Texas is # 1! (in child hunger)
By Enrique Lopetegui elopetegui@sacurrent.com Texas takes pride in being a most opulent state, but recent figures released by the USDA indicate we live in illusion: We’re the second hungriest state in the nation (behind Mississippi), and the hungriest when it comes to children —— 1.3 million Texans and 22 percent of those younger than 18…
Aartvark: Do this here thing tonight!
The current show at Fl!ght Gallery, “Welcome to the Gun Show,” featuring the glasswork of Jake Zollie Harper and the woodwork of Ray Gun (aka Reagan Johns) is closing tonight! There is a party tonight, at Fl!ght, from 7-10. Seeing as how the 2 artists collaborated on a lovely wooden bar with handmade taps, there…
COP15: From San Anto to Copenhagen, Con Amor
Marisol Cortez Climate Justice Organizer, SWU cortez.marisol@gmail.com We’ve heard a lot about climate change in the past few weeks, from the climategate hooha to the release of an update to the last IPCC report on climate change which finds that flooding and melting and all of that bad stuff is going down much, much faster…
San Antonio owns Grammy’s Tejano category
Wow. I’ll never call anything irrelevant again. I was so busy offending Barbra Streisand and Pet Shop Boys fans in my previous Grammy rant, I stupidly failed to mention that not one or some but ALL of the nominees for Best Tejano Album claim the 210. That’s not all that surprising I suppose, but it’s…
Show & Prove: Out of Sync
The San Antonio Spurs headed into their Thursday night game against Kevin Garnett and the Boston Celtics riding a season high five game winning streak that included their first road win of the year. The Celtics took control of the contest from the beginning, quickly reminding the Spurs that they were facing an elite team…
Must see: Primal Twang on PBS
By Enrique Lopetegui elopetegui@sacurrent.com There’s been documentaries on the history of the guitar before, but this one is different. Bluegrass legend Dan Crary (also a member of supergroup Vato Valley Boys) hosts this journey into the history of the world’s most popular instrument, in a show performed in 2006 at San Diego’s Birch North Park…
Chaléwood No. 25: Amaury Nolasco
Amaury Nolasco – Armored By Kiko Martinez San Antonio Current contributing writer kiko@cinesnob.net With his role as Fernando Sucre in the TV series Prison Break finally behind him, actor Amaury Nolasco, 38, is focusing all of his energy on his promising film career. Nolasco, who is of Puerto Rican descent, has proven he can hold…
Just in: FIFA World Cup final draw
By Enrique Lopetegui elopetegui@sacurrent.com The USA has a difficult but not impossible group in the 2010 FIFA World Cup, to be held in June in South Africa. The boys should be able to at least reach the second place and go to the second round, and they could even pass by becoming one of the…
Grammy nominations are back, and more irrelevant than ever
Klip: Seal Kiss from a Rose Video Klip The Grammy nominees were announced today, and yeah, the choices are lame, and MTV doesn’t play videos anymore and grocery-store shopping carts always have one wheel out of whack and airline food is substandard. But seriously, folks, last year’s pretty decent list gave us false hope. I…
Mayor’s new strategy: web-based communication
The first annual Virtual Town Hall with San Antonio Mayor Julian Castro (twitter.com/castrovth) was held on Tuesday, November 17, at Trinity University and aired live online (mayorcastro.com). The meeting was attended by various press and moderated by the Current’s own Editor in Chief, Elaine Wolff, who asked questions and relayed those of community members sent…
Tea Par(ties) Update
By Enrique Lopetegui elopetegui@sacurrent.com Michael Knowles, listed as store manager/webmaster of the Tea Party Support (a recently formed splinter group from the San Antonio Tea Party), wrote the QueQue in order to “correct some mistakes” on The Tear-Itself-Apart Party. It seems our first mistake was that we called the group “San Antonio” Tea Party Support,…
SoGo’s not so-so
Release Date: 2009-12-02 At the recent March of Dimes Signature Chefs event, the show-stealers were Chefs Shane Bruns and Brian West of Las Ramblas at the Hotel Contessa, Chef Enrique Perez of the Anaqua Grill at the Plaza San Antonio, and Mark Arriola of SoGo. Arriola served a Pacific Rim-inspired “taco” of braised pork belly…
Angry management
The Damned United Director: Tom Hooper Screenwriter: Tom Hooper Cast: Michael Sheen, Jim Broadbent, Timothy Spall, Colm Meaney, Henry Goodman Release Date: 2009-12-02 Rated: R Genre: Film A practical people, Americans do not like to sit on their hands, which is why the sport that is, hands down, the national passion of Germany, Brazil, and…
Reggae Kulcha
Release Date: 2009-12-02 In between a bowling party and an art opening, Bar Tab convinced a small but open-minded entourage to investigate the freshly opened Reggae Bar on Austin Highway. After surveying the décor — dried palm fronds, strands of clear lights, pictures of Bob Marley, and Jamaican flags painted on the wall — we…
Brothers
Critic’s Pick Brothers Director: Jim Sheridan Screenwriter: Jim Sheridan Cast: Tobey Maguire, Jake Gyllenhaal, Natalie Portman, Sam Shepard, Mare Winningham Release Date: 2009-12-02 Rated: R Genre: Film Based on a 2004 Danish film about a man sent to war in Afghanistan — hundreds of our allies there are from Denmark, and dozens have lost their…
Daytes
Daytes Composer: Daytes Conductor: Daytes Label: Self released Release Date: 2009-12-02 Rated: NONE Genre: Recording Sometimes all you need is a do over. Case in point, this self-titled release from Daytes — the artists formerly known as Sarah & Octopus, whose previous self-titled release earned a mixed review from Gilbert Garcia in January. Daytes catches…
Them Crooked Vultures
Them Crooked Vultures Composer: Them Crooked Vultures Conductor: Them Crooked Vultures Label: Interscope Release Date: 2009-12-02 Rated: NONE Genre: Recording The problem with most recent supergroups is that they’ve neglected to factor in significant amounts of super. Jack White is a major presence in the Raconteurs and Dead Weather, to be sure, but he is…
Take It Outside
Take It Outside Composer: The Tim & Bob Show Conductor: The Tim & Bob Show Label: Self released Release Date: 2009-12-02 Rated: NONE Genre: Recording “South Texas Saturday Night,” the opening track on the album Current readers chose as the best local release of the year1, pretty much says it all: “We just wanna play…
Rated R
Rated R Composer: Rihanna Conductor: Rihanna Label: Island Def Jam Release Date: 2009-12-02 Rated: NONE Genre: Recording Rihanna’s albums tell a surprising story: beautiful girl leaves Barbados for the big city and discovers her inner goth. Between her 2005 debut and this fourth album, the Jay-Z protégé and R&B star has gotten pierced and tattooed,…
The Auto-Tune controversy is anything but D.O.A.
Auto-Tune can serve as an additive or a crutch, but it has opened the floodgates for a relentless wave of untalented goons in the mainstream. The constant Auto-Tuning of vocals begets formulated, cookie-cutter artists made to appear talented, causing the mainstream to overflow with a mess of hopeful contenders engineered for a greater likelihood of…
We’re taking it back
All right, ladies and gentlemen, start warming up those flat-irons and caking on that MAC makeup right now, because it’s just about time to pile into the back of your mom’s SUV, pick up the rest of your giggling friends, and make way to the hottest event since the homecoming formal! No, it’s not a…
Live & Local
“What’s your favorite Stevie Wonder song?” Michael Brouillet, frontman for multiple 2008 Rammy Award winners Dog Men Poets asks the crowd. “Superstition,” someone answers immediately, as many of us would, but the band’s not about to perform a cover song, at least not technically. “You might like this song then,” Brouillet says before launching into…
The Sound & the Fury
Sunday, December 6, Chicano bluesman Randy Garibay will be honored at the Blanco Ballroom (3719 Blanco Rd., 7 p.m.-midnight, $8-$10, (210) 827-3600 or 673-0612, or you can also get tickets at Janie’s Records at 1012 Bandera).The bands paying respects to the man will be Sauce González & the Westside Sound (celebrating their 23rd anniversary) with…
Dear Uncle Mat
As today is the Saturday before, it is too late to ask you to save my Thanksgiving, but I am hoping you can save Christmas. I live with my partner of three years, and we will be spending both holidays, as we always do, with her family. This includes both of her parents, her stepparents, three…
Free Will Astrology
ARIES (March 21-April 19): When Carolee Schneeman was a kid, her extravagant adoration of nature earned her the nickname “mad pantheist.” Later, during her career as a visual artist, she described her relationship with the world this way: “I assume the senses crave sources of maximum information, that the eye benefits by exercise, stretch, and…
The story that didn’t run
Oversight, we imagine, is one of the qualities that differentiates our modern western justice system from the bad guys and dank, dark history. Even after we’re arrested, we have rights: We can’t be starved, beaten, forced to incriminate ourselves, or (theoretically) waterboarded. And if our jailers break the rules, we have recourse to someone, somewhere.…
Poujol’s prime
The Brits are especially fond of Provence, as anyone who’s read Peter Mayle’s A Year in Provence realizes. They have also colonized Tuscany and are closing in fast on Umbria. It’s likely, for that matter, that the entire Midi, generally that region along the Mediterranean stretching from the Italian to Spanish borders, is in their sights.…
The power of pocho
Octavio Solis’s breakthrough drama, Lydia, has made the El Paso-born playwright a national sensation in the theater world. But for the 50-year-old Solis, who has toiled in the theatrical trenches for half his lifetime, the idea of overnight success chafes a bit. He’d prefer to be described as an “up-and-coming” playwright. Modesty and sunglasses aside, Solis’s…
The 2nd annual Current Holiday Events Flowchart
From the dept. of “Dammit, we’ll find something for y’all to do.” We present this years guide to Holiday fun in San Antonio. Click here to download the full flowchart, or answer the question below to get started. Want to see a holiday show or not? Yes or No
New Jack City
Two weeks ago, the Golden State Warriors traded former Spur Stephen Jackson and Aggies alum Acie Law to the Charlotte Bobcats for guard Raja Bell and forward Vladimir Rodmanovic. In San Antonio, Jackson is recalled as a good teammate and the player who delivered clutch shots and silver swagger to the Spurs 2003 Championship season…
¡Ask a Mexican!
Dear Mexican: I used to frequent a cantina in Chicago where half of the bar was Polack, the other half beaner. The Polacks would speak in their native tongue and either start or finish all of their sentences with the word kurwa. I understand this to mean “whore” in their language. On the other half…
The dear hunter
Let’s get something out of the way right here at kickoff, OK? I’m a crier. Big one. Not like every once in a while, when the Sox break the Curse, or a grizzled, elder movie cop takes a bullet for a mouthy younger partner, or John Wayne and Braveheart and the good, thumbs-up, come-with-me-if-you-want-to-live Terminator…
Can of worms
Every year it’s the same thing. These “best-of” lists are a potential can of worms: No matter whom you choose, you always leave a great album out, and chances are furious mobs will be waiting for you around the corner. For years, trying to come up with a fair list of Best Latin Alternative albums…
South by Southwest names some bands
Austin’s South by Southwest music/everything else in the world fest announced a partial list of bands scheduled for showcases in March. The names range from Brooklyn’s Aa to Argentina’s Zona Tango, but so far not one San Antonio artist. WTF SXSW? Who deserves to go; who has submitted their stuff to South By and hasn’t…
Change-up at CPS Energy isn’t exactly a clean sweep
Greg Harman gharman@sacurrent.com It’s obviously well past time to change the window dressing at CPS Energy. In replacing “resignation effective immediately” GM Steve Bartley and “two weeks to collect my things” Nuclear Veep and Board Secretary Bob Temple, the remaining Board of Trustees at San Antonio’s City-owned utility turned to a fresh face. Jelynne LeBlanc…
