Category: San Antonio River

‘Art Can Be Fun’ along the Mission Reach

postcardsfromsanantonio1 Comment

Thursday morning was the first time my walk up the Mission Reach to what I call the “crayola footbridge” was “legal.”  The San Antonio River Authority officially has opened the segment originating by Roosevelt Park to the impatient public; although the landscaping still resembles a moonscape and will until spring.  The hillside adjacent to the crenulated footbridge currently is planted with wooden stakes – a garden of “onesies.”

Two weeks ago, I bumped into Mike Addkison who is the project director for the San Antonio River Foundation’s riverside art installations, and he shared a rendering illustrating artist Mark Schelsinger’s vision for the footbridge when finished.

Mike also provided a more sophisticated rationale for the project than my 64-colors-in-a-box-encounters-dull-castle-walls-in-a-coloring-book theory:

The vibrant colors are a reference to both the cascaron (symbol of good luck) and to the natural world.  Although seemingly abstract, Mark’s piece is inspired by the amazing variety of strategies employed by flora and fauna to survive.  Plants and animals use bold color and, in rare instances, bio-luminescence to attract, repel, communicate and differentiate themselves in our natural world. 

By using vibrant color and luminescence for this footbridge, Mark imagines what a bridge might look like if it were alive and wanted and needed to draw people across it, for its very survival.  It’s that dynamic vibrancy during the day that hints at the uniqueness of the project at night.

The potential for evening interactivity is fantastic.  Each of the 8 glowing blocks becomes a ‘canvas’ for children and adults to paint and draw on with light.  The images last for a few minutes and then you have a clean slate to work on again.  As there will be no trail lighting in-channel, we think people will be carrying flashlights when they use the trail in the evenings and each of these lights can become a potential paint-brush for temporary creativity!

Update Added on December 19:  Express-News story about the soft opening of the new stretch of the Mission Reach

Update Added on June 26, 2011: Schlesinger seems to have rejected crayola footbridge as the title in favor of “UP on the ON.” But that still sounds like “Once upon a time….,” inspiring families to invent colorful stories centering around the crayola footbridge.

It’s a bird. It’s a plane. OMG! Turkeys bombing the crowd ‘like sacks of wet cement!’

postcardsfromsanantonio2 Comments

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday.  My family does not just come to dinner; they start arriving Monday.  We party all week long, and I never have to touch the naked turkey.  My sisters generously fly in to take care of the enormous, slippery, uncooperative bird and assign the vegetables to me.  I only cooked the innards in the plastic bag inside the turkey once (an extremely stupid place to store them), but it seems seared in the family’s collective memory.

Turkeys always bring a smile to my face, though, because of that great WKRP episode that should be shown on the first day of any introductory public relations course.  The longer version on youtube is worth watching, but the link below is whittled down to 30 seconds for those of us with short attention spans:

Unfortunately, this show aired in 1978, after the grand media opening I was allowed to orchestrate for the first (and last) Fall Festival on the River Walk.   I had spent several months contacting festival organizers and attractions from throughout South Texas to send mascots and representatives to ride in an opening parade.  This was no easy task; it required much begging and pleading.  I can still hear echoes of the Cuero man’s drawling voice beginning each sentence he uttered over the phone to me with:  “Now little girl….”

This parade was a low-budget, one-barge affair.  Conflicts arose immediately.  Having majored in international relations with hopes of bringing peace to the world working at the United Nations, one would have thought college would have left me better prepared to keep peace among South Texans.  But, for some reason, the sparkling-crowned Miss South Texas was highly offended to be sentenced to ride on the same barge as Miss Vacant Lot of the World from Victoria, not to mention the rest of the barnyard on board.  Ruby Begonia, the racing turkey from Cuero, was frightening the swimming pig from Aquarena Springs…. it’s too painful to go on….

When the barge finally pulled away from the patio in front of The Kangaroo Court, I sat down on the stairs of the David Straus Memorial Footbridge, my throat parched from the tense negotiations.  I took a large gulp from the cup in my hand.  Alas, it was not beer, but a gift from the Caveman from Natural Bridge Caverns and his goat (whose name was something like Hi-Ho-Heidi-Ho?) – fresh, warm goat’s milk.

Oh, how I wished that cautionary WKRP episode had aired first.

One would think I would have been fired for this public relations fiasco, but my boss, Claire Regnier, had done something even worse to try to attract attention to Paseo del Rio in those early days when the sidewalks were often devoid of humans.  She had talked a zookeeper into bringing a hibernating alligator to ride a barge with Wendy and Captain Hook.  Ah, but it was a warm winter day.  The sun shone on the alligator’s back, and his tail soon began to twitch, then flail.  To the horror of those on the banks, Wendy shrieked and made an ungraceful leap from the barge.  No gangplank needed.

Leaving you with the turkey tribulations endured by the residents of La Conner, Washington, where they lack the wisdom of South Texans who know turkeys are for racing, and the hope you enjoy your Thanksgiving week as much as I plan to….

Update on November 21:  Following the foraging option for vegetables might get me fired from side dishes as well….

Blogger’s Post Fans Memories of The Flame Room

postcardsfromsanantonio10 Comments

David McLemore has a great post on Hot Wells. 

On adventurous evenings, we used to head south to the bar there, named The Flame Room because of the fire that had destroyed much of the former resort.   The woman behind the bar would come “entertain” you by making a tacky, spindly-legged bird marionette dance.   Ahead of fashion trends, the muscular carnival workers who wintered on the grounds sported intimidating tattoos. 

We played shuffleboard*, sat on the circular sofettes, tried to inconspicuously observe the unusual clientele and drank longnecks until forced to make the dreaded trek to the facilities.  While the men’s room was under a huge propeller conveniently adjacent to the bar, the ladies’ room required a journey down a long hallway past opening after opening of the dark ruins of private bathing rooms that certainly seemed haunted.  The sulphur smell from the pool was almost overwhelming.  We always went in pairs, too frightened to try to reach the lone dangling lightbulb at the end of the hall alone.   One night, Annie and I had almost reached our destination when, “Boo!”  That’s all the haggard woman screamed when she jumped out from one of the doorways, but we screamed as though she were a chupacabra.

Another night we came out to find out someone had carelessly crunched the bumper of their pickup through the front grille of our Volvo.  Thinking of the muscular tattooed arms inside that far outnumbered ours, we elected not to go back into The Flame Room and demand to know who hit our car.

The connection of Otto Koehler to Hot Wells David mentions is one of several reasons my novel about the brewer’s murder is called An Ostrich Plume Hat.  An in-depth history of Hot Wells can be found on the Edwards Aquifer website, from which I plucked this card.

Although I would be much too chicken to cross it, I wish a swinging bridge like the original one linking Hot Wells to Mission San Jose could be installed as part of the San Antonio River Improvements Project.

*Help!  It’s not called shuffleboard.  Long raised table-alley that you apply sawdust to and push these sort of pucks down to knock other pucks off the table….?

Note Added on September 17:  Also visit David’s article on Nowcast, a slide show and Charlotte-Anne Lucas’ video.  And more Hot Wells photos.