| Submitted by: Mark R. LeeperUnited States |
| Submission Date: 15 February 2005 |
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That is it for Johnson City. We are not a long way to San Antonio and we want to make that and get set up before dinner. From the AAA Book we pick a motel, the Coachman Inn which supposedly has a pretty good guaranteed rate. Actually when we get there we are charged about $10 per night more than AAA said. Well, they just recently raised their rates. Supposedly they have agreed not to do that and AAA will refund the difference and then take up the problem with the motel. We register with a woman with a big sequin pin that says 'Jesus.' She seems affable enough. We ask her where is good to eat. 'Depends what you're hungry for.' We ask about Tex-Mex and she suggests a new place down the road.
We set up in the room. It looks a little like a dormitory, but the room is comfortable and has both a fridge and a microwave. We headed out for dinner and found the taqueria recommended at the hotel. I order an enchilada and taco plate and a large lemonade. They bring to the table a server of jalapenos, pico de gallo, and salsa picante to season the dinner. I am thirsty and about half of my lemonade goes in the first three or four minutes. The waiter sees it is down and asks, 'Mas?' 'Si.' He brings out a big pitcher and refills my glass. As he walked away I take a sip. He had filled the half-empty glass with water, diluting the lemonade. Blech! He comes around with his water pitcher again in a few minutes asking if either I want more in my lemonade glass or Evelyn wants more water in her iced tea. 'No, gracias.'
Evelyn's meal was huge and she asks to have it wrapped. We have a fridge and microwave in the room. I should have eaten more slowly and had half wrapped. I should not eat so much. As I leave I notice they have an electric sign in their parking lot. I can tell this because they have an extension cord running from the building to the sign. Never seen that before.
After a quick stop at an auto store for a cup hanger we returned to the room. We put some things in the room fridge, but it does not seem to have much cooling power. Showtime had the new production of Twelve Angry Men and we watched a few minutes, but I figured we wanted to wait until we could see it from the beginning. They seem to be trying to follow the script of the film fairly exactly and I was playing the game of trying to remember which actors correspond to which actors in the original. It is a shame they had to remake it. I guess nobody would want to see the old black-and-white film. But at least they are doing it respectfully. What is interesting is they have a black guy in the Ed Begley role. It is a good sign that blacks can start playing some negative roles. For a long time blacks have only been able to play good guys. The meatiest roles are villains or at least disreputable people. I remember seeing the trailer for Crimson Tide with Gene Hackman and Denzel Washington. It is about a conflict on a nuclear submarine. I knew immediately the best role would be the villain and there wasn't a chance in the world it would go to Washington. This is a stupid piece of protectionism that hurts good black actors. Well, I wanted to see the film when I could see the whole thing so instead I put on Looking for Bobby Fischer. When it is over, Showtime is following up their remake with the original Twelve Angry Men. Great film. These days I find the film a little contrived, but it is still a classic. Back when we were first married it was on TV and Evelyn had never heard of it. Evelyn wanted to see something on opposite it. I told her the plot and she laughed at it thinking it sounded like cliched melodrama. I said watch the first half then when her program came on we'd switch over. Come the half time she was hooked. She has seen it several times since then and still loves the film. And the film still plays as well today as it did forty years ago, so maybe remaking it was not a bad idea if more people will watch it..
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08/26/97--San Antonio, Texas: Museums:
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I think my digestion is not what it once was. Mexican food, as much as I like it, I probably have to make sure I am done with by 6 PM. There is just too much on that plate. I might be better just avoiding restaurant Mexican. There is an awful lot of fat in that meal. And a lot in me.
There was coffee and doughnuts in the lobby. The first stop is Hangar 9 at Brooks Air Force Base. No aliens but a display of military medicine. The gate guard had to be sure we had a driver's license and insurance before letting us on the base.
There is a plaque to commemorate Edward H. White, local boy, first American to walk in space, died in capsule fire.
They have a Jenny for training pilots in World War I, and an ambulance from the same period, The base is named for Sidney Johnson Brooks, Jr., whose contributions seems to be only that he was killed in training to fly. They have little monkey capsules (not for swallowing), flight suits, and simulators. There is enough to stay occupied for forty or fifty minutes.
From there we went to the Mission San Jose was one of several missions built to solidify Spanish power in Mexico. It was authorized in 1719 and was moved to this location in 1730. It has a large walled courtyard. Toward the end of the 18th century it was secularized and became a fort. Each day the mission bell called the locals to Mass and religious instruction. There was also training in the arts of fighting. To one end is the church at one end at to one side of it the home of the alcalde, sort of like the local mayor, El Queso Grande. (In The Mark of Zorro, Don Diego's father had been the alcalde, but had been replaced by a crueler alcalde.)
Around the outer edge we saw the Indian quarters. The visitor center has a small but informative museum. By this time it was nearly ten and they were having a film at 10 AM. We decided to stay for it.
The film starts out with a woman named Maria de la Luz saying that she dreams of the old ways of the mission Indians. Now during this film she admits that the Indians were basically kidnapped to populate the missions. They were forced to adopt a new and strange religion. It seems that being nostalgic for this life style is like a tiger being nostalgic for the zoo. There was nobody named Maria de la Luz and I didn't think the writers had Indian or Hispanic names, though I could be wrong about that The McNay Art Museum is a bequest of Marion Koogler McNay in her home. She married something like five times and her third husband had money. She assembled a good collection of art that is the basis of this museum.
In the Impressionism room we see Renoir's 'Lemon and Cup,' 'The Serenade,' and 'Woman with Hat'. Cezanne's 'Portrait of Henri Gasquet' and 'Houses on the Hill'. A Pissarro and a Manet. 20th Century art has Kirchner, Vuillard, Van Gogh, Redon, a non-abstract Picasso, Monet's 'Water Lilies,' a Degas statue of a woman arranging her hair, another two Gauguins, and a Mondrian. Most striking in this room is the Kirchner which uses heavy paint-strokes and bright colors almost in the style of Van Gogh.
Early 20th Century art includes an Utrillo, a Rousseau with some striking trees, a Modigliani, a more abstract Picasso called 'Portrait of Sylvette.' There is a Leger, a weird Dubuffet, a Matisse, a Chagall.
There is a small room of 19th Century of which the most striking is 'Heads of Sheep and Rams' by Bonheur. There are some short Rodin sculptures. There is a Herakles pulling back on a bow, his foot up high on a rock apparently to avoid launching himself with his own bow. That one is by Bourdelle. I like neo-classical sculpture. Even if it doesn't always make sense.
Another room had designs for stagecraft, most far too abstract to ever try to implement. The guards are very friendly but watch us suspiciously as we actually walk near their art. I guess we fit the profile of dangerous people.
The upstairs seems devoted to photographic art from the collection of Lola Alvarez Bravo. She has a good eye. There are those who don't think photography is art. Interesting question, but it is more than recording reality.
The other wing upstairs includes some oils including a Diego Rivera. There is a small room of the Medieval and primitive art.
We note that there is a Leeper Auditorium to honor one of the contributors. It might be a relative of mine. More likely it is someone from the other Leeper family. By rights my family name should be Loebsker, but that sounded too much like 'lobster' so the name was changed at the facetious suggestion of one Dr. Leeper who knew a Mr. Loebsker. So an English and Irish family got a Jewish Ukrainian branch they did not know about.
With the museum done we started to go to a Cajun restaurant. I expressed a wish for something a little more healthy. It is amazing how many seemingly good restaurants serve mostly breads and fats. Bread and fat seems to be the mainstay of just about every restaurant we go to.
We went to Tomatillas and I ordered Chicken Mole, Evelyn got the Guacamole Enchiladas. Then I gave her half the Mole and she gave me an Enchilada. It did not turn out to be healthy, but it was the most enjoyable meal we have had so far this trip. Evelyn did this to me. I never liked avocado until I knew her. I thought it was just another vegetable, not a fun food. But it's great. Okay, it was not as healthy as I might have hoped, but it was enjoyable. I have to start worrying about my health at some point, but I guess it was not this meal.
Okay, now this gets a little complicated. It was now about 1:25 PM and our next site was to be the Witte Museum. Admission to the Witte Museum is $5.95, or $11.90 for two people. OK, that is about what we have been paying. But Evelyn had read that Tuesday afternoon only the museum is free from 3 PM to 9 PM. Actually a local company picks up the tab as a public relations gesture. The problem was that we would have to find something to do for an hour and a half. There was a used book store across the street called Half Price Books. I suggested to Evelyn we could save money by killing time in the bookstore.
Unfortunately it turned out to be a really good used bookstore. It turned out we could kill a lot of time there, but it was expensive, it cost us $38 and change. Of course we got the books, but we still ended up the poorer. But also throw into the balance pan that I found and pointed out to Evelyn a hardback collection by R. A. Lafferty. It is in mint condition, signed and numbered 878/1000. There is at least one dealer whose price for the book is $45. We paid $2. So we still ended up losing money, to the tune of something like $26, but for that we got a pile of books including one that sells for $45. I don't think I can complain much.
Now the Witte Museum is a museum of science and history. That is the same strange combination I saw in Fort Worth. Now being that is the case, what exhibit would you think has the prime position? When you enter the first room you come to is-you guessed it-the dinosaur room. They have a triceratops and a tyrannosaurus skull. They get people to look at the teeth and figure out the diet. There is a diorama of birds to show their songs.
There is a computer game that simulates a bird preying on other animals. It has to eat enough to get enough calories and little enough to not wipe out the prey. There is a film about venomous arthropods, always a popular favorite. Then they have the stuffed bison. And there are tapes to introduce the visitor animals of the area. Texas is divided into six ecological regions: plains in the panhandle. Then going west to east: deserts and mountains, hill country, prairies, pineywoods, thornbush, and then in the south dunes and marshes.
Around the back of the museum are old styles of buildings, including a log cabin. |
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