Tag: blogging

If Sandra Cisneros lives here, can I justify the trip to San Miguel de Allende?

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Keynote speaker Barbara Kingsolver and an intensive writing workshop led by C.M. Mayo drew my daughter Kate and me to the San Miguel International Writers’ Conference this past February.   The conference sessions were so great, we did not even skip out once to wander the streets of San Miguel de Allende.  Given the allure of San Miguel, that’s amazing; although a visit a few months earlier helped keep us focused.   

As I walked past Sandra Cisneros‘ house on the river this morning, I thought:  Can I really justify traveling all the way to San Miguel to hear keynote talks by someone who lives right here in San Antonio?    

I think the answer is a definite maybe.  A five-day concentrated dose of writing workshops is an incredible experience.    

Plus, the writers’ conference is to blame for this blog.  I am hoping they are planning on prescribing an antidote, a session on how to keep prolific blogging from interfering with working on your novel.   

Note Added:  Button Boxes http://www.sandracisneros.com/buttonbox.php   

Exploring Sandra Cisneros’ website led me to her memories of  button boxes.  Never figured out what happened to Nana’s button tins. I wanted to inherit them so badly.  They were magical.  Seemed to contain buttons from two generations back.  Buttons so complex to assemble that there is no wonder there were buttonmaker unions.  I’d sit for hours creating button collages in her sewing room overlooking the giant fig tree in the backyard; yet, to this day, have absolutely no interest in replacing a commonplace button on a shirt.   

Aunt Billie
Marilyn Lanfear's "Aunt Billie"

 

Note Added on September 11:  Which, in turn, led me to the consummate button artist, San Antonio Art League’s Artist of the Year – Marilyn Lanfear.  She is being honored with an exhibit opening on Sunday, September 12, from 3 to 5 p.m.   

“Billie Patterson Moore died in the school explosion in New London TX”   

by Marilyn Lanfear

Mother-of-pearl and bone buttons on linen,
2005-07, 54” x 95.25”

Update on October 20:  Read about Marilyn Lanfear’s exhibit at Glasstire

Update on November 29:  Marilyn Lanfear’s exhibit, “What Is Lost; What Is Found; What Is Remembered,” opens at Blue Star on Thursday, December 9.   She refers to herself as “a storyteller” who creates:

a visual language that depends on and invites elaboration. I want the viewers to have associative memories and make my history into theirs.

Alamoment: How the Daughters Felt on Receiving Audit Request

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Alamoment: 

The instant when you realize that you are about to be completely and monumentally screwed.

Love this great word coined by a new blog, Portmanteau: The Compoundium, self-described as the:

compilation of several portmanteaus, or “blend[s] of two (or more) words or morphemes and their meanings into one new word.” (Wikipedia)

The Compoundium describes that special Alamoment feeling:

A bright, crisp morning greeted James Whitesides (not to be confused with the Irish poet) as he rose from his post at the mission near San Antonio de Bexar.  Texas had been good to him; the land was cheap and the humidity made his hair very manageable.  The war with Santa Anna hadn’t even wrinkled his disposition.  He took a deep breath and open his sleep-filmed eyes.

And then he looked to the south….

Alamoment:  The feeling experienced by the member of the Daughters of the Republic of Texas who first spied the Texas Attorney General’s fax requesting volumes upon volumes of information to audit the guardians of the Alamo.

While it might seem as though it has been some time since I returned to issues plaguing the Alamo and Alamo Plaza, I secretly have been adding updates at the bottom of older posts.  For example, in older posts about the Alamo and its plaza you can find out that Sam’s the man currently working on sandwich boards on Alamo Plaza; view the Texas Historical Commission’s reactions to the expansion plans the Daughters have for the Alamo grounds; or link to recent news stories and editorials.  I should probably be creating new posts or at least posting these as comments, but then it would seem as though I am talking to myself (which, of course, is what blogging is).

After all, I do not want to seem Alamobsessed (one for The Compoundium?).

July 3 Update:  The big, bad bully Express-News is picking on the Daughters again:

The Daughters also issued a release Friday, accusing the San Antonio Express-News of directing “unrelenting attacks” on the DRT through its articles and editorials.

And while looking for a full copy of the Daughters’ release online, came across the unfortunate news of a setback in fundraising for Alamo preservation in the Dallas Morning News.

Update Added on July 4:  Amazing what Sam Perez has accomplished.  Drove through Alamo Plaza yesterday, fully expecting every single sandwich board (see photos here) to be back in place in the face of every single one of the 50,000 AA conventioneers in town.  After all, Sam would not be out there enforcing the code over the Fourth of July holiday.  But all the sandwich boards were gone, even the ones at the Houston Street establishment next to the Indigo, save one exception:  the monster-sized one outside Pat O’s.  Way to go Sam!  We are still saddled with the unsightly clutter outside Fuddrucker’s and Pat O’s, but this is a remarkable step forward. 

Now, if only the City Manager can charge an equivalent miracle-worker to enforce the multitude of signage violations filling every window pane along the west side of the plaza….

Update on July 7:  As this blogger is but a sophomoric soul, the following represents a comprehensive summary of the “do not do this” lessons one could learn in P.R. 101:

drt response

And the follow-up story in the Dallas Morning News.

Second Update on July 7:  Brian Myler of KSAT-TV has been working on a story on Alamo Plaza signage violations for weeks and reports the City has been issuing citations.  A feature will air during the 10:30 p.m. newscast on Friday, July 9.

Update on July 9:  The Wall Street Journal

Update on July 10: 

Update on July 14:  The “daughter” they wish they never had…. 

Update on July 20: KSTX Radio interviews Express-News’ Scott Huddleston; president of DRT unable to find time in her schedule to join them. 

Update on July 25:  These updates tacked onto this blog entry are getting downright cumbersome.  Might have to risk being labeled sophomoricly Alamobsessed and do a full-fledged post soon.  Scott Huddleston writes online:  “Alamo Workers Reassured about Jobs.” 

Update on July 26:  State wants its just desserts à-la-mo-de; opposes DRT trademark application. 

Update on July 27:  Follow-Up Alamo Trademark Story

Update on August 1:  This thread keeps going, but it seems so convenient to provide access to the related news reports in one post.  Engineering report returned, and editorial on trademark.

Trademark Update on August 24:  Dallas Morning News

Update on September 11:   Another linguistic portmanteau from The Compoundium:

Obscenery – “The hotel on the strip was fine, but the view was just awful.”

So we guess we are Alamobsessed with the obscenery dominating the plaza.

The Magical Powers of the Camera

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While I am blogging frivolously about “potty art” and “molecular gastronomy,” friend and photojournalist Vic Hinterlang is spending his time documenting daily life in Haiti.  Always wondered how he managed to stand his ground through the years snapping photographs when guns seem aimed his way, and a recent post explains the magical, invincible powers of his camera:

Vic Hinterlang photo of surgery being performed in the tent hospital operated by Doctors without Borders, Hopital St. Louis, in Haiti

At this point I was given the all clear to photograph, for which I was grateful, and not just because I was looking forward to taking pictures.  As is always the case, once I had the camera to my eye, what was occurring on the other side of it didn’t affect me personally.  The second I looked through the viewfinder, any queasiness I’d been feeling vanished.

The camera must make him feel invisible, much the same way I feel emboldened by a false sense of anonymity blogging.  Although, hiding behind a keyboard certainly affords better protection than a camera.

January 8, 2011, Update:  Vic is back in Haiti and posting on his blog.

March 23, 2011, Update: Vic’s returned to Haiti with Aristide and is blogging again.

Update on August 25, 2011: Oh, and then there’s Juarez in August 2011. San Lorenzo must have been looking after him and his magic camera there.