Voting Station

Marfa, Texas

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Location

The Resume

    Founded in the early 1880s
    Population: 1,625 (2019)
    Area: 1.63 sq miles
    Located in the high desert of the Trans-Pecos of West Texas
    Filming location of 'Giant' (1956)
    Home to Minimalist artist Donald Judd
    Home to the Chinati Foundation art museum (est. 1986)

Why Marfa, Texas might be annoying:

    Its population growth stalled and reversed in the latter-part of the 20th century.
    Its association with Donald Judd renders it a popular tourist destination for beatnik hipsters.
    Historians have claimed its name came from a character in Dostoevsky's Brothers Karamazov.
    Actually its name comes from a character in a Jules Verne novel, 'Michael Strogoff' (Marfa Strogoff).
    When Donald Judd settled there, he turned the local bank, supermarket, and several of its abandoned buildings into arthouses (the New Yorker called it 'an austere utopia of concrete, metal, glass, Sheetrock, brick and adobe').
    Its local church was converted to an art studio and even its gas stations have been made into art galleries (one even became a PBS studio).

Why Marfa, Texas might not be annoying:

    It was founded as a railroad water stop.
    It was dubbed 'the Xanadu of Minimalism.'
    It is famous for its multicolored skyline (Marfa Lights), which some have attributed paranormal ghosts or UFOs.
    Its artistic pursuits include a writers residency program, a theater group, two film festivals, and a first-rate bookstore.
    Carl Andre and Yoko Ono have made several pilgrimages.
    The city is also 37 miles from the famed pop art exhibit Prada Marfa (erected in 2005).
    While shooting Giant, George Stevens allowed locals to take part as extras/dialect coaches/stagehands.

Credit: BoyWiththeGreenHair


Featured in the following Annoying Collections:

Year In Review:

    In 2023, Out of 13 Votes: 53.85% Annoying
    In 2022, Out of 3 Votes: 66.67% Annoying
    In 2021, Out of 12 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2020, Out of 8 Votes: 12.50% Annoying