Houston

when i was leaving austin, quite a few people said to me oooh youre not going to like houston. well its a good thing i dont listen to people because houston is a surprisingly pleasant place, i think people in austin just like to think their better than the rest of texas but theres just as big a scene in houston really. it is the 4th biggest city in the us after all. its very green and all the museums are conviniently together in one district. i went on a bar hop aswell, im really starting to get to grips with american beer, and found some cool places including a place with a 4 page whisky menu and a gypsy bluegrass band. my only beef is i have 42 angry mosquito bites on my legs from sitting on the porch one evening, its all about sitting on the porch in the south. (was this place built on a swamp or something? lets check - yes it was hence they made austin capital instead) anyway they were so bad a pharmicist in new orleans thought i shld see a doctor, and given my lack of knowledge of my insurence she recommended i went to the homeless shelter to get it checked out. luckily i didnt have to stoop quite that low. anyway the contemporary art scene in houston is surprisingly vibrant and cutting edge. the MCA had a show on of artists who work in and with the city and they were politically engaged and outward looking in their approach, willing to take the city on, on its own terms. it must be noted that while the rest of the states pretty much sat back and did nothing, it was houston that galvanised the new orleans aid effort after hurricane katrina. my main reason for coming though was to see the rothko chapel, art pilgramage style, a short description follows.

the chapel is a surprisingly modest and unassuming building situated in a residential street in houston, built of slightly weathered flesh tone brick that somewhat softens its stark form. the octagonal chamber inside is relatively small and the rothko paintings fill the walls and loom over the space. comprised of three tryptics and three singular canvases, the group of paintings evoke traditional religious architecture and have a grandeur and solumnity of their own. the lighting is soft and natural, daylight seeps in indirectly and the shifting clouds the day i was there created a gently undulating light akin to breathing, illuminating the depths of the paintings which themselves seem to shift and undulate. the chapel itself is a multi-faith space for contemplation, in the lobby there is a line of various religious texts should you wish to take one in. the modest wooden pews inside further give the chapel a sense of the organic rather than the purely minimal. at the front two black circular prayer cushions sit on the floor like pebbles.