In the beginning of West and Clear, we invoked the name of the great Texas writer, John Graves. In the end, going back to the words of the grand old man of Texas letters seems like a good idea, too.

A little over a year and a half ago as the five of us wrote the words to describe what the hell a West and Clear was anyway, we reminded the people of Fort Worth that Graves once wrote that a whole river is too much to comprehend, but you can understand a piece of a river. West and Clear was our attempt to understand our little piece of the river here in Fort Worth. Unfortunately, our real-life demands have have left us with too little time to maintain this site in the style to which we hoped you would become accustomed. As a result, this post is West and Clear’s farewell.

We’re proud of the work that we have done here together. We wanted to create an online conversation worthy of the people here in our city. We think we’ve succeeded. More people are online, engaging and the conversation and talking about their city. We ask you to please continue with that, to keep on reading, commenting and supporting all of the other blogs and online conversations in Fort Worth.

To invoke Graves one last time, he wrote at the end of Goodbye To A River: “What is, is. What was, was. If you’re lucky, what was may also be a part of what is.” We’re grateful to have been a part of what was and what is.

Best of luck to all off you, and we hope to see y’all on down the line. Adios, Fort Worth.

Mayfest may be cancelled, but according to the press release that I’ve included below, the shows at the Fort Worth Opera will go on. I’m going to see Dead Man Walking on Saturday night, and I’m not planning on wearing a surgical mask. However, I will take a handful of the free cough drops because I like the wintergreen taste. Quite refreshing. Hope to see you there.
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Tonight at the Amon Carter Museum from 6–7 p.m., John Rohrbach, senior curator of photographs, will give a lecture titled, “Barbara Crane’s Great Conundrum,” exploring what defines her photography in each setting and asks whether Crane’s art is dominated by an urban or rural worldview.

… if you ever thought about a little dine-and-dash at Railhead, you might want to reconsider.

Still getting caught up from last week:

The McClatchy Watch blog paints a plausible picture for that scenario, plus more layoffs in June. This post brings up an interesting question: at what point do lenders loose faith in the company’s ability to turn things around? And would that prompt them to liquidate assets? It’s hard to find many optimists about the company, but the end could come sooner than anyone expected. Wow.

From Dallas something-something. Note to Dallas readers: Rahr tastes better in Fort Worth. Come to where the flavor is.

Opera Chic weighs in on the Fort Worth Opera’s upcoming performance of Dead Man Walking. Click-thru warning: possibly NSFW.

First Friday on the Green, the Near Southside’s live music series put on by Fort Worth South, Inc., rolls out its April edition tonight at 6. Big Daddy Alright, a seven-piece jump blues & swing band, is the headline attraction, along with ODIS. First Friday on the Green is held at Magnolia Green Park, on Lipscomb between Rosedale and Magnolia. Visit FortWorthology for map goodness.

About 30 minutes into Tuesday night’s symposium at TCU’s Schieffer School of Journalism, “Obama and The Press: Is the media doing its job,” I had a concrete answer. I really don’t care.

Not only had the question not been addressed, the panel of The New York Times‘ David Brooks, PBS’ Gwen Ifill, CNBC’s Trish Regan, syndicated columnist Mark Shields and Fort Worth’s own Bob Schieffer were throwing out one liners and droning on about whether Obama had bitten off more than he could chew with the economy, Afghanistan and so forth. It was so much like a Sunday morning talk show that the only thing I needed was a plate of waffles to complete the scene.

It was great infotainment, but it never got close very close to topic, which I was actually interested in and disappointed that it was barely addressed. But in the end, the event devolved into what happens whenever two or more newspaper people get together — hand wringing and navel-gazing about how terrible it is what’s happening to newspapers. “It’s like being in the whaling industry,” Brooks said. Then, before I knew it, the blogger-sitting-around-in-the-pajamas metaphor had been deployed. That’s when the wheels came off. To quote another great Fort Worth luminary, Bill Paxton, game over, man.
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