The Wit and Wisdom of Gene Elder: E Mail as Message
Body of e-mail accompanying this image, received by Gene Elder: Money Goddess This is a Money Goddess Lakshimi. Pass it to 6 of your good friends, or family and be rich in 4 Days. Pass it to 12 of your good friends or family and be rich in 2 Days. I am not joking. You…
Download Morris Orchids new EP, then listen to it
That’s normally how it works these days, but this time there’s a few twists. First, you can pay whatever you want (yes, including nothing, you cheap bastard) to download the local band’s new self-titled mini-album here. In a really generous move, the band’s not setting a minimum price for even the highest quality FLAC and…
Trees could walk their own plank
By Haylley Johnson Simplification is key. If you take a complex idea and condense it into something comprehensible, everyone can move on with their lives just a bit easier. Yet in the effort to simplify the city’s convoluted tree ordinance, the main goal behind the Tree Canopy Preservation Ordinance revision, simplification could be considered a…
Prado and Fleeger leave KRTU
By Gilbert Garcia Today is Aaron Prado’s last day at KRTU, and the SA jazz community will surely feel the loss. As KRTU music director and host of the station’s daily “Lunch Feature,” Prado has always seemed equal parts radio personality and jazz scholar: someone who could break down the contours of a masterful Ben…
Chaléwood No. 14: Amaury Nolasco
By Kiko Martinez San Antonio Current contributing writer kiko@cinesnob.net Amaury Nolasco – Prison Break After four seasons as the character Fernando Sucre on the international hit show Prison Break, actor Amaury Nolasco is ready to move on with his career. Well, almost. Nolasco, who is of Puerto Rican descent, will play Sucre once more in…
Local cine: all about the love
When we first got a look at Lee Gardner’s feature story about the impact of video on demand and the increasing number of streaming-video options on art houses and indie films, we immediately thought of our local grassroots screening ventures. Over the past decade a handful of programs and festivals have sprung up to fill…
Art Capades: Some CAM Thus Far
We’re just over halfway through the very last July CAM, y’all. Hopefully you’ve been using the New School’s (i.e. advisory board) online calendar, which is absolutely the most helpful CAM calendar ever. You may also wanna check out Chad Dawkins’ CAM blog, Publicity Stunted, wherein he’s making an honest-to-God attempt to review every last Contemporary…
Live & Local preview: Monkeysoop
Tonight (Thursday, in case you’ve lost track) â?? we’re fully expecting to get our asses kicked by experimental metal-heads Monkeysoop. The bottom-heavy foursome â?? that’s not a fetish website, BTW; the band features both lead and rhythm bass â?? will open for Toledo, Ohio’s cheerily named Mobile Deathcamp at Rock Bottom Tattoo Bar. Mobile Deathcamp…
Farewell/Eff you from Druggist
As you probably already know, rock duo Druggist is ditching Alamo City for Rice-a-Roni Town. God knows why they’d ditch this storied music mecca â?? home of Doug Sahm, Flaco Jimenez, and Ponty Bone â?? for some podunk upstart famous only for Tony Bennet, and â?¦ um â?¦ Deion Sanders was a 49er when he…
Grand Hyatt Fails to Unite
Alicia Ramirez aliciak2010@mac.com What seemed a sure thing at last week’s rally has now come to a grinding halt. The Grand Hyatt employees’ highly anticipated union vote will no longer take place this Friday. Unite Here and Grand Hyatt workers held a press conference yesterday to announce that they were calling off the vote, alleging…
Hot (Spot) to Trot
Release Date: 2009-07-15 Before I delve into the details of my lunch trip to Hot Spot BBQ — the seven-year-old establishment on North St. Mary’s, just past the Josephine intersection — I’ll see if I can’t expedite this process for the barbecue fundamentalists: The lamb ribs are falling off the bone. The brisket in the…
BRÃ?NO
Critic’s Pick BRÃ?NO Director: Larry Charles Screenwriter: Larry Charles Cast: Cohen, Gustaf Hammarsten, Clifford Bañagale Release Date: 2009-07-15 Rated: R Genre: Comedy Our Rating: 4.50 Am I old? Maybe that’s it. Maybe I’m old. Three years ago, I saw Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan, the last (but not…
Horehound
Horehound Composer: Dead Weather Conductor: Dead Weather Label: WEA/Reprise Release Date: 2009-07-15 Rated: NONE Genre: Recording Jack White actually found a band. Nothing against Meg, the Raconteurs, or White Blood Cells, but the Dead Weather — featuring the Raconteur’s Jack Lawrence on bass, Queens of the Stone Age’s Dean Ferita on guitar, White on drums,…
Dragonslayer
Dragonslayer Composer: Sunset Rubdown Conductor: Sunset Rubdown Label: Jagjaguwar Release Date: 2009-07-15 Rated: NONE Genre: Recording Sunset Rubdown’s batshit-crazy music boggles the mind and confuses the soul. Your blabbermouthed uncle who sits in his rocking chair telling made-up war stories might listen to it. So might that hipster down the street with a closetful of…
Killingsworth
Killingsworth Composer: The Minus 5 Conductor: The Minus 5 Label: Yep Roc Release Date: 2009-07-15 Rated: NONE Genre: Recording There are bands, there are solo performers with bands, and then there’s the Minus 5. They’re not so much a band as an ever-morphing collective, spearheaded by Scott McCaughey (Young Fresh Fellows) and his lieutenant Peter…
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince Director: David Yates Screenwriter: David Yates Cast: Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, Rupert Grint, Tom Felton, Michael Gambon Release Date: 2009-07-15 Rated: PG Genre: Film Our Rating: 3.50 Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is where the mega-popular series about the boy wizard gets dark. Not that it was all…
RX BANDITS
Critic’s Pick Release Date: 2009-07-15 If you listen long enough, the RX Bandits are practically guaranteed to play a song you absolutely hate. That’s the downside to this Long Beach band’s acute musical schizophrenia. The upside is whatever song’s pissing you off, it’ll be over very soon, and the Bandits will be onto something completely…
CAM: Westside Bike Ride con Murals
Critic’s Pick Release Date: 2009-07-15 Hey, how’s about a bike ride? What? It’s only 102, 104 outside, you wusses! How’s-about we sweeten the deal with a very cool tour of the lush and refreshing Westside murals? This cardio-enriched art ride will be guided by San Anto Cultural Arts’ mural coordinator, painter Ruth Buentello (whose one-woman…
LIVE & LOCAL
Critic’s Pick Release Date: 2009-07-15 Don’t ask me how Aly Tadros, Alyse Black, and Sarah Peacock managed to pull it off. The three share a natural songwriting talent and vocal skills, but could not be more different artistically. Even though I’m tired of up-and-coming artists doing “collaborative show” after “collaborative show” instead of focusing on…
Con Ajo y Baroque: Julia Barbosa Landois
Life on Earth Composer: Tiny Vipers Conductor: Tiny Vipers Label: Sub Pop Release Date: 2009-07-15 Rated: NONE Genre: Recording Isolate yourself, cover your head with a snug pair of headphones, turn off all the lights, and light a candle. That’s the best way to listen to Life on Earth, Tiny Vipers’ sophomore album. Jesy Fortino,…
The Prime Eights: Journey of the Opportunist
Release Date: 2009-07-15 On July 2 and 3, Stella Haus hosted art collaborators Mark Walley and Angela Guerra, who together comprise the Prime Eights, in a show based on their lovely and mysterious short film, Journey of the Opportunist. The show’s down, but you should go watch the film (http://www.theprimeeights.com/webpages/portfolio/film/film-journey.html), a unique and heartening ……
Shaken and stirred
Release Date: 2009-07-15 Stone Oak’s Swig North first registered on Bar Tab’s radar a few months back when we visited the Stop ’N Taco taco truck (voted number one by Current readers in the 2009 Best of San Antonio poll) parked across the street. A good taco truck rarely exists in a void; we’re talking…
Street food fit for a Maharaja
Release Date: 2009-07-15 The PR campaign for the new Cheetos Giant asks the big question: One bite or two? We’ll leave this hefty discussion to other forums, but will weigh in on another front: Once you’ve learned how to manipulate pani puri, it’s one bite for sure. Trying for two simply invites disaster. Pani puri…
Chisme y Chicle
Fact:Asian dining near downtown is lacking. Worse, the News 4 WOAI Kitchen Cops recently reported some health violations at China Latina in King William, including a cat living in the restaurant. We thought that was better than a dead cat in the restaurant. Rumor:Nonetheless, we were excited when we heard that the fine people at…
Street food fit for a Maharaja
The PR campaign for the new Cheetos Giant asks the big question: One bite or two? We’ll leave this hefty discussion to other forums, but will weigh in on another front: Once you’ve learned how to manipulate pani puri, it’s one bite for sure. Trying for two simply invites disaster. Pani puri are near the…
¡Ask a Mexican!
Dear Mexican: How can I get Mexicans to arrive to a meeting ON TIME? — Punctual Pete Dear Gabacho: Tell them you’re offering green cards on a first-come, first-serve basis. And then diles a gabachos to eliminate the concept of arriving “fashionably late” the way they did the Polish joke. I was reading through…
Dear Uncle Mat
What follows is a brief introduction to the players in the narrative that is my personal life. I have recently gone through a few changes in the patterns of my life, including entering a new dating field. I am interested in finding a boyfriend, yet I’m a very sexually forward and liberal man. Peter the…
Free Will Astrology
ARIES (March 21-April 19):I fear you’re on the verge of slipping into a state of mind that wants everything and is therefore in danger of getting nothing. I worry that you’ll be lusting for such total control over so much wild sweetness that you won’t actually formulate a foolproof plan to commune with even a…
“Wake Up Today” — Def Space
Def Space’s Phillip Luna isn’t putting up with your bullshit — you are getting out of bed, right this very minute. With lyrics written entirely in the second-person imperative, Luna’s charmingly untrained voice and cheery guitar strumming coax you through the morning ritual (“Put on your white shirt and stretch your arms and legs”) then…
Curls and girls
I have a gym membership for the first time in seven years. It shouldn’t surprise anyone that I’ve been a parent for almost exactly that length of time (factor in my first pregnancy and it adds up to six years, ten months, and counting). Exercise is just one of those things that kind of falls…
LIVE & LOCAL
Don’t ask me how Aly Tadros, Alyse Black, and Sarah Peacock managed to pull it off. The three share a natural songwriting talent and vocal skills, but could not be more different artistically. Even though I’m tired of up-and-coming artists doing “collaborative show” after “collaborative show” instead of focusing on their own stuff — somehow…
The QueQue
Purple majesty Evolution is barely out of the woods, and who’s up on the Texas State Board of Education’s chopping block but Cesar Chavez and Thurgood Marshall. Having done its best to remove science from the science curriculum, the board has set its sights on Social Studies, and two of the “experts” appointed to review…
The Sound & The Fury
Druggist, one of SA’s finest bands, will soon be relocating to San Francisco, and the ever-adventurous indie-pop group is commemorating the news with a farewell show at the Ten Eleven (formerly the Warhol). Frontman Blake Cormier says he and guitarist Zach Dunlap feel considerable sadness about leaving South Texas but adds that Druggist’s West Coast…
Indiana Jones & the Staff of Kings
Publisher: LucasArts MSRP: $49.99 LucasArts tends to focus pretty heavily on cranking out Star Wars titles, so it’s not very often that Indiana Jones gets a new game. You’d hope that means extra effort and development time is put into every Indy release, but that really doesn’t seem to be the case here. Indiana Jones…
The fifth element
Bambaataa Kahim Aasim, aka Afrika Bambaataa, has been called many things in his globe-spanning life. To hip-hop heads, Bambaataa, scheduled to perform Wednesday, July 15, at Limelight, is simply the Godfather, an elder statesman, ambassador of the five elements. Of the holy trinity of hip-hop, DJ Kool Herc, Grandmaster Flash, and Bambaataa, it is Bam…
Boom Box Bash Party
Publisher: EA MSRP: $39.99 Despite the huge popularity of video games, it’s not very often that developers stray from ideas that have been successful in the past. Especially if you’ve got a Wii, a platform for which a significant number of games are TV or movie tie-ins, ports, or remakes. The original Boom Blox showed…
S’nuff Film
How are we all going to die? Solar San Antonio (solarsanantonio.org), not surprisingly, posits the whole global-warming thing as humanity’s downfall, and now they’ve got the help of Leonardo DiCaprio, who learned a thing or two about sinking ships from his part in the final season of Growing Pains. SSA will screen the Leo-produced eco-crisis…
Ghostbusters: The Video Game
Publisher: Atari MSRP: $39.99 From the moment the game starts, it’s clear that what you are about to experience is a true sequel to the classic Ghostbusters films released in the 80s. You are treated to the same opening cinematics found in the movies, and when the title song queues up, true fans will get…
500 words* on ‘(500) Days’
At SXSW this past March, the Current sat down with another reporter — and said reporter’s cameraman — to three brief interviews with the director and leads of the enjoyable, if notably hit-and-miss, (500) Days of Summer, which chronicles the euphoria and pain of 20-something couple Tom and Summer’s up-and-down romance. Following are excerpts from…
Toothless watchdog
Virginia Quinn still recalls the videotape she was handed by San Antonio’s chief of inspections when she took over the Office of Municipal Integrity in February 1999. It was a copy of a 1985 KENS-5 investigative report which caught San Antonio’s Office of Inspections investigators taking kickbacks on camera, in exchange for approved building permits…
Everything on Demand
When it hit the film-festival circuit in 2008, video artist Steve McQueen’s directorial debut, Hunger, won the Toronto Film Festival’s Discovery Award, the Cannes Film Festival’s Golden Camera for McQueen, and a British Independent Film Awards Best Actor trophy. Riding a wave of rapturous early reviews, it was picked up by IFC Films for distribution…
Space oddity
Fair warning: This is about to get appallingly unprofessional. (Yes, already.) (Yes, I know it’s earlier than usual. That’s why I’m telling you.) (Ahem.) Wanna know how much I love Sam Rockwell? For those playing along at home, here’s how to construct a handy (and surprisingly accurate!) conversion chart: First, commandeer yourself a nice, wide…
Delightenment
If Jesus Christ can be a superstar, why can’t Buddha be a hepcat? The creative crew at the Overtime Theater poses this question with its new show, Buddha Swings!, which sets the story of Siddhartha to 1940s big-band swing music, and the answer is pure de-lightenment. The production fits snug as a bug in a…
ARTifacts
“Sign, sign, everywhere a sign. Blocking out the scenery breaking my mind …” Artifacts hates that dumb song, in no small part because we’ve always rather enjoyed signs, from the handpainted storefronts of the West Side, to the (now-extinct) revolving Butter-Krust billboard on San Pedro just north of Hildebrand, to that maddeningly infectious Clark Gesner…
Don’t stand so close to me
David Harrower’s 2007 play Blackbird, currently onstage at AtticRep, hinges on the sexual relationship between a 40-year-old man and a 12-year-old girl. Upon hearing this, I drew a safe map in my mind. Here lies the sunbleached land of advertising imagery, whose lurid billboards of the sexualized adolescent, be she pop idol or supermodel, are…
Free explosions and refreshments
That’s what NALIP-SA promises for Friday, July 17, but don’t get too excited. Though I offer the same enticements on my birthday party invitations every year, I’m guessing NALIP isn’t talking about illegal fireworks and grain-alcohol Jello shots. As you can see on that handy flyer up there, they’re talking a Media Explosion, as in…
DEA Agent Sentenced to 22 Months at La Tuna
Alicia Ramirez aliciak2010@mac.com Vietnam veteran and former DEA Agent Celerino Castillo III has been sentenced to report to La Tuna Federal Prison on July 20 to serve his 22 month jail sentence that he received late last year. His court appearance on July 10 was meant to appeal to the judge to allow him to…
Congress may be doubling up on Border Wall
Greg Harman gharman@sacurrent.com If a wall going up in southern Cameron County north of the Rio Grande is going to negatively impact the endangered ocelots that still call this thornscrub home, just imagine what a second wall would bring. No, Mexico hasn’t fallen victim to tit-for-tat mentality, throwing up their own wall to fend off…
