Fiesta’s fashion victims: Just how much flair is too much?
Too much Fiesta flair can get one arrested, make others intoxicated, and get a certain Fashionation writer in trouble, as it invites too much inspiration for criticism. After attending a few Fiesta events this year, I’ve amended the slogan from, Viva Fiesta! to Muerte Fiesta!, as I wouldn’t want to be caught dead in some…
Nicolas Cage Arrested for Bad Acting
NEW ORLEANS, La. – Oscar-winning actor Nicolas Cage has been arrested after a drunken argument with his wife, police said earlier this morning. “He was clearly intoxicated, yet kept trying to act like he wasn’t,” said one officer on the scene. “It was just like that movie where they took his face and replaced it…
“Electric Green Wings” & “Little Wings” by Trey Moore
Introduction As you may have noticed, the flash fiction section has been devoid of stories for the last couple of weeks. Unfortunately, the submissions have not been swamping the old inbox and so we were without. Luckily that string of silence has been broken. Read on. The talented Trey Moore joins us again for this…
Texas Biennial: Tom Orr last days at Blue Star
This year the Texas Biennial, billed as “an independent survey of contemporary Texas art,” has busted out of Austin to include shows in three cities. Home base is Big Medium in Austin, with Houston’s BOX 13 ArtSpace and Blue Star Contemporary Art Center here in SA adding extra venues and art communities to the project, which…
Fiesta: Cornyation 2011: The Court of Double-Dip Shellacking
Critic’s Pick Release Date: 2011-04-14 Billed as the “raunchiest, cheapest event of Fiesta,” Cornyation has been providing over-the-top theatrical experiences for 28 uninterrupted years and has roots as far back as 1951. This adults-only satire has raised more than $500,000 for such local charities as San Antonio AIDS Foundation, Black Effort Against the Threat of…
Other, Out, and Beyond: Movement and Struggle
Critic’s Pick Release Date: 2011-04-14 The Esperanza Peace & Justice Center continues its Other, Out, and Beyond: Movement and Struggle film series with two free screenings this weekend. The series, which began in 2006 with Uprooted: Tierra, Gente, y Cultura: Palestinians and Other Occupied Peoples, draws parallels between the United States, Mexico, and the Middle…
Bone Club 25th Anniversary Reunion
Critic’s Pick Release Date: 2011-04-14 The underground club that shaped the lives of many an SA punk gets resuscitated this Saturday at Nightrocker Live. The Bone Club, which opened in June of 1985 and was located at 828 San Pedro, hosted such local and touring acts as Fearless Iranians from Hell, Rhythm Pigs, Lung Overcoat,…
Red Bull Thre3style
Critic’s Pick Release Date: 2011-04-14 San Antonio is one of twelve cities being visited by Red Bull Thre3style, a DJ contest that allows mixmasters to prove their prowess in a 15-minute set that must contain at least three musical genres. Local DJs Jiggy, Tone, Sonora, DJM, Vegas Banger, Q Base, Tony Phoenix, and B. Radical…
Art opening: The Kitchen Goddess
Critic’s Pick Release Date: 2011-04-14 The “happy home” of the 1950s gets reconstructed in Suchil Coffman-Guerra’s performance-based exhibit The Kitchen Goddess, which the SA native debuted in 2005 at Colorado’s Women’s Caucus for Art. For the 2011 version of her project, Coffman-Guerra collaborates with an array of “kitchen poets,” visual artist Rebecca Coffey (as a…
Fiesta: Dance Kaleidoscope 2011
Critic’s Pick Release Date: 2011-04-14 The 32-member San Antonio Metropolitan Ballet is joined by guest dancers Rachel Van Buskirk and Jacob Bush from the Atlanta Ballet and Alys Shee and Aaron Smyth from ABT II (a small company within New York’s American Ballet Theatre) for Dance Kaleidoscope, official Fiesta event that highlights a variety of…
Gong Shorts
Critic’s Pick Release Date: 2011-04-14 Since early March, NiffNot Productions (aka Ekstasis Films) has been accepting short films (15 minutes or less) for an upcoming interactive screening emceed by local comedian Jade Esteban Estrada. NiffNot promised to include your good, bad, and even ugly shorts, and if yours was among the first 20 (non-pornographic) entries…
Chancha VÃa Circuito
Critic’s Pick Release Date: 2011-04-14 Hailing from Buenos Aires, Argentina, producer Pedro Canale garnered accolades after the original release of Rodante in 2008. The album, a trance-like mix of electronica and Latin American rhythms, was chosen by NPR as one of the top 10 albums of 2010. Río Arriba, his sophomore effort, mixes legendary folklore…
Art opening: Jung Hee Mun: Proprium Cycle
Critic’s Pick Release Date: 2011-04-14 Jung Hee Mun’s exhibit Proprium Cycle opens Friday at Sala Diaz with an artist’s reception. You may tend to show up fashionably late, but don’t overdo it this time — what is billed as a “viewer participation performance” starts at 8:30 p.m. The artist developed some serious chops at UTSA,…
Fiesta – It’s more than a party!
Photo by Elizabeth Chavez Our San Antonio Fiesta started in 1891 as a way to honor the memory of the heroes of the Alamo and the Battle of San Jacinto. What was once a single parade made up of a group of ladies riding in decorated horse-drawn carriages in front of the Alamo, and throwing…
Education dynamites the Age Cage
The first thing I noticed upon listening to Education’s Gordon Raphael-produced Age Cage was its distorted, “dirty” sound. I also knew it was an album tailored to explode in a concert setting. But what Education pulled off April 8 at Sam’s on exceeded everyone’s — perhaps including their own — expectations. It was a brutal,…
Taste this: Thai butterflies from Mon Thai Bistro
They say the first step to recovery is admitting you have a problem, so here goes: My name is Chuck, and I’m addicted to the Thai Butterflies from Mon Thai Bistro. Sure, Mon’s has a healthy selection of other delicious appetizers and a consistently outstanding miso soup, but the flaky, cream cheese-stuffed, deep-fried pastry puffs…
World-class handiwork inhabits outrageous Fiesta garb
“I have tried to explain this in Paris, in London, but no one understands. Nowhere in the world is there an event like this,” says Xavier Castillo, San Antonio’s master of haute couture embroidery and beadwork. He is referring to the Coronation of the Queen of the Order of the Alamo during Fiesta. It’s an…
Dog whisperer of SA: Andres Valdez working to save San Antonio’s dogs — and restore our humanity
The other day, a boxer owned by a local state rep got loose. While rusty-red boxers typically ripple with muscle, they are not necessarily mean or vicious animals. In this case, however, the dog attacked the neighbor’s golden lab, “Diego,” a loopy, good-natured perro. Now both the lab and owner are traumatized. Across town, photographer…
Ask a Mexican!
Dear Mexican: I’m a blanquita, and I’ve recently begun dating a CALIENTE mexicano. I adore this man. The first time we were intimate, I noticed his necklace (which I had always assumed to be a rosary) was a name necklace … a WOMAN’S name necklace. He says that his mami gave it to him just…
Interview: Star Paul Giamatti and scene-stealer Alex Shaffer on Win Win
“What is it like to be as good as you are?” The question comes up in Win Win, director Tom McCarthy’s family dramedy about a high school wrestling coach whose life finds new meaning when he and his wife take in a teenager who, though troubled, happens to know his way around the mat. The…
Best of San Antonio: Food
Best Late Night Restaurant, Best Bakery/Panadería, Best Menudo 1. Mi Tierra Café y Panadería 218 Produce Row, (210) 225-1262, mitierracafe.com “OK, let’s meet at Mi Tierra, then … ” How many wee-morning-hour phone calls resolve this way every year? We don’t recall every one of our bleary-eyed planning sessions, but whenever two or more frustrated…
Best of San Antonio: Shopping
Best Vintage Shop 1. RG Vintage 423 W Grayson, (210) 324-0157, rgvintage.com When Shelby and Jacob Guevara first opened their vintage shop on the St. Mary’s Strip, it courted punks by selling rainbow-colored hair dyes and handmade leather accessories. Four and a half years later, RG Vintage (formerly Redemption Garb) is a full-fledged shopping destination…
Best of San Antonio: Local Heroes
Best Local Radio Talk-Show Host 1. Joe “Pags” Pagliarulo WOAI 1200 AM, radio.woai.com We’re just going to call this the Season of Pags. For the second year in a row, you’ve helped hoist Clear Channel’s evening host on 1200 — Joe Pagliarulo — over the morning talk crews who’ve seized the Best Ofs in years…
Best of San Antonio: Drink
Best Live Music Venue 1. Sam’s Burger Joint 330 E Grayson, (210) 223-2830, samsburgerjoint.com Ask a cross-section of local musicians what their favorite place to play in San Antonio is, and the name “Sam’s” comes up more than almost any other. That’s because Sam’s Burger Joint knows that the key to success isn’t who’s the…
Best of San Antonio: Around Town
Best Museum 1. Witte Museum 3801 Broadway, (210) 357-1900, wittemuseum.org The Witte was founded 80 years ago as SA’s first museum. Today it contains dinosaurs and art, mummies and live piranhas — a mix as peculiar as San Anto itself. We take many institutions for granted now, but back in 1924 the mayor is reported…
2011 Best Of San Antonio
For, like, forever it seems San Antonians have been collaborating to select their favorite things about the place they call home. Such favoritism started well before there was a city, with Spanish missionaries selecting the San Antonio River’s headwaters as Best Day Spa (and the natives already enjoying the spot, Best Cheap Labor). With the…
Man kicked out of the Klan for expressing optimism
BIRMINGHAM, AL – After recent months of controversial posts on a local white supremacy website, trucker and Grand Dragon James Earl Grey was unanimously voted out of the Ku Klux Klan. Topic threads like “Why Denzel is AWESOME!!!” and “Braveheart wasn’t that good, anyways” infuriated many in the community, leading website administrators to revoke the…
