Blind, blond, and bloody
Japanese phenomenon Beat Takeshi brings 21st-century aesthetics to bear on a ’60’s icon, the blind swordsman. ’60s samurai hero resurrected by contemporary arthouse darling Takeshi Kitano, aka Beat Takeshi, is ubiquitous in Japanese culture; known stateside as the writer and director of unusually artful gangster movies, he is also an actor, author, and gameshow host…
Fire walkers
Grand Buffet if the existential pranksters in Ween had cut their musical teeth on Grandmaster Flash and Afrika Bambaataa, they’d probably be Grand Buffet. A suburban Pittsburgh duo on the comic, underground fringe of hip-hop, Grand Buffet first attracted national attention touring with the late Wesley Willis. Contemptuous of anyhing that smacks of pretension, these…
Numb in New Jersey
Natalie Portman and Zach Braff reprise the theme from The Graduate, in a 21st-century exploration of anomie and apathy in suburbia. Love trumps lithium in a 20-something wasteland If Zach Braff, who was born in New Jersey in 1975, had been alive in 1967, he might have competed with Dustin Hoffman for the role of…
Extreme makeover
Mormon missionaries make their solitary way among the neatly ordererd fields and windmills of Holland in The Best Two Years, an endearing LDS-lite film for the masses. Two years in the life of Mormon missionaries romanticizes their clean-cut appeal It’s possible to imagine The Best Two Years, the new feature-length film about Mormon missionaries at…
Web Exclusive:The return of en caliente
A Tejano pioneer makes a cable comeback Back when Tejano music ruled the airwaves, fans packed the clubs and dancehalls on weekends to see their favorite artists perform live, then went home and watched their performances and videos on television. As the scene sharply declined at the tail end of the ’90s, the myriad venues,…
The machine of a dream
‘Speedo’ chronicles love in the pits VRROOOOOOMMMMGRRRRRRKKRRSSSSHHTHUDDD. VROOM. VROM. VRM. VR. M… It’s another night on Long Island at the Demolition Derby, billed as “the wildest sport on wheels,” and cars butt one other like rams in heat. The carcasses of Chevys, Fords, and Dodges are mashed and mangled, bent and folded, spindled and mutilated;…
New reviews and special screenings
New reviews Alien vs. Predator Dir. & writ. Paul W.S. Anderson; feat. Sanna Lathan, Raoul Bova, Lance Henriksen (PG-13) Alien vs. Predator is not so much a movie as a cool concept run into the ground, the sort of sci-fi fans’ dream date that, in the hands of hack director/writer Paul W. S. Anderson, should…
Armchair Cinephile
Freaks, creeps, and horror shows It took way too long, but at least they didn’t wait until Halloween: Warner Brothers has finally issued the brilliant horror film Freaks, directed by Tod Browning – who after this, the original Dracula, and The Unknown, should be much better known than he is. Browning, once a circus performer,…
They need leaders that won’t drive them crazy
The top positions at SAWS and the EAA are among the most pivotal in the city – and they’re vacant Wanted: water experts willing to swim with the sharks. After six months, two crucial positions remain open: the president/CEO of the San Antonio Water System and the general manager of the Edwards Aquifer Authority. In…
Recent Reviews
Collateral Dir. Michael Mann; writ. Stuart Beattie; feat. Tom Cruise, Jamie Foxx, Jada Pinkett Smith, Mark Ruffalo, Peter Berg, Irma P. Hall, Javier Bardem (R) Hollywood isn’t shy about testosterone, of course, but Mann romanticizes manliness in a particularly potent and distinctive way, especially the manliness of those old movie mainstays, cops and robbers. Collateral…
When animals don’t attack
Intern Courtney Segovis (left) and volunteer Kyle Byers feed a group of fawns. (Photos by Mark Greenberg) One neighbor raises a fuss over Kendalia wildlife sanctuary If you live in Kendall County, you should know that there are herpes-infected monkeys who will sit on your back deck and watch the evening news through your bay…
Spineless
From front: Lemon pepper fish on a bed of pasta with chipotle cream sauce; Prickly Pear Margarita; and chile relleno with spanish rice and charro beans. (Photo by Mark Greenberg) Prickly Pear Bistro doesn’t stand up to its name The Prickly Pear has taken over the space once occupied by the irrepressible Boccone’s on Blanco,…
A Tuggey of war
Tim Tuggey VIA’s new chairman has one thing on his mind: the bus system’s survival Dressed crisply in a well-tailored suit, Tim Tuggey, the new chairman of the VIA Board of Trustees, would stand out on a city bus. Although Tuggey is only an occasional patron of the No. 9 that runs along Broadway, regularly…
All You Can Eat
News and notes from the San Antonio food scene Recently opened: Adobo Taco Company, 9873 I-10 West in the Colonnade; Johnny Rockets, a ’50s-style diner on the street level at 245 E. Commerce; and upstairs on the fourth floor, the upscale Las Leyendas serves a prix fixe meal for $55. On the horizon: Once a…
Time passes under the awning
Acapulco Drive-Inn changes hands slowly from one generation to another Imagine a place where one can drive one block south of downtown, across Durango Boulevard on a hot afternoon at the end of a hard day’s work. Pull into the parking lot, grab a table under the vast metal awning, drop some bills into the…
God only knows
Henry Cuellar: D or R? In the good ol’ days of separation of church and state, God was invited only to inaugurations and Congressional inquiries; anyplace else, he had to crash the party with the rest of the interlopers. But these days, He’s invited to every governmental wingding, no matter how mundane, including Henry Cuellar’s…
Raga disciple
Indrajit Banerjee: a lyrical young master of the sitar Local Indian music enthusiast takes his first modest shot at concert promotion You can see the look of deference in Rick Henderson’s eyes whenever he speaks about Indian music. That’s because his teacher is in the room.Henderson, a local raga enthusiast and longtime player of the…
Sound and the Fury
A week on the scene Attitude adjustment This summer’s Chicks With Attitude Tour has been a strange hybrid, because it captures neither the soothing folkiness of Lilith Fair (even though its headliner, Liz Phair, is a Lilith veteran) nor the all-out rock blitzkrieg of the Vans Warped Tour or Ozzfest. Despite its gender unity, it’s…
Domestic disturbances
Xiu Xiu’s Jamie Stewart confronts his family’s darkest secrets “I mean, you can play 25-minute versions of ‘Super Freak’ only so many times before it does something really negative to your soul,” laughs Jamie Stewart. As the 32-year-old Xiu Xiu (pronounced: “shoe shoe”) frontman strolls through Seattle’s boho Capitol Hill ‘hood – he moved there…
Jazz elegy
A remembrance of legendary pianist Joe Piscatelle Joe Piscatelle: a player of great passion and authority Earlier in my jazz career, singing in front of a trio of formidable players, I was appropriately intimidated. One night, Joe Piscatelle, the brilliant pianist, sat at a front row table. On the break, he read me the riot…
Sin city slickers
critics are fond of saying the Killers don’t sound like they’re from Las Vegas, but that presumes that there is such a thing as a “Vegas sound.” Unless you count the kitschy opulence of Liberace and Wayne Newton, the closest thing this gambling oasis/musical desert has to a sonic signature is the non-stop, concurrent chiming…
