Gayby’s Monday Musings
1) Don’t Count on It- After dismissing the Oklahoma City Thunder in Oklahoma City on the second game of a back-to-back, and pushing the Spurs’ winning streak to 7 games, one would expect some national love. Right? Wrong. Think about it, Sunday’s events were the perfect storm to find the Spurs in their usual spot…
The Ballad of Allen Iverson
The San Antonio Spurs capped off week 3 of the NBA campaign this Saturday with a convincing 116-93 victory over the Philadelphia 76ers at home. Spurs quarterback Tony Parker paced the Spurs with 24 points and 7 assists, continuing his inspired play in this young season. San Antonio’s reluctant emcee was shadowed on the court…
Caprica: ‘The End’
BAD NEWS: The final episodes of Caprica will not be aired on any channel anytime soon. GOOD NEWS: A DVD will be released right before Christmas eve, December 21st, featuring all the episodes that were ever produced for the series.
If We Could Give Just One Gift…It would be ???????????
We’ve been looking all over the Internet for our big Holiday Gift Guide. But, before we waste the 5-seconds of reader attention these blog posts actually get, we have ‘just one’ gift giving idea we’d like to share. ???????????. It’s Japanese for the world renowned Studio Ghibli, an anime film studio founded by Hayao Miyazaki…
BAD ADVICE with Jay Whitecotton
…You Always Learn More From Bad Examples… Dear Whitecotton, I am planning to marry the man of my dreams this spring. Although his parents are wonderful, I’m a little concerned about the role that they still play in his life … particularly his mother. She still does my fiance’s laundry, cooks his lunches daily, and…
Interview: Michael Paul Stephenson
It had been a year and a half since 10-year-old actor Michael Paul Stephenson had starred in the very first movie of his young career. Goblins, the title it held during its production, featured vegetarian goblins that turned people into plants so they could eat them. When the movie wrapped, Stephenson wondered how he would…
“D20-Xc8” by Jen Knox
This week’s flash fiction piece is from Jen Knox, a local writer whose memoir, Musical Chairs, was published in 2009 (an autobiography well worth the read). This story is about emptiness, a yearning for the impossible and more. Vivid images and a clear voice, will make you want to read it twice (at least). Enjoy.…
Don Strange Remembered in Recipes
Don Strange fed the famous and the modest alike. Whether catering to congressmen at barbecue events on the White House lawn, swells in Hollywood, Katrina refugees at Kelley Air Force Base or 35,000 Lutheran youth at La Villita, he never forgot the true meaning of hospitality. San Antonio’s reputation as a city of open arms…
Slow night at the swingers ball
Some people love to talk the night away about their sexual exploits while still cleaving safely to the shadows of vagary. “You’re not going to use my real name, are you?” “No, your secrets are safe with me. Tell me more about how you got involved in the lifestyle.” For those in the dark, people…
What defines violence?
While the situation in California may not be as divided as say, the O.J. Simpson trial, it still polarizes people to the core: what can be considered violence? While speaking at Chicago-Kent University, Jenner and Block LLP Partner Paul M. Smith said that no matter what a state considers violent, there will always be a…
Luna’s 7th Birthday with Soul Track Mind
Critic’s Pick Release Date: 2010-11-10 Luna knows how to pick a party band, and they’re celebrating their seventh b-day in style with Soul Track Mind. This Austin-based band is poised to ride the soul-revival wave with fellow ATX-surfers T Bird and the Breaks and Black Joe Lewis. Lead by livewire frontman Donovan Keith, the group…
2nd Annual Gingerbread Design Challenge: A Blueprint for Tasty Competition
Critic’s Pick Release Date: 2010-11-10 Kids and kids at heart need look no farther than the Pearl this weekend, when two (free!) events turn the parent-friendly complex into a circus of creative fun. While architects, engineers, and designers compete Iron Chef-style in the San Antonio Children’s Museum’s 2nd Annual Gingerbread Design Challenge: A Blueprint for…
Iration, the Movement, the Green
Critic’s Pick Release Date: 2010-11-10 Smoothly produced and easy to swallow, Honolulu’s the Green could easily soundtrack an island-themed romantic comedy ? not exactly what one would expect to hear at the White Rabbit. Good vibes and classic roots (the band cites Bob Marley, UB40, and James Taylor as influences) have served the Green well…
Art For SARA Silent Auction
Critic’s Pick Release Date: 2010-11-10 With nine venues and counting (visit tobinarts.com for a map of participating galleries), the Tobin Hill Art Walk just got a little easier ? thanks to a free trolley. Hop on and off as you like ? but don’t miss: 1. SPACE, an exhibition exploring vacancy and architecture, as seen…
“Her Eyes Were Blue” Written & performed by Caralyn Snyder
Critic’s Pick Release Date: 2010-11-10 One of the saddest tales in all of Texas’ bloody, violent mythos is a true story. In 1836 one Cynthia Ann Parker, age 9, lost her family to a band of Comanche who, true to form, wiped out the travelling missionary adults but adopted and raised the kids in their…
Morning Glory
Critic’s Pick Morning Glory Director: Roger Michell Screenwriter: Roger Michell Cast: Harrison Ford, Diane Keaton, Rachel McAdams Release Date: 2010-11-10 Rated: NONE Genre: Film Having a journalist review Morning Glory is a little like having a train conductor review Unstoppable in that we’re who the film is about and not for. I’ll try not to…
Death To False Metal
Death To False Metal Composer: Weezer Conductor: Weezer Label: DGC Records Release Date: 2010-11-10 Rated: NONE Genre: Recording In concurrence with the Pinkerton re-release, 10 hand-picked tracks spanning Weezer’s career have been re-recorded for the first official rarities collection titled Death to False Metal. The majority of these tracks are forgettable, while a cover of…
Sidewalks
Sidewalks Composer: Matt and Kim Conductor: Matt and Kim Label: Fader Release Date: 2010-11-10 Rated: NONE Genre: Recording Forget Matt and Kim, this album is more like Matt and Ben, as in Ben Allen, a hip-hop producer best known for his work on Gnarls Barkley’s St. Elsewhere. As Matt Johnson howls “Now this is all…
Small Craft on a Milk Sea
Small Craft on a Milk Sea Release Date: 2010-11-10 Genre: Recording If Brian Eno’s Ambient: Music for Airports was an album designed to allay travelers’ fears while flying, Small Craft on a Milk Sea just might be intended to create maritime panic. An expansive, yet strangely claustrophobic album, Small Craft touches on much of Eno’s…
Cardiology
Cardiology Release Date: 2010-11-10 Genre: Recording If you’re expecting Good Charlotte to return to its pop-punk roots on its fifth album, you’ll be disappointed. But for everyone else, the group’s willingness to embrace new sounds and play it subtle provides happy surprises. Opening with a brief nod to Brian Wilson, Cardiology segues into “Let the…
Blurring the Lines: Impressionist Music
Critic’s Pick Release Date: 2010-11-10 Most likely written by Indian prince and Janai monk Ilango Adigal during the dawn of the Christian era, Silappathikaram (The Anklet) is one of five great Tamil epics. Ragmala Dance Theater has smartly infused modern elements into this multi-disciplinary production based on ancient lines of poetry (5,270 of them to…
Performance/Lecture Series: Geniuses of the American Musical Theatre: Hoagy Carmichael and E.Y. (Yip) Harburg
Critic’s Pick Release Date: 2010-11-10 Works on loan from the Brooklyn Museum are amping up SA’s art ante. While SAMA’s To Live Forever: Egyptian Treasures from the Brooklyn Museum (on view through January 9, samuseum.org) makes one wonder what sort of travel arrangements a mummy might require, the McNay’s Landscapes from the Age of Impressionism…
Ragamala
Critic’s Pick Release Date: 2010-11-10 Most likely written by Indian prince and Janai monk Ilango Adigal during the dawn of the Christian era, Silappathikaram (The Anklet) is one of five great Tamil epics. Ragmala Dance Theater has smartly infused modern elements into this multi-disciplinary production based on ancient lines of poetry (5,270 of them to…
Blue Star complex galleries shift into autumn
Three Walls I already knew of one show I was going to see on First Friday in the Blue Star Arts Complex: No Country for Old Tippi, Chris McKnight’s collection of photographs at Three Walls Gallery. Last year, McKnight lit out across country, accompanied by his Tippi Hedren Barbie in full-on Birds gear — including…
The little tango monster that could
“El tango es un pensamiento triste que se puede bailar.” Tango is a sad thought that can be danced; or, in critic Clive James’s more succinct version of the great Argentinean musician and lyricist Enrique Santos Discépolo’s famous definition: “Tango is a sad thought, dancing.” Discépolo’s words were never far from my mind as I…
The Sound & the Fury
I know you thought election fever was over, but if you’re now feeling slightly remorseful about not voting in the mid-terms, have we got a conscience-cleaner for you: the Rammys. We’ve reconfigured some categories and added one to make an even 20 opportunities to get your favorite local musicians recognized as best in the city.…
¡Ask A Mexican!
Dear Mexican, I’ve been hired to find out why some clothes are not being returned to patients at a nursing home in Newport Beach, California, even though these clothes are marked. I went down to the lavadero as a place to start my investigation and watched some señoras jóvenes selecting clothes that they put in…
Rock ‘n’ Roll Marathon
Runners hit the ground shortly after 7am on Nov 14, taking off from Start Line Village (S Alamo and E Market). As they wend their way past the Alamo, San Pedro Park, Southtown, the Missions, HemisFair, and over the Cherry St finish line behind the Alamodome plenty of musicians will help the marathoners and their…
Free Will Astrology
ARIES (March 21-April 19): Where I live, 35 percent of all high school students confess (or brag) that they have engaged in binge drinking, which is defined as imbibing five or more alcoholic drinks in a two-hour period. According to my reading of the omens, your inner teenager may soon be longing to flirt with…
The Que Que – November 10, 2010
TCEQwackery Years ago, the Que2 was crashing a rally of West Odessa residents living through the oil industry at its worst: complaints of faulty well casings across the West Texas oil patch finally bubbled to the surface a decade ago when water wells just outside the town of tool-pushers started running black with industrial solvents.…
From Big Red to bone marrow
On opening night, the candlelit patio was abuzz with chatter and toasting. Heat lamps stood by as chill-averse Texans swaddled themselves in Mexican blankets found hanging over chair backs. Inside, the retro jewel box of a dining room was glowing as waiters swished in and out, carrying milkshakes and fried chicken. When imagining San Antonio’s…
Live cultures in a biodegradable cup
Heading down McCullough on my way to Buffalo Exchange, my attention was caught by a sign reading “Prime Cultures Real Frozen Yogurt.” How could I resist? I love a frozen treat, and eat yogurt almost daily — real yogurt. The name of the establishment had me hooked; time to find out if they could really…
Who runs this city?
On a humid August morning about a hundred runners and walkers lined up in front of the Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center and waited for the word “go.” Some in a sprint, others in a more leisurely stroll, they headed down Market Street, tramping down a five-kilometer run, twice looping HemisFair Plaza. Every step was…
El matador
Kurt Vile has made a name for himself through fuzzy devotion to the FM radio dial circa 1974. His distorted guitars and echo-laden vocals conjure a slacker re-imagining of classic rock staples like Bob Seger, John Mellencamp, Neil Young and Tom Petty. Since signing to Matador for last year’s Childish Prodigy, Vile has continued to…
Hot, hot Heathens
Though they’ve only been around since the mid-2000s, the story of how the Band of Heathens got together is vintage rock ‘n’ roll. Three Wednesday-night regulars, each with his own slot at a famous Austin venue; an old-time hootenanny; an instant-classic collaboration. The informal gathering of three singer/songwriters and a solid rhythm section became the…
Dear Uncle Mat
Dear Uncle Mat, We are a young couple that moved in together. I came from living with my mom and he from his own place with two roommates. We are very happy and have decided that after a few months this was definitely the right decision and we are now engaged. There is only one…
Rocket Man
“He’d probably deny it if you asked him,” says Patricia Marcus, sister of the late, great Chuck Ramirez, “But Chuck played the trombone in high school.” Among many of Chuck Ramirez’s remarkable qualities was the power to generate constant surprise, up to and including his fatal bicycle accident so close to home on Friday night.…
Dark horses stalk straight-ticket voters
“The people have spoken. The bastards.” — Mo Udall Congratulations/Commiserations, Bexar Countiers! The Guv you love to hate is settling in for another season of taxpayer-funded foreign travel, luxury living, and experiments in privatization. (He’s even got a book to sell you, hot off the victory press.) If we’re lucky, we’ll see more governmental land-grabbing…
We didn’t start the fire
This is the documentary for anyone who recently woke up to their morning news program of choice squawking about the still-dismal unemployment rate, the still-cratering housing market, the still-unstoppable home-foreclosure rate, and wondered, “How the fuck did we get here?” Quicker than combing financial news archives and less confusing than Michael Lewis’s non-fiction bestseller The…
Just what the doctor ordered
A buddy and I discovered Faulker’s Pub earlier this year. I started passing by it often because I’d recently moved, and Wetmore Road became my shortcut to Bitters and various freeways. Faulker’s is nestled in the Starcrest Center strip across from Blossom Athletic Center, claiming Jones Maltsberger as its nearest cross street. Faulker’s is a…
Femme Nation
Some people love to talk the night away about their sexual exploits while still cleaving safely to the shadows of vagary. “You’re not going to use my real name, are you?” “No, your secrets are safe with me. Tell me more about how you got involved in the lifestyle.” For those in the dark, people…
Bottle & tap
Lookout for lagers It should come as no surprise that with German immigrant brewmasters launching the Texas beer industry in the mid-1800s, Bavarian and Bohemian lagers ruled the roost. And mass produced variations on pilsner lagers were the mainstream beer of choice. But the better-beer movement has mostly delivered us a lot of ale styles…
A screen near you
Welcome to the inaugural installation of our bi-weekly local film column, listing the latest in San Antonio cinema culture. We’re starting things off with a bang, as in the kind that accompanies the human cannonball, which may or may not have something to do with the upcoming Psychedelic Candy Circus. The sweet fundraiser benefits Art…
Prodigal hero
Love them or hate them, Rock Band and Guitar Hero can be hot messes. Both games are intended to be played with at least four people to deliver a maximum experience and, yeah, a fight always seems to erupt over who’s going to be the drummer. Assuming you’ve got the musical palette, Activision’s DJ Hero…
The life and legacy of a San Antonio art legend
“He had a really, really strong San Antonio aesthetic, but a universal sensibility … I feel we’ve lost a great artist. He could take an image of a chocolate box and comment on consumerism in a meaningful way. I was trying to bring him exposure outside of San Antonio; he deserves as much archiving and…
First Friday recap
Fluid Nature, a traveling show by University of Colorado Denver colleagues Rian Kerrane and Michael Brohman, brought some thought-scape dioramas into the UTSA Satellite Space for First Friday. Fluid Nature: Michael Brohman and Rian Kerrane curated by Megan Harrison Through Nov 21 UTSA Satellite Space 115 Blue Star (210) 212-7146 Fri – Sun 12:00 pm-…
Xicana Spotlight: Mari Salinas
Meeting Mari Salinas for the first time was an event, to say the least. She doesn’t strike you as arrogant or pretentious, but all at the same time, you get the feeling that this girl is clearly self-aware, carrying with her an air of distinct confidence. Reminiscent of that girl we all went to high school…
Foodways Texas: preserving Texas’ unique food traditions
Ron Bechtol Texans, even those who pay some attention to what they put in their mouths, tend to take our iconic foods for granted. The tamales, the barbacoa, the pan dulce, the sausage, the locally harvested honey we assume it will all be there when we want it. Yet indifference inevitably takes its toll, as…
Fun Fun Fun recap – Day 3
Words by Callie Enlow Photos by Jeff Turner Or is it Day 2? The Friday night activities threw me off, man. Mariachi El Bronx You can take the girl out of San Antonio, but you can’t take the San Antonio out of the girl, apparently, which is how I ended up speeding through several counties…
Celebrate America’s Military to benefit from Spurs sales
Rudy Gayby Every time I go to a Spurs game, I have an entirely new experience. With each visit to the AT&T Center, I mix it up. For example, I opt for the Mr. Pibb instead of the Diet Coke. I sit in the Plaza level as opposed to the Balcony level. I wear my…
LIT-url: Literary bits at your fingertips
Know what’s more charming than one nerd writing a lit blog? Two nerds writing a lit blog! In one blog, you’ll get double the bang for your one click. Now, we can’t promise LIT-url will be able to review every single book ever published, or interview every local/South Texas writer, or even comb through the…
Also seen: HUNTER GATHERERS in Austin
So I caught Capital T’s production of HUNTER GATHERERS at the Hyde Park Theater in Austin this weekend — and it’s little wonder that it’s extended now for another week: this is some of the most kick-ass programming in Texas. Penned by Peter Sinn Nachtrieb, HUNTER GATHERERS is a sort of mash-up of Albee’s VIRGINIA…
Vets Get Moving with Segs4Vets
On Veterans’ Day, one of my favorite nonprofits organizations, Segs4Vets, will present handicap-adapted Segways to 37 military men and women who sustained severe injuries and permanent disabilities while serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. This moving (pun intended) ceremony takes place right in front of the Alamo, Thursday, November 11 at 10:45 am. Segs4Vets is an…
