Fantasy ‘Potter’
It’s been four days since I finished Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Four long days of mild depression, plus the occasional fit of weeping and clothes-renting. Not to be too biblical about it, but I am wearing sackcloth right now. A friend of mine has embraced the latest release in Jasper Fforde’s Thursday Next…
Rock the vote
For five years the Bush administration has warned the nation of a voter-fraud epidemic. Yet study after study of the alleged crisis has come up wanting. Instead, it appears that Bush appointees inside the Justice Department may be the ones undermining democracy as bogus claims of fraud are used to fuel a movement toward potentially…
The bored redundancy
For crying out loud, someone please buy Paul Greengrass a tripod. Seriously. Like for Christmas or something. IMDb says his birthday’s this month — how ’bout that? Any takers? Nah. I kid, of course. Greengrass is our preeminent purveyor of Shaky-Cam-as-Gospel, and you’d be hard-pressed to find a director who pulls it off as well,…
Violent use brings violent plans (sanitarium, just leave us alone!)
Maybe it was the new Farm Bill that had Queque all a’yearnin’ for country air and tummy-hiding bunny dips. Speaker Pelosi’s promised revolution in agro-leadership had fallen limper than a bushel of frost-bit asparagus. It seems millionaires can still be subsidized to burn diesel to grow ethanol so we can pump ourselves silly for sweet…
Puchi from the block
The closing titles of biopic El Cantante note that the film’s subject, Hector Lavoe, died of AIDS in the early ’90s after contracting the disease from drug use. The only reason for driving home that point, it seems to me, is to ensure that the departed isn’t slandered by the implication that he could have,…
How to plan without a plan
The folks who propose that we need to change the present term limits for San Antonio’s mayor and city councilmembers tend to look back nostalgically on the great days of the 1980s, when there were no pesky term limits. That’s when we had leadership, embodied by then-Mayor Henry Cisneros. We had long-term vision. And above…
That’s a Wrap
In his review of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, A.O. Scott teased that perhaps Ingmar Bergman could be lured out of retirement to direct the next of the series’ increasingly dark installments. I doubt that Bergman, who died Monday morning at age 89, would have fallen prey to any such enticements. Still,…
Goodbye to primaries, hello to a new Current
A warm hug and kiss on the cheek to Draftricknoriega.com for rolling out a personal welcome mat for Current readers after last week’s MashUp took issue with the progressive blogosphere’s unabashed stumping for the Houston state rep, who is duking it out with South Texas mega trial lawyer Mikal Watts for the honor of toppling…
Armchair Cinephile
PICK OF THE WEEK: Film Noir Classics, Vol. 4 (Warner Bros.): Another 10-film megadose of bullets and broads arrives just in time for the summer doldrums — this time comprising work by such directors as Anthony Mann, Don Siegel, and Nicholas Ray, with leading men Robert Mitchum, Sterling Hayden, and Farley Granger. Hot Fuzz (Universal):…
Haven Schmaven
What a crock from Marbut and Radle `“Helter shelter,” July 18-24`. Maybe I missed the part where there were well-advertised, conveniently located, and scheduled public meetings long before the decision to build this in the Garzas’ neighborhood? Distributing flyers “days before the groundbreaking” doesn’t hack it. It was already a done deal at that point.…
Free Will Astrology
ARIES (March 21-April 19): Would you like to shed your soul’s baby fat without having to go on a diet? Do you want to supercharge your immune system, improve your memory for the events that really matter, and build the spiritual power of your sexual feelings? Are you interested in postponing forehead wrinkles, getting glimpses…
Paper to pen
Dear Inmate’s Family Member, If you’ve got a loved one behind bars whom you think would benefit from this special section, you can do one of two things: 1) Download this PDF, print it out and mail it. 2) Contact me at djmaass@sacurrent.com or leave me a message at 210-228-0044 ext. 234. Be sure to…
The Art Capades
If the decorative arts haven’t always received their critical due, authors at least have appreciated the lead role they can play in life and psyche. “The Yellow Wallpaper,” Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s short story of middle-class female oppression, is one of the better-known examples of design as accomplice. Published in 1899, and written by a feminist…
To see or not to see?
Sans set, sans lights, and sans roof, the San Pedro Playhouse’s Hamlet is also sans adequate sound design. And that crucial omission sinks what would otherwise be an adequate, if breakneck, version of Willie’s classic tale of murder, mayhem, and meta-theater, now on display by the natural spring in San Pedro Park. Pared down by…
Nobody will love you like we do
Alan Weisman’s book The World Without Us begins with a funny but humbling exploration of what would happen to New York City if humans were gone, wiped out by a virus or a wizard who perfected a way to sterilize our sperm. “Or say that Jesus, or space aliens rapture us away, either to our…
Music, stat
Once again, the government wants to kill our good time. Last week, the House Government Reform Committee called peer-to-peer file-sharing software such as LimeWire a “national security threat.” LimeWire and the Gnutella network it uses are a popular means to share music and video — often copyrighted — across the internet. Chairman Henry Waxman and…
¡Ask a Mexican!
Dear Mexican: Why do Mexicans say “¡Ojalá Dios quiere!”? Ojalá refers to Allah the Muslim god, and Dios is the Christian god. Do Mexicans want to cover their bases and get a double blessing, or maybe they can’t they make up their minds? ¿Qué pasó con los dos dioses? White Paddy Pinche Gabacho Dear…
‘Black Parade’ Float
The most remarkable thing about My Chemical Romance — besides the critical triumph of their sophomore album, The Black Parade, or their ability to remain implausibly humble in the face of their outlandish success — is how ably the one-time emo brats with comic-book fetishes and death wishes transformed themselves into arena rock gods with…
All Ears
It’s a marketing cliché now, even when the analogy holds up: “the Buena Vista Social Club of…” The upcoming doc/CD about Romani culture, Gypsy Caravan, is hailed as “the Buena Vista Social Club of Gypsy music”; the film Si Sos Brujo promises to be “the Buena Vista Social Club of tango.” Interpretation: they’re heartfelt, widely…
What’s not in a name
Lamento por Frida. La pobre has to be spinning in su tomba over the exploitation of su imagen. I mean, T-shirts, bolsas, note cards, rip-off pinturas … and now a restaurante — the first one I’m aware of, but there could surely be mas. (Mas of everything, in fact, since this is the 100th anniversary…
Sound and the Fury
Uncle John, R.I.P. As Texas blues-rock legend “Uncle” John Turner recently fought for his life and hoped for a much-needed liver transplant, his friend Jerry Clayworth, music promoter at Sam’s Burger Joint, offered him encouragement by suggesting that he would pencil in a late-2008 date for Turner to perform at Sam’s. By that point, Clayworth…
Camaron pelado
Camaron Pelado is the opposite of fool’s gold. It may not dazzle from the outside but at its core it’s 18 karat. Those who know of it seem to celebrate it endlessly. This down-home and wonderfully un-self-conscious restaurant specializes in Mexican seafood with a nod toward the Yucatán Peninsula. There were several caldos de mariscos…
Aural Pleasure
‘Earth’ Bound Planet Earth Prince (NPG Records) It’s hard to think of another rock or funk artist who’s defied the ravages of time with as much ease as Prince. While Sly Stone was a hollow shell by the time he hit his mid-30s, Michael Jackson long ago became a cosmetically warped Peter Pan, and Jimi…
Garden cheerleader
There are many reasons to dump your garden right now. It’s dried up, stunted, lost in weeds, or perhaps already forgotten. I know about all of these conditions myself, thanks to my own garden. This garden was, as usual, ambitiously conceived. But as usual, my follow-through fizzled. After ordering enough seeds to start my own…
Let’s break a deal
From toxic mold in the Villas de Fortuna subdivision to a rat infestation at the Eastside Wheatley Courts to upset Stone Oak residents protesting plans to bring low-income housing to their neighborhood, the San Antonio Housing Authority hasn’t had much luck burnishing its tarnished rep this past year. Since 2004, new SAHA leadership including CEO…
