn't readily align with my current interests and activities. Nevertheless, I plan to revisit these perpetually sidelined collections at some point during the new year. It might even be time to refresh the rarely updated YouTube channel with additional material; I did upload "found footage" videos of Front 242 and the 2004 Ridglea Theater Metal Fest back in April, and I've had some ideas for some short promotional videos that could breathe a tiny bit of new life into the channel. I may even (finally) get back to the stalled DFW Archives gallery, where I have long planned to upload images of the memorabilia collection I donated to Oak Cliff's Top Ten Records in 2020.
So, in summary, 2026 has the potential to be a banner year for the blog and other website content, provided I can wrap up all the unfinished projects and stay focused. There's a great deal of memorabilia and historical material I've compiled that's waiting for publication, and I have some important life goals that I also need to work on this year which are beyond the scope of this blog. I'll see where things stand at this same time in January of 2027.