
<p dir="ltr"><img alt="" class="media-image attr__typeof__foaf:Image img__fid__32835 img__view_mode__default attr__format__default attr__field_file_image_alt_text[und][0][value]__ attr__field_file_image_title_text[und][0][value]__" src="http://www.texasmonthly.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/selfiestick.jpg" typeof="foaf:Image" /></p> <p dir="ltr"><span id="docs-internal-guid-f5170d76-b7e3-7fd4-c1aa-e5514b17bfba">Selfie sticks have been banned in at least three state museums, leaving Texans at a serious disadvantage when it comes to gearing up for next year’s </span><a href="http://www.theguardian.com/culture-professionals-network/gallery/2015/jan/21/museum-selfie-day-2015-in-pictures" target="_blank">Museum Selfie Day</a>.</p> <p dir="ltr"><span id="docs-internal-guid-f5170d76-b7e3-7fd4-c1aa-e5514b17bfba">The </span><a href="http://www.dailytexanonline.com/2015/02/17/blanton-museum-bans-selfie-sticks" target="_blank">Blanton Museum</a>, in Austin, as well as the <a href="https://www.dma.org/visit" target="_blank">Dallas Museum of Art</a> and the <a href="http://www.perotmuseum.org/visit-the-museum/faqs/planning.html" target="_blank">Perot Museum of Natural Science</a>, in Dallas, all have bans on tripods and monopods that extend to selfie sticks, leaving visitors to settle for mediocre, arm-length-only selfies. Bummer! Most museums have rules against bringing tripods into their exhibition halls anyway—taking a family portrait in front of your favorite Pollock piece is a <em>tad</em> disruptive to other visitors—and these three museums are following a <a href="http://mashable.com/2015/02/03/selfie-stick-ban/" target="_blank">recent pattern of outlawing selfie sticks</a> in places where they might infringe upon another person’s experience.</p> <!--break--> <p dir="ltr"><span id="docs-internal-guid-f5170d76-b7e3-7fd4-c1aa-e5514b17bfba">There are plenty of people who argue that </span><a href="http://blog.wellcomecollection.org/2014/09/24/a-to-z-of-the-human-condition-i-is-for-indivduality/" target="_blank">taking selfies in museums is great</a>, and you should just do you when it comes to enjoying some of the world’s greatest works of art. Selfies are cultural artifacts too! There are entire <a href="http://museumselfies.tumblr.com" target="_blank">Tumblr blogs</a> dedicated to memorializing some of our time’s greatest moments of digital self-portraiture, <a href="http://healthland.time.com/2013/09/06/why-selfies-matter/" target="_blank">think pieces</a> have been written, and Kim Kardashian is releasing what could be the <a href="http://time.com/3675249/kim-kardashian-selfish-cover/" target="_blank">definitive piece of selfie literature</a>. Take all the selfies you want—just check to make sure your new selfie stick is allowed before you head out for your next museum day.</p> <p dir="ltr"><span id="docs-internal-guid-f5170d76-b7e3-7fd4-c1aa-e5514b17bfba">Besides, you don’t <em>really</em> need an arm-extending device to take a picture that perfectly captures your own face alongside a marble sculpture or famous oil painting. Practice your arm stretches, bring along a particularly tall, lanky friend, or <a href="https://instagram.com/p/uBTbDQDMS6/?modal=true" target="_blank">do what Beyoncé and Jay-Z did</a> and have someone in your entourage take the photo for you. </span></p> <p dir="ltr"><span><em>Photo courtesy of iStock.</em></span></p>
Ahem. If you’ll scroll down to the seventh picture, below, you’ll see that there are only two macarons on the plate. There were initially three macarons, but yours truly grabbed the third one and demolished it in one bite before realizing that I had not taken a picture. Damn! It looked so delicious that I lost my head. That sort of thing—wolfing down your food—will happen to you at the Pass, the newest restaurant from Houston chefs Seth Siegel-Gardner and Terrence Gallivan. Everything is so pretty and clever—mesmerizing, in fact—that it all but begs you to devour it. Yes, you do have a brief “too pretty to eat” moment, but that only lasts about a millisecond. Then you attack it like a starving wolverine. Seth Siegel-Gardner and Terrence Gallivan The Pass, which opened on Tuesday, November 27, is the second half of the oddly named duo, the Pass and Provisions. The first half, Provisions, opened in September, with a casual menu of pizzas, a “ham of the day,” artisanal breads baked in the wood-burning oven. The Pass, the fine-dining restaurant, took a little more time to get ready (they’re located side by side, in the same building). But judging by a five-course sampling yesterday, the wait was more than justified. And word is out. Almost all of the Pass’s 36 seats were booked up immediately for days ahead. If you want to go, plan ahead. And throw conventional expectations right out the window. Nothing here is predictable. The menu is part of a highly eclectic and original vision of the two young chef-owners, and in my experience, there is really nothing like it in Texas. (Justin Yu’s Oxheart, also in Houston, is equally ambitious and personal, but different.)
Comments