Arts Art capades
Contemporary Art Month is so big there are almost not enough spaces in which to fit it all. The saturation of art not only fills hidden nooks and crannies but also spills out into the street. For example, Charlie Morris, who rents a second-floor studio in the old Southern Music Company Building, selected 11 artists…
Food & Drink Afternoon delights
At La Tuna Grill, the food is the art Nestled next to the King William district and Blue Star Arts complex, La Tuna isn’t just for old movies on Thursday nights and beers on the weekends anymore. Ten months ago, it added lunch to its resume. Though many of the patrons seemed to be discussing…
Arts Make love not war
Lysistrata’s anti-war message resonates 2,500 years on It’s comforting to think of Aristophanes in 411 B.C., seated with an unchiseled tablet in front of him, creatively paralyzed by thoughts of the war that had been taking the lives of Athenian men for the last 21 years. When the war was only 6 years old, he…
Music After Sunset
Jumping Jack’s I awake this morning to a sore jaw and headache. The pain focuses itself on the outer rim of my eye socket and spreads all the way down my right arm. “What happened to the right side of my body?,” I wonder, confused, as I roll over and look at the clock: 1:25…
Arts CAM-a-lot
We all have our aesthetic prejudices, art troopers, and this is never more apparent than during Contemporary Art Month, when, if we’re diligent and adventurous, we’ll encounter at least a few installations or works that make us say, “Come on!” If you’re suspicious of sound art, this week’s recommended events include the perfect opportunity to…
Music CD Spotlight
Take note of that grin sported by Common on the cover of Be, his best album since Like Water for Chocolate. See the way he’s grinning into what could be the sun like he’s got it all figured out? That’s because the 33-year-old rapper very likely does, at long last. Be Common (Geffen Records) After…
Screens Sweet revenge
Like the best chocolate, ‘Factory’ is dark In a world of children’s entertainment that generally alternates between condescension, sappiness, smarminess, and barely disguised product placement, it’s almost sufficient cause for celebration when a movie has the guts to present kids with some of life’s harsher realities, even if it is a remake. Not to say…
Music Current choice
Built to last – Rick Broussaard brings some rockabilly to Casbeers When Rick Broussard formed Two Hoots and a Holler in the early ’80s, this country was experiencing a renewed flirtation with rockabilly. The Stray Cats had managed to wedge ducktails and double-basses between the twee Euro-sophistication of Duran Duran and Spandau Ballet. But the…
Arts A wellspring of promise
A contemporary art space could revive the Hot Wells Resort Through development and devastation, growth and abandonment, the mineral waters on the grounds of the former Hot Wells Resort in South San Antonio have percolated from deep within their geological origins, a constant presence undeterred by change. Artists looking to get back to nature can…
Music Trophy husband flies solo
It’s fair to say that Dave Insley didn’t rush into a solo career. Insley has been a mainstay of the Tempe, Arizona, roots-music scene for more than 20 years, establishing himself as alt-country long before people had a term for the aesthetic. In the early ’80s he fronted a cowpunk outfit called Chaingang, complete with…
Arts Memory and history
At Latina Letters, the past, present, and future converge “The same story becomes a different story,” Sandra Cisneros writes in her novel Caramelo, “depending on who is telling it.” During last weekend’s Latina Letters Conference at St. Mary’s University, participants and presenters shared stories with similar themes about memory and recovery, gender and sexuality, place…
Music Sound and the fury
A week on the scene Taco Land update The latest sad news to come from the tragic June 23 Taco Land shooting concerns “Gypsy” Doug Morgan, the club’s doorman. Morgan, a passionate music fan and reliable presence at Taco Land, passed away on the night of Wednesday, July 13 at University Hospital at the age…
Screens Two Yorkshire tarriers
Girls from opposite sides of the hedgerow find sex and solace with one another When the two teenagers meet, Tamsin is gazing down at Mona from astride a magnificent white horse. The scene’s proxemic pattern parallels social status; the posh estate where Tamsin lives during breaks from private school is many rungs above the dingy…
Last words Karl Rove and the Half-Wit Prince
Chapter One It was nearing midnight and the President was sitting alone in his office, reviewing a long memo about CIA agent Valerie Plame that was slipping through his brain without leaving the slightest trace of meaning behind. He was waiting for a call from former Secretary of State Colin Powell about the memo and…
Screens Sparks that fly but don’t ignite
Miranda July’s debut is electric but the switches don’t all connect When 14-year-old Peter Swersey (Thompson) prints out the abstract geometrical patterns he has made with his computer, he offers an interpretation to his 6-year-old brother, Robby (Ratcliff): “This is you and me and everyone we know.” In her quirky first feature, writer and director…
Feature Born to roll
Got moxy and a mad desire to skate? The Alamo City Rollergirls want you There’s not much grrrl power in the 1972 roller derby classic Kansas City Bomber. The team is owned by a sleazy womanizer in a suit and the girls, catty and cliquish in the locker room, are as likely to knock one…
Screens Armchair cinephile
Web Exclusive Afraid of the noir Clint Eastwood’s heartfelt Million Dollar Baby (Warner Bros.) hit stores last week in a two-disc edition and a three-discer that includes the film’s Eastwood-penned soundtrack. The movie has already swung through a couple of praise-backlash cycles now; thinking back on the naysayers’ complaints – some find it mawkish, some…
Screens Special screenings
Bluegrass at Blue Star King of Bluegrass Dir. George Goehl (2004) The Sundowners Dir. George Goehl (2005) Straight 6 Films presents King of Bluegrass, a documentary about Jimmy Martin, bluegrass rebel child, and his lifelong quest to become a member of the Grand Ole Opry cast `see Pickin and fightin, July 7-13, 2005`. A 20-minute…
News Dollars and sense
The City budget process begins – without the mayor The mayor didn’t show and there were no budget figures, but about 40 San Antonians petitioned their elected officials last week at a public hearing on the City’s finances. Although it was the first public hearing on the City budget – Phil Hardberger’s inaugural one as…
Screens New reviews
The Devil’s Rejects Dir. and writ. Rob Zombie; Sid Haig, Bill Moseley, Sheri Moon, William Forsythe, Ken Foree (R) Depending on your preference for cinematic delicatessen, Rob Zombie’s latest cultish horror film can be one of two servings. For those who like their shockers bloody as hell, like ’70s exploitative films such as I Spit…
News Briefs
Kelly’s toxins tap worldwide concern As part of a global awareness campaign about toxins left by military bases, activists congregated in San Antonio at the Holiday Inn Express on Commerce on July 14 to demand the government clean up the waste that now contaminates communities worldwide and leads to hot zones for diseases such as…
Screens That’s a wrap
The low-down on this week’s premieres Director Michael Bay cuts the cord from producer Jerry Bruckheimer for the first time in The Island, a sci-fi action flick set in the mid-21st century. When Lincoln Six-Echo (Ewan McGregor) and Jordan Two-Delta (Scarlett Johansson) find out that they are human clones whose only purpose is to provide…
News Party lines
Un poco de todo San Antonio City Council is on vacation until August 4. Yep. Mayor Phil Hardberger has only been in office a little more than a month, and he’s due for some time off. Three council meetings, which would have been slated for July 21, 28, and August 4, are history. Blame it…
Food & Drink All you can eat
News and notes from the San Antonio food scene Waiter, there’s a movie in my soup Good news for guys who are strapped for cash and stuck in a rut when it comes to planning dates. The Galaxy theater has been renovated into the Rialto Cinema Bistro, a dinner-and-a-movie theater. Following in the path of…
News Speed reads
Section 8 list closed The San Antonio Housing Authority has again closed its Section 8 waiting list. After a two-year freeze, the list opened at the beginning of May and closed June 30, with more than 10,000 applicants. SAHA’s Housing Choice Vouchers provides 11,000 low-income families and individuals with Section 8 vouchers funded by the…
Music Ryan’s hope
Local singer-songwriter has a whole lotta chutzpah Velpean Ryan has played with rock and funk bands, run sound for the heavyweight Chilean group La Ley, and hung out with an endless succession of hipster jazz cats. None of that fazed him. But he couldn’t handle the chemical excesses and sexual hedonism of the Ringling Brothers…
Feature Born to roll
Got moxy and a mad desire to skate? The Alamo City Rollergirls want you There’s not much grrrl power in the 1972 roller derby classic Kansas City Bomber. The team is owned by a sleazy womanizer in a suit and the girls, catty and cliquish in the locker room, are as likely to knock one…
Food & Drink Mama’s last tequila
Contemplating another long, dry nine months, the author samples the top shelf Like many people, I have a long and somewhat blurry history with tequila. We first met on what would seem to be the wrong end of the Americas where he left me, 18 and facedown, on the Astroturf-lined deck of an Alaskan ferry.…
Arts Late bloomer
Composer Cenobio Hernández found his calling at 77 and spent the next decade making the most of it Most everyone who remembers Cenobio Hernández is dead, but to glean an inkling of his life, listen to “Recuerdos” (“Memories”), a serenade whose key changes flicker between wistfulness and exuberance, between what was and what might have…
Food & Drink Oink, oink
At Kim Wah, a silk purse can be made from a pig’s ear “Pull harder to open” exhorts a sign on Kim Wah’s door. Pull as hard as it takes: For your effort, you will be rewarded with rare gems of the Orient – such treasures as the Kim Wah Special Sauce Pork Ear and…
