I would guess that Marfa is one of the only small towns in America where cowboys are members of the Screen Actors Guild, and you might see your neighbor featured in a spread in Italian Vogue.
Since 1910, Marfa has been the site of myriad photo shoots, commercials, and film and TV productions. There are the big ones like Giant, No Country for Old Men, and There Will Be Blood, where Marfa (really the surrounding land) is used to represent a cinematic version of rural Texas– opportunity, danger, and beauty all at once, and a fortune waiting if you’re ready to come and take it.
Then there are the productions that choose Marfa for its small town specificity: I Love Dick, or the indie band The XX’s music video for On Hold, depicting art world pretension and small town teen ennui, respectively. Locals often show up in these productions as extras, doing the things they might normally do, but in front of the camera and slant: paired up to look like couples, modeling glasses in an open field, walking around town in a new pair of boots they wouldn’t have necessarily picked out, but that they’ll get to keep when the show's over.
Marfa is often cast to play a version of itself– a land of cowboys, open space, low slung buildings, and notably, a cool old truck to drive around in. Trucks are a huge part of country life - look no further than nearly every modern bro-country song, or writer Christian Wallace’s ode to his truck (a love story) in Texas Monthly. When people come to Marfa looking to shoot something, they’re not just casting human models. Often, they’re also casting car models - in particular, romantic vintage trucks - to complete the picture.
For a truck like that, they might call David Branch (also the DJ of Honky Tonk Happy Hour at Marfa Public Radio). His front yard is a veritable modeling agency for vintage cars. So far he’s rented three of his seven vehicles out for advertisements, but his current starlets (carlets? Forgive me) are a yellow Ford featured in the Sundance catalogue and and a beat up Jeep you can see in a Ralph Lauren campaign.
It turns out that casting cars is a lot like casting people– clients are picky.
“Often you just get ruled out,” said David. “Cause, they say ‘oh we want one with a shorter bed,’ or ‘we want one with more dents,’ or ‘we want one with less dents’ or ‘that color's wrong.’”
But David’s got options. Pulling up to his house, I was greeted by a group of beautiful pickups, and his dog Pearline winding her way around various tools and parts. When I walked into the garage, David was waxing an enviable blue 80s Saab I often see riding around town.
David’s always been obsessed with cars. When he was younger, he’d sit in the backseat of his mom’s Subaru and rattle off the names of every vehicle driving by. How he’d learned them was a mystery– no one in his family was particularly into cars, but he had always just paid attention. His younger brother got into it too: “We just would always find some dilapidated heap and drag it back to my mom's house and tinker on it,” he said.
Those first heaps didn’t end up running, but David was determined to learn the craft. “In the old public library days, I would check out repair manuals for cars, even cars that weren't cars that I owned, just to read about them," he said. "I liked those weird illustrations- line drawings and lithographs and the stuff in those books. It kind of made it all seem like you were kind of digging up something from another time.”
It's easy to take an old truck that's been neglected and bring it to something that you at least feel okay driving,” David said. “50/50 on whether that's like playing to the sort of washed out desert aesthetic or whether that's just plain economics.”
It seems like a chicken-egg situation. What was once just necessary- making sure a vehicle lasted as long as possible - has become part of a desert fantasy. A simple life without too much technological intervention: “The thing definitely does not use you in any way,” David said. “You use it.”
There is definitely something deeper to that washed-out aesthetic; part of what old trucks can do is tell a story. “It’s something that carries with it some kind of imagined history,” said David. You might not know where that truck came from or what it was up to, but that’s part of the allure. “It's easy to sort of daydream over what kind of life that thing might've had,” said David. “What it might've been up to, what kind of honest days work it did.”
For someone shooting a commercial, a vintage truck can provide a portal to an older world– a sense of analog adventure and authenticity. “Part of the allure of the old truck or the old anything is just the fact that it lasted,” said David.
At the end of the day, David says renting out trucks is a great way to ensure he can keep fixing them, and, ultimately, sending them back into the community they came from.
“If I find someone to take some old truck from me, I love seeing it around," he said. "It feels like almost important work to take something out of some back lot or a ranch somewhere where it was just being ignored and then have it driving around and somebody's using it. If I could populate the town with old cars, I'd be happy about that.”
And he seems to be succeeding. I asked if I could see the yellow truck of Sundance Catalog fame (maybe get an autograph or something), but, David told me that she’s retired. He sold the truck to someone in town, so maybe we’ll see her around.
Caló
Piole - a group of steady friends. It comes from the Spanish word, piolar, which is the collective chirping of a brood of chicks. The term conveys the image of a pack of kids talking excitedly to each other in a playground or, in the case of the Southside, in the alleys.
Caló is a borderland dialect. You can find more episodes here.
Other recent programming:
South of Ciudad Juárez, just 40 miles from El Paso and the Rio Grande, the Samalayuca Dunes cover 55 square-miles. They have traditionally been known simply as Los Médanos – the dunes – and for centuries were a dreaded obstacle for travelers on the Camino Real. Now, they’re a protected area and park. These dunes are distinctive in their history, and their beauty. That's on this week's Nature Notes.
High Five
Cars, cars and more cars this week. Play these five songs while you're cruising around town:
- White Ferrari - Frank Ocean
- Cruisin' - Smokey Robinson
- I'd Rather Ride Around With You - Reba McIntire
- Freeway of Love - Aretha Franklin
- No Particular Place to Go - Chuck Berry
PSAs
In honor of Saint Francis of Assisi, the Patron Saint of Animals, Saint Paul’s Episcopal Church will be holding their annual Blessing Of The Animals on Saturday, October 5 from 10 a.m. to noon on the lawn of the Presidio County Courthouse in Marfa.
The public is invited to bring their pets on a leash or in a carrier. You can also bring a photo of drawing if your pet is unable to attend. And you can even bring a favorite stuffed animal to be blessed.
For more information, contact the church at 432-729-4897 or STPaulsMarfa.org
If you have PSAs you'd like to hear on the air or see in this newsletter, head to www.marfapublicradio.org/psa.
