Victorville

I know I promised I'd have these up earlier, but was anyone really waiting eagerly at their computers? If you were, I'll buy you ice cream. Now onto the photos.

Steven and I drove a few dozen miles out of our way as we headed home this weekend. When we arrived, the sun was hanging low in the sky. It seemed to hold there just long enough for me to find and save these. An entire suburban neighborhood, abandoned. The world has never felt as surreal as it did here. If I were alone I imagine that I'd have gotten lost in thought and forgotten to take photos. Luckily, Steven snapped away and brought me out of it.

The pavement, cracked and crumbling, winds its way through what seems like hundreds of homes. Trees overgrown, now dead, lay on top of some of the buildings. Gently resting on the smashed walls and caved roofs. Dust lifts up behind my footsteps as I walk where green grass once grew. Hundreds of homes, hundreds of lives. This is what it must feel like to be the last man alive.

Nevada Desert Towns

Nevada is chiefly known for what I document on a regular basis: The two main centers of gambling in the United States. But an even deeper passion of mine lies in the Nevada desert, on the highways between Reno and Las Vegas. Towns, some living and some figments of the past, pepper the landscape. These towns are what used to be the life blood of this great state. The mining towns that heaved up thousands of tons of earth to establish the silver state. The mining towns where tumbleweed bounces through the streets. Where some of the grandest buildings of their time still stand. In the spaces between the active hands of Nevada is the heart of the state.

Recently I visited the old ghost town of Rhyolite, and the dying town of Goldfield. In the posts below are my short chronicles of those towns.

Desert Towns, Nevada.

Rhyolite

The desert slowly reclaims Rhyolite. The town once supported a thriving community and now it sits alone in the desert. The Nevada Historical society take care of in however it can. The stone buildings are all that remain. Being inside them is like walking through an archaeological dig site. Columns lie on their sides, foundations are cracked, bricks are strewn, few clues remain. But every so often as I walked inside a building I would get a flash of what once was.

The bank, clean save for a fine dust on the floor has people milling about inside. It's dark and cool inside. A woman walks with her husband to the teller. The owner of the bank sits in his office above the main floor looking down with pride. And suddenly I'm back in the glaring heat. The walls white with time and sunlight. The ground is covered with dirt, brick, stone slabs and desert plants.

Rhyolite, Nevada.

Alystra: Mourning

I visited The Alystra Site a couple of days ago. Few things remain. scraps of wood painted sky blue. Glass shards. Tile. And a foundation. A foundation that once supported the majestic casino. The space where the building once stood is like a massive grave site. The only remaining structure is the stage that was once within the walls. Beneath it was once a vault. Now it is exposed to open air and filled in with dirt. The marquee still stands, a depressing sight without it's partner. The marquee is now a massive marker, a tombstone for the the fallen Alystra. I walked atop the foundation and tried to imagine what once was. 'Here was the front entrance' I told myself 'And over here was the main gambling hall'. It all started to break down when I tried to continue. At least we have the memories, an a few pretty rectangles of frozen time.

It's happened. The Alystra is gone.

The beloved Alystra burned down today. Local kids, photographers, vagrants, and explorers mourn this loss.

However, two girls are totally stoked.

This week in photos (Seventeen)

Still no photo galleries, much to do with my being a lazy ass.

I've got a wide variety of things for you today. It ranges from art stuff to journalistic stuff, have fun.

Tennis

Tennis coach (Yay reflections)

Tennis

Top of the University Inn (Sierra Hall)

Sagebrush editor Brian Duggan at Pub n' Sub

Design editor Mike Higdon at Pub n' Sub

Miss Reno-Sparks starting the KAT Walk

People running in the KAT Walk

People setting up the Internship Fair

Art

Art

Portrait of an illegal immigrant

Courtney at the ASUN Club Awards

These next photos are really interesting. There's a house, rather two houses that have been abandoned and ripped to pieces. I found what was outside the house to be a kind of reflection of the house itself. I could talk about this for hours, the way the glass snapped beneath my feet, the way the wallpaper fluttered in the winds that came through shattered windows.