Category Archives: San Antonio

One Starry Night in San Antonio

 

 

OK, this is why it works. Perfect night. About 70 degrees. Stars out. Mary had an invitation to the Witte Museum, where the traveling exhibition, The World of Mummies http://mow2.studiobanks.us/ is currently in full swing. Just as importantly, the evening was sponsored by The San Antonio Express News http://www.mysanantonio.com/. Among those speaking at the short 15-minute program was Managing Editor Mike Leary, the Pulitzer Prize-winner, most recently at The Philadelphia Inquirer.

We arrived a few minutes early and walked the beautiful grounds of the Witte, situated on the banks of the San Antonio River. You can now walk (or ride your bike) from the museum, past the Pearl Brewery complex, through downtown, past the Riverwalk, through the King William District, past the Blue Star complex, all of the way to the other missions, several miles south of town. The “back” of the Witte, which features several (re-located) historic buildings from San Antonio’s past, faces Brackenridge Park, itself full of WPA and CCC buildings and playgrounds. The grounds were lit with fairy lights for Christmas and worth an hour or two on their own.

The Express-News provided a nice buffet and we heard from the publisher and advertising director how the newspaper was committed to the community, how it was adding sections, and – more importantly – more writers. The response was warmly enthusiastic from the couple of hundred people in attendance.

After their talk, I hobbled over to speak to Mike Leary. I introduced myself as a professor from Baylor and he immediately complimented me on the long list of awards The Lariat, Round Up and Focus magazine have all received in recent years, including those where we beat the student newspaper at the land grant school in Austin. I asked him about my friends Mike Blackman (who taught at Baylor until this semester) and Henry Holcomb (a former Lariat editor), both of whom worked at the Inquirer. Leary regaled us with stories of the two, implying – quite maliciously, I’m sure – that both of those stellar gentlemen may have imbibed hard liquor at some point in their youth. Henry’s adventures as head of the union shop while Leary was editor prompted another affectionate story or two. We parted and he reminded me that the Express-News was “beating the bushes” for interns from Baylor.

In the museum, we were much impressed by The World of Mummies. Mary and I had seen the extraordinary mummies on regular display in the British Museum, but this traveling exhibit included mummies from South America, the peat bogs of Northern Europe, and an entire family interred and forgotten for centuries in a hidden vault in an ancient German castle. Nearly every mummy had a digital display as well, showing the results of MRI and and X-ray scans. Informative and beautifully done.

The night was still young, so we drove a few minutes west towards North St. Mary’s Street where Tycoon Flats http://www.flatsisback.com/ features a biergarten, various brews on tap, good pub grub and best of all on this fine December evening – live music. San Antonio is a town full of live music, but the first Friday evening of each month belongs to the MFS Band (Music Fa Ya Soul) http://www.myspace.com/mfs4lifeband, an uncommonly talented R&B and funk band that specializes in both familiar and unfamiliar tunes by Prince, Cameo, Earth, Wind & Fire, the Gap Band, Zapp, the Stylistics and all of the great dance bands that were in business between the fall of soul music and the rise of disco. Oh, we love those guys. They were in rare form Friday night, too. Mary was compelled to dance on numerous occasions under the stars, joined by grandmothers, ankle-biters and everybody in between. Van even stopped by, en route to a special evening of his own at Floores Country Store in Helotes. I even managed to dance a slow song … but only because Mary danced very, very slowly.

When the last set ended, we hugged new friends, and were home in 15-20 minutes in light traffic.

One starry night in San Antonio, y’all…