Back in the olden days, before I chose to become a middle-aged man, my associates and I would enjoy time in Downtown Fort Worth, which can be accurately summed up by modern philosopher Toby Keith. Us hotheads even appeared in one of Brian Luenser’s pictures. For non-Texas Scaiaholics: appearing in one of Brian’s pictures is how you know Fort Worth has accepted you as one of its own.

At Main Street Arts Festival a few years back, an associate and I even recreated the piano scene from Big. As a gentleman, I gave her first pick over whether to be Tom Hanks or Robert Loggia.

An employee of the Cliburn offered to take a picture, saying that had been a very popular activity to mimic. She didn’t even roll her eyes.

But Loyal Scaiaholics will recall not all my encounters with public relations people have been positive. Since I’ve set down roots in North Texas, I’ve gotten to know many who work in public relations. Many, I’d even say, have become associates.

Sundance Square has been going through some stuff. Downtown Fort Worth, as a whole, has been drawing people back after the pandemic, but more tenants are leaving Sundance Square.

So when Sundance Square announced it was starting its own arts festival the same weekend as Main Street Arts, I emailed their public relations person to do an interview. He never replied.

“He’s busy,” I thought to myself. I could put out the information he had emailed earlier. Then I went downtown to shove my microphone in the face of people showing their art.

This concurrent festival was drawing mixed reviews. The first person I talked to mentioned how she had to move her stand because her previous spot was no longer available.

I understand Sundance Square wanting to celebrate local artists. The Near Southside has become a hot spot where local artists can experiment and collaborate on new projects. Main Street has become so popular nationally, they’re having to turn people away. They had more than 1,000 applications for those 212 spots.

An artist from Michigan also lost his regular spot, but he hopes the inclusion of more local artists would spark more interest.

One of the local artists, though, described it as a “cash grab”. He did not want to give his name for fear of issues with management in the future. The artist from Washington wondered why not set up a separate festival instead of trying to capitalize on an established event?

With the turnover in that specific part of downtown, she might have expected them to be working to bring more people in instead of putting on a more exclusive show.

But Tom Hanks and Robert Loggia wouldn’t argue about it, and #ScaiaBlog seeks to unite people. She also talked about how Main Street Arts can introduce her work to more casual art collectors, the type of people who still watch Big when it comes on TV, for instance.

After two years of all of us arguing with each other because we googled and know more about medicine than infectious disease doctors, her focus has been on bringing people back together.

“It might not look great at the moment,” she explains. “But if we can look ahead a little bit, we can make something different.”

You know what unites us all? Meatloaf.

Let me explain.

When the owner of Reata said Sundance Square was kicking him out, another public relations associate suggested we get some lunch there soon. And Reata has a chipotle meatloaf that’s fantastic. I’m sure it’ll continue to be just fantastic wherever he moves his shop.