Gayle Brennan Spencer – sending random thoughts to and from South Austin
At right: Arbor Day first-day cover illustrating the immensity of the landmark Montezuma cypress tree in Santa Maria de Tule, six miles outside of Oaxaca, in the collection of Museo del Filatelia de Oaxaca
Having cast my ballot, I need a break from the news to reflect on anything but the election. So I’m offering both you and me a pictorial distraction from a trip earlier this year to Oaxaca.
Continue reading “Postcard from Oaxaca, Mexico: Reflections of vivid colors and fluttering flags”
Above: A contemporary overhead walkway sensuously links galleries in a recently renovated 18th-century palace, Palazzo Butera.
At first, I tried to resist, but Francesca insisted, saying, ‘You can fulfill all of your dreams here.’”
Massimo Valsecchi, interviewed by Elaine Sciolino for an article published in The New York Times on September 26, 2024
We stayed in the Kalsa District, the old Arab quarter in Palermo, for a month in the spring of 2023. This meant we strolled upon a portion of an impressively long tiled veranda addressing the sea numerous times. However, we were clueless about the possibility of visiting the adjacent Palazzo Butera to discover the beauty contained within its walls.
Freshly renovated, the palace did not open its doors to the public as a museum until 2021 and, when we visited, still seemed the city’s best-kept secret. It certainly hadn’t made the guidebooks yet. The New York Times article quoted above nudged me to retrieve this postcard from the backlog of unmailed ones.
‘Everyone said we were mad,’ a serene Francesca Valsecchi admits with a smile as she recalls the decision she and her husband Massimo took in 2015, when they moved from an apartment in Cadogan Square in London to the colossal Palazzo Butera in Palermo…. what Massimo describes as his ‘crazy Enlightenment project.’”
Susan Moore, Apollo Magazine, August 30, 2022
Continue reading “Postcard from Palermo, Sicily: ‘Crazy enlightenment project’ bridges centuries”
Above: Street art by Poasson on Rue de Mauvestis, or Bad Guys Street
Bad Guys Street? What were we doing there in a city with as tough a hangover reputation as Marseille?
Reason Number 1: Marseille has evolved. Yes, it still has plenty of gritty urban neighborhoods, but what major urban area does not?
Reason Number 2: We followed the street art. Artists tend to lead the way in transforming dodgy neighborhoods into trendy ones nurturing funky shops and welcoming creative chefs seeking fresh starts distant from tourist zones.
Continue reading “Postcard from Marseille, France: ‘Bad Guys’ transform the streets”
Postcards from Barton Springs 