The adventures and various works of a photographer, road tripper, former patron of the local arts, aspiring app developer, and late night coffee drinker and conversationalist.
The last post in my "Ghosts of DFW Music History" series was on April 30th, a full 3 1/2 months ago. I managed to get the post up just before starting my sabbatical from work and embarking on my long road trip up to Alaska. Since my return, following a couple of weeks taken to recharge and recover, I resumed work on my other long-term projects with the aim of returning to the "Ghosts" series in a couple of weeks. Those couple of weeks have, without my ever intending them to, extended to over three months. I have been at work gathering historical materials and following up on a couple of leads, but overall I have been focusing heavily on getting all my other in-progress tasks out of the pipeline - clearing the table, so to speak. Vintage photo galleries, research on a few historical DFW sites, working on my long-delayed road trip travelogues, and, notably, finally getting some business cards created, have been my main priorities since returning from Alaska. But now it's time to get back to work on the "Ghosts" series. If all goes according to plan, I hope to edit and post about half a dozen more entries over the next few months, and to wrap up the entire series by the end of 2024. I'm also strongly considering making an eventual print edition of the completed project, which would not only allow me to expand upon a few things that were left out of the online posts, but also to update the overall text with additional information I've gathered since the original versions went up on the site. I have a potential cover image and design already put together as a proof of concept, and I have some ideas on whom I would like to tap for a potential foreword. This won't happen until sometime in 2025 if I do indeed proceed with the idea. In the meantime, be on the lookout for new series installments in the coming days. I'm waiting to hear back from a few sources and have found new wells to tap for memorabilia, so fingers crossed.
The 1980s and '90s were arguably the heyday of local, home grown music in North Texas. On the west side of the DFW metroplex, the 1980s bore witness to the birth of the local metal scene in Arlington and Fort Worth, and, on the east side, the solidification of the rock/punk/pop scenes in Dallas, all of which led directly to the national prominence of the area in mid to late 1990s radio and culture. "Ghosts of DFW music history" is an ongoing blog series in which I visit the former locations of DFW area music venues and record labels of days past, showing them as they are today and putting each into the context of its time. Each entry will feature a bit of historical background, an up to date photo of each location as it is today, and period flyers, photos, and/or memorabilia. As this series progresses, direct links to each of the planned posts will be added below. Once the entire series has been posted, this page will be retooled to serve as an official table of contents. Please enjoy the installments and feel free to comment if you remember or were a part of those days!
Silver Dollar sign photo reproduced from Rockulapresents YouTube video upload, used per terms of Creative Commons Attribution license. Original footage taken by Laurel and/or Dee Wilson of Dallas Music Videos.
I tend to always have multiple things going on creatively, with as many as five or six projects in progress at one time in various stages of completeness. As a result, new material on this site tends to go up in spurts, with large amounts of content being added all at once as a project is completed. Even this blog is usually updated in spurts, which several entries being edited simultaneously and ultimately posted in groups of two or three, all of them post-dated to go live at a later date. This entry here is no exception. But there's a lot of other work going on in the background for which these semi-regular blog posts are biding time.
Julie Bunnell
Max Blair