‘Wild’ In-Person Event in Memorial Park Toasts the New Eastern Glades

Daniel Ortiz
‘Wild’ In-Person Event in Memorial Park Toasts the New Eastern Glades

Clayton Katz, Jeffrey Yates, Diandra Breen and Robert Erni

WITH VACCINATIONS ON the rise and decent weather — albeit a little muggy lately — in the forecast, H-Town's spring social season is heating up! Last week at the new Clay Family Eastern Glades in Memorial Park, members of the park conservancy's young professionals group, Urban Wild, gathered in person for the first time since the project's completion last July.


More than 200 supporters celebrated the 100-acre section — which includes the 5.5-acre Hines Lake, walking trails, picnicking areas, wetlands and, as seen on this night, fabulous outdoor event spaces — to the sounds of DJ Aiden Kennedy. Picos provided refreshing margs, and 8th Wonder and Topo Chico supplied additional refreshments. Thanks in part to a selection of door prizes from vendors like Pondicheri, Mirth and Do or Dye salon, the event raised more than $60,000 for Memorial Park Conservancy.

The Eastern Glades is the first of many projects from the Memorial Park Master Plan to be brought to completion. The visionary Ten-Year Plan, funded largely by a $70 million gift from Nancy and Rich Kinder's Kinder Foundation, will also reunite the park's main green spaces on the north and south sides of Memorial Drive via a "land bridge" over the thoroughfare, under construction now.

Adam and Becca Hines;

Caroline Dawson, William Finnorn, Tori Christensen, Meghan Horne

Charlotte Hutson, Nicole Turpin, Keri Miller

Daniel Harrison, Margaret Strode, Thomas Smith

Danielle O'Bannon, Zoe Cadore, Iman Garrett-Price

Erica Matthews, Yvette Salazar, Megan Blaisdell Willis, Grace Salvie

George and Krissy Pepi

Kendra Lynch, Brandon Cook

Lauren Paine, Paige Matthews

Matt Mogas, Louise and Gary Moss

Tara Simon and George Lancaster

Zach Gaitz, Annemieke Lupton, John Montgomery

Parties

Matthew Dirst (photo by Jacob Power)

FOR FANS OF early music — an often scholarly lot who aren’t afraid to wear their hearts on their sleeves — bad-boy Baroque-era painter Caravaggio certainly nailed something in his dramatic 1595 painting, “The Musicians.” (Simon Schama talks about this in his TV series The Power of Art.) One look at his masterpiece, and you feel as if you’ve stumbled upon and surprised a roomful of dewy-eyed musicians, their youthful faces swollen with melancholy, with the lutist looking like he’s about ready to burst into tears before he’s even tuned his instrument. So no, you certainly don’t need a Ph.D. to enjoy and be moved by the music of Handel, G.P. Telemann, or J.S. Bach, but a little bit of scholarship never hurt anyone. Knowing the history of this music may even deepen your appreciation of it.

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