Nuke Hearing
If you want to have your timed three minutes of front-of-the-room glory stuttering in front of an ironed-on board of nuclear examiners, don your paper robe, brew a stout pot’a, fill up the Honda, and cruise on down to sunny Bay City, U.S.A. (It’s either that or, like, fax your comments to the monster shredder…
Nuke Hearing
If you want to have your timed three minutes of front-of-the-room glory stuttering in front of an ironed-on board of nuclear examiners, don your paper robe, brew a stout pot’a, fill up the Honda, and cruise on down to sunny Bay City, U.S.A. (It’s either that or, like, fax your comments to the monster shredder…
Missed Characters
A strange thing happened over the holidays. It appears the anti-nuke crowd got cordoned off at Hippy Hollow. An abbreviated Houston Chronicle story that ran in the X-News listed two Austin groups as opposing our City-owned CPS’s plans for two new nuclear plants. While I would have thought an astute copy desk editor would have…
Missed Characters
A strange thing happened over the holidays. It appears the anti-nuke crowd got cordoned off at Hippy Hollow. An abbreviated Houston Chronicle story that ran in the X-News listed two Austin groups as opposing our City-owned CPS’s plans for two new nuclear plants. While I would have thought an astute copy desk editor would have made…
On the Street
On the Street: Snowbyrd and New Year’s Eve Save Your Snowbyrd’s Daughter On Saturday Savior Daughters and Snowbyrd played at the smoky but cover-free club The Mix. I showed up a bit late for Savior Daughters but was able to get at least one image of them onstage, though it is completely indecipherable. Yet somehow…
On the Street
On the Street: Snowbyrd and New Year’s Eve Save Your Snowbyrd’s Daughter On Saturday Savior Daughters and Snowbyrd played at the smoky but cover-free club The Mix. I showed up a bit late for Savior Daughters but was able to get at least one image of them onstage, though it is completely indecipherable. Yet somehow…
Primal bistro
Release Date: 2008-01-02 “You can find anything on Craigslist,” smirked my dining companion. Well, excuse me; I’ve never searched it. But we had just been told by the owner of Soleil Bistro & Wine Bar that he found his chef on the omnibus website, and the concept still seemed a little alien. Yes, the kitchen…
Performance Party 23: Anchors Aweigh
Release Date: 2008-01-02 Anchor’s Aweigh! Jump-Start’s annual birthday party offers entertainment for everyone, celebrating original theater in San Antonio with a performance marathon featuring the Alamo City’s best and brightest stars. This year’s party takes on a nautical theme — we eagerly anticipate paddles, rafts, sailor girls, pirates, fish and seashells — and acts include…
Texas/Americana Night w. Trainwreck & Javi Garcia
Release Date: 2008-01-02 Trainwreck has established itself in the San Antonio live music scene in a mere six months. Their sound is hard to label — it’s country, Texas rock, and rock ’n’ roll bonded with harmonies, skilled songwriting, crafty musicianship, and a live show packed with energy and expression. Preview them on air at…
Texas Takeover Day 1: Brotherhood, Everything Falls Dark, Under Nothing, Bandladesh, & more
Release Date: 2008-01-02 The first annual Texas Takeover will boost the St. Mary’s strip decibel level with 38 metal and rock bands in 48 hours. A staple on the scene, metal-core five-piece Brotherhood headlines Day 1 with an all-out assault on the senses in an intense, aggressive live show. Bands include Everything Falls Dark, Blood…
Monte Montgomery
Release Date: 2008-01-02 Monte Montgomery is a hot draw on the Austin scene, his unique picking style baffling even the most accomplished guitar players. Named among Guitar One Magazine’s list of Top 10 Best Undiscovered Guitarists, Montgomery’s fretwork has become the benchmark for acoustic guitar players, while his singer-songwriter talents set him apart. $10/12, 8pm,…
Guzman, Fox, & Hardin
Release Date: 2008-01-02 Joel Guzman is a Grammy Award-winning accordion player who’s backed all the “big guns” including Joe Ely and Los Super Seven, but he also wears the hats of singer, songwriter, and producer. Vocalist extraordinaire Sarah Fox is his partner, while Andy Hardin, best known for his 20-plus years as Tom Russell’s sideman,…
Pink Floyd LaserSpectacular
Release Date: 2008-01-02 The Pink Floyd Laserspectacular has become a cult classic, presenting the band’s musical legacy with 10,000 watts of concert-quality sound. Laserists pull out all the stops on a mind-expanding journey driven by cutting-edge effects. Solid lines of light wash over the room, animated neon figures are set in motion, and a giant…
Sex Pistols Anniversary Show w. Tex Pistols
Release Date: 2008-01-02 Celebrate three decades of punk in the Alamo City with a Sex Pistols tribute on the 30th anniversary of the legendary punk band’s fateful San Antonio show at Randy’s Rodeo. Recognized by Rolling Stone as one of the 50 most important rock concerts, that night Sid Vicious hit a fan over the…
Micky Avalon
Release Date: 2008-01-02 Mickey Avalon has an unusual aspiration: to be the Johnny Holmes of hip-hop. The man born Yeshe Perl has created a persona for himself (whether real or imagined) as a Jewish-American gigolo, a corrupt hustler who’ll take your drugs and your money and give you the sleaziest night you ever had. Because…
Texas/Americana Night w. Trainwreck & Javi Garcia
Release Date: 2008-01-02 Trainwreck has established itself in the San Antonio live music scene in a mere six months. Their sound is hard to label — it’s country, Texas rock, and rock ’n’ roll bonded with harmonies, skilled songwriting, crafty musicianship, and a live show packed with energy and expression. Preview them on air at…
THE SOUND & THE FURY
In case you worried that the most famous gig in SA rock history will not be commemorated on its 30th anniversary, the Tex Pistols are here to set your mind at ease. The San Antonio trio, which bills itself as “the only Sex Pistols tribute band in America,” will headline a Tuesday, January 8, show…
Playback
Ike Turner did a lot of screwed-up things in his life, but even he deserved better than the eulogy he received last week from Phil Spector. I know that violent, misogynistic, drug-warped, old music pros have to stick together, but who thought it would be a good idea to send Spector up at Ike’s funeral…
People who died: 2007
When Karlheinz Stockhausen died December 5, we thought immediately of G.K. Chesterton’s well-worn quip that, “Journalism consists largely in saying, ‘Lord Jones is dead’ to people who never knew Lord Jones was alive.” Serious newspapers across the globe marked the composer’s death with lengthy obituaries touting his vast influence on modern music, which, indeed, can’t…
¡Ask a Mexican!
As everyone knows, dogs seem to reflect their masters’ personalities. Likewise, the breeds invented by a nation say a lot about that nation. Germans bred the German Shepard and Rottweilers: smart, loyal, faithful, yet a little cold, and not the kind of dogs you want to piss off. The French created the poodle: all about…
What draws people? Other people, natch
Each year, millions of visitors to San Antonio see the River Walk and are enchanted. Among their number are countless architects, planners, and local officials who enjoy the Paseo del Rio and come away convinced that all they need to do to revive a declining downtown or boost the fortunes of their local economy is…
Clothes-minded
There are two kinds of people in the world: those who have garage sales, and those who go to garage sales. The extreme editor and the packrat — never the twain shall meet. Having moved every two years as I grew up, I am a garage-sale-having veteran, and much like the detox of alcohol and…
Talented young things
In Oscar front-runner Atonement, Keira Knightley and James McAvoy star as Cecilia and Robbie, class-challenged lovers in pre-World War II England whose lives are destroyed when Cecilia’s younger sister, Briony, accuses Robbie of a crime he didn’t commit. Robbie is sent to prison, and then to the battlefields of France. Director Joe Wright’s adaptation of…
First Friday preview
Now that the holidays have officially passed and you’re finding ways to walk off those extra pounds you packed on during the break (you were warned to lay off the gravy, weren’t you?) head to Southtown for a brisk stroll down South Alamo for a little art love. We’re predicting that the high-school crowds may…
CRITICAL Darling
Why is it that those actors — you know the ones, the look-at-me-and-my-cause intellectual do-gooders’ club: George Clooney, Leonardo DiCaprio — seem to be serial supermodel daters, not serial novelist-activist-environmental-scientist daters? These things chafe the Darling. I realize I’m not the first to bemoan contemporary celebrity, but sometimes I wish I knew less about the…
ARTIFACTS
I’ve developed an online obsession. I find myself going back to my computer with my eyes transfixed on this one site — unable to pull away even to break for lunch (while my co-worker is tempting me with an amazing smelling pot pie … yum!). It’s similar to the obsession I cultivated during my freshman…
Atonement
Director Joe Wright, who fine-tuned his eye for sumptuous detail and breathtaking scenery in the 2005 adaptation of Pride and Prejudice, has delivered another beautifully wrapped package: the Golden Globe-nominated Atonement, based on Ian McEwan’s novel. But one tug at the bow reveals there’s little at Atonement’s center to warrant comparisons to The English Patient.…
Calling all quilters
I was never quite sure what a life coach does — they fix lives, or something or another, I’m assuming. Apparently it wasn’t what Laurie Brainerd enjoyed much of. During her days as a life coach (and a slew of other professions), Brainerd relaxed by quilting (her speciality is art quilting) and last September opened…
Starting Out in the Evening
Every so often, Frank Langella finds his way into a picture that makes ample use of, or has the good sense to subsist largely upon, his prodigious talent for silent power and complexity. One such opportunity, Ron Howard’s Frost/Nixon (the stage play garnered Langella a number of awards), will be out this year. Another, director…
Art-world politics explained
It’s tricky to not get jaded by art-world politics. Despite the vast number of artists who go peacefully about their aesthetic pursuits, there’s always somebody older, younger, more established, or else a flash in the pan, with more clout, less pretension (more pretension?), etc., etc., ad infinitum, that has an “edge,” a style, or a…
Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
For one Twilight Zone moment there, I thought I had walked into the wrong Johnny Depp movie. What would you think? Depp, a ship, and Keira Knightley — or an androgynous young lad who could pass for Keira Knightley, particularly when blurred (one whose primary refrain is one of the loveliest, New-Ageyist lines of last…
Dear Uncle Mat
I want my girlfriend to play video games with me. These games are a big part of my life (I know it sounds lame, but I have other interests, too), and I like playing them with my friends and want her to join us. She says she doesn’t mind that I play them, but I…
Armchair Cinephile
Face it: Nobody wants to stock the New Release shelf on New Year’s Day. We’ll pair some of this week’s lackluster new releases with more exciting related ones coming next Tuesday … An Affair to Remember (2Oth Century Fox) Supposedly, LionsGate re-released its old Cary Grant Collection yesterday, but real Grantoholics will be watching for…
Free Will Astrology
ARIES (March 21-April 19): Do you know what an expansion joint is? No, it’s not slang for a marijuana cigarette you smoke in hopes of enlarging your worldview. Rather, it’s an architectural term referring to the flexible sections that are built into a bridge or brick wall. These ensure that the structure can safely adjust…
Technology in wartime
War changes everything, including technology. In the United States we are roughly six years into what the Bush Administration calls the “war on terror,” and what hundreds of thousands of soldiers know as the occupation of Iraq. Gizmos that a decade ago would have been viewed entirely as communications tools and toys are now potential…
Amuse-BOUCHE
“Years from now, we’ll know if 2007 is remembered as the year that local-food-ism entered the spotlight for good, or as the year that Monsanto … quietly won the worldwide war over genetically modified crops,” writes Ari LeVaux in the “Year in Food,” available online at sacurrent.com. While more small farmers ditched the cumbersome and…
THE YEAR IN FOOD
Years from now we’ll know if 2007 is remembered as the year that local food-ism entered the limelight for good, or as the year that Monsanto, simultaneously the world’s largest vegetable seed company and the world’s largest genetically modified seed company, quietly won the worldwide war over genetically modified crops. Or both. The new last…
Lettuce solve your locavore dilemma
My family is trying really hard to do the local foods/seasonal-eating thing. The onions, squash, carrots, potatoes, and garlic in our basement were all purchased at the farmers market. My daughter picked the strawberries in the freezer, and says she wants to go hunting next year! This year we went in on a cow and…
THE QUE QUE
Demo dun in Mere anarchy — or the process we call governance in this time of red vs. blue among avatar and human alike — often yields nothing but an endless do-si-do of steps forward and back. Comforting to some, but not the members of the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association, referred to as “truckers” in…
27 Dresses
We are out of passes for this screening 27 Dresses Tuesday, January 8, 2008 7:30pm at Santikos Silverado 11505 W. Loop 410@Bandera Rd. San Antonio, TX
THE KIDS WERE ALRIGHT
Other than that rare moment when Ozzy Osbourne mistook the Alamo for a port-a-potty, musicians in San Antonio almost never make national headlines. However, this city did host one event that was so momentous it seized the world’s attention. It was exactly 10,944 days ago that the Sex Pistols stormed through town and played at…
First Sunday
We are out of passes for this screening First Sunday Wednesday, January 9, 2008 7:30pm at Santikos Silverado 11505 W. Loop 410@Bandera Rd. San Antonio, TX
To burn, or not to burn: that is the question
When someone sends a MySpace bulletin attempting to publicize their event with the following kooky message (in regards to not attending the event): “Or I will hunt you down and make you wish you’d never been born … No, but seriously… I will,” you best listen. I had no other choice but to check out…
Hall pass
Iggy Pop will have to die. Apparently nothing short of flatlining will get the Dionysian punk godfather into the good graces of voters for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. That point was put in bold print with the Hall’s recent announcement that the Dave Clark Five will join John Mellencamp, Madonna, The Ventures,…
To burn, or not to burn: that is the question
When someone sends a MySpace bulletin attempting to publicize their event with the following kooky message (in regards to not attending the event): “Or I will hunt you down and make you wish you’d never been born … No, but seriously… I will,” you best listen. I had no other choice but to check out…
