Father Dennis Aréchiga remembers the first time he saw a cell phone in the confessional. Eyebrows furrowed, he was about to insist that it be put away when he noticed the Act of Contrition – a prayer that expresses sorrow for one's sins – on the parishioner’s screen. That moment remains bookmarked in his mind: whether he liked it or not, times were irrevocably changing.

This week, I met with Aréchiga, the current pastor of St. Matthew Catholic Church – one of the largest Catholic congregations in San Antonio. The 48-year-old priest says he resisted text messaging until the number of daily messages resulted in a particularly high phone bill. He says that eventually, he had to “go with the flow.”

In 2008, as San Antonians approved an extension of the visitor tax that built the AT&T Center to fund a new performing-arts center, a cautionary tale was developing in the hinterlands: the struggling Orlando Opera would declare bankruptcy the following year, leaving a significant void in the planned lineup for that city's performing-arts palace, which is also scheduled to open its doors in 2014.

The San Antonio Symphony Players Association reached a working agreement with representatives of the Symphony Society's board Sunday evening that will compensate the musicians under terms from their previous agreement – $1,045 per week – while they negotiate a new contract. That pay rate is notably higher than management's last offer, which was less than $900 per week, and close to the players' recent proposal of $1,060. The number of weeks for which players will be paid is also central to the wrangling, with management proposing just 26 weeks, which the musicians countered at 33. Craig Sorgi, chairman of the negotiating committee for the Players Association, said the musicians are committed to playing the season as scheduled.

Shifting my body a little to the right, I hope to make my peripheral glances in the direction of a particular audience member a little less obvious. A front-row seat at the Allegro Stage Company‘s production of Fascinating Rhythm! affords me a perfect view of the bewitching Sherry Gibbs Houston, who's crooning “Someone to Watch Over Me,” a ballad that seems to harness the low, romantic stage lighting to its mystery and immortality. But the demographic in attendance is out of comfortable view, so it’s back to Houston. As she hits her final note, a nostalgic glow outlines her silhouette, making her attractive form – with surrendering outstretched arms – appear reluctantly iconic.

The young audience member I've been hunting visually is, by far, the youngest person at the Cameo Theater, so during intermission I make my way through the Sunday-matinee throng to find out if she’s diggin’ the music of George and Ira Gershwin – tunes that have disseminated bits of truth and love to generations of listeners. She couldn’t have come on her own.