Category: Travel

Road trip to art-walk in San Antonio

postcardsfromsanantonioLeave a comment

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 Paris, France: Chefs blur borders

postcardsfromsanantonioLeave a comment
Illustration of a chef's hands arranging a plate with colorful vegetables and a small dish, featured on a French stamp labeled 'Gastronomie'.

Above: Mushroom tarte at Pristine

People who do not accept the new, grow old very quickly.”

A Guide to Modern Cookery, Auguste Escoffier, 1907

We’re already old. We arrived at this stage in but the blink of an eye and certainly have no desire to accelerate the aging process. This is the excuse I offer for not sticking to French food in France.

My hero chefs are those unafraid to pluck ingredients and fuse ideas from many cultures. The evolutionary development of European cuisine as a whole has been speeding along ever since those first traders sailed eastward to discover an explosion of spices and westward to find revolutionary crops – such as tomatoes and cacao.

Continue reading “Postcard from Paris, France: Chefs blur borders” →

Protecting the identity of the pothole patcher

postcardsfromsanantonioLeave a comment
A stamp featuring an abstract painting by Marsden Hartley, displaying vibrant colors and geometric shapes, labeled "Marsden Hartley | forever | usa".

Above: Street artist Ememem repairing a pothole in a sidewalk on Rainey Street in Austin

I’m just a sidewalk poet…. My work is the story of the city, where cobblestones have been displaced.”

Street artist Ememem, interviewed by Arnesia Young for My Modern Met

Sometimes I feel like a stalker on the trail of tile mosaics of the sidewalk poet of Lyon, France. (See the photos from 18 months ago at the bottom of this post.) So meeting Ememem in person at work Sunday afternoon in Austin left me gobsmacked.

Colorful mosaic artwork reading 'Here Lies a Pothole,' installed in a sidewalk as a creative repair by the street artist Ememem.

Above: “Here Lies a Pothole,” Ememem, Rainey Street, Austin, 2025

The street doctor tries to maintain his anonymity, stealthily installing his mosaics in the dead of night. I imagine that’s due to the fact that often his sidewalk improvement projects are unauthorized.

Continue reading “Protecting the identity of the pothole patcher” →