Mex in Manhattan
They were dressed unlike any Native Americans I have ever seen, with fabric in vibrant reds, blues, and greens wound around their bodies and atop their heads in intricate, crown-like turbans. I stood in the heart of San Antonio’s San Pedro Park and as the couple got closer, the man looked at me, pointed north…
Mex in Manhattan
They were dressed unlike any Native Americans I have ever seen, with fabric in vibrant reds, blues, and greens wound around their bodies and atop their heads in intricate, crown-like turbans. I stood in the heart of San Antonio’s San Pedro Park and as the couple got closer, the man looked at me, pointed north…
Perry to be president in 08 says Bilderberg
Rick Perry was invited to speak at the Bilderberg conference this year, sparking speculation that the one-world government has voted him honorary anti-Christ….
Birthday forget-me-not
Happy Birthday to Mat Loser sister forgets to call brother for birthday. Fifth sibling abandoned this year.
The SPJ weighs in
We received an email this morning with an attached Op-Ed from Charles N. Davis of the Society of Professional Journalists’ Freedom of Information Committee concerning Sen. Kyl’s block on the Open Government Act. It reads as follows: Congress, apparently content to explore ever new depths in public disapproval, is on the verge of having a…
A fate worse than?
italian Click to enlarge this map. “Dear President of the Republic, we are tired of dying a little each day … Yesterday, la Repubblica newspaper printed a letter written by an Italian inmate serving a life sentence requesting that Italy (and by association, the rest of the European Union) reinstate the death penalty. Addressed to…
FOIA reform foiled?
Unknown Senator blocks FOIA Reform In an ironic move, an anonymous Republican Senator placed a “secret hold” on the Open Government Act, a bill aimed at improving the Freedom of Information Act. The hold was placed on the bill before the Memorial Day recess. Regrettably, the parliamentary maneuver is protected by Section 2 of Senate…
Rehash: the case of the tattle-monitors
Rehash: the case of the tattle-monitors Posted by Ashley Lindstrom at 5:45 PM, 05.29.2007 So, from time to time I read something totally fabulous on someone else’s blog that I feel Current readers should know … and I want to tell you in Chisme, I do … but, is that cheating? Well forget about it,…
Armchair Cinephile
THE DUKE: We won’t even attempt to list the dozens of John Wayne titles, from numerous studios, being reissued to celebrate the icon’s hundredth birthday. You can sort ’em out fer yerself, pardner — but high-def fans should hold off on Rio Bravo and The Cowboys, which were just reissued in standard-def but will arrive…
The Omniboire
Let’s see, it’s red wines for winter and white wines for summer, right? With maybe a few rosés thrown in for transitional times? OK, we all know better — we only have to think of beef on the barbie to remind ourselves how good a big zin or Côtes du Rhone can taste in the…
¡Ask a Mexican!
Dear Mexican: Has the 1965 Immigration Act proved to be a good thing or bad thing for America, and has the recent unprecedented flood of immigrants (both legal and illegal) been an overall good thing or bad thing for America? Please fully explain your answer and include economical, cultural, and quality of life issues in…
End User
Photo illustration by Chuck Kerr. If you want to practice swearing for an hour, try getting your contacts from your Gmail to your Yahoo! address books. Then try migrating your calendar. It’s doable if you, the trained Googling bear, want to Google through a few hoops to get it done. None of the hoops are…
Crash, burn, arise
FLIGHT By Sherman Alexie Black Cat $13 paperback, 208 pages Poet, novelist, and filmmaker Sherman Alexie is back. It’s been 10 years since his last novel, Indian Killer, but he hasn’t been resting on his laurels. In the interim, Alexie published two story collections (The Toughest Indian in the World, 10 Little Indians), several books…
The Art Capades
The shadow of a great art trifecta lies heavy over First Friday, casting an otherwise sunny cultural event in pre-storm gray: The young and ambitious vTrue art space opens a three-man show featuring Regis Shephard, Jason Stout, and Alex Rubio June 8. We wait impatiently for what should be an interesting contrast in graphic styles…
Dream B
San Antonio native Jacob Maldonado is Randall Kurzon’s business partner in the Inter Artisan Gallery on South Alamo. Photo by Justin Parr. Hurricane Katrina sank Randall Kurzon’s dream of living afloat, but helped launch the Inter Artisan gallery, a showcase for Mexican folk art on South Alamo. Since graduating high school in Tennessee at age…
The Say-Town Lowdown
Was it something we said about Al Gore? Less than two weeks after the San Antonio Express-News crashed a raging party of idealistic architects and ruthlessly dressed the last “next President of the United States” in flirtatiously adoring ink, Big Brother Clinton dropped a bomb. Never a slouch at wringing money out of rich folk,…
The Queque
Will today’s City Council meeting decide whether el parque Brackenridge gives up parkland for a city garage so the Queque can see more wild, vivid, and plaster exhibits at the Witte? In short, no. It’s an errant news story, being promulgated by local KENS 5 and partner Mysa.com. And even the UK’s Guardian Unlimited took…
Bexar Metal Jacket
Illustration by Chuck Kerr. Bring up House Bill 1565, Democratic Representative Robert Puente’s first attempt this legislative session to dismantle the Bexar Metropolitan Water District, and veteran water-watcher and environmentalist Annalisa Peace snickers. “That one’s really hilarious,” says Peace, executive director of the Greater Edwards Aquifer Alliance. “We don’t really have a stake in it,…
CDs Nuts
Tio Bitar Dungen (Subliminal Sounds/Kemado) The best way to analyze Dungen’s music, of course, is to compare them to the proud list of Swedish musicians who have preceded them. For a lot of people, that pretty much means ABBA, Ace of Base, and that chef guy from the Muppets. So the easier reference is ’60s…
Billing Me Softly
Brent Evans: Just trying to survive his hospital bills. Photo by Justin Parr. Trinity University graduate Brent Evans had finally realized his decades-old dream of opening a record store — Music Town, a quaint little space on Broadway across from Central Market. The shop was just breaking even, a considerable feat for the first month…
Aural Pleasure
Keren Ann Keren Ann (Metro Blue) Empty Vessel Keren Ann isn’t the first artist to release a self-titled album later into his or her career. Joss Stone just did it. But while Stone’s album — also a collection of mixed genres, albeit nothing like the genres Ann likes to dabble in (jazz, pop, folk, and…
The Mashup
O’Keeffe’s “Blue I”: And the price is … $3,008,000. Courtesy photo. From the Editor Christie’s, international liquidation house for the discerning and monied (and disconcertingly monied), surely thought it knew its business when it predicted that the 1916 Georgia O’Keeffe watercolor “Blue I” would sell for $400,000-600,000. Nonetheless, one local collector insisted on referring to…
Sound and the Fury
Insect Asides The Grasshopper Lies Heavy converged on the Rock Bottom Tattoo Bar (formerly the Lounge at Avenue B) on Friday, May 25 to celebrate the release of its new EP, GUN, and upcoming tour. Distilling their moniker from manipulated biblical reference and homage to Hugo Award-winning literature, TGLH displays a concerted investment in pushing…
Hustle and Flow
Last week, the much improved San Antonio Silver Stars opened their regular season home campaign with a wire-to-wire 74-71 victory over the Connecticut Sun. The 8,574 boisterous fans in attendance witnessed a defensive clinic in the first half, with the Stars holding the Sun to only 7 points in the first quarter and 11 in…
Kamikaze
I always thought Puerto Rico was a country. For us Latin Americans, the concept of colonialism is as old as yellow fever, cannibalism, or child labor (OK, scratch child labor). To eventually discover that the place that gave us salsa music (sorry, Cuban brothers, but the Puerto Ricans spearheaded the whole thing) and KO artist…
Children of Elton
From left: Rufus Wainwright, Elton John and Mika. Photo illustration by Chuck Kerr. Elton John wasn’t the first singer-pianist in rock. But he also wasn’t at all like his contemporaries — not Mr. Meat and Potatoes Billy Joel, not cupid-as-genius Stevie Wonder, not one-man Brecht and Weill Randy Newman. John had more in common with…
The Fast Foodie
Throwdown! instigator Bobby Flay in San Antonio for a puffy-taco face-off with Los Barrios chef Diana Barrios Treviño. Photo by Mark Jones May 19. 9:00 am. Taco Taco Café. An unusually long line of people forms outside for Saturday breakfast. The reason? Inside the café, above a bouquet of fresh flowers, a banner announces “Taco…
High on grass
fff Photo illustration by Chuck Kerr I’m on the road this week, bound for Las Cruces, New Mexico. When I get there, I’ll report on the Southwest food scene, but now I’m driving through the raunchy stench of the Swift meatpacking plant in Greeley, Colorado. The Swift plant, which gained fame in Eric Schlosser’s Fast…
last words
Introducing … For your instant gratification and convenience … The San Antonio Current’s All-Purpose Hate-Mail Template! Just circle any and all of the appropriate descriptors and add postage! It’s that easy to let us know you care! Dear Editor: I can’t help but feel (grossed out, outraged, aroused, shocked, revolted, dismayed, violated, annoyed, pissed off,…
Free Will Astrology
By: Rob Brezsny ARIES (March 21-April 19): Chameleons use their stupendously strong tongues to reach out and capture their prey, which can be up to one-sixth their size. The equivalent for you would be if you could snag a big chicken with the muscular organ in your mouth. I’m not predicting you’ll develop that…
Letters to the Editor
mail ON THE COVER The Baroque World of Fernando Botero, a nearly comprehensive survey of the Colombia-born contemporary artist’s career, opens this week at SAMA and the Southwest School of Art & Craft. Unfortunately, writes Frank Hammel, Botero’s most famously controversial paintings won’t be seen, although the three-month schedule of events, collectively titled Botero: Beloved…
Hustle and Flow
Last week, the much improved San Antonio Silver Stars opened their regular season home campaign with a wire-to-wire 74-71 victory over the Connecticut Sun. The 8,574 boisterous fans in attendance witnessed a defensive clinic in the first half, with the Stars holding the Sun to only 7 points in the first quarter and 11 in…
Billing Me Softly
Trinity University graduate Brent Evans had finally realized his decades-old dream of opening a record store — Music Town, a quaint little space on Broadway across from Central Market. The shop was just breaking even, a considerable feat for the first month of any entrepreneurial endeavor. However, Evans didn’t have health insurance — “All my…
Bexar metal jacket
Bring up House Bill 1565, Democratic Representative Robert Puente’s first attempt this legislative session to dismantle the Bexar Metropolitan Water District, and veteran water-watcher and environmentalist Annalisa Peace snickers. “That one’s really hilarious,” says Peace, executive director of the Greater Edwards Aquifer Alliance. “We don’t really have a stake in it, you know? It’s just…
The Queque
Will today’s City Council meeting decide whether el parque Brackenridge gives up parkland for a city garage so the Queque can see more wild, vivid, and plaster exhibits at the Witte? In short, no. It’s an errant news story, being promulgated by local KENS 5 and partner Mysa.com. And even the UK’s Guardian Unlimited took…
Dream B
Hurricane Katrina sank Randall Kurzon’s dream of living afloat, but helped launch the Inter Artisan gallery, a showcase for Mexican folk art on South Alamo. Since graduating high school in Tennessee at age 14, the 55-year-old Kurzon has drifted in and out of business ventures ranging from cattle breeding and hay sales to trucking, roofing,…
The Art Capades
The shadow of a great art trifecta lies heavy over First Friday, casting an otherwise sunny cultural event in pre-storm gray: The young and ambitious vTrue art space opens a three-man show featuring Regis Shephard, Jason Stout, and Alex Rubio June 8. We wait impatiently for what should be an interesting contrast in graphic styles…
The Art Capades
The shadow of a great art trifecta lies heavy over First Friday, casting an otherwise sunny cultural event in pre-storm gray: The young and ambitious vTrue art space opens a three-man show featuring Regis Shephard, Jason Stout, and Alex Rubio June 8. We wait impatiently for what should be an interesting contrast in graphic styles…
Crash, burn, arise
Poet, novelist, and filmmaker Sherman Alexie is back. It’s been 10 years since his last novel, Indian Killer, but he hasn’t been resting on his laurels. In the interim, Alexie published two story collections (The Toughest Indian in the World, 10 Little Indians), several books of poetry, and two screenplays (Smoke Signals and The Business…
End User
If you want to practice swearing for an hour, try getting your contacts from your Gmail to your Yahoo! address books. Then try migrating your calendar. It’s doable if you, the trained Googling bear, want to Google through a few hoops to get it done. None of the hoops are on fire, but you might…
¡Ask a Mexican!
Dear Mexican: Has the 1965 Immigration Act proved to be a good thing or bad thing for America, and has the recent unprecedented flood of immigrants (both legal and illegal) been an overall good thing or bad thing for America? Please fully explain your answer and include economical, cultural, and quality of life issues in…
Armchair Cinephile
Norman, You Old Poop Katharine Hepburn: 100th Anniversary Collection (Warner Bros.): Speaking for buffs who find Katharine Hepburn’s filmography more enjoyable than John Wayne’s, I’m sorry studios aren’t making as big a deal out of her hundredth birthday as his. Still, this budget-priced set offers six films new to DVD — not her most famous,…
The Omniboire
Let’s see, it’s red wines for winter and white wines for summer, right? With maybe a few rosés thrown in for transitional times? OK, we all know better — we only have to think of beef on the barbie to remind ourselves how good a big zin or Côtes du Rhone can taste in the…
High on grass
fff Photo illustration by Chuck Kerr I’m on the road this week, bound for Las Cruces, New Mexico. When I get there, I’ll report on the Southwest food scene, but now I’m driving through the raunchy stench of the Swift meatpacking plant in Greeley, Colorado. The Swift plant, which gained fame in Eric Schlosser’s Fast…
High on grass
fff I’m on the road this week, bound for Las Cruces, New Mexico. When I get there, I’ll report on the Southwest food scene, but now I’m driving through the raunchy stench of the Swift meatpacking plant in Greeley, Colorado. The Swift plant, which gained fame in Eric Schlosser’s Fast Food Nation for its abused…
The Fast Foodie
May 19. 9:00 am. Taco Taco Café. An unusually long line of people forms outside for Saturday breakfast. The reason? Inside the café, above a bouquet of fresh flowers, a banner announces “Taco Taco Café Welcomes the Food Network.” I approached my friend Ben Lynn, a Taco Taco patron, when the Food Network’s cameras…
Children of Elton
Elton John wasn’t the first singer-pianist in rock. But he also wasn’t at all like his contemporaries — not Mr. Meat and Potatoes Billy Joel, not cupid-as-genius Stevie Wonder, not one-man Brecht and Weill Randy Newman. John had more in common with rock’s first generation of piano-pounders — over-the-top eccentrics such as Little Richard and…
Aural Pleasure
Empty Vessel Keren Ann isn’t the first artist to release a self-titled album later into his or her career. Joss Stone just did it. But while Stone’s album — also a collection of mixed genres, albeit nothing like the genres Ann likes to dabble in (jazz, pop, folk, and even American guitar rock) — actually…
Aural Pleasure
Empty Vessel Keren Ann isn’t the first artist to release a self-titled album later into his or her career. Joss Stone just did it. But while Stone’s album — also a collection of mixed genres, albeit nothing like the genres Ann likes to dabble in (jazz, pop, folk, and even American guitar rock) — actually…
CDs Nuts
The best way to analyze Dungen’s music, of course, is to compare them to the proud list of Swedish musicians who have preceded them. For a lot of people, that pretty much means ABBA, Ace of Base, and that chef guy from the Muppets. So the easier reference is ’60s acid rock, because these guys…
CDs Nuts
The best way to analyze Dungen’s music, of course, is to compare them to the proud list of Swedish musicians who have preceded them. For a lot of people, that pretty much means ABBA, Ace of Base, and that chef guy from the Muppets. So the easier reference is ’60s acid rock, because these guys…
CDs Nuts
The best way to analyze Dungen’s music, of course, is to compare them to the proud list of Swedish musicians who have preceded them. For a lot of people, that pretty much means ABBA, Ace of Base, and that chef guy from the Muppets. So the easier reference is ’60s acid rock, because these guys…
last words
“Untitled” (2007) by Enrique Martinez
last words
<img src="http://sitemanager.zwire.com/local/Z/Zwire2318/zwire/images/2007/05/full/lastw.JPG" alt=”” style=”border: 1px solid ; width: 550px; height: 668px;”> “Untitled” (2007) by Enrique Martinez
The Mashup
O’Keeffe’s “Blue I”: And the price is … $3,008,000. Courtesy photo. From the Editor Christie’s, international liquidation house for the discerning and monied (and disconcertingly monied), surely thought it knew its business when it predicted that the 1916 Georgia O’Keeffe watercolor “Blue I” would sell for $400,000-600,000. Nonetheless, one local collector insisted on referring to…
The Mashup
From the Editor O’Keeffe’s “Blue I”: And the price is … $3,008,000. Courtesy photo. Christie’s, international liquidation house for the discerning and monied (and disconcertingly monied), surely thought it knew its business when it predicted that the 1916 Georgia O’Keeffe watercolor “Blue I” would sell for $400,000-600,000. Nonetheless, one local collector insisted on referring to…
Billing Me Softly
Trinity University graduate Brent Evans had finally realized his decades-old dream of opening a record store — Music Town, a quaint little space on Broadway across from Central Market. The shop was just breaking even, a considerable feat for the first month of any entrepreneurial endeavor. However, Evans didn’t have health insurance — “All my…
The Say-Town Lowdown
Was it something we said about Al Gore? Less than two weeks after the San Antonio Express-News crashed a raging party of idealistic architects and ruthlessly dressed the last “next President of the United States” in flirtatiously adoring ink, Big Brother Clinton dropped a bomb. Never a slouch at wringing money out of rich folk,…
Letters to the Editor
mail ON THE COVER On the cover English idioms are unique: it’s users can say “Healthcare for America’s 47-million uninsured costs an arm and a leg.” In the Spanish idiom, it’s “The uninsured pay an eye out of their face (cuesta un ojo de la cara).” Cover Illustration by Chuck Kerr. MAIL Draw it…
Armchair Cinephile
Norman, You Old Poop Katharine Hepburn: 100th Anniversary Collection (Warner Bros.): Speaking for buffs who find Katharine Hepburn’s filmography more enjoyable than John Wayne’s, I’m sorry studios aren’t making as big a deal out of her hundredth birthday as his. Still, this budget-priced set offers six films new to DVD — not her most famous,…
Armchair Cinephile
Norman, You Old Poop Katharine Hepburn: 100th Anniversary Collection (Warner Bros.): Speaking for buffs who find Katharine Hepburn’s filmography more enjoyable than John Wayne’s, I’m sorry studios aren’t making as big a deal out of her hundredth birthday as his. Still, this budget-priced set offers six films new to DVD – not her most famous,…
Armchair Cinephile
Katharine Hepburn: 100th Anniversary Collection (Warner Bros.): Speaking for buffs who find Katharine Hepburn’s filmography more enjoyable than John Wayne’s, I’m sorry studios aren’t making as big a deal out of her hundredth birthday as his. Still, this budget-priced set offers six films new to DVD — not her most famous, perhaps, but ones that…
The Omniboire
Let’s see, it’s red wines for winter and white wines for summer, right? With maybe a few rosés thrown in for transitional times? OK, we all know better — we only have to think of beef on the barbie to remind ourselves how good a big zin or Côtes du Rhone can taste in the…
The Omniboire
Let’s see, it’s red wines for winter and white wines for summer, right? With maybe a few rosés thrown in for transitional times? OK, we all know better — we only have to think of beef on the barbie to remind ourselves how good a big zin or Côtes du Rhone can taste in the…
High on grass
fff I’m on the road this week, bound for Las Cruces, New Mexico. When I get there, I’ll report on the Southwest food scene, but now I’m driving through the raunchy stench of the Swift meatpacking plant in Greeley, Colorado. The Swift plant, which gained fame in Eric Schlosser’s Fast Food Nation for its abused…
High on grass
fff I’m on the road this week, bound for Las Cruces, New Mexico. When I get there, I’ll report on the Southwest food scene, but now I’m driving through the raunchy stench of the Swift meatpacking plant in Greeley, Colorado. The Swift plant, which gained fame in Eric Schlosser’s Fast Food Nation for its abused…
High on grass
fff I’m on the road this week, bound for Las Cruces, New Mexico. When I get there, I’ll report on the Southwest food scene, but now I’m driving through the raunchy stench of the Swift meatpacking plant in Greeley, Colorado. The Swift plant, which gained fame in Eric Schlosser’s Fast Food Nation for its abused…
High on grass
I’m on the road this week, bound for Las Cruces, New Mexico. When I get there, I’ll report on the Southwest food scene, but now I’m driving through the raunchy stench of the Swift meatpacking plant in Greeley, Colorado. The Swift plant, which gained fame in Eric Schlosser’s Fast Food Nation for its abused illegal…
Sound and the Fury
Insect Asides The Grasshopper Lies Heavy converged on the Rock Bottom Tattoo Bar (formerly the Lounge at Avenue B) on Friday, May 25 to celebrate the release of its new EP, GUN, and upcoming tour. Distilling their moniker from manipulated biblical reference and homage to Hugo Award-winning literature, TGLH displays a concerted investment in pushing…
Sine Die’d – Now what?
The legislative session’s closed, but there’s still this Mofo to watch
Sine Die’d – Now what?
The legislative session’s closed, but there’s still this Mofo to watch
Sine Die’d – Now what?
The legislative session’s closed, but there’s still this Mofo to watch
Hustle and Flow
This Cinco de Mayo, boxer Oscar De La Hoya will square off against Floyd Mayweather Jr. in Las Vegas. Regardless of the outcome, the vaunted “Golden Boy” is already guaranteed to walk away a winner. Produced by De La Hoya’s Golden Boy Promotions, the super-bout, dubbed “The World Awaits,” sold out in three hours back…
The Say-Town Lowdown
Someone recently took me to task about being so negative, criticizing a host of local projects and policies. I have opposed things that I thought didn’t make sense — the Alamodome for example: Sold as a “multi-purpose convention and sports facility,” it has done miserably as a convention venue, and never managed to attract the…
They Said It
Sometimes a candidate can shuck’n’jive their way past the media filters (and fact checkers) and connect directly with their audience (mostly through campaign mailers. But with another postal-rate hike jacking up stamps! … OK, that’s not in effect until two days after the May 12 election). Well, we’re feeling generous (or overwhelmed by all the…
The Green Goddess
All of you dry-cleaning history buffs out there can skip the following two paragraphs, but fellow naïve readers who have taken this modern convenience at face value, read on. The use of non-water-based solvents to remove dirt and stains from clothes originated in the mid-19th century when French dye-works owner Jean Baptiste Jolly began using…
Game Theory
Courtesy image “He doesn’t use e-mail? Didn’t he get the faxed memo? This is the ’90s!” I uttered these outraged words last decade when a fellow graduate student informed me that her advisor refused to communicate via email. As our nation’s leading media-law scholar, he was in the fortunate position of being able to do…
Upright men
Impotence: A Cultural History By Angus McLaren University of Chicago Press $30, 344 pages When former Senator Bob Dole, the failed presidential candidate, was hired as the pitchman for Viagra in 1998, he was hardly the first leader to attempt to straddle politics and impotence. As Angus McLaren notes in his erudite, entertaining, and insightful…
An art-lover’s guide to First Friday
A very long time ago (in art-world years), when Linda Pace was the only San Antonio collector buying video art, First Friday was about galleries, artists, and the stuff hanging on walls and sitting on pedestals. If you want to recapture the invigorating sense that you’re participating in something more than just a really big…
Ill-conceived notions
In the early 1970s, before Doonesbury became a household name, Garry Trudeau surveyed newspapers that ran his strip to map the range of issues that he could and could not get away with. One newspaper editor who replied to Trudeau’s questionnaire offered the fledgling cartoonist some guidance: “It has nothing to do with subjects, it’s…
Life in the fast lane
Illustration by Chuck Kerr My love of food is what gets me arm-deep in the food chain every week, prying pearls of inspiration like so many wisdom teeth from the mouths of experts — the chefs, farmers, home-cooks, butchers, and bakers who make the world of food go ’round. It’s this love that keeps me…
The Fast Foodie (Super-size)
Photo by Mark Jones When I first heard there was a place where taco trucks go to get inspected, I hoped for a warehouse hidden on the West Side where men and women wear lab coats and sunglasses, and hold clipboards and blowtorches while smoking cigarettes. It would be a place not unlike David Hasselhoff’s…
Heavy on the tradition
Seafood salis (front) and chicken rolatini. Photo by Antonio Padilla Salis Italian Restaurante 7115 Blanco Rd. 524-2413 11am-9pm Mon-Thu; 11am-10pm Fri & Sat Entrées $9.95-$13.95 Credit cards Accessible As we all know, the Eternal City wasn’t built in a day — and not because of problems with building inspectors. It just takes time to get…
Aural Pleasure
Introducing Joss Stone Joss Stone (Virgin) Stone Age The problem with Joss Stone’s third album, Introducing Joss Stone, is not the fact that it takes at least five listens before its exquisite Raphael Saadiq-produced grooves and Stone’s often off-kilter lyrical delivery begin to sound like a cohesive, melodic pop album you can sing along with…
The Mary Alice Tree
dave chart Developer’s Choice Which candidates are funded by San Antonio’s institutional elite — the realtors and engineering firms, bankers and investors, political dynasties and powerbrokers? These folks, based on their 30-days-before-the-election campaign-finance reports Candidate Race EXAMPLE OF DEVELOPER-TIED CONTRIBUTIONS Phil Hardberger Mary Alice Cisneros Sheila McNeil Roland Gutierrez Philip Cortez …
CDs Nuts
Cassadaga Bright Eyes (Saddle Creek) How’s this for a review: If you’re the kind of person who buys this, it’ll be your new favorite album. Of course, I’m assuming here that if you bought this you’re a 14-year-old boy who draws a giant 69 on all his book covers. If not, you might still enjoy…
The Bonds That Tie
A bond is a city’s vote of confidence in itself, and San Antonio is ready to do this. Say that you love me, vote for the bond. — Mayor Phil Hardberger. Courtesy photo. Such is Mayor Phil Hardberger’s Poetry of Earnestness, deft and inspirational, with countless depths of meaning, yet somewhat short on…
Sound and the Fury
Gun Show The anticipated premiere of Austin-based Great Northern Guns opened Sunday evening (with Houston-based Ethan Durelle and local Make Your Own Maps) at The Limelight with “Mercy Fuck (or Now That We’ve Been Properly Introduced),” a solid pillar from their recently released EP The Great and Secret Show. Diving head-first into their “hot rock,”…
Election brain candy
news piece Illustration by Beto Gonzales Early voting started Monday, and the City Clerk can expect half the ballot take to come in before the May 12 general election. San Antonio’s election is important — offering our 1.4 million citizenry (by recent estimates) input on City Council, Mayor, and the $550-million citywide bond and school…
Kamikaze
Manu Chao won’t be bringing his Radio Bemba machine through SA. Courtesy photo. Wanted: Promoters Con Huevos Next stop: Austin. You kind of get used to the fact that, year after year, most of the best Latin albums of the year are not released in the U.S. But can the artists at least stop in…
Jett Passengers
Girl in a Coma, from left: Phanie Diaz, Nina Diaz, and Jenn Alva. Photo by Sara Quiara The members of Girl in a Coma recently spent bassist Jenn Alva’s birthday shopping for a new van. The SA all-female trio has been depending on the kindness of friends and acquaintances since the oil pump of their…
