By M. De Santiago

Photographs by Joey Lozano and Melody Parra

Somehow, we awoke; and we were both in a cold stupor. The night before was a blur of good times and new acquaintances.

Joey and I gradually dragged ourselves out from the tent.

The morning sun was shining bright.

The El Cosmico grounds look different in the day light. The land is a grassy plain, typical Texas scenery, and was surrounded by a bank of trees. To the East, the land rolled up and down and seemed to go on forever. In that direction, on a distant hill, there was a lonely old house perched on top of that hill.

I stared at that rolling plain and the lonely old house for a while, wondering just how far it went and who, if anybody, lived in that house.

I snapped out of it and noticed that the others staying at El Cosmico were busy preparing for their day.  Most were walking to and from the communal restroom or getting their fix of coffee from the concession stand. Others seemed content to stay put and take in the sun’s early rays.

Melody had driven the night before to Fort Davis to stay with our friend Cynthia.  We contacted her and told here we’d be headed out for the day in an hour.

As soon as Melody arrived we walked to the Chinati art gallery to take in some art.

The Chinati gallery is an old military installation renovated into art space. Most of the larger barracks and hangars hold interesting minimalist installations and eclectic pieces of art. Some of the barracks were ‘walk-in’ installations; one in particular was made up to look like an old Russian school house. The volunteer at the door told us to watch out for the scraps of paper on the floor, for they were part of the art concept. After that fair warning, we pigeon toed carefully around the school house.

Two hangars housed a minimalist installation that featured stain less steel boxes with random sides cut in different ways.

After perusing the art in Chinati, and discovering that my sunglasses were broken, we walked into town curious to know if anything was going on and looking to fill our beer soaked bellies with some kind of food.

Marfa’s main street was bustling with activity. There were many out of towners taking in the sights, walking to art galleries and like us, looking to have lunch.

We chose to eat under the shade structure where a food stand was selling falafels and various sandwiches. While Joey stood in line, Melody and I walked to the nearest convenience store in search of new sun glasses. I was lucky enough to find a pair exactly like my last glasses, silver mirror frames. They were the last pair there and the rest were purple granny sunglasses. I paid for my new glasses, and Melody had the urge to purchase snacks before we left. We were standing in line when Ben Kweller walked in with his wife and kid. They too were looking to purchase snacks.

The Kwellers stood behind us in line, their kid had two bags of tamarindo candy. I turned around and told Ben that his kid was brave for liking the spicy candy. Kweller said that they loved the stuff and that he had grown up on it (totally unexpected answer by the way).  I told him he had played a good show the other night. I commented on how his group sounded kinda shaky while they were playing the Beatles’ “I Saw Her Standing There.” Kweller said that most of the cover songs they played that night were on the spot improvisations and the band wasn’t familiar with the notes and chord changes of that particular Beatles song. Our conversation ended once Melody purchased her snacks, we shook hands and wished each other a good day. Kweller’s a cool guy indeed.

As we ate, a performance artist, dressed in a skin tight black spandex suit, popped out of nowhere and attracted a bevy of photogs.

After our meal, my sister, her dude, Mr. Derek and Robert Dozal had finally arrived in town. After many texts we finally met up and unexpectedly met with other people from EP, who would later meet up with us at the campsite and help us celebrate the night.

Eventually the sun had become too much, and we went back to the campsite.

The night’s performers were doing sound checks on the solar powered stage. They all sounded good and provided a choppy soundtrack to the lazy afternoon.

I gave in to the day’s heat and took a nap inside the tent. I awoke to the setting cool of the evening. I was energized and ready to take on the night.

The first band of the night and our tent neighbors was Tehranosaurus from Austin, Tx. Their music was atmospheric, full of feeling and technical chops.

Our friends Gabriel and Israel had finally arrived and it seemed the night had officially started.

Once Gabe and Izzy showed up at our campsite, we shared a few drinks and contemplated going to the Dan Deacon show. Everybody else had left for the show except me, Joey and our newly arrived pals because we did not know who this guy was. After some deliberation, we got into Gabe’s car and drove down the road to the show.

Dan Deacon and his hyper active electronic music, is a weird sight to behold up close. He wore a purple Steve Urkel shirt and looked like the unkempt nerdy kid from some mid-western high school. But, he is a great performer and his interactive show worked up the crowd into a frenzy. At one point during the show, the crowd turned into a human tunnel that extended into the streets and attracted the authorities. Throughout the show there was a lot of dancing and high spirits.

After the show, everybody was on an adrenaline high and wanting to know where the party was.

We went back to El Cosmico to watch The Heartless Bastards play and they gave a fantastic performance. Their songs are mostly all power chords (no solos!) and have an odd bluesy drawl. They sounded harder than expected and were a great way to cap off the night’s entertainment.

By the end of the night, we left El Cosmico again due to many rumors of a party going on, but they all proved false. Authorities had put a pre-mature end to many of the night’s get-togethers and we were left with only one option.

El Cosmico.

During some ungodly hour we trekked back to El Cosmico, with Dan Deacon, his posse and a group of strangers looking to have a good time.

As we filled our stomachs with cold drink, our attention had turned to the massive tee pee. Dan Deacon suggested we follow the hoots and hollers coming from the Native American structure.

We entered and it was like a pagan party taking place. The tee pee was deceptively large on the inside. The fire pit was ablaze and all sorts of people were sitting around the fire, drinking, smoking, laughing, and just having a good time.  Eventually we all left the tee pee and went back to our camp ground. We ran into our buddies Hyde and Donnie and had a late night smoke and drink session.

We awoke Sunday morning to the sounds of people taking down their campsites and preparing to head back home.  We did the same.

Our short time in Marfa was all sorts of fun. El Cosmico was a serene place to stay at and offered a sense of community that most of us don’t regularly come across. The fresh air did us good and the night sky was a constant starry wonder. We definitely had an adventure that none of us saw coming.

That’s the magic of Marfa, if you’re cool, friendly and have an open mind, anything can happen.

12►