Road trip to art-walk in San Antonio

Above: Looking northward to downtown from San Pedro Culture Park pathways

If you follow the ruta of San Pedro Creek, you are on a pilgrimage rooted in the past, destined for the future. As in some ancient legend, a city emerged out of these waters. A city bubbled forth out of this spring-fed stream, running from long before there was anyone here to witness it – or drink from it…. If this creek could speak, in whispers of song, or poetry, it might tell the story of the city that it birthed, brought to the light of history, its most extraordinary, and perhaps unexpected, progeny. Whispers of memories, echoes of song, rhythms of poesy, drumbeats and bugles, punctuated by cannonades – and long intervals of peace.”

A Creek Tells Its Story: The Mythic Narrative of San Pedro Creek,” John Phillip Santos

Our rare quick trips to San Antonio tend to involve friends and family, so exploring the two miles of improvements along San Pedro Creek is taking a while. In December, we walked a small segment of the former degraded ditch that has been transformed into San Pedro Cultural Park.

Rather than repeat the background, here are links to my earlier blogs: first post, 2018; second post, 2024. Below, find images taken along a newer stretch.

Continue reading “Road trip to art-walk in San Antonio”

Postcard from San Antonio, Texas: Reclaiming creek as urban asset

Above: “Restoration,” mural by Kathy and Lionel Sosa

Once upon a time, I logged a lot of hours at City Hall, sometimes parking on a surface lot behind it. Behind it meaning on the other side of an unrecognizable creek. An ugly footbridge, hemmed in by chained-link fencing, crossed a narrow trash-filled concrete-walled ditch – San Pedro Creek. A place creepy enough to leave me feeling I should pay an extra dollar or two to park in front of City Hall.

Above: 1889 photograph of San Pedro Springs, Austin History Center via Portal to Texas History

Development and insensitive flood-control projects had destroyed what had once been a healthy spring-fed creek.

Continue reading “Postcard from San Antonio, Texas: Reclaiming creek as urban asset”

Dangling horse dominates, but you’ve a hearty appetite as well

Above: Skyline of downtown Austin, 11:59 p.m., December 31, 2023

Smoking mezcal cocktail delivered in Palermo, Sicily

Readers of this blog seem drawn to the embalmed horse, of course, suspended by artist Maurizio Cattelan from a dome in a former castle above Turin, Italy. And any mention of the Alamo always attracts a crowd, even when I’m drawing no line in the sand but waving a flag of truce. But you also seem drawn to photos of food, or cocktails, no matter the country of origin; street art; ghosts; and saintly tales not taught by nuns.

The following list represents the biannual results of the most-read postcards on this ever-rambling blog, with the numbers in parentheses indicating rankings from six months ago when applicable.

Continue reading “Dangling horse dominates, but you’ve a hearty appetite as well”