Arts & Culture

World Heritage Week began Saturday in San Antonio, and there are plenty of activities throughout the week from April 27 - May 4, including an opportunity for children to learn about the missions and earn a World Heritage Badge.

Ultimate, a word that originally meant last in Latin has become a description of finest or best in English
or ne plus ultra in French. It can be argued that Beethoven's last or ultimate sonata fits both definitions.

Coming near the end of a life of breaking barriers and exercising his considerable will, the composer's last
sonatas are artistic works that have earned their immortality.

Each week on World Music (Saturday nights from 8-10 on KSTX 89.1 FM), I take a look at celebrations happening around the world. This week, rockets blaze for the risen Christ in Greece, and Indiana Jones would never want to find himself in Abruzzo next week. Snakes!  

LA FESTA DEI SERPARI

For three days the traditional Fiesta is turned upside down as an event known as Cornyation rips apart political correctness and turns it into a stage act dramatizing current events.

Cornyation may be lewd, but the party with the purpose is left intact, the spoof on the Fiesta Coronation takes place April 23-25 at the Empire Theater.

This year there are about 12 Cornyation skits, and each one pokes fun at something different: Childhood obesity, the nearly retired Twinkie, Gov. Rick Perry and sonograms, the NRA, a pensioned Pope, and even Manti Te'o.

Friday night marks the return of Frank Ticheli to Texas. He grew up near Dallas playing trumpet, studied composition at SMU and Michigan, and taught at Trinity University for several years.

Currently a USC professor, Ticheli will lead seven of his works with members of the Symphonic Band and Wind Ensemble at Texas Lutheran University.