Jack Morgan

Say Si is opening a new exhibition, and with an unusual theme.  First, to be sure you remember Say Si, here’s what they do.

“We’re a youth arts and education program for high school and middle school students that challenges those students to grow professionally and artistically."

Stephan Guzman manages communications there. As to how they help them grow, Guzman says one of the ways is to challenge them to create art around a central theme.

He’s a German who, after a trip to the far east, somehow ended up as a flamenco guitar player. He’s Ottmar Liebert, and if you haven’t heard his music, you ought to.

Liebert’s road to success has been a winding one. One that started when he was just 19 and on a train.

“In Moscow I went on the Trans Siberian Train to then the East Coast of the then Soviet Union," he said. "From there I took a boat to Japan, and then continued there to Taiwan, Honk Kong, Thailand.”

On that year-long journey he realized music held a special power.

South Texas writers take note: A good one is coming to share his secrets. You’ve seen some of Carroll Cartwright's work in "Jumanji," "Pearl Harbor" and "What Maisie Knew," but now you get the chance to meet him.

Cartwright is a screenwriter and he’s in San Antonio for a two-day event put together by Arts San Antonio, Gemini Ink and the McNay Art Museum. First is the event put on by Gemini Ink.

“I was invited by Sheila Black from her writing program to come and teach one writing class,” Cartwright said.

Now here's somebody who's led an interesting life.  He’s Gino Narboni. And no, he’s not Italian.

“I started in North Africa, in Algeria,” he said.

He’s a softspoken 90-something-year-old man now, but what a life he’s led. He ran off to join General de Gaulle’s free French movement. When they asked him what he wanted to do, he said, "I want to fly. Ha! I was barely 20 at the time.”

The free French didn’t have any airplanes then, but Gino eventually got his wish.

“I was sent to the United States for pilot training,” he said.

For the last six years, the Last Casas Foundation has been busy doling out college money in talent contests. This year it's taken one step further.

“We’ve given out $500,000 in college scholarship money to graduating seniors in San Antonio and the surrounding area," said Kevin Parman, the president of Las Casas. It all started with a 135 applications.

“And we get that number down to 24 finalists,” said Parman.

And those finalists really have to perform to earn their scholarship money, as Parman explained.

It’s a program created by the Patrick Heath Public Library in Boerne and it’s got a very retro feel. Hearkening back to the Beatles album, it's called the Magical History Tour.

“What we are trying to do is to introduce our patrons, and anyone else who’s interested, to the history of the region," said Heath librarian Robin Stauber. To do so they’ve created these tours, and Stauber said they have gone all over the place.  

“We’ve been to New Braunfels, we’ve been to Bandera, we’ve been to Castroville, we've been into San Antonio to do some things there,” Stauber said.

Last week I filed a story on how the Houston Street Bridge over the San Antonio River came to be the way it is today. I subsequently found out there was more to it that you might be interested in.

Architect David Lake of Lake|Flato Architects was out of town when I tried to reach him last week for that story. Then on Monday he called me back.

"Houston Street Bridge was part of the Tri-Party project which was started in 1989 and completed in 1991," Lake said.

Casting is nearly complete for a local Playhouse production. But there's still a part un-cast.

“We are really excited," said Christina Casella, the education and outreach director for The Playhouse. "And who wouldn’t be? It’s 'The Wizard of Oz.' "

I asked her how the development of  special effects was going.

"The show opens in October, but they have already started working with the pyrotechnics and the smoke," Casella said. "They’re really excited; I think they’re having too much fun up there.”

Then we moved on to casting.

San Antonio has recently gained another ballet company. It’s called Ballet Latino de San Antonio.

"This is a neo-classical company that fuses classical ballet with Latin rhythm," said Mayra Worthen, who is the founder and artistic director.

“We present the classic movement, but with the Latin flavors and music," she said. "Now, that’s not all we do, but that is the style. It’s all over the place, as far as the music goes, but most of it has the Latin rhythm to it.”

I asked her to tell me about her company.

It’s called Flatland, and it's the new exhibit at Museo Guadalupe. To get a handle on it, I spoke with Guadalupe Cultural Center Executive Director and Curator Patty Ortiz. It turns out it's a pretty complex idea for an exhibition.

“Flatland all began with something I was noticing about contemporary art. It was this urge from artists to start using this flat imagery. Flat colors, flat design,"  Ortiz states.

But this is where Flatland also takes on a whole different meaning.