Project Row House

            For our tenth trip, and sadly our last one, we went and visited "Project Row House". Project Row House had a lot of small houses, which we walked into, finding them to contain a lot of African American symbols and meanings. We also saw some paintings that were put against a fence to stop kids and people from knocking it over. The houses that were for rent had a very low price, making it very affordable and the houses or apartments didn't look bad from the outside. To bad we weren't able to see them from the inside. We also went to a park across the street, where we were explained by the tour that they used to or still have parties there. They would gather in hundreds of people and they would make barbecue and hot dogs and many other things. They took it as a time to have fun and forget about everything else. Everything here had a culture; an African American culture, very unique. It was a really nice trip to go to and learn new aspects and things about the things they do and culture.

Houston's Art Deco

           For our ninth trip for HOGS, we had the opportunity to view the amazing structures and building located in Houston, TX. We, or at least I, had never seen most of the places that we went to that day. I really liked the bank that we went to, because it was really fancy compared to others that I have seen before. Inside the bank, the structure was very detailed and it had a lot of description. There was also a triangle (pyramid) that was in some of the architecture in the bank, and it made me think if it had ties with the free masons, since a lot of them have positions in government, specially in the economic sectors of the country. They tend to have a lot of control over that part of government so that could be a reason why they had that symbol in the bank since the bank does deal with economy. After that we went to a very tall architectural building where we went up an elevator to the highest part where tourists can go. We were able to see all of Houston from there  and some known places such as The Aquarium and other things. It felt really nice being up there and looking everything down instead of up like most of the time. It was a really nice experience to see our great city from up high.

Ghost Tour

          For our eight trip for HOGS, we went to different places in downtown that are supposedly haunted. The first place we went to was The Jefferson Davis Hospital, which was named after the president of the Confederate States president. This hospital was built over an old cemetery that was called the City Cemetery. There was approximately around 5,000-6,000 people buried in this cemetery, which most of them died of the common yellow fever in the 1800's. The last person to be buried here was in the year 1904. Twenty years later, the Jefferson Davis Hospital was built. If anyone that goes by and looks at it, they wouldn't notice that it was a cemetery, because it looks really nice now. Many people believe it is haunted while others say it isn't, but it all depends on the person you talk to. After visiting the hospital, we went to view the "Hanging Tree" which is believed to be one of the oldest trees in Houston. It was big and robust and it gave plentiful of shade making it peaceful to sit under the tree and enjoy the view. After going there, we went to have lunch at the Spaghetti Warehouse, which is divided in two floors. It is believed that the second floor is the most haunted part of the restaurant, and that is exactly we here we went to eat lunch. Once we started eating, the environment felt more peaceful and quiet than haunted and spooky; well at least to me that's the way it felt. I talked to two of the workers that work there to ask them about any experiences they have had before, related to the restaurant being haunted, but all they said was that they had not had any experiences yet, but there was only one thing, and that was that when they walked alone in the back part of the restaurant with the lights turned off, they felt as if someone or something would be walking behind them, but that was all they had experienced. The last place we went to visit was the "Donnellan Crypt". There is a long story about this that it would be impossible to write everything. Click on the link to learn more. http://www.cristanwilliams.com/b/2011/02/26/the-donnellan-crypt-downtown-houston/

Graffiti at The Mullet

Various paintings in the wall representing something diff.

          For our seventh trip for HOGS, we took a trip to "The Mullet", a graffiti place right around Almeda Mall. It was a very interesting place with a lot of wall painted, each with different types of paintings with different significance. They were all done by professionals, for the paintings were very well done and detailed. They were really nice paintings to look at and meditate about them along with what the significance of some of them could mean. The son of the owner of this place was born with the developmental disorder of Autism, which appears in the first three years of life and affects the brain's normal development of social and communication skills. The Father rents the place for concerts and other things to raise money, and donates what he raises to Autism Research Groups to help those people with autism. Most people would take the money and use it in personal things for themselves, but the owner of this place has a different heart with a different intention. Some of the Graffiti seemed to have like a dark meaning while others seemed to represent happiness and humor. It was a nice experince going and observing some amazing paintings.

Folk Art

For our sixth trip in our HOGS class, we went and viewed what is called, "Folk Art". We first went to the Orange Show, where we learned about a guy named, "Jeff McKissack". He is the founder of the amazing, "Orange Show". He built the The Orange Show in honor of his favorite fruit, which is clearly oranges. He also believed that the longevity of humans depended on hard work and good nutrition. Here we saw many diverse things that caught everyone's eye. It seemed that some parts were used as a part where a performance took place and the audience in front. Most of the things that were built here were orange; the color of his favorite fruit. After that, we went to Art Car Museum. It was very interesting to see pictures in newspapers put against the wall that contained pictures of small kids as if they were suffering. Some of them looked very sad, most of them did, and it made you kind of be sorry for those kids, It was a really amazing place to go and see. The Cars in the museum were very "decorative" for they had many metal things attached on them; from badges to pennys. It might have so many metal things attached that the cars could maybe be pulled by a big strong magnet.

Museum of Fine Arts

For our fifth trip for HOGS, we went to view beautiful painting and sculptures at the Museum of Fine Arts. In our list, we had multiple paintings and pieces of art that we were suppose to go and check out and write about them, but due that they had taken some down, we weren't able to see them all as we would of liked. The people at the museum where very careful about where people could and couldn't take pictures. I, usually don't like to go to museums for the reason that I get bored easily, but I had a good time there with my friends, and looking at the paintings and some sculptures. Some paintings were very detailed, while others I really couldn't tell what the meaning was or what was painted. There were some interesting paintings and some that really didn't catch my attention, but they all had something unique in them. I also liked the tunnel we went through. At first I thought the blue "wall" was an actual solid wall, but I changed opinion once I was about to fall in it, thinking it was a wall. I was also amazed at "Odyssey" by Cai Guo-Quiang. The room felt very peaceful I would say, and the walls were very well detailed, to the extent that it made you go like, "How was he able to do this?". In my opinion, this was the best thing I liked above all the other things in the museum. There was also a video that showed how it was made and who the guy from China was. Due to shortage of time, we were sadly, unable to finish watching the entire video about him. Overall I enjoyed looking at the amazing pieces of art in the Museum.

Cai Guo-Qiang 

Two Unique Cemeteries

The many trees in the cemetery helped provide shade to visitors. 

For our fourth trip we went to Olivewood, and Glenwood cemeteries. They were two completely different cemeteries in every aspect that you can think of. Glenwood was a very big, nice cemetery, covering 84 acres. The trees and the cleanness made it a really good place to walk around and feel peaceful. The sound of the wind and the chirping from the birds also made it feel even more calm and peaceful. On the other hand, Olivewood was completely the opposite of Glenwood. The grass was half  dead, instead of hearing the birds chirping and the sound of the trees, the only thing you could hear were the crickets in the dry grass and the zooming of the cars next to the freeway. There were some stones almost out of the ground and some of them were even cracked already. It was a major difference between the other one. There were some epitaph that were interesting to read, and some of them left you meditating about the true meaning behind those words. It was a really nice experience going to both of the cemeteries, because they show different aspects in all ways.

The East End

I really like what it says. Translated to English would say:
I paint-You paint-They erase
I live-You live-They Kill
I love-You Love-They Hate
I work-You work-They Steal

           For our third trip, we went to the East End, to see some interesting, and meaningful murals. At first we went to see three distinctive murals that had a different meaning but there was one that I like the most, which was, "No Olvides tus Raices", which translated from Spanish to English would be, "Don't forget your race", something like that. It represents, in my opinion that we should never be ashamed of our race, our self, or where our parents came from. That day we also went to see some graffiti painting. It was very interesting to notice that almost every painting had, "Nekst", written on it. There was this specific painting, or rather words written on the wall that drew my attention, and I really liked what it said. It is one of the pictures below. If you're interested in knowing a little more about "Nekst", you can go ahead and click the links below, or if not possible, just copy and paste into the URL.

http://houston.culturemap.com/newsdetail/01-03-13-groundbreaking-houston-graffiti-legend-dies-taggers-remember-a-badass-rebel/

http://glasstire.com/2012/12/29/ripnekst-ex-houston-graffiti-writer-nekst-has-died/

"Don't Forget Your Races"

                                                                                                 

Public Art

The Bridge where the mysterious button was to be found.

        Our Second trip was Downtown. We went and saw different sculptures representing different things. Some were hard to tell what the meaning of the sculpture was, while others were quite easy to figure out. They were all unique in their own way and were extensively detailed. One of them called, "In Minds", had to be looked at from different perspectives to see faces around it. Depending from the position that you were standing, you would see different faces. We also got to observe the "Seven Wonders", which were very detailed and fun to enjoy to look at. We also got to go to the bridge right next to the "Seven Wonder", where some classmates went in search of the red button to click it and find out what happened. As soon as they found it, they pushed it and water started bubbling from the stream or river that was under the bridge. We also went to Tranquility Park. The name says it all, it was very peaceful and quiet, and just really nice to be in.

A wonderful view from atop the bridge

As you can see here, when the red button
was pushed the water started to bubble.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           

Going through Tranquility Park.