MiraFlores, hidden in plain sight
Hidden in plain sight, this historic gem harkens us back to the best moments of our cultural history!
THIS is why I love walking! More times than I can count, I've stumbled across artistic, architectural, or historic gems like this; MiraFlores.
I've walked and run around Brackenridge Park enough times that you'd think I'd have seen this by now. Nope! Never. It was only when I decided to extend my run a bit by trying a new path that I found this. It's not exactly hidden and the gates to the place are rich, ornate, and smack dab along the side of a busy street.
I literally stopped in my tracks as I passed the main gate and finally noticed this gem. Where had it been hiding these past months? There were no signs in front so I didn't yet know what I was looking at.
Most importantly, as there seemed to be no unlocked portal to the street, how do I get in?
It didn't take me too long to figure out that its only open entrance was from inside Brackenridge Park.
The amount of coolness near that entrance is another story altogether. Once inside, I didn't see the placard explaining things until I had already explored most of the place.
I wandered around ignorant of the true beginnings of this place and its artifacts and my mind reeled at the potential origins of these incredible artifacts.
Statues and towers and benches and tiles and fountains. A treasure trove!
After finally finding the sign explaining things a bit more, I was determined to go home and do more research into the place and make an in-depth blog post about it. Not surprisingly, a bit of surfing led me to an incredibly well-written article in The Rivard Report about Mira Flores.
On a small piece of land near the headwaters of the San Antonio River sits a sizeable stone marker, upon which are inscribed the words: “1716 Aqui se celebró la primera misa” – the first mass was celebrated here. This proclamation sits quietly in Miraflores, a former property of Dr. Aureliano Urrutia, an accomplished physician who came to San Antonio from Mexico in 1914.
I encourage you all to click over HERE to read the complete article. As it's written by descendants of the good Doctor, they have a love for the place that shines through in the writing.
Go for a walk. Then, walk some more and never stop exploring. See things, travel, read! The world is a massive place filled with thousands of colors and flavors, countless languages and dialects, and enough artifacts like these to remind us that we're all specks of dust!
A Trip Through Sprague, Wa
A car, a camera and a few spare hours!
The town has a seasonal creek running through it named "Negro Creek." Much debate has occurred regarding the creek's name but the name remains.
Yeah! An interesting town, for sure.
Hey! Which way do I .... Oh, I see. thanks!
For this trip, I took the GoPro Hero 4 that I've borrowed from the good folks at Huppin's. Using the Hero 4 for the type of photography I do is certainly a stretch. It has great features but I don't think that it was designed for landscapes or cityscapes and stuff. Despite that, I think that I've found an interesting mix of photo taking and processing that ends up with a pretty cool final product. I capture the images at about 14 MB so there's plenty of detail with which to work.
The area around Sprague, Wa has such wonderful views of the horizon. I intend to return again this summer and try a few new things with this camera. The time-lapse and video features will be great tools with which to capture the shifting skies. Stay tuned for that. Even in its basic modes, the expanses captured are impressive.
Hey, Buddy?! Why the long .... Oh, you've heard that one before?
I'm pretty certain that some of these images will end up on my print gallery. I really do like how the nuances of the GoPro seem to add more cool elements than they take away.
And look! I DID return to Sprague!
2016 Lilac City ComiCon
Come for the comics. Stay for the information on eCommerce, order fulfillment and drop shipping!
My disclaimer ... I am not a fan of comics. I like the superhero movies and I used to collect the books when I was younger but I lack the fervor for them that the attendees of the 2016 Lilac City Comicon have. I come to these (and it's only my 2nd such 'con) because I'm a fan of devotees, artists and entrepreneurs that put so much effort and vigor into making this culture fun and vibrant!
Rebecca Cook was here to chat up the super cool web-series of which she's a part. Music of the Spheres, a live-action Virtual Reality series.
Several of my friends and acquaintances either had booths here or participated in the various discussion events. It's always cool to see friends engaged in the furthering of their art and passion!
Karl Schafer, the top guy from Z Nation made a fun announcement during the discussion. He said that in addition to the show still being filmed in Spokane, Season 3 will actually show the characters in Spokane in the show.
Shaun Springer leads a discussion with folks from Z Nation. Russell Hodgkinson (Doc), Karl Schafer (Z Nation Show Runner) and Kevin Cook (Z Nation Gaffer)
My dear friend, Jeremy Whittington, was here showing off both his cool originals and the Fan Art that has his distinct look and feel. Additionally, as he's the creator of all the season artwork for The Modern Theater's 2016-17 Season, he had all those posters displayed and he did a fine job of telling folks about all the upcoming shows.
Jeremy works on a piece of commissioned art for a Comicon patron.
In addition to the artists that I already knew and follow, I found a few new ones that I really liked.
Travis Bundy from Creator's Edge
Antonio J.B. Dela Cruz
Noah Kroese
These guys and their art leapt out at me. In a sea of great comic art and design, their work had a simpleness and cleanliness to it that I found appealing, Noah's especially. I was only able to chat with them for a few minutes but it's cool to see folks get animated when they talk about what they love doing.
Plus, Adam the Woo was there. That was unexpected! He has such cool videos and is a super successful YouTuber!
My inner nerd did make an appearance, after all. It wasn't for all the cosplay girls or cool costumes or characters. It was, oddly enough, in finding out all the different ways that artists are monetizing their work. All of them sold items at the convention. That's expected. What impressed me, though, was all the various ways that they sold their goods online. There are many different ways to do it ... and some of the folks seem to do it quite poorly, but others had their stuff together.
I found a few with sites that handled all the ordering, printing and shipping. All the artists had to do was set up the initial printing and sales parameters and all the rest was handled by a third party. I admit that that's a silly thing to geek out about but it's a topic that near and dear to me because of the changing landscape of photography and how to succeed in that world. A very illuminating day!
Anyways ... I'm a dork! Thank you very much to Nathan OBrien, the Founder of the event, for being such a cool host.
