By SUZI CASTELLAW, Contributor Max Stalling has this great song about the end of a passionate romance between a cowboy and his fiery mistress.  To cool off and gather his thoughts, he jumps into a “pila.”   For those unfamiliar with the term, a pila is a large cement reservoir built next to a windmill that holds water pumped from the …

By RUDY ARISPE, Contributor In early March 2020, Elizabeth Jordan, general manager of the Nowwhere Bookshop in Alamo Heights, and the store’s owner, author Jenny Lawson, were making last minute preparations for their grand opening slated for that April. The space, located in the former El Paso Imports at 5154 Broadway, had just undergone a complete buildup to transform it …

Agarita Chamber Players will record a Spanish-themed program at the Spanish Governor’s Palace tonight, to be streamed virtually on the organization’s website, www.agarita.org at 7:30 p.m. Produced in partnership with San Antonio’s World Heritage Organization, the concert will highlight the history of the old residence with music from Spain, including Casarrubios, Montsalbatge, Leoz and Boccherini, who was born in Italy …

By JASMINA WELLINGHOFF, Editor — The recent arctic cold and power blackouts brought to us an ever more immediate and painful experience of isolation than the pandemic originally created last year. “It was worse than COVID,” said Patti Ruiz-Healy, the co-director of the Ruiz Healy Art gallery in Olmos Park. “Before, you could at least connect with people in some …

With sunshine back, here are a few images to make you remember last week with a laugh! And here’s a quote from Trevor Noah: “I know people were praying for Texas to turn blue, but not like this… I mean, is it too much to ask for one apocalypse at a time.” Good question!

After a week of freezing weather and prolonged power shortages, it’s not surprising that a number of events got cancelled or postponed. But it seems that the San Antonio Symphony will play live at the Tobin tonight and tomorrow. We did not get a cancellation notice. Conducted by Michael Christie, the classical concert will feature music of Haydn, Debussy and …

By JASMINA WELLINGHOFF, Editor Do you know what ekphrastic poetry is? Don’t feel bad, lots of people don’t.  In the broadest sense, it is poetry written in response to an artwork – a painting, sculpture, drawing, architecture, etc. It’s an old tradition stretching back to ancient Greece when it was often focused on the poetic description of the art. Today, …

This weekend, the San Antonio Museum of Art is opening an interesting and unusual exhibit that features art of Latin American artists of Asian descent. You may be surprised to learn that North America is not the only land of immigrants. A number of countries in South America – Brazil, Peru, Cuba, Argentina, Mexico and others – also have an …

by JASMINA WELLINGHOFF, Editor — Evangelina G. Flores never had any professional training in the arts but she spontaneously developed an interest in painting and piano playing when she was a schoolgirl and responded to arts programs she saw on TV. “I was the one person in my family who danced in front of the TV (while watching dance on …

The big news this weekend is the return of the San Antonio Symphony to its performing home at the Tobin Center. Yes, they will perform in-person on stage, albeit in a reduced configuration and with only about 275 people in the audience. Still, it’s something to be optimistic about. This is the orchestra’s first in-person concert since March 2020. “This …