o n l y & l o o p e r s

MaRose called last evening to c h a t about how for years she had desired to work Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays. o n l y.

Which made me launch into this tale-

On October 12, 1992 at 1pm, I met a guy. He spouted slapstick h u m o r (not the pie in the face kind, but the kind that made you wanna end each line with air drummer fists and a buddut shish). We shared our intentions for sitting on the l i l a c leather chairs in the reception area at the old old Houston Press on Bering at San Felipe. Cardboard for the move already lined the walls quasi blocking our area from an adjacent filing room.

I was there because of my aspirations to write. He was there because one day he wanted to receive an ADDY  (whatever that was) for his phenomenal and a w a r d winning advertising agency. AAA or Triple A, the agency named as such for Alfred's Amazing or Artistic Advertising would bear the logo of the Spanish Cervantes crest donned with A's throughout. Les jeunes!

It reminded me of when Awkward Black Girl realized that CC was awkward, too. My brain and my head voices couldn't compartmentalize this f e l l o w, but I knew he was friend.

Steven Barnes reminded us just today to c h o o s e our friends wisely.

Friend and I received our peon tasks as advertising assistants. Uh, what had I been thinking I don't even know this town. I worked for "the third largest paper in the fourth largest city in the United States of America" as friend would often emphasize to me. Rarely had I driven past Jones Road on 290 from Prairie View, and now I had signed up to gallivant about Houston points unknown?

No worries. Friend took one look at my face and offered his extra key map. Even then he held an affection for the severely local except for his whip. When it was apparent that I didn't even know what a key map was, he took out a paper and drew a circle.

"This is the loop."

Squiggles through 610 and scribbled cross streets later, I entered my own bohemian odyssey.

Fast forward a couple of years. Friend went to work in film. I met a boy, and moved to Paris.

At some point between the two, t r a j e c t o r y began. There were wrap parties and screenings and editing suites in posh hotels. Remember the wrap at Dave & Busters with the fabulous Aussie, Jack Thompson days before my move to France?

Friend shared his Houston with me.

He had an extra sensory perception to know where the best of Houston played, with the best music jamming, that coincidentally served the best tapas.

Who knew about rolling napkins down bottles to toss around the Last Concerts Cafe? Carolyn Wonderland? Flamin' Hellcats?

Fast forward a couple of decades. I have seen Alfred at least a few times each of those twenty years. Even our children have chosen to be friends. The journey has been rich.

He's the only person in my feed who's social media status updates indicate the pulse of Houston.

He's the only reason I agreed or even proposed to assist in planning a Free Minds, Free People in Houston. He's the only reason I agreed to host a local film room at said Social Justice conference.

He's the only person that I've seen soooo super committed to promoting H-town's fabulous scene consistently for the last twenty years.

He's the ambassador of art perfection Houston. He shares his Houston with us, and the world.

When Alfred text that he would be receiving the Only in Houston award.  It made perfect sense. Alfred is pretty much one of the Onlys in Houston. Wouldn't you agree?

It was when he emailed the announcement did I have a moment, a mind movie flashback kind of moment. Like a down the rabbit hole time travel Looper loop! "This is the loop." The you from twenty years ago, you.

I love listening to loops. I love watching loops. Like when D set an agenda to acquire an a g e n t and she did. Or when the Girl on Fire, Carnival Performer, OT pitched an intention last Spring to create a mobile South American juice bar and she did. Or when S expressed the desire to learn the vernacular of academia published her team's research in a Canadian journal this week.

Life is sooooooo delicious! Right?

"This is the loop."

Intentions and full circles and hula hoops.

Alfred subjected the email- Seventh "Only in Houston"

"More people have walked on the moon." [Or not.] From the movie Farmer Guy and I watched the previous night, Up in the Air.

"Award to be given at the 51st American Advertising Federation-Houston ADDY Awards..."

This is the loop. 

Farmer Guy always says, "If one just does the work and stays out of the way- it unfolds how it should."

MaRose and Alfred have closed a loop!

Has the rainmaker placed an order to close more?

Which loop would you like to close? 


e n v i s i o n
w o r k
c e l e b r a t e


Alfred Cervantes, Friend, this o n l y ' s for you!