News Party lines
Behind closed doors “Thanks for the coverage,” wrote District 3 Councilman Roland Gutierrez, after a recent Party Lines criticized his apparent cell-phone fetish that manifested itself at the Council dais during his first day on the job. “Next time you need to reach me, call me on my cell … I’ll make sure to use…
Screens That’s a wrap
The low-down on this week’s premieres Japanese horror is at it again, this time with Dark Water, an American remake of the 2002 film Honogurai mizu no soko kara, which was directed by Hideo Nakata (The Ring), the man who started the J-horror trend in the U.S. In Water, which according to screenwriter Rafael Yglesias…
News Briefs
Code amendments could kill trees One of the worst “tree massacres” in the city’s history recently occurred where a new Home Depot is under construction at Loop 1604 and Culebra Road. “You might be wondering why our City’s tree preservation ordinace didn’t prevent this tragedy,” the reader who requested anonymity wrote in an e-mail to…
Food & Drink Ale alchemy
A fine homebrew is equal parts chemistry and philosophy According to Todd Huntress, there are two ways to approach homebrewing beer: either you work in exact weights and measures, calculating recipes like a scientist, or you follow your instincts, like a chef. “They can both be pretty intense,” he says, “but I fall more in…
News Speed reads
Edwards Aquifer hearing Being the sole source of drinking water for millions of Texans is a tough gig. The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality will host a hearing on the Edwards Aquifer rules July 13 in San Antonio for people interested in the future of their daily H2O. The meeting is at 6:30 p.m. at…
Food & Drink Neptune’s rusty spear
A dated neighborhood seafood joint serves it up fresh, fried, and friendly Before 1922 Goliad Road was Neptune’s Seafood House, it was an attorney’s office and, before that, an insurance agency. The building must surely date from the ’40s or ’50s: red brick, Federal-style detailing, and clipped boxwood hedges lining a concrete walk to the…
Feature Chemical dependency
Is there a pesticide-free future for San Antonio? Locally, no comprehensive document, official, or philosophy guides the City’s use of chemicals. At a mayoral debate at the Carver Community Center in April, candidates Julián Castro and Carroll Schubert were asked if they would support a resolution to reduce pesticide use on City property. Schubert said…
Food & Drink The pretty-real deal
El Taco Tote looks like an average fast-food franchise, but its flavors are more authentic At a friend’s wedding a couple of weeks ago, a visiting member of the party remarked that he’d just been on a barbecue spree in Austin where a local told him, Don’t bother with brisket in San Antone. You can…
Arts feature The bodice rippers
San Antonio Romance Authors exercise their passion in a lucrative market Fresh from a writers’ conference and flush with promising news of a book deal, they weren’t expecting it. It had been a long drive from Nashville, but the 35-pound turkey didn’t care; he darted into the road, smashing the windshield of the borrowed, brand-new…
Food & Drink Value vino
Current Online news politics culture Wines to chill by Grechetto, Procanico, Verdello, and Drupeggio are not, as it may sound, four of the Italian Seven Dwarfs. They’re actually the Italian grape varietals that typically make up the white wines of Orvieto, a magical, Umbrian hilltop city. Conventional wisdom says that such regional wines are best…
Arts Lame is as lame does
Flight Gallery’s CAM retrospective proves that its catchy logo is a recipe for success Samuel Butler may have felt that “neither irony nor sarcasm is argument,” but local artist Aaron Forland disagrees. The mind behind “Keep San Antonio Lame,” the slogan that graces T-shirts and stickers and has been spotted as far away as Los…
Food & Drink All you can eat
Current Online news politics culture News and notes from the San Antonio food scene I’d like to buy the world a home and furnish it with love June 17-July 24, H-E-B customers can help support SAMMinistries by adding a donation of $1, $3, or $5 to their purchase total. SAMMinistries assists an average of 500…
Arts The art capades
If you can’t beat the young (p.s. you can’t), join ’em June 30 belonged to the old guard at Blue Star. The parking lot was full of vendors, a musical stage, and Randy Wallace’s performance-art prize booth, all there in the name of celebrating Blue Star 20, the gallery’s 20th Contemporary Art Month exhibition. It…
Music Sonic sprawl
Café Tacuba captures the tradition and chaotic energy of its native Mexico City La ciudad de México sits on the fault lines between the postmodern 21st-century world as we know it, and an ancient, indigenous reality that once dominated this land. Through its crowded streets and subterranean corridors, the ghosts of vanquished civilizations and vestiges…
Arts If you can’t say anything nice …
When it comes to art, ‘don’t say anything at all’ isn’t an option Work, the 9-5 kind, was weighing heavily on my mind last Thursday evening when I approached Franco Mondini Ruiz’ Blue Star 20 installation, “Advice from the Artist’s Mother $5.” For a little more than the price of a Venti Latte, Franco’s mother…
Music Idol mind
Two albums into her career, Kelly Clarkson remains a voice in search of a musical identity If you’ve ever had the chance to A) read an interview with, B) see a video from, or C) listen to a song from Kelly Clarkson, then you already know her worst enemy is clearly her pernicious cuteness, which…
Arts CAM-a-lot more
The second week of the removable feast It’s week two of CAM, art troopers, and I hope your energy isn’t flagging. You’ll need it for the Automatic Downtown Studio Tour, 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Saturday, July 9. The Tour is the brainchild of Katie Pell, one of the 29 artists (including Chuck Ramirez and Cruz Ortiz)…
Music CD Spotlight
Fans who feared the White Stripes would go slack – we were told, after all, that Jack White was writing his new songs on piano and marimba, for Pete’s sake – are rejoicing right now, cranking the volume on a record as muscular and gutsy as its title: Get Behind Me Satan. That’s not to…
Arts Mom and Pop CAM Spot
Happ’nin’s for you and your child A few weeks ago, the Texas sun burned in the sky for a lengthy 14 hours and three minutes. It was June 21, Solstice, the first day of summer. Although it was the longest day of the year, the latest sunset actually occurs in early July. Astronomers have a…
Music Current choice
Rebel anthems – The Jaguares bring Mexican-Rock to Planeta Barrio I’ve always thought of Jaguares as the philosophers of Mexican rock, the result of a what-if alternative universe where Octavio Paz or Carlos Castañeda picked up guitars instead of pens. When I tell this to Alfonso André, the group’s percussionist, he corrects me. “We don’t…
Screens Pickin’ & fightin’
Bluegrass legend Jimmy Martin couldn’t rein it in, and that’s what made him great When Jimmy Martin was a young man, his factory boss fired him for singing too much on the job. Shortly afterward, Martin talked his way into a backstage audition for bluegrass giant Bill Monroe and got a gig with Monroe’s Blue…
Music Ted commandments
For the next three months the wildlife community of Michigan will breathe a collective sigh of relief as Ted Nugent embarks on a summer tour promoting his most current studio album Craveman. If you’ve missed out on this stridently carnivorous, fleet-fingered guitar god over the course of his nearly 40-year-career, this is your chance to…
Screens One crowded closet
Everyone in the gay rom-com ‘Saving Face’ has a secret Ah, love. Is it not complicated enough without a well-meaning but judgmental grandfather and a knocked-up 48-year-old mother who insists that you live by the ways of the old country even though she knows darn well you’re in love with the ballet dancer? Saving Face,…
Music Sound and the Fury
SA Current Online A week on the scene Taco Land tributes As a shell-shocked local music community begins to absorb the grim permanence of the loss of Ram Ayala, attention has shifted toward the other two victims in the June 24 shooting that took the life of the 72-year-old Taco Land patriarch: club employees Doug…
ScreensSmall screen
Our town (sort of) – ‘The Fire Next Time’ prescribes a panacea for an acute problem When former cop Brenda Kitterman teaches her teenage daughters to fire a gun in response to verbal threats the family has received, we know the community of tiny Kalispell, Montana is nearing complete breakdown. Filmmaker Patrice O’Neill tries to…
Screens Armchair cinephile
That 70’s feeling What with all the talk of Steven Spielberg rediscovering his scary side, this seems an appropriate time to revisit that ultimate summer movie, Jaws. Just in case you haven’t already decided to purchase this chestnut, which only grows more fun with every viewing, Universal has released a “30th Anniversary Edition” that bundles…
Screens New reviews
War of the Worlds Dir. Steven Spielberg; writ. H.G. Wells (novel), David Koepp, Josh Friedman; feat. Tom Cruise, Justin Chatwin, Dakota Fanning, Tim Robbins, Miranda Otto (PG-13) Some fans of War of the Worlds are heralding it as the return of “the Spielberg of Jaws” or “the Spielberg of Duel.” That’s pretty much bunk. In…
News Life after First Friday
Southtown endures some growing pains May was not a merry month for Southtown. Residents, unhappy with the spectacle of First Friday, more drunken bazaar than art walk, were ready to abandon the event, which many area merchants rely on to stay profitable. In response, Southtown Mainstreet Alliance organized a committee of merchants, businesses, and residents…
Screens Special screenings
SA Current Online Cinema Tuesdays with Texas Public Radio Untold Scandal Je-yong Lee (2003) A Korean adaptation of the infamous novel Les Liaisons Dangereuses, Untold Scandal sets the tale of aristocratic intrigue and sexual betrayal in the 18th-century Chosun Dynasty. The film screens at 7:30 p.m., Tuesday, July 12, at the Bijou at Crossroads Theatre.…
