COP15: San Antonians join protest calling for urgent action at Copenhagen
World leaders portrayed as puppets of oil and gas interests at weekend’s demonstrations in Copenhagen. Photo Credit: Diana Pei Wu Jill Johnson jill@swunion.org COPENHAGEN, Denmark â?? A sea of 100,000 folks from around the world demanding climate justice flooded the downtown streets of Copenhagen and marched four miles to the negotiations center. Led by the…
Human Rights Pileup: Death for Gays, Reeves Jail bashing, and San Anto Jail mothers
Matthew Gossage and Frank Knaack hoist protest placards outside GEO HQ. Greg Harman gharman@sacurrent.com I don’t know about you, but my Human Rights Day awareness started all too early. In the car driving to work news streamed in that Ugandan politicians were working to implement a death penalty for homosexuality. And how only after much…
Chaléwood No. 26: Bruno Campos
Bruno Campos – The Princess and the Frog By Kiko Martinez San Antonio Current contributing writer kiko@cinesnob.net After a yearlong search for their perfect prince for The Princess and the Frog, Walt Disney Studio found their man. Actor Bruno Campos had never worked on an animated film before, but he was eager to lend his…
COP15: Youth, indigenous leaders challenge â??weak links’ on climate targets
Jill Johnson jill@swunion.org COPENHAGEN, Denmark â?? I joined with thousands of other folks converging on Copenhagen to ensure that voices of environmental justice/climate justice communities are heard inside and outside of the UN climate negotiations. Among affected communities, grassroots organizations, small island nations, and highly impacted countries, there is a noticeable shift in the discourse…
Toadies reunite… again
By Kim Johnson krjohnson926@yahoo.com Playing an outdoor show, in December, in middle-of-nowhere Helotes, is a gamble … especially if the band’s most memorable singles are more than ten years old. As a native Texan, I will stand by my assertion that the combination of standing around in 40-degree weather while holding ice-cold beer is anything…
Rock and Roll Christmas
By Enrique Lopetegui elopetegui@sacurrent.com Prepare your checkbooks: These are my personal recommendations for Christmas 2009 shopping. All books, CD’s and DVD’s came out this year. Queen: The Ultimate Illustrated History of the Crown Kings of Rock, by Phil Sutcliffe. (Voyageur Press) The “ultimate” book on Queen, arguably the most underrated (in the U.S.) rock and…
Weird Press Releases, Volume III: Santas Be Sketchy
Happy Holidays. If you have tomorrow free, please, please, please check this out and then e-mail or Facebook me IMMEDIATELY. I’m on deadline honey, but it would seem that Santa’s in touble. OK, first? Check this out: http://www.sketchysantas.com/ This is the site wherefrom I’m getting the following Santa images. THESE DUDES ARE **NOT** THE SANTA(S)…
Grupo Fantasma
Release Date: 2009-12-09 For those who aren’t familiar with Austin band Grupo Fantasma’s charming Cinderella story, keep reading. After receiving a copy of Grupo Fantasma Comes Alive, Prince invited the 11-piece Latin funk orchestra to play at his 3121 Las Vegas nightclub. His Purple Majesty was so impressed with GF’s genre-defying sound that he booked…
Art opening: Circulatory System
Critic’s Pick Release Date: 2009-12-09 This Friday, Unit B Gallery hosts the inaugural show of curatorial venture Circulatory System, an audacious move by Morgan Coy and Kate Watson to route cutting edge art shows through Texas cities including Dallas, Houston, Austin, and here to the oft-overlooked corazón. Circulatory System’s debut offering, Traveling Video Show #1,…
TPR hosts town hall on hunger in food-poor SA
Robert J. Pohl Hunger is a global, national, regional and local problem. Nearly half of the world — over 3 billion people — lives on less than $2.50 a day. Nationally, 49 million people are “food insecure” — meaning, these people cannot consistently get enough nutritious food necessary for a healthy life. Texas shamefully leads…
Join the Green patty
Meatless in Steer City
It matters not
Invictus Director: Clint Eastwood Screenwriter: Clint Eastwood Cast: Morgan Freeman, Matt Damon, Tony Kgoroge, Patrick Mofokeng, Matt Stern Release Date: 2009-12-09 Rated: PG-13 Genre: Film The poem “Invictus” by William Ernest Henley is the titular inspiration for this new film by Clint Eastwood, and is quoted within the film: “It matters not how straight the…
The princess and the hopper
The Princess and the Frog Director: John Musker Screenwriter: John Musker Cast: Anika Noni rose, Bruno Campos, Keith David, Jennifer Lewis Release Date: 2009-12-09 Studio: Disney Rated: G Genre: Animation Disney’s The Princess and the Frog, like the best of fairy tales, begins and ends with a good story. A dynamic 19-year old African-American woman…
Fall Be Kind
Fall Be Kind Composer: Animal Collective Label: Domino Release Date: 2009-12-09 Rated: NONE Media: CD Genre: Recording Assuming the dudes in Animal Collective give a shit about critics’ year-end lists, the timing of their five-song Fall Be Kind EP couldn’t be better. Not only is it a reminder that AC released what still might well…
For Your Entertainment
For Your Entertainment Composer: Adam Lambert Label: RCA Release Date: 2009-12-09 Rated: NONE Media: CD Format: Album Genre: Recording During his run as an American Idol contestant, camp theatrics and gratuitous glam were important weapons in Adam Lambert’s arsenal: stratospheric vocal runs, flamboyant costumes, stage-lighting fusillades. This out-and-proud rocker’s weekly re-invigoration of the hoariest standards…
Cocky and Confidednt
Cocky and Confidednt Composer: Juvenile Label: UTP/Atlantic Release Date: 2009-12-09 Rated: NONE Media: CD Length: LP Format: Album Genre: Recording Back in the day, Juvenile was one of the few artists recording for Cash Money who was worth a shit. He even gave Lil’ Wayne his first memorable appearance, in the cleaned-up version of “Back…
Ultraviolet
Ultraviolet Composer: Kid Sister Release Date: 2009-12-09 Rated: NONE Media: CD Length: LP Format: Album Genre: Recording “Ain’t nobody out there making shit/ Quite like me, quite like this,” boasts Chicago MC Kid Sister on “Big N Bad” from her debut album, Ultraviolet. That’s debatable. Quite a few people make shit like this, and many…
A Lullaby for Ryan: The History of HIV/AIDS in America
Release Date: 2009-12-09 Out, loud, and proud SA performance artist Jade Esteban Estrada is used to turning heads. Most recently, he appeared in a pink feather boa to introduce Richard Lewis at the newly opened Laugh Out Loud Comedy Club. Estrada has written a solo musical comedy in observance of World AIDS Week entitled, A…
Donald Braswell Christmas Concert: No Crib for a Bed
Release Date: 2009-12-09 Readers might know Donald Braswell’s name from America’s Got Talent, where the SA native proved himself by winning fourth place on the reality show. Surprises along the way included changing the hostile audience’s tune (they went from booing him in the first verse of his audition song to cheering in the second)…
Southtown Second Saturday Art Walk & Kids Walk
Release Date: 2009-12-09 The Tobin Hill Arts Alliance hosts a collaborative art opening bringing together the neighborhood’s coolest venues in an evening of art and music every second Friday. This month, La Casa Rosa Art Studio will be the temporary home of Gevers Studio’s Friday Night Ice Fight, a recurring ice-sculpting competition. Other highlights: a…
Daughtry w/ Theory of a Deadman & Cavo
Release Date: 2009-12-09 v class=”story”> After getting the boot from American Idol, Chris Daughtry turned down an offer to become lead singer for the band Fuel, opting instead to form his own band. Daughtry’s eponymous debut album stayed on the Billboard Charts for a total of 104 weeks and became the number one selling album…
Art opening: Class Warfare Is What Gets Me Out Of Bed Every Day
Release Date: 2009-12-09 Best known for cleverly remixing the phrase “Keep Austin Weird” into “Keep San Antonio Lame,” artist Aaron Hans Forland often takes a guerilla approach to exhibition. By removing metal covers from light posts, repainting them in imaginative ways, and replacing them, Forland turned a stretch of Durango Street into a pop-up gallery.…
El Corrido de Chuy
Release Date: 2009-12-09 This family-friendly translation of the classic Christian Christmas tale adds immigration to the mix. Faced with hardships, Mexican newlyweds Jose and Maria set out for Texas, where they hope to secure a better life for their soon to be born son, Chuy. Along the way, the couple is joined by three down-and-out…
Curve busters: the SBOE, and hunger
Hunger busters Texans take pride in asserting they live in the most opulent of states, but recent figures released by the USDA suggest we live in illusion. In fact, we’re the second hungriest state in the nation, just behind Mississippi. According to the USDA’s annual report released last month, 1.3 million Texans experience hunger on…
The devil’s rejects
Recent interviews with Christian metal-core phenoms the Devil Wears Prada are compelling not for the frankness of their faith but their apparent belief that they’re doing something new. When, for example, 21-year-old guitarist Jeremy DePoyster (who provides the melodic, choir-boy yin to Mike Hranica’s guttural yang) says the band’s ultimate goal “is to show that…
Local activists to attend Copenhagen
Some of the San Antonians who have most consistently and visibly protested CPS Energy’s decision to meet future energy needs with nuclear power have marshaled from the offices of the local social-justice institution known as the Southwest Workers’ Union. Now, SWU is packing off two of its staff members — Jill Johnson and Diana Lopez…
Electric hootenanny
It’s easy to read too much into music. The video for Owl City’s “Fireflies” features an old Speak & Spell; it seems like an homage to synth-pop pioneers Orchestral Manoeuvers in the Dark (OMD), who sampled the toy for their 1983 single “Genetic Engineering.” “I must be an idiot,” confesses Adam Young, who records as…
El Mensaje de Mérida
UXMAL, Mexico — The stones are already slick when our group ascends past the visitors’ center and into view of the pyramid. Under an intermittent drizzle, the team of wilderness conservation leaders has come to inspect Uxmal — a sacred center of Mayan learning, where priests, scribes, and shamans studied language, astronomy, mathematics, and the…
Live & Local
No snow falls, but the weather outside is what the late Nat King Cole might’ve termed “choke-on-your-own-testicles cold,” so it’s not surprising that Confusion Only are performing to a thinned-out crowd. The trio takes the stage to headline the Texas Music Coalition’s Christmas party, held in Augie’s outdoor beer garden, more than three hours after…
The Sound & The Fury
Attention songwriters: The Dallas Songwriters Association’s 20th Annual Song Contest is on, with “more than $5,000 in prizes to the top winners in each category.” “The best way to appreciate the talent in this contest is to look to our 2008 grand prize winner, Mark Wayne Glasmire, who is a 2009 Grammy qualifier,” said DSA…
Swords into pulp shared
The Southwest School of Art & Craft, under the curatorial eye of Kathy Armstrong, has assembled a varied and haunting multipart show that unites art of social protest and the material and metaphor of paper pulp in an unsettling mash-up of war images. Central to the show is the participation of the Combat Paper Project,…
ARTifacts
Those missionaries at SMART (Supporting Multiple Arts Resources Together), the innovative non-profit responsible for October’s annual SMARTFair and champions year-round of art education, throw a family-friendly, developmentally-enriching (and, yes, hugely fun) holiday bash at David Shelton Gallery (20626 Stone Oak) Saturday, December 12. From 1 to 4 p.m., the younger set (ages 4-13) are urged…
Groping Greatness
Nudity, cannibalism, intoxication, fellatio, dismemberment, and a howling scream of protest against the forces of governmental control: in many ways, just an ordinary evening of theatre-going in Austin. In other respects, however, the Rude Mechanicals’ recreation of the Performance Group’s Dionysus in ’69 is anything but ordinary. A seminal work of 20th-century theater, Dionysus in…
Ho ho ho and a bottle of rum
The wretchedly excessive Thanksgiving we recently experienced might never have come to pass if not for rum. And it began with a long ago case of false advertising. According to Tom Standage, author of A History of the World in Six Glasses, “England’s plan to establish colonies in North America … was founded on a…
One man con-chair-to
Two A-frame ladders sit in the center of a wrestling ring, a championship belt suspended above them, just within reach of the highest rungs. Two unbelievably large men with comic book muscles and spandex pants, already battle weary, race to be the first to drag himself within belt-grabbing distance. “You don’t want to create an…
Lucky the Elephant
She’s a big girl, weighing in at more than 7,000 pounds and standing around 8 feet tall. “Delicate” is not the first word that comes to mind upon meeting her. “Magnificent,” “striking,” and yes, “jumbo,” seem fitting. Yet the welfare, health, and environmental circumstances surrounding Lucky, the San Antonio Zoo’s sole remaining elephant, could not be…
¡Ask a Mexican!
Dear Mexican: As a Chicano/Mexican, I have lost my faith in God. While they take pride in their country like everyone else, and like to make frequent jokes, Mexicans are generally very humble (poor) people. Isn’t God supposed to be on the side of the poor and humble? Why is it that Mexico always loses…
Books for Cooks
It’s been a tough year. As the financial fallout of 2009 continues, very few gift-givers are feeling confident enough to splash out on big-ticket items, nor is there a race to get those top-dollar restaurant reservations. All of which makes it a perfect moment to give cookbooks for the holidays: They’re relatively inexpensive, and they’ll…
Red Cliff
John Woo’s historic war epic is slightly more subdued than the films that made him famous — no double-wielding pistols in China’s second-century Han Dynasty, and only one freaking dove — but you won’t confuse him for the comparatively contemplative Zhang Yimou (Hero, House of Flying Daggers), either. Cut from its original four-plus hours — in…
Dear Uncle Mat
Welcome to Uncle Mat’s “How to Entertain and Be a Holiday Winner Series,” part one. In today’s segment we will discuss how to stock a home bar for simple happy hours with two to eight guests. If you are an alcoholic and will drink all the booze you place in your home as fast as…
Free Will Astrology
ARIES (March 21-April 19): “Indignation is one of the most rewarding of emotions,” writes Theodore Dalrymple, “as well as one that automatically gives meaning to life … There is nothing like irritation to get the juices circulating and the mind working.” Of all the ideas that have made me irritable and indignant in recent weeks,…
CPS Energy Board Chair resigns after weeks of pressure
Greg Harman gharman@sacurrent.com It took some doing, and some help from his friends, but Mayor Julián Castro appears to have finally wrested a resignation from CPS Energy Board Chair Aurora Geis this week. Geis was repolishing her resignation Tuesday afternoon, while stating she felt strongly that she is leaving utility on the right path despite…
Gringo Pass to Brownsville: Good Neighbor Board urges Obama to take new tack on Border Wall
Greg Harman gharman@sacurrent.com For a while it looked like the Border Wall was going to be a boon for Martha Gay and her Gringo Pass gas station in Lukeville, Arizona. Homeland Security’s subcontractor Kiewit was paying out $100,000 per month for Gringo Pass land to host a cement batching plant and store equipment. A water…
Nuke Nugget: State Radioactive Trash Commissioners open floor to public
Greg Harman gharman@sacurrent.com While the CPS Energy trials continue alliteratively rolling on regarding who’s navigating the newest nuke news now and which wonks were worrying when, we’d be remiss not to remind you that some Texans (Dallas Repub billionaire Harold Simmons, owner of Waste Control Specialists, comes to mind) would like to turn Andrews County,…
