An interview with ‘Full Body Burden’ author Kristen Iversen
For decades, Rocky Flats, Colorado, was one of the nation’s centers of nuclear bomb production. Here Cold War warriors molded plutonium triggers with lead-lined gloves for a rapidly expanding atomic arsenal. It was by nature a facility shrouded in secrecy. In the town that grew up around the Dow Chemical-operated plant, few but the employees…
Pick of the Day: Texas Legacy Music Awards 2012
After honoring, among others, Teen Canteen’s Sam Kinsey and Augie Meyer’s Lord August & the Visions of Lite in 2011, Texas Legacy Music (which benefits the South Texas Popular Culture Center) will honor more San Antonio and South Texas heroes from the golden age of rock from the ’50s to the ’70s. Headliners Sweet Smoke…
People en Español Festival: Day 1 (9/1/12, updated with Daddy Yankee video)
If you like what you see, you can always go to the Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center on Sunday, September 2, for the second and last day of the free events at the People en Español Festival. If you have money to spend, go to the Alamodome at night to see the paid events. You…
Pick of the Day: Horrific Film Fest
Founded in 2007 as a platform for indie filmmakers, the Horrific Film Fest brings an array of flicks and freaks to the Alamo City for a long weekend of thrills. The four-day fest kicks off with a free Zombie Walk followed by “Black Carpet” photo ops with visiting celebrities such as Terri McMinn, the “girl…
Pick of the Day: The Tontons
Buzzed-about Houston band The Tontons (vocalist Asli Omar, bassist Tom Nguyen, guitarist Adam Martinez, and drummer Justin Martinez) deliver a sound that’s proven tricky to describe. At SXSW, their online profile offered “The Tontons don’t have a readily available mainstream band to make an off-the-cuff comparison, so in this space we won’t tell you they…
Short short shorts by Veronica Salinas & Don Mathis
I’ve been calling for six word stories for quite some time. Alas very few have heeded the call. So I’m going to publish the ones that I do have (one from Veronica Salinas and a whole slew from Don Mathis). I’ve included all of Don’s because I think they’re interesting to read together. Some are,…
Hungry Man: Chuey Martinez brings flavor to ‘All You Can Meat’
Radio and TV personality Chuey Martinez is the host of the new Travel Channel show “All You Can Meat.” Don’t ever ask radio and TV personality Chuey Martínez out to dinner and then take him to a salad bar. Unless salad toppings include spare ribs and sirloin steak, he’s not interested. As the host on…
Pick of the Day: Fotoseptiembre: “Somos San Antonio”
The childhood home of Carol Burnett, Elizondo’s Flower Shop, the bygone Keyhole Club, Ray’s Drive Inn, the Mariachi Connection, the Delaware Punch Factory, Segovia’s Candy Store, and a row of shotgun houses along Guadalupe Street are among the sites photographers took aim at for “Somos San Antonio,” one of Fotoseptiembre’s most locally focused exhibitions. The…
The Wallflowers, Ghostland Observatory, and more at the Alamodome Oct. 6
(ALT) Universe Music Festival, a mammoth event presented by LiveIn210, will take place at the Alamodome on October 6. Music starts at 4 p.m. (doors at 3 p.m.). Confirmed bands are The Wallflowers (Jakob Dylan’s band), Ghostland Observatory, The Joy Formidable (Wales), Wavves (the project of San Diego’s Nathan Williams), Nobody Beats the Drum (Netherlands),…
Pick of the Day: Emeka Okoro: “Color Riot!”
Nigerian artist Emeka Okoro came to the U.S. in 1985 and now works in competitive intelligence at USAA. Inspired by the cultural representations and bright colors of the Oshogbo Movement, Okoro’s vivid paintings are but one piece of an artistic puzzle that also includes rugs, apparel, and accessories — some of which directly reference the…
2012 Tango World Cup winners announced
The winners for Argentina’s 2012 Tango World Cup, which attracted 500,000 fans in Aug. 14-28, were announced today. Uruguay’s María Noel Sciuto and Argentina’s Cristian Sosa won in the stage category. In the “salón” category (which pays tribute to the style danced at the early tango milongas), Paola Sanz and Facundo de la Cruz Gómez…
Tego Calderón: 'The Original Gallo del Pais – O.G. El Mixtape'
After a five-year absence, Tego Calderón returns with a vibrant mixtape that cements his status as reggaetón’s answer to KRS-One. Thankfully, though, the album has no reggaetón in it — by embracing elements of jazz, funk, salsa, and his own Puerto Rican roots, Calderón has transcended the stale genre that he originally helped elevate. Clocking…
¡ASK A MEXICAN!
Dear Mexican: What is the reason for the colors of the Mexican flag? Is there any razón it resembles the Italian flag, minus the águila y serpent? Conozco más mexicanos que estadounidenses pero none of mis ‘manitos morenos seem to know why… — El Girafe Dear Male Giraffe Gabacho: Good for you for having Mexican friends…
The heavyweights: Daddy Yankee
In 2004, the release of Daddy Yankee’s Barrio Fino marked the official birth of reggaetón’s first superstar and the legitimization of the genre as a force to be reckoned with in Latin pop. The album is an epic, fierce, infectious and, at times, insufferable collection of hit after hit, but Daddy Yankee’s a powerful performer…
Newsmonger: How a purse snatcher got life in prison, ICE lawsuit over DREAM-like deferral
How a purse snatcher got life in prison The prosecution’s video shows Lorenzo Thompson sitting in an SAPD interrogation room hours after his arrest in April 2010. As detectives quietly monitor him from another room, he slips his cuffed hands from back to front, reaches for the nearby phone and dials. Rattled, he tells someone…
How to get a job in San Antonio after graduation
Keep your eyes on the prize. College students have long been encouraged to focus on the end goal of employment while studying. Don’t get a degree in philosophy. Work an internship. Network. Getting a good job in San Antonio, a large city with a competitive labor pool, requires all of the above. In short: post-grad…
Yeasayer: 'Fragrant World'
With their third album, Brooklyn’s Yeasayer prove once again that they have no interest in artistic stillness. Picking up — in part — where 2010’s Odd Blood left off, Fragrant World is teeming and dark psych-pop. Citing Aaliyah as a key influence this time around, the group sounds more soulful and emotive here, avoiding some…
Required reading: A quick education on getting an education
How to be a Person: The Stranger’s Guide to College, Sex, Intoxicants, Tacos and Life Itself by Lindy West, Dan Savage, Christopher Frizzelle, Bethany Jean Clement and the Staff of The Stranger Sasquatch, $16.95, 250 pp. The all-purpose guide to your formative years, or, should you come to this later, reformative years. With Dan "Savage"…
There's money available for college, but file early, know your deadlines, and watch that email
The biggest barrier keeping students from receiving financial aid for school is a “misconception that there aren’t enough dollars available for them,” according to Jennifer Whitcomb of Generation TX, an nonprofit organization striving to help students get financial aid for college. Not only is the money there, but the sooner students apply, “the more they…
Frenemy foods acts like your friend, but stabs you in the back — "healthy choices" that aren't
Feeding yourself like a grownup turns out to be harder than you thought. Without your parents’ lovingly presented, nutritionally balanced meals magically appearing on the table each night, you’re at the mercy of the dining hall and its unlimited soft-serve machine, 23 different kinds of sugary cereal, and nightly mac & cheese. But while everyone…
Frank Langella delivers another Oscar-worthy performance in 'Robot & Frank'
Idea for a movie: a former cat burglar showing early signs of Alzheimer’s gets help in the form of a robot as a present from his son, so the man teaches the robot how to steal. A comedy, right? And probably a bad one. Unless, of course, the writing and the actors are first class.…
The heavyweights: Luis Miguel
Crooners come and crooners go, but Luis Miguel stays untouched, ever-effulgent, his voice and looks intact. A heartthrob who’s been driving women crazy since he was a child, Luis Miguel possesses enviable pipes and deserves extra credit for starting his new tour in SA instead of Vegas, as he usually does. True, he won’t be…
NO GREEK! The limiting factor of Greek life: power drinking
It’s 8 a.m. following my first all-out, animal-housin’ party since joining Trinity University’s Greek life and I’m talking to another unfortunate soul who slept on the grimy, piss-and-beer smellin’ couches littered around the house. Only after I stop talking do I realize how viscously drunk I am — so much so that I can’t remember…
Campus blotter
In an effort to inform college students and their families about campus safety, all institutions of higher learning are required to disclose to the U.S. Department of Education crime statistics for their campuses. Here are the totals from 2001 to 2010, the last year for which data is available. These are instances of reported crime…
A&E's 'Coma' delivers a hospital of horrors
Coma (8pm Mon and Tue, A&E) Ridley and the late Tony Scott have produced an effectively creepy update of Coma, originally a 1977 novel and 1978 film. Lauren Ambrose is plucky and smart as Susan Wheeler, a medical student at Peach Tree Memorial Hospital. Susan notices that an unusual number of Peach Tree’s patients are…
Boys of Summer still making their mark in SA
It’s an overcast August evening at Nelson W. Wolff Municipal Stadium on San Antonio’s far west side. The thermometer reads 92 degrees as right-hander Casey Kelly takes the mound, seeking his first victory for the hometown Missions. Catcher Ali Solis kneels behind home plate, ready to conduct the first contest in a four-game homestand against…
Scholastic breakdown: A totally unscientific but utterly believable survey of San Antonio's centers of higher learnin'
Let’s forget about the alphabet soup of college life — all those GPA’s and GRE’s and ACT’s — and get down to what really matters: how you, the student, feels on campus, the hottie ratios at your parties, that unmistakable sense that the tweed jackets actually give a flip about you. We sent out our…
Cobalt Club is a trip into the land of oddities
Hunter S. Thompson once said, "When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro." Little did I know, once I stepped foot into a place called Cobalt Club, I’d actually be walking straight into a San Antonio rendition of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, where every bar patron is a pro in their own…
HOPE Hall: Trinity student's vision spawns a volunteer service dorm
Trinity University is launching an effort to combine classroom learning, helping the homeless, and campus residential life. Katie Ogawa, the student who organized HOPE Hall, which starts this school year, said a group of about 30 students from different majors will live together in the same residence hall and volunteer together at partnering organizations focused…
Top nine reasons to stay in-state for school
Out-of-state tuition costs Let’s face it, going to college means accepting the fact that for the next four to eight years you’re probably going to be in the hole money-wise. The question is how deep: close enough to the top where you can pull yourself out with a little maneuvering, or so far down that…
Ry Cooder: 'Election Special'
Ry Cooder is as pissed off (if not more so) about the current political climate as, say, Tom Morello or even Bruce Springsteen. Yet, three months before the general election and days before the Republican National Convention, he returns with a surprisingly self-controlled (and seemingly rushed) album in which he plays most instruments (including a…
Best of the free stuff
All events take place at the Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center. For complete schedule, visit the Sound and Fury blog at blogs.sacurrent.com. SAT 1:15pm: Selena’s legacy, Fotos y Recuerdos (Photos and Memories), a conversation with the Quintanilla family 4:15pm: A.B. Quintanilla III y Los Kumbia King All Starz SUN 3:10pm: Chris Pérez Project, the band…
Inventive menu at Laurent's Modern Cuisine holds few disappointments
Swiss-born Laurent Rea has been waiting in the wings for a long time in anticipation of his Ruby Keeler moment. (To be fair, I’m pretty sure he doesn’t think of himself in Ruby Keeler terms.) First coming to our limited attention at L’Etoile, Rea later labored in the kitchens of the late Olmos Park Bistro.…
The archetypal students, and how to handle them
You asked the appropriate questions and penciled in the right bubbles, and you survived high school. Your intensely unique identity — and you are sure it’s intensely unique — has been incubating within, saving its reveal for the gloriously progressive environment of college. No more labels, no more cutthroat social branding, no more clique-hopping to…
Can the Caravan for Peace force us to rethink the War on Drugs?
Javier Sicilia’s words still ring of poetry, though he says he’s stopped writing it. A renowned novelist, essayist, and poet — winner of Mexico’s top poetry prize three years ago — Sicilia told mourners gathered at his son’s funeral in May 2011 when he read his final poem: "No puedo escribir más poesía … la…
'Celeste and Jesse Forever' offers a sweet, witty change of pace
As someone who loathes the conventions and clichés of most modern-day romantic comedies as much as I do, actress/writer/producer Rashida Jones (TV’s Parks and Recreation) just might be the perfect woman — at least the perfect woman to spend a day with at the movie theater. Suggest watching something where Katherine Hiegl flips her hair,…
Power to the People (En Español): A guide to navigate the biggest Latino anything ever in SA
In 1995, People magazine released its weekly issue with two different covers. One featured the cast of Friends. The other, the recently slain Selena. Guess which cover sold out. That cover’s impact was taken as a sign that the stage was ready for People en Español. Time has proven People right. Now in its 16th…
Chris Mata's 'Rear Naked Joke Hold'
Chris Mata reminds me of the blonde bully from all those ’80s films. I can imagine him dressed in black karate gear sweeping legs while screaming "Cobra Kai!" Only unlike the blonde bully, Mata is funny — like wicked funny. It’s almost a crime that a guy who can beat your ass physically also has…
Andrew Espinola: 'Into the Drink' EP
Newly transplanted from Austin to San Antonio, singer-songwriter Andrew Espinola makes direct and refreshing songs that are best classified as alt-country or indie pop-folk. On his debut EP, Espinola sings about love lost, the fight for dying innocence, and corporate culture (on the excellent "A Place in the Country") in his barely sweet everyman’s voice.…
For truly stress-free orgasms: use protection
If college becomes an opportunity to lower your standards for some cheap hookups, we can’t say we blame you. Heck, the academic stress has to be dealt with somehow, right? However, you may want to consider: Many of those hotties handing out orgasms at house parties aren’t using protection, which could lead to the worst…
Rape Crisis benefit turns 'dangerously cute' women into their own strongest allies
"You’ll leave today with bruises, scratches, nauseated…" The notice made me second-guess my warm and fuzzy feelings of women’s empowerment at a recent self-defense seminar at STW Krav Maga. I literally wanted to run for the door. Pete Hardy, chief instructor for Krav Maga South Central Region with 12 years of combat experience, knows he…
Free Will Astrology
ARIES (March 21-April 19): I’m afraid your vibes are slightly out of tune. Can you do something about that, please? Meanwhile, your invisible friend could really use a Tarot reading, and your houseplants would benefit from a dose of Mozart. Plus — and I hope I’m not being too forward here — your charmingly cluttered…
Yes, Inferno: 'I Hate Myself and I Want to Die'
After a brief hiatus and a lineup change, local post-everything instrumentalists Yes, Inferno are back with an impressive new release. Recorded as a live set to capture the vital energy such bands rely on, Yes, Inferno cribs Nirvana for the album name, but channel the likes of Pelican and, especially in the shuffling percussion and…
Microwave mastery
When the dining hall is closed, you’re strapped for cash, and your auto-owning friend is holed up in the library, the omnipresent dorm-room microwave will be there to help you out of a culinary jam. And I’m not just talking popcorn, frozen dinners, and ramen — there’s a whole menu of microwave eats that cover…
Marcus Rubio blows up (and turns into smog)
A look back at the albums of SA’s L.A.-bound music alchemist
Agosto and Trina's fashion treasure in Electric Junk Love
"I want it to look over the top, I want it to look crazy, I want it to be very fun," declared Trina Bacon, as she and fellow artist Agosto Cuellar shared giggles, "oohs" and "aahs" while decorating their models with computer chips … computer chips converted into jewelry that is. And that was my…
NAO: CIA's student-run restaurant lifts off
The Culinary Institute of America’s San Antonio school has been open for a while, but it recently expanded to include a student-run restaurant, NAO (312 Pearl Pkwy, Ste 2104). The restaurant opened earlier in the summer, but was in its soft opening phase until last week. All summer, the chefs have used a three-course prix…
GO GREEK! Deep, strong (and numerous) friendships reason enough to pledge
Imagine a group of people a lot like you. Chances are, you probably hang out with a group of people like that already. Let’s call them "your friends." Now imagine that your friends decided to make funny T-shirts to acknowledge the bond between you all. You already hang out all the time, so the T-shirt…
Free Kitten
We invited you to send in photos of San Antonio’s stray cats and dogs. We were thinking, yeah, those packs of runaways picking apart trashed scraps in the parks, streets, and alleys. Lord knows the city’s full of ’em. But y’all put us to shame, sending in one rescue story after another: proving that despite…
People en Español Festival: Schedule of free events
(All day events are free and will take place at the Henry B. González Convention Center; events are subject to change without notice) Saturday, September 1, 2012 9:30am Ribbon Cutting Ceremony Welcome Remarks by Monique Manso, Publisher City of San Antonio Welcome Opening Remarks by Armando Correa, Editor of People en Español 10am Get in…
Pick of the Day: Movies by Moonlight: The Adventures of Tin Tin
Slab Cinema’s Movies by Moonlight series in HemisFair Park culminates with Steven Spielberg’s 3D motion capture computer-animated film The Adventures of Tin Tin. An adaptation of three books (1941’s The Crab with the Golden Claws, 1943’s The Secret of the Unicorn, and 1944’s Red Rackham’s Treasure) from Belgian comic writer and artist Hergé’s beloved series…
Embrace Death with my video review of Darksiders 2!
It’s that time fellow nerds and dorks! Now that I’ve gotten accustomed to using a capture device, the process of making video reviews is going much smoother (Adobe Premiere, however, is still a bit tricky). Submitted for your approval–or disdain–is my video review of Darksiders 2: http://youtu.be/ROinwQGpgX0 See you in the next level,…
