Just a few shots from a quick hike up a ravine on the northeast side of the Franklin Mountains

I spent some time at the Downtown Artist Market on Saturday and after setting up, I walked up to what is called the Old San Francisco District of El Paso.  Its a curious sliver of a neighborhood that looks like it was originally part of Sunset Heights before the freeway cut though town.  There’s been a lot of activity in the area with the construction of the Chihuahua’s ballpark, and I wanted to see what effects if any, this has had on the area.   I walked up the new pedestrian walkway, turning left at Franklin and about halfway down the block was the first sign of  “progress.” The neighborhood laundry has been closed and looks to become some kind of establishment that sells alcohol:

 The 60 day TABC required posting was on the door and the lot was fenced up.  I’ll bet the cost of entry downtown for a bar/grill establishment has gone up in the last year so, making this location a prime target. It’s a short walk from the ballpark with street parking. Winding around to Missouri, facing east there is another building now empty that used to be a grocery:

There was no obvious activity.  l’ll bet it won’t be long before something fills the empty space.  The rest of the buildings are residential apartments so you have to figure that some sort parking requirements will  go into effect to help the residents.  Either that or on game night you just don’t leave your house unless you are coming back after the game.  It’s a pretty cool little spot retaining, for now, a lot of charm for this often forgotten part of town.  I shot a few more pics before I heading back to the market:

For the full set of pics see: San Francisco District on flickr

While walking around the Union Depot area of downtown El Paso this weekend, I captured a few shots of some of the more interesting buildings around the area. Have a look:

More pics can be found here: Union Depot/Art Market on flickr

I spent some time this weekend at the Downtown Artist and Farmers Market in El Paso’s Union Plaza District.  It’s been going on for a few years now and has really taken shape from its humble beginnings.

While browsing around, I walked a few blocks over to see how the area has changed in the last year with all the recent development activity.  One new addition is a large pedestrian mall following Durango street from Overland to the site of the new stadium. There’s been a lot of talk about not having enough parking for the El Paso Chihuahua’s baseball games. This looks like a good way to shuttle foot traffic up the colorful walkway from the downtown transit terminal across from the Civic Center.

The artist market has grown leaps and bounds since the addition of the farmers market.  Food trucks also frequent, parking down on San Francisco street, giving patrons plenty of grub to choose from.

One thing that would really help would be if more of the businesses in the area would open up for lunch on Saturday (Hello! the Garden and Brick & Mortar…)  On the corner of San Antonio and Anthony streets sits The Mix , a cool retail/ shopping venue.  A few retail stores were open but a pub and nearby restaurant opened later in the afternoon. Bummer.

With plenty of parking and new vendors, the Art Market is worth a weekend checkout.  It’ll be interesting to see the area continue to grow once baseball takes hold downtown. There should be more to see and do as this and future seasons get going.

Queens of the Stone Age stopped in El Paso, playing at the Abraham Chavez theater on February 11, 2014.  If memory serves me, they had only been here once before, in support of Songs for the Deaf.  I didn’t go then and was quite surprised that they were coming back in support of …Like Clockwork.  I didn’t want to miss this one, so I snagged a couple of tickets as soon as the pre-sale was announced.

They opened with the fast paced “You think I ain’t worth a dollar but I feel like a millionaire“.  That song still packs a punch even without Nick Oliveri on lead vocals.  From there it was a non stop assault.  Queens is a pretty tight band, and one of the few whose songs you can count on sounding excellent live. Josh Homme’s vocals have been the constant through the bands revolving door lineup over the years.  I would wager he’s one of the current top rock vocalists.  No auto-tuning or trickery required.

The Chavez is a medium sized venue, pretty much every seat gets you a good view.  QOTSA played like they were in a stadium though, it was LOUD.  Three songs in I had to resort to ear plugs (I’m old, I know.)  They slowed mid-way for the title track off the latest album, which I’ve posted a clip of below:

(Turn the volume down, its quite loud even on the slow parts)

The show lasted about an hour and 45 minutes and they did not disappoint.  They came out for an encore and on the last song they literately brought the set down.  Shortly after the start of the last song, Song for the Deaf, Michael Shuman knocked his amp stack to the floor, leading Homme to pull the drum kit down. Rock n’ Roll baby!

If they come again I’ll definitely catch them next time.  The Sun City has finally been getting some acts worth seeing.  With last year’s NIN, and upcoming Old 97’s in May I guess IT IS ALL GOOD EL PASO.

Here are some more crappy cell phone pics from the show: QOTSA on flickr